Family Constellations

MidWinter News 2020

Cobblestone Beach, Grand Marais, Lake Superior

February 22, 2020

Dear Friends,

The light has changed and these past few days bring with them birdsong and melting snow. I am feeling and leaning into the change of season even though I know we have weeks of winter still ahead.

I just returned from Grand Marais and Lake Superior, where I taught an Authentic Movement Workshop and led a Family Constellation workshop. Both experiences were deep and wonderful; I felt very welcomed by the community. I must say that I was really taken in by the land and by the Lake itself. For weeks before I went I sensed the power of the Lake speaking to me , and now, back here in Vermont, Lake Superior’s shorelines, her waves, and ice floes are very much moving inside me, integrating. I am very grateful for this experience.

I had a very beautiful experience showing my paintings at The Garage Cultural Center in Montpelier and the Ava Gallery in Lebanon during the month of December. I am grateful to be able to express important and deep ways that my prayers for the Earth and Humanity come through my paintings. I will have another show in the Spring months for those who are interested. I will keep you posted on that.

On March 14, 2020, I will be holding another Family Constellation workshop in Montpelier at the Movement Center, Clothespin Factory where I practice and teach Authentic Movement. There are spaces for representatives available. The two focus client spots have filled. This is amazing and deep work and I highly recommend it. If you or anyone you know might benefit, it is worth the experience. The representatives receive deep healing movements as well. The work untangles and clears ancestral trauma, beliefs, entanglements. It is not uncommon for people to be carrying or trying to resolve issues that did not come from them but from generations before them. This work addresses that. In addition, it also puts one in touch with the great ancestral gifts, strengths and resources that are also sometimes blocked or hidden. March 14, 1:00-5:00, Preregistration ($35.00) necessary. Contact me at jansandman@comcast.net or 802 522-5032

I will be starting a new round of Authentic Movement classes in April. I will keep you updated. If any of you want to be specifically notified about constellation work, let me know as I have a mailing that goes out just for that when the workshops occur, I will add you to that list.

Wishing all of you harmony in the increasing brightness of the longer days, the lighter mornings, the lighter evenings, the days of continued cold even as the light shines brighter and at times, the dripping sounds of the melting snow.

Always,

Jan

Autumn Newsletter

Dear Friends ,

As summer winds down, today is warm, sunny, humid. In a couple of days, the weather will shift: cooler days and nights.

I recently returned from the NE Women’s Herbal Conference where I offered an Authentic Movement workshop, beautifully attended in a gorgeous space. It was an honor to be part of this event and to help its beginning to happen through movement.I recognize Helen Ward, Melanie Carpenter and Laura Julie Krouse and their co-joined effort and success to create a very deep and powerful gathering.

My Authentic Movement classes will begin mid September after I return from the beauty of Prince Edward Island. I have room for one or two people in the Thursday class. (9-11:00 every Thursday until mid December) Contact me if you are interested or know someone who may be. The description is on my website.

October 20th, from 1:00-5:00 marks the date for the next Family Constellation workshop. This is beautiful, effective and powerful work. I highly recommend trying it as either a representative or a person presenting a constellation. Again, I am free to answer any questions that you may have. jansandman@comcast.net or 802 522-5032 You will find the description on my website. I hope that the summer has been restorative for you all. It has truly been active and very alive for me. I have a passion for growing roses and waking to them each morning. I will miss them as the weather turns.

I look forward to the many opportunities for connecting this autumn.

all the very best,

Jan

Summer, 2017

White Stones, Bones, and Mist: Authentic Movement and Living Prayer

Dear Friends,

We are approaching the full moon of July in this very powerful Summer of 2017. Deep and penetrating rains, ushering in a more inward energy as summer commences. Each hour of sun is noticed and celebrated. It seems as though the fruits of the field and tree literally pop during these sunny moments. Prayers for the sodden ground and the people and animals and plants most affected by it. Joy in the flowers and light.

On July 25th at 7:00 pm at the Joslin Memorial Library, 4391 Main Street in Waitsfield, I will be reading from my book White Stones, Bones and Mist: Authentic Movement and Living Prayer. It is possible that Barrie Fisher, the photographer for the book, will also be present. Books will be available for purchase of course, or just come and listen. This work of Authentic Movement is such a profound practice, I would just love to have people know more about it. https://joslinmemoriallibrary.com/calendar/

The Beginning Authentic Movement workshop is in process and going beautifully. Deep and powerful openings are occurring as movers engage in this carefully contained and radically simple practice. I hope to offer a full Beginning Series of 8-10 weeks in the fall. For people with experience, there will also be continuing classes. The schedule will come out soon.

