originally published as The History Of A Centre Of Light in Open Letter Magazine, ‘Purchase of Cluny’ special issue, December 1975.

We were first led to Cluny Hill in 1956 when I was living with my wife Eileen and our two sons in one room in Glasgow. I was looking for a job and through persistence I was able to get an interview with the general manager of Allied Hotels. She asked me what experience I’d had of running hotels. I said I hadn’t run one before, but I had had plenty of catering experience and had been an RAF command catering officer on the Burma Front during the war with 250 officers under me.

“Oh,” she said, “that may well be, but we’re in this business to make money. How do we know that you can run a business ?” I explained that I had learned through years of experience how to run organisations along spiritual principles, and if a business is all right on the higher, spiritual level, it will be all right on the material level, including the finances. She said, “Yes, I can believe that, but my directors won’t.” My reply was that if she gave me a hotel to manage I’d prove it to her directors.

I think by then she thought I was a bit odd, but she decided to take a chance and hire me anyway. I was to manage the Cluny Hill Hotel in Forres. This was November and the hotel wasn’t to open until March. The only job I could get in the meantime was as a Kleeneze brush salesman. Eileen’s guidance had promised we would be led to the land flowing with milk and honey, and this kept us going through those hard winter months.

When March came we travelled north to Forres by train and were met by the general assistant who took us up to this lovely hotel on the southern slopes of a small hill. After our experiences in Glasgow, it was like a palace. Every window we looked through showed the fresh green growth outside and the valley which opened out in front of the hotel really did look like the land flowing with milk and honey.

Then we were taken to the back and shown the manager’s quarters; two pokey small rooms. I said we couldn’t possibly live there. The assistant said he was very sorry but these were the manager’s quarters. I asked Eileen to get guidance on what we were to do. The inner directive she received was that the whole success of this venture depended on the health and well-being of the managers. Therefore we were to have the best quarters and not the worst. This was indeed wonderful news. Out we went, round the hotel and selected on the first floor a lovely large three-room suite with bay windows. We moved into these spacious quarters much to the distress of the general assistant.

Very soon the general manager got to hear of this and came storming down from headquarters wanting to know what the meaning of this was. I said, “You must understand right from the beginning how this hotel is going to be run, because I shan’t be running it.” She said, “What do you mean ? You’re in charge, aren’t you ?” and I said, “It’s going to be run by God through me.” Then I explained to her how we operated and I read her the guidance Eileen had had. That rocked her back in her tracks and she finally burst out laughing and said, “Well, I can’t compete with that.”

I really had no idea how a hotel was run, and this was a large one, employing over thirty staff. I didn’t know how much to pay them, who to engage, how much to charge guests, etc. The answer to every detail of the running of the hotel was sought in guidance, and it invariably worked. The guidance established principles as well:

This job that I, the Lord your God have placed you in, is one in which I
want you to make an example of how a hotel can be run on the basis of
love and cooperation and not on fear. Step by step develop this, first with
headquarters and then with each of your key staff, and gradually with all
your staff. This is no ordinary hotel to be run in the usual business-like
way. This has My hallmark on it and therefore all that is done should be
done because of love and not duty.

One of the first things I did was to ask Dorothy Maclean to become my secretary. Dorothy was a spiritual co-worker we had known for years and she agreed immediately. I then gradually assembled a highly skilled staff, each one chosen under guidance. We began to build up a wonderful team because I wouldn’t employ anybody who was there just for the money. They had to love what they were doing so that the right vibrations would be built up within the hotel. We were working not only to run Cluny Hill as a business, but also to transform it into a spiritual centre, a centre of light.

With the help of everyone involved we set high standards of quality right from the start. We developed a magnificent menu because one of the best chefs in Scotland was our head chef, and our second chef, breakfast chef, and pastry chef all took great pride in their work. We kept the hotel spotlessly clean. Eileen arranged fresh flowers for the halls and lounges and we emphasised beauty and perfection everywhere. During the winter months after our first season there, Dorothy painted the whole staff quarters, and when our employees returned the next spring they found their rooms freshly painted, immaculately clean and each containing a bowl of fresh flowers.

