Doubting Thomas -
I have a few comments in response to your questions.
First, Bert has been very protective of his personal history. I wrote a
brief biography of him based on published source and some interviews
with people close to him. I sent him a copy of the manuscript asking
him to fill in a few blanks. Instead, he asked me to delete some
passages that added new information to the record. After he had
approved the document, he put the kabash on having it published in
Barbara Morgan's Knowing Field journal. He seems quite opposed to
releasing details, especially intimate ones.
Second, the absolutism of many of his remarks is misconstrued. He will
make a comment such as, "Men with beards miss their fathers." But some
other time he might remark, "Men with beards miss their mothers." These
pronouncement are always meant to taken within the context with which
they are delivered, not as absolute truths for all times and situations.
Third, I don't agree he is establishing himself as the charismatic
leader of a mass movement. To the contrary, he has managed to alienated
and anger nearly every prominent German in his inner circle. They are
all distancing themselves from him as fast as they can. Further, he is
become something of a pariah in Germany. I think the Pope thing may
have more to do with you than with him.
Fourth, I love your humor and bon mots. Welcome to our College of
Cardinals.
Dan
-----Original Message-----
From: ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of tmasthenes13
Sent: Thursday, September 01, 2005 7:31 PM
To: ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [ConstellationTalk] Re: Constellations with Soul AND Spirit
Barbara,
Thanks for your reply. I actually have seen part of a video of Bert
in Santa Barbara from a few years ago. It would be great to do a
workshop with him but that means going over to France or Germany
since I hear he no longer travels to the USA.
But if you want more thought-provoking statements, I'll ask this one
as a proverb in Latin: "Quis custodet ipsos custodes?" ("Who will
guard the guards themselves?") Explanation below.
I appreciate what you say about taking any scuttlebut with many
grains of salt; but there is a nagging question I have that concerns
the attitude of separating out the personality of Bert from his work.
What about Bert's own family system? Has he himself put himself
through the same gauntlet of constellations that everyone else who
becomes a facilitator must go though? And if so, does anyone know
about the results?
I can understand that such information would be used against him by
his enemies, but on the other hand, facilitators not knowing about it
puts Bert in the superior position of a father, and in his case a
Holy Father because of the ritualistic, shamanic, and Catholic
aspects of his work and being. That's why I joke about him as Pope
Bert, knowing that I can tell more truth in jest than in serious
talk. Are we to hold his family system as sacrosanct because it is
one of the secrets that children must not ask their parents about?
I really feel that he has, for whatever reason, placed himself above
the rest of us who are drawn so deeply to pursue and extend his work.
I've recently read through both _Love's Hidden Symmetry_ and
_Acknowledging What Is_. With every page, my soul does cartwheels and
raises a fist in the air and shouts YES! to the truth that I feel
flows through every page in every answer to every question posed in
those books.
But then I wonder about the absolutism of his attitude, the
infallible aura of his pronouncements, any my deep desire to believe
such pronouncements. I have nothing against infallibility because the
universe itself is infallible (at least the right-brain universe is,
not the left). But we are all fallible in our perceptions and
observations of that world and universe, and the fallibility is
precisley in the realm of the mind soul where our ordinary left-brain
intellectual consciousness must allow for its transcendence by the
emotions or what I like to term "heart-thinking" that goes beyond the
ordinary logic of our intellects.
My fear is that however sincere and well-intentioned he is,
nonetheless Bert Hellinger has set himself up as a Father-God figure
to all those who are drawn to pursue his work. As a Catholic and now
a Hellingrite, I feel like there's two German Popes now.
As I read so many of his pronouncements about God and spirituality,
etc., I keep wondering how much of this is his own personal
projecting which might be revealed as such if we knew about the
dynamics of his own personal family systemic order.
Quis custodet ipsos custodes?
Doubting Thomas
(who doubts so much, he even doubts his own doubting.)
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