The Findhorn Garden

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THE FINDHORN GARDEN

by Wonderflight

"We gladly come to draw all of you into a new vision, for

an expanded consciousness is dawning upon all humanity

like the light of the sunrise falling on closed eyes.

Open your eyes and experience the freedom of joy."

The Devas

The Findhorn Garden

In the garden we feel that we are indeed pioneers

we are learning the very secrets of creation.

Peter

If I had stopped to question what we were doing or where we were going rather than proceeding in faith, step-by-step, the Findhorn garden could not have come into being. Certainly, the Findhorn Bay Caravan Park would have been the last place I would have chosen to live, least of all to start a garden. Driving past it on my way to Findhorn village, I had often thought "Fancy living in a place like that, cheek by jowl in those tiny caravans." Yet one snowy November day in 1962, I found myself moving our thirty-foot caravan trailer onto a site there. The six of us... my wife Eileen and myself, (Peter Caddy) our three boys, Christopher, Jonathan and David, and our colleague Dorothy Maclean--were to live in that small caravan for the next seven years. One day on the sand of this caravan park a garden would flourish and, eventually, a thriving spiritual community of nearly 200 people. We knew none of this at the time. We only knew that we had been led to this place by the guidance Eileen received in meditation.

During the previous ten years every action of our lives had been directed by this guidance from the voice of God within. If we were faithful to it we knew all our needs would be met and the nature of our work at Findhorn revealed. For five years before moving into that caravan at Findhorn, I had been the manager of a large< nearby hotel. During our time there, the hotel had trebled its financial takings and risen from a three to a four-star rating... all in accord with the direct guidance of God. You can imagine, then, what it was like to come from the lap of luxury... with a five-course dinner each night... to this caravan surrounded by gorse and broom, sitting on sand between a rubbish dump and a dilapidated garage. I was unemployed, with no prospects of a job, and the six of us were living on eight pounds (about twenty dollars) a week Unemployment Benefit. Looking at the facts alone, our situation was a disaster. However, the arduous spiritual training Eileen, Dorothy and I had undergone in our lives enabled us to accept this extraordinary state of affairs. We had learned to surrender everything, including our wills, to God. Thus, when we were told that what we were doing at Findhorn would be of importance to the world, that there was a pattern and plan behind it, impossible as this seemed considering our circumstances, we accepted it. When guidance told us not only to live in the moment but to enjoy it, that is what we set out to do. The boys reveled in the freedom of beaches to play on after the restrictions of a large hotel. The rest of us found the situation a challenge, an opportunity to apply the spiritual training we had received. One of the key lessons I had been given was to love wherever you are, whomever you are with and whatever you are doing. So I set to work to improve our surroundings, painting the inside and, when weather permitted, the outside of the caravan, as well as building an annex for Dorothy. Meanwhile, I went round for job interviews, certain that I would soon receive a position and we would move from the caravan park. Each week I queued up at the Labor Exchange with my former employees to collect my Personal pride never became an issue because I knew that what I was doing was right and in the divine plan. That was the only thing that mattered to me. The weeks of unemployment grew into months, the months into years, and I moved from Unemployment Benefit to National Assistance. Each time a job came up I did as guidance told me and went for an interview, but always something happened to prevent me from getting it, to the ever-increasing consternation of the authorities. At one point, after about four years of this, a lot of publicity arose in the Press about lay-about on National Assistance not doing enough to get themselves a job, with the result that I was asked to come before a special committee.

They learned from my record that I had been a senior officer in the Royal Air Force, manager of a prestige hotel, that I was a good organizer, efficient and extremely healthy. Then why was I without a job? Eventually, the Board sent one of their investigators around to see me. He had with him a fat file with a complete record of my efforts to obtain employment. After going through it, he looked up at me and said, "Would you say that God is preventing you from getting a job?" Amazed at his understanding, I replied. "Why, yes, indeed." "Well," he said, "then presumably if we cut off your money. God will provide for you. "He had played his ace card. "Yes...yes, I expect... yes, he would." So that is our first publication of Eileen's guidance. God Spoke to Me which we had sent out to a small mailing list. I started my first garden at Findhorn with no intention of it becoming a major project. While I had always been interested in gardening, I had actually done very little. Throughout our first winter in the caravan park, I spent the evenings and bad weather days poring over garden books of every conceivable point of view--organic and nonorganic, traditional and progressive... looking forward to a time when I might start my own garden into the North Sea waters of the Moray Firth and were exposed to near-constant winds from all sides with only a belt of conifers to the west to provide shelter. Worst of all was the soil: just sand and gravel held together by couch grass. Despite this, by springtime of 1963, since I was still without a job, I decided to begin a small garden. I erected a woven wooden fence on one side of the caravan to stop the sand from seeping in at the door and to give us a private place to sit outside. Inside this, I planned to lay a concrete square for a patio and leave a small patch, eleven feet by six feet, to grow a few radishes and lettuce. With no money to purchase the cement for this patio, we had to proceed in faith, knowing our needs would be met. As Eileen's guidance had told us: "Consider how I fed the children of Israel with manna from Heaven. Forty years in the wilderness I did it for them.