At Cluny Hill Eileen had to learn to be able to get guidance no matter what the turmoil was. Whether she was in the middle of cooking a meal, changing the baby’s nappies or no matter what, she had to drop what she was doing and immediately be able to tune into God. For example, one busy Saturday evening I went into the kitchen and found the chef drunk, causing havoc and refusing to make dinner until he was given another whisky. Because I didn’t know what I should do, I went to Eileen and asked her to get guidance. She opened her notebook, picked up her pen and wrote, “Tell Peter to give him another whisky.” I was almost out the door and already acting to carry this out before I realised just what had been said, but I went ahead with it anyway because I had learned to trust implicitly in God’s word. On this occasion that guidance was apparently the only thing that saved us from disaster, and our chef did indeed come through with flying colours.

I tried to give personal attention to everyone who came to the hotel, even if it was only for tea or a drink. Cluny Hill was a magnetic centre and people would unconsciously be attracted to it, so I would always share my enthusiasm with whoever was drawn there and often show them around so they could absorb the radiations and see for themselves what was being done. As I wrote in a letter at that time, “Cluny Hill is fast becoming a powerhouse of Love and Light. These hotels are to replace the monastic sanctuaries where people sought solace from the chaotic world. All who come here go away refreshed in body and spirit.”

We poured a great amount of energy into the grounds of Cluny Hill Hotel. When we first arrived there was an overgrown wilderness of brambles, thickets and dying trees, and each year we would create a plan for improving them. The plans initially involved cutting away the undergrowth and clearing out areas, and Eileen, Dorothy and I did this in the winter when staff and guests were away. This was crucial work because it allowed us to get in everywhere and put our vibrations into the very soil of Cluny Hill.

The vision I had one year was to remove the overcrowded and dying trees from the hillside behind the hotel, sell them for timber, and use the money to buy a greenhouse, cold frames, pots etc. This worked excellently and we were told in guidance that a new growth of trees and bushes would spring forth and the hillside would more than regain its former beauty, and so it has.

Another year we worked for months revitalising and greatly extending the lawns on the slope in front of the hotel. My aim for the whole grounds was to have many types of gardens for many varieties of plants, and of course from our spiritual training we were already aware of the existence of the devas and nature spirits and were taking them into consideration, although we were doing it in faith and didn’t have the direct contact with them that was later to develop at Findhorn.

By the end of our fifth year the grounds had become a showplace and the entire hotel was a shining example of what could be done by working in harmony with the divine, but this very success was the cause of our leaving Cluny Hill. Eileen and I and the staff were transferred in 1962 to the Trossachs, a hotel near Loch Lomond, because the company was hoping that by moving us to another failing hotel we would repeat the same process. This wasn’t to be. Our first love was Cluny Hill and our hearts simply weren’t in this new location. And so, on the last day of the Trossachs’ season, when Eileen’s guidance that morning had stressed the need for flexibility, the general manager arrived and gave us four hours’ notice to leave, with no reason for firing me other than that they were changing people around.

We then ended up in our caravan at Findhorn living next to a rubbish dump. Eileen’s inner direction confirmed that this was where we were meant to be. We knew it could only be a matter of time before the way would open up for us to return to Cluny Hill, but we assumed that this would happen in a matter of months or a year or two at the most.

God’s guidance assured us of our return but gave no idea as to when. For example, in 1962 Eileen received:

I want Peter to know that, as I told him a short time ago, he is guardian
of Cluny Hill. Therefore, one day he will go back there and great will be
that day. He is to have no fixed time in his mind, but he is to accept this
as My promise that no matter what he is to do in the meantime he can
hold that goal in his mind. For Cluny Hill is a very strong and magnetic
centre and every magnetic centre needs a guardian and I have laid My
hand upon him and chosen him for this role.

Later, in 1963, Eileen received:

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

We were told that Findhorn was the place where the power and radiation had to be concentrated and that we were simply to live in the now:

My child, I want you to know that when the right time comes every door
will be flung open and every obstacle swept away; simply believe this now
and leave the future to take care of itself.

The guidance also mentioned an interesting aspect about the gardens at Cluny Hill:

My child, you have often wondered about the head gardener [James
MacLeod]. He is the one who is the guardian of the soil of that place,
he is the one who remains on when others come and go.

On the day we were fired from the Trossachs, God had told us: This will show you who your real friends are. Although we had many friends in the area when we were at Cluny Hill, once we were in more humble circumstances hardly a soul came to visit us. From this we learned to rely even more on the God within. The joy of working together to create a new centre of light at Findhorn eventually erased the sadness we felt about Cluny Hill. We had been told:

That place will go down and down until it reaches rock bottom and this
will happen more quickly than you think. You see, My child, when Peter
returns to Cluny Hill it must be on his terms directed by Me and not
under any other conditions.

