The Knowing Field Issue 28

Editorial by Barbara Morgan

I’m sure all readers would like to join me in acknowledging Bert Hellinger’s 90th birthday, which he celebrated last December. To mark this occasion, I am enclosing an edited version of a tribute to him, written by Wolfgang Maiworm in April this year. We wish Bert the best of health for the forthcoming year and beyond.

It is wonderful for me to be writing this Editorial (and many previous ones in the June issue) immediately after my experience at Bernried, the annual Intensive held in the south of Germany. This was a new Bernried: many of the regular faculty were no longer present; one new person, Diana Drexler, joined the faculty, but there were other new forces operating, which was very encouraging.

The theme I see in this issue is interweaving. When we weave in the traditional sense, we turn a ball of wool into a rug or garment. By weaving things together we create something that is more than its individual parts. Isn’t that what constellations are, what families are, what cultures are? I think it was Bert who once said, we are all like individual blades of grass, each sounding our own note, but together we make a symphony.

With so much movement across cultures, across genders, and above all, the current refugee crisis in Europe, can we collectively build something that is greater than the sum of its parts? This makes me think once again of the murmurations of starlings, which I wrote about in issue 22 and which decorated the cover. It is so awe-inspiring to see the incredible shapes they create in the sky when they move as one. What new shapes might we be able to create if we could surrender to our ‘oneness’ with all that is?

So what is the weaving that is happening in this issue of the journal?

Eve-Marie Elkin, coming from a family background woven between German, Russian, and Lithuanian Jewish ancestry and living in the USA, is a good example of this cross-fertilisation. In her conversation with Susan Pogue, she talks about the way she combines her work as a creative artist, her training with Thomas Hübl, and Bert Hellinger’s phenomenological approach with the constellation work. She talks of her relief at being able to break away from her family background of introspection with a psychoanalyst for a father and look through a wider lens.

In the second Spotlight conversation with the Editor, we find another person who has crossed cultures, Anutosh Foo. Originally from Singapore, Anutosh now lives in the USA. Passionate about the work, she offers some helpful tips for new practitioners on what she has found beneficial in recruiting for workshops and trainings, and ways of talking about the work by coming from your own heart.

Third in the Spotlight interviews is a conversation taking us back to the refugee crisis in Europe with a special emphasis on Germany, where such a large number of immigrants have been taken in, with substantial impact on the infrastructure of the country. The question remains as to whether this is a kind of systemic balancing from the days of the Holocaust. Already familiar with ‘chaos constellations,’ Sneh Victoria Schnabel discusses with Diana Claire Douglas some of her experiences in working with the collective and with large group constellations.

Finally, in the Spotlight section we have a conversation between Stephan Hausner and Thomas Hübl, where the coming together of Hübl’s mysticism and Stephan’s approach to family constellations with a strong emphasis on the body is discussed. Both men are led to the conclusion that there is a lot of overlap between the two approaches.

So there are new movements happening, not only within the constellations field but much more widely across the globe. Brazil is no exception to this, as Zaquie Meredith describes in the History of Nations section — how around six million Brazilians came out on the streets to finally register their objection to what the government was doing to their country. It is of great interest to me how and when such movements begin to happen. This is definitely the people ‘moving as one’. What is the trigger?

Still in line with our interweaving theme, we have in the New Developments section two articles about music. Christa Renolder describes her way of working with humming in constellations and how removing words and replacing them with simple humming can deepen and transform the constellation experience. Christa demonstrated this very effective new way of working when she visited the Bernried Intensive last year.

Also on the theme of music, at Bernried this year was newcomer Franziska Pretsch, who offered us an experience of using music to enhance our constellations experience by bringing some of us together for an evening workshop. After singing one of her own songs, she encouraged us to make sound without words, and we all joined in and created the most beautiful sound together, with our individual voices. Later in the week, Franziska sang one of her own songs for the whole group called Wholehearted, to the accompaniment of our regular pianist at Bernried, Paul Stoney. She shares with us here her experience of running that workshop and her passion for bringing music more into constellation work. I personally have always seen music as a direct route to the soul, so this coming together feels very significant for me.

Still with the interweaving theme, Elena Veselago from Russia offers us a report on her experience of working with cat constellations. As with horses, starlings, and many other animals, cats have a special ability to tune into the movements of the soul and the larger movements of the wider universal forces.