Why should not your every need be met? Are you not My chosen children? Have I not laid My hand upon you? Believe that all things are possible and make them so. ""Always remember, it was their daily needs I met. Therefore, never hoard anything. Whatever you have, use as a gift from Me and know there is plenty more where that came from. My gifts are unending, for all is Mine. Whenever you attempt to put something away for a rainy day, remember this, and you will cease looking ahead, you will cease looking behind, and you will live to the full, now. As your needs are met, give constant thanks." We went ahead and cleared an area for cementing. Sure enough, a few days later a neighbor came to tell us that a truck had just left a whole load of cement in bags, slightly damaged by water, in the dump across the road. Though it may seem an astounding coincidence, events like this had become normal in our lives. We could only be thankful and proceed. I collected several tons of the cement in the back of my car and completed the patio and a slab of concrete around the caravan . I hadn't found my winter research into gardening exactly encouraging. Most of the books, besides containing discrepancies, had been written for gardens in the south of England where the growing season and climate are far more favorable than they are in northeast Scotland. Furthermore, they were written for gardens with soil, and clearly what we had here was sand with a mass of stones and gravel about a foot below. To prepare for planting I had to remove the turf, a tangle of couch grass. I turned this upside down into the bottom of trenches eighteen inches wide by one foot deep and chopped it up thoroughly. Then the fine sand was replaced on top. We found the soil so dry that water formed bubbles on the top and ran off. Despite this, we sowed our first seeds.

At this time a job turned up which I thought I had a reasonable chance of landing, but again, somehow, it fell through. Eileen was very concerned about this recurring situation, but she received the guidance: "It is not right for Peter to have a job yet, but he must be willing to go for the interviews. You need not give them any force, and it will not come about. When he goes for interviews, he will have to let Me guide him in action." It seems I was being asked to concentrate on the garden and my work there. I decided to cultivate the area between the wooden fence and the garage. As there were a lot of rabbits about, I put up a wire fence to protect the plants and prepared the earth in the same way as before, only this time adding manure collected from a nearby riding stable. As time went on and prospective jobs fell through, I continued to add to the garden. Behind the garage was a piece of ground I could cultivate with enough extra space for compost heaps, which I felt were vital. During April I tackled this area and started collecting ingredients for compost. As with every other part of the garden, my training in positive thought and reliance on God... put into action through hard work... brought us everything we needed to transform the barren soil. We were off to a good start when we learned that a bale of straw had fallen off a truck on a nearby road. I jumped into my car and set out to find it. On the way back, I saw a young man whom I knew walking along the road and offered him a lift. Feeling a bit foolish with straw lying on the back seat of the car, I explained that I needed it for a compost heap I was starting. "Well," he said, "you know that field we just passed at the end of the road with horses in it." "Why don't you take the horse manure from there for your compost?" "But I don't know the people who own those horses," I replied. He said, "I own them." The next day we all went down in the car with bins, buckets and an old tin bath to collect horse manure for the compost heap. The owner of the caravan park delivered grass cuttings by the load. A shop in town gave us old potatoes and vegetables too spoiled to be sold. Dorothy and Eileen cut seaweed off the rocks on the shore by Findhorn village. This was cold, hard work but compost was vital to the garden. Another crucial ingredient was potash which comes from the ashes of wood fires. Since our only fuel was coal, I was constantly on the lookout for possible sources of wood ash. Whenever I saw smoke go up on the horizon, from fires connected with tree felling, off I would go to see what might be collected.

Every single ingredient in that compost gave us not only additional nutriment for the soil but an adventure as well. The love and appreciation we felt for each item we collected was itself a major contribution to the compost. Our other needs in the garden were met in the same way. For example, in exchange for helping a neighbor to dismantle old garages, he gave us wood for fences and frames to protect tender plants from the cold and wind. Within the frames we created hotbeds, using fresh horse manure mixed with straw and leaves for heat. Dorothy, Eileen and myself back out in the fields again, this time following horses with shovels and buckets to collect that precious, fresh manure. No wonder strange stories go around about the Findhorn community! Next, I tackled the steep slope covered with gorse and brambles behind the caravan. Digging into it, I found nothing more than gravel. There was hardly even sand. The soil had washed down the slope and settled between the caravan and the garage. The only answer was to exchange the two, wheel-barrow gravel out, shoveling soil in.

