Enneagram: What is it?

“With God’s help, I shall become myself.”
Soren Kierkegaard

Becoming ourselves is the unique work of the Enneagram. Many personality tests describe who we are, but the Enneagram calls us back to the original intent of our one and only life.

The Enneagram Personality Styles is a psychological-spiritual system for mapping the nine personalities. This map allows an individual to name their story and be aware of the way that story is moving toward salvation and integration or disintegration.

“By Salvation I mean not barely according to the vulgar notion deliverance from hell or going to heaven but a present deliverance from sin a restoration of the soul to its primitive health its original purity a recovery of the divine nature the renewal our souls after the image of God in righteousness and true holiness in justice mercy and truth.”-John Wesley

The Enneagram helps us see the primitive health and purity of our soul and describes how to recover that purity. This tool can bring awareness to everyday life, keeping us in touch with that which brings us a blessed life. Staying awake and aware of the way we live is both liberating and empowering.

When awareness becomes regular and intentional, we let go of anxiety, guilt, fear, and shame and virtues flow through us. This tool releases old patterns of reaction and brings movement rather than stuckness.

ENNEAGRAM BASICS

The name Enneagram comes from two Greek words: “ennea” meaning “nine” and “gram” meaning “points.” The Enneagram is a model about nine distinct and interrelated personality types, or nine ways of seeing and experiencing the world.

Someone said, “All models are wrong, but some are useful.  This system is more than useful; it can transform your life. The Enneagram provides an explanation of what the Bible describes, about “the fall of man” and the sins that have tripped us up since then. Once we discover how we have fallen, this map illuminates new choices on how we would like to journey as a “new creation” from here.

The Enneagram also gives a description of psychological filters or blindness that have developed as our coping strategies.  We all take reality in through a filter, our perceived reality. Discovering that “we don’t see things as they are, but we see things as we are” can heal our sight.

Richard Rohr describes it this way: “All problems are interpreted today psychologically, but the real solutions are spiritual. There is a primary blindness in each of us, an addiction. What we are addicted to is- self and protecting that self. Until that egocentricity is broken, we will read all of life through personal self-interest. It is the shape and name of our primary flaw.  This typology uses nine basic shapes to describe this flaw, a primary ill perception that we’re addicted to.” (Enneagram: The Discernment of Spirits, Richard Rohr)

This flaw is called “false self” compulsion or “old man.” The system can help us unmask the false self and brings that false self to the transforming power of God. That is the goal of the Enneagram.

When a person is humbled by the truth of who they are, both their exquisite essence and unconscious compulsion, one can bring intention to that awareness and experience the transforming grace of God. The truth will set us free, and it will also humble and disturb us! Unlike other personality typologies, this model sees the shadow or wounded personality as the false self and the true self-being your God-image/the Essence or God. The work of this system is to “become yourself.”

The system is not intended to put anyone in a box. No individual is one type alone. We are made up of a dominant type, and two numbers on either side called “wings” and a Harmony Triad, which point to the way of deformation & disintegration along with transformation & integration.  This system, therefore, is very individual based on the individual journey and each one’s willingness to yield to God.

We will use many characteristics of the personality in detailing each types style. In describing the journey of the soul, we will unpack each types “true self/false self” dynamics.

True Self (essence) emerges from union with God and has nothing to do with performance. It was the non-acquired self. It is our essence, our reflection of the God-image.  The truest thing about us is that we are God’s temple, a home for God. Virtues describe the true self.

False Self (compulsive, old nature-self) is the psychological self that is made up of past and present, the family of origin issues, nature, nurture, free will.  It is your false self, the adapted, coping style of self.  The vices describe the false self.

Transformation (redemption) is bringing the wounded false self to God and being healed by the same thing that has wounded you (much like inoculation).

CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS

Have you seen the movie “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs?” It is a classic story of how too much of a good thing becomes a bad thing.  A boy makes a machine that can rain food from the sky to deliver an island that has lived on sardines only, and before you know it, they are being attacked by an overabundance of meatballs and all the other good food. When we overdo our gifts become a compulsion and our lives are under siege!

Some days are a fecal hurricane of false self-strategies and we need disaster relief! Just like the weather, any given day you could show up as “true-self with a chance of false self,” or “false self with an intermittent chance of true-self.”

On our best day, we are a mixed bag of motivations and reactions.  Developing awareness, of all parts of our human condition, develops transformational muscle. When we bring awareness to our awareness we can thing bring intention to that attention and the journey itself is transformational.

The Enneagram’s History

ENNEAGRAM HISTORY:

For more detailed information, read the history section in the Spiritual Rhythms for the Enneagram book by Calhoun/Loughrige.

