There is no such thing as a ‘proper’ constellation

A lot is written about constellations and people pass on to acquaintances how much they have had from a constellation. Most people who have a question want to get rid of something, so if a constellation has brought the colleague so much, ‘I’m sure it will help me solve my ailments too’. And this perhaps also fuels the idea that doing a constellation works as a medicine for something.

In the first morning of a workshop, I guided two constellations. During lunch, I received a few anxious questions about whether everyone was getting their own constellation these two days. This is the second illusion that often prevails: that a constellation is ‘proprietary’ and only for the questioner. As Stephan Hausner says: the idea of an individual illness is an illusion. I would venture to say by now that the idea of ‘an individual constellation’ is an illusion.

All the questions people come up with turn out to be related to other people, or to the culture’s way of thinking, for example. Every constellation sets something in motion in the bystanders and representatives, even if it cannot immediately be put into words what kind of movement. With constellations, something is apparently touched in our collective subconscious – precisely when someone else’s question is being explored. Because then access to the subconscious is less blocked by self-will and reason.

‘The constellation was about something completely different from what I expected’ was remarked again last workshop. Apparently, the question bringer expects a certain solution to the question. Because usually, something we cannot solve so far brings us to a constellations workshop. Systemically, however, with a constellation we do not look for a solution, but we investigate what wants to have a place again, so that the system can be complete and flow again. Being able to include again what could not get a place because it was once too painful to live with, to give something a place in its own history. And this ‘own’ can also be, for instance, the history of your country region, or the country where your grandfather fought. Suddenly, we become aware that we are also part of the history of others.

So unfortunately, doing a constellation doesn’t get rid of your ailments, but you begin to realise that your ailments are symptoms that tell you that something or someone wants to be recognised as part of our history, of our system. And acknowledgement is the most healing movement …

Expectation puts the will and the ratio to work to control what wants to move.