The wisdom of the Enneagram
“All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players.”
William Shakespeare
The Enneagram is over 2600 years old and having been hidden for centuries, is now a widespread method as the basis of self-inquiry. The Enneagram divides people into nine main character fixations and describes in remarkable detail and depth how each character will see and experience the world and themselves.
The key question that arises from learning and understanding which number you have assumed as your role is: if your view of the world can be described in such detail by someone who has never met you, if your actions can be predicted once my character is known, then where is free will?
In learning about oneself in this manner, one can bgin to appreciate that most of what one takes oneself to be is simply a role - one that each of us has unwittingly and subconsciously assumed.
It may be how we show up in the world, but it is not the essence of who we are.
Why are we the way that we are?
The way that we see, react to, and experience the present is a result of everything that happened to us from the time we were conceived. Modern medical science, and in particular, psychology is discovering more and more that who we are now will be very heavily influenced by what happened to us in the past and in particular what happened when we were infants.
Childhood trauma (which need not entail any form of what we would term “abuse” – it can simply be being present to the breakdown of parents’ relationship or having parents who had to go out to work and were therefore not present to see to an infant’s emotional needs) has the most impact. Unless brought to light, examined and thereby healed, this trauma will continue to affect how we experience the world for the rest of our lives.
To understand why we are who we are, why we play the role that we show up as every day, is hugely beneficial in enabling us to see the falseness of that role. To see that it is just a role no different from the actors on a stage can be the gateway to liberation.
“The Unexamined life is not worth living.”
Socrates