A personal view

Eileen's guidance was that we would be first a community, then a village and then a City of Light. So what might this look like? Within the City of Light there are a thousand mansions, including the Foundation, a University, an ecovillage and organisations such as Ekopia, NFD, Shambala, Newbold, The Arts Center... and the wider community represented by the NFA Community Association.

At one level the City is a loose federation of organisations, because:

• People like to belong to and identify with organisations having up to a few hundred members, where they can know and relate to most others.
• Each organisation can specialise in its vision and what it does best, and develop the appropriate culture, funding model and management structures.
• Growth is then by cellular division, or else spinning off specialised activities.

At another level we are all one, manifestations of the same Spirit or Group Soul expressed through each of us uniquely. And we share a set of spiritual values, and a spiritual vision commonly expressed as being a Centre of Light for personal and planetary transformation.

Clearly the NFA has a key role to play in this, supporting, enabling and where appropriate holding the wider community, and managing certain activities for the common good. And the NFA also needs to participate as an equal with others in the community wide umbrella organisation that is just starting to emerge, and which could embrace all in the local area who share our spiritual values and vision.

We can build, we are building, inside and then outside, a City of Light, a New Heaven and a New Earth.

(c) Revd. John Wragg - Interfaith Minister, 1st December 2008

There has been talk recently about the need to embrace abundance consciousness, and generate new streams of wealth through service.

To resurrect an old idea, we could build a University of Light. We could have:

• An Agricultural Faculty, based on Cullerne Garden and Earthshare
• An Arts Faculty, based on the new arts centre
• An Ecovillage Faculty
• A Holistic Health Faculty A Mystery School !

We could build on the existing Education, FCS and FF College programmes.

We could have 500 students at any time, all contributing financially and energetically whilst here and spreading the word on leaving.

We already have a Cluny Hill Area Campus in the community, comprising Newbold House, Parkmount House and the Steiner School as well as Cluny College itself. And the Leanchail Hospital on St Leonard’s Road is due to close within a year or two, on completion of the new Forres Health Centre which has just had the go ahead. It might be a perfect initial home for the University, and also take pressure off Cluny?

We could have a campus for 500 students in the Kinloss area, at arms length but accessible from The Park. In due course the University could be spun off, so as to maintain focus and not dilute the Foundation.

• We could get accreditation through another body initially
• We could raise money by public subscription.

Most of the existing universities started this way, and the City of Light will need its own university just like all cities.

Love, John Wragg

Published in the Rainbow Bridge March 2006

In meditation

We are building a City of Light, within which there are a thousand mansions.

At one level it looks like a loose confederation of more than 40 organisations. People like to belong to and identify with organisations having up to a few hundred members, where they can know and relate to most others.

Each organisation can have its own vision and specialise in what it does best, with an appropriate culture, funding model and management structure.

Growth is then by cellular division, or else spinning off specialised activities. And part of it looks like a University of Light, with the Faculties of

• Agriculture and Permaculture
• Ecovillage Faculty
• The University College
• The Arts Faculty
• The School of Education • Health and Wellbeing
• The Mystery School

… each drawing in its own funding, students, postgraduates and faculty staff. AND each of us is like a fairie light, connected to others forming a mesh network, pulsating with light. There are clusters or groups of greater interconnection; and a critical mass nurtured within the Foundation and now outbreathing to encompass the wider community, NFA, Forres, Moray and beyond.

Light pulses and flows along the neural paths between the light nodes (us). The whole thing is alive,

and we are the body of an Angel!

Wow

(c) John Wragg, published in Rainbow Bridge 11th May 2009

Errol Weiner, May 2011

Estimates from the International Energy Agency (IEA) show that last year saw a record ‘fastest-ever-rise’ INCREASE in CO2, despite the worst recession in 80 years and government policies aimed at curbing greenhouse gases. Most of these increases came from emerging economies like China, but there is evidence that the ‘western’ world ‘exported’ billions of tonnes of emissions to poorer countries.

Another report (The UK ‘Guardian’) revealed that the banks have returned to their pre-2008 greed-ridden policies, including conning the public with fancy adverts about their ‘new’ (= really old) policies. The ‘super-rich and ‘rich’ sector of society has in fact lost the least amount of money since the 2008 economic meltdown (about 4% losses compared to huge losses in all other sectors).

So what does this say?

