Eileen Caddy, the Story of Findhorn

[Music] northeast scotland almost at the end of the world i met this wonderful woman eileen caddy when i first saw her she was to me the embodiment of love and at the same time my mother my grandmother my universal mother [Music] when i first came to fintorn the community had already been in existence for 33 years why did i come during the fintorn experience week which i took part in 1995 i was touched by the universal love and from that moment on i knew that i wanted to spend some time in this powerful energy [Music] when eileen came to the bay of fintorn for the very first time it was the year 1962. she embodied a way of being um which was feet on the ground but heart completely open she was really shining and glowing and it gave me courage to carry on really to be dedicated to my spiritual path her strong persistence and and dedication has showed me so much and continues to show me a lot i feel the connection is very strong and her messages are you know coming alive in daily meditations or attunements that we do because we often go back to her words [Music] eileen caddy had finished her life's work in 2004 she was awarded a member of the british empire in recognition of her spiritual endeavors and services to mankind [Music] this was two years before she died [Music] it was eileen's kind personality that made me want to stay and meditate close to her i find a lot of people come here to find home and they see the way it's grown now but it started with the one little caravan down there and there were three adults and there we lived for seven years i thought we would only be there for six months but it was for seven years and i feel that we learned so many lessons living in such close quarters one has to learn tolerance and understanding passion for all these lessons and patience guided by eileen's inner voice in 1962 the small group was led to the bay of fintorn eileen wrote down her revelations on a daily basis her husband peter caddy with his positive energy then made all of their plans become real the third on the team dorothy mclean she had the talent to connect with nature thus eventually allowing oversized plants to thrive [Music] with each digging of a spade rays of love were sent deep into the inner earth [Music] one of the most astonishing experiments on this globe commenced so language into here in the chat is one of the long-term members of the community it was him who first told me about fintorn for many years he has been working in the garden has lived through many changes in the community foreign eileen's small group gathered round each evening in order to meditate together for two to three hours considering all aspects of life their main goal was to lift vibrations they started to send out rays of love into the whole world i feel two two most important lessons to learn when you put your foot on the spiritual path one is self-discipline and the other is obedience now with self-discipline when i first started and this was like 45 years ago i had specific times to meditate six o'clock in the morning twelve o'clock noon and nine o'clock at night my appointments with god and you're not late when you have an appointment with god you're on time and then i would write everything down and obedience was to follow it through what's the use of getting guidance unless you follow it through i mean you don't just say no i'll leave that until another time i'll just do it later do it today's garden community members and their guests are fully involved love is work in action means as much as love what you're doing for it's never enough just to think positively but to act in a positive way as well omar a young mexican came to fintorn in order to enroll in a one-month english course he stayed and has been here for two years i never did gardening in my life so for me to put my hands on the soil for the first time and just care for a little plant and care for the you know and hear the berries all the time it was such a it was such a magical thing for me was like i discovered a passion that i didn't know i had the compost is the base for the garden's fertile soil here is be again and again eileen heard the words everything you do do it out of love and it will bear fruit deep down in the ground there is also radiation from your work dorothy mclean returned to the community in 2009 her work with nature has inspired many people antya is one of [Music] god stands for nature at the same time he is also the mediator between man and nature antia and her partner have developed the game which brings us closer to his kingdom and i would write everything down we are going to we are going to expand and expand beyond recognition but a ridiculous thing to write down we were living on eight times a week after we expanded and expanded on eight pounds a week or rather wrote it down and then i also wrote down and thousands upon thousands of people would come here it was ridiculous but you see that is exactly what has happened we have expanded and expanded and i mean thousands upon thousands of people have come and are coming and i knew that we were being guided step by step that's the thing it's faith really it's faith eileen's son jonathan caddy returned to the community after his studies he was born in the original caravan jonathan recalls many things went on in that caravan also when there was another caravan on the sanctuary where naomi a friend came to stay there and that's where my parents and dorothy used to meditate and we would go in now and again and there was a big map on the wall and a globe there and there'll be bits of plasticine and little pins on the world