Creation history

1. — The composition of the Mandala of Characters.

In the creation of the Mandala of Characters, I used mainly three systems describing human personalities. These are:

1. The system which is very old and is coming from ancient times. This Ancient System is distinguishing for temperaments: Sanguine, Choleric, Phlegmatic, and Melancholic.
2. The system of eight psychological types by Carl Gustav Jung.
3. Enneagram, distinguishing nine types.

From the achievements of the ancient thinkers, the most significant for this work are the so-called temperaments. It means Sanguine, Choleric, Phlegmatic, and Melancholic which were distinguished by Galen. The idea of temperaments was based, among others, on the work of Hippocrates.

Apart from temperaments in this work, I used so-called elements (also called roots and natural element). On the idea of elements worked among others Empedocles, Plato, and Aristotle.

The elements are mainly: Air, Fire, Water, and Earth. To these four main elements is added the unique element called—Ether. The universe consists of the Ether. The ether also occurs somewhere inside of the four main elements, or penetrates them or fills them all.

The concept of elements we can find in many cultures, e.g., in ancient Babylonia, India, China, Japan, Egypt, and Tibet. The divisions for the main elements differ in particular cultures. But the idea itself of the basic elements appeared in many culturally different regions of the world. We can find some information about it on this website.

The basic elements were also an essential part of medieval alchemy. They also were and still are used, for example in astrology and tarot.

In modern times, the division into temperaments coming from antiquity also appeared in psychology. For example, the modified version of it used in his works an outstanding psychologist Hans Jürgen Eysenck who died in 1997. His lectures are also available on YouTube channel, e.g.

The ancient system is therefore timeless and universal.

For me, very valuable is the symbolism of this system. Especially symbols of Air, Fire, Water, and Earth. These symbols people used before and are using now in culture, art, abstract thinking, etc. They are used to express thoughts, in metaphors and comparisons probably in every language of the world. These symbols are also established in our psyche because they occur in our dreams.

The second main system which I used in this work is so-called—psychological types. This system introduced famous Swiss psychiatrist and psychologist Carl Gustav Jung in 1921. In his book “Psychological Types” he very carefully collected various ideas, mainly from European culture, describing different types of human personality.

Based on his many years of research, reflection, and experience, Jung distinguished eight personality types. This system of types, as well as Jung himself, earned great authority. His personality typology became an inspiration and a basis for the creation of next systems. The systems follow-on and develop Jung’s ideas. These modifications of Jung’s typology are used more and more often. Apart from psychology, they are used, for example in business, education, and others. In business, they are used, for example, in recruitment, management, and marketing.

Typologies based on Jung typology are among others MBTI®, Socionics, MTR-i™, MMDITM, Keirsey Temperament Sorter®, and many others.

The third main system which I used to build the Mandala of Characters is “Enneagram”. The word “Enneagram” comes from the Greek language and combines two words: Ennea—nine and gram—diagram. As the name suggests, in this typology nine types have been distinguished.

This typology, like typologies based on Jung’s works, is also gaining more and more popularity. Among others, the Enneagram is used in business, therapy, education, and other areas.

Personally, I like Enneagram very much, and I am very fascinated by it. For me, it is one of the best typologies, so far created, describing human characters. The particular types described in the Enneagram are for me the most expressive, characteristic and easiest to recognize in ordinary life. Thanks to this, in my opinion, the Enneagram is probably the most accessible and easiest typology to learn. I also think that based on the Enneagram, it is easier than in other typologies to discover someone’s character only by observation of his behavior in typical life situations. It is due, among other this, to the fact that the Enneagram determines how people behave in different emotional states. It means precisely, these are states that trigger three types of behavior:

1. “Typicality”.
   Behavior typical of particular Enneagram type.
2. Stress.
   Behavior that occurs in stress.
3. Relax or Comfort.
   Behavior during relax or comfort.

According to Enneagram, when we enter into “stress” or “relax”, we move to another type of Enneagram. And during this stress or relax we start to behave like this another type.

So, what we need to recognize what someone’s type of Enneagram is?

We need to observe someone’s behavior in three kinds of situations. It means when we see, how someone behaves in a typical way. How someone behaves in stress. And how someone behaves when he feels comfortable or relaxed. In other words, we can compare someone’s “typicality”, stress and relax to descriptions of particular types of Enneagram. Then based on these observations, we can find what type of Enneagram someone probably belongs to? Dear reader, I will write more about moving between “typicality”, stress and relax later in this article. Then it will be easier to understand this movement between our mental states described by Enneagram.

Also, in finding the Enneagram type very helpful are emotions. The Enneagram describes a relationship between particular types and three primary emotions. These are anger, fear, and shame. These emotions, though, are often hidden. But these inner emotions often trigger in us specific behavior. Behavior that we can observe in daily life.

In summary, I am very inspired by the Enneagram. Especially by two above mention ideas. It means:
- the idea of moving from one type of Enneagram to another during typical state, stress, and comfort,
- and influence which have anger, fear, and shame on particular types of Enneagram.

These two above ideas have a significant influence on the development of the Mandala of Characters.

In the Mandala of Characters, the Ancient System plays a unique role. I treat it as a basis for further consideration. It looks like that on the Ancient System I am putting the knowledge from Jung’s typology and knowledge from the Enneagram. In practice, it reminds a geometric puzzle, because I focus mainly on the diagrams of these three typologies. Their particular elements I rearranged and matched in this way that parts with the same meaning are in the same places.

