E. Alan Meece is the author of this piece.
The Enneagram is a nine-type psychological classification system. The name enneagram comes from the Greek word enneas, which means “nine.” People can recognize their behavior and personality in the description of an Enneagram type, or possibly two or three of them, which has made it useful and popular. The purpose of using the Enneagram is to learn about your personality’s strengths and shortcomings. Each personality type has its own set of healthy and unhealthy behaviors. When a person realizes the problematic components of their personality type, he or she learns self-imposed restrictions and entrenched reactions, which can be overcome in order to become healthier. People can also recognize the positive parts of their personality type, and being aware of this allows them to maximize this behavior.
A lot of people utilize astrology in the same way. In the same way that people acquaint themselves with Enneagram types, clients or students can notice the main zodiac signs and planets in their horoscope and so familiarize themselves with self-imposed boundaries or instinctive reactions connected with those signs and planets. Astrology is, in truth, the world’s oldest psychological type system. It makes me question if more current typing systems (Enneagram, Jungian/MBTI, and so on) owe something to the oldest and most venerable of them all.
The most intriguing question I’ve had about the Enneagram isn’t so much whether it works as it is if it’s true; if it weren’t true and beneficial, it wouldn’t have remained so popular for so long. Of course, astrology is the same way. What is the Enneagram built on, exactly? The types are described to the learner, who is then expected to identify with one of the types. But why these nine personality types, rather than others? Why is it that each type has that specific character and not another? Why nine, rather than seven (as with the chakras), ten (as with the kabbalah), twelve (as with astrology), or sixteen (as with the MBTI)?
People often ask the same question regarding astrology (what is it based on? ), which is ironic. Of course, astrology has a solution: the planets and their motions through the zodiac. Skeptics, on the other hand, are unsatisfied, asking, “How could the planets influence human behavior?” What influence do the planets have on humans, and how is this influence transmitted? Astrologers have answers to this, which I won’t get into here; in my book, I provided a simple one.
Others, such as Horoscope for the New Millennium, have also provided answers. However, however unsatisfying such responses may be to scientifically minded critics, astrology does posit a source for the character of its kinds. Astrology is based on a fundamental principle: each individual reflects the cosmos. Each human is a microcosm of the solar system and the universe, or “hologram.” As a result, each human possesses the nature of the planets and signs. For the nature of the Enneagram’s types, there is no such source. It simply spells down its nine categories, as well as other laws, and many people are baffled as to where they came from.
My explanation is straightforward: the Enneagram’s nine kinds are astrological types. Because astrology was no longer regarded as a valid psychological system, the Enneagram’s designers kept their origins secret. The Enneagram, on the other hand, has evolved on its own since its inception, generating its types and sub-types independently of its initial source. They couldn’t employ too many other astrological techniques, