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THE HEART POINT AND THE SOUL CHILD
Let me give you an example of how the Holy Ideas and Virtues are key identifying a person's Enneatype.
As someone with an Enneatype Three, I have a special link with the Holy Ideas known as Holy Law, Holy Harmony, and Holy Hope. In other words, my soul resonates most deeply with these qualities of Being. When at a very early age I began to develop consciousness and the illusion of separateness from Being, I experienced severe disconnection from these specific qualities.
Holy Law means that "All of the universe, even those parts of it that we consider static and unchanging, is continuously transforming from one total and unified condition to another total and unified condition…The entire universe is being created anew in every instant" (Facets of Unity, A.H. Almaas). And all of that transformation occurs according to the Laws of Being, creating a universal Harmony. In that lies our Hope, not that things will get better in the future but rather that right now, in this moment, the universe is creating itself and is doing so in a completely harmonious way, manifesting the optimal possibility for this moment.
At a personality level, as I began the soul's journey of consciousness in a human life, my awareness of these qualities was severed as I fell into the illusion of being a separate human being. To compensate, my ego began structuring itself to make up for these "lost" qualities. The resulting characteristics of my Three personality are that I falsely believe that I am personally responsible for making things happen. Like an Enneatype One, I can see what seems to be going wrong (in my estimation) and I believe that I can be successful, and therefore valued as an individual, only if I solve the problem myself. At this level, I can only hope that I can manage the next situation and defeat the risk of failure, but the risk returns again and again, indefinitely. When, through spiritual practices like meditation, I begin to experience the reality of Being within myself, I recognize that Holy Law is in charge of the Universe, not me, and that everything is unfolding in Harmony. In that lies my Hope.
The Virtue for Enneatype Three is Veracity, and the absence of this quality is Deceit. "There is the deceiving of others in terms of shape-shifting to present themselves in such a way that others will approve of, admire, and love them…This duplicity is not only a deceiving of others but more importantly a self-deception…This focus on image is a matter of doing rather than of simply being oneself." (The Enneagram of Passions and Virtues, Sandra Maitri) This helps me understand that I am not trying to be deceitful but rather get mixed up about who I really am and where love really comes from.
You can explore these connections with your own Enneatype in the following books:
A.H. Almass Facets of Unity
Sandra Maitri The Spiritual Dimensions of the Enneagram
Sandra Maitri The Enneagram of Passions and Virtues
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