The Sacred Enneagram: Finding Your Unique Path to Spiritual Growth

by Christopher L. Heuertz

Most of us who start down the contemplative path of spiritual formation quickly realize that we will always be beginners.

(Indeed, we may lament the ways our faith communities have failed to adequately prepare us for the challenge.)

Yep.

Sadly, with few exceptions, Christianity has resisted a return to its historic contemplative tradition and thus has lost an opportunity to lead beyond the worn-out culture wars we often seem to return to.

Gut people who are obsessed with control, heart people who are obsessed with connections, and head people who are obsessed with competence all need to find freedom from the ways they deal with their inner dread.

For those in the Heart Center, the feeling types, solitude is crucial.

Solitude functions as a correction to the feeling type’s dependency on connection and comparison.

The Four who longs to be seen and appreciated by others?

When a heart type is disconnected from their essence they never feel fully embraced by others, leading to their experience of loneliness.

Solitude is key to this recovery.

Solitude teaches us how to be present—present to God, to ourselves, and to others with no strings attached. Presence in heart people allows for authentic connection to others, as well as to the past and the future, with a focus on the now.

Contemplative spirituality calms the body, stills the emotions, and quiets the mind. And in so doing, it liberates us from ego addictions, thereby giving us the freedom to make major corrections to our behaviors informed by our True Self.

Contemplative spirituality then helps us overcome those obstacles hindering our awakening to the gift of our true identity.

By pressing into our Basic Fears, we center ourselves more deeply and find that we don’t have to react to those fears but can respond toward wholeness, toward growth, toward awakening.

At its heart, faith is making the option for the absurd.

we aren’t as bad as our worst moments or as good as our greatest successes—but that we are far better than we can imagine and carry the potential to be far worse than we fear. Father Richard once told me, “To cast great light in the world also requires a long shadow.” Both belong.

When we face the lie that we are what we have and in silence learn to listen, 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...

Heart/Emotions Type Two Type Three Type Four “I am what others say or think about me.” Affection + Esteem “Throw yourself down.” Solitude (Presence)

Unmask the lies of our identity,

Identifying the lie to which our center is most susceptible is the first step in learning to pray with what tempts us at the core.

Loosen the grasp of our addictions to programs for happiness,

Examining the program for happiness to which our center is most susceptible opens us up to learning how to let go of our addictive compulsions that support our Basic Fears.

Recognize our temptations.

In examining the temptation toward the Fixation of our center, we find gentle invitations into the essential qualities and original innocence of our Enneagram types.

Map contemplative prayer postures with our Intelligence Centers.

By aligning contemplative prayer postures (solitude, silence, and stillness) with our Intelligence Centers (which by now we see are also aligned with our lies of identity, programs for happiness, and temptations), we obtain a roadmap for spiritual postures and practices that support our unique path to spiritual growth.

This is the beginning of unlocking the door to your path of spiritual growth, so don’t be dissuaded by the resistance you initially experience.

But listen to yourself: usually the way you judge yourself or “feel bad” about your practice is the very thing that begins to open your type to the graces of the practice.

the Heart Center types require solitude,

postures, our Harmony Triad—as our way of engaging the world—uniquely aligns with a particular prayer intention (consent, engagement, or rest).

The posture is a practice in itself, but our intention reverberates with our “heart”—the organ of spiritual perception. Our intention points to what our heart needs most in order to connect with God.

Simply put, when speaking of the intentions for our spiritual practice we are identifying the inner disposition we bring to our contemplative prayer posture.

Finally, it may simply be resting in God’s love—receiving

In a sense, our prayer intention is hidden from us, keeping us stuck in the loops that tether us to our illusions. This is one more way the Harmony Triads expose to us the “hidden wholeness” of the Enneagram—they show us what we need most in prayer.*

For types One, Four, and Seven, the Idealists, the intention is rest.

Rest as the Prayer Intention for the Harmony Triads’ Idealists

Always teetering between resignation and resistance, they find themselves perpetually exhausted both inside and out. Though they deserve it as much as anyone, the Idealists never allow themselves the much-needed respite required to find the truth of who they really are.

Rest meets the deepest needs of the Idealists, who are continually agitated, never satisfied, and often upset with themselves for failing to live into their impossible standards of excellence (One), originality (Four), or flexibility (Seven). Rest gives Ones, Fours, and Sevens a break from their constant frustration.

It’s important for Fours to rest in solitude, to know being alone is okay. When Fours dial down the intensity of their emotional energy, they finally understand that their own inner angst can be too much even for them to bear. Allowing themselves to rest from all the inner turmoil enables them to come back to their relationships with clarity and inner calm.

Resting in solitude, silence, and stillness restores these frustrated souls’ lost idealism. It remedies the immature naïveté in Ones, Fours, and Sevens who are the Enneagram’s most fatigued fanatics and frayed advocates for a better world full of integrity (One), beauty (Four), and freedom (Seven).

Solitude allows heart types to savor the present by quieting the flurry of their emotions, thereby bringing balance.

For type Four, resting in solitude is a retreat from their constant attractional energy, offering them a reprieve from their inner critic so they can savor themselves in the present.

an anger that is subsequently peddled outward toward others (though the rest of us get only the leftovers after they’ve beaten themselves up).

Blue in BLLB

Fours almost seem to drown in their hearts as a way of relating to the intensity of their emotions. In their feelings they experience a magnetic draw toward deep sorrow and deep joy—feelings that remind them they are alive, while everything around them seems to be dying.

When Fours come home to themselves, they welcome the courage to explore the fullness of their hearts.

Yet the heart of the Four is a paradox; it can seem remarkably present to itself while simultaneously seeming to be cut off from itself. The near-yet-distant heart of the Four fuels the lie “I am what other people think or say about me.”

Fours desire to be seen for who they want to be or who they hope they are. They are searching for their identity and want others to see it and affirm it in themselves. Thus, being seen is of critical importance. And sometimes they get stuck there.

since their emotions can be so overwhelming, they tend to fall asleep in the illusion that what they feel is more real than reality itself.

As Idealists, Fours never quite attain what they desire, which becomes a self-perpetuating source of sadness.