What do you think?
Rate this book
To Hear the Angels Sing: An Odyssey of Co-Creation With the Devic Kingdom
"Yes, I talk with angels, great Beings whose lives infuse and create all of Nature. In another time and culture I might have been cloistered in a convent or a temple, or less pleasantly, burnt as a witch. Being a practical, down-to-earth person, I had never imagined that such contact would be possible or useful. Yet, when this communication began to occur, it did so in a way that I could not dispute."-Dorothy Maclean From wartime employment with the British government to co-founding the Findhorn Community in Scotland, and the Lorian Association in Canada, Dorothy Maclean's life story is an account of a journey through self-discovery to an awareness of the forces that give order to creation. The success and fame of the Findhorn gardens arose in part from Dorothy's telepathic contact with these kingdoms. Many of the messages she received are included in this book, and their wisdom quickens an awareness of our partnership with all the evolutionary streams of life.
- GenresSpiritualityAngels
217 pages, Paperback
First published February 18, 1983
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
March 22, 2020
I warmly recommend Dorothy Maclean's lovely book To Hear The Angels Sing.
She explains how she came to found Findhorn spiritual-ecological community and shares many messages from the overlighting plant Angels or Deva's as she calls them.
She met the plant Deva's there by opening her spirit up to hear them.
She is an inspirational example to me and the messages from the plant Deva's are absolutely enchanting.
She explains how she came to found Findhorn spiritual-ecological community and shares many messages from the overlighting plant Angels or Deva's as she calls them.
She met the plant Deva's there by opening her spirit up to hear them.
She is an inspirational example to me and the messages from the plant Deva's are absolutely enchanting.
April 18, 2023
A CO-FOUNDER OF THE FINDHORN COMMUNITY TELLS HER STORY
Author Dorothy Maclean wrote in the first chapter of this 1980 book, “Yes, talk with angels, great Beings whose lives infuse and create all of Nature… Being a practical, down-to-earth person, I had never set out to learn to talk with angels, nor had I ever imagined that such contact would be possible or useful. Yet, when this communication began to occur, it did so in a way that I could not dispute. Concrete proof developed in the Findhorn garden, which became the basis for the development of the Findhorn Community… through my telepathic contact with the angelic Beings who overlight and direct plant growth, specific instructions and spiritual assistance were given. The resulting garden… was so astonishing in its growth and vitality that visiting soil experts and horticulturalists were unable to find any explanation for it within known methods of organic husbandry, and eventually had to accept the unorthodox interpretation of angelic help…
“I want to share my findings with others so that they too can enter into this communication, which is really a communication with the essence and joy and power of life. To do this is not a matter or technique… It is more something that we become over the course of our existence and less something that we learn… To communicate with angels really requires a particular attitude of wholeness towards life, towards others and towards ourselves. I cannot teach this, but I can show through my own life and experience what this attitude is and how it developed and expressed itself in me. I maintain that any of us can talk with angels… It requires a joyful enlargement of our view of reality, a readiness to be open to ourselves and our environment, and a conscious movement to embrace our own wholeness.” (Pg 3-4)
She begins recounting her life, and how she married “a young man named John who was considered eccentric… I remember talking with hi one evening when he presented Atlantis to me, not as myth of fantasy, but simply and matter-of-factly as a chapter in history…” (Pg. 10-11) John was interested in the Sufi Order teachings of Hazrat Inayat Khan, and after reading some of his writings, she wondered, “Why had John now shared something so essential not only to his life to mine as well? He explained that he had not considered it right for a husband to influence his wife in spiritual matters… I see now that in accepting Sufism I chose to make spiritual unfoldment the focus of my life. Sufism, like other teachings I embraced along the way, pointed me inwards…finally I had to accept [Khan] as a truly Christ-illumined being… a Christ-illumined being is one who is conscious of the divinity in all things and thinks, feels and acts from that center of wholeness.” (Pg. 12-13)
She continues, “Then Sheena came into my life again, and our relationship began to develop on a new level. Since my life had assumed a spiritual focus, I was not open to a similar side of her, a side I had been unaware of in New York.” (Pg. 13) Soon, “John had shown no signs of new love and caring. He had said he wanted a truly loving relationship with me, but as he was not practicing it I knew I had to take action… Although John was in love with someone in the Berlin office, he said at first he didn’t want a divorce… The final divorce papers took a year…” (Pg. 24-25)
