A detailed history of the Findhorn
Foundation requires its own book. Hopefully it will have one
while the main participants can still be consulted. One of them
is already dead. Some of our archives have been sent to Edinburgh
where they can be properly preserved. Versions of the history
of our earlier years are given in the Magic of Findhorn and especially
in Eileen Caddy's autobiography, Flight into Freedom, which brings
the story very much to life. In this chapter my task is to indicate
trends in our history and to point out some of the challenges
we have faced in developing a new lifestyle. Some significant
themes of our collective history are also relevant to changes
in individual consciousness as humanity is taught its new identity.
'Those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat
it.'
While the various trends in
the history of the Findhorn Community may be viewed from different
perspectives, there is one common underlying theme. A current
of spiritual energy is present in the community which directs
and governs what happens. If those who live here lose contact
with this current, they either can't stay, or they reorient themselves.
It is not that anyone tells them to leave; they just don't feel
comfortable living here any longer. The energy that guides the
Findhorn Community is not something material. It operates through
circumstance and coincidence, which are felt as pressures in
daily life. In the Findhorn Community we are learning to harmonise
with divine will, to separate it from impulses deriving from
the ego, and to find it within ourselves. If the community diverges
from this current of energy, which we often call the 'Angel of
Findhorn', our collective life becomes more and more uncomfortable
until we return to it.
In 1984, I was a new member
living at Cluny Hill College, a large former hotel now owned
by the Foundation, which accommodates up to 150 people. Perhaps
life had become over-structured; there was a feeling of formalism
and living for routine. One day the sewers blocked, and the subbasement
area was flooded. Sewage rose through toilets and baths, but
no one could find the source of the blockage. No plan of the
sewer line was to be found. Attempts to flush the sewer with
water failed. Attempts with rods failed even to find where the
block was. The water board had no idea of where the sewer ran
after it left the main, and their attempts to unblock it from
the main road also failed. We went out with divining rods and
pendulums to try to find the line of the sewer, without much
success (the driveway is about 300 metres long), and frantically
dug holes into the banks to try to locate it. As an emergency
measure, the sewer outside the house was holed, and sewage began
flowing into the garden. Meanwhile, it backed up into the other
outlet line from the west of the building. After about two weeks,
we were at our wits' end, afraid the health inspector would close
us down. It became increasingly clear that the sewer blockage
was a symbolic way of showing us something about our life.
A channelling was received.
It told us we had become too concerned with outer forms, neglecting
our spiritual connection. The sewage began to flood the garden.
We organised a meeting and agreed that each member would make
a personal commitment to their own spiritual development. In
the afternoon we shared what we had individually decided. At
4 p.m., when the meeting ended, the sewers were unblocked. They
had unblocked themselves! We are not allowed to stray far from
the work we are here to do.
In the Beginning — Preparing the Ground
The initial phase in the community's
history was not its founding, but the preparation of the founders.
They had to be spiritually strong enough to deal with the energies
that the community was to embody. Even today some people prepare
themselves before coming here, so they can receive the most benefit
from their experience. A friend wrote to me: "Now it's once
more the right time to come again to the Findhorn Community.
For a long time I had very much fear in the face of so much love
and acceptance. So first I'll go with a friend to a monastery
and meditate for some days."
Eileen and Peter were put through
exacting challenges in the years before 1962, when the community
was founded. Peter had been initiated into the Rosicucian order
as a young man. He sums up the quintessence of his teaching in
three basic principles:
— Eliminate the words 'if' and 'can't' from your
language.
— Love where you are, love who you're with, and love
what
you're doing.
— Positive thinking is powerful.
A fourth one, almost as central, is:
— Only the perfect is good enough for God's work.
He avidly read books on esoterics
and the Western mystery tradition. He then had a five-year spiritual
training from his second wife, Sheena, a demanding teacher who
played a significant role in the spiritual development of all
three of the community's founding figures. They had a strong
faith in her in these early stages, although Eileen found her
to be irascible and exacting.
To be with Peter, Eileen left
her marriage and children, a step that most around her interpreted
as highly immoral and sinful. Peter took both Eileen and Sheena
to Glastonbury, and they went together into a sanctuary to meditate.
Stricken with guilt and remorse, Eileen prayed with her whole
heart, surrendering herself to God. Then, for the first time,
an inner voice came. That first message contained the kernel
of the whole:
Be still and know that I am God. You have taken a very
big step in your life. But if you follow My voice, all will be
well. I have brought you and Peter together for a very special
purpose, to do a specific work for Me. You will work as one,
and you will realise this more fully as time goes on. There are
few who have been brought together in this way. Don't be afraid,
for I am with you.
(Flight into Freedom, p. 28)
Eileen thought she was going
crazy but Peter and Sheena supported her. Sheena insisted that
Eileen listen to and write down the words of the voice, which
she began to hear regularly in her three daily meditations. She
went through a very hard and challenging period of her life,
during which she struggled to resist surrender to Divine will.
She writes:
(I was not) ... searching consciously for the meaning
of God in my life. I wasn't even sure it was God's Voice I continued
to hear. Least of all did I believe that the vivid visions I
was beginning to have were divinely inspired. For all I knew
they may have been the work of the devil or caused by my emotional
distress. The only reason I was them was Peter.
