Not long after they moved the ‘original caravan’ to its long home, Eileen received guidance that she should meditate in the caravan park public toilets[1] to overcome the difficulties of trying to find quietude in the cramped confines of their new home. Another test of her character, but one which proved its value, and for the next seven years she spent several hours per night there writing down her messages from God.

Eileen was not the only one tested. Dorothy and Peter had frequent clashes, and the group’s tiny income was a continual source of stress, yet somehow the garden and the community in miniature prospered.

The first person to join the founders was Naomi, who placed a caravan[2] on the site of what is now the sanctuary in the spring of 1964. Although in her seventies she worked hard to develop the links between the fledgling community and the Network of Light, and under her tutelage they were able to reach and identify the centres more clearly. Naomi continued to live in the community until 1966.

Guidance for the garden suggested:

You are to have as many varieties of fruits and vegetables as possible. Contact with the devas is essential, and this can only be done when each plant is actually grown.

In the second season 65 kinds of vegetable, 21 fruits, and 42 herbs were cultivated. This was also the first year of giant brassicas. One cabbage weighed in at 38lbs, and other at 42lbs (19kg). Flowers were not grown in the garden for another two years.

This was also a time of many ‘manifestation’ stories. For example, in the spring of 1963 Peter had planned a concrete patio for the area next to the caravan. No money was available to buy materials but a few days later a neighbour arrived and told them that a truck had left a whole load of slightly damp cement in bags in a dump across the road. According to Peter:
“Though it may seem an astounding co-incidence, events like this had become normal in our lives.”[3]

Although passers-by had noticed the extravagant growth even in its first year, by the summer of 1965 the developments in the garden were coming to the attention of a wider group of people.

In the August of 1965 Peter set off on a journey which took him to Glastonbury, where he met Tudor Pole, the founder of the Chalice Well Trust, and Liebe Pugh who had formed a group known as the Universal Link at Lytham St. Annes in north-west England. He returned with the first genuine guests to the community – Dr. and Mrs. Daniel Fry from Glastonbury.

On another trip Peter went to a conference at Attingham Park hosted by Sir George Trevelyan[4]. It must be remembered that at that time esoteric spiritual endeavours in the western world were still confined to a tiny minority of fringe groups who often had little or no knowledge of one another. Books on these subjects were few and far between. In the rarefied upper-crust atmosphere of this gathering Peter’s approach to life was considered outrageous by many of the participants, although Sir George himself was clearly impressed.

Despite his best attempts Peter had been unable to find a job of any kind, although Dorothy managed to find work as a secretary in the local area. Peter and Eileen presumed they were going back to Cluny Hill and were perhaps disappointed when Eileen’s guidance announced:

There is no hurry for you to go back to Cluny Hill; that will be brought about when this place is completed, and there is still much more to be done here.

Later in the year Peter and Eileen went on to visit Iona, staying at the St. Columba hotel. It was the only time Eileen had left Findhorn in nearly three years.[5] Whilst on the island she received guidance to the effect that the linking of the three centres of Glastonbury, Iona, and Findhorn was ‘very important’. Meditations to further these links continue to this day.

In the autumn of 1965 the County Horticulture Adviser visited the garden, and he was so impressed he asked Peter to take part in a radio broadcast.

Early in 1966, R. Ogilvie Crombie, (Roc) an elderly polymath from Edinburgh, visited the community for the first time. He had met Peter casually at a gathering in Edinburgh, and his interest in the happenings at Findhorn had been aroused. It seems that his visit awakened a long dormant[6] ability in Roc; shortly after this visit he had his famous encounter with Kurmos the faun. Roc’s connections with Pan and the nature spirits have been well documented.

Yet Roc was not merely there to provide an additional perspective on gardening and nature. He also played an important part in the occult development of the community. It is clear that he acted as an advisor to Peter in many things, and was occasionally instrumental in having Peter ask individuals to leave that he felt were working against the appropriate development of the community, consciously or otherwise. Although Roc was a great support to Peter and Dorothy, Eileen had considerable resistance to this role as her training was very much to remain positive and invoke the energies of the Christ. Her guidance told her:

“This is an example of where there needs to be unity in diversity”

Much later, during channelling sessions with David Spangler, the reply to a question would sometimes be “Ask your Protector” meaning Roc. Although Roc never lived in the community he continued to play this guardian role until his death in 1975.

