The Knowing Field Issue 17

Editorial

It is with great pleasure I start this issue with reports from Colette Green and Angelika Schenk on the events at Bad Reichenhall which culminated in Bert’s 85th birthday celebrations on 16 December, just a few days ago. With a title of ‘I have enough’ and the words from Bert, it seems like we are moving towards the end of an era. Also included in the journal are one or two tributes to Bert for his birthday: poems from the Editor and from Colette Green and a contribution from Dan Booth Cohen in the constellations section on p.88 entitled: ‘The Bed Woman and the Sami Grandmothers’.

I understand it is also Gunthard Weber’s 70th birthday this year and take this opportunity to wish him a Happy Birthday. Rosette Gault’s article on p.48 describes the cover design and the links she makes between her creative art work using ceramic paper clay and constellations. This seems a fitting illustration to have on our front cover, given how much Bert Hellinger has talked about the love of our mothers. We continue with our In the Spotlight series, firstly with Judith Hemming talking with ‘veterans’ of constellation work Peter Zuilekom and Otteline Lamet about the value of their traditional approach, combined with their experiences in other areas which have informed their current practice. Second in this series this time, is Cheng Lap Fung who shares with the Editor his experiences of working in Hong Kong and China and how the approach of the East is different to that of the West.

In our series The History of Nations, Cultures and Religions we have a submission from Alexander Campbell on why a knowledge of history is important for us in the work that we do. He reveals some shocking truths about the distortions of history in Europe as an illustration of the need to verify what the facts are in these situations. Verónica Menduiña, on the other hand, has a more defined focus on the effect on Spain of their huge influx of immigrants over the past decade and how constellation work can help. the knowing field 4 Beyond the themes of birth and death with the initial reports from the Bert & Sophie Hellinger event, in this issue we see two other major themes emerging: the first is to do with self-care for facilitators.

The controversial conversation between Sadhana Needham and Berthold Schmidt challenges us all to look at the darker side of our practice as constellators and the potential risks to our own health and that of our clients. Michael Reddy’s article is a cautionary tale of a different nature about the depth of work many of us are now doing and the need for us all to be vigilant about our self-care when moving in these wider, often traumatic fields with clients. Coming from a shamanic background, he advocates the use of ritual to help with traumatic situations and other difficulties when facilitating.

This takes us into our second theme in this issue, that of ritual. We start with a beautifully vivid description by Rachelle Fürer of her experiences of the workshop which brought together Malidoma Somé’s knowledge of African rituals and constellation work to form what appears to have been a very powerful and deeply moving workshop for everyone. Guni Baxa writes separately about ritual itself and the value of it both within the constellations field and elsewhere, whilst Jen Altman links ritual to literature and other fields. As a group of three, these articles combine to put ritual firmly on the map as an important and integral part of constellation work.

Moving into the area of New Developments, Karen Carnabucci presents us with a very informative comparison between psychodrama and constellation work. Gary Stuart introduces us to the possibility of past lives and including this aspect in our constellations facilitation whilst Yishai Gaster and Dana Ganihar Raz write about their use of biblical stories in constellation work. Heleen Grooten advocates the usefulness of combining constellation work with speech and voice therapy and finally, in this section, David Mathes introduces us to the idea of constellating our relationship to our constellation – an interesting new phenomenon.

Our Constellations are illustrated by David Miller who had a profoundly moving experience at Ed Lynch’s summer intensive and Dan Booth Cohen’s birthday submission for Bert mentioned above. Francesca Mason Boring reviews Anngwyn St. Just’s latest book on the ongoing important theme of trauma entitled: A Question of Balance. Once again, Anngwyn seems to have produced a challenging and informative exposé of the whole arena of trauma and its effects. Given some of what Bert talked about at his seminar, it seems very f itting to be rounding off this issue with his submission on Memories in connection with the D-Day Commemorations last year.

My grateful thanks once again to my Advisory and Editorial team, all distributors, subscribers and ‘Friends’ of the journal. My apologies for not naming you personally this time round.

I wish to keep the Editorial short to allow enough space for the last minute submissions on the recent event at Bad Reichenhall.

Barbara Morgan