Vera Elmhirst
In 1972 at Uffculme in Devon, William Elmhirst married Vera Strachan. William had first met Vera at a course on spiritual healing some years before. She was already a seer and, at that time, was channelling inspired teaching within a group at Tiverton. William, who had previously been part of an esoteric group in London, joined Vera’s group, and it soon became clear to both William and Vera that they were being guided to work together. Within a short time they had begun this work and it continued until Vera died in 1992. After this, William has continued alone, although sometimes with colleagues to help him. Vera and William’s work first began under the title of The Dartington Solar Quest; it was later to become The Solar Quest; and it now continues as The Cosmic Quest.
William is the only son of Dorothy and Leonard Elmhirst, the founders of the Dartington Hall Trust, and the Quest first started from William’s then home at Dartington Hall. Within a short time, however, he and Vera, now married, were to move themselves and their work from the Hall. For a while they moved to the nearby Staverton Bridge Farm. Then, for many years, they lived and worked in America before moving, finally, to Porlock in Somerset.
William and Vera’s work was in two parts – the inspired teachings received by Vera and their work of ‘activation’.
To speak of the latter first, this work, set out in three volumes published by The Solar Quest, involved the undertaking of acts of activation at many and various sites in Britain, America and elsewhere. William and Vera were led by the guidance received by Vera from Masters in Light. They were told that the chosen sites were part of a network of ‘rods’ of divine energy covering not only the whole of Britain but the whole of the world. Wherever they were led to, their task was to enable divine rays of energy to penetrate the body of Mother Earth to restore Her balance and order within the wider cosmos.
The teachings and the work of activation were (and, indeed, are) intimately connected but it is to the teachings that we have turned. And the reason for this is that they are not only inspired and beautiful in their own right but were also extraordinarily far seeing for their time. Received by Vera, at first, in the early 1970s, long before the now accepted concern about environmental degradation, climatic disruption and resource depletion had even begun to touch popular consciousness, they spoke a prophecy that many found (and still find) difficult to hear – that, by always wanting more, humankind has disrupted the harmony and well being of Mother Earth, bringing forth distress and disorder.
The only published versions of Vera’s teaching are contained in three volumes published by The Solar Quest between 1999 and 2001, and in particular in Volumes One and Three. It is by reference to these that this text has been written – privately and as a gift to William. The particular focus is on those teachings that are of special relevance to those contemporary concerns encompassed by the word ‘sustainability’ – economic, social and environmental sustainability.