I had heard about Findhorn Ecovillage for some time, mostly that it was a large community and had been around for some time. I was completely unprepared for what I would experience during my week stay and thats probably a good thing. There are so many aspects to what is happening there that I wont do it any justice in a few sentences - best to experience yourself. Below and over the next few posts beneath are some of my thoughts and observations of a community of people doing things differently. Findhorn is essentially a spiritual community, education centre and ecovillage, and it all comes together in a rather bizarre mix of the surreal.
A mosaic at the entrance of the Universal Hall. Findhorn was established 48 years ago by three people who have become the celebrated history and vision of Findhorn. Eileen heard the voice of God, Dorothy communicated with the plants and Peter implemented their visions. Im not one to typically share these aspects but given how critical their role has been in shaping Findhorn and the community's very strong dependence on them (despite two now being deceased), it is interesting to note. Findhorn appears to be primarily a spiritual place, attracting people of all ways of thinking and being around that, and the living in harmony with nature falls into a wider respect for all life. Celebration of art, music and dance and a strong sense of community are as important. Staying there, even shortly, certainly challenged my accepted frames of references on spirituality and community.
It is a beautiful space though and much love has gone into creating small areas of reflection and sanctuary.
Creativity, craft and the arts are highly valued in all forms, and the new Arts Centre has studios, exhibitions and classrooms.
There are several meditation spaces around the Park, including a Nature Sanctuary where a rambling green roof that was quite cool.
A number of houses have been built for staff and residents of the Park. Some were done as part of courses, individually or by the community as the whole. There are a series of houses built out of old whisky barrels that are quite impressive! The urban (or rather rural) legend goes that one of the residents went to collect old whisky slates for the boiler when the manager remarked that "you hippies would probably build houses out of these things" and so they did.
I think without realising (and despite the frequent labelling by my family as "dirty hippie"), I have found myself in places that could easily be labelled as hippie havens. But to be honest, "good planets are hard to find", "sustainability, the final frontier" might just be the case and the whole world could do with a little more "reduce-reuse-recycle-restore". Perhaps it is the grounding to the bigger picture of actual resource flows* and questions of social justice that I sensed were sometimes absent in some of the conversations I shared. But others I had the brief opportunity to meet with were more grounded and realistic than most non-dirty hippies I have ever known.
*Whilst I was there, a big upset was being made over a tree being cut to make way to bring in a new wood chip boiler for heating. The two camps were the ones who were furious about cutting down a tree (fair enough) and those who saw the bigger picture, including the irony that the entire machine would run of cut down trees anyway.
The other side of Findhorn: many of the staff and volunteers stay in caravans that are a strong part of the history of Findhorn as well, which was originally a caravan park and it was in a caravan that the founders came and stayed. All of the staff are paid the same minimum wage, whether a cleaner or director, but apparently this brings with it other challenges of how to express power. Findhorn is many things, but mostly it is just very different.
A lovely restaurant serving local, organic and seasonal produce.
There are so many people who are part of this community it would be impossible to ever generalise the experience. From technical experts to alternative churches - it certainly has an energy for attracting a unique blend of curiosity and self expression.
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