spiritually speaking

The Enneagram symbol as well as the name “Enneagram” is often enough to make people of faith suspect of something that might look cult-ish or new age-y or simply “other” to them.  I think that was true for me at first.  In 2016, my friend Diane gave me an Enneagram book written by Richard Rohr, and I left it sitting in a basket on my floor for two years before I decided to pick it up.  I, too, was skeptical about the intersectionality of the Enneagram and my Christian faith. 

Now, 7 years after engaging that first Enneagram book in 2018, I can attest to the rich spiritual dimension of the Enneagram and the valuable resource it is along the path of spiritual growth.  

Priest and author, Father Henri Nouwen, suggested in his work that we humans tend to live in 3 lies that we come to believe about our identity:  

1. I am what I have 

2. I am what I do

3. I am what other people say or think about me

And Trappist Monk Thomas Keating, in his work, suggested that we all employ various strategies and we over-assert ourselves to attain either:

1. power and control 

2. affection and esteem

3. security and safety

The Enneagram helps us to see more clearly the specific patterns and ways in which we tend to reinforce these false identities and over-assert ourselves in our striving.  In this clarity of seeing, an invitation presents itself and a path is revealed back to our true identity and home in God/Love.  

The Enneagram has been a tremendous aid in my spiritual formation- helping me to see where my faith has been caught up in ego/religion and inviting me, instead, to greater surrender, love, and freedom.  How has the Enneagram informed your spirituality?