People have strong feelings about the Enneagram, the nine-way typology model popular among millennials (particularly Christian ones). For some, it’s the very lens the through which they experience the world — a tool for self discovery and a gift from Heaven, not unlike the stone tablets upon which the Ten Commandments were etched on Mount Sinai. For others, it’s at best an annoying fad, and at worst a bogus social crutch for the weak-minded. After reading up on this phenomenon (and listening to way too many podcasts about it) for the last three years or so, I find myself somewhere in the middle of these two extremes, although I’m probably closer to the former if I’m being honest. But when it comes to the question of whether or not the Enneagram is “real”, the conclusion I’ve come to is that it is not. It’s a bunch of made up nonsense.
And yet, I’m so glad I stumbled across it, because it’s helped me a lot. Many Christian Enneagram enthusiasts love to talk about how the Enneagram has its roots in church history. While there may be some truth to this, the evidence is hazy at best. Some ancient Christian mystics have recorded ideas that seem to vaguely resemble the Enneagram, but the actual nine-pointed shape and subsequent personality types that we recognize today didn’t show up until the 20th century. Now, in the latter half of the 2010’s, the Enneagram is absolutely ubiquitous. The first thing that caught my attention with the Enneagram when I discovered it a few years ago was the distinctness of the number nine. Why nine types? This immediately sets it apart from other typology tools such as Meyers-Briggs, which has sixteen types. In fact, most personality assessments are roughly based on a four-quadrant system (many are a reinterpretation of the “Four Temperaments” which date back to Ancient Greece), so the number of possible types is normally a multiple of four. But the Enneagram has nine types. That number seemed so arbitrary to me, but I was intrigued enough to look into it more. Slowly I began to set my skepticism aside, telling myself that this was probably all fake, but at least it was fun. It took me quite a bit of flip-flopping before I eventually settled on 9 as the type that resonated with me the most. Type 9 is often designated as “The Peacemaker” or “The Mediator". Those dominant in the type have a reputation for being indecisive, so it makes sense within the model of the Enneagram that I would have settled on this one in the end. The Enneagram nerd in me loves that even my own process of discovering my type reflects my type, while the skeptic in me thinks, “Wow, isn’t it convenient that they even have a type for people who can’t decide what type they are?” And yet, I still don’t know that Type 9 resonates with me completely. It certainly seems like the closest fit given the options, but if the Enneagram really were a cosmic code of personality categorization that everyone fits into, shouldn’t I fit neatly into one category? If I have to settle for a type that only mostly represents me, does that imply that this is all just a bunch of self-serious make-believe? Truthfully, yes, I think it does. Most Enneagram experts would agree that the personality model that the Enneagram has come to represent is largely based on trial and error. But if you are an Enneagram enthusiast, I am not trying to convince you that the Enneagram has any less value than you currently believe it has. What I want to do is convince the people who already think this thing is a bunch of fluff that while they’re somewhat correct, that doesn’t mean it’s useless. It isn’t just a thing that some dude made up hundreds of years ago. It’s a thing that a whole bunch of people made up over a period of hundreds of years. That has to carry a bit more weight, doesn’t it? More than once, I’ve heard the Enneagram described as “astrology for Christians”. While most people who use that comparison are not using it in a flattering way, there is probably some merit to it. There are some obvious similarities, not the least of which is the vibe of vague hippie spiritualism that many associate with both. That’s a connotation that Meyers-Briggs, DISC, and other similar typology models do not share. But unlike astrology, one’s Enneagram type is not determined by their birth date — which, much to the chagrin of Enneagram-haters, makes it a bit harder to “disprove”. So what determines your Enneagram type? According to the experts, it’s a potentially long journey of self discovery. According to someone who just heard about it last week, it might be a twelve-question internet quiz. It’s all rather subjective. Since Enneagram 7’s are not born with a Roman numeral VII tattooed on their forehead, the correlation between a person’s type and their behavior isn’t really solid evidence for the Enneagram’s validity. We can’t look at the behavior of a Type 7 and say, “See? All 7’s behave this way.” Because who is to say that person is really a Type 7? The best we can do is say, “Some people behave this way.” If you read a list of distinct personality categories, one of them is bound to resonate with you more than the others, even if they are all arbitrary. And in case you accidentally relate to more than one type, there will always be an Enneagram nerd nearby to remind you that this is normal, because we all have every type within us. Wow, isn’t that convenient? It feels like I keep finding more and more reasons to throw the Enneagram into the nearest trash can, but every time I find a new one I also find another practical use for it. For example, last year I read a book called The Sacred Enneagram: Finding Your Unique Path to Spiritual Growth, by Christopher L. Heuertz. In it, Heuertz dissects the Enneagram from a Christian perspective, and assigns a “prayer posture” to each type — a two-word description of how each one best relates to the Divine. Each one is a unique combination of one of three verbs (engage, rest, consent) and nouns (solitude, silence, stillness). I won’t go into how he arrives at each of these; truthfully, I don’t fully remember how he gets there, but he definitely shows his work. What I do remember is that the prayer posture for Type 9 was “engage stillness”. “Stillness” comes relatively easy for your typical Type 9 (the “deadly sin” associated with this type is Sloth). But engaging stillness is another matter entirely. So often, I let my idle moments slip by without truly being present in them. This idea of engaging stillness has been immensely helpful to me in my own spiritual life, and I’ve learned to harness it in prayer and meditation. So the Enneagram is helpful. But is it “real”? What does that question even mean? Is a constellation of stars “real”? I’m no astronomer, but I’m pretty sure the Big Dipper is a cluster of stars that resemble a shape to the human eye only because of where the earth is located in relation to them. If we were located somewhere else in the galaxy, the constellations would look completely different. And yet for centuries, people used these constellations to navigate ships across oceans. At the risk of inviting more astrology-Enneagram comparisons, I think the Enneagram is something like this: a construct that is helpful to human beings in navigating the world, even if it’s, in a sense, completely made up. If you’ve done any amount of reading on the Enneagram, you are likely aware that the modern Enneagram is more complex than just its set of nine types. There are plenty of little extras — wings, subtypes, integration, and more — that make it even more fun (or even more stupid, again depending on who you ask). You might say, “If the Enneagram is all made up, then how is it so dynamic?” From my own personal experience, most of these little bonus mechanics of the model are less universal than the basic typology. Maybe somewhere down the read, we will figure out a scientific reason that a Type 3 integrates to a Type 6 in growth, or why a Type 2 can only have a 1-wing or a 3-wing. Maybe someone has already come up with an explanation for these things that I am unaware of. I tend to think much of this can be explained by the fact that the more “into” the Enneagram you are, the more likely you are to try to understand all this extra stuff. If you get that far into the lore, you’re probably willing to buy into it. As cynical as that sounds, keep in mind that I’m speaking to myself here. I’ve bought into it pretty much entirely — and you know what? It’s been pretty helpful to me! At the end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (yes, I am going to quote Harry Potter in my blog post about the Enneagram; I’m rolling my eyes just as hard as you are right now) Harry has an encounter with his deceased mentor Albus Dumbledore in a sort of limbo after he sacrifices himself to save the world. The talk for a while, and after Dumbledore has shared some wisdom with him, Harry asks if this experience is real or if it is only happening in his head. “Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry,” says Dumbledore, “but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?”
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