The Enneagram
The Enneagram is a personality assessment tool for self knowledge and actualization that can assist you to reach your highest potential. Unlike other personality tests, the Enneagram does not put you in a box - rather it shows you the box you are already in, and it shows you the way out. The Enneagram exposes how our personalities sabotage our deepest desires for a life fully lived. Coaching using the Enneagram supports this investigation with engaged compassion that brings about revolutionary changes. |
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From Wisdom of the Enneagram by Don Riso and Russ Hudson:
"The Enneagram (pronounced “ANY-a-gram”) (ennea means ‘nine’ in Greek) is a personality typing system that has roots in many different spiritual traditions including Christianity, Buddhism, Islam (especially Sufi), and Judaism (in the Kabbalah).
"The heart of the Enneagram is the universal insight that human beings are spiritual presences incarnated in the material world and yet mysterious embodying the same life and Spirit as the Creator. One of the great strengths of the Enneagram is that it steps aside from all doctrinal differences. It has helped individuals from virtually every major religious faith to rediscover their fundamental unity as spiritual beings.
“The Enneagram is not a religion, however; nor does it interfere with a person’s religious orientation. It does not pretend to be a complete spiritual path. Nevertheless, it concerns itself with one element that is fundamental to all spiritual paths: self- knowledge.
“Without self knowledge we will not get very far on our spiritual journey, or will we be able to sustain whatever progress we have made. The Enneagram takes us places (and makes real progress possible) because it starts working from where we actually are. As much as it reveals the spiritual heights that we are capable of attaining, it also sheds light clearly and non-judgmentally on aspects of our lives that are dark and unfree. If we are going to live as spiritual beings in the material world, then these are the areas we most need to explore.
“Presence (awareness, mindfulness), and understanding of self-observation (gained from self-knowledge), and understanding what one’s experiences mean (an accurate interpretation provided by the larger context such as a community or spiritual system) are the three basic elements needed for transformational work. Being supplies the first, you supply the second, and the Enneagram supplies the third. When these three come together, things can happen quickly.
“Work with the Enneagram starts when you identify your type and begin to understand its dominant issues. While we recognize in ourselves behaviors of all nine types, our most defining characteristics are rooted in one of the types.
“Identifying oneself as one of the nine personality types can be revolutionary. For the first time in our lives, we may see the pattern and overall rationale for the way we have lived and behaved. By helping us see how trapped we are in our trances and how estranged we are from our Essential nature, the Enneagram invites us to look deeply into the mystery of our true identity. It is mean to initiate a process of inquiry that can lead us to a more profound truth about ourselves and our place in the world. While knowing our type gives us important information, that information is merely an embarkation point for a much greater journey.
"The aim of this work is to stop the automatic reactions of the personality by bringing awareness to it. Only by bringing insight and clarity to the mechanisms of personality can we awaken. The more we see the mechanical reaction of our personality, the less identified with them we become and the more freedom we have. That is what the Enneagram is all about.”
Learn more at the Enneagram Institute
"The Enneagram (pronounced “ANY-a-gram”) (ennea means ‘nine’ in Greek) is a personality typing system that has roots in many different spiritual traditions including Christianity, Buddhism, Islam (especially Sufi), and Judaism (in the Kabbalah).
"The heart of the Enneagram is the universal insight that human beings are spiritual presences incarnated in the material world and yet mysterious embodying the same life and Spirit as the Creator. One of the great strengths of the Enneagram is that it steps aside from all doctrinal differences. It has helped individuals from virtually every major religious faith to rediscover their fundamental unity as spiritual beings.
“The Enneagram is not a religion, however; nor does it interfere with a person’s religious orientation. It does not pretend to be a complete spiritual path. Nevertheless, it concerns itself with one element that is fundamental to all spiritual paths: self- knowledge.
“Without self knowledge we will not get very far on our spiritual journey, or will we be able to sustain whatever progress we have made. The Enneagram takes us places (and makes real progress possible) because it starts working from where we actually are. As much as it reveals the spiritual heights that we are capable of attaining, it also sheds light clearly and non-judgmentally on aspects of our lives that are dark and unfree. If we are going to live as spiritual beings in the material world, then these are the areas we most need to explore.
“Presence (awareness, mindfulness), and understanding of self-observation (gained from self-knowledge), and understanding what one’s experiences mean (an accurate interpretation provided by the larger context such as a community or spiritual system) are the three basic elements needed for transformational work. Being supplies the first, you supply the second, and the Enneagram supplies the third. When these three come together, things can happen quickly.
“Work with the Enneagram starts when you identify your type and begin to understand its dominant issues. While we recognize in ourselves behaviors of all nine types, our most defining characteristics are rooted in one of the types.
“Identifying oneself as one of the nine personality types can be revolutionary. For the first time in our lives, we may see the pattern and overall rationale for the way we have lived and behaved. By helping us see how trapped we are in our trances and how estranged we are from our Essential nature, the Enneagram invites us to look deeply into the mystery of our true identity. It is mean to initiate a process of inquiry that can lead us to a more profound truth about ourselves and our place in the world. While knowing our type gives us important information, that information is merely an embarkation point for a much greater journey.
"The aim of this work is to stop the automatic reactions of the personality by bringing awareness to it. Only by bringing insight and clarity to the mechanisms of personality can we awaken. The more we see the mechanical reaction of our personality, the less identified with them we become and the more freedom we have. That is what the Enneagram is all about.”
Learn more at the Enneagram Institute
Take the online Enneagram RHETI personality assessment from the Enneagram Institute. The assessment costs $12 and takes approximately 45 minutes.
