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Enneagram, Spirituality and Psychology

Enneagram Type Eight – Growth and Stress

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Enneagram Type Eight, sometimes called the Boss or the Challenger, belongs to the Body triad. Those of this Enneatype tend to be powerful, assertive and present in their body. They have seemingly endless endurance and stamina. They highly value their own independence and hate submitting to people, especially if they consider them unworthy. Their best defense is often offense, in the form of being imposing and challenging, but they also have a sense of duty toward their friends and associates, especially if they feel they need to defend them.

Enneagram Type Eight

Enneatype Eight Grows: Move to Two

Average Eights are known for their power-exuding, in-control behavior. In a way, they go through life as if they were a fortress constantly redying for war (and occasionally attacking a neighboring country to be on the safe side). They generally seem to believe that the best way of maintaining their autonomy is to behave in an assertive, hands-on way.

In general, Enneagram Type Eight is deeply aware of a weakness or softness within them that they feel they need to defend from exploitation and aggression. This is what leads them to being defensive (or aggressive, depending on the circumstances) and to wanting to establish themselves above other people, because once they know that they are the reference point for everyone else in the room, they know how to deal with them directly and head-on, which is Eight’s favorite kind of confrontation, as it leaves little space for subtlety and underhandedness.

As they grow and learn to relax their mechanism, Eights become capable of taking care of their soft side in a more nurturing way. They learn to see that not everyone is out to get them and that, in fact, other people have a tender, weak spot too that is deserving of love and protection. As they recognize this, maturing Eights take on some of the healthy traits of Enneagram Type Two.

At their best, Twos are caring, interpersonal, giving, motherly and see the needs of others as theirs to take care of. In growing toward Two, Eights become capable of putting their warrior qualities to a higher use in honoring others’ need and defending them. They become extremely giving (in a more neutral, less manipulative way than unhealthy Twos) and their energy is expressed in a way that is innocent because it places itself beyond the rigid distinction between friend and foe.

Innocence, the Virtue of Enneagram Type Eight

Enneatype Eight Under Stress: Move to Five

All Eights tend to act assertively in order to protect a part of them that they consider vulnerable and tender. In a way, it is as if they were padding the space around that vulnerable point with their boldness and in-your-face behavior, so that others can’t take advantage of it.

Unfortunately, it is not always possible for them to succeed in this effort. Sometimes their vulnerability comes to light, especially in the form of not feeling adequate or smart enough or strong enough to meet the challenges of life. While average to healthy Eights can enjoy meeting the resistance of the world and can appreciate worthy sparring partners, unhealthy Eights can feel that big challenges threaten their independence as individuals. In these circumstances, receiving a reaction that is equal to or stronger than the action they exert can cause Eights to lose their balance.

When this happens, Eights move to their stress point, where they develop some of the less healthy traits of Enneagram Type Five. Seeing an Eight move to Five is like seeing a bloated baloon letting out the air all at once. Suddenly all the assertive energy of Type Eight implodes toward the center of their being and they become insecure, silent and almost invisible.

Eights, like average to unhealthy Fives, now tend to feel exposed and in need of putting distance between them and the threat, and it is not uncommon for stressed out Eights to physically remove themselves from others’ presence. In doing so, Eights hope to regain some power and energy and to strategize a way out of the impasse.

Enneagram, Spirituality and Psychology

Enneagram Type Seven – Growth and Stress

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Enneagram Type Seven, sometimes called the Epicurean or the Enthusiast, belongs to the Head triad. Those of this Enneatype are usually positive, upbeat, energetic and fun-loving. They are mainly driven by the desire to avoid negative sensations and to maximize their options of experiencing the world and its potentials without being held back or restricted. They often make lots of plans and are engaged in many projects, activities, side activities, etc, some of which are bound to be left incomplete. They are usually possessed of quick wits and have an aptitude toward picking up new skills and interests. They rarely focus on the negative side of life, and even when they do, they tend to snap out of it quickly (or more quickly than other people.)

Enneagram Type Seven

Enneatype Seven Grows: Move to Five

One of the common themes in most Sevens’ lives is their fear of being confined to just one option, which will lead them (in their perception) to not experiecing life to the fullest or to not having back-up plans if one option fails. This tendency can cause Sevens to remain perpetually stuck on the surface of life, to the point that some unhealthy Sevens believe the surface is all there is. Sometimes this belief can cause Sevens to make rash decisions out of fear of being chained down in one place or situation.

As they grow and learn to relax their mechanism, though, Sevens start to develop a keener appreciation for the depth and complexity of life and a greater focus in pursuing certain options as more obviously right for them as opposed to others. In this, they start to take on some of the better qualities of Enneagram Type Five. Fives are the intellectuals of the Enneagram. They rarely make rash decisions and are often laser-focused, as though their mind were a blade that they use to cut through the surface of things to reach their core. They also don’t shy away from the negative side of life.

In general, even healthy Fives tend to lead a more sober life than their Seven friends, with a preference for a few well-chosen activities (or a few well-chosen possessions, friends, etc.) as opposed to the epicurean sludgeflow that usually clutters the lives of unhealthy Sevens. This is not to say that Sevens must become minimalistic, but as they grow they do become more stably anchored to their own core.

As they do so, Sevens realize that they are not necessarily foregoing anything essential if they choose to pursue one option to the exclusion of another, and instead they learn to cultivate what they do choose with care and persistence, while bringing their sense of humor, childlike wonder and almost endless adaptability with them.

Sobriety, the Virtue of Enneagram Type Seven

Enneatype Seven Under Stress: Move to One

Perceptive Sevens can sometimes feel that they are being led on a leash by their fear of restriction and pain. While healthy Sevens face their demons directly (like all healthy types) less healthy individuals can become absorbed in an endless whirlwind of meaningless novelty-chasing and hype traps, whereby they drop their toy as soon as the next shiny trinket catches their attention.

Because Sevens are very sharp-witted, they usually notice this trend, but they also feel that they must keep going, because stopping for a second (they feel) would cause more obscure feelings and fears to catch up with them. Unhealthy Sevens generally know that they are caught in a loop, but they feel that it’s too late to stop (Sevens in general have a tendency to excuse away their lack of restraint).

