The following was collated by Mike Scott whilst working with the Archives of the Findhorn Foundation Community.

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Sheena Govan, 1912-67, was one of the most profound influences on the Findhorn founders. The daughter of Christian evangelicals, she was a wartime colleague of Dorothy Maclean. She met Peter Caddy in 1947 and in 1948 became his second wife. They were married till 1955, though ceased to live as husband and wife a few years earlier. Sheena was Peter’s spiritual teacher until 1956, a role she also performed for Dorothy, Eileen Caddy and fellow early Findhorn member Lena Lamont.

Some substance of Sheena’s spiritual teachings, and the story of her relationship to the Findhorn founders, is told in Peter, Dorothy and Eileen’s autobiographies (see reading list below). Described in each book is a controversy which ran in Scottish newspapers in 1957 about the group of followers gathered round Sheena, known as the Nameless Ones (a press-invented name) or the Children of the New Age (a name allegedly used by Sheena).

Sheena featured on several front pages, and told her story through interviews with Sunday Mail reporter James Allison. Though subject to populist newspaper editing, the interviews present aspects of Sheena’s life not covered in the Findhorn founders’ books, and are reproduced here, along with relevant parts of an article on Peter, and an editorial written by reporters at the close of the controversy. A summary of Sheena’s teachings, as noted in the books of the Findhorn founders, is also given.

1. MY CHILDHOOD DAYS
Scottish Sunday Mail, 5 May 1957

My childhood was a difficult one. I was born late in my parents’ life on November 13 1912, at Corstorphine, Edinburgh. The work God had given them to do was then in full swing and occupied most of their days. My father was an evangelist preacher. I was the youngest of four children and was known as the afterthought, being born 12 years after my sister.

Between the ages of six and twelve I attended St George’s School in Edinburgh as a day pupil. Even as a little girl I could never read the story of the crucifixion without tears. Having come from a very religious family I felt it was my duty to convert all the children I met at school.

Meetings and religious instruction had led me to believe that everybody who had not a personal experience of conversion according to the lines laid down by the evangelists was making straight for hell fire. This belief caused me intense concern. During break hours at school I can remember a cluster of little girls around me listening while I sang evangelical hymns and read from the New Testament. Those in authority knew what was happening and, knowing the influence was good, let it be.

During those years I lived in two worlds: the world of my home, where prayer meetings were held day and night for the saving of peoples’ souls, and the world of my school, where everybody lived quite happily as though they had no souls, living for the day and letting tomorrow take care of itself.

Looking back on those years, through all the things that have happened since – my happy marriage to Peter Caddy, my tremendous spiritual experience, the coming to me of my disciples – I can still see myself as the little girl torn between those two worlds.

I was recently asked: “Do you regret all that has happened since those unhappy childhood days?” I accepted those days as I have accepted the straitened circumstances of the recent years.

I am quite prepared to give up pretty clothes, jewellery, and a comfortable living to do God’s will. But I am a woman and I know God does not like to see me looking shabby. Of course I still find pleasure in dressing up and dining out. Although I have lived like a nomad during the past twelve months – I have slept in 30 different houses, and spent one night in a cave when I got lost – for me there is no merit in these things. I would never choose to live the life of a wanderer and an ascetic.

To return to my school days: through this emotional conflict I was gradually reaching a point of tension that resulted in a nervous breakdown.

It was this early life of tempest and strain that taught me what children should have in their early formative years – the consciousness that they are put first at home by their parents; that they are wanted; that they don’t need to earn the right to live; that beauty is for them from God, and that the only true way to help others is from that centre of peace and happiness and love.

This violent schism between my two worlds was eased by the merciful beauty of a visit to Switzerland for health reasons, accompanied by my father and sister. This was the happiest time that I remember.

On my return I was sent to a boarding school – St Margaret’s, at Polmont, near Falkirk. Gradually my interests grew to more normal directions. Music was the chief interest and I found tremendous solace in what it had to offer. The world of literature opened out to me and every spare moment was spent with a book. Games also became one of my chief interests and I ended my school days with the coveted position of games captain.

