- Home
- Preface
- Introduction
- Three Zones and Nine Sectors
- Three resources *
- Meeting the world
- Nine strategies *
- Nine types
- Gut types
- EIGHT *
- NINE *
- ONE *
- Gut types review
- Corruption and redemption
- Heart types
- TWO *
- THREE *
- FOUR *
- Heart types review
- Symmetry of the board
- Head types
- FIVE *
- SIX *
- SEVEN *
- Head types review
- All nine sectors
- Discerning home base part 1
- Gifts and temptations
- Developing all three resources
- Taking the advice of the opposites
- The path to redemption part 1
- Celebrating all of who we are
- Neurology
- Wings and Moves and other functions
- Biblical Journeys
- Prayer
- The Enneagram
- From the Enneagram to the Strategy Board
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NINE
In the center of the gut zone, made from the dust of the earth, NINEs are completely at home in the physical world. They engage directly and straightforwardly with the rest of creation, including the rest of humankind. They live in the present tense, in the here and now. They avoid any unnecessary, complicating over-involvement of the head or the heart. NINEs have about them the innocence of Eden: a restful, calming presence, an attractive simplicity, and an unflappable inertia.
The strategy of NINEs is to keep it simple: to deal with each new situation as it comes around, in whatever practical manner seems most appropriate at the time.
A cartoon animal for NINE is the dolphin. Dolphins and whales spend three quarters of their time playing and just one quarter feeding. When you see them dipping and diving and jumping, often in groups, they really are just playing and having fun, for no reason except that that is what they do. That is the innocence of Eden of NINE.
Another cartoon animal for NINE is the elephant. Elephants are always surrounded by happy people. That is NINE: it is easy to like a NINE; everybody loves a NINE. And then you can push and kick a stationary elephant all you like, but you cannot move it. It will not move. That is also NINE. Until – the elephant decides for itself that it wants to move – decides, indeed, that it is going to perform some major task, such as moving a great tree trunk from one place to another. The elephant then moves, determinedly, unstoppably, calmly, single-mindedly, and it really is best not to get in the way, and it really is pointless to try to stop it or to shout out alternative methods or routes. The elephant is about its task and the task will be done. That is the unflappable inertia of NINE.
NINEs accept others without prejudice. Modern, easy-going friendships are very NINE. NINEs can often come and go without being much noticed, and do not mind being invisible. They do not expect to stand out, and tend to be surprised by attention. NINEs are honest and uncomplicated: they have no hidden motives. In meeting the world on its own terms, exactly as it is, they somehow combine a gentle cynicism with an easy trust.
NINEs’ instinct for simplicity means they can sense immediately when something has been made unnecessarily complicated. This inbuilt detector of unnecessary complications helps to make NINEs into reconcilers: they know straight away when the point at stake is not worth the cost of the argument, and they aim instead for the simplicity of peace.
Keeping things simple, NINEs often avoid making decisions, and would not bother having an opinion on something unless they actually needed one. This is often a good thing in our divided and opinionated world – again it makes NINEs into natural peacemakers and reconcilers. It also means that NINEs can find themselves swept along, and then be annoyed with themselves for having been. They can also find themselves knowing better what they do not want than what they do want. All of this comes from NINE’s primary reliance on instinct and intuition – avoiding the complexity of involving head or heart until absolutely necessary.
The national stereotype for easy-going NINE is Africa – or think of African culture in the Caribbean. Westerners have watches; Africans have time.
In the Bible, Jonah is NINE. God said go this way, but Jonah did not fancy the task, so went the other way instead. In the great storm at sea, only Jonah was fast asleep ‘in the inner part of the ship’: NINEs can sleep anywhere, any time. It took a whale to get Jonah to the right place, where he finally set about the assigned task with simple clarity and consequent success – which distressed him greatly, as it disturbed the simple worldview in which Ninevites are evil and can be safely condemned or ignored. At the end of the book, Jonah sits glumly outside the city, and God tries in vain to budge his mood. That is also NINE.
The simplicity of NINE redeemed can be steadfast and goal-oriented, and of all the types, it is peaceful, open, and direct NINEs who are most able to speak hard truths calmly.
The temptations of NINE are idleness, complacency, and fatalism; also narcosis – from peacefulness through idleness and into oblivion. And gut type NINE’s aggression, when it shows, is ‘passive aggressive’ – stubborn, or obstinate, or sulking without remorse: the elephant can stand in your way, and no kick or shout will move it. That is ‘passive aggressive,’ and that can be NINE.
On the path from corruption to redemption, stationary NINEs begin to move – discovering their gifts, their energy, their self-worth, and their inner drive, overcoming their cynicism or dismissiveness in order to choose priorities – well – and then act.