|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Findhorn co-founders Dorothy Maclean and Eileen Caddy. Adriana Sjan Bijman photo |
By Michael Hawkins
On November 17, 2002, Scotland’s Findhorn Foundation Community will celebrate forty years of spiritual work and service that have seen a fledgling community of six people in a small trailer grow into a world-famous holistic centre and ecovillage of 500 souls, with a global network of friends and supporters and strong links with the United Nations.
Since 1962 the Findhorn Foundation Community has drawn tens of thousands of visitors to its spiritual education programmes, workshops and international conferences. Around the world the name Findhorn is synonymous with authentic spiritual transformation and co-creation with nature.
The community was founded by Peter and Eileen Caddy and Corothy Maclean on the values of following inner divine guidance in complete faith, cooperation with the overlighting spirits of nature (devas) and the angelic and elemental kingdoms.
For co-founder Dorothy Maclean the intervening years have been miraculous. “We had no idea that we were starting anything,”she said. “All we knew is that we were trying to follow the wishes of the divine. That a community of hundreds of people, visited by thousands more would result is an incredible, awesome miracle. After 40 years, the loving magic we helped ground at Findhorn is still doing its work. One can only be thankful, grateful and amazed.”
Examples of planetary service iniatives by individual Community members past and present include the Scottish reforesting project Trees for Life; the Nepal Trust; Ecologia, which houses Russian orphans; and the recently established Findhorn Foundation Consultancy Service which offers Findhorn-developed tools of community-building and spiritual integration to businesses and corporations. The Findhorn Ecovillage Project, with 40 fully eco-friendly buildings so far, is the largest such development in the UK, and the natural continuation of their work with nature.
Through all the changes, 84 year old Eileen Caddy, who still lives in the Community, is certain of its ongoing well being and service. “Little did I realise, when Peter, Dorothy and I put the old caravan on the same spot it is still on today,” she said, “that we would reach forty years. It has been a rough ride at times, but with prayer and meditation, faith, trust and belief we are still here. I know without a shadow of doubt that all is very very well, that this is indeed God’s community and I give constant thanks for this wondrous thought and promise.”
Michael Hawkins is the editor of Network News, the Findhorn Foundation's magazine. For more information visit www.findhorn.org.
 Top
|
|
|
|
|
|
