While the enneagram is a self-contained system, it can be used to support other paths to growth, such as the 12 Steps. The enneagram of the personality describes nine types of compulsions that lead to “powerlessness” and “unmanageability,” as referred to in the first step. The enneagram of holy ideas alludes to the second step’s “power greater than ourselves,” which is restorative. As we work further into the 12 steps, we find that the map of the enneagram can elucidate them and provide keys to our relationship with our higher power and with our deeper self.
As it turns out, most non-dogmatic spiritual systems are similar, posing questions for inner exploration and challenging us to give up our ego-selves in order to live life more abundantly from a deeper self which is in touch with spirit. We have to die in order to live, give our lives over in order to be free, lose ourselves to find ourselves. The twelfth step speaks of a spiritual awakening, and waking up is exactly what the enneagram and other spiritual systems encourage us to do.
I am grateful to my teachers of the ennegram, the 12 steps, and other spiritual paths for helping me to wake up and to keep waking myself up throughout this wondrous life.
(For earlier posts not shown here, go to http://www.lablanche9.wordpress.com/.)
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