(Flight, p. 31)
Finally, she endured six months
alone with her and Peter's second baby in a cottage on the west
coast of the Isle of Mull without electricity and running water.
Her older child had been taken away by Sheena, and Peter had
apparently deserted her. She became depressed and contemplated
suicide, but instead at last surrendered to God once more. On
Christmas day, Peter, who had been trying to get work in the
south, reappeared at her door carrying a chicken under his arm
for Christmas dinner. Eileen's inner voice commented:
To achieve absolute freedom,
you must live fully those words, 'Let go, let God.' When you
do, all strain and resistance goes and you are no longer clinging
on to anything of the self.... Strain comes when you are trying
to cling on to something which you feel is being taken from you.
Everything you have is a gift from Me.... When you do this with
everything, with the family, with Peter, your home, every material
possession, then every spiritual gift, you will find true freedom
and release from all strain . ... You have begun to understand
the greatest secret in life, that we are One.
(Flight, p. 49-50)
The phrase 'Let go, let God' is also often used by Sai Baba,
of whom Eileen was not to hear for many years.
In the second world war Peter
had been Air Force Catering Officer for the whole of the Burma
front. His confidence and determination persuaded the representatives
of a Scottish hotel company to give him the job of manager of
Cluny Hill Hotel in Forres, even when he declared straightforwardly
that the establishment would be run under divine guidance. The
hotel was certainly run down and it was not easy to find a competent
manager, but perhaps a divine hand was at work in this appointment....
Running a large commercial
hotel is very good preparation for organising a community. You
have to provide continuous service for transient guests and maintain
an effective and courteous staff. Peter based his efforts firmly
on the principles of his Rosicrucian training. He was convinced
that Eileen's voice had a divine origin, and used its advice
in managing the business. Dorothy Maclean, the third cofounder
of the Findhorn Community, came to Cluny Hill as Peter's secretary.
After two years Lena Lamont, another ex-member of Sheena's group
of disciples, also joined them as a housemaid for the staff.
Whatever qualms the hotel company may have had were calmed by
good commercial sense — Cluny Hill Hotel flourished. For
five years God, one might say, via Eileen's voice and Peter's
administration, became a hotel manager. Lena provided information
about the situation among the employees.
How to deal with staff, who
to employ and to release, hotel policy — Eileen was told
all and Peter carried it out. Earnings went up threefold. The
little group was being trained to have trust in Divine will,
and to develop skills appropriate to running a community.
The divinely inspired team
were so successful that the hotel company transferred them with
25 staff to a large, ailing hotel in the Trossachs to repeat
the performance. But they were not destined for a career reviving
derelict hotels. Things changed dramatically. The hotel was built
in an inappropriate location and had a bad reputation. Eileen's
inner voice informed the group that this was their final period
of testing. For all their efforts the season was unsuccessful.
On the eve of a meeting with the General Manager, the voice said
to Eileen:
My child, I want you to keep very, very positive about
everything tomorrow. If you are in touch with Me, you can change
quickly in midstream, without it throwing you out. You must be
ready to do this. Be prepared to change your plans at a moment's
notice.
(Flight, p. 72)
On the next day, they were stunned to receive their dismissal
notices. They had practically no money, and all they owned was
a caravan on a summer site near the village of Findhorn. From
this dramatic lesson in the need for faith and flexibility, the
Findhorn Community began.
The First Years of the Community: Anchoring — and
'Patriarchy'
In the absence of any other
home, Peter, Eileen and their three children found a permanent
site at the Findhorn Bay Caravan Park. They moved in in mid-November
1962, and Lena and her three children came to live in a caravan
close to them shortly afterwards. The community had begun! Eileen
comments about the caravan park rather unkindly:
I was reminded of the many times we had passed it on the
way to the beach and commented, "Who would want to live
in a dump like that?" The area we were offered really was
like a dump, with rubble and litter all over the place. There
was an old garage standing in one corner, its windows broken
and weeds and brambles all around it.
(Flight, p. 75)
Today, custodians of the whole
caravan park, we proudly show our guests around the extensive
organic flower and vegetable gardens which surround this original
site, now sheltered with beautiful hedges and trees. The old
caravan is still there, a midget as caravans go, and the community
'focaliser' had his office in it for a while. It is interesting
to see this caravan, with its tiny extension, and to realise
that for seven years it was the home of Eileen, Dorothy, Peter
and the three children — the years in which the community
took form. God provides, but not always according to the standards
of the materialistic lifestyle we in the West take for granted.
In terms of housing the founders of the Findhorn Community lived
in conditions more typical of an Indian village home. They also
lived on £8 a week social security money. Eileen lived
in a small caravan near the original one for many years. Her
son built a house for her nearby in 1990, with the community's
acclamation.
Dorothy had enough money to
build a small annexe to the original caravan and she moved in.
Peter started a small vegetable garden, which is still lovingly
cultivated today. Eileen's inner voice commented:
Time is not what matters but unity, cooperation and positive
thinking. Know that every time you put the spade into the soil,
you are putting in radiations. Love that vegetable garden, use
all My gifts and be grateful for them. Let it be a joyous time
for you all as you create a place of harmony and beauty. You
can be sure that something is wrong if there is no harmony amongst
you. It would be far better to stop and do nothing than to do
something which causes discord.
