Enneagram Work:

The Enneagram of Personality Types is a doorway into inner work. It shows us the different archetypal ways in which our attention gets captured by certain preoccupations our minds get into. It is the study of how we lose Presence, connection with the ground of our Being and with what is real, and how we forget ourselves by reliving memories, anticipating the future, engaging in imaginary conversations and playing out emotional reaction patterns, all of which has very little to do with what is actually going on in this moment.

The Enneagram is the study of where our attention tends to go by habit and of what we tend to believe about ourselves and the world habitually, how we project our beliefs and how that disconnects us from what is really going on. For ex. how we get caught up in ego projects of living up to an idea of who we believe we are supposed to be (someone more helpful, successful, spiritual or perfect), how we try to find guidance and safety in concepts and how we defend our ego boundaries against intrusion.

These are different traps of ego identification we all fall into. In this way, the Enneagram illuminates for us what is usually invisible to us. Our personalities are structured with the purpose of keeping us distracted and away from pain and fear. Therefore, this a tremendous help to seeing ourselves clearly.

Every personality type is a stand-in for the Essence qualities of that type that one has lost touch with. It is a substitute and therefore hollow. Hence, when we identify with personality, we feel shame about our deficiencies, our inner emptiness, our fraudulence and we are afraid that other people could see that. We fear being exposed. We also lose our sense of inner knowing which leaves us in fear of the unknown and unsure about what decisions to make in our lives. We feel separate, cut off from the ground of our Being and all alone. We are totally unaware of the treasures of our Being that are always present.

To begin the process of uncovering our ego defenses, we examine how each Enneagram type has a basic fear it is running from as well as a basic desire it is running toward, a negative self-image it is trying to cover up as well as an ideal self-image it is trying to uphold. Each type also has a particular cognitive error, a special distortion it perceives the world through. This is balanced by a particular "saving grace", an area of clarity within the personality structure. Furthermore, each type has a "fixation", a mental pattern that is repeated over and over as well as a "passion" which is an emotional reaction that is that type’s particular default reaction to life. When the lost Essence quality of the type is experienced again, a particular "virtue" develops naturally.

We look at the movement within the Enneagram: along the arrows, towards integration for each type and against the arrows, towards disintegration for each type. We explore what is needed to undo one’s main Enneagram type and what is required to undo the entire ego structure altogether.

We examine the 9 vertical levels of development for each type.

We also explore the three instinctual drives we all share (self-preservation, social and sexual) and how they play out through the passion of each Enneagram type.