THE SPIRITUAL INSIGHTS OF THE ENNEAGRAM
Jerry Wagner, Ph.D.
From the Enneagram perspective, we will explore: When do you experience yourself as spiritual? And when do you feel not-so-spiritual? What keeps you from being spiritual? What are you passionate about? What divine aspect is God inviting out in you now? Is there a way that the not-so-spiritual in you represents a dark spot that hasn’t yet come to the light?
Our personality, which contains our idealized self-image, is like an idol, a graven image of our essence. Like an idol, it offers us safety and protection from harm; but it is also fearsome and threatening. We must follow its dictates or risk being vulnerable. Our personality idol promises to take care of us; but we must make the proper sacrifices, including our soul child.
If we decommission our idol, we have resources available to us where we don’t expect them – in our shadow, the polar opposite of our personality, the very place our idols tell us to avoid.
We’ll look at the false promises and threats of our idol and the sacrifices we are asked to make to gain its protection. We’ll also look, against the advice of our personality, at our shadow to find hidden parts of ourselves that can lead us to wholeness.
