An Enneagramatic Beginning
Sorry to have dropped off the face of the Blogosphere, I have been occupied in a big endeavor: digging into the Enneagram. The presenting reason for that immersion in the 9 types, the circle, the triads, the lines of interconnection, and a tool for spiritual discernment is that I am going to lead a Day Apart with the Enneagram for our Annual Conference in November. Before, I was a beginning student of the Enneagram, but to teach? I realized I needed to be more than a beginning student. So I have been reading and sifting and considering and wrestling and whatever else one does with new typologies. It has been a good thing. Now I am more into the sifting and percolating process of understanding things so I have some time. Besides what better place to let ideas steep is to write for an audience. I keep seeking a way to find my blogging niche and this might be a place to start.
But before I get into what I am learning about myself and others through the enneagram, I wanted to tell my story of the Enneagram.
It started about 6 years ago while going to our Conference’s Pastoral Counselor to try to deal with a long term depression that both became part of the reason for a divorce and was also triggered by that event. At one point she mentioned that I might get something out of the Enneagram. She didn’t know a lot about it at the time, but had this intuitive idea that it would help me. So I stopped at a bookstore on the way out of town and bought a book on the Enneagram. I did the test that was included and thought I would be a Type 9: a Peacemaker. I liked that, it helped me some, but I didn’t find it all that earthshaking, just interesting.
A year or so later, I had remarried and we were moved by the Bishop to a new parish. Also at the time, I followed the sensed call of God to begin training as a Spiritual Director. I found a training program within an hour of my house in association with Creighton University in Omaha. Dr. Wendy Wright was the teacher for the first year as we looked at the history of Christian Spirituality. I loved it. Two characters in that history really stirred things within me: Ignatius of Loyola (on spiritual discernment) and Evagrius of Pontus. With Evagrius I also captured a deep appreciation for the Desert Mystics. I found in their writings a resonance with the process of spiritual growth and formation that I was sensing and observing. Now 4 years later I still feel that.
I wrote a research paper on Evagrius and his schema of Eight Thoughts. Those thoughts became the seed that eventually became the Seven Deadly Sins and their associated Seven Christian Virtues. But for Evagrius those Eight Thoughts were traps for anyone who sought to develop a Christian Spiritual relationship with God.
After that first year, I kept reflecting on both Evagrius and Ignatius as I began to try out Spiritual Direction. They are still very helpful. Then in the third year of the course, we had a Spiritual Director couple lead a class session on the Enneagram. I still typed myself as a Type 9 and still found it interesting.
However, what really got me interested in the Enneagram at this time was the correspondence between the Nine types of the Enneagram and Evagrius’ Eight Thoughts. They were the same, plus one. So I started paying more attention to the Enneagram and seeing how it might help.
Right after that class and for a few months before we were moved again by the Bishop, I went to one of them for Spiritual Direction. We had more in depth conversations about my Ennea-type. We came to the conclusion that I had mistyped myself. I liked the idea of being the Type 9, but we agreed that I was actually a Type 8 with a strong Type 9 wing. (If you don’t understand that, don’t worry, it is only marginally important for this post).
I did not like that at all. (Which is actually important, because that is a sign that we were probably right on). The Type 8 is the Challenger, the Dictator, the one who needs to be in Control. I did not like that because I knew a couple pastor’s growing up who would fit that description and I endeavored my whole life to not be like them at all (another clue that this typing was right). This triggered a major crisis in my spiritual life as I wrestled with the idea of accepting who I really was and what my traps and strengths were. It took quite a bit of time for me to get to that point. Once I did, that freed up a lot of spiritual energy. I found myself coming back to the Enneagram information again and again going deeper each time into my own type.
That continued for a year or so. Then, at a Spiritual Direction Retreat I kept bringing up thoughts and insights from my reading and reflections on the Enneagram. Out of that retreat, our Conference’s Pastoral Counselor asked me if I wanted to share those insights at a workshop on the Enneagram for the conference. In a moment of weakness/faith I said yes. Then I started digging into the reading.
That is my story, now to start sifting through all those ideas and lets see what I can share with you all as I practice and prepare.