Consciously or unconsciously, we have values and preferences shaped by many layers of our ancestry and culture.
There is broad acceptance for the idea that family-tribal culture affects our spiritual beliefs, sexual attitudes (which include attitudes concerning privacy), and the way in which we relate to others. Family and tribal influences also affect how we create and inhabit our personal spaces, our homes. From the choice of natural or artificial light to be perceived by the eye, to the preference of temperature to be felt by the skin, to the attitudes we have about shared and communal space, values and preferences are shaped by many layers of history, seen and unseen.
Archologie should not be confused with Feng Shui, which is the art of becoming in harmony with your environment through an Eastern set of principles. Employing any principles, no matter how good, may bring an initial benefit, but if you ignore your inner voice – that is, the echoes of your psyche and family system – this sense of peace and flow will not endure.
Archologie is particularly relevant for:
– People who are contemplating the design of a home
– People who are experiencing discomfort in their current home
– Therapists with clients who have exhibited a concern about their home
– Design professionals who would like to include Archologie in their practice
Homage Vincent Baldassano oil paint/ collage
What is Archologie?
Guided visualizations and waking dreams heighten our sense of our origins and therefore who we are.
Archologie is the active practice of remembering the family of origin, the ancestors, and the tribe, and the ways in which they created home and safety. Archologie becomes an active practice with the use of gestalt experiments, which allow us to give a voice to those not present as well as to inanimate objects and spaces.
Archologie also uses guided visualizations and waking dreams to allow us to revisit or visit for the first time the homes of our ancestors to sense and feel how they created home. Upon returning from this journey, we have a heightened sense of our origins and therefore who we are. From this place we can make informed decisions about our own homes. I underscore the words informed decisions as opposed to change, because the objective is to become conscious of the influences that act upon us, not necessarily to change them. From this point of view, history has a vote, not a veto.
Open the doorway to the subconscious mindArchologie takes a step back from the practical to explore the roots in the positive and negative aspects of the past. We are tied to these aspects whether consciously or unconsciously, but in either case, they drive us. In addition to the influences of the past, there is our fantasy world, the one we invent but treat as real. Becoming informed of these states of being is the first step toward the choice of accepting or changing them.
How do we reflect the developed and undeveloped aspects of our family in our home? What traditions are honored, which are ignored and is there continuity between the generations?
We may not follow the ways of the past generations, but it is important to find ways to acknowledge those generations. In fact, the paradox is that if we do not acknowledge them, then our denial can lead to an unconscious following. Perhaps they lived in poverty and although we have sufficient money, we live as though we are impoverished. Perhaps they lived in a war-torn country and although we do not, we are in constant fear. There are hundreds of possible consequences.
The past is present
Roots of Archologie
The principles and practices of Archologie have their roots in the work of Bert Hellinger and Family Constellations, Fritz Perls and Gestalt therapy, and others that I have included in this bibliography:
Bert Hellinger, Acknowledging What Is. Zeig Tucker & Co. Inc., 1999
Rupert Sheldrake, Presence of the Past. 1995
Amos Rappoport, House Form and Culture. Prentice Hall, 1969
Robert Karen, Becoming Attached. Time Warner Books, 1994
Fritz Perls, The Gestalt Approach. Science and Behavior Books, 1973
C. G. Jung, Memories Dreams and Reflections. Vintage Books, 1961
Dr. Steven Porges, Neuroception, a Sub-conscious System for Detecting Threats and Safety. May 2004
Raechel Bratnick, Awakening the Dreamer. Society of Souls Press, 2003
Ken Wilbur, No Boundary Center Publications. 1979
Joseph Zinker, Creative Process in Gestalt Therapy. Vintage Books, 1977
Rabbu Zalman Schachter Shalomi From Aging to Sage-ing Grand Central publishing 2023 2nd addition