Findhorn Ecovillage

Findhorn Ecovillage, according to research done in 2006 has the smallest ecological footprint of any community studied in the industrialized world and its residents have about half the impact of a typical citizen of the United Kingdom. First famed for its "miracle garden" it is now the largest ecovillage in Scotland and a major teaching center with approximately three thousand participants from around the globe coming to take part in a range of workshops, programs and events each year. 

In my study of intentional community over the past 25 years, finding an old picture book about Findhorn Ecovillage in the Homestead library here was like finding a treasure box that is still revealing to me it's contents of knowledge, clues and inspiration about how to lay the foundation for a community to birth, and flourish in this world. Grainy black and white photos and fascinating, often discouraged yet persevering personal accounts of community members fill the tattered book published in 1980.  

The Founders, Peter and Eileen Caddy, inspired by the countercultural reawakening of the 1960s--arrived at a trailer park in 1962 and embarked on this adventure into sustainable living and spiritual exploration. They started a garden, and, to their surprise the rich soils of Findhorn Bay began supplying them with a huge array of vegetables, herbs and flowers.  

By 1970, Findhorn was a group of ten people living in a trailer park with no money but through visioning and meditating together, building and passionate gardening, they quickly grew to 45 with hundreds of visitors coming each year. One resident Stephen writes, "It's not like walking down the streets of Boston where people are surprised if you look at them. People here expect you to be aware enough of your own feelings, your own beingness, so that you can be open and share with other people, and not hide those parts of you that aren't feeling good, that are boring, that are difficult."

In the beginning of the book, Faces of Findhorn, Peter and Eileen give some straight-up advice about how to begin, some basic downloads about how to start a community. Peter's advice especially reverberates clearly and powerfully as I work diligently forward, in this process of cleaning, building, visioning for what many call an impossible endeavor of creating a land-based intentional community(Ohana) and Learning and Healing Center.

Peter: People often ask me how to go about starting a community such as Findhorn. One way you don't do it is by advertising for other to come and join you. That's putting the cart before the horse, and its not the way to attract people anyway.  

The people are important and what they are is more important than what they know, but first you must have a vision. You need to have a vision of why you want to start a community and then sound that note and those who resonate to that note will be drawn to you.

Also in my experience, you must be sure you're going to start in the right place: a place of spiritual power to which you feel drawn nodules /acupuncture/chakras point on the planet - centers of light, different centers for different purposes like chakras for different purposes in the body.

If guided from within to form a center, then it's worth remembering that it's the foundation that takes the time in constructing a building, because it has to be solid. Groundwork has to be dug deep from deep within so that the whole structure can withstand the storm and stresses that undoubtedly will come.

A community needs to be clear about its own identity with its vision. If people come and they don't identify with that vision, then it should be made clear that it is the wrong place for them. They should go to another group that is more in harmony. So, it is important that you keep a clear vision of the role, function and purpose for the community.

To start a community, I believe you need strong leadership with the vision to get it under way and with the ability to make decisions. Then later you can evolve into group consciousness. I know of no successful community that started as a group.

It's also essential to stress that a strong initial vision is not the same as a blueprint. Supposing we had been told right at the beginning what Findhorn was going to develop into? We wouldn't have believed it. So we were given a little at a time, that led us to the importance of living in the moment in the "now", concentrating on one step at a time and finishing off to perfection one job at a time. You can only do that if you are willing to be led intuitively from one stage of growth to the next.

Another vital lesson in starting to work with any building or area is to clean it from top to bottom. That clears out all the darkness and puts in vibrations of love and light. There is an occult reason for this, in that forces of darkness can always find a niche where there is dirt and disorder.

We also learned how essential it is to start a new venture in a consciousness of love and peace. If any of us were in disharmony or upset or feeling negative we would stop working and find that inner center so that the right vibrations could be put into what we are doing. Those vibrations are what set up a magnetic force field that draws people to you.

Peter goes on to say....

I think that we are living in the most exciting period of history, a time of great change and transformation. How quickly this transformation comes about depends on how all of us experience it in our lives; how much love and light we can embody; how well we form together in groups and families to live in love and harmony. Centers of Light are emerging throughout the world as catalysts and points of stability, and the network of Light is growing strong as people move between these centers. Times of political, social and economic turmoil are ahead, and I see that in coming years the world will need centers of stability, of love and light, balance and synthesis. It is important that these centers be linked up and that we each find that synthesis within ourselves.

Today Findhorn has approximately three hundred residents of diverse nationalities and religious and spiritual backgrounds. "The project has changed in size and structure, yet the essence of the place is still the same.", says a pioneer member, Craig Gisone. In the beginning Findhorn was more spiritual, but worked very intensely with the forces of nature. As it is in permaculture: work with nature, not against nature. In the context of increasing global awareness about climate change and peak oil, Findhorn's achievements and evolution are taking an ever-greater significance.

Excerpts and photos from the book: 

Faces of Findhorn-- Images of a Planetary Family by the Findhorn Community 

and from the book:

Sustainable [R]evolution by Juliana Birnbaum and Louis Fox and from the Findhorn website: www.Findhorn.org