My own experience of the Dark Night, which I am still "in" resembles that of the Three Magi on their way to finding Christ. They had corrupted information from when the Jews had been in Exile in Babylon and some of the prophecies of the Messiah crept into the Zoroatrian religion. Through their own false religion, and through the study of both astrology and astronomy, the Magi figured out that a savior king would be born in the House of the Hebrews, the sign of Pisces, the Fish.
Most likely a combination of planets, such as Jupiter, the god planet, Saturn the savior planet and Venus or Mars, either love or war, moving into Pisces, brought the Magi to Christ.
So ended paganism at the feet of the God-Man Christ.
But, until they met Christ, the Magi travelled in darkness. They only had hints from natural, man-made sources and a few Jewish Scriptures. They were not part of the Chosen People of God. They did not have Revelation.
That God allowed them to take a long and arduous journey must have been part of the Three Kings purgation. They had to leave a comfortable, high status in their own culture, where they would have been counselors to kings and go into desert and mountainous areas to find a Person they believed was divine.
They only had enlightenment, or illumination at the moment when they found the Child.
The Epiphany is not only Christ revealing Himself to the Gentiles, but the inner, spiritual illumination which comes after purgation. The Kings would never be the same after their experience of God Made Man.
The Magi must have moved to Bethlehem totally on faith, without any consolation except the mysterious star. That one, small light was like the faith one has in the Dark Night.
One cannot see God, one cannot perceive any consolations, but one continues moving forward towards God in faith.
One waits for the moment of epiphany, of illumination.
What the Magi tell us is that we must persevere in faith even if the journey takes a long time.
They may have travelled months.
Faith kept them moving towards the goal of seeing, being in union with the Promised One.
Such is the journey of the Dark Night of the Soul.
