In the technological Age of 1979 it is hardly surprising that the value of symbols no longer commands the universal respect it did in times gone by. This is a fact which serves to explain in part why it is that the celebration of St. GEORGE’S DAY comes and goes unacknowledged and unnoticed. The FLAG of St. GEORGE which by tradition had to be hoisted aloft bravely displayed above every PARISH CHURCH throughout the LAND is observed nowadays only in exceptional instances.
TRUTH needs no defence so that the value of a SYMBOL loses nothing of its POTENCY fortuitously just because it is treated with apathy due to the double ignorance of our times. Indeed as a symbol of the HIGHER CONSCIOUSNESS overcoming the dragon-like turmoil of lower consciousness it represents a power for Good which needs to be INVOKED today more than ever it has before in our history as an ISLAND people.
Curiously enough although it may seem the first time I ever heard the slogan:- ‘When will ENGLAND come?’ – was from the voice of the Hauptman of the UKRAINE who as a young man was attached temporarily to one of the REGIMENTS of the BRIGADE OF GUARDS stationed at WELLINGTON BARRACKS. During the critical years which followed special duties demanded that I made flying visits each weekend by varying routes throughout Europe to the heart of AUSTRIA. Everywhere en route and back again the same THEME was repeated incessantly by people unconnected one from another. It was a veritable cri de Coeur echoed spontaneously, not contrived, an inspiration evoked which had nothing nationalistic about it. Never once do I recall hearing the name of BRITAIN uttered because the outcry was an affirmation completely divorced from any material or political considerations whatsoever.
But why ENGLAND? Because this name possessed a quality of ENERGY about it which was CHARISMATIC, awakening in their minds an absolute certainty that eventually RIGHT must TRIUMPH. For them the name of ENGLAND appeared to represent a BLAZING BEACON of HOPE which nothing could extinguish since it was a CONVICTION transcending all conceptual limitations. It was as if the innermost soul had been unveiled to reveal a COSMIC FORCE OF LIVING LIGHT which alone could PERFORM the MIRACULOUS ACT OF TRANSMUTATION needed.
Admittedly this was a phenomenon undefinable but nevertheless operative as a dynamic function at the deepest LEVELS of the UNCONSCIOUS which enabled them to add to faith KNOWLEDGE conveying unshakeable CONVICTION that DELIVERANCE would be accomplished not by might nor by power but through the ALL-ENCOMPASSING ever-enduring VICTORIOUS influence of GOD’S SPIRIT.
Today, after being through a period of eclipse cast by a shadow of idealogical doctrines alien to its own essential nature, signs are already appearing that once again the SOUL of ENGLAND is destined to RISE again in greater SPLENDOUR. Let all of us who are young in heart therefore lift up our heads and continue to pray with THANKSGIVING in expectation of the hastening ADVENT of SPIRITUAL RENAISSANCE due to herald the coming of the glad day.
Ronald Heaver 26th April 1979
p.s. An analogy illustrating the unique relationship between Great BRITAIN and the name of ENGLAND can be illustrated by the realisation that the strongest ARCH erected anywhere by mankind on Earth has to be composed of various stones each depending on each other yet all jointly and severally entirely dependent upon one stone at the CENTRE – the KEY-STONE.
