Systemic & Family Constellations
Family Constellations • Nature Constellations • Organizational Constellations
And The Knowing Field
Systemic Constellation is a Conversation with the Knowing Field of a System
As we embody portions of the Field, either with ourselves or with objects, we begin to interact with this brilliant Knowing Field to discover and dissolve blockages, to include the excluded, and to increase the flows of love in the system.
We find the burden that someone is carrying for another out of love, and return it to its rightful place within the system.
When we do this, the system relaxes and works in a much more efficient, loving manner.
"Whose problem was it before it was yours?
Whose wounded heart are you carrying in your heart?"
— facilitator and teacher Dan Booth Cohen
You are embedded in ever-larger fields of information which give shape to what is possible
What is the Knowing Field?
Every system, be it a family, a business, a garden plot, or nature as a whole, is shaped and guided by a Field of information, history, conditions, and directives. This Field, unique to a system, comes into being when that system is formed. It is the Knowing Field.
This Knowing Field shapes what can happen within the system. It shapes how elements can interact, and informs what outcomes are possible.
What Are the Qualities of the Knowing Field?
This Knowing Field is alive. It is conscious. In Quechua, the word for this field is “Kawsay”, which simply translates as ‘life-force.' It is understood that Kawsay, life-force, is divine, sentient, alive, knowledgeable, and has its own purpose, desires, and drives. In a family system, one such drive is survival.
A system wishes to include that which has been excluded. A system desires to put things in their proper order. It wants to remember, and wants us to remember, who and what came first. Everything belongs and has a place somewhere. The Knowing Field knows what the proper place is.
How Do Constellations Work?
Through systemic constellations, we have a conversation with the Field of a system to find out what the history is, what the current conditions are, and where they originated. We interact with the Knowing Field of the system to clarify what is known, and to nudge it in a direction of greater possibility and greater ease.
We can communicate with the system to improve the flows of love within that system. We do this by embodying portions of the system itself so that a conversation can happen and so that the dynamics can be witnessed. And changed.
We cannot change the foundational conditions of a system. For instance, we can’t alter the fact that the firstborn will always be the firstborn. What we can do is help everyone in the system find acceptance and balance in their unique position in a system.
We can help the forgotten and excluded to find their rightful place.
What is the Best Way to Heal Generational Trauma?
Short Answer
It depends on the nature of the trauma and where and how it began!
Long Answer
Generational Trauma can stem from a single event. More often, it is layered and complex with many contributing factors that develop and multiply over time and generations.
Dislaimer: I am not a therapist or a trauma specialist. As a spiritual healer, I assess and treat the spiritual energetics of trauma.
From an animistic perspective, generational trauma, trauma that is STILL reverberating down the generations, is usually caused by a curse or oath, a possessing spirit, or both. It can also be caused by a generational entanglement, that is, a soul agreement where a living descendant takes on the burdens, trauma, and unfinished business of an ancestor.
In either case, there is an unresolved energy somewhere far back in the Ancestral Field which is still bearing down on you and your family.
As a remedy, we look and discover what can be found so that we can use the most effective methods of healing.
Examples of Generational Trauma from my own Family System and their remedies
Here are three potent examples of generational trauma from my own family system and how they were resolved differently:
In the first instance, an ancestor had made a vow of fealty. The vow went roughly like this: “I and my descendants will always be subject to you and your descendants.” That vow/oath was taken in high ceremony and witnessed by many, many people This vow was acting like a generational curse, requiring it to be unraveled.
In the second case, an Otherworld Being whom my ancestors had a good relationship with got caught up in an innocuous spell of protection cast by another ancestor. As often happens with many such spells, workings, and curses, it morphed over the centuries, turning into a sort of trap for this Being. The result was that the Being became a sort of possessing spirit for the family line as a whole, and their suffering was perceptible by everyone. The Being was subsequently freed through compassionate depossession so that they could continue their existence in peace.
In a systemic constellation, I was shown an entanglement in my family system that I was caught in. The constellation showed how I had tried to live the life of an ancestor and take on their pain for them out of love and loyalty. I tried to live their life for them. Witnessing and recognizing that these burdens (and lives!) were not mine, the facilitator was able to show me that they were not in their rightful place. The facilitator was also able to help the Field return the burdens and the life to their rightful place in the family system so that they no longer rested with me.