“Suddenly and unexpectedly they appeared from out of the mists of time with a message for the world, and secretly their message interwove itself into the philosophies, religions and sciences. The Freemason, the Druid, the Buffalo, all found it in their ceremonies and religious rites and through them all, the Rosicrucian himself remained unknown…”

– “The Rosicrucians”, ROCF Leaflet No. 4 by “Maitre L’Inconnu”

This paper was circulated as a typescript at the conference The Western Mysteries: Which Way Today ? 15-22 Apr 1995, with David Spangler, Marian Green, William Bloom, Caitlin & John Matthews, R.J. Stewart, Robt MacDermott, Marianna Lines, R.A. Gilbert. Focalisers: Roger Doudna, Rosie Turnbull

Contrary to popular opinion, the Findhorn Community was not solely founded on beach sand and couch grass, Eileen Caddy’s inner guidance, Dorothy Maclean’s conversations with angels, and Peter Caddy’s heroic efforts with compost and cabbages. To Peter’s mind there was nothing accidental about its creation, although he kept this information to himself. All along, he had been inspired by and charged with the mission of creating something that would be a centre of demonstration and the proving ground for a spiritual tradition and set of moral principles that have been handed on to successive generations for centuries. The only question, for Peter, was where, when and in what form the physical foundation would take place. He had thought it would be at Cluny Hill Hotel, one reason he was loath to leave the place (the other being, at the time, a genuine belief that the world was doomed and that this was one of the “lift-off” sites chosen by extraterrestrials for a rescue-and-restore operation – a belief then shared by many groups around the world).[1]

Of course, Eileen’s guidance in those early years provided daily, vital instructions on how best to implement ‘the plan’, but it would be a mistake to assume that Peter Caddy was an honest innocent simply carrying out those instructions, with no idea where they would lead. He had been trained – and trained himself – too well not to bring his own intentions, intuitions and will-directed consciousness to the work before him.

At his Outer Court acceptance before initiation into the Rosicrucian Order Crotona Fellowship (Francis Bacon Chapter Number 33, in London) in 1936, aged 19, Peter Caddy swore an oath that he kept for over fifty years and almost took with him to the grave, the ‘oath of the four esses’: Silence, Secrecy, Sincerity and Service. A couple of days before his death, however, he handed me a file of yellowed, dog-eared pamphlets and mimeographed papers whose edges had been frayed by time; he had, he said, been carrying them with him around the world since the outbreak of World War Two. They were the original teachings and instructions given to him by his beloved mentor Dr. Sullivan, ‘Aureolis’ , the Supreme Magus of the Rosicrucian Order Crotona Fellowship (ROCF). “I think the time has come for you to look after these,” he said, to my astonishment, “much more can be shared now.” I took the file downstairs to my room and looked into it. Scribbled in pencil across the cover of one of the first pamphlets I came across were the words ‘For You (not to pass on)’ – written almost sixty years earlier. But this was exactly what Peter was now doing! Later I questioned him about it on our regular evening walk.

“I don’t think I’m breaking my oath or betraying any secrets,” he explained, “Time marches on. Findhorn had to happen, and people need to know why. It’s up to you and the book” (Peter’s memoirs, In Perfect Timing, which I was ghost-writing). “You’ll know how much to say.” We watched the sun set over the lake of Constance and when we got back home I pushed the file to the back of a cupboard, not caring to explore it further at that stage, as I was busy on other chapters. Little did I suspect that two days later Peter would be dead beside me in a horrific car accident: as unexpected, innocent and dramatic an incident as any other in his eventful life.

Thus I discovered – although it may come as a surprise to many – that the way Peter shaped the Findhorn Community was directly and deliberately drawn from his Rosicrucian training.[2] In their own words ‘the Successors of a long line of Mystic ancestry, which comes from the Semitic Brothers of Light of the Antient West, and from the Great Master Christ who brought the Light of the Logos to his earth’… Silently and secretly they work among man and spread their message from country to country, race to race, ever keeping in mind their great axiom – “Know all, but keep thyself unknown”. Much of Eileen Caddy’s guidance in the early days of the Findhorn Community echoed and confirmed the great teachings of the Rosicrucian ‘Soul Science’ series that Peter passed on to her, Dorothy Maclean and Lena Lamont in their first year at the caravan park. Similarly, when Dorothy was first alerted in her meditations to attune to the higher intelligences informing the nature kingdoms, it was Peter’s study of Aureolis’s ‘Creation’ series about the role of the elemental beings, that caused him to press Dorothy to attempt direct communication with the devas (and later welcome R. Ogilvie Crombie’s relationship with the elementals) – so initiating the conscious cooperation with nature that was to make the Findhorn Community world famous.

