The Sacred Enneagram: Finding Your Unique Path to Spiritual Growth

by Christopher L. Heuertz

More and more I’m convinced that the paramount question plaguing humanity has to do with identity. Who am I? This is the fundamental question of our human experience, the one that compels us to search for meaning. Every time I meet someone, I try to listen to the subtext, the meaning behind the words they use to introduce themselves. Often our first interaction with a new acquaintance exposes our fears or insecurities, demonstrated in how we describe ourselves. Usually we allow carefully curated fragments of our identities to lay claim to the whole. I’m frequently guilty of beginning my own introductions with references to what I’ve done or do for a living, as if that tells someone who I am. “Hey, I’m Chris. I spent twenty years with an international humanitarian organization fighting human trafficking; I currently run a nonprofit, a center for contemplative activism.” These little bits of my story that I lead with only bolster my overidentification with the lies I’ve come to believe about who I think I am. 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,

“Identity answers the question ‘Who am I?’, while dignity answers the question, ‘What am I worth?’”1

“Every unrealistic expectation is a resentment waiting to happen.”

Simply put, the Enneagram offers nine mirrors for self-reflection. These nine mirrors, if we choose to gaze into them directly, can help us shake loose of our illusions that get us lost from home in the first place. The nine mirrors are nine types, of which we are dominant in one:

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

A mark of spiritual growth is when we stop polishing the mask and instead start working on our character.

The Enneagram is not a tool for self-absorption but instead a map for self-liberation.

Unlike temperament, our dominant Enneagram type stays with us throughout our lives; type does not change. I like to think of the various results of the profile tools and tests we appeal to in an effort to learn about ourselves as the egoic spaces we inhabit. One way to illustrate this is to view our temperament (often categorized as one of sixteen combinations of basic preferences that can be determined through the MBTI® inventory—a typology developed by Isabel Briggs Myers and her mother Katharine Briggs based on Carl Jung’s typology theory) as the specific room we stay in; our StrengthsFinder® results (based on Gallup University’s list of thirty-four talent themes, a weighted list of innate strengths that carry potential to increase a person’s performance success) as the way we decorate our room; but our Enneagram type as the kind of home we build (maybe some of us live in a hip urban condo, others prefer a gable-roofed Thai-inspired house, while others are happy to call home a one-story ranch). Our Enneagram type is the home we are likely born in and will most definitely die in.

Fives illuminate what can be known and are a source of wisdom and knowledge in a world of questions and uncertainty. Type Five is perhaps the most withdrawn of all the Enneagram types, their withdrawal a means of finding the mental and cerebral room to understand and master reality. Fives are intrinsically afraid they don’t possess the capacity within themselves to distinguish reality or assess what is fundamentally real. This explains the Basic Desire of type Five, which is to uncover the essence of truth. Without the clarity of an answer, who is the Five but a lost wanderer in search of safety?

Fives experience a Childhood Wound that is often explained around the loss of boundaries caused by intrusions from their caregiver(s). To cope with the pain of feeling confused or unable to find resolution (especially in relationships), Fives are suspicious of most attempts to love and nurture them as emotional distractions that they can’t trust. And so they withdraw even deeper into the curious places of their minds and imaginations. 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. Learning with teachers also requires them to expend some of their social energy, which can be distracting to a Five’s learning process.

Fives may appear aloof or absentminded, but just the opposite is true. The mental thought processes of Fives are constantly churning through questions to be deciphered and answers to be discovered. Minimalists on the exterior, Fives have an interior life as complex as any Enneagram type—this is the great misunderstanding of Fives, especially for those who don’t have close relationships with people dominant in type Five. The traditional Passion of the Five is avarice, a form of greed, yet when Fives choose their friends they are far from greedy. In fact, Fives are frequently generous, thoughtful, and surprisingly present in their closest relationships. The avarice or greed of the Five has to do with their withholding of energy, specifically the energy they have for social interactions. This is their way of protecting their mental space from intrusions that feel like invasions. Fives feel worn out by the perpetual analysis and questioning of their theorizing and investigations, so protecting their energy is a priority. The traditional Fixation of the Five is stinginess, which fuels the disengagement they are accused of. The stinginess of the Five is really their ability to keep from giving more externally than they feel they can give themselves internally.