(Flight, p. 78-9)
After 1965 this garden became
the source of the publicity which made the Findhorn Community
famous. In these early days the aim was to live simply, as an
expression of God's will, and to meditate together to try to
make inner contact with other like-minded souls. It was in this
period that the phrase 'network of light' came into use. Eileen
had visions of varied groups meditating in different parts of
the world. Much later there was confirmation that at least one
of these groups did indeed exist — a group of businessmen
in Turkey who eventually found out about the Findhorn Community
and made contact. In 1972, Eileen and Peter visited Istanbul
and Ephesus, of which one of the group was Mayor, and there Eileen
had a powerful vision of the Virgin Mary.
In 1953 Peter had visited the
Philippines, where he met an American woman called Naomi Stephens
who introduced him to a network of meditating groups. He wrote
regularly to her about what was happening in the infant community.
She was doing similar meditation work in the United States. In
1964 she came to live with the group at Findhorn, adding another
caravan. Eileen's inner voice commented that the four foundations
of the community were now present. Peter started a series of
visits to esoteric circles in other parts of Britain and engaged
in a voluminous correspondence with people he met. From 1965
on, increasing numbers of people began to be drawn to the community.
Attention shifted to the garden.
Dorothy Maclean also received guidance and she began to make
contact with the natural energies controlling the growth of plants,
which she called devas. They gave her very precise instruction
as to how to treat each kind of plant in the garden. Some beautiful
examples of the more general messages from these energies, linking
nature and humanity, appear in Dorothy's autobiography, To
Hear the Angels Sing, and we still use the deva communications
in our nature calendars.
Peter put Dorothy's instructions
into practice with remarkable results. The exquisite vibrancy
of the flower gardens can be seen even in the old photographs.
Although no chemical fertilisers or pesticides were used, huge
vegetables began to grow — the forty-pound cabbages for
which we became famous. Peter met, and was excited by, a man
called R. Ogilvie Crombie ('Roc'), from Edinburgh. Roc had had
experiences of nature beings, which took the form of elves and
fauns, and finally met Pan himself. An account of Roc's extraordinary
abilities is given in The Magic of Findhorn. Over the
following years Roc, although never living in the community,
became an adviser to Peter, not merely in regard to the gardens.
They made several trips together with the aim of re-energising
ancient natural power centres.
Roc continued to visit us until
his death. He is remembered in our weekly guest outing to Randolph's
Leap, a local beauty spot. Roc identified this spot as a place
where it might be especially easy to make a connection with the
energies of plants and natural forces in meditation. There are
many such spots in the relatively unspoiled countryside of the
southern Moray Fifth.
Peter's journeys to groups around Britain, and the publication
in mimeographed form of the first volume of Eileen's guidance
— God Spoke to Me — as well as the publicity
surrounding the gardens, began to draw visitors to the small
community that was forming in the Caravan Park at Findhorn. Some
stayed. In this period there was much interest in the esoteric
and the paranormal, for it was in circles with such ideas that
the idea of a 'new age' first became accepted. Attempts were
made to contact UFOs and 'space beings', but they remained marginal
to the main development of the community.
Peter's firm belief in Eileen's
guidance, which he put into practice using his organising and
executive abilities, led to the creation of the physical form
of the community still recognisable today.
In the first eight years, the
community was anchored by Eileen's inner work, and by Peter's
work in the gardens. Eileen went through a period of powerful
spiritual development. Seeking a quiet place to meditate in the
overcrowded living conditions, she asked within and the voice,
in a joyous piece of guidance, replied:
"Why don't you go down to the public toilets? You will
find perfect peace there." (Flight, p. 78)
The little toilet block referred to has been preserved and
was for a time a herbal apothecary and whole food cafe.
At first Eileen meditated for
about two hours daily, apart from collective meditations with
the others, but as she became more and more inspired, she would
snatch a couple of hours' sleep and meditate from midnight tills
am, then return to look after the children and spend the day
caring for the guests and new arrivals. This remarkable intensity
rooted the spiritual energy which we maintain here. Eileen appears
a very ordinary and unpretentious person. In her eighties, she
continues to share our own processes of release and development
to the extent her health allows. She remains an anchor of the
community and has always been instructed to remain here, although
the other founders have moved on.
If Eileen provided the divine
link, Peter was tirelessly active in giving it form. In the earliest
days he created the garden. As the community developed, he organised
the work, maintained the appropriate spiritual style of members
and guests, and was a ceaseless publicist, visiting many English
esoteric circles while continuing to run the garden. If Eileen's
energy for the home and her inner connection with the Divine
was limitless, so was Peter's for the community's growth. His
background as a military officer led him to favour a disciplined
lifestyle, with a clear chain of command. Reminiscences of the
early days tell us of a compulsory morning sanctuary. If members
did not attend for a few days, they would receive a 'visit' from
Peter. In sanctuary, Peter read out Eileen's current guidance
after meditation and then allocated members and guests to their
work. His authority was virtually absolute, and this period of
community life has often been described as patriarchal. However,
his type of leadership enabled a lot to be achieved in a short
time on the material level, and Peter proved himself relatively
flexible later, as changing conditions required other methods.
