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February 3 - February 22, 2020
As you read through the materials, the type you feel most exposed by or most uncomfortable with is usually the one that ends up being yours.
Coming Clean: A Story of Faith,
Those dominant in type Five analyze everything to predict the future based on research and a proper understanding of history.
Ones are ethical and principled, a source of goodness and virtue in the world; they elevate the standard of excellence for quality and integrity in all things.
Fives illuminate what can be known and are a source of wisdom and knowledge in a world of questions and uncertainty.
As much as Fives love to learn, they often don’t need teachers because lectures tend to be presented too slowly for the pace of the Five’s mind.
The mental thought processes of Fives are constantly churning through questions to be deciphered and answers to be discovered.
greed of the Five has to do with their withholding of energy, specifically the energy they have for social interactions.
With a Six wing, the Five can use their inquisitive acumen to solve nearly any problem as a way of establishing security by arriving at answers.
Fives who can’t figure out an answer, find a solution, or get to the bottom of an intellectual problem simply give up and let themselves go.
Sevens, the most energetic of all Enneagram types, are a source of imagination and freedom in the world.
“These types go through life expecting to be rejected and so they defend themselves against this feeling. . . . They repress their own genuine needs and vulnerabilities.”
Relational security (the prevention of rejection) means having as few needs as possible, so Fives resist exposing their needs by protecting themselves with emotional distance.
Fives felt intruded upon by both their protective and nurturing caregivers and retreated to self-nurture and self-protection.
Essentially these three types reject what they most want in relationships. These types must learn to be truthful about their needs; their willingness to have their needs met is the first step in their spiritual journey home.
And the Seven’s ravenous need to consume caring love prompted them to constantly nurture their own needs as a way of avoiding their pain.
But five times a day, every day, she would stop for prayer. She would stop for mass. She would take time for silence.
lifestyle of consent, engagement, and rest.
Sabbath is for rest, retreats are for reflection, vacations are for recreation, and sabbatical is for renewal.
Because the Relationists (the Dominant Affect Groups’ Rejection types) avoid acknowledging their needs by denying or rejecting them, their invitation to prayer involves consenting to the gift of having needs.
For type Five, consenting to silence is the grace of letting go of the compulsions of their drive, which is always demanding solutions and answers, thereby allowing mystery to be their guide.
They are always alert, keenly aware of all they can absorb and reflect on to make sense of reality in their pursuit of security.
But though they may welcome the challenge to figure out the fruit of practice, they might do so without actually having practiced the prayer.
silence is necessary for Fives to turn down the exhausting, mental obsession with finding answers.
They often feel rejected by others while at the same time are obsessed with rejecting what they perceive to be the intrusions of others into their head space.
In the end, when Fives can consent to silence, they wake up to Mystery, no longer distracted by the mental noise they’ve created as a way to avoid their fear of not finding solutions. By saying yes to silence, they find a way of living more freely, not emotionally or mentally detached, but unattached to needing to be the bearer of answers to make the world safe.
Perpetual idealists in their perceptions of freedom, Sevens are sometimes thought to lack the ability to follow through with their initiatives. However, this may in fact be more of a resistance to feeling forced to bring closure—which limits freedom and feels like dying to the Seven.
