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One of the things I have been looking to explore out here is the Enneagram. For an overview of the Enneagram, a good place to start is the Enneagram Institute. The more I look into it, the more I am taken by how much is in the system. People who are interested in uniting Western and Eastern wisdom might be willing to see the Enneagram as part of our Western wisdom, originating in the work of the Christian Mystics. Gurdjieff is generally associated with transmitting the Enneagram into more recent Western awareness. And then a line is traced through a Bolivian Oscar Ichazo and a Chilean Claudio Naranjo to the latter's former students including Helen Palmer and Sandra Maitri.
During my meeting with Diana Chapman last week, whose work I was really impressed by, she mentioned the tri-type approach to Enneagram. This made the penny drop why most people I have mentioned Enneagram to out here have given me three types, not just one. So while Riso and Hudson at the Enneagram Institute have focussed on your primary type, some are acknowledging this alongside two others types, one in each of the thinking (head), feeling (heart) and instinctual (gut) centres. One introduction I have found to this idea is here with the work with Katherine and David Fauvre. The thinking is that you in effect have two back up approaches that you will bring to a situation when your primary type strategy is not working. So, by way of limited example, and 8-7-2 faced with a situation might first try to control it (8), then make light of it (7) then forget their needs (2).
Apparently the enneagramists are having some fun trying to type Barack Obama! Is he a 9 with a 1 wing, or a 3 with a 4 wing? One of their difficulties is that Obama and I quote from Enneagram Institute site seems 'unusually healthy' (psychologically) for a politician. See the discussion here. I totally know what they mean and it occured to me how Plato or Mill might mourn that we still have not worked out how to choose the most psychologically healthy and wise among us to govern. Anyways, more on that I am sure once I engage some more with integral politics. I feel like I am meeting some people whose visions of society are exactly where we need to go but are almost so ahead of their time, such that if they presented such a vision, they would not be electable.
So I have talked about 1 to 3, primary type to tri-type. Let's look at 9 to 12. On Friday night, I had a lovely evening and dinner with David and Chellsa Lesser. David introduced me to his Shadow Work and the four-quarter model. Imagine in each of the four quarters (warrior, lover, sovereign, magician), you can either be high or low. Combining two highs and a low, you get 12 combinations. For example, high warrior, high soverign, low lover. Interestingly, these match across to the 9 enneagram types (the example I give would be an 3, who finds it hard to be vulnerable and has to be bigger than who they are to be worthy) and provide three more, which are accounted for by splitting out three of the existing enneagram types. 4 (high warrior, high lover, low sovereign) which is more about individuality, for example, splits out to a type 10 (high warrior, high lover, low magician) which is more about releasing and leading through emotions. I naturally get excited when models synthesize; and following conversations initially a few months back with Alex Hands about how Myers Briggs and Enneagram overlap, I have been intrigued by the merit in understanding these models, including astrology, together. Of course, in an integral framework, it would make sense that they each have a partial view or truth.
So, if you haven't looked into the enneagram and are serious about inner work, breaking patterns, releasing tension or allowing your soul to shine through more often, I recommend you check it out.
During my meeting with Diana Chapman last week, whose work I was really impressed by, she mentioned the tri-type approach to Enneagram. This made the penny drop why most people I have mentioned Enneagram to out here have given me three types, not just one. So while Riso and Hudson at the Enneagram Institute have focussed on your primary type, some are acknowledging this alongside two others types, one in each of the thinking (head), feeling (heart) and instinctual (gut) centres. One introduction I have found to this idea is here with the work with Katherine and David Fauvre. The thinking is that you in effect have two back up approaches that you will bring to a situation when your primary type strategy is not working. So, by way of limited example, and 8-7-2 faced with a situation might first try to control it (8), then make light of it (7) then forget their needs (2).
Apparently the enneagramists are having some fun trying to type Barack Obama! Is he a 9 with a 1 wing, or a 3 with a 4 wing? One of their difficulties is that Obama and I quote from Enneagram Institute site seems 'unusually healthy' (psychologically) for a politician. See the discussion here. I totally know what they mean and it occured to me how Plato or Mill might mourn that we still have not worked out how to choose the most psychologically healthy and wise among us to govern. Anyways, more on that I am sure once I engage some more with integral politics. I feel like I am meeting some people whose visions of society are exactly where we need to go but are almost so ahead of their time, such that if they presented such a vision, they would not be electable.
So I have talked about 1 to 3, primary type to tri-type. Let's look at 9 to 12. On Friday night, I had a lovely evening and dinner with David and Chellsa Lesser. David introduced me to his Shadow Work and the four-quarter model. Imagine in each of the four quarters (warrior, lover, sovereign, magician), you can either be high or low. Combining two highs and a low, you get 12 combinations. For example, high warrior, high soverign, low lover. Interestingly, these match across to the 9 enneagram types (the example I give would be an 3, who finds it hard to be vulnerable and has to be bigger than who they are to be worthy) and provide three more, which are accounted for by splitting out three of the existing enneagram types. 4 (high warrior, high lover, low sovereign) which is more about individuality, for example, splits out to a type 10 (high warrior, high lover, low magician) which is more about releasing and leading through emotions. I naturally get excited when models synthesize; and following conversations initially a few months back with Alex Hands about how Myers Briggs and Enneagram overlap, I have been intrigued by the merit in understanding these models, including astrology, together. Of course, in an integral framework, it would make sense that they each have a partial view or truth.
So, if you haven't looked into the enneagram and are serious about inner work, breaking patterns, releasing tension or allowing your soul to shine through more often, I recommend you check it out.
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