This article is an enquiry into what people mean by the “Angel of Findhorn.” At the end of it I hope that you will add your own thoughts and interpretations.
First, though, advance warning that we are going into metaphysical territory and concepts. Materialist intellectuals – beware.
Second, for those of you who do not know Findhorn, we are talking here about what many consider to be Europe’s most important and influential eco-spiritual community. It is located on the east coast of Scotland between Aberdeen and Inverness. Out of respect to the actual village of Findhorn, which is beautiful in its own right, we should properly call the community the Findhorn Foundation.
A bit of background: The Findhorn Foundation was started in the 1960’s and has been hugely influential in pioneering a contemporary approach to spiritualty, that integrates mysticism, metaphysics, ecology, and a holistic approach to wellbeing and personal development. All faiths and none are welcome.
One its most successful features is that it has also managed to avoid the usual pitfalls of utopian communities. It is free of gurus and sectarianism. It has also sustained a balanced culture, avoiding excesses in psychedelia and random partnering.
Most important there is, as nearly everyone who visits it says, a magic to the place. In fact, one of the first books about it was titled ‘The Magic of Findhorn.’
Of course, many places have a magic to them: sacred sites, temples, beautiful buildings and areas of landscape that radiate a blessing and harmony.
But something else happens at the Findhorn Foundation, which has a certain uniqueness. People’s spiritual awakening is quickened and this is accompanied by a new awareness of how enjoyable it is to be connected to everyone and everything.
Here, I notice, is the difference between a normal spiritual awakening (if there ever is such a thing) and an awakening that happens at Findhorn. The Findhorn type of awakening has, it seems, a unique vibration in it. I am struggling for appropriate words. A gentle glee. A happy knowing. A sense of graced revolution. Like a snake discarding an old skin and emerging as . . . the same snake but with a freshness. All with an agreeable awareness that all life is connected.
So here is the question: how and why is this transformational effect achieved? A shorthand answer has always been that it is the work of the “Angel of Findhorn.”
Let’s explore what this might actually mean.
To begin, it is worth knowing something about the founders and their vision. These founders are Eileen Caddy, Dorothy Maclean and Peter Caddy. I also want to add David Spangler who set up the foundation’s core educational programmes.
I am fortunate to have known all of them and to have spent relaxed time with them. They blessed me with friendship and collegiality.
I want to propose what I think are the concepts and beliefs, which sit deep in their hearts:
- They were practical mystics, believing and experiencing that the universe is an ocean of unconditional love that seeks to express itself in and through everything.
- They acknowledged that we are all souls on a journey, and our purpose is to develop more love, compassion, connection and consciousness.
- They also experienced and were sensitive to the metaphysical world of subtle energies and beings with whom we can cooperate to the benefit of all.
- They believed too that our planet and species are at a crucial stage of evolution, and their purpose was to cooperate and support this evolutionary step forward —through the project of the Findhorn Foundation.
- They also believed that the Findhorn Foundation was part of a divine plan and they followed inner guidance on how to lead its development.
Thought-Form
One possibility then is that the Angel of Findhorn is the combined thoughts of these four founders. Energy follows thought. These combined energies created a ‘thought-form’, a cloud of inspirational, good ideas. This thought-form then influences anyone who comes into its aura and radiance.
Angels of the Mystery Schools
Another possible source of Findhorn’s magic builds on this idea of the thought-form.
It suggests that this thought-form became the clothing, so to speak, of a great archetypal being, or beings, who were attracted to incarnate into it. Thus, the cloud of thought energy is a vehicle that is inhabited and dynamized by one or more spiritual beings.
Who is this other being or beings? There are contenders. There are many archetypes, angels and spirits associated with the ancient mystery schools that focused on our souls’ journeys, and how to cooperate with subtle energies, beings and forces. Angels. Gods. Goddesses.
In the western mystery tradition, for example, these beings are known by names such as Hermes, Sophia, Athena and many more.
Avatar of Synthesis
But all these suggestions so far do not explain that magical Findhorn experience of something new, exuberant and vital. So let’s explore more deeply the metaphysics.
All four founders of the Findhorn Foundation were trained in metaphysics and esoterics. By this I mean that they were educated and practised in the principles and concepts of subtle energies and their cosmic context. Their major sources were the Rosicrucian, Hermetic and Theosophical schools.
One important feature of all these schools is their teaching that planets, solar systems, stars and constellations are all beings. They have identities, and they have consciousness and purpose. Just as a tree is a being, so too is a galaxy. Hinted at in astrology, the being of a constellation is a huge cloud of awareness and influence.