As well as relying on Eileen's guidance, he had a sharp intuition
of his own, making him a very commanding figure.
The community grew slowly during
the first eight years. In 1968 it applied to become a charitable
trust, and trustees were appointed. The publicity connected with
the remarkable plants attracted an increasing number of guests.
Eileen recalls that there were 600 visitors in 1969. In faith
a sanctuary was built and, indeed, enough funds were forthcoming.
Six prefabricated mobile holiday bungalows were assembled; these
are still used as guest accommodation.
The real significance of this
period is that the vision began to be grounded in form, the spiritual
energies which are expressed through the community were anchored.
In the next period, the 'parents', Eileen and Peter, were gradually
required to release control, and a new educational impulse developed.
From Plants to People; From Patriarchy to Oligarchy
The end of the first period
in our history and the beginning of the second are bridged by
David Spangler's stay in the community. He and his partner, Myrtle
Glines, first visited in 1970 and returned in 1971 to live here
for three years. He was the last of the Findhorn Community's
founding figures. By the time he left, the Findhorn Foundation
was as large as it is now, had oriented itself towards spiritual
education, and had a much more youthful personnel. Peter's authority
had been supplemented by a leadership group.
When David arrived he was 23
years old, but since childhood he had had contact with an inner
wisdom. Eileen saw him on the one hand as a young man who loved
chocolate cake, but in her inner vision ". . . he as a person
seemed to disappear and in his place was a huge and very wonderful
being" (Flight, p. 144). Peter adopted him instantly,
taking him into sanctuary to speak, an unprecedented step. David
began to lecture regularly, material which gave inspiration and
direction to many young people visiting the community. He emphasised
the creation of a new human identity appropriate to a new age,
for which modern civilisation had prepared the ground. He was
able to channel guidance from inwardly experienced entities.
Sometimes these were 'masters' known in the Western mystery tradition.
He received material from sources which named themselves 'John'
and 'Limitless Love and Truth'. Eileen recently passed me a piece
of channelling from 'Limitless Love and Truth' which I have not
been able to locate in the published books. It gives an indication
of both message and style:
The New Dispensation
On Christmas Eve 1967, Earth entered a new Cosmic Frequency,
and the Spirit of Man merged with the Cosmic Christ. As a budding
Christ about to blossom forth, man is now a twofold being. The
true and real estate of man is spiritual. The outer manifestation
is but a chalice for the use of the Spirit Man.
...True religion for the New Dispensation is to express
the Christ from within oneself. The hidden splendour, buried
deep within the heart, is bursting to be free. Look within, 0
Sons of God, and BE the light that all might see. God's kingdom
upon Earth can only come about through Man, and the New Earth
emerges from out of the chaos of the old. The crumbling world
is past. Be not concerned with what must be, but build for the
future with the vision within. Only the new man can build the
new world, so rise up, 0 Sons of God, and exercise your birthright.
Each tiny soul upon this planet is a cell in the body of Christ.
No matter what his state of being, or what his function is, each
has a part to play.
The essential information conveyed
here is that a new human identity is indeed possible and necessary,
one which gives priority to spirit over matter, and that this
change is a divinely ordained phase in human development. It
is what we have been exploring at the Findhorn Foundation ever
since.
Between 1972 and 1978 we published
much of David's writing (a list of his books appears at the end
of the chapter). More recently, David himself asked us not to
republish these works. About his most popular book, Laws of
Manifestation, he writes:
... I became dissatisfied with this book. I felt that
it did not express as well as it could have the essence of what
I wished to say, and it did not represent the further evolution
of my own thinking on this topic. So in 1981 1 withdrew it from
print.
A new study of manifestation
was published in the 1990s by the Findhorn Press.
David Spangler was a great
intellectual influence on the community's development in the
seventies. To him we owe the idea of the community as a College
or University of Light. Our first residential conference for
guests was held in 1972. Directly or indirectly, David drew to
us many young people, who brought with them guitars, long hair
and a lifestyle with a definite Californian flavour of casual
manners and sun shorts. They drank in the wine of early Findhorn
Community esoterics and began to build. The majority did not
stay very long. In the early seventies the average length of
membership seems to have been only about six months. But others
took their place, and many were practically minded. The flavour
of the community began to change — cramped living conditions,
singsongs, artistic groups, collective projects and a gentle
resistance to authority are characteristic of this 'middle-period'
Findhorn Community. Words like 'democracy' were occasionally
breathed. Paul Hawken reports that Myrtle Climes was very effective
at helping these younger people to reconcile themselves to Peter's
style of leadership. It was she who introduced counselling techniques
to the community (Magic of Findhorn, p. 189-90).
In this period an area called Pineridge in the north-east
of the Caravan Park was 'colonised' and transformed, the community
centre was extended to accommodate the many new members and guests,
the craft studios went up and the present publications building
was completed. The community started to produce audio tapes,
and there was a strong emphasis on the performing arts. The mood
was one of dynamism and expansion. A member who was here at the
time recollects that the most valued type of person was the 'mover'
— someone who got things done. By 1974 the physical layout
of the Park was much as it is today. There were 180
members, and an education programme was in place.