That attempts to change the larger ‘outer’ world (re CO2 gases, global warming, climate change, etc) are largely futile?

China is building a new coal-fired station every week and hundreds of new airports (The airline industry is back on its feet and purchasing hundreds of new planes).

The emerging economies of China, India, Brazil, South Africa (and all of Africa and S America) are not going to ‘live simply and ecologically’ when the numerous desires of their people are only now starting to grow and grow.

Can we in the ‘west’ tell these people that they have no right to purchase all the material goodies of life that we have purchased over the years? And all these goodies (cars, computers, cell phones, houses, etc, etc, etc) require electricity and all manner of materials and so…

And the banking and finance industry controls all the above and knows this, so it is once again resorting to its dangerous greed-ridden money-making policies that created the 2008 economic meltdown.

And why not! It knows that if it goes down again Governments will bale it out because Governments have to because without the banks this financial-material system could not survive, and people would be out of work, and so it goes.

All attempts to change this system have failed, and as it continues to grow and expand so too will CO2 gases and so too will global warming and climate change…And this means that the dreaded 2% increase in global warming cannot really be prevented, and so…

In the beginning and end result the major problem with the human race (and thus too individuals, couples, families, society) is the wholesale ‘imbalance’ between the inner/spiritual and outer/material living process, between the development of ‘consciousness’ (inner life) and the creation of forms (outer life).

The outer life of ‘forms’ has run far away from the inner life of ‘consciousness’ (meditation, silence, knowledge, understanding, spiritual-psychological education, life purpose and meaning, the evolution of consciousness) and this is the real disaster.

The failed attempts to control CO2 (despite all the talk, articles, conferences, billions of $/£/E’s, etc, etc) and the banks is sure evidence that ‘outer’ changes are not the answer to the real fundamental problem facing humanity (It is not a ‘world’ problem. The ‘world’ is fine – a few million years to the ‘earth’ is but a blink of an eye. It is a ‘human’ problem).

And in Findhorn, a Centre established for the very purpose of creating this ‘balance’, the very same mistake has been made, with forms (especially houses and the excess comfort zone security of ‘houses’) taking far grater precedence over the ‘development and expansion of consciousness’.

Why did this occur? Because Findhorn was supposed to develop and expand from ‘within > out’ and thus be a true ‘pioneering’ Planetary Light Centre, but it lost this ‘inner golden cord’ and allowed the ‘outer’ world to influence its understanding, development and evolution.

Why did this occur? Because to evolve from ‘within>out’ it is necessary to be (spiritually) ‘inwardly secure’. The original founders of Findhorn were spiritual initiates and thus ‘inwardly secure’ (and visa versa), but over the years this type of human consciousness became more and more ‘watered down’. Findhorn, more and more, was run by ‘inwardly insecure’ people, who thus looked ‘outside’ themselves (to the ‘outer’ world) for answers. And they got them, but this only increased and covered up (unconsciously) the lack of inner spiritual development and thus too increased the ‘inner insecurity’.

And, as a natural result, forms became more and more important than the expansion and development of consciousness, and thus the imbalance increased.

In fact Findhorn put more and more time and energy into ecological concerns and less and less into the expansion and deepening of consciousness, and ‘building eco-houses’ became far more significant than ‘building consciousness’ and thus too ‘inner security’.

The fact that CO2 emissions have increased ‘to the greatest degree’ in 2010 is sure evidence (literal and symbolical) that attempts to change the ‘outer’ world and the ‘outer’ climate is not the real answer to the real problem.

It is the ‘inner’ world and climate that has to be changed, and this is the major task of humans and the major purpose of human evolution.

This requires a great deal of ongoing daily ‘inner’ creative work, and it is this creative work (the Great Work) that is sadly and tragically missing in modern times. China, India, Brazil, S Africa and most of the world are only now becoming involved in the expansive materialism of the western world, and this is not going to stop.

The human lower ego still controls the vast majority of humanity, and desire is the major trait of the ego.

• ‘Desire brings suffering’ (the Buddha) but the lower ego loves to suffer (even though it constantly complains about this dis-eased condition) and so it will not give up its desires.
• FEAR breeds desire, but how many humans are prepared to really face their deep-seated fears and thus too insecurities?

