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EIGHT

There is a secondary head influence in gut type EIGHT. In their direct engagement with the world, head-influenced EIGHTs want to work out what is going on – and they do so by engaging directly with their situation: EIGHTs try things out, and observe the results.

EIGHTs are constantly performing experiments on the world around. They might kick or poke some material in order to discover its properties. And in the same way they might kick or poke other people in order to discover their properties – usually metaphorically rather than literally.

The strategy of EIGHTs, encountering the world, is to test people out.

Following this practical strategy, EIGHTs can come across as confrontational and argumentative. They don’t mean it. This is just how they do their research into how the world works. This is how EIGHTs interact with it all. EIGHTs can regard a good argument as a form of intimacy: ‘clearing the air’ by ‘getting it all out in the open’ genuinely helps EIGHTs, and makes them feel close to the people who were with them at the time.

EIGHTs will not respect your position if it changes the moment they apply a little pressure. To work in a way that works for EIGHTs, you have to learn to ‘give as good as you get’ – and they’ll take it. You may find it tough, but they will not hold it against you. They want you to stand up to them: that is how they begin to understand you, as they do their research into how the world works. EIGHTs will kick all your boundaries – and to win their respect, you have to hold the line.

EIGHTs actually test out everything around them – people, systems, networks, authority structures, and the boundaries of their own potential in the world. They kick against the boundaries, and soon learn to detect very quickly where power and weakness lie – in any system or structure or network, or in any individual. As a consequence, EIGHTs can be incredible intuitive problem solvers. In complex situations, they are often the first to realize what is really going on – and they know exactly where to direct their attention to exercise an influence, gaining maximum effect for minimum intervention.

At the corrupt extreme, this makes EIGHTs terrifyingly effective bullies – bullying can be a completely effortless pastime for corrupt EIGHTs. At the opposite extreme, the more redeemed of EIGHTs can be tirelessly efficient fighters for justice: they can identify the processes and effects of power structures of all kinds – economic, educational, democratic, social – at the global and at the immediately local level – and so unmask and challenge the powerful in defense the weak. Repeatedly EIGHTs become both fighters and protectors – dealing in the currency of weakness and of power.

Testing people out is one practical strategy for interacting with our complex and ambiguous world – but it is not the whole picture of the person behind the strategy. We all have heart as well as head and gut: EIGHT is ‘thick skinned,’ but still protecting the heart within. EIGHT can be ‘hard shell, soft center.’ Male EIGHTs can be ‘macho boys’ – macho man on the outside, little boy on the inside. And by the same contrast, EIGHT is also a natural home for strong women: with their external strategy EIGHT, strong women can take on a male-dominated world and keep up or get ahead – with the heart protected within.

A cartoon animal for EIGHT is the bull – capable of deliberate aggression and a serious fight. But like a bull in a china shop – innocently making its way from the door to the till like everyone else – EIGHT is often completely unaware of the chaos in its wake. And despite all that bulk and strength, in those big soft eyes you may just catch a glimpse of a gentle spirit within, and perhaps the basic compassionate longing to use strength to protect.

EIGHT can also be the tiger – knowledgeable, fast moving, effortlessly powerful.

And sometimes EIGHT is the tiger cub. In pairs or in groups, tiger cubs will play-fight, gnawing at each other playfully – in the way they will later kill their prey. Playfully chasing and wrestling, every so often they will nip or claw each other slightly harder than intended, and suddenly there is tension: a hiss, aggression, a stand-off. At that moment, are they playing or fighting? For a moment, neither is quite sure. That is how it can be relating to an EIGHT. Even in the long term, years into the relationship, you may find yourself engaged in some conversation where you are not quite sure whether your companion is playing or fighting – laughing with you or mocking you. That can be EIGHT, still testing you out.

A national stereotype for EIGHT would be southern European men – who can have a stand-up argument in a restaurant and then sit down and carry on as if nothing had happened.

In the Bible we see the strong women – Miriam, Deborah, Hannah – and strong men with vulnerabilities – Samson, Saul – and the harp-playing warrior, lover of Jonathan yet slayer of tens of thousands, the boy king David.

The temptations of EIGHT are all power issues: arrogance and revenge and retaliation. And so are the potential gifts: a keen sense of justice, and support for the powerless or weak.

EIGHTs on the journey from corruption to redemption will be realizing that other people deserve respect even when they do not choose to rise to the fight: that other people have other gifts which are expressed in different ways. They will also be finding the ability to show mercy, discovering the protector instinct, and getting in touch with the child within.

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