25th March 1973 INTRODUCTION TO FINDHORN 

Peter Caddy, David Spangler, The New Troubadours & The Beautiful Vision performing arts group. Held at Westminster Theatre, London, and often referred to as The Westminster Conference. Sponsored by Speakers International.

Peter describes the event in the next Findhorn News published in June 1973:

London Conference

The London Conference, held at the Westminster Theatre on 25th March 1973, was attended by over 450 people. Thirty-seven of us travelled down by coach from Findhorn to London overnight on Friday, going straight to the theatre after breakfast for a rehearsal and returning overnight on Sunday evening. The Westminster Theatre, which is run by Moral Rearmament, was an ideal setting in which to present Findhorn. On entering the large foyer there was a display of crafts, pottery, weaving, macrame, silkscreen printing etc. from the Findhorn studios, together with a bookstand for our literature and a display of photographs. Findhorn and the spirit behind the community were portrayed not only by lectures, but through audio-visual presentations with music, song, dance, and drama. Speakers International Agency Ltd., organised the conference very efficiently and the management and the staff of the Westminster Theatre were most generous with their help and cooperation. A happy and warm atmosphere pervaded the whole conference. These are some of the comments of those who came:

THANK YOU. “Thank you for a wonderful Sunday. I hope you will convey those thanks to all at Findhorn. Not just those who performed for us in London, but everyone at Findhorn, for each one who is a part of Findhorn is responsible for what Findhorn does.”

D.E.

AURA OF WHOLENESS. “Thank you for a beautiful and inspiring day. At the time one was absorbed in listening and watching, but in retrospect one carried away an aura of wholeness, beauty, hope, and great sweetness.”

I.H.

A GREAT IMPACT. “The presentation was very straightforward and quite delightful. I for one had never imagined Findhorn to be so beautiful and so colourful! The photographic team are to be highly commended; so too are the dancers with their delightful costumes.

The whole atmosphere of beauty, light and colour, made a great impact which will long remain.”

THE POWERS OF FINDHORN. ‘”Yes, you succeeded! and more so. How you all looked and kept so radiant and energetic all day after the preparation that must have preceded the day of the audio-visual presentation live and photographic, as well as the coach trip you endured for us all, was example itself of the powers of Findhorn. A wonderful interest-packed day.

To suggest an improvement is impossible, but one thing springs to my mind: could we hear more of what the people that have stayed and benefited from being with you all, are now doing? They come and go out into the world, but it would be good to hear how they feel and react and put into action the inner awareness that they found while at Findhorn.”

F.R.S.

EXPRESSED INWARD THINGS. “1 would like to thank you for the very interesting unusual day we spent with you and your ‘Findhorn Family.’ What came as a real surprise to us was the wealth of varied, entertaining colour photos that threaded through the whole day. We seemed to be listening to interesting talks for hours and all the time the words were being brought to life by the coloury moving background.

But it was later, in a feature called ‘From Soil to Soul’ that the colour photography became really wonderful. This soil to soul was a little work of art from beginning to end. It expressed inward things. There were some lovely moments in it.

Indeed it was just one lovely composition after another all the way through; colour harmonies, beautiful imaginative lighting, unusual points of view, and what I ioved very much, fragments of Nature sometimes photographed (and seen) in such a way that we (the onlookers) were made to sense the tremendous Power and Beauty within those creations, (something not ordinarily seen.) It was as if the mysterious life force itself that is behind and within all created things was bursting into visibility at that moment. It must have been some kind of photography plus, I think, to have been able to do this—a lovely dedicated mixture of technique, art and worship! Certainly along with the words and music it made this audio-visual presentation—Soil to Soul— a thing one loves to remember.’

RICHNESS IN FEELING. ‘ ‘It was very good that there was not too much emphasis on individual persons, such as the figure-heads, but that the whole thing was opened up with so much colour, sound etc.

The photographs were too beautiful to be true! The effect, when the crocus pictures and Lark and Craig’s dance were interchanged, was particularly lovely.

What was more important than anything else, though, was the richness in feeling that came across so strongly, building up throughout the conference. I hope it took hold of everyone.”

NEW VISION “With my husband I attended the Introduction to Findhorn conference in London and would like to convey to you our enduring gratitude for all that was so generously and joyfully given on that day. It has given us a new vision and a new impetus, especially as it happened to come at a particularly troubled time in our lives.