One person who did visit us after we had been at Findhorn about a year was Phimister Brown, a solicitor from Fraserburgh. Phimister and his family were old friends of the hotel and as he was with a company specialising in hotel accounts, he had been particularly keen to learn how I had trebled the takings in three years using spiritual laws. Phimister visited us with the idea of buying Cluny Hill Hotel and having me manage it again. He couldn’t understand it when I told him that our place was at Findhorn, for there we were, six deep in a compact caravan, living on National Assistance and trying to create a garden out of sand and gravel. It was still somewhat puzzling to us then why we were not being guided to go back to Cluny Hill, but in spite of this we went ahead in faith at Findhorn. If there was one lesson we had already learned there, it was to practise patience, persistence and perseverance.

One day in the summer of 1965 we felt prompted to venture over to the hotel and afterwards Eileen received:

You saw for yourself how the very life force has been withdrawn from
Cluny Hill Hotel. It is dead. And yet in the grounds you could feel
radiations as you walked round the garden. Try to see it as a plant
which has finished flowering for the season and is being cut down until
there is nothing left on top. To all outward appearances it looks dead,
and yet the life force is there in the very roots and at the right time it
will once again burst forth and flower and flourish. You ask when ?
This I cannot say. It may be that the life force will have to lie dormant
for a long while, but I want to assure you that at the right time it will
once again burst forth into great glory. All the radiations, all the love
that was put into that place has indeed fallen on to fertile soil and can
never wither away and die, but lies safe and sound ready to come forth
at the right time.”

We were sure the way would open up for us to return to Cluny Hill. We knew all along that it could only be a matter of time – and that is all it was.

The following extracts are from letters written by Peter Caddy to Anne ‘Naomi’ Edwards.

4 June 1957

This hotel is an example of how the New Age of love will work. It is a small part of God’s kingdom down here on earth. We now have a staff of well over thirty who have been chosen by God and directed here. All are working together in harmony as a perfect team. Many of the staff who have long experience in working in hotels have never seen anything like it, never been so happy in their lives. My General Manager [Mrs Bruce], a woman responsible for 21 hotels, knows this hotel is being run under God’s direction. She accepts all I say and request because she knows it comes from God. That in itself is a miracle. The editor of the Sunday Mail wanted to do an article on the hotel because the proof of the pudding is in the eating and here is an example. He went to see Mrs Bruce to ask her permission which she has not been able to give because of a certain amount of opposition by the Directors to any sort of publicity in connection with these articles [the ‘nameless ones’ press controversy. See the file ‘Sheena Govan: My Life‘].

23 June 1957

Now all the heads of departments know that it is God who is running this hotel. When there are any problems which they bring to me, and which I take to God through Eileen, they act quite naturally from what God has said.

22 August 1957

It is thrilling to know that the kingdom of Heaven which St Peter talked about in the gospels and thought was going to come about in his lifetime, two thousand years ago, is now being brought down to earth here at Cluny Hill, this place which God has chosen. Out of all the earth it is here that the world will see an example of what the kingdom of Heav-en is like. It is here that the work of St Peter in those days of old will come to reality.

3 November 1957

Two months ago we again hit the headlines in the Sunday newspapers, under the heading of ‘The Heavenly Hotel’. The article described how a luxury hotel for millionaires was run by God. The Managing Director was furious. He wanted us chucked out forthwith. By following God’s minute directions and with the help of Mrs Bruce this was avoided. In fact, I was given the sack but refused to go.

12 March 1959

The hotel has been built on the edge of a large mound at the back with paths winding up it. About a hundred years ago trees were planted to cover this hill. Now under God’s guidance these have all been cut down and the mound has been tidied up. God has said this mound will be used in the future for many things, and is the centre of a great powerhouse. It is similar to the mound at Glastonbury [the Tor] which previously was the overlighting key station [in the Network of Light] for the British Isles.

13 January 1960

As you will see from what Dorothy has received from God today, her work will become increasingly connected with nature spirits:

“Remember your Sufi teaching on the four representative forms for earth, water, fire and air, which always seemed too mystical to be of any practical use ? I tell you it will be of more practical use in the future than any learning ever gained in years at University, and I want you to become impregnated with such symbolism, for it is the basic out of which form is forged. The uses will be made clear even if now they are not.”