Throughout the 70s, Peter continued to present his Rosicrucian teachings, in a diluted form and drawing more on personal anecdotes and example than direct prescription, to all new members of the Community every winter in his ‘Foundations of Findhorn’ series. He disguised the package, euphemistically, as ‘the power of positive thinking’ – true to his original oath, which he took very sincerely, he had no wish to see the Community branded as ‘Rosicrucian’ (or anything else). Yet that is exactly what it was, in Peter’s eyes, although Eileen’s guidance and Dorothy’s Sufism and angelic contacts were also essential to its development.

The surprising thing is that Peter himself had, technically, advanced no further than the second Point, second degree of the ROCF[3], barely passing beyond the Outer Court before the outbreak of World War II. By special dispensation, however, because of the extraordinary circumstances of the time, Dr. Sullivan decided to include ‘Bro. Peter’ and others in more advanced, intensive training: in what was to be their last meeting, in December 1939, ‘Aureolis’ gave Peter his blessing on Peter joining the Royal Air Force and assured him that all would be well ‘provided he didn’t volunteer for anything’. The Supreme Magus went on to predict his own death in 1942 (he had been engaged by British Intelligence to ‘read’ Hitler’s mind, and knew that the war would be a long and bloody one which he would be ultimately powerless to prevent), and entrusted the young man with the mission that Peter would fulfill at Findhorn over twenty years later; he gave him a copy of his play Pythagoras (written under the pseudonym Alex Mathews) in which he inscribed, at the front, ‘There was a Peter who was great. Follow him and succeed.’ True to his own prediction, Dr. Sullivan died on the 3rd June, 1942.

Over a year later, Peter was posted to India and took his precious Rosicrucian papers with him: he was determined not only to understand them but to embody their principles – which he did in a series of heroic adventures in Tibet and elsewhere. It is unwise to underestimate the seriousness or single-mindedness with which Peter took on the lessons of his teacher, or how strongly they informed his life from that time on (and hence the foundation of the Findhorn Community).

There is not the scope in this paper to contain all that Peter practiced, but a few examples should suffice. From the ‘Soul Science’ series, he learned:

‘All power and intelligence that I can use is already mine’

‘I am power. That power manifests in me, is directed by my thought to nothing but good’

‘That which a man believes to be true moulds his destiny’ ‘Life is infinite and I have all I desire’

‘I create every mental condition, and that condition reflects in my environment. Therefore I create my life. I create it as I think it. All I have to do is watch my mental state and allow nothing that I do not wish to realize in my objective life’

‘All is peace. I never contend. I never argue. Truth is mighty, and I trust it’

In his Outer Court preparatory lessons, Peter was taught the following Rosicrucian charges:

1. Think well of everybody
2. Provoke nobody
3. Swear to, or curse nobody
4. Render good deeds (in any small way) to anybody
5. Remember thoughts and deeds (both good and bad) are long lasting
6. Thy services and good thoughts will be attuned with the Temple Services towards everybody [4]

In those areas of his studies that overlapped with Freemasonry, he learnt that, symbolically, the gavel is a tool of the will, which is first used upon the self to knock off all those obstructions and excrescences that stop the stones of one’s being fitting perfectly together, or those of a group. Then there are the three sets of chisels to be employed under the force of that gavel: three to use upon ourselves, three to use for others, and three of universal use. The first three (to use on ourselves) are energy, perseverance and endurance (‘they are large and heavy chisels, they make our arms ache, they make our backs ache, they make our hearts ache, but we cannot do the work without them’). The three chisels for our work on others are ‘exquisitely fine and delicate’: tact, sympathy and goodwill. The final set, of universal use, are a sense of humour, a sense of proportion, and a sense of beauty. Those who knew Peter Caddy may judge for themselves how skillfully he used this tool kit during his lifetime, especially in the founding of the Findhorn Community.

It is no exaggeration to say that Peter was chosen by his mentor for special treatment although of course he never boasted of this. When he returned to England after the war and split with his wife Nora to move in with and subsequently marry Sheena Govan, Peter was forced by social pressure to break with the ROCF – it was Nora’s brother-in-law Jim Barnes who had been responsible for recruiting him in the first place – but by then the charismatic Dr. Sullivan was dead anyway, and his replacement as Supreme Magus, Walter Bullock (whom Peter himself had introduced to the Order) fancied Sheena rather more than he did Peter, and lacked Dr. Sullivan’s warmth and charm. This is all immaterial, however: Peter had learned enough already to last him a lifetime, and he was more interested in putting the lessons into practice. Sheena herself had begun teaching the path of initiation as based on the life of Jesus Christ – a natural extension of the Rosicrucian exposition of the esoteric truths of Christianity – and in turn she took in hand the further spiritual instruction of Peter, Dorothy Maclean and Eileen. Once Eileen felt sure enough to record the messages of the ‘still, small voice’ of God that she heard within, and with full confidence in his own intuition, Peter no longer felt the need for any other studies.

