(Pronounced EN-E-UH-GRAM)
According to Enneagram Worldwide:
The Enneagram is a powerful and dynamic personality system that describes nine distinct and fundamentally different patterns of thinking, feeling and acting.
This is just a brief introduction meant to basically inform you using friendly, colloquial language in hopes that it will pique your interest and make you a little more savvy to the Enneagram. (And, of course, the blog.)
Before I begin, I want to tell you all to always take your teachings with a grain of salt. In it’s purest form, the Enneagram is fairly basic, so it can be taught in many different ways: From corporate to spiritual, humanist to God-fearing.
Now, although there’s no real evidence of one specific origin, I find the Enneagram easiest to explain with this simple and widely accepted story.
Around the third century AD (we’re talking 270-ish) two groups of people were flourishing in the deserts of the Middle East. This was right around when people started to pick up on all the One God stuff.
These groups were called the Sufis and the Desert Fathers, and were steadfast Muslims and Christians, respectively. Since they crossed paths so often, it’s really impossible to credit this tale to either group.
They weren’t so happy about the way their religions were going in the mainstream, so they decided that in order to fully live up to their prophet’s message they should forget all their worldly possessions, go out into the desert, and become monks.
All these monks got together and decided that to know God better, they needed to learn more about human nature. So they rounded up a couple hundred citizens and conducted interviews. Afterward, they discussed their findings and noticed that they had only found nine true motives for personality.
According to the research, each of these motives produces a certain personality type. Every person, throughout the course of their life, develops into one of these nine types. Sometimes people of the same type appear outwardly to be very different, others could be mistaken for twins.
What defines this type is a motivator, not necessarily habit.
In other words, your type is defined by WHY you do something, not WHAT you do.
Get it?
Through the decades, this information has been organized into the Enneagram.
“Ennea”= Nine “Gram”= Shape
(There’s a lot of cool information on the actual shape and organization of the Enneagram as well, but that can be addressed later.)
Since its creation, the Enneagram has been studied and adapted for many different purposes, particularly as a tool for self-discovery and betterment. Although it has spiritual beginnings, this information continues to also prove helpful in counseling, social science, and other more secular forms of psychology.
My goal in creating this website is not to completely explain the Enneagram in depth, but rather to comment on it. For this reason, I’m leaving the hardcore telling up to the websites and books at the bottom of this page.
HOWEVER.
This blog is meant for people well-versed in the teachings of Enneagram as well as the completely illiterate. If you don’t feel like you have the hang of it yet, that’s okay. All you need to know is the basics. In fact, don’t even try to learn it all at once. Believe me. I have tried and failed.
You will too.
So just sit tight and enjoy the ride.
To read more on the Enneagram , which I always suggest, check out the media below.
Happy soul searching!
Links:
The Enneagram Institute
9Types.com
The Enneagram According to Wikipedia
Books:
The Enneagram by Helen Palmer
The Enneagram in Love and Work by Helen Palmer
The Enneagram Made Easy by Baron & Wagele