This involved an enormous amount of work, but it had a spiritual as well as physical effect on the area. I was told that by working in total concentration and with love for what I was doing, I could instill light into the soil. It is difficult to explain, but I was actually aware of radiations of light and love passing through me as I worked. This did not happen until I got a spade in my hands and started

digging. Then, like connecting up negative and positive poles in electricity, the energy flowed through me into the soil. This work was transforming the area and creating an intangible wall of light, like a force field, around the caravan. When this area of the garden was prepared, I planted it with leeks and celery, rutabagas (called swedes in Britain) and turnips, more radishes and lettuce, peas and beans and a few other vegetables. Our days were interspersed with times of quiet, inner activity. When the weather permitted, we meditated on the patio. Both Eileen and Dorothy wrote down the guidance they received each day from the God within. This ranged from advice on inner development, to the food we were to eat, to specific tasks for the day. My own guidance took the form of intuitive flashes of inspiration... often received while working... that carried a sense of conviction, a deep inner knowing. These were sometimes confirmed and amplified by the guidance Eileen received. One of the advantages of working as a group was that our personal guidance could be checked with the others when there was any doubt as to whether it was coming from the lower self, or from a higher level. When we all felt the same inner knowing, it was right to proceed. Of the three of us, Dorothy had always had the closest link with nature. One morning in May, a couple of months after we had first started the garden, she received a message during meditation that brought us into a totally new phase in the garden's development. She directly contacted a spirit of the plant kingdom, the deva of the garden pea. We knew the devas to be that part of the angelic hierarchy that holds the archetypal pattern for each plant species and directs energy toward bringing a plant into form on the physical plane. During my spiritual training, I had been made aware of the nature forces, particularly the "elementals," the spirits of earth, air, fire and water. To me, devas and nature spirits were an integral part of the creative process, the life force personified. In fact, at one time, I had been very interested in conscious cooperation with them. Now, here was the Pea Deva offering to help us in our garden. I jumped at the chance, thinking: At last! Now we can get straight from the horse's mouth the answers to any questions we have on gardening. I brought out all those questions that had stumped us over the past several weeks as our gardens began to grow, and Dorothy put them to the deva of the species concerned. Strange as it may seem, we received the answers. Practical answers to practical questions. They told us how far apart plants should be, how often to water them, what was wrong and what to do about it. These were just straightforward gardening answers that any gardener might know. The point was, we didn't know them. Moreover, the devas told us that this kind of conscious cooperation between man and the nature forces was a pioneering experiment for them as well, and together we discovered some methods of gardening that went beyond the normal practices. For example, after I had sown our first lettuce seeds, I did as the garden books advised, thinning the rows and planting out the thinning's to make five or six rows out of the original one. But most of our transplanted lettuce started dying, and we didn't know why. When Dorothy asked the Lettuce Deva what to do, we were told it would be better to sow seeds thickly in each row, then eliminate those that are weak, rather than transplant. We could recycle the life force in them through the compost. This proved to be sound advice.

However, when this work first began, it caused a certain tension between Dorothy and myself. Beautiful messages or guidance from God were of no use, I felt, unless they could be applied in daily life. However, contacting the various devas was delicate work, and she needed to relate to their light, transcendent realms. I, of course, was more down-to-earth, pestering her for hard-core practical advice for the garden. Eventually, we got the right balance, when we realized that in order to "bring it down here" she had to "go up there." But both aspects were essential the spiritual and the practical. To create Heaven on Earth, as we were told to do, it was necessary to be firmly grounded in both worlds.It is the same in cooperating with the devic realms. Man does not forego his own powers andabilities, approaching the devas as if helpless, expecting them to supply the answers. Not at all. Man contributes his part to the work as an equal, and the devas respond by contributing theirs. True cooperation begins when we realize that man, the devas and nature spirits are part of the same life force, creating together. As a representative of man in the garden, I accepted communications from the devas as advice yet knew that I must create the garden as I saw fit, considering the available time, workers, weather and material resources. The ultimate choice of action on this planet always rests with man. This sometimes meant we could not put into immediate practice what we were receiving and learning from them, but our conscious cooperation with the nature kingdoms was beginning. The devas were teaching us not only how to supply the material needs of plants, but also how to perceive the plants true nature. We were asked to see the world around us in terms of the life force or energy behind the outward form. As the devas told us: "In our world, which is closer to the world of causes, we see that all things are a manifestation of intelligence and that all happenings are related. If you put the horse before the cart, all power will be in your hands and you will work in the world of forces as we do." The devas told us that, because our thoughts and states of mind affected the garden, one of the most vital contributions we could make was the radiation we put into the soil while cultivating it and the love we gave to the plants while tending them. This love, rather than a sentimental emotion, was the ability to be truly sensitive to the needs, both material and spiritual, of the plants in our garden.

