From “The Soulwork of Justice: Four Movements for Contemplative Action” by Wesley Granberg-Michaelson
In the 1970s Richard Rohr was introduced to the Enneagram by his spiritual director. And before it became widely known, he started using it within the New Jerusalem Community. By 1990, with Andreas Ebert, he published Discovering the Enneagram: An Ancient Tool for a New Spiritual Journey. A decade later, as interest grew, they wrote another book. The Enneagram: A Christian Perspective. It became a runaway bestseller. In this work, Rohr and Ebert uncovered how the Enneagram’s roots could be found within the early writings of the desert fathers, and then showing up centuries later in forms of SUfi mysticism before being rediscovered more recently as a tool compatible and popularized within Christian spiritual formation.
So when Kaarin and I met with RIchard Rohr for a memorable dinner of New Mexican food, we feasted the whole evening on the Enneagram, its roots, its uses, and its applications. More than just another classification of personality characteristics, Richard stressed, the Enneagram can best be understood as a mirror into one’s soul. It uncovers the roots of those external traits, preoccupations, habits, and fixations that form one’s false self, like the layers of clay providing the outward, protective shell for the Buddha in Thailand. As Rohr and Ebert write: The Enneagram is “a very ancient Christian tool for the discernment of spirits, the struggle with our capital sin, our ‘false self,’ and the encounter with our True Self in God.”