Hello! It’s been a while since I last wrote as so much has been happening. Last August, me and my partner moved to an abandoned off-grid village in the Spanish Pyrenees after our landlord had sold our rental. This abandoned village had called us for a while, as we have been feeling connected to it and the land it’s built on. The guardian had left, there was a collapse of the previous community and we were invited to live here.
For a majority of our time here, it has mostly just been us and a semi-helpful hermit neighbour. Living in this village has certainly been a dynamic journey of ups and downs as this land does come with its history, whilst also learning about off-grid living.
Well, what to share? I could do a raw honest sharing of everything that has taken place here or do a nice sparkling advertisement for the village. Or just go into the physical, practical level of what off grid living entails. Many things have happened here. I spare you from the full details of our experiences here so far… this post would end up being pretty long! As well, much of what has happened here feels as though it is in the past now.
There have been numerous times I have tried to write this blog post but the dynamics of the energy in this land can change a lot, and I realise how little things are fixed. Knowing that I can give off an impression of the village, yet it is always changing. My mind has felt like it has been through major folding and unfolding processes. Being in a village like this certainly has more going for it than just simply “living outside of financial systems.” I will explain a little why.
The village is built on an energetically potent land. To me, it has this very ashram-like quality to it – except, this time, we get to be our own and each other’s masters. It is sitting upon quartz, which sometimes you will find in some of the stone bricks. Also, the village is situated very near a mountain and river named after gold, and supposedly has many myths and legends, which are hard to access. The mountain has associations with dragons and comes with a large cross on top of it, which you can see at a distance if you have good eyesight.
There are special lines that run through the place too. Particularly, there is a line that goes through the church, although unfortunately it is an infiltrated line, as much negative history has happened in there, so we prefer to give the church a wide berth. We hope that, with time and energy clearing, this particular line will eventually transmute what it has accumulated. There’s probably more reasons for the potency, but never mind the “whys”… the energy must be felt. There are over 200 abandoned villages in the Pyrenees and we’ve been told often that this particular one has the most special energy and is in the most beautiful location.
With all that amplifying the frequencies of the land, dreams at night come with a new kind of intensity. Time works very differently here. It is best not to get too attached to making plans as often they don’t go to plan (as much as the mind may complain!). It is time to follow nature’s time, answering to what the pure moment calls for or tuning in with priority needs. It is a slower pace of life here but what needs to be done will get done. It is not a place just to lose oneself endlessly in tasks, but to actually connect with the silence of oneself.
As one can expect, the village can attract interesting kinds of people. Some who are beautiful human beings, but also some with very murky intentions and deep internal problems that can threaten to destroy the peace, integrity and foundation of the community. There are no contracts to the land so, in theory, anyone can just turn up without warning.
At one point, me and Owen (my partner) had to take refuge in a house (belonging to a semi resident) for a few days without running electricity or water on the outskirts of the village. It was the most unusual house I’ve ever come across. It was like a human nest the way random bits of junk were put together to create a structure. I would be staring at the ceiling wondering how it was possible this house was still standing. We were unlucky to encounter heavy rainfall where the water seeped through the ceiling and much of our things got wet.
Or another example: catching someone spying on us through the window. His justification was that he needed to “understand us”. Well… I guess me and Owen operate in ways that could seem mysterious to many. There were other bad behaviours he carried out too. So, with some help from just a couple of other people who were in the village, we were able to kick him out.
But luckily, such phases of living like this have long passed. Me and Owen have had to learn on deeper levels how to say “no” to what does harm. We have had to live through many difficult processes and dramas, but we are coming through stronger and more empowered. At peak frustrations, there have been times when we wondered if we should just give up. Yet there was nowhere else to go… we have to be firmly planted here, as that seems to be what nature is asking of us. So, we will do our best while we are here. Being open to the village developing a flourishing community as this is such a rare gift of opportunity. A fire burns in us to bring the village back into its true integrity and what it has the potential to be. With time, we have noticed much more peace entering the land compared to when we first arrived here.
A New Earth can be nurtured here. But it needs the right people to be able to do so who are of a good energy. I have observed that it needs to be people who are willing to face their own shadows as this land does dredge up what wants to hide. It seems like nothing can escape here. I have seen people who choose the light of their being, but then many can spiral off feeding into their wounds and patterns that are destructive. Their blind spots may suddenly come up causing them to act in ways that may even surprise themselves. Hence this village seems to keep getting reabandoned again and again as the internal discomfort may be too much. Or there are some who try to impose their agendas that are out of alignment with nature. These people do not last long. The land has a highly intelligent nature and it can feel like it knows what it is doing. Bringing up what needs to leave. It can also push you back out just as quickly as you enter. I find it is important for people to be grounded and remain in their bodies, not latching to states that move through them.
