I wake up when the engines stop. Disorientated. Everyone has already disembarked and I’m alone with only a cleaner sweeping the floor …
on a new island, in a new country…
Corfu in Greece.
Leaving the ferry, the distant mainland and the sea behind I set off north-west. My destination is Arillas.
The first thing I notice, is a sense of lift. There is a lightness to this island almost a weightlessness, an uplifting feeling, stretching, my neck and back; loosening and dropping my shoulders, like a defiance of gravity. It’s bizzare and like nothing I’ve ever experienced before but it’s a good feeling and a sign I’m sure, of what’s to come.
Thank goodness for Google maps, the words on the buildings and road signs look like the hieroglyphics I saw in my dream – the one that brought me here.
It’s quite shocking to be in a country where I don’t speak even the basics of the language because I was learning Italian until a couple of days ago. Greece is much more foreign than anywhere I’ve been in Europe so far. It feels so alien. I really am a stranger in a strange land.
The car twists and spirals through luscious mountainscapes of gnarled ancient olive groves, juniper trees, and elegant cypresses reaching for the sky, cacti and pricky pears, oaks, eucalyptus, and many varieties of palm trees, all strung with ivy, creepers and vines, it’s green and verdant. There are bamboo groves, myrtle bushes, orange, lemon and fig trees, and St John’s wort growing wild at the side of the road, and these are only the plants I recognise.
I’d no idea Corfu was so beautiful because last time I was here in 2004, I was on retreat and only visited the local beach. Back then I had a profound spiritual awakening, so I wonder what’s going to happen this time…
Sunshine hits my face through the windscreen, as I pass small white, yellow and caramel painted houses with orange trees and rosemary bushes in their gardens, surrounded by small fields of onions or potatoes and endless olive groves.
Out here there is a lack of mental noise, a sense that everything it just at it is and it’s fine. There seems to be an absence of stress and striving. The rat race definitely does not exist in the small villages and hamlets miles from the hub of Corfu Town. Instead, there’s a graceful acceptance of the way things are, a sense of resilience in the culture, rooted in history and an unspoken presence of national pride. I sense the peace and freedom that comes from knowing one’s place in the great scheme of things, as a quiet joyful belonging.
The sudden revelation of the sea from a lofty hill top near Arillas makes me gasp. I stare at the vast azure-blue bay, as grey-green islands, hazy in the evaporating morning mist, appear like mountains rising out of the sea. They beckon to me, like mesmerising mermaids compelling me towards them. As I take in the beauty of the bay, sunshine glinting on the soft waves lapping at the bottom of the bleached, beige clay cliffs, hot sun on my face, despite it being October, I feel incredibly lucky and filled with gratitude that divine providence has brought me here.
A friend who lived on a Greek cat sanctuary put me in touch with Alekos from Green Corfu and he has been more than helpful arranging accommodation for me in advance of my arrival and calming my concerns. When we finally meet, I feel like I know him already. Arillas is like that.
The lush scenery runs down to the beach of Arillas, a long strip of ever-changing honey-golden sand and pebbles divided naturally into several small bays by the limestone and clay rocks, providing seclusion for clay body painting, nude swimming and sunbathing. Even as a single woman alone I feel completely safe and comfortable to nude sunbathe here unlike some naturist beaches I’ve been on.
As well as the indigenous Greek community, and Greeks who migrated from other parts of the country, a multi-national, multi-cultural community has grown up here. People are swept in on the incoming waves from all corners of Europe: Albania, Switzerland, Italy, Estonia, England, Ireland, Scotland, Austria, Germany and Holland and even as far as Australia. Many return home, on the outgoing waves in winter when the Mistral wind briskly chills the beaches and the sunshine gives way to rain and electric storms, and the community is reduced to a skeleton of diehards who brave out the humid conditions.
Although this is not an intentional community, a group of like-minded, self-aware people have gathered here, who have shared values of: inclusivity, live and let live, care and respect and are full of heart.
They practice care for the land using organic and permaculture techniques, including care for the beach and the cleanliness of the town.
