Constellation process using the

Human Template Model

The notion that humans are modelled after some sort of template is not new. Spiritual teachers, philosophers, and biologists throughout history have all proposed a teleological model of human epigenesis. They have all sought to explain the order, unity, coherence, design, and complexity of who we are as a species.

In all the great religions, there is a consistency in the idea that humans exist as a three-part system. We exist in the material world and are made of matter. We illustrate form and function. Our ordered, linear, structured left brain guides this.  This is the body, aka person, that we meet in everyday life, and as we get to know each other, their other self (may) appear. This other self metaphorically resides within this form, an interior world. This interior is not made of matter per se but of narratives and stories, metaphors, myths – whether ancient or new. This interior world is accessed through our right brain, whereas the ordered, structured world is made sense of through our logical left brain. These two brains co-exist, and usually, one is dominant – the left brain commonly, as we live in a highly technological world, sophisticated, learned, and shaped by our creativity. As we do not inhabit an empty container, an inner life resides within us. This inner Self resides within but sometimes is out on a proverbial limb if it feels our body is unsafe. It exists despite what is going on with our narratives or situation in the world. This inner life is our essence, soul, djiwa or any of the countless words used in other cultures.

Aristotle – Plotinus – St Augustine – Hypachia – Lamblichus – Tomas Aquinas – St Teresa de Avila – Al Kindi – al-Ghazali – al-Farabi – Moses Maimonides – Isaac Luria – Ibn al Arabi – St Tomas More – Leo the mathematician – St John of the Cross – St Justin Martyr – Goethe – Hegel – Schumacher – Mohammed Subuh – Master Eckhart – Vladimir Lossky –Teilhard de Chardin – Rudolph Steiner – Carl Jung – Clare Graves – Ken Wilber

These illustrious individuals all possess something in common. They grasped, whether empirically, mentally, or spiritually, that humanity is an extension of history and future potential. Aristotle and Plato first introduced the concept of the Great Chain of Being to their students, and the Neoplatonist philosopher Plotinus later codified it. The Great Chain of Being is a perennial philosophy asserting that we have emerged from various kingdoms and will ascend to higher ethereal realms—not by discarding our physical bodies but by transcending our current selves. We will expand our noosphere—a term coined by Teilhard de Chardin—to illustrate the existence of other biosystems within our particular Earth. The noosphere posits that a collective field encompasses the entirety of human intellectual capacity, which gradually expands as our minds develop. Other philosophers observed that from the diverse kingdoms, we have inherited, possess, and still utilise the phylogenetic substance of the past. Consequently, they asserted, within us are four realms composed of matter, along with a fifth (and up to seven) that reside within. They divided humanity into two components: the material form and the content. Each realm illustrated a state of being—a spiritual condition. These states were regarded as either low or high depending on their interrelations. Muslim theologians and philosophers referred to these as nafs, denoting the lower aspects of the soul that can take power or dominance over us. The soul was perceived as an essence that develops hierarchically; however, different facets of the soul could dominate and become problematic, an adversary or a renegade. It could undermine humanity and life itself.

Using this metamodel, I developed the Human Template Model in partnership with a teacher and psychotherapist pal back in the UK, Francis Reynolds, and then with my wife, Alicia. It has gradually emerged, clarified, and expanded over many years. We use this model to illustrate the previous model suggested by the ‘chain of’ philosophers.

My understanding of constellation work initially emerged during teaching moments with InnerDialogue. I started to illustrate our model of the hierarchical natures within us, derived from Islamic and Sufi theology, by arranging four or so people into a specific formation. One day, for instance, while teaching in Vienna, Austria, a student inadvertently positioned themselves just a few yards behind the small group I was working with. I muscle-tested a participant to see if their altered position within this small group had elicited a reflex or muscle change. As this other person crossed into that field, the muscle response altered. I noticed the anomaly—the introduction of another element into their field—so I asked the person to step away. I re-tested; again, it changed, and upon bringing the person back, I tested again, and again, there was a change in muscle state. This led me to ponder what this person represented. I then employed a mode (or mudra) that posed the question within the gesture, ‘Is this ancestral?’ Again, there was a change. I then inquired about male or female lineages. There was a response indicating male rather than female. This sparked an understanding that we could integrate family patterns, orders, and relationships that accompanied us on our life journeys, which altered our relationship with our essence as these forces became dominant (narrative). We were introduced to our approach to systemic constellations, albeit with a more textured and precise process.

The work was similar to German philosopher Bert Hellinger, a psychoanalyst and ex-priest who had developed much of his understanding in South Africa and through workshops where he saw and compiled a phenomenological understanding of ancestral dynamics. I was often in Austria in the middle eighties as his ideas were being formed. I had no idea of Hellinger’s work, out of which Family and Systemic Constellations arose and a plethora of related models to facilitate change and healing arose. Recently, a Netflix film called The Other Self was an instant hit in Turkey and introduced the Turkish population to how past events, namely family patterns, colour our own lives.

Constellation work is governed by a locus or point through which action and reaction occur. This locus point in our work represents a tacit agreement that a Higher Order of Reality exists. Around this locus, we invite an individual who seeks to uncover the underlying patterns affecting them to enter the space. This person is called the ‘human’ self—the fourth level of order. They then discuss the specific problem, situation, and dynamics. As they speak, the facilitator listens attentively to their language. If the individual does not speak English, a translator assists; however, the method of constructing the constellation may differ. In such cases, various elements representing states (feelings), behaviours (instincts), history, or substances (matter) are introduced and subsequently positioned in relation to them. The essence of what is articulated contains the clue to the element that needs to be included within the constellation. These individuals are now seen as representatives; they exist within this person’s field, and when in a quiet, receptive, and open state, they sense the forces at work within them. The facilitator then inquires what these individuals ‘felt’ or ‘wished to do’ to articulate their perceptions. Some may have moved spontaneously to a different position, or their voiced expressions may illustrate a dynamic, prompting the facilitator to bring someone else forward or reposition them to reflect what they experienced while surrendering to the Higher Order. We refer to this as a stop-motion process, as each ‘presentation’ acts like a film slide, gradually revealing what is absent in the human being that hampers order, structure, alignment, and what may be lacking in terms of Love.

The two principal elements in the work involve the Caduceus and the psychospiritual idea of the five hearts—each is hierarchical yet horizontal, supplanting and developing the order and shape of the human body’s outer and interior to enable an opening to essence. The caduceus is an old symbol adopted in various nuances, with added or missing elements, within the medical profession. The five hearts represent the growth of love within a human–each different ‘heart’ describes the development of capabilities of love and how we develop this capacity until, free of worldly, lower-order elements, it becomes an expression of Divine compassionate and overwhelming love. Both the Caduceus and the hearts offer psycho-spiritual tools that help us to develop through our different realms and allow us to touch, listen and be guided by our inner Self or soul.