Thank you, One Incredible Family, for manifesting the Light of Findhorn Sanctuary. We have truly moved along the evolutionary spiral, and what was a small group in the late 1960’s has become a thriving village and planetary family, still dedicated to spirit, to God within, and to the love and light which flows from this infinite source.

Thank you Kathy and Amanda, and the organisations you represent – the Findhorn Foundation and Park Ecovillage Trust, for holding the focus for the sanctuary’s design and construction, and thank you Jason Caddy and Greenleaf Design & Build for such a beautiful construction. We also want to appreciate the tireless work of Anni Broadhead for the grant from the Community Ownership Fund which enabled this project to succeed.

And we celebrate the three generations of the Caddy family, represented by Peter and Eileen, Jonathan and Jason, for their roles in creating, holding and manifesting this heart of our One Incredible Family.

Karen Grant photo Mark Richards

And the future care for the sanctuary has been placed in the hands of Karen Grant, our sanctuary manager, who is juggling all the many different aspects we need to put in place to collectively look after this special building. She is approaching this task with bee consciousness, allowing the hive (us members) to look after the queen (the sanctuary).

Sanctuary

Simply put, the sanctuary is the heart, the heart of our collective. The first sanctuary held the heart of the family, group and community, and the Light of Findhorn Sanctuary now holds the heart of the village, town and city of light.

The unfolding of guidance is wonderful to behold, and the long-term vision of a village, town and city of light is now firmly established through this beautiful building.

Sanctuary is about accessing the infinite realm of light, the source of all, through silence and stillness.

This is the hallmark of the new civilisation to which we are dedicated. The old that is now in the process of collapse will eventually be replaced by something entirely new, and now is the turning point when the new truly gathers momentum.

The old world is characterised by the seeking of meaning, security and survival by people who perceive themselves as fundamentally separate, and the whole collective edifice of nation states, corporations and the market economy is the manifestation of this world view. It will collapse because it perceives that at its heart is emptiness, lack, need and fear, and the desire for security through the accumulation of individual and collective wealth. And this has been magnified and accelerated by our access to fossil fuels and the energy released through them.

We all embody aspects of both old and new, and the process of change proceeds gradually as we learn to know love, to trust love and to give love, whatever the circumstances we find ourselves in. Slowly the wheel turns and our lives become more graceful, supported by the rich and nourishing environment of sanctuary.

Just as collapse is inevitable, so is the rise of a new culture that knows that the infinite source is within, and that an abundant, secure and meaningful individual and collective life is achieved through giving, the giving of love, of balance and harmony, which are the natural expressions of this omni source.

This turning point represents the most fundamental change that humans and humanity can experience. The whole of human history leads to this moment, a moment of choice, in which we decide to centre ourselves in the infinite stillness and enable a culture of peace, of harmony and beauty to emerge.

Although this is easily written, its application requires all that we are and all that we have, moment by moment. The source that enables this is sanctuary, and the stillness of infinite life that it embodies. Sanctuary is the corner stone, the gateway to unity, the bridge from separation to wholeness.

The element’s first triad, family, group, community, were single identities. The second triad’s village, town, city, are composite entities, comprised of multiple families, groups and communities. This adds complexity and diversity, and these add strength and resilience. However, the greater the diversity, the greater the unity required to hold it in balance and harmony, and that responsibility also changes from being that of a leader or leadership group to a collective responsibility.

Sanctuary is the means by which this is achieved. The teaching that emanates from the stillness of group meditation guides the unfolding of a culture of peace. Group meditation strengthens the power that reveals itself in our hearts and vitalises our entire being with joy. With our increasing diversity it will be clear that there are many paths to stillness, but once stillness is achieved, so is unity, so is love, so is peace. There is no blueprint for the new civilisation, only its source in stillness.

