dark night
This ritual helps guide us from the dark night of Samhain into the healing waters of Imbolc, from the alchemical nigredo or blackening where we must give over to decay, to the albedo or whitening, cleansing and tending the new, emergent seedling that grows from the nutrients of death
An Irish Imbolc Ritual
Know that you are both intelligent and stupid, often in the same moment. Admit to what you desire and what you fear.
Thomas Moore • Dark Nights of the Soul
Kali is black or midnight blue. All colors blend together in the dark. Kali unifies duality; all manifestation disappears in the black. “Just as all colors disappear in black, all names and all forms disappear in her,” says the Mahanirvana Tantra. Kali is the final fusion of appearances in the reality of the Self. She transcends all form.
Daniel Odier • Tantric Kali: Secret Practices and Rituals
This is one of the constants in tantric thought: the solution to a problem lies in the problem. Moving outside it will not set things straight. On the contrary, you must have the courage to penetrate to the heart of the darkness and stop constructing an idealized being who has all the trouble in the world coexisting with deeply human reality.