The Sacred Enneagram: A Review and Conversation with Chris Heuertz, Pt.1

Editor’s note: Square brackets in this post represent my commentary.

The Enneagram is entering a Golden Age, at least within Christendom. After a drought of many years, a recent spate of books by Christian authors, such as The Road Back to You and Self to Lose – Self to Find, are welcome additions to the conversation. And now we have the wonderful new book by Chris Heuertz, The Sacred Enneagram: Finding Your Unique Path to Spiritual Growth.

This is not just another Enneagram book that takes readers through the nine personality types. Those books are necessary and useful, but how many books like that do you need? Instead, in addition to an insightful overview of type, Chris has made a valuable contribution to this body of work by integrating knowledge of type with the practice of contemplative prayer. Hence, the subtitle of the book.

I spoke with Chris recently, and my first question was, “When you first learned about the Enneagram, what was it that made you think, ‘Yah, this is true’?”

At first, I was a bit skeptical. I thought it was too regimented. But once the Enneagram finds you, it won’t let you go. I learned it from a friend in the slums of Cambodia, and I sent him all these results of tests I’d taken online. He kindly said, “You’re going about this wrong. Let me ask you about your relationship with your mother” because he’d already figured out my type. Really, he didn’t ask me but told me what the relationship was like. I was blown away at how accurate he was.

Speaking of skepticism, I’ve run across my fair share of wary Christians. I asked Chris how he deals with those who fear the Enneagram is occultic or “Eastern” or have other concerns.

In every faith system I’ve encountered, the Enneagram can serve as a tool. It’s not a religion and it doesn’t belong to any religion. One of the gifts of the Enneagram is greater discernment, which is what you need to tell if something is not for you. I would say to them, try it. I’ve learned that not everyone is ready for this tool, and it’s not my job to try to convince them otherwise.

Inevitably, whenever I teach solitude, silence and stillness, there will be someone in the group who objects. Their question is usually, “If I do this, what am I opening myself up to?” They are concerned that this practice seems very Eastern [though early Christianity is steeped in it]. So, this again brings up the question of who God is to you. Is he big enough to protect you from a demon trying to slip in during this time?

I then asked him how he would reply to Christians who say, “I have the Holy Spirit to guide me and heal me – I don’t need this Enneagram thing”?

Again, the Enneagram is a tool. It’s a useful aid. People are willing to get guidance from a professional therapist or a spiritual director; the Enneagram is no different.

I added my husband’s tricycle analogy: You can ride your tricycle of Christianity from one coast to the other. It will be slow going, but you’re heading in the right direction. Or, you can strap the rocket engine of the Enneagram onto your tricycle. You’re likely to go farther, and probably faster, than you’d ever imagined.

In the book, Chris maps each personality type to a specific prayer posture and intention. The posture is determined by which Center of Intelligence you belong to, and the intention is based on your Harmony Triad – how you engage with the world. As a Type Seven, my contemplative prayer “style,” if you will, is Silence and Rest.

This is dead-on accurate from my own experience of being counter-intuitively drawn into the silent, restful presence of God. I asked if others had attested to the accuracy of this chart.

Yes. For instance, when Nines learn that their prayer posture is stillness, they are relieved. “Yay, we’re great with stillness.” Then, when I tell them that they also need to engage [that is, resist their tendency toward resignation and actively show up], they know they’re busted.

I’ll share more about the book and my conversation with Chris in my next post, but I recommend buying his book now so that you are not without its rich resources a moment longer. You can get it online here.

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