She notes, “my inner experience of Divinity had brought a new dimension of reality to my beliefs. I had begun to act from inner directives… whereas previously I had tended to operate on the rational level… I now found myself experiencing a new freedom…” (Pg. 25) She continues, My connections with Sheena were now becoming closer, and much of my spare time was spent with her and others drawn to her, including Eileen and Peter Caddy… I would go to Sheena’s apartment, where she would give talks which I would take down in shorthand… We were beginning to see Sheena more as a teacher than a friend.” (Pg. 26) When the hotel chain they were working at “gave us four hours’ notice to leave… We packed hurriedly… and sought the only available roof, that of the Carry caravan near the village of Findhorn… The place to which our destiny had drawn us was certainly not our chosen place. The trailer park on Findhorn Bay was exceedingly ugly…” (Pg. 38, 41)
They began to cultivate a garden, and she received a ‘new directive from within’: “Peter took it to mean that I was to feel into the forces of Nature to give him information about the garden; Next morning I received: ‘Yes, you can cooperate in the garden. Begin by thinking about the nature spirits… and turn into them… By the higher nature spirits I mean the spirits of differing physical forms such as clouds, rain, vegetables…’ I felt totally incapable; how could I attune to beings about which I knew nothing? These seemed to be neither the fairies of children’s literature nor the creatures of myth.” (Pg. 47) She adds, “Although unclear as to what it would mean, cooperation with the spirits of Nature was an acceptable idea… [Peter] composed a list of questions for me to ask the spirits of the various vegetables… Thus began a day-by-day unfoldment in communication with the forces behind Nature… I decide, generally, to call them ‘devas,’ a Sanskrit word meaning ‘shining ones.’ … We were very pleased with and grateful for the fine produce… We began to realize that this cooperative work with the devas was more than proving itself.” (Pg. 49-50; 61)
She recounts, “In 1966 we… began to travel in Britain. We met people, told them about ourselves and our garden, and they began to visit us at Findhorn. All were attracted by the vitality of the plants and the vibrant color of the flowers… More visitors came to see us, and some stayed. A sanctuary and an office had already been built … now a large community center with sufficient kitchen facilities to cater to two hundred people was constructed… although the group numbered under twenty-five.” (Pg. 64, 66) She goes on, “[No] gardening experts could find a rational explanation for the results in the Findhorn garden, because the methods used were not rational… It was the reality of the garden growth that brought home to us the reality of the devas. Out of this grew a new way of gardening, and a deeper understanding of life as a whole… the devas … taught us how to live in touch with subtler aspects of our own beings.” (Pg. 66-67)
She recalls, “The beach at Findhorn has marvelous pebbles… I found myself in rapport with the mightiest Being of my experience… This cosmic Angel of Stone… Nature conglomerates …have devic presences. The Findhorn Bay deva said that tidal land had a good and cleansing influence.” (Pg. 93, 95) Later, she adds, “Increasingly the angelic assertions are being proved correct, and certainly we can only find lasting solutions when we consider the whole of the planet, when we view it in the way the angels view it. I believe we are perfectly capable of doing this.” (Pg. 143)
She records, “David Spangler, a young new age writer and educator, and his partner, Myrtle Glines, a human relations counselor, came for a short visit and stayed three years. Immediately, I was able to accept David’s very special teaching and energy, and was grateful that he confirmed and experienced angelic reality… many young people appeared, and the performing arts began… during those three years the community growth leapfrogged from about 25 to 200 people and included many new buildings and activities; but the emphasis of David and Myrtle on the importance of consciousness and of relationships counterbalanced the physical growth. They projected a college… A trial run, with community members and visitors as staff, brought new approaches to spiritual living and broadened the views of old members.” (Pg. 167)
She continues, “I was still in the office, however… not knowing how to change my role. Gradually I came to the decision, confirmed by my inner guidance, that it was time for me to leave Findhorn and return to North America. My immediate work lay there; whatever that work would turn out to be, I knew it included writing a book on angels.” (Pg. 167-168) She concludes, “There is a long journey ahead but, splendidly endowed as we are, we move. And, as the devas said, what matters is that we, the knowing, growing tip of Earth, consciously act from our divine centers.” (Pg. 198)
This book will be “must reading” for anyone studying Findhorn.
