Hi Denis, I highly recommend (as others have here) the work of Ed
Tick and his books "War and the Soul" and "The Practice of Dream Healing." Ed
has researched warrior cultures around the world and the way they historically
treated and healed their warriors when they return from battle, and has found
the essential elements in which the entire society participated. The
community participated in preparing warriors, in sending them off, and
receiving them back with respectful ceremony and listening to their stories,
however terrible. In modern day US warrior culture, the soldier is prepared in
boot camp which breaks down his/her individuality and separates him/her from
the strength of his family, creating a newly fabricated military family. Then
he/she returns from battle and is in general instructed to return to a normal
life. The military has made some efforts to improve on this legitimized
abandonment, but in general the wounds of war are left to drift in the
collective unconscious of the culture, and hidden in the psyches of the
individual soldiers. Ed's work is systemic and points to the necessity of the
entire society sharing in the burdens, which both supports the warriors and
influences the collective to move very slowly into war since all share in
knowing of the horror.
My intuition about your block to 'get it right' is telling me that if
you are not accepted by the soldiers as one of them, they may not trust you to
be able to go with them into the trauma. And you may be sensing it. It may
not be an issue with you, but more about their absolute fidelity to each other
and diminished trust of anyone not familiar with the life-or-death situations
they face together. Ed Tick was a military psychologist and at the beginning
of his work with soldiers, was given trust that might not be shown to others.
peace,
Chuck
Chuck Cogliandro
Family Constellations Facilitator
Brennan Healing Science Practitioner
Kumandi Drums & Healing
404-966-5800
www.kumandi.com
www.constellationjourneys.com
