I read about this constellation and my eyes are welling with tears of joy!
Thank you for sharing this, Dan.
--- In ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Dan Booth Cohen" <danbcohen@...>
wrote:
Anni -
What a rich and beautifully informed message. I have read it several times
and keep finding new wisdom. It inspires me to share a story that perhaps
illustrates some of what you point to.
I recently worked with a man whose 22 year-old son's life is endangered from
alcohol, drugs, and suicidal behaviors. The father has been called to
police stations and sat vigil in hospitals more than once. Even more
painful, the father has been sober many years, but lived the same lifestyle
at the same age. They come from an Irish family where the father lineage
contains absence, alcohol, and domestic violence.
In a group setting, I created a simple line ritual. First, stood a
representative for the first man of Ireland from melting of the last Ice
Age. Next to him was Ireland's first woman. I put a son in front of them.
Steps ahead, I put a man to represent the first Christian man of Ireland and
slid the woman forward to stand beside him. Then I moved the son forward to
stand as their child. We moved forward this way to a man from the 19th
century English genocide/famine/civil war. Next came the client's
grandfather, and father. And finally, the client stood in his own place.
Anni, picture this as constructing your spiritual ladder. Each ancestral
pair represents a rung that comes down from the clouds to those of us
breathing on the Earth. In spiritual practice, we ascend the same ladder we
came down on. Standing beside our lineal creators, we see ourselves from a
higher perspective.
The surprise ending came when it was time to add the final representative
for the son. I had kept one group member in reserve for that role. When
time came to add him (about an hour after the start), a flash of insight
redirected the idea. (I found out afterward that the representative of the
ancient man felt the urgency of this movement as he stood silently in his
role.)
I turned the father to face the grandfather and spoke to the one standing as
the first man of Ireland, "You were a breathing man and your breath is alive
today. Never dying, it passed continuously from father to son. You are
alive in the son. Slowly, slowly, work your way forward in the line until
you take your place with your father."
In my subjective observation, it illustrated what you are describing, Anni.
The oldest/youngest man embarked on his slow descent down the ladder
embodying the complete sense of the Self being at one with the Creator.
When father and son met, the container of personal history gave way - the
main beam collapsed. What arose was this deeper assertion of life. In
their embrace, I had them step out of the room onto an exterior deck with a
view of spring fields rolling down to the ocean. They stood together at the
railing, taking in the view, flanked by the rest of the group. The Earth
lit up and heaven opened to bestow love.
I have felt for some time that Vipassana meditation is a doorway to
awareness of the immortality of breath. We embody not only our personal
mortal consciousness (ego), but also the generative, immortal consciousness
of the breath (Self). Vipassana teachings are universal, whereas
Constellation learning is specific to the individual parents, grandparents,
and ancestors.
The father wrote me afterward, "The richness in meaning and metaphor is
humbling, and at the same time very empowering. I had no idea where that was
going at the end until the exact moment I turned and faced my Father and
everything just clicked into its proper place, into its proper order and all
was as it was/is meant to BE! It was no coincidence this all took place
less than 72 hours before my little road trip with my son, which was
beautiful and heart filled. Thank you!"
Thank you, Anni, for framing these experiences so thoughtfully.
Dan
-----Original Message-----
From: ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of anni
Sent: Saturday, May 29, 2010 4:51 PM
To: ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [ConstellationTalk] Buddha, Jung and the Communion of Saints
With regards to Dr. Joseph's post, I agree that there are similarities in
what is referred to as "Buddha awareness, Jung's Individuated collective
consciousness and the healing power of the Communion of saints and that
these are things that we comprehend not through our normal intellectual
function but through a process that includes some kind of a leaving behind
the attentive state of physicality and moving oneself into a level of
another kind of awareness. However, I cannot agree that the word equal gives
us a sense of the nature of each of these experiences or observations. For
example, if one considers spiritual progress as a ladder and that as we
slowly step on various rungs of the ladder parts of our ego consciousness
fall away and we are led to a deeper awareness of other states of being.
There is a stage in spiritual development where the 'communion of saints' or
the sage wisdom and gifts of the ancients come to our awareness, yet it is
often a long jo! urney to the point of the ladder where one finds the
Christian equivalent of Buddha awareness which in the Christian tradition is
generally known as spiritual marriage because of the complete sense of the
self being one with creator. Jung seems not to have a philosophical stance
that allows his work to be interpreted beyond this. Yet in my own mystical
experience these are all fairly accessible to all and not at this time in
the world are they unusual.
So most certainly I agree with your comment that Jung can limit the
comprehension we have at our hands if we utilize his or in fact any other's
perception to limit our own.
There is a point beyond what we might 'normally' call Buddha awareness or
perhaps Christian union that is a further surrender of self. It seems that
in the Buddist tradition, and I am not Buddhist so this is only from my
'reading' about it not experiencing it, there is a point where the main beam
that holds the house up, collapses. This is perhaps similar to the
experience of no-self in the Christian mystical evolution whereby the
complete 'personality' dis-integrates into a place of only creator presence.
This is not something that is frequently discussed but it is a point where
there becomes so much similarity in the spiritual traditions that no
dogmatic differences remain.
It is my belief that the more steps up the rung of spiritual awareness one
has taken that the more effective one will be as a constellator. This is not
a matter of dogma and definition but of depth of perception into the realms
of the hidden jewels of the darkness.
My purpose then for continuing this discussion on spiritual development (or
perhaps as Dan has called it paranormal) is that I wholeheartedly believe
that as facilitators we serve best when we are least in the way of what is
sought. The greater our surrender of our ego self and the greater our
intention to connect with the forces of creation energy, the more effective
our work can become. There is an irony in that as we step 'up' the ladder of
the spiritual, we step 'down' the ladder of our place in the nature of the
constellation. We serve our 'client' from a place that is under them and
under their family. We serve the movements of wellness as a moment in time
and place for the movement to occur. We do not DO the movement, we only
allow for it to unfold from that which is. If a constellator uses his or her
role to force movements then they will be more from the lower rungs of the
spiritual ladder and perhaps less effective. The more the constellator
surrenders to the k! nowing that is unseen, the Buddha awareness perhaps or
the place of union or the shamanic role of traveller, then the greater is
the power and the movement of creative energy that heals.
I hope there is more discussion about this. I offer it with great love and
respect and hope it inspires some questions. I am an eternal skeptic and
rarely to I read or hear anything without a million questions about it. We
are so blessed with the capacity to think and question and to have the
freedom to do this. Ancestors who were killed because they were skeptics
must look at us with great love as we explore and wander the paths to
insight and understanding.
Thank you to all who post here and who read here. May your day be filled
with joy and peace. Anni
--- In ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:ConstellationTalk%40yahoogroups.com> , drjmpirone <drjmpirone@>
wrote:
the healing power of the Communion of saints. For a nice picture of it,
Dear Angelika,
Buddha awareness equals Jung's Individuated collective consciousness and
see Avatar....Kuhn's History of scientific revolutions useful here.Worship of one of Jung's functions limits the capacity of that function to
comprehend the not-by-that-function-comprehendable. "Normal" science can not
Altered states comprehend. drjsunyrcc
Enneapsychodramatics
Dr.Joseph M. Pirone 2018033080
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
