CENTER HERE AND NOW / WORKSHOPS / May 2021 / 06.05.21 - 09.05.21

SYSTEMIC RITUAL® AND THE FOUR DIRECTIONS WHEEL

Systemic Ritual® are a combination of shamanism, Family Constellations and archetypal systems. Systemic Ritual® has its roots in Shamanism and Systemic Constellation work.  It also has its own specific form and dynamics. The influence of Bert Hellinger's Systemic Constellations is visible in the representation of participants and their problems and in the words / keys of healing. While the shamanic roots of this method are present in the sound of drums, rattles, prayers and trance.

It is a powerful and dynamic method for bringing clarity, movement, and healing to personal day-to-day topics as well as to large fields of collective traumas that come from past events such as wars, the holocaust, colonialism, etc.

In a Systemic Ritual®, we bring into a sacred space different elements of a situation or topic that feels stuck or incomplete. We build resources around it and open the space for movement and healing, supporting the system to clarify so that the held energies can flow back to its natural course.

In the rituals, everyone that is present is contributing to the work, like in traditional tribal practices where the community comes together for healing one or more individuals, and in this way, the whole community is healed and every individual that is part of the system receives something.

Some fundamental elements of the work with Systemic Ritual:

• The Wheel
• Entering the multidimensional time/space
• Calling the group soul (field)
• Singing / Drumming / rattling. As ways to create light trance and connect with non-ordinary reality.
• Connecting with ancestors
• Work with resources
• Prayer (intention and orientation)
• Shamanic rituals

THE WHEEL OF THE FOUR DIRECTIONS

The Wheel of the Four Directions is one of the many elements for working with Systemic Rituals, and teaches us about the eternal flow and continuity of life. It is based on observation of nature, relating to the four directions and the natural cycles that happen in a moment, within a day, a month, a year, a lifetime, and beyond life and death. Thanks to working with the Wheel of Life, we can enter the cycles of nature, the season and the day in a more conscious way.

The Wheel is based on four forces, which are the cardinal directions: East, South, West, North, which are a map of reality and are a spiritual tool for learning about the world. The Four Directions have their equivalents in the cycles of nature:

• Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter
• Rising Moon, Full Moon, Declining Moon, New Moon
• Morning, Noon, Evening, Night
• Childhood, Puberty, Dying, Rebirth
• Mind, Body, Emotions, Soul

The Wheel is a map that offers clear and dynamic ways to recognize, re-connect and integrate different parts of ourselves and of a system that we tend to experience as stuck, chaotic, overwhelming, or disconnected. When we see and relate to the different elements of a system within the wheel of life, we open the space for movement, healing, and integration in the places where we feel stuck and disconnected.

As we move through the Wheels and Rituals we will deepen our consciousness of the body, mind, and emotions, while we sing, rattle and drum. The singing and repetitive movement of the rattle and drum brings the adrenaline levels down, it affects our busy mind and opens the space to connect with a higher level of mind. It brings a state of relaxation and balance to our nervous system. The element of prayer is a fundamental ingredient for the work. Prayer creates a state of being that is receptive to the natural intelligence and healing power of the field. This is a work of love, respect, and compassion towards ourselves, others, our human being community, and the whole of life.

SHAMANIC WHEEL OF LIFE AND HEALING

During this workshop we will explore the power of the Shamanic Wheel and embody its aspects in different ways:

• Individual exploration. You will use the wheel as a map to constellate certain aspects of your life, relating to questions or topics that are important for you. You will create your wheel using stones and objects as representatives of elements and qualities that are present in your question.
• As a practitioner. With a partner, you support each other to see and related to certain aspects of life. The supporting partner takes the role of a practitioner, making use of prayers in different ways - through rattling, drumming, singing and the power of words, sentences, and sounds - calling support to create space for movement and healing for the partner.
• Work in small groups. By representing different quadrants and aspects of the wheel you will explore and embody the energy and qualities of the four directions at mental, physical, physiological, emotional, and spiritual levels.
• With Systemic Rituals. We create large wheels as a ritual space, where everybody participates and move through a dynamic and alive constellation - moving, walking, dancing, standing, laying down, interacting, singing, etc. - meeting different resources and elements in the field that are ready for being met, seeing, felt, and related with in various ways, creating space for disentanglement, completion, clarity, and healing of specific areas of life.

