Enneagram Type Seven and Enneagram Type Nine share some similarities, and can therefore be confused. Sevens are a Head type and seek to avoid anxiety and fear by being hyped about things they can enjoy. Nines are a Body type who maintain their sense or independence by being agreeable and positive to avoid causing trouble that might come back to haunt them.
Both Sevens and Nines are known to have a hard time selecting a single thing that they can be or do. Sevens thrive on pursuing variety as this allows them to continue skimming the surface of life in search of the next big thrill and avoid staying with negative emotions for too long. However, Sevens tend to have a rather strong sense of self and of their wants and needs.
Nines on the other hand have a diffuse sense of their identity and do not feel comfortable defining themselves, often sensing that they can resonate with almost anything and anyone. By avoiding taking on a sharp identity, Nines protect themselves from potential trouble by simply passively flowing through it instead of bumping against it.
variety
Both Sevens and Nines have a broadly optimistic worldview. To a Seven, the world is their oyster and they look forward to the next thing to be hyped about. They are excitable and quick, and even when in a situation that they dislike, they can learn to tolerate it in anticipation of something better to come.
Nines by contrast move at a slower pace and have a sense of placid and unassuming satisfaction about them. They do not demand much from life and do not spiral into the manic frenzy of Sevens. In fact, they are very wary of anything that might cause excessive reactions in them. Their sense of optimism takes the form of a generalized, vague it’s-fine-ness that they adopt to avoid having to take a stronger stance, which might open them up to trouble and strife with others.
Both types can be rather superficial. Sevens are superficial in the sense that they remain on the surface of the things that they get excited about and avoid settling down so as to not miss out on the next thing that excites them. Nines are superficial in the sense that they avoid deep emotional or intellectual commitments that might put them in a corner or pit them against others, and so prefer to remain flexible and deal in generalities, which may sometimes sound deep but aren’t.
Enneagram Type Seven and Enneagram Type Eight can be very similar and are often confused. Sevens are a Head type, who cope with their fear, pain and anxiety by getting lost in a world of pleasure-seeking and fun distractions. Eights are a Body type, and they seek to protect their independence by being assertive and bold and forcing others to deal with them and take them into account.
Both Sevens and Eights are very assertive and outgoing on the surface. Sevens find it easy to attract interesting people and adventures, since remaining confined in a routine can cause them to become restless or even to suffer. Eights are more guarded and do not trust people very much, but they do come out of their inner fortress to mark their territory against others and to let them know that they (the Eight) are not to be messed with. Thus they often end up either submitting others or guiding them.
Both types tend to have a somewhat materialistic view of reality and seek earthly pleasures. Generally speaking, Sevens seek variety and change in order to be constantly dazzled and stimulated and stay hyped about something positive, so that they can avoid being sucked into a cycle of fear. Eights on the other hand usually seek intensity in powerful experiences, as they enjoy the feeling of having something outside of them offer them resistance, and they enjoy conquering it in the end, to prove that they are the ones who are still standing (it is typical, for instance, for alcoholic Eights to want to prove that they can handle one more glass).
passion
Both types often come across as action-oriented. Eights attack problems from an instinctive standpoint, throwing brute force (either literal or metaphorical) against the obstacle until it is destroyed. Sevens are more intellectually versatile (not necessarily more intelligent) and they often quickly come up with plans to overcome obstacles in order to reap the rewards, the rewards usually being meterial comfort and/or the ability to pursue their many passions.
Socially, average Eights operate on a friend/enemy level: they quickly sort other people out in either one of the two camps. For them, life is a battle and they need to know whom they are going to defend and whom they are going to attack. Sevens are not naive, but they see the world more as their oyster, and while they know that there are difficult people in the world, they seek to look past them in anticipation of the fun time to be had after dealing with them.
Eights tend to be more unshakably dedicated to the small handful of people they call friends. Sevens are also very good friends, but they also often look to create different groups of friends based on their interests (the group they go dancing with, the group they watch movies with, etc.) although they too often have a small core of best friends.
Enneagram Type Six and Enneagram Type Nine are quite distinct from one another, so much so that they are each other’s arrow: Six relaxes at Nine, Nine stresses at Six. Sixes are a Head type, and their priority is to find security and certainty in an uncertain world. Nines are a Body type, whose main goal is to not have their inner sense of independence disrupted by disharmonious trends.
