Healthy Nines are natural mediators who seek and value others’ perspectives and can harmonize irreconcilable points of view. They are unselfish, flexible, and inclusive. They are seldom attached to their own way of seeing and doing things and make decisions based on the right priorities.
Nine Traits
- Nines self-forget and merge with others
- Nines find it hard to identify and connect with their inner passion
- Nines are often unsure what they want in life
- Nines are mature and “chill,” quick to love and slow to judge
- Nines fear self-asserting may jeopardize their relationships
- Nines often feel others find them unimportant
- Nines are often unsure and postpone decision making
- Nines can turn to physical sensations to avoid their anger
- Nines are easygoing and sense others needs
- Nines are uncomfortable with conflict and choosing a side
- Nines feel a raised voice is yelling
- Nines focus on less-important tasks to avoid the bigger, scarier ones
Enneagram Wings, Strength & Growth
9w8: are confident, energized, stubborn, outgoing, and inner-directed, and can often express their anger, but also know what they want. They are energetic in acting for others and more confrontational than the other Nines, but also quick to reassure you (8 influences).
9w1: have a strong sense of right and wrong, and want to focus and accomplish more (which boosts their confidence). They are critical, orderly, introverted, passive-aggressive, and often involve themselves in peacemaking or social justice causes who pride themselves on being principled and their strong sense of integrity (1 influences).
Under stress: become rigid, worried, wary of others, over-committed, and anxious, without knowing why. They are self-doubting, which makes decision-making even harder, but also become “reactive” and impulsive (unhealthy 6).
When feeling secure: are goal-oriented, decisive, self-confident, and in touch with their life’s agenda; they struggle with less inertia, take control over their life, and experience genuine peace and harmony (healthy 3 influences).
Advice for the 9: do not confuse genuine peace with the desire to be unaffected by life. The absence of conflict is not the presence of peace, which requires work and risk. Wake up and say yes to the adventure of YOUR OWN life! Learn to love yourself as much as you love other people; you deserve self-love. We see you, and your life matters.
Influences on MBTI Types:
ISTJ: has a calm sense of self and focuses on doing their work well and on time, to avoid potential work-related conflict or angry clients, routinely suppresses their own thoughts and feelings; the 9 fear of making decisions would enhance inferior Ne anxieties about change and the unknown, and cause them to postpone making life-altering decisions as long as possible.
ESTJ: would find friction between their natural bluntness / facts-oriented brain and their inferior Fi insecurities about relationship dynamics, which might cause them to be more amiable than other ESTJ Ennegram types, more prone to devotion to their friends and family and concerned for their emotional well-being; would not know how to mirror others effectively, but would strategically plan to avoid potential mistakes. Has more forward motion than the ISXJ, due to general extroversion, which forces them to make decisions in a more timely fashion. Possibly excels at resolving inner-department conflict in ways that benefits everyone.
ISFJ: use Fe to “merge with” others and avoid appearing disagreeable, is pliable, nonjudgmental, and good-natured, maintains a cheerful persona that changes between external influences, uses Fe to read what others want and need and bond with them through affirming language and bodily communication, avoids airing their feelings of frustration in relationships (until they explode) while often feeling ignored and unappreciated; may struggle with their anger and fears about change / making big decisions in life, but will ultimately feel better if they Fe-share these feelings with others.
ESFJ: their external focus means they prioritize keeping everyone in harmony in their life, which means they would be natural professional mediators, but often overlook their own weaknesses, the true source of their anger, and insecurities (inferior Ti’s lack of self-analyzing); like the ESXJ, more able to maintain forward momentum and pursue change, but also indecisive (lower Ne) when faced with important decisions.
INTJ: the desire to avoid conflict softens the sharp edge of NiTe, and influences their approach to others (softening it, and bringing with them a sense of internal peace); will avoid conflict and try to diffuse situations with the facts, may rely on Ni-insights to read between the lines and head off conflict before it arises. Prone to serious inertia, between 9’s lack of energy and the weakness of inferior Se, which would motivate them more easily into direct action higher in the stack.
ENTJ: might turn their business mentality and futuristic planning skills toward global or national interests in terms of peacemaking on a huge level; their focus would be current benefits as well as long-range success; tert-Se would make them more decisive and opportunistic, but also much more inclined to avoid whatever 9 doesn’t want to deal with through excess (sex, drinking, over-indulgences, fast cars, and “playing”). Like the ESTJ-9, inferior Fi would be insecure about their emotional ability to connect to others, and lack the ability to ‘read’ them with Fe, but Ni would provide greater insight into others’ true motives.
