ROC(Robert Ogilvie Crombie): An Appreciation
There are many ways
in which I could appreciate Robert Ogilvie Crombie. He
was a loving and gentle man, an artist, a thespian, a
wondrous storyteller, an embodiment of the best of Scottish
(and Edinburgian) charm. He was an embodiment as well
of the wise old man, the grandfatherly figure whom children
adore and who guides heroes and heroines on their paths
of accomplishment. He was a man of culture who lived a
spartan life and who had one foot in this world and one
foot in the worlds of spirit and mystery, a courageous
explorer of supersensory realms.
I loved being with him. I loved his humor, his twinkle,
his smile. I loved that he went swimming in the Moray
Firth even on the coldest days of winter. (I also loved
that I did not!) Visiting his flat in Edinburgh was always
a treat. It was a book-lover's dream, filled with bookshelves
from floor to ceiling that groaned under the weight of
countless volumes of the most fascinating lore. He was
a self-taught mythologist, psychologist, historian, and
esotericist, though his early training had been, like
my own, in science. Entering into his living room, with
its grand piano and its comfortable chairs, was like stepping
into a temple dedicated to quiet, study, and contemplation.
I loved it, probably more now in retrospect as I share
my house with four rambunctious and lively children!
But what I most remember about ROC is not about him alone
but about the Group of Four : Dorothy, Peter, Eileen,
and ROC. Lawrence of Arabia wrote a book on the seven
pillars of wisdom, but these individuals were the four
pillars of Findhorn and its service to the world. Dorothy,
the mystic attuning to God first, and through the love
that came from that attunement opening a portal into the
angelic kingdom of nature to begin Findhorn's famed experiment
in gardening; Eileen, the mystic pouring herself into
God and opening to the still small voice of the sacred
as a source of guidance and love available to every person
in his or her own way; Peter, the man of action and intuition
and of unconditional surrender to the will of God in his
life; and ROC, the friend and companion of the elemental
worlds and the nature spirits.
These four sounded the note of Findhorn's central purpose:
to demonstrate the cooperation of the three kingdoms--humanity,
angelic, and elemental--blended in co-creativity through
the love and presence of the sacred. In the convergence
of these four--the sacred, the human, the angelic, and
the world--a powerful creative and transformative spiritual
fire is released, one that can be birthed and expressed
within each and any of us, whether part of Findhorn or
not.
This is how I most remember ROC, as part of that convergence
of talent, skill, consciousness, dedication, and purpose
that gave birth to Findhorn and even more significantly,
to the vision of a new humanity living and acting as a
spirtual force upon the earth in service to and in cooperation
with all life everywhere.
The greatest tribute we can pay to him--and to all the
founders of this magical place--is to find our own sovereign
way to let that spiritual force, that spiriutal fire,
arise in our lives. It is to find the ROC within, the
Dorothy, Eileen, and Peter within, the co-creative and
sacredself within. The way we do so as individuals will
be uniquely our own and may look nothing like how ROC,
Dorothy, Eileen, or Peter did it as individuals, but it
will share in the same planetary purpose and the same
inspiration that arose in their hearts and led to this
wondrous and transformative place we call Findhorn. What
they founded in a place, we can find and found in our
hearts and minds.
That is their legacy. It is in that context that I most
remember and appreciate ROC.
David Spangler - November 2002 Findhorn Foundation