They care for the people: respecting and aiming to integrate with the Greek local community as much as possible; they cook and deliver food and care packages to people in need; help each other move house; and even build houses for others. They care for the water: for the sea and the creatures in the sea; are planning a community filtration system; and run healing sessions in water and Corfu’s first water conscious conference will be held in Buddha Hall on the 1st and 2nd October next year.
My introduction to Arillas was a community sharing circle where I met some of the community including Kaushalya and Ananda from Estonia. I discover that they are in a band called Jagaspace when they play beautiful bhagans and sacred world music, seamlessly supporting Sophia’s Water for the Soul event: A vision for water in the community where everyone was invited to contribute their visions. This event was the seed of the Water Conscious annual gatherings held at the astonishingly beautiful Buddha hall, a meditative centre created by Vasanti and Michel inspired by the vision of Osho.
Having heard so much about the project from Alex, I was happy to join in the post summer clear up at the ARC – the Arillas Recycling Centre – an inspirational community project created by a partnership between the local community and the Arillas Business Union. Rubbish that used to go to landfill is collected, sorted and recycled making the community almost zero-waste. The service is run by volunteers, free to individuals, and businesses make a donation that covers expenses. This project has single-handedly made Arillas the cleanest town in Corfu.
The power of this place is unmistakable – it’s in the land, sea, the sun and air, It’s in the community and the mysterious, compelling divine presence. You may choose to come here, but it’s Arillas who chooses who stays.
Its elemental power comes to the fore when winter rain rages monsoons, turning carparks into lakes, the sea into a cauldron of boiling waves, and electric storms light up the island. Then humidity sets a chill into the houses and the bodies of those who remain. And many don’t. I thought I was one of the diehards who would stay through the winter. Humidity sure, no problem I thought, I’ll buy a dehumidifier. But I was unprepared for the reality of living next to the beach where humidity is at its highest. Without a properly insulated house, (most in Greece are summer lets) when my clothes go damp in my drawers, humidity and mould grow indoors, the bedding feels damp when I go to bed at night and its almost impossible to get laundry to dry. The beaches are wild and turbulent, scoured by the winter winds and lashed with incessant rain.
So when I was offered the opportunity go to warmer climes for the rest of the winter I accepted gratefully. I vacuum packed everything in plastic and prayed that my cottage isn’t too damp when I return in the spring. While Corfu may be a paradise a few months in the summer, it’s not necessarily somewhere most people want to live in all year round.
In lockdown, I discover speaking Greek is imperative if I want to buy the things I need. Although I normally master languages easily, Greek is an esoteric mystery-school language full of symbols and cryptic codes, deliberately baffling to the uninitiated. Now I understand all too well the phrase, ‘It’s all Greek to me”.
As the world goes through the biggest transformation it has ever experienced and stark realities become ever more pressing, now is the time we all need to find our place, find our homes and our communities wherever we are and appreciate what we have. I’m so grateful I had the opportunity to be a part of the Arillas community. But it seems like I’m one of the people who got washed out on the outgoing tides to a warmer country, free of covid, restrictions, chemtrails and 5G. I’m flowing with what is arising so who knows if I’ll ever return.
Efcharistó polý to all who contributed to this article wittingly or unwittingly. I am so grateful to you all.
https://www.corfubuddhahall.com
Water Happy Aquatic Therapy https://waterhappy.net/mermaids-corfu/
Corfu’s first water conscious conference 1st&2nd October 2021
Jagaspace: www.jagaspacegongspa.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-p-85velySg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nubKJUAEK7o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_RwnnIkEqE
https://soundcloud.com/jagaspace/jagaspace-bass-intro
www.facebook.com/JagaspaceGongSPA
© Cliona O’ Conaill Dec 2020.
Cliona O’ Conaill is a writer, therapist and spiritual healer.
cliona@divinefeminineawakening.co.uk
This article is an extract from my forthcoming spiritual memoir, Ever The Sea Calls Me Home, a pilgrimage of awakening, join my newsletter for publication updates: https://wilddivinelight.com/newsletter/. To see photos of my journey sign up on Patreon www.patreon.com/ClionaOC