This text was first written for workaway, so we tried to define our values in a way that would be clear for that demographic. For a Sun Beings audience, many of these values are probably already your second nature, and they wouldn’t need so much explanation.
If we were writing anew for Sun Beings, we’d speak less about things you are all well-versed in, and more about the land’s intense curative frequency, the white and black lines running through certain places, and the sheer beauty of being here, amidst precisely the right challenges.
But so many words wouldn’t be necessary. The right people will feel the call. The land will speak through the photos or life will simply pull you here as it pulled us. The aura of the mountains is as real as magnetism: it works on us 24/7 and is a field too strong for most people to endure. That intense purity has kept us here through many challenges. Even at its hardest, we just can’t imagine being anywhere else. The land sings a constant note that no words can ever touch, and we live within that. It heals, and no text will ever convey that. Our words are like one voice and the mountains are our backing choir. Without their steady voices, you may have to imagine the harmony.
A place for creatives, contemplatives and nature-loving pioneers. Clean air and life awaits you in the slow pace of our Pyrenean day. Do you seek simplicity, inspiration and beauty, of the kind that most people pass by? Here it awaits you. We are looking to grow our long-term community, and think Workaway may be a great way to meet some of you.
As yet we have few spaces, so have to be highly selective of who we can take, but our profile exists for those right people to find us. We trust you’re out there!
We are an off-grid creative community in a remote ruined village of the Spanish Pyrenees. It’s a place of outstanding natural beauty, densely forested in the mountains. Silence and deep communion with nature is a given here. Civilisation and its distractions are far away.
We’re devoted to the joy of using, honing and sharing our gifts. Kate and I see art as the precious flame of our humanity, and we no longer wish to put it second: either to on-grid or off-grid slavery. We do the minimum needed to maintain our lives: some simple gardening, fire-making, water-gathering, cooking & cleaning: and then we’re free to learn from nature in the forest; or refine our art, share it, dedicate ourselves to the excellence of our choosing.
Inspiration and beauty is our life’s calling. We live to show there can be a way for creativity off the grid, and that creatives don’t have to always put their gifts last. Creativity can take many forms, of course – it’s more that we’re all aiming towards more beauty.
We find that our art, with maximum nature-contact and minimal harm to any being, give us abundant nourishment every day. It leaves us with something extra, rather than drained out by mere toil.
Wellbeing is essential: we make our own time for somatic release and a deeper alignment of body, mind, spirit. We think this is much more efficient in the long-run than trying to push through work from a fractured starting point.
Obviously, we’re still off-grid and it’s rarely comfort-class being a pioneer. But we are, essentially, happy to occasionally do with less and live simpler, so long as we have time and space to contemplate, drink from the source of our being, and create. 🙂 Creating also is self-sufficiency: we make our own joy and meaning. (How radical!) For us, it’s enough. Wellbeing, inspiration, and the daily necessities met.
We live in reciprocity with nature. We live minimally on the land, claiming only what we need, and try to bring our full respect and consideration to the beings around us. We have no ideology, just a body-led, intuitive wish not to harm: ever-ready to be more alive and compassionate if life shows us how — whilst also including ourselves in the plurality of living beings, and not tying ourselves in knots trying to be holier than nature. It’s a living learning. 🙂
We’ve each found that digital society, supermarkets, pesticides and pharmaceuticals etc. are not for us. We try to engage with those minimally, feeling that if we disentangle from harmful infrastructures, we’ll naturally speed the change towards a more positive society. Someone has to do it. But it’s not instant: we feel there are no wrong steps as long as you keep walking in the right direction.
So, does this sound like a place for you? Are you a mature, self-led creative individual, who can easily be alone but yearns to be part of something bigger, with truly constructive, healthy company? Are you fundamentally at peace with yourself and others, needing few things externally, with no substance issues or interpersonal disorders, and do you dream of making a temple to the arts in nature, to help future generations remember what it is to be human? If so, we are ready to hear from you!
The place:
We are one of over 200 abandoned villages in the province of Huesca alone. Each has its speciality. Some are totally reclaimed and legalised, others are empty ruins. Some house farmers, some house drug-abusers, some are for punks, hippies, capitalists, communists, anarchists, etc.. We’re not interested in being a replicant of any of these. We feel ready and able to make an arts village with the potential to heal. We can be a mirror of the land’s beauty and peace, whilst always keeping our feet in the real.
