— Eileen Caddy's guidance
As I write, it is October 1989, a beautiful, mild autumn day after a wonderful summer. Even the good weather gives rise to some anxiety. Is it an epiphenomenon of the greenhouse effect, rather than just one of our occasional good years? We do not know, but the tides in the bay have never been higher; perhaps in 30 years time large parts of the area will be under water. We act and live, however, for the present and the community is a hive of activity. The first windmill is to be erected this week, and members and guests have been trenching and laying 11,000-volt cable to bring the power from the site, about half a mile along past the Pineridge woods. The roofs are on two new 'whiskey-barrel' houses, and the gardens around the new community centre extension are slowly taking shape. Steadily, new people are moving into the area to live as part of the wider Findhorn Community. The 'summer season' has finished, but the guests are still coming. Thirteen of our male members have just returned, inspired, from a men's retreat in a house in the Cairngorms. At Minton House a small ecumenical group of Christians has been meeting to discuss the relevance of existing church structures in the coming period, and daring to question whether those structures do, indeed, have much relevance. The British Green Party has adopted 'attunements' in its conference. Two more television crews are visiting this week. Our life of demonstration goes on.
One perspective on the Findhorn Community is to show its relevance to the social and political impasse of our times, in which the materialist world order is, basically, shooting itself in the foot. The first part of the book is written from this perspective. Another perspective describes our life, work and organisation to demonstrate that a spiritual way of living can be practical and effective. That view comprises the second part of the book. A third perspective approaches the Findhorn Community through the life stories of its members. They are the stories of ordinary people from different backgrounds, nationalities and religions, who have finally said 'yes' to the spiritual opportunities life has offered them. They have found a path through the labyrinth of greed and despair to become unpretentious demonstrators of the solution that will really work for humanity — life as the pathway to the God within. Their personal perspectives form the third part of the book. A fourth, visual slant is given by Harley Miller's beautiful line drawings and the photographs of Chris Giles and others (Omitted in this Internet version).
A final perspective is provided by the energy this book shares with you. For I am concerned neither with an academic description of the Findhorn Community which leaves the reader distanced and unmoved, nor with cultivating the same passive reaction that people have to television's endlessly absorbing sequences of pictures. We are all part of the same global Noah's Ark now, a leaky ark that needs a lot of repair to survive the floods of cynicism and disillusion that threaten to swallow us. The way forward explored in our community does not leave individual human beings as minute and powerless ciphers in other people's political and economic enterprises.
By asking the simple questions, 'Why am I here?' 'What is it all for?', and spending a little time to find the answer, quietly, inside, seeking God's love as our own essence, the turnaround can begin; meaningfulness and excitement can re-enter ordinary life. If we turn away from that inner spark, dullness resumes control, the eyes glaze over once more, purpose is lost and we drive ourselves to act merely to blot out our loss. Then any amount of possessions will not help us; more vacuous television programmes will not assist; hooliganism, vandalism and drugs will give no satisfaction; the search for wealth, power and status will ring hollow; even excursions into the glamorous realms of sorcery, superstition and the occult will be of no avail — for where there is emptiness within, no outer or peripheral forms will satisfy.
The Findhorn Community represents the practical exploration of a truth — the Truth — whose time has come for humanity. The purpose of human life is inner-directed, the disentangling of the Self, Essence, God-nature from the ego-self which growing up in a secular world superimposes on it. The external life of our sense experiences is our teacher in this quest for the real Holy Grail; our actions in the perceived world express our inner discovery.
This is the theology which is appropriate now, not just for a monastic few, or for a tiny band of spiritual elitists; it is a practical theology offered to all of us. Everyone can easily make this turn in their lives, in the direction of their Centre, freely, independently, without feeling coerced by established forms, and even in the most seemingly desperate political, economic and personal conditions.
This personal spirituality has become the only practice in contemporary life that can provide relevant answers to the current human condition. Slowly we will all learn this and realise that it is not a last-resort solution, but the way to joyful, challenging, vibrant human living. The real purpose of this book is to contribute to raising these issues for you, its reader, so you may perhaps question the direction of your own life and begin to realign it. There are many visionaries counselling change. In the Findhorn community we are showing how it works in practice, and there are others like us in every locality, the world over. Where love is being expressed without dogma or condition, there they are — individuals, groups and communities.