they were these uh we learned to were special places uh throughout the earth that places of magnetic power points spiritual um places on the earth and we were like to believe so we heard in the in the talk that went on that that finth finthorn was one of these places each and everyone who came to fintorn had to offer a certain talent to the community the old and the young they all felt magnetically attracted by an invisible spiritual power eileen's inner voice guided them with directions that were read to the group by peter every morning altogether they followed up these directions [Music] by the end of the 70s the community had already over 300 members eileen's guidance has been published in many books one of the most well-known opening doors within has been translated into more than 30 languages her autobiography describes her extraordinary story [Music] as the second of four children eileen caddy was born in alexandria egypt in 1917 ever since she was a small child she was touched by the love her parents felt for each other because her father was the director of barclays bank the family resided in a spacey house surrounded by palm trees when she was six years old eileen's parents decided to send her and her brother paddy off to their aunt in ireland schools in egypt were considered not suitable for british children [Music] when eileen turned 16 her beloved father suddenly died eileen returned to egypt to look after her mother when later her brother rex got ill the entire family went back to england one year later her mother passed away within two years time she had lost both of her parents before the war broke out eileen met andrew comb an air force officer they eventually got married and had five children together from london her husband was transferred to america and then to iraq eileen felt quite comfortable in her role as a mother and housewife one day andrew brought home with him a young dynamic gentleman ever since then peter caddy visited the family whenever he could what impressed eileen the most about peter was his optimism and his positive way of thinking once when paying another visit to the family he told eileen about an unusual occurrence it had become clear to him that eileen was his other half eileen fell deeply in love with peter she was ready for everything life had in store for her she left andrew in order to be with peter not realizing that from then on she would not be allowed any contact with her five children for the next 17 years [Music] one day when peter and eileen visited a place in glastonbury eileen sat in deep meditation she started begging for help for the separation from her children was very hard on her and then for the first time in her life she heard her inner voice be still and know that i am god i wanted you and peter to meet each other for a special reason eileen was stunned i had very clear inner direction that i was to have only two hours sleep at night and the rest of the time i waited upon god this was from within if somebody outside had said to me i mean that's what you have to do i say no way and for eight nine years i i did this then it was um with my food i was to have nothing but raw vegetable salads etc until the salads came out of my ears and out of my nose and i did that as well and i was cooking for the family in that little kitchen but um that was my that was my discipline it was my pleasure i was only i was only allowed to drink water that was that was the you know coffee noodle or anything in 1957 peter applied for a job as manager of the clooney hill hotel in scotland and was hired at that time eileen and peter were being married and had three children the hotel was to be run according to spiritual principles by that time dorothy mclean was also working with them with each problem eileen turned to her inner voice which he called the god within in this way the clooney hill hotel was managed entirely according to the directions of a higher energy however after five years the management had other plans for them they had to move to prop up another company's hotel in 1975 when the community celebrated their 13th anniversary the fintorn foundation had become so well known that it was getting difficult to accommodate the many visitors by that time the clooney hill hotel had been put up for sale the community decided to buy it without eileen and peter being present so the clooney hill hotel was renamed clooney hill college and was turned into a guest center with work and classrooms as a part of the fintorn foundation i feel this is god's community and i can see god in all of this and we make mistakes but we learn from and for me i feel like i feel very happy with what's happened and whenever i start to feel distressed i come back center and until all is very very well for me life is change all the time i think if we stop changing i would be very worried we would become complacent we would become stagnant and we die and i feel that there's because of all the changes that are taking place we're moving and i thank god for that that changes are not comfortable but they're very necessary the community continued to change and grow peter and eileen worked together very closely it was often said that the two embodied a perfect balance between light and love the barrel houses were built from 1988 onwards in the 70s they were still barrels of a whiskey distillery today they are beautiful homes made of natural construction material in one of the houses lives craig gibson an australian citizen what brought him to fintorn he too like many others was attracted by the invisible magnetic energy he is one of the ones who experienced the spiritual beginnings