- 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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SEVEN
SEVEN is a head type, logical and rational – but with added gut influence, which invites it to engage with the world. So it is that head type SEVEN has a calculated determination to be practical and direct. And then – it is only logical – to continue being practical and direct, whatever may happen.
SEVEN has lessons to teach us all about how to keep going through good times and bad. The key is to stay positive: the strategy of SEVEN is ‘stay positive, come what may’ – a head strategy in the service of direct engagement with the world.
Our unpredictable world brings mixed blessings to everyone – but there is always something for which to give thanks, no matter how small it may be. SEVENs choose to find it. SEVENs are full of gratitude for the past and for the present, and full of optimism for the future. This is what gives SEVENs so much positive energy – which they bring to their own situations, and share with others as well. The gift of SEVEN is a joy that SEVENs can share. It can be a delight simply to be with them. They lift your spirits and send you on your way rejoicing at the blessings all around you.
The challenge for upbeat, optimistic SEVENs is to be honest with themselves and with others about the negative things in the world: to deal somehow with the realities of sadness and pain. SEVEN corrupt is often running away from the pain or denying its existence – but it may catch them up or trip them up in the end. In contrast, SEVEN redeemed has stopped running, turned to face the harder realities, stared them in the eye, and declared: ‘I will not be defeated by you.’
Corrupt SEVEN can be like the British circus clown – amusing for half an hour at a children’s party, but you would not want any more. Redeemed SEVEN is like the silent French pantomime clown Pierrot, with that tear painted on the whitened cheek: genuinely good humored and entertaining at the children’s party – and then movingly silent, and a strong and comforting presence, when the situation demands.
The national stereotype for SEVEN is the Irish pub or wake. There is great pain in the history of the nation, and even in the present. There will be absolute silence as Grandma in the corner sings the most beautiful lament – and the perfect pause to ‘hold the moment’ – and then it’s time to pour some more Guinness, strike up the music, and dance another jig, despite everything. And being right next to the gut zone, SEVEN has easy access to many of the simple immediate pleasures of life: color, fresh air, good food, good company.
Their optimism for the future means that SEVENs will try their hand at anything, so they tend to acquire all manner of skills: SEVENs have been called ‘generalists’ – versatile people with many talents. Inevitably some SEVENs are slightly reckless in their optimism, very good at starting things off, and rather less good at seeing them through. SEVENs can end up surrounded by projects begun and never completed.
One cartoon for SEVEN is the monkey: constantly moving from one thing to another, always active, bringing a rather clumsy lightness into any situation. Another is the butterfly, also constantly on the move, but gentler, with a much lighter touch, bringing color, a different kind of ‘lightness,’ and a simple delight.
While the gift of SEVEN is joy, the temptations of SEVEN are gluttony and excess. Without redeemed SEVEN’s confidence to face the pain, SEVEN lives in fear of what life may bring next. If the present moment is cheerful, it will be extended at all costs – another dessert, another drink, another joke, another song: everything must be a party, more is always better, and too much is never enough.
Characteristic of SEVEN – for good or for ill – is careful, detailed planning to ensure only happy moments in the day ahead. And SEVENs sometimes create a protective barrier by filling their environment with their own output – an excess of their own output – so that nothing painful can get in: SEVEN may be talking but not listening, acting but not watching.
In the Bible the rich young ruler is SEVEN. He already has not only all the wealth and prestige of the world but also plenty of religion – ‘all these I have kept from my youth’ – and yet, all SEVEN, he comes to Jesus asking for more: ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ Jesus spots a SEVEN, and gives the advice that SEVEN needs: set yourself free from your props, your excess, the things which you are using to avoid the real challenges of life. ‘Sell your possessions, and give to the poor’ (Matthew 19:16‑21).
SEVENs on the path from corruption to redemption slow down to address the whole of life – not just the radiant side. They come to see the beauty and the joy in simple things – not just in excess. They no longer flee from the challenges of life, but meet them with a confident determination. They learn that God accepts the tears as well as the joy. A beautiful redeemed and redeeming role for SEVENs is to work with the suffering, perhaps with the sick and the dying: in this, they directly face and challenge all the pain of the world – and take their gift of joy to those who need it the most.