Construction

4. Names of character types.


In the previous chapter, I recall the fact that the classical Elements are very symbolic and ambiguous. And they have fascinated people from many cultures around the world in the last few millennia. Therefore, since the Elements and their qualities are so fascinating and unusual, I came to the conclusion that I would use them to name the twelve main types of the Mandala of Characters.

Earlier, before I figured that out, I was looking for other names. For example, Roman numerals or some word names. However, in my opinion, nothing can better express human characters than comparing them to the symbols of the classical Elements and their qualities.

All in all, it happened that I came to back to the source or “drawing-board”. Thus, actually, I did not come up with anything new. I just used the very ancient symbolism of the Elements and their qualities. So, we have very old names used again.

Besides, such type naming has the advantage that it is quite easy to remember. These names, thanks to their symbolic character, can easily get into our imagination.


So, in the next diagram, I present the names of individual types of the Mandala of Characters, which I created thanks to the inspiration of symbolism of classical Elements and their qualities.



Now we can see that the names of each type of character came:

  • from the Element on which given type is located, and
  • from the quality of the Element that is closest to the given type.

Please note that we have four types which are located in the middle of each Element. These types are taking their names only from the names of the main Elements. It means these are the following types of characters: Air, Earth, Fire, and Water.


In this way, we have the following types of the Mandala of Characters in the Air Element area:

  • Hot Air
  • Air
  • Moist Air.

In the Water Element area, there are the following types:

  • Wet Water
  • Water
  • Cool Water

In the Earth Element area, there are the following types:

  • Cool Earth
  • Earth
  • Dry Earth

And in the Fire Element area, there are the following types:

  • Dry Fire
  • Fire
  • Hot Fire


In this way, we have got the most basic diagram of the Mandala of Characters. Based on this diagram, I will continue to place the next parts of the Mandala. So, this diagram will be a kind of arena (or stadium) where the types of characters will “perform”.


I will also put the above names of types of characters in the table with the list of types from the Ancient Typology, Jung’s “Psychological Types”, and Enneagram.


Mandala of Characters Ancient Typology Carl Gustav Jung’s “Psychological Types” Enneagram
1. Moist Air — Introverted Intuitive Type Type 1—Perfectionist
2. Wet Water — Extraverted Feeling Type Type 2—Giver
3. Water Water,
Phlegmatic 		— Type 3—Performer
4. Cool Water — Introverted Feeling Type Type 4—Romantic
5. Cool Earth — Introverted Sensation Type —
6. Earth Earth,
Melancholic 		— —
7. Dry Earth — Extraverted Sensation Type —
8. Dry Fire — Introverted Thinking Type Type 5—Observer
9. Fire Fire,
Choleric 		— Type 6—Loyal Skeptic
10. Hot Fire — Extraverted Thinking Type Type 7—Epicure
11. Hot Air — Extraverted Intuitive Type Type 8—Protector
12. Air Air,
Sanguine 		— Type 9—Mediator



Jacek BŁACH
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To other texts and images that I used as quotes, additional terms may apply.