From Findhorn

I am in Findhorn (situated in the North of Scotland, not far from Inverness), or more precisely the Findhorn Foundation, one of the oldest intentional communities. I am here for a week long workshop which will start on Saturday. It is a workshop with one of my teachers Stephen Busby on Embodying Higher Consciousness.

I know most of the people who will be participating as I have followed this work quite intensely for the last two or three years. And I have already met some people who will participate in the workshop too and enjoyed walks at the beach.

Last year I came to Findhorn for the first time and spent 10 days here. I was fascinated by the story of the beginnings of the Community which developed around a group of three people, who beside other practices meditated regularly and received messages from God or a Higher Force, whatever you want to call it, and followed what they heard. They went through some tough and dire times but kept going and then later created this beautiful place where lots of good ideas are born and are spread from here to other places. One key aspect for me is the communication and cooperation with the invisible world. The three founders experimented with communication with the devas of the plants and flowers in their garden and in cooperation with them managed to transform the first fairly poor soil into a rich soil and received amazing crops. That is when people started coming here and many stayed.

The other aspect that is touching me, is a daily meditation in the sanctuary, the centrally situated meditation space. I participated daily in the morning meditation last year. Since the creation of this place a group of people meditates for an hour every morning, the function of this meditation being to be a vessel to receive Christ Consciousness to let it flow into the Community and all it’s actions and further out into the country and world. The sanctuary during morning meditation is one of the most peaceful places I have sat in, I had some of my deepest meditation experiences here and got a taste of receiving light and then letting it flow through me. When I decided to come here, the meditations called me most.

And then of course there are all sorts of interesting people here and a lovely little village and a long beautiful beach to walk along.

Also my new writing coach happens to be here at the moment. She had come up in my mind a few times when I was wondering how I could best improve my writing, my own experience while writing and possibly the reading experience too. So far it feels super helpful. The first session was mostly about daring to find my own voice, allowing myself to write about what interests me most as opposed to what I think people want to read. And noticing the fear in me, that some people look at me less favorably when I start to become more and more spiritual in my writing. But then my whole project is about a spiritual practice and what has happened in the last few months is connecting and opening me more and more to the spiritual or subtle world = heaven. So more writing will be about that and my practice to connect the subtle to the material world = earth.

Today during our session I realized that I often stay at a very superficial level in my writing which partly mirrors my sometimes superficial experiences. However, the post about Iona in particular does not at all mirror the deep and often magical experiences I had while being there.

My practice in the next weeks and possibly months will be to allow myself to feel each moment as deeply as I want and to find expression for it. I will also rewrite the posts about Erraid and Iona to bring this new level of expression into practice.

The workshop next week will also be a good place to practice exactly this, I am just noticing how thankful I am that I am here and can be here and the luxury to have all this time and coming to beautiful places and starting Saturday to connect to a group of people who are here for very similar reasons.

Iona – Kissed by God

After my community week on Erraid, I moved to the island which I had in sight most of the week, Iona. 

Iona is a little bigger than Erraid and has a different energy, much more soft and full of love as I slowly discovered. Thousands of people are called to visit Iona during the year, most of them just come for the day to visit the main sites and then return to Mull with a short ferry ride. 

I was a bit doubtful if my choice of camping was a good idea in September, but as I had left booking a bit late, I did not have so many other options. And it turned out fantastic. The Iona campsite rents tents, mats and sleeping bags, so I did not have to carry everything and lived in a very spacious lovely tent. I did beinring, however my own sleeping bag which was a good idea as particularly the first two nights were clear and thus cold.

The first morning greeted me with a cloud free blue sky. I had my morning tea outside of my tent on a little grass covered hill of rocks in the morning sun. That was the first of many magic moments on this island, when I felt completely happy and at peace. From where I was sitting, I could see Erraid across the water and enjoyed the fresh and clear energy of the place.  There is something very nurturing about the island, on another day I had the feeling of being in the womb of a soft and loving mother, completely protected and receiving all I need. 

Many visitors come for the peacefulness and tenderness they can feel here. Yes, very tangible as if the love is coming out of the rocks. 