In my second year, when I was nearly fifteen, my father died. I was more devoted to him than to anyone else. I can remember for weeks looking forward to bedtime when I needed no longer hold back my tears. Father had been the greatest influence in my life. I never went to bed at home without his coming to read to me, to hear my prayers and kiss me goodnight.

2. THE ANGUISH OF A MOTHER
Scottish Sunday Mail, 12 May 1957

My mother died when I was 21 and I was left alone, an innocent in worldly affairs.

It was while I was staying in Glasgow that I became very fond of the brother of one of my girlfriends. He was a brilliant medical student. We became engaged. In my innocence I believed that if someone loved me he would never wish anything but good for me, that he could never bring harm to me.

With this conviction I gave myself to a love that I believed matched those ideals. That this love did not match my ideals brought tragedy to my life.

I was advised by a doctor in Falkirk to break my engagement. I did so. Later I accepted an offer to go and live in Canada.

Some weeks later I realised I was going to have a baby. Although I could have returned to my fiancé and married him, which was the wish of my relatives, I decided against this for personal reasons.

Casting my mind back to my engagement, I know now why so many people make uninformed liaisons in search for the love they have been starved of in childhood. To be put first by someone is essential for the human soul. The child should be put first by the parents, the woman should be put first by the husband.

So in Canada, in strange surroundings, I faced my ordeal alone. For I had told no-one what I was faced with. My son was born on January 29 1938 in Toronto. I was persuaded against all my wishes to have him adopted. This is the only regret of my life.

I gave up my baby on February 11, 1938. Through the years that have followed I have never forgotten him. Nor have I given up hope that one day we may meet again.

You unmarried mothers who read these words, if you love your baby don’t let anything or anyone separate you from him. Let everything else go to the four winds, but keep God’s gift to you, the greatest gift you will ever have. The world won’t last much longer, in all probability, so thank God for him, make the most of him. Be happy with him and God will be with you and will help you.

3. I’VE NEVER BROKEN A MARRIAGE
Scottish Sunday Mail, 26 May 1957. The press controversy was sparked by the story of Fred Astell who left wife and child to follow Sheena. In this drama, Sheena was seen by some as a marriage-breaking sect leader. She responded:

There is a vast difference between free love as it is understood and love set free.

There is nothing greater and more to be respected than a true union between a man and a woman. I have never tried to break up such a true union. Nor as a woman have I tried to persuade any man or woman to split up a marriage – where this has happened, it has come from the heart and the conscience of either person, and the result of the light of God’s truth.

The church states: ‘Whom God has joined together let no man put asunder.’ But here should be read ‘Whom the church has joined….’, for I know that those whom God has truly joined cannot be put asunder. No woman believes that there is any greater happiness than being ‘in love’. I know that this love is God’s greatest gift, is part of His very self. But man has tried to tether it to his thousand and one conventions and barricades.

My meeting with Peter was, I know, God-ordained. He was a man who was aware of the coming of the new age which I was struggling to bring to birth. His interests were not limited, as was the average man’s, to the material things of life.

God is a flame of love between us because I am convinced he chose Peter to be with me during the following crucial years. I could not have stood the strain of those years without his utter devotion and great protective strength. But during those six years of marriage, I realised my body was undergoing a reorientation – a change from the human to the divine. These conditions, caused by tremendous tensions, manifested themselves as nervous illnesses.

I had many revelations and communications from God, from some of his angels, and from great souls who visited this earth in the past. They led me to believe my outer experience as a woman was completed and my work for God would be for some time on the invisible or inner plane. To communicate to Peter that our life as man and wife was over was perhaps the hardest thing I have ever been called upon to do. But during this difficult period there was never a bitter, angry or resentful word or thought between us.

4. THE AMAZING STORY OF PETER CADDY’S LIFE
from an article by Liam Regan, Scottish Sunday Mail, 5 May 1957

Senior RAF officers in the Middle East regarded Squadron-Leader Peter Caddy as something of a playboy. Certainly he is no starry-eyed, evangelical bible thumper. He is always smartly dressed. He has a keen sense of humour. There is a twinkle in his blue eyes. But Peter Caddy has always been deeply serious about spiritual matters.

