In essence the vision for the Community, birthed on the Findhorn Bay Caravan Park in 1962, is for it to be ‘a place where God’s work is done’. This is certainly what the four founders implemented in their daily life. As early Community member Angus Marland used to say: “This is not an intentional community but an intended community.”
However, as the West African fable about God’s Hat*) demonstrates, people can’t ever make life that easy, as expressing experience in words and concepts is a fundamentally human gift/need and the resulting burden is for all of us to bear.
So there have been many expressions of Vision over the last 60+ years and we will continue to collate them as part of our collective autobiography. Each one describing an inspirational aspect of our God’s Hat, and yes, sometimes the farmers may shout ‘It’s black! …. No, no, no, it’s definitely red! …..’ .
Let us reach for the unifying strength each of the statements can bring.
To begin with, a couple of quotes:
“It started as a family, it is now a community; it will grow into a village, then into a town and finally into a vast city of light.”
Eileen Caddy
Click arrow for whole quote.
In 2002 Eileen Caddy wrote in her autobiography “Flight into Freedom and Beyond” (page 235)
The idea of the community as an Ecovillage was growing, consistent with my vision many years before: “I want you to see this centre of light as an ever-growing cell of light. It started as a family, it is now a community; it will grow into a village, then into a town and finally into a vast city of light. It will progress in stages and expand very rapidly. Expand with the expansion. The foundations go very, very deep and are built on rock. Therefore it now does not matter how fast the growth takes place. It does not matter how great it grows.”
“The spirit and vision of Findhorn has spread across the globe, planting seeds of change, even while the Foundation itself is changing into something new. The impulse to awaken within humanity awareness of the sacredness of all things continues unabated.”
David Spangler
Click arrow for whole quote.
David Spangler says in an introduction to his Anthology Vision of Findhorn 45 years after its publication:
“There is a spiritual underpinning to our physical world and embodied lives, and there continues today as strongly as in the past an outreach from the spiritual realms to infuse human understanding with a presence of love and a sense of the interconnectedness and wholeness of the world, an interconnectedness that includes the invisible realms of spirit. The Findhorn Community and Foundation emerged as a dynamic expression of this outreach, and that work continues today.
The spirit and vision of Findhorn has spread across the globe, planting seeds of change, even while the Foundation itself is changing into something new. The impulse to awaken within humanity awareness of the sacredness of all things continues unabated.”
On a different note (pun intended), music may make it easier to reach across differences in expression. Here are three Community songs which capture the Community Vision in their own unique ways. Have Fun!!!
One Incredible Family by Hans Poulsen
You can listen to it in the Music from the Magic Garden programme.
Lyrics:
Out on the road lighten your load
we really begin to see
just how we can help our world to understand
what’s happening interplanetarily
(yes sirree!)
’cause we’re gonna build another
Garden of Eden
where we can really grow
children of love, children of light
so everyone can know…
we belong to
One incredible family
unbelievable love
One incredible family
coming down from above
Life, she is incredible when we finally recognise
the love between our brothers and our sisters
working side by side
I Dreamed a Dream by Patti Weber Lightstone
Performed by the New Troubadours, this song is featured in Music from the Magic Garden. Click this link for a rendition by Sabine Mehlberg in 2020.
Lyrics:
I dreamed a dream a long time ago, ’bout a land where the rivers run wild;
where flowers grow wherever they choose and the breezes flow gentle and mild;
where the trees stand in silence yet singing their song, in natural harmony;
where the Earth freely gives to nurture all life, and creation is boundless and free.
I dreamed a dream a long time ago about people who know how to live.
Their words and their deeds are simple and pure, and their love they most willingly give.
Each day of their lives is a reverent prayer, their joy fills each moment with light,
and the peace found within is reflected without, like a day softly echoed by night.
My dream slowly fades with the passing of time, yet my vision grows clearer each day.
I know what a wonderful world it will be when we each learn the part that we play.
But each one of us must find the truth for ourselves, and live it the best that we can;
and I’ll sing my song just as you will sing yours, what a beautiful vision for Man!