Iona is made from some of the oldest rocks that exist on earth. Some of the rocks are 2900 million years old. And while sitting on one of the rocks I got the feeling that they came directly from the primordial fire. As close to the beginning of time on earth as possible, maybe this can explain the presence of love from the initial impulse of evolution. 

And heaven is already connected to earth here as I could feel in my walking practice. This also led to the expression Kissed by God which I used in the title. A very special place indeed. 

Iona became famous as a point of pilgrimage after St. Colomba left Ireland to found a monastery on Iona in the sixth century. Thousands of pilgrims came to the island after he died and his holy bones were placed in a shrine. Also kings and lords chose to be buried here, possibly to be closer to God.

Before St. Colomba came and helped to spread Christianity from here, some very interesting things must have been going on here, the island was a place for rituals and sacred work of druids, for many years some kind of headquarters for their work as I read in an article in the internet. 

On my walks across the island and through very boggy farmland I stopped to connect to the spirit of the island which becomes a new practice for me. As far as I understood, Iona is and was an important point of connection to other sacred places on Earth. One aspect of the connection is to keep balance on Earth. 

I am very curious to find out more about what the druids worked on in ancient times. So many new realms I am learning about. 

Besides my contacts with subtle worlds, I also enjoyed lovely moments with fellow humans. The campsite was fairly empty, however John and his dog where there most of the time. John was very friendly and helpful and nice, I liked when during one of our chats he said about himself that he likes talking. Yes, he did. He told me of interesting places to walk to. And one evening he asked me to bring a particular beautiful stone, he had found that day, to his wife who participated in an organized week in the Iona Abbey, built on the site where once Colomba founded his monastery. I joined two of the evening services there and delivered the stone.

Another camper was Steve, a cyclist who I had met in the self service coffee place one morning and who decided to stay on the island after our chat. We spent one sunny day together, lots of fun and interesting exchange. And he came with me to one of the services in the abbey which he enjoyed much more than he had anticipated as he described himself as an aetheist. We walked to the bay where Colomba supposedly first arrived in his boat with 12 disciples. A magic place, a very sheltered pebble beach and some rocks to sit and climb on. It was warm enough to spend some time and enjoy the sun and the peaceful atmosphere. The way to and from the bay lead us through often boggy marsh land along a lake and sometimes meeting other visitors on their way to one of the most visited places on the island, Colomba Bay. 

On the way to the campsite I walked past the house of a massage practicioner and decided to have a massage after having walked past a few times. The day after the massage was my most social day of the week. As if the livelyness that I felt in my body after the massage attracted people to me the next day. Very interesting experience, planning to repeat this. 

I had conversations with different people and then even met three ladies who I had spent the week with on Erraid, who were there for another week and chose to go visit Iona on their free day. They invited me to tea and scone in one of the two hotels on Iona. A fun day. 

I was very lucky with the weather. Camping could have been much less comfortable otherwise. And although I had to sleep with my hat on and even gloves for two nights, I would not have wanted it any other way. Being so immersed in nature and sleeping directly on the Earth is very nurturing for me. I sleep deep and well and enjoy being outside most of the day. 

 

Erraid

One week on a tiny island off Mull in Scotland. I joined a small community on Erraid, which is part of the Findhorn  Foundation . The community, 8-15 people looks after the island and receives guests. 

I had chosen to come here to experience a small community and be with people for a while before exploring some more solitary travelling again. A very wholesome experience. On Monday, Tuesday and Thursday guests were invited to participate in so called Love in Action, which could be weeding, cooking, making fire wood, etc. Monday was special because the whole community and guests were invited to help with a sheep round up for the local farmer. In two round about 120 sheep were brought together. Fun and a good way to see all of the island, cross country over hills and through bogs in welly boots that I could borrow. There was also meditation and singing and lovely community meals. On one of my free days I went up to the highest part of the island and tried to connect to the spirit of Erraid as after my experience on Amrum, I was curious if such a connection is possible in all places. While my connection to the Amrum spirit had felt easy and natural and I was full of questions, here I did not know how to start. I started with some mantra recitation to free anything that might be between me and the spirit. Slowly I could see more of the beauty of the island and I could sense how I felt more open to connect. Definitely no connecting from a closed or neutral heart space. And what I sensed was a certain raw beauty of the spirit. As if the island is about the beauty of our most raw aspects. Possibly by being so raw in it’s beauty allowing people who come to the island to find the next level of rawness inside themselves. 

