Click to see whole book

Why is the Findhorn Community a New Age Centre?

There are many surface reasons. One obvious one is that it identifies itself with the vision of a new emerging culture. This new culture may take a number of different forms, but at its core, it is conceived as being more soul-infused, more attuned to the sacred, more holistic, compassionate, and co-creative than anything we have experienced before. It is also a planetary culture, one which respects and honours local and individual diversity but which provides a space to experience and express the interdependency, interconnection, and oneness—in short the identity—of humanity and of the planet as a whole.

One way Findhorn expresses this vision is through being a planetary centre. Though located in Scotland, Findhorn is home to people from many nationalities and religious backgrounds, all living and working together harmoniously and co-creatively.

The Community also interprets the meaning of a “planetary centre” in another way, by seeking to foster a planetary awareness at an ecological and spiritual level. The development of its famous gardens through cooperation with the angelic and elemental forces of nature is an example of this. Liberating society from an overly materialistic perspective and restoring a sense of the inner worlds of spirit and the ways in which we may cooperate with them is usually considered part of the New Age package, an element of the emerging culture.

Another example is the current effort to create a model ecovillage at the centre where the new paradigm of sustainability and ecological balance can be demonstrated and tested. In fact, the work of the Findhorn Foundation and community to build an ecovillage and to experiment with new forms of technology such as solar and wind power and John Todd’s “Living Machines” is a new way of expressing the original commitment of the centre to demonstrate the elements of a new culture. It certainly is a modern manifestation of the original cooperative work with the nature spirits. As John Talbott, the coordinator of the ecovillage project, has said, the eco-houses which the community has been building are the “forty-pound cabbages of the Nineties.”

By experience, the Community as a centre for interspecies, interdimensional, and international cooperation inducts in a living awareness of the planet as a whole being and of ourselves as partners with that wholeness. We can begin to grasp the meaning of the vision of an emerging planetary culture as a manifestation of a New Age.

However, in my mind, what makes the Foundation a New Age centre is not its community, its work with new paradigms, its ecological demonstrations, or even its cooperation with the angelic kingdoms. It is the fact that esoterically it has a connection with an overlighting spirit—which itself might be thought of as an angel—that embodies the inner qualities of a New Age. These are inner qualities of soul and outer qualities of creativity that are destined to unfold in humanity as it moves through its next stages of spiritual and cultural evolution.

This spirit, to my understanding, is not the same as the being called by the community the Angel of Findhorn. It is a planetary—indeed, in some respects, a cosmic—being of great love, light, and wisdom who overlights all humanity and all the earth as a custodian of the next pattern of emergence.
What inner and outer capabilities this spirit is working to stimulate and nourish within humanity and the planet as a whole, I do not know. It will probably be centuries before the fulness of its work becomes apparent. However, initially it is energizing two related qualities or energy, both of which are deeply anchored and active at Findhorn.

One of these is the energy of transformation. Transformation is an openness to change in substantive ways that truly make a difference in our lives and in our world. The energy of transformation confronts us with those things in us that are blocks to our unfoldment, things that we must release or surrender, things that must be radically changed and not just rearranged; however, it also presents us with opportunities for growth, with new vision, and with the empowerment that comes from opening to new life and new possibilities. The energy of transformation can shatter habits to liberate new vision and creativity. It can accelerate change and growth. The presence of this energy has been evident in the Community since its inception, and encountering it has often been seen as one of the challenges people may meet when they come to the Community.

The second is a quality I call “the spirit of newness.” Newness is a spiritual energy that acts within a structure or condition to open it out, to create spaciousness, and to energize or enliven it so that energy and life flows more freely and gracefully. This flow may then reinvigorate and reinstitute the structures and condtions that exist, or it may lead to new possibilities and the emergence of something new and unexpected. It is the factor that keeps an open system open. Newness is not the same as novelty, which is a phenomenon of form. Something that is spiritually new may look and act exactly like something that is old, but it has been renewed and revitalized and is open to the threshold of emergence. Newness is the energy within a structure that maintains what already is if that is appropriate but expands a space for emergence and discovery as well.

Transformation can lead to new forms, but newness leads to an enlivening and creative openness, even within old forms. Newness is not an event but a condition of being that is vital and creative. It can utilize well-worn, ancient processes, but prevents them from becoming habits. When I seek to attune to this quality, I often contemplate the meaning and power behind the statement in the New Testament: “Behold! I create all things new.”

Both transformation and newness heighten an individual’s inner life, like taking a large drink of spiritual caffeine. They enhance energy and make it dance in new ways. They are energies of opening and liberation, making possible new vision.

Both these energies provide a matrix and an openness for deeper qualities of soul to awaken and emerge, according to individual need and capacity, as well as the capacity of the group. They are precursors to the next steps of inner evolution.

While these two qualities are planetary and may be experienced anywhere, it is their focused presence plus the esoteric connection they provide to the inner life and activity of the spirit of the new emerging culture that to me makes this place a New Age centre. The Community and this centre for various inner and outer reasons is an inner lens that heightens the activity of these energies and the spirit that is behind them. This is both the Findhorn Foundation’s privilege and its gift to the world, and its responsibility and challenge. Being a New Age centre esoterically is not an easy thing; it demands selflessness and a commitment to service, but it is a joyous thing as well. It is this joy and the creative vision it inspires that remains one of the Findhorn centre’s greatest offerings to the needs of our world at this time.