It is quite wrong to believe that this turning within represents a selfish withdrawal from the great challenges of poverty, malnutrition and disillusion that plague the world. The stimulation of contact with the Real, the Love within, unleashes ever-increasing energy for action in the experienced world without; it purifies motives and eliminates cant and moralism. Mother Theresa's unstinting love and energy for the deprived of Calcutta and the world comes from putting God first, so she can see Him in all, whether they are Catholic or Hindu, deformed or diseased. And everyone, from whatever religious background, responds to her. When the God inside us becomes the focus of our being, our potential in the human form is enormous. Each extra iota of love that you can discover in yourself builds the foundations of your new identity; it may be expressed in any situation — your home, relationship, friendships, community, suburb, housing estate, office, factory, political activity — to begin the transformation of that situation and of the people around you.
As you follow this path there will be times when you feel like reverting to fear, anger, neediness and guilt. Do not judge yourself useless for shortcomings; notice that the path is not a short one, and use the opportunity to learn from your reactions. By using the insights you gain, you can prepare for your next step forward. The challenges you face are an opportunity to find more love.
Do not pretend to be loving when you are not. That is hypocrisy. It contributes to a phoney society, an inner Stalinism in which what is said is not what is felt, and what is done debases what is proclaimed. But never accept your non-lovingness; seek its sources and find the means and the support from others to remove it. This is legitimate self-examination which has the paradoxical advantage of soothing your ego as it dismantles it. And as you win, turn outwards again and experience the results. You are actively creating a new human identity which, collectively, will construct the appropriate civilisation of the twenty-first century.
God is on our side; the energies of nature are on our side. The physically experienced world is not objective or neutral to the spiritual seeker. We have demonstrated in the Findhorn community, and continue to demonstrate, that as spiritual seekers we become participants in a magical game and, as A Course in Miracles asserts, daily miracles are the norm to those who seek the love that is their essence. Numerous small examples have been recounted in this book. They don't belong only to the origins of the Findhorn community. The outer world appears static and impersonal only to those who take it as the sole reality.
Do not consider the progress or non-progress of others on this path as your own criterion. You are working for the provision of happiness and meaningfulness in your own life. By moving in this direction, you are automatically contributing to the transformation of the whole, as well as satisfying yourself. Do not dwell on the problems of the world, while not denying them. Place emphasis instead on the remarkable changes that are taking place, and realise that in changing yourself you are part of the energy that is causing them.
Here in the Findhorn community, and in all the other centres of light over the planet, we are doing the same. Learn from us; share with us; teach us. But, please, share your life practice and only those of your theories which are fully exemplified in it; share how you are working to solve a problem, not your "abstractions as to the theoretical manner by which problems of which you have no personal experience might be solved"! Remember that anything that leads you away from love as the centre and essence of your own identity is a backward-leading cul-de-sac. There are enough of those already.
At the Findhorn community we have, I think, basically learned our lessons about glamour. We are living an exciting, stimulating day-to-day life, not one that denies ordinariness in the pursuit of exoticism. Day-to-day life here is full of wonder and small miracles. But they are the spice in our exciting diet, not the whole meal. Billions of human beings on this planet are concerned with an ordinary life. It does not need to be a seemingly endless, meaningless grind, punctuated by occasional circuses in which one may experience momentary oblivion, or by stories which tide one over the boredom of a few more months. At the Findhorn community we are showing that an ordinary life can build vibrancy, creativity and ongoing magic from very meagre resources, if love is the motivator. Actually, every little child unconsciously demonstrates this to us in its play, if we care to look.
To quote one of Eileen's favourite phrases, 'All is very, very well.' Join us in creating the new human identity of the coming century. Structures of hypocrisy, fear, acquisitiveness, exclusion, poverty and bestiality are beginning to crumble under the gentle touch of love. In the long term, nothing can prevail against it. Release it in yourself, in your existing life situation, now.