At least this is what happened to me after this experience. For a day I felt a bit tired and less willing to do physically taxing work, then during the last morning meeting where all community members and guests meet to briefly check in and then say what they will be doing during the day, I had tears rolling down my face from being deeply touched. 

I think what touched me was the feeling of love when we all stood in the circle holding hands. Such a diverse group of people, and the love flowing was tangible. I understood that only diverse groups can flourish, we need variety! What a beautiful aspect of community when this is possible. And then healing is possible, in my case it felt like in the circle my body was reminded of something it very rarely or never experienced, or I was never able to experience so deeply.

So possibly each place has their own access to healing. Amrum was about balance, Erraid about rawness and Iona where I am now seems to be about love and tenderness. I am excited about connecting in this way.

More about Iona in my next post.

Amrum

I just arrived in my hostel for this night in Glasgow, the flight and connections went all very smoothly, friendly people telling me where to go. Already bought my bus ticket to Oban for tomorrow morning. After bus, ferry, bus and another ferry, I should arrive on the island Erraid tomorrow afternoon. I will be a guest in a small community on the island for one week. 

However, before I start this new journey in another country, I wanted to write about my time on Amrum, an island off the coast of Northern Germany, where I spent a whole week at the end of August. 

After my trip along the river which I finished with a visit at my cousin’s place, I took the train and then cycled to a little harbour with ships leaving for the islands off the coast. I had not booked, thinking that there would always be a place for me and my bicycle. But no, I had to wait 24 hours to get a place on a ferry! Fortunately there was a campsite not far from the ferry landing. Interesting to feel the strong longing to be on the island. 

Then finally, the next day I had a beautiful ferry trip and settled on a nice place at the campsite, camping directly in the dunes, comfortable sleeping and sitting in front of the tent.

Amrum has a 10 km square sandbank at it’s west side, one can walk for miles over the sand or take a bath where it meets the water. I had been on Amrum before, as a child and also later and always loved it.

And again, as before on the island of Samso in Denmark I could feel how an island is having a relaxing effect on me. To feel the limits of the land, surrounded by water, allows me to settle inside of me and stretch my spirit. 

I love to walk on the sandbank, it is so big, that only rarely one meets other people, a wind is blowing and one can see far into the distance. I spent most of my time there. 

And on one of the days I had the impulse to talk to the spirit of the island. It felt like a very clear conversation. I could ask questions and received instant answers, I heard it in my head. I was blown away by the experience. 

As one example, I asked about the function of the island and if different islands have different functions in the bigger web of things and learnt that each island has it’s own function and all it does is that it expresses itself. Just like what people should do to be themselves. Amrum specifically is a lot about balance between the sea and the land. I also had the impression that an island and it’s people are naturally more exposed to the strong expression of other elements of the nature, such as the sea and the wind and the sun, that it needs to find it’s own expression to live on. This aspect also seems to lead to a more healthy environment. Not sure what healthy means in this context, in the case of Amrum the fact that big areas are saved for nature and animals only, the number of tourists is kept at a level, etc. And it has a regenerating effect on the people who come to spend time there. 

The conversations with the spirit of the island seemed mostly to be about balance. And interestingly, I seem to be a little out of balance at the moment. The theme was well chosen. The constant travelling and being in different places and my tendency to balance the feeling to be out of my comfort zone with coffee and cake, my body moved into an acidic state. I had some symptoms which are now already receding, but I will have to take more care of myself. 

For the next few months of travelling I decided to stay longer at one place and maybe also change other aspects which I don’t know yet. I trust that I will be shown if I ask.

Back to the spirit of the island, I started to write down the conversations and I decided to come back to Amrum for a whole month in November to discover more about the island and to continue the conversations.