Something very strange was happening in our lives. I was being mysteriously prevented from getting a job so that all my time and energy were going into creating this garden. Now we were establishing a relationship with the devas who had previously been so shy of modern man with his destructive ways. Why all this concentration on the garden? One morning during meditation, it struck me. We were pioneering something new. Twentieth century Western man was consciously working, hand-in-hand, with the spiritual aspects of the nature kingdoms. That evening Eileen received in guidance: "Tell Peter that what illuminated him this morning was indeed so. You are working with nature, with the devas and elementals, and are gradually finding harmony with them. What is now happening is something new, and this is the way the world is to be re-created. You are all learning the secret of creation in your various ways. "Now we began to understand why we had had to leave the hotel where everything on the material level was provided. We were preparing to live in a new consciousness and had to learn, once and for all, the power of man to create his own world. We are all capable of bringing about what we set our minds to if it is for the good of the whole. Our work was to create a perfect garden in cooperation with nature. Normally, to create such a garden would require a good deal of money, and we had neither salary nor bank balance. What we did have was what anybody else anywhere could have ourselves, our positive thoughts and faith in God's unlimited abundance. In learning to see the world in terms of causes rather than effects, we had to rely on God as the source of all supply rather than looking to a salary and bank balance for security.

The principles we were working with in this were not new; they are part of the ancient wisdoms, but they have no reality unless they are lived and proved. This time of unemployment was the perfect opportunity to put them into practice. In June, 1963, Eileen received: "You realize, at last, that no longer need you be controlled by events, but by your power of thought you control them. You can bring about anything by your thoughts. That is why this new-found power can only be used when there is no self left to mar it; otherwise it could so easily be used for the wrong motive and not for the good of the whole. Used by that higher part of you, only good can be drawn to you and you can create only good. ""This is the secret of creation. What you think, you create. This is where your faith and belief must be unshakable. When there are any doubts or lack of confidence, you are unable to bring about these truths in form. My wonders are to be manifest in form. Heaven is to be brought on Earth. We are one. Therefore, all that appeared impossible in the past is no longer so. Everything is possible. "It had seemed miraculous that all our needs were being met. Yet this was not really a miracle at all; it was the natural result of working in accordance with the very laws upon which creation is based. We were frequently assured in guidance that the work we were doing was vital for the future and that it extended beyond the garden. Whenever we wondered or questioned, we were reminded to think of Noah: "The garden is like the ark I asked Noah to build. It is difficult for you to see the reason for it, for you cannot see into the future, but let Me assure you that it is vitally important. Every single thing that is put into it is vital. Everything must be done under My guidance, with the help and cooperation of the devas and nature spirits. This is a work to unite and make whole that which has been sorely torn and divided." Slowly, we were beginning to perceive the significance of our work in the garden.

All life processes in the garden were being speeded up. The devas told us: "In terms of life force, the improvement in the soil is tremendous. Not only have you worked as few humans have ever worked, but we, too, have had a constant rain of radiations pouring into the soil. It has been a combined effort and because of the push of it, the results are much faster than normal. "Being continually in the garden as we were, we just accepted it, not fully realizing how overflowing with abundance and vitality it was. Then one Sunday afternoon we went to visit the gardens of nearby Cawdor Castle, which had been cultivated for several hundred years by professional gardeners. We were amazed to see that our vegetables were actually much larger and in better condition than theirs. With gratitude, we began to realize the effects of cooperation with the devas. The garden was becoming the mainstay of our vegetarian diet. That summer of 1963, Eileen began receiving specific instructions on refining our bodies through eating our own produce. We were tol that the foods we weregrowing in the garden with the help of the devas and nature spirits were filled with the life force that our bodies needed.

Eileen's guidance:

[We were told that our aim was to raise our vibrations, and to help us to do this we were given instructions on what to eat. "You are building light-bodies; therefore absorb the light which you get from the food in the garden. This food is tended by the nature spirits, devas and angels who help provide the life force. It is not the amount of salad you eat; it is being in the right state when you eat it. Always give thanks for what you are given. This is vital food and it is precious. Your aim is to cut out all body building food and eat the food that has the highest life force."We were told to refine our eating gradually, doing nothing drastic, but to follow the diet I was given from within. It had nothing to do with any known diet, so we could not turn to books for direction. We learned to live on vegetables from the garden, honey and fruit, phasing out first red eat, then white meat and poultry, then fish and finally cutting down on eggs. We found our sensitivity grew and we became more in touch with the spiritual realms and the nature forces in the gardens. I ate only one meal a day of raw foods and drank pints and pints of pure, clear water, with no tea or coffee or stimulants of any kind. I was told that, as our bodies became finer and less dense, our skin would absorb substances from the ethers and the sun and air. "Bathing in the sea is good for the body. It tones it up. The more fresh air and sunshine you get the better, but on no account is this to become a fetish.

