“You have to have a vision and you have to have faith.”
Peter and Eileen Caddy
Many people sought guidance from Eileen over the years, me included, looking for answers and inspiration when things were tough; she was always reluctant to give it, advising us to tune into our own intuitions and find our own guidance by turning ‘within’, but she was always willing to listen and share some of her ‘home grown’ wisdom over a cup of tea and though no Jungian psychologist, Eileen had keen insight, having lived a full life, raising eight children, living with difficult people in challenging situations while all the time seeking to implement the highest ideals in her life. Eileen’s advice to me was to “rise above the personality level and unravel the onion skins of many layered selfhood. That love, our essential nature is always present at the core and it’s our task to bring that love to the surface of our lives not leave it in a place that was inaccessible”. Also, she often reminded us, love and fear cannot co-exist. I liked the onion metaphor and Eileen often used it to express the idea that over time we build countless layers of ‘selfhood’, our preferences, desires, aversions, attachments all jostling for attention, the self-created egoic mind, that looks only to the self and self-interest – obstacle to peace – fighting any kind of awakening and awareness of the bigger picture. Eileen spoke of the ‘higher’ self and how we needed to implement the will (intention) in order to direct our lives toward peace, goodwill, loving kindness, through some kind of a spiritual practice, turning within to our core, where dwells the divinity, the spark of the sacred. There was no evangelising, as such, whether you were a Quaker, Sufi, a Christian, Buddhist, Moslem, Jewish, Rastafarian, or simply a ‘lover’ of life, as long as people ‘demonstrated’ their faith, that is what counted.
Eileen and Peter Caddy photo Findhorn Foundation
Peter would say “you can tell them by the ‘light’ in their eyes, and “By their fruits you shall know them”. “As within, so without”. Peter was a man of god and spoke accordingly. He came from a place of will which he referred to as ‘light’, maintaining that you had to have a good balance of both love and light in order to be any kind of force for good in the world and have the power to bring positive change into your life.
Eileen spent many hours in the Sanctuary at night receiving guidance and because her presence was so focused in the life of the community, her guidance was always relevant and helpful; quite early in the ’70s Eileen ceased receiving guidance on behalf of the community and made it clear that everyone needed to find their own, but this didn’t prevent her sometimes sharing her own guidance with us at our morning meditations. Eileen was always active in the community and once a week, with Peter and Joanie and a small team, would cook an evening meal for us and the guests. One of her great specialities was omelettes stuffed with mushrooms tomato and cheese, served with baked potato and steamed veg, delicious and not the easiest meal to prepare for as many as two hundred hungry mouths.
Eileen was also raising her three teenage boys, who were fortunate in having John Willoner as a friend and mentor, a teacher in the local school and an ‘outward bound’ instructor organising hill walks and rugged weekend forays into the great glorious outdoors that was right on our doorstep. Sometimes a more adventurous trip into the mountains, the Cairngorms or further afield, open to all who were fit enough. Many people benefitted from John’s considerable skills and practical knowledge of survival, in challenging situations.
Eileen was always gracious and gently spoken, giving full attention to whoever or whatever was before her; I don’t recollect ever seeing her in a hurry to get somewhere, even if she was, or in a bad mood, or tired, in fact I don’t recall her ever complaining about anyone or anything, she was inspired and inspiring. In the words of Saint Theresa of Avila, her life truly was a song of praise to her creator. She was also an enthusiastic sun worshiper and when there was time in her busy schedule of mother, chef, advisor, seer, mentor and wife, you could find her on the little suntrap patio outside her home, soaking up the rays, usually busy shelling peas or pouring tea for her many visitors. This occurring as the long winter turned to benevolent spring and at this time of year Peter would organise the “twelve o’clock swim bus”, a dash down to the north shore of the Moray Firth for a quick and icy swim, back at 12.40 for lunch.
The rapidly burgeoning community
In the early ’70s when the community was still quite small there was a very old R.A.F. bus that had somehow been acquired for our use and in the summer, on good days Peter, at lunch, would announce an afternoon at Rosisle Bay or the pristine River Findhorn and we would all joyously down tools and head off with a picnic tea, one big happy family, in the old ‘charabanc’.
Peter’s recipe for good health was a daily ‘dip’ in the Moray Firth (season permitting), strenuous hill walking and hiking in the ‘outward bound’ mode – on occasion – and being well balanced in all aspects of living; rest, work, exercise, and leisure recreation. He maintained the most beneficial diet was food that grew round about you, hopefully organically grown, also he recommended that wearing a thick layer of good quality pure wool in winter was one of the greatest antidotes against the cold. Peter demonstrated the ‘ecological self ‘, our basic need to truly connect with our natural surroundings, sea, hills, woodlands, river, and how we draw nourishment and vitality from the natural world by interacting with it, and what a world it was. I had no idea before coming to Scotland just how big and dramatic a skyscape could be, how rugged the terrain, the purity of the air and the water, a constant blessing. Before the R.A.F. base that lived beside us protested about the tap water, our baths would be full of peat, dark brown, mineral rich, from Loch Rannoch.
With the many pressures and challenges involved in the smooth running of the place, not once in the ten years I lived there, did I see Peter express anger or negativity, perhaps a little agitated on the rare occasion and once when I had to disturb him while he was watching his favourite T.V. programme, “The Benny Hill Show” due to an unexpected visitor from a newspaper.
Peter often said that the energy of the ‘centre’ was so strong that it could throw people off balance which is why he so firmly advocated the importance of living a well-balanced lifestyle, grounding ourselves in the routines and rhythms of community life. Peter was a doer, a man of action, this is what he sought to instil in us, assuring us that nothing simply falls into our laps, it has to be worked for and he would quote his three P’s as the way to help manifest our needs on all levels “patience, persistence and perseverance”. When he gave feedback of the less positive variety, it was always given kindly and gently, Peter never upbraided anyone and when possible, he would add some humour. I always remember Peter as brimming over with vitality and enthusiasm, a breath of fresh air in any situation. When Peter wasn’t needed elsewhere, you would always find him working in the gardens, it was his passion, there was hardly a perennial weed (wild flower) in sight except in the wild garden, a designated area behind the apple orchard which was strictly out of bounds to humans. A lot of our food still came from the original vegetable gardens and although the emphasis was no longer on show stopping giant produce there was a great variety and abundance of everything that could grow, in season.
About the photos: A big Thank You to my grandson Ziggy for enhancing the appearance of many of my somewhat battered and ancient photos from the’70s.
I live very simply in this land I love. On returning to the area with my daughter Jade, I found joy in volunteering in the life of the Community; until Covid, then everything changed.
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