In moving toward their direction of stress, Sevens can pick up some of the less healthy qualities of Enneatype One. Like unhealthy Ones, they become critical and rigid, usually toward those around them who refuse to jump on the next hype train with them. Furthermore, perceiving the futility of their behavior, Sevens may also try to organize themselves to bring more structure to their life and activities (especially if it is spiralling out of control due to poor decision-making), but they tend to organize them to death, until all the wonderful Seven-ish spontaneity is sucked out of them and all that is left is the unhealthy One’s grayish sense of bureaucratic doom.

MQS

Enneagram, Spirituality and Psychology

Enneagram Type Six – Growth and Stress

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Enneagram Type Six, sometimes called the Loyalist or the Skeptic, belongs to the Head triad. Those of this Enneatype tend to feel the need for an external source of security, whether it be in the form of social connections, love, a political ideology or religion, etc. They are often friendly and want to show themselves as dependable and trustworthy to avoid danger and controversy, but they also have a skeptical streak that undermines their ability to find the security they need. They are often given to catastrophizing, questioning and poking holes into everything in hopes of finding the one thing that they can trust, but once they feel they have found it, they rarely question it.

Enneagram Type Six

Enneatype Six Grows: Move to Nine

The beginning of a Six’s fear lies in their inability to give themselves the security and stable ground that they need. Because they lack a sense of inner guidance, they usually look outside of themselves, finding it in people, institutions, systems of all type, etc. Ultimately, Sixes want their anchor to be beyond doubt (that is, in a way, perfect).

This is obviously a problem, since an honest look at anything and anyone will reveal their flaws. Although some Sixes manage to convince themselves to stick to something even if imperfect, the nagging sense of uncertainty remains.

When a Six learns to trust themselves, their decisions, their own processes and learn to see the difference between a healthy dose of skepticism and an excessive one, they can also relax and, in doing so, they pick up certain qualities of healthy Nines. Enneagram Type Nine is often trusting of others and allows space for honest interaction without the drama that average Sixes often stir up when they haven’t yet sorted a person in trustworthy or dangerous.

Usually, Nines tend to see beyond division and can capture the unitary essence of all processes, including interpersonal ones. In integrating aspects of Enneatype Nine, Sixes, usually become much calmer and more capable of seeing the simple essence of a situation without getting lost in a myriad contradictions and doubts. More importantly, healthy Sixes develop the kind of self-assurance that they usually lack.

Courage, the Virtue of Enneagram Type Six

Enneatype Six Under Stress: Move to Three

Enneatype Six tends to create secure and stable social connections, which they reinforce by being trustworthy and friendly. Largely they do it to reduce the uncertainty of life (it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that the Six’s socially cohesive instinct is what brought humanity together and created the basis for society)

Unfortunately, this strategy is not always effective. Depending on their particular situation, Sixes may feel that their life is too unpredictable and dangerous. They may feel like they are swimming in a sea of ungraspable alternatives whose consequences they can’t pin down and anticipate. When this happen, a Six may still try to create certainty, but if the strategy fails, they will go to their stress point, where they embody the less healthy qualities of Ennneagram Type Three.

Threes are the workaholics of the Enneagram, constantly trying to emerge and establish themselves as worthy of respect. At their worst, Threes are unreasonably competitive and tend to see everyone as an opponent to outdo, outfox, outperform at any cost and using any trick possible. Stressed Six embody this more antisocial aspect of Type Three, as they feel they can no longer trust others and must therefore learn to compete with them.

Highly cynical and with a generally negative outlook, unhealthy Six can try to constantly undermine others, as though doing this was necessary to deactivate the potential threat associated with other untrustworthy human beings. This behavior is often seen together with panicked responses to every minor setback and a tendency toward authoritarianism as a coping mechanism.

MQS

Enneagram, Spirituality and Psychology

Enneagram Type Five – Growth and Stress

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Enneagram Type Five, sometimes called the Observer, belongs to the Head triad. Those of this Enneatype are often recognizable for their tendency to withdraw from social contact and interaction with the world in order to observe it and accumulate knowledge and understanding. Fives tend to have a sense of energetic dearth, as though their inner resources weren’t enough for them to meaningfully impact the world, or even just to be in the world. Highly intellectual, they value objectivity and facts, which they often recombine in new and creative way, and are generally unsentimental and unbothered by social conventions.

Enneagram Type Five

Enneatype Five Grows: Move to Eight

Many Fives report that at some point they realized they were going through life as though they were constantly getting prepared for it, with the result that when they felt ready, life was already over. This is an understandably heartbreaking situation to be in, so it’s vital that Fives come to terms with it as soon as possible in order to live life before it’s gone.

A large chunk of a Five’s growth path comes from understanding that it is ok to get started without knowing everything, and that their marvelous mental abilities will inevitably go to waste if they don’t cultivate them in a practical setting and in the midst of real life action. Ultimately, Fives’ tendency to withdraw from others, withhold their presence and accumulate knowledge is a defense mechanism against fear, but as long as they withdraw they reinforce the implicit notion that the world is so fear-inducing that it must be seen from a distance.

The only way to break the cycle is for Fives to gradually let go of their tendency to let go of the world (it’s a letting go of the letting go) and to dive into it and take full charge of their body and their instincts, taking up space and showing up. In doing this, they start to embody the better qualities of Enneagram Type Eight, the most physically expansive and assertive of the nine type. Interestingly, Eights, like Fives, deal a lot with the idea of truth, but Eights have an instinctive awareness of it, whereas Fives have an analytical understanding of it.

In allowing their insights to take physical form, Fives reduce their tendency to detach from reality and become capable of bringing their objectivity and knowledge to fruition. Their ability to let go of things is used not to renounce the world, but to experience it all equally in all its transient permutations. Detachment thus becomes non-attachment.

Non-Attachment, the virtue of Enneagram Type Five

Enneatype Five under Stress: Move to Seven

Fives generally hate having to jump into things without preparation. They tend to plan ahead as if they possessed half the energy, time and resources they actually have and often don’t communicate their thoughts unless they have had the time to polish, proof and justify them. This is why going to war with a Five in a field they know a lot about is often a lost cause: they are always five or six steps ahead in the argument.

