The Enneagram Part 4

After my diversion into the Enneagram for Hummingbird last week, I want to get back to the application for the people of God.  Again I am drawing primarily on the work of Richard Rohr and Andreas Ebert — The Enneagram, A Christian Perspective. 

As I noted previously, I believe the strength of the Enneagram compared to the Myers Briggs Typology is the possibility of redemption which it offers.  As much as both systems are valuable for understanding ourselves and our world, what do we do once we have developed more fully that understanding?  Rohr and Ebert speak of root sins which accompany each type.  It is not all that popular to speak of sin in many circles today but I believe that is because of the moral implications which are attached to it.  Either people disregard sin entirely in the reductionist world of scientific atheism a la Richard Dawkins et al or believe that we should not call a spade a spade in the religious sphere and avoid looking at the log in their own eyes and rather condemn the speck in those terrible people across the street or the country or the other side of the world.  

Rohr/Ebert define sin as, “our primary emotional compulsion or mistaken attitudes.”  This perhaps is a little too much psychologizing but they define it further as ‘a separation or failure to reach a goal’ which is, to my mind’ more to the point.  Sin for me is primarily those things which separate us from God — as has been said elsewhere.  It can be moral sins but it can be in any aspect of life.  Much of sin is because of ego-based desire which puts ourselves ahead of God and God’s creation.  As Rohr/Ebert note the sins “promise advancement in life, but in reality they produce just what they are trying to prevent; loneliness, absurdity, emptiness”.  In effect it promises the world at the cost of our souls.  This mistaken attitude is the ‘false self’ which is Ego driven.  Rohr/Ebert identify a root sin for each type — these are based on the ‘seven deadly sins’ plus two additional ones — fear and deceit:

Type one — anger	Type six— fear
Type two — pride	Type seven — intemperance (gluttony)
Type three — untruth (deceit)	Type eight — shamelessness (lust)
Type four — envy	Type nine — laziness
Type five — Avarice

Being a (I hope partially) redeemed nine I can certainly identify with the root sin of nines.  I find it very easy to avoid undertaking what I want to accomplish — such as writing this.  I also find it easy to fall into the couch potato mode of operating. 

The first step in redemption is to accept ourselves.  As Rohr/Ebert note God loves us unconditionally including our dark side which we want desperately to hide form the world and as much as possible form ourselves — ultimately without success.  Those aspect of ourselves which we do not acknowledge (our shadow in Jungian terms) come back when we least expect it to bite us in the backside.  The Enneagram is not a source of redemption.  The source of redemption is from the false self is a gift of God’s grace. 

The Enneagram Part 3

I am continuing to explore the Enneagram Typology this week.  I am drawing on the perspective of Richard Rohr and Andreas Ebert in their book The Enneagram: A Christian Perspective.   As I noted previously, I am finding the Enneagram system to be particularly interesting and helpful as it goes beyond a being simply a system of personality types.  Typology can be very helpful in understand yourself and the world.  It can also be very helpful, in my experience for those who do not fit the norms of society I being comfortable with themselves e.g. introverts in an extroverted culture.  The Enneagram typology goes beyond that and help us understand how we can move beyond our ego- based position in the world into a mature and integrated position in the world.

In exploring the approach taken by Rohr and Ebert today I want to look at the concept of sin.  In their understanding, the Enneagram system relates a sin to each of the nine Enneagram types.  First it is important to examine how Rohr& Ebert understand ‘sin’.  In their theology sin means ‘missing the mark’ which is the root meaning of the Greek word for sin – hamartia.  Sinning in this sense means falling short of the target or in other words not following the path that God intends for you.  When this happens – which it inevitably does - we separate ourselves to a lesser or greater extent from God.  As Rohr/Ebert note “Sins are attempts to cope with or enhance life with unsuitable means.”  We chose – consciously or unconsciously – this way of responding to a situation because we need to maintain our present position in life.  As noted elsewhere the ego is determined to maintain the status quo even if it is not beneficial to us in the long run. 

In the enneagram typology there are nine traps or sins we fall into – one for each type.  These are the seven traditional deadly sins of Catholic Christianity; pride, envy, anger, sloth, avarice, gluttony, unchastely, plus fear and deceit.  The root sin of each type is:

1                    anger

2                    pride (presumptuousness)

3                    deceit (untruth)

4                    envy

5                    avarice

6                    fear

7                    gluttony (intemperance)

8                    lust (shamelessness)

9                    sloth (laziness)

For the individual to mature and in my understanding to become the person God intends them to be, these sins must be redeemed and transformed into a positive approach to God’s world.  I will explore more of this journey next time. 

Enneagram Part 2

 

Last week I wrote about my current interest in the Enneagram typology which I was introduced to in the Spiritual Direction Program I have just completed.  The Enneagram Typology is a personality type system similar to the Myers Briggs Typology which I am more familiar with.  Both systems identify people within a system of types.  I am an INFJ – an introverted – intuitive – feeling – judging type in the Myers Briggs.  Similarly I have self-identified as a nine which is sometimes classified as the Peacemaker type in the Enneagram typology. 

Today’s topic is the Enneagram system so for the sake of brevity I will restrict my comments to it.  The Enneagram system has nine types which each have characteristics as well as subcategories such as wings which are the types next to you in the system.  It is presented as a circle – or wheel with nine at the top.  Below is a diagram with the common classification of each type e.g. nine= peacemaker.

                                                

As I noted the classification system is often presented as shown above with a name such a peacemaker which is characteristic of the type.  Richard Rohr does not use this classification system but rather uses a system which identifies the overriding ‘need’ of a person in each type as shown below.

                1 The Need to be Perfect

                2. The Need to be Needed

                3. The Need to Succeed

                4. The Need to be Special

                5. The Need to Perceive

                6. The Need for Security

                7. The Need to Avoid Pain

                8. The Need to be Against

                9. The Need to Avoid

The typology systems can be helpful in understanding yourself and others.  You are able to better understand and accept yourself and others.  Much of what I read about the ‘nine’ type resonated with me and affirmed what I knew about myself.  For example a nine avoids conflict and have decided to keep their anger to themselves.  They also try to understand both sides of a situation.  As Rohr notes the pitfall of the nines is lethargy and comfort. 

It can be used as a type (no pun intended) of parlour game to figure out what type a personality in the news is.  For example my guess is that Rob Ford, the current absentee mayor of Toronto, is a three.  As Rohr notes unredeemed threes first and foremost deceive themselves.  They have no longing for depth – Ford is currently not engaging in treatment for his alcohol and drug problems while he is one leave of absent to be in treatment.  The immature threes can believe their own lies and the pitfall of threes is vanity which means that secondary things like packaging are more important than essential. 

However, the Enneagram goes beyond mere characteristics and helps people learn how the ‘sins’ of their types can be converted and they can mature into more complete and positive human beings who use their energy in ways that God intended rather than to maintain the ego based position in life.  The root sin of the nines is laziness which resonates with me as I have a tendency to veg out and have to work not to fall into that mode of being.

I will leave it there for this edition and I intend to explore the how Enneagrams can help people to attain conversion and maturity through the grace of God.  If you want to peruse this in more depth I would recommend Enneagram; a Christian Perspective by Rorh and Andreas Ebert or sign up for Rohr’s Daily Meditations in which he is currently exploring the Enneagram.  I can be found at https://cac.org/sign-up.