Subhuti bids farewell to the Queen and as an obituary reveals her Enneagram type.
Yes, you read it correctly. The word in the headline is “Mediator,” and not “Meditator.” What a difference a single letter can make! Because when we look for the Queen’s Enneagram type we must begin with her ability to mediate: to understand everyone, to listen to everyone, and to consider all points of view.
“I think it’s rather nice to feel that one’s a sort of sponge, soaking up confidences.” This was how Queen Elizabeth described her weekly meetings with a long line of Prime Minsters, starting in 1952 with Winston Churchill and passing through seven decades of British politics.
Few people in this world would feel comfortable with the idea of being a human sponge, but, if we can believe her own words, Elizabeth enjoyed it.
It was a quality that was greatly appreciated by Tony Blair when he was Prime Minister, saying the Queen was the one person to whom he could speak freely, knowing his opinions wouldn’t leak out to the media.
Prince Philip, her husband, a man not known for such qualities himself, described his wife as “immensely tolerant.”
She was also a creature of habit. According to Palace insiders, the Queen loved her daily routine and took comfort from the way it rarely varied: A cup of Earl Grey tea at the start of her day, walking her corgis in the early afternoon, a gin and tonic in the evening….
By now, surely, you must have guessed Elizabeth’s Enneagram type?
I hope so, because every online Enneagram expert agrees, and this in itself is a near miracle. Normally, there is a huge range of disagreement in any internet debate about types.
Is Prince Charles a Five or a Four? Is Princess Diana a Four or a Six? Is Prince Philip a Seven or an Eight? Everyone has a different opinion, and nobody can be proved right because the Enneagram is not like Astrology. In Astrology, when you know a person’s time and date of birth, and the location, you can point with certainty to the sun sign, and all planetary positions.
But the Enneagram is a very different beast. It is an enormously powerful tool, because it exposes the foundation stone of the personality structure. It lifts a veil of self-ignorance and in a dazzling, sometimes shocking, moment of revelation, shows us why we think and act the way we do.
But here’s the catch: you’ve got to get the type right. And while this is not a problem in a real-life workshop, working with real-live people, when typing famous people it’s just a guessing game.
And yet, Queen Elizabeth II has done it. She has brought all the experts together, which, come to think of it, is exactly the kind of harmonious outcome people of her Enneagram type are good at creating.
Her type? By unanimous decision: Nine.
True to her type, Elizabeth became queen by accident, drifting into a role she had not chosen – in fact, in a similar way to how Ringo Starr became a world-famous drummer. Ringo, also a Nine, once said that if he hadn’t been picked up by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, “I’d probably have been a labourer, doing some kind of manual work.”
Ringo just fell into it. The same with Elizabeth. Well, she would never have been a labourer! But she was never meant to be queen. She was born to be a countrywoman, breeding dogs and horses, and mucking around on farm estates.
Her uncle Edward was king and looked set for life. But then, when Elizabeth was ten years old, Edward fell in love with an American divorcee and socialite called Wallis Simpson – and wanted to make her his queen.
Appalled, the British Government said “No!”
Edward abdicated and all eyes turned towards his brother, Elizabeth’s father, who promptly became King George VI. Elizabeth was now in line to the throne, but her father was only 41, so it seemed that her time as monarch was still a long way off. But King George, alas, was a very insecure, nervous man, and smoked heavily to cope with the burdens of his office. He fell sick with lung cancer, and died at the relatively young age of 57.
And so, through these accidental events, Elizabeth was propelled onto the throne at the tender age of 24 and was crowned a year later.
This is typical of the way Nines find their way through life. They tend to go along with what other people want. They try not to make a fuss. They accept what life brings them.
When you think about it, Elizabeth’s role suited her personality type perfectly. Only a Nine could carry on, decade after decade, without complaint, doing her duty for 70 years.
Of course, there were challenges. For example, Elizabeth was very fond of her ship, the Royal Yacht Britannia, and loved to go touring with it, sailing around the world. But in 1997, Tony Blair’s newly elected Labour Government decided that the ship had to be scrapped. The Queen was devastated. Prince Philip was furious.
And here’s the Nine element: years later, Tony Blair revealed that the Queen never raised the issue of Britannia with him during their weekly meetings. Not once. She simply accepted the decision. She shed tears at the ship’s decommissioning ceremony, but never protested.
No other Enneagram type could have buried her personal feelings so thoroughly. Several might have begged the Prime Minister to spare the ship. Others might have flown into a rage. The Nine just carried on.
One wonders what might have happened if the Queen had stumbled on a book about the Enneagram. Would she have recognized her type? Would she have realized that, while a Nine can follow a routine forever, it comes at a price of numbing one’s own feelings and practicing self-neglect?
Nines learned to stifle their inner voice at an early age, realizing that it was never going to be heard by others. In such a family environment, expressing one’s own personal feelings could only get in the way of peace and harmony.
For Elizabeth, as she grew up, personal preferences always gave way to duty. And duty, for the Queen, was paramount. Her interest in self-discovery and spiritual growth seemed to go no further than her Christian faith. As Head of the Church of England, she probably assumed she was guaranteed a place in heaven.
Meditation was never on her agenda. Mediation was her very lifestyle.
And so, on Monday, we will witness one of the biggest ceremonial events ever to take place in Britain, as world leaders converge for Elizabeth’s funeral. The global television audience will run into billions.
A woman perfectly suited to her role and to her Enneagram type, will be laid to rest.
Related articles
- Wedding Weekend Special – Just when you thought that you had escaped the Royals from this news outlet, a take from Subhuti from another angle, that of the Enneagram (May 20, 2018)
- Series: ‘Enneagram Famous Figures’ by Subhuti
Subhuti will be leading an Enneagram workshop in Prague, Czech, 4-6 November 2022 – shine-higher.com email: love.prabodh@gmail.com, Tel: +420605497585.
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