So why do me and Owen take on such a project? Well, on a practical level, we could not continue on in the renting system, and needed to get more out of the financial systems. We couldn’t go on being slaves to the corrupt world of money and needed a lot of space from it. Somehow, we get guided by something that goes beyond what we can conceive of, as we were led to stewarding this village without any need for money or resources. Money has long been a scarce point for us but we have not been held back by it and have been provided for just when we need it. Although we do want to improve the village, particularly the outbuildings people sleep in, and doing so by low cost methods. There is potential to build new houses on it too as there are plenty of ruins, if the right people ever decided to take on such a project and felt connected to this way of living and the land.
Living self-sufficiently has come with its many learning curves. There is much to do here and it can be demanding. Covering just our basic needs can take a lot of work. Yet simultaneously honouring our needs when rest and silence is called for. Or time for presence and connection with one another.
It is not a luxurious, comfortable lifestyle although the rewards of nature are great. We have no transport either except an occasional trip with our neighbour. So resources reach us very slowly, and we have to make do with what’s around us. Especially as it has just been mostly me and Owen managing a large piece of land on our own, and also being on high alert for any potential strange people who may turn up in the village. The latter we deal with a lot less of these days so luckily our nervous systems can calm down now! There can be times where it can feel very challenging. Then there are times where one can just feel very grateful to be here amidst this purity away from the noise and chatter of the outside world.
I’ve gone from spending much of my time being on a computer working constantly to make ends meet to being thrown into a very remote village out in the wild, and being physically active on an almost daily basis. As well, filling my lungs with a lot more fresh air. Not to mention having to face the elements as often I am outside doing tasks whatever the weather. Even cooking food or washing my hair in the cold, wind and rain at times. My resiliency to cold seems to be better. I had to go without heating for a large part of the winter (the why is another story) and coped better than I expected, although I would be layered up to my eyes at times.
In the peak of summer, I am yet to get used to all the bugs which can go a bit crazy. Having flying beetles crash into me in the compost loo or many moths constantly attracted to my head torch. My phobia of spiders is a work in progress… how their eyes just glisten at me in the light of my head torch as they go prowling around at night.
My body has become stronger and healthier for this lifestyle change. Surprising myself how much I can take on. I am often collecting kindling and chopping wood for fires. There is a spring down the road in a steep valley I have to collect water from. Often, I just have to get myself into action whatever I’m feeling if there’s some basic needs to be met. There is much to clean up here (after years and years of old accumulated stuff people have left behind) and we want to give the village a good feng shui. I have even been adding my own art to the buildings which you can see from the example below.
The land is huge, covering many acres so that in itself is a good workout just to walk across. Then those hills and climbing the rocky paths! There are plenty of gardens to tend to that provide lots of space for food to grow abundantly in. Even there is a trek between the bedrooms we sleep in to the compost loo. All so worth it though, if I can take in the glorious mountain views and spectacular skies. Here, I really get to absorb nature, which has been a major factor for me wanting to live this way.
Bright clear blue skies are a regular occurrence here (for those who know how precious it is to have these days). It is hard to get bored of the beauty this land provides. All the different ranges of colours and interesting cloud formations in the sky are dreamy. The way the mist often gathers like oceans or crawls around like dragons in the valleys. Like being on a mythical island up in the clouds. The different ways the ascending mountainous horizons can catch the light. How the sun casts a lovely golden glow across the densely forested hills and mountains. The many stars stretching above us. Even supposed “dreary” rainy days can bring about zen atmospheric mountainscapes as the clouds get very low. Or beautiful, dramatic shows with bursts of light, colour and form painted by the sun, skies and cloud sometimes combined with the twinkling of rain. It makes one very appreciative to be here as having nature on ultra-wide view can help to silence one’s mind and feel oneself again.
With the right people we know this village can have a lot of potential and plant seeds of a new world we know is possible. This is not people who may be extremely efficient workers with lots of knowledge but people who are of a good frequency and enthusiastic to learn new ways of doing things.
Me and Owen, especially at the start of our stay here, have had to deal with very challenging people who may have distorted morals or are physically stronger than us. Us two are not physically strong in appearance yet we have somehow held down the fort and kept the less desirable people out. It certainly wasn’t fun having to hold this kind of space on our own and weathering the storms. It can feel like that it’s down to what frequency wants to claim the village rather than if you are physically strong with lots of off grid knowledge.
Another person arrived in the village, who is quite a force of nature herself. We were stunned by just how quickly an extra person, whom we share many moments of laughter and joy with, somehow put pressure on a problematic man who had been living in a caravan at the outskirts of the village for months – without the need for any interaction with him. He couldn’t take it anymore so ended up imploding and left, which released the village from a very dense energy.
