Expressions of Strength – What can be seen in a face?
From childhood through her early twenties, Barbara was a sketch artist and spent much of her time drawing faces and figures. She loved to capture the essence of a person in the way their hand was positioned or the way energy came through their eyes. So whenever she watched Alan work, she was fascinated because a student’s face would change and shift from an ordinary expression to an extraordinary one that showed great depth and beauty, and yet was predictable according to type.
One day in February of 1998, as Alan and Barbara were discussing a typing from that evening’s study group, she commented on the facial expression and that she had not seen what she expected in the participant’s face. Stunned, Alan’s eyes locked on her and he intently asked, “What expression?” Barbara explained she was referring to the expression that goes with each posture of strength. Alan replied, “I didn’t know there were expressions! Why didn’t you tell me?” She answered that she thought they were “obvious”. What followed were many hours traveling back and forth from the library down the street, sorting through books and thousands of photographs until they found a few examples of all nine facial expressions of strength (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9) that they could use as teaching tools.
Barbara designed nine 20 x 40 inch display boards and posted the images. While assembling these boards, she unexpectedly became aware that intensity was increasing in the room. She stopped working and looked up to see if she could tell what was going on, and then emotion began to overwhelm her. Feeling excited but cold and shaky, the intensity continued to increase as she taped pictures on the last few boards. She placed the completed boards in order 1 – 9; they circled half of their small living room. As she looked into the eyes of the people in the pictures, a power that felt alive came through them, connected with her and time collapsed. Barbara needed to sit down as energy from the universe flooded into the room. Ancient memories seemed to tug at her and she felt that there was something important to remember.
A more colorful piece had been added to the picture.
In December of 1998 Alan and Barbara changed the name of their new paradigm from The Enneagram of the Body to New Equations to reflect the new relationships they were discovering.