It is a wonderful tool that can help us see and let go of the false self--which masks the image of God within us--and allow us to live from our True Self--the unique manifestation of Love that God intends us to be. It seems we are most defended against that which we most deeply know to be true, our original blessing.
The Enneagram describes nine different personalities, each of which covers a broad spectrum from "immature" to "mature," or "compulsive" to "redeemed." It is more about recognizing "energies" than it is about describing precise traits. People who know the Enneagram in a superficial way think it's about putting people into boxes, but its real goal is to let people out of their self-created boxes. It makes us aware of our root sin, our passion, our particular trap or blindness that prevents us from experiencing reality holistically and honestly. These passions were called the seven "capital sins" by Pope Gregory the Great in the sixth century, although predictably he missed the most common ones in Western civilization, which are fear and deceit. You can't see as sin what you have idealized as virtue.
Freedom from our habitual trap comes through some in-depth experience of Love, be it a sudden overflowing, hitting the bottom and being lifted up, or the gradual opening through contemplative practice.
-- Richard Rohr
I will be exploring more of this each week for a while.