Dorothy has just obtained a book about fairies and nature spirits [possibly Geoffrey Hodson’s ‘Kingdom Of The Gods’]. I am sure you will be interested in the following message she also received today:

“The responsibility which I give to My nature spirits is directly theirs; though all power come through Man, yet like Love and Light are the two necessary in creation. When the worlds were formed I breathed My breath of life and through the ages built up a world and all upon it for the use of My child, Man, but now that the child will destroy My creation, he will also rebuild it for habitation. And so cooperation between Man and nature is necessary as never before. A great work this is, to be done in the joy of the Lord.”

This throws more light on the work of the nature spirits, which you and I seem to have rather left out of the scheme of things in the past. This is where Dorothy and her work will fill in the gap.

17 January 1960

A year ago the grounds were an overgrown wilderness, parts of which had never been cultivated, and the view from the hotel drive was obscured by over-crowded trees. I had a vision of how the grounds could be made into a garden, but Mrs Bruce was opposed to taking down trees. A year later a garden has been created exactly as I originally wanted it. Even the elements have helped by twice blowing down trees across the drive, giving me good excuse for having the remainder of them down, which, as I have told you, was because they harboured the powers of darkness, most of them being old dying trees.

It seems as though the creation of this garden is training for the recreation of the world after destruction, and I’m sure that with the cooperation of the nature spirits a garden of great beauty will be created here.

21 April 1960

We have been tremendously busy over the Holiday Weekend. I have been working flat out from 7.30 in the morning until well after midnight. We had 45 guests on the first night and over a hundred two nights later, and to get the wheels turning with some new staff was no small undertaking. It is so important that every guest feels he is made welcome and happy. At the same time the staff had to be welded into a happy working team and any who did not respond to the atmosphere have to be replaced.

Eileen too has been very very busy. In addition to the flowers and of course the children, she has been in charge of the hotplate in the kitchen. That is, she receives the orders from the waiters and waitresses and calls them out to the kitchen staff.

Lena [Lamont] is desperately needed as a channel for love. She started at Cluny Hill today and is responsible for the staff hall, looking after the staff, cleaning their rooms, getting their meals etc. This will give her a wonderful opportunity to carry the love vibrations to them. She can do much to create the right atmosphere among the staff. The need for love has been shown to us very clearly; love to prepare the way, love to soften, love to heal and love to unite.

undated, May 1960

We’re fairly quiet in the hotel and our efforts are being directed to cleaning and polishing so the whole place gleams and sparkles. I’m sure this will help to prevent the powers of darkness from getting a grip and to make everywhere reflect the Light. We are also working hard in the garden to bring beauty and joy to all who come. Weeks of work that Paddy [Heffernan] and I have put in on the lawns surrounding the hotel are now paying dividends. As one comes up the drive and turns the corner there is a hotel standing in an oasis of brilliant emerald green which is symbolical, Cluny Hill being an oasis in a desert.

19 June 1960

We’re getting busier all the time. It is really wonderful to have a full house and so much activity going on. Evening entertainment that we are providing for guests is becoming more popular all the time, and artists, singers, dancers, musicians etc are coming up of their own free will to entertain our guests because they enjoy doing it. It is wonderful to see one’s ideas and visions for the hotel taking shape and being put into practice.

23 February 1961

Mrs Bruce is a very powerful woman with a strong character but opposing her is chicken feed compared to Sheena. I don’t think anything in this world could equal an onslaught from Sheena. She was used for the final testing of my ability to stand firm in the face of everything. I’m still having battles with Mrs Bruce. She’s trying to browbeat me and rule me through fear as she does everyone else. But she has never met anyone before who was so rock-like and refuses to be treated in this way.

undated, July 1961

It seems the vibrations are being considerably stepped up and the impact on individuals, particularly some of the staff, is devastating. It affects each one in a different way, and all their faults, failings and weaknesses are brought to the surface as they are brought into contact with the light. With all this turmoil going on Lena has had a difficult time in the Staff Hall, but as God has said so often, these are times of testing and training, so that each may learn to take every little problem to God, and to get His answer on what action is to be taken. We have to learn to obey immediately what we’re told to do. I find this is the only way one can possibly cope with all the many and varied situations that arise each day. At the same time a great deal of love has to be radiated to offset the impact of the light radiations on those who have had their weak points spotlighted.

undated, July 1961

The tests of Cluny Hill have been making things increasingly difficult for Mrs Bruce with the Directors, particularly as she’s poured money into another hotel, the Trossachs, and tried many of my material ideas for Cluny Hill there. But of course, without success, because she hadn’t the right person to run it, nor the right staff, nor, what is more important, the right spirit. So the Trossachs Hotel has been going from bad to worse and getting a dreadful reputation. Furthermore, the Managing Director, Mr Clarke, has not been able to withstand the light at Cluny Hill, with the result that he has only visited about once a year, and only for a short time when he could a corner in which to hide. He therefore was not at all sympathetic to the hotel and what was being done here, and the more successful we were, the more it hurt.