But, as much as they would like to be omniscient, Fives aren’t. The world is too complex to hold it all inside one’s mind before one ventures into it (which is how Fives get started on their journey of observation.) Variables are bound to intrude into one’s views. More importantly, Fives may not always have the chance to step back from quickly unfolding situations to take a breath and organize their mental response.

When this happens, Fives may initially still try to withdraw, but if their usual strategy becomes impossible, it is not uncommon to see them make fools of themselves, like unhealthy Sevens. This is not because Fives (or Sevens, for that matter) are actually fools, but because they panic at the prospect of not being able to employ their typical strategy.

Often, Fives that move to Seven under stress become volatile, scattered, given to missing the mark with odd jokes or comments. Because they haven’t had the time to establish clear boundaries within which they feel secure, they become erratic and aimless, thus lending credence to their own worst fear of being incompetent and needing to withdraw even further.

MQS

Enneagram, Spirituality and Psychology

Enneagram Type Four – Growth and Stress

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Enneagram Type Four, sometimes called the Individualist, belongs to the Heart triad. Those of this Enneatype generally feel a strong sense of deficiency compared to other people, and tend to recast this sensation of lack by perceiving themselves as special or unique. They have a complicated relationship with others, as they both feel a powerful need to belong, be seen and find deep and meaningful connections, while also feeling that they can never truly form such relationships. Because of their focus on their own deficiencies, they tend to be well-acquainted with the negative side of life.

Enneagram Type Four

Enneatype Four Grows: Move to One

Average Fours have a very diffuse sense of agency. Sometimes Fours feel like a cruel destiny has doomed them to a life of suffering, and the best they can do is bear this burden with artistic grace by exploring their inner landscapes. This is, of course, nonsense, just like all other Enneagram mechanisms. Still, it is not uncommon for average Fours to be incredibily mopey and defeated even in conditions that others would consider relatively normal, if not optimal.

The path out of this mechanism lies in giving up their habit of navel-gazing and actually planning their way to self-actualization. It happens often that aging Fours often pine over lost opportunities (If I just hadn’t quit those piano lessons) because all paths to success usually involve the kind of drudgery that Fours feel they are too sensitive or special to persevere in. This can lead to Fours feeling that they have wasted their life, which only reinforces their sense of being doomed.

If they give themselves a roadmap, though, Fours can become more principled and disciplined, like healthy Ones. Ennatype One is known for their ability to stick to plans and principles for dear life. Furthermore, Ones tend to put their own feelings on the backburner to take a hard look at how things truly are and how they can be concretely improved, and this attitude certainly benefits self-absorbed, feeling-oriented Fours.

In integrating One into their life, Fours learn to balance themselves and to see and perceive the whole spectrum of feelings, not just the negative ones, and learn that the positive side of life is just as authentic as the negative one.

Equanimity, the Virtue of Enneagram Type Four

Enneatype Four Under Stress: Move to Two

Fours are one of the most self-centered Enneatypes, not necessarily because they are egotistic, but because they relate everything to themselves and measure themselves against others and others against themselves. This is where their passion of Envy comes from. For a Four, life is like being on one dish of a pair of scales, with others on the other dish, and one dish cannot go up without the other going down.

This complicated relationship with other people results in a typical push-and-pull behavior which expresses the unresolved tension within the Four’s mechanism: others are both the object of desire and of spite. Furthermore, Fours usually see themselves as more authentic than others because of their acquaintance with their inner darkness and their sense of loss and grief, and this often causes them to want to show their own authenticity in front of others, without regard for proper time and place. Unhealthy Fours may even rub salt in people’s emotional wounds (which Fours are very good at sensing) both to make them feel what “real life” feels like and to make themselves feel a bit better by comparison.

When this inevitably leads to people becoming stressed out about their behavior, Fours are suddenly reminded that, ultimately, their own sense of self is highly dependent on others (as for all Heart types). In an effort to patch things up, the stressed Four abandons all emotional honesty and becomes clingy, unctuous and pleasing, like average to unhealthy Twos. Like Twos, they feel that they can only find meaning in the eyes of someone else and become accomodating to a fault.

MQS

Enneagram, Spirituality and Psychology

The Three Social Stances (Enneagram Plain and Simple)

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We’ve seen so far that the Enneagram tracks the development of our personality based on the central issue it revolves around. If we imagine reality to be a solar system with planets naturally revolving around the Sun, personality is the equivalent of a bit of one planet breaking off and revolving around said planet instead of around the Sun, like the Moon with the Earth.

Our personality colors our perception and our priorities and needs, as well as the strategies we develop to meet them. It also colors our stance toward other people. As most things in the Enneagram come in threes, we recognize three stances: assertive, withdrawing and conciliating or compliant. Each triad (Body, Heart, Head) has one assertive type, one withdrawing type and one compliant type.

This distinction ought not to be confused with the one discussed in the previous article on how each type relates to the energy of the center it belongs to. For instance, Type Two asserts the Heart energy, but in terms of social stance it is a conciliating type, not an assertive one. The expression of a center’s energy is the inherent motor of one’s personality, while the resulting social stance is more of a consequence, though an important one.

Assertive Types: Seven, Eight, Three

The three assertive types of the Enneagram: Three, Seven, Eight

In the Enneagram, assertive types tend to move toward the Other in a more or less bold fashion. They are usually daring and have a practical streak. They go get what they want or need, and do not let other people stand in the way. However, what they need is dictated by the center they belong to.

Type Three is a Heart type, meaning it is concerned with themes of recognition and attention. Three is definitely the show-off of the Enneagram. It asserts itself to emerge as worthy of validation within the system it finds itself in, whether it be school, work, family, etc.

Type Seven is a Head type, which means it desires security and safety, fearing pain and negative states of being. In fleeing from the inner potential for fear and pain, Seven asserts itself on the world around, looking for distractions and diversions, making plans for a thousand projects that keep it from the muted inner sense that all is not well.