In the Spring of 1966 five guests came for Easter, including Anthony Brooke[7] and Monica Parish of the Universal Foundation. At Whitsun there were 17 guests. Also in that year the connection with Liebe Pugh was strengthened, Eileen and Peter both visiting her at Lytham St. Annes. This visit had a profound effect on Eileen in two ways. First of all she felt a tremendous inner connection with Liebe and continued corresponding with her until her death just a few months later. Secondly this was the occasion when Eileen met Joannie Hartnell Beavis who had been working with Liebe for some time.[8] Joannie was to become Eileen’s closest friend and support after she moved to Findhorn in 1967.

On Christmas Eve of 1967 Eileen, Peter and Joannie went to the power point on Cluny Hill. There Eileen had a series of dramatic visions. Shortly afterwards she received:

The day many have been waiting for is over. The cosmic power released at that appointed moment felt by you and many others, has begun to reverberate around the universe. Nothing will stop it. It will gather momentum and power and it will be sensed by many as time goes on. Some maybe disappointed because there was no outer manifestation. Nothing has gone wrong. It is simply that man has misinterpreted what has been prophesied. I has often happened that way.
This is the beginning of the universal happenings all over the world. This place will become world renowned, for nothing will stop the expansion of work going on here. This release of cosmic power into the whole of the universe is far greater than you can ever imagine. Your feeling of uplifted consciousness is the start of great changes that will be felt by each individual everywhere. Forge ahead from strength to strength with My hallmark deeply imprinted, and be at perfect peace.[9]

In 1968 ‘God Spoke to Me’ was published, six cedarwood bungalows were erected to house the growing community, and Peter planted 600 beech trees as a hedge – a physical and psychic barrier around the gardens. During this year a perplexed government investigator decided to remove Peter’s unemployment benefit, but by then the ‘Findhorn Trust’ had been conceived as a legal umbrella under which the growing activities of the community could be organised. At about the same time a resident of the Samye Ling centre at Eskdalemuir visited the community for the first time – Craig Gibsone, later destined to be a focaliser of the Foundation.[10]

This was also the year when Sir George Trevelyan first visited. Shortly thereafter he wrote to Lady Eve Balfour, founder of the Soil Association and author of ‘The Living Soil’ giving an enthusiastic account of his visit. On Lady Eve’s recommendation Professor Lindsay Robb, a consultant to the Soil Association, arrived in early 1969. After his tour of the garden with Peter and Roc he wrote:

“The vigour, health and bloom of the plants in this garden at midwinter on land which is almost barren, powdery sand cannot be explained by the moderate dressings of compost, nor indeed by the application of any known cultural methods of organic husbandry. There are other factors at work, and they are vital ones.”

The Park sanctuary was constructed in 1969, and Eileen received guidance to build the original part of the Community Centre.[11] On 19th March a BBC programme about the community was broadcast and over 600 visitors came during the year, nearly 200 of them residential guests.

One prestigious visitor to the community at this time was Richard St. Barbe Baker, the indefatigable ‘Man of the Trees.’ He was one of the very few individuals to receive a personal Deva message through Dorothy.

 

[1]Later converted to an apothecary.
[2]This caravan – latterly called ‘”Dorothy’s” as she also used it as an office for a number of years – was re-sited just north of Doris’s bungalow. It was finally scrapped in 1991.
[3]Findhorn Garden, page 5.
[4]The grandfather of the new age movement in Britain, Sir George was for a time a teacher at Gordonstoun school before entering into his public works. Founder of the Wrekin Trust, and a trustee of the Foundation during the seventies and early eighties, he has published several books including ‘Summons To A High Crusade’; Findhorn Press; 1986.
[5] There are indications that Peter was seriously considering going to live there. e.g. Letter to Kathleen Fleming of 22.10.65 in Foundation Archives.
[6]Roc’s connection with nature does of course go back much further than this time. He had visited the Faerie Glen on the Black Isle as early as 1903.
[7]Anthony Brooke is also known as ‘the last white Raj of Sarawak’.
[8]Joannie’ s first meeting with Liebe Pugh had been suggested by Robert and Aileen Ross Stewart. Ross, as he was universally known, became the first chairman of the Foundation’s trustees.
[9]Corroboration for the importance of this time was received in a transmission of ‘Limitless Love and Truth’ by David Spangler. See William Irwin Thompson; Passages About Earth: page 160ff, and also the study paper on Sri Aurobindo and the Mother in section 8 below.
[10] His recollection is that the gardens, although beautiful and clearly a factor of major significance were not as eye-catchingly extravagant as earlier reports indicate.
[11]The original building comprised the kitchen, entrance hall and the serving area adjacent to the kitchen. The main dining area was added in the seventies, and the circular two-storey extension in 1987.