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<\/a><\/p>\nPhoto Jerry Hyde<\/em><\/p>\n I left for this valley in Wales, because I love my man and because he\u2019s deeply connected to it.\u00a0 He warned me that it wasn\u2019t easy, it often was cold, there was mud, micro-mosquitos (midges) and a lot of rain.\u00a0 But when you meet someone and that you are in love, you want to know everything about him, share everything.\u00a0 No?!<\/p>\n So, I arrived to the valley after a whole day of traveling with T\u00e2m and L\u00e9o.\u00a0 Janan, Jerry\u2019s ex-wife came to pick us up at the airport and take us to the compound by wagon.\u00a0 We are going to spend some time together\u2026<\/p>\n It\u2019s the third or fourth time that she goes there, only for a few days:\u00a0 \u201cThis place is like no other place that you might know elsewhere.\u00a0 And it\u2019s traumatic.\u00a0 It\u2019s traumatic to adapt when you arrive\u2026 it is even more so when you leave.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s actually very difficult to share an experience with words.\u00a0 Because exactly, most of the things that happened to me at Spirit Horse happened within my body\u2026 Spirit Horse is not a concept, but an experience.<\/p>\n I start over:\u00a0 fainting.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Photo Jerry Hyde<\/em><\/p>\n We arrived at night, it was cold, it was raining, we saw nothing.\u00a0 Logical because the place has no electricity.\u00a0 Jerry managed to find us on the road to show us the way.\u00a0 It was a miracle, not only because there is no electricity but no network either.\u00a0 Logical.<\/p>\n They had set some food aside for us in the kitchen.\u00a0 A sort of a teepee, with wet people inside playing music \u201cmom you should have told us that we were going there\u2026\u201d\u00a0 \u201cT\u00e2m, I don\u2019t know myself where we are.\u201d<\/p>\n So we leave with a flashlight to go to bed.\u00a0 Jerry\u2019s tent collapsed the day before (too much wind killed the tent).\u00a0 So we were able to sleep in a cute cabin, at the end of the village. The cabin was built by hand, with a sauna downstairs, a Tibetan pagoda upstairs and between the 2 floors a space for 6 mattresses\u2026 perfect!<\/p>\n Photo Jerry Hyde<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n I wake up early, habit by the fear of falling ill again (I had a mini burnout right before the holidays at the end of July).\u00a0 It\u2019s raining, but you can feel the sun behind the clouds.\u00a0 And then, I find this water sensation strangely pleasant.\u00a0 The morning goes.\u00a0 We leave for a walk. \u00a0Still under the rain.<\/p>\n When arriving in the kitchen for lunch, I sit next to a pirate looking lady. \u00a0A worn-out hat, a ruffled collar shirt worn-out as well, long grey hair in dreadlocks, barefoot.\u00a0 Full of mud.\u00a0 Kids walk in and out all wet.\u00a0 Barefoot.\u00a0 Full of mud.\u00a0 People in the kitchen.\u00a0 Barefoot (with crocks shoes option).\u00a0 Full of mud.<\/p>\n I feel a hyper violent thing growing in me.\u00a0 I can\u2019t manage to open my eyes.\u00a0 Or eat.<\/p>\n \u201cJerry, I am exhausted\u201d<\/p>\n I gather my remaining strength and believe me it wasn\u2019t much.\u00a0 I arrive at the cabin and crash for 3 hours.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Photo Jerry Hyde<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n When waking up, I confess to Jerry \u201cI am frightened.\u201d\u00a0 A friend used to say \u201cyou can\u2019t judge a feeling\u201d, I held onto it there to not be ashamed, but I wasn\u2019t too proud either.\u00a0 And Jerry, he\u2019s awesome, he reassured me.\u00a0 He told me that was normal, that people, their relation to things, that everything would be challenged and it makes it scary, very scary.\u00a0 That I should know that I was safe, because even if you have the feeling of being in the middle of a pirate movie (it sucks, that is just horrible), no one was going to slaughter you, to the contrary, this village is peaceful, there is no robbery, no fights, no sketchy stories.