Caddy gave up his first wife Nora and two children to marry Sheena. “I gave up all for love of her,” he told me. “You see, nothing is ordinary about Sheena. We were very well suited to one another but spiritually I was like a little child to her.” Fate brought them together on a train from London to Bournemouth. “It was soon after marrying her that I realised she was the World Teacher,” said Caddy.

He believes Sheena was being prepared for the work of ‘Redeemer of Mankind.’ “During our married life Sheena was in the final stages of this preparation and the strain on her physical and nervous system was very intense. My role was to protect her, to look after her, and to give her stability.”

At this time Caddy was being guided spiritually by Sheena. “Like Joan of Arc,” he told me, “she heard the voices of the saints. Although I was happy with Sheena, it was not easy to be married to perfection – to someone who is always right!” he said.

Sheena the woman longed for a baby. There were several miscarriages, but no child was born to them (Note. Peter mentions one miscarriage in In Perfect Timing). “The forces of good were being attacked by the forces of darkness and evil,” said Caddy. “They pitted everything against her and prevented her having a baby.”

While stationed in Britain Sheena moved around with Caddy in their caravan, and they lived together as a happily married couple. Then Caddy was posted to the Middle East, when a letter came out of the blue. The letter was from Sheena. She wrote saying she realised their relationship could no longer be that of man and wife, although there would always be a great bond between them.

“That was a tremendous blow to me,” said Caddy, “but I knew that whatever she said was the truth. When I received this letter and knew that Sheena was not my soul mate, I knew God would bring me into touch with my future ‘other-half’.”

It was at a lecture on Egyptian archaeology that Peter Caddy met Eileen. Some weeks after, Caddy climbed to the top of a mountain in Jerusalem. “Some inner voice told me that Eileen was my ‘other-half’ and our future lay together,” he told me.

I looked over at this remarkable man – once a champion swimmer and top-notch cross-country runner; a man who has climbed the toughest peaks in the Himalayas and has led expeditions to the heart of mysterious Tibet. “What made you give up all for Sheena, and then give up Sheena for another woman ?” I asked him.

His reply was immediate. “Either she is the devil, and is evil, and moves people about like pawns, or she is not. I say she is not. It must be something else. It is simply the power of love. It is simply giving up all for her so that she and God come first in our lives. We who believe have something which everybody seeks. That is happiness, joy, the teachings of Sheena. Sheena is a revelation of Divine love. In the eyes of God she is perfect. During the time I have known her she has never done anything for her-self. Everything she does is for others without regard for herself. The result is that she frequently finds herself without money, without proper clothes, and without shelter. Because as soon as anything is given to her she passes it on to others whose needs she considers are greater than her own.”

5. SHEENA GOVAN – THE SUMMING UP
by Sunday Mail reporters
Scottish Sunday Mail, 9 June 1957.

What power does Sheena Govan possess to make four men and three women regard her as a Messiah ? That’s what we asked when this series began. We still don’t know.

To be fair to the four men and three women, let us say at once that they are sincere in their belief. Strict moralists will not excuse Peter Caddy his two divorces, but, that apart, they are decent men and women, trying in their own fashion to lead lives close to God.

In the worldly sense none has gained by being a “child of the new age” and all have lost much. Peter Caddy gave up an RAF career because he thought it more important to tramp around Britain spreading the news of a woman he claims is a Messiah. He sold brushes in Glasgow. He went on the dole. He went on national assistance. He slept in railway carriages. He hitch hiked to London with 2d in his pocket. Not much fun, one would have thought, for a brilliant man who had been used to the comfort of an officers’ mess, to a fine car and a lot of friends.

When Caddy was finally offered a responsible job (this refers to the job of manager of Cluny Hill Hotel, at which Peter began work in May 1957) he didn’t accept it before making perfectly clear what his belief was. After he had done this the offer still stood.

Caddy is doing that job today, and doing it supremely well. With him is his third wife Eileen, who claims she hears the voice of God. Any problem that crops up Caddy takes to Eileen and Eileen takes it to God. “It works splendidly,” said Caddy. Said one of Caddy’s staff last week: “This place has never been so happy. We accept all that Mr and Mrs Caddy stand for – except Sheena Govan.”