Do all in moderation and enjoy it. "To be honest I got bored eating raw food all the time. It was a real struggle. Peter and Dorothy ate mountains of salads and lots of garlic, which is cleansing for the body. At first I refused to eat raw garlic until the smell forced me to in self-defence. Not only our diet but physical exercise as well was important in our lives. I was told through Eileen's guidance: "My son, it is most important to keep your physical body fit and healthy so I can use you at any time to do anything for Me. Some form of exercise is needed daily. What you do is not as important as doing it each day. You do not know what I have need of you to do for Me, but I can assure you that I have much and you will need to be in perfect health to do it. Now it's up to you. "Little did I know what lay ahead of me over the next years. I went for long runs along the beach every day, finishing off with a plunge into the invigorating waters of the Moray Firth. I did indeed become physically fit. Winter was coming again, and we were still at Findhorn. What were we supposed to do now? The guidance Eileen was given in December, 1963 clarified this: "I want you to look upon this place as a permanent home and know that all the effort that is put into it will bear an abundance of fruit, not only material fruit but spiritual fruit as well. Remember, this is a vast work. Peter will need the help and cooperation of each one of you to bring it about on all levels. It is only when you seek that you find; therefore, never sit back and expect anything to fall into your lap. "The aims of the garden were becoming clearer. Guidance told us: "You are to have as many varieties of fruits and vegetables as possible. Contact with the devas is essential, and this can only be done when each plant is actually grown. "The devas themselves told us they liked variety in the garden, because each plant added its unique radiation and because as many devas as possible wanted to participate in our experiment.

During 1964, we grew sixty-five different types of vegetables, twenty-one kinds of fruits and forty two different herbs. As we sowed seeds or set out young plants, Dorothy welcomed the deva of each. Like Noah's ark for the animals, our garden was beginning to gather a representative selection of the plant life that could be grown in our part of the world. We found that our expanded and overflowing garden was requiring a great deal of hard work. I was kept busy from dawn until dusk, and in this land near the midnight sun, those summer days were indeed long. Dorothy joined me in the morning and Eileen in the afternoon, digging, building paths, making fences and frames, creating hotbeds, gathering materials for the compost, turning the heaps, making liquid manure, sowing, planting, thinning, weeding, watering, encouraging, loving. Every square inch of soil was handled by each of us several times. Every plant we invited into the garden was given the environment and conditions in which it could best express its life. With all this work, we retired to bed at night physically tired but in a state of complete relaxation, because we knew that we were fulfilling the divine plan.I had the overall vision for the development and needs of the garden. Yet it was equally important that others work in it as well. Eileen's guidance pointed out to us: "You are all to help as much as you can. You must remember that the more you all put into the soil by way of radiations the better. You each have a certain something to contribute to the whole. This is not just Peter's garden, it belongs to all of you. "It was pinpointed concentration in each moment that was needed to create the garden. I focused all my energy on it, thinking about little else. I found that with this attitude it was possible to let my intuition guide me in the work. For years as part of my spiritual training, I had been learning to follow and trust those inner prompting's. Of course, mistakes were made, but they always taught me something. I saw that listening solely to the rational mind would bog me down with reasons, pros and cons, on every action. So I tried to tune into the voice of the higher mind and plunge into action. Soon enough I discovered whether I had responded to true intuition or merely to the desires of the separative personality. Gradually I learned to distinguish between the two. Eileen received guidance supporting this intuitive way of working: My son, let the garden develop naturally. When you are in the middle of something and suddenly feel that it is right to place a certain vegetable in a certain place, do so, even if it means changing everything around again. The garden is rather like a crossword puzzle, and when you get the right plant in the right place, you will see where the next plant should go. Now, this may not be the usual way of gardening, but this is not the usual garden. You will find that the whole garden will develop as you carry on and do one thing at a time, without too many rigid plans.

Ultimately, since it is love that fulfills all laws, it was my love for the garden that put me in tune with it. I remember one year we had several thousand annuals sown in boxes, waiting to be set out. When it came to planting them, I really didn't know what the various plants were. I laid out the boxes in three rows... tall, medium and short plants. Then I planted a patch of this here and a patch of that there, as I was prompted in the moment. The outcome was such that when a gardening expert, one who specialized in annuals, later came to visit, he said, "I've never seen such a beautiful display of annuals. What a lot of time and effort must have gone into planning it." As far as the beauty of it was concerned, he was right; the colors and forms blended in perfectly. But I did have to admit to him that I hadn't planned it at all. In 1964, our second season, the garden was literally overflowing with life. The devas and nature spirits were outdoing themselves not only in quality... the produce was filled with amazing vitality and flavor but in quantity as well. At the beginning of the season, I had estimated the number of red cabbages we would need for the year. At the average weight of four pounds, we would require about eight. But when those red cabbages reached maturity, they were so large that one weighed 38 pounds and another 42. It was the same with a white sprouting broccoli which grew to such proportions that it fed us for months. When I eventually pulled it up, it was nearly too heavy to lift. Certainly this was beyond the natural pattern for these vegetables. Considering what we had been told over and over about the power of thoughts, perhaps our enthusiasm contributed to the energy and growth there. We did, indeed, do everything with great zest in the garden. It may also have been that something spectacular was needed to draw attention to our garden, to pave the way for a time when we might openly talk about our conscious cooperation with devas and nature spirits. Because we were constantly in the midst of it, we didn't actually think too much about what was happening. We didn't even think to take photographs of these early phenomena. Then Eileen received the following, commenting on what was happening: "You are in a fully protected area where you can put into practice and bring about My wonders.

