27 : 45 Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour.
27 : 46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
27 : 47 And some of them stood there, when they heard it, said, This man calleth Elijah.
27 : 48 And straightway one of them ran, and took a sponge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink.
27 : 49 And the rest said, Let be; let us see whether Elijah cometh to save him.
27 : 50 And Jesus cried again with a loud voice, and yielded up his spirit.
27 : 51 And behold, the veil of the temple was rent in two from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake; and the rocks were rent;
-- Matthew Chapter 27 : 45-51 ASV

[The Angel saith] Beware, therefore, O thou who art appointed to understand the secret of the Outermost Abyss, for in every Abyss thou must assume the mask and form of the Angel thereof. Hadst thou a name, thou wert irrevocably lost. Search, therefore, if there be yet one drop of blood that is not gathered into the cup of Babylon the Beautiful, for in that little pile of dust, if there could be one drop of blood, it should be utterly corrupt; it should breed scorpions and vipers, and the cat of slime
And I said unto the Angel: Is there not one appointed as a warden?
And he said: Eloi, Eloi, lama sabacthani.
Such an ecstasy of anguish racks me that I cannot give it voice, yet I know it is but as the anguish of Gethsemane. And that is the last word of the Aethyr. The outposts are passed, and before the seer extends the outermost Abyss.
-- Liber 418 : Vision and the Voice, 11th Aethyr

The dark night occurs after considerable advancement toward higher consciousness. Indeed, the dark night usually occurs like an initiation before one of these special seekers is admitted into regular relationship with higher consciousness. The dark night also occurs to those who do not seek relationship but immersion or unity in the higher consciousness. While the term dark night of the soul is used broadly, its general meaning — in the field of higher consciousness — is a lengthy and profound absence of light and hope. In the dark night you feel profoundly alone.

The dark night is about being fully present in the tender wounded emptiness of our own souls. It's not about turning away from the pain but learning to rest in it. Rather than distracting ourselves from the simple darkness at out core, we sit with it, paying close attention. And opening our hearts to all that is left, which is love.

The road to the divine encounter is not for the weekend adventurer. ... The dark night of the soul is for the seeker so on fire with love for God that she will get to him by any means necessary.

This includes being willing to plunge into the abyss of the Unknown, the Unknowable. It is a path for the spiritually desperate.
-- Introduction to St. John of the Cross - DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL, by Mirabai Starr

A similar state exists with respect to his cabalistic work. He continues to make elaborations on his synthetic scheme, but finds that new additions and expansions decrease in frequency. At the same time he becomes aware that there are aspects of existence that cannot be fit into his present scheme without destroying it utterly and starting over from scratch; he doesn't know what these aspects are, exactly, but he can sense them looming over the horizon.
And his finely coordinated Self seems to be spinning its wheels in most of its endeavors. He can still act out the functions of the Exempt Adept, but gets less pleasure and fulfillment out of doing so. He can't get a grip on things, on a way to use this great Self of his; he feels like he is trying to act in a frictionless environment.
The reason for all this is that the Adept is looking for something that isn't there -- that is, a continuation of the path as he has experienced it so far, with its blinding revelations, ecstatic highs, encompassing archetypes, etc. There just isn't any more of that, above his current level; such things are characteristic of the human-accessible magickal realms, not the transcendent realms. But he doesn't know that.
Needless to say, the Adept in this situation is a pretty miserable character. Not all the time; usually he can go about his business in the character of the Adept without any difficulty. But periodically the futility of it all hits, and the despair and desperation can reach incredible levels of intensity. What he wants, more than anything, is to get OUT, without seeing any way of doing so. Like the mythical Christ on his cross, he calls out to his god, and gets no answer. All he can do is suffer alone.
But even despair has its limits; when nothing one does can have any effect on the situation, one eventually just gives it up. He gets beyond hope of anything happening, beyond despair that nothing is happening, and just lives life as it comes, without any particular plans or expectations, without any desire beyond the moment. He goes on because that is what he does, and for no purpose. This whole process can go on for a long time. In my own case, the period of increasing despair lasted over five years, the period of "just living" lasted another five.
-- The Illusion of the Abyss , Benjamin Rowe