Thanks Dean for sharing your insightful and touching experience
about working with horses. Amazing
Best
Harrison
Sent from Windows Mail
From: Kerim Nutku Kerim@xxxxxx [ConstellationTalk]
Sent: Wednesday, August 27, 2014 12:45 AM
To: ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Great writeup and contribution to all. Thanks for sharing in person and
online.
Kerim
Sent from my iPhone
On 27 Aug 2014, at 1:56 pm, "Dean Mason dean.mason@xxxxxxxxx
[ConstellationTalk]" <ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Dear friends and colleagues,
Last week I experienced a constellation with horses, in a very large paddock,
and am keen to share the process and its lessons with colleagues interested in
the benefits to be gained from using animals as representatives.
A huge ’thank you' to Saan Ecker and Joanne (Jo) Byrnes of Peakgrove Equine
Assisted Experiences, for hosting my visit to their property near Canberra, in
a very beautiful part of NSW, Australia. And an especially big THANK YOU to Jo
for facilitating this constellation so generously and skilfully.
The issue was personal, regarding a long-term estrangement. What I wish to
share here is how I, as a client, gained such helpful insights through the
horses’ representations and the process as a whole.
SETTING: me (the client) and Jo (the facilitator) standing in a large paddock
(approx .5 of a square kilometre, with several gates open to other paddocks
where the horses could go if they wanted) with nine horses (6 Arabs, 3 small,
like Shetlands) scattered around, chewing grass, dozing in the sun.
PROCESS: After agreeing on the issue, Jo asked me to invite three horses to be
representatives for three people.
LESSON 1, about the ‘knowing field': ‘Do I have to go up close to ask each
horse?’ I asked. Jo answered, with a laugh: 'oh no, the horses’ energy fields
are very large, you can just do it from here’. This was a real opening for me,
to trust not just in the process, but in the enormity of the energy field
shared by us and these beautiful animals.
PROCESS c’td: After selecting and receiving permission from three horses (they
showed no noticeable dissent, so we took that as acceptance), Jo then invited
me to select a space, anywhere on the farm, that I might like to take the three
horses to in the constellation. Jo emphasised that it needed to be a space that
had meaning for me. The place I chose was in a corner of the paddock with a
large tree that had branches forming a canopy, like a safe harbour but one
without fences so if they went there they could also leave as they please. It
turned out another horse was there too, but I was trying to ignore him.
LESSON 2, more about the 'knowing field': even if the ‘field' is real, I
thought, how can I possibly get these three huge animals into a space without
any ropes, fencing or other aids? And so I chose to trust, taking my trust in
the field to a new level, and then ’the work' really started. (Later, Jo also
shared with me her own apprehension at this point. Clients usually, and perhaps
more sensibly, select smaller fenced yards in an adjacent paddock where the
horses are accustomed to working.)
PROCESS c’td: From a distance, Jo asked me what I saw when I looked at the
space. I described the canopy, some ‘mess’ of fallen branches, but still not
the horse that had been standing there throughout. Jo invited me to go closer
and to look in more detail, kindly not confronting me with the glaringly
obvious horse I was still trying to ignore. Once up close, the horse and I were
agitated by each other, and we looked at each other quite strongly. Jo then
asked me who the horse might represent. It was quickly apparent – someone
closely connected to the three people I had chosen to focus on.
LESSON 3, the beauty of blindness: in this space stood a horse who I had not
attributed any meaning to. I thought he was a distraction and part of my
challenge would be to get him out of the way. How wrong I was, real meaning
soon emerged from his position as a representative and my position in relation
to her (the female person this male horse was representing).
PROCESS c’td: By this point, representative 1 had gone over the hill and out of
sight, while representatives 2 and 3 were about 30 metres away and doing their
own thing. I was wanting to say a few things, but Jo gently guided me to focus
on what could be said by way of indisputable truths, things that the
representative would not dispute, and I came up with three. At the start the
representative was breathing heavily but when I spoke the first truth she fully
relaxed, almost dozing off. When I spoke the second truth she became energised
and (literally!) nodded her head several times. At this point representative 2
let out a big whinnying out-breath. After the third truth was spoken, we heard
a flurry of activity over the hill and representative 1 came into view,
sounding like he was kicked into action by another horse. As these things
happened, I was deeply moved by the exchange with the representative under the
tree and was not at all surprised by hearing these movements. (Also during this
process the family dog came and sat by my side with a menacing tone toward the
representative under the tree. I knew who he represented but was too busy with
speaking my indisputable truths to pay him much attention, and he eventually
left, but his presence – and departure - was very accurate to the truth of the
situation.)
LESSON 4: when energy moves, it moves!
PROCESS c’td: I now began to turn my mind to see how it might be possible to
move the three other representatives into this space with the fourth
representative. As I stood back, I saw representative 1, about 50 metres away,
casually walking directly toward the space. He paused to look at me, I paused
to see what he would do, and he kept walking – directly in to the middle of the
space I had chosen, not far from representative 4. Ok, I thought, 1 in, 2 to
go… I approached representatives 2 and 3, and they were very strongly not
interested in my words or my attention. Each walked briskly (but not
frightened) a long distance away to another paddock. Fair enough, I thought, so
I went back to the tree. As I sat on the ground, representative 1 was startled
by my movement, but did not move away, he just stayed close in between me and
representative 4.
PROCESS end: I signalled to Jo that this was enough for me, it had taken about
45 minutes and I was astonished in a peaceful and very moving way. As we stood,
just checking if there were any final things to be said, the horse that had
been the representative under the tree walked to about 3 metres in front of me
(away from the tree) rolled on to its back, wriggled around on the ground, then
got up and stood to the side. Jo informed this is one of the most trusting
signs a horse can give – to show their underbelly in such close range. To
close, I had not only identified the key indisputable truths to hold on to,
found an image for the place where I wanted to be with these three people, but
I also received this truly beautiful salute of trust and acknowledgement from
the very representative who I had been so reluctant to acknowledge. From where
I stood I shouted a big 'thank you' to each horse followed by their real names
to release them from their representations…and they kept grazing or sunning
themselves as they were before.
LESSON 5, about intent: the non-verbal language of the horses, together with
their remarkably gentle and kind natures, taught me something special about
intent. Judith Hemming, at the Sydney Intensive last year, gave us a precious
lesson when she said that holding an intent to 'discern the truth' is going to
serve our clients much more than any intent to ‘heal', to ‘solve', to ‘fix', or
to ‘do’ anything ‘for’ our clients. This experience with the horses added
another layer to this lesson for me. That is, the quality of our intent is as
important as its focus. Listening to the whole environment, the enormity of the
field and all of its components, making observations and holding this intent to
discern the truth no matter the outcome, are some of the ingredients of this
quality. It was a major feature of Jo’s facilitation skill, and it was also
something I gradually became more awake to as the constellation unfolded. This
may not be very different to what we experience in conventional constellations
much of the time, but to experience it in the context of ‘inter-species
connectedness’ was thoroughly enriching and one I highly recommend to anyone
who wishes to further deepen their own experience of constellation work.
For any specific questions (skeptical enquiry also welcome!), please email Jo
or myself directly: joannebyrnes@xxxxxxxxx or dean.mason@xxxxxxxxx
Also, for past CT posts on related topics, refer these discussion threads:
23 January 2013, Julio Principe, 'SCW with Horses?'
24 September 2012, Dean Mason, 'Monty Roberts Join-up Clinic'
17 April 2010, Anni, 'using animal fields in constellations'
Kind regards,
Dean
Dean Mason
office: +61(0)3 9398 6262
cell: +61(0)402 846 696
Skype: deanwmason