<\/p>\n And Janan to continue \u201cmaybe you might feel that people are closed off but they aren\u2019t \u201d \u00a0\u201c no, no, I can see they are not, however myself, I am the one who is closed off.\u201d<\/p>\n In fact, I experienced the fear of the other, the Other.\u00a0 And I swear it\u2019s awful how scared you are. \u00a0And it\u2019s awful to “be” so awful, and if I didn\u2019t realize it, maybe I would have ended up manifesting it \u201ctoward all of them.\u201d\u00a0 Thankfully I have values, and some reasoning capability. That and caring from the others of course, which saved me.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Photo Jerry Hyde<\/em><\/p>\n And then, this mud thing, it\u2019s crazy how it frightened me.\u00a0 I understood that all my point of references were going to explode.\u00a0 As a reminder, I was working for Lanc\u00f4me and was walking the red carpet at Cannes, it\u2019s not my entire life but it\u2019s a good landmark to tell you the abyss to find myself in mud.\u00a0 What is scary, it\u2019s not aggression from others, it\u2019s the aggression you hold inside yourself, and it springs\u00a0just when you don’t know anymore.\u00a0 What a trip!<\/p>\n Well \u2026.thanks for that.<\/p>\n Photo Jerry Hyde<\/em><\/p>\n I will tell you the rest, in video, but to keep it short, (yeah it\u2019s going to be a long one actually), this week spent at Spirit Horse has challenged everything with me:\u00a0 relationship with others, hygiene, the culture, the body, nature of course, family, education (many families there are doing home schooling), wealth, trust, risk, gender, individuality, community, rules, the forbidden, mushrooms, body hair, the essence of things\u2026 and beauty of course.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Photo Jerry Hyde<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Hygiene for example:\u00a0 the mud frightened me, however mud, is just water and soil!\u00a0 And there was no running water, so everyone washed in the river, without soap.\u00a0 For all that, I never smelled foul odors. I saw very well the difference\u2026 when I came back to Paris.\u00a0 People live in nature all day, so they don\u2019t wash themselves, but aren\u2019t dirty either.\u00a0 I have already heard all kind of things about our very polished relationship to hygiene, but this is the first time that I had to face it.\u00a0 Truly.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Photo Jerry Hyde<\/em><\/p>\n The outdoors:\u00a0 this is what I preferred.\u00a0 To live in nature, not waiting for it to be beautiful, or for it to serve\u00a0me, well at least the way I would like it to, oh la la, it was good. The valley is paced by the water, the many cascades and streams which flow by there.\u00a0 The water frankly is cold, but after 2-3 days, my body was like called by the water, I was cold, I shivered, and I loved it.\u00a0 I had already heard about \u201cbeing one with nature\u201d, but there, again I lived it and I miss it.\u00a0 I miss it bad!<\/p>\n Photo Jerry Hyde<\/em><\/p>\n The body:\u00a0 \u201cHello, daddy, yes we are leaving to a hippy compound\u201d \u201cAh ok, so you are going to be all naked?!\u201d\u00a0 Yes\u2026 well yes and no.\u00a0 I mean, it\u2019s up to you.\u00a0 Babies there live naked, in the arms of each other.\u00a0 People have a free body.\u00a0 Nudity therefore isn\u2019t a problem, a danger, a lack of decency.\u00a0 For women as for men.\u00a0 Whether in the river or in the village.\u00a0 It surprised me at first to see topless women having a coffee.\u00a0 Nah, this isn\u2019t true, actually, I was super shocked.\u00a0 And I realized how I myself had completely integrated the sexualization of the female body.\u00a0 So the body is freed, but not objectified.\u00a0 Such beauty!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Photo Jerry Hyde<\/em><\/p>\n The culture:\u00a0 the compound is nut only a hippy camp, and community, it looks to develop values, and these values are those of the \u201cwild nature\u201d (wild in French doesn\u2019t mean the same thing), that is to say to connect you with something inherent in each of us, something wild.