Building A City of Light by Mike Scott
click here to listen to Mike Scott’s Building A City of Light
Lyrics
I set my shoulder to a brand new groove
Building the city of light
Something wonderful on the move
Building the city of light
I’m laying roots, planting seeds
Building the city of light
Grateful to give whatever it needs
Building the city of light
I’m using my head, using my heart
Getting the balance right
I’ve got the horse before the cart
I’m using bricks and sticks and stones
Building the city of light
And sweat and soul and blood and bones
Building the city of light
Technology, imagination
Building the city of light
Trust, belief and dedication
Building the city of light
I’m using my brains, using my balls
Keeping the goal in sight
Feeling at heart a part of it all
I’m writing songs, singing ’em out
Building the city of light
I live the things I’m singing about
Building the city of light
I’m working on myself and my stuff
Building the city of light
I just keep going when the going gets tough
Building the city of light
Facing my beast, facing my fears
Loving the darkness bright
I’m like a mirror when the shadow clears
Got no politics, got no price
Building the city of light
I don’t need saved, I don’t need advice
Building the city of light
I don’t need freed, I’m already free
Building the city of light
All the answers I need are inside me
Building the city of light
All may change in the blink of an eye
All may change in the blink of an eye
***
In 2024 the Community has, yet again, addressed the questions of identity, purpose and cohesion. As the Findhorn Foundation (FF) has stepped back, the Community decided to take on the mantle of responsibility for the Park Ecovillage by buying many of the assets previously owned by the FF.
We find ourselves in turbulent times triggered by a polycrisis (pandemic, Brexit, economic downturn, the FF redundancies, loss of the Community Centre and the Park Sanctuary in the fires in April 2021), a microcosmic expression of the global turbulence challenging humanity and our planet at this time. And we are moving forward with confidence that together we can make a difference …
In a Community Constellation event in August 2023 it was Common Vision that at the end brought the collective together. Throughout 2023 and 2024 looking at our Community Purpose, Vision and Aims was an ongoing component of the work around the Local Place Plan and the setup of the new Ecovillage Findhorn Community Benefit Society.
This resulted in the following
Shared Community Purpose
Park Ecovillage Findhorn Community
a loving, regenerative, spiritual community
Our purpose:
To be a thriving, regenerative community,
consciously co-creating with all life,
putting our spiritual principles into practice
to support and learn from each other,
as a positive contribution to planetary
service and transformation
The purpose of our Community is to be a place of inspiration and transformation — a centre of love and light, a centre of fiery hope. We hold a positive vision for humanity and the Earth, a commitment to deep and practical spirituality and to true ecology — caring for each other and caring for our planet. We seek to raise awareness individually and collectively in our day-to-day activities and radiate this out into the world. We hold a deep longing for humanity to live in peace and with gratitude and respect for the natural world.
We are a living, dynamic, practical experiment, building and seeking to demonstrate in physical form what is possible by working together as an intentional Community. We seek to create and hold spaces that are caring for the soul – places of beauty where we leam and practice the healing power of love. We seek to be visionary, vital, vibrant and viable on this Earth.
Part of our history and spiritual architecture has been three guiding principles for how to live and work in our Community. These principles are: inner listening, work is love in action, and co-creation with the intelligence of Nature. They continue to guide us today as articulated in our Common Ground statement. Individually we respond in different ways to the call of this centre. We welcome this diversity. Together we aspire to respond to the call of the world, to the call of our time.
Marilyn Hamilton has been co-leading many of those events, and wrote about them both in the Rainbow Bridge and in her own blog:
She summarises the Shared Community Purpose in her ‘elevator pitch’:
More than an ecovillage …
We are a thriving, regenerative, spiritual community
Hospitable to the Soul of Planet, Place, People, Person.
***
True to the motto of our collective autobiography
“As we honour the past, we meet in the present and together we step into the future”
we offer the following synopsis of past vision and purpose statements in roughly reverse chronological sequence.
We have connected all the posts through the category Community vision and purpose so that you can find the collection in one click.
(For ease of seeing the extent of the sections we have used the function to collapse much of the text – just click on the arrow on the left to expand that section.)
