Do Countries Have a Soul?

Many spiritual, mystical, and even psychological traditions believe that countries, lands, and collective groups have a “soul”.  A living essence, a collective memory, a kind of destiny unfolding through time.

Plato called it the Anima Mundi, the World Soul. The idea that the Earth itself is alive and conscious, and that every part of it, including nations, carries its own vibration and purpose.

Carl Jung extended this to cultures and nations, speaking of the colletive unconscious, how entire groups can hold archetypes, wounds, gifts, and dreams.

In many shamanic traditions, this is not just philosophy. It is reality. Lands, rivers, mountains, and peoples are seen as alive, carrying spirits that hold memory, purpose, and destiny. The soul of a nation is often inseparable from the spirit of the land and the ancestors who walked it before us.

The Soul of Croatia (a personal share)

The longer I live as an expat, the more I feel this strange paradox: on one hand, I’m becoming more disconnected from the place I come from… and yet, somehow, I’m more deeply connected to the soul of my country than ever before.

I started asking myself:

What is the soul of Croatia?

For me, it carries both longing and resilience in its body like an old song that’s been sung for centuries.

When I sit with it, I feel:

• the salt of the Adriatic Sea on my skin

• the stone of the Dinaric mountains under my feet

• the silence of the oak forests holding forgotten prayers

And then, a myth appeared.

I see Croatia as a love story. The tale of a sea dragon and a mountain maiden. He was majestic, his scales blue as the Adriatic sea, and she was wild, her hair made of leaves.

Their love was not easy. It carried storms.

Every invasion, every war, every wound upon the land echoed their struggle.

The dragon raged to protect; the maiden endured to preserve.

And yet, through every scar, their bond only deepened.

The people who lived between them, on islands, in stone villages, along the rivers had the same nature. Stubborn as rock, but fluid as tide. Like their guardians, they knew both pain and fierce joy.

This, to me, is the soul of Croatia. A land that has suffered, loved, resisted, laughed, and sung through centuries. A spirit that knows both heartbreak and wild beauty.

The Soul of Denmark

Then I took it one step further and asked myself:

How do I feel the soul of Denmark?

This is, again, deeply personal. It's not about history or politics, but about energy.

To me, Denmark feels like a north wind:

clear, refreshing, sometimes ruthless.

Underneath its reign, I sense elvish-like creatures, beings who gather by the fire, tending to hygge, coziness, warmth, and creative ways of being.

There’s a quiet kind of magic here, one that moves beneath the surface, like an undercurrent shaping how life flows.

Why It Matters

Maybe when we explore the soul of a country, we’re really exploring a mirror of our own soul.

Where we come from. Where we live now.

What lives in us that belongs to the land, and what we carry away when we leave it.

For me, this isn’t about finding answers. It’s about listening.

Listening to the heartbeat beneath the streets, the whispers of old forests, the silence between waves.

Because maybe the soul of a country is never separate from our own essence.