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THE SOUL OF AMERICA:
A Deeper Perspective
© 2004 by Corinne McLaughlin and Gordon Davidson
Although technically, the word “America”
refers to the whole continent of North and South America, we are exploring
the Soul of the United States, since we know it best, and so can give a
sense of its higher potential. We invite those of you reading this in
other countries to reflect on the qualities of your nation's soul. In our
book Spiritual Politics, we include our thoughts about the soul of several
other countries.
Each of us may have been inspired by
something of America’s soul when we’ve driven across the wide open spaces
of the West or explored the power and majesty of the Rocky Mountains or
the surging might of the Mississippi river. Or perhaps when we’ve walked
down the streets of a large city like New York and been awed by the
incredible diversity of races and cultures of people living there. We may
have felt the touch of America’s soul in the writings of some of America’s
great poets such as Walt Whitman, and in music such as Aaron Copeland’s
“Fanfare for the Common Man” --proclaiming the great dignity and worth of
each individual citizen.
The soul of America seems almost
tangible in the great monuments in Washington D.C. and New York--especially
those dedicated to Lincoln and Jefferson and Liberty. These are our
secular temples, invocative of ancient Greece. Prayers or meditations at
these monuments can be of great spiritual help to the nation. Lincoln’s
ringing words on his monument “...that government of, by, and for the
people will not perish from the face of the earth.” is an enduring
inspiration. The Statue of Liberty is a symbol of America’s compassionate
soul, which is being sorely tested today: “Give me your tired, your poor,
your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of your
teeming shore... Send these, the homeless, the tempest tossed to me. I
lift my lamp beside the Golden Door.”
But there is something deeper about the
Soul of America to explore here. Through a study of the Ageless Wisdom of
East and West, we have come to understand that each nation has both a
self-centered personality and a wise and compassionate soul, as does each
individual. A nation’s soul carries the blueprint of its highest purpose
and ideals. A nation discovers its soul by strengthening the national
will to embrace the good, the beautiful and the true.
The soul holds the inner pattern for
the nation’s development and historical unfoldment in fulfilling its
higher purpose. This includes integration of major ethnic and racial
constituencies; resolving national karmic issues from past errors; and
ultimately, self-transcendence and identification with the good of the
larger community of nations. This is the task facing America today.
The soul of a nation expresses a
generosity of spirit. Most nations have come into being as the result of a
group or an individual who articulated in some way a tiny spark of the
spiritual soul of that nation, and began to bring to it a sense of
coherence and direction. Mahatma Ghandi did this for India, Kamal Attaturk
for Turkey, Nelson Mandela for South Africa and Vaclav Havel for the Czech
Republic.
Just as individuals must struggle with
the process of personality integration, bringing the physical, emotional,
and mental components of their personalities into a coordinated, working
whole, so too must a nation become an integrated personality before it can
successfully invoke its soul. In the long sweep of the evolution of a
nation, it first develops its personality through self-centeredness and
self-expression, then it learns from hard experience the necessity of
invoking a higher purpose. This is done by strengthening its national
will and developing self-discipline rather than self-indulgence,
evaluating the future results of current choices, and willingly choosing
to live by higher principles. An example of a high expression of the soul
of a nation was the ancient Greek city-state of Athens, led by Pericles,
Sophocles, and Socrates, and often seen as the apotheosis of the ancient
world.
The soul of the nation, if invoked,
helps inspire national leaders to make decisions for their nation that
will further the evolution of all humanity. It leads to compassion for,
and ultimately identification with, all the nations and peoples of the
world. This was powerfully invoked in John F. Kennedy’s “Eich bin ein
Berliner” speech in Germany -- “I am a Berliner,”--meaning the fate of
others who suffer injustice in the world is also our own fate; we are not
separate from the rest of humanity. Eventually, as evolution proceeds, a
nation becomes willing to make national sacrifices for the good of other
nations, as Britain and the United States did during World War II.
In the long sweep of evolution, the
soul eventually overlights and controls the personality of a nation. If
not, the nation will eventually destroy itself from within, as most
self-centered nations have done over the centuries, as illustrated by
ancient Rome. The difference between a nation’s personality and its soul
can be summarized in this paraphrase of President Kennedy’s famous
statement, “Ask not what the world can do for your country, but what your
country can do for the world.”