Once Sir George Trevelyan and others had placed the Findhorn Community firmly on the spiritual map of Britain in the late 60s, and The Findhorn Garden, The Magic of Findhorn and other media reports established its worldwide fame in the 70s, it developed its own momentum and mythology, which Peter was happy to exploit. David Spangler’s contribution to both the understanding and popularity of the Community also played a major part in its success. Yet anyone wishing to comprehend fully that success cannot ignore the formative power of Peter Caddy’s Rosicrucianism, and his willful determination that the Community demonstrate the efficacy of it principles.

Peter himself continued to teach and train others, carefully chosen, in (for example) the ‘Soul Science’ series up until the month before his death. The Findhorn Community, too, has over its thirty years continued to attract those fully or partially aware of its Rosicrucian ‘hidden agenda’: an entirely benevolent one that should put to shame and thoughts of secret conspiracies (after all, you have only to examine the Great Seal on the back of an US dollar to find evidence of the same tradition).

The question is raised, has the Findhorn Community paid back or added anything to the Western Mystery tradition? Assuredly. It has inspired, confirmed or nudged millions of people in making a positive contribution to the world, or at least caused them to seek those answers that may lead them to doing so. It continues to provide a safe and supportive environment in which people of like mind and similar sensibilities may gather to explore and promote a wholly positive vision of the future. Those who have graduated from one level or another of its (largely invisible) ‘mystery school’ have taken their wisdom garnered here back into the mainstream, and applied it in diverse societies and situations; the most successful and influential are largely anonymous (‘…and through them all, the Rosicrucian himself remained unknown…’), recognized only by their peers. The Five Points of Good Fellowship, taught to the young Peter Caddy almost sixty years ago (and never, as far as I know, a part of the Findhorn Foundation’s educational programme), were given with a secret grip:

Hand to had, I greet you as a Brother, Mouth to ear, I whisper my secrets,
Breast to breast, in Fidelity with good heart My secrets repose in thy bosom,
Shoulder to shoulder, we support each other, Feet to feet, we stand firm and steadfast.

Today these rituals may strike us as old-fashioned, absurd, elitist, or mildly alarming to those of paranoiac persuasion. They existed for another age, however, when secrecy was a necessary cover to avoid persecution; and although the ‘secret grip’ is sometimes still used (more often than not with an ironical smile), these days the real spear-shakers and magicians are likelier to greet or part from each other in the Findhorn Community with a kiss.

It would be wrong to brand the Findhorn Community of today as purely ‘Rosicrucian’ or to play down the overriding and essential contribution and Eileen’s guidance has made and continues to make; it is better to see the Community as a confluence of different traditions and influences, a genuine centre of synthesis and demonstration of the universality of the core truths within all religions and creeds. But it would be equally wrong to maintain the myth that the Community grew solely from Eileen receiving step by step instructions from God, and Peter putting those into action. Peter himself encouraged this myth, to cover his tracks, thus keeping his oath to maintain Silence, Secrecy, Sincerity and Service.

Peter Caddy died happy that he had fulfilled both his life’s purpose and his mission. I suspect that a posthumous regret would have been to miss, in person, the completion of a circle with a Findhorn conference entitled ‘The Western Mysteries: Which Way Today?’, but he would also smile broadly, and say something like, “If you seek its monument, look around you”.

When the cycle moves Westward let us be prepared, for the Masters shall arise from the most obscure place and their light will shine through and into the darkest corners of the Earth; it is then we shall realize who and what the Rosicrucians are… [5]

[1] See Links with Space © David Spangler, Findhorn Publications

[2] Not to be confused with the ‘Rosicrucians’ of AMORC who advertise widely in the popular press; this movement was founded by the American H. Spencer Lewis, and offers ‘a simple and good-natured doctrine preaching the Brotherhood of Man, the reincarnation of the Soul and the immense latent potential of the human mind. As with many American-based organizations of this kind, the boundary between business and religion is hard to define’ (Pears Cyclopaedia, 101st edition)

[3] All together there are nine degrees of the so-called Lesser Mysteries in Rosicrucianism, making up three Points of three degrees each.

[4] The meditation work of the so-called Inner Temple, where adepts of the Order were continuously directing their energy to good, with certain definite periods for definite work. What this charge means is that one’s individual efforts of thought and deed, when in alignment with the intentions of the Order, will be magnified and strengthened, wherever one happens to be.