Creativity + the Enneagram=💜
When I first started working with the Enneagram a little over a decade ago, some part of it felt inherently linked to creativity. For one thing, as a Type 2, one of my Resource Points is Type 4 – a deep, heart-center energy that opens me up to my own creative well. It’s something I knew about myself before I learned the Enneagram, but now I have more language to explain the mechanism behind it.
The Embodiment Tradition teaches us that we can access experiences of each type in our own bodies, which are a unique constellation of all of the types. When we can relax our core type enough to move into another energy, that’s also a creative practice. It’s generative and rich.
When I decided to begin teaching the Enneagram, I knew I wanted to make creativity a part of it. My own creative writing practice inspired me to think about how to bring the Enneagram to other writers. The Embodiment Tradition also seemed like a natural fit for actors, directors, and anyone else whose creative work took them outside of themselves and their own limited perspectives in some way. I started offering classes rooted in the tradition as a creative methodology, and quickly realized that it resonated – not just with experienced writers and creatives, but with people who have struggled to begin or maintain a creative practice.
I wanted to offer a creative practice for you to try out, as well as an invitation to check out my full workbook, which includes the wisdom of the Embodiment Tradition, poetry, and prompts to get you (or someone you love) inspired to write from each of the nine types.
A practice for Type 9: The Peacemaker
From The Creative Enneagram Workbook
Even when I am asleep, someone inside me is awake and knows.
– Rumi
Essence: Harmony, Ground of Being
Archetypes: Mediator, Harmonizer
Triad: Body/Gut
Energetic: Adapting
Childhood: They experience early overwhelm, and have a goal to blend in and go unnoticed by being neither too much nor too little. They may bring stability to the family.
Adulthood: Have a soft, fuzzy energy that also feels grounded. Have a harder time sensing themselves and what they truly want and need, while others’ desires and needs might get tangled up with theirs. They can go with the flow or be extremely stubborn, often withdrawing to get their needs met. They can have a lot of energy and have a hard time stopping, or have very little and have a hard time getting going. Self-numbing, they feel they have no power, but they can modulate the energy of people around them (often without others even noticing).
Fears: I don’t deserve to take up space or even exist
Lower-functioning: Numbed out and blind to themselves, can’t say what they need. Resentful, passive aggressive, self-narcotizing.
At Their Best: Connected with the wisdom of being itself. Able to see and hold multiple perspectives while also grounding in themselves. Harmonizing without numbing, bringing their gifts to the world.
Rest, rest, for evermore
Upon a mossy shore;
Rest, rest at the heart's core
Till time shall cease:
Sleep that no pain shall wake;
Night that no morn shall break
Till joy shall overtake
Her perfect peace.
– Christina Rosetti, “Dream Land”
Examples of Fictional 9s
Mark S. (Severance), Winnie the Pooh, The Dude (The Big Lebowski), Norman Bates (Psycho), Arisu (Alice in Borderland), Melanie Wilkes (Gone with the Wind), Mirabel Madrigal (Encanto)
Prompts for Type 9
Continue to explore this type through the following prompts. You can answer as yourself or as a character you’re working with.
Think about a time when you lost yourself in something. It doesn't necessarily need to have been a positive or productive experience. What was that like?
Reflect on the concept of inertia. How has inertia shown up in your life?
What does it mean to you to be in harmony?