A country with universal reach, obstacles, difficulties, and spiritual fulfillment… Beyond politics and society, economics and history, what does the New Age say about France?
Alice Bailey is considered the founder of the New Age (the real one!). She wrote a book on the destiny of nations, in which she addresses the subject of France.
This concerns the spiritual aspects of the country, and not solely political perspectives. Conflicts and political debates in France are currently very violent. They will become increasingly so, because this is part of the country’s spiritual path.
For Alice Bailey describes the spirituality of countries through their personality, their collective soul, and their national motto. For France:
– personality: intelligence
– collective soul: knowledge
– national motto: I dispense light.
The symbol of France is the Fleur-de-Lys, which she adopted, divinely guided, centuries ago, and which also represents her universal mystical aura.
The combined action of intelligence and science explains the sparkling and brilliant French intellect. Hence, the astonishing contribution to world knowledge and thought. The glory of the past empire is the guarantee of a potential future glory of divine revelation. But France must cease to live in admiration of its past and must turn toward the future through enlightenment (the goal of all mental endeavor). When the French intellect is turned toward the spirit, then it will bring revelation to the world!
“Through the revelation of the spirit, France will then enter a new period of glory. Her empire will be the empire of the mind, and her glory, the glory of the soul,” according to Alice Bailey.
If the soul of France manages to break through despite the tensions and distress, that will be her glory. The model of the soul is the French genius of the French intellect, made comprehensible to humanity, thus giving rise to a true psychology of the soul. France’s ego is the expression of Concrete Knowledge; its personality is the expression of Active Intelligence. The soul of France expresses itself through its influence and impact in Europe and the world.
France’s personality: self-awareness, egocentrism, intelligence, and individualism.
It can truly influence the world: but between nationalism and a tendency toward universal consciousness, even a tendency to save the world (which is the expression of the advanced French soul), it must find its path.
This new consciousness represents a narrow path: that of cultivating both individualism and the salvation of others, both nationalism and universalism. But this inevitably creates a conflict of which France is slowly becoming aware. The forces of crystallization and conflict are pouring forth across France. However, the soul of the French nation is nourished by its own soul, energized by Christ. In this lies the hope that France carries.
If universalism prevails and replaces selfishness and self-interest, while preserving its individuality, then France will be free and able to lead the world spiritually, as it did in the past, but primarily from a political and cultural perspective. This powerful and influential country can make a contribution to the life of humanity, a contribution that will bring about the new conditions necessary for global harmony.
France carries within it a tendency to want to save the world (for France is essentially on the Path of a Savior of the World). It has already demonstrated this through human rights. This was the apogee, the culmination of this nation’s evolution. Will France be able to accomplish the overwhelming task of decentralization and self-sacrifice for the common good, relinquishing its dream of grandeur in a vision of “everything,” and thus finding itself more fully on the Path of a Savior of the World?
For the forces of conflict and obstruction are omnipresent! Between nationalism and universalism, harmony through conflict… This is France’s difficult journey. But the difficulties are commensurate with the potential for spiritual fulfillment.