9. The Mediator
ego-indolence, the passion is sloth
by Torre Waag

If you take on the role of the mediator, you strive for comfort and to avoid conflict. You want to get along with others, so you tend to accommodate their needs. You may have a sense of merging with others while forgetting your self, forgetting your own needs. You are a peacemaker, a mediator, with little tolerance for angry confrontation. Your own anger is hard to find or express. Others won't love you when you are mad. So, instead of direct expression, your anger may come out as stubbornness or passive aggressive behavior. You will tend to go along with the consensus, but later you may resist. You may be slow moving or you may be very active and busy, but, in either case, you tend to focus on inessential activities, putting off the essential things for another day. Lost in your stamp collection or your computer games, you may experience life with resignation. What do I want? What should I do now? Does anyone care? In work, you appreciate regularity, procedures, and recognition. You give and expect unconditional acceptance. You may have a strong sense of being all the types, of playing all the parts. This is to be expected. Through self-forgetting and merging with the points of view of others, you easily walk in their shoes. On the high side you are intuitive, a good negotiator and work hard to make a social contribution. On the low side you may experience life through a long-term malaise or low-grade depression. Think of the Post Office and the culture of Bali. Some Mediator exemplars include Gerald Ford, Dwight Eisenhower, Buckminster Fuller, Julia Child, Gregory Bateson, Doris Day and the Dalai Lama. You seek love and belonging, but every once in a while, you relax and realize that Divine Love is ever-present, everywhere; then, you know the love you seek is always there.

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