The Enneagram

 

This month, I've been praying with the Enneagram. 

Here's some information about it: It describes basic personality types, with their own characteristic virtues and vices. It is a guide to our personal development, providing insight into ourselves and others. It helps us to understand our fears, desires, and anxieties, as well as our capacities and strengths. This leads to us leading happier and more productive lives. Everyone emerges from their childhood with one personality type, which doesn’t change as we grow into adults. We take on healthy aspects of other personality types as we mature, though. There are nine personality types, each divided into nine levels that range from healthy to average to unhealthy. Individuals move from having a healthy ego to being integrated and from an unhealthy ego to disintegration. As we become more integrated, we balance our strengths and grow in virtue.

The types (and some traits) are:

 One: The Reformer—rational, principled, orderly, perfectionistic

 Two: The Helper—caring, generous, possessive, manipulative

 Three: The Motivator—self-assured, competitive, narcissistic, hostile

 Four: The Arist—creative, intuitive, introverted, depressive

              Five: The Thinker—perceptive, analytic, eccentric, paranoid

              Six: The Loyalist—likable, dutiful, dependent, masochistic

              Seven: The Generalist—accomplished, impulsive, excessive, manic

              Eight: The Leader—self-confident, forceful, dominating, combative

              Nine: The Peacemaker—receptive, reassuring, passive, neglectful

To find out which you are, you can take this online quiz: https://www.truity.com/test/enneagram-personality-test

There are three basic Enneagram stances, based on the central mode of operation. Types 2, 3, and 4 operate from their heart; types 5, 6, and 7 from their head; types 8, 9, and 1 from their gut. The first is the feeling triad, the second the doing triad, and the third the relating triad. There are three stages to working with the Enneagram. The first is self-observation as we identify which type we are. The second is self-understanding; we comprehend the type description as it applies to our lives. The last stage is self-transformation, in which we grow in our unhealthy areas.

When I took a quiz, I determined that I am a 4. I have traits from across the spectrum. I am a healthy four in many ways: I’m introspective, self-aware, sensitive, intuitive, compassionate, tactful, and enjoy being alone. I also have average traits: I can be moody and inclined to self-doubt and self-consciousness. I even experience the unhealthy aspects of this personality type; I can be mentally confused or emotionally blocked when I get overwhelmed.

              This method of self-discovery and development is old, with roots in the Sufiism of Islamic tradition. These days, it is commonly used in psychology, though there is strong spirituality in the goals of embracing virtue and transcending ourselves. From a Christian perspective, the Enneagram is a tool for growing in union with God: we increase life within us as we integrate and become a source of life for others, which brings us closer to the Creator of all life. The three Enneagram stances of feeling, doing, and relating reflect the Divine aspect that is most ours. Individuals in the heart or feeling triad are more like Jesus, those in the head or doing triad are more like God the Father, and those in the gut or relating triad are more like the Holy Spirit. Our growth, then, strengthens the ways we are like God, making us holier.

              In another way, the Enneagram also invites us to accept ourselves. We don’t need to change our personalities to grow. Vice and virtue aren’t as different as they seem; vice is often virtue that is twisted and brought to a degree of compulsion. Each person’s call from God is personal, and our individual personalities are part of that. We are called to become healthier versions of ourselves, and to bless others with what we specifically have to offer! When I started to pray with the Enneagram, I thought I would see how I needed to grow or change. I think I was looking for that. But this experience has taught me that who I am is key to becoming who God wants me to be!