The Knowing Fields Issue 13

Well, this is certainly an issue with a difference! We begin in the political arena with a very welcome, insightful and timely contribution from Bert Hellinger, who was interviewed by b.h.Yael when she was visiting Germany, on the subject of Reconciliation in Palestine. This interview is complemented by one between Ty Francis and Albrecht Mahr on Political Constellations: Albrecht has become very interested in this area during the last few years, to the extent that he has set up his own Research Group. We also have pleasure in including interviews (or they may be better termed ‘conversations’) with: Hunter Beaumont, Gunthard Weber and Judith Hemming, Jakob and Sieglinde Schneider along the general theme of consolidation, review and moving forward. In issue 12, we announced we would be doing a series of interviews with those who had been involved with the work for a long time and those who had made a specific contribution.

The original plan was to include one per issue but we soon realised that we would then be still publishing them by the turn of the Century! Isee this interviewing process working much like a constellation, beginning with Bert Hellinger, the founder, moving to the next generation and from there, on to others. We will of course have to omit some people as it simply isn’t possible to include all those who have made an important contribution. We have several more interviews lined up for the next two issues but if you feel strongly that a particular person should be included in this process (and would like to be) then please let us know. In the rest of this issue, we have two exciting developments in the field of Science and Philosophy.

Drs. Bert Terpstra is drawing on the work of Paul Feyerabend, and Werner Krieglstein brings in a philosophical angle, including his own ideas, which he terms Transcendental Perspectivism. Both articles present us with some challenging new ideas to contemplate and could be the subject of further discussion on the new Knowing Field Forum (see page 4). We also have a group of articles drawing on the influence of other spiritual traditions, with Jeremy Thres writing about shaman Martin Prechtel and Vietnamese Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh; Berthold Schmidt comparing the beautiful Japanese poems known as Haiku with a constellation; and Jennifer Altman and others giving us some insight into the erection of Jizo statues in memory of aborted foetuses and dead children in Japan. Finally, in this section Tomás Kohn describes the various aspects of the Enneagram and how these can be a valuable tool for us as constellators. The next section covers various aspects of Constellation Work spanning both Family and Organisational Constellations: Cheng Lap Fung continues his exploration of constellations using the healing power of ‘Future’ and David Mathes draws a comparison between the different boundaries around constellation work in China and Australia and in organisational and family constellation workshops.

Our regular contributor Edward Lynch describes two very different constellations, one moving, the other quite disturbing, which are followed by a beautiful poem by Jay Ramsay, dedicated to his father. Ty Francis offers us a comprehensive review of Jan Jacob Stam’s new book ‘Fields of Connection’, followed by reports from Netra Chou on the recent Asian Conference; from Gary Stuart on the exciting inclusion of some of the first black trainees in Constellation Work in the USA; and from Claudia Haarman on the recent conference on Constellation Work and Spirituality organised in Germany by Sneh Victoria and Fredric Schnabel and sub-titled: Drinking Wine with God. Finally, we have three letters to the Editor responding to articles in the previous issue. Once again the journal seems to be mirroring the wider field of constellation work, offering reflection and review, but also moving forward.

There are some exciting new projects under way in many different forms – scientific, spiritual, philosophical, political and of course, extensions to the constellation work itself. In the wider field, the membership for ISCA is now open and the first Conference takes place in Innsbruck in May. Bert Hellinger has just completed the third International Training Seminar in Pichl, Austria. What for the future? Well, at the moment, we have an ever widening landscape where anything could happen. With two members of the team immersed in Ph.D studies, the work load with this issue has been heavier for a smaller number of people and I am very grateful to them for their extra help.

I also want to once again acknowledge Don Opatrny, our new distributor in the USA, for his efforts to increase sales in the USA and to get the new discussion forum up and running and past its initial teething troubles. (See following page for further information).

Barbara Morgan