Both Six and Nine usually come across as friendly and likeable. Sixes want to prove to others that they are dependable and that they can be allies in facing common struggles. Nines are also broadly supportive of others, but more in the sense that they go with other people’s flow so as to not cause the kind of friction that might disrupt their inner sense of balance as independent individuals (“If I say yes to the invitation she won’t make a fuss”).
Sixes are often found evaluating the risk factors in every situation or assessing other people’s behavior to see if they can trust them, while Nines normally hold a non-descript optimistic view of people and life, and a sense that things will turn out well somehow, to the point where they may deny the existence of objective hurdles and problems. Sixes seek to predict all possible problems, while Nines often look the other way. On the other hand, average to unhealthy Sixes often end up compromising stable or positive situations in an attempt to smoke out hidden threats or enemies that exist only in their head.
Peace
A Six’s strategy for survival generally implies developing a conscience of themselves as a social being (they are the archetype of the ‘member’, whether of a party, a church, an organization, a class, a country, etc.) The Six’s idea of survival implies minimizing risk and uncertainty by handing over the final say on their life decisions to something external (a belief system, a person, a group, etc.) that is perceived as stable or trustworthy. However, once a Six has identified the idea or group they belong to, they can become rather confrontational with that idea’s or group’s enemies.
A Nine’s minimization of problems is more geared toward preserving an inner sense of peace. Swept under the rug of a general, bland “it’s all fine”-ness, external trouble can be denied the status of force that pushes against them. Similarly, in social situations Nines will tend to be agreeable and limber so as to not allow others to perceive resistance in their part that might turn into a power struggle. In other words, by denying a strong reaction, Nines seek to cause the external action to dissipate by itself.
Enneagram Type Six and Enneagram Type Eight can be similar, depending on certain factors, but overall they are very different. Sixes are a Head type and are concerned with security and certainty. Eights are a Body type and are concerned with independence and autonomy.
Sixes often tend to be sheepish, friendly, helpful and gregarious. They look for external points of reference that can give them the security they feel they lack (whether this point of reference be a leader, an idea, a group or something else). Eights are much more maverick-like, usually fight for themselves (and for those they wish to protect) and don’t usually need external frames of reference. In fact, they may despise them. If Eights are warriors, Sixes are worriers.
However, Sixes can also act in a radically different way when they enter their contraphobic stance, when they stop running away from fear and tackle it head-on. When this happens, Sixes can be very similar to Eights in that they act in an bold, fierce way that could even come across as arrogant or smug. The main difference between an Eight and a contraphobic Six is that the contraphobic Six still acts based on their deep fears. They are like herbivores charging against the predator.
courage
Socially, Sixes generally adopt a friendly stance. They hope to come across as those fun, dependable fellas you’d take inside and defend if the zombie apocalypse they fear should actually happen. They have a strong sense of the importance of safety nets, since they are forever catastrophizing and thinking about worst case scenarios and since they feel helpless in front of an uncertain world.
Eights rarely act like this. They are usually fierce and even overconfident. Their strategy is to force others to see them as either a threat they want to stay away from or a point of reference to gravitate around, submitting to their guidance. If Sixes try to poke holes in every certainty they have in order to see if if it is, in fact, certain, Eights can often jump the gun, confident they can bend the world to their will by sheer power.
Enneagram Type Six and Enneagram Type Seven are quite distinct, but they do share a number of traits, especially on a superficial level. Both are Head types. Sixes feel insecure in the world, and therefore seek guidance from someone or something. Sevens also act from a place of insecurity, but they flip the script by moving toward the world with endless ideas in mind on how to enjoy it to avoid staring too much at their inner disquiet.
One of the most obvious common traits is that both Sixes and Sevens tend, on average, to come across as very likeable. Both have often a strong sense of humor (average Fives also have a sense of humor, but it tends to be used to put down others). Sixes tend to want to ingratiate themselves to others to show that they are worth defending or at least not harming. Sevens tend not to be afraid of others but they do tend to look for the entertaining side of their experience of life.
Of the two types, Sixes are the more community-oriented or other-oriented, largely because they feel that effective networking is a positive response to the uncertainties of existence. However, their skeptical side can also end up undermining their efforts as they often blow things out of proportions in an effort to make sure they can trust others, and they are very good (sometimes too good) at poking holes in everything.
humor
Sevens are not necessarily more trusting of others, but their efforts do not revolve around trying to see who they can trust. Instead, Sevens are rather self-reliant go-getters. They know that not everyone can be trusted, but they do not sleep over it, just like they tend not to lose sleep over most negative thoughts, unless they are experiencing peculiar circumstances.
