Stephen and All,
I am being moved to offer some thoughts here about facilitating
powerful healing rituals and staying "safe" in the process. Though I
am not one, I was trained over 7 years by Native American shamans, and
so much of what I say here comes from their perspective and wisdom.
These ideas are are a number of different things that have crystalized
for me over what is now two decades of practice and evolution. In
terms of Bert's notion of not interfering with what is already perfect
(as Sheila spoke about), it seems there is a paradox there, which
might be expressed as "it's perfect and it can be better." So I try
to honor both sides. In any case, if these ideas are helpful, great.
If not, no problem.
Late in those 7 years of apprenticeship, after around two years of
specific training in facilitating sweat lodges (which is called
"pouring water"), I was allowed to start doing lodges that were more
public. I went through a period where I got strangely sick after each
lodge. I had fever and chills and aches which would be severe for
several hours and then go away. This passed as I learned to "ground"
myself better during the ceremony. In some sense, as facilitator, I
was like the lightning rod that channeled a lot of the "stuff" of
people in the sweat into the Mother Earth. I started to imagine a
kind of "Mother Earth vacuum cleaner," which was hooked to my sacral
area and literally sucked pain and trauma right through me. This
internal ritual helped a lot. I still use it in constellations.
I also became aware that "what tends to stick to me is that which is
like my own pain." So I became more watchful around those kinds of
issues. What sticks to you are energies that trigger that which you
already share. I believe this is what Zaquie is talking about in her
post. Drinking water from the same source as other people in the
ceremony heightens your connection to them in my experience. I became
careful about that. I kept a private jug and only drank from the
public jug when it felt right. Sometimes it was ok or important,
sometimes I had to avoid it at all costs. Water is feeling. You
might want to stay aware of what you consume in the way of fluids and
food during workshops. If someone carries a certain kind of pain, for
example, I might not eat the same foodstuff as they do during lunch.
I do think that serious attention is best paid to "de-roling"
representatives and also oneself after constellations. I remain
watchful and careful in workshops around this matter, especially after
intense constellations. Some kinds of rituals, such as Gary
describes, that work for you are important, I would say. I ask people
to brush themselves down, "shake it off," or I sometimes sweep my
hands through the space behind their spines and slap the floor. I
believe certain energies "hang out" in the area behind the spine. We
might smudge the room sometimes, ring a certain bell, or even put on
rock music and dance for a few minutes. Showers, washing the hair,
soaks in salt water or epsom salts make a difference after the workshop.
Going back to myself again, I use smokey quartz and obsidian as
personal "protectors." I have a vivid, comfortable feeling towards
them as allies that absorb darker energies, hold them, and then allow
me to clear them into the Earth later on--so that not so much hits me
at once. Of course, it is your feeling about whatever you use that
matters, probably more than your particular choice of "allies." I
have a rainbow obsidian heart-shaped amulet that I always wear in
workshops. It helps me stay both open and at the same time balanced
and "safe." To me, these little friends are like shock absorbers.
It's important to understand that fear is a dead giveaway, the primary
invitation for unbalanced energies. So I don't do any of these things
out of a sense of fear. And if doing things like those I am
describing were to make you fearful, then best forget about them. I'm
just watchful and have learned certain things that work for me. I
trust them. If at times I break the "rules" I let go of that. It is
ultimately the creating and tending of a sense of "safety" that makes
the difference. From a very broad perspective, the times that I do get
triggered are typically related to the cutting edge of my own healing
process, which does not end. So it is not all about "protection"
either. It's hard to put this into words. There's a balance point
between too much "armor" and not enough "protection."
There is another, larger, very interesting issue that comes up here.
On the one hand, the strict constellation work perspective, as I
understand it, is that it does no good for anyone to carry someone
else's pain. On the other hand, shamans, for thousands of years, have
been people who could take on someone else's disease, clear it from
that someone else's body, and then transmute it out of their own and
into the Earth. Can these two perspectives make sense together? I
think in terms of sweat lodges, I have definitely done things like
this latter approach at times. It was not fun, but something moved me
to do it and it worked and so it seemed the right thing. Obviously,
this is what we might want to call an "advanced" technique, with more
risk to the facilitator. Constellation work has raised a lot of
questions around this now in my mind. Perhaps there are certain
energies that can be worked with this way, whereas others cannot.
Hope these ideas help.
Michael
Michael Reddy, PhD, CPC, ELI-MP
michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.reddyworks.com
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On Aug 16, 2010, at 10:37 PM, Stephen Campbell wrote:
Dearest Colleagues and Friends,
I have recently been sidelined with what in the chiropractic world
they call
a subluxation of two vertebrae in my back. Never in my life have I
experienced such intense and prolonged pain. Fortunately, progress
is being
made with the guidance of practitioners of several modalities and
the pain
is considerably lessened. As illness or pain are always times for
reflection for me, I have been wondering if any of you have
experienced
severe pain or a serious illness as a by product of the work. Here
in Peru
recently there has been an "outbreak" of severe maladies either
experienced
by the facilitator or by someone in their immediate family. This has
had me
thinking about the fact that in our work we are exposed to much
negative
energy and to some degree or another we are absorbing varying
degrees of it.
One of the healers I have been working with raised this issue with
me and it
of course had me reflect on it.
I would be interested in your thoughts as well as any practices that
you
might have following your facilitations for "cleansing" yourselves.
Fondly,
Stephen
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