I was invited to lead an Organizational/Politcal Constellation at the Compassionate Listening Project Annual Gathering. Founded in 1990, the Project originally concentrated on citizen diplomacy in Israel-Palestine. In 1999, their work moved beyond the Middle East when they took their curriculum and facilitator certification program world-wide.

We asked: How can the organization and members draw inspiration and energy to further Compassionate Listening Project’s important work?

I began with three core elements and invited members of the group to step into the Constellation as themselves, another person, or an abstract element or archetype. Gradually, the space filled with movement and emotion. Despair and tears mixed with optimism and compassionate love.  Out of this free-flow, patterns emerged that well described the collective organism called Compassionate Listening Project.

Afterward, Leah Greene, the founder and Executive Director wrote, "The Constellation was rich, to say the least. I still feel an excitement about what happened. I loved the experience I had at the end, of light, energy and strength pouring down from the ancestors. I still feel filled with that energy."

The Constellation showed where the personal and the political embrace. We become politically active to change the world. In fostering Compassionate Listening, whose voice can we not listen to with compassion? Whom do we most yearn will hear to us? As one participant reflected, "I've realized that my position in the Constellation also reflected my life at a deeper level."
 

A Personal Constellation

A woman asked for a Constellation for help with the feeling that two conflicting people live inside her.  One is courageous, vital, ambitious, energetic and passionate. She is skilled in the healing arts and a loving mother. Emerging into her True Self makes her happier and more successful. The other feels small and invisible. She is perceived as naive and stupid. She worries and gets lost in uncertainty.  

When the Capable One achieves success, the Miserable One breaks down. Their on-going tug-of-war undermines the client's life. She has done therapy and process work to strengthen the positive and transform the negative.  Still, the negative part neither goes away nor becomes satisfied.

We set up a Constellation with these two aspects of the Self to perceive whose feelings are alive in the client. Facts do not lead to an answer, because the facts are long forgotten. 

The internal image that came into focus was of a young girl in the Old Country a century ago. She gave herself to an older, respected man in the village and became pregnant. Her parents sent her to a convent. She left an infant daughter behind and returned to her family still a "virgin," the honor of the family and the father intact.  Later she married and had a second daughter, my client's grandmother. 

The Capable One is the feeling embodied by the great-grandmother. The Miserable One is her abandoned daughter. Before children are taught the false "facts" of their family, their hearts are an open channel to the Truth. The grandmother carried her sister’s feelings of abandonment and unworthiness. Her granddaughter, my client, took on these feelings.  

In a guided meditation, the client imagined the spirit of these two ancestors. She spoke to them and they spoke to her. They said, "It's such a long time ago.  A long time ago."  She received their love and blessings. "You are free." They encopurage her to cease grieving their guilt and sorrow.  They smile when she thrives and loves well. 

The client wrote me afterward, "It seems my healing abilities have taken off!  I'm amazing myself, laughing!  Every time I give a healing I get one." She noted that even though the Constellation revealed an important missing piece of the puzzle, everything cannot be fixed at once. She can only apply and integrate the healing by continuously holding awareness of the True Self. That takes vigilance and work.

Training for Constellation Facilitators

I will be leading a 2-day training weekend for Constellations at the New England Institue of Systemic Constellations on December 5-6. The sessions are open to all levels from newcomers to trained facilitators. 

In April, 2010, I am planning a 3-day training in the Seattle area sponsored by the Compassionate Listening Project.