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 ¹thank you' to Saan Ecker and Joanne (Jo) Byrnes of
<http://www.peakgrovesolutions.com.au> Peakgrove
<http://www.peakgrovesolutions.com.au> Equine Assisted Experiences
<http://www.peakgrovesolutions.com.au> , 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
horses¹ 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?¹ I asked. Jo answered, with a laugh: 'oh no, the horses¹ energy
fields are very large, you can just do it from here¹. 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 c¹td: 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 ¹the 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 c¹td: From a distance, Jo asked me what I saw when I looked at the
space. I described the canopy, some mess¹ 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 c¹td: 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 c¹td: 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 representationsand
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 do¹ anything for¹ 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 Jo¹s 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 connectedness¹ 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