Type Eight is a Body type, which means it wants autonomy. Eights are renowned for their ability to assert themselves on others and on reality in general. Even physically they have a certain presence (regardless of their body type) as they present themselves as the fixed point that can deviate the course of reality. Among the Enneagram types, Eight is the least reactive and most naturally active: an Eight doesn’t deal with you, you must deal with them.

In general, assertive types get into trouble with others by generating conflict (whether willingly or not) or by being excessive in their actions and sometimes deaf to other people’s reasons and perspectives.

Withdrawing Types: Nine, Four, Five

The three withdrawing types of the Enneagram: Nine, Four, Five

Withdrawing types do the opposite of assertive types: in order to get their needs met, they retreat from the Other. This is not to be confused with introversion, especially in a Jungian sense, as the Enneagram does not measure this. Any type can be introverted.

Type Nine is a withdrawing Body type. Its need for autonomy is met by not getting into situations of conflict or confrontation that might threaten its autonomous existence. The idea is, if I create a general mood of harmony, don’t demand anything and don’t go against the flow of other people, I will get what I want and won’t create problems for myself. This is the very opposite of what Eights do.

Type Four is a withdrawing Heart type. Fours withdraw into their fantasy, where they cultivate a rich world of images, moods and emotions, hoping that someone will notice them and whisk them away from a dreary, disappointing reality that doesn’t match their wishes. Instead of sucking the air out of a room like a Three, you’ll likely find Fours sulking in a corner, hoping to be asked what’s wrong.

Type Five is a withdrawing Head type. It retreats from the uncertain flow of the world into its mind, a universe filled with concepts, abstractions and logical reasoning. The idea is that, since the truth is the truth is the truth, the more a Five renounces its material and social existence to identify with impersonal, objectively valid thoughts, the less it will suffer from the uncertainty of reality. Dealing with concepts is easier than dealing with people. This is exactly what a Seven would never do.

In general, withdrawing types tend to get into trouble with other people by not being available to them or by being unclear and ungraspable, which can become a rather frustrating experience.

Compliant Types: Six, One, Two

The three compliant types of the Enneagram: One, Two and Six

Compliant types adopt rather complex strategies to fulfill their needs. They do not assert themselves like assertive types, nor do they retreat away from others like withdrawing types. Instead, they seek, as it were, to merit their needs being met, and as such their stance is markedly interpersonal (though not necessarily social.)

Type Six is a compliant Head type. Its core issues are related to security, and to the type’s inability to be the source of its own security. The solution is to find an authority to submit to by deserving their protection. This authority can be, but is not necessarily a person: it can also be an institution, an ideology, etc. Protection is deserved by being a good friend, partner, employee, believer, political activist, etc. As such, Six neither asserts itself like a Seven nor retreats like a Five.

Type One is a compliant Body type, whose need for autonomy is met by earning it. Ones don’t assert themselves unconditionally like Eights, nor do they shy away from conflict like Nines. Instead, they assert themselves on behalf of a higher goal or reason or idea. Being in the right gives Ones the credentials they need to demand other people’s obedience or respect.

Type Two is a compliant Heart type, concerned with recognition and attention. The way Twos seek to meet this need for recognition is by taking care of other people and meeting their (perceived) needs so as to gain a right to have their needs fulfilled. In this way, they neither withdraw for attention nor assert themselves, like Fours and Threes respectively, but instead seek to become indispensable for the other.

In general, compliant types tend to get into trouble with others by stipulating unspoken pacts with them and becoming angry, offended, hurt or scared when the other doesn’t meet their end of this unspoken bargain.

Energy CenterEnergy DynamicSocial StanceType
BodyAssertionAssertive8
BodySuppressionWithdrawing9
BodyTransformationCompliant1
HeartAssertionCompliant2
HeartSuppressionAssertive3
HeartTransformationWithdrawing4
HeadAssertionWithdrawing5
HeadSuppressionCompliant6
HeadTransformationAssertive7
The nine Enneagram Types with their social stance.
Enneagram, Spirituality and Psychology

From the Three Centers to Nine Types (Enneagram Plain and Simple)

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Everyone’s personality, regardless of their type, is founded on sustaining a separate existence from the whole. You cannot be your regular, daily self without being able to point at something that is not you. There is nothing wrong with separation and duality, in spite of what mystics may say, because it is through separation that unity blooms, pouring forth a thousand forms. More specifically to personality, it is through our consciousness of the universe that the universe perceives itself, and this, as I said, is only possible if the universe adopts our limited perspective through which it can explore itself, and without which it would remain blind.

This limitation takes place as we develop our character or personality, which involves us gravitating toward one of three centers of energy expression: Body, Heart or Head. Each center, as I discussed in the previous article, has its hub in one of the Enneatypes of the inner triangle: Nine (Body, Instinct), Three (Heart, Feelings), Six (Head, Intellect).

These three original types represent their respective center in a rather odd way: they don’t express the corresponding energy. Instead, they suppress it or filter it out. Type Nine, sometimes called the Mediator or Peacemaker, is a rather inconspicuous, self-effacing type, which is the opposite of the choleric drive behind our bodily urge for independence. Type Three, often called the Doer or the Achiever, seems at first anything but a feeling-oriented personality, concerned as it is with status, competition and practical plans. This seems to go against the Heart center’s urge for mending the bond between Self and Other. Type Six, normally referred to as the Skeptic or the Doubter, appears to be anything but oriented by a clear mind, caught up as it is in constantly catastrophizing and poking holes in its own certainties until all that is left is for it to blindly follow a trusted leader’s instruction. This seems contrary to the intellectual urge.

The full Enneagram, with its inner triangle (9, 3, 6) and the seven derived types.

In reality, though, we need to understand that the Enneagram does not really tell us who we are, but rather what we have a problem with at our core. Type 9 has a problem with its bodily presence, and therefore seems unable to assert itself; Type 3 has a problem with its true feelings, and therefore concentrates on achieving rather than being; Type 6 has a problem with its mind, being unable to trust itself and its own thinking, so it ends up being rather irrational or unreasonable.