In 2018 the Collaboration Circle offered the following Whole Community Purpose as a 1st draft – an invitation to a conversation. Whilst it has never been formally adopted it is regularly read out (in parts or as a whole) at beginnings of meeting – large and small.
click here to read the text of the Whole Community Purpose
Co-Creating A Thriving And Loving World
As a conscious community, we strive to demonstrate a practical spirituality in harmony with nature, and play our part to positively transform humanity and the earth
The purpose of the whole Community is to be a place of inspiration and transformation – a centre of love and light, a centre of fiery hope. We hold a positive vision for humanity and the Earth, a commitment to deep and practical spirituality and to true ecology – caring for each other and caring for our planet. We seek to raise awareness individually and collectively in our day-to-day activities and radiate this out into the world. We hold a deep longing for humanity to live in peace and with gratitude and respect for the natural world.
We are a living, dynamic, practical experiment, building and seeking to demonstrate in physical form what is possible by working together as an intentional Community. We seek to create and hold spaces that are caring for the soul – places of beauty where we learn and practice the healing power of love. We seek to be visionary, vital, vibrant and viable on this Earth.
Part of our history and spiritual architecture has been three guiding principles for how to live and work in our Community. These principles are: inner listening, work is love in action, and co- creation with the intelligence of Nature. They continue to guide us today as articulated in our Common Ground statement. Individually we respond in different ways to the call of this centre. We welcome this diversity. Together we aspire to respond to the call of the world, to the call of our time.
In 2016 the Community Change Working Group (CCWG) offered the following vision statement
- The Findhorn Community is a centre of light with clear, coherent and empowering governance structures.
- The Findhorn community acts as a model and experiment for societal change and spiritual, sustainable, co-creative living.
- The people of the Findhorn community are engaged, connected and inspired.
Click here for organisational vision statements collated by NFA following the 2018 CCWG review report.
NFA – An evolving diversity of people living in loving alignment with spirit in joyful co-creation and in grateful service to the earth.
FF Vision – The Findhorn Foundation is part of a spiritual community, ecovillage and an international centre for holistic learning, helping to unfold a new human consciousness and create a positive and sustainable future.
FF Living purpose is: ‘Transforming human consciousness in every day life, to bring new possibilities into the world’
PET (Park Ecovillage Trust) – Our vision is of a community that demonstrates a thriving, sustainable, loving way of life.
NFD – Working in the world of business and commerce, NFD consciously strives to embody the guiding principles and ethos of the Findhorn Foundation in its daily work
EKOPIA Our Formal Objects are: “To carry on for the benefit of the community the promotion of rural regeneration and sustainable economies by the provision of financial assistance, technical assistance, business advice or consultancy including support for businesses which promote organic production, fair trade, ecological practices, renewable energy, the retention of land on trust and affordable housing”
Chris Alder’s developmental vision for the change process: We are better able to create and maintain a sense of vibrant cohesion, where everyone takes more ownership and responsibility and is held lovingly accountable for their actions. Grounded in our spiritual roots we are better able to creatively embrace change, face power issues and be a shining example to the world of what sustainable co-creation on all levels looks like.
We thank David Harrison, former Listener/Convenor, for finding the file.
In 2012 Common Ground Statement
From the 1990s the Community and Findhorn Foundation used two different versions of a Common Ground Statement. For the 50th Birthday in 2012 a group finally created a single version accepted by all. It also gave the name for the Community – Findhorn Foundation Community.
Full text of Common Ground Findhorn Foundation Community
In service to spirit, humanity and the earth
we hold in common the following Principles, Essence and Guidelines
Principles
Deep inner listening
Co-creation with nature
Love in action
Essence
We live in clarity and integrity, and seek nothing less than truth.
We live in openness with deep listening, and seek nothing less than communion.
We live in gratitude and open-heartedness, and seek nothing less than love.
We live in courage and willingness, and seek nothing less than our soul’s path.
We live in cooperation and shared vision, and seek nothing less than alignment with Spirit.
We live in awareness and responsibility, and seek nothing less than peace.
We live in acceptance and surrender, and seek nothing less than freedom.
Guidelines
1. Spiritual Practice
I have an active spiritual practice to align with spirit and support me to work for the highest good.
2. Service
I bring an attitude of service to others and to our planet, recognising I must also consider my own needs.