Even the vast majority of so-called ‘new age’ people are not prepared to face their fears and insecurities. If they did they would choose to not get trapped in excess comfort zone ‘form’ living and concentrate upon expanding their inner consciousness.

Disaster from Latin means ‘to be separated from the Stars’ and we all should know what the ‘Stars’ symbolise.

To avoid disaster we have to ‘re-connect with the Stars’ and we all should know what that means.

How can one truly and authentically ‘live simply and ecologically’ if one is inwardly insecure? Fear and insecurity will constantly invade ones consciousness. Only ongoing ‘inner work’ can counteract this imbalance. And when one is about to ‘pass on’ (to higher more elevated worlds) what does one take with one but ‘Consciousness’.

One cannot take ones eco-house with one.

Email Errol Weiner

Errol Weiner, May 2011

 

by Kieth Armstrong

The other day I stumbled on a description of ourselves as taking our being within the Body (and Mind) of the Sun. The idea is a simple one. The Sun streams out particles called Neutrinos that are smaller than our atoms and their sub-atomic particles. Between the spaces which separate these the Neutrinos flow steadily.

Even when the Sun is below the horizon the stream continues to pour through the shell of the Earth. We are constantly bathed in the wash of Solar particles no matter where the sun is located in our skies. We are slowly but evenly ‘tanned’ by this particulate stream.

As the Sun rises so a new note for the day sounds and echoes through the air and in our bodies. Some of you may have heard the ring of dawn that strikes the air prior to the arrival of the Sun. It is this which wakens the birds. The Hindu astronomers many centuries before Christ divided the day into four parts. Dawn and Twilight were periods of the day when the Sun was between 18 degrees below the horizon and 18 degrees above it.

Mikhael Aivanhov, Omraam, taught that the home of the Higher Self was in the Sun.

Later teachers have echoed this thought in terms of our ‘Solar Angels’. The Sun is given as one of the Sacred Planets. It is clear to even the most materialistic of scientists, that the Sun is the source of Life on this planet. Life here is a delicate balance between Solar Fire and Terrestrial Water.

As the home of our Souls this becomes another interpretation of the City of Light, the New Jerusalem.

The stream of Neutrinos permeate our being, both body and Soul. They stimulate and redefine the etheric against the pattern of destruction we put upon it, restoring it, as far as possible, to the ideal which is carried within its own awareness.

When we take two lasers and play them across one another we can create an image of whatever we please. We pass the light through a lens which carries part of the pattern which when it coincides with another part of the pattern carried on another beam appears to create a solid figure. We call it a hologram familiar to us from tv science fiction series.

Conceive the impression of the Solar Ideal striking upon the earthly material expression and creating and recreating the perfected ideal of ourselves. The pattern of creation is pulsating between existence and emptiness, the return to pure
Consciousness. Through this on-off alternation it is possible to restore health to an otherwise unhealthy organism. With the snapping between etheric ideal and Conscious existence – existence in potential – it is possible to redefine the physical
body, as well as the mental outlook.

It is this shimmering self which is held within the Solar mind and in the stream of Neutrinos. We walk as holograms, or as shadows, within the stream of Neutrinos.

That we have substance and duration is a quality of Earth, as is decay. That we have existence I believe to be a quality of the Solar Consciousness itself.

There is a third element with which I shall not deal here. It is the individuated Soul. It is this which carries both the etheric ‘karmic’ record of the individual life as well as the inherent characteristics of that Self. The last are inherited, not from the past of the individual but from its initial creation as a conscious entity by the Star which first gave that Soul birth.

We do not all come from Sol, even though Sol would appear to be our temporary home.

Keith Armstrong
 

Dear Community (by Angus Marland),

The following is a synopsis of the Community Economy project which I presented to the FF Trustees and Management in early December. 2010.

The report starts with a look at how the community has grown over the last 50 years. After 10 years of ‘incubation’ in the 1960’s the Findhorn Foundation was thriving with about 300 members by the end of the 70’s. The population declined during the 80’s and 90’s, and by the year 2000 there were about 120 co-workers. That number is keeping pretty consistent through the 2000's up till now.

Paralleling this, in the 1980’s a community started to form around the Foundation, and in the mid 90’s the 'Open Community' was about the same size as the Foundation, though without any coherent form or structure. The NFA was established in 1999, and during the 2000’s it grew to its present size of about 300 individual and 30 organisational members.

