Essential Aspects and the Wisdom of the Ancient Enneagram Part 1
February 22, 2026
Essential Aspects and the Wisdom of the Ancient Enneagram Part 1
Welcome to this week’s Reflections on Essential Aspects and the Wisdom of the Ancient Enneagram.
Grace is love and mercy freely given to us without our doing anything to earn it. Grace has its place as one of our essential aspects. The name “essential aspects” comes from the word “essence” – who we are at our core, our truest self, our essential nature. Many of us have experienced God’s grace when we are granted forgiveness, healing, or blessings. We have also experienced grace from our friends, family and others — gifts which we do not demand or necessarily deserve.
Though it may not be obvious at first, the Enneagram includes grace in its spiritual maps. These maps are tried and true pathways leading us out of despair, disintegration, and dissolution, to the space of joy, wholeness, and evolutionary growth. But the first step is one of grace.
Kaleigh was 30 and not progressing in life. Stuck in the pattern of living from paycheck to paycheck with no sense of movement, she felt trapped. She suffered with a boyfriend who only came around when he needed something. At an early age, Kaleigh saw the writing was on the wall about her future. It said, "THIS IS YOUR LIFE FROM NOW ON." When her friend Maria asked Kaleigh why she put up with this treatment she replied, “I cannot do any better.” Maria disagreed and started spending time with her. When Kaleigh saw the respect with which Maria’s fiancé treated Maria, she began to recognize and to deeply desire a love like that for herself.
Kaleigh joined a class that studied the Enneagram and learned that her personality, when disheartened, was prone to settle for anything life handed to her. But the Enneagram also showed her that her soul type was an action-oriented accomplisher who had the capacity to breathe life into all situations. She would never have learned these things which eventually turned her life around if not for huge gifts of grace. There was grace extended to Kaleigh by Maria, but even more, there was the grace that Kaleigh gave to herself.
When Kaleigh witnessed the affection and respect Maria’s fiancé so freely gave Maria, something profound resonated deeply with Kaleigh. It resonated on a soul level. When she recognized that her soul desired that same respect, something shifted in Kaleigh and she now received all the good things in life which she thought she didn’t deserve. Grace sparked a fire of desire in Kaleigh, a fire that led to her soul’s sincere desires. This fire was a gift of grace from God.
To recognize a quality of our own soul is a gift of grace. The wisdom of the Enneagram reflects the sacred wisdom that Christ has taught us. “My grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Grace comes in recognizing our weakness and wounds and in loving ourselves enough to receive the free gifts awaiting us. This is double grace. Grace from ourselves and from God.
Spiritual practice: What have you personally received as an act of grace from God, others, and yourself?
Inquiry: How may I have received grace today?
Prayer:
Dear God, Thank you for the grace I give others and myself. And thank you for the tremendous grace you give me all day in all ways and the grace extended to me by others. I see how, if it were not for grace, I could not grow. Amen.
