Sometimes it feels like it is all about numbers. In the Judaea- Christian tradition numbers have always held importance with seven symbolising completeness and perfection. The number eight means a new beginning or new creation in a biblical context[1]. In terms of the Spiritual Accompaniment Process the eighth meeting was certainly significant and a new way of thinking that has been brewing through the sessions was verbalised. It centres around the Enneagram and there are three strands which have come through that have been analysed in the Spiritual Accompaniment journey through the lens of Enneagram nine with wings of one and eight.[2]

            The Enneagram is a tool of typing personality and is useful when used to step back and wonder, “why do I do what I do?” and “why do I react like that?” with the aim to move forward or move into healthy responses to stimuli. McCord and others state, the core desire of an Enneagram nine “is inner stability and peace of mind[3]”. Enneagram nine is known as The Peacemaker and the core fear is being in conflict, tension, or discord, shut out or overlooked, losing connection and relationship with others[4]. Enneagram nines self-sabotage because to make peace for others causes inner turmoil and inner peace for me might mean some conflict with others. There is not room in this paper to go through the nuances of Enneagram nine, but three distinct recurring themes will be reflected upon.

Nine Lives

A day in the life of a minister can feel like you have nine different lives. Meeting people for coffee, a walk, in their home, at work, researching for bible study and preparing services, meeting ecumenical colleagues and local representatives can all be a part of one day. Some people need emotional support others need physical help, some drain, and some give life. I move from joy to sorrow, from pain to laughter and all shades of emotion between. The Spiritual Accompaniment Process, especially the journalling has allowed me to see the people who have been pulling me one way or another. It allowed me to establish the ways people are competing for my attention and how difficult it is for me to say no. I love a day that starts at six am and is full on until eight or nine pm. I feel I have achieved a lot and sometimes have made a difference. However, in that day I will have been side-tracked, focusing on anything but the main thing that needed to be done. There will have been indecisiveness. The shadow side of me, which has a deep well of anger with nowhere to go sometimes erupts after a day like this, when it has all been thankless tasks. Chestnut, Wilcox and Heuertz among others concur that most of a nine’s life is spent underplaying anger and when it does break out it does so in an inappropriate way[5]. Being more aware of this aspect without judging myself has been transformative. At first, I thought it was giving me permission to be angry inappropriately but as I shared in the confidentiality of the Spiritual Accompaniment room I have discovered something different. In my journal I wrote, “breath work,” “breathe,” “take a moment,” and “relax.” As Au puts it, the Spiritual Accompanier was walking alongside me as I was trying to learn a better way of following the lead of God in my life.[6] The breath gives me time to not react viscerally.

A Stitch in Time Saves Nine

The wing of one for an enneagram nine person is known as the dreamer. They are more introverted, orderly, idealistic, critical, emotionally controlled, focused, cerebral, and compliant[7]. At my best I am super organised with margins in place to allow for deadlines to be completed well ahead of schedule. The to do list is always completed, where possible and I am all things to all people. However, I am not good at taking time for myself, Self-care is aspirational and one of the recurring themes through the Spiritual Accompaniment Process has been how to carve out time that is just for me. Wilcox states that The Peacemaker is apt to push themselves beyond their limits they are unaware of what they truly desire.[8] Journalling through this year has been effective in highlighting the issue and providing some “brain dump[9]” space. The theme of self-care of lack of it showed in various ways in the journal. “tired today,” “no time,” “did not walk Lorelei (dog) today,” “spent all day in the office,” were among the journal entries over the course of the academic year. The favourite phrases of the Spiritual Accompanier were, “what work day would Jesus want for you?” and “would Jesus not want you to spend some Sabbath rest with Him?” The theme in the journals was both questioning this and coming up with schemes to find Sabbath rest each week. Some of these were tried but discarded after a day or so. This agrees with Chestnut’s assertion that Enneagram nines tend to “forget” themselves through a kind of psychological inertia that occurs with regard to their physical needs.”[10] Equally Heuertz suggests that a nine who embraces The Peacemaker role lives in a harmonious community as little fires are put out all over, but the inner life looks like a overgrown full of weeds garden which is ignored and neglected.[11] I have endured such trauma in my life that the “vulnerable” part that I allow others to see is but the tip of a huge iceberg. Journalling about this I wrote, “sometimes it feels like my shadow has many parts, and they can all come at me at once, I have to keep working to keep them at bay.” Stepping back and observing my behaviour I must find a better way of working and living or I will head where many ministers have gone before me in the “burn out” bin. There is room for more work in this area to visualise what this might look like.

Nine Day Wonder

I love to start things, there is an excitement in the first moments of creation but then I procrastinate, I get stuck and cannot seem to move forward. I noted in my journal that the Spiritual Accompanier said, “lots of lost potential, then.” It was a lightbulb moment for me. The inner world for me, is as Riso and Hudson describe as, “effortless oneness.”[12] The embodiment of the experience comes naturally and the endless cerebral processing is mirrored by my body. Every time I have missed a confrontation my stomach has flipped. The Spiritual Accompaniment Process has allowed me three times to lay out a situation that was causing this embodied reaction. In learning about my Enneagram type in the Spiritual Accompaniment Process I have been able to record in my journal, “oh that’s why I do that.” I feel that to leave it at that place is to do a disservice to the facilitation I am receiving in the room of Spiritual accompaniment. It is not enough for me to observe how my mind works, what my heart feels and the experience of my body. The Holy Spirit in the room is challenging me to embrace, change, overcome and sit with all the personality traits. This has been a growth period because I have come to understand my body’s part in this process. Heuertz, I think sums it up well when he invites the experience of contemplative prayer into the Enneagram typing. Heuertz suggests we overidentify with certain traits and ignore others which allows the shadow to stay in the shadows. He suggests that a contemplative approach to the Enneagram invites us “to resist the reductionism of inner fragmentation.” [13] This allows me to contemplate loving all of my personality traits which means there is potential that may not be wasted in the coming years.

