The Black Monastery - Nigredo

We make the mind our foundation and the gateless gateway our entrance. Nigredo (Blackness) represents the experience of the soul's dark night: the confrontation with shadows and the unconscious, which, if we face it courageously, leads to the true self. Just as Christ wrestled in agony and despair in the Garden of Gethsemane, yet surrendered himself completely to the Father's will, so too do we walk the path through darkness into light. It is a path of courage, devotion, and personal responsibility.

This is a men's forge where boys are shaped into men. A place where raw energy, doubt, and vulnerability are tempered by fire and discipline until true strength and wisdom emerge. Here, wounded men find a hospital - a place of healing for body, mind, and soul - and veterans of life and death receive their place of honor, as witnesses and teachers of the trials that life presents.