RECOMMENDED WEB SITES:

 

There is some dispute about the roots of the Enneagram.  Jerry Wagner, Clinical Psychologist and Department of Psychology and the Institute of Pastoral Studies at Loyola University, Chicago says, “Some authors believe they have found variations of the Enneagram symbol in the sacred geometry of the Pythagoreans who 4000 years ago were interested in the deeper meaning and significance of numbers. This line of mystical mathematics was passed on through Plato, his disciple Plotinus, and subsequent neo-Platonists.”(www.enneagramspectrum.com).

Chapter One in our newest Enneagram book, Spiritual Rhythms for the Enneagram (co-authored by Scott and Clare Loughrige, Adele and Doug Calhoun) we offer how we see the Enneagram as a transformative discipleship model in the Christian Tradition check it out here.

Richard Rohr has done a comprehensive study in the Enneagram’s roots in his book “The Enneagram: a Christian Perspective.” Through this research, we find that the Enneagram roots can be traced back to the desert monk, Evagrius Ponticus, (AD 399) and the Franciscan monk, Ramon Llull, in the 12th and 13th centuries.  Ponticus wrote about how the desert fathers and mothers worked to help people grow spiritually.

Both Ponticus and Llull saw patterns in the way people viewed themselves and life. The patterns developed into systems for conversion and formation. Pontius started with the seven capital sins (as defined by the desert mothers and fathers) to create the basis of the “shadow side” of the Enneagram.  Pontius added “deceit” to make 8 and the final “compulsion of fear” was added at some point which is unknown to make 9.

Centuries later Ramon Llull took eight missionary trips to the Muslim world (Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and Syria) in his work as an evangelist. He used Ponticus’ work as an evangelical tool. Ramon Llull produced an extensive work on life patterns.  Although the Sufi schools eventually adopted the work, the Enneagram seems to have gotten lost to the west. His work included the use of geometric forms to map out various patterns depicted by what is similar to what is called the Harmony Triads, represented by 3 triangles. This pattern is impetus my first guide on Harmony Triads, ©iEnneagram, Motions of the Soul and IEA accredited Certification Course,

It appears that further discovery was done in the Sufi schools of spiritual direction and returned to the Christian west in the late 60’s by Jesuit trained Oscar Ichazo.  Ichazo taught the system to his student Claudio Naranjo, a psychiatrist.  Naranjo taught the Enneagram in Berkley California in the 70’s having added his psychological knowledge.  Robert Ochs then taught the Egramwith a combination of spiritual direction with psychological understanding to a group of Jesuits who, after testing and theological examination, began to use this form in spiritual direction and retreats.  Initially,the Enneagram was intended to be taught in the oral tradition but finally found its way into print in the 80’s by people like Helen Palmer, Don Riso, Richard Rohr, Pat O’Leary and others.

Through Ochs, the Enneagram was introduced to various Christian communities where Jerome Wagner, learned the Enneagram.  I am a certified teacher under Jerome Wagner. My work has also been accepted by Wagner’s, First Analysis Institute of Integrative Studies.  *“For over 20 years the First Analysis Institute and Loyola University (Chicago) has recognized experts from the fields of psychology, psychiatry, organizational development, business, education, spirituality, theology, et al, to explore the rules and applications of the Personality Enneagram.” *integrativestudies.com

The Enneagram industry continues to grow in the secular world. The disciplines of business and psychology are.   However, those of us that see this as a map for spiritual transformation are sad that the Enneagram being trivialized into, self -development.  The power of the Enneagram is a sacred tool to assist us in being conformed to the image of Christ.  In its pure form, the Enneagram assists Christ followers in discovering interior freedom.   It offers knowledge to assist us in moving from compulsive living to contemplative living, from information to transformation, from vice to virtue and from “False Self” to “True Self.”

DISCOVERING YOUR ENNEAGRAM TYPE The test below is a self-administered test based on reading nine descriptive paragraphs, choosing the one or two that most resembles you. For comprehensive testing go to enneagramspectrum.com

Pray-

Find a quiet and comfortable place free from distractions and just breathe. Quiet down any anxiety within by breathing in the reality that, in the beginning, you were masterfully created by God, and anything you experience through this personality instrument is for your blessing.  Pray a simple prayer that can open you to see what you haven’t been able to see before. A simple prayer like, “Jesus I want to see. Holy Spirit illuminates my heart, mind, and instincts in these moments set apart to see myself, led by love.”