Author Dorothy Maclean wrote in the first chapter of this 1980 book, “Yes, talk with angels, great Beings whose lives infuse and create all of Nature… Being a practical, down-to-earth person, I had never set out to learn to talk with angels, nor had I ever imagined that such contact would be possible or useful. Yet, when this communication began to occur, it did so in a way that I could not dispute. Concrete proof developed in the Findhorn garden, which became the basis for the development of the Findhorn Community… through my telepathic contact with the angelic Beings who overlight and direct plant growth, specific instructions and spiritual assistance were given. The resulting garden… was so astonishing in its growth and vitality that visiting soil experts and horticulturalists were unable to find any explanation for it within known methods of organic husbandry, and eventually had to accept the unorthodox interpretation of angelic help…
“I want to share my findings with others so that they too can enter into this communication, which is really a communication with the essence and joy and power of life. To do this is not a matter or technique… It is more something that we become over the course of our existence and less something that we learn… To communicate with angels really requires a particular attitude of wholeness towards life, towards others and towards ourselves. I cannot teach this, but I can show through my own life and experience what this attitude is and how it developed and expressed itself in me. I maintain that any of us can talk with angels… It requires a joyful enlargement of our view of reality, a readiness to be open to ourselves and our environment, and a conscious movement to embrace our own wholeness.” (Pg 3-4)
She begins recounting her life, and how she married “a young man named John who was considered eccentric… I remember talking with hi one evening when he presented Atlantis to me, not as myth of fantasy, but simply and matter-of-factly as a chapter in history…” (Pg. 10-11) John was interested in the Sufi Order teachings of Hazrat Inayat Khan, and after reading some of his writings, she wondered, “Why had John now shared something so essential not only to his life to mine as well? He explained that he had not considered it right for a husband to influence his wife in spiritual matters… I see now that in accepting Sufism I chose to make spiritual unfoldment the focus of my life. Sufism, like other teachings I embraced along the way, pointed me inwards…finally I had to accept [Khan] as a truly Christ-illumined being… a Christ-illumined being is one who is conscious of the divinity in all things and thinks, feels and acts from that center of wholeness.” (Pg. 12-13)
She continues, “Then Sheena came into my life again, and our relationship began to develop on a new level. Since my life had assumed a spiritual focus, I was not open to a similar side of her, a side I had been unaware of in New York.” (Pg. 13) Soon, “John had shown no signs of new love and caring. He had said he wanted a truly loving relationship with me, but as he was not practicing it I knew I had to take action… Although John was in love with someone in the Berlin office, he said at first he didn’t want a divorce… The final divorce papers took a year…” (Pg. 24-25)
She notes, “my inner experience of Divinity had brought a new dimension of reality to my beliefs. I had begun to act from inner directives… whereas previously I had tended to operate on the rational level… I now found myself experiencing a new freedom…” (Pg. 25) She continues, My connections with Sheena were now becoming closer, and much of my spare time was spent with her and others drawn to her, including Eileen and Peter Caddy… I would go to Sheena’s apartment, where she would give talks which I would take down in shorthand… We were beginning to see Sheena more as a teacher than a friend.” (Pg. 26) When the hotel chain they were working at “gave us four hours’ notice to leave… We packed hurriedly… and sought the only available roof, that of the Carry caravan near the village of Findhorn… The place to which our destiny had drawn us was certainly not our chosen place. The trailer park on Findhorn Bay was exceedingly ugly…” (Pg. 38, 41)
They began to cultivate a garden, and she received a ‘new directive from within’: “Peter took it to mean that I was to feel into the forces of Nature to give him information about the garden; Next morning I received: ‘Yes, you can cooperate in the garden. Begin by thinking about the nature spirits… and turn into them… By the higher nature spirits I mean the spirits of differing physical forms such as clouds, rain, vegetables…’ I felt totally incapable; how could I attune to beings about which I knew nothing? These seemed to be neither the fairies of children’s literature nor the creatures of myth.” (Pg. 47) She adds, “Although unclear as to what it would mean, cooperation with the spirits of Nature was an acceptable idea… [Peter] composed a list of questions for me to ask the spirits of the various vegetables… Thus began a day-by-day unfoldment in communication with the forces behind Nature… I decide, generally, to call them ‘devas,’ a Sanskrit word meaning ‘shining ones.’ … We were very pleased with and grateful for the fine produce… We began to realize that this cooperative work with the devas was more than proving itself.” (Pg. 49-50; 61)
