The insights and knowledge presented by Vlado Ilić in the book Culture of Conflict, intellectually bring us into Unus Mundus, life-giving creative matrix in which, according to various authors – from Paracelsus and Wang Fu, to Jung and David Bohm – overcomes duality, within which divisions are healed, within which an individual dives into the soul of the universe.

Vlado Ilić thereby indicates that with that comprehensive continuum, although unreachable by sensory perception, we can establish not just passive, but also useful communication so that, among other things, we can perceive aspects, which dynamically motivate our feelings, our perception, and our behavior.

For that, of course, we need an appropriate approach. And, among those tried and tested, Vlado Ilić displays the one which is unfolded through “Family Constellations”.

With a series of communications established through “Family Constellations” the author shows us to which extent a man is a being of relationships. Yet not just when it comes to relationships with other human beings, but relationships with a series of contexts which are mutually immersed into each other, like a context within a context - from that of family, trough groups, ambience, professional, ethnical, cultural, religious, social, to all the others…

However, Ilić shows us that without an authentic relationship with the other, being as well as context, man cannot reach himself truly.
In a series of topics, the author of the book Culture of Conflict indicates, that in the process of reaching oneself, while simultaneously establishing a relationship with the other – being or a context, whatsoever – we encounter various obstacles, often taking part ourselves in their very creation. However, in a consequently aroused desire, we usually tend to react counterproductively. In fact, we yield to surrogates, hooks offered to us by various kinds of “saviors”. Whatsoever, saviors are saving in a way that which suits them and which, accordingly, cannot satisfy our longing.… And shortly thereafter, (according to the well-known Karpman drama triangle model) saviors turn into persecutors, and from the unfulfilled ache emerge various forms of suffering.…

In his unique manner, Ilić indicates that suffering is not in vain. Furthermore, he reminds us that behind suffering we can usually find some kind of conflict, to which it redefines the meaning. Actually, the author sees the conflict as a possibility for development, development both toward love and as a result of it; this refers to a love that sees, altho “only this love has a future”.

In this author’s orientation, what is actually reflected is an alchemical axiom, also known as the Axiom of Maria, according to which: "From One comes Two, from Two comes Three, and from Three comes One - as Four.“

In other words, One, as the whole, and as an outcome of development, represents the primary level, which is TO BE. Through its development comes a doubling, that is, the emergence and persistence of HAVING — not in the sense of complementarity, but as the growth of a formal division. Due to the subsequent „stationary“ opposition, tension develops, characterized by a strive from both, formally divided sides, to overpower one other, so they each represent themselves as a whole. That tension governs the system until the emergence of TO LOVE. TO LOVE, as Three, transforms the dominating tension into a flow which the entire system directs towards The Four. The Four, indeed, represents a return of the whole, that is, the One, which is actually TO BE at a new level, which is, at the same time, a beginning of a new cycle of development...

Of course, that transformation – within which, a unit → thanks to development→meets a conflict → which is transcends with love → which once again leads it to a different personal starting point → as well as to a different development of the personal path – is certainly not easy.
Its simplicity, however, which was realized by the alchemists and is also reflected in the work of Vlado Ilić, is consonant with the insight that for sure, “God does not give us unsolvable tasks.”


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