Who Is Spirit Horse?
Shivam O'Brien
Founder
Community Chieftain
& Workshop Leader
Storyteller, carpenter, ritual poet, ceremonialist, Enlightenment Intensive master, tribal leader, writer, pilgrim and lover of the woods and the wild. Shivam exemplifies the Celtic tradition, and brings a reverence for indigenous and spiritual traditions from anywhere that might loan us enough time honoured wisdom to become real people again.
Steeped in story, ritual and the wood smoke and earthiness of ancient ways, he is the originator of these courses and this unique camp and settlement.
Shivam has worked with men and women and children in community and retreat for over twenty five years. He brings together wisdom gleaned from shamanic rooted culture and Indian and Buddhist sources. His style is relaxed, wild, adventurous, challenging, welcoming and fun - polished over many years in service to the teachings and ceremonials of East and West. Some of his teachers are legendary.
Honed over many years leading retreats, wilderness and ritual workshops, his command of ceremonial space and eloquence, sets eyes, ears and dreams aflame. Passionate and compassionate, a mighty stallion of vulnerability, bearing the war-drum for the Old Ways; he inspires a respect and a loyalty, rare in any time.
Erika Brilliana
Co-founder & Women's Circle Holder
Thanks to Erika's bountiful nurturance, the generous guidance of wise wild feminine belly, and the effortless power of her medicine woman ways, the original vision was able to take root. Holding the feminine presence in the valley, the birth of the village could have not happened without her.
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Today Erika is a guarding and guiding force behind the scenes, still leads her own Women’s Lodges, and after decades of service is, as ever, called upon in all times of major and minor creative crisis. Meet her at community times, women’s lodge and wherever the fun is. But this year she has officially announced her retirement from the intensity of Sacred Man Sacred Woman. This event continues in the tradition but With additions.
A destroyer of pretence and logic, bearing forth with an intuitive awareness that cuts, prophesises and knows, honed with ancient mother wit and wisdom. Her earthy, womanly sensuality and sensitivity manifest spontaneously and unpredictably as a mysterious, ruthless and often comical force.
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"Decades ago, Erika's healing heart pulled me into the warmth of human company. I'd been left out in the rain too long.
Spirit Horse was like our child. We could never have imagined the immensity of the adventure that our meeting birthed.
Thank you always." - Shivam
THE TRIBE
An evolving community
Visitors to our off grid mountain retreat centre come and go, and often stay, to become a tribal presence that happens every summer.
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A diverse collective of unstoppable, sometimes responsible, idiosyncratic individuals, not required to conform but in love and in service to something Holy that will not and should not be named.
Circle holders, storytellers, cooks, mentors, welcomers, comedians, builders, muscians, dancers, kings, queens, warriors, nobles, prayer makers and a few professional moaners, lunatics and village idiots just to keep it real!
