Findhorn Bay Apothecary postcard 1987

When I arrived at The Park in 1987 as a visitor, I connected with Jock Millenson and became a volunteer in the Findhorn Bay Apothecary.

The Apothecary was located in the old toilet block where Eileen used to go to meditate. Next door to it were two caravans behind which the new Community Centre Extension was getting built. One of those caravans was called Merlin. It had two treatment rooms and a small library in the middle, where people came into the caravan.

Community Centre construction 1987 showing Apothecary and Merlin photograph Janice Eddy

I crossed paths again with Merlin when I moved to The Park in April 1990. I had returned in 1988 and had become a Findhorn Foundation (FF) member. From 1989 onwards my work included focalising the Health&Wholeness (H&W) Department in Cluny.

During a stay on Erraid in January 1990 I had a vision of holistic health in the Community. This story was published in the OneEarth Magazine in Autumn 1990.

The Park Health&Wholeness department was focalised by Dorothy Noble, she was a trained osteopath. There were a few other complementary practitioners who regularly offered treatments to members and guests. One of them was Robbie Kendall who practised acupuncture and shared a vision to provide more integrated and comprehensive care. Over the next few months we decided to merge the two H&W departments and support each other in our work.

We had access to a couple of treatment rooms in the Annex in Cluny (the Bodhi Room, and a smaller counselling room), as well as a small apothecary space along the corridor. And of course there was the wonderful sauna, a much used and cherished health facility. This was a wonderful re-connection with the Cluny Hydro of years gone-by as the annex then housed the hydrotherapy facilities. The water came from the well higher up on the hill. At The Park, there was Merlin as a much loved, albeit a bit tired, treatment facility and health library. On a practical level it was clear that we needed to find an alternative treatment facility in the near future, and there was the vision which I’d had on Erraid which we held as a focal point for our manifestation journey.

In 1991 many different threads came together to open the doors for us to say ‘good-bye’ to Merlin and ‘hello’ to Meridian.

The Bagend cluster of eco-houses was starting to be designed and development was under way when one of the prospective owners had to release his dream to have his home in Bagend. By that time Katie Lloyd had joined the department, and in a conversation with Patricia Sankey, a friend and GP colleague of mine from Manchester who was a frequent visitor to Findhorn, somehow between the three of us we suddenly had sketched out a plan that would allow us to take on the property. Another friend of mine loaned us a sum needed to cover a shortfall and we signed the contract. It was one of those amazing manifestation stories.

Bag End Cluster

The next Building School in the newly formed Development Wing of the FF worked on the house and we could move in in August 1991. Katie moved in upstairs and was joined by Dürten Lau who had started to work with us in the H&W department. Patricia generously offered the newly renamed Holistic Health Department (HHD) the use of the three downstairs rooms rent-free. This amazing gift laid the foundations for a significant expansion of the services provided by HHD – the Findhorn Bay Holistic Health Centre.

We christened the house Meridian and it became a hive of activity. Katie described it in her article A Vision of Holistic Health: Grounded and Growing in the OneEarth magazine in Spring 1992 as “we feel ‘Meridian’ conveys a sense of direction and clarity. Also, we liked pan of a dictionary definition which said: “n. Mid-day; point of greatest splendour … an imaginary line in the heavens passing through the zenith of any place.” This is the perfection that we are aiming for!”

Two rooms – Lavender and Turquoise, named for the colour of their lovingly sewn curtains, were equipped as bodywork rooms with massage tables. The third – Orange – was the HHD reception in the afternoons, and a room for group meetings, workshops etc. the rest of the time. Our small team, including Deborah Lewin ran reception on a rota basis.

After a time it became clear that having the busy HHD office in the building was not conducive to the peace and quiet for the treatments as well as the residents. It also was a bit out of the way with regards to members and guests dropping in. In perfect timing we were offered the opportunity to move the office next to the General Office and Dürten set up a fabulous drop-in for anyone to come in for a chat, to book a treatment room, an educational workshop or take up one of the many offers of the Community Health Scheme. It was also the base for the organising team of several international conferences (1992 Holistic Health Care for the 21st Century, 1994 Medical Marriage, 1995 The Healing Potential of Community, 1996 Medical Marriage).

Organisationally things changed in 1992/3 for HHD as the FF management group asked the department, along with several others, to ‘go independent’. With the amazing support from Alan Jacobsen and Ronan Tyer we set up a new charity, Holistic Health Care Ltd. (HHC) which was incorporated on 25th Feb 1993 and started operating from 1st April.

HHC Ltd founder directors 1993: Ronan Tyer, Cornelia Featherstone, Ruth Pfitzenmaier, Alan Jacobsen (back), Dürten Lau, Katie Lloyd (front)

This new legal status, with increasing demand for services and a dedicated to serve the local population of Forres, the charity purchased 5 Bank Lane, and started HealthWorks, a multidisciplinary holistic health centre, which opened its doors on 1st April 1994.

Meridian remained a busy treatment centre until 1998 when several things came together to indicate to us that it was time for a change.

• Katie had moved to Erraid and was no longer resident and sold her share to Courtenay Young, not only the initial prospective owner of that eco-house but also one of the practitioners very engaged with HHC.
• Dürten had joined the FF as staff
• Patricia needed her capital repaid and wanted to sell her part of the house
• Courtenay was ready to buy the whole house as his own home with his new wife Laura
• Use of the treatment rooms had started to dwindle as more practitioners were working from their own homes, and of course there was HealthWorks in Forres
• I was embarking on a 6 months family sabbatical with Alan and Kevin and was ready for something new to come back to.

With careful consideration, attunement and organisation we released Meridian and the Findhorn Bay Holistic Health Centre in a very beautiful ceremony.

This was not the end of Meridian serving healthcare in community – just a transformation. Courtenay lived there until 2003 and continued to see clients there. And when the time came for him and Laura to move on, one of the new occupants of Meridian was Fay Blackburn who was the most engaged community carer for many years. From occasionally looking after a vulnerable friend, Fay grew into providing professional care at home to many Community members over many years.

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Photo credit for Eileen Caddy’s quote – Sasint on Pixabay – Thank you! Unless stated all other images are from Findhorn Foundation or Holistic Health Care Ltd.

Holistic Health Care Charity

Established in 1993 – supporting holistic health care through a treatment centre, education as well as choice and financial support.