Thomas,
Kristine Erb in Germany has done work with playwrights and in the theatre.
She might be willing to share some of her experiences with you.
I don¹t have her current contact info, though could probably find it.
Perhaps someone on the forum knows her? She does speak good English.
Best wishes,
Jane Peterson
On 1/2/06 5:04 PM, "TomBuoyed@xxxxxxx" <TomBuoyed@xxxxxxx> wrote:
Sprooiiinnng!!! He¹s back! The jack-in-the-box from Los Angeles! (I
just love that image of me you provided, Alison). But have no fear, for
Fast Eddie Z will be back here next weekend to resume his training and keep
Thomas off the streets and even off the back alleys of CT! Happy New Year
everyone! I'm actually busy writing a play about an [American] Civil War
figure killed in battle and running fairly productive constellations with
Annalea for the characters in the play and their relationship to me as
playwright as well as their own family constellations. What a round robin. I
stand in for characters that I have created for this play, but they are also
real people in history, with real entanglements. Yet there is the eerie
experience of representing actual people who in turn are representing me as
author. I feel somewhat like the Chinese emperor who dreamed of being a
butterfly, but then wondered if he was really a butterfly dreaming he was an
emperor. Quite a new dimension to systemic work, not to mention a way to
channel my innate Irish mascot mischief making away from CT and into more
productive channels (pun intended). On that note, I'd very much like to
hear from anyone out there who has already done such constellation field work
in theater or film or TV. I see from Dan¹s recent postings that the
Hellinger camp has been jousting with the Steiner camp. Not to worry. These
Steinerites are much better at shooting themselves in the foot than shooting
others. I should know since I've gone from true believer to maverick to
heretic to outcast and now to tired old man Prodigal Son during my 30 years
of involvement with anthroposophy --- including my sporadic experience as a
Waldorf teacher at schools in New York and Los Angeles. As Pogo the
Possum --- in Walt Kelley¹s famous old comic strip --- would say: ³We has met
the enemy and he is us!² So I would like to make a contribution to the CT
list on the subject of Steiner, Hellinger and religious spiritual longings by
translating a passage of Berthold Ulsamer, from an article he has online at
http://www.ulsamer.com/pages/deutsch7.html ;(Berthold gave me permission to
translate the whole article, but for now, I'm just translating the part where
he reports a constellation done with a family of devout anthroposophists.)
The entire article is in part about the longing for spiritual experience as a
way of resolving family problems. Its title is a nice play on words in
German, which I have attempted to render a bit clumsily in two English
versions. Preferences? Or your own renderings? (Er-)Lösung durch
Familien-Stellen? Salvation or Solution through Family Constellations?
Redemption or Resolution through Family Constellations? If you scroll down
about 1/3 of the way, you will find the original German excerpt that I
translated.http://www.ulsamer.com/pages/deutsch7.html
What is really going on when [an adult] looks up like a little child to a
³miracle worker,² guru, or messianic figure? Such behavior can provide us
with important insights in family constellations. I remember a constellation,
when an entire family all looked in a single direction where nobody stood.
All of them were thoroughly committed Anthroposophists. So Rudolf Steiner
[the founder of anthroposophy] was represented in this family and he became
the focal point, the center, to whom every family member looked. Their total
attention streamed out to him. But things really changed when the
representative for the paternal grandfather was brought in. Previously hidden
tensions suddenly manifested. These tensions had been concealed by the
collective attention for Steiner and covered up, as it were, by the
grandfather being disconnected from the family. The same principle is also
observable in very religious families, which are absolutely dedicated to God.
In such a family constellation, it is a courageous step to select someone to
be a representative for God and thus give God a place in the family. As a
rule, the representative of God will feel inner peace and love. However,
things are different with the family members who face God. They are
expectant, discontent and annoyed. Then, if the father is represented, it
becomes immediately apparent, how God, as a projection figure, is forced to
bear the brunt of the tensions, the unfulfilled wishes, whatever is unspoken
and of course, the [family] secrets. Suddenly, it is obvious that most of
these feelings concern persons in the family. But instead of the family
clarifying and resolving their relationships, all their expectations, all
their pain and all their disappointments are shifted onto God. Thus a
[adult] child does actually stand there, a child whose image of God is
superimposed over the image of his or her father and thus distorted. However,
if the client begins to confront the father, even argue with him, then part
of the ambiguity in the perception of God clarifies. Then God once again has
his place in the family, but now his place is a bit more authentic and
unblemished. God is more noticeable as a genuine presence.
Thomas
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