Over a seven-year period, Peter
and Eileen released their control over the community. In 1972
Eileen was directed to cease sharing her guidance with everyone
else:
Let go, stand back and allow all those in the community
to live a life guided and directed by Me. Let them learn from
experience to live positively, demonstrating the laws of manifestation
in their own lives. If this means that the work is held up for
the time being, let it be held up. Until life is lived, lessons
are not learned, and these lessons are far more important than
expanding without learning, living on what others have learned.
In Eileen's view, Peter had
become rather dependent on her guidance; its withdrawal was a
challenge for him. But without sharing her guidance, Eileen herself
became unsure of her role in the community. An examination of
copies of Findhorn News, circulated to supporters of the community
in this period, shows how important the guidance was. Up to 1971
practically every item of information is backed by a piece of
guidance. By August 1971 David Spangler's work begins to fill
the magazine, which Peter edited at this period. The withdrawal
of guidance increased the strain in Peter's relationship with
Eileen, for her guidance-receiving ability was, for him, one
of the ties between them (cf. Flight, p. 170-174). He
began to turn to others for support, and also formed a 'core'
group of seven, the nucleus of a management group, which soon
grew to 12 members. But often the delegation of responsibility
did not provide results that met his standards. Eileen's inner
voice said:
... Peter's work has been to establish this centre of
light. The time will come when he will be free to move into the
universal work. Tell him to let go of the reins more and more
and allow the community to learn and make mistakes if necessary,
but learn they must.
(From 'View from the Centre', by Peter Caddy, Findhorn
News, April, 1974.)
Peter continues:
To prepare for my leaving the community for short periods
of time, we have decided to form a Core Group of seven members
who would be responsible for the community while I was away..
.. During the past few months I have been sharing all that has
been happening with the Core Group, and am now gradually withdrawing
to enable them to take on the running of the community.
(ibid.)
Peter also set up a 'focalisers'
group of those responsible for departments in the diversifying
community (March, 1974). Key decisions were discussed in community
meetings. In addition, in 1973, not only David Spangler but also
Dorothy Maclean left the community — soon to organise the
Lorian Association in the United States. The era of the 'big
authorities' was coming to an end.
Peter's heart opened to a young Swedish woman to whom he
had given responsibility in the community. Although there was
no sexual relationship, Eileen reacted sharply. The community
was thrown into a period of uncertainty but there was no challenge
to Peter's overall authority. An editorial in the February 1975
Open Letter — which replaced the Find horn News
— reports:
We at the Findhorn Community are embarking on the first
lap of a new cycle in our development; the phase of building
the foundation of the community is reaching completion and now
we are involving ourselves in a deeper and more conscious commitment
to the New Age through training and education. Individual wholeness
comes first, and the changes that Peter and Eileen Caddy are
experiencing within their own relationship are reflected in the
changes in the whole community.
Early in this transition period,
in 1973, the decision to build our 'Universal Hall' (originally
the 'University Hall') was made. Eileen's guidance for the Hall
was clear. A functional hail was to be put up fast, with the
emphasis then turning to proper housing for members, who had
to live in very cramped conditions in caravans. But although
this guidance was shared, the Core Group were now receiving advice
and ideas from many sources. The divine inspiration of the Findhorn
Community required the development of inner attunement by the
membership, so that each could individually harmonise with higher
truth. But the community had in the past relied on others for
its decision-making process, and was not experienced at this
level of inner work. It was much more exciting to embark on the
building of a major monument, a project which kindled the collective
enthusiasm of the young members, rather than on the construction
of a utilitarian hall, and this more superficially attractive
view prevailed. Ten years later we had the monument, a superb
building in stone, beautifully furnished and decorated, with
magnificent mural paintings. It also contributed greatly, however,
to a very large debt, and the collective energy of the community
for construction was exhausted.
The Hall remains a very expensive
building to maintain, and requires considerable subsidy. Nor
is it a spiritual symbol in the way that the great Matramandir
of the Auroville Community is. The dilapidated caravans disappear
very slowly. Perhaps the lesson of all this is: in periods of
transition when your connection with spirit is being developed,
don't embark on major projects, but test yourself out on minor
matters! Having said all this, the community has a superb building
as a result of its decision. We have not been judged too harshly.
In the period up to 1979, when
he left, Peter delegated more authority to the Core Group. This
group still used meditation and attunement as a basis for its
decision-making, but without Eileen's guidance a current of more
ordinary, administrative decision-making became stronger. The
Core Group was self-selective; as someone dropped out, so someone
else would be attuned to by the group, which functioned as a
kind of spiritual politburo, managing the community under Peter's
overall leadership. In an article in the Open Letter of December
1975 Nick Rose commented:
During the first year of the Core Group's life, Peter
shared his vision with its members and continued to make all
the decisions. Now, nearly two years later, the Core Group numbers
12 and it has administrative, financial, communication and personnel
groups to assist it in its work. Some feel that little has changed,
that Peter still dominates the decision-making process. 0thers
sense that a real evolution of government is taking place, and
that the concept of a 'theocratic democracy' is a meaningful
one.