We have received the Findhorn literature for some years now, and it has always brought fresh inspiration. But to actually meet so many of you in person and feel the Findhorn consciousness brought it all perfectly into focus where before the vision had been less distinct.

R.C.

LIGHTNESS OF TOUCH’ “I take this thing so seriously that it may seem surprising that one of the things I was most grateful for was the lightness of touch, not to say clowning, of David Spangler, and above all the inspired even though Stanley Unwin-derived dottiness of the beauty-directo-bubble-compost of the Performing Arts lecture: because to say ‘touche’ to that even when you’re aching with laughter is a sure sign of sanity.”

L.R.

SAUCINESS. “l really approved of the sauciness and ‘micky-taking’ in the review at the end: the preacher skit, and cheeky dancing routine of ‘What is a Road?’ It is an extremely healthy thing if one can maintain an irreverent note along with the fundamental seriousness. Much more healthy to be able to have a good laugh about oneself. So do, DO keep that side of yourselves. It ties up with having one’s feet on the ground.”

S.G.

A SPIRITUAL EVENT. “l thought the Findhorn conference at the Westminster Theatre was the most moving presentation I had ever seen of anything. Conference seemed like such a feeble word for a spiritual event of such magnitude. I was grateful for the privilege of being able to go.”

G.H.

SPIRITUAL FOOD. “It was spiritual food. I feel strengthened and uplifted after it. Thank you.”

A.C.

GOD LIVING. “l thought the spiritual awareness came over very well and the power of the positive; and God living throughout His creation, resulting in an evolving harmony. Once again our congratulations to all on your London performance. It certainly re-charged our batteries!”

A.W.

GOD WORKING. “God is certainly working well through your great efforts. My wife and I were very pleased to find you are a community that is ‘out-going’ and not exclusive to keeping this consciousness to yourselves.

Thank you for a very informative insight into your consciousness at Findhorn.

J.W.

BLESSINGS. ‘ ‘The day flowed as a quiet peaceful stream and we drank to our fill.

Sharing our gift, we ‘raised’ from ‘Old garments’ to new, darkness to light in love.

May we all “be strengthened with might(power) in the inner man.”

Blessings to all at Findhorn.”

D.W.
Peter Caddy

 

Anniese Giuntini Worth describes the event in her memoir My Generation, chapter 16, Roar of the Crowd.

Peter, our patron and benefactor, struck with the power that ‘theatre’ had to get a message across, asked us to prepare a show to take to the Westminster Theatre in London – promoting the work of the community – all proceeds going to “Amnesty International”, we were even allowed to rehearse during the daytime! As already mentioned, much of the material was pretty light hearted, think Aesop’s Fables meets Monty Python, with a sprinkle of fairy dust, a pinch of satire and some winning nuggets of wisdom derived from the vagaries of human behaviour – this basically constituted the drama aspect.

For this – our first variety show abroad, there was live music from “The New Troubadours”, Lark created some crazy choreography in the style of Broadway nineteen fifties with actual leap frogging over our partners backs! whilst singing our chorus line inspired verses composed by Ed and Michael about being a “working community” – complete with the mimed actions of digging and sweeping and polishing it was really cheesy but it worked. There were of course serious moments, a lovely sequence of colour slides that Crispin had put together. Crispin had been in the Royal Navy, he was one of the people in those first months at Findhorn who had knocked on our door at an unseemly hour asking for reception and we invited him in for a cup of tea, feeling instant warmth and friendship.

Crispin was a gifted photographer and had taken a lot of beautiful close-ups of vegetables, it doesn’t sound thrilling on paper but with sensitive narrative and the giant close ups of cross cuts of purple cabbage, tomato, cauliflower and the rest, the colours vibrant, it was extraordinary and the point being to encourage people to see the world of nature anew so the next time they prepared a salad or the vegetables for supper it wasn’t the “same old same old” attitude that sadly accompanies the tasks we carry out on a daily basis. In the early seventies it was pretty radical. Peter gave an inspiring talk on the Power of Community and there were slides of the gardens. The show was well received by a full house and after Peter’s talk and the question time that we all responded to, sitting around informally on the stage, we were given a standing ovation which was wonderful. I think we used the old R.A.F. bus to get us all there and back and us young ones spent a night in a noisy smelly Y.M.C.A. building.