On the other hands, Sevens can sometimes become too relaxed lose their grip on their life by going into almost manic phases of unwarranted optimism, whereas Sixes are cautious and will have thought about most if not all of the consequences of their actions.
Ultimately, Sixes and Sevens move from the same inner experience of anxiety and fear, but react to it in vastly different ways: Sixes by trying to looking for remedies, Sevens by distracting themselves.
Enneagram Type Five and Enneagram Type Nine can share some similarities, though they remain vastly different. Nines are a Body type, who seeks to maintain a sense of harmony within themselves and their surrounding by avoiding conflicts that would undermine their sense of autonomy. Fives are a Head type, who withdraw from the world to observe it from a distance and to gain skills that will ideally allow them to succeed.
Both Fives and Nines withdraw from others, but in different ways. Average Nines withdraw their energy and suppress their agenda to avoid it clashing with that of other people. Average Fives withdraw themselves, often physically, or at least emotionally, from social situations.
Nines, however, generally remain friendly and often go with other people’s flow, as long as it doesn’t threaten their inner sense of calm. Fives, on the other hand, have a strong sense of self as opposed to all other, refuse to be swept along in their flow and tend to have a supercilious and combative demeanor that most Nines would never display.
Withdrawing
Internally, Nines usually pacify themselves with happy or comforting thoughts and a positive, if vague, attitude. They tend to think in terms of generalities, which makes them very good at finding common grounds with all humanity at an almost archetypal level. Fives are internally high-strung and constantly mulling over some thought or theory, they disdain generalities and are as laser-focused on details as they are preoccupied with finding their universal significance. Furthermore, in general Nines will stop themselves from trespassing into “scary thought territory”, while Fives will usually willingly go there.
The decisive difference between Nines and Fives is in what drives the two types. Fives are driven by knowledge. At their best they are as wise as they are knowledgeable, at their worst they are obnoxious collectors of obscure trivia. Nines are motivated by peace. At their best they are deeply embracing of themselves and others, at their worst they are dollar-store mystics detached from reality.
The founder of BOTA, Paul Foster Case, proudly started his short book “Oracle of the Tarot” with the assertion that Tarot divination is not fortune-telling. The reason, he explains, is that fortune-telling is grounded in the belief in luck, chance or fate, while divination understands that everything is about our personality. The same statement is found at the beginning of the advanced BOTA course on tarot divination (Oracle of Tarot, without the ‘the’). Ann Davies clearly had a hand in rewriting it, considering how verbose the course is, but the substance was similar.
Paul Case was tapping into the spirit of the times when he made that statement. Since Tarot had the (mis)fortune of attracting the attention of XVIII and XIX century occultists, it hasn’t enjoyed a moment of peace: everyone wants to believe it to be not an obvious masterpiece of Renaissance art and Medieval philosophy, but an occult device made to transmit mystical knowledge unknown to most people (even though most people prior to the Enlightenment and the French revolution would have been able to tell you what the Tarot was about).
The same has happened to Astrology. Once a practical art for foretelling the ups and downs of actual life, it became the victim of the occult intelligentsia of the last couple of centuries and was turned into a hodgepodge of pseudomysticism, ill-digested psychoanalytic concepts and “it’s true if you believe it” New Thought crap.1
But this is not the whole story. If one takes the time to study, say, the Golden Dawn system, one quickly finds out that their traditional way of reading the Tarot is grounded in fortune-telling (just read MacGregor Mathers’ example of the Opening of the Key spread). Even the BOTA system, which derives from it, preserves very concrete meanings to be strung together into sentences, despite Ann Davies’ attempt to turn divination into a form of Kabbalistic meditation.
In other words, the occultist attempt at reappropriating the Tarotand Astrology (which in part continues to this day with some bogus theories about the so-called Tarot of Marseille, but more on this in another post) is only partly responsible for the divination/fortune-telling dichotomy. Much of contemporary occultism is grounded in the psychoanalyzation of magic and spirituality, which, in turn, is a defense mechanism against the death of the classical spiritual worldview. Yet, for all its shortcomings, it at least preserves some core tenets of the magical worldview.