You can create by your right thinking. I have put you here in this place which is specially prepared and protected so you can learn to make My Word live, so you can team up to bring about the truths I have been telling you for a very long time." "Now you are beginning to see them manifest in form, brought down from those higher realms so you can behold them with your own eyes. Like an artist, stand back every now and again and survey the work you are doing from a distance. Otherwise you may fail to realize what is going on. You are so close to it, so on top of it. Remember, everything is very concentrated here, everything is pinpointed. You are living in the middle of a powerhouse and can fail to realize the terrific power that radiates from this area. "During the early summer of 1964, I had been strongly prompted to plant out thousands of seedling lettuce, not really considering what could be done with them since we could not possibly use such a vast quantity. We had lettuce everywhere, between radishes and fruit trees, along Celery trenches, planted on each ridge. The entire garden was a mass of brilliant green. As it happened, there was a shortage of lettuce in the area that year and individuals and shops came from far and wide to buy ours, as well as our spinach, parsley and radishes. The taste of organically grown vegetables and the quality of produce from this special garden accounted for the speed with which the word went round. With the money from the sales we were able to buy more seeds and plants for the garden. That autumn we began a fruit garden. As we put in each plant, Dorothy contacted the deva of that species. All expressed great excitement in joining us, and with their help we hoped to grow apple, pear, plum and even peach and apricot trees; bushes of greengages, cherries, black currants, red currants, gooseberries, raspberries, boysenberries and loganberries; and a large patch of strawberries in the vegetable garden between the patio and garage. Despite our determination and the willingness of the devas, the growing season here wasn't long enough to allow the peach, apricot and pear trees to bear fruit. The devas have said that man one day will have the ability to control weather conditions but only when he has a deeper understanding of the wholeness of life. The other trees and bushes produced fruit abundantly. In fact, the story eventually came back to us from London that strawberries weighing a pound each were growing at Findhorn.

The strawberries were indeed huge, but what I actually had said was that the plants were prolific enough to provide us with a pound of strawberries each per day. It just goes to show that people hear what they want to. This remarkable abundance continued throughout the next summer as well. As we took visitors around the garden, it was interesting to note how most assumed we were using artificial fertilizers in order to obtain such growth, as if nature alone were not capable of this. It certainly made us realize the power of conscious cooperation with the nature forces. But we still did not talk to visitors about our work with devas and nature spirits. However, I soon did find myself in the position of having to explain publicly what was happening in our garden. In autumn of 1965, I asked the County Horticultural Adviser to come and take a soil sample. I felt it was time we got some expert gardening advice on the varieties of plants best suited to this soil and climate. I admit that I felt the soil must be lacking in some ingredients, even though the devas had told us that if the soil was deficient, they, with the help of the nature spirits, could produce from the ethers the elements needed for perfect growth. The adviser's first comment on arriving was that he knew this type of soil well and that it would certainly require a dressing of at least two ounces of sulphate of potash per square yard. I pointed out that I did not believe in artificial fertilizers and that I had been using the ashes of wood fires as a source of potash. For the next two hours he explained why wood ash could not come anywhere near satisfying the soil and that a few other ingredients would be necessary as well. He nearly convinced me. He took away samples of the soil to be analyzed and returned six weeks later, baffled. The analysis had found no deficiencies whatsoever. All necessary elements were present. He was so impressed that he asked if I would take part in a radio broadcast on our garden, with him refereeing a discussion between myself and a professional gardener, well-experienced in broadcasting, who advocated conventional chemical methods of gardening. I agreed garden. He himself had seen the astonishing size, color and vigor of our plants.

Not feeling that the public was yet ready for talk about devas and such, I attributed it to the use of compost, organic gardening methods and hard work. However, I did use the opportunity to voice my opinion that the whole balance of nature was being upset by man who was now beginning to reap the results of what he had sown. Hopefully, our garden was seen as a way to help mend the situation. In response to the soil analysis, the devas told us: "We knew that this garden would confound the experts, because it is not like other gardens. Yes, we can and do draw unto ourselves what is needed in our work from the everlasting life substance. This process is speeded up when the material we need is available to us in a form easier for us to use, that is, when it has a/ready been converted previously. This, of course, is where your cooperation in putting materials into the soil makes all the difference to the plants. ""This process is also easier for us when your creative power is flowing to the land, when what is coming from you is of the highest. Man counteracts our work not only by the poisons he purposefully puts forth but also by the many ways in which he breaks cosmic law in his selfishness. When all is more or less in line, as in this garden, our creation forges ahead not only unimpeded but accelerated." Thus nineteen months after our first garden had been created, the results of our cooperation with the nature forces became apparent to us through more than just our experience. Now, we had the scientific evidence that something extraordinary was occurring in our garden. Just at this point our faith was tested. Dorothy had begun working as a secretary in 1965 for a gentleman who owned a walled garden a few hundred years old. It had good soil, and was completely equipped with greenhouses, tools, everything a gardener might wish for. He offered it to us free, in exchange for keeping him supplied with fresh vegetables. That was tempting. But were we growing our garden merely for the produce? What of all the radiations we had been guided to instill in the soil? Clearly, from the rational point of view, we were foolish to refuse his offer, but we knew within ourselves we must have faith in God's guidance and continue at Findhorn. However, our time of relative isolation was clearly over as word of our work began to spread.