But what we deny we imply. I cannot say “there is no flower here” without implying the notion of flower, and therefore the possibility for a flower to be here. So, in each Enneagram center, we also find a personality type that asserts the center’s energy. These are the types that come right before the ones that suppress the energy: Type 8 (coming before 9) asserts the instinctual energy of the Body; Type 2 (coming before 3) asserts the emotional energy of the Heart center; and Type 5 (coming before 6) asserts the intellectual energy of the Head center. In short, 8, 2 and 5 are the types that you spend five minutes with and you know immediately what they are about.

Type Eight, sometimes called the Boss, is assertive, powerful and has no problem going out and taking what its instincts tell it belongs to it. Through Eight, the Body center finds the kind of unobstructed expression that it seems to lack in type Nine. The Other is often either acknowledged as weaker and therefore in need of Eight’s protection, or as a target to direct attacks toward.

Type Two, sometimes called Helper, is relational, caring, interpersonal and motherly, often denying itself to please or help. Through Two, the Heart center expresses itself in a way that is not possible through Three. The Other becomes the object of the person’s attention, in hopes that, by creating a bond with them, Two’s identity and needs may be validated.

Type Five, often known as the Observer, is rational, unsentimental, objective, detached, always willing to follow a line of reasoning to its ultimate conclusions, regardless of how subjectively unpleasant it may be. Here the energy of the Head center asserts itself as it could never do at Six. The objectivity of the thought-process becomes a refuge from the uncertainty of life and the fear it engenders.

As in every dialectical model, where there is assertion and negation there is also a mediation between the two, and this happens in the types following the hub of each center. In all three cases the energy of the center is neither asserted nor negated, but transformed, and redirected, in one way or another, toward oneself. In Type 1 (coming after 9) the instinctive energy of the Body center finds a mediated expression; in Type 4 (coming after 3) the same happens in the Heart center; likewise, in the Head center Type 7 (coming after 6) mediates between affirming and negating intellectual energy.

Type One, usually called the Perfectionist, is strict, precise, law-abiding, just, disciplined. It represents a mediation between the unbridled assertion of instinctual energy of Type Eight and the suppresion of it in Type Nine. In Type One, the idea is: I can assert myself as long as I do it in the right way, or rather, as long as I assert the right thing. In doing so, however, One submits itself to this pervasive idea of right, becoming its own harshest critic.

Type Four, often called the Individualist or the Romantic, is self-involved, introspective, reserved, self-conscious. It mediates between Type Two and Type Three, introjecting the energy of the Heart center to sustain its own moods and cultivate a self-image with which it seeks to flee inward and away from a reality it perceives as tragic, or at least as unkind and unable to recognize it as it truly is.

Type Seven, known as the Joker or the Epicurean, is fun-loving, energetic, excited, unfocused. It represents a mediation between the assertion of mind energy of Type Five and its suppression in Type Six. Type Seven is concerned mainly with self-gratification, and it uses the Head energy to come up with endless ways of feeling entertained, positive and energized, which leads to fleeint out into the world in search of pleasure so as not to acknowledge inner fear.

TypeCenterEnergy DynamicDescription
8BodyAssertionAsserts itself physically and attacks obstacles
9BodySuppressionSuppresses its own individual energy
1BodyTransformationSubmits to rules that justify its own assertion
2HeartAssertionCares for the other to gain validation
3HeartSuppressionPerforms and achieves to emerge as worthy of recognition
4HeartTransformationCares for itself to cope with tragic reality that doesn’t “see” it
5HeadAssertionAbides by own mental skills to avoid uncertainty
6HeadSuppressionSeeks external support to avoid relying on own mental skills
7HeadTransformationPlans own gratification to avoid thinking about the negative side
The Nine Enneagram Types and their main energy dynamics
Enneagram, Spirituality and Psychology

The Enneagram Plain and Simple – The Three Centers (Body, Heart and Head)

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In my previous post I discussed the difference between reality and personality. The long and short of it is that an individual’s personality exists essentially by blocking out or filtering out a part of the whole. You cannot be yourself as a single, individuated person and take in everything all at once. Individuation and manifestation (what some occultists call life below the abyss) imply a limitation of perspective.

How we get from the One to the Two, from unity to duality, that is, from the Whole to Self versus Other, is an interesting question, one that cannot be answered satisfactorily in a few words. Saying that duality is an illusion is too simplistic, because even an illusion must be something that exists apart from the real, it must *be* something illusory that is not the real thing, so really this explanation doesn’t explain anything. I will tackle the issue if and when I decide to start talking about philosophy. For my part, all I can say at the moment is that we cannot really understand the One and the Two without taking into account the Zero.

Three Urges, Three Passions

Let us take for granted, though, that Two comes from the One. Individuals come into being as centers of awareness that are separate from the rest of the universe. This can only happen by taking some parts of the whole not to be part of oneself, that is, by filtering them out (“I am this, not that.”) This, according to Enneagram theory, can happen in three ways, depending on what it is that is being blocked out.

Conventionally, we recognize people as being made up of three things: Body, Heart and Head. The Body is sometimes called the Guts, the Heart is sometimes called the Soul, the Mind is sometimes called the Head or even Spirit. I shall stick with Body, Heart and Head.

The three centers: Body, Heart, Head

These three aspects of the human complexion are representative of three urges: autonomy, recognition and security.

Even the meekest individual seeks to maintain their autonomy, some degree of space for themselves, which requires that they assert themselves as organisms against the world surrounding them. This is Self versus Other in its purest form, where the self seeks to neutralize otherness and bring it under its command. Even in our painfully egualitarian times he who doesn’t want to starve will seek to conquer the world.

Recognition is a much misunderstood concept. It speaks to the junction between our personal and our social existence, and to our desire to match the image of ourselves that we think exists in other people’s perception, or, which is the same, the desire for them to have the image of us that we have of ourselves. This, however, implies that we maintain a self-image, that is, that we can point at certain definite characteristics we either display or wish to display and say, “This is me.” Only, we cannot really know why this is the case: our self-image hangs in the air somewhat, and feels arbitrary. Why are you only yourself when you are X, but not when you are Y? So, in order to validate it and make it real, we seek to reproduce it in other people’s perception to render it stable. Everyone needs recognition to an extent, and this includes hipsters.

