Ley lines

This month, the Asharum was rented out for four days as the venue for an Inner Journey Retreat. Guests were warmly welcomed, and each door had a unique text attached to it. Whether participants were free to choose a room based on the text that resonated with them—or whether the rooms had been pre-assigned—we don’t know. Either way, it felt like an intentional gesture, offering direction or reflection for the days to come.

As the retreat progressed, we saw the faces of the participants becoming more relaxed and joyful as they shared sessions, outings, and meals together.

The group size of the Inner Journey Retreat left enough room for a second group to stay at the Asharum during the same period, albeit for fewer days. Interestingly, both groups planned an outing to Wéris, a nearby village known for a more than 5-kilometre-long alignment of menhirs and dolmens, positioned along so-called Ley lines.

Ley lines are often linked with the earth’s energy lines. However, while Ley lines are always straight, earth energy lines tend to meander. These lines appear to connect natural landmarks such as trees or mountaintops with ancient sites—megaliths, wells, and signposts. It is said that Asharum in Amonines is also located on such a line or crossing of lines.

Given the many perspectives on their meaning, we’d like to follow these lines—and the stories attached to them—across the world.

In Irish folklore, for instance, spirit paths or fairy lines are traditionally straight and often marked by similar features as Ley lines, linking them possibly to ancient funerary traditions.

In Chinese culture, Ley lines resemble the principles of feng shui—literally ‘wind and water’—which identifies the flow of Lung-mei, or dragon currents. In this view, the lines map the earth’s magnetic fields to re-fertilise the land, similar to how Australian Aboriginals use songlines or dream lines.

Interestingly, horticulturalists have found that plants placed in a magnetic field grow more than six times faster than under normal conditions. This could be one possible explanation for the lush garden in Amonines—if one feels the need to explain it at all...

Beyond this, Aboriginal songlines are also used to transmit messages across vast distances. This opens up another interpretation of Ley lines—not just as energetic channels, but as forms of ancient communication.

Lastly, some believe that megalithic cultures used these lines in connection with astronomy. Larger constructions may have been designed to track celestial bodies and measure their cycles. Often, these structures align with Ley lines—or the points where several lines intersect. With astronomical positioning mirrored in geometric layouts, some sites appear to exhibit an 'accidental' or perhaps intuitive geometry.

The wisdom of repetition

Living at Asharum Amonines, daily life—with all its tasks—often becomes an act of repetition. The true variety lies in how we value the process. The approach to creating a meal or pruning a tree may differ each time, as do the ingredients or the tree itself. The attitude with which you approach what needs to be done, attuned in Asha (1), can also shift, profoundly shaping the experience.

But repetition should not be avoided, for it reinforces a sense of certainty and can lead to mastery—not in the sense of acquiring a skill, but in truly understanding what you are seeking to master. This understanding comes from within; one must become that which one wishes to master.

Following this line of thought, if we consider how our attitudes colour our experiences, one could say that in order to steer your life in the desired direction—a direction that in its broadest sense leads to a life of Well-Being—you must become that direction. In Nâm living, this means managing your own Habitual Programms of Perception (2).

Mastering your own life

At the end of May, there was again a 5-Day Intensive: Meaningful Living. This course offers an understanding of perception, particularly the perception of ourselves and the world we share.

Perceptions are based on our ideas about ourselves and the world, to which we often form strong attachments. These ideas then shape our experiences. They seem so natural that they are often hard to recognise as habitual programmes, and we automatically identify with them.

The 5-Day Intensive provides an experience in which the element of surprise creates an opening in this automatic identification, allowing us to begin seeing other perspectives and to let go of Habitual Programmes of Perception that obstruct the creation of a desired direction in life.

Thus, mastering your life involves both a willingness to let go—or to use a stronger term, to die—as well as a repeated effort to cultivate beneficial attitudes that shape the life you want to live. For which life itself provides a constant practice.

Death: both the end and not the end

When exploring the meaning of life, one cannot avoid the topic of death, for it is intimately intertwined with life and its purpose. Death, however, is often a difficult subject in Western societies. It is seen as the end, surrounded by uncertainty, which often instills fear.

In Nâm Living, Yoginâm shares the view that death is the end of Habitual Programms of Perception, while what exists beyond those programms remains. This means that death is not an absolute end. As one participant, who with her Nigerian background has a different view on death, expressed:

Death is not the end. The path indeed continues, just in a different form. I have learned not to say goodbye, because I know we will meet again. Friends, family, and animals who have passed on are still here, living on in my memory and have never really gone.

Perhaps we can say that with the constant repetition of letting go—of dying—we learn to master life. We become certain that, in the end, death is a transition in which letting go creates space for something new.

For a general impression of this intensive, we share with you the feedback of another participant:

I loved the week and the intensive. You took us on an inner journey, filled with silence and contemplation, reflection and open conversations. For that, I am incredibly grateful. The workshops were beautifully structured—no overload of information, yet a constant invitation to reflect on things. They provided exactly what I needed: peace, quiet, meaningful connections, exchange, depth, and insights. A huge thank you to all of you!!