As we made contact with others involved in spiritual activities in Britain, our group grew to seven adult members. I found myself travelling from Findhorn every two or three months to visit people in Britain who I felt were on a similar spiritual path. Unknown to me, through several of these contacts, new phases of activity were to unfold in the garden. There was one person I felt especially prompted to keep in touch with at that time--a very quiet man living in a book-lined apartment in Edinburgh, R. Ogilvie Crombie. I had been told that during his sixty-odd years he had not only delved into spiritual and occult knowledge, but was well versed in the sciences of physics, chemistry, psychology and parapsychology. He was an intriguing man. In 1966 Roc, as we usually called him, came to Findhorn for the first time. Shortly after, he had an experience which proved to be a turning point in his life... and ours as well. One afternoon when he was sitting in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Roc had his first visual encounter with a nature spirit, with whom he also conversed. Soon after this experience he had the first of several meetings with the nature god himself, Pan. He felt... and indeed was later told... that these meetings were directly linked to the part he had to play at Findhorn. The garden clearly had become the focal point for an experiment in the cooperation of three kingdoms: the devic, the elemental and the human. Each of us at Findhorn was playing a distinct and necessary role in the experiment. I was the representative of man, the active practical creator of the garden. Eileen received direct guidance from the [inner] voice of God within. Dorothy was in communication with the devas. Roc had the ability to see and speak with nature spirits.

Of necessity, in our individual roles, we did not always see eye to eye. But we were learning how these three kingdoms could work together to create a new world in accord with the divine plan. The mistakes we made during the course of this experiment only served to point the way toward true cooperation between man and nature in the world today. If a man like myself who was not a gardener could, by consciously cooperating with the forces of nature, bring abundant life from sand, then men everywhere could re-create the earth providing they followed certain principles. These we were working to discover. Learning to work with the nature spirits kept us on our toes. While the devas are anxious to cooperate but are rather detached from the results of their work, the nature spirits are more susceptible to direct influence by man and thus can get upset when he interferes with their work. We soon had a nature spirit strike on our hands.

Between our caravan and the wild area of gorse and broom behind it is a small fruit orchard. By May, 1966, the gorse had grown right up around our apple trees and gooseberry bushes. I asked Dennis, a young man who had been with us for three or four months, to cut back the bushes that were interfering with the trees. Although he didn't like to do this to the gorse in flower, he explained to the nature spirits what had to be done, apologized and proceeded. Lena, one of our group, felf it was all wrong to cut them in flower. Dorothy was almost in tears, saying I was butchering them. I retorted, "Oh, don't be so damned silly," feeling that these women were really going too far. "Every time you mow the lawn you're butchering it." The next thing I knew Roc was telephoning from Edinburgh, asking me what had I been doing to upset the nature spirits in the garden. Is he mad? I thought. I haven't been doing anything. "Nothing," I replied. "Well, you have," he said, and he came up to Findhorn. That weekend with us, while crossing the moor covered with flowering gorse and broom. Roc found himself surrounded by a throng of little gorse elves all aflurry. "We thought Findhorn was a place where there was cooperation between man and the nature spirits. How, in Heaven's name, could they have done such an awful thing as destroy our homes?" The elves lived, so it seemed, in the blossoms of the gorse and broom. They told Roc that they had all left the garden and refused to work there any longer because of this thoughtless destruction. Roc explained that this had not been intentional, that the cooperation in the garden was, so to speak, comparatively new. Man was trying his best and he certainly would not deliberately do anything to upset them. Later, we held a little ceremony out by the offended bushes in which I expressed my profuse apologies. The elves understood and agreed to return.

