So you are an absolute beginner at the Enneagram… You’ve heard how amazing and helpful it can be, but you aren’t really sure what the big deal is… Well, if you want to get the absolute basics of the Enneagram, then pull up a seat and keep reading.

Before I go on, I’d like to mention that there are a number of different ways to interpret what we do know about the enneagram. There are a few different “schools of thought” on the subject which you will no-doubt discover more about as you delve deeper into the subject. With that being said, what you are about to read is jaded, opinionated, only partially informed, but hopefully just enough to give you a taste of the Enneagram. And- more important- provides you the push to dig deeper.

The Enneagram, literally, is a symbol. It is a nine-pointed symbol that has shown up in many religions over the last few millennia. Nobody knows for sure how the ancients came up with the study or how they used it until very recently. Enneagram Spectrum sums up the speculations about the origins of the enneagram this way:

“The roots of the Enneagram are disputed. Some authors believe they have found variations of the Enneagram symbol in the sacred geometry of the Pythagoreans who 4000 years ago were interested in the deeper meaning and significance of numbers. This line of mystical mathematics was passed on through Plato, his disciple Plotinus, and subsequent neo-Platonists.

Some believe this tradition found its way into esoteric Judaism through Philo, a Jewish neo-Platonist philosopher, where it later appears as the Tree of Life in the Cabalistic symbolism of ninefoldness.

Variations of this symbol also appear in Islamic Sufi traditions, perhaps arriving there through the Arabian philosopher al-Ghazzali. Around the fourteenth century the Naqshbandi Order of Sufism, variously known as the “Brotherhood of the Bees” (because they collected and stored knowledge) and the “Symbolists” (because they taught through symbols) is said to have preserved and passed on the Enneagram symbol.

Speculation has it the Enneagram found its way into esoteric Christianity through Pseudo-Dionysius (who was influenced by the neo-Platonists) and through the mystic Ramon Lull (who was influenced by his Islamic studies.)

On the frontispiece of a textbook written in the seventeenth century by the Jesuit mathematician and student of arithmology Athanasius Kircher, an Enneagram-like figure appears.”

In recent years, the Enneagram was “re-discovered” by Oscar Ichazo, a Chilean philosopher who taught at the Arica Institute in Chile. Ichazo, I believe, was the first person to really apply the laws of the enneagram to the nine laws that operate within the human psyche.
The way the enneagram is understood today is that it is a tool to help understand and articulate nine “filters” that someone can use to see the world. These filters are fluid, intangibles that may or may not exist in reality, however, using them as tools can bring about drastic realizations in relationships or in your personal growth.

I think likening these filters to “operating systems” of computers is a great way to understand it. Some people are running Windows, some people are running Linux, and some people are using an Apple computer. It’s all just different ways to taking the sensory input, arranging it, and reacting.

The beauty of this study is that when you can articulate the deepest feelings and insights of your friends, loved ones, and specifically yourself, you achieve a perspective that wasn’t there before. You see yourself clearly. Like never before…

Different schools take the Enneagram in many different directions. Some offer advice on how to achieve professional success, some offer it to Life Coaches to help their clients with the information. Some push you to your limits via finding the spots in your personality that can use shaping up. And many schools do many other things that are outside the realm of this Absolute Beginner’s Guide. They are there for you to discover, enjoy, and report back about.

Now, I would like to mention to you that this is just the briefest of overviews. There is a great deal more to understand and live before you start to reap the rewards of the Enneagram. But, I can assure you, with enough time and energy and self-awareness, the Enneagram is a path toward peace and contentment stronger than anything else I’ve ever discovered.
Bradley Spencer is a student of the enneagram and can often be found exploring the enneagram and blogging about it at his enneagram website, called The Enneagram Book: The only continually-updated enneagram resource anywhere. To learn more about the enneagram and your specific type on the enneagram, please come on over to my blog!

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