07-21-2010, 05:07 PM
Circle of One, one really nice thing about the Enneagram as a self-development tool is that harsh, cold splashes are not necessary. It's about becoming more of who you naturally are at your best. The whole process can be quite gentle (although as challenging as a type 3 needs to inspire themself!).
Type 9: The Peacemaker
Completing our trilogy of consciousness states/personality types focused on the connection with society, we come to type 9, the Peacemaker.
The goal of this type of personality, or this state of consciousness any of us can enter at any time, is simply: unity and peace.
At best, this leads to a calm, joyous, loving acceptance of All That Is.
At worst, it gets tangled up with a terror of being separated and alone, unable to find anyone who could offer a loving and honest connection; so there's a desparate accomodation, even to the extent of accepting evil, just to gain the illusion of union.
Let's look at the consequences of how this impulse plays out differently, depending on who is the recipient of this generous spirit of giving. If one is unconditionally welcoming to people of goodwill, this creats a strong bond. If one turns a blind eye to the consequences of selling out one's own ethics, or even worse, selling out the integrity of others just for illusive "peace in our time," one will find that there is no depth of appeasement that won't be seized by the darkness.
In my own opinion: in Law of One terms, the distinction between fourth density love and fifth density wisdom may be more vividly embodied in type 9 than anywhere else in the Enneagram.
Peacemakers can be a total delight when they happily relax, care about others, enjoy chats and hobbies, help others feel warmly received, and eventually mosey the paperwork over to the file cabinet... but not until everyone is comfy with a nice spot of tea!
And peacemakers can be so darn compliantly passive that you just can't bear to tell them off when they fart around, use their progress on the to-do list as the means to show love, abandon their own identity for the sake of the relationship, or don't stand up for themselves because nobody ever gave them the procedures manual about how to do that!
The subconscious emotional connection can be a deep sense of connection to both parents, and a fear of losing that union if they don't have enough patience or self-repression. Or, someone else may be felt as the focus of devotion to whom one looks up and lives in peace.
Since a Type 9 person wants to see everyone comfortably cared for, and they hate to have to rush or deal with a crisis, they're the perfect person to ask for help preparing your camping checklist or the office emergency kit. Especially if you can do this at a calm time, well before the storm arrives.
With the courage to be fully present, this type of energy can be a very powerful force for good, right in the here and now, enjoying the warm beauty of past traditions and diligently crafting a well-prepared future. When type 9 people dissociate from the present reality that there are sometimes evil, unkind, hostile forces at work that demand vigorous, powerful action, they can be the masters at hiding in the middle of an empty field yet where nobody can spot their true selves... so perfectly harmonized with the contours of the land that they just don't stick up on the horizon at all. Invisible.
Sometimes they do really care a lot, but forget that other people may need an invitation: How are you feeling? Would you like to talk about that? What else is important to you? It's so obvious to the type 9 that they are available that they might not realize others need an occasional sign to the rest area. Otherwise, people who really need a break might zoom down the highway of their own busy lives and never realize that a moment of peace was as close as their nearest Nine.
I believe my Dad was a Type 9 person. I see all of these qualities in his life. He had very stable long-term employment, and his marriage continued for many decades, only ending in his death. He had the most wonderfully delightful way of whistling while he happily did his carpentry hobby. He taught some adult evening classes at the college and his math students absolutely loved him, one going so far as to make a delightful rag doll figure of him as a gift. Since he "knew" that I knew how much he cared, asking the kind of specific questions I mentioned - such as, How are you doing? and What do you want to be when you grow up? - simply didn't occur to him.
In him I see something that the Enneagram books omit about type 9: an innate sense of harmony and balance in their work products, not just their relationships. As an engineer, I suspect that Dad had an intuitive sense of which circuits and software would most harmoniously balance the signal and fulfill the communications purposes between the system, its users, and its environment.