The next opportunity to follow this intensive is on August 27. The conditions for participation are simple: A willingness to die a little…

(1) Asha; the natural course or natural order of things

(2) For a explanation of the Habitual Programmes of perception and how to manage them, see SIWEB, Dimensions of Experience by Yoginâm.

A journey into meditation

The first event in April was the three day course The Essence of Meditation: an invitation to welcome your true nature. On the day of arrival it is important to have the time to settle in, discover the different corners of the house where you can sit with a tea and relax, explore the garden and its sunny spots. It being a Thursday, the participants of the course enjoyed a live HarpMood in an online connection with Yoginâm and the weekly Gathering in Spain. A very valuable contribution in a process of Letting Go to welcome your true nature.

The next morning, after a powerful Asha Meditation with drum, different meditation tools were explored, together with their benefits, and the deeper reasons for practice—far beyond personal gain.

Then it was full immersion. No more explanations—just meditation. Mornings followed a more intense rhythm together, while afternoons allowed space for contemplation and walks in nature.

Everyone departed feeling recharged, inspired, and with a renewed commitment to weaving meditation into daily life. Supported by sunny days, it was a profound and beautiful retreat.

Siweb explained

Continuing the journey: The Weekend of Silence

A few days after the course, the journey into meditation continued with the Weekend of Silence. The first meditation of this weekend was marked by a strong steady focus and a feeling of dedication, that set the tone for the weekend to come. The meditations allowed each one the space to digest and rearrange conscious and unconscious impulses. The silence, deepening this personal process, provided at the same time the possibility to keep connected with the group as a whole. The positive tone that seemed to accompany the steady focus emerged at the end when the silence ended and the group happily shared their experience and wrote a note of thanks on the quilt.

Meditation in Motion: renewing the pond

Parallel to these journeys in meditation there was another activity in which a strong focus was held. As you can read in Katrin’s contribution below, it was a carefully planned process, involving encounters with an abundance of wildlife and other surprises:

Renewing the pond

It started more than 2 years ago. You also could say, more than 20 years ago when the pond was built. With creating comes responsibility, as we experience daily with this pond. Keeping the fishes and their environment healthy asks for actions, like discouraging ducks to stay or refilling it with water. The latter was a frequent happening the last years and so the idea of renewing the pond lining came up. Initially this felt as a too big a challenge for us so we mainly discussed possibilities.

Until somewhere in January. While looking out the kitchen window we felt that it was time. Time to start this adventure. So, we sought permission, blessing and insights from Yoginâm, set a date and started the preparations. April will be the month!

Together with Louise and Annebeth I made a list of things and actions involved with this project. We had a lot of talks beforehand. We made appointments to meet and discuss the project or exchanged thoughts and ideas while being busy in the kitchen or crossing paths in the garden. Many ideas came up and were reflected on. Some of them stayed, others ‘left’ after some considerations. For me it kept feeling a huge challenge, being responsible for the coordination and decisions of this project. On the other hand, in attunement things work smooth and easy and I got carried through, recognizing time after time that it was not ´me´ being in charge.

And then, April knocked on the door. So off I went, to Amonines for 10 days. I felt nervous and overwhelmed. Fortunately, Annebeth already did a lot of manual labor by dismantling the waterfall and the sides of the pond and there was no way back. We set up ‘the swimming pool’ for the fish, started pumping water and digging to take the old lining out. Conny, who volunteered for a few days, helped with the physical work like taking out mud and rocks. Our main worry was getting the fishes out alive. But how to do that? The water was troubled and we couldn’t see a thing, so I just started by going through it with a net. We were quite surprised that it was the smallest ones, who was the easiest to catch. They also seemed relaxed with it, while the big ones hided and got really upset. Staying calm and connected helped and so I took the time to transfer them all to ‘the swimming pool’. We also found larvae of dragonflies, salamanders, some of them beautifully blue with orange bellies, and frogs.

We finished emptying the pond perfectly in time for John, who arrived on Saturday morning, to take the measurements for the new lining. The arrangement to place it a few days later gave a bit of rest, at least physically – needed at that moment. We went shopping for new plants and attributes. We took our time and when we did so, we heard that we were 1 out of 1000, taking the time to carefully select the right plants. It seems that haste has taken over the last couple of years. Once again, we felt blessed being able to live and rely on a place like Amonines, carried by Yoginâm.

In spite of an appearing rainfall, we could finish placing the lining and putting back the fish just before I had to leave for the Netherlands. While there is still work to do like digging in the sides, placing back plants and rebuilding the waterfall, it felt like a good job done. For now, what remains is finding time to go back and help finish the project, so the ecosystem will get rest and opportunity to recover and the esthetics of the pond to become restored, the essential outcome at the end that we are looking forward to.