About 650 community people feel engaged enough to have their names in our internal phone book, so in addition to the FF and NFA, there are about 250 people who are not ‘members' yet are part of the Community. The question arises; 'what is it that we are all members of?' Is there a new Community structure emerging that we can all say 'yes' to – and what does it look like?

Eileen’s guidance was that we would grow from a family, group and community into a village, town and City of Light. Our first 50 years can be seen as representing the first triad of family, group and community. The transition into the second triad is bound to be a momentous shift and could take over 20 years to complete. During the first ten, running through the 2000's ‘Community’ has predominated over ‘Village’. We are now at the turning point in which the second triad, begining with Village, begins to predominate over the first.

The transition can be witnessed in the change from the FF as the main provider of ‘Spiritual Community, Education Centre and Ecovillage’ to where we are today, with more of a village
enterprise consisting of multiple ‘Spiritual Communities, Education Centres and Ecovillages’.

The Economy Project set out to understand our historical and current social and economic relationships (individual and organisational) and to identify the steps that can be taken so that our future evolution meet the needs of the times. This include broadening our economic relationships, for example we could set up a Time Bank in which hours rather than pounds are the 'currency'.

Some statistics also help to set the scene:

• 70% of us in both the FF and the NFA Community are over 50 years old.
• 1/3rd of the FF and Community live at The Park, 1/3 on the Findhorn Peninsular and 1/3 in Forres and the surrounding area. Of the 240 people living at The Park, 25% (60 people) are FF co-workers.  
• The Park has 60 houses, 32 caravans, 27 bungalows and 5 eco-mobiles. Most houses are private, the bungalows and eco-mobiles are half private half FF, and the caravans belong to NFD.
• The FF spends about £500k per year developing, operating and maintaining its properties and land at The Park. It also spends about £100k per year attracting visitors/guests to the area through marketing etc.
• The NFA services the whole community with a supporting membership of half the community. £150 per year subscription is requested, the average received is £110.

Clearly, there are some interesting questions we need to ask ourselves and each other about exactly what kind of a Community we believe we are a part of, what kind of a Community we would like to be a part of, and how to collectively make the choices to become that which we'd like to belong to.

If anyone would like to see the report to the Trustees and Management, please email me and I’ll send a pdf.

Angus Marland

Printed in Rainbow Bridge 7th January 2011

By Keith Armstrong

I want to share with the community an image of the City of Light I received in conversation with Peter Caddy following the Winter Gathering of the Findhorn Foundation and Community in 2010.

I should say that my background has included training in mediumship from the spiritualist society, many experiences of channelling different beings and most importantly embracing the understanding Sir George Trevelyan speaks of when he tells us Humanity is a united Spiritual expression with a small part of it focused in material reality.

Sir George assures us that ‘death is the great adventure’ when we can become more closely united with our loved ones than is possible in the material form.

Those without a physical body are no less active and available than when they owned a physical expression and than we allow them to be. We are Eternal beings who dip in and out of physical expression.

So Peter and I were chatting, as you do, when he said, “Don’t be dismayed if they don’t all seem to be going your way. Findhorn has grown since then and now there are many impulses flowing through it.

The image I received was of a six-pointed star enclosed in a circle with the Solar sphere the point in the centre.

Through each of the separate triangles a thread of energies was flowing, pouring out into the world, and being dragged by the world into that direction.

Each of the threads had at least three strands, so the whole thing looked like the above. As the threads pulled out so the crystal heart unfolded.

I spoke to some recently of progress as unfoldment rather than as a linear directional process. I cannot see that we are on a bicycle going forwards, in danger of falling over if we stop –with the implicit understanding “pedal harder, I think I am falling” – I perceive a crystal flower unfolding in all directions.

If one part pulls harder, then the rest become twisted and distorted. The City of Light is not being built among the dunes alone – the respite and refuge of the Nature Spirits – but in Forres, and Kinloss and Burghead and Logie Steading as well. It is the communities of Whiteinch and Woodhead and all the other members not located in the Park or Cluny Hill. This at least is the unfoldment I witness after 30 years away.

Keith Armstrong, 2010

(editor “Awakening Consciousness, a selection of lectures by Sir George Trevelyan”)

Keith Armstrong

Should I go to the meeting? The question had dogged me for an hour or two. In the end I decided to have a shower and an early night. I had watched the end of The Commitments and after turned to view a little of Moulin Rouge. Very bright and colourful. But that was enough.