He also put up with some incredibly outrageous B.S. from my Mom, instantly agreeing with her about whatever her latest rant was just so the storm would blow over and he could keep the peace. But battening down the hatches, as you disappear down below decks, is not actually the same as sailing in calm seas! I wish he would have sometimes stood up with her, to say, "I realize you're upset but the demands you're making on other people are simply not fair or reasonable! Finish your whine and cut it out already!"
At best, the type 9 energy is the Field of Dreams that supports whatever other people want to plant. When the type 9 person realizes this, puts a protective fence around their heart and only opens the gate for those who are respectful of this primal Yin energy (in either a man or woman), with a warrior's fierceness to protect this resource for the good of all... only then do they really gain the peace that means so much to them.
I have a list here of famous Type 9 people, all easy to see as the one who was a focus of harmonizing balance across the conflicting terms of their world... or, at least, aspired to be this way:
In politics: Presidents Lincoln, Reagan, and Ford, Queen Elizabeth II.
In transpersonal & depth pyschology: Joseph Cambell, Carl Jung.
In entertainment: George Lucas, Walt Disney, Kevin Costner, Ron Howard, Jim Hensen.
In music: Ringo Starr, Janet Jackson.
The balancing point of quietly peacemaking at home: Norman Rockwell, Edith Bunker, Marge Simpson.
The above citations are from Riso & Hudson's materials. I suspect Arlo Guthrie might be a type 9: it's fair enough to make him pick up the garbage, but did he really have to get sent to the Group W bench?
A glimpse ahead
Now looking at types 3, 6, and 9, in comparison, we can see that all three of them have a fundamental core Yin quality of acceptance and of receiving the blessings of society. Within this fundamental value, Type 3 takes a Yang aggressiveness towards self-development to become admirable; Type 6 takes a balanced approach towards giving loyalty to receive loyalty; and Type 9, the Yin of Yin of the Enneagram, is receptive through receptiveness, a recursive concept that a type 9 could happily contemplate in a hammock all afternoon.
My next essay will be about the lines of integration and disintegration between types 3, 6, and 9. This is the distinctive, uniquely valuabe contribution of the Enneagram so I'm very much looking forward to exploring those ideas with you.
Lorna, you mentioned an online test suggested you're type 9. Does this type 9 description resonate for you?
Type 9: The Peacemaker
Completing our trilogy of consciousness states/personality types focused on the connection with society, we come to type 9, the Peacemaker.
The goal of this type of personality, or this state of consciousness any of us can enter at any time, is simply: unity and peace.
At best, this leads to a calm, joyous, loving acceptance of All That Is.
At worst, it gets tangled up with a terror of being separated and alone, unable to find anyone who could offer a loving and honest connection; so there's a desparate accomodation, even to the extent of accepting evil, just to gain the illusion of union.
Let's look at the consequences of how this impulse plays out differently, depending on who is the recipient of this generous spirit of giving. If one is unconditionally welcoming to people of goodwill, this creats a strong bond. If one turns a blind eye to the consequences of selling out one's own ethics, or even worse, selling out the integrity of others just for illusive "peace in our time," one will find that there is no depth of appeasement that won't be seized by the darkness.
In my own opinion: in Law of One terms, the distinction between fourth density love and fifth density wisdom may be more vividly embodied in type 9 than anywhere else in the Enneagram.
Peacemakers can be a total delight when they happily relax, care about others, enjoy chats and hobbies, help others feel warmly received, and eventually mosey the paperwork over to the file cabinet... but not until everyone is comfy with a nice spot of tea!
And peacemakers can be so darn compliantly passive that you just can't bear to tell them off when they fart around, use their progress on the to-do list as the means to show love, abandon their own identity for the sake of the relationship, or don't stand up for themselves because nobody ever gave them the procedures manual about how to do that!
The subconscious emotional connection can be a deep sense of connection to both parents, and a fear of losing that union if they don't have enough patience or self-repression. Or, someone else may be felt as the focus of devotion to whom one looks up and lives in peace.
Since a Type 9 person wants to see everyone comfortably cared for, and they hate to have to rush or deal with a crisis, they're the perfect person to ask for help preparing your camping checklist or the office emergency kit. Especially if you can do this at a calm time, well before the storm arrives.