3. Personal Growth
I am committed to the expansion of human consciousness and my own personal growth. I endeavour to recognise and change personal attitudes and behaviour patterns that are limiting.
4. Integrity
I embody congruence of thought, word and action. I take responsibility for the spiritual, environmental and human effects of my activities.
5. Respecting Others
I wholeheartedly respect other people – their differences, views, origins, backgrounds and issues. I respect all forms of life and the Community’s and other people’s property.
6. Direct Communication
I use clear and honest communication with open listening, heart-felt responses, loving acceptance and straightforwardness. I talk to people rather than about them. In public and in private I do not malign or demean others. I may seek helpful advice but do not seek to collude.
7. Reflection
I recognise that anything I see outside myself—any criticisms, irritations or appreciations—may also be reflections of what is inside me, and I commit to looking at these before addressing others.
8. Feedback
I am willing to listen to constructive feedback and work with it. I offer feedback to others in a caring and appropriate way to challenge and support each other to grow.
9. Nonviolence
I do not inflict my attitudes or desires on others. Where appropriate I step in and stop violence, manipulation or intimidation of myself or others, or at least say that I would like it to stop.
10. Perspective
For the benefit of the whole Community I may need to put aside my personal issues. I acknowledge that there may be wider perspectives than my own and deeper issues than those I am immediately aware of.
11. Cooperation
I clearly communicate my decisions to others who may be affected by them, and consider their views respectfully. I recognise that others may make decisions which affect me, and I respect the care and integrity they have put into their decision-making process.
12. Peacekeeping
I make every effort to resolve disputes. I may call for an advocate, friend, independent observer or mediator to be present, and will use and follow the Community’s grievance procedures as necessary.
13. Agreements
I respect the law of the land, keep agreements I have made, and do not break or try to evade any Community guidelines.
14. Commitment
I bring the spirit of this statement of Common Ground to all my dealings.
In 2010 – the Governance Round Table
- A centre of inspiration and demonstration of integrated and sustainable living, in which
the ‘I’ is surrendered to the ‘we’ and the ‘we’ is surrendered to God – Robin Alfred - The Park Ecovillage is:
A sustainable village for its multigenerational community
A campus of demonstration of applying spiritual principles to life on many levels.
In 2004 David Spangler hosted an online Forum entitled Standing In The Soul Of Findhorn
for Findhorn Community members on the Lorian website (Sept-Oct 2004).
It is difficult to condense this inspiring in-depth exploration. So we limit ourselves to the bullet points listed:
-
- A Community of Calling
- A Community of Emergence
- A Community of Witness
- A Community of Co-Creation
- A Community of Embodiment
- A Community of Calling
- A Community of Emergence
- A Community of Witness
- A Community of Co-Creation
- A Community of Embodiment
In 1994 Alex Walker writes in The Kingdom Within – Role of the Foundation and Membership
Vision Statements
Ideally an organisation would have one simple statement which sums up its main aims. This task of drawing up such a declaration, and achieving collective support for it is not so easy as it may seem, and there have been a number used by the Foundation in the past. The only one which is currently accepted, although in fact little used is:
“The Findhorn Foundation honours the divinity within all life through active service to God, humanity and nature to achieve individual and planetary transformation.”
This was conceived and accepted in 1992. More recently an attempt was made to change this to a longer and more comprehensive series of statements under the heading “The Findhorn Foundation – Celebrating the Divinity Within All Life”, but this did not find overall approval at a Community meeting called to discuss it in the autumn of 1993. The first statement still stands therefore.
An older statement, drawn up by Core Group in 1989 is still sometimes used.
“We are a spiritual centre of transformation, education, healing, and demonstration, working with the qualities of love and wisdom to embody a vision of God, humanity and nature in co-creation and thereby offering hope, vision, inspiration and encouragement.”
Even more simply the statement is also occasionally referred to.
“We are here to create a positive vision for humanity and the planet.”
In 1987 Lucia Spowers handed Michael Dawson some files with a note saying “Recently discovered in a treasure trove of old files, this is timeless material particularly “timely” today. Well worth reading.” Michael typed it all up, entitled The Spirit of Findhorn, and it was widely distributed amongst members at the time. Lucia’s note as pertinent today as it was then.
