This article was first published in GENESIS Issue XXXI, August 1998.

From sex to money with hopefully power not too far behind GENESIS boldly steps into facing three of the primary forces in our lives; in many ways shaping how we perceive the world and how it perceives us. However whilst sexuality has always flirted with power and money it has a separate identity. The last fifty years have seen money and power become almost inseparable: there are very few people in positions of power in this society who do not have money, or vice versa.

Whereas traditionally power in society could have been split between the Church, State, Monarch, Warlords and Merchant, today it is increasingly the money merchants who dominate the world stage. War becomes increasingly an economic rather than territorial battle and there is no doubt that financial computer fraud is set to be one of the major threats to 21st Century security. Money controls technology and, as the major players blur the lines between communication and entertainment, power becomes even more centralised. Bill Gates is not the richest man in the world because he is sexy; it’s because he is the perfect example yet of the new power of money. Rupert Murdoch is not far behind.

For most of us, I would expect that sex is something with which we spend quality time. Who we have sex with, how pleasurable or not it was, what is the sexual compatibility of our proposed relationship and so on. Similarly our relationship with power and authority means we are constantly considering and allocating power to both ourselves and the world around us. We give power away to ‘them’. We have more power than ‘him’: we usually spend an amount of time judging those whom we perceive have power over our lives.

So what is it that we think about money, and what is our relationship in this community between power and money? Money gave some of us a better education than others. Money means that some come to live here with savings and some do not. Money means that some live in nice houses and some live in grotty caravans. How much money our guests give us determines the rate of allowances or whether the roof at Cluny Hill College gets fixed.

Our present economic reality would suggest that our collective relationship with money is not very good. Each week seems to see another farewell in the Rainbow Bridge [the Foundation’s internal newsletter] or another plea for help, with both often featuring money as a major contributing factor. Most people seem to consider themselves leading unsustainable lives, if sustainability is defined as having ‘enough’—no more or no less than what is needed at any time. We strive to place an emphasis in our philosophy of living here on Nature, yet we are totally immersed in the materialistic world and I don’t see money on many Community mission statements. How do I strive to be at one with money, and how much of my spiritual practice do I devote to living in harmony with its edges? This is money not in terms of how much or how little but rather the quality of our financial resources and how nourished are we by how we accumulate and distribute resources.

‘3 pigs equals 1 cow
has some natural logic’

So let’s look at money as the primary currency in our community. Sure we dabble a bit in LETS and there is a sprinkle of blue [the Foundation’s internal currency vouc ers] but the reality is that those little pieces of coloured paper with a silver strip down them hold the power here. As a side thought, isn’t it amazing that thousands of millions of people have agreed values to these bits of paper. 3 pigs = 1 cow has some natural logic. 20 green bits of paper = 1 pink one is definitely left-brain stuff. As those pink ones increasingly become a magnetic strip or a series of 000s on a computer screen, it all becomes increasingly unreal. An incredible tribute to trust and confidence. If we could actually trust God to the same degree, society and community would go through some interesting changes.

Yet what is the value of our money? On one level we know its value: £1 buys a bag of beans. If I have 95p I can’t afford it, if I have £1:05 I can. Yet this same £1 could be worth $1:80 one day and $1:40 the next. Good news for food prices. As the UK is a net food importer prices go down. Bad news for tourism and exporters. Our cheaper beans have already put thousands of other people all over Scot land out of a job, as currency fluctuations destroy companies’ ability to trade.

The global economic system is a hard taskmaster. Clearances now are not the result of battle but economic victories on Wall Street or Frankfurt. Money follows profit. Power follows money. The poor migrate to the cities, leaving the power of Nature for the power of money. Politics is about money and food is about money.

The UK food market is £85 billion. That’s a lot of money. It is dominated by the big four supermarkets, with Tesco and Sainsbury alone having a turnover of £32 billion. What food they sell, where they buy it, where they locate their superstores can have devastating effects on individuals, communities, farms and countries. Food money follows profit the same as any other sort of money. Over the next few years the rural infrastructure of countries like Hungary are going to be ripped apart, aided and abetted by a combination of EU Agricultural Minister’s and vast agri-business corporations. Genetic engineering is about money. Organo-phosphates are about money. Mad cows are about money.

