Enneagram patterning (Sufism)

The enneagram is a unique graphic representation of the interrelationship between nine points. In one application, each point is used to represent a personality type or feature, thus providing a cognitive/emotional map of personality as a useful guide to understanding and transforming personalities. Where, for a given individual, one of these features is the central axis around which the delusional aspects of his personality revolve, recognizing it within the context of the enneagram offers the person a major insight into the way in which his life is defective as well as offering a general outline of the ways to work in changing it. < The enneagram is not a map of a static system. The interconnecting lines between the points indicate the potential for dynamic movement. Although individuals may discover themselves to be especially linked to a particular point, the diagram suggests the possibility of a versatility of movement between the points.

The enneagram goes beyond preoccupations with ordinary life and makes it possible to explore the existential and spiritual virtues that could be developed if an individual can recapture the essential life energy that is normally displaced into pathological defences against his real nature. It assists people to appreciate the predisposition that each personality type has for higher human capacities such as empathy, omniscience and love. As such the enneagram can be used to describe the levels of humanity's possible evolution beyond personality. Its power derives from the recognition it offers of how the limited, and seemingly neurotic, normal habits of heart and mind may be used as potential access points into higher states of awareness. It is thus not limited to the pathological perspective.

The nine types mapped by the enneagram are: perfectionist, giver, performer, tragic romantic, observer, devil's advocate, epicure, boss, and mediator. With each type are associated typical defence mechanisms, intuitive styles, pathologies, passions, preoccupations, virtues.

In addition to its use in the understanding personality, the enneagram may also be used as an instrument through which to learn to think triadically rather than linearly and sequentially. Specifically it may be used to analyze patterns of human activity and projects in order to determine what is possible and impossible in human undertakings. In this sense it may be used to determine whether developmental processes are sustainable, or what is required to make them so.

The term enneagram was introduced by G I Gurdjieff as a description of a traditional Sufi technique. Its uses were developed by one of his students J G Bennett. Further attention was subsequently drawn to it by Oscar Ichazo. It is a tool of an oral teaching tradition that views personality preoccupations as indicators of latent abilities that unfold during the development of higher consciousness.