Monday 28 June 2010

Vice to Virtue Conversion

I went to a Helen Palmer workshop some years ago on the vice to virtue transformation and it had a profound effect on me. She talked about how the vices for each type used the same energy as the virtues. Evil is only good that is not properly channelled. In NLP they say that every behaviour has a positive intention. The Enneagram takes that a bit further in that the vices and virtues for each type have the same positive intention.

When you fight your ego it's like fighting yourself, and the harder you fight the harder your other self fights back. When you face your ego and accept that it has a positive intention (even though it may not be relevant in the here and now), you take the energy back into yourself and your ego shrinks down into something managable and even lovable.

Friday 25 June 2010

Three Steps to Enlightenment with the Enneagram

Step 1: Know thyself.
Know your Enneagram type and what it can tell you about who you are, what you want and why you do the things you do. We are all more than just our type, of course we are. But sometimes our fixation takes over and it is helpful to recognise when this is happening and what is behind it.


Step 2: Forgive yourself.
Love and accept yourself just as you are, flaws and all. All those things you hate about yourself - the things you don't want to admit to anyone, even yourself - have a purpose, and a good purpose. Every behaviour has a positive intention, as they say in NLP.


Step 3: Respond from essence.
Now you have a choice. You can recognise when you are tempted to respond from your fixation, you know why you feel that way and you can see whether it is appropriate here and now. You can respond from your fixation, laugh about it, forgive yourself and try to do better next time. Or you can respond from essence, here and now.

Simple, innit?

Wednesday 23 June 2010

Facebook friendly Enneagram angel quiz

I've created a new version of the "What kind of angel are you?" Enneagram angel quiz. It's exactly the same as the one in the "Angels and Enneagrams" post, but this one can be taken through a Facebook app (and posted to your Facebook profile!).

I've included a link to it on the Quizazz website (just click on the blog post title) but you can also find it on Facebook if you look for the Quizazz app.

Sunday 20 June 2010

Angels and the psychology of goodness

It has been suggested that I should be clearer about the role of angels in what I teach and how I teach it. After all I'm an Enneagram teacher and angels are not traditionally on the syllabus. There is a connection and it comes through Neoplatonism, and I will post more on that later.

The main reason that I use angels in teaching though is as a symbol of the best that we can be. There are nine types of angel in the Celestial Hierarchy and nine types of people in the Enneagram of Personality. For me each of the nine types of angel represents the highest part of one of the nine archetypes of the Enneagram.

The Enneagram tells us both what is good about us and what is bad about us and most importantly how these are connected with each other. But sometimes it can be seen as just a negative thing and I think one reason for this is that it is such a true description of our basic motivations - it can be scary seeing your deepest darkest secrets out there in black and white and this can distract our attention away from the good stuff.

There has been more research recently into positive psychology and wellness, which I think is a good thing. Maybe the Enneagram can be a part of that. It's not just a description of what is wrong with us, it also shows us the best we can be and how we can get there. And at our best we embrace the divine spark of life within us and become the angel inside ourselves.

Acknowledgement: thanks to Ted for the blog post title.

Wednesday 16 June 2010

Enneagram links

I've updated the blog with a list of links to useful Enneagram websites. You'll find this down the left hand side of the page.

Tuesday 15 June 2010

Autumn Enneagram classes

I've been planning to start a 10-week course on the Enneagram at Golborne High School in the Autumn and I've just had a phone call from Stephen Toole, the Director of Community at Lowton High School who organises adult education classes at both schools. We've arranged the classes for Tuesday mornings 10am to midday.

So if you are in the Warrington/Wigan and Leigh area and want to learn more about the Enneagram, make sure you don't miss the enrolment day!

If that's too far away from you, the online Enneagram courses will be available soon, so stay tuned.

Monday 14 June 2010

I'm having a 9 day!

The most important thing that I need to do today is getting started on creating my new website - www.enneangel.com. No - you won't find anything there yet. I've been to a tai chi class, had lunch, washed my hair, read my post and my email, answered a few messages, taken the car to a car valeting place (which was closed so wasted journey), and now I'm updating my blog. I'm wondering if I should do the washing up next...

Saturday 12 June 2010

Technorati

Have just submitted blog to Technorati.

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Friday 11 June 2010

American style politics in the UK

There was a lot of talk at the time of the election about the introduction of televised debates and how our election campaigns are becoming more and more like American ones and how this is a bad thing. I'm in favour of televised debates myself. I think they are a chance to move away from soundbite politics and give people more of a chance to see what they are voting for.

It's interesting though that we seem to have got not just one but two type 3 leaders out of it, which with America being a type 3 culture would seem to back up those claims. Both David Cameron and Nick Clegg have that shiny, scrubbed 3 look, and both have got to high positions relatively young, which shows ambition. Gordon Brown showed many times (not just in the debates) that type 3 people skills aren't his forte and this has worked against him. He was popular as a chancellor but it looks like he shouldn't be allowed to go out and talk to voters.

We live in the information age, and I love it because I remember when the world wide web was science fiction. I'm optimistic about how it will affect the way we are governed because the greater the amount of information that is available to people, the better chance they have to make informed decisions.

But on the other hand, it can lead to dumbing down and lack of openness as people are afraid to say anything that might be controversial. I guess we all need to brush up on our type 3 self-representation skills in the information age. And maybe cut people a bit more slack when they slip up and act like human beings.

Tuesday 8 June 2010

Angels and Enneagrams

I've been very busy on Enneagram related stuff recently. It's all to do with an online course I'm putting together, but being a 9 I keep going off on tangents. In spite of the fact that I can't draw I've created a set of nine cartoon Enneagram angels called Una, Due, Trey, Quattro, Fünf, Six, Sieben, Otto and Ennea. I've also created a short Enneagram quiz (it's only 36 questions which is quite short as these things go). It's called "What kind of angel are you" and is on ProProfs here:


I'd appreciate feedback on it - does it seem accurate to you?
Namaste
Jane