“Call Sacha.”
These were the words I heard in a meditation after I’d come back from Evolve The Gathering in June 2022. Sacha and Ben are the previous owners who have made Mandala House the beautiful space it is today. I’d been to Mandala twice and fallen in love with the olive press, with the view, with the light with the space. The first time to a Kundalini meditation and the second to one of Sacha’s restorative yoga classes. I’d only walked through the house and turned left, taken part in the class and left again.
Checking out the voice I’d heard with my pendulum which said Yes, I had a conversation with Sacha that went something along the lines of, ”We’re just about to start the legalities to sell it to Tex next week, so if you’d like to make us an offer by Friday, we’d love to hear it.”
So with no plan, no surveyor, and no valuation, I made an offer. I wasn’t looking for a house in Corfu but I was looking for change. Mandala must have been looking for me. We all knew that immediately. Sometimes destiny is simply a deeper sense of knowing. In true hippie style, I did check it out with my clairvoyant who a couple of years previously had said that Arrillas was ‘my happy place’. As that then was only my second visit it was news to me. I thought my soul place was Bali.
Her words “The house has an amazing aura. Go for it.”
I made an offer. Sacha and Ben said yes.
And only then did the quest begin. In September 2023 I put my house on the market in Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire and a buyer offered the same price as Mandala. Hurrah, the gods were on our side. So we began legal proceedings in 2 countries. I began to pack up my stuff, Indonesian textiles, dowry boxes, chairs, art and books and began selling off my furniture. All good so far, as we were working with a deadline, as the chance for a golden visa was about to change in 2024.
Our paths had already crisscrossed in countless ways, little clues scattered to show us to keep the faith and hold the vision high. We believed. Sacha’s mum lives near me in Hebden Bridge and I’d met her on my first visit to Mandala. The week the contract was to be signed & the day before the shippers came to pick up my stuff, the buyers changed their minds. A sliding doors moment.
And so the decision to trust in the process began…on both sides.
I shipped my stuff.
We all held our vision, our conversations continued, and magic happened over the next few months. Offers of loans on both sides so Sacha and Ben could move to a family house in Avliotes. Every obstacle found a solution. It tools grace, patience and cash. Manifesting is nothing without cash flow. It just happened not to be mine. Miraculous.
Almost a year after the celestial “Call Sacha” instruction, with legal fees & debt navigated & doubt included, we sealed the deal in July 2023. And because of the post-Brexit 90-day rule, I left two days later, leaving Mandala in the capable hands of our inestimable housekeeper Rowan. The first summer had everyday crises of domesticity, water tanks splitting, and fridges not freezing, yet each time an effortless solution appeared, guests, friends & volunteers showed up from unexpected places, cooking, folding laundry and digging the garden.
The gods are still with us, smiling no doubt amused at how some hapless idealistic hippy with, to be fair, little sense of building maintenance, business management or ambition, has inherited the heart and elegance of Mandala. Sex geek Ali‘s focus on pleasure and beauty is being pulled towards the practical from checking pooh tanks, to laundry, With 56 shutters to maintain, there’s both bewilderment and trust.
