The Enneagram Guide To Self-Discovery, Relationship Fulfilment & Awakening:: Using The Enneagram For Finding Your True Self, Deepening Your Relationships & Psychological Growth: Enneagram Unwrapped, #2

By Personality Hub

Understanding your personality type gives you more power than you might realize... Are you ready to transform your life?

Understanding your personality type is key to understanding your true self… and when you do that, you'll find that your life path becomes much clearer and your relationships much more successful.

When you know how to use it, the Enneagram can become a tool to improve your whole life – from your relationships to your spiritual and personal growth.

Inside this clear and compelling guide, you'll find everything you need to know to understand your personality type and use the Enneagram to improve your whole life. Inside, you'll discover:

• A clear introduction to the Enneagram tool – so you know exactly what you're working with
• How to read the Enneagram diagram like a pro – and exactly what you can unlock when you do
• An overview of each personality type and its 'wings' (discover yours!)
• Common struggles and growth tips for every personality type… so you can get off to a flying start
• The #1 key to determining your personality type and using it to improve your life
• The difference between your 'true self' and your 'ego self' – and how to make sure you're paying attention to the right one
• 10 essential questions to help you discover more about your personality
• Your guide to understanding the personality subtypes (and how to determine yours)
• The secret to developing healthy and meaningful relationships using the Enneagram
• The Enneagram relationship pairings that become matches made in Heaven (understand these, and unlock the door to a more successful love life)

...and much more.

Discovering your true self and learning more about how you connect with others on a meaningful level is the secret to turning your life around… and you're about to do just that.

Discover everything you need to know about yourself to make sure your life is the one you've always dreamed of.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Personality Hub
• Release date: Oct 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9798215000731

Book preview

Part One

The Enneagram Tool

Chapter 1

Introducing The Enneagram Tool

As far back as the 4th century, we find ideas relating to the Enneagram tool, although some might argue against this. Perhaps it wasn't referred to by the same term, and it definitely didn't resemble the device we know and use today, but it's safe to assume the Enneagram model has been around for a long time. And that's one of the reasons it's a trusted model. Being both an old and modern tool, the wisdom and holistic approach involved in this self-exploration make it possible for you to finally learn the right way to observe and let go of worrisome practices and reactions. It gives you a spiritual wake-up call if you're ready to dive deeper into that exploration, but even if you're not, you still get as much as you need to continue improving yourself as a whole being.

WHAT EXACTLY IS THE ENNEAGRAM TOOL?

According to Wikipedia, Enneagram (pronounced Any-a-gram) is a model of the human psyche, principally understood and taught as a typology of nine interconnected personality types. The Enneagram is represented in the form of a geometric model symbolizing a map, which makes sense when one learns that in the Greek language, ennéa means nine and grámma means something written or drawn. 

The enneagram figure is typically composed of three parts, as you shall see in chapter three, where we'll dive into the details of this ennea diagram.

To fully grasp the power of the Enneagram, you'll need to open your mind to new ideas and suspend all unbelief and limited thoughts regarding life and who you really are. You will also need to turn up the volume of curiosity so you can start asking questions like, what is my personality? Is there more to me than just my personality? How do I figure out what my real nature is, and how do I improve the areas of my character that I don't enjoy?

If you've already been asking these questions, that's excellent because the Enneagram is a perfect personality typing and personal development tool to help answer these questions and so much more.

How many other models are there?

If you're not aware, the Enneagram model isn't the only one in the market. Other personality typing models like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), DISC, and Social Styles are also used. Similar to how MBTI, DISC, and Social Styles describe typical behavior meaning, the Enneagram teaches how different personality types behave and how to recognize these behaviors in ourselves and others. But here's where the Enneagram differs, in my opinion. It doesn't just leave things at that psychological surface level and instead integrates the spiritual aspect of our nature as well. By the very basis that it's derived from ancient teaching that views development as progressive integration and upward movement within one's type, it does far more than just talking about the inductive clusters of characteristics that we would find in the results of a research investigation. In other words, the Enneagram identifies why we do what we do, i.e., the motivation for our behavior. It looks at basic fears and desires as key drivers for behavior. Since these fears and desires are often subconscious or even unconscious, this process of discovering your true self using the Enneagram tool becomes more of a quest instead of a standardized report. And when we bond to the Enneagram, we get a simple idea planted inside that we are far more than just personality types. We are, in fact, spiritual beings incarnated through the material world.

Is it religious?