Like the rest of (the Findhorn Community) the Core Group
is divinely ordinary. It is prey to the lures of glamour and
illusion like any other group. It is striving to improve its
communication with the community. It is trying not to impose
a vision in such a wilful and purposeful manner that it inhibits
the growth of personal vision.
In the Findhorn Community,
Divine will unfolds itself unhurriedly, without the stress and
impatience which our cultures regard as the norm. We have to
relearn patience and right timing. The Core Group provided stability
during a time when membership turnover was high and individuals
had a shorter period in the community for spiritual development.
Only in the later part of the 1980s did a new trend in management
emerge.
Expansion — and Glamour
From the earliest days to the
present time, even though personalities were changing and settings
and phases came and went, members and guests continued to learn
to live together with love, awakening their connection with their
inner truth, and thus transforming themselves. On whatever level
that transformation had occurred, most people left to share it
in their home environment. Throughout the seventies thousands
of guests visited the Findhorn Foundation, were inspired and
returned to spread their inspiration in changed lives. This is
the true and simple history of the Findhorn Foundation, and it
continues today. The more detailed events and dramas are the
stage settings within which this process of transformation and
development of love occurs.
Peter and Eileen were not exempt
from change. They had had a rather traditional relationship,
but new human identity requires personal wholeness. Eileen had
been the passive receiver and good housewife, Peter the authoritative
actor in the world. The 'Angel of Findhorn' set about transforming
these stereotyped roles, for in some ways the couple remained
a model for the rest of the membership. Peter's relationship
with Eileen became steadily more distanced. His priorities were
changing, and he left the community in 1979 to develop himself
by means of a new series of relationships. He remarried in 1982,
and his new wife demanded from him a large share in the physical
upbringing of their child. Peter was, in his seventies, required
to learn the more mundane aspects of fatherhood — washing
the nappies and taking real responsibility for his young son,
whom he sometimes brought back to the community. Through a further
marriage he experienced the more devotional aspects of religion
so familiar to Eileen in her moments of inner surrender.
Eileen, on the other hand, gradually conquered her shyness
to become a lecturer and spiritual guide, unafraid before mass
audiences of thousands. In this respect Peter and Eileen's example,
which has demanded great readjustment relatively late in life
when others are thinking of 'taking it easy', has been inspirational.
While they were still together,
Eileen and Peter were given the gift of returning to Cluny Hill,
as promised in Eileen's guidance many years earlier. In the intervening
period the hotel had become very run down, and the community
purchased it for the ridiculously small sum of £60,000.
At the time, though, it was a huge step to take. It was a relatively
collective community decision, although the then community treasurer
resigned over it. So Cluny Hill Hotel became Cluny Hill College
('Cluny').
With more than eighty bedrooms,
extensive grounds, tennis court and swimming pool, Cluny is an
imposing establishment. It is a very expensive building to maintain,
and two decades on the community had to spend more than the original
purchase price to renovate the central heating system alone.
But it is also a place of great energy and has become our major
guest centre. It is a pleasure to lead workshops in its main
rooms, to feel the love and care with which the building is maintained,
and to be supported by the work and consideration of its members.
The purchase of Cluny set loose
an impulse for property acquisition which turned out to be a
double-edged sword for the community. Eileen's guidance spoke
of the development of a Planetary Village', eventually growing
into a 'City of Light'. Members began to feel that God was guiding
the process, so all we had to do was acquire, and He would make
sure of the funds. The key year was 1978. We were given Drumduan
House, a beautiful Georgian mansion in a very run-down condition,
on the north side of Cluny Hill, overlooking Findhorn Bay. Perhaps
it would be a creative arts' centre. It and its garden were lovingly
renovated at great expense. It was finally occupied by the Moray
Steiner School in 1987. Station House, the old railway building
in Findhorn village was bought as members' accommodation and
refurbished. In a more controversial decision Core Group decided
to buy Cullerne House and grounds, situated a little to the north
of the Caravan Park. As the financial backing for this decision
did not materialise, a group of members raised loans to cover
the cost. In spite of the miserable soil, it was to become our
major garden centre. A team led by Dick Barton, an ex-RAF officer,
put a tremendous amount of work into the gardens, but the property
remained a financial liability. Cullerne was not really integrated
into the community until the mid-1980s.
A group of members borrowed
money to purchase another old house, Newbold, a half mile south
of Cluny Hill. It adopted donation financing and after a period
of challenges and near collapse in the early 1990's, is independent
and flourishing. We accepted the custodianship of an island called
Erraid, on the west coast of Scotland, off the island of Mull.
Erraid is owned by two Dutch families, but we were offered its
use for a small community for ten months of the year. We were
getting big and overextended and the debts were mounting up.
At the end of the 1970s we were far outspending our income, and
owed more than £400,000 to private individuals and to the
bank.
With hindsight it is clear
that a superficial interpretation of divine protection led to
irresponsibility and carelessness, a kind of collective materialism
similar to that evident in the Soviet Union, where no one felt
responsible for property that belonged to the abstract 'State'.
