Issue 23, january 2014

£ 15.00

Contents

• Barbara Morgan: Editorial

• Bert Hellinger: The End

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

• David Presswell: In Conversation with Judith Hemming

• Francesca Mason Boring: In Conversation with Tanja Meyburgh

• Janos Szabo: In Conversation with Dr Arnold Polivka

NEW DEVELOPMENTS

• Sarah Peyton: Getting to Know the Embodied Brain: The Interpersonal Neurobiology of Constellation Work

• Olav Drageset: The Field & The Mind in the Light of Physics

CONSTELLATIONS & RITUALS

• Emerson Bastos: Five Elements Constellations

• Sharon Ruvane: Kids Constellations

• Francesca Mason Boring: A Remarkable Constellation

PERSONAL REFLECTIONS

• Max Dauskardt: Contemplating Conscience

• Lisa Iversen & Kate Regan: Reflections on the US Systemic Constellations Conference

• Indra Torsten Preiss: Putting a Finger on the Problems of Traditional Family Constellations

HISTORY OF NATIONS, CULTURES & RELIGIONS

• Aurel Mocanu: A Sea of Uncried Tears

REPORTS ON CONFERENCES & INTENSIVES

• Various Contributors: The US Conference & Intensive 2013

• Janet Hermann: Intensive Kloster Bernried, Germany May 2013

• Angelika Schenk: Visit to China

BOOK REVIEWS

• Colette Green: Conceptual Constellations by Joy Manné PhD..

• Nancy Kehr: Returning to Membership in Earth Community edited by Ken Sloan & Francesca Mason Boring

Extracts

Bert Hellinger: The End

Much of what we have achieved in our lives will go on after our end: in our offspring, through insight and accomplishments that have benefited others and that continue to serve them as their lives go on. Are we still personally present in these lives, so that we ourselves gain something when our life continues in them? Is this conceivable?

My image is: beyond each individual life, all life belongs to a movement in which everything is indivisibly one with everything else; from its beginning, if there were such a thing, to its preliminary end, when it makes room for something new, something that builds on it and carries it on.

David Presswell in conversation with Judith Hemming - The Power of Naming: The Use of Language in Constellations

David: As a constellator, you have a reputation for giving representatives very precise sentences to say.

Judith: When I first went to the original German Intensive at Zist: I discovered that, although we students could describe problems, we weren’t so strong at providing sentences that turned those problems into things of beauty with implications for movement and action. I saw people fascinated by the miracle of representative perception, which of course is a miracle, but which I’d perhaps already absorbed from my background in Gestalt. What I found more fascinating was the forensic task of taking people from a repetitive place back into movement through the discovery of a freeing and constructive narrative.

Judith: There are some images in constellations that are profoundly moving without language. At least, they happen within the constellation without language. But they often become more extraordinary when the constellator says something about them: gives them a form that makes them less fleeting, mediates them for the audience and provides the client with a coherent narrative that can be profoundly settling.

Judith: I have come to see myself as a kind of translator: moving things from the implicit part of the mind to the more explicit, through language. Once things are explicit they have more manoeuvrability.

David: But they have to be the right words.

Judith:  I love words. I always have. I love the magic of what they can do, and I am very conscious of how dreadful they are when formulaic.

Lisa Iversen and Kate Regan: Reflections on the US Constellations Conference: A Microcosm of the American Field

Kate: Lisa, I want to talk to you about your experience of the recent US Constellation Conference held in Seattle. I had some wonderful experiences as well as questions and concerns. I was wondering about your experience.

Lisa: I am grateful for all that the organisers did to bring so many of us together in this complex, emerging field. Their many hours of work were evident from the well organised schedule filled with diverse presenters during our three plus days together.

The questions that remained with me after the conference were: How can American facilitators open their hearts to the indigenous strength of their own ancestries, whether they be European, African, Asian, Arab, Jewish, Hispanic or Native American? How can reconnection with indigenous European ancestry help white American facilitators access their diversity and strengthen their ability to deal with the colonial history of this country? Many Americans with white European ancestry were able to ‘pass’ into the mainstream majority after only a generation and the loss of tell-tale accents.

The amalgamation of richly diverse cultures into ‘whiteness’ may make it difficult for some white American facilitators to deal with the difficult issues in the diverse racial history of this country. Is there willingness, ability and permission to allow these kinds of issues to be made more visible within the American field? It may not be realistic or possible for all the things we are speaking about in this conversation to be held by the whole American field.

It’s more likely that they can be held in different little corners of the field where there’s a sense of mutual respect and trust, mutual ability to be with complexity, especially with those who have a good enough connection with their own ancestors.

I don’t have all of the answers about it, but what we are speaking about has an effect on all of our children. Our children represent the way forward. If we cannot find ways to acknowledge, own and speak about these hidden truths, our children pay the price.

Indra Torsten Preiss: Putting a Finger on the Problems of Traditional Family Constellations

While watching Professor Dr. Franz Ruppert’s presentation entitled: ‘Aufstellungen – das Entstehen einer Methode und ihr aktueller Entwicklungstand’ (Constellations – the emergence of a method and its current state of development), I found myself in general agreement with some points of his critique and some not. However, I cannot agree to identify with his criticism of Traditional Family Constellations.

To be clear from the start, I am a convinced and enthusiastic  ‘Traditional Family Constellations’ facilitator. I find it rather disappointing that Ruppert says: “I distance myself from traditional family constellations.”  As far as I can see, he is largely directing his attention to the practice of constellators ho do not comprehend the basics of traditional family constellations, have not had sufficient training or suffer themselves from unprocessed, symbiotic entanglements.

This is evident from the arguments and examples he puts forward to distance himself. Asking him (by e-mail) why he focuses his criticisms on traditional family constellations he replies: “This has nothing to do with poor education because such illusory concepts (symbiotic illusions in relation to the parents and ancestors) are indeed taught and passed on by the relevant trainers and other people in authority as essentials for traditional family constellations.”

I do not want to judge Ruppert’s reason for taking up this position (and the arguments and examples he puts forward). However, in my understanding it is perfectly clear that they do not fall within the realm of traditional family constellations as I learned them from Bertold  Ulsamer and as is found in much of the literature. What I think he is doing is putting his finger on an unclear image of what traditional family constellations are about.