The village was occupied and abandoned several times over before us, leaving some basic infrastructure and a lot of history. We’re doing it differently. We put wellbeing first, valuing privacy and autonomy. We take the work day slowly and gently, with no obligations. We are highly emotionally intelligent and socially responsible, and expect the same of any visitors. We are more interested in a person’s character than their perceived usefulness. We are doing away with the drugs and fight-the-system mindset of the past (because, to be honest, we are much more radical). We are proud to offer something unique in this region for the right adventurous spirit.
In an age of the synthetic, we can be a beacon of authenticity. We appreciate all traditions of beauty here. Bring your gifts! See what can be done. We may be a young sapling in the forest, but we’re an oak: we will endure when less rooted ways are gone.
Abandoned villages have a common trajectory: they start as ‘ocupas’ with no support, and then, with the right community, they gain legal standing, whilst retaining autonomy not afforded to normal villages. It can be a ‘best of both worlds’ scenario, if you are tenacious enough to be the pioneer and stick through the sapling stage. Our neighbouring villages have completed this metamorphosis and are also here to lend their support.
The hippie/anarchist history of this village means that past people can visit unannounced. Strong boundaries and fairness are needed in equal measure. Plus there are sometimes tourists coming to see the ruined church. We are re-writing the village’s reputation, which takes a lot of patience. With a group of like-minded villagers, It becomes very easy. In these places, community is your security, and what the majority decides is what will be. To maintain this place as a paradise, we simply need good people. Between 5 and 10 is plenty. More, even better. But no need to be over-ambitious yet. 🙂
Currently there are 3 of us, all in agreement about the clean, creative future of this village. Then there are 2 old neighbours occasionally, whose values align with the old village more. They are gradually moving to a new place elsewhere and we feel the old connections will bother us less and less, with a new community incoming. Now is the time of transition – this is really obvious, with the place nearly empty, and so much potential coming through.
For you:
We feel the new world is ready to be born in places where Being is as valued as Doing, where Yin is as heeded as Yang, where there is ‘time to stand and stare’, to connect with yourself & your gifts, and the interplay of the elements. Time to dance, somatically release, paint, play piano, make tinctures, meditate, fast, forage, talk with a tree, whatever. Creativity and the sharing of joy in all its forms is needed – just as much as firewood and food in the oven. What is a life where Being is just an afterthought?
We feel that as long as the animals and people are fed and there’s wood on the fire, then all else is extra. Sometimes we have a big garden full of veggies, sometimes the garden is nearly bare. That’s fine to us. Sometimes we’re self-sufficient, sometimes we have to go to town. As long as we keep the fire of our own creative fascination going, material concerns are of lesser importance to us. Joy is nourishment. Satisfaction is a deeper health. A moment of present-awareness lets us touch eternity.
We’re looking long-term to expand the community, rebuild the ruins into houses, keeping its temple-like stillness and beauty. We have therapist friends who wish to hold retreats here one day, and we especially welcome therapists to check out the land’s highly curative energy. Right now, those are dreams for the future.
If you want to gain experience in off-grid life, we’re right here learning beside you. But it’s not for this that we exist, and we don’t want perfectly competent workers or a nice orderly farm.
We would love our fellow ‘guardians of the future’ to join us in the unfolding dream of this land. Maybe we’re just stewards of the land’s own dream to see more beauty upon this earth, and we were invited here to fulfil that.
We try not to impose our will on the land without consulting it. We really value *deep* listening, in order to re-learn our original harmony with nature. We believe, after Masanobu Fukuoka, that maximum observation, and minimal interference, can meet all needs. We’ll see! We are experimentors, not experts. We’re drawing pathways, not conclusions. Together we learn the way.
Our community:
We are currently 2 permanent residents and 1 highly supportive neighbour. There are 2 other residents who live nearby semi-separately, only for holidays.
We are:
– Owen (30s, UK): passion for music, creative cooking, ayurveda & some human design. (Speaks English, Spanish.) Plays piano, harp, flutes, guitar, percussion; learning mandolin & violin.
– Kate (30s, UK): painter & designer, likes nurturing the animals & language exchange (Speaks English, learning Spanish.) Website – www.katealexandrapriestley.com
– Our neighbour, in his 50s who is highly creative with practical projects.