Qualities of America’s
Soul
Freedom: Freedom is essence
of America’s soul, the very breath of her national life, and the innermost
signature of her soul. At her founding, we, as Americans, were given the
freedom to choose our own path of development, with wide-ranging religious
and civil liberties never before granted in the history of the world. We
each feel something of America’s soul when we experience a taste of
freedom--in breaking out of what is limiting us--a job, a relationship, an
old limiting belief system--and claim the freedom to find something new,
to find our own way.
However, the personality of the U.S.
often distorts freedom into irresponsible license and self-will, to the
detriment of others. As it is said in the Agni Yoga teachings, “Only (s)he
who has gone through the discipline of the Spirit can realize how stern
the reality of freedom can be.” We as Americans have the blessings of
many rights, yet we are always demanding more. In the 60’s, protesters on
the left demanded more freedom from government restrictions. Today groups
on the right are vocally anti-government. Yet the over-emphasis on
demanding “rights” from the government needs to be balanced by a wise
embrace of equal “responsibilities.” Each new level of freedom requires
greater self-discipline, self-responsibility and loyalty to the whole.
Otherwise, the vaunted freedom becomes freedom to self-destruct.
The great purpose for which we fought
two World Wars and defeated totalitarian communism was clearly articulated
by President Roosevelt as the Four Freedoms of the Atlantic Charter:
freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from
fear. We as a nation have defended this freedom at great sacrifice and
cost in lives, and now our task is to extend these freedoms to all people.
The Four Freedoms outline the “unfinished business” of our nation, and can
be a guide for all our actions. When the personality of the United States
does not respect the freedom of other nations, or the Divine equality of
other peoples besides her own, she violates her deep soul purpose. If
freedom and equality are sacred principles, their sacredness cannot end at
the U.S. borders.
Love/Wisdom: The shadow side
of America’s personality is an excessive idealism and devotion to its
values--often to the exclusion of those of other nations and peoples, and
to its own detriment. But America’s soul embodies the quality of loving
wisdom, which is calm and tempered, and responds compassionately to those
in need around the world, as well as at home. This soul quality was
powerfully demonstrated when President Kennedy told the people of West
Germany, at the time the Berlin wall was being erected by the Soviets,
that “I am a Berliner” — the fate of others who suffer injustice in the
world is also our own fate. We are not separate from the rest of humanity
—although we seem to have forgotten this recently in attempting to create
“Fortress America.”
Unity in Diversity: The
motto on our Great Seal: “E Pluribus Unum” -- “Out of many, one” reflects
another keynote of America’s soul. But lately we’ve seen an excess of
“pluribus” and a dearth of “unum.” The necessary emphasis on expanded
tolerance for “diversity” needs to be balanced by an increased search for
our underlying unity as a people and as a nation. We need to be asking
ourselves, “What is it that we all share in common? What makes us
Americans?” One key to this question is that immigrants from every nation
on earth have become citizens of the United States, and we live together
in a relative peace and acceptance compared to other ethnically diverse
nations. Immigrants from every nation on earth have been welcomed by the
United States, and this has created important energetic links with every
nation. America is intended to provide the initial stage for the emergence
of a planetary culture based on unity in diversity, to which each nation
will then contribute its unique gifts. This diversity has developed a
certain degree of tolerance in the national psyche.
Human Equality: Recognizing
the divine potential within each human being and providing the opportunity
for each individual to develop his/her full potential is another keynote
of our nation’s soul. At its highest, the American soul supports the
essential brotherhood and sisterhood of humanity and an active
humanitarianism that expands its web of compassion and assistance beyond
the limitations of its own borders. The democratic ideal reflects the
optimism of the American character.
Faith: America is known as
one of the most religious of all nations. We’ve placed “In God We Trust”
on all our money. 95% of Americans believe in God or a Universal Spirit
according to a Washington Post poll published in January 2000. 88%
say faith is important in their lives according to a Gallup Poll of
December 1999. Both the Native Americans and our Pilgrim fathers were
known for a spiritual approach to crisis that is relevant for us today.
Whenever there was an attack or a plague, the Pilgrims of Plymouth would
call for a day of prayer and fasting to ask how they had gone out of
alignment with God’s will. Likewise, Native American warriors learned not
to blame their enemy for their defeat. Rather, the enemy was seen as a
mirror helping them see their own inner flaws and weakness.
