What Is the Enneagram (Really)? A Deeper Look Beyond Personality Types

Everyone’s talking about this next-level personality test, the Enneagram, but what’s the big deal?  If you really want to know, you need to dig in and read more than a few pithy paragraphs, so buckle up baby, while I download a buttload of Ennea-lore that will blow your mind.

First, quit saying the ‘gram is a personality test.  It’s an oversimplification that obscures its transformational potential.  The Enneagram goes  beyond a fixed set of personality descriptions and illuminates a path of development.  This is about self-discovery rather than self-fascination. 

If all you want is a quick quiz, look elsewhere.  But if you’re a true seeker, you’re in the right place because the ‘gram is a tool for deepening our capacity for Presence, connecting with the authentic Self, embracing and expressing our identity, overcoming limitations, and healing wounds.  This sh*t is legit. 

Yet for many people, seeing themselves and their personality reflected in the type descriptions is their entry into Enneagram work.  No shame in the game - we hear about this amazing “personality test” and of course we want to go right to the types!  

But without a larger context, and indeed an understanding of what “personality” even is, we miss the opportunity the Enneagram truly presents.

So let’s start where all good lore begins: a killer origin story:

HISTORY: Who came up with this stuff?!?

The Enneagram was originated by Georgij Ivanovich Gurdjieff (1860-1949) who grew up in modern day Turkey near the Silk Road, where lots of cultures mixed and traded. So he was exposed to many different influences and spiritual traditions which he studied and synthesized into his teachings.  (He also had a truly magnificent moustache btw).  This guy was an original hippy, and it gets even hippy-dippier…

Eventually, Gurdjieff taught in Russia, Europe, and in the United States but he never taught the Enneagram as a personality system. Instead, he shared it as a “universal hieroglyph” that used three shapes (the circle, triangle, and hexad) to illustrate the coalescence of several Universal laws (which I won’t go into here or your mind might explode).  

For Gurdjieff, The Enneagram described the relationship between the inner Essence of a phenomenon and the way that Essence is expressed.  This dynamic exists for all phenomena, including the phenomenon of…personhood. By revealing the relationship between a person’s Essential Nature, and the way that Essence is expressed (aka personality), the person can move beyond the confines of their personality and toward greater freedom.  

Basically, Gurdjieff believed that human beings are asleep (unconscious) to their authentic nature, with lots of factors conspiring to keep us this way. Snapping at your partner? Mindlessly scrolling?  Lecturing your kid?  Asleep. Asleep. Asleep.  Your Authentic Nature would never do that sh*t.

By developing our attention and fostering a healthy relationship between Essence and Personality, we can wake up and become conscious. Gurdjieff’s Enneagram outlined this process.  

Later a bunch of even hippier philosophers and psychologists in the ‘60’s, most notably Oscar Ichazo, expanded things to create the Enneagram of Personality, which delineated the 9 types we talk about today, still preserving the foundational element of the concept of Essence + Expression. 

Wasn’t that a fascinating history lesson? Now let’s get real about what a personality actually is, or we’re going to get sucked right back into cutsie quiz land real quick.

WHAT IS A PERSONALITY?

The word “personality” is often used to characterize what makes us unique, what is personal and distinct about us, etc. But personality is actually more specific – it’s a psychological structure.  It’s functional and self-protective, and it helps us organize our experience and to accomplish goals, big or small. 

The more unhealthy we are, the more compulsive, disorganized, and constricted our personality patterns become. The more present and mindful we are, the more we can impartially observe these patterns without attachment, and we’re able to make choices about them instead of being at their mercy.

The personality is the functional expression of who we are, but it is neither the whole, nor the core of who we are. The challenge is that we become identified with our personality.  We think we are our personality, when in truth the personality is merely a psychological tool. This creates suffering, and estranges us from our core: Essence.

Essence is what we are born with, prior to developing psychological patterning. It is our Life Force, the true “substance” of what makes us unique, and it’s the part of us that feels most real, sensitive, and substantial.  If you’re not afraid of religious words, you might call it your “soul”. Or not.  That freaks some people out, so use whatever term doesn’t make you want to stop reading this.

The personality develops around Essence. We don’t want to get rid of our personality - we couldn’t if we tried. But we can’t be ruled by the personality if we’re to grow beyond the compulsive and automatic patterns that compose the personality.  Want to stop losing your temper at your kid, avoiding your mother, or stressing about the future?  You gotta feel some more of that Essence and release the stranglehold your personality has on you.  There is no other way (anyone who has tried to force themselves into staying calm or not yelling can confirm this).

A magical relationship between Essence and Personality emerges when we cultivate a robust Essence that stands independently, apart from the ups and downs of the Personality, and this is the invitation of the Enneagram: to understand our personalities, go beyond that into connection with our Essence, and cultivate a beautiful relationship between the two.

So here we are with both the allure of self-discovery through the typology of the Enneagram, and the opportunity to go beyond into self-realization.  Are you down?

Bottom line: the Enneagram was never intended to tell you who you are, but rather what you must be aware of in order to open up to your enlightenment. The 9 Types are not meant to define you, but to describe the prison you live in, and how to break free of it. 

The Living Enneagram mini-retreat on April 26 is a great place to begin.  Join me for a fabulous brunch, pampering gift baskets, delightful company and a f*ck-ton of transformation.  Only 10 spots, some of which are already taken, so register right away!  Can’t wait to see you on my doorstep in Denver.