She recounts, “In 1966 we… began to travel in Britain. We met people, told them about ourselves and our garden, and they began to visit us at Findhorn. All were attracted by the vitality of the plants and the vibrant color of the flowers… More visitors came to see us, and some stayed. A sanctuary and an office had already been built … now a large community center with sufficient kitchen facilities to cater to two hundred people was constructed… although the group numbered under twenty-five.” (Pg. 64, 66) She goes on, “[No] gardening experts could find a rational explanation for the results in the Findhorn garden, because the methods used were not rational… It was the reality of the garden growth that brought home to us the reality of the devas. Out of this grew a new way of gardening, and a deeper understanding of life as a whole… the devas … taught us how to live in touch with subtler aspects of our own beings.” (Pg. 66-67)
She recalls, “The beach at Findhorn has marvelous pebbles… I found myself in rapport with the mightiest Being of my experience… This cosmic Angel of Stone… Nature conglomerates …have devic presences. The Findhorn Bay deva said that tidal land had a good and cleansing influence.” (Pg. 93, 95) Later, she adds, “Increasingly the angelic assertions are being proved correct, and certainly we can only find lasting solutions when we consider the whole of the planet, when we view it in the way the angels view it. I believe we are perfectly capable of doing this.” (Pg. 143)
She records, “David Spangler, a young new age writer and educator, and his partner, Myrtle Glines, a human relations counselor, came for a short visit and stayed three years. Immediately, I was able to accept David’s very special teaching and energy, and was grateful that he confirmed and experienced angelic reality… many young people appeared, and the performing arts began… during those three years the community growth leapfrogged from about 25 to 200 people and included many new buildings and activities; but the emphasis of David and Myrtle on the importance of consciousness and of relationships counterbalanced the physical growth. They projected a college… A trial run, with community members and visitors as staff, brought new approaches to spiritual living and broadened the views of old members.” (Pg. 167)
She continues, “I was still in the office, however… not knowing how to change my role. Gradually I came to the decision, confirmed by my inner guidance, that it was time for me to leave Findhorn and return to North America. My immediate work lay there; whatever that work would turn out to be, I knew it included writing a book on angels.” (Pg. 167-168) She concludes, “There is a long journey ahead but, splendidly endowed as we are, we move. And, as the devas said, what matters is that we, the knowing, growing tip of Earth, consciously act from our divine centers.” (Pg. 198)
This book will be “must reading” for anyone studying Findhorn.
November 6, 2021
It took me a really long time to read the entire book, but it was a book that really resonated and I really enjoyed it. As an indigenous woman, I saw many connections between these ideas and my own concepts of the universe. It made me want to get into the garden and be in relationship with the plants.
September 4, 2022
Good start, slow to go in middle when author goes on l-o-n-g unrelated tangents.....I crossed the finish line regardless. Interesting perspectives to consider.
February 3, 2015
This book was incredible to read. I feel so inspired to change the way that I live in my life, especially in my interactions with all living beings, including plants. Essentially I feel reminded that "living beings" include many, many more organisms than I think it does, and I would do well to remember that.
Every page, every chapter, felt like it lifted me up into a higher, clearer plane of thinking that filled my heart with joy. If you are interested in angels, devas, spirituality, plants, and the oneness of all creation, read this book! Or if you're not sure you're interested, read it and find out!
Every page, every chapter, felt like it lifted me up into a higher, clearer plane of thinking that filled my heart with joy. If you are interested in angels, devas, spirituality, plants, and the oneness of all creation, read this book! Or if you're not sure you're interested, read it and find out!
August 31, 2016
Reading this book was even more fascinating after i met the author, Dorothy Maclean, and had a 30 minutes conversation with her. I actually heard first hand from the founder of Findhorn, how she communicated with nature's spirits, and worked with them to create plants that were three times bigger than ordinary plants, and crops that produced twice the amount of fruit. Findhorn was a unique experiment in human interaction and collaboration with the Devic Kingdom.
May 13, 2009
Do you believe in fairies? Dorothy MacLean does as well as many others. This is her story and what they told her.
August 31, 2013
I'm very interested in the founding of the Findhorn Garden, and this is a pleasant book that goes over the same story in a more biographical manner and fills in some of the gaps.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews