Welcome to my Enneagram Overview Page
What is the Enneagram?

The Enneagram is a symbol used to understand a system or process. The nine points represent nine aspects of whatever it is that's being understood. The inner lines and outer circle give insight into the relationships of those nine aspects to each other and to the whole.

The origin and age of the Enneagram symbol is unknown. Speculation has it anywhere from several hundred to over several thousand years old. Its origins and early evolution are often associated with the Chaldeans, Pythagoras, Jewish Mysticism (Kabbala), Sufism (Sarmouni Brotherhood), and various other traditions. Present day use of the symbol, however, can be directly traced along three paths.

G.I. Gurdjieff introduced the Enneagram to his students during the first half of the 20th century. The Gurdjieff tradition applied the symbol to understanding universal processes. This tradition has been carried on through The Fourth Way school and followers of Gurdjieff.

Oscar Ichazo used the Enneagram as part of a larger spiritual system which included ego types complete with fixations, traps, holy ideas, passions, and virtues for each type. From Oscar Ichazo's teachings the Arica Institute was founded. Along with nine-pointed figures such as the enneagram and enneagon, the Arica tradition sometimes uses other symbols to represent systems and processes.

The popular use of the Enneagram today is as a template for a personality typing system. Through the teachings of a psychiatrist named Claudio Naranjo and others, the ego types of Oscar Ichazo evolved into personality types. Often when the Enneagram is spoken of today, it's in reference to the Enneagram of Personality Types.

The Enneagram of Personality Types is used much the same way as the Myers-Briggs/Jungian Personality Types and the associated Keirsey Temperaments. It is being increasingly applied in spirituality, psychology, education, business, and other fields. However, the Enneagram of Personality Types is different from other personality typing systems in one major aspect: It is not context specific. The personality type identified with a person does not change from situation to situation.

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This page was last modified 3¿ù 13, 2006.
Comments or suggestions? Email me at: dwl@fccj.cc.fl.us