The Ancient System became the basis for further considerations because it is most well-established in tradition, culture, art, science and above all, in the human psyche. Its great strength is the language of symbols, which our psyche understands very well.

The Ancient System, therefore, I treat with the greatest respect, and in sum, its shape remains unchanged. Speaking more specifically, the Mandala of Characters contains diagram proposed by Aristotle regarding the basic elements. And this diagram is complemented by the temperaments of Galen.

The Ancient System I integrated with Jung’s typology and the Enneagram.

When I matched the Jung typology, there was no such problem, because Jung helped me himself. In his works, I found something that was very helpful for me. And to be more precise, it helped me his a stone mandala. This mandala she sculpted on his 75 birthday. In this mandala, he carved, with the help of various symbols, the knowledge he gained during his life.

At the same, I also came across the work of Steve Myers, the creator of typology called – Management Team Roles Indicator™ (MTR-i™). This typology is based on the Jung’s typology and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®). The typology scheme of Steve Myers, look similar to Jung’s stone mandala. Steve Myers in his not non-existent blog on 5th March 2007, wrote that he discovered his diagram, not knowing about Jung’s sculptural work. He was amazed when he found that the shape of his MTR-i™ is similar to shape Jung’s stone mandala.

As for the Enneagram, matching it to the Ancient System and Jung’s typology was a much bigger problem. I could not find a diagram or works of some Enneagram experts, which would give me some tips or associations. So, I slowly analyzed various articles about the Enneagram. And one element of Enneagram after another I matched them to the Ancient System and Jung’s typology. Many associations suggested me, among others, publications of Krzysztof Wirpsza and Wojciech Jóźwiak.

At the same time, I was also looking for inspiration in other publications that might have something to do with the topic of characters.

As a result, after seven years (2006-2013) of associating and dispelling various doubts, I created the diagram of the Mandala of Characters. And this Mandala combines the Ancient System, Jung’s psychological types, and the Enneagram. I still analyze and develop it further. Therefore, on the diagrams, I write down the inscription indicating the version of the Mandala of Characters. The first official version I marked as—version 1.

This work contains a lot of diagrams. In fact, they are the main content. I focus primarily on them. They are also the basis and the starting point for many considerations and thoughts. From these diagrams, we can draw out many interpretations and extract a lot of content. For this reason, in the name of the theory of characters which I am creating here, I decided to use the word—mandala.

In this work, I also used a different approach than in other typologies describing personalities. This approach I based on the following assumptions:

• I did not create new detailed concepts that would be specific only for the Mandala of Characters. Such specific concepts often created authors of other theories describing various types of characters, personalities, and temperaments of people. Creating new specific concepts has, on the one hand, the advantage that it lets more precisely define what their authors have in their mind. On the other hand, however, the new specific concepts have the disadvantage that they need to be learned by other people. And if they learn them, it often turns out that many people do not understand these concepts in the same way as their authors. All in all, people create new interpretations. Next, these interpretations over time will become broader concepts. And gradually these concepts will pick up new meanings. Therefore, among other things, in this Mandala of Characters, I used terms commonly used and known. Although I used these terms for new concepts that I created in this Mandala.
• I used ambiguous words and words of the broadest meaning to create particular names and concepts in the Mandala. This approach has the advantage that it gives the possibility of many associations with other concepts. Thanks to this it is easier to combine different topics with each other. The first example of this is the word “character”, used in the name of the whole theory, that is, in “the Mandala of Characters”. The word “character” is a broader concept than, e.g., personality or temperament. It goes beyond psychology and is used in many areas of life.
• I often use dictionaries: Polish, foreign words, phraseology, antonyms, and synonyms. These dictionaries, if we associate them with the use of broad and ambiguous concepts, we can find that is a very rich source of psychological knowledge. The knowledge which is linked to tradition, culture, art, various beliefs, science and so on.
• I use the words that have the greatest reference to all sets of symbolism. Symbols are universally used in art, science, religion, etc. In result, the symbols make the concepts which I use in this work even richer in meanings.
• I also use the symbolism that appears in dreams, which is closely related to all areas of life. Many issues in this work I treat like as they would be dreams. I interpret and describe them just like ordinary dreams. This approach usually gives a great outlook for various associations, metaphors, and comparisons.
  For many years I have been interested in dreams. So, this subject is close to me. Symbols appearing in dreams often have many meanings. Many of these symbols we can interpret in several ways. It often turns out that each of these interpretations is right. This ambiguity and depth of dream symbols are their extraordinary attribute. Dreams, although they are very ambiguous, are also unique. Each dream is actually one of a kind. Dream symbols are therefore an amazing language of our psyche. The language which is full of deep contents and secrets for constant discovery.
  In total, the dream symbols which our psyche is using were for me the most significant argument. The argument for this that it is a good idea to use ambiguous and symbolic concepts to describe particular types and particular elements of the Mandala of Characters.
• The use of broad and ambiguous concepts and symbols also has this great advantage that everybody know them well. And this fact, I hope, will make it easier to explore the Mandala of Characters.
  The combination of ambiguous words and concepts with commonly used symbols is an interesting approach. The approach which gives unlimited associations and interpretations. These associations and interpretations can go in different directions, which can sometimes be very unexpected and surprising. However, it can often be beneficial in discovering the different sides of our personality and the secrets of the human psyche.

I hope that the approaches mentioned above will make Mandala of Characters easier to learn.