in the sixties uh when i first came eileen's guidance was read out every day in the sanctuary and was part of community life and for myself and everybody else that was just fine it was there was a very clear sort of spiritual directive and then as and when the time came particularly at the time around when david spagler came in the early 70s there was a lot more around sort of you could say self-actualization of your own spiritual guidance or intuition and eileen had very clear guidance that she should no longer get it for the collective she still continued to receive it for the rest of her life but um she stopped sort of giving the day-to-day messages in the sanctuary and it was particularly hard for peter because peter was actually completely reliant on her directive eileen wanted to encourage peter to rely on his own voice that was one of the most difficult directions which she received and which she followed she no longer was to serve as a channel each and everyone in the community needed to learn to look inside to become aware of their feelings to develop their intuition and to act from their insight at that time the community started building the universal hall since eileen had ceased to convey any further directions it took 10 years for its completion hundreds of different people helped to build universal hall they all shared their talents their knowledge their visions their individual ideas and their love for one another the universal hall grew out of one space from the energy of all of those involved [Music] the universal hall is the heart of the active community life this is where all events like theater plays concerts as well as community activities take place [Music] it's up to each individual to find or to go through changes and to look for the very best and the very highest we can despair if we look for them look at just the name i want to be part of the answer to the chaos and conclusion and i feel the only way one can do that is by being very positive constructive and loving and it it all starts in each individual there's no use looking at somebody else say why doesn't she change change has to come within each one of us well the best thing for you to [Music] well there's no use being worried about the future [Applause] i have to put it into god's hands and say please help us remember this the right way the members of the community made an effort to follow their inner guidance which sometimes led to confusion rather than to clarification peter had to learn to let go by surrendering the responsibility to the others eileen and peter started having differences as eileen no longer passed any guidance to peter he started looking more and more for confirmation from the other members of the community when eventually separation became inevitable it was a very painful blow to eileen peter finally left the community eileen continued sitting and meditation each day and made herself available to all those who came to meet her which is a good example in this community of someone relinquishing their you could say authority or their um leadership and allowing it to pass out into the community so she amplifies that and i think that's one of the strengths of fintorn is that finnhorn has always leadership has always been [Music] let go of and assumed by the next person and then is supported by the people of the past [Music] in each work department of the community along with the visitors the members tune into the work they are about to carry out in this way it will be decided how the different tasks will be shared between the group we have them for lunch oh possibly maybe probably more likely dinner becky has been working in the garden for seven months she decided to participate in the students program which lasts for one year what i really appreciate about about fintorn is that it's not about listening to dogmas or anything from the outside it's not about believing in something else it's about inner listening and really getting in touch with yourself and your truth and that i find most fulfilling and really resonating with me that it's not about believing a story external to me it's about finding truth in myself and how i i can access it whenever i've been given a vision we didn't be given a promise i have held it in my consciousness i've held it in my heart [Applause] never let it go until it manifests it it was very wonderful only a few days ago then a few days ago about a couple weeks ago they were starting on the kitchen [Applause] and they weren't going to have any any um skylights the katarina came to me and said i cannot work in the dark i said well you'll have to pray about it then won't you a few days later i got an anonymous letter with two checks and both of them for 700 pounds [Applause] from germany have no idea who said and the letter said and please use this for this donation for the kitchen the kitchen is it still needs any money or else uh use it for a best result so i went to katarina i said look look that is manifested so we have we have the skylights and i just said thank you thank you thank you so wonderful and it only took a few days [Applause] so to me that is the way we should be living with faith it's just uh it does work to begin with when we had nothing at all it seemed utterly impossible [Applause] we never had a vision that we would be building a community if i knew we were going to be when we were going to create a community this size i would have run away from it i think that it was only given a little bit at a time and it just grew organically thank goodness so this is the way fintron was created through the spring festival celebrating the seasonal festivals