dragon work and dark nights

I’m in the process of reading a new book from Dr. Patricia Ariadne, entitled Drinking the Dragon: Stories of the Dark Night of Soul. I can already see from what I’ve read so far that this is a very substantial work and will be a valuable resource for anyone seeking reference points and guideposts to facilitate a deeper understanding of the “dark night” experience.

Drinking the Dragon features several pages of excerpts and discussion of material from my book, Iron Man Family Outing. I’m pleased and honored by Dr. Ariadne’s inclusion of this material, and impressed with her presentation of the excerpts she chose and her integration of the excerpted material into the larger themes and narrative of her book. Seeing my words and my story re-expressed and recast in this new context is an encouraging affirmation of the value of my work.

As Dr. Ariadne says in her introduction to Drinking the Dragon, “a dark night can appear more than once in a lifetime.” The arrival of her book could hardly be more timely for me, as I’ve found myself on the path of the dark night experience once again.

Four months ago, I was sailing along. I’d completed the manuscript for my second book, Scapegoat’s Cross, a few weeks earlier and had just done my very first internet interview for Iron Man Family Outing. I was excited about moving forward with both books and full of ideas for doing so. After twenty years of struggles, disappointments, and false starts, I felt that my work had finally begun to gain some momentum. Then I took a bad fall in a parking lot, breaking multiple bones in my right wrist and right shoulder. I’m right-handed. Instant dark night.

A complex 3 1/2 hour surgical procedure to repair my injuries was successful, and after four months of physical therapy several hours a day, my right arm is now about 85% functional. I’m once again able to drive and take care of my own shopping, laundry, and other basics (which is a tremendous relief), and I went back to work recently for the first time since getting hurt after being out for over three months. So the physical part of my recovery is going well, and I’m grateful.

The psychological part is … complicated. The nature of the injuries (losing the use of my writing arm) was bad enough, but the timing seemed especially cruel given where I was with my two books, how long I’d waited to get there, and where I thought I was going. As I said, I’m doing well now physically and I’m very grateful, particularly given the severity of my injuries, but I still feel like I have a long way to go in terms of understanding, accepting, and integrating what I’ve experienced and how it’s affected, and continues to affect, my life.

I’m also suffering with a monster writer’s block that’s about as bad as any I’ve ever experienced. It takes a ridiculous application of time and effort on my part just to write a coherent sentence these days. A friend has suggested that this may be an aftereffect of the physical trauma from the fall. I think he’s probably right, but my experience so far tells me that the psychological trauma, which was and has been significant, is a factor as well. Of course, as I’ve previously written, the psychological is often packaged and carried in the physical, waiting for us to give it access and expression.

I continue to work through my experience with the fall, the injuries, the aftermath, and the effects on my life. My sense right now is that the whole thing is just too big for me to process at this point, and it’s too early for me to know what it might mean to me. I’ve learned that these processes have their own life and yield their rewards in their own time. It’s been very hard for me to accept such a severe and dramatic derailment of my hopes, dreams, and plans, but Dr. Ariadne’s book is a great reminder to be patient with the process, to trust it, and to allow it to play out to its full fruition.

I’ll be spending more time with Drinking the Dragon in the coming months, as I continue to make my way through my own (latest) dark night. I believe that Dr. Ariadne has written a book that is very timely for all of us, both as individuals and as a culture, and I hope she is very successful in reaching the broadest possible audience of readers.

For additional information about Dr. Ariadne and Drinking the Dragon, please visit her website at http://www.drariadne.com. The site includes an excellent introductory video by Dr. Ariadne, which I highly recommend, describing the dark night process. The video is located at http://www.drariadne.com/introvideo.html.

The dragon work and dark nights by Rick Belden, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.