Essential Aspects and the Wisdom of the Ancient Enneagram Part 4
February 25, 2026
Essential Aspects and the Wisdom of the Ancient Enneagram Part 4
Like most of us on the spiritual journey, by midlife and thereafter, I had grown away from some of my earlier conceptions about God. For example, for me, the entire world of prayer has been gradually reshaped. I had grown up to pray for what I wanted and to praise God when things occurred as I had prayed. When things did not turn out according to my prayers, I was either secretly resentful, or muttered under my breath that I must not have prayed hard enough. Because of my youth, mine was a typical and somewhat immature concept of prayer. But as I grew in spiritual maturity, I realized there are levels of faith.
According to American theologian and psychologist James Fowler (1940-2015), there are six stages in faith development. We begin as children who believe what our parents tell us. Then we go through a stage of developing our own conception of God and spirituality. After differentiating our own theology, we continue to evolve our personal faith and spirituality until the last stage which is the comprehending of the Universality of Faith. In this last stage, the person can relate to anyone in any stage of faith development without judgment. Many of us remain at one of the six stages in faith development and others of us grow. According to Fowler, not all of us apparently grow into the latter stages of spiritual maturity.
People are not assigned to their stage. We either grow or we stay in the stage we are presently in. It takes real work to grow spiritually. Many of us are in some type of study to expand our spiritual maturity and to move up in the stage of our faith development. For example, the Episcopal Church has Education for Ministry and there is the Stephen Ministry which is cross-denominational. Then there are all kinds of spiritual direction training programs all over the country such as The Haden Institute and the Shalem Institute. And there is the Institute for Conscious Being which offers a wide array of studies in Consciousness and the Enneagram. There is also The Enneagram Institute and other reputable training institutes. There are local spiritual groups and study groups online everywhere. Any of us who want to increase our spiritual awareness can research the program, institute, or study group for ourselves. The question is, do we want to?
Whether our studies are with a small local group or with a larger program, we learn more about ourselves and how we relate to God and to the world. We come to know our shadow as well as the divine qualities of our soul. When we tap the huge resources of our souls, we grow exponentially. We embrace and manifest the divine qualities that, but for our studies, may have remained hidden.
Spiritual practice: Read James Fowler’s Stages of Faith Development and discern your current level.
Self-inquiry: What do you feel called to study and why?
Prayer:
Dear God, Help me to embrace the Divine inside me. And help me to relate to the Divine in everyone I meet. Increase awareness of our collective divine qualities that, as a nation, you have endowed upon us. Help us to grow. Amen.
