Walking an Eight Home…
The Return Journey for the Eight
“Darling, you will not be harmed.”
We began by saying that the spiritual path for the Eight, and the Eight in all of us, is a return to Innocence. This is because the Eight exemplifies how we feel unprotected and have put on armour and hardened ourselves to be strong and in control.
Now that you have explored Eight you have a deeper understanding of what this hardening of the heart really means for this type. At the level of unhealthy personality, it means becoming domineering and aggressive and misusing the gift of natural strength and power.
In one way the return journey is a reversal of what we have seen as increasing constriction. Moving back up the levels of health and disidentifying with the self-images and patterns of the personality. This reverse journey is true for all types. This is why we practice presence and gentle awareness- just noticing how we constrict will loosen patterns.
We can look at every element of the personality structure from the perspective of loosening, relaxing, disidentifying, expanding awareness. The Enneagram points to specific ways to counter our personality patterns.
When they are healthy, Eights understand that their natural leadership and power is to be used on behalf of others and to fight for justice. They feel their vitality and lifeforce as fuel for important work, protecting others, and for their own inner growth, including finding the true strength needed to be vulnerable. They soften their hearts and become magnanimous.
Healing message for an Eight - “You will not be betrayed”
The Virtue of Eight is Innocence in the sense of childlike openness and vulnerability, the state of a relaxation when there is no anticipation of harm or betrayal to protect against.
The Line of Integration on the Enneagram for Eight is to Two. Type Two holds the energy of tender-heartedness, empathy and caring for others that the Eight has blocked. It is the shadow aspect of themselves that the Eight needs to reclaim.
The Stress Line to Five is a place where Eights retreat to regroup, like a “wounded bear going to his cave”. Eights may meet with opposition or somehow realize they have gone too far, and Five is a place to withdraw. It can be a good move because Five is a place to “lick their wounds” and think things through.
The Centers of Intelligence tell us the Eight is in the Gut or Instinctual Center. Eights are “coming from their gut”, asserting themselves, expressing their anger and using their instinctual energies to move directly into action. They are out of touch with their Heart Center and need to reconnect to their emotions and empathy to balance their power and allow themselves to be vulnerable.
The Inner Critic Message can be witnessed as the voice that is running the show and felt in the body, until we bring awareness and distance ourselves from it. For the Eight this means really noticing how, according to their personality structure, they are only ok if they “are strong and in control of their situation”- and how impossible this is.
We can also access the essence of our type directly when we practice presence. Reminded that they are tuned into their lifeforce and that their soul loves the strength of Being, Eights can “go for the gold” by simply being present to true strength which includes vulnerability and is not power over anyone or anything. They can relax their guard and rest in their strength in the moment with nothing to defend against or control.
You at Eight
Fire in your Belly
Living with Confidence, Decisive and in Command
In Touch with your Heart and Vulnerability
Strong and Powerful