I sat to meditate, a thing I had wanted to do since the shower. 'Take yourself to the meeting', I was told, 'In your spirit body.'

I found myself looking down into the upper CC (Findhorn Community Centre). Almost even before the comment was ended. I didn't take myself there. I was taken there. I looked down into the yellowish light. It must have been about 7.50. 'Invite the Angel of Findhorn.' 'Angel, please come and inspire this meeting. Lift the vision towards the greatness that can be.'

I found myself now looking up, holding an earthenware goblet containing the CC and all in it. I offered it to the angel and found myself walking, holding the goblet, beside the angel out across the Bay. Now my body was a hundred feet high and slender, every bit like the elven Prince Charming, dressed in silken raiment trailing, and carrying a chalice which was changing every bit as much as I.

Now we held the cup together, the hand of the angel crossing mine so that our arms formed a spiral. The coarse earthenware had fallen away to reveal a cup heavy with silver gilt, white gold and jewels.

The angel lifted us higher until we stood above the Bay, holding the cup with its surface still peeling, pouring light in every direction. It was blessing the city of Light and all around from Brodie and Nairn and further afield the towers and spires of churches and noble buildings shone back with the light of the future towards us.

Every time I tried to get closer to see more clearly or to go to some familiar place I was pulled back.' Too personal', it said, as if this was dragging the vision into the present instead of allowing it to stand into the future. And once more I would rise and stand above the Bay with the Light angel and the chalice of light pouring out to all around.

We stood together holding the goblet high and the spiral of our arms wound into the spiral of the cup and up through two or three more windings like a blazing sword of light woven from these spiral arms disappearing into a point.

The light spread out from the cup which now seemed to draw the energy from all around in a sort of dome into itself and then twisting a great blaze of light up into the heavens. I checked the clock. It was exactly 8.00 pm.

I thought you would like to share in this vision and my experience of the community meeting. Thank you all for being part of it.

Much love, Keith Armstrong, Rainbow Bridge 17 June 2011

RB Article by Keith Armstrong

 As I (Kieth Armstrong) trawl through the archival material one of the comments that Peter Caddy made in his interview for the 25 th Anniversary was the lack of esoteric material that was being taught in the Findorn Foundation then compared with the early days.

Amongst that material is a series of lessons that Peter received from his Master Aureolis, under the title Soul Science. This has been made available in written form through the good work of Mike Scott some years ago as part of the Foundations file – a compilation of documents from the significant teachers of those early days. These are readily available (on CD) from S&PD.

If you are unable to get hold of a copy then please email me (Kieth) at archives@findhorn.org and I shall send the zipped file on to you – Google permitting.

In these teachings we discover the source of Peter's phenomenal faith and will power. The strength of his positive thinking.

While these teachings are important it is incidental comments made here and there through the talks given by Peter, Dorothy and the others that speak of the origins of this community.

One of the most significant concerning the excitement that Peter felt at ROC channelling St Germain, an important figure for Peter and the unfoldment of the New Age movement. Sadly this term has fallen into disrepute since the 1970s. Yet few would deny the seminal times in which we live. Seminal since the power of the changes we are all going through determine the course of our paths for lifetimes
to come.

Some say we can choose the direction which the Earth takes, or at least human evolution upon it. I am not so certain of this but we can choose our own.

However in the 13 th Century an initiate of high order incarnated in the west under the name Christian Rosenkreutz and was trained, so the history goes, in all the esoteric traditions of the world. Not only Western Mysteries but also Sufism and wider afield than that.

This initiate was given the task of serving as the agent of synthesis of traditions bringing devotion into a single focus upon God above all things. But the superstitious ages the West passed through subsequent to this lead to figures such as Paracelsus running from persecution by the orthodox. We can suppose no less a threat has existed for Christian Rosenkreutz during his lifetimes.

It will be recalled also that Rosenkreutz is said to have incarnated as the initiate St Germain. Thus not only do we have Peter and his association with the Rosicrucian order in his training but also the overlighting presence of that master himself in the form of St Germain. This speaks of a distinct energy beng carried in the Foundation.

Among the higher orders of Freemasonry the degrees of Knights of the Temple begin with the Order of the Rose Cross. We find a similar teaching in Buddhism and other traditions that speak of the opening of the Heart Lotus and the flowering of the Pearl. The significance of the piercing if Christ's side also holds this imagery.

