Today, the idea that democracy is in a period of marked crisis is as commonly proclaimed by journalists, commentators, academics, and think tanks, as it is in the public sphere. This is not surprising. The rapidly changing landscape of political and social norms, the economic uncertainty, plus the intensity of polarization experienced across liberal democracies is unprecedented. The global proliferation of social media has further stimulated polarization and cultivated an atmosphere of hyper-populism which amplifies the voice of the “common” person and circumvents established levers of truth. Considered broadly, this anti-establishment movement compounds conflict with the status quo, but does little to chart a new way forward. Liberal institutions, the bedrock of democratic governance, are struggling to keep up.
Yet, despite worldwide recognition that democracy is in crisis, there is little agreement about the nature of the crisis, how it should be addressed, nor what such a crisis means for the future. The loudest of these voices broadly assert a crisis characterized by conflict, struggle, instability, retrogression, a withering of the law—many intentionally evoke fear and dread, of existential and insurmountable threats. Yet behind the din of catastrophe there are also voices of perspective and nuance, voices which analyze, clarify, and provide a thoughtful even if tentative path to solution.
Men and women of goodwill, and particularly those who find themselves working within the heart of the new group of world servers, have a key role to play in leading humanity through times of crisis, which are fundamentally times of change and therefore of opportunity for renewal and reorientation. To bring about such reorientation requires vision which is based on alignment and identification with that which is universally right and good, plus the discernment and compromising spirit necessary to chart a ‘way between’ the pairs of opposites. This ‘way between’ is also the higher way; it is the way forward.
Crisis: Opportunity, Change, Evolution
Crisis, contrary to popular assumption, is not always negative. It is essentially a time of decisive and radical change — a time of opportunity to build anew. The creative spirit which lies at the heart of human evolution proceeds by means of constant crises: periods of intensification, leading to decisive moments of decision, followed by periods of relative stability in which the effects of that decision work out. A brief look at the history of modern liberal democracy reveals that it has weathered many crises, transforming and evolving at every turn.
The almost constant nature of these crises means that periods of resolution sometimes blur almost immediately into new crises as the rapid progress of change immediately brings new problems. From one angle, one could say democracy has (at least throughout its modern existence) been in a constant state of tension or conflict with myriad short-term crises overlapping and faced on multiple fronts at once.
What Makes a Spiritual Crisis?
Examining the causes of today’s democratic crisis can be overwhelming. Taken purely as a crisis of governance, it spans many sectors: economic, social, political, security as well as internal and foreign relations. The crises are often viewed very differently depending on the country, highlighting that perceptions play just as large a role as sociological data and analyses.
Today’s crisis is perhaps more one of identity, of principles, of ideals and of the vision to which democratic nations aspire, than anything else. Yet, there are even deeper quintessentially ‘spiritual’ components of this crisis which have to do with the higher order upon which the outer world is patterned. While the factors involved in a spiritual crisis are necessarily abstract, they are equally archetypal; they underly and are cause of the psychological turmoil which in turn gives living form to our institutions and structures of government. As humanity moves into an era of marked spiritual development, such factors are increasingly consequential and so must be part of any comprehensive understanding of the next step in the evolution of democracy.
Esoteric Psychology posits that spiritual crisis, whether for an individual or for a nation, is based on a fundamental conflict between the deeper purpose and character of the soul (the essential Self, the thinker, the agent) and its changing and ever-evolving outer form or vehicle (the personality). The soul is the source of every human virtue: love, wisdom, knowledge, sacrifice, and many others. It is also the animating principle, the breath of life, the cause of the outer form. It functions as the mediating agent (principle) between essential spirit and tangible matter. Thus, there can be no purely ‘spiritual’ crisis apart from some corresponding material expression in the world.
Spiritual evolution (for the nation as well as the individual) proceeds as the soul shines its light into the form – inspiring and challenging established habits in the worlds of time and space. The relationship between soul impression and personality responsiveness or resistance becomes a source of crisis in the life of the nation, just as of the individual, creating an energetic environment which can evoke the will to implement the values and principles at the heart of the nation. Purpose, destiny, and right direction take shape in the history of the nation because of this rhythmic, cyclical process – just as they do for the individual.
Esoterically, crises can be of two types: crises of the soul and crises of the personality. No spiritual crisis can occur without some corresponding crisis of the outer form, thus spiritual crises are always dual. Identifying the spiritual component of today’s crisis is essential for taking full advantage of the opportunity of renewal and reorientation which it brings.
Personality crises have to do with the outer psyche, specifically with its expression, with that which is fundamentally not the soul—the ‘not-self’. In the case of a nation, this would include the various sectors of governance, of outer organization, and to large degree the traits which typify the average citizen. Soul crises have to do with the higher qualities of the national psyche, those which are embodied in the nation’s highest ideals and which manifest as the special virtues or gifts which each nation brings, as a matter of essential identity, to the world of nations.
True, spiritual evolution is the growth of the soul's expression in form, through the relationships, institutions and cultures which comprise the national identity. This dynamic process of right alignment and relationship sees the overshadowing soul increasingly involved in becoming the soul in form; the higher merges more intently and clearly with the lower, and the qualities, ideals, and virtues of the higher increasingly characterize the world of manifested reality.
Individuals within the nation who are sensitive to soul impression hold the collective responsibility for working to build right relationship between soul and personality. Today’s crisis of democracy can be seen as a part of this process; as an essentially spiritual crisis with the potential of taking the nations which compose the liberal international order forward in right adjustment between the soul and personality.
