The discovery that changed her life forever
Destiny sometimes calls in interesting ways and for Terry de Vries, of Kamala House Karoo Retreat, one such serendipitous moment defined the way she would live the rest of her life.
Today she is world-renowned for the labyrinths she has, and continues to, build across the globe, but that one special event that led her down this path is one she will cherish forever.
Labyrinths are an ancient archetype dating back 4 000 years or more, used symbolically, as a walking meditation, choreographed dance, or site of rituals and ceremonies, among other things. Labyrinths are tools for personal, psychological and spiritual transformation, also thought to enhance right-brain activity.
Terry discovered labyrinths for the first time in 1997 while doing her yoga teachers training in America.
She was at the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies when an afternoon of playtime with her son, Josua, opened up a new reality to her.
“My five-year-old son went with me to the US for my training and he was a very busy, very difficult kid so I would study from eight to five and then when I fetched him from the creche we had to find something to do for another hour before the restaurant on the farm opened,” Terry said.
Most toddlers are known to be at their destructive best between five and seven. So, in that time, Terry would take Joshua on nature walks through the forest or gardens or to a dam nearby where they played.
One day, he was particularly difficult and during this walk, she stumbled upon this big circle in the middle of nowhere.
There they played as they usually do, chasing each other around and she noticed how his mood immediately shifted from almost irritable to the happy child that he actually is.
“We were in and out and having fun not knowing where we were or what we doing and it was only later at the restaurant I asked someone what that circular pattern was and they explained that it was a labyrinth.”
When she was asked whether she knew what it was she was dumbstruck.
“I said, ‘no I’ve never even heard the word before,’ and that is where my journey with labyrinths started.”
When Terry returned to South Africa, with the internet hardly a feature yet, she started researching labyrinths and then I stumbled upon Peter Frazer and Barrydale where he had built a labyrinth.
She drove through to Barrydale – this was the first one she saw in South Africa and she made many more visits to this specular place near Lemoenshoek, often walking this circular path that had helped her son.
In 2000 she went on tour through the Sacred Valley in South America with a group of American yoga instructors and there she met a South African lady who had a healing retreat. She had a spiral labyrinth which was something Terry was yet to experience.
The Sacred Valley is a region in Peru’s Andean highlands. Along with the nearby town of Cusco and the ancient city of Machu Picchu, it formed the heart of the Inca Empire.
“When I walked that spiral I realised for the first time that it is okay, I don’t have to be a journalist for the rest of my life,” Terry quipped.
“I can make a change and follow my heart and do what I want to do.”
In 2002, she built her first public labyrinth in the Jan Marais Nature Reserve in Stellenbosch and also realised that there were many more in the country.
In 2003, she started phoning around and managed to find a list of labyrinths across the country.
With this knowledge, she visited her sister in Michigan and did a lecture about South Africa’s labyrinths at the annual labyrinth conference in America.
In 2004 Lauren Artress visited South Africa and Terry did a course with her on leading people through a labyrinth and how it works.
That year, she also helped establish the labyrinth at Rustenburg Wine Estate, located outside of Stellenbosch. This is still one of her favourite labyrinths to walk.
From there onwards these mystical structures were central to her journey as a spiritual healer.
Rediscovering her roots
Terry’s father passed away in 2002 and he was from Barrydale. He matriculated here and grew up on a farm near Brandrivier.
While emerging herself all things labyrinths, Terry never thought that she would one day return to her roots and establish a healing retreat.
Nor did she imagine that so many interesting events would happen along the way.
One road trip, more than two decades before she relocated to Barrydale, really stood out.
“In 2003 I went on a road trip to Knysna with my mother. On the first night, we stayed over in Montagu and drove through Barrydale when I told her that we must stop at the labyrinth because it is so beautiful.
“We said hi to Nola (Frazer) and when we started walking the labyrinth I immediately felt my father’s presence.
“I thought to myself, ‘how am I going to explain this to my mother?’ I can feel him, I know it is him but how do I explain this to my mother? I thought let me rather leave it. We walked to the centre and suddenly my dad was gone.”
Much to her delight, Terry’s mother also experienced something.
“We walked out again and when we got out my mom burst out saying:
“Terry, Terry you won’t believe it. Dad came and sat down with me in the middle and he walked out with me.”
Terry’s mother is also very spiritually in tune, but she explained that she has not necessarily lived out this part of her life.
Fast forward to her Barrydale return
In 2018 Terry built a labyrinth for Kali Widd in Barrydale and over the weekend they walked the (now Kamala House Karoo Retreat) labyrinth for the first time. At that stage, the property was already on the market.
In 2016, she sold her house in Stellenbosch with the idea of downsizing, and Kali said she must buy the property but Terry said, “no way, it’s too big”.
At some stage, she said Atma van Jaarsvel’s (also a yoga instructor’s) house was on the market so Terry went to have a look and she recalls that “once I walked on the stoep I house she just knew, this is my next house” – forgetting that her father grew up in Barrydale.
“I phoned my sister and I told her that I had found my new house in Barrydale, to which she burst out in laughter. She said she always wondered which one of our sisters would return to our roots and then I clicked, that is why Barrydale feels so good to me… it is in my blood.”