But what does it signify for us today as a working community seeking to serve God and planetary need and yet survive as a body in these desperate times?

We can only look back to the original principles and declare with Eileen “serve God and all else shall be added thereto”. Are we serving God daily? Each moment taking the time to say thank you and surrender our wills to the Will?

Or do personalities get in the way all the time? Do we follow the guidance that is offered us, even to the point of sacrifice? Let us not forget the sacrifices made along the way, by others as well as by ourselves, and let us work to honour these memories.

Much love, Keith Armstrong, RB, 19 August 2011
 

 

There seems to be a belief circulating that there is undesirable conflict within our community, and that something should be done about it.

Conflict does not bother me; it can be quite creative if not overdone.

In fact, conflict is the essential shadow side of harmony and peace, and in duality you cannot have one without the other.

If you want to reduce conflict in our community, then the approach of wanting to reduce conflict will have the opposite effect of that intended, because:

• Energy follows thought
• What we pay attention to expands

Therefore, if we talk about "the problem of conflict within our community", "conflict resolution" or some variant of that, guess what happens? Conflict manifests! Actually there are two concerns here. Working to reduce conflict would:

1. direct time, energy and resources away from existing priorities, without due consideration.
2. in practical terms achieve the opposite of what is intended.

If we are concerned about conflict, then we can instead celebrate the harmony and peace that exists within our community (in the present tense) and so it shall be (is already).

And we would still have to be willing to accept responsibility for an equal resultant increase in shadow conflict, possibly somewhere else.

Oh dear!

Perhaps it is sufficient to aspire to live lives of compassion and harmlessness, without trying to change the world?

Still, we have chosen to live in a spiritual community, and for me that choice includes preferring harmony and peace to conflict, pending the Grace of enlightenment or awakening!

So let’s go about it in a more effective way?

(c) John Wragg,5th August 2009

This is to announce the launch of the Findhorn Foundation Airline (FFA). The Findhorn Foundation Airline will offer flights to all realms, seen and unseen, departing from the Park Runway. Guests are asked to meet in the Phoenix to fill up with chocolate before boarding the plane. Payment may be made in EKOs, Carbon Credits or Education Credits. The cost is by attunement.

Guests are recommended to have attended Experience Week prior to confirming their booking.

This is your Guest Cabin Focaliser speaking:

• Please fasten your seat belts.
• Golden sanctuary blankets and tissues are available from your focalisers if you get cold feet.
• It is OK to hug the person sitting next to you.
• We shall be serving a lunch of brown rice and Brussel sprouts, but it is organic so that is OK.
• Those in the isle seats are doing KP on this flight, please report to the rear galley when the bell sounds.

This is your Flight Focaliser speaking:

• Before we take off let us hold hands to attune to the flight, and welcome into our circle this Wing_and_A_Prayer vehicle whose name is Julie.
• We ask for the blessings of Faith, Hope and Love. •
• We shall be cruising at 30,000 feet..
• You can see the overlighting angel out of the left hand windows.
• I have been sharing with the control tour, and their feedback is that we should divert to Mount Shasta.

In the unlikely event of a crash:

• Then that will have been a mirror projection of your inner process, and The Foundation will not accept any liability.
• White buses will be attending the runway ready to take you to Cluny Hospital for treatment.

Submitted by John Wragg, original idea by Anon @ CLuny?

Published 7th March 2006

By Keith Armstrong

Have you ever been in the sanctuary and had a sudden thought which knocked you completely off- balance? A thought that was so out of harmony with where you were at that moment that it does not feel like yours at all.

Simply because you can, doesn't mean you have to identify with it. This helps to create a discipline of thought, of what you will accept and 'own', and allow to grow in your life. Allowing it can be destructive, both to yourself and to others involved in the thought.

So what is the origin of these sudden uncalled for thoughts? Are they simply the up-welling of the deeper subconscious? Are they bleed-throughs from the people around you?

While this may be the case recognise that they come from outside and are a real invasion of your psyche.

I wrote earlier about 'clearing the astral' after 50 years of psychic activity. Astral entities, discarnate humans and others, are drawn to any centre of light, whether a centre and focus of light, a beautiful bright person open and happy, or someone opened through emotional instability – drink, drugs, turmoil, accident. Additionally there are thoughts we cast off ourselves.