The need for security is the need to know that one’s existence is preserved against imponderable forces that we see as alien to our being. If life consists of Self and Other, of Me and the World, there is no way of knowing whether tomorrow something will happen that will favor me against the world or the world against me. The urge for security is the urge to maximize my chances. It is, in a way, similar to the urge for autonomy in that it sees the Self against the Other, but in this struggle it concentrates more on regimenting and strengthening the Self than on conquering the Other.

These three urges come bundled with their negative side or passion. You cannot conquer the world to maintain your autonomy without anger, seen not necessarily as rage, but as a certain choleric disposition to treat that thing outside of you as a potential enemy or obstacle to be overcome. You cannot have recognition without attaching a great deal of value on the small segment of the universe that you call “me” and that you spruce up with wishes and exaggerations which you want other people to validate. This need for recognition creates the potential for lack of recognition and therefore for shame. Finally, you cannot be looking for security without experiencing fear, by which I do not mean any ordinary fear, but rather the sense of your being teetering on the brink of annihilation.

CenterUrgeDesired OutcomePassion
BodyAutonomySubduing the OtherAnger
HeartRecognitionConnecting Self and OtherShame
HeadSecurityPreserving the SelfFear
The Three Centers of the Enneagram

The Three Centers in the Enneagram: Types Nine, Three and Six

The three centers, i.e., the Body center, the Heart center and the Head center, work in a circle. You establish yourself as an individual body as opposed to the others, you sustain a self-image which you look to accredit in the eyes of your fellows so as to validate your existence, but you suddenly realize that your condition as a separate entity is precarious, so you use your mind to create survival strategies that lead to you being able to preserve yourself as an individual, and so on.

Of course, this cycle is the basis for everyone’s self-sustained existence as individuals, regardless of their particular proclivities. In a way, this is the minimum needed for you to be you, and not another person, or a bunch of moss gathering on a rock. However, this is also how the Enneagram comes into being as a system of nine types.

Types Nine, Three and Six, the hubs of the three centers

The circle represents the whole, the unbridled and undivided universe, as it were. The triangle indicates the three points in the Enneagram where the three centers have their hub: 9 is the hub of the Body center, 3 is the hub of the Heart center and 6 is the hub of the Head center. Energy flows uninterrupted from 9 to 3 to 6 to 9 (we will see in the next article how the other six types come into existence.)

I have described personality as a filtering system which blocks out certain aspects of reality to privilege others. Interestingly, the three Enneagram types which represent the hubs of the respective centers are qualified exactly by the fact that they block out, or suppress, the energy of their center.

In other words, Type 9, the hub of the Body center, suppresses its own bodily energy; Type 3, the hub of the Heart center, suppresses its own emotional energy; Type 6, the hub of the Mind center, suppresses its own intellectual energy. This has the interesting consequence that, unless you know the Enneagram, you would never guess that Nines are body types, since they seem soo airy and diffuse, nor would you recognize the willful and competitive Threes as heart-driven, nor the insecure Sixes, who never trust their judgment and are always looking for someone trustworthy to make decisions for them as head-driven.

Yet it is so. We will see in the next article that this is part of a dialectical or triadic movement that leads to the emergence of the other types.

Enneagram, Spirituality and Psychology

The Enneagram Plain and Simple – Personality versus Reality

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The Pale Horse is one of my favorite books by Agatha Christie. I find myself rereading it every couple of years, and I consider it one of the great stories in the mystery genre. Part of it is because it deals (on the surface) with occultism, which is something I am obviously into, considering this website. But mostly it’s because it manages to infuse the reader with an impalpable, ancestral dread that stems from Christie’s almost intuitive understanding of how a human psyche is capable of spiralling into a vortex of mystery, fear and confusion (no wonder she is usually typed as an Enneagram 5 or 6.) Nothing about the plot feels forced: we are led almost seamlessly down the narrow, unlit hallway at the back of our minds into a basement we didn’t know was there at all.

One of the (many) intelligent remarks on human psychology that Christie makes in passing is the following:

“One of the oddest things in life, as we all know, is the way that when you have heard a thing mentioned, within twenty-four hours you nearly always come across it again.”

This is a great example of how our character works, at least the way Enneagram theory understands it. The thing you hear mentioned and then pops up again almost serendipitously has obviously nothing to do with odd and mysterious synchronicities, as much as it’s a consequence of the fact that, if we are sufficiently struck by the thing in the first place, we will begin to scan reality for instances and confirmations of it. It is not just a matter of being struck, though, but also of need.

We have all made the experience of reality changing in front of us depending on our needs. Think of the last time you received a parcel and couldn’t just tear it open with your hands. You probably started scanning your environment, and immediately all the objects around you that weren’t sharp enough to be useful in opening the package were blended out of your perception, at least to a degree, and those that were sharp or pointy were more or less intuitively sorted by how useful they might be in helping you achieve your aim.

Now imagine if you did the same thing while at dinner with your significant other and there is no package to open. They are talking about how good the wine is or how classy the music is; all the while you are still categorizing your surrounding by how sharp things are and how useful they might be in cutting open a package (and hopefully not your sweetheart.)

In both cases, what you see isn’t necessarily false or wrong. Even in the second case (i.e., dinner with your partner,) it’s true that a handkerchief is less sharp than the edge of a table, which is less sharp than a knife, etc. What *is* false is the belief that the filtering system you use allows you to always see the whole of reality as it is, instead of just one side, and to capture what is important at that moment. In the first instance the filter is useful, while in the second it’s… well, it’s kind of creepy.

Personality is, essentially, a filtering system. We can’t take reality in all at once, so we concentrate on what we believe is important for us, what will foster our wellbeing, get us through trouble, etc. The difference between personality and the example I have just given is that personality tends to be relatively more stable, while the example of the knife is somewhat contingent. The principle, however, is the same.

There is a great debate among Enneagram theorists on when personality forms and we get our “number”, with some–usually those of a more mystical bent–believing it’s inborn, while others think it develops over time as we learn to cope with the challenges of our early life and deploy more and more fixed strategies that we end up overindentifying with to the detriment of others. Either way, the strategies we pick helped us, to a degree, in surviving, but we end up using them to a fault and tend to rely on them even when it doesn’t make sense or even when they might make things worse. Slowly, our personality is at risk of becoming an echo chamber that constantly reinforces old prejudices about ourselves and others instead of allowing us to change, adapt and react to the present moment rather than to some past problem, wound or fear.