On Easter Day 1968, at the consecration of the first sanctuary, Eileen’s guidance told her:

“The Sanctuary is now, and always shall be, a tremendous powerhouse, where power will be generated out to the four corners of the Earth. It will become known all over the world and many will be drawn to it, and find great strength and help from the power and radiations which emanate from it. They will find peace and love, light and wisdom, as well as great joy and happiness, from simply being in there. Many problems will be solved as they sit in complete silence. Let it be treated as a sacred and consecrated place, where all may find their true selves.”

This was borne out day by day in the daily group meditations and in times of personal silence, and it remains true today with the opening of the Light of Findhorn Sanctuary.

The words Eileen received which were written in beautiful calligraphy on the inner entrance to the original sanctuary were:

PEACE BE UNTO ALL WHO ENTER THIS MY SANCTUARY
MAY MY PEACE DESCEND UPON YOU, MAY MY LOVE INFIL YOU,
MAY MY LIGHT GUIDE YOUR EVERY STEP.
CAST ALL THE OLD ASIDE AND BECOME NEW IN MY SPIRIT.

I reflect on them in relation to our new cycle:

Peace be into all who enter this My village, town and city of light

At the start of this new cycle we can review our past achievements and future potential in the stillness of the life-octave that is ‘Findhorn’s’ signature presence which we know in the stillness of our hearts. The life-octave can call this enterprise ‘My’ Sanctuary, ‘My’ ‘Findhorn’, ‘My’ village, town and city of light because they are centred in the stillness.

This presence is the wellspring that has brought together the community of souls which we are, and it is our collective service that gives meaning and expression to its life-octave song in the world.

May My peace descend upon you, may My love infill you, may My light guide your every step.

The desire of ‘My’ life is that it is experienced as peace and expressed as love, and that the resonant octave of life-light guides the unfolding expression of My life through the ‘Findhorn’ enterprise. And in the shared knowing of our oneness in stillness, the shared trust in the love that motivates us, and the shared light that guides us, we are given the instruction:

Cast all the old aside and become new in My spirit.

Whatever the old is, the earthquake of Covid, Brexit and Ukraine, and the combined crises of climate, biodiversity and justice have opened the door to new opportunities to meet the newly recognised imperative for humans to live in harmony with each other, the Earth and all her lives.

And necessarily, this instruction spirals round to the emerging village, town and city of light in its wholeness, its oneness, its diversity and its potential.

The ‘light that guides our every step’ is inspired by the love we know in the peace that we share in stillness. This is the seed and the flower, and the affirmation of our service which is to embody life, love and light, to live in harmony together and with Earth and all her lives, and to share this lived experience with all who are drawn to this centre of light.

‘Ecovillage Findhorn’ is now a diverse grouping of communities, organisations, enterprises and individuals with concentric circles of attunement, commitment and learning. This is the tapestry that expresses My village, town and city of light, and it is our collective responsibility to hold the stillness of My life, to hold the wholeness of what has evolved, and to be guided by My light which enables us to become the new in My spirit.

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The Light of Findhorn Sanctuary is now open. In my first meditation I experienced the energetic quality as a soft light purple colour. A deep stillness pervades the room, and light streams in from the upper windows. The golden chairs are wonderfully supportive, two of the roof beams are trees which were damaged in the fire, and the centre piece is from a tree that needed to be felled near the Universal Hall with a beautiful brass-framed light in the centre of a flower arrangement.

photo Mark Richards

I had a vision of all our elders gathered in a circle of light above and around the sanctuary, blessing this time and place, and holding the presence of stillness. Their message was that this stillness holds all the answers to all the questions, and the way will unfold as we become centred and harmonised in the deep peace of the Sanctuary’s presence.

Angus Marland

I lived at Findhorn during the 1970’s and then in Edinburgh for the 80’s and 90’s to apply what I learned, and returned to Findhorn in 2001 – 2016. Elisabeth and I ran a B&B in the North West Highlands from 2016  and after a wonderful time in the wilds, returned to Findhorn in March ’25.