Alchemy and family constellations

Recently I've been reflecting on the symbolic between alchemy and family constellations. I have studied alchemy as part of my psychotherapy training for four years, but only it begins to settle as an embodied knowing.

Family constellations (and systemic ritual, as well as talking therapy) are very alchemical. Alchemy has been adopted by Carl Jung to symbolise our inner process of transformation. Just like medieval alchemists, we need a vessel for this work, inside it we put our 'prima materia' - the base metal we want to turn into gold, then we apply a series of operations to purify and transform the metal, with each step taking it closer and closer to the ideal state we want. 

In a constellation our vessel is the circle - the people who gather with an intention to serve each other and the wider ancestral field; our base metal is the issue or a heart's desire that is presented by the issue holder. Once we set the constellation up with representatives we begin the alchemical cycle. 

Alchemical cycle has four stages - Nigredo, Albedo, Citrinitas and Rubedo. We start at the bottom, at Nigredo, at the darkest, or in our case of a constellation we start with observing what the representatives feel and what entanglements unfold. We see the real issue the way it presents itself in the container of a circle. 

To reach the stage of Albedo, where the clouds begin to part and we are seeing a bit of the sun, or clarity, we have to go through a purification process. Calcinatio and solutio are the operations that purify the constellation with fire - anger, and water - tears; those are stages of acknowledging what is, of grieving, of expressing the feelings that were never allowed to be expressed. We dissolve stagnant energy that was passed down the generations, and honour the fate of those who came before. 

With a bit more clarity we move towards Citrinitas - a place of an 'aha' of an enlightenment where we are able to resolve the entanglements that were illuminated by the constellation. We are able to apply the operations of separatio and conjuctio - the separation and the coming together; letting go of what is not ours and returning it to the ancestors, discerning what is ours and what is a loyalty or entanglement; or bringing back and re-joining the excluded members of the family system, or excluded parts of self. 

In a process of sublimatio we transform the imbalance by acknowledging what is, recognising unhelpful patterns and offering an alternative more truthful way to see what is. And with coagulatio we are bringing the insights down to the depth of our being, integrating them and grounding them into our bodies. 

After Citrinitas, where we touched the truth of the family system, unfolded the pattern and shifted the energy to a point of relaxation, where the whole family system is able to breathe out more freely; we take the constellation into Rubedo, bringing the issue holder into the constellation and allowing them to feel the results, to participate in the final resolution image that the constellation offered, to integrate and imprint the new feeling into the body. 

The alchemical cycle maps the whole constellation process and is also present in every intervention within the constellation, just as it does for our life in general in mini and macro cycles. 

I am fascinated by how the ancient wisdom is passed down the generations and finds new meaning later on, how it is made relevant and healing by the descendants at the same time offering gratitude to the ancestors. The healing happening in the present flows both directions - to the past and to the future. Always.