My dear friend, Elizabeth Hin, founder of the White Rose Foundation, will be offering a 2 day class in the Montpelier area on August 5 and 6. This is a rare opportunity to sit with and learn from a profound spiritual master. For more information or to register contact Blaine Glass, http://www.thewhiterose.org/calendar/

Regular Family Constellation Workshops will resume in the fall. I am attending a Constellation Intensive this summer to work with several different masters in the field and will no doubt be incorporating this work into my workshops.

In August, I will be in the far North on Prince Edward Island, for quiet retreat, contemplation and rest.

Deep gratitude to all of you for all you do to make the world a better place. I hope to see you soon.

In Summer’s long light,

Jan

Upcoming Book Reading and Family Constellation Workshop

Dear Friends,
I have recently returned from a magnificent journey through the American Southwest,
spending time immersed in the vastness of the land, the saturation of prayer and reverence for life throughout the area. I am deeply grateful.
Two opportunities have arisen in May for me to read from my new book, White Stones, Bones and Mist:Authentic Movement and Living Prayer. One is on Thursday, May 25 from 7:00-8:30 at the Jaquith Public Library in Marshfield and the other is on Tuesday, May 30, at 7:00 pm at the TW Wood Art Gallery on 46 Barre Street in Montpelier. In both of these events, I will be sharing space with Patty Joslyn, who will read from her new book, Ru min ate: Meditations on Mystical Wisdoms. There will be books to buy if you so desire, or just come and listen. Refreshments will be served.

Also, There are a couple of spaces for representatives in the upcoming Family Constellation workshop on May 20 from 1:00-5:00. If you have tried this work, you know its effectiveness , beauty and power. If you haven’t tried it, but are interested, this is a great opportunity. So much benefit comes from this work for everyone involved at any level. Call me at 229-4671 to register or send me and email.

Bell Rock, Sedona
Image by Jan Sandman

Upcoming Book soon to be released

White Stones, Bones, and Mist: Authentic Movement and Living Prayer

My book is in the final stages of being proofed and ready for publication. Here is a photo of the cover. I took this photograph a few years ago while on a retreat in Bellagio, Italy. This is Lake Como. It was here that I knew and understood for certain that this book would be written. I look forward to sharing it with you.

Just a reminder that there is a Family Constellation Workshop coming up on February 11 from 1:00-5:00. Contact me at jansandman@comcas.net if you are interested. There is room for more participants if it calls to you.

FAMILY CONSTELLATIONS

This is my great grandmother. Gramma MacDonald. Mary. She was born on the Isle of Harris in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. I visited there several years ago and experienced the land where she was born and lived. She moved from the island as a young woman and had her children in North America–Martha’s Vineyard and then Canada. When I visited the island, I met a second cousin, who remarkably is the town historian. He told me that she sent letters home to Scotland regularly indicating that she always longed for Scotland although she never returned. You can see in this photo that she is knitting, smiling, with her bonnet on. There is an open book in her lap which very likely is the family Bible, which I now have in my possession. Its binding is completely disintegrating. Do I have it rebound? Or let the disintegration continue? The beauty of something so deeply loved and consulted dissolving—like a fading flower.

Just as we inherit genes that determine eye color, height, body type, we also inherit the energy of our families. What we do with that, how we stand with that is up to each of us.

Families are energy systems, among other things. Family energy systems know and remember all that occurs. Many of the things that occur are flowing and beautiful, no matter the family circumstance. And some things are painful. Sometimes too painful, to be fully acknowledged and integrated into consciousness. Those events or dynamics are pushed away, hidden in the deep shadows of the family field. But they are not forgotten.

Subsequent generations sometimes can feel, sense, act out, live these unacknowledged events, emotions, dynamics without knowing what is happening. Family constellation work reveals the hidden energies so that they can be held in consciousness, accepted and integrated into the complex living matrix which is a family. Not only are hidden difficulties revealed, but also hidden resources, hidden gems of wisdom, compassion, understanding.

My experience is if something exists in a family, then somehow the family has the energy or resource to hold it in consciousness , love, compassion and understanding. It may be necessary to access deep ancestral roots to find this compassion, or it may be that through some members of the family, access to universal energies can pour into the family field.

There is a workshop coming up on February 11 in the afternoon . There is room to come as a representative if you would like to experience this work. Contact me through this website or through email at jansandman@comcast.net It can be life changing in a good way. I offer these workshops on a regular basis. To be directly informed, subscribe to my website news and you will receive a notice when a new workshop is announced.