The Sacred Enneagram: Finding Your Unique Path to Spiritual Growth

Solitude, intentional withdrawal, teaches us to be present—present to ourselves, present to God, and present with others.

“As we learn to practice death by way of contemplation, death at the end of life is no longer a fear, but is received as the next logical step. Death is no longer an unknown for us because we already know that life comes through the process of death. We will have lived that reality each day.”

Keating explains that as children we all need an appropriate amount of power and control, affection and esteem, and security and survival for healthy psychological grounding. But as we mature, our tendency is to overidentify with one of these programs for happiness, keeping us developmentally and spiritually stuck.

Real transformation takes place when we pair the self-awareness that the Enneagram stimulates with the silence of contemplative practice. Then our unique path to spiritual growth emerges, and we will never be the same.

Listening to thoughts (head), feelings (heart), or instincts (gut) based on your dominant Intelligence Center is the beginning of learning to hear how God has always been speaking to you.

“Threes seek a practical and sustaining role in the world. Sixes seek to assure a safe and secure existence in the world. And Nines seek a comfortable position or place in the world.”

For the gut or body types, slowing down, creating intentional pauses, and in some cases simply ceasing all activity become the correction to what is out of control in their active lives. Practices marked by stillness help dismantle the lie “I am what I do” and loosen the addictive grasp that power and control have in and through this center.

adopts type Seven’s propensity to overuse or overdo anything that offers pleasure

the Enneagram emphasizes the urgency of inner work—the intentional focus required to prioritize the nurturing of our spirituality by facing pain from our past, exploring areas where we’ve neglected emotional healing, and consciously* examining our struggle to bring our best self forward in our vocation, relationships, and faith.

The Law of Seven is thought to explain the spectrums of things like light (refracted through the seven colors of a rainbow),