In this workshop we are going to:

• Create a sense of community and safety amongst everyone present. We create a conscious sharing space and a field of healing, where everyone is welcome to participate, by offering and by receiving something. 
• Learn the basic structure of the wheel - the connection between the four directions, the four seasons, and time of the day - in experiential and dynamic ways.
• Learn and work with the energetic and psychological qualities related to each of the four quadrants of the wheel. 
• Create archetypical wheels from inquiries, questions, and life situations that the participants bring. These may be topics related to intimate relationships; sexuality; the connection between body, mind, emotions, spirit; connection with family and ancestors; work and creativity; completion and letting go of attachments; etc.
• Create light trance and states of awakened relaxation through singing, rattling, and drumming. The light trance allows us to move through different states of consciousness so that we can connect with the various elements that show up in the ritual.
• Work with dance, voicing, and movement, as ways to move the energy, ground ourselves, and practice awareness and connection between body, mind, emotions, and spirit. 

SYSTEMIC RITUAL OF DAAN VAN KAMPENHOUTA & KOMALA

Systemic Ritual® is a method created by Daan Van Kampenhout, who has been practicing Shamanism since the age of sixteen and worked very close to Bert Hellinger with Systemic Constellations. Daan is the author of several books, including: “The Four Directions” and “Images of the Soul: The Workings of the Soul in Shamanic Rituals and Family Constellations”. Daan’s work and perspective when working and teaching about the Wheel of the Four directions come from his observations and shamanic experiences. He talks about recognizing the directions as the only true teachers.

Komala’s work with Systemic Ritual® and the Four Direction’s Wheel comes from Daan’s transmission and teachings, in combination with her explorations and experiences of over thirty years. She sees and experiences the wheel as an alive system that carries and transmits the basic principles of life, and I am fascinated by its simplicity and richness. It is her honour and joy to share the wisdom and power from this body of work. May it support opening, clarity, and movement to individual people, their communities, and consequently the world at large.

DAN VAN KAMPENHOUT ABOUT THE FOUR DIRECTIONS:

“The Wheel of Four Directions is a practical Map. The Four Directions form a whole. Knowing the Wheel and the Four Directions will help you better define your own place. Once you find your place, the directions will show you what your next step might be and what move to take. The Wheel is thought-provoking and brings valuable insights. The Wheel is also a convenient tool to help you understand, direct and shape your daily life and spiritual development.

The Wheel contains the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual processes that we all experience. And what it adds to what we already know is order and depth. In addition, the Wheel shows us what a natural process is, it teaches us how to move from one place to another. Thanks to the Four Directions, you will understand that the different phases of the process support and complement each other. The Four Directions are unchanging, they are part of the natural world that brings strength to the body, mind and soul.

All of this makes the Four Directions the best spiritual helpers for people who are entering the shamanic path. The Four Directions are never detached from direct experience. They are part of the body, you can recognize them at every turn. When you cook dinner, when you are scared, when you build a house, you are always part of the Wheel of Four Directions, at any time of the day or night. You don't have to go into trance to experience them - you are already experiencing them. The Four Directions are, and always will be, the most concrete and closest forces you will encounter in shamanism - forces that are easily recognized, available, and always present.

The Four Directions also provide an important anchor for those who are already advanced in shamanic practices and rituals. The Wheel seems simple at first, but in its simplicity it contains many unexpected details and deep layers.

For me personally, the Wheel is an inexhaustible source of knowledge and constant astonishment. Each discovery, each new revision of the Wheel strengthens my relationship with people and the world as such. I wish you all a good journey around the Wheel.” / Dan van Kampenhout /

In the SYSTEMIC RITUAL® AND THE FOUR DIRECTIONS WHEEL workshop we connect with the four directions through our personal and transpersonal experience:

First, we will meet the qualities of the directions at a personal level, inside ourselves, by recalling explicit and implicit memories related to each specific direction. We open our mind, heart and body to remember, at a physical, physiological, and emotional levels, our resourcing experiences associated with the smells, colours, taste, sounds, texture, and feelings associated with the directions, through the day’s cycle, seasons, and moon’s cycle.

When we embody our experiences of each direction, by connecting with our felt-sense, we arrive deeper into the present moment, in the here and now.

From an embodied experience and an attitude of prayer, we will connect with a transpersonal experience of the four directions. We will feel and meet the qualities of each direction - that is outside and all around us - as alive spirits and fields of power, and as entities with whom we can connect, call, relate and communicate.

