The Enneagram is another map of personality type that has not only a psychological dimension but is also very valuable in exploring the spiritual journey.
The Enneagram Model
Purple = Generic explanation Blue = Enneagram Concepts
Enneagram works with the concept of Essence or Soul. We are born into the world, aware of what is, no memories, no future just as is. We are our Essential selves.
As we start to interact with others and the physical world we have experiences which challenge or contradict one of the spiritual truths (love, trust, connection) that our essential self is aware of.
In order to defend our essential selves and retain in our soul the love or trust or connection of that spiritual truth, we build an external world view and beliefs that fit with our experience. This world view and beliefs lead to a pattern of Mental, Emotional, Physical, habit and behaviour. This becomes our personality, which is self reinforcing and works for us, (it enables us to cope with life without the Spiritual Truth being further challenged) but it also distorts the world and hides us from the higher awareness of what really is. Our awareness of essential self begins to move into the background.
We become mentally preoccupied (Mental Fixation) and our attention fixes on certain things, our emotions are a powerful energy and one that tends to be trapped in emotional habit (Passion), which we put into the world in particular behavioural ways (Sub-Types).
The Enneagram map says that there are nine spiritual truths, consequently nine personality types that can develop, each as a result of losing sight of a different one of them. Most individuals will recognise the behavioural patterns of several of the different types. When one can work at the level of inner motivation, most people find there is one pattern that arises from a core place and we spend more time and energy in the pattern resulting from that motivation.
