Focalization teaches us how to receive energy and how to safely modify and qualify it in order to meet the needs of the moment as a force for good and to then send it out into the world as a gift.
I had the privilege and pleasure of being a resident member of the Findhorn Community in northeast Scotland for almost fourteen years and witnessed the introduction of ‘focalization’ as an important function in our inner and outer group life.
In the mid-1970s Peter Caddy visited the 100 Mile House Community in Canada which was part of the Emissaries of Divine Light organization. He returned with many positive impressions – some of which he wanted to introduce into Findhorn. In particular, the idea of a ‘focalizer’ was something that was very attractive to Peter.
For the Emissaries, a focalizer was someone who mentored and gave spiritual guidance to another person. Each person was assigned a focalizer who supervised their spiritual development. Inside the Findhorn Core Group (which was tasked with ensuring that the inner note of purpose was continually sounded throughout all activities) we decided to expand this notion of focalization beyond a one-to-one mentoring relationship.
The role of focalizer as a spiritual stewardship function appealed greatly to us and so we implemented a new structure within the community. Each work department had someone named as a ‘focalizer’ who, in addition to the usual leadership and management function, was tasked with holding the spiritual focus for that area of the community. For instance, if I were ‘focalizer’ of Maintenance, the Kitchen or the College then my designated role was to maintain an energetic relationship with the over-lighting Angel (or Deva) of the department and to make sure that the department was in alignment with the overall core purpose of Findhorn. The focalizer functioned as a spiritual steward and before the start of work each day, they would hold a group ‘attunement’ that helped people be more in touch with the inner life and purpose of that particular department or service area.
In addition to the central Core Group, we set up a coordinating group of all the departmental focalizers who met weekly. Many lessons were learned and one in particular stands out in my memory. Robert Ogilvie Crombie (or ROC as he was known to us) was in touch with the over-lighting intelligences of the Nature Realms and also served as Findhorn’s spiritual guardian and protector. He was a real-life Gandalf figure for us all.
One day while attending a weekly focalizers group meeting, ROC shared some insights to help us learn about the wise use of spiritual energy. He began by describing what he saw telepathically on the inner planes that we had inadvertently brought about. He explained that on the etheric level there were packets of energy piled up all around the community and that things were temporarily out of balance. He gently reminded us that if we invoke energy then we must use it right away in order to guarantee that there is a free flow of support circulating through and from the higher realms.
In our youthful enthusiasm, we had only focused on invoking and calling in energies from various ‘devic’ sources but had not utilized them in service. His point was that energy can be invoked but must not be hoarded. Everything we receive from life we must give and use wisely in service to the greater Good. We had created a blockage in the system by not using what we had received. What we learned from ROC that day was one of the secrets of focalization: namely, that we are the agents on Earth of the divine circulation of creative energy and that it is in selfless giving that we ultimately receive.
Many years later in 1993, when a group from the Community of Living Ethics visited Findhorn, Sergio Bartoli was attracted to the term and function of the ‘focalizer’ because it corresponded with his concept of a leader of a project or of a School acting as a focal point for spiritual energy. The function of a focalizer at Findhorn reinforced the importance Sergio placed on psycho-energetics as a path of conscious spiritual development for the group as a unit of planetary service.
The rest of the story is well known to all who are familiar with the evolution of the Community of Living Ethics over the past thirty years. Focalization became a natural function of daily group life. The wisdom gained through experience was used to develop a curriculum that is still presented as a three-year course through the School of Group Focalization. The further exploration and deepening of the art and science of focalization continues to this day inside the Community as a key element in the evolving group life. Here at Meditation Mount in California – a sister center to the Community in Italy – we also understand and employ the principles and practices of focalization.
The art and science of group focalization shows us how to function more effectively within the continuous circulation of the life-force throughout the multidimensionality of creation.
Focalization teaches us how to receive energy and how to safely modify and qualify it in order to meet the needs of the moment as a force for good and to then send it out into the world as a gift. In this way we become active and causal participants in the Great Chain of Blessing.
Michael Lindfield
Board President
Meditation Mount
Ojai, California