is an important part of the fintorn community to be together with other people to experience things together to communicate to sing to dance to laugh these are the elements that shape the everyday life in the community wizard merlin lent me his whole locator just for today this is the right place signs are good [Music] the best way to get to know the community is to participate in the experience week which is the main program of the fintorn foundation however the main source of income for the community is based on the vast number of creative workshops and conferences offered each year dilton is in charge of the new fintorn association she explains how the community has unfolded we have developed into a community with different roles and functions and with a wide range of skills and abilities and interests as well before let's say 92 um there were you know so there were like the red dots are the individuals who came and there were hardly any people there were a few but not so many who lived outside the actual finton foundation premises and accommodation they all lived within the finton foundation and within its kind of structure it started to evolve within this one cell and then the 90s were very much so then the expansion started to happen so trees for life and the game and the publishing company the shop and um health so and and many more moved out of the um the finton foundation to become um and to create their own organization and business and charity at the same time this center attracted people who wanted to be here but who did not want to be part of the finton foundation and that was actually quite a difficult period especially the mid 90s it was actually very difficult because people came here and lived in fintorn and in forest and around and wanted to be part of the center but did not want to be part of the finton foundation and that created quite a pressure on the finton foundation because that was the only organization which provided anything out of this pressure cooker came this need to create a structure which embraced all of this and relieved the foundation also from its you know being the center of it all so um so in 1999 we created um an umbrella organization which we called newfinton association and all the different organizations which have kind of emerged from the foundation and many more by now have joined the the community organization as well as individuals so we are all held together so yeah so we are constantly learning but we have achieved a lot already since um what did i say 99 so it's so we are 13 years into the process of building the and forming the structure for the for the village approximately 13 years ago the community started building ecological houses on a larger scale today an independent eco village exists that provides more than a hundred percent of its energy needs from renewable sources this is a model which has inspired new approaches to sustainable living which is now being applied in many settlements around the world i sometimes feel we forget that we are a spiritual community the um i was going to say that sort of uh will become very materialistic i had to wait 28 years before this house was built for me i was in that little caravan next door i was sitting there one afternoon uh i was told you know to have a houseboat so i forgot because i mean haven't got the money but i got the word you to have a house built and it's to be the cornerstone for something entirely new in the community i didn't know what it meant i was told it was to be here and my youngest son was a builder and i said i am to have a hospital it's ridiculous but i'm to have a house built and he said if you're going to have a hospital mum i'm going to come and build it and i just feel so grateful i just love my i love my home this was the first house that was built there was no this was the first house that was finished i decided to call it cornerstone because that's what what i was told it was to be the cornerstone for something entirely new in the whole box [Music] as the community has evolved new structures have grown with it people that live here are financially independent from the fintorn foundation for all of them however their priorities are their spirituality and their desire to live in harmony with nature here is a house [Music] 1 young people are encouraged to get involved with the ecological system of our planet the college offers academic programs for university students the aim of most of these programs is to deepen into the inner life working with feelings and needs in order to develop creative ways of working together as a group it is like a laboratory for students who are studying they could come from the fields of architecture or social studies or sustainability studies ecology to to come here and experience the various aspects of sustainable living in a community and very often they find not only the technical side of the community of how the community is set up with its buildings and technologies but very often they learn a lot about the social relationships that are needed for a community to function well another project is called the living machine which is a fully biological sewage system the first tank in the living machine is the closed aerobic where we pump air into the water and of course that's got the essential oxygen in it that kills the anaerobic bacteria so after the closed aerobic we come to four open aerobic tanks which are filled with the water and they go deep down into the ground we've got floating plant racks sitting on top of the water the roots of the plants hang down into the water and provide an essential house and environment for aerobic