Our Story

The Callachuchi Hermitage is a sanctuary dedicated to the experiencing of emptiness and silence as a way of engaging existence and discovering the self that appears when we participate in the completeness of each moment. It supports the principle and practice delineated by the Earth Sentinels at earthsentinels.org regarding our relationship with the earth. By immersing in silence and awareness of each breath, each step, each action; we begin to discover more clearly the activity that is at our core and how to manifest that for the well-being of our selves and our planet.

Callachuchi Explained

The Callachuchi flower provides the logo and name for the Callachuchi Hermitage. Several Callachuchi plants thrive in the hermitage compound. The plant is known in the islands for its natural beauty and hardiness, its medicinal properties, and its use at vigils.

The origin of the word hermitage, eremos, is the Greek term for desert, for desolation, for being completely alone. It is the study and practice of this desolation, this aloneness that is the work of the hermitage. What is this aloneness? It is not the experience of loneliness. In fact it is the opposite. How to be totally alone and totally not lonely? This requires understanding the value of emptiness, nothing. And to do this requires training and insight. Hence the Hermitage.

Hi. My name is Soko Paul Karsten. I am honored to be the resident caretaker for the Callachuchi Hermitage. I am in complete accord with its mission to provide a quiet sanctuary for the purpose of cultivating the emergence of our true self and thus manifesting fundamental well being in our relationships with others.

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Callachuchi Hermitage

Tag-ibo Barangay, Siquijor, Philippines