“The impression I had of the Angel of Uruguay is that it’s very vast, hovering over the whole of the country, enfolding and protecting. And bringing people in from all directions, offering them freedom to live their own lives. This being one of the gifts it has for South America.”

For seven weeks during March and April of 1996, Dorothy Maclean, Findhorn Community co-founder, accompanied by former Community member Charles Petersen, guided participants in workshops in Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil in connecting with the inner essence of the nature kingdoms and of human groupings. First sharing her personal story of her discovery of “the God within”, and her subsequent experience of contacts with the natural world in the early Findhorn Community garden, Dorothy encouraged the participants to try for themselves the attunement to what she describes as the angelic realm–the “formless energy field” that infills and guides each manifestation of life.

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This South American journey – Dorothy’s third in recent years – was enabled by local organisers all of whom previously had hosted me in my sharing Findhorn Foundation- inspired activities in South America over the past six years. Geographically the tour included striking contrasts of the South American landscape, from the Patagonian Andes to the northern Argentine provinces of Salta and Jujuy, from the plains bordering tributaries of the Plate River to the Coastal Forest and Atlantic beaches near Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, and the capital cities of Buenos Aires and Montevideo. Venues ranged from educational projects with basic amenities, to spacious country houses, a 4-star hotel, and a beach resort.

Dorothy and I spent approximately one week in each of the seven locations included in the tour. Although there were differences in the manner in which the visit was organised in each area, the arrangements often included one or more 2-hour presentations by Dorothy, in which she shared highlights of her experiences with the angelic realm. These public sessions often attracted up to 100 people. Then, together, Dorothy and I offered participatory workshops, that ranged in length from four hours to two and a half days. Dorothy interspersed the stories from her personal life with exercises that invited the participants to connect with the inner essence – or angel – of various expressions of nature: a plant, a tree, a crystal. Then the group would attune to the angel of the particular city and/or country where at the time we were staying. I helped with group dynamics, and enabled the participants to periodically “stretch their legs”, through facilitating sacred dance (the Findhorn Community-inspired circle dances that help to create group integration, personal wellbeing and harmony with the natural world). Both Dorothy and I found this combination of sedentary and active participation to be a good “formula” in enabling the workshops. Those attending seemed to agree! Some sixteen workshops were offered during the seven weeks, with participation ranging from 13 to 45 people.

South America of course offers the challenge of communicating in Spanish (and in the case of Brazil, in Portuguese). Although Dorothy had briefly worked for the British government on Argentina and Uruguay during World War II 50 years ago (!), she never picked up the language. Therefore during the present tour Dorothy needed to rely on translators. This factor created one of the major “unknowns” of the experience, as in each location visited a different person had been found to translate. The translators’ skills ranged from professional to questionable, with Dorothy having no idea how effectively she was communicating via the translation. As I understand Spanish well (however not with sufficient fluency to myself serve as translator), I soon discovered that I could offer important assistance by sitting next to Dorothy and the translator, and provide clarification should the translator miss a point that Dorothy was making. Of course hearing Dorothy’s stories repeatedly during the course of the tour helped me in this role! Thus good teamwork was enabled.

The hosts of the tour offered Dorothy and me many special moments, apart from the generally busy work schedule. Among the highlights:

  • a day’s outing going up to 3,000 metres altitude in the colourful Humahuaca Canyon in the north of Argentina, making first hand contact with the life, and the extinction, of the area’s early inhabitants.
  • an early morning meditation in the garden of Hotel Portezuelo (Salta, Argentina), whose owner is introducing innovations in the hotel’s management using principles of group consciousness.
  • giving a workshop in the “igloo”, a round space with remarkably resonant acoustics, at Aguas Claras (an educational project in central Argentina).
  • enjoying an evening of traditional Argentine folk songs, sung by our hosts at their country house on the bank of the River Coronda.
  • a visit by Dorothy with two friends she had worked with in Montevideo — 50 years ago. (To this day, one friend hasn’t revealed to relatives that she was employed as a British spy!)
  • visiting an “alternative” school that includes children with special needs near Montevideo, where Dorothy was invited to tell her story about communicating with rats, and I to share a couple of circle dances with some 200 children: a surprisingly successful undertaking!
  • enjoying sea and sun off the Brazilian coast in the yacht of Buzios Bauen Club resort hotel – finally enabling Dorothy during the last days of the tour to wear summer clothes she’d been carrying in her suitcase for many weeks.
  • meditation and sharing with staff members of the Instituto Mata Atlantica (Brazil), contacting the angel of an emerging programme that combines tourism with ecological and personal awareness.

I very much enjoyed travelling and working with Dorothy, as we shared these weeks together. I experienced in her a blend of directness and tact, lovely humour, stamina and a willingness that gracefully rose to the occasion when it was “time to work” though the hour might be very early in the morning or quite late in the evening. To me, Dorothy embodies the messages that she shares. Hopefully we’ll have another opportunity to work together.

“Angels give suggestions, but don’t do the work; human do.”
“Humans are potentially angels, but first we humans have to serve.”
“We need to learn to make positive choices, and to choose love, which signifies choosing God’s will. And begin to live like the angels.”