But the problem with this is that while it does preseve in some ways the roots of the worldview in which divination can flourish, it has lost the intellectual basis for defending it. Intellectually speaking, even today occultism is largely stuck in the pre-WWII era, with its myths of scientific positivism, of constant historical progress and of magic as misunderstood technology (while I would argue the opposite, namely that technology is misunderstood magic).
Essentially, what has gone lost is the philosophical framework that allows us to keep together divination as spiritual practice and divination as uttering of concrete, verifiable truths.2 That’s largely because spirituality, in the post-XVIII-century Western world, was only allowed to survive as private indulgence in irrational behavior, a weakness to be tolerated.
Thus the split was born: 1) on one hand divination: a ‘serious’, and therefore unverifiable endeavor, a tool for vague self-reflection, cheap catharsis and shallow instagrammable aha moments. In other words, something that the small judgmental scientist constantly perched on most people’s shoulder could smile upon as at least benign, if not really true; 2) on the other hand fortune-telling: a crass or quaint superstition that is just a scam when it gets things wrong and just a coincidence when it gets them right. The little scientist can be free to frown on it. In other words, the distinction was born out of the guilty conscience of “spiritual” people, i.e., out of their subconscious scientism, as a way of telling themselves and society “I indulge in this silliness, but I am just quirky, not stupid.”
The occultists of yore were at least intelligent men and women who actually had something to say. They may have worked in an intellectually hostile environment, but they at least gave it their best shot, and for this they deserve leniency. What happened next is worse: that the already battered art of divination fell into the hands of stoned hippies and people with degrees in the most useless branches of socially acceptable knowledge. Then along came the Liz Greene’s and the Rachel Pollack’s (to make just two examples) who destroyed Astrology and Tarot even further. From then on it could only go in one direction: past life readings, divine feminine, empty motivationalism and strategizing, healing of generational traumas and all the attendant nonsense.3
Interestingly, the more contemporary divination’s fake husk rots, the more one needs to be intellectually dead to practice it, the more it becomes reintegrated in the higher spheres of society. I believe I already talked about a friend of mine who works for Google and has to endure meaningless meetings with tarot readers and astrologers because her boss is the manifestation-obsessed boss babe type. Nor are tarot readers a rarity in corporate America. This probably says something about how brain-damaged this kind of environments is. The nicest thing we can say about this part of society and this strand of divination is that they deserve each other.
MQS
This is not to say that Astrology or divination were unanimously accepted, but the debate was much more complex. ↩︎
This, by the way, is not a call to “go back” to some long lost good old times. I am no reactionary. Nor am I a progressive. I am a realist. ↩︎
By which, of course, I do not mean that there is not a feminine side of the divine, nor that trauma cannot be a real thing. I only mean that these words correspond to nothing but the most vapid pseudointellectual nonsense when coming out of most people’s mouths nowadays. ↩︎
Enneagram Type Four and Enneagram Type Nine can occasionally appear similar, but are actually quite different. Fours are a Heart type, and are primarily concerned with finding someone who will see them in their woundedness. Nines are a Body type, and are focused especially on maintaining their own independence, which they achieve by avoiding causing trouble with other people.
Broadly speaking, both types tend to have a vivid inner life, though Fours generally entertain negative emotions and often play intense, tragic, tear-jerking scenarios in their minds to evoke certain feelings. On the contrary, Nines often become lost in vague and comforting ideas that they play again and again to be reassured that all is well.
Both types tend to be withdrawn, but in vastly different ways. Nines are withdrawn in the sense that they often suppress their own energy and agenda in order to avoid it colliding with that of others. As such, they appear accomodating and self-denying, though it is common knowledge that Nines generally employ a high degree of passive resistance to sabotage other people’s attempt at heralding change into their life. Still, their way of withdrawing their energy can make them appear (even to themselves) friendly and welcoming.
Fours, on the other hand, are withdrawn because they feel they don’t belong and are too broken to be understood. They tend to long for meaningful contact but at the same time despair of finding it. Their strategy is often of attracting people who will see them as suffering. Though they are often quiet, their emotional storminess at times of distress puts off others, whom they are usually not afraid of inconveniencing if it means letting them know how the Four truly feels.
Both Fours and Nines tend to have a hard time finding their “center”. Fours often struggle with their own identity (believing that they are the only ones with such problems) and generally end up playing up certain aspects of their inner life (especially negative traits or emotions) in an attempt to conjure up a stable identity. Nines also find it hard to have a defined identity, but more in the sense that they have few clearly set boundaries toward other people’s agendas and desires. They often end up flowing along with others (as long as the others also don’t rock the boat), something Fours find almost impossible to do.