The Pursuit of Happiness:
The right to the “pursuit of happiness” was wisely granted in our founding
documents, honoring the need for personal achievement and
self-actualization. However, our next evolutionary step is to redirect
the pursuit of happiness from increasing material resources to instead
increasing our inner resources and improving our moral character and our
spiritual development. Millions of Americans are discovering, as they
exhaust the promises of material consumption, that deep, lasting joy comes
from serving and helping others.
Soul Symbols On Our Dollar Bill
One place where you can see some of
the symbols of the soul of America can probably be found right in your own
pocket--on a dollar bill. Our Great Seal proclaims the motto of the
nation’s soul: “E Pluribus Unum,” unity in diversity. We also find on the
dollar bill the motto “Novus Ordo Seclorum” -- “The New Order of the
Ages,” which indicates that our destiny is to create a new order that has
been planned for long centuries. We also find, “Annuit Coeptis”--(God)
Favored Our Undertakings, a hint left by our Founding Fathers of the
Divine guidance and assistance they knew was part of the founding of our
nation.
On the front side of the Great Seal is
the eagle, which is sacred in all cultures as it is the only bird which
can look directly into the sun. The eagle is facing west, towards the
olive branch, the symbol of peace, rather than towards the arrows of war,
unlike traditional heraldry, in which the animal faces the east. The
number 13 is used 13 times on the Great Seal, in the number of arrows,
stars, etc It is the magical number of transformation: the 12 plus
one--the twelve disciples plus the Christ, the twelve signs of the zodiac
plus the sun, the twelve Knights of the Round Table plus King Arthur.
On the reverse of the Great Seal, is
the All-Seeing Eye of God as the missing capstone being placed above the
four sided pyramid which symbolizes materialistic life. It is not already
in place, but being gradually brought down on to the pyramid, symbolizing
the work America has yet to accomplish.
Just as integrated, individual
personalities tend to be separative, self-centered, arrogant, and
materialistic, the same is true of the developed personalities of
nations. Nations identified primarily with their personalities tend to be
self-aggrandizing and assume their nation is superior to others. The
United States, for example, is idealistic to a fault and thinks all other
nations should adopt its political and economic values. Americans are
often seen by others as being very idealistic and generous, but also very
naive and arrogant.
America needs to transcend her
immature need to tell the world what to do and impose her particular
values on others. Personality-centered nations manipulate relations with
other nations solely for their own advantage, and are uninterested in
cooperative group effort. All relations are seen as a struggle for power
and dominance.
The immature personality of the United
States was evident in her expression of “Manifest Destiny”--a belief that
all the land across the continent was meant to belong to her and so could
be greedily appropriated without regard for its original inhabitants, the
Native Americans. The selfish personality of the U.S. can also be seen in
her refusing to sign the international Law of the Sea treaty, as well as
in her ignoring of international law when it served her self-interest,
such as mining the harbors of Nicaragua.
There are struggles within every
national psyche between those elements representing the soul and those
representing the unredeemed personality, as we certainly see today in
America. Just as an individual who is wealthier and more powerful has a
greater spiritual responsibility to others, so does the United States have
a greater responsibility to the world than poorer, less powerful nations.
She needs to transcend self-interest and learn that serving the highest
good of all is in her own highest interest, and will bring joy and
fulfillment to our national life. At times, America has risen to this
spiritual challenge, as she did with her generosity in the Marshall Plan
to former enemies Germany and Japan after World War II.
America, as well as the European
nations, faced a great test in how they responded to the plight of the
Bosnian Muslims being killed by the “ethnic cleansing” of the Serbs, as
well as the protection of the Serbs from the Croatians. Right action
there required nations to transcend their self-interest and respond to the
human need.
Crises present opportunities for a
fresh look at national priorities and purpose. They often signal a
conflict between the values of the soul and those of the personality. The
oil crisis of the 1970s, for example, was an opportunity for the U.S. to
examine its inefficient and wasteful lifestyle and to develop
energy-saving technologies and a simpler way of life. The soul of a nation
and the karma of her people orchestrate the particular issues and lessons
a nation needs to confront at any given time. For example, the U.S.
confronted the issue of domestic violence and the fairness of the legal
system through the O.J. Simpson case, which was so intriguing because it
was an exercise in nationally televised psychotherapy.
