The Sacred Enneagram: Finding Your Unique Path to Spiritual Growth

by Christopher L. Heuertz

When it comes to recognizing the truth of our own identities, most of us experience a symbolic version of blindness

that keeps us from seeing ourselves for who we really are.

Usually we allow carefully curated fragments of our identities to lay claim to the whole.

If we can start with the grace of resting in our dignity, then the truth of our identity flows forward.

The movement from basic knowledge to principled understanding to embodied integration is the idealized essence of mastery in any growth process—including the Enneagram.

“Everything belongs”—the good, the bad, and the ugly.

If we can’t self-observe, then we can’t self-correct.

Father Richard explains that in an attempt to cope with their anxiety, “Fives try to master it by gaining more and correct knowledge. [Sixes] link up with an authority or group for security… or may take foolish risks or make pre-emptive strikes to overcome their fears. Sevens deny and avoid pain and create fun and fantasy. All three are clever ways of largely living in your head.”1

Stillness teaches us restraint, and in restraint we are able to discern what appropriate engagement looks like.

But I don’t believe God is ever honored by our burnout, even on behalf of the worthiest of efforts.

When we don’t honor our rhythms and neglect caring for ourselves, then the luxury of sabbatical ends up being wasted on recovery.

“I am what I have,” “I am what I do,” “I am what other people say about me.”

God says, “My pleasure over you is all you need.”

When we stop our frenetic activity and face the lie that we are what we do, God says, “You are my beloved.” When we withdraw into our own interior solitude to face the lie that we are what others think, God says, “My child, rest in the grace of the truth that you belong to me.”