Absolutely not. This isn't about religion because the Enneagram sets itself apart from all doctrinal differences. People from every religion, creed, and walk of life have benefited from using this tool. It doesn't matter whether you identify as a devout catholic, Christian, Muslim, atheist, Mormon, Jew, man, woman, LGBTQ, rich, poor, black, white, or brown this tool can work for you. As you dive into the structure and workings of this tool, you'll realize that all Enneagram type Sixes are pretty much the same everywhere in the world. So, a devout Catholic who is a type Six is a great deal more like the Sixes who are Muslim than they could imagine. And that goes for every other type. In the end, it changes our perspective, and we realize how similar we are all at that deeper, more human level, creating a lot more compassion and empathy across the world. Just imagine how different our world could be and how many misunderstandings, wrongdoings, and pain we could obliterate if more of us realized just how similar we are from those we tend to discriminate against.

Chapter 2

The Origins

The mystery surrounding the Enneagram and its origins continue to gather much speculation and dispute for practitioners. While it is good to question the authenticity of this tool, and I'll do my best to offer some insights, don't allow that curiosity to turn into doubt. History around the Enneagram is clouded somewhat (like many ancient tools), but the model's effectiveness as a framework and a map for self-discovery stands solid.

So what's the actual origin of the Enneagram, and can we say with absolute certainty where it came from?

Well, here's what we do know. It is connected to different spiritual and oral traditions and certain philosophical and mathematical traditions. Some others believe that variations of the Enneagram symbol can be traced to the sacred geometry of Pythagorean mathematicians and mystical mathematics. Plotinus, in the Enneads, speaks of the nine divine qualities that manifest in human nature. We also see variations of the Enneagram symbol appear in the Sufi tradition, with specific reference to the Naqshbandi Order. It may have also entered into esoteric Judaism through the philosopher Philo, later becoming embedded into the branches of the Tree of Life in the Kabbalah. There's a possible relationship with Christianity through medieval references to Evagrius' catalog of various forms of temptation (Logismoi), which much later, in medieval times, was translated into the seven deadly sins. The Franciscan mystic Ramon Llull taught philosophy and theology of nine principles in an attempt to integrate different faith traditions, and in a 17th-century text, we find an Enneagram-like drawing made by Jesuit mathematician Athanasius Kircher (Adopted from Wagner, 2010). 

THE MODERN INTEGRATIVE VERSION OF THE ENNEAGRAM

The evolution of the Enneagram as we know it today took place recently in the 21st century. A Russian mystic and teacher named George Gurdjieff reintroduced this antiquated symbol in form and shape that we identify as the Enneagram diagram (to be discussed in detail in chapter 3). Only Gurdjieff did not draw it out but instead taught it primarily through a series of sacred dances or movements. He believed it was better when people directly sensed the meaning of the symbol and the processes it represents. Although Gurdjieff's teaching did not include a system of personality types associated with the symbol (that came later through another contributor, as you'll see shortly), he did reveal to advanced students that we all have what he termed chief feature. This chief feature is the lynchpin of a person's ego structure and is the fundamental characteristic that defines that individual. When asked where he learned about the Enneagram, he said he was introduced to it during a visit to a monastery in Afghanistan in the 1920s, but nothing more is disclosed regarding the origin of this symbol. What we do know is that since then, Oscar Ichazo took the helm of the Enneagram studies and coined the term Enneagram of Personality. Ichazo is credited as the person who originally put the system together in the way we use it today. This Bolivian-born teacher and healer, who also spent a significant portion of his early years in Peru, first moved to Buenos Aires in Argentina to learn from a school of inner work. Thereafter he journeyed to Asia to gather more knowledge before returning to South America, where he began putting together a systematic approach to all he'd learned. After many years of study, research, and practice, Ichazo created the Arica School (founded in 1968) as a means of sharing the knowledge he'd received over the years. In the 1970s, while living in Chile, Ichazo received a group of noted psychologists and writers from America who wanted to study and experience first hand the methods of attaining self-realization at Arica. Among these individuals were Claudio Naranjo and John Lilly (The Enneagram Institute).

The end result of weeks spent at the Arica School studying with Ichazo was the introduction of this tool into America and the rest of the world where modern psychology was in practice. Individuals such as Ochs, Almaas, and Maitri studied with Claudio Naranjo. Ochs introduced the Enneagram to the Christian communities in the United States, which got authors like Jerry Wagner, Don Riso, and Russ Hudson excited to further spread the teachings of the Enneagram (Integrative9 History of the Enneagram). Thanks to these contemporary theorists, our knowledge and development of the Enneagram tools continue to grow far beyond what anyone, including Ichazo (who passed away in 2020), could have foreseen.

IS IT SCIENTIFIC OR MYSTICAL?

There's no binary answer to this question. Given how popular and highly recommended this tool has become in personal development and professional settings, we cannot label it purely scientific or mystical. I like to think it's a little bit of both. While the Enneagram system as we know it dates back to the '60s when Ichazo started teaching it, the philosophy behind this tool contains components from all traditions that stretch back thousands of years. That's why we can confidently employ it to help us unlock our hidden potential, uncover our blind spots and enable us to grow in every area of life. Use the following chapters as clues that allow you to discover who you really are so you can feel more in charge of your destiny and your life story. The best part is that the more you know yourself, the easier it becomes to understand and predict other people's behavior.