Also in the New Developments section, we have a submission from Yildiz Sethi on the cross-fertilisation of neuroscience, epigenetics, and family constellations. An increasing number of people are bringing together these different approaches, so Yildiz Sethi’s article is a welcome contribution to this field. She describes how scientists are discovering that our brains are not hard-wired as was originally thought, and this makes it possible for us to change our story.

Finally in this section, Ann Hughes and Tanya Mena write about their work with Soul Collage — a new concept whereby inner images in the field or in the client’s subconscious are brought to light with the use of soul collage cards and combined with Family Constellations.

The first article under Personal Reflections is an exploration by Richard Pantlin into the controversial field of Franz Ruppert’s work with the Constellation of the Intention (no longer called ‘constellation’ at all as separation from the field is now complete) and how it sits alongside the more traditional approach of many constellation facilitators where ancestry, the wider field, and systemic consciousness all play such an important part.

Richard questions the possible underlying motives for such a split, reflecting the wider cultural trend for children to split off from their parents and for cultures to split off from their histories. In addition, we have individual psychotherapy as one possible player in the field of the modern focus on individualism, with its accompanying potential victim stance. Even though Franz Ruppert, Vivian Broughton, and others are now working outside the constellations field, I’m sure this contentious issue will continue to be one raised for ongoing debate, as it is a reflection of a much wider trend in modern society.

In the next article, Leslie Nipps explores the balance held by facilitators in their workshops between freedom and containment. She offers her own thinking on this all-important topic, which may well provoke further ongoing discussion amongst facilitators and trainers.

Alemka Dauskardt provides us with an equally stirring piece on her thoughts about the pain of abortion and the need for those of us who are facilitators to have the courage to point clients with this issue towards the truth of what happened — and help them fully face the consequences of their actions on the system as a whole. This issue continues to be a controversial one, with such a split in society between the ‘pro-lifers’ and those who prioritise women’s rights above all else. Moving beyond the morals and the rights and wrongs, facing ‘what is’ is a very painful process.

Moving on to the Constellations section, we are pleased to have two more examples from Judith Hemming’s ongoing work with clients presented by David Presswell. These detailed examples of work carried out are a welcome regular contribution to the field, particularly for those who may be newcomers or struggling with particular issues. Other such contributors are always welcome to join Judith in her untiring commitment to recording the details of her constellation work. I recognise there is a fine line between just being present to ‘what is’ in the moment and keeping records — and for some, it may not be appropriate, but others may find it very useful.

In her two blogs and subsequent book extracts from the Trauma and the Human Condition series, Anngwyn St. Just returns us once again to the wider issues of social trauma, through two women who gradually emerged into the limelight and each in their own way had a powerful influence on the course of history: Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell in Iraq and Svetlana Alexievich in the USSR.

In the first extract, Anngwyn highlights some of the disastrous steps taken by Britain and other countries during the times of colonialism in carving up the Middle East, which everyone has a tendency to forget in the present day with so much trouble in that area. Gertrude was an influential figure in this process and became known by some as the most powerful woman in the British Empire. She began drawing her own borders with various countries and referred to herself as ‘making kings’ for some of them. Not very popular with some men in power, she nonetheless had a powerful influence on the course of history.

The second extract is a chapter on Belarusian investigative journalist and non-fiction prose writer Svetlana Alexievich: a very different story of a woman committed to bringing to light the disastrous effects of the meltdown of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and the huge cost to human life which had been downplayed by those in power.

Finally, moving to Reports on Conferences and Intensives, Diana Claire Douglas returns us to the wider, collective issues as she describes her experience at the Integral European Conference in Siófok, Hungary, where once again, the current European refugee crisis became the theme of a large group constellation with the European soul being represented in the middle.

In the last article, Chairman of ISCA Max Dauskardt calls on the collective to gather in Croatia in October for a coming together of constellations folk from all over the world — to allow for the emerging future and some insight into what the next steps might be for us as a community.

As Editor of this Journal for the past twelve years, I have borne witness to many transitions and developments within the constellations field as well in the wider global field, and this time is quite definitely another of those transition times with a very uncertain future.

This issue is returning to the two-column format, following feedback from some readers on the difficulty of reading three columns online. The new website is now up and running, and you are invited to visit it and let us have your views on how user-friendly it is. Do take advantage of the opportunity to go back over past issues and browse through the archives, watch the passing of time, and the history of constellation work from then until now.

And if you like live discussion on any issues arising from the articles, please visit the blog and discussion forum and make your views known.

My thanks as always to the Editorial and Advisory team, to Lubosh the designer, and to those who support the journal with donations and in many other ways.

— Barbara Morgan, Editor