\u00a0 Your inner peaceful warrior.\u00a0 So therefore it\u2019s a community of individuals who not only believe in human nature (not only like a social fabric) but who are also looking to develop it.\u00a0 Shivam O\u2019Brien and Erika Indra the founders of Spirit Horse 25 years ago have followed shamanism teachings, and its culture is a creation borrowing from \u201cnative\u201d Indians, native Americans, Tibetans, Pagans\u2026 there are retreats (which I can\u2019t wait to do), rituals, festivals which allow everyone to (re)new with this part of them.\u00a0 In particular for boys and girls, they can leave for these camps (separated) for 4 days in the mountains to learn how to live together and individually.\u00a0 What happens there is kept secret, and when they come back (I attended the return of some girls), the entire camp comes to welcome them.\u00a0 They set a table full of fruits and cakes, they play percussions, the girls come down from the mountain covered in flowers, proud and singing at the top of their voice.\u00a0 I still have goose bumps.\u00a0 There is also an experience \u201csacred man \u2013 sacred woman,\u201d an open stage, an evening of mad dance, singing courses.\u00a0 All these experiences are nothing like a technical apprenticeship, singing in tune yes but mostly, like Anthony the singing teacher used to say \u201cmake your soul fly from yourself to someone else.\u201d<\/p>\n I think I could write for hours more (maybe a 2nd<\/sup> post?! with your potential questions as well, because I realize that I haven\u2019t explained the founding principles of the campground, the people who live there etc\u2026).\u00a0 Spirit Horse is the name of a Native American tale, it\u2019s a spirit capable of making you pass from one to another.\u00a0 And yes, I truly had this incredible experience with the impression of being in a tunnel, moving at high speed and to realize that this tunnel, well, it was part of a much bigger mountain, where without a doubt tons of water flowed, and that this world was sheltered by a big, immense sky.\u00a0 I felt sacred, and at the same time, very small, at the foot of this immense Valley.<\/p>\n Where do I belong (?).\u00a0 Here and now.<\/p>\n And over there, you can see, touch, sing and listen to the beauty, but above all it is a feeling.\u00a0 You can feel the beauty.\u00a0 Infinite beauty.<\/p>\n Infinite because all of that is no longer hindered by your fears or projections, It\u2019s your\u2026Character!<\/p>\n It\u2019s crazy this thing.\u00a0 It\u2019s so crazy!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Photo Jerry Hyde<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n In returning to Paris, the forecasted trauma became reality.\u00a0 I walked in the streets, took the subway and wow, I truly see what is dirty now.\u00a0 In experimenting a society of being, I understand why we talk about the society of appearance.\u00a0 And it bugged me, because it\u2019s going to take me a while to integrate what I lived there into my full life.\u00a0 I am not one to \u201cslave away\u201d 11 months in order to have the right to escape on the 12th<\/sup>.\u00a0 And at the same time, what a gift having to reinvent yourself constantly.<\/p>\n .<\/p>\n In a way, Spirit Horse is in Wales, but it seems to me that I never went so far.\u00a0 Inside me.\u00a0 My eternal gratitude.\u00a0 Mia the pirate lady, Hellen, Sue Angel, Paloma, Anthony, Shivam, Ian, Philipp\u2026 see you next year.<\/p>\n Photo Jerry Hyde<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s has been close to two weeks since we came back from the valley and every night, I secretly go back to Spirit Horse. \u00a0And each day I am being asked with bewildered eyes \u201cso tell me!\u201d So here we go. Well\u2026 euh… I began by fainting. Photo Jerry Hyde I left for this valley … Continue reading Spirit Horse (1\/3)<\/span> <\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n