An Essay on the Soul of Canada – A Country in Process

At the beginning of this essay, I observe that there are two ways to become conscious of the soul of Canada; the first through deepening self-introspection by individual Canadians, the second is to study various expressions of the country’s soul over space and time.  Canada, like the United States, is astrologically Cancer, its main developmental stress has been East-West and it has four well differentiated seasons, and is a Northern country, indicative of its materialistic orientation and relative self-restraint and relative introversion. In addition to the Eastern United States, Eastern Canada has visible cultural links to Europe while Western Canada has links to the mid-West and Western United States, as well as the Orient and Latin America. A colonial mentality saddles Canadians with a feeling of inferiority and a belief that everything of cultural value comes from somewhere else.  This is reflected in terms of identity formation in that the country has a mother complex and is developmentally roughly at the level of an adolescent.  In Canada, there is an attempt to judiciously balance freedom along with justice and equality for both individuals and collective entities.  Concerned groups include minorities such as French-speaking Canadians, English-speaking Canadians in Quebec, First Nations and Inuit people and women, and those with alternative life styles.  There is a need to become more aware of and integrate values of the different collectives into the country’s conscious ego.  In particular, at this point of history, I am referring to the English speaking Canadian values and attitudes, French speaking Canadian values and attitudes and those of the First Nations people, which I discuss.  To these groups there is a need to recognize the large new immigrant populations and their potential affect on the Canadian psyche. Finally, I discuss the symbolic value of the beaver as Canada’s Totem of National Sovereignty, the Canadian superman fantasy and split off shadow values and, finally, I briefly discuss the Maple Leaf as Canada’s national symbol.

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