Frankly, it is rather pointless for me to pick a side in this nature/nurture debate, especially because it wouldn’t add anything of consequence: the Ennagram is only useful as a tool once one has lived long enough, made enough blunders and achieved enough successes to develop some sense of self-reflection. Usually this doesn’t happen to the necessary degree until well after puberty has finished pummeling us to the ground (though there are exceptions, of course.)

The Enneagram as a typology system captures the nine basic patterns that people tend to fall into depending on how they structure their personal “filtering system.” The point of knowing it is not to free ourselves of it. This can’t be done, no more than one can step into a bucket and try to lift himself up by pulling at the handle. You are not going to get rid of your personality until you kick that bucket. Nor is personality a disease, as much as some in our vapid spiritual milieau tend to consider separate existence as evil and individuals as walking knots of traumas and darkness waiting to be unraveled by the uttering of the appropriate New Age platitudes.

Personality is a damn fine thing. Through it we can look at the world and see something instead of a confused blur of everything all at once. Think about it. We are capable of consciousness, which means that, through us, the universe experiences itself. Without us, no self-awareness for the Universe, or God, or Spirit, or the Anima Mundi, or Existence, or whatever you wish to call it. This experience, though, is only possible by blending out a part of the whole, so that something can come into focus. And this is glorious.

The problem arises when we fail to understand that our perception is limited, so that we can, at least to a small extent, improve it. Our personality is like a dress. We can wear it loosely and graciously, or it can become a straitjacket. The kind of self-cultivation that the Enneagram renders possible to us is the art of loosening the garment, not casting it off.

Patience is required, and kindness to oneself and to others. The hardest thing for some is learning to suspend judgment and just watch as they deploy their usual mechanism. The point is learning to appreciate the various facets of our response to reality until we can, as it were, catch ourselves in the act of “doing it again.” With practice, it becomes even possible to stop ourselves in the act and choose a better option. Sometimes we will surprise ourselves and the people around us by doing something that is partly out of character, because we have learned to accept other modes of being, thinking and acting as viable options.

This practice of self-reflection is also the process that leads to the development of what has been called the “inner observer.” At a deeper level, I may say that the inner observer is not really developed so much as it is discovered, because, at an even deeper level, we do not so much observe as we are observed into being. But this is neither here nor there at the moment. The point is that this inner observer can look dispassionately at what is going on, and although we may only get glimpses of this clarity, it’s through these glimpses that we are started on our quest of loosening the straitjacket of our personal mechanism and achieve greater balance.

Enneagram, Spirituality and Psychology

The Enneagram Plain and Simple – Some Guidelines

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The Enneagram is a great tool for self-reflection, whatever your path in life. It’s a system of personality types consisting of nine main categories based on nine core “sins” or “passions”: Anger, Pride, Falsehood, Envy, Stinginess, Fear, Gluttony, Lust, Sloth. As on this site I share my musings on all things connected with occultism, divination, hermeticism and spirituality, the Enneagram is something I think is useful to present for those interested in internal alchemy work. In this article I discuss a few guidelines I will follow.

I was first introduced to the Enneagram almost ten years ago by my now husband. We had a long distance relationship going on at that time, which meant that every time we actually met we found each other to have turned into an almost unrecognizable person. It is very easy to grow out of sync when you don’t spend much time together. He bought an introductory book on the Enneagram and then lent it to me. It was an incredibly useful tool for keeping track of ourselves and finding a common level of understanding. It made me realize how much of what people do is not due to them wanting to disrespect or hurt other people as much as it is because they are caught up in their unconscious mechanisms. It was a great lesson.

Where did it come from? How does it work? Dunno!

The Enneagram has been popular for some time, but never has it been as popular as now. And of course, nothing ruins something more than popularity, especially in the age of social media. Here I strive to present it in as simple and essential a manner as possible, as way too often people add useless frills to it in an attempt at branding it. At its core, the Enneagram is simple, and I personally love meaningful, essential things.

I’m not going to waste anyone’s time with bogus theories on the Enneagram’s origins, and, to be clear: no claim as to the Enneagram’s antiquity is valid, at least not in today’s form as a psychological typology tool. Nor is it clear why it seems to work. After all, you don’t get your Enneagram type back with your blood work. Some say it’s because its types are transcendental from a Kantian or at least biological standpoint. Maybe, but you’d have to stretch the notion of transcendental and suspend disbelief–to what purpose?

It is much easier to accept that the Enneagram is a human construct to make sense of ourselves, and, because it draws from such archetypal notions as the seven sins or passions (extended to nine), it gives us a good representation of our core motivation in acting the way we do when our default mindset takes over. This doesn’t mean it’s the one true way or the one true model. It is just a (good) model.

It’s not the Tree of Life

There is also a tendency to compile endless lists of correspondences for the Enneagram, such as with astrology or other occult matters (and even with car types). As an astrology and an occult student and practitioner myself, I can honestly say that all these additions are useless. They give one the illusion of having learned something while adding nothing meaningful at all.

Attributing this Type or that Type to Scorpio or to Saturn or to Venus in Taurus sextile Mars in Pisces is purely a way to scratch a pseudointellectual itch for order at all costs, just so one may complacently pat himself on the shoulder and reassure himself that everything is for the best in the best of all possible worlds. It also usually betrays a very poor understanding of these subjects, one usually acquired through fifteen minutes spent in the Mind Body Spirit section of the local bookstore. Those of us who have had the Tree of Life drilled into our heads know what I’m talking about, so I shall leave it at that. Again, the Enneagram is simple and it stands on its own two (or rather nine) feet. You CAN use the Enneagram as a substitute for the Tree of Life, but that’s not the Enneagram we are interested in here. Therefore I am going to avoid correspondences.

