Next stop on the Spiral of Discovery - Arrows. We are continuing to step into personality but in order to get to the center, our center - True Self, you need to understand all the layers of personality and this includes arrows.

Truth be told, when I first saw the Enneagram, I thought it was some hocus pocus, New Age-y or witchcrafty type of symbol. I learned quickly that those lines actually mean something.

In many Enneagram schools of thought, arrows are seen as either integration (growth) or disintegration (stress) arrows. When you follow the lines from Type One around the Enneagram to back to Type One, that is the path of Disintegration. So (follow along):

One stresses to Four

Four stresses to Two

Two stresses to Eight

Eight stresses to Five

Five stresses to Seven

Seven stresses to One

And you see that triangle in the middle? Three, Six, and Nine are known as the anchors. Nine stresses to Six, Six stresses to Three and Three stresses to Nine.

Reverse the direction from One back to One through Seven and you have the path of Integration, the growth path. Same with Nine to Three to Six.

But I believe (as do many in the Enneagram community), the Enneagram is more nuanced than that. We can pull from the best (or worst) of the arrows associated with our Type.

While typing a Two the other day, she noted she was quite comfortable sitting with people’s pain (a wonderful Four quality - remember the Four is the Two’s arrow) but she also admitted she can fall into being a victim or martyr (a not-so-wonderful Four quality). This is true about every Ennea-type. Our arrows are both integration and disintegration.

Chris Heuertz goes a little further in his book The Enneagram of Belonging and states, “The Inner Flow is the echo of our souls moving from one point to the next, following the arrows through the Enneagram. Much like an echo, the reverb of subsequent types may be less and less perceptible as it goes, but eventually, they will find a route all the way to our Ennea-type, allowing us to incorporate qualities of each of them into our dominant type.” (FYI - LOVE LOVE LOVE HIS BOOKS!). He goes on to explain:

One to Four: When One drops down into the gifts of the Four that affirm for them they are truly are exceptional and their alignment with excellence is what makes them beautifully unique.

Four to Two: As Four moves toward Two, embracing themselves, feeling the embrace of others, and finally embracing those outside their secluded heart to make a loving connection in the world.

Two to Eight: As the Two reaches toward the Eighs, they take back their power as if to say “No, you will not take advantage of me anymore.”

Eight to Five: When Eight drops down to Five to reflect on their too-much-ness of their experience of themselves and how that is projected outward, they can accurately evaluate how to be more approachable in the world.

Five to Seven: When Five reaches to Seven, it activates their conclusions and requires they live into all the fabulous ideas they’ve dreamt up by embodying the concepts they have figured out.

Seven to One: When a Seven reaches to point One, they are reminded of the boundaries and rules that are necessary for human flourishing and something not to be resisted but rather celebrated.

Nine to Six: When a Nine drops down into the Six, they wake up from their internal slumber by scaring them back into awareness (if you don’t take back your power, you’ll eventually lose all of yourself and no longer inhabit your soul).

Six to Three: The more a Six thinks about what upsets them they become more fixated on their mental unease. Reaching to point Three always for freedom from these worries through initiating the solutions they require.

Three to Nine: When reaching to point Nine, Threes slow down and stubbornly arrest their momentum to earn what has always been ascribed to them. Here, they find true peace.

Like I said, nuanced. The Enneagram isn’t going to offer you a four letter description of yourself. The Enneagram goes deep. That is why I love it!

So now you have a taste of the Arrows. Next week, we will tackle Wings.