- 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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Gut types – review
It has been said that EIGHTs just love to be bad – always kicking against the boundaries of what is possible. And ONEs just love to be good – always on their best behavior. What they have in common with each other – and with peaceful NINEs as well – is that they engage very directly with the world around them. Further down the board, in the heart zone and the head zone, there are detached, self-conscious calculations and meditations concerning the world around. Here in the gut zone, there is no detached calculation, no complex future scheme, and no deep echo from the long-forgotten past. What you see is what you get – and it is unselfconscious, immediate, practical, and direct.
The gut types redeemed share a passion for direct engagement with the world to make the world a better place. The argument between EIGHT and ONE is whether the best means is revolution or reform. The instinct of ‘best behavior’ ONE is reform – to work within the system to change the system. The instinct of EIGHT is revolution – to kick down the established power structures – to be bad in the established order’s terms. EIGHT may persuade ONE that the true service of all that is right and good is the ‘efficient’ removal of the existing regime. Or ONE may persuade EIGHT that the realities of power and weakness are such that reform is possible, and revolution is not. NINE may ‘hold the balance of power’ and build a gut types consensus around NINE’s own instincts for long-term peace and reconciliation. Whether by revolution or reform or just long-term hard work, the gut types redeemed will share a passion to make the world a better place.
Reaching that redeemed place – for all three gut types – does involve getting in touch with head and heart. Confrontational EIGHTs – on the head side – need to find their heart. Impulsive and judgmental ONEs – on the heart side – need to do some thinking and some learning. NINEs need to find some access to both head and heart in order to find their wholeness and their energy. But the best gifts of all three remain right there in their own home sectors: EIGHTs as natural protectors and fighters for justice; NINEs as natural reconcilers and peacemakers; and ONEs as the ones who will ensure that every single person is given the full dignity of being a child of God, without any being overlooked – because anything less is imperfect and incomplete.
