80 Years of Newton Dee

“Time present and time past are both perhaps present in time future, and time future contained in time past.” (from Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot).

The late radio presenter, John Peel, once said of his favourite band, The Fall, that they are “always different, always the same”.

Talking with former co-workers who come back to visit, or to provide holiday cover in the houses and workshops, something similar is often expressed. Over the decades, Newton Dee has not apparently altered yet – paradoxically – has almost completely changed.

To understand this phenomenon, one can consider an analogy with alchemy as an extended metaphor. (This is relevant, as the community processes underlying Newton Dee are, essentially, a type of social alchemy.) In Alchemy, there are three active principles, the Tria Prima, of salt, mercury, and sulphur. One could say that the stability of Newton Dee, that which has not altered, is the crucible in which the three principles are active. The crucible, the basic form of the community does not substantially alter, but what is in constant change is the Tria Prima, manifesting through the individuals who are active in the community, and, especially, in their interactions and reciprocal transformations.

Salt – the principle of relative stability, could be seen as the “body” of the community and relates to the structure and constancy of the workshops and the land. Sulphur – the principle of combustibility, could be seen as corresponding to the home life (with the hearth fire as a manifestation of the principle of combustibility). This is the “soul” of the community. Lastly, Mercury, the “spirit” of the community with its protean volatility and changeability corresponds to the spiritual-cultural life.

So how do all the above manifest in Newton Dee, in 2025? In the sense of T.S. Eliot’s quote, the decades of Newton Dee’s history are contained, in essence, in what is happening in the here and now. Therefore, by not going too much into the community’s history, one is not ignoring or marginalising it; on the contrary, one is honouring it by paying testament to the contemporary relevance of that which has gone before.

In 2025, and moving on into 2026, there is a lot of activity in all three areas. In the working life, progress on our new bakery and confectionery continues, and its proximity to the interface with the wider community of the store and café will enhance its economic and social viability well into the future. (The store and the café themselves are established and valued resources in the Aberdeen area.) On the land, activity in our new dairy is establishing itself, particularly with the new impulse of ice-cream making alongside our award-winning cheeses. The rest of the workshops provide a healthy balance of production work and more person-centred activities (both of which are necessary in the modern world). The tactile and tangible work with wool, metal, wood, vegetables and the land, and all manner of artistic activity, is a welcome counterbalance to the dystopian virtual reality that is the downside of the internet and artificial intelligence.

The houses are (almost) fully occupied and demand for our shared living model shows no sign of abating, despite our fears of its relevance in today’s world. Furthermore, there are a wide range of houses in Newton Dee, that are, in some cases, radically different from each other. This can not only be attributed to whoever happens to be running the house but is also due to the houses as psycho-geographic entities.

The spiritual and cultural life is embodied not only in the houses and workshops, but especially in the Phoenix Community Centre. Training courses, plays, musical, artistic and social activities, reflective processes such as “Commonweal”, the horizontal management system and its many mandated groups, concerts, outside artists and performers… all provide and contribute to a rich and diverse spiritual-cultural menu. Anthroposophy and related activities are also still strongly present, albeit in a quieter, more understated manner than in the past.

It is interesting to note that when the Phoenix Centre was opened, over ten years ago, we wondered just how we were going to fill what seemed a vast and cavernous space. Nowadays, there is not enough space for everything and everyone that is in there and wants to be in there.

For the community to remain healthy, all three principles (home, work, spiritual-cultural) need to be balanced (just as in anthroposophical medicine and the Threefold Social Order). This balance is not a fixed state but is a constantly (often painfully) held tension. There are challenges aplenty, both within the community and in our relationship to external agencies, yet by keeping ourselves inwardly alive, we remain outwardly relevant.

To begin to finish, by referring once again to alchemy – the task of classical alchemy was to ostensibly transform carbon into gold. In social alchemy, the “carbon” of humdrum daily life, with all its vicissitudes and irritations and problems is transformed by the Tria Prima of Newton Dee life into the “gold” of a shared living community. Just as in an alchemical process, the community’s existence is fragile and perilous, yet it is, paradoxically, this vulnerability that is necessary to keep it alive and growing, and not merely a museum of mummified past practices.

Lastly, the Tria Prima could be readily and relevantly considered, by those interested, in the context of more traditional Camphill concepts as the Three Pillars, the Three Stars, and the Three Essentials.

In the context of our current main project – the new bakery and confectionery – Karl Konig’s statement from the early years has continued contemporary relevance: “The forces which constitute the leaven of the bread of the social order of Camphill are threefold.” Like a sourdough culture informing each new batch of bread, we hope that Newton Dee’s spirit will continue to inform the lives of all who participate in the community both now, and on into the future.

John Addison (Newton Dee co-worker)