Furthest from God

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In my last post I talked about the connection between the nine types of people on the Enneagram and the nine types of angel in the Celestial Hierarchy, and what I believe is behind this connection.

The one thing that doesn't tie up with the Enneagram is the order of the choirs of angels, with the head centre angels at the top, then the gut centre angels, with the heart centre angels at the bottom. One might expect them to match up with their order in the body, with the gut centre at the bottom.

When Plato talks about the three-part soul in Phaedrus, he divides it into the rational (head part) at the top and lumps the irascible and concupiscible parts (gut and heart) together at the bottom, so he didn't actually give a hierarchy to the last two parts. This still doesn't explain the seemingly counter-intuitive order of the Celestial Hierarchy, though.

My guess is that it is due to the function of the heart centre - it's all about reaching out to people. The angels of the purifying choir are the messengers that connect with people. They are closest to us and therefore, in a hierarchical system, they must be furthest from God.

One thing I like about the Enneagram as we know it today is that it isn't a hierarchical system. The nine types are arranged around a circle and no type is better or worse than any other. We all have our gifts to bring to the world.

Plato may have believed that the head centre was better and more desirable, and he may have had good reason to, in the time and place in which he lived. But we all need to be able to use all three kinds of intelligence - intellectual, emotional and instinctual. In the world we live in today, at least in the richer more powerful nations, it is often more of a problem for us that we become out of touch with our heart centres, losing our empathy and becoming detached from other people. Or that we lose touch with our gut centres and our will to act and direct our lives.