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Started reading
December 28, 2019
Each and every one of us is beautiful. Each and every one of us is beloved by God. From this starting point we can begin an honest interrogation of the depths of our identity, of who we really are. When we accept our inherent beauty, we find the courage to examine what makes us beautiful—to honestly encounter both the good and the bad, the shadow and the light.
I constantly have to remind myself that I am more than the good (or the bad) I’ve done in my life, that in fact, I’m much more than what I’ve done, what I have, and what others think about me. These fragments of the whole are only small parts of my identity, not the entirety of who I truly am.
“Every unrealistic expectation is a resentment waiting to happen.”
Nouwen suggested we all find ourselves bouncing around three very human lies that we believe about our identity: I am what I have, I am what I do, and I am what other people say or think about me.*
Keating explains that as children we all need an appropriate amount of power and control, affection and esteem, and security and survival for healthy psychological grounding. But as we mature, our tendency is to overidentify with one of these programs for happiness, keeping us developmentally and spiritually stuck.
The Enneagram invites us to deeper self-awareness as a doorway to spiritual growth.
Type One strives for principled excellence as moral duty. • Type Two strives for lavish love through self-sacrifice. • Type Three strives for appreciative recognition through curated successes. • Type Four strives for the discovery of identity for faithful authenticity. • Type Five strives for decisive clarity through thoughtful conclusions. • Types Six strives for steady constancy through confident loyalty. • Type Seven strives for imaginative freedom for inspirational independence. • Type Eight strives for impassioned intensity
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Type Nine strives for harmonious peacefulness as congruent repose.
The movement from basic knowledge to principled understanding to embodied integration is the idealized essence of mastery in any growth process—including the Enneagram.
But it is a peculiar person who integrates the illuminations of the Enneagram in a way that obliges less direct reference to the tool because of her or his own internalized command of its deeper meanings.
Type One The Need to Be Perfect Type Two The Need to Be Needed Type Three The Need to Succeed Type Four The Need to Be Special (or Unique) Type Five The Need to Perceive (or Understand) Type Six The Need to Be Sure/Certain (or Secure) Type Seven The Need to Avoid Pain Type Eight The Need to Be Against Type Nine The Need to Avoid Whether names or needs, these quick reference handles merely keep us at the surface of the possibilities of the Enneagram.
The Holy Ideas of the Enneagram epitomize the lucidity of a mind integrated with one’s heart and body, evidenced in the consolidation of mindfulness and self-realization. The traditional Holy Ideas as developed by Ichazo are as follows: Type One Perfection Type Two Will, Freedom Type Three Harmony, Hope Type Four Origin Type Five Transparency Type Six Strength, Faith Type Seven Wisdom Type Eight Truth Type Nine Love
The traditional Virtues of each type are as follows: Type One Serenity Type Two Humility Type Three Truthfulness, Authenticity Type Four Equanimity, Emotional Balance Type Five Detachment Type Six Courage Type Seven Sobriety Type Eight Innocence Type Nine Action Returning to type One, when the mind is set at ease that God’s perfection is enough, then the heart rests in serenity, unbothered by what seems to be imperfect.
Being able to caricature nine kinds of people might be an interesting dinner party trick, but it only reinforces the reductionism of categorizing individuals, which in the end dehumanizes everyone. The Enneagram offers much more under the surface. Its various facets—the names and needs, the Holy Ideas and Virtues—give us practical handles to better identify and understand our type. By digging deeper into the why behind each type we start to unravel the mystery of our True Self and essential nature. This is the real substance we aim for.
the Enneagram can’t be reduced to a personality test and that we have much more to learn. As Russ Hudson frequently emphasizes, “Type isn’t a ‘type’ of person, but a path to God.”
As a sacred map to our soul, the Enneagram is a blueprint for developing character that each of us carries throughout our life, but one that we don’t open until we discover our type.
