The duality of life: cosmology, relationality and entanglement in a pluriversal world

Abstract

In Europe’s colonial past, Christian missionaries played a role in bringing Western values to other parts of the world at the expense of more indigenous practices and cultures. This article starts with a practice that developed from a reversal of this pattern: a priest who went to South Africa to convert indigenous tribes but who, after 16 years of observation, ended up learning from them. An experiential modality – family and systemic constellations – has its roots in these observations, among others. The objective of this article is to unpack the importance of a relational and transgenerational cosmology for understanding the dynamics of the systems modality and its underlying onto-epistemology. It concludes with some reflections on how this reorientation might impact knowledge of and experience in a pluriversal world.