During the 60th Birthday Celebrations in November 2022 Robert Holden held an event to celebrate the founders and invited John Willoner and myself to share our personal recollections of Dorothy.

Dorothy was born Jan 7th 1920 in the small town of Guelph, Ontario, Canada, to a middle-class family. Her father a banker, her mother focused on the home and the raising of Dorothy and her two brothers. Dorothy’s love of nature was a source of interest and solace for the the rather shy and awkward child she was. It was a love she sustained throughout her long life. Likewise, a love of books also set in early and she remained an avid reader throughout her lifetime. At 17, with the support of an aunt who paid her fees, she undertook a BA degree in Business at the University of Western Ontario. Struggling to master shorthand and typing her capacity for persistence stood her in good stead. While at university she took up badminton at which she excelled, perhaps due to her rather tall stature. Like so many university students Dorothy and some of her classmates spent time pondering on universal questions about the meaning of life and the purpose of our being.

World War 2 broke out as she completed her degree, and her United Empire Loyalist heritage prompted her to look for a way to support the war effort. In the end she took up an opportunity to work for a British organisation based in New York city. The United States had not yet entered the conflict and so this organisation was advertising positions to Canadians as members of the Commonwealth. Initially being told she was too young (20) to undertake such travel alone – Toronto to New York – she persisted, and a chaperone was arranged to accompany her. In this way Dorothy met Sheena Govan who would later play an important part in the lives of all the founders of the Findhorn community. Sheena, a Scott by birth but in Canada at that time, had also been hired by the same British organisation.

Dorothy presented herself at the appointed time and place and was immediately asked to sign the British Official Secrets Act. To her utter surprise she discovered she had been taken on by the British Secret Intelligence Service! She would later transfer to the Panama office where she met and married John Wood, also an employee of British Secret Intelligence Service. It was he who began to answer some of Dorothy’s questions. He introduced her to Sufism and the teachings of Hazrat Inayat Khan. After their marriage they were posted to South America where they travelled extensively. As both wanted to be closer to where the war was being waged, they sailed to the UK, ultimately arriving in London where Dorothy worked at the Counter-Espionage Section of British Intelligence during the Blitz, leaving the service at the end of the war.

Dorothy and John divorced in 1951 by which time Dorothy had reconnected with Sheena who was teaching spiritual practices with fellow seekers. Through Sheena Dorothy met first Peter Caddy and then Eileen. While still living in London Dorothy had her first experience of the God within, she experienced herself as being part of a vast unity, no longer a lonely wallflower. She began a regular practice of meditation three times a day to connect with this inner source. That contact became a source of direction and wisdom and she came to the understand that love is the essence of all things. At a certain point members of Govan’s group decided to live life following that inner source. Peter, Eileen and Dorothy were amongst that group. This led to a time of wandering and a variety of jobs. Peter was eventually taken on as the manager of Cluny Hill Hotel in Forres, Scotland. Dorothy joined the Caddy’s there working as secretary and receptionist for five years. The hotel became a success on the strength of inner guidance of Eileen and Dorothy and the potency of Peter’s intuition and they were transferred to less successful hotel. Unable to replicate the success of Cluny they were summarily dismissed – literally on 4 hours’ notice. With nowhere else to go Dorothy, the Caddys and their 3 children, moved into a cramped caravan, parked on site on a windswept peninsula near the Scottish village of Findhorn. The date – November 17th, 1962.

Dorothy in the office

To supplement the meagre diet their limited national assistance income allowed, Peter started a garden in the sandy ground of the peninsula. During a morning meditation in the spring of 1963 Dorothy’s inner guidance suggested that she begin to contact the consciousness of nature. She was told that everything in nature has an ensouling intelligence and she was encouraged to harmonise with that intelligence. Left to own devices as to how to do that she decided to focus on what she loved and attempted to harmonise with the garden pea. Not only was it her favourite vegetable to eat, it was also a plant very familiar to her from the garden her father kept in her childhood. She used a process similar to the one she used to connect with her own inner divinity. Much to her surprise got a similar kind of response. Part of the message she received that day reads ‘Humans generally don’t seem to know where they are going, or why.” it told her “If they did, what powerhouses they would be! If they were on a straight course, how we could cooperate with them!” As with her God messages, Dorothy wrote the message in shorthand at the time and later shared it with Peter and Eileen. And so a journey of many years began.

Now best known now for her contact with the non-physical consciousnesses that she called devas (a Sanskrit word meaning shinning ones or beings of light), she used that term to describe the energetic beings who hold the seed idea for the pattern of the forms we see – be it a flower, a tree, and animal etc. Working with these other levels of consciousness – a process often referred to as co-creation led to a rather extraordinarily prolific garden.

There are tales of 40 pound cabbages, winter flowering roses, mega strawberries and heavily ladened fruit bushes and trees. All growing on ‘soil’ that was little more than sand and water polished pebbles. Compost alone could not account for the verdant gardens and various experts were unable to explain what they encountered when they visited the site. Dorothy’s contact was not limited to plants and included communication with animal species such as moles and rats.

Word of the small group of people and their remarkable garden spread. Various radio and TV programs, along with magazine articles and materials mailed out from the Foundation, brought visitors in abundance. A community is born!

