What is Representing for the Collective?
In this article, Co-founder of the Hague Center for Field Inquiry, Diana Claire Douglas shares about an element of the process for Constellating for the Collective - Representing.
Inspired by our love for All-Life, THC.FI, co-founded by Anne-Marie and Diana Claire is a holon of The Hague Center for Global Governance, Innovation and Emergence. It is a Center for deep inquiry into big questions using an experiential and embodied practice we call Constellating for the Collective (C4C) - a branch of Systemic Constellation Work (SCW).
C4C is a creative process with many options for how we find the question or issue to be explored, name the elements of the system, map the system of elements, listen to the messages from the Field, and gather insights from the process.
What is Representing?
Bert Hellinger, the founder of Systemic Constellation Work, discovered, through phenomenological experiments, two things that distinguish SCW from other processes:
1. There is a Knowing Field, a sacred container within which we can explore and experiment;
2. As human beings we have the ability to tune into the Knowing Field — we are the antennae receiving and broadcasting information and energy from the Knowing Field. This is called Representative Perception.
In a Constellation, the elements of the system being explored are named. Then each participant chooses or is chosen to represent one element. For example, in a Constellation (May 2025) where we asked the question:
“As the forces of creation and destruction play or dance with us, what messages do Earth and Cosmos have for Humanity right now?” The elements represented were Messages, Humanity as a Collective, Individual Human Beings, Creativity, Gaia, Evolution, Cosmos, Destruction, All Beings and Galactic Beings.
The guidelines for Representatives are:
❖ The representative’s stance is to be an “empty or hollow reed” for the energy and information from the field to arise in you. You may receive body sensations, emotions, images, words or sentences.
❖ Representing is not taking on a "role" — do not think or imagine whatever you are representing.
❖ You do not need to know anything as a representative. Stay neutral without any interpretations, judgments or assumptions of who or what you are representing.
❖ Although there are guidelines, there is no right or wrong when being a
representative. Everything is part of the constellation. Even if you have thoughts/feelings that seem personal.
❖ Allow yourself to be surprised by what you experience!
This report is from early in the process
This report is when the process has come to a resolution.
Reporting
A Representative may be representing a person, other living beings, a quality or an abstract element. Throughout the constellations, the Constellator will ask Representatives to briefly report what they are experiencing: body sensations, emotions, words they sense need to be spoken, and their awareness and feelings about the other represented elements. Through the reports and movements, the thread of the constellation is woven. The illustrations above demonstrate reports while energies are emerging in the constellation and later as elements experience resolution.
At THC.FI we have found it very helpful to do the Constellations “blind.” That is, the Representatives do not know what they are representing so it is much easier to allow the messages from the Field to flow through them. We have also found that being a Representative is very natural for some people, and for many it takes practice. When participating in Collective Constellations, the “greater forces” can be intense and require a willingness to say “Yes” to serving the Whole.
As Ervin Laszlo said to the Constellation Community,
“Within the old, materialist paradigm all phenomena can only be explained in a materialist way, [so Representative Perception doesn’t make sense]. The 'new' paradigm where everything in this universe is eternally connected with everything else- opens the door to an entirely new possibility of understanding Representative Perception and where the concept of the 'Knowing Field' or the 'Akashic Field' makes sense.”
Constellating for the Collective is an experiential process. The Knowing field welcomes you to try it out!
We are happy to offer Constellating for the Collective facilitation for individuals and groups
who wish to explore deep questions!
Diana Claire Douglas, systemic facilitator, coach, and consultant
My purpose: attuning to the Sacred, to participate in the movements for humanity to be in our rightful place in relationship with All-Life. I am lead Constellator for The Hague Center for Global
Governance, Innovation and Emergence and co-founder of The Hague Center for Field Inquiry.
I enjoy bringing to my facilitation my love for Life as an artist, author, researcher, and grandmother. My most recent book on facilitating Collective Constellations, Whole Systems Design: Inquiries in the Knowing Field, was published in 2022.
www.knowingfielddesigns.com
www.thehaguecenter.org/fieldinquiry
WHAT IS THE HAGUE CENTER FOR FIELD INQUIRY (THC.FI)?
Inspired by our love for All-Life, THC.FI is a Center for deep inquiry into big questions!
It is a holon of The Hague Center for Global Governance, Innovation,and Emergence.