In the 1980s Eileen Caddy typed out a sheet of questions which she signed. It was found hanging up on various notice boards and some Community members copied it and took it home for their personal reflection.
1977 – The Community had grown significantly and core group wrote
If we as a community are to unfold the vision of Findhorn then we must become familiar with and learn how to work the Laws of Manifestation. The first stage of manifestation has been called by David Spangler that of Right Identity.
They offered a document entitled FINDHORN: AN AGREEMENT TO SERVE and invited the Community to meditate and share about it.
This document has received renewed attention in the Community processes in 2023 and a group has formed to come together every week to honour this impulse.
The Agreement to Serve is a commitment to embody spiritual principles in day to day living as a basis to shape the future of the Findhorn community.
The Agreement to Serve group is one of the 12 groups that arose through the Alternative Call for Ideas in August 2023. We are inspired by the core group principles stated in 1967 and 1977 in the Findhorn papers.
We agree to re-dedicate ourselves to regular spiritual practice, share with each other about it, inspire each other, create a Celebration of Spirit on a regular basis, and share our inspiration with our guests and our young people.
The following principles are guiding stars to aspire to in our day to day lives.
– We are choosing to align ourselves with the purpose of Findhorn as a Center of co-operation and co-creation with the angelic, human and nature kingdoms. – Findhorn is a theocracy, founded as a direct result of God’s guidance and the recognition of the indwelling divinity of all life.
– Findhorn is a sacred womb from which a new human culture and civilisation is waiting to be born.
– Findhorn is a centre of light dedicated to world service and through this service personal growth takes place.
– We all partake in the running of this Centre of Light according to the measure or quality of our attunement to the Divine central vision.
– Through the love we share with each other and with the Earth we become builders of the planetary network of light, the living embodiment of Christ consciousness on Earth.
We understand that it takes each one of us to bring about this vision here in Findhorn, together with all other precious fellow human beings who have been drawn here by the same purpose.
What is asked of us living here is that we give ourselves to the unfoldment of this Centre of Light. It is a soul commitment to serve the vision of Findhorn and through this surrender to God / Source we ourselves will unfold and evolve.
1976 – The Findhorn Foundation published Anthology Vision of Findhorn a compilation of shorter writings of David Spangler ‘with the aim to give a more comprehensive view of his perspective on the community and his understanding of its vision and purpose’.
1974 – Eileen Caddy received guidance that states: ‘this place, this Centre of Light, needs to be really sound and running smoothly, for this is a centre of demonstration and a University of Light’ (In Perfect Timing (p 333) by Peter Caddy)
1970-1973 – The New Age Vision Study Paper – this material in 12 chapters represents information shared by David Spangler with the Community during those years. With an Author’s Note from 2023.
1969 – in The Findhorn Garden Parts 1-4 Peter Caddy describes the Community as ‘an experiment in co-operation between three kingdoms: that of Man, that of the Devas and that of the Nature Spirits’.
In his autobiography In Perfect Timing he writes: ‘Findhorn could be seen as a community, as a spiritual community, as a University of Light, as a Mystery School’ (p329)
1967 – The Covenant of Findhorn
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*) You can find a summary of the story of God’s Hat and its meaning here.
***
This Topic is brought to you by Cornelia Featherstone and Sylvia Robertson with wonderful support from Alex Walker, David Spangler and David Harrison – September 2023.
Updated by Cornelia Featherstone in June 2024 with support from Marilyn Hamilton.
Updated by Cornelia Featherstone in February 2025 when the new Shared Community Purpose was published.
Photo credit: featured image – Next Steps on Purpose Doodle by Community member Rosie Balyuzi – doodlesurfer, photo Cornelia Featherstone
***
Topics are a ‘reader’s digest’, a summary of essential Community facets offering a compilation of posts for further information. Click here for a list of Topics we have produced so far.
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The inspiration of Findhorn has gone through a continuing process of becoming more and more grounded and less exclusive, or more open. Imagine a Findhorn running courses in conjunction with the NHS treating people with anxiety and depression through courses using mindfulness and possibly even spirituality. It would officially become part of mainstream culture.