Even in 1985 after a new, strict financial policy had long been
in place, I arrived in Drumduan garden, which had not been properly
worked for two years, to find four lawn mowers in the garden
shed, none of them functional. With a little attention we managed
to get three in working order!
***
The attraction and glamour
of esoterica also reached their peak in the late 1970s. David
Spangler had warned the community about glamour in an open letter
written from America in 1975:
Glamour is the greatest challenge facing us today. It
causes us to step off the balanced track and wander in culs de
sac. It is a form of entrancement, bewitchment, hypnotism. It
generates illusion (and is a product of it, as well) and it hinders
communication. In fact, that is its greatest danger and characteristic.
Glamour distorts communication and communion by altering the
perspective of a single quality so that other qualities can no
longer relate to it. It is like loud music playing when you are
trying to quietly think or to converse with others; it is like
over-inflating a tyre on your automobile so that the vehicle
tilts and cannot run on a level. It fosters the creation of private
worlds in which our attention is trapped and others cannot truly
communicate with us.
...The Christ is found in life's processes, high and low,
and not just in special events or people who may satisfy certain
needs for stimulation and glamour. Building for the New Age is
not tripping from charismatic happening to charismatic happening,
like a junkie looking for his daily 'fix'. The Christ, the New
Age, planetary transformation are not meant to be addictions;
our work is not really expressed in terms of visions, lights,
sounds, seizures of energy, and hallelujas .... Being the Christ
is an everyday commitment to life as it is and as it is unfolding
to become in revelation of its Divine Essence, a life seen beyond
frills or glamour, lived in recognition of the uniqueness of
each day and of the Divinity that is the fabric from which that
uniqueness is woven.
(Reflections on the Christ, p. 102, 113)
In spite of David's warnings,
the community had to learn its lesson about glamour. The problem
came to a head with the 'crystal incident' in 1978. A small group
of people began visiting the community, and some became members,
who felt that only with certain kinds of decoration and design,
and particularly through the use of crystals, could the appropriate
energy be properly channelled here. Indeed, it was not so much
divine energy, but the energy of the fabled past civilisation
of Atlantis which was to be incorporated into our almost completed
Universal Hall through a special configuration of crystals and
wires. The whole conception was not properly communicated to
the membership, and Peter's authority was still such that there
was considerable acceptance of the new idea.
A specially cut quartz crystal,
about the size of a grapefruit, was prepared and suspended on
gold wires in the centre of the Hall. The gold wires led to the
supporting pillars, from which silver wires led down into the
foundations. In the basement, a smaller crystal was embedded
in the floor, and a piece of meteoritic iron sat above it. A
third crystal was fixed to a light in the centre of the ceiling.
The Hall was closed for some time before this occult arrangement
was finished and then, around Christmas 1978, a special ceremony
of invocation was held to inaugurate the energy transfer. Craig
Gibsone, a later focaliser of the Foundation, remembers walking
out of the ceremony and leaving the community, so great was his
disgust. He returned only in 1983.
A year and a half later, during
a presentation by a visitor from the Edgar Cayce Foundation,
the wires snapped and the crystal fell, smashing a two-inch-thick
glass panel in the floor and narrowly missing the speaker, who
had 'providentially' not chosen to stand in the centre of the
Hall. The crystal shattered into many pieces, to almost everyone's
great relief. Eileen was not present at the talk, but her comment
when informed of the event was: "Thank God." She collected
the crystal fragments and, following her guidance, they were
returned to the earth from which they came. This curious incident
ended a period which taught the community some hard lessons.
'Psychic glamour' is widespread
in the 'new age' movement nowadays. It caters for people who
are dissatisfied with the cruder aspects of materialism, but
who still retain a desire to purchase personal transformation
quickly for a fee. Such demands are fulfilled by a large coterie
of 'psychic entrepreneurs' who advertise their wares in the host
of 'new age' magazines. Many people still visit us expounding
their 'visions' or new techniques, trying to set us to rights.
We enjoy them and thank them, and they pass on elsewhere. We
are becoming more and more conscious of the simplicity and directness
of the divine message — that our purpose is to find the
divine within, the criterion for which is the practice and experience
of unconditional love. Our work is too important to be sidetracked.
The Early 1980s: Caution and Retrenchment
As a result of the controversies
surrounding the acquisition of property and the distortion of
glamour, a number of members left the community. We entered a
phase of caution and uncertainty, like a child who has been disciplined.
Strict accounting became the watchword, and the attempt to take
responsibility for our debts and reduce them a primary goal.
Instead of a warm welcome for anyone who claimed paranormal abilities,
the community became very cautious about psychics. Peter, who
had tended to welcome such people, left the community in 1979
to remarry and has not lived here since, although he frequently
visited us before his sad death in a car crash in 1994.
When I arrived at the Findhorn
Foundation in 1983, my practice of what I then called 'psychic
healing' and clairvoyance was regarded with considerable caution,
and I was advised to give it up for a few years while I adjusted
to the community. In 1984 when I started an intensive organic
vegetable garden at Cullerne, I noticed a beautiful rose quartz
crystal in an out-of-the-way corner of the Park, and thought
it would be a lovely decoration for the centre of the garden.
