Think wholeness,
be wholeness,
and manifest wholeness in your life.

Eileen Caddy – extract from Opening Doors Within 5th March

We were working on this Topic on the 5th March, so Eileen’s guidance felt like strong positive universal feedback that it is time to tell the history of Health and Wholeness in Community (again).

Eileen Caddy - one way of explaining this CommunityEileen put Healing with Unity at the centre of her diagram of interpenetrating circles which she used to explain her concept of the Community in the 1990s.

Healing and Wholeness have always been an aspect of the Community, not a central focus, more a basic ingredient, finding its expression in many different ways.

Mary Inglis gave a summary in the Health and Wholeness Issue of the OneEarth Magazine in 1981.

In many ways her description still applies today, even though names and details have changed. We are standing on the shoulders of giants as we address the needs of our Community today. Needs that are affected by the age demographic as we now have proportionally more olders (or elderberries as we like to call them), as well as the realities of our time.

Mary referred to a quote by Edward Bickford in an article in the same issue of the OneEarth magazine:

There is often as much healing work being done in the work place and in the group as there is in seeing an individual therapist or going to a healing session or medi­tation. And healing work itself tends to lose its emphasis on technique and to focus instead on consciousness, both of the practitioner and the ‘patient’.

In 1983 OneEarth magazine published related articles in Vol 3, Issue 3 HEALING: THE STATE OF THE HEART.

Health and Wholeness has found expression in many different ways:

  • Community Culture
  • Complementary therapies/practitioners
  • Care in Community
    • Hands-on
    • Funding
    • Accommodation
  • Education
    • workshops
    • conferences
    • research
    • publications (articles, book chapters and even a book)
  • Material infrastructure
  • Organisational structures:
    • Findhorn Foundation work departments – at Cluny and in the Park
    • Independent businesses and practices, one of the first was the Findhorn Bay Apothecary 1987-1991
    • Charities:
    • Associations: New Findhorn Association Community Care Circle from 2009 to date (later renamed Caring Community Circle)
    • Community Volunteer Groups including People Care Circle, Volunteer Action Group

These divisions are imprecise as with any organic development there is a lot of overlap in function and people. Anyway, dividing Health and Wholeness may well be a contradiction in terms. :-).

Over the decades expressions and organisational structures have changed – waxed and waned. The essence has been present throughout, as the Community is committed to social connection, inclusivity, and holistic well-being for all members.

Being part of the team bringing this Topic together Cornelia Featherstone reflects:

I have personally been part of at least 5 iterations of Health and Wholeness in our Community. There were several more before my time (which started in 1987), and new developments are unfolding as we write this.

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This Topic endeavours to bring together stories and documents to give a sense of this rich history and how it is expressed in our Community today. For a deep dive into the many different post we are offering various strategies:

  • We have collated a Timeline for Health and Wholeness in the Community to try and do justice to the many different aspects over time. We have embedded lots more links for further reading. Following those links is a great way to travel up and down, from bird’s eye view summaries deep into details (or down rabbit holes) and back again.
  • Evolution of a Caring Community is a detailed report from 2020 commissioned by the CCC to gather background information for grant applications etc.. The work was undertaken by Ilona Kaestner and we are grateful for her excellent work.
  • H&W tagThe tag Health and Wholeness is another way to deep dive and find the many posts related to this history.
  • COIF SearchUsing the SEARCH function, you can enter any term or name related to the history of Health and Wholeness and see what you find.

There are so many people who have contributed to Health and Wholeness in our Community over the decades – we hope you enjoy meeting old friends and memories and are enticed to add some of your own.

Often it is due to charismatic and/or dedicated individuals that this history has been shaped. In so many ways we are standing on the shoulders of giants. One of those ‘giants’  emerged in our research for this Topic in several articles published in the OneEarth Magazine, so we are delighted to feature Barbara D’Arcy Thompson as one of the trail blazing practitioners. Of course there are so many more, and were we to give a list, there would be a great risk that we would leave someone off. Instead we want to offer, for now, Barbara as a representative for the many.

So if you know the name of one of those champions, you can put their name in the Search and see if they have stories to tell. Not everyone is there yet – so if there is someone missing and you know their story/stories – please make sure that their contribution is honoured.

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Many people have worked together to make this Topic as comprehensive as we managed, and hopefully there will be more stories to give an increasingly complete picture:

  • present Caring Community Circle staff and volunteers (Laura Shreenan, Susie Kemp and Cornelia Featherstone)
  • present Healthworks staff and practitioners (Julie Lawrence and Irene Schenk)
  • past Holistic Health Care staff and practitioners (Barbara Vincent, Katie Lloyd, Courtenay Young)
  • COIF Core Team – Sylvia Robertson uploading previous publications, Liza Hollingshead editing and the rest of the team in many ways big and small
  • Alex Walker and Ian Rippon, and many more for invaluable additions

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Photo Credit featured image:  Meditation – by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay