Well, three comments are forthcoming.
"All the world's a stage and all the men and women merely players..." What do you mean in this quote of yours, by "stage" ?
Do you mean "ten levels of mental health" as seen in the Enneagram?
I would gladly hear more of this. What is this 'catalysis' you speak of? And does it work for any two adjacent Enneagram numbers,
or just for adjacent pairs within the same triad?
If you mean the INTJ and INFP are completely "out of phase" aka "out of sync" I might agree...
That was all based on some BS type attraction theory I made a thread about a while ago, it had nothing to do with the enneagram.
"Stage" is just another name for "cognitive function", highlighting the developmental nature of function use, i.e. stage 1 is when the dominant function is being differentiated, stage 2 is the auxiliary etc.
The theory is basically that people seek out each other because the presence of the other person allows for a certain transference of ability, and so if someone has what we are trying to get at the time, that's what we go for.
I'm having trouble deciphering what I wrote completely, but the catalyst could just be any activity, other person, etc. that allows for a more efficient transfer of information.
So, to illustrate,
INFP: Fi Ne Si Te Fe Ni Se Ti
INTJ: Ni Te Fi Se Ne Ti Fe Si
So, INFP offers Fi, and INTJ offers Ni. Since Ni comes a lot later in the development of INFP than Fi does for INTJ, then you can see why it is out of phase.
The buffer zone is where INFP is at Te and INTJ is at Ne, thus they benefit from each other's auxiliary, and the phase shift is less dramatic.
A catalyst could be something which tends to activate higher levels of Fi in people, and so this allows the INTJ to more swiftly develop their Fi.
Yes, all the world is a stage, hence the crucial importance of crossing the buffer zone from Se to Ne.
Leave behind the ways of old,
Venture forth, embrace the cold.
I think that's what I'm trying to say... yeah.