# Making sense of the enneagram.



## Inveniet (Aug 21, 2009)

Found some more stuff.

History of the Enneagram



> As a result, there is no such thing as "_the Enneagram_": the field is not unified, and there are a number of different approaches that have sprung up around the world. Thus, a great deal of confusion exists concerning the contributions made by different authors and teachers. Misconceptions about this have been somewhat understandable since *the Enneagram was originally disseminated in the seventies by enthusiasts passing around photocopied notes from the Arica and Jesuit traditions. These notes were usually not attributed to anyone, and so it was extremely difficult to know who had authored them.*


Yeah this figures...



> the Enneagram is not a set of laws etched in stone, but a work-in-progress.


Oh my an evolving beast of Ne/Ti ideas... XD

From this page again...

Enneagram History and Origins: The Traditional Enneagram



> These ideas found their way from Greece and Asia Minor southward through Syria and eventually to Egypt. There, it was embraced by early Christian mystics known as the Desert Fathers who focused on studying the _loss_ of the Divine Forms in ego consciousness. The particular ways in which these Divine forms became distorted came to be known as the Seven Deadly Sins:


So basically what inspired the emotional bulldup of the enneagram, 
was the original idea behind the seven deadly sins.
Makeing sense now. 

And then he pulled in the kabbala.



> Another key influence Ichazo employed in developing these ideas comes from mystical Judaism, and particularly from the teachings of the Kabbala. Central to Kabbala is a diagram called Tree of Life (_Etz Hayim_ in Hebrew). The Tree of Life is a said to be a map showing the particular patterns and laws by which God created the manifest universe. The diagram is composed of 10 spheres (_Sefirot_) connected by 22 paths in particular ways. Most significantly, Ichazo must have been aware of the Kabbalistic teaching that all human souls are "sparks" that arise out of these spheres or emanations from the Kabbalistic Tree. (The first sphere, _Keter_, is reserved for the Messiah, leaving nine other spheres for the rest of us.)


Okay now it's making sense.
To understand the enneagram you need to understand the basics of kabbala and the original ideas of the seven deadly sins.
Everything else is just pure marketing tricks from various hippies, wanting to sell their enneagram books and stuff.

Thanks again for leading me to the info I needed to make these connections @alionsroar =D


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## alionsroar (Jun 5, 2010)

I think the system is not taught academically because there are so many ideas on it and not really any empirical evidence, other than what different teachers or 'experts' observed.

I'd put it on the same level as MBTI though.. as something that different people have tried to make work even though there is no proof of it and that it borrows from other sources such as temperaments or Jung's work.


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## Inveniet (Aug 21, 2009)

alionsroar said:


> I think the system is not taught academically because there are so many ideas on it and not really any empirical evidence, other than what different teachers or 'experts' observed.
> 
> I'd put it on the same level as MBTI though.. as something that different people have tried to make work even though there is no proof of it and that it borrows from other sources such as temperaments or Jung's work.


Yeah you could almost say that MBTI serves as a useful overlay of Jungs work,
but on it's own it is just an interesting statistics work dipped in heavy stereotype.

From my understanding right now the enneagram seem like some sort of cut and paste project.
I think I will enjoy looking into the kabbala and the seven deadly sins.


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## Inveniet (Aug 21, 2009)

Looked up the connections...
Man this is such a mess. XD
Now that I know what is up with the Enneagram historically, 
I'm open to using it again as a overlay tool. 
Now I know where to look if I'm stuck at least.


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## petite libellule (Jul 4, 2012)

So I took a free one at enneagramtest.net

Not sure how accurate this one or any of the free ones are. In all honestly, 
I've never really known anything about he enneagram test before now.

I think it might be fairly accurate. It says I am a 2 but may also be a 5 or 6. 
Wait a minute ... I'm this or "Might" be this or that? 

I'm so confused  
I'll have to look into this again when I have time ...


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