Recently I read some article from a woman in New Zealand talking about what it means to take from our ancestors. What she said was largely very familiar for me, but her words made me see a new aspect of relating with the past, a new perspective.

In constellation work we quite often meet situations where it is about accepting destinies or people belonging to our family system. Sometimes it is about difficult destinies, sometimes about forgotten or excluded people, sometimes about the wounds or limitations of parents or grandparents. And most of us have seen many times how liberating it is to meet the feelings, and say yes to them. This is how the past stops to be a burden, a threat, and where one can start to feel the ancestors as a support behind oneself.

The background for this accepting often rather comes from a space of realising that “I don’t really have any other choice anyway”, so taking what is there simply is the better option than fighting or denying. This acknowledgment in the sense of “yes, ok, I can’t change this anyway, so I stop rejecting it…”. is still a passive attitude. Something is coming towards me from outside, and I either reject it or accept it, but I am not the one who is creating some initiative.

Through her words I saw something more. There is a difference between accepting something which simply happened, and actively picking it up and using it, or moving with it.

Heritage points towards this different attitude. It means I say yes to it, I take it, I make it mine. I make it mine and move on with it and make the best from it. I am actively creating. It is welcoming the heritage and taking some responsibility to make something good from it. It includes respect for the source of some wisdom, responsibility and also courage to go out and use it and stand up for it.

The difference might look small or subtle to some first, but when you stay with it for a while on the inside, you start to notice that it carries a quality which connects with your roots. It gives value to the roots, it gives meaning and importance to them. And it contributes something to your purpose for your life, your mission for what you want to contribute to this world. In whatever field of life.

In our heritage training we will focus first on fully taking the heritage from constellation work, and all those who contributed something to it directly or from other fields. And then we create the bridge of how to include this heritage into your work as a facilitator of constellation work. How to connect all the experience and wisdom that belongs to this approach from people before and make it yours and part of your work. This gives roots and wings.

What struck me was the power which is inherent in taking it willingly and consciously and this determination to make something good from it. This is true empowerment. And this is something which can help us so much in reaching to people.