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Subtle Agroecologies
In April 2019, they planted 11,000 vine roots over an area of 30,000 m 2 – in precisely the location
that the rep for the 10 ha of land had identifed in the frst NC. This area was ten times the 3,000 m 2
that Fenia had originally considered planting and which, in 2015, had felt too intimidating for her.
In July 2019, Fenia described how beautiful the vineyard looked and how their commitment to it had
enabled many other aspects of the wider project on the land to gel together. She felt that things were
falling into place and confrmed that all their activities were in line with the new purpose identifed
back in 2015.
OCs sometimes refer to ‘the future that wants to emerge’. Could this be what was identifed through
the NCs for Fenia? What does it mean for a piece of land to have a desire, for a ‘project’ to ask for
vineyards to be included? NCs challenge many of our assumptions about where consciousness is
located and how information fows between different consciousnesses. But NCs are not alone: evidence from a wide range of disciplines indicates that a new paradigm is both required and emerging
(Laszlo et al., 2016). NCs provide a method and data that could support the development of such a
new paradigm.
GENERAL REFLECTIONS
Apart from the preceeding case studies, Mason Boring and Sloan (2013) and Roussopoulos
(2018) describe how NCs have already demonstrated their value for a range of agricultural and
environmentally-related issues. These include: the specifc relationship dynamics between particular humans and other-than-humans; the general relationships that hold within ecosystems; planning
of land development projects; support for environmental and agricultural organisations; and explorations of global environmental and policy issues. After 15 years facilitating NCs and tracking the
results where possible, the author’s assessment is that NCs constitute a form of interspecies communication that could support agriculture in countless ways.
The method continues to evolve, and research is ongoing to build understanding of what they are
capable of, the reliability of the data, and how and when they can best be implemented. Collaboration
between Nature Constellators and researchers within the agricultural feld would enhance this process, while also contributing to the theory and practice of sustainable farming.
NCs are themselves an innovative form of research into human/ecological systems.
Agricultural systems are coming under increasing pressure through climate change, pollution
and other stressors, and deeper insights into these complex and rapidly shifting systems are
essential. Systemic Constellations evolved to map and work with the interconnected dynamics
of complex systems that more linear or traditional research methods fail to grasp. NCs can do
this for agroecosystems. They can provide information about systems’ dynamics in real time
and track the relationships between the different parts. Proposed actions could be tested within
NCs and, through the reps’ responses, the likely impacts on the whole system would become
visible – impacts that modern reductionist science is unable to predict and which could serve as
signposts for further investigation.
Finally, NCs bring benefts beyond simply providing information. Other-than-human reps regularly offer their own suggestions, so the process becomes not just co-operative, but co-creative.
There may be spontaneous positive changes in the system represented, not to mention in the client
present. A few months after doing a NC about the projects on his farm, the owner wrote: ‘the end [of
the Constellation]… was so fantastic that I broke down crying when I related it to my wife and even
got emotional when sharing it with other people’. Frequently clients and reps experience profound
shifts in their relationships with the other-than-human life around them towards more understanding, appreciation and respect.
Subtle Agroecologies
In April 2019, they planted 11,000 vine roots over an area of 30,000 m 2 – in precisely the location
that the rep for the 10 ha of land had identifed in the frst NC. This area was ten times the 3,000 m 2
that Fenia had originally considered planting and which, in 2015, had felt too intimidating for her.
In July 2019, Fenia described how beautiful the vineyard looked and how their commitment to it had
enabled many other aspects of the wider project on the land to gel together. She felt that things were
falling into place and confrmed that all their activities were in line with the new purpose identifed
back in 2015.
OCs sometimes refer to ‘the future that wants to emerge’. Could this be what was identifed through
the NCs for Fenia? What does it mean for a piece of land to have a desire, for a ‘project’ to ask for
vineyards to be included? NCs challenge many of our assumptions about where consciousness is
located and how information fows between different consciousnesses. But NCs are not alone: evidence from a wide range of disciplines indicates that a new paradigm is both required and emerging
(Laszlo et al., 2016). NCs provide a method and data that could support the development of such a
new paradigm.
GENERAL REFLECTIONS
Apart from the preceeding case studies, Mason Boring and Sloan (2013) and Roussopoulos
(2018) describe how NCs have already demonstrated their value for a range of agricultural and
environmentally-related issues. These include: the specifc relationship dynamics between particular humans and other-than-humans; the general relationships that hold within ecosystems; planning
of land development projects; support for environmental and agricultural organisations; and explorations of global environmental and policy issues. After 15 years facilitating NCs and tracking the
results where possible, the author’s assessment is that NCs constitute a form of interspecies communication that could support agriculture in countless ways.
The method continues to evolve, and research is ongoing to build understanding of what they are
capable of, the reliability of the data, and how and when they can best be implemented. Collaboration
between Nature Constellators and researchers within the agricultural feld would enhance this process, while also contributing to the theory and practice of sustainable farming.
NCs are themselves an innovative form of research into human/ecological systems.
Agricultural systems are coming under increasing pressure through climate change, pollution
and other stressors, and deeper insights into these complex and rapidly shifting systems are
essential. Systemic Constellations evolved to map and work with the interconnected dynamics
of complex systems that more linear or traditional research methods fail to grasp. NCs can do
this for agroecosystems. They can provide information about systems’ dynamics in real time
and track the relationships between the different parts. Proposed actions could be tested within
NCs and, through the reps’ responses, the likely impacts on the whole system would become
visible – impacts that modern reductionist science is unable to predict and which could serve as
signposts for further investigation.
Finally, NCs bring benefts beyond simply providing information. Other-than-human reps regularly offer their own suggestions, so the process becomes not just co-operative, but co-creative.
There may be spontaneous positive changes in the system represented, not to mention in the client
present. A few months after doing a NC about the projects on his farm, the owner wrote: ‘the end [of
the Constellation]… was so fantastic that I broke down crying when I related it to my wife and even
got emotional when sharing it with other people’. Frequently clients and reps experience profound
shifts in their relationships with the other-than-human life around them towards more understanding, appreciation and respect.