Fives with Four wings have a propensity for thoughtful curiosity, and they frequently give themselves to niche sorts of jobs that require a developed ability to process nuances and differences. With a Six wing, the Five can use their inquisitive acumen to solve nearl...

Most surprising is a Five in disintegration who moves to the Seven, taking on the manipulation techniques associated with gluttony and excess. 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. Frustrated with their inability, they turn to coping techniques such as overconsumption of alcohol or drug abuse, overeating, overactivity, or other unhealthy and addictive patterns that help them numb their pain and dull the sharpest edges of their minds. Additionally, it is said that the Virtue of the Five is detachment, but maybe more accurately the growth pattern for someone dominant in type Five is the move from detachment to nonattachment in its purest form. Letting go of the drive to find answers and solutions, letting go of the compulsion to solve problems, and letting go of the need to understand everything enables Fives to rest in the glory of mystery, allowing all that is to simply be.

The most driving dynamism of all Enneagram types is found in the energy of Eights. Eights are a source of strength and determination, an initiating and intimidating force of vitality in the world. A dear friend married to an Eight once told me, “They aren’t as hard as they come across, but they are as mean.”

the Eight exemplifies the fundamental need to be against. Eights are against everything. Even when they agree, they’ll find a way to turn anything into combat or sparring. This is how Eights build trust—through pushing and fighting. It’s their attempt to size up the trustworthiness of others, an unconscious way of determining if people will stand up to them by standing up for themselves.

You’ll observe Eights being rude or offensive, trying to get a reaction out of people to see what they’re made of. This behavior is partly due to their Childhood Wound, an acceleration of maturity as a result of conflict or harsh environments where they felt they needed to be strong in order to survive. The self-survival instinct of Eights informs their Basic Fear of being destroyed—though I think more accurately it is the fear of not being in control.

in an effort not to be controlled by nurturing love, they rejected it and overidentified with their protective stance in the world. Ultimately this is yet another wa...

Eights are intense. Eights hate bullies but are the biggest bullies. Though Eights use their force of personality to try to convince people of their strongly held opinions, they are not so much emotional as they are impassioned. Passionate and forceful, Eights are extremists in the positi...

The traditional Passion of the Eight is lust, not necessarily sexual lust but more like a lust for intensity, which is aimed toward everything. Sometimes this lust is manifested in self-destructive behaviors, which is ironic in light of their Basic Fear. Because Eights fear that they will be destroyed, they overdo everything to make themselves feel alive—even overdoing things that are harmful to themselves. This often leads to tremendous pain for themselves and those they love. Eights are frequently feared in community because of the havoc they wreak. Yet the messes they make are part of how Eights grow: like a catapult for growth, the farther backward they stumble, the farther forward they fly in their revival of recovery. Traditionally, the Fixation of the Eight is vengeance, which is first aimed at themsel...

They are intimidating and they know it, but it surprises even them because deep inside they know that they are using their strength to protect the vulnerable child within them who never seemed safe enough to grow up.

Eights with a Seven wing passionately exaggerate, overexert themselves, and excessively indulge their compulsions; they are much more cheerful and warm than Eights with a Nine wing.

In integration Eights reach toward the Two. They levy their need to be against at such things as injustice and poverty, and show up as generous and loving. Mother Teresa, with whom I spent quite a bit of time, is probably the most commonly mistyped Two. She clearly was an integrated Eight. In disintegration Eights who can’t get their way through presence and force take on the mental reductionism of the Five. They use keen insight into people to reduce them to the most easily manipulated fragment of their whole. The Virtue of Eights is innocence, which is awakened through vulnerability. When an Eight is with a child, you see this innocence emerge—it’s as if the Eight knows they can’t be controlled by a little kid; they don’t need to fight a child. Their propensity to assume protective roles makes them careful to look out for those who are vulnerable.

A child mirrors back to Eights what they can’t see for themselves: potential and possibility stuffed behind the illusion of power, which if left unchecked is a source of pain to themselves and those around them. Sitting at the top of the circle of the Enneagram is the Nine.

Type Five Rejected both the nurturing and protective caregivers as intrusive and withdrew to assume a self-nurturing and self-protective stance. Type Eight Felt controlled by the nurturing love they were offered by their caregiver and rejected it, so overidentifies with protective energy. Attachment Types

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. Because of their fear of being controlled, Eights refuse to open their hearts and reject the possibility of needing anyone else. Eights also resist facing their pain and would rather fight for those in poverty or those who suffer in pain than press into their own. This proximity to vulnerability and pain is one of the ways they are confronted by their inability to be vulnerable themselves, not allowing themselves to want or ask or need for anything or anyone.