After writing The Findhorn Community, I spent two years in the sub-community on the island of Erraid, something I had had guidance that would happen soon after I arrived at Findhorn. It proved to be a lesson in the simplification of my life that has continued, and I gradually released the workshops that had seemed so important to me in the 3 prior years. I developed a greater and greater interest in ecology and over time became intrigued by the highland community of the Isle of Mull, adjacent to Erraid. While on Erraid, I received a large amount of spiritual guidance, some of it published in The Path to Love and To Transcend the Ego, both also on this web site. Then this type of guidance ceased.
An extraordinary happenstance, that I think of as a miracle, led penniless me to be offered the custodianship of a 625h. property on the Mull mainland, near Erraid, and a comprehensive charitable regeneration project, Highland Renewal, developed out of that, with local directors, involving me as part of the Mull community. A study in local history, Tireragan — A Township on the Ross of Mull — comes from this time.
After 5 years, I began to feel it was time to reconnect with what remained of my family of origin, and emigrated to Australia, where I ended up at a bush town, Barraba, in northern New South Wales, desperately missing my old sheepdog, Blue, whom I had had to leave behind. To assuage this grief, I wrote a children's book, The Chronicles of Thumpus Wumpus, which was published in Australia, and involved myself in the affairs of the local shire. But the underlying spiritual theme was still simplification of life and fulfilment of family connections, which has led me at this time to be near Canberra, where my older brother lives.
During this whole period I have never lost an inner connection with the Findhorn community, and know that a time will come when I shall go back for the last years of my life. Till then, I am patient, trying to live the message, and feel I am being prepared for whatever role I may have there. Perhaps at that time there will be a new edition of The Findhorn Community; till then this will have to suffice.
Unlike Eileen, Peter Caddy was trained in and had a great knowledge of esoterics. In the community's early years this esoteric background was a kind of spiritual seed bed, attracting interest and support from esoteric groups all over Britain and beyond. Power points, ascended Masters — especially St Germain — ley lines, flying saucers, the energies of crystals were all at various points themes of vigorous discussion among members. Both Roc and David Spangler, as well as Sir George Trevelyan, for many years one of our Trustees, had a deep knowledge of esoterics, and Francois Duquesne, the second focaliser, was well trained in them.
After Peter left at the end of the 1970s, such themes tended to become much more marginal. Eileen Caddy's guidance was not based on them. Yet our community jargon sometimes uses esoteric terms, and they are built into the language of the Game of Transformation to some degree. 'The Great Invocation' hangs on the wall of the Park Sanctuary. We tend to talk of the 'Christ Consciousness' to indicate the essence of Jesus' consciousness — something which is available to us rather than merely recorded in history. The use of the term 'glamour' to indicate a distortion in spiritual development stems from Alice Bailey's writings, and so on.
Esoteric 'study papers' are available to Orientees, if they want to read them. The nineteenth century spawned many esoteric schools, and they claimed their origins in various mystery traditions, some dating back to the Egyptians. Most of these schools agreed that there was a secret 'inner knowledge' which could be received only by initiates or be channelled by 'sensitives'. They tended to elitism and exclusivity, and were subject to splits similar to those that appeared in left-wing groups in the sixties and seventies of this century. A collective term for such groups has come to be the 'Western Mystery School', and there is a two-volume account, The Western Way by Caitlin and John Matthew's, for those interested in further detail.
In One Earth, our magazine, Vol. 2 (6), 1982, Nicholas Rose outlines this tradition and seeks to relate the Findhorn Community to it. He writes:
(p.14)
There is no doubt that in our language we owe something to the schools of Theosophy and Anthroposophy (Steiner), and to the writings of Alice Bailey. But the Findhorn Community has never had the exclusivist tendencies of groups following such teachings, nor their habit of separatism. The connection with nature energies first made by Dorothy Maclean and Roc has a resonance in pre-Christian pagan traditions, but also in those of the Essenes and St Francis. After reading accounts of Roc's visions of Pan, some fundamentalist Christian groups have accused us of being devil worshippers!