Discriminating Spiritual Enneagram Versus the Enneagram of Personality Types
“The spiritual enneagram serves as more than just a tool; it’s a profound gateway into the depths of human consciousness and the transformative power of the spiritual enneagram. In “Discriminating Spiritual Enneagram Versus the Enneagram of Personality Types,” we explore the distinction between an ego-oriented approach and a reality-oriented perspective. Are you merely using the enneagram as a psychological mirror, or are you ready to embark on a transformative journey toward spiritual enlightenment? Dive in to uncover the true essence and potential of the spiritual enneagram.
Is your orientation to the spiritual enneagram ego-oriented or reality-oriented?
How does your perspective align with the teachings of the spiritual enneagram?
- Ego orientation focuses on improving our experience and using knowledge and understanding to keep the house secure on its foundation.
- Reality orientation involves a lot of not-knowing, a suspension of goals and agenda, a curiosity in immediate experience, and a willingness to experience fully and deeply the impact of what is arising.
Two categories of Enneagrams refer to inner experience: one pertaining to egoic experience (reflecting fundamental spiritual ignorance), such as the Enneagrams of Fixations and Passions, and the other pertaining to essential experience (reflecting spiritual enlightenment), such as the Enneagrams of the Virtues and the Holy Ideas. Not only are there inner connections within each Enneagram, but there are also very specific relationships between the various Enneagrams. – A. H. Almaaas, Facets of Unity
Hundreds of thousands of people are familiar with the enneagram of personality types. Yet, only a select few delve deep into the transformative power of the spiritual enneagram.
The Enneagram of Personality, or simply the Enneagram (from the Greek words ἐννέα [ennéa, meaning “nine”] and γράμμα [grámma, meaning something “written” or “drawn”], is a model of the human psyche which is principally understood and taught as a typology of nine interconnected personality types.
The Enneagram of Personality has been widely promoted in both business management and spirituality contexts through seminars, conferences, books, magazines, and DVDs. In business contexts it is generally used as a typology to gain insights into workplace interpersonal-dynamics; in spirituality it is more commonly presented as a path to higher states of being, essence, and enlightenment. Both contexts say it can aid in self-awareness, self-understanding and self-development. – Wkipedia
While complex in the scope of psychological terrain and dynamics the Enenagram covers,
it is simple and easy for “non-psychological” people to understand.
The spiritual enneagram, in particular, offers profound insights that can be transformative for many who explore the depths of the spiritual enneagram. While complex in the scope of psychological terrain and dynamics it covers, it is simple and easy for “non-psychological” people to understand. This is one of the reasons why so many have so many AHAs! when first learning about their ennea-type.
How to use the enneagram for self-improvement????…
A search for “enneagram” on Amazon returned 20 pages of results. After scrolling through 50 book titles, I gave up. This is the motherload if you want the enneagram to:
- Solve relationship issues
- Define the perfect diet for you
- Tell you where to vacation
- Give you insight into parenting
- Hook you up with the right pet for spiritual growth
- And on and on
Searching on Google Books returned ten pages of 100 listings per page.
My takeaway: one person out of every thousand on Earth has written a book on the Enneagram. (ya think?)
Here are author and enneagram expert Russ Hudson, and another Diamond Approach student, Cat Carr, discussing part of their understanding of the Enneagram.
Several months after becoming a student in the Diamond Approach, I first heard about the Enneagram. I took Helen Palmer’s certification course. While knowledge of and insight from the spiritual enneagram has served me well over the years, I soon became disenchanted with the predominantly ego-oriented and ego-supportive way it is used worldwide.
Personality is certainly within the set of psychological enneagrams. Character traits, emotional reactivity, mental habits, beliefs, preferences, positions, and even thought patterns have tendrils into our personalities and psychological makeup and conditioning.
These insights are important and necessary. It’s not the knowledge that is the issue; our orientation around what to “do” with that knowledge is critical for transformation.
The Enneagram is a map or design to help you understand and attune yourself to reality. It is like a prism, separating out nine objective perspectives on reality with their nine deluded perspectives. The nine delusions of the ennea-types are simply different ways of expressing the same distorted point of view about reality—that of the structured part of the soul, the ego. Although your particular fixation gives your whole experience a specific flavor, you cannot have one delusion and not have the others since they are all intertwined and are simply nine different ways of expressing the same thing. In the system of the Enneagram, the ego is symbolized as a nine-headed dragon, meaning that although each fixation is a specific delusion, each is part of the same creature. – A. H. Almaaas, Facets of Unity: The Enneagram of Holy Ideas
Diamond Approach Enneagram On-demand Courses
In this 11-module course, Sandra Maitri and Russ Hudson will synthesize decades of Enneagram knowledge and teaching experience with a lifetime of Diamond Approach spiritual development and methodology to help us reconnect to our essential being through the Enneagram. Click Here for Access
This course explores how the particular ‘take’ on reality at the core of each of the nine types begins and the resulting belief structures, emotional patterns, and behaviors. Click Here for Access