Two weeks ago I received a letter from Mrs Bruce to say it had been decided to transfer me from Cluny Hill to the Trossachs Hotel. She came to see us to discuss the matter, and we made it clear that the only place that mattered to us was Cluny Hill Hotel, and that it was the only place to which we could give the whole of ourselves. We could only work with love and we love Cluny Hill. I explained to her that I believed the darkness was increasing in the world. One could see it everywhere; it was like a bubbling cauldron. But at the same time the light was also increasing in certain centres of light. I said I believed Cluny Hill Hotel was one of these and that my place was here. I said I felt the world was heading for destruction if man did not change. She understood and accepted most of what I said but could not accept that God would only save a few places. She believed the good we had done at Cluny Hill would remain and we could go and do the same thing at the Trossachs. She was quite convinced it was right for us to go to the Trossachs, and she could see us there. She said it was a beautiful hotel, delightfully situated, that she’d bought a speed boat for water skiing, there were sailing boats, ponies, new tennis courts etc and she felt I would thoroughly enjoy myself organising it all, which from a human point of view of course is true.

After she left, God said we were to accept the Trossachs on a year’s trial on the understanding that if I was unhappy about the whole situation there, Mrs Bruce would do something about getting me back to Cluny Hill at the end of the year.

2 February 1962

We’ve now been given a date, March 9th, when we are to move to the Trossachs Hotel. We are told we have many lessons to learn by going there.

The following pieces of guidance regarding the running of the hotel were received mostly for Peter. Selections beginning ‘My child’ were for Eileen herself. Many more such examples are quoted in Peter and Eileen’s autobiographies (see reading list below).

10 February 1958

Miss M should have a nice, comfortable room because the staff have no sitting room, which can be brought up with Mrs Bruce. You may have to stick you neck out but you will know how to deal with it. Make it quite clear to Mrs B. the happiness of your staff means a great deal to you.

8 March 1958

This place is a demonstration of how a place like this can be run under My minute guidance. It is to prove to mankind that any business can be run under My guidance.

undated, March 1958

Make it clear that a private bathroom will be £10 extra and simply apologise for not making it clear in your first letter.

26 April 1958

My son, I have asked you to say very little about how this place is run. Simply let people feel it, sense it, but do not talk about it. Too many mistakes were made last year because there was unnecessary talk. It is easy after a few drinks to become very enthusiastic with someone who is particularly interested, and that is when damage can be done. Take heed of this and curb your tongue at times like these.

6 August 1959

My son, it is terribly important you make this place a financial success. That is something concrete that Mrs B. and the directors understand. Then you will be given much more freedom to do what I require with this place.

11 May 1961

My child, when you are doing the flowers, do not get depressed if you have not got the ones you want. Arrange what you have with Love in your heart and that way love will bring beauty to the flowers. When you are doing them I can use you in many ways. Every contact you have, be it staff or guest, can benefit by the contact if you keep close to Me. Consider the position each of you has been given: Dorothy in contact with most of the guests; Lena in touch with the staff, radiating love there, filling each room with the right vibrations; you mixing with the guests and staff; Peter circulating everywhere, upstairs and downstairs, in and out of the garden. All this is planting radiations everywhere. You see, you are all being used all the time, even if you are not conscious of it.

6 June 1961

My child, learn to be more tolerant with those who drink. I know how hard you find this, but I will help you. See the good in all you come into contact with, guests or staff, other-wise you become critical, and that hard streak comes out in you and love cannot flow.

8 April 1962

My child, concentrate fully on this place [Trossachs Hotel] and leave Cluny Hill in my hands. Stop looking into the future. Let me take care of that. As long as there is that feeling of ‘we shall go back to Cluny Hill someday’ I cannot use you fully. Let go and let me take it all over.

24 July 1962

In this place much love needs to be radiated out. Often it is a shield to protect you from the powers of darkness. The Trossachs is my final test.