Personal Journey

A friend in South Africa suggested to me that I read ‘The Secret Life of Plants’ so I took it out of the library. On reading the final chapter, which talked about the activity with nature in Findhorn, I just immediately felt a “Yes, I want to be involved in that.” I also read the Findhorn Garden book which confirmed this feeling.

However, it took two or three years for my wife and I to arrive in Findhorn. I had received an invitation to go to Botswana to volunteer for a year and so I went with my wife, Diana, and two children, Ian and Jennifer, and we stayed for two years.

After that we thought “What next?” and decided in 1980 to come to Findhorn and do Experience Week. This was a Family Experience Week and led into a Family Workshop.

I then came back the following Easter to do a workshop on hidden talents which confirmed my decision to work with wood. We decided to buy somewhere in Findhorn and on writing to the estate agent were told that Bay Cottage was for sale. That letter arrived on the Tuesday and by the Friday evening we were told our bid had been accepted. We moved in three months later.

I was committed to my woodwork and made furniture as well as Angel Card boxes. I also participated in Sacred Dance, was an NFA Listener Convener, focalised the Wednesday afternoon cooking shift, helped start the Steiner School and enjoyed hill walking. I also believed it was important to create/maintain links with the wider community and I was part of the Culbin Singers, a choir in Forres, for 20 years. I would also display my woodwork at Brodie Castle’s ‘Taste of Moray’ event.

My workshop at Bay Cottage

When I left the community in 2012, I put on an evening in the hall to show and talk about some of the things I had been involved in, for example the school, the woodwork and sacred dance. It was quite touching that there were probably more than 200 people there. The hall was reasonably well full, including locals from the Forres area. I had a book which people signed. I’ve still got it and it’s really touching, the appreciation is still in it.

Wooden bench overlooking the Green

After Findhorn I went to Dundreggan Trees for Life for eight months. Alan Featherstone had asked me to be a Findhorn representative on site and this was a brilliant time for me, a healing time, being in the hills, essentially living alone.

From there I went to Kitezh children’s community in Russia, helping out and doing woodwork. I made benches for the dining tables and did a sculpture representing the mother with arms around three bases of the tree trunks, representing the Kitezh family.

From there I went to Allanton in Dumfriesshire, which is the European office of the World Peace Prayer Society, the Japanese organisation which promotes peace projects and encourages peace awareness.

I now live in Bavaria, south of Munich, with my wife Amelie, in a fledgling community centred around an old monastery which is being converted for communal living. When thinking about how living in Findhorn affected my life and work out in the wider world, I would return to my woodwork and the Angel Card boxes.

Angel Cards

At one point I did a series of past life regressions and, particularly in the last one, had a powerful experience. I became aware of the cosmic energies and that I could tap into these energies and direct them to each piece I have created and fill it with divine healing energy to pass on to those who touch the piece, and I can bring the pieces back for a recharging of their energy.

An important part of my spiritual beliefs is connected to stories of the Essenes. I would describe them as very much supporting Jesus in his mission of teaching and that they saw this life as bringing new knowledge coming from the heart. The Essenes consciously rooted this new belief system into the ground and I remember Sir George Trevelyan saying, “Findhorn are the new Essenes.” I understand that myself and several others have made a commitment in past lives to ground this place where the new energy can really come and flower. I feel that Findhorn nurtures that energy.

In the converted old monastery, I am part of regular meditations, and when I lead them I sometimes read one of my own poems which I have written in English and then translated myself into German (not perfect but it expresses what I mean).

The dandelion head
waves in the breeze
And sends off fairies
to bless the land.