We are all being strict when it comes to drugs, alcohol and tobacco and do not feel they have a place here. There have been many addiction issues in this land, along with other harmful behaviours that have opened the village to energetic vulnerabilities at quite a large scale. We value deeply people who have integrity and are not embroiled in their addictions as time and again we have seen how those people end up succumbing more easily to their shadows. Like being food for the unseen (and the unseen world is very much alive here). We prefer to keep those gates closed where possible. Our sovereignty in both the physical and astral world is highly important in these times. The village is at quite a tipping point so it feels like being strict on this is vital. It is like a new tender shoot growing and having to protect it from the wind and the rain.
So yes… you could say this is not your typical village! Yet for the right people it can be very transformative and healing. Do you answer to love (not the fluffy love and light kind but the real kind that can say no to what does harm) or do you answer to something else? This is the first step where everything, thereon, arises from. The practical stuff can come after, as we become more autonomous and learn how to live self-sufficiently out of financial systems. To see how nature provides for us and that we are sustained by Mother Earth.
I feel very grateful and humbled by the force of nature and how it can push us to face our mirrors. Whether it’s something being mirrored back to me or someone else is facing their own mirrors. It can feel like this is not the time to wander around avoiding oneself, hardly ever changing. It is the time to truly answer to oneself and what the Earth is calling of us. Can we find that true power inside of us? Saying no to what’s outside or inside of us that attempts to steer us back into smallness? Within myself, I can sense that narrow yet direct line to a better world that we know is possible. Even if there is a wobble and I may wonder if I’m being taken off course, I realise I can never separate from that line. That there is something in my most innate sense of self that is unmovable like a mountain.
Emotions may come and go. Stories may get intensely strong in the moment before they disappear back into silence. We may get taken to the brink of our psyche. But there is that anchor. Nothing attaches and we can move through states as though it’s just a holographic image. Our human self becomes the infinite self.
One moment, I may feel like I am a happy zen monk just raking up the pine needles. Feeling the temple-like quality of the land. Then, another time, I may be feeling on verge of collapsing with exhaustion and frustration at the physical demands of the village. Or the internal shit the energies of the land can stir to the surface and I’m thinking, “Please just stop! I don’t want to have to deal with this!” Then the next moment the gratitude, joy and peace comes in as something ailing me seems to have transmuted. I’d be back to walking through the land absorbing the glorious nature around me, and feeling what this way of life has to offer. Or gazing out into the atmospheric rainy mountains and feeling this tranquillity fill up my being. Feeling myself more in my body and the world around me coming more alive. As time goes on, I am feeling the positive states coming in more frequently… those particular states feeling deeper with time too as I feel love reach new parts of me.
So, from what I can derive from my personal experiences, this is a village that can amplify what is within us – both the light and the shadow. It’s not for the faint hearted! Yet it is a welcome gift, if you allow it to show you. I’m curious to see what unfolds for this special, dynamic land I currently call home. If a New Earth with a community that truly nourishes humanity can be seeded here. Where one can really live with surrender and intimacy in the wild mountainous arms of nature.
A poem for you
Fields Of Unknown Infinity
Life is an endless mystery
Its infininty and vastness
That terrifies most people
It’s like a blank canvas
Where no paint can stick
Yet there is a base
The base of love
In its basin
The paint may swirl through
Creating images and forms
Then disintegrating
Into a formless gloop
Then conjuring new ones
Your fingers may reach out
Trying to hold onto something
But the paint slips through them
As the world of form
Is not solid
Solidity
Resides somewhere else
Somewhere beyond
That has no beginning
And no end
It is the fabric
Of the canvas
It holds you
As you gather
Your paints and play
Like a projector
Our stories may get emblazened
Onto that ghostly ether
But what is this you
Beneath the phantom?
Meet me in that field of blackness
That stretches on and on
That’s electrifying
With endless potential
An infinite network
Filling up the vacuum
Threads of possibilities
Lighting up the way
Where your hand may carress
Illusions of fear
And smallness
Loosing their power
The layers around you
Creaking and groaning
Like a maze
With its huge dusty walls
Sliding and crumbling down
The light of the stars
Revealing themselves
Through those gaps
Your reborn eyes
Looking with sureness
At that place
Where nothing is everything
The destination still unknown
Yet you are pulled along
A direct line
That always leads back to one place
That is source
Anything that remains a constant
In your life
Will be built
On the foundations of love
You step forwards
Your feet finding ground
Materialising your place
On the Earthly body
Watching as the seeds below grow
Bursting with life and colour
Each flower
Revealing themselves
As you walk through
Field after field
Of unknown infinity
10 thoughts on “Off grid village living – bringing harmony back into the land – By Kate”
Hola Kate,
Thank you for such a great share about your life in your beautiful village . It would be a real challenge for me but then the gifts of being away from all the chaos and all the shops selling so much rubbish must be so rewarding.
