My contact with the devas opened up in a natural way, rising organically from my life background.
My two brothers and I were brought up by the most delightful and loving parents in a beautiful old house next to a wood in Canada. We had gardens of vegetables and flowers, but I was not especially attracted to cultivated plants. I loved wandering in the wild places.
I went to university with a lot of questions, but despite all the talk about the profundities of life, I found no satisfactory answers. Eventually I started paying attention to that voice within that had long been asking me to listen, and I began to write down the daily guidance I was receiving. During a period of spiritual training which was teaching me to place the will of this indwelling God first in my life, I met Peter and Eileen Caddy. Before moving to Findhorn, we worked together on the staff of the hotel where Peter was manager, putting this principle into action.
What I mean by ‘God’
When I speak of God’s will, I am aware that this might call up a stereotyped picture of an old gentleman somewhere out in the sky, making automatons of us by imposing an external will. This is not my meaning, but I do not know of another way in which to convey it. To me, God is an indwelling presence, the core of what I am and what everything is. God is life itself, speaking through all life. And God’s will is the path we tread which develops the best for us and for all we encounter. Let My will be a mystery for you to find in each moment, my guidance told me. Seek it within the little and the big. It includes all people and all things, all questions and all answers.
Our first winter at Findhorn had been an especially harsh one for the area, with frequent gale-force winds adding to the snow and rain. But by early May, 1963, the first radishes and lettuce Peter had sown in the patio garden were coming up, and he was busy preparing another area for peas and beans and a few other vegetables. The spring weather was growing warm enough for us to sit outside on the patio during our daily time of quiet together. This was a delightful opportunity to experience God’s presence in everything around me.
During that period of time, my guidance had been telling me to be open for new ideas and inspiration: Be prepared, My child, and on the lookout for My promptings. Expect new ideas to come into your head. This is a further period of training for you and it entails many new things.
The task
The guidance I received on the morning of May 8 was indeed the beginning of something new: One of the jobs for you as My free child is to feel into the nature forces, such as the wind. Feel its essence and purpose for Me, and be positive and harmonize with that essence. It will not be as difficult as you immediately imagine because the beings of these forces will be glad to feel a friendly power. All forces are to be felt into, even the sun, the moon, the sea, the trees, the very grass. All are part of My life. All is one life. Play your part in making life one again, with My help.
Well, I thought that was very nice, because as far as I was concerned, there was nothing I would like better than to sit in the sun and commune with nature. But when Peter saw this guidance, that’s not how he understood it. ‘You can use that to help with the garden!’ he said, feeling that direct contact with the nature forces might give him the answers he needed to his questions about the garden. Sure enough, the next day I was told in guidance, Yes, you are to cooperate in the garden. Begin this by thinking about the nature spirits, the higher over-lighting nature spirits, and tune into them. That will be so unusual as to draw their interest here. They will be overjoyed to find some members of the human race eager for their help. That is the first step.
By the higher nature spirits I mean those such as the spirits of clouds, of rain, and of vegetables. The smaller individual nature spirits are under their jurisdiction. In the new world these realms will be quite open to humans – or I should say, humans will be open to them. Seek into the glorious realms of nature with sympathy and understanding, knowing that these beings are of the Light, willing to help, but suspicious of humans and on the look-out for the false, the snags. Keep with Me and they will find none, and you will all build towards the new.
My first attempt
I thought such instructions rather a tall order, taxing my credulity and certainly beyond my talents. I knew only a little about nature spirits and, although I was aware of the angelic hierarchy, I had not known that there were devas overlighting vegetables. I told Peter I couldn’t do it and stalled for several weeks, despite his encouragement. However, instructions from the inner divinity – and Peter’s promptings – are not lightly disregarded!
One evening in meditation I reached a powerful state of heightened consciousness, and I thought, now I’ll contact one of those higher nature spirits. Since vegetables had been mentioned, I thought I might contact the spirit of some plant we were growing at Findhorn. I had always been fond of the garden pea which we had grown at home in Canada, and I could feel in sympathy in all ways with that plant. So I tried to focus on the essence of what the pea was to me and the love I felt for it. I got an immediate response in thought and feeling which I put into the following words: I can speak to you, human. I am entirely directed by my work which is set out and molded and which I merely bring to fruition, yet you have come straight to my awareness. My work is clear before me – to bring force fields into manifestation regardless of obstacles, and there are many in this man-infested world. While the vegetable kingdom holds no grudge against those it feeds, man takes what he can as a matter of course, giving no thanks. This makes us strangely hostile.
