Hi David,
Many thanks for sharing your insights about this topic. I am also fascinated
with the mystery of the masculine and feminine. I have copied some of an
article I wrote for the knowing field a little while ago about how the
masculine and feminine are impacting upon our present family constellation
politics, policies and creativities. Thought it relevent to these
understandings.
Kind regards and luv Sadhana
"
Energy dynamics within present family constellation politics and persons,
within these “mental fields”, can be directly related to the male and female
principles of left and right brain hemispheres. The male energy has efficiency
and direction, the female, grace and love. For any work involving
transformation of human energy states, both are needed. The momentum of the
feminine provides the intensity required to take the “quantum leap” into
transcendence. The male energy gives the direction and strength to support
movements of the spirit mind moving beyond conscience. Both are needed.
Without the coming together of left and right brain and the inclusion of both
male and female; all of us remain half a human being. All divisions,
separations, and fragmentations of being, internal or external can be traced to
this one deep understanding. That deep down we all long to be a whole human
being. One that is as logical as it loves. One that
is as intellectual as it is intuitive.
Remembering this has the ability to anchor all of us to the “origin” of the
work we love and are involved in. The word “original” does not mean newly
invented as it is usually interpreted as. The original teaching is “of the
origin”. This means that the teachings of Family Constellation have existed
first and before Hellinger was able to give it form to thrive. The teachings
are sacred and ancient and surface in the present out of the primordial grace
and benevolence of all that has gone before. Our work as constellation workers
is primarily to preserve this sacred gift. The gift surfaces in a time of great
chaos..
A chaos that facilitates the disruption of paternalism and male dominated
collective conscience. There is a new male energy emerging out of this chaos
that moves to unite with the feminine aspects within and without.. The male is
maturing and becoming balanced and now moves to serve the feminine. We need to
bring great awareness to make sure our masculine energies do not get lost in
the dominance and conquering that destroys the feminine. We also need the
feminine within to take a stand in the present to integrate this strength given
by the masculine.
The future of family constellation work and indeed the planet will depend on
our inner collective attitudes to these present changes. The main goal of this
work is to bring consciousness and attention to the restoration of balance
within you. This requires a loving co-operation of all opposing polarities
everywhere, however they manifest. However, how they manifest, is not half as
important as where they manifest. They manifest within us. When you were
standing in that line at the bank today waiting to be served and it seemed to
take forever. Were you aware of the male inside who wanted to choke the bank
tellers neck and the female within that began complaining innocence to the
person next to her in that same line? In this moment the old “male” within is
to exercise restraint. The challenge is to “harness” and “hold”; in this way he
serves the feminine within him. For the women who protests innocence? She also
needs to stop and
step out of the victim and stand in her strength ready to act with love. In
this way she serves the masculine within. Both are challenged to enter “the
gap” of silence and stillness in these ordinary moments available or
transformation. Let us not forget that the “gap” and the “origin” is the
source of all restoration and reconciliation process. Let us all honor our
origins and nourish the roots that will bear the fruit of this great work. For
without tending to our roots the fruits will never come to pass. Why? …………….
because all the flowers and fruits of tomorrow are in the seeds of yesterday. "
________________________________
From: "david@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" <david@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Saturday, August 15, 2009 10:56:54 AM
Subject: [ConstellationTalk] Woman follows man, man serves woman
Hi,
This is one of Bert Hellinger's statements that has always interested
me. As he would say it's an observation from Constellations.
Hunter Beaumont has written about it too, and others. I have been
holding a short series of workshops in China, which I find a privelege
for a 'westerner'to be able to work with such a different culture to
my own. Of coursethere are cultural similarities as well, and many an
hour can be spent
discussing these.
Recently I had so many cases in workshop and private settings of women
struggling to be at peace with their womanhood. Very touching cases
where women had lost something along the way due to some Systemic
entanglement. The Constellation space was such a powerful gift to help
them regain a sense of fuller femininity.
I do many little exercises in my workshops, recently I almost went a full day
without doing a case, it was quite surprising. So I have started to
use a little exercise to explore Masculine and Feminine energy. I go
round the circle and give people a letter, A then B then A and B and
so on.. The A's are the feminine energy. The B's the masculine,
irrespective of the gender of the participant.
I tell the group that I give the feminine the A because we are all
born of a woman. Then I let the group move with their body. The first
time I did this in Beijing, the exercise was so chaotic in the room,
it seemed there were no patterns. But we started to ask if anyone
wanted to share anything.
Then the patterns revealed themselves. The male energy often looked up
and sometimes out. The female energy often looked to the floor. We
digested this, and then a bit more came out. Six people said there
were following someone else, and five of them were feminine energy.
And a little bit more. There was one male energy that followed a
feminine. The feminine was spinning on the spot. The participant, a
woman in fact, said she followed the feminine energy until it stopped
spinning, and then she stopped following the feminine.
We were quite amazed at this, and for the participants we started to
make sense of this in terms of Hellinger and other male and female
ideas. Maleness as the protector, looking for danger or animals, the
female energy tending for the children and looking down. Some of the
participants offered similar ideas. It seemed to fit. It also helps
me understand why male energy stands in first place in the family
constellation, on the edge of the family, easier to look out etc.
Then, later we held some organisational workshops on this trip, and
still also Constellations is such a good space to explore these
dynamics and leadership. The Constellation space helps people
understand the positions and attitudes of leadership, in their own
contexts, but there are always shared themes as well. Now we add these
gendered ideas. Often in Constellations re couples working together,
it ends with the man being the leader, or the person with the
strongest male energy being the leader, which seems to be more
accurate, for example, in the case of two women working together.
Then we tried an exercise, the male energy looks out, the female more
looks in, if they go with their bodies the male energy looks out of
the window sometimes and the female energy sits on the floor. Now we
ask the basic question we use in Organisational and Management
workshops to explore leadership issues: "Follow me". The female energy
sitting on the floor responds to the male energy by the window
positively and her body is drawn away from the floor towards the
maleness. But if we reverse this and ask the female energy to say this
the male energy is perplexed, "to where?". If the 'where" is into the
home where the female energy seems to be, it seems to lack a sense of
direction.
So these ideas and exercises are useful for disseminating the various
roles and tasks in organisations as well. I think it adds a useful
dimension to help us explore.
I think the exitement of exercises in the Constellation space is that
you never know the outcome, and if you can quell your expectantions
and intentions, something rich may emerge.
Any way, these are not rules, just noticings! Of course.
Alll the best.....David Mathes, Guangzhou and Sydney
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