The American Shadow
The U.S. needs to confront and
integrate its national “shadow” before the full power of its soul can
flow into national life. Revolt from all control is one aspect of our
nation’s shadow --reflected in the current extreme anti-government
sentiments sweeping the country, the growth of “hate” radio talk shows,
and fanatical militias. This is really a classic case of what
psychologists call “shadow projection”, as those groups which would most
like to force their views on others and control others are most fearful
that the government is going to control them.
Greed and obsession with material
wealth is another aspect of the U.S. shadow that needs to be confronted.
The guarantee in our founding documents of the right to happiness was
never meant to be totally materially defined, and especially not at the
expense of others. We see this issue everywhere today, as for example in
corporate executives raising their annual salaries to extravagant amounts
when their profits have declined and they’ve laid off thousands of
workers.
The Gift of the Native
Americans
A major aspect of its shadow that
America must confront is its historically bad treatment of people of
color, including Native Americans -- the first Americans. Four hundred
years ago, the Hopi Indians had an ancient legend that they were to look
to the East for the return of their “lost white brother” who had “gone to
the East to develop, record and invent things”. This lost white brother
would bring the “missing stone tablet” to compliment the one the Hopis
already had. The two complimentary halves of the stone tablet symbolize
the head and the heart. The white culture developed a technological
culture and the Native Americans developed a compassionate relationship to
the earth. The white culture developed the head and the Natives developed
the heart, and these must be reunited if America is to fulfill her true
spiritual destiny.
But the white man didn’t recognize
his red brother when he first came to America, and he killed them and
pushed them off the land they lived on. This has created a heavy karma
which is part of the national shadow that must be redeemed. Since Native
Americans hold the power of nature in balance through their sacred
ceremonies and dances, it is essential that we create right relationship
with the original inhabitants of this land and protect the earth from
pollution. If we continue to mistreat the Native Peoples and their land,
there will be karmic reaction from the forces within the earth to which
they are deeply related.
But there was also something very
important that was brought to America by the white race who came here
several hundred years ago. They anchored the idea of freedom of religion
to grow on this soil and spread to the world. And most significantly,
they brought the sacred sparks from the living flame of the Ageless Wisdom
tradition--the hidden, initiate teachings at the core of the major
religions. Our Founding Fathers (and Mothers) brought a profound
metaphysical tradition with them that indicated a spiritual destiny for
this nation. This can unfold in the future if America grows into a wise
and compassionate member of the community of nations, rather than being a
selfish nation that dominates other nations through her superior power.
George Washington had a vision of an
angel who showed him three great crises of the Republic. But each time
the Union triumphed against her enemies. (This was reported in The
National Tribune by Anthony Sherman who was with Washington at Valley
Forge).
What We Can Do
We can help bring forth the soul of
America by helping people overcome the separateness between races,
religions, cultures, and political beliefs. We need to learn to listen to
each other more deeply, especially to those with whom we think we
disagree. Everyone in the U.S. is talking, but few are really listening.
Sometimes all that is needed to transform the pain of an individual or a
group is just for them to be really heard publicly.
We need to transcend our ancient habit
of adversarial approaches and dualistic thinking--either/or, win/lose--and
work with new methods for finding common ground and synthesizing the best
in both sides of an argument. The real evil in our nation today is the
ancient strategy of “divide and conquer,” dividing good people on each
side of an issue from each other, so the power-obsessed are left free to
rule us all. At the same time, we need to have the courage to point out
dishonest manipulation and the real abuses of power in our nation when
they harm people or the environment.
We can help draw out the soul of our
politicians by “adopting a leader”--choosing someone who has great
potential, but who needs our help. We can follow his or her career, write
letters of support, hold him/her in our prayers and meditations, sending
light and love so that s/he will align with the highest good instead of
just his/her own self-interest. We can each support a Code of Conduct
for Public Officials--a set of principles for public life. When
politicians ask for our vote, ask them to sign onto a code of ethical
conduct and hold them accountable to it.
And most importantly, we as a
nation need to truly honor the inscription written on all our money: “In
God We Trust” --not by forcing our idea of God on others, but rather by
embodying the spiritual principles in which we trust, and thus
bringing the power of true wisdom and compassion into our nation and our
world.
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