Within this worldview the cosmos is itself a consciousness that we humans can hardly even begin to understand. Billions of stars . . . The apparent infinity of space . . . Dimensions beyond time and space . . .
In the writings of Alice Bailey, who was the secretary for a wonderful Tibetan teacher, Djwal Khul, there is this idea that humanity is a single entity or being. You and I may think of ourselves as self-contained individuals, but we are also part of a collective, our species – and our species as a whole has a character, personality and consciousness of its own.
Humanity is a single being. Moreover it is a single being that needs help.
From this perspective as humanity emerged from the terrible world wars, there was a wonderful opportunity for growth. We were recovering from mass trauma and at the same time entering a new age of electronic communications and global interdependence. We needed help. As a single species we collectively created an unconscious mass request-prayer for support and aid.
The cosmos responded.
Or to be more exact, a particular energy, or being, or avatar heard and responded to this inchoate call.
This avatar carries a vibration and experience of joyful connection. It can perhaps be understood through the metaphor of the hologram. I am in you and you are in me and we are all in each other and everything. At the same time it has an upbeat vibration. It is not just a sober knowing. It is permeated with a soft joy. It recognises and seeks to soothe the pain and suffering, yet is positive and bouyant
If we are touched by the Avatar of Synthesis, then our whole being – body, mind and spirit – is magically inoculated and tingled into an upbeat sense of connection.
In the writings of Alice Bailey this being is sometimes referred to as the “Avatar of Synthesis.”
So the suggestion here is that the Findhorn Foundation was purposefully created as a vehicle through which the Avatar of Synthesis could land and help humanity and Gaia.
As well as touching down through the Findhorn Foundation, I have heard people suggest that it also landed in other places such as the Esalen Institute in California and Auroville in India. There are, I imagine, other localities which I do not know.
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So here we have some interesting possibilities for understanding the Angel of Findhorn. It is:
- The thought-form created by the combined energies of the founders
- The spirits and angels that incarnated into this thought-form and energy field
- The Avatar of Synthesis
- All three working in synergy together
- A mystery
Whatever the Angel of Findhorn actually is, it is a force for good. What intrigues me now is how its vibration and initiatory energy can also inoculate people without necessarily having to visit the actual place. Of course, visiting Findhorn is a great thing to do. I do not want to replace it.
Yet at the same time, this Angel, this avatar, can deliver its inoculation in at least two other ways.
- It can happen through shared meditation and online meetings
- As a benevolent infection it can also be carried by us as individuals
Whenever and however it is experienced, its wonderful influence can inspire in all of us a felt idealism and a lived experience of how humanity can develop.
It is, I believe, contagious. Not through our communications, talk and activities, but through our vibration and our attitude.
More love. More compassion. More connection. More consciousness.
Please join the conversation in Comments below.
While living at Findhorn ’75-’80, I stepped back from my magical experiences there as much as possible for several reasons which then felt appropriate to me. I was in awe of those elders like Eileen or David who could take full responsibility for their Guidance, or those who had studied Theosophy or Alice Bailey like Peter, Michael Lindfield or Francois. They were more experienced and certainly more dedicated and disciplined than myself. For me, having had the background of LSD experiences on the West Coast of California in the 60’s, I had finally learned (often the hard way) to have a healthy respect for visiting other realms in altered states of consciousness. That was why I took connecting with the Angel of Findhorn with caution and a large grain of salt, being sceptical of anything I was encouraged to do or follow.
When asked recently to tune into an experience of the Angel of Findhorn what came immediately was our original Game group channeling upstairs in Joy’s room at Cluny. My Guidance told me we had to wait in Sanctuary before we could even incarnate & manifest into the Physical Plane through the process of Birth, rolling ‘doubles’ to do so & singing Happy Birthday together!
Just to share that aloud as the only man (being recently invited) to join a small select group of senior women already bonded & committed to birthing The Game, I was suddenly very frightened. However, it came thru so clearly to share this immediately, so I did so & was relieved to find it acceptable within the safety of our group.
It occurs to me in retrospect that my fears then probably had to do with avoiding seeing obvious sexual symbology (a single male sperm entering the female egg to begin the impending birth process called ‘mitosis’ or allowing each cell to then ‘double’)!! OK, I was also trying to avoid the temptation to end a trial yet chosen period of celibacy. Bear in mind, these were the trying teenage years for our entire community gestalt. We brought in all the therapies & teachers which attracted more light/dark & rapid spurts of growth & learning in every direction like any healthy precocious youth. Of course it was confusing.
Albert Einstein so rightly said: “Do not grow old, no matter how long you live. Never cease to stand like curious children before the Great Mystery into which we were born.”
