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The Enneagram: Icon & Map
for Spiritual Transformation
A retreat bringing together the teachings of the Enneagram of Personality, G. I. Gurdjieff, the mystical traditions, and the wisdom of the body.
About the Program
We are incarnated beings, with a personality and a spark of divinity inherent in each of us. How do we bridge
our personality and our spirituality in a grounded embodied way? We move from either/or thinking to an
and/and perspective where the personality is a vital tool in the conscious process to Presence.
In this retreat we will:
- start “In the beginning” with the story of Incarnation, the Law of Three
- enter the map into the territory of personality from the perspective of wholeness
- explore how type reveals the dilemmas we face in a spiritual journey
- bridge the role of personality to the process of embodied conscious work
- cultivate awareness using stillness, body prayers, art, journaling, and walking the Enneagram symbol
The program will be of interest to those who are at all stages of a spiritual journey—beginner and seasoned alike.
It does require a working knowledge of the Enneagram of Personality.
About Ruth
Ruth Hill lives in Asheville, NC and is a Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapist, a certified teacher of the Enneagram in the Narrative Tradition and a student of Cynthia Bourgeault, a modern-day Contemplative teacher. She works with individuals and groups to explore embodiment through sensing and listening to the intelligence of the body’s biological wisdom as a portal for radical inclusion and transformation. For more information about Ruth, please visit her website: ruthwhill.com.
The Evolving Enneagram offers pioneering methods of working with the universal, living and dynamic symbol of the Enneagram. The Enneagram is not only a map but also an icon that serves as a portal into the work of inner observation and transformation.
The teachings are offered as gateways into Presence and are based on the Enneagram of Personality, the traditions of Gurdjieff Work and mystical wisdom traditions, the source of all sacred paths. The Wisdom of the body and somatic practices are used as foundational to the experience of living deeply… fully alive.
Personality
The Enneagram of Personality reveals 9 habits of developed survival skills to ensure security, connection and worth. It’s what shows up when we don’t. The personality is a structured adaptation leading to a conditioned reality and is ego driven.
Personality is a prerequisite to a healthy spiritual life; it is the necessary fuel for the journey. A healthy personality recognizes its limitations and helps name what stands between God and us.
“Without self knowledge, without understanding the working and functions of his machine [personality], man cannot be free, he cannot govern himself and he will always remain a slave.”
—George I. Gurdjieff
Process
The Enneagram consists of the circle (Wholeness) and two implicit and unbreakable cosmic laws that demonstrate the energy flow of movement, emotion and intellect in time and space.
The Law of 3 (Creation) and the Law of 7 (World Maintenance) are templates of life and a map to higher consciousness. The Enneagram is a dynamic symbol, not a static one; its utility is not for classification but for the process of transformation. It answers the question of what is the meaning of life.
“The Enneagram’s deeper function is to point the way to who we are beyond the level of personality, a dimension of ourselves that is infinitely more profound, more interesting, more rewarding, and more real.”
— Sandra Maitri
Presence
Presence is intimacy with the heart of God while grounded in all the dimensions of the web of life. The journey of self-remembering is coupled with the journey to God, to the presence of the Divine.
Ordinary knowing, everyday life belongs in the realm of the personality. Direct knowing and received impressions come through the process of conscious work and intentional suffering. When our unconscious behavior becomes known an emptiness occurs which can be filled with reality as it is.
When we can stay with the process of transformation, transcendence is possible. Transformation happens at the intersection of the inner and outer nature of our being, where the vertical and horizontal axes meet. Here—the radical inclusion of all that we are, living human paradoxes and sparks of the Divine—we become the interface between Heaven and Earth.
“I want to know the heart of the heart of the heart of God.”
— Joan Fothergill
Integral to bridging Personality, Process and Presence is three-centered knowing Practice which integrates the movement, emotional and intellectual centers of our body. It is the simple daily practices that create and reinforce the essential steps needed for transformation.
The icon of the Enneagram is always evolving and dependent on our conscious participation, mutual feeding, the act of remembering and accepting the gift of who we really are…human and divine.
“The love of who you are arises from the love of where you are.”
— A.H. Almaas