With the courage to be fully present, this type of energy can be a very powerful force for good, right in the here and now, enjoying the warm beauty of past traditions and diligently crafting a well-prepared future. When type 9 people dissociate from the present reality that there are sometimes evil, unkind, hostile forces at work that demand vigorous, powerful action, they can be the masters at hiding in the middle of an empty field yet where nobody can spot their true selves... so perfectly harmonized with the contours of the land that they just don't stick up on the horizon at all. Invisible.
Sometimes they do really care a lot, but forget that other people may need an invitation: How are you feeling? Would you like to talk about that? What else is important to you? It's so obvious to the type 9 that they are available that they might not realize others need an occasional sign to the rest area. Otherwise, people who really need a break might zoom down the highway of their own busy lives and never realize that a moment of peace was as close as their nearest Nine.
I believe my Dad was a Type 9 person. I see all of these qualities in his life. He had very stable long-term employment, and his marriage continued for many decades, only ending in his death. He had the most wonderfully delightful way of whistling while he happily did his carpentry hobby. He taught some adult evening classes at the college and his math students absolutely loved him, one going so far as to make a delightful rag doll figure of him as a gift. Since he "knew" that I knew how much he cared, asking the kind of specific questions I mentioned - such as, How are you doing? and What do you want to be when you grow up? - simply didn't occur to him.
In him I see something that the Enneagram books omit about type 9: an innate sense of harmony and balance in their work products, not just their relationships. As an engineer, I suspect that Dad had an intuitive sense of which circuits and software would most harmoniously balance the signal and fulfill the communications purposes between the system, its users, and its environment.
He also put up with some incredibly outrageous B.S. from my Mom, instantly agreeing with her about whatever her latest rant was just so the storm would blow over and he could keep the peace. But battening down the hatches, as you disappear down below decks, is not actually the same as sailing in calm seas! I wish he would have sometimes stood up with her, to say, "I realize you're upset but the demands you're making on other people are simply not fair or reasonable! Finish your whine and cut it out already!"
At best, the type 9 energy is the Field of Dreams that supports whatever other people want to plant. When the type 9 person realizes this, puts a protective fence around their heart and only opens the gate for those who are respectful of this primal Yin energy (in either a man or woman), with a warrior's fierceness to protect this resource for the good of all... only then do they really gain the peace that means so much to them.
I have a list here of famous Type 9 people, all easy to see as the one who was a focus of harmonizing balance across the conflicting terms of their world... or, at least, aspired to be this way:
In politics: Presidents Lincoln, Reagan, and Ford, Queen Elizabeth II.
In transpersonal & depth pyschology: Joseph Cambell, Carl Jung.
In entertainment: George Lucas, Walt Disney, Kevin Costner, Ron Howard, Jim Hensen.
In music: Ringo Starr, Janet Jackson.
The balancing point of quietly peacemaking at home: Norman Rockwell, Edith Bunker, Marge Simpson.
The above citations are from Riso & Hudson's materials. I suspect Arlo Guthrie might be a type 9: it's fair enough to make him pick up the garbage, but did he really have to get sent to the Group W bench?
A glimpse ahead
Now looking at types 3, 6, and 9, in comparison, we can see that all three of them have a fundamental core Yin quality of acceptance and of receiving the blessings of society. Within this fundamental value, Type 3 takes a Yang aggressiveness towards self-development to become admirable; Type 6 takes a balanced approach towards giving loyalty to receive loyalty; and Type 9, the Yin of Yin of the Enneagram, is receptive through receptiveness, a recursive concept that a type 9 could happily contemplate in a hammock all afternoon.
My next essay will be about the lines of integration and disintegration between types 3, 6, and 9. This is the distinctive, uniquely valuabe contribution of the Enneagram so I'm very much looking forward to exploring those ideas with you.
Lorna, you mentioned an online test suggested you're type 9. Does this type 9 description resonate for you?