Thank you for this inspiring article. I was in olved with Theosophy in the 70’s and have remained a spiritual aspirant since. Currently studying the Netoflight or cosmic web. Each response I read just reaffirmed my sense that there is much Light on dear Earth now and it explains why it has shone us the darkness that needs to rise for transformation. We dear readers are all connected in this great work of redemption. The Angel of Findhorn is yet another manifestation of this Light. Thank you for the “innoculation” Om Shanti🙏🙏🙏
When I was first a part of the Findhorn Foundation student stream back in 1995, I very much held the view that the FF was a modern type of a Mystery School and that the Findhorn Angel was the Being overlighting that School, but that seems to have receded into the background in recent years.
What is the Angel of Findhorn? This is a most interesting question, especially as no one has managed to come up with a definitive answer over the almost 60 year existence of the Findhorn Foundation and Community. I know from my own connections with the Angel over 20 years of living and working around the Findhorn Foundation that it exists, but quite what it is and when, how and why it emerged I am not sure. As I contemplate this, I find more questions than answers.
It seems to me that it is not a Landscape or Landscape Temple Angel like the Being of the Cluny Hills as my experience is that the influence of the Findhorn Angel doesn’t seem restricted to a particular location. I could connect and work with it when I was living in the south of England and I know others do so around the world.
In the Iona Report, written by David Spangler back in 1972, he reports that in 1965 Eileen had a vision in which she says “I saw the Archangel St. Michael. He had a foot on Glastonbury, a foot at Findhorn and a sword pointing to Iona, as if uniting the three.” David also says in this paper that the two main Planetary Centre of Britain are Glastonbury and Iona and they are being joined by Findhorn and that there is a link between these three, which form a triangle. I may be being controversial here (and I look forward to further discussion on this), but I am not sure that this is referring to the Angel of Findhorn There are definitely Angels of Glastonbury and Iona, but my experience of them is that they overlight a definite geographical area and this ‘Findhorn’ one in the contexts David is mentioning feels geographical too, which has me wondering whether this is actually the Angel of the Cluny Hills, which oversees a major Landscape Temple that spreads for miles around, including the Findhorn Bay. So when ‘Findhorn’ is mentioned here I am not sure that this means the Findhorn Angel as such.
My experience is that the Findhorn Angel is also not something like a City or Town Angel nor is it an over lighting Nature Being like the Devas of plants or Pan. Neither is it like the ceremonial Angels/Devas that I work with.
So what is it? Curiously, I find that it is easier for me to have views on what it is not than what it is. When I think about what lies behind such manifestations as the Findhorn Foundation and the Findhorn Community I come up with something that I think of as the Findhorn Impulse – part of the Divine Plan that is attempting to manifest as a part of the New Age that is unfolding. The Being that is holding the unfoldment of this impulse, this part of the Divine Plan, is what I think of as the Angel of Findhorn.
This raises a lot more questions than it answers for me. If this is so then where did it come from, as this is quite a new role? My understanding is that Angels, Devas, Nature Spirits and Elemental Lives etc have their own evolution and so where did the Angel of Findhorn come from? What was its previous job? How was it appointed? My strange sense of humour is getting pictures of Angelic job adverts and interview panels, but how does this all work?
But perhaps it has a relationship with or is a manifestation of the Angel of Synthesis that William mentions in his introduction? I haven’t considered this before now and so I need to give this some more thought. However, this is already too long and so I will bring this to a close here for now.
I look forward to exploring this some more with whoever might be interested.
Hello William,
As a reader of Alice Bailey’s books and a long-time friend of the Findhorn Foundation, I appreciate your inquiry.
I most relate to the “magic of Findhorn” as a mystery school and its geography, the physical place on Moray Firth. An inner and outer reality of being there. Both are glorious, intense, surprising and unforgettable.
I agree that people’s spiritual awakening is quickened there, but as with any good mystery school, the learning isn’t always happy or gentle. Yet, it is always transformative, and there is a lightness of being when aligned with its angel’s overlighting presence.
I too thought it was a wonderful article, and relate to the concept mentioned by another poster, of how geography plays a part in its energy field and magic.
Regarding Esalen, mentioned in the article, which I am very familiar with: It has a long history of doctrinal educational courses reflecting its reliance on often a single charismatic leader, with resulting damage to the community, their programs, and their culture. In recent years they have brought in outside evaluators and are working on repair and rejuvenation with a more inclusive and balanced management and ethos. It’s a California icon that while tarnished by its past, has and deserves, a future.
Wonderful article William. Thank you for furthering consciousness. 🙏💜🌈
I forgot to say, that I really liked the article, especially the idea that a thought-form, created by people, can be inviting for archetypical powers to ‘incarnate’ in, if you can speak of a thought-form being ‘in the flesh’ t.i.