I hope you can form a community. Have you been in contact with Dear Danny? He could probably take over a few villages !
I loved the Jitsi discussions on living with a small amount of money. I was on my allotment with others nearby so couldn’t speak or put my camera on . And then my phone died towards the end so I couldn’t even thank you both for facilitating it . I hope the cows didn’t eat all your chard!
Much love to you and Karina xx
Hi Lisa! Thank you! Yes there feels like many rewards not having so much access to the usual things and you are more appreciative with what you can get. Getting in touch with Dear Danny is a thought we are considering.
Thanks I enjoyed the Jitsi discussion too! Happy you managed to join! The cows had eaten half the chard. But then today more cows turned up, bashed their way through a fence and ate the rest of the chard! It’s currently cow mayhem here!
Lots of love back to you xxx
Hey Kate and Owen
I can feel you. What a great potential.
Similar to our experience in Croatia, take care.
I wish you all the best in all directions.
Hi Ronny,
Yes I can imagine how you could relate! Hoping you are good now.
Sending love to you and Josephine xxx
Hi Kate,
Wonderful story and photos, thanks for sharing, I can relate! I am 76 now but in my early 20’s I lived off grid for 3 years up an inlet on Canada’s west coast, boat/floatplane access only (and we didn’t have a boat!) no electricity, no running water, no phone, 10 miles from town. In the winters it was just me, my partner and one other couple with two little kids. That was a life-changing formative experience which still nourishes me. Now I am settled in a somewhat remote place, shared land, ferry and 4 wheel drive road access but with internet, electricity, telephone and running water. I am curious how accessible your off-grid village is? Do phones work? Can someone drive there in an SUV? Is there a powerline nearby? How far away is the nearest grocery store?
Hi Irene,
Thank you so much! Wow that sounds like an amazing experience and totally can see how that experience still nourishes you to this day. I feel like it is one of the most grounding experiences to live through having this kind of lifestyle. Sounds like you were even more cut off than I am back then. Happy to hear you have managed to settle somewhere remote but not be completely cut off.
We have electricity although it is rather limited especially in the winter… like occasional power cuts or not being able to use the washing machine. We do have the option of investing in better solar panels though to increase electricity capacity.
The drinking water we must obtain from the spring but we do have hosepipes for the gardens which can have limited water in the summer.
As we’re high up in the mountains I am able to connect with phone data and luckily do my Sun Beings work! And also can get phone signal too for normal calls/text messages.
Yes people can drive here via an SUV. It is an off grid road so a good suspension is definitely most ideal.
The nearest grocery store would be about an hours drive. Or 4 hours to walk. I think I have seen powerlines the closer you get to the city where the grocery store is. Yet still in the mountains.
Thank you for your lovely message and questions. It’s always nice to hear of others who have experienced or currently experiencing the same kind of lifestyle 🙂 You are also welcome to share your story to this platform if that appeals to you!
Dear Kate,
How much I enjoyed to read about your life and being so deeply connected to the NewEarth
I can feel this even I live in The Netherlands without the mountains, its the connection !
Since we are all part of nature and connected its a real Joy and deep appriciation of reading your woords ,its like a visit in nature the beautiful poem deep beautiful expression I thank you with gratitude for this sharing
Looking forward for more how you and Owen doing Much Love …
Hi Brigitta, I am so glad you can feel this connection with the New Earth where you are too. It’s so amazing to feel this potential of the New Earth energies birthing itself through the lands. Thank you so much for your appreciation. I am happy my words did that for you! I feel it in your words too. Sending lots of love. xxx
Hi Kate,
What a wonderful sharing of very rich information. I’ve been sucking it all in.
I find you both very brave, with all the challenges about weird people and silly cows who are ending your chart supply.
I lived at the Costa del Sol for 15 years, just taking care of stray dogs, I was working there to earn money, to be able to live there with almost 100 strays. Not off grid, but very simpele anyways.
I’m almost 70, but still young enough
to understand that this honest way of living is worth experiencing, because it makes you so strong. Getting to know yourself from unknown sides.
I hope Dear Danny is able to give you a helping hand and for the rest I wish you all the good things you need and surely deserve.
Kindest greetings from Holland
Hi Eva,
Thank you so much! Luckily the farmer turned up and took the cows away! They were escaped cows it turned out.
I agree that going back to basics and living more simply can wake something up inside of you. Glad you were able to experience this.
Thank you for your lovely message 🙂
Sending lots of love xxx