Plaiting the numbers

Rebecca was trying to plait my hair, I  do not have a lot of hair but she insisted. As she tried to bring the strands together, I relaxed and let my mind wander into the Spiritual Accompaniment Process. With eight sessions completed, and a paper due I pondered on the main themes and of particular note the way through the lens of the Enneagram they stood. Rebecca moved to the other side and tried from a different angle, she was successful and I had for a whole day a plait in my hair; three separate bunches of my hair were woven together to make something of value. The “filling each day to the brim,” the “absence of self-care,” and the accepting of “embodied reactions in my gut,” of this paper seem separate, coming from different traits of an Enneagram nine. However in the moment of the activity of Rebecca plaiting my hair I imagined the three strands dancing together around a maypole being plaited into my core. There is work to be done, for sure. The author of The Cloud of Unknowing makes it clear that God can only be grasped by love not concepts. As Heuertz puts it, “the contemplative path is about analysing less and loving more.”[14] The maypole of my imagination is the possibility that I can learn to love myself to the core and in doing so the personality traits will dance together around that love. When children dance around a maypole there are many shadows, intermingled, overlapping, skipped on and I imagine, “what would that look like for my traits to skip and dance with each other in a non-competitive way with love at the centre.”

Bibliography

Baron, Renee and Wagele, Elizabeth. The Enneagram Made Easy. London: Harper Collins, 2009.

Chagnon, Eugene. Enneagram: The Ultimate Guide To Understanding Yourself: A Comprehensive Beginner’s Guide To Learn The Realms Of Enneagram. New York, Bella Frost, 2021.

Chestnut, Beatrice. The Complete Enneagram: 27 Paths To Greater Self-Knowledge.Berkerley:  SheWrites Press, 2013.

Chestnut, Beatrice and Paes, Uranio. The Enneagram Guide To Waking Up: Find Your Path, Face Your Shadow, Discover Your True Self. Charlottesville: Hampton Roads Publishing, 2021.

Cron, Ian Morgan and Stabile Suzanne. The Road Back To You: An Enneagram Journey To Self-Discovery. Downers Grove: IVP, 2016.

Daniels, David, N. and Price, Virginia A. The Essential Enneagram. London: Harper Collins, 2009.

Heuertz, Christopher, L. The Sacred Enneagram: Finding Your Unique Path To Spiritual Growth. Grand Rapids, Zondervan, 2017.

Heuertz, Phileena. Mindful Silence: The Heart Of Christian Contemplation. Downers Grove: IVP, 2018.

McCord, Beth. Enneagram Type 9: The Peaceful Mediator. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2019.

Paasch, Hannah. Millenneagram: The Enneagram Guide For Discovering Your Truest, Baddest Self. London: Harper One, 2019.

­Riso, Don Richard and Hudson Russ. Personality Types: Using The Enneagram For Self- Discovery. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1996.

Riso, Don Richard and Hudson, Russ. Discovering Your Personality Type: The Essential Introduction To The Enneagram. ­Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2003.

Stabile, Suzanne. The Path Between Us: An Enneagram Journey To Healthy Relationships. Downers Grove: IVP, 2018.

Wilcox, Christina, S. Take Care Of Your Type: An Enneagram Guide To Self-Care. New York: Tiller Press, 2020.

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[1] https://www.biblestudy.org/bibleref/meaning-of-numbers-in-bible/8.html

[2] https://www.enneagraminstitute.com/type-9

[3] Beth McCord, Enneagram Type 9: The Peaceful Mediator. (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2019) 35

[4] Christina, S. Wilcox, Take Care Of Your Type: An Enneagram Guide To Self-Care. (New York: Tiller Press, 2020) 177

[5] Christopher, L. Heuertz, The Sacred Enneagram: Finding Your Unique Path To Spiritual Growth. (Grand Rapids, Zondervan, 2017), Christina, S. Wilcox, Take Care Of Your Type: An Enneagram Guide To Self-Care. (New York: Tiller Press, 2020) and Beatrice. Chestnut, The Complete Enneagram: 27 Paths To Greater Self-Knowledge. (Berkerley:  SheWrites Press, 2013)

[6] Wilkie Au, “Holistic Discernment” in Presence: International  Journal Of Spiritual Direction 11, no.1 (February 2005)  1

[7] Beth McCord, Enneagram Type 9: The Peaceful Mediator. (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2019) 62

[8] Christina, S. Wilcox, Take Care Of Your Type: An Enneagram Guide To Self-Care. (New York: Tiller Press, 2020) 181

[9] Ibid 183

[10] Beatrice. Chestnut, The Complete Enneagram: 27 Paths To Greater Self-Knowledge. (Berkerley:  SheWrites Press, 2013) 93

[11] Christopher, L. Heuertz, The Sacred Enneagram: Finding Your Unique Path To Spiritual Growth. (Grand Rapids, Zondervan, 2017) 223

[12] ­Don Richard Riso and Russ Hudson, Personality Types: Using The Enneagram For Self-Discovery. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1996) 339

[13] Christopher, L. Heuertz, The Sacred Enneagram: Finding Your Unique Path To Spiritual Growth. (Grand Rapids, Zondervan, 2017) 223

[14] Phileena Heuertz, Mindful Silence: The Heart Of Christian Contemplation (Downers Grove: IVP, 2018) 191