That was a gift to all of us thank you Dan.
On 21/10/2011, at 3:06 AM, Dan Booth Cohen, Ph.D. wrote:
Hello Yasha -
I am very much looking forward to seeing you and 250 others at the US
Conference in San Francisco next week.
All of us who use Constellations face the challenge of describing it. The
science of phenomenology is about describing reality precisely as it is. If
what we are describing is a tea cup or how to tie one's shoes, we can adhere
to consensus reality in choosing our descriptive language. For a concept
such as the family soul, any description only has value to the extent it
conveys meaning to another. Hellinger's most lyric and eloquent explanation
would be meaningless to me if he spoke it in German. Adding to the
challenge, we barely have any idea what it is we are describing. Soul is a
word assigned to a dimension of human experience that is neither physical
nor mental. The family in this context is not only our immediate living
relatives. It includes members of our biological lineage who died long
before we were born and others who become members because of facts we do not
know and for reasons we do not understand.
Given this, we have two broad choices. We can repeat the descriptions given
to us by Hellinger and other teachers of greater experience or we can make
up our own answers. Here in the US, Hellinger's definitions are generally
met with skepticism, disinterest, or aversion. This is not only my own
experience, but reported by numerous novice facilitators whose promotion
efforts were built around descriptive language drawn from Love's Hidden
Symmetry, e.g. "Sometimes out of blind love a person carries something that
belongs to someone else in the ancestral system. When these hidden forces
are brought to light a resolution can be found."
Out of necessity, I have worked on my own understanding and descriptions for
many years. Slowly, as these have built, I am able to convey the meaning of
the family soul more effectively. I try not to repeat myself too often and
to match my descriptions to be received by the particular audience.
Sometimes, I like to discuss the family soul in the context of human
evolution. A characteristic that distinguishes Homo sapiens physiologically
from other species is our brains. Through we lack many other sensory and
physical attributes, our brains give us a distinct survival advantage.
Physically, our brains are disproportionately large compared to other
creatures. Because of this, we are born extremely prematurely. If we
developed in utero to the equivalent maturity of other species, babies'
heads would split their mothers open to the navel at birth. Thus, we are
born as breathing fetuses, wholly incapable of sustaining ourselves for
many, many years. Because we are born utterly helpless and dependent, human
babies developed a strategy for surviving based on being loud and lovable.
We cry out and we make adults love us.
A tactic for making adults love us is we love them, especially our parents.
One part of being loving and lovable is we attune to the secret pains in our
parents' hearts and make it our mission to heal them. These efforts
inevitably fail. It is what Hellinger meant when he wrote, "Love attempting
to overcome order is the beginning and end of all tragedy." The family soul
holds the residual of failed missions that accumulated over sequential
generations. There is much more to the family soul than just this. It also
contains the residual of joy, endurance, and accomplishment that is also our
part of our legacy. However, as healers, transgenerational suffering is the
area of our concern.
The whole structure of human survival and procreation is embedded with
dependence and vulnerability. Because babies are so immature for so many
years, mothers become dependent on others to provide from them while their
children are young. Over 90 thousand human generations going back 200,000
years, our species has developed social systems derived from these
physiological facts.
That's my preamble to the Family Soul. It is meant as a gift to stir
something in your muse that will be expressed in you artwork, Cirque du
Family Soul.
See you in San Francisco!
Dan
Dan Booth Cohen, Ph.D.
Conference Director
2011 US Systemic Constellations Conference
www.USConstellations.com
T. 781-444-0145
C. 781-718-7158
www.HiddenSolution.com <http://www.hiddensolution.com/>
-----Original Message-----
From: ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Yasha Keith
Sent: Wednesday, October 19, 2011 5:08 PM
To: constellationtalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [ConstellationTalk] Defining Family Soul
Hello I'm a new facilitator of individual sessions and had an interesting
question posed by a client. She asked if the concept of family soul included
the positive, helpful qualities/connections shared with one's family as well
as the entangelements that hinder us. I've never given this a thought
because I've always discussed family soul in terms of entanglements, but I'm
assuming the energetic field of a family includes all that we are as a
family. Your thoughts? Also, I would really love to hear how other's are
articulating the concept of family soul and entanglements. Is there a way to
search the archives, any form of search engine that I could enter "family
soul" for example? 2 reasons, 1- I am really struggling with languaging and
2- I'm working on an altar art piece that will be in public view and the
focus will be on the family soul. Title being, "Cirque du Family Soul." I'm
doing the piece to deepen my own understanding of family soul and
entanglements. Also, I'm attempting to articulate in words and a visual for
others, too. If you are inspired to share...thank you in advance. Hope to
see you at the Conference, Yasha Keith(Sierra Foothills in California)
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