The Darkest Night Comes Before Dawn: When Will Things Get Better
Sufi wisdom speaks of patience while crossing the darkest night. The Star arriving right after The Tower in tarot holds the same message: hope comes back.
Sufi and Persian tradition speaks of crossing the darkest night with patience, trusting that dawn arrives even when there's no sign of it yet. In tarot, The Star appears right after The Tower, the collapse, a reminder that hope tends to return well after the hardest moment, not before it.
Today's page
I'm writing this page thinking about how many messages I get from people asking, with a voice half-broken, when this is going to pass. Anxiety has this cruel way of making the hard moment feel endless, as if the night would never end at all. Today I want to bring here a wisdom that crossed the desert, kept by Persian poets and mystics for many centuries, because it speaks exactly to this: to how to cross the darkest part of a journey without losing the thread that still connects you to the dawn that comes after.
The Sufi wisdom of the crossing
Among the Sufi poets and mystics of ancient Persia, there's a recurring idea that runs through centuries of poetry: that the deepest darkness of the night happens right before the first light of day appears in the sky, not in the middle of the night as we sometimes imagine. This observation, which is literally true about the sky, became a metaphor for life among these mystics: the heaviest moments of a pain, a crisis, a grief, tend to come right before the turning point, not because the pain is growing for no reason, but because that's how crossings work — the body and soul spend their last reserve of resilience right near the finish line. This wisdom doesn't promise a date or a time, it only promises that the deepest dark isn't a sign that dawn has given up on coming.
What this isn't
I need to be honest: this idea isn't an excuse to ignore pain that needs professional help, nor a promise that simply waiting will make everything sort itself out. Anxiety that blocks a person's life deserves real care, therapy, sometimes medication, ongoing support. Sufi wisdom speaks about an inner stance during the crossing, not about replacing real care with philosophical patience. It also doesn't mean pretending everything's fine when it isn't. It's about recognising that the weight of the hardest phase has a reason within the process, and it isn't a sign of personal failure.
From The Tower to The Star in tarot
In tarot there's a sequence that tells this same story in image: first comes The Tower, a card showing a tall structure struck by lightning, collapsing, with people falling from it. It's one of the most feared cards in the deck, because it represents the moment when something that seemed solid comes crashing down all at once, without polite warning. But right after it, in the sequence of the major arcana, comes The Star: a woman at peace pouring water under a sky full of lights, in a gesture of quiet hope. That order isn't an accident. Tarot is telling the same truth as the Persian mystics: the harder fall does come, but after it, not in its place forever, hope comes back into the sky, even if softly at first.
Where this shows up in everyday anxiety
This shows up in real life in whoever goes through an anxiety attack and feels, at the peak of the tightness in their chest, that it will never pass, that this is the new permanent reality. It shows up in whoever is in the middle of grief and, exactly on the days that feel heaviest, most impossible to get through, feels like they've gone mad or regressed, when in fact they might be very close to the turning point. It shows up in whoever has gone through a financial loss, a layoff, a breakup, and lives the bottom of the pit feeling like it has no bottom at all. In all of these cases, the body and mind are spending their last reserve before the light appears again, not regressing forever.
The common mistake
The most common mistake is thinking that, because the worst seems to be arriving now, something went wrong in the process, or that you somehow deserved this rock bottom. It isn't punishment, it's a phase, and a phase isn't a life sentence. Another mistake is using this wisdom as a reason to refuse help, passively waiting for dawn to arrive on its own while the pain grows unnecessarily. Crossing the darkest night calls for active presence: breathing, asking for support, caring for the body, and sometimes seeking professional help, all of it while you cross the hardest stretch, not instead of actually crossing it.
A practice to carry with you
Next time anxiety tightens hard, try saying quietly to yourself: this is the darkest part, not the end of the story. Then do one small, concrete thing for your body: drink a glass of water, open the window, walk to the door and back, feeling your feet touch the ground with each step. These small gestures don't solve the whole crisis, but they remind the body that it's still here, still crossing, and that the crossing has another side, even if it seems impossible to see from inside the dark right now.
Closing
The Persian mystics left behind a short phrase that has crossed centuries: 'the darkest night comes just before dawn'. I'm not here predicting exactly when your turning point will arrive, nor promising a timeline, tarot and these ancient wisdoms don't work by making that kind of promise, and I would never do that with you. What they offer is a symbolic mirror to help you cross this stretch with a little more company. If you feel you're in the middle of your own Tower right now and The Star feels too far away, maybe it's worth coming to sit with me for a reading, so we can look together at what might already be shifting, even hidden from view.
Frequently asked questions
Is it true that the hardest phase comes right before things get better?
It's a recurring observation in Sufi and ancient Persian traditions: the heaviest moment of a crossing tends to happen near the turning point, not in the middle of it. This isn't an exact rule for every situation, but it helps to remember that the peak of the pain doesn't mean the process has failed.
What does the sequence of The Tower followed by The Star mean in tarot?
The Tower represents a sudden collapse, something that seemed solid falling all at once. Right after it in the deck comes The Star, a symbol of quiet hope and renewed faith. The sequence symbolises that after the hardest fall usually comes a period of rebuilding and light, even if gradual.
What can I do when anxiety makes it feel like nothing will ever get better?
It helps to remember that this thought is a symptom of the anxiety itself, not a fact about the future, and to care for your body with small, concrete gestures while the crisis passes. When this weight is constant or intense, seeking professional support is an important part of the crossing, not a sign of weakness.
A symbolic reading can bring clarity, but it doesn't replace therapy, medical care or psychological support.