Enneagram of the Fruits of the Holy Spirit

Dear Friends,

As I wait for some of my videos to upload in my long message to my partners in Costa Rica, I have been reflecting more on the Fruits of the Holy Spirit in Galatians chapter 5 and their relation to the dilemmas of the 9 Enneagram personality fixations.  Personality type is really the shell of self.  To become a transcendent being in union with God and the body of spiritually interconnected true believes and sojourners, we must break down these boundaries of self as Jesus described in his shortest parable:

John 12:24 KJV "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit."

So, let's look at the fruits of the Holy Spirit and how they neutralize the central fixations of the 9 core personality types.  (By the way, these 9 types are so fundamental and ancient in archetypal original that they can clearly be seen in the early pictographic formations of the first 9 letters of the Hebrew alphabet in the original order where they were also equated with numbers.)  Here are the coorespondences that I see:

Galatians 5:22-23
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

1) The Perfectionist is fixated in the self versus other distinction through resentment over the different human flaws that different people have.  Love is the answer.  All perfection comes from love, and love neutralizes resentment with compassion.  When the perfectionist learns to seek the true and singular source of perfection in love, the perfectionist with transcend the bounds of self.

2) The Helper is fixed by dependency and being needed.  What does the Bible say about giving?  God loves a joyful giver.  What is the second fruit of the Holy Spirit?  Joy.  The giver who is keeping score is trapped in the pride of being needed.  The secret score sheet of pride in dependency reinforces the distinction between self and other.  Give freely in Joy the Holy Spirit teaches.  When you enjoy channeling help to others as a conduit of support rather than a source of support, you will be free of this fixation that divides self from other.  Let giving be a joyful celebration of life instead.  Raise you eyes to heaven and realize the gift of being given something to give in the first place and celebrate the joy of the complete circle in having been given something to in turn give to another.  Their is no barrier of pride between two people in the realization of this true joy.

3) The Performer is fixated in the distinction between self and other by the deceit of image.  Who looks better?  Who has more titles and distinctions, more notoriety, or better clothing?  This is all an illusion that creates a false distinction between one human and another.  The mystery of the gifts of the Holy Spirit give us Peace as the 3rd answer in the path to oneness.  The Performer competes endlessly and compulsively.  The Performer seeks to monopolize attention.  Be still and know peace, peacefulness, and the homeostasis implied by this virtues.  Be is a steady state with others.  Stop trying to pull recognition away from others toward yourself.  Feel the peace of being steady and rhythmic with others.  Let the competition end.  Receive peace.  Recognize others who are first and peace with you.  Recognize the peace they express silently and calmly to you in their openness to you, and in this discover your own capacity to let go and reflect peace back to others.  Success is not a zero sum competition, but rather a whole that as it unites is so much greater than the parts.  Discovering this truth in peace could be the key to freeing the type 3 personality from the bounds of self.

4)  Oh dear Tragic Romantic, you are so aware of all the ways in which you have suffered in ways that others you have know have not suffered.  The glass has appeared half empty, and the yearning for a fuller glass has trapped the Tragic Romantic in eternal comparison in the distinctions between self and other.  The path of the Holy Spirit is to embrace the gift of longsuffering and patience and to see through deep empathy the ways in which everyone must submerge themselves in this virtue as life presents unique struggles and deprivations to everyone.  The key is to awaken to the fact that suffering is universal and not unique.  When Elijah cried unto the Lord, "I am the only one left following you in all of Israel," God said, "no, actually, I want you to know I have 7,000 people right in the same path with you."  This is the beginning of the awakening to greater oneness for the Tragic Romantic.

5) The Observer Intellectual is fixated by private treasure--private time, private experience, and private money.  In these stashes the Observer experiences difference and separation from the other.  This is a cold, aloof otherness.  The Spirit says to this aloof observer, know gentleness.  Draw your attention to how others are gentle with you and let this penetrate you heart until you can reflect back gentleness.  Gentleness one of the greatest acts of generosity.  It is giving the attentive, available, energy of loving, open available observation and support to another.  It is the complete opposite of cold, aloof observation.  This turns the Aloof Observer's world view upside down.  Others deplete my energy when I spend time with them, the observer thinks.  But gentleness works in just the opposite fashion, it fills other people up with energy.  Once this flow become a back and forth between two people, there is nothing left to hide from.  Oneness becomes possible and even desirable.

6) Skeptic, meet goodness.  Acid, meet base.  Meditate on goodness, and the sigh of deep relief will help dissolve the hardened exoskeleton that you thought you needed for protection.  Maybe you won't even feel the need to be sarcastic so much anymore--or at least not sardonic.

7) Epicurean, meet Faith.  You don't need a hundred paths when you find the true essence of reality and meaning in the ONE TAO--the ONE MYSTICAL WAY.  Now the just shall walk by faith and not by sight.  I can finally rest my ever scanning eyes when I plunge into the depths of the ocean of faith and become one with Providence.

8) Boss, meet meekness.  Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit saith the Lord.  Remember Elijah and the prophets of Baal?  Stop expecting fire to rain down from heaven for you from the greatness of your efforts.  Remember, it was just one quiet little prayer from Elijah when it was God's will, and the fire came down.  In that place of Surrender to the true master of the universe you will find the rest and true Zen like power of meekness in the flow.

9) Mediator, meet Self Control.  The deep mystery here is that they 9 has to find a lost self to overcome the bounds of that self.  In finding an identity in the fair expression of universal values, you will both be a deeply present being with others and fuse with others at the same time much more so that in the sleepy first state of non-confrontational quiet stubbornness.  Aaron and other priests in history come to mind.  And yet the mystery of how self-control frees the mediator is a longer conversation than the rest.  Ask me more about this if you want to know more in the comment section below.

John 17

17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. 

18 As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. 

19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. 

20 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; 

21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. 

22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: 

23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.


The Lord bless and keep you all,

Sky Thoth