The Knowing Field Issue 31

The Turbulence in the World and Family Grief

The turbulence in the world has not lessened since the production of the last issue. We seem as a species to be living a lot of the time on a knife-edge with possible disasters just around the corner, both natural and man-made. These large-scale disasters and tragedies are often mirrored within our own families. With the death of my ex-husband (the father of my children) in July, our own family has dived into the depths of grief in the past few months, and it is strange how this process can be both devastatingly difficult and, at the same time, really beautiful, as it connects family members in ways that don’t happen on a day-to-day basis. Such deep connection can happen within families, communities, and on a wider basis, with nature itself, and can provide real nourishment for the soul in these troubled times.
In fact, if you read Daniel Burge’s piece on Wild Communion in this issue and look at the picture of the foxgloves as depicted on the cover, or Francesca Mason Boring’s short, but deeply touching piece on the Elk, you cannot help but see that the world is also really beautiful and awe-inspiring. The theme of nature runs through this issue, and in her article on nature constellations, Melissa Roussopoulos reminds us of our inter-connectedness with all that is ‘other than human’. She offers us example constellations showing our inextricable links and describes the extensive research she has done over the years in this particular area. Jeffrey Rich brings together Family and Nature Constellations with his ritual, honouring the Andean mystics’ ‘Pachamama’, the universe of the mother.

Conscience
We begin the edition with a piece of writing on conscience taken from Bert’s recent newsletter, one of his most groundbreaking ideas and a theme for several articles in this issue. This is such an important topic with regard to the way the world works, and I think Bert’s ideas on it will continue to bear fruit for many years to come. Distributed throughout this issue are other references to conscience, one of these being Alemka Dauskardt’s passionate rejection of the idea of the need for us as a group of Constellation facilitators to set up a code of ethics and her assertion that this need comes from the conscience of a different group – mostly that of psychotherapy.
We rarely have an issue that does not include a reference to abortion – such an important subject with so much around, about the two very polarised conscience groups of pro-life and pro-choice. Suzi Tucker challenges those who have abortions to step outside their conscience group and carry the full weight of what has happened. She feels this can only be achieved by including in their consciousness, all those affected by the abortion beyond the personal, to the collective within the family, ancestors, etc. Her second blog piece is on the theme of ambivalence and how it can be seen as a covert way of saying ‘no’ – an interesting topic to explore more deeply.
Karen Carnabucci was very instrumental in gathering and collating submissions from those attending the North American Systemic Constellations Conference in Virginia Beach in October, so this issue is peppered with a rich array of articles taken from this all-important event.
The issue of conscience is clearly there to a great degree, with challenges to white supremacy in the US from Tanya Mena and Salome Raheim in their piece on slavery and the treatment of African Americans in the US. This is then further endorsed by John Cheney in his writing about Ethnocentric Belonging and the phenomenon of ‘us’ and ‘them’ which is currently so prevalent there (and elsewhere of course!). Harrison Snow also describes the difficulty of facing up to our actions as perpetrators and the enormous challenge of holding a group where such strong emotions are running high. Including Native Americans proved difficult, given the venue chosen had its own history of oppression. Melody Allen expands this with her story of her Personal Constellation along the same theme. Nonetheless, Rani George describes how she and Chuck Cogliandro were able to help participants take care of everyone’s souls in amongst all the turbulence, by honouring what was sacred and creating a container in which threads of sacredness could be woven throughout the Conference.
Regina Moreno and Karen Carnabucci demonstrate how it is possible to bring together two conscience groups, with their feet in both camps of psychodrama and constellations. And with the Conference title being ‘Bridging the Divide,’ the theme of conscience was bound to be there both consciously and unconsciously.

The Collective
Regular contributor and ardent supporter for working with the collective, Diana Claire Douglas from Canada enters into conversation with Judy Wilkins-Smith on the juxtaposition of the Quantum and Knowing Fields. This theme proved to be very controversial during preparation of the article, as they stepped into the conscience group of science and some passionate discussions ensued with one of our Editorial team. They demonstrated between them, how it is possible to bridge divides and express themselves in a way that is satisfactory for all.
In Diana’s other conversation with Rosalba Stocco, the theme of what is happening with members of the holding group during a workshop is explored. Between them, they come up with some good ideas for enhancing the Field by including all responses to a constellation.
Another vociferous flag-flyer for working with the collective is Karl-Heinz Rauscher. He offers a rallying call in his keynote address at the North American Systemic Constellations Conference, for everyone to come together and work for peace.
I am a great fan of Sarah Peyton’s writing, as she brings into comprehensible and accessible language the complicated issue of how the brain works. Here, with a further exploration on how important connection and resonance are for the healthy functioning of the brain, she offers hope in her assertion that the two worlds of science and humanity are gradually coming closer together through this kind of research.
In her report on the annual Intensive in Bernried, which took place in May last year in Germany, Kamilia Badary, originally from Egypt, writes about the effect of emigration and immigration – a crucial theme in Europe at the present time. As part of that theme, we are reminded to look again at what home means for us, now that we are so linked as a species across the globe. She refers in particular to a talk from Guni Baxa, which explores our interconnectedness, as she reminds us that in connecting to Mother Earth we are all indeed allies.

Feelings
Leslie Nipps helpfully takes us back to some of Bert’s teachings in elucidating the theme of primary and secondary feelings and the different effect each can have on the group as a whole. She offers some handy tips on how to recognise the difference and work with clients who get caught in secondary feelings.
Bringing us back to the home and our intimate couple relationships, regular contributor David Presswell offers us another example of Judith Hemming’s Personal Constellations, demonstrating how owning the perpetrator in each of us can be transformative.
Jane Peterson’s review of Sarah Peyton’s book: Your Resonant Self reminds us how much better we feel when we are in warm, nurturing connection and resonance with others. This has been an ongoing theme in Sarah’s Bernried talks, and Jane’s description of the book reminds us of the ease with which Sarah is able to write about these complex topics and offers a strong temptation to buy and read!
I am pleased to include two more poems from Jamie Hasenfus, Crossroads and The Forest, both of which seem to align themselves beautifully with some of the themes of this issue.

Final Thoughts
In searching for some writing from Bert Hellinger, I also found his piece entitled The End. I find it heart-warming to read how Bert relates to death with his advancing years, a beautiful reminder for us all that it is not that far away at any point in our lives. And my experience from within my own family during last Summer brought me face to face with that.
I would like to offer my special thanks this time to Karen Carnabucci for her help in bringing together all the articles and photos emerging from the North American Systemic Constellations Conference and helping turn this into such a bumper issue.
My grateful thanks also to my Editorial team, in particular for this issue to Chris Walsh, and as always, Francesca Mason Boring, who is relentless in her ability to support me in the whole process from the initial gathering of articles to editing and final proof-reading. Thanks also to Lubosh Cech, my graphic designer, for turning the journal from a bunch of words into a beautifully crafted piece of artwork.
With a smattering of snow on the ground, I am moving towards the festivities of the Christmas Season and send my warm greetings to you all, even though by the time you read this, it will all be over once again for another year.

Barbara Morgan
Editor