Many beings, particularly those which have no clear 'after-death' teaching wander about in a sort of fog trying to live again. They look to repeat the experiences they enjoyed – eating, drinking, smoking, sex – and find they can do this through others. They latch on to people, particularly when those people are vulnerable. Seeing some-one open, they slip into the aura and attach themselves to the innocent.

This person then finds themselves dealing with strong or unusual emotions – the desire to eat meat, when they have been vegetarian for several years, the desire for alcohol or cigarettes when they do not take these things.

These sudden impulses imply astral cling-ons. These entities cause a disturbance in behaviour and ways of thinking. They can lead to destructive patterns which are difficult to break because the individual is unaware of them as external thoughts, and become judgemental about themselves.

 Much Love, Keith Armstrong

Personal notes inspired by Monday’s Community Meeting, at the Cancer full moon (home, heart and community). There are perhaps four stages a person can go through. Mixing multiple metaphors and sources we can have:

1. Athlete, physical body, me
2. Warrior and competitor, or homemaker, us
3. Co-operator, doing, group soul, purpose, all of us
4. Elder, being, non-dual, enlightened, all one.

Youth may need different types of support as they develop through No 1. And at No 2 some may leave and may or may not come back. That is OK.

The Foundation Community is partly about supporting the transition from No 2 to No 3, largely through doing (work is love in action), 24 by 7. We are good at it, and we the collective need No 3 to survive and get things done. That is OK.

And, each stage comes with its shadow. At No 3 what sometimes manifests is lack consciousness: the belief that there is never enough time, money, staff… Actually, this is a heresy, as is the unspoken belief in separation. And as No 4 comes to the fore in the life of a person there is nothing to do, no one to do it and nothing to be afraid of. That is OK too.

Or so I have heard.

And which Buddhist Monastery had a policy of never commenting on external matters? Very profound.

So maybe the calling I or we or some of us face is the transformation from No 3 to No 4?

Note that these stages represent growth through time, and cannot be tied to specific ages such as an arbitrary retirement age.

The esoteric keynote for Cancer is “I build a lighted house and therein dwell”

John Wragg, Johnwr@johnwr.co.uk

Meditation - the universal practice?

Meditation seems to be the one method or practice that is common to the higher levels of all major world religions, including Taoism, Zen, Buddhism, Hinduism.

It is less central to the "religions of the book": Judaism, Christianity and Islam, though it is certainly present in the Christian mystics, the Quakers and arguably (in a debased form) in the Roman Catholic icons, Hail Marys and rosaries.

On this Site

• Learn How to Meditate(pdf, 372 KB)
  Free eBook by William Bodri of MeditationExpert.Com, covers the basic meditation technique of Cessation-Contemplation Practice or transcendental Yoga, which is the basis of most techniques.
• Meditation - Some Personal Notes
  by John Wragg

Meditation Reference Sites

• White Eagle Lodge, a path of love, tolerance and service towards all life, including healing.
• The StarLink Network of Light, associated with White Eagle.
• Barry Long, Australian spiritual master on love, life, truth, death and God.
• Deepak Chopra doctor, author, spiritual teacher; also author of various recommended Nightingale Conant audio cassette tape programmes.
• MeditationExpert.com - High level teachings on supramundane meditation, esoteric meditation techniques, kundalini awakening, personal cultivation, changing your fortune, mind-body medicine and the metaphysical phenomena encountered on the spiritual path ... from William Bodri and Zen Master Nan Huai-Chin.
• Find Lasting Inner Peace, Joy and Love, with the Sedona Method

Meditation Books

The purpose of spiritual healing is to bring the body, mind and spirit into harmony and allow the body's own natural healing process to function, so creating wholeness and a restoration to health. It can be given for any illness or injury.

This is distinct in emphasis from spiritual growth, although there is an overlap since body, mind and spirit are related.

Spiritual healing has been around for a long time; Jesus was a healer, and told his disciples "Preach the Gospel and Heal the Sick". But it got lost (or suppressed?) later.

It works by acting as a channel for divine energy, spirit, your higher self or whatever. Different healers have their own words, depending on their background, but most agree that they are just a channel.

And it differs from Faith Healing in that belief on the part of the client or patient is not a factor, it just needs a willingness to be open.

