We start with Type Five’s strengths when we are on their Path to Wholeness. It is always best to start with the good news. Type Five’s are perceptive observers, curious, playful and whimsical, and able to concentrate. They love to learn and share their knowledge. At their best they can be visionary and pioneering with profound insights and breakthroughs. They can be in awe of life. When they are average they retreat into their mind, come across as too private, detached, and secretive.

Their Shadow is Avarice. Some people can relate more to Greed. Either way, not so pretty. And frankly as a Five, I used to notice it when I was being cheap or frugal. Now I notice this Shadow all the time. That is the beauty of the Shadow, it is hiding in plain sight and it is up us to observe it and realize when it is intruding on our lives. Sparring with my Shadow has become a daily thing now as it has become the perfect learning tool for me to open my heart more as well as my schedule, my pocketbook, and even my library (I hoard books for sure!). Please don’t ask me to share my food. That I still need lots of work on.

As we move around the circle, the Saboteur of the Hyper-Rational is the neural addiction for the Type Five. It looks like an intense and exclusive focus on the rational processing of everything including relationships.  I have been perceived as cold, distant, and intellectually arrogant. True. True. Ew. But we all have a version of a Saboteur in our lives and it is up to us to observe them and pivot. The knowledge of this Saboteur has opened my eyes and I work on it daily with breath and a more open-hearted and open-minded response to stressful situations. Work in progress.

Finally, we arrive at the Wholey Idea. Thank God. Five’s Wholey Idea is Omniscience and/or Transparency. When a Five can live in the knowledge that the Universe is all-knowing and we don’t have to be not only the keepers of knowledge but the only sharers (transparency - and more Shadow work) of it, we can relax into our gifts and connect to the Universe. We can see the wholeness in the perceived divisibility (our private ways), share our gifts, and rest in the knowledge that the Universe is all-knowing and we don’t need to be. Phew. That was a burden we Fives erroneously carry. Once again, “May I let go.”