The Real Gift of the Enneagram
Finding your type is only the beginning
It’s no secret that we believe in the power of the Enneagram to transform one’s self-awareness and awareness of others. Many become incredibly excited when they realize they’ve found a system that accurately describes their inner world. Having studied dozens of personality typologies, we, too, found the Enneagram to be the most comprehensive and potentially profound. However, we also find that many people get stuck on their Enneagram journey while typing. Some types, particularly Type Nine and/or the 469 Trifix specifically, will spend years changing and re-orienting their Enneagram-type configuration. For many people, the re-typing or type discovery process is exciting and allows for self-reflection and a bit of good ol’ fashioned navel-gazing. But to stop the journey at the typing process robs Enneagram enthusiasts of the potential transformative gift of the Enneagram, which is to deepen one’s awareness of the ego’s complex defense strategies.
When we’ve correctly identified our primary type, Trifix, and instinctual stacking, the most impactful next step is to explore how the intersection of our defenses and strategies has been shaping our conscious and unconscious choices. Many people ask why it’s essential to enlist the help of a qualified and knowledgeable teacher when studying the Enneagram, and the answer is quite simple. By design, Some aspects of our psyche are inaccessible without the watchful and compassionate eye of a guide or teacher. In the long tradition of deep psycho-spiritual systems, a knowledgeable teacher can help illuminate the darker, lesser-known terrain of our inner world so that we can leverage the insights mined for greater understanding.
Ideally, after accurately identifying our defense structures, we will shift into transforming and minimizing the unconscious response of those strategies to be in a state of greater psychological or spiritual freedom. The story's moral is to be mindful that you don’t become so glamorized and fascinated with the different behavioral aspects of the types that you forget that the Enneagram is much more than a classifying system that can, with focused attention, be an invaluable tool for growth and transformation.