The nine paragraphs reflect each type’s overall filter or view of life.  All nine paragraphs may describe you to some degree but choose the one or ones that are most like you. When you choose a paragraph or two, they won’t be 100% you but that paragraph is more like you than the other seven or eight.  Write down those numbers.  Remember there isn’t a “better” number so be as honest as you are able about who you are, don’t choose who you wish you were.For comprehensive testing go to enneagramspectrum.com

Read and Reflect-

I am very conscientious and want to be good.   I look for ways to live correctly and help others around me live properly. Some people say I am a perfectionist or anal-retentive.    I have a strong inner critic or voice that directs me with what I “should do” or “ought to do.” I tend to “should” all over myself.   I try to avoid showing anger and being vulnerable.  Some people think I am controlling, but I have high internal standards for what is right.  I can spot when something is wrong and will work hard to perfect it. I enjoy seeing something done the right way, and I will put aside my needs to see a job get done perfectly.   I will do my very best to see things well ordered and finished.  I have a hard time when people don’t have that same standard for their work. When people expect a hand-out or are irresponsible, it makes me angry.  Fairness and correctness are at the top of my list.  If it’s not right, I will reform it, clean it, restructure it and do whatever it takes to make it better. (Style 1)

I am a friendly, self-sacrificing person. I love to see what a person needs and then be the one to give it to them. I am very intuitive and sensitive to others.  I have a strong desire to be loved and appreciated for what I do.  I would like to do more for people than I do and will go above and beyond the call of duty.  It comes very naturally for me to give of myself. I am usually busy taking care of others and unaware of my needs.  I am not good at saying no.  I don’t like to disappoint people, so I end up putting more energy into loving others than loving myself.  Some people may think I am clingy or possessive.  It saddens me if people think I’m trying to control them through my caring.   I like people to see me as cheerful, self-sufficient, warmhearted and sacrificing. I work very hard to make real heartfelt relationships happen. I am nurturing and empathetic but sometimes can hurt myself by being “martyr-like.” When I am hurt, the words “after all I’ve done for you!” have been known to come out of my mouth.  When I am offended,  I can get vindictive or take revenge. (Style 2)

I am a productive achiever.  I see someone or something, and I look at how I can make it, or they succeed.  I like things to work and be productive. You might say I grease the wheels to make stuff happen.   I am diplomatic and image conscious.  I like to shine, look competent and fruitful. Life is a series of tasks, goals, and accomplishments.   I do things efficiently and sometimes at a high rate of speed. I do everything to avoid failure. My identity can come too much from what I do or accomplish. Sometimes I think my value comes from doing and not being.   I set aside my emotions or needs to get a job done.  I like to be on top and am irritated with people when they slow the process down because of incompetence.  Slowing down the pace is very uncomfortable for me because I feel unproductive, and that feels like a failure.  I am a good leader but also a great team player.   To succeed when I am under pressure, I tend to cut corners and do things in the most efficient way even if it calls for being deceitful and superficial. When I’m healthy, I am a great motivating leader who helps people become the best they can be. (Style 3)

I am a sensitive person with powerful feelings and a vibrant, creative imagination.  I feel (or have felt in the past) as though I am not like other people, and nobody understands me.  That’s because I seek depth, meaning, and authenticity of feeling and self-expression in my life.  Beauty, love, sorrow, and pain touch me deeply.  Looking at a piece of art, a sunset or listening to music can be a religious experience for me.  I love aesthetics and can change my clothing or environment over and over again to reflect what I feel inside.  Some people see me as being overly dramatic, but I see life in the sixth dimension.  I long for authentic relationships and rarely find them. I have always been in pursuit of emotional connectedness and feel I will never have it. My life always seems like there is something more, better, more fulfilling than I have and I will keep reaching to attain it. Sometimes I am envious of what I perceive others to have that I don’t, and this can lead to melancholy or depression.  I am introspective, creative and intuitive and in touch with the hidden depths of life and emotions. (Style 4)

I am a quiet, cerebral observer.  I desire to gain knowledge and observe life at a distance.  I value my space and my privacy. I am an analytical person and want to be safe and in control of my feelings.  I do not like to be in the middle of things but enjoy observing and categorizing those that are.  I am calm, perceptive, curious and insightful when I am at my best.  I sometimes feel socially awkward.  I enjoy an experience later when I’m thinking about it more than when I’m actually in it.  I can be withholding and arrogant.  I avoid rude, loud and demanding people who express strong feelings. I don’t like people to expect me to share my feelings. I like to experience my feelings alone. I do not like large crowds and don’t have a strong need to be with people. I love to gather more and more information. When I am under extreme stress, I get agitated and sometimes think that someone has either moved my things or done something else to interrupt my work. My mental life is very active, and my emotional life is very private. (Style 5)

