The following excerpt is from Peter’s autobiography – In Perfect Timing.

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When Naomi’s work at Findhorn had been completed and she returned to the United States, we used her small caravan as a sanctuary for our meditations, but by the end of 1967 it had become too crowded. Eileen was given a vision of a cedarwood building to replace it, and Naomi’s caravan was moved to another site (where ROC would subsequently stay on his visits). …

… Eileen then again received a vision of the Sanctuary as a simple structure without any symbols or pictures on the wall, and with no altar: people coming from different spiritual paths or religions would thus all feel equally comfortable and at one when they gathered there. She also said that it should be a perfect Sanctuary, and that I would be guided in action; in fact I designed the building just five minutes later! I went down to see the Sectional Builder and said, ‘I want a building 24 feet by 24 feet’, as that was the first number that came into my head. It was to have windows and an annex. Dennis, John, and myself dug the foundations, which involved moving tons of sand and gravel. We mixed the concrete with shovels by hand, so that we could add our vibrations into the very foundations and into the ground.

The money for the building and furnishings came in amazing ways, including a generous gift from an anonymous donor. An army major and his family came and helped with the electrical work, installed the heaters and even put up the curtains. The major was a very meticulous person who fitted in perfectly. A friend, Geoff Everett, who had a furnishing business came and laid the green carpet that we had chosen, and would not let us pay for it. We had fifty chairs, but Eileen had guidance that we needed more. Although we had no money, I ordered another twenty, at a cost of ten pounds each. At that time we received a cheque from a Canadian lady whom we’d never met or heard of, for £200, so they were paid for. The curtains were to be magenta and the chairs gold, but gold material was difficult to find. Eventually we discovered some material made in Germany that could be scrubbed a hundred thousand times without wearing out. We asked Geoff to use this material to cover the chairs, but he wrote back that it was too good to be used on chairs; we eventually found some thin material and sent that off instead, but weeks later Geoff responded that the company refused to make them up, because it was not thick enough. We had forgotten that God had said, Count not the cost, and we had the chairs covered in the original gold material from Germany. Over twenty-five years later, these chairs still look as good as new. We had learned an important lesson.

Three days before the Sanctuary was due to open, we had a phone call to come and collect a parcel at the Forres railway station. It was a beautiful weaving, a panel depicting a sunrise, designed and woven especially for us as a gift from the Donavourd weavers at Pitlochry in central Scotland. It consisted of many colours or rays leading to its centre, a wonderful focal point for our meditations in the Sanctuary and a visual reminder that all paths lead to the one Truth of God.

We give thanks to Findhorn Press for the permission to offer such extensive quotes from In Perfect Timing, with Jeremy Slocombe & Renata Caddy, FPress, 1996. Available as e-book.