Fives felt intruded upon by both their protective and nurturing caregivers and retreated to self-nurture and self-protection. Eights rejected the loving attempts of care from their nurturing caregiver, fearful they’d be controlled by it, and subsequently became overly protective.8

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.

When Fives consent to silence, they are choosing to trust that God will still be there when their mind is at rest. If it’s true that God’s first language is silence, then when Fives quiet their minds, they have an opportunity to listen to the voice of God. By consenting to silence, Fives find freedom through mystery—an irony to the Five whose illusion perpetuates the lie that freedom will be found in answers.

Frequently mistaken as lost in their heads, Fives are the most rooted in their mental realm. They may appear like an absentminded professor, but don’t be mistaken; there’s nothing absentminded about them; Fives take in everything through their mental faculties. They are always alert, keenly aware of all they can absorb and reflect on to make sense of reality in their pursuit of security.

Surprising to most other types, Fives are in the Harmony Triads’ Relationist social group—relating to their environment, offering objective viewpoints, thorough analysis, and fair evaluations of the drama all around them. Though Fives may not offer these gifts readily, they will offer them when they discern it’s safe to do so. Though Fives can recognize a lie with precise lucidity, they still tend to believe the lie that “they are what they have,” a belief that propels their compulsion toward mental activity and problem solving. Indeed, “I am what I have; I have the answers” is the defining illusion for the Five.

Contemplative practice can seem easy, given their proclivity toward introversion. But though they may welcome the challenge to figure out the fruit of practice, they might do so without actually having practiced the prayer. Therefore, silence is necessary for Fives to turn down the exhausting, mental obsession with finding answers. When the Five can consent to silence—essentially giving themselves permission to detach from mental activity—they are at last able to connect with God. But having overidentified with the buzz of activity in their minds, silence can be difficult and painful. Who am I if I don’t have the answers? As a Rejection type in the Dominant Affect Groups, Fives find that consenting to silence heals the external denunciation they constantly experience. 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. The quiet control that Fives exert over their inner lives allows them to resist external intrusions, but this rejection of social imposition keeps them stuck in their heads. Though Fives appear to be among the most reserved of all Enneagram types, the constant churning of questions in their minds creates persistent noise that only silence can remedy.

For people dominant in type Five, silence is the posture that allows them to learn to consent as an intention. To consent to silence for Fives means to be present to the silence as an agreement, to intentionally make room for it amid their compulsive mental interrogations. Rather than merely checking out, when Fives make room for silence in true consent they permit Divine interruptions and sacred answers to supersede their own ability to offer what they deem the most sensible solutions to life’s greatest questions. Consenting to silence helps Fives realize they are accepted as they are and safe in the unknown, even if they don’t have all the answers. 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.

Those dominant in type Eight are the most engaged with their bodies, often using the force of presence to exert control or dominate their environments. Coming home for an Eight means accepting the body as a gift—an integral part of essence expressed through the instincts—while at the same time not allowing the body to drive them to the end of their limits in the ways they continually exhaust themselves.

The lie Eights tend to believe—“I am what I do”—supports the addiction to frenetic activity that often lands them in trouble. As one of the Harmony Triads’ Relationist types, Eights tend to create pain in most of their relationships by overdoing everything, being too much for people to handle. Their aggressive and assertive social style can be dangerous—especially if they don’t stop to make room for stillness. Often they end up wreaking the same havoc on themselves that they’ve levied on the world around them.

If the invitation for the Eight is to emphasize stillness as their prayer posture, the intention is to consent. Consent may be the toughest for the Eight because it relates to the fear of not being in control. Consent challenges the Eight to move from holding power to consciously letting it go.

Eights are among the Rejection Dominant Affect Group, using their powerful presence to move against the nurturing they need (and are frequently incapable of offering themselves in constructive or healthy ways) as a way of preemptively forcing rejection or, conversely, building trust. Those dominant in type Eight need to learn to consent to stillness by deliberate choice, not through passive acquiescence or compliant submissiveness. Offering themselves to stillness may be frustrating at first. Their inability to be still or merely stop to be present may confront their compulsive desire to control the way they pray. Their in...