A new link in my own thoughts about the mutual influence of matter on spirit and spirit on matter.
Does matter inform spirit, just as spirit informs matter? Have they each their own, sacred intelligence which they can share?
In the 70ies and 80ies I was much inspired by reading about Findhorn and its four founders. I taught me a lot about nature spirits, the souls of plants and the ‘Deva’s’ or spirits of place and land. I incorporated this wisdom into my growing body of spiritual knowledge and started to experiment with connecting to plants, rocks etc. just as Dorothy had done, honing my subtle awareness. I loved the ‘energy’ of the books, very uplifting and pure.
In 2012 I visited Findhorn for a day coming back from Orkney. I knew the gardens and plants were no longer officially meditated on as when the four founders started them, but there were still workshops for spiritual growth, like in many other spiritual growth centres. I read a few folders, walked around the land, saw the new houses, sat near to the original caravan where it all started etc. But couldn’t get any connection. What remains is a feeling of sadness and melancholy. Perhaps one day was too short. Perhaps it was too expensive there. (workshops, food, etc.) Things being too expensive for ordinary people always makes me suspicious of the quality of the underlying spirituality. And that suspiciousness may have cut me off from the true ‘Angel of Findhorn’.
However I still hold precious in my heart everything that I learned from the books. They were a light for me.
Thank you William. Reading your article I felt a sense of connection to the Angel of Findhorn and received a much needed infusion of light.
Wonderful explaination William. Firstly agree from my experience of the love, compassion, connnection and conciousness of the Founders and ‘thought-form’ when you come into contact with the energy and spirit of this evolving community. Secondly I feel the location and environment of the Findhorn foundation has a connection in the Cosmos of galaxies, stars as will other places you mention.
Thanks William! Full of wild and synthetic possibilities. Your article (or the energies it describes) cheered me up while feeling under the weather of a cold. I stayed at Erraid last year and it was great to see some of the Findhorn pioneering spirit being carried on.
I wonder if the Avatar of Synthesis more commonly ‘touches base’ than we might expect? I’ve been to several ‘intentionally spiritual’ places where I’ve felt something along those lines (e.g. Gaia House, Schumacher College, Lourdes), some other ‘unintentionally spiritual’ places where something similar appears to be happening and other ‘purportedly spiritual’ places where it doesn’t seem to manifest whatsoever! At least not for me. Complex, emergent, energies which are exciting to think about? When we think about them do we co-create the Angel?
Thankyou William , the world needs more Angels or Spirits of Place to be acknowledged and respected and worked in cooperation with .
A spiritual retreat I attended in Australia “Amarant “ in the Don Valley , Launching place was a very beautiful structure on an equally stunning bit of native mountain woodland . The Devic or Nature Spirit energy was strong and peaceful and loving to the human visitors .Our resident main devic energy was named Deridra and was in residence as an oversoul of the spirit of Amarant but was often communicated to at the natural spring that flowed out of the mountain .
There was often communication with higher intelligences that were representations of guiding oversoul entities that watched over our planet and it’s evolution in spirit . As well as those that came on pathways of love truth and peace or healing and gave teachings from those specific pathways . There was a core group of beings who were intermediaries with the GOD force andronicus colandrias Aesop Clementso David .
When these beings channelled through to communicate there was a increased vibratory rate and it was noticeable to all participants in some manifest way .
The withdrawal of that higher vibration always left physical responses ,feelings of coldness , shaking .
Everyone raised their own vibratory rate to achieve connection through group meditation , energy work and focus on healing and peace projection .
Thank you William for such a thought provoking piece exploring the spirit of place. I feel a certainty that the founders of Findhorn were directed to this special place for their special role in spiritual regeneration when we needed a shining example. The thought form argument is powerful but what comes before the thought form? Does Gaia provide the dynamism for this rebirth or is it divinely inspired into the hearts of wo/men? My imagination sees the nascent Findhorn as ‘the void’ containing nothing and everything in order to showcase our exceptional creativity when working in harmony. If an angel is a pure expression of a facet of God (or whatever you might call this universal mind) then Findhorn is this.
I lived in the Findhorn in the mid 1970s when, arguably it was at its peak. In December 1978 that changed. Suddenly the quality of incoming members dropped – as it seemed that Western city life would be viable after all, despite the bankruptcy of NYC in 1975. The best humans were then directed to cities and industries. The book In Search of Excellence made a key contribution.
The Angel of Findhorn needs to be put into a broader context. For example, consider the triangle made by Nelson’s Tower, the tower now called the Knock of Alves, and the Universal Hall. Extend one side across the Firth. Where does it go?
