How Each Enneagram Type Searches for Home: The False Hope in a Wizard
Each Enneagram Type falls asleep to itself and its connection to its perspective of completeness and oneness with the universe and/or God, which leads to fear and a mistaken belief that it is deficient. Like Dorothy who finds herself swept away into the Land of Oz, we all search for home through the illusory fantasies of our personalities.
Each type then reacts emotionally to this fear with motivation to try to replicate what was lost by striving for and depending on something outside of itself, the false self (or ego in spiritual terms). The types travel their yellow brick roads in vain to possess what already exists within.
The Enneagram types mistakenly believe that a Wizard will restore them to wholeness by giving them things like perfection, freedom, truth, faith, etc. The Enneagram understands the futility and the trap of the search for what feels missing, and it highlights what is possible if each type is able to turn inwardly and reunite with real Self, true nature, essence, Being, God, etc.
Each of us has to recognize the false hope of relying on the proverbial Wizards we pursue. Once we can look behind the curtain and see the illusion of its power, we can click our heels and return to ourselves.
Ones and the Search for Perfection Through Blamelessness
1s feel disconnected from the Holy Perfection of all creation, and they resentfully believe that nothing is good enough (particularly themselves).
In their anger, they compulsively set out to reform themselves and their environments, which fuels them to: do all things perfectly (SP); rigidly become perfect examples of what’s right (SO); or zealously work to perfect others (SX).
Ones grow by letting go of their reactive evaluations and serenely accepting things as they are and recognizing the deeper wholeness, completeness, and perfection that already exists.
Twos and the Search for Freedom and Will Through Personal Connections
2s feel disconnected from love and the Holy Freedom to allow God’s Holy Will to unfold the universe. In their disconnection, they flatteringly believe they can assert their own wills to generate love, connection, and appreciation from others.
This fixed belief fuels their pride, and they defend against feeling small by inflating themselves to match an idealized image that suggests they are more important than they really are. Twos compulsively strive to manufacture rapport through: playfully charming others by being the center of attention like children (SP), ambitiously working hard to be influential in supporting others (SO), or seductively attracting and inspiring passion in others through emotional support (SX).
Twos grow by letting go of their ideal image, humbly accepting their human limitations, and recognizing that they are already interconnected with all others. They experience freedom by letting go of the feeling that they need to assert their will to get their way and instead can accept God’s will and it brings.
Threes and the Search for Interconnection and Hope Through Demonstrating Success
3s feel disconnected from the Holy Law and Holy Hope of the interconnectedness of the universe and vainly believe things do not happen unless they make them happen.
In their self-deceit, they compulsively lose contact with their inner lives and automatically direct their energy towards performing well and accomplishing so they can become what others’ view as successful by: being good and of quality (SP); universally viewed as a success (SO); or appealing to the people they want to support (SX).
Threes grow by letting go of their need to accomplish and slowing down, relaxing into themselves, and accepting the truth of who they are (not what they do) so they may live authentically and recognize the hopeful reality that they are a part of the fabric of the universe.
Fours’ Search for What is Missing Through Authenticity
4s feel disconnected from the perspective that all of creation comes from a Holy Origin and is composed of the same principles, and they melancholically believe they are missing something.
In their envy, they compulsively long to be reconnected with what they think is missing (while envying others for having it) by pursuing after it externally through: exuberant positivity and working hard to acquire it in a stoic, longsuffering way (SP); garnering attention by complainingly wearing their suffering on their sleeve for all to see (SO); or competing with others from a stance of superiority and making the others suffer by aggressively demanding and complaining (SX).
Fours grow by letting go of comparing themselves with others and becoming equanimous and calmly unaffected by their environments and recognizing that they are made of the same stuff as others.
Fives’ Search for Understanding Through Knowledge and Minimalism
5s feel disconnected from Holy Omniscience–the knowledge that all of nature’s component parts are interconnected in oneness, including themselves, and they stingily believe they must protect against parting with their perceived scarce supply of privacy, energy, and inner resources.
