In Eastern Christian prayers I have heard these phrases=
‘The depth of God’s loving kindness’– it must be as deep as hell.
‘The depth of sin’– heaven must go deeper.
‘Lions and dragons are in the depth’— the lion is the royal and golden heart, and the dragon is the dark passion of tears and flame, the passion wounded and stricken that alone stands up and becomes the pillar.
When Christ descended into Hades and Hell, he plunged into depth, severing his last root in and protection from the height; the Crucified One who descended into depth ceased to be the Bright Christ, the Christ of Greek Eros, and became for humanity’s sake the Dark Christ, the Christ of the Jewish Daemonic.
Only the Resurrected Christ has won the victory in the depth. Therefore the Sun of Eros only returns, all shining, through a journey and battle undergone in the agonized ecstaticness of the Abyss. This is the mystery stranger even than the mystery of God qua God; for this is the mystery of what God will suffer, and what God will do, to bring humanity through. What God loses for humanity’s ultimate gain is the supreme testing and proving of the divine love.
Henceforth, light will only be reborn from darkness, joy will only re-emerge from pain.
Henceforth, there will only be a dark sun, descending to and rising up from the Abyss.
This is the new heaven, which will make a new earth.
Christianity has made hardly a start with this Truth.