It was a privilege to take part in the Founder’s Celebration as part of Findhorn’s 60th anniversary. Findhorn was so blessed and fortunate with the quality of people who gave it its start back in the Sixties, as well as the quality of people who have contributed to its life and growth over the past sixty years.

Celebrating the Founders – David Spangler

As for myself, I’m really a “David-come-lately.” Findhorn was well underway with the caravans, bungalows, the sanctuary, and the community centre present when I arrived. So, if I’m a Founder at all, I’m a “second-wave” one!

Many people have their miraculous stories about how they came to the community. This was true for me, too. Here is how it happened.

I’d first heard about Findhorn from Anthony Brooks. He and his partner, Monica Parish, had purchased one of the first bungalows for their organization, the Universal Foundation. Anthony was traveling around the world, presenting a slide show featuring spiritual centres and intentional communities that were forming in different countries, and Findhorn was one of these. I had been teaching classes on spirituality and the Western Mystery Tradition in the San Francisco area when he came there as part of his tour. For reasons I no longer remember, he had been told to get in contact with me, which he did. We had lunch together in San Francisco, which is when he told me all about Findhorn. It definitely sounded like a special place.

At the time, I was teaching a class for the San Jose Adult Education program. The topic had come up about nature spirits and whether there was an intelligent spirit or force behind natural phenomena. Anthony had given me material about Findhorn and its miraculous garden, which I brought to that class. This led to a great deal of excitement within the class, with some of its members saying they wanted to go there. I would have liked to do so as well, but I was busy with my own classes, and the finances needed to travel to Scotland was way beyond my budget at the time.

As I say, besides the Adult Education class, I also taught a series of classes on my own. For these classes, I had written two small booklets, one on the Christ and one on the spiritual journey which I called The Pathless Path. Unbeknownst to me, one of my students was on the Findhorn mailing list, and she sent a copy of each booklet to Dorothy Maclean. As it turned out, this played a critical role in the story of my coming to Findhorn.

In the summer of 1969, I was given a grant to journey to Britain. At the time, I planned to visit Findhorn. I took a train up to Inverness from London and rented a car. In fact, I got as far as Forres when I got a message from my own subtle contacts saying not to go to Findhorn. So, I didn’t, continuing on the Edinburgh. Later, Peter Caddy told me that had I showed up then, the community would not have been in a position to “make use” of me, as the community centre was under construction and no one would have had time to listen to me lecture.

In 1970, though, that same inner contact, whom I called “John,” said to me that I had a new cycle of work that would begin in Europe, not the United States. He didn’t tell me where, but he did show me the field of subtle energy—the energy signature—of the place I should look for. I was again given the money to take the trip, and this time I thought I’d try to go to Findhorn again.

Interestingly, when I arrived in London, some of the friends and contacts I made then all tried to dissuade me from going to Findhorn. Apparently, both Peter and the community had a bad reputation in certain New Age and metaphysical circles! However, I was determined to go. I called Peter and said, “I’m David Spangler and I’d like to come up to visit Findhorn.” Without batting an eye, he said, “Come up immediately. I’ll meet you at the train station!”

Which is what happened. Peter met my partner Myrtle Glines and me at the station, and before I knew it, I was embraced by a huge, woollen sweater as Peter gave me a bear hug. We piled into his car and off we went to Findhorn. When the car came through the entrance to the trailer park and I saw the garden and the bungalows, I was amazed. But even more importantly, I recognized the exact subtle energy field that John had told me to expect and to look for. So, I knew I was in the right place.

pg48 From soil to soul David Spangler ©Jonathan Caddy

Peter Caddy, David Spangler and ROC

Three days after we’d arrived, Peter invited Myrtle and me to tea with Eileen and him. That was when he dropped his bombshell. It turned out that he and Eileen and Dorothy had been expecting me to arrive for three years. Dorothy had read and shared the two booklets I had written, and Eileen had one of her famous visions. In this one, she was told that I would be coming to Findhorn and that when I did, I would share the leadership of the community with them. But none of them knew who I was or even where I lived. So, for the next three years, they had awaited this vision to be fulfilled. And now, here I was! Then Peter asked if I would be a co-director of the community with him.

The rest, as they say, is history.

All the Founders were remarkable people, each in his or her own special way (and I would like to add to this list Joan Harnell-Beavis, or Joanie as she was affectionately called; she contributed more than many to the success of the community in her own silent, unobtrusive way).

Eileen Caddy with Joanie Hartnell-Beavis

I truly came to appreciate this after I left Findhorn in 1973 and began visiting other spiritual communities in the United States and Canada. It was rare to find any other leader who brought the same level of talent and integrity to their service. More often than not, I’m sorry to say, the leaders whom I met had personal agendas, often a desire for power, that corrupted what they were trying to achieve and often ended up damaging their followers. Findhorn was truly blessed.

But this blessing didn’t stop with the Founders we’re celebrating today. It has been there in all the people who have visited, lived in, and contributed to Findhorn over the past sixty years. The term, “founder,” is not one that need be limited by time. When we think of founders, we usually think of those people who were at the beginning of something. But Findhorn is always beginning, always emerging, always offering new possibilities. This means that each person here in the community is as much a founder as I was or as Peter, Eileen, Dorothy, Lena, or ROC were. Findhorn is birthing itself all the time from each of you, from what you do, from how you relate, from what you embody.

Findhorn is a place of birthing for those who come here and find their lives changed, even if the visit is only for a few hours or days. It’s wonderful that you are seeking to rediscover and “return” to the roots of this place, but in so doing, it’s important to remember that you are those roots right now. Each of you and all of you who call Findhorn your home, either physically or in your hearts wherever you may live, are forming a new root system, one that will continue to nourish many in the years ahead. It’s in you to advance the wholeness of community and the wholeness of connection and partnership with the subtle ecology all around us.

David Spangler Celebrating the Founders Nov 2022

You are the Founders of the next sixty years. May they—and you—be blessed as you continue to bless Humanity.

David Spangler, 2022