Those small farmers in Hungary are the Pam and Nick’s of their communities. As a community we have a sentimentality about the farm. It is a feel-good project run by our friends. The fact that most people won’t buy the cheese because it costs too much money is a reality. In a way the same can be said of the Findhorn Foundation. It’s a feel-good project run by our friends but alas, for many people it now costs too much money. If we follow environmental trends less money means a lower standard of living: the ‘best’ people leave and there is no money to maintain the infrastructure. Sound familiar?

I have never been motivated by personal wealth or business as in profit.

I have never been motivated by personal wealth or business as in profit. For me my path of business has been the same as an organic farmer or a Steiner teacher. Instead of growing organic food or organic people I am trying to grow organic money. In a sense it’s a path of consciousness: money with service rather than power as the ultimate destination. In the end it’s about nourishment. We grow organic food because it is nourishing. It nourishes our health, our taste buds, our soil and our community. Does all our money nourish us in the same way, I wonder.

For myself my money nourishes me when it allows me to support craftsmanship and quality. It nourishes me when I can buy from my friends or support a cause I believe in. I feel nourished when I buy organic food or fair-trade products. I don’t feel nourished by High Street banks. This is not a question of good or bad: but there is no intimacy, and without that relationship, nourishment withers.

I believe as a community we have to make our individual
and collective relationship with money more nourishing

Last week the Raymonts and I went to Golspie mill to meet the new miller of flour for the bakery. I now know Fergus Morrisson the miller. Not only Fergus, but Ellie his wife; the black spot pigs, and definitely his worm collection! Next week we are going to meet the farmer who grows the wheat. When I pay my  money for my bread I will now know who grows the wheat, mills the flour, bakes the bread and yes, even who retails it. My spending of that money is nourishing my consciousness of where the bread comes from, enriching me. I try to make all the food we sell come from that place of enrichment. I know that working in the Phoenix is making my relationship with money more nourishing.

However, for that nourishment to survive I need to pay Trevor money to bake the bread. We need to buy 25 tons of wholewheat flour a year to make the project viable. That’s £100,000 of bread sales. To sell that much bread we spend money on equipment, premises, packaging and other parts of the infrastructure that allows the bakery to open each day.

So where is this leading? I believe as a community we have to make our individual and collective relationship with money more nourishing. Until we do that, I think we will always be poor. To support a nourished community of 500 people which would seem to be the optimum size for a sustainable community we need a money income of about £5 million or its value equivalent. I estimate that we are about £1.5 million short and that’s why we don’t appear to have enough. When we don’t have enough we become afraid. We tend to be meaner. We worry about the future. Power becomes unequal. Those with enough money have nicer cars, bigger houses, newer clothes, more exotic holidays. ‘They’ can afford organic food and fairtrade coffee: ‘We’ can’t. Money—instead of bringing nourishment—breeds resentment and judgment, ‘us’ and ‘them’.

I don’t enjoy what this is collectively doing to our lives. For myself, I do not want any more personal money but I do want to see a much higher standard of community wealth both for us and our guests. I am appalled that budgets rather than nourishment determine what amount we feed ourselves and our visitors. I regret the amount of money we spend on cars, energy and sub-standard housing when too often it does not actually improve the quality of our lives.

The plans for the development of the Phoenix that you will find in this issue are my, dreams of how to make our use of and relationship to money more nourishing. No doubt the reactions will be mixed. I welcome any dialogue on how the money issues can be transformed, and our plans are open to change and refinement. If people are engaged then I am happy to help champion the cause of money nourishment in this community. We will sponsor a ‘Question & Letters & Reply’ issue of GENESIS/Phoenix News if you want to respond to this issue. Otherwise it would be really helpful if you would fill in the questionnaire, return it to us, and come to our presentation in the Universal Hall on Monday, 7th September.

I know that with your support, a sustainable and nourishing money income is not so far away.

May all your money nourish you.
© 1998 David Hoyle