Julius Jones narrated this to us at lunch the day after he led this event..
Event flow
A. They started with a meal prepared by volunteers.
B. Initial Framing
Julius framed the event as Freedom Circles -a healing process for marginalized communities. About half of the participants are African-American; there are LGBT and other folks as well.
He described how this is not about particular issues in specific, but about creating circles of healing and inclusion for people.It is about people standing shoulder to shoulder with each other in a collaborative way, open to whatever healing wants to come in.
Early on they said this was nondenominational, but, if anyone who feels offended is, of course, welcome to leave at any time.
He acknowledged the community - each of the people.
There was framing about intersectionality - sexism and racism both, rather than focusing on only one issue to the exclusion of other issues.
The intersectionality of oppression. Intersectionality 2.0 includes gender, race, sexual identification, culture, and undocumented people
The intention is to build deep political solidarity, so that all can exist and coalesce in the same space.
This particular process we will be doing is intentionally apolitical. It is emotionally and spiritually-centered; politics are secondary here.
There are divisions sewn in each oppressed community, fractures within, and between, each community.
This has been called "the Oppression Olympics" - a sense of "You don't understand my pain - you can't. And, my pain is more important than yours"
This creates a situation where different groups are vying for grant monies.It is important to talk about privilege and victim. Often people are pitted into either-or.
C. Resonant Listening
People were paired up.
One person was asked to tell a story of where they either felt marginalized, or where they felt free.
The other resonates back - the listener is asked to find something in the other person's story, however different it was from their own life, that they can resonate with.
Listeners are instructed: "Do not include your own stuff in this. It is not about you or your feelings but just I can resonate with the part where you..."
After the group did this, there was a huge shift. People then came back into the whole group, and some people were invited to report back what happened. There was very sincere sharing here.
Constellation process
Introduction
[One of the things that was taken into account was how most of the people here did not have experience with Constellations and were unfamiliar with any of these kinds of processes. Also many of the people involved here were struggling with safety and physical needs.]
Representative perception was explained, as an introduction to constellations. Each of the 4 people present who had experience in constellations shared their own description of this, so the group could get to hear it from various perspectives.
This includes things such as:
moving from a headspace to a body space
feel what is in your body
this is not role-playing
to step into someone's field, just feel it.
In the description, they mention that BLM is black centered, multi-identity, and that they might decide to split the group by identification, such as gender or color, later. While there was some deep political solidarity, their intention is not to be political.
Entering the field
They began the constellation by holding up four large cards, and asking four people to come forward to represent these 4 core values of America :
- Freedom
- Prosperity
- Democracy
- Mobility
Values and shadows
After this they said that each of these has a shadow, held up these large cards, and asked for representatives for the shadow of each of those four values:
- Mass incarceration
- Poverty
- Militarism
- Oppression
A few minutes later, they did the same for representatives for the 4 primary lineages of people in the USA, who were also invited in:
- Indigenous natives
- English, Scots-Irish settlers
- African Slaves
- Later immigrants
After this, everyone else was invited to enter into the field and to notice where they were drawn and where they wished to avoid.
At one point, the constellation seemed to come to a stop. One of the co-facilitators spoke aloud some group reflections and pointed out some of the relationships that she was noticing from her perspective.
Another co-facilitator was drumming, which also helped move the constellation along.
At times, people were given cues and other prompts to help them allow the feelings that came.
At one point in the constellation, the rep for Democracy gave back her card and said "Nobody wants me; I don't even believe in Democracy myself."
One of facilitators replied "You don't have to believe it, you just have to represent it. She did.
(Later, when she checked in during the debrief, she describe how she had had a powerful experience.)
During times when the movement in the constellation would stop, the facilitator did check-ins, asking people to report on how they were feeling, or what was happening for them
Additional energies introduced
Julius handed out another set of cards after a while. These included:
- Empowerment of the Feminine
- Love - Heart
- Climate Change /Environment
- Black Lives Matter.
The addition of these four energies to the constellations was a healing movement. Feminine Empowerment seemed to have the largest effect of these.
When these four came in, there was much less feelings of despair or feeling victimized. People began to smile and feel animated.
Some Healing Movements and Insights
When the Black Lives Matter representative came up to the representative for African Slaves, the representative for the slaves said "Before you came over, I felt that the only way through was Mass Incarceration or to violence."
As a representative, this person said that it was the first time she realized that there are choices that are not about mass incarceration or violence, but that she could move towards freedom and/or to Black Lives Matter.
Her statement that there are choices establishes that this healing movement is already there.
Some got a sense that "all that we wish for, is already in the field."
Closing moments
Near the end, it began to rain out on the patio where they were doing this process. A spiral began to form.
Someone on the tail of the spiral that was forming, said "I dont have a place here" and started crying. With this, everyone began to feel more connected.
Then many of the women said "We are not done; we want to hear from Militarization!" whose back was to them. Militarization was the last to report.
A very striking image for Julius was a well-dressed African-American woman who was standing outside after the Constellation with her arms outstretched, allowing the rain to fall on her and just enjoying the entire experience.
"This is what real belonging looks and feels like!" she said, joyfully.