ABOUT THE WHEEL OF THE FOUR DIRECTIONS

The Wheel is an organic system where we understand each direction in connection to the others. It provides a rhythmic pattern that comes from the natural world.

The wheel is a map that organizes time and space. We can go to the place of "afternoon" or "night", even in the morning. Spring doesn’t exist only at a certain time of the year. It is a place, a quality that we can visit and evoke.

The wheel represents the eternal cyclical movement of life, from creation, manifestation, destruction, and void. Nothing ever stops. Everything keeps on moving. The basic wheel is based on observations of nature.

In the cycle of day and night: Following the darkness of night the sun returns and rises in the morning, in the East. In the South, in the middle of the day, the sun is the strongest. In the evening the sun starts going down, in the West. And the sun is gone in the North when we enter the night.

In the cycle of the seasons: The Spring with its increasing light and energy is placed in the East. Summer, with its fullness and warmth, is in the South. In the West is Autumn, when the energy slows down and the strength of the sun gets weaker. In the North, we find the Winter, when solar energy is the weakest.

We receive information and can relate with the wheel through natural facts and the manifestations of nature. And we can also look at the wheel and the characteristics of the four directions translated into energetic qualities, psychological states, and spiritual perspectives:

EAST. In Spring the sun starts increasing its strength, new leaves and flowers appear, life gets going, and animals start mating. In the morning the sun rises and starts increasing in energy. Crescent moon. 

The East can also be related to an upward state of expansion, inspiration, starting up, optimism, expanded vision, returning, hope, new ideas, inspiration, growing energy, new possibilities, renewal, freshness.

SOUTH. In Summer the sun is the strongest, the light is bright and the animals have their babies. In the middle of the day, the sun is at its peak and there is a lot of energy. Full moon. 

South can be related to being active, lots of power, place of doing and using our energy, manifestation, fullness, the power to act, relating and being with people, interacting, building structures, using our physical strength.

WEST. In autumn, the leaves are falling and it is harvesting time. In the evening the sunsets and the temperature and the energy of the sun go down. Waning moon.

West can be related to slowing down, resting, relaxing, turning inward, rounding up, evaluating, going into meditation and contemplation. It is time for reflection and letting go of what we no longer need.

NORTH. In winter the plants stop growing and go into a state of rest and no doing. In the darkness of night, there is no sun and the world of forms disappear during our sleep. New Moon.

In the North, we can connect with the mysterious aspect of absence, emptiness, stillness, silence, void, the unknown, timelessness, the ground of being, no activity. It is time for a break or pause, to enter a formless state.

SHAMANISM

“The basic concept of shamanism is that the world we live in is just one of the many. These other worlds are inhabited by all kinds of spirits. There are powerful forces of nature: the four spirits of the Four Directions, mountains, seas, thunder. There are also spirits of animals and plants, souls or the spirits of the dead. And the word shamanism means making conscious contact with spirits.”
/Daan Van Kampenhout/

Shamanism is one of the oldest spiritual and healing traditions of mankind on the whole Earth. Its roots go back to the origins of humanity and form the basis of every known culture. In shamanic traditions there is a common belief is in the existence of spirits and the spiritual world, from which the knowledge, power and healing come. And also the belief that everything that exists has a soul or spirit. The basic assumption of shamanism is the existence of a spiritual world, and a shaman is a person who can enter this world and cooperate with invisible powers. For centuries, shamans have been concerned with maintaining harmony between the real world and the spiritual, between man and nature, they heal, read the future, mediate in the relations between human and spirits. They are a bridge between the earthly world and the invisible one, they mediate between the world of spirits and the everyday life of ordinary people.

Shamanism is the art of communication between different layers of reality. It is the felt-sense knowledge that we are all interconnected with everything and that everything in existence has a soul, an essence, a spirit. We can tune-in with, call, and communicate with different aspects of life as spirits in various ways. We can meet them in our dreams, through prayers, trance, and by embodying and observing them in different ways. The communication goes both ways, so as we talk to the spirits they talk back to us. This experience of connection gives us a sense of grounding that is very nourishing and stabilizing. For entering such a connection, we need to become permeable, open ourselves, and listen attentively, with our mind, heart, and body.

WORKSHOP TRANSLATED INTO POLISH!

Details of the workshop