4. Enneagram

Enneagram distinguishes 9 types of characters, which are marked with numbers from 1 to 9. In addition to numbers, word names of each type are also used. One of the most popular names of the types in Enneagram are names that we can find in Helen Palmer’s book “The Enneagram: Understanding Yourself and Others in Your Life” (1991).

We can also find these names on this website:
http://www.enneagram.com/index.html

The Enneagram scheme is most often presented as in the diagram below.

In Enneagram, for me, very important is the fact that it distinguishes 3 main emotions, that is:

• anger,
• fear, and
• shame.

In the picture below, we can see in which areas individual emotions have the predominant influence.

The Enneagram was the first personality typology that I was digging deeper. The Enneagram also aroused my curiosity, which led me into the world of human characters. That is why I have big sympathy for Enneagram. This sympathy also came from the fact that studying Enneagram became my initial stage of the creation of the Mandala of Characters. The next steps were:
— comparing Enneagram with Jung’s typology and with Ancient Typology,
— and matching them with each other.

I write more about this in work “The Mandala of Characters—history of creation”.

Finally, after many considerations and observations, I placed the individual types of Enneagram on the Mandala of Characters as we can see in the diagram below.

In the diagram above, the individual types are connected by lines. These lines I will replace yet with arrows showing movement during stress and relax (or comfort). We can see it in the following diagram.

During my work on the Mandala of Characters, very inspiring for me were articles written by Krzysztof Wirpsza and Wojciech Jóźwiak. These articles were published on the website “Taraka” — http://www.taraka.pl/nowosci_taraki.

I want to draw attention the article written by Wojciech Jóźwiak — “Enneagram zdekomponowany” (“Enneagram decomposed”). Now, in turn, I would like to draw attention to one of the articles written by Krzysztof Wirpsza entitled “Enneagram: przewodnik po typach” (“Enneagram: the guide to the types”). Date of the article – 8 October 2006.

In this article particularly interests me the following table:

Below we can see above table in English.

This table presents the so-called “External Declarations” and “Internal Conditions” for particular Enneagram types.

For example, for Type 1—Perfectionist (namely, Moist Air):

• External Declaration is— “I want to play fair”, and
• Internal Condition is—“But I do not want to relax”.

Actually, what does it mean?

Krzysztof Wirpsza explains these terms in the following way:

Now that we know what are the “External Declarations” and “Internal Conditions”. So, let’s put them, for a better illustration, on the Enneagram scheme. Please look at the diagram below.

Previously, I matched the Enneagram to the Mandala of Characters. So, I can also apply the above “External Declarations” and “ Internal Conditions” to the Mandala. I present it in the diagram below.

In the above picture, we can see the scheme of the Enneagram, which was matched to the Mandala of Characters. That is, the particular types of the Enneagram are in places, which are corresponding to the types of the Mandala of Characters.

Besides, in the places where are types of the Enneagram, I also put suitable External Declarations and Internal Conditions.

Now we can see that on the above diagram, three types do not have any External Declarations and Internal Conditions. These types are marked as:
— Dry Earth,
— Earth,
— Cool Earth.

This situation is because the Enneagram distinguishes 9 types, and the Mandala of Characters distinguishes 12 types.

Then, I decided to deal with it and find out what External Declarations and Internal Conditions can have these three types?

Finding out these declarations and conditions can be easier when we analyze the above drawing. We can see there the scheme of Enneagram together with the External Declaration and Internal Conditions, which I applied on the Mandala of Characters.

In this drawing, we can see that Enneagram types 2 and 5, and types 4 and 7 are already opposite each other. It is because, in the places where these types are, we can find the following External Declarations and Internal Conditions:

• So, in the first pair of the Enneagram types 2 and 7, we can see such opposites:
  —Type 2, (namely, Wet Water)—“I want to love. BUT. I do not want to know”.
  —Type 5, (namely, Dry Fire)—“I want to know. BUT. I do not want to love”.
• In turn, in the second pair of the Enneagram types 4 and 7, the opposites are as follows:
  —Type 4, (namely, Cool Water)—“I want to feel. BUT. I do not want to enjoy”.
  —Type 7, (namely, Hot Air)—“I want to enjoy”. BUT. I do not want to feel”.

After I noticed the above opposites, I decided to look carefully at the other External Declarations and Internal Conditions. I wondered how I could modify them to fit them to the Mandala of Characters?

I have been thinking about it for a quite long time, and I present the effects of these considerations in the table and diagram below.

