Liebie Pugh was a mysterious spiritual teacher following the Second World War, who founded a movement called the Universal Link and was later based in Lytham St Annes in Lancashire. She was only indirectly involved with Findhorn but made a great impression. At a time when the founders had broken all contact with Sheena Govan, Liebie appeared and seems to have filled a gap in Eileen’s life for a spiritual guide and teacher.

The mailing list of the Universal Link became the basis of that used by the Findhorn community in the early days. The community was already becoming established and the garden was becoming known when Peter took an epic journey through Britain meeting many people on the way. Travelling with companions, Naomi and Dorothy Maclean, they stopped in Edinburgh to meet with Lady Mayo. Eileen Keck, a friend of Lady Mayo’s, then travelled with the company down to Lytham St Annes to meet Liebie where, despite the protestations of her secretary, Joanie Hartnell-Beavis, they managed to do so.

During the 1950s Liebie had written a number of articles for the Catholic press which I was unable to access while working as Archivist to the Findhorn Foundation. However I was able to add her book ‘Nothing Else Matters’ to the Archive library. A scanned copy exists in the Online Archive of the Findhorn Foundation. Liebie appears to have been a psychic investigator for the Catholic church.  When the Psychic News published the story of ‘the weeping angel of Worthing’ (a town in Sussex, England) she went to investigate it. An extended account of this was published as an addendum to Nothing Else Matters after Leibie’s death. It tells of a man buying a house and finding an old picture in the attic. He decided to throw it out, but as he walked down the path with it under his arm he became aware of a golden figure standing in front of him saying ‘I AM He’. (It will be recalled that the millenarian cult of Christianity was in full swing expecting the imminent arrival of the Christ and the return to Heaven of the elect, following Armageddon and the judgement of humanity.)

When the figure touched the image the glass shattered and he disappeared in a blinding orange light – so bright that Mr Graves, the house owner had to shield is eyes, and burned his forearm in the process. When his wife returned they examined the painting together and saw that it was blistered and dark and only fit to be thrown away. They talked about the affair and decided the light must have been an electrical flare of some sort and laughed about his scare. Leaning the painting against the washing machine they left it, and when, an hour later, his wife returned she called out to him. The painting had been restored.

“The picture on examination, turned out to be the Angels announcing the coming of Christ to the shepherds and was entitled “The First Christmas Morn”.
(Addendum to Nothing Else Matters.)

Over the coming days the radiant figure returned and after some days they noticed there was a wet patch on the floor beneath the picture. Visitors called to see this remarkable event and it was decided to see how much water was leaking from the picture. A bucket was placed beneath it which filled in two days.
Liebie worked closely with Richard Graves for some years following this.

In the introduction to Nothing Else Matters, (published in 1957) Liebie writes

“Let us suppose together, my readers and I, for a brief space that a mighty but at present invisible host are putting into operation a vast plan under Divine Direction—a plan of such magnitude that we can only glimpse the general outlines of it but nevertheless a plan so simple and compelling that it is, despite our slowness and inertia, gripping our world’s attention and leading us where we should go.”
(Nothing Else Matters, p.11)

She came to work closely with ‘The Master’, as the strange visitor came to be called, but it is unclear whether this was the one with whom she came to identify.

Peter Caddy writes

“Liebie Pugh was a remarkable woman. She had an unusual face, like a Tibetan’s, and her features seemed neither male nor female, neither oriental nor occidental, but had elements of all; her skin was slightly yellow with the most wrinkles I have ever seen in a single face. She took my hands and the first words she said were, ‘St Germain’ – she recognised that I had a strong link with the Master of the Seventh ray. I realised we were in the presence of somebody who had an extraordinary effect on people – when she took Naomi’s hands, for example, Naomi immediately went into a trance!”
(In Perfect Timing, p. 234)

Letters, preserved by Dennis Evenson and presented to the community, record the close relationship between Eileen and Liebie over the remaining 18 months of Liebie’s life. As her relationship to the Master grew stronger so her health began to deteriorate and she suffered great pain. It is clear that this was communicated to Eileen, so that she herself suffered. Liebie takes great trouble to explain that the suffering is as nothing and Eileen must not feel that this is something she, Eileen, needs to carry. Liebie is very supportive of the community as it was beginning to grow. She speaks of the veil thinning saying ‘what was invisible is becoming visible.’ This must have seemed a great promise with the appearance of ROC on the scene and his encounters with elementals.

An extract from a letter dated 3rd March 1966 reads

On thinking this over it is growing &glowing in wonder – in view of all we have been told. Here I write in the fullest possible way of what I feel is required now i.e. incessant Risen Thinking. There you receive direct from your Divine Source
Lift Lift.
The Unity is awesome.
Love

It is not clear whether the ‘All-Knowing One’ with whom Liebie communicated was the same as the Master nor when this closeness began. David Spangler claimed this was the being he called Limitless Love and Truth.

Liebie had a close confrontation with the Master and was left with the understanding that she would leave the body on 5th December 1966. This whole event is recorded in ‘Propinquity complete’ and ‘I rise again complete’, recording Peter’s presence as well as that of ROC and Sir Anthony Brooke, one of Liebie’s close friends, at the event.

Following her death Sir Anthony had the ‘Universal’ bungalow built at Findhorn, and Joanie and Evelyn, close friends to Liebie, also moved to the Park into the bungalows named after them. These were three of the first seven bungalows built in the burgeoning community. It was in Joanie’s bungalow that Dorothy later came to spend the last days of her life until 2020.

Liebie Pugh Photo Findhorn Foundation

Liebie Pugh Photo Findhorn Foundation

 

Publications

Nothing Else Matters, Regency Press London, 1957

Various self-published booklets by Universal Link 

You can find other stories about Liebie Pugh on our website by following this link to her tag. Stories relating to Universal Link are also tagged.