The tragedy of the Fred Astell story was in the wife and child he left behind to suffer. And yet Astell was sincere. Here was a man who had everything – health, good looks, fine prospects, intelligence, gaiety, a happy home….an athlete who had played cricket and rugger for his regiment, “one of the boys” in the very best sense.

He too deemed it his duty to go round the country from one boarding house to another, ostracised by society, doing what he took to be God’s work.

When Astell was finally reunited with his wife everyone on the Sunday Mail who had played a part in this reunion was overjoyed. So too, to be fair again, were Peter Caddy and Sheena Govan. Caddy explains it all this way: “Once you have proved you can give up all for God, then God will give it all back, with more besides. That is what happened to me, and that is what happened to Fred Astell.”

The other disciples have all, to a lesser degree, given up wordly things and promis-ing careers.

Two big questions remain. What of the voice Eileen Caddy claims she hears from God ? Either she pretends she hears it, or she imagines she hears it, or she does hear it. A Roman Catholic priest told the Sunday Mail last week: “There are many ways in which a person can hear God’s voice. The important thing is not to misinterpret it.”

And Sheena Govan herself ? Does she sincerely believe she is a privileged person in God’s eyes ? If she doesn’t, she is a very good actress. She, like the rest, gets nothing out of this, unless it is a sense of power. When she has money she gives it away. She now treads the path that Caddy and Astell trod – a wanderer round Britain.

What power does she possess ? If any clergyman or psychiatrist can supply the answer we should be grateful to hear from him.

6. SHEENA’S SPIRITUAL PRINCIPLES
As noted in the books by Peter Caddy, Dorothy Maclean and Eileen Caddy* God is found in the present moment, not the past or future.

* God is found within, and is inside each one of us.

* Put God first, before everything.

* Do everything with love, unto the Lord.

* Do everything with perfection.

* Follow divine guidance however it comes, whether as a voice, or as intuition.

* Always act on an inner prompting immediately.

* Keep meditation times with absolute obedience.

7. FURTHER READING

IN PERFECT TIMING (1996) PETER CADDY
Peter tells of his life with Sheena on pages 72-138, 146 and 206-7. This is the most detailed published account of Sheena’s life and her influence on the Findhorn founders. It includes several short extracts from her teachings, and also recounts her split from the Findhorn founders and her decline as a spiritual force.

TO HEAR THE ANGELS SING (1980) DOROTHY MACLEAN
Dorothy describes her friendship with Sheena, and Sheena’s impact on her life, in chapters 2 and 3.

FLIGHT INTO FREEDOM (1988, retitled 2002 Flight Into Freedom And Beyond) EILEEN CADDY Eileen’s difficult relationship with Sheena is detailed in chapters 2, 3 and 5.

SPIRIT OF REVIVAL: A BIOGRAPHY OF J.G.GOVAN (1938) I.R.GOVAN
The biography of Sheena’s father, John Govan, founder of the Faith Mission. Facing page 160 is a group photo with 12 year-old Sheena in the centre. The book was written by Sheena’s sister Isobel.

CHILDREN OF THE NEW AGE (2002) STEVEN J. SUTCLIFFE
Chapter 3, The ‘nameless ones’: small groups in the nuclear age, is about Sheena and her group. The author, a lecturer in Religious Studies at a Scottish university, is a thorough researcher and gives much factual detail.

THE MAGIC OF FINDHORN (1975) PAUL HAWKEN
Sheena’s relationship to Peter & Eileen is reported on pages 60-68 & 76-86 in dramatic and almost fictionally overstated style.

THE COMPLEAT ANGUS (1989) ANGUS MACINTYRE
A collection of poems and writings by Tobermory (Isle of Mull) wit, raconteur and Bank manager, Angus MacIntyre. On pages 56-7 is his jocular poem commemorating the ‘Nameless Ones’ controversy, with references to Sheena and her “Heavenly Plan”. The poem gives an indication of what the colloquial Scottish highland ‘take’ on the affair was.