All of us value our intuition and spiritual lives, though their forms may differ slightly. We make plenty of time for the silence within, and we try to respect the non-physical world around us. We try to include nature in all decisions concerning it, waiting for a clear internal response before proceeding on anything which would alter the course of nature significantly.
In general, we are strong on principles, light on ideology, and we try to live lightly. Seeing as we can’t hold onto anything in this world anyway, why not let go of our attachments a little earlier and travel in style? 🙂 (We joke, but this place and way of life really does exalt simplicity and fluidity. They are a necessity to move easily through life here.)
In summary, our values:
Much, much more art, presence & appreciation are needed for the healing of humanity and our reconciliation with nature.
The world needs more places where there is room to Be amidst the Do Do Do.
Where whoever wishes to return to our original harmony may do so, with the support of others who wish the same.
Strictly NO drugs, alcohol or tobacco.
Each of us have learnt that drugs all, ultimately, either cloud the mind, pollute the heart, or split open the soul. No drugs stronger than caffeine will be tolerated here, and lying about this will see you kicked out by the residents (and problem cases will be referred to our less-pacifist neighbours who are ever ready to help us).
Time free from empty chatter and the distractions of the digital. A space to face real life just as it is – no running away from the world’s trauma. Just somewhere to face it, integrate it, and start to be the solution.
Our solution will contain a lot more joy, mutual nourishment and recognition — and also, real (rich) solitude and inner discovery.
We seek people who are at peace with their own company, can be alone, are not running away from themselves or burying themselves in tasks, chatter, people, substances, etc. If you suspect you are running away from your demons, you’ll find no rest here, nor will you fit in. Better to seek more social dynamic places if you need a lot of stimulation.
We value honest integrity, self-knowledge and empathy. Empathy and individuality support each other. Difference strengthens togetherness if there’s always mutual consideration. Simple empathy. Not ‘’I’m an empath’’ – just empathy.
We value time with our art over off-grid productivity. We are overall happy to live more simply, or a little less materially abundant, if it means we stay rich in time, inspiration and artistic output. If you are a creative, you’ll understand.
If you can only work and can’t be still, you will inevitably not understand our pace of life and get frustrated. Then it would be better go somewhere more work-based. We don’t wish to be slaves to our own plenty. We channel our energy into things not immediately seen: art can be a slow-growing tree, but its fruit is the richest in all the garden.
(If you truly love to work outdoors, with genuine passion and creativity, and don’t mind that we’re often with our paints or strings – then fantastic! Come along. But our experience suggests that it is mainly artists who understand artists, and labourers tend not to get us.)
We have much to learn together in off-grid living. Don’t be shy if you are new to it. There’s always more to learn, and we prefer to learn together in a spirit of play. 🙂
Gentleness is a must, as is the strength to say No to abusive behaviour. True empathy does not tolerate harmful behaviour towards anything – it speaks out and defends where necessary. We are guardians here.
We have no fixed ideology regarding ‘no harm’ and our diets. We are basically vegetarian/vegan, but know that no consumption-model is without harm. We stay intuitive, spontaneous and sensitive. Did you just dream of that mint plant saying ‘don’t eat me’? Then spare that spearmint! Are you recovering from anaemia and feel you really need to eat meat medicinally sometimes? Then do it with the least harm possible: farm-raised from a neighbour, perhaps. We will not judge this. True ‘no harm’ includes the needs of the human being, and understands, with empathy, the compromise of living in a consumption-based dimension. (Our neighbour requests that you refrain from bringing supermarket meats into the common kitchen.)
We try to blend purity with pragmatism. Why cut down a living tree when there’s perfectly good firewood already fallen in the forest? Dead trees meet all our needs. We respect the beings of the forest, visible and invisible.
We welcome:
– All creativity, skills sharing, positivity, good communication skills, high emotional awareness, integrity in word & action, self-awareness, self-investigation, dreaming, groundedness, spiritual reflection, courage, ahimsa, sensitivity towards nature and the beauty of our floating world.
– We are family-friendly and often have people with children visiting, but remember that we are very remote and our available housing is basic.
What we do not welcome:
– Drugs of any kind – it is essential to disclose if you are on medication so we can best evaluate.
– Tobacco
– Alcohol
– Anti-social behaviour of any kind, including non-communication, evasiveness, or sustained negativity.
– Inconsiderateness to anything; treating nature as a mere resource to plunder, when nature sees and feels everything we do.
