Creation history

2.1. — Ancient System

In the above figure is the Ancient System. On this figure we can see so-called:

• Temperaments—Sanguine, Phlegmatic, Choleric, Melancholic (created by Galen),
• Humors (or Humours)—Blood, Yellow Bile, Black Bile, Phlegm, (establish by Hippocrates),
• Elements—Air, Fire, Water, Winter (established among others by Empedocles, Plato, Aristotle),
• and Seasons—Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter.

Temperaments: Sanguine, Phlegmatic, Choleric and Melancholic come from Galen. The names of temperaments come from the basic substances, called humors, which body contains. The person most famous for developing research on humors is Hippocrates.

Names of temperaments Galen created from the names of following humors:

• Sanguine, (Greek: αἷμα, haima), (Lain: sangius), or Blood,
• Melancholic, (Greek: μέλαινα—mélanos and χολή—chole), or Black Bile,
• Choleric, (Greek: ξανθη—xanthe and χολή—hole), or Yellow Bile,
• Phlegmatic, (Greek: φλέγμα—phlegma, phlégm), or Phlegm.

Next, on the figure, we can see four elements. The scheme of the elements is based on the Aristotle’s concept. We can find on the figure: Fire, Air, Water, and Earth.

The Aristotle’s concept also contains the features of the above elements, that is: dry, moist, hot and cold. If we take into account properties of elements, every element has two features. It means:

• Fire is hot and dry,
• Air is moist and hot,
• Water is cold and wet,
• Earth is dry and cold.

In the above figure, we can see the seasons yet: Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. Seasons are assigned to particular elements, temperaments, and humors.

As I mentioned above, I treat the Ancient System as the basis on which I build the Mandala of Characters. And my first schematic illustration of the Ancient System looks like on the diagram below.

I have changed a bit the form of the diagram of ancient elements. In general, the diagram is now a square that is divided by two diagonals lines into four fields. These fields correspond to particular temperaments, humors, elements and seasons. Between the fields, there are features of elements (that is hot, wet, dry and cold).

Inside there is a circle. On this circle, I will mark types of characters later.

In fact, this circle can, in itself, symbolize the multiplicity and diversity of human characters. I am thinking here about mathematical definitions of the circle. It means the circle is a set of points which have fixed distance from a certain point (that is, from the center of the circle). This fixed distance between the set of points and the center of the circle is called radius.

What draws my attention the most in this definition is the concept of the “set of points”. “Points” which create the circle. These points which form a circle can symbolize the diversity of human characters, because, as we all know, each of us is different. In this work, however, will not be discussed every point on the circle. It means, every character from all possible types of human characters. On this circle, I will put and describe only these types of characters which are described in three typologies mentioned above. That is, Ancient System, Jung’s psychological types and the Enneagram. I will also consider other later typologies which are developing these three.

So, all in all, these marked points, or types of characters, will be not too many. However, people needed probably a few thousand years to distinguish them, or maybe even longer. This fact shows how much more we can to discover in the field of human personalities.

Points (characters), which will be marked on the circle, we can nowadays treat them as some reference points. Thanks to these reference points, we can discover where we can find our special and unique type of character? It means, we can find which reference point is the closest to our unique point. The point which represents our character. In this way, we will be able to find out with what type of character we can identify?

So we have the basis (or foundation) of our Mandala of Characters. It means—Ancient System. Now, let’s match to Mandala the nest theory, that is, Carl Gustav Jung’s—psychological types.