In their avarice, they compulsively withdraw and hold tight to what they have by creating and enforcing boundaries (SP); pursuing ideals and relating with those who share idealized knowledge (SO); and cultivating trust with a romantic confidant they deeply connect with (SX).
Fives grow by letting go of their fear of depletion and their attachments to knowledge, connecting with their bodies and emotions, and recognizing that they have the direct understanding they have been seeking
Sixes and the Search for Authority and Faith Through Security
6s feel disconnected from Holy Strength and Holy Faith and cowardly believe they are unable to act without more preparation to ensure security and certainty, so they fearfully search for authorities–individuals, systems, or ideas–to protect them from their cynicism-fueled fear that others (and their own thoughts) are untrustworthy.
In their fear, they compulsively work to alleviate their anxiety by: fawning to authorities and cultivate allies through warmth, friendliness, and affection (SP); dutifully obeying authorities perceived to be strong in order to ensure certainty and/or protection (SO); or counterphobically rebelling against, fighting, or dismissing authorities (SX).
Sixes grow by courageously facing their fears, enter their inner worlds, becoming self-reliant , and recognizing the security, certainty, and faith that have been with them all along.
Sevens and the Search for a Plan and Wisdom Through Stimulation
7s feel disconnected from God’s Holy Plan, Work, and Wisdom, and lack trust that the universe will unfold in a meaningful way, so they distortedly believe that they must figure out the big picture of how everything will fit together in an effort to avoid the fear, pain, emptiness, and negativity of deficiency.
In their gluttony, they compulsively indulge themselves in a variety of things, new ideas, exciting experiences, and adventures by searching for pleasure and opportunities through a network of trusted allies (SP), hiding their gluttonous desires and altruistically serving to relieve pain in the world (SO), or escaping the ordinariness of life by idealizing experiences and significant relationships (SX).
Sevens grow by soberly taking in only what is needed and remaining present in the moment despite the pain and recognizing that is happening is within God’s Plan, Work and Wisdom and that the true joy they have been seeking is in being present to themselves and has always been available.
Eights and the Search for Truth Through Indestructibility
8s feel disconnected from the Holy Truth that reality is a oneness, that matter and Spirit are one, and believe with a vengeance that injustices need to be repaid with excessive energy to hide their vulnerabilities and keep others from attacking them.
In their lust, they compulsively go beyond sensory gratification with excess through: directly satisfying themselves by meeting their needs in order to survive (SP); protecting others and confronting injustices in solidarity with others (SO); or passionately and provocatively rebelling against convention (SX).
Eights grow by letting go of their bravado that keeps them from the support they seek, softening into innocence, and recognizing that their souls are already indestructible because they are interconnected with the Divine.
Nines and the Search for Love Through Harmony
9s feel disconnected from the Holy Love that tells us that we are inherently loveable because of the oneness we have with the Divine, and they indolently believe that they are unloveable and insignificant.
In their sloth, they compulsively numb their pain by focusing their attention and importance on others’ views and agendas to the point of forgetting themselves and avoiding the one thing they need to do by instead: satisfying their physical comforts (SP); generously sacrificing for the groups they are in (SO); or fusing/merging with important others (SX).
Nines grow by focusing their attention toward themselves (their bodies, their emotions, and thoughts), asserting themselves, and doing the actions that need to be done, which frees them to recognize their connection with the oneness that reminds them that they are loved.
Conclusion
We are all stuck in the Oz of our personality structures until we do the work necessary to let go of the compulsion to cover our deficiencies by attempting to replicate what feels lost.
But we cannot spiritually bypass our personalities on our way to healing and growth. We have to learn of the futility of Oz to discover that we are not meant to stay there.
The Enneagram maps how we have gotten stuck in our personalities and points to how we can click our heels and journey back home to discover we’ve always had what felt missing.
