Eileen Caddy

Infobox Person
name = Eileen Caddy


caption = Eileen Caddy, 1981
birth_date = birth date|1917|8|26|mf=y
birth_place = Alexandria, Egypt
death_date = death date and age|2006|12|13|1917|8|26|mf=y
death_place = Findhorn, Scotland
spouse = 1. Andrew Combe 2. Peter Caddy
parents = Albert Jessop, Muriel Jessop
children = Richard, Jenny, Mary-Elizabeth, Suzanne, Penny, Christopher, Jonathan, David

Eileen Caddy MBE (August 26 1917 – December 13 2006) is best known as one of the founders of the Findhorn Foundation community near the village of Findhorn on the Moray Firth in northeast Scotland.

She was born Eileen Marion Jessop in Alexandria, Egypt, daughter of a director of Barclays Bank DCO.

Educated at a domestic college, she ran an Oxfordshire pub with her brother for four years. She then married Squadron Leader Andrew Combe in 1939 and had five children with him. Following a divorce, she married Squadron Leader Peter Caddy in 1957, with whom she had three children. Peter died in a car crash in 1994, several years after their marriage failed. [ [http://www.forres-gazette.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/806/Findhorn_Foundation_founder_mourned_by_community.html Findhorn Foundation founder mourned by community] , Forres Gazette, 20 December 2006]

In the early 1950's Eileen Caddy was in the circle that formed around Sheena Govan, daughter of the founders of the Faith Mission, and a former wife of Peter Caddy. From 1957 until 1962 Eileen Caddy co-managed hotels in Scotland including the Cluny Hill Hotel near Forres, Moray.

Following a period of unemployment from 1962 onwards, Eileen Caddy and her husband Peter and their colleague Dorothy Maclean began to practice organic gardening as a means of supplementing their family's food supply. The garden flourished to such a remarkable extent that it eventually attracted national attention, and was featured in a BBC radio programme of 1965. Its supporters included Sir George Trevelyan and Lady Eve Balfour of the Soil Association.

Beginning in 1965 a community, eventually known as the Findhorn Foundation community, began to form around the work and spiritual practices of Eileen and Peter Caddy and Dorothy Maclean. The community was featured in several television documentaries by the BBC, starting in 1969. Most recently it was profiled by the Channel 4 documentary series, "The Haven", in 2004.

Eileen Caddy's works include "God Spoke to Me", a volume of inspirational messages published in various formats from 1966 onwards, and an autobiography titled "Flight into Freedom and Beyond".

For services to spiritual inquiry, Eileen Caddy was in 2004 awarded the MBE by Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom. The award was presented by the Lord-Lieutenant of Moray, Air Vice-Marshal George Chesworth.

References

* [http://news.scotsman.com/obituaries.cfm?id=1886982006 Obituary] in "The Scotsman" newspaper, by Gordon Casely - 20 Dec 2006.

Bibliography

* "God spoke to me" (originally published in serial format beginning in 1966)
* "The Findhorn garden" (1975, contributor)
* "Footprints on the path" (1976)
* "The spirit of Findhorn" (1976)
* "Living word" (1977)
* "Foundations of Findhorn" (1978)
* "The dawn of change" (1979)
* "Opening doors within" (1986)
* "Flight into freedom" (1988, with Liza Hollingshead)
* "Foundations of a spiritual community" (1991)
* "Bringing more love into your life" (1992, with David Earl Platts)
* "Waves of spirit" (1996)
* "Flight into freedom and beyond" (2002, with Liza Hollingshead)
* "Findhorn book of learning to love" (2004, with David Earl Platts)
* "Small voice within" (2005, audio CD re-issue of cassette tapes from c. 1981)
* "Opening doors within" (2005, DVD, contributor)

External links

* [http://www.findhorn.org Official Findhorn Foundation website]
* [http://www.eileen-caddy.net Unofficial site devoted to Eileen Caddy]
* [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,60-2511914.html Times Obituary]
* [http://www.findhornpress.com/manufacturers/eileen-caddy-49/ Eileen's books at Findhorn Press]