– Fixed ideologies are not of much use here. We answer to our body intelligence.
Please disclose with us any history of mental illness so we can decide as a group on each case.
Help:
Helpwise, our typical tasks include:
– Gardening – watering, planting, harvesting, gathering seeds, etc.
– Chopping wood for fires
– Fixing and repairing things
– Animal care – chickens, cats, 1 dog
– Cooking, cleaning
– And, with the right team: building with cob, wood and stone.
– Language exchange is very welcome! As is gift/skills exchange. We know music, painting, human design, ayurveda, some basic qigong. Our off-grid skills are not profound, but we get by, chopping wood, sowing and harvesting.
Languages
Languages spoken
English: Fluent
Spanish: Fluent
This host offers a language exchange
This host has indicated that they are interested in sharing their own language or learning a new language.
You can contact them directly for more information.
Accomodation
Practical things:
Life here can be physically demanding, with summer highs of +35c and winter lows of -12c. There is little electricity, and all of it solar. Machine use is confined to sunny hours.
Accommodation is pretty basic: an assortment of small private outbuildings each with a mattress and woodburning stove. We share a kitchen in the common house, and we have an outdoor kitchen for summer. We have some blankets, but better to bring your own.
We wish to improve the accommodation over time. Some of this would be easy to do, but it all depends on climate and available workers. You’ll have to be prepared to do without luxury during your stay.
There is only one, very Zen compost toilet with majestic mountain views. (Try not to enjoy it for too long!)
Many people come here walking with a tent in the summer. That’s fine. But as we do not drive ourselves, we tend to prefer that you have a car, with good suspension to cope with the rocky road, due to our remoteness. There is parking space for caravans.
Families would be welcome, but best if you have a caravan that can cope with the road. Our housing is small and basic. If that’s fine with your family, then let’s see.
We are mindful of disabilities, already housing people hard-of-hearing and hard-of-seeing.
We do ask that you are self-sufficient in your own healthcare needs, as there are few resources here and the nearest hospital is 1-2 hours away. It is your own responsibility to be here, and the community currently only has one driver. So please be mindful of this regarding your health.
N.B. – we adhere to natural medicine and do not use pharmaceuticals. We grow a small apothecary of medicinal herbs.
The water here is intermittent in the summer, and can freeze in the winter. We have a spring, but it is full of calcium, and a good filter is still on our wish-list. The next spring is an hour’s walk (or 20 minutes by 4×4). So there are times when it’s wise to bring extra drinking water.
There’s no hot water usually, so we heat it manually on the stove.
We can share main meals, and often love to cook together, but it greatly helps if you add to the pantry. We ask very little help hours here, as we are not a typical “work for board” workaway but a real village in need of good residents. The kitchen has always operated on the basis of full liberty to use, shared responsibility to maintain. But do not worry if you cannot bring anything. It is more important who you are,
Our diet is mostly vegetarian/vegan, with minimal supermarket reliance. Some people bring food from the ‘recycling’. We grow a lot of vegetables here, but there is a perennial craving for fruit. We have a huge bread oven, rarely in use.
Meet the hosts
We are a young couple yearning to build a world that works for us and other folk of similar vision. If this interests you and you would like to get some deeper insights into who we are, our creative work and the surroundings in this region of the Spanish Pyrenees check out our video below:
You can also check out Kate’s previous blog post from when we spent a few weeks here last year.
If you feel you are ready to contribute to a project like this, or want to receive more information, then please get in touch and maybe we can discuss things in more detail. You can email Kate at: katepriestley@protonmail.com.
We look forward to hearing from you!
With love
Owen and Kate
2 thoughts on “Help needed for off grid village in the Spanish Pyrenees – By Kate & Owen”
HI Kate, Wow what an amazing opportunity! I have yet to visit these mountains and its on my list to goto however right now I am in the midst of my travels, having been at the Bosnian Pyramid complex for two months volunteering. I would like to visit on my returns to Europe after my NZ visit due for the Xmas/new year period. I am unsure from then on how the travels will pan out in these times of great change. My question is, as a UK citizen (well actually a citizen of Mother earth!!) does the requirement for staying longer than the 3 months we now get being outside the EU?
Without the ability to stay longer this means my efforts to find a place to live more permanently diminshed somewhat in helping to establish such community living.
Is there a local river to bathe in?
Thankyou! Baz
Hello! I have sent you an email 🙂