What I would tell you is that as we forge ahead, never deviating from our course for one moment’s thought, feeling or action, so could you. Humans generally seem not to know where they are going or why. If they did, what a powerhouse they would be. If they were on the straight course of what is to be done, we could cooperate with them! I have put across my meaning and bid you farewell.
What are devas?
When I showed this to Peter, he said, ‘Fine, now you can find out what to do about these tomatoes and what it is these lettuces might need....’ And I would take his questions to the deva of the species concerned and get straightforward practical advice.
At this point I might say that the term ‘deva’ is a Sanskrit word meaning shining one. On the whole, I have chosen to use this word rather than the English equivalent, ‘angel,’ which calls up stereotyped images that are more of a barrier than a help in understanding the true nature of these beings.
It wasn’t until nearly ten years later that I was introduced to some of the esoteric literature on devas. However, through my own contact with them we discovered that they are part of a whole hierarchy of beings, from the earthiest gnome to the highest archangel, and are a sister evolution to the human on earth. The devas hold the archetypal pattern and plan for all forms around us, and they direct the energy needed for materialising them. The physical bodies of minerals, vegetables, animals and humans are all energy brought into form through the work of the devic kingdom. Sometimes we call that work natural law, but it is the devas who carry out that law, ceaselessly and joyfully. The level of this hierarchy I was guided to contact was not that of the spirit of, say, a particular pea plant in our garden, but rather the overlighting intelligence, the soul essence, of all peas throughout the world.
While the devas might be considered the ‘architects’ of plant forms, the nature spirits or elementals, such as gnomes and fairies, may be seen as the ‘craftsmen’, using the blueprint and energy channelled to them by the devas to build up the plant form. It was with these beings that R. Ogilvie Crombie established communication. When Roc joined our work at Findhorn, he helped to clarify and confirm certain undefined feelings I had had about the plant world. For instance, when the gorse bushes were pruned in full blossom, Roc was able to clarify exactly what was wrong through his contact with the nature spirits.
Essentially, the devas are energy, they are life force. (We humans are as well, only in our own unique way.) I was told in guidance, You are simply surrounded by life. You are a life force moving along with other life forces. As you recognize this, you open up and draw near to these others, becoming more and more one with them, working together for My purposes.
The devas themselves have no particular form. But in attempting to establish communication and cooperation with humans, members of the devic realms have made themselves visible in a form intelligible to humans. These forms reflect their functions. For instance, a dwarf is usually depicted with a pickaxe, denoting our human interpretation of his work with the mineral world. Angels, on the other hand, are portrayed with wings, and often as bearing something, such as a message of healing or mercy. As the devas have said, We work in the formless worlds and are not bound or rigid in form as you are. We travel from realm to realm and are given wings to denote movement. As we travel, our form changes, taking on the qualities of different realms. Therefore, you cannot pin us down to any one form. We deal directly with energy and that energy shapes us, is part of us, is us, until we breathe it out to where it is needed. We are limitless, free, and insubstantial.
Beyond form
I have never seen any of these beings in a definite form, although sometimes I get an impression of a pattern, a shape or a colour. Once when I had the image of the Red Cabbage Deva standing in front of many vague forms, I was told, These forms are myself and those like me as we have been and as we shall be. Although we live in the moment and are always moving, yet is our past and present with us. We are close to the inner realms where all is living. I give you this picture so that you will not see me, or any of us, as merely one of a list of static forms but will connect us up more with life. Humans are so inclined to limit and depend upon their five senses to perceive the world that they forget that we are living, changing forces now, outside your sense of time.
As we became more aware of the fact that everything around us is part of the same energy in different forms, we were opened up to an entirely new way of working in the garden. The devas said, We realise it is easy for man to think of a plant as a thing, perhaps as living, but nevertheless a thing, for he cuts himself off from the vision that sees beyond the physical, just as he cuts himself off from his own inner being which is so vast. Taking into account the inner being of plants, we began to realise that the garden must be known from within as well as from without, that it must grow spiritually as well as physically.
From The Findhorn Garden, copyright 1975 by The Findhorn Foundation, published in the UK in 2003 by Findhorn Press.
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Inspirational features 