Enneagram Type Four and Enneagram Type Eight are vastly different, though they do share some common values. Fours are a Heart type and are concerned with finding meaningful connections that will redeem them from their tragic sense of abandonment in an alien world. Eights are a Body type, and they are mavericks with a warrior-like streak who will do anything to survive and preserve their independence.
Both Eights and Fours highly value their individuality and their difference from others. Fours generally cultivate an image of being special and different as a consequence of their suffering. Their feeling of alienation from the ‘commoners’ usually contributes to their passivity and sense of vulnerability and their need of being rescued. Eights on the other hand feel like they have fought, survived and won and that this has made them stronger–but also that they need to constantly patrol every inch of their independence to avoid losing it.
Both types also value authenticity. Fours are on a quest for authentically expressing what they perceive to be their authentic self. They don’t like affectation and social niceties when these prevent them from acting the way they feel is appropriate. However, they also sometimes tend to place excessive emphasis of some of their inner experiences as opposed to others, so that paradoxically they end up appearing inauthentic.
Eights have a strong instinctive perception of truth and authenticity in others and often quickly call out their BS. For them, this is a way of deactivating potential sneak attacks. However, their unwillingness to accept that some truths are more complicated than others (thus escaping their nose) can sometimes make them appear unreasonable or even dense.
Fairness is a common theme to Fours and Eights. Fours feel that life is unfair to them because it has inflicted on them more than their fair share of pain. This may or may not be objectively true, but subconsciously Fours need to believe it in order to sustain their image of being different, which in turn leads to more pain, etc. Eights believe that the world is unfair and that they are up against it, almost superhero-style, fighting for themselves and for those who are too weak to defend themselves. However, the excess choler they put into their actions can make them behave unfairly or even cruelly at times.
Enneagram Type Four and Enneagram Type Six share some similarities in spite of focusing on entirely different things. Fours are a Heart type, whose deep desire for authentic connection is only equaled by their feeling unable to find someone who will truly see them in their uniquely flawed nature. Sixes are a Head type, and their need to be reassured is equaled only by their inability to trust anything they or anyone else say.
Both types can have a generally negative view of the world. Fours believe themselves to be flawed and disadvantaged and feel that they don’t belong because they lack something other people have. Sixes are negative because they are used to questioning everything that is apparently good until they have managed to squeeze something that can be considered iffy or untrustworthy out of it, and see the world as a dangerous, or at least precarious place.
However, Fours are unapologetic in their pessimism, whereas Sixes may often try to tone it down or even suppress it in order to ingratiate themselves to others (they can even come off as upbeat) to build up friendships and alliances. In general, Sixes don’t like putting others off because they subconsciously don’t want to make enemies, whereas Fours generally don’t like behaving in a way that is not authentic to how they truly feel.
Indeed, the theme of authenticity is a leitmotif for both Fours and Sixes. Sixes want someone or something to explain reality to them in a way that leaves no place for doubt and fear, even if that means identifying threats or enemies (in fact, average Sixes love to be told who or what their enemy or threat is). One of their great fears is of being lied to, or of coming into contact with people who keep their real agenda secret to them. They also fear that people won’t tell them the truth to avoid hurting them, but because they have a very good nose, Sixes often can smell something is off.
Uncertainty
Average Fours do not so much fear lack of authenticity as they feel disdain for it, and are often unable to bring themselves to play socially accetaple roles if that means not being true to themselves.
Another similarity lies in the fact that both Fours and Sixes often feel a great deal of confusion within themselves. In spite of being a Head type, Sixes often come off as emotional and stormy. This is due to their lack of trust in their own judging ability, which sometimes leads them to drowning in a glass of water. Sixes would love to be told the clearcut truth, but as soon as they are presented with (one version of) it, they begin picking the black and white apart until a chaotic mess of shades of gray is left.
Fours also feel a great deal of confusion, but this is due more to their inability to pin their own personal identity down to a specific set of characteristics, because they always end up discovering a part of themselves that doesn’t fit any definition.
An important difference between the two types comes from the fact that Sixes tend to be sturdy, gregarious and friendly, whereas Fours are generally individualistic and delicate and experience great difficulties fitting in. Secretly, Fours may envy people who do fit in, but outwardly they often show contempt. On the other hand, Sixes may admire people who manage to stand out, but they generally deem it safer to fall back in line.