Looking for a Remote Healer?

The following organisations will arrange for "remote" or "absent" healing (worldwide) by a group of qualified healers, if you contact them by email:

• White Eagle Lodge
• Harry Edwards Spiritual Healing Sanctuary

References

Spiritual Healing in the UK

These organisations provide background information for the public as well as support for their practitioner members. Most can put you in touch with a member local to you (in the UK) or for remote healing.

• British Alliance of Healing Associations
• National Federation of Spiritual Healers
• College of Healing
• Friends Fellowship of Healing, and
• Quaker Spiritual Healers

Quaker UK Spiritual Healing Centres

The following offer informal healing "retreats", e.g. for convalescence, and also a program of short structured courses:

• Claridge House, Surrey (Friends Fellowship of Healing)
• Charney Manor, Conference Centre and Retreat House.
• Glenthorne Country Guest House and Quaker Conference Centre.

Spirit Release

Spirit Release is a form of healing which removes entities and attachments from a person's body and aura, which may be causing disruption or harm:

• College of Psychic studies, London
• Spirit Release Foundation
• Books and Links on SpiritCalling.co.uk
• Foundation for Emotional Therapy
• Hickman Academy for Spirit Release and Healing

Spiritual Healing Books

• Amazon Religion & Spirituality Books
  
• Spiritual Healing:

Spiritual Books

• Findhorn Press - publishers of books of spiritual inspiration, healing, guidance, nature and transformation.
• MeditationEXpert.com, lots of helpful advice and guidance, including books, on meditation.
• Barry Long, late Australian spiritual master on meditation, love, life, truth, death and God.
• Deepak Chopra , doctor, author, spiritual teacher; also author of various recommended Nightingale Conant audio cassette tape programmes.
• Meditation - Some Personal Notes, by John Wragg
• A Course in Miracles, a complete self-study spiritual thought system, which teaches in part that the way to universal love and peace - or remembering God - is by undoing guilt through forgiving others.

Seeking the Light?

Friends have been meeting for silent worship for 350 years.

Each week members and visitors, children and adults, meet for silent worship at Meeting Houses across the UK.

• Quakers in Britain worship in silence, unless individuals feel led by the Spirit to speak.
• We have no dogma or common creed, except that generally:
• We believe that there is that of God in everyone.

If you'd like to experience Quaker worship, or think this might be the place to pursue your spiritual journey, please just come to a local meeting on Sunday, or if you prefer contact us for a chat or by email.

You can look up your nearest meeting on the Britain Yearly Meeting web site.

More About Quakers

Quaker Beliefs and Testimonies

Quakers have no creed, in Britain at least, though their roots do lie in Christianity. They share:

• Silent Meetings for Worship
• A business method based on quiet contemplation to ascertain "the spirit of the meeting" rather than confrontation.

But UK Quakers do also generally share a number of testimonies, dealing with matters such as:

• Personal Relationships, including Equality
• Compassion
• Truth and Integrity
• Peace
• Social Justice
• Green Issues

Peace and Social Justice

Quakers are still at work on historic causes today, including:

• Human Rights
• Criminal Justice
• Fair Trade and Business Ethics
• Peace and Reconciliation

To follow

Quaker Bookshops

1. The Quaker Bookshop

Carries a large stock of hardcopy Quaker books published in Britain and from around the world together with books on spirituality, liberal Christianity, social responsibility, conflict resolution and peace work.

2. QuakerBooks.org

The bookshop of Friends General Conference (FGC), carries hundreds of titles of interest to Friends and seekers.

3. Pendle Hill Bookstore

Mostly hardcopy, but with the help of volunteers Pendle Hill is providing selected out of print Pendle Hill Pamphlets in Adobe PDF format free to be downloaded from our website. You can find these pamphlets on the Pendle Hill pamphlet page.

4. Quaker Bookstores List

From www.Quaker.org

Quaker Publishers

1. Woodbrook Publications

Hardcopy versions of their own publications.

2. Quakers Uniting in Publications (QUIP)

An international network of over 50 Friends organizations and individuals concerned with the ministry of the written word.  See the QUIP Member Institutions List.

3. Quaker Heritage Press

Includes a Catalog of seventeenth-, eighteenth- and nineteenth-century writings that are currently available from QHP and other publishers, either in print or online.