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“Thus from the beginning, the intent of the Trust has not been to create a garden, nor to build a community, but to demonstrate a consciousness of attunement to the supreme link between all humanity, the Life of God.”
David Spangler, ‘The Transformation of Findhorn’ (Early Foundation Study Paper)

The Findhorn Foundation

The Foundation is many things – a centre of spiritual activity, a community, a business, a charity, a focus for certain social activities, and so on. Each individual has a particular relationship to it which is likely to have certain unique elements. This diversity is part of its attraction, but this complexity sometimes brings an element of confusion. The first part of this section is then an attempt to introduce some fixed reference points to which one can always return.

The easiest way to understand the Foundation is to look at it as a charitable trust with certain prescribed activities. This is an essentially legal definition, and in a later section we will look at a more complex set of ways to understand its purpose and role in the Community, but it is important to begin with this awareness.

The trust deed of the Foundation lists a number of purposes which encompass all the activities that may be undertaken. The most significant of these are:

• Spiritual Education. The Foundation’s work is based on:
a) the belief that humanity is on the verge of a major evolutionary step which can be achieved through a change in consciousness, and
b) that the essential truths of all the world’s major religions and spiritual philosophies are similar in nature.

• Co-operation with Nature. The Foundation’s work in the gardens has been of consequence from its beginnings, and a sense of the need to take the natural world into account pervades every activity.

• The Construction of a Built Environment which supports these activities. One of the principal aims of the Foundation is the replacement of all of the caravans on its original campus at the Park, with permanent, ecologically sound buildings. Concomitantly there is an active commitment to the use of renewable energy systems, recycling, ecological waste treatment and environmental education.
Although not formally part of the Trust Deed it is clear that these activities have also resulted in:

• The Creation of a Community of Consciousness which has both a residential component and a world-wide membership. This of course includes the many sister communities around the world which have been inspired by the work of the Foundation.

Going beyond these formal descriptions we can see that the Foundation is a centre of education and demonstration, but one which is at least as much an experiment as it is a role model. New ways of doing and being are constantly being tried out and inevitably not all of them are successful. There is a recognition that one can learn as much, perhaps more, from mistakes as from triumphs.

It is also a place which attempts to find unity in diversity. The main thrust of the educational work of the Foundation are the residential courses which show how a working community incorporating individuals from a wide variety of countries and religious backgrounds has been created. The Foundation maintains many international connections, and this work is carried out in a planetary context. It is not primarily a retreat centre or a ‘mystery school’ set apart from the rest of the world.

One other point is worth emphasising in this context – the founders of the Community often stressed that its activities needed to specialise in creating a positive future rather than in attempting to resolve society’s existing tensions. The phrase – “Don’t heal the old, but build the new” is not often heard now, but it should be obvious that one small organisation cannot hope to solve all the world’s problems. We salute those who struggle to feed those in need, heal the sick and house the poor, but our main role is to create practical workable solutions that will sustain healthy spiritual communities and societies, not to attempt to unravel dilemmas created by cultures rooted in materialism.

The Foundation thus has a unique role to play in both the Community that has grown around it, and in the establishment of a better and more holistic human civilisation, but it is as important to avoid the potential glamour in this statement as it is to understand the nature of this role. A description of the Community, and the relationship it has to the Foundation is to be found at the end of Section 2 below.

Vision Statements

Ideally an organisation would have one simple statement which sums up its main aims. This task of drawing up such a declaration, and achieving collective support for it is not so easy as it may seem, and there have been a number used by the Foundation in the past. The only one which is currently accepted, although in fact little used is:

“The Findhorn Foundation honours the divinity within all life through active service to God, humanity and nature to achieve individual and planetary transformation.”

This was conceived and accepted in 1992. More recently an attempt was made to change this to a longer and more comprehensive series of statements under the heading “The Findhorn Foundation – Celebrating the Divinity Within All Life”, but this did not find overall approval at a Community meeting called to discuss it in the autumn of 1993. The first statement still stands therefore.

An older statement, drawn up by Core Group in 1989 is still sometimes used.
“We are a spiritual centre of transformation, education, healing, and demonstration, working with the qualities of love and wisdom to embody a vision of God, humanity and nature in co-creation and thereby offering hope, vision, inspiration and encouragement.”

Even more simply the statement is also occasionally referred to.
“We are here to create a positive vision for humanity and the planet.”

It is important to add that all of these are Foundation vision statements. As a legally defined entity the Foundation can choose to outline (or limit) its activities in this way. The Community is however an abstract entity with, for the present at least, no co-ordinating centre or agreed determination of membership. The clarity of purpose available to the Foundation is not then applicable to the Community. On the other hand this allows the Community participants scope to extend their activities into any area that spirit moves them to go.

It is worth noting in this context that some of the original study papers are in some ways at least as applicable to the Community as they now are to the Foundation, particularly those dealing with the formative impulses of this centre.

Membership by Alex Walker/David Spangler

“You come to give and not to get.” Dorothy Maclean.

The concept of ‘Foundation Membership’, encompassing all forms of residential status was the backbone of Foundation staffing from the nineteen seventies for over twenty years. Such definitions are under constant review, and this category is no longer in formal use. There are now several legitimate ways to participate in Community life, and indeed to work within the Foundation. These categories include:

• Foundation Associate – essentially a volunteer.
• Foundation Student – a one or two year fee-paying apprenticeship, usually as a resident on Foundation property. This is often followed by a position in the next category.
• Foundation Staff i.e. full-time employment in return for board and lodging and a small allowance.
• Foundation employee – a waged position, invariably excluding accommodation. Such positions are small in number and often temporary.
• Community Member – a loose category with no formal definition, save that the individual claims some attachment to the spiritual work of the Community. The Foundation has utilised a number of Community members acting in a self-employed capacity in recent years.

The administrative challenges this situation creates are not addressed here. Even if it were appropriate, the rapidity with which these structures are changing would make any definitive statement out of date before the ink was dry. It is however germane to offer these words from David Spangler which address the inner nature of Community membership rather than its outer forms.

“Fundamentally, the Community should be seen as a place of initiation, initiation being something which empowers a re-organisation in a person’s life. This is a re-organisation of the psyche so that the person is never the same as before. In the Findhorn Community’s case, this re-organisation should bring the person into a deeper communion with spirit and with the presence of the sacred. As such a place of initiation, this is a place where we can encounter in a mindful way the everyday qualities and presence of spirit.

Beyond any administrative meanings that may also be appropriate, the fundamental meaning of Community membership to me is this: a person is a member if he or she takes accountability to understand the inner qualities and blessings of this centre and to see that this essential spirit is embodied, empowered, and passed on clearly to others who have yet to come and receive benefit from this place.

The membership has then to be accountable for the vessel – to make sure that the well is dug and that the water is clear. Membership is more than simply being the drinker.“