I’m also going to try to avoid two extremes. One one side we have those equating types with a couple of extremely shallow generalizations (“fours are artsy”, “sevens never finish what they start”) some of which are plain silly (“fives wear glasses”). These things have nothing to do with the type, even when they happen to be true, because they do not capture the essence of each type. So you are a four and you are artsy. What about that artsy eight over there? Clearly there cannot be any link of causality between these traits. This crap is rather popular on social media, especially on sites that favor short-form content, and that therefore tend to attract users that barely have basic object permanence, but are eager to have another checkbox ticked in their bio, because that’s their idea of having an identity.

Let’s Keep it Simple

At the other extreme, we have those who bury the poor reader or listener under an endless barrage of pseudodeep psychobabble. Don’t get me wrong, we could spend hours talking about each type, but the psychobabble I’m referring to is usually accomplished by adding useless complications to a simple system, such as tri-types or even wings. This stems from two common issues: on one hand, as more people discover the Enneagram, more and more people try to come up with their own version of it to sell books and courses; on the other hand there is a fundamental misunderstanding of what the Enneagram does. Let me give you an example.

If you believe in Sun sign astrology (I don’t) I’m an Aries. People who dabble in astrology constantly tell me “but you don’t strike me as an Aries”, only to go on to learnedly discuss how my Cancer ascendant modifies my character. For some people it gets even more complicated–they drag the Moon into consideration, and Saturn, and the asteroids, and, and, and. In their quest to create ever smaller boxes that cater to their shallow and inauthentic need for uniqueness (despite the fact that they are often all pretty much the same) people keep making up new stuff, disregarding the fact that even if we had one thousand factors at play, we would still end up with a system that considers way too many people to be exactly as way too many other people.

The same happens with the Enneagram. Nine types don’t seem enough. How can you keep harping on how pleasantly peculiar you are if roughly one ninth of the population is like you? And so people came up with wings, and tri-types, and, and, and. Once again, though, no matter how many factors we add, we keep finding that too many people end up in the same category, and so ever newer, more meaningless factors are dragged into the equation.

But here there is a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of the Enneagram (just as modern astrology comes from a fundamental understanding of astrology as a divination tool rather than a mirror for narcissistic self-admiration). The Enneagram is not meant to capture every feeling, thought, action and fleeting whim. it is meant to describe the core mechanism and motivation that keeps surfacing through most of what you do, and to make you aware of it. This leaves plenty of space for individuals to be themselves, just as saying that something is a plant because it can effect photosynthesis leaves plenty of space for millions of individual plant species to be discovered.

In terms of the Enneagram, therefore, nine types are more than enough. Everything else is a distraction. Take the concept of wing, which has been popularized mostly by Riso and Hudson and has then gotten out of hand, to the point where wings are often considered to be as important as the type itself. They aren’t. Wings can have some descriptive role in categorizing some of your behavior, I’ll grant you that. But this is not what the Enneagram is for. If you are a Type 8, your core is given by your Lust, and it doesn’t matter whether you are an 8 with a 9 wing or an 8 with a 7 wing. You are an 8.

Sometimes, the concept of wing (and that of tri-type too, but let’s keep it simple) is often used by people to pretend to be a type they aren’t, just because they consider it cool. Example: almost no one on Tumblr or Twitter is a Type 4, yet there is an overabundance of people on Tumblr and Twitter who fake being 4s because they think it makes them deep and creative. But when you ask them how they live out their Envy (which is Four’s core passion) they all resolutely deny ever feeling it. This may be because they are unaware of it or in denial. Or, more often than not, they pick whichever type on the two sides of Type 4 they can pass themselves off as and then say that they are a 4w5 or 4w3 or 3w4 or 5w4. “Yea, I have nothing in common with Fours, but if I frame it in this or that way I can kind of fake it and live my fantasy,” is their reasoning. What they fail to realize is that, no matter how many shallow fourish character traits they may have, if Envy is not there, they ain’t Fours.

I’m a Sinner Just for Kicks Now

This leads us neatly to my next point: each Type can be essentially boiled down to its “sin”, or passion, if you are easily triggered by words. There are also other important considerations (e.g., Four’s melancholy) but the passion HAS to be there, and while it doesn’t need to be interpreted religiously and can (and often must) be seen allegorically, THAT’s the type. Yet, if you look around on the internet, you often see anything mentioned in type descriptions except the very foundation of the type. Why? I would say because in their ceaseless quest to the perfect rose-tinted mirror, people mill endless amounts of fluff that amount to little more than “look how endearing I am, with my quirks and all!”

Here are some other pointers along the way to conclude. The Enneagram is not meant for you to tell yourself who you think you are. “Yup, the Enneagram confirms it, I am THAT smart/funny/unique.” That’s the (not-so-)grown-up version of “My mom thinks I’m special”. The Enneagram should ideally lead you out of your bubble, at least in your most lucid moments.

The Enneagram is not meant to excuse crappy behavior. “I’m a 2, so I can’t help being manipulative” is the “no wonder I’m a bitch, I have Mars in Scorpio” for people who think themselves too smart for astrology. If anything, once you know your Enneatype, you pretty much run out of excuses for being crappy.

Similarly, the Enneagram is not meant for us to pigeonhole people into it and use it against them. If we find that we no longer meet people on the street, but types, that’s a sign it’s best to take a break. It is also not meant to disparage them or their gifts. “You are Three, you should stop trying to have so much success”, “You are a Five, you must give up intellectual occupations”. Each Enneagram type has its gifts. The point of the Enneagram is not to relinquish them, but avoiding them turning into impediments when we are fixated on them to the exclusion of other things. But they remain gifts.

Finally, the Enneagram is not meant as a normative tool. Often–again, especially on social media–you will see people acting out their (supposed) type, adhering to it as if it were a description of what they ought to do. “I’m a One, so I MUST lecture people,” “I’m a Six, so I MUST pick up a cause to work myself up mindlessly about,” “I’m a Four, so I MUST be whiny.” Sometimes this is done by people who, for whatever reason, have decided that they want to be a certain type and so seek to mimic the first traits that come to mind. This is silly though, and it turns the Enneagram from a simple and effective tool for self-discovery into a sex toy for your psychic masturbation. And there’s already altogether too much of it around.