bacteria to now live they cling to the roots and they digest the organic matter in the water this is a ginger because we've got such tropical conditions in the greenhouse we've got a ginger plant here now we have the clarifier you can see here we've covered the top of the water by um duckweed this plant acts as a blanket so it stops um algae growing on top of the tank and potentially blocking up any pipes so the bacteria dies as it doesn't have the oxygen and the sludge falls to the bottom and gets sucked out by a sludge pump and gets um sent back to the mound again so we're actually redigesting the sludge which is brilliant design we also have water fleas in the tank here which are also digesting the dead bacteria we'll take this with us and we can feed them to the fish at the end of the system and these are the ecological fluidized beds the efbs the central ring is filled with clinker stone it's got lots of holes in it it's highly porous that's perfect for um now further bacterias are living inside those stones the more surface area there is the more bacteria we can support we'll take these to the pond then watercress water mint two at the end of the system now so we've just got a little example of the quality of the water where you can actually see into it and you can see that the water's become clean enough to support a wider variety of animals so it just shows how the water quality has improved dramatically over the three to five days that it's taken to pass through the system so i think the frog's going to jump we'll see and the fish often know that the water's coming in so you might find that they go there the next challenge for the fintorn community is the construction of new houses the coordinator of this project is jonathan caddy the power of this place is that we actually not don't just think spiritual um principles but actually put them into action cluster is designed to to be an example of intergenerational living so that we have young people and older people within this and so that people can help each other that's why the shared facilities are important that there's opportunities to do things together to to help each other and there's also a number of affordable houses that we have fundraised for two of those are community care flats so that if there are older people that need to move out of their houses instead of going to an old people's home they can actually live within the community jonathan caddy is the only one of eileen's children's who lives here and actively engages in the ongoing evolution of the fintorn community for a long time eileen had been prevented from having any contact with her five children from her first marriage only when she celebrated her 80th birthday was she able to come together with all eight of her children today the core of the community consists of approximately members of the fintorn foundation in the surrounding area there are over 400 people who are members of the new fintorn association and who are actively involved with the community having been a regular visitor since 1994 sarah has known the community for a long time she has been living in her present house in the fintorn village for four years the open community is a very vibrant resource here and one i think often people out in the world feel quite isolated perhaps or out of touch with others but what i experience here at fintorn is truly a functional community that connects people that supports people that inspires people in so many different ways i'm really thankful to live with other people that want to meditate that want to attempt to live in harmony they want to listen to one another to try to communicate with one another on the heart level you know we're all going through ups and downs and we're all humans making mistakes but there's just such a genuine warm feeling of everyone trying to to do better a large event takes place 50 years passed since eileen came to finthorn for the very first time former members returned to celebrate the 50th birthday together with the community we thought it would be a good time to bless the cake [Music] the right message is to be still to go within to find that famous resource and then to live and move and have our being from that divine center i mean that that is my message simple as that but people find it so difficult existing they do not they don't know how to do it how do you do it well right i feel each individual needs to find their own technique and the one that they're really comfortable with whether it's to do with your breath breathing and breathe for for four count four and then hold it for four and breathe out until you get into a rhythm this world's a crazy place a sick and twisted rat race of games that we play against ourselves with red she made a nest and she told me not to be afraid and she gave me joy as a middle name and she told me [Music] be so so clear and spontaneous and i can remember her her saying live it be it embody it become it and she was talking about love and when she'd say those words she she would be love you could see that [Applause] [Applause] all together i spent two years in fintorn the experiences i gained during this time have influenced my entire life extraordinary achievements become possible when we allow ourselves to be touched by the spirit of love as we learn to share this love with others and radiate it out to our environment we can create together an experience of integration healing and pure bliss [Music] you

Channel: Olina Lorencova

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Id: lRFv1YD98CQ

Length: 45min 54sec (2754 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 08 2021