INFJ: uses Fe to “merge” with others and Ni to read between the lines, to determine how best to maintain a persona of harmony; experiences self-doubts about one’s ability to navigate in a hostile and sensory “real world” (inferior Se concerns) while often struggling to find strong forward momentum due to inferior Se + 9 low energy levels. This will frustrate them in the long term, because Ni has “visions” it wants to actualize in the real world; needs to acknowledge and weaponize their “anger” at being inert to move forward.
ENFJ: finds it easy to adopt a persona and “become” whatever anyone else needs them to be, and in merging with others, but may not have a sense of self / a true grasp of their own motives, feelings, or needs due to inferior Ti’s issues self-analyzing; uses Ni to read into and draw conclusions about people, in order to help Fe connect to them; may be incredibly indecisive when decisions arise that involve other people, since Ni may get “stuck” considering the many ways this could impact their lives, while Fe wants to keep peace and harmony between everyone, all the time. Struggle also with the same lower-Se “hiding techniques” (escaping from scary things / the outside world / conflict through over-indulgence).
ESTP: would be far less risk-adverse, more prone to inertia, more in touch with their tert-Fe (at least, in the sense of knowing how to establish and maintain superficial connections to others, to avoid conflict; but even less in touch with their own feelings), less blunt, and more considerate of future implications (low Ni wanting to “get it right” + 9’s hesitance in anything new that disrupts their peace of mind) than other ESTPs.
ISTP: would develop a system of rational sharing and/or dealing with others that avoids conflict as much as possible, would often shut up about their logical complaints / be aware this could cause friction, might be prone to “laziness” / over-indulgences, or channeling their Se into video gaming instead of showing ambition in the work force, while also stressing about keeping their loved ones happy (lower Fe).
ESFP: would entirely tune in to other people, in order to read them (using their facial expressions, body language, etc) and put on an amiable, agreeable, good-natured front; the 9 lack of desire to pressure others to conform would fit in naturally with Fi, but Se’s influence might make them more assertive in standing up for others; low Te issues would cause them to postpone decision making and not know what tasks to prioritize in what order.
ISFP: would curb their bluntness and feel out of step with others, but resort to being quiet rather than putting on a false front or mirroring people they cannot stand; if you shut up, no one has ammo against you, and you can keep the peace by just smiling! Like the other SPs, might avoid making decisions (even though Se-users want to move forward / embrace change) through sensory pleasures and temporary distractions.
ENTP: possesses the rapid thought process and intellectualization of the Ne-dom, but also aware that some of their more controversial ideas and analysis’s could cause social upheaval and friction, so more prone to keeping silent about it and/or finalizing their ideas before they share them; could develop physical laziness to cope with fear of their loss of inner sensations, and become fixated on feeling better in their body, more than on an emotional level (tert Fe’s are often out of touch with their feelings); this wonky connection to inferior Si may lead to weird extremes in tastes, hatred for change, etc.
INTP: much more fussy and centered in sameness than other INTPs (Si’s love of routine / inner sensory comforts + 9’s tendency to ‘indulge’ in menial tasks or distractions to escape conflict), less inclined to share their more controversial conclusions, may rely heavily on lower Fe validations and try to mirror others, while feeling insecure about whether they are doing it properly; inferior Fe + 9’s hatred of conflict will make them run and hide when people are upset with them.
ENFP: will face a serious battle between Ne’s big picture thinking, Fi’s desire to care for and guide their friends, and Te’s factual and direct approach falling into conflict with 9’s desire to keep their mouth shut, to maintain stability in their relationships. This ENFP focuses enormously on their relationships and not rocking the boat, continually feeling like a “substitute person” and facing anger issues at being overlooked, taken for granted, etc., and in lashing out with occasional FiTe bluntness. Feels continually out of touch with the world / out of harmony with others, due to Fi’s inability to emotionally “mirror” them, general extroversion’s focus on others, and inferior Si’s detachment from the sensory world. Like the ENTP, may not know what to do when avoiding decisions or hiding from the world, and develop lower Si-based phobias and quirks.
INFP: will be the most conflict-avoiding of all the types, and struggle with reconciling their desire to be true to themselves (Fi) with their desire to keep others happy, so as to maintain their inner peace. May become settled in their ways / habits and not move forward for decades on end, while channeling their Ne toward new concepts / ideas / possibilities rather than external motion.
Funky MBTI 