Not knowing about the 'crystal incident', I was taken aback by
the hornets' nest this proposal stirred up, and had to release
the idea. We were still in reaction against crystals, which are
in themselves harmless enough things. But when the rose quartz
crystal was finally put in one of the Cullerne gardens a couple
of years later, guests started doing rituals around it and it
had to be removed once more.
When Peter left, he handed
on the focalisation of the community to François Duquesne.
It was a critical time. Francois's cautious and rational approach
to finance and organisation was essential for this period of
retrenchment. The community needed to reconnect with a coherent
vision. François deeply felt the need for the 'village'
of Eileen's guidance to be made into a reality. He strongly supported
expansion beyond the Educational Foundation of the Trust Deed
into a spiritually based community, embracing business activity.
The great opportunity in this
direction was the purchase of the Caravan Park, which François
negotiated. The Park, where the community was founded, came up
for sale in 1983. It was obvious that we should become custodians
of this land. Furthermore, the maintenance of the commercial
side of the business for some years could give us a source of
income, which we sorely needed in our indebted state. The owner,
knowing that we were the only likely customer, drove a hard bargain.
A sustained campaign was launched, in which each member took
responsibility for manifesting funds for the cost of a particular
area of the Park. This gave individuals a direct stake in fund-raising.
Appeals were sent to previous community members and visitors;
auctions and fundraising events followed each other in quick
succession. We were able to raise what we considered an appropriate
price for the land but the owner held out for another £80,000.
We had to go further into debt, with the affirmation that we
would pay this new debt off within a year, which we did. The
Park was purchased in November 1983, the high point of François's
time as focaliser. He describes his feelings about this period
in an interview later in the book.
As a new arrival I witnessed
this process and observed the determination of the Core Group
to purchase the Park. I also noticed the hesitation of some of
the members, who nevertheless had great anxiety about voicing
it in the series of community meetings called to confirm the
steps in the purchase negotiations. We were not yet mature, but
participation was increasing, and the process was a very responsible
one.
Trends to the Early 1990's
The purchase of the Caravan
Park marked a positive turning point. A programme for steady
debt reduction was in place, the membership was smaller and its
average age began to go up. Members stayed longer. Some independent
businesses started to form. People began to come here to live
their lives with and around us without being members of the Foundation.
For the first time a real distinction between the Community and
Foundation emerged. There has been a move towards the decentralisation
of responsibility, which means that individual members become
less dependent on a centralised leadership. It halts a trend
towards bureaucratisation that develops frighteningly easily.
Our experience suggests that future human societies will require
dramatic decentralisation so that everyone can really enjoy social
involvement.
Another challenge is that of
personal attachment. When someone is really inspired by their
work, their achievements tend to become involved with their ego,
instead of being dedicated to the divine Self. Such people become
possessive and clinging when the time for change has come. This
problem brings us back to the central theme. If one is in contact
with the loving Divine essence within, and sees 'reality' as
its outer manifestation, one can be responsive to the messages
it gives. The result is happiness and non-attachment; but it
requires steady practice in deepening spiritual attunement.
The main contemporary trends
are described later in the book. In 1988, Foundation members
were involved in a long period of collective and individual attunement
to create a new spiritual Core Group. This process represented
a determined attempt to move towards a spiritual democracy, based
not merely on simple voting, but on contact with inner vision.
Although our financial crisis
never seems to be over, within very limited means the Foundation
has begun to build permanent accommodation for members.
Finally, a Community of people
has grown who want their lives to have a spiritual centre and
who find support in the Findhorn Foundation ambience.
In all histories, the real
heroes are the ordinary people around whom the dramas are played.
The Findhorn Community is no exception. Our purpose is to act
as a laboratory of transformation; to create new identities and
wholesome ways of living together appropriate to a world technologically
transformed into a global culture. In their day-to-day work and
interaction, in their expression of love and mutual support,
in their attempts to face their blockages and remove them, ordinary
Findhorn Community members have steadily fulfilled this aim.
People come and go; ideas are
in vogue and pass away; but the practice of putting love at the
centre of human interaction does not pass, but seeks to spread
everywhere across the planet. This task, simple to describe,
complex to live effectively, is our service, our contribution
to planetary development. In undertaking it and sharing it with
our guests, we are fulfilling the divine purpose for which Eileen's
inner voice originally spoke to her. We are very ordinary people,
but that is the great significance of our community. Our practice
is not beyond the reach of ordinary people, and our challenges
are not strange to them.
Early books by David Spangler
Links with Space (1971).
Revelation — The Birth of a New Age (1972).
New Age Rhythms (1972).
Festivals in the New Age (1976).
Laws of Manifestation (1976).
Towards a Planetary Vision (1977).
Vision of Findhorn Anthology (1977).
Relationship and Identity (1978).
Reflections on the Christ (1978).
Explorations (1980).
All published in Great Britain by Findhorn Press and now
out of print.
Books by Dorothy Maclean
Wisdoms (1971).
The Living Silence (1971).
Both Findhorn Press and out of print.
To Hear the Angels Sing (1980), now published by Morningtown
Press, USA.
To go back to the Findhorn starting page, click HERE