And, this is how it looks the Enneagramic idea of the External Declarations and Internal Conditions appropriately modified and fitted to the Mandala of Characters. Now each type of character has its External Declaration and Internal Condition.

Besides, on opposites sides of the Mandala, there are exactly opposite External Declarations and Internal Conditions for each pair of opposing types. Then, each type has its exact opposition on the other side of the Mandala.

These oppositions I marked with gray dashed lines with arrows. So we can see which particular types of characters are in opposition to each other.

So, the External Declarations and Internal Conditions that I borrowed from the Enneagram are a useful addition to the Mandala of Characters. However, not only this can be useful. Apart from that, in the article mentioned above by Krysztof Wirpsza, there are two more interesting terms. These are “fetor” (or “stench”) and “essence”.

What a “fetor” is Krzysztof Wirpsza, explains in the following way:

When it comes to the “essence”, I will also use the quote from Krzysztof Wirpsza article to explain its meaning:

In the above quotation, we can read that—“The Enneagram does not describe personality, but Essence”. Besides, it is also written that—“representatives of the same type sometimes have completely different characters”.

Dear Reader, probably at the moment you may feel a bit confused, because you may be surprised that—“Enneagram does not describe personality”, and that—“representatives of the same type sometimes have completely different characters”.

This surprise can be the greater for this reason, that I often use the word “character” in this work. I use it primarily in the name of the new personality system, that is—the Mandala of Characters, which I am creating, and which I am describing in this work. Next, I use the word “character” in the descriptions of particular types, which I present as “types of characters”.

So, from where are above differences came from?

I think that there is actually not too big differences. There are only differences in the approach to the topic of characters or people’s personalities.

This approach, among others, differs in that:

• In the Enneagram, it is said that the Enneagram does not describe the personality only, but—the Essence.
• In the Mandala of Characters, to describe personality I use the word “character”, which is very ambiguous and symbolic.
• I think, that the concept—Essence—can also be associated with the following concepts:
  — The Self—this concept occurs in Jungian psychology, where is described as one of the archetypes.
  —Ether (or Aether)—this concept occurs in Ancient System, where is often described as the Fifth Element. Other four Elements are Fire, Water, Air, and Earth.

In the Enneagram, therefore, a specific concept was created—Essence. In the above quotation from the article by Krzysztof Wirpsza, we can read, among others, that the Essence is—“the hypothetical building materials of our personality. This substance—as the creators of the system suggest—is identical to our real Interior, and the impact on it is the only practical way to induce a lasting change for the better”.

So, the concept—Essence, used in the Enneagram, is an exciting approach. It is also specific and unique. It means, more precise than words: personality, temperament, type of character, personality type, etc. In the Enneagram, however, the word—Essence—above all express the reaching deep into the human psyche. The reaching the place where is hidden for our Consciousness—Core. This “Core” that is “Essence”, it is something that has the main influence on our behavior and it is a hidden pattern, according to which we are acting.

So, let’s think about what characteristic Fetors and Essences have particular types of characters? I think I will present it in the same way as in above considerations about External Declarations and Internal Conditions. That is, let’s see first how originally the Fetors and Essences look in the Enneagram. Please look at the table and scheme below, where:

• Essences are marked with the sign (+),
• Fetors are marked with the sign (-).

Now, I apply the above scheme of the Enneagram with Fetors and Essences to the Mandala of Characters. Please look at the diagram below.

Now, in the above diagram, we can see the Enneagram scheme with Fetors and Essences which are matched to the Mandala of Characters.

Also, in this diagram, we can see that there are no appropriate Fetors and Essences for types:
— Cool Earth,
— Earth,
— and Earth.

I tried to discover it in the same way as then when I was looking for proper External Declarations and Internal Conditions.

After many considerations, I have determined the Fetors and Essences for particular types of the Mandala of Characters in this way that I present in the table and diagram below.

And now we can see Fetors and Essences from Enneagram which I extended, modified, and matched to the Mandala of Characters.

Please, do not consider above diagram as the final version, because over time it can be further modified. It means particular elements of this diagram can be improved or changed.

There is many authors writing about Enneagram. Many of them are giving different names for enneagramic types, concepts, essences, etc. So, I think, we need to keep open our mind for further exploration and discoveries of other researches of Enneagram.

All in all, the ideas about External Declaration and Internal Conditions, and also about Fetors and Essences I matched to the Mandala of Characters. For me, these ideas are very useful for analyzing particular types of characters. And they are a great addition to the Mandala of Characters.