The Knowing Field Issue 16

Summer is well and truly here in the UK and we are all enjoying a significant amount of sunshine which is a great mood lifter. I have often wondered what it must be like for those of you who live in a climate which is mostly sunshine and equally for those of you who live where you may have even less sunshine than we do here in the UK.

It is a privilege to be in contact with readers from so many different cultures and nationalities where we can discuss such matters with great ease, thanks to the advent of technology. We begin issue 16 with some more thoughts from Bert Hellinger who is rapidly approaching his 85th birthday, which will be celebrated in style in Pichl in December. The two offerings for me are more like poetry, the first being his introduction to the last camp at Pichl and submitted by Colette Green and the second being an extract from the first of his new series of books under the generic title: Orders of Success.

Our ‘In the Spotlight’ series is still proving to be very popular and we have some particularly stimulating submissions this time. To begin with, we are privileged to be able to publish Sophie Hellinger’s first submission to The Knowing Field. In her conversation with Sadhana Needham, she talks of the way the constellations field mirrors the wider society in relation to women’s position in the world and their own limitations connected to that. Franz Ruppert, in his conversation with Vivian Broughton, describes his most recent way of working – a new, distilled approach which is contesting some of the most deeply held beliefs of many people in the constellations field. Stephan Hausner, in his conversation with Marianna Franke offers some beautiful examples of recovery from serious illness for his clients, whilst Sneh Victoria Schnabel talks to Francesca Mason Boring about her route into constellation work and her path towards being linked to so-called ‘chaos constellations’.

The conversation between the Editor and Raquel Schlosser takes us off in a different direction looking at her inroads into the bureaucracy of Mexico and her persistent and dedicated work with those affected by domestic violence. It is interesting to compare and contrast the approaches of the individuals in these conversations. One thing that seems to be common to several of them is a more simplified approach to constellation work, using just one or two people. I was hoping to include many articles on the subject of colonialism for our History of Nations, Cultures & Religions the knowing field section, but had great difficulty in f inding people willing to write on the subject.

However, once I let go of the idea completely, Tanja Meyburgh submitted her article on some of the difficulties in working in South Africa, post Apartheid – a good beginning. Brigitta Mahr then offered a piece on the new project launched by her and her husband, Albrecht Mahr and others, entitled Friendship Across Borders which is doing some wonderful work bridging the divide between Germany, Israel and Palestine by beginning to address each of their traumatic histories. Our Personal Stories section is another popular read and John Whittington offers us a deeply moving self-disclosure of his journey with a horse called Item and other follow-up experiences which lead him eventually back to his father.

Claudio and Helen Celestino provide us with a very different kind of story, which may prove enlightening for anyone out there considering setting up any kind of training institute. They offer some useful tips based on their own experience. We have two constellation experiences this time, one from Amenah Kern Halwani as a participant witnessing the work of a ‘man with a great heart’ and Zohara Shalev who writes a moving story of the way constellation work helped to heal the relationship between a mother and daughter. First in the Research & Development section it is encouraging to also be able to include a submission from four young people who have been studying constellation work with Dr. Joseph Roevens who himself submitted a research article in a previous issue of The Knowing Field.

Their research results with other young students who seemed to be a mixture of sceptical and very enthusiastic, point the way for future possibilities for the work. Finally, in this section Yildiz Sethi has done some ‘hands-on’ research with her own clients into the effectiveness of constellation work. Apart from the In the Spotlight conversations, there are two articles under the Personal Reflections heading to get us thinking about constellation work. The first, by Freda Eidmann and Gerald Hüther, follows a discussion of theirs on what the experience of being a representative may be about. Their contention is that it is linked to the neurobiology of the brain and the spatial dimension of our prenatal and early childhood experience.

Anna Magee’s article on Female Destructiveness and Rage is a real stimulus for all of us as women to examine our various behaviours and see in what way they may be linked to pent-up rage and destructiveness – a very thought-provoking topic. This time of year follows the Intensive at Bernried and it is always heartening to be able to publish so many positive submissions of the experience of Bernried which has become such a special place over the years for so many people from a large selection of cultures.

This year, the ISCA Gathering also took place in the same venue and from the reports, it seems like a lot of material was covered in a very short time. We have three book reviews this time: the first comes from Kari Drageset and is a review of a book which is not about constellations, but one which Kari considers would be very useful for us to read – From Pain to Violence by Felicity Zulueta. Dimitrina Spencer takes a step further in understanding Vivian Broughton’s book: In the Presence of Many and offers a glowing review and proposal for the book to become the ‘standard text’ for future trainees in the work. Finally, in this section Colette Green offers us a tasty, but not too filling ‘meal’ of Joy Manné’s pocket book on Family Constellations – a useful introductory book for newcomers and experienced faclitators. Finally, we have two letters to the Editor referring to the previous issue.

I am pleased to end this Editorial with a congratulatory comment to our painter, Greg Pritchett, who has kindly offered us his beautiful painting for the outside cover, as well as a picture for Tanja Meyburgh’s article. My grateful thanks once again to my advisory and editorial team, to my distributor in the USA, Don Opatrny and to other people who sell a number of copies for me.

Thanks also to those who have offered donations this time round and supported the journal in other ways, with ads, articles and subscriptions.

Barbara Morgan

Editor