Hi Allison:
I appreciate your putting into words so beautifully.
I agree the sacredness of the space and also agree on the welcoming of some
words and talk that can help discernement and order. I guess the heart will
know what it needs.
I would tell you that in my representation I was very alive!!!
Big hug and embrace you from my soul..
Maria Dolores Paoli. Mary from Venezuela.
2014-07-30 5:28 GMT-04:00 Alison Fornes maitreya71@xxxxxxxxx
[ConstellationTalk] <ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
Hi All,
(Note - SKIP TO "Here are my questions" if you just want to skim this
email.)
I am recently returned from the 7th North American Systemic Constellations
Intensive, which I had the privilege of directing this year. I feel the
expansiveness in my heart as I think about it! It was wonderful. Thanks to
the faculty: Francesca Mason Boring, Dan Booth Cohen, Ed Lynch and Bill
Mannle! And to all who attended and co-created such a beautiful, sacred
space.
My wondering comes out of a Constellation I asked for in my group on the
last day. It was not a personal Constellation in the usual sense, and it
wasn't clearly resolved because we didn't have time.
A few people from that group have reached out to me, and I noticed my
hesitance in talking about it too much. However, the hesitance feels more
like my response to the "rule" that we shouldn't talk about our
Constellations. And so I'm left wondering about the evidence for that
restriction. Or if perhaps I have been misinterpreting, in which case,
perhaps I'm not the only one?
HERE ARE MY QUESTIONS / thoughts:
1. We acknowledge that our day-to-day, personal consciousness is not the
main driver of our lives. Constellations clearly reveal that aspects of our
deeper systemic consciousness manifest through _symptoms_ in our personal
consciousness but are usually not seen for what they are in terms of
ancestral roots of trauma, etc. AND even if we do have a sense of their
ancestral roots, talking about it doesn't seem to resolve it. This is shown
by the experience of very slow process of talk therapy, vs. the much
shorter and incredibly effective Constellation healing. So one might say in
this case: talking has very little effect on the larger field.
The one place talk therapy is recognized as effective, though, is when the
talk hits on the deeper roots of an issue. Then we can feel in our bodies,
as in the Focusing work of Eugene Gendlin, that something has resonated and
moved.
2. I also have started engaging in dream work, especially the practice of
"Lightning Dream Work" described by Robert Moss. In this process, once the
dream is presented to a group, participants respond to it with the
statement "If this were my dream..." and they give their thoughts as if it
were LITERALLY their dream. It's quite a special process, as it reveals
multiple facets of what's in the larger field of that dream. The dreamer
can then take what's relevant to them, and is often shown new things they
had never considered. That information, provided not just through the
experiencing of the dream but also through the elucidation of the dream
using words, is quite valuable. Again, it feels like it has the effect of
moving something resonant from the wordless Field into our personal
consciousness, which can be very healing.
The "If this were my dream" has started moving into my Constellation work,
and now when I experience a Constellation that is not mine, there are times
when I talk about it using that language, especially if the seeker is
confused by the Constellation.
Silence vs. Words -
3. On the other hand, there is a clear place for silence. The profound,
sacred beauty of a Constellation often creates its own silence, naturally.
It's a silence that emerges from the movement in the Field. You can also
feel how, if you try to tell someone of the experience, there's a way it
can feel like profanity, as in irreverence or desecration. That contrast
between silence and words makes sense to me in the context of Constellation
work.
4. Finally, there is the way I have interpreted / misinterpreted the idea
"don't talk about your constellation" - this is where the superstition part
comes in. I have had the idea (where did it come from?) that talking about
your constellation in the wrong way can somehow undo the healing of the
Constellation. I am noticing that I feel that in my body as an actual fear.
Is that idea in the larger field? Where did it come from? Is it true? Is
there evidence for such a thing.
My thoughts right now are that I have direct experience that shows me that
1, 2, and 3 are true, and my conclusions are that talk can get in the way
of the "sacred silence" that emerges from a powerful Constellation, but not
the healing movement itself.
Alison Fornés
*It is the courageous heart that loves. It is the loving heart that heals.
alisonfornes.com <http://alisonfornes.com>*