The American Version of the Enneagram versus the original system taught by Ichazo:

Ichazo taught a system of 108 Enneagrams, but the American movement spearheaded by Claudio Naranjo, who still teaches the Enneagram to date, was based on the first four of the Enneagrams. These are called the Enneagrams of the Passions, the Enneagrams of the Virtues, the Enneagram of the Fixations, and the Enneagram of the Holy Ideas. Why were they categorized like this? In an interview with Ichazo, he said, We have to distinguish between a man as he is in essence and as he is in ego or personality. In essence, every person is perfect, fearless, and in loving unity with the entire cosmos; there is no conflict within the person between head, heart, and stomach or between the person and others. Then something happens; the ego begins to develop, karma accumulates, there is a transition from objectivity to subjectivity; man falls from essence to personality. (Interviews with Ichazo, page 9)

WHAT ARE VIRTUES, PASSIONS, HOLY IDEAS, AND FIXATIONS ABOUT?

Later in the book, we'll name the virtues for each Enneagram type so you can see what your higher self is calling you toward in this lifetime.

According to Ichazo's theory, holy ideas and virtues are our higher spiritual qualities, and when these become distorted by the ego, they become fixations (head)and passions (heart), respectively. This relationship between the higher self and the ego is the real work we must undertake. That's what our self-discovery quest is all about. 

Approaching this book and the Enneagram with the desire to label yourself a particular personality just because it feels good is wasted effort and a missed understanding of what this tool was intended for. Your purpose in self-discovery should be to bring about that balance between your ego and higher self that's been missing. The more you feel like you've lost your center and become distorted in your thinking, feeling, and behavior, the more you need to work on that relationship with self. Use your increasing self-awareness to recognize the patterns of distortion obscuring your connection and creating disharmony in your life. Get to know your type so you can direct your inner work and facilitate the transformation that's waiting to happen within you.

If you realize that your virtues are off, don't force yourself to become a virtuous person. It doesn't work like that. To become virtuous, we need to relax, reconnect with our higher self and become more awake so we can see through the fears and desires of our ego. Only then will virtuous qualities naturally manifest. And when it comes to reconciling our thoughts about passion, realize that having desires isn't bad. Passions merely point us to an underlying reality that something is missing; we've lost something, and we need to get it back. The thing we need to work on getting back in order to heal, make whole, and satiate that passion isn't what we usually chase after. Our ego might distort our thinking and cause us to work ourselves to death, sacrificing everything in our path just to become powerful, successful, or to be loved by another, thinking that will make us complete. Yet, once we're there, the emptiness still exits. This is one of the cornerstones Ichazo wanted his students to grasp. The misguided coping strategies that our ego uses under the disguise of passion are but a distortion of inherent essential virtue. What we're in search of is restoring contact with our Essential nature and our true identity as Spirit.

The other big idea here is that an individual's ego fixation is rooted in losing one's holy idea. We lose the ability to recognize the unity of being. We become stuck in duality and segregation, and our mind is constantly storming. Similar to what we've learned about virtue and passions when we become disconnected from our higher self, that sense of freedom that we innately know we should have turned into an ego-fixation.

However, all of these can be restored as we use the Enneagram knowledge to work on ourselves. How deep you want to go in this journey is up to you, but I can assure you, the deeper you go, the richer, more fulfilling, and enjoyable this human experience will become.

Chapter 3

The Enneagram Diagram

To use the Enneagram tool effectively, one must learn to read it accurately. This chapter will give you an overview of all the nine Enneagram Types, offer a visual illustration of the Enneagram diagram and its parts, and then teach you how to read the diagram. Only then will you be ready to dive into the details of each Enneagram type.

There are nine personality types that are placed around the Enneagram diagram, namely, The Reformer, The Helper, The Achiever, The Individualist, The Investigator, The Loyalist, The Enthusiast, The Challenger, and The Peacemaker.

Each of the enneatypes represents an archetype and worldview that the particular type identifies with. It's their home base and the framework through which they think, feel, act and relate to their environment, other people, and themselves. But this is far more than just personality profiling. In fact, if you only use the Enneagram to spot personalities, you might be disappointed when you discover that different enneatypes may display similar behavior. That's because the Enneagram model works under the premise that behavior alone isn't enough to tell you who a person really is. As a matter of fact, it teaches that outward behavior can be deceiving when trying to figure out people or even the effectiveness of this tool for self-discovery. You should therefore identify yourself and others by exploring motivation. Become more curious about why you or another chooses to act in a certain way. That's the real value of using this model and the best way to discover why we do what we do in life.

Chapter 4

Understanding the Enneagram Symbol

The modern-day Enneagram symbol is drawn as a geometrical shape with nine points. There's