Hello everyone, Thank you for your interest in Nine Ways to Experience the Divine, a contemplative retreat weekend at Kirkridge.
On this page we hope to share a bit more detail about this retreat and what you may expect. Be sure to look at the downloadable flyer. Here's the link for the flyer ....
However, words on a page are simply not enough to convey the intent and spirit of what we have planned. Please contact us directly and we will be happy to answer your questions. Please call Sandy at 301-325-7555 or send an email to SandyLundahl@EnneagramMaryland.org
The cost of the weekend retreat is $365 and includes registration, lodging and food. It's the best price of any retreat weekend that I've attended or facilitated.
In working with the wisdom of the Enneagram, we come to see that each of us experiences the energy of one of the nine Enneagram types more frequently and consequently each of us will resonate most easily with the spiritual or divine energies that are associated with that type. The role of human, psychological, and spiritual development and maturation over a lifetime is to become aware of the expressions of energy that you have been endowed with both at the personality level and at the essential or spiritual level. Then from there you become increasingly aware of the fullness of energies expressed in the human family and within yourself. The focus of this weekend is to become aware of the specific essential energies that are most closely associated with each of the nine personality types. Although it may be helpful for a participant to know and to have done work with the Enneagram, it is not necessary. Each person who opens to each of these energies will grow, gain insight and enhance self-awareness, as well as see others more deeply.
Participating in this weekend will lead you along a path of increasing personal integration, wholeness, and well being. I look forward to meeting you and exploring this territory with you. Sincerely, Don
Don Horrigan, Ed.D.
Here are a few of our goals for the Contemplative Weekend Retreat being held on March 9-11 at the Kirkridge Retreat and Study Center in Bangor, Pennsylvania.
We hope to do the following:
1. Help you "see" that divine reality is actually at the root of the things you might sometimes dislike or even despise in your personality.
2. Foster "aha!" moments in which you find great surprise and delight in seeing something that you formerly thought of as negative transform into something positive.
3. Facilitate the experience of peace and rest that comes from realizing these insights.
4. Promote an understanding that the reality we call "God" or "the Sacred" is actually much larger and more multi-faceted than any of us ever imagined. There are at least 9 different windows in to an experience of this Divine Reality! 5. Counteract the "metaphysical agnosticism" that our culture has fallen into by showing that it is OK again to reflect on the nature of the Divine. We can trust the results of our quest, and not think that theological rigidity is the only possible way of practicing the intellectual life. 6. Re-inspire you to the joys of spiritual reflection.
We truly looking forward to meeting with you and enjoying this meditative weekend retreat together.
At the core of each type are what Enneagram scholars call the "essence" or holy ideas or essential qualities of the type, the spiritual aspects of oneself. Each type has spiritual qualities that people of the type know well and that resonate deep within their being...as well as unique spiritual challenges.
For example, in Sandy's words, a #7, the essence is joy, a deep joy (not superficial pleasures) associated with Sacred Novelty, Sacred Flow, and Sacred Freedom...and experienced most often when I am engaged in my Holy Work with a certain quality (with which I am challenged) called 'sobriety.'
These essential qualities are described by Helen Palmer, David Daniels, Riso & Hudson, Stephen Hatch, and others.
In the words of Stephen Hatch … Although it is helpful to understand each Enneagram type on a purely psychological level, people often recoil at the fact that this knowledge can seem somewhat negative.For example, a One may bemoan the fact that she has perfectionist tendencies, or a Four that he is perennially longing for what is missing in his life. A Nine may tire of remaining unaware of what she really wants in life, and a Six may despise his tendency toward fear. What if each Enneagram type is actually a different perspective – a different set of Sacred Ideas - of something more spiritual: say, the Divine Presence?
What if, for example...
Ones- at their core – are most in touch with the divine goodness and perfection of all beings and events?
Fours are the most skilled at recognizing the mutuality of longing; that is, the fact that human longing for love is actually only an echo of the longing that Divine Love feels toward us?
What if ...
Nines are the best of all of the types at forgetting their own self-conscious ego in union with the Divine?
Sixes are especially attuned to the suspense of watching all phenomena arise – magically – from the spaciousness of awareness, and know that Sacred Faith involves a profound trust in the existence and goodness of a Divine Presence?
What if ...
Eights incarnate the fact that the Divine actively expands into and fills everything with its presence?
Twos are most in touch with Sacred Grace, embodying this grace to others around them in the form of Sacred Compassion?
What if...
Fives embody the all-knowing capacity of the Divine Presence, and are on a quest of the Divine to know itself in all of its many manifestations?
Sevens, everlastingly young radiating vibrancy to others, know the Divine Presence to be the ground of all novelty, all freshness perceived through joy-filled human awareness?
Threes understand most clearly that human effort is in reality a participation in the joyfully creative work of the Ultimate Mystery knowing that work is a worthwhile end in itself?
Spiritual teachers of the Enneagram agree that when any of the types lose touch with its divine core it creates a substitute that is inadequate and the cause of much suffering.
For example, when Twos loses touch with Sacred Compassion, they try to create their own ego-based version, becoming pushy and offering people help that they didn’t ask for.
Or, Sevens, out of touch with Sacred Flow, create their own sense of flow that excludes the wishes of others.
Untransformed Eights, out of touch with the Sacred Omnipresence of the Divine, try to throw their own weight around, making their own influence felt in every possible situation.
During this retreat weekend you will connect with your own "essential" qualities....and experience others in a whole new way.
The primary process we use to experience the whole of yourself is through what we call sacred panels.
Sacred Panels Deepen your understanding of self and others Feel connected - validated, grounded, centered, expanded - "at home" & seen for who you really are
Fall in love with each of the types! That's a big promise...yet, the only way and the only time, we've ever "fallen in love" is when we were present to our own essence and the essence of the other.
Enneagram Panels of any kind are totally awesome...but rarely will you have the chance to explore the spiritual qualities or "essence" of each type.
You will go beyond the experience of feeling compassion and understanding, as happens in "type" panels...to a place of being an advocate for the type...and wanting to support, defend, and protect the other in being themselves.
In other words, you will find that you truly love each type, the energies of each type, and value what those energies bring to the world. Explore and experience the essential qualities, essence and sacred ideas...associated with each type.
During this weekend you will...
Have an in-depth dialogue and time to reflect, contemplate, and explore the Sacred Ideas -- of each Enneagram type...aspects that reside in each and every one of us.
Use the power of silence, personal reflection, and evocative music to discover that precious inner space of the sacred
Explore your divine core and be encouraged to live from there
Join Sandy Lundahl and the Reverend Donald Horrigan as they guide you with compassion and insight to see the divine quality in aspects of our personality that we often experience as negative. Nine Ways to Experience the Divine Using the Wisdome of the Enneagram will radically shift your perception of yourself and how you see others.
Through meditation, the joy of self reflection, music, and the writings from a variety of religions and philosophies, you will see how each of us embodies all the aspects of the divine, not just those related to our own personality type.
We hope you will sign up today. The cost is $365 and includes registration, lodging, and food.... a great price!