And the energy/ley line through Cluny and the Hall is still open right around the planet. Stand in the switch room in Cluny College for a good feel.
Consider also that according to the work of Lewis Spence on sacred hills, there should be a temple underneath Drumduan. When I stood in the basement I could feel the energy rising from below. Same at Glastonbury.
Why did Nelson crew his flagship from the Moray Firth? What is the origin of the name Moray?
After December 1978, the Findhorn experiment was not so important, but Cluny Hill remains strongly connected by the Solar Logos.
I think this is a very thought provoking set of hypotheses, and somewherei n all of this is a pony. I have been reading Dolores Cannon and watching her YouTube videos, and she touches on exactly these points in her exploration of the spirit world through regression hypnosis: the energy that shapes the world around us is indeed conscious, and is working for the betterment of the universe, through love and compassion.
I love this article. I think any of these possibilities are viable. We live in a multi-faceted universe that perhaps has different causes depending on the plane of consciousness from which the form, or the birthplace for an experience, originates. I thought of this article when I read about the angel. https://www.theosophical.org/publications/quest-magazine/5251-angel-of-the-pines Angel in the Pines is a sweet story of an angel who over sees the transition of a horse. Also, Robert Templeton, has some interesting concepts on intelligence and complex plasma clouds or dusty plasma. We are made from atomic matter, but plasma is made from particles. Humans are quite the exception to plasma, even though we do have plasma bodies, we are enshrouded with atomic matter – our bodies. Complex plasma clouds can organize itself into intelligences. Perhaps another theory to plug into The Findhorn Angel hypothesis. I read about Findhorn in the 70’s I was affixed to the beauty and expression of the beings who guided the founders. Just reading about Findhorn, changed my consciousness about nature, and I have never been there! Templeton says that information does not have energy and mass, therefore it is not bound to time or space. That means information, from anywhere in our many universes, is instantly available to anyone. I think the founders must have tuned into the intelligence and informational thought forms of nature. What a contribution.
William, Thank you for this. It seems to me that the work of Dr Rupert Sheldrake is relevant to this. I have been following his scientific efforts to try to change the pervading materialistic dogma that is the basis of so much science. His earlier book “The Science Delusion” showed that some of the basic fixed features of science, such as the speed of light is a fixed value, is not a sigle valus not as is assumed. Later published work sought to develop an explanation for some common obswervations and experiances of ordinary peopl that are dissmissed as halunicainations or cannot take place by definition. eg telepathy. Thiss lead to his hypothesis of Morfic Fields and resonance. The current issue of Nexus magazine carries a long, interesting interview with Dr Sheldrake earlier this year. At the end of the interview he was asked if he thouight that his work has resulted in anyshift the materialistic stance of scientists after his 30+years of study and published results, for which he has been the subject of much
villification. His reply was that there seems to be se some movement over the last 7 or 8 years but it is growing noticeably.
This seems to suggest that the Angel of Findhorn thought form could be a “Morfic Field” in line with his conclusion!
Thank you William for writing such a wonderful description of the Findhorn Angel. I have visited the Foundation many times and have stayed nearby and stayed in the foundation while attending a workshop and experienced the most incredible sunsets on Findhorn beach. There is indeed the magical presence you have written about. I have felt the vibration of connection and intention as a deep remembering of being at one, living in the presence of others living our natural experience of spirit or soul.
I think it is probably a amalgam of all the things you mentioned… vibrating and activating forces and energy forms out to others and to the world at large,, moving forward at it own pace of it’s evolutionary alchemy. With amble insight and help of multidimensional beings at various fields and states of consciousness.
It has become a living Presence.. of the thought forms and meditations of all those who have been and still are connected with it.
Interesting thoughts, William. I have certainly experienced a powerful loving presence at Findhorn, especially in the original garden. I suppose I have always simply accepted it as an angelic being, partly because I feel comfortable with the idea. However it has come about, it is a beneficial energy and touches even those who don’t expect it. Are such beings awakened or created? I really can’t say. But I do know they can deeply touch your life.
Thank you William. I feel connected through your writing to the Angel of Findhorn which has really helped today as feeling pretty gloomy. Buoyed up by your description of the Avatar of Synthesis. I have been to Findhorn twice, quite a while back now and can relate. I was particularly also drawn to Michael Pogagnic’s description in one of his books of the landscape of Findhorn being the ‘outbreath’ of Great Britain and the Isle of Wight being the ‘I breath’. Think that is the right way round 😀
Thank you so much for this article. I very much wish to be inoculated. 🙏🏼