13 Sep The Canadian Folk Spirit – By Christian Reuter
According to Rudolf Steiner many countries have folk spirits who guide their people and, if they connect more deeply with their folk, then they also provide them with a national identity; this gives them their “Frenchness” or their “Britishness”. Our neighbours, the United States1 have a guiding spirit. Do we in Canada have a folk spirit? And if we do, how can we work with him?
The older folk spirits or folk souls2 that were named by Rudolf Steiner work mainly through the soul forces of their people. An exception to this is the German Folk Spirit who works only sporadically with the German people and then only through their Ego3. But all folk spirits, together with the time spirit worked out of their own initiative. Yet now in the Age of Light we humans have been given freedom, foremost to exercise the will and to make decisions. Particularly the new group souls4, new since the start of the Age of Light, but also the other helpful spirit beings, who desire to work with us, need to wait until we cognize them and ask for their cooperation. This is the first time in human evolution that we all need to consciously seek the help of the positive spirits.
Canada is a unique country! It borders on three oceans and on one large country. Apart from its First Nations the citizens come from all areas of the earth. Here in Canada we live together peacefully even though in the various home countries our nations may have fought each other for centuries! In March of 2009 I asked Sergei Prokofieff about the folk spirits of Canada and Alaska. During the conference on the North in Whitehorse in August of the same year he answered me. Regarding the Canadian Folk Spirit he said, “I cannot see him.” And he added, “Perhaps Canadians have to obtain their folk spirit5. This one would perhaps also work with the Alaskans. In human evolution this development of the Canadian Folk Spirit would be significant because it would then happen for the first time that a group of human beings participates in the arising of a folk spirit. Also, it would be quite bad for humanity if Canada were to be absorbed by the United States. These two countries have very different paths of destiny.”
Until the end of 2012 I researched the question of a folk spirit for Canada and, perhaps Alaska, further. The surprising result was that the Canadian Folk Spirit exists, but he needed to be cognized and confirmed as such by a human in Canada before he could become active as a folk spirit!
I cannot help but bring these words of Sergei Prokofieff, quoted in the previous-but-one paragraph in connection with the following statement made by Rudolf Steiner; “As in Old Greece in the Apollonian Mysteries the sentence ‘Know Yourself’ was important, so in the not too distant future this word will be directed to the Folk Souls, ‘Know Yourselves as Folk Souls’. This saying will have a certain significance for the future activities of mankind.” GA 121, “The Mission of Folk Souls”, June 6th 1910, Seite 136. This can be interpreted in two different ways. The need to cognize folk spirits and to address them as such may refer only to newly arising folk spirits, like the Canadian one, or it may have been said regarding all folk spirits. I think it is the latter.
We live in the Age of Light (1899 – 4399 AD) with freedom and also in the Age of the Consciousness or Spirit Soul (1413 – 3573 AD) when we need to gain conscious knowledge of the spirit world. We know from the study of Spiritual Science that positive spirits assist us only when we ask for this help. Rudolf Steiner called Michael our “Hero of Freedom”. Indeed, Michael is the first Time Spirit in history who, currently for the first time, respects fully our new freedom7. Instead of bestowing on human beings impulses, inspirations and incentives for action like time spirits have always done in the past he now waits for what we bring and what we ask for. Then he supports what is good.
In view of the ever increasing problems in the world and the attacks on all organic life I think that we have a great need for the assistance of this unique Canadian Folk Spirit. He is the first Folk Spirit (that I am aware of) that arose in this time of Michael as Time Spirit. Michael is a very cosmopolitan spirit and so are other spirits that are influenced by him. Also the Canadian Folk Spirit seems to be cosmopolitan with interest in not only Canadian affairs but also world problems.
The first of the two questions that were raised in the beginning of this paper can be seen as answered. But how do we want to work with him?” That was the second question. Spirit- and evolution-hindering problems we have more than we can count. So let us communicate with one another about our Folk Spirit. What active Canadians might achieve for the world in cooperation with their Michaelic Folk Spirit could be beyond what we can imagine at the moment! It is a possibility and an opportunity that we should not ignore.
1 In “The Mission of Folk Souls” Rudolf Steiner pointed out that the North American people for the time being are guided by an abnormal Spirit of Personality, GA 121, page 51
2 Rudolf Steiner used both words interchangeably.
3Regarding more on folk souls in general see GA 121` by Rudolf Steiner, “The Mission of Folk Souls”.
For more information on the German Folk Spirit see “Die geistigen Aufgaben Mittel- und Osteuropas” (“The Spiritual Tasks of Middle and Eastern Europe”) by S. Prokofieff.
4The new Michaelic group souls are explained in chapter 8 of “The Esoteric Significance of Spiritual Work in Anthroposophical Groups” by Sergej Prokofieff.
5 “Obtaining’ a folk spirit includes three activities. After the cognition he must be addressed as the (Canadian) Folk Spirit and to activate him, he needs to be asked to participate with specific tasks.
6 ‘Seite 13’ indicates that the German text was used; otherwise the reference note would read ‘page 13’.
7 See the “Michael Mystery”by Sergei Prokofieff, p.60
Sarnia Guiton
Posted at 15:47h, 20 NovemberI had understood for many years that the Folk Spirit of Canada was Vidar – the Folk Spirit of all northern countries that include the Arctic Circle. I have no sense of what that means, but I recall feeling this connection when visiting Finland many years ago.
Is this now open to question? It seems it is.
Adrian
Posted at 21:40h, 01 DecemberIf I understand correctly, the German Folk Spirit is an exception because it is the only one working through peoples ego, the highest part of the human body. Does this indicate the spiritual-leading culture in the current post-atlantean period ?
I would appreciate some clarifications. Thank you.