The strike was over. This whole episode illustrated how I, as a representative of modern man, could override the sensitive feelings of others perhaps more instinctively close to nature... and in ignorance upset the nature spirits. Later Roc received the following message from a higher being: Remind Peter that at Findhorn, where a pioneering experiment in cooperation between man, the devas and the nature forces is being carried out, the greatest care must be taken to refrain from any action that will give offence. This particularly applies to the nature spirits who are active in the garden. You cannot continue to expect cooperation from beings, many of whom still doubt that man deserves their help, though they are willing to make the experiment, if you do not respect their principles. There are certain practices common in many gardens which should not be used here. Peter, as master of the garden, is the one to make decisions. But he must be warned that if he makes a mistake serious consequences will result. Not only will the nature forces concerned depart from the garden, but a penalty will be imposed. This will be severe as there is now no excuse for offending these spirits. He can no longer plead ignorance. Certain flower spirits left because of what seemed to them to be wanton mutilation of the plants they tend by removing the blossoms. Remember these spirits are concerned with beauty and resent any violation of it. Flowers may be picked to beautify the home. They will not resent this if it is explained to them. If flowers have to be pulled off in order to stimulate growth of leaves for food, for instance, this should be done before the flowers have opened out. Once they have done so they may have become the dwelling places of tiny little beings whose presence and whose good-will ought to be cherished, not repulsed.

I had often been told by guidance to liken myself to Noah. Well, I could see this had two sides to it. Not only was Noah persevering and willing to follow God's guidance step-by-step, but you might also say he was headstrong and maybe a bit near-sighted. No sooner had we straightened things out with the gorse elves than I discovered that, hanging over one of our black currant bushes, almost smothering it, was a broom plant in full bloom. "Ogilvie," I said, "that broom is killing the black currant which we need for food-vital Vitamin C and all. Surely the nature spirits will understand if I cut it back now." Roc just said, "Oh yes, I suppose they will." When Roc consulted the nature spirits, all they had to tell me was: Peter knows. With the abstract air of a scientist about him. Roc said, "Why don't you go ahead and cut it and see what happens? "Then I remembered the gorse elves. What could I say? We'd just have to do without the black currants. But the nature spirits had told Roc that if I left the bushes alone I wouldn't regret it; they would make it up to me. Although it was a poor year for black currants in the area, our bushes were overflowing. Eileen would groan every time I came into the kitchen with baskets of black currants, because it would mean having to make more preserves. The nature spirits had kept their side of the bargain. Since then we have only pruned or cut back plants when they are not in bloom. We were learning a great deal about relating to plants with care. Both the devas and nature spirits had told us that plants should be forewarned whenever they are going to be picked, pruned, transplanted or otherwise worked with by man. Thus, in 1967 when the time came to build a green-house, we warned the gorse and broom growing on the site and then lovingly removed them. When we tried to level the area with a light-weight excavating machine, it just sank into the sand. Later, without my knowledge, one of our group got hold of a bulldozer and ripped through the area. The job was done, but what an uproar it brought from the nature spirits. We could all feel devastation in the air. Again we had learned. The earth itself is a living substance, inhabited by many nature beings who deserve consideration. They, too, need to be forewarned. Then an individual operating a machine with awareness can use it as an extension of himself to clear an area with love and care. Man's actions do not have to be destructive. With sensitivity, man can cooperate with nature to transform the world around him.

MAN CREATES THE GARDEN: PART 2.

Our group continued to grow throughout 1966-67. People began to join us from different parts of the world. We now had several caravans, and prefabricated cedar wood bungalows were being erected. The garden continued as a source of food and any surplus was sold to the local people and to the increasing number of visitors. Then Eileen received guidance that the garden was to be extended and made into a place of beauty. For the first time we began to grow flowers. The flowers we brought into our garden were also from around the world, and we worked to create the proper conditions for them. A greenhouse was constructed; rocks were transported from the surrounding countryside for a rock garden; a water garden and later a marsh garden were created. We would have this garden represent the world, for we wish to have the cooperation of the world, the devas told us. Although the environments we created were artificial in our geographical area, this was man choosing to re-create the earth--and the plants flourished. The flowers were literally radiant with light. Many of our visitors told us that they had never seen such a uniformly high standard in any garden before. They were at a loss to understand it in view of the poverty of the soil and the northern climate. Even the primula, the polyanthus, and other moisture-loving plants thrived in almost pure sand. Foxgloves, which normally grow to three and four feet in rich soil, grew to eight and nine feet in our sandy garden. In the worst possible soil for roses, ours bloomed in perfection. The time was coming closer when we would have to speak publicly about our work with the devas and nature spirits. It was Sir George Trevelyan, nephew of the noted historian G. M. Trevelyan, who actually saw the significance of what we were doing and himself began to spread the word. At Easter-time, 1968, he paid us his first visit. Sir George is well-known for the part he played in initiating the adult education movement in England. His college at Attingham Park was also the scene of many conferences held on New Age themes. It was at one of these conferences for New Age group leaders, in 1965, that I first met him. Even though I was there merely as an observer, and our "New Age community" was externally little more than a few caravans surrounded by a garden, I was prompted to stand up and tell this imposing group that we were actually living the principles they were discussing. As a result. Sir George invited me to speak. During the discussion that followed, I was asked about our financial policy at Findhorn. At that time we were still living on Unemployment Benefit and considered ourselves lucky if we had a penny left by the end of the week. Our financial policy? For a moment I was stumped, but then found myself saying, "Well, it's quite simple.