I am motivated by a desire for safety and security. I am a loyal person who longs for the sense of belonging.  I have a constant background of anxiety due to my vivid imagination. I wonder what might go wrong and don’t want to be defenseless.  When I perceive something is dangerous or harmful it is as real to me as if danger or harm were happening. I can be fearful of dangerous situations and withdraw or confront them head-on. I am always aware, even subconsciously aware, of what might go wrong.  I tend to be suspicious, so I think about who can be trusted or not trusted. I look for the hidden meanings and messages and am sometimes known to play the devil’s advocate. Tradition and or stability are vital to me. I don’t readily trust authority but don’t necessarily want to be the authority.   My friends can count on me to be loyal to them to the end. When I find something to believe in, I am loyal to people, systems, organizations, and traditions, sometimes to a fault. (Style 6)

I view life as an adventure.  I want to be on the go, experiencing new and exciting things. People say I am the life of a party. I am a seeker of excitement. I love enthusiastic and spontaneous. When doing something I enjoy,  I’ll devote myself wholeheartedly to it. Conversely, if I don’t like it or it bores me I will look for a way out. My imagination is a non-stop playground, and I love to connect ideas and information and see how they can work together to make something new.  I like to be involved at the beginning of something when things are fresh, and the playing field is wide open. I always want to move on to the next trip, the next idea, the next opportunity. When difficult things happen, I try to change the channel by thinking of something else or doing something else.  I avoid pain at all costs. I am optimistic, and I am counting on being able to live a fun and enjoyable life. (Style 7)

I am a person who is independent and vigorous.  I like being respected for my strength and dependability. It is more important to be respected for who I am than to be liked.  I am a no-nonsense go-getter that values honesty and faithfulness.  I have no room for people who choose to be weak but will crusade for those who are weak with no choice.  I resist following orders from people I do not agree with and will always challenge the status quo.  I will defend people I care about at any cost.  My opinion will be known, and my presence felt on issues that matter to me and sometimes even issues that don’t matter.  I am a fighter against what I consider to be unjust and am comfortable taking the lead.  I am direct, confrontational, decisive and courageous in the heat of battle and can create my wars.  Some people may think I’m bossy or even manipulative, but I don’t want to take anyone’s power, and I don’t want them to have power over me.  I am known for having the last word. (Style 8)

I am a mediator.  I have a strong desire to bring peace and harmonize people to create a peace-filled and comfortable life.   I accommodate others needs and feelings quickly.  I prefer to see others happy at the expense of my feelings.  I am not concerned about what is important to me but what is important to everyone else in the group.  I can see everyone’s side in a conflict and how each one is important and needs to be considered.  This consideration can make me appear too passive or indecisive, but I prefer to save decisiveness for the important issues.  I keep anger in check, and I rarely display it. I am diplomatic and able to help people come to resolutions.  I am adaptable, calm, nonjudgmental and supportive. I don’t like confrontation and discomfort in relationships.  I rarely have my agenda and am pretty adept at seeing who does.  If I can see myself in all nine paragraphs, this may be my personal style. (Style 9)

NINE TYPES FOUND IN THREE KINDS OF INTELLIGENCE

Once you discover your Enneagram Style, note where your type lands in THE TRIADS diagram.  The Enneagram recognizes three different and equally important kinds of intelligence — an intelligence of the heart or feeling (types 2, 3, 4), of the head or thinking center (types 5, 6, 7), and of the body, instincts gut (types 8, 9, 1). While all types use all three centers of intelligence, each of the triads relies especially on one over the others – either the heart, head or body center.

(For teaching on Trinitarian wisdom and the Enneagram, refer to the ©iEnneagram: ©Motions of the Soul:© iEnneagram, Loughrige, Clare 2012.) 

A LITTLE EXAMEN

1. What do I feel least grateful for about myself?  What do I love the least?  Where do I feel the absence of God’s pleasure? If where you feel the absence of God is because of sin, confess this sin, ask for and receive forgiveness for missing the mark…
2. What do I feel most grateful for about myself?  What do I love the most?  Where do I feel the presence of God’s pleasure? Now see yourself held by God in all of your gratitude

Finally-

“Let the beloved of the LORD rest secure in him, for he shields his children all day longand the one the LORD loves rests between his shoulders.”

Deuteronomy 33:12

© The Enneagram Personality Styles-A Tool for Self-Knowledge and Transformation Clare Loughrige. First Printing, 2007 All Rights Reserved
Because this material is original and some of it is used with the permission of other sources, do not make copies of this material. For a copy of this book click here

Once you’ve know your type you will discover you are much more than your type!