Dorothy’s messages from devas and angels have been collated into several books, beginning with The Findhorn Garden. See a full listing of her published work at the end of this document.

Dorothy left Findhorn in 1973, becoming part of the Lorian Association, a spiritual education community based in the USA. Living initially in Toronto, her focus remained oriented towards expanding human consciousness. Over the years she extended her exploration of the non-physical realms, contacting the overlighting angels of different nations, cities, landscapes, and the devas of other living creatures. Her childhood love of nature morphed into a concern for the environment, expanding into an affinity for all those working on environmental issues. Her love for trees played a key role in the areas of interest she pursued. One of her books of collated messages focuses on solely on messages from tree devas. She said that the most forceful messages she received came from the trees as they imparted their message about the importance of mature trees and the urgency of protecting the forests.

After a few years of living in Toronto she began to travel, accepting invitations to deliver workshops, even speaking at conferences. This was a stretch of considerable magnitude for her as Dorothy retained her shyness of the light of centre stage throughout her lifetime. However, her desire/passion to introduce others to the ideas she had been exploring, to support others to connect with their own inner divinity and through that to also work co-creatively with the intelligence of nature – the devas and angels – won out over her personal inclinations. She had an unshakable belief in both the unique capacities, and the huge potential, of human beings – seeing them as the growing tip of consciousness on earth. She continued to travel and teach well into the latter part of her 80’s.

In 2009 Dorothy upped stakes and returned to the Findhorn Foundation. On Jan 7th 2020, Dorothy achieved the goal of reaching her centenary. The community celebrated her in many ways over a period of several days, including an evening of song and story in the Universal Hall. Much to her delight Dorothy was crowned Queen for a day. The highlight for her of all the celebrations came when our local postman hand delivered her congratulatory ‘telegram’ from Queen Elizabeth II!! It was the first thing shown to anyone who came to visit for many days to follow.

Dorothy's100th Birthday Celebrations photo Mark Richards

Dorothy’s100th Birthday Celebrations photo Mark Richards

She continued her daily inner listening practice – though she would often remark that she spent most of her time sending out as God had already said everything there was to say to her years ago. Of great importance to her in her latter year was a daily blessing of the bees. As Findhorn’s first beekeeper she was deeply concerned about what was happening to bees – not simply the honeybees but all bees. The blessing she used daily can be found in her book Memoirs of an Ordinary Mystic.

She remained in the community until her death on March 12th 2020. The community meditation the next day was the last gathering able to be held before Covid lockdown began. As always her timing was impeccable.

Of the many tributes written of Dorothy perhaps David Spangler’s, (an early influencer at Findhorn, well known teacher, author and founder of the Lorian Association) sums her up best. He called Dorothy a forerunner of planetary wholeness and described her as “Down-to-earth, practical, not given to glamour, nevertheless she has learned to expand her spirit and step beyond the purely human points of view without abandoning them either. Knowing her has been a great privilege in my life.”

Extract from the Timeline:

1920
Dorothy Maclean born in Guelph, Ontario, Canada
1942
Dorothy Maclean and Sheena Govan meet
1947
Peter and Dorothy meet through Sheena
1953
Eileen and Dorothy meet through Sheena
1956
Sheena, then Peter and Eileen and finally Dorothy all move to Scotland
1957
Peter is hired as manager of Cluny Hill Hotel, Forres; he, Eileen & Dorothy move there
1962
Peter, Eileen, Dorothy & staff are transferred to Trossachs Hotel, Stirlingshire
Peter & Eileen move caravan to temporary site at Findhorn, Dorothy stays locally
1963
Dorothy’s annex is built onto Caddy caravan
Dorothy makes inner contact with the Devic kingdoms
Peter works on garden in accordance with Deva guidance received through Dorothy
1967
First duplicated collections of Dorothy’s guidance are sent out
1973
David, Myrtle, Dorothy and others leave for North America to form the Lorian Association
1980
Publication of Dorothy’s autobiography, To Hear The Angels Sing
2009
Dorothy Maclean returns to Findhorn to live
2020
Hundredth birthday of Dorothy MacLean is celebrated on January 7th
Death of Dorothy MacLean on March 12th

Published Works

Art and Insights from Dorothy MacLean, limited edition for Dorothy’s 100th birthday, Lorian, 2020.

Messages from God, FPress, 2012.

Memoirs of an Ordinary Mystic, autobiography, Lorian, 2010.

To Hear the Angels Sing: An Odyssey of Co-Creation with the Devic Kingdom, 1994 Lorian, 1994/2008.

Wisdoms, Lorian, 1975/2008.

Come Closer: Messages from the God Within, ed. by Judy McAllister, Lorian, 2007.

Call of the Trees, ed. by Freya Secrest, Lorian, 2006.

Seeds of Inspiration: Deva Flower Messages, Lorian, 2004.

Choices of Love, Lindisfarne Books, 1998.

To Honour the Earth: Reflections on Living in Harmony with Nature, with Kathleen Thormod Carr, Harper Collins, 1991.

Living Silence, FPub, 1971/1977.

The Soul of Canada, booklet, Lorian, 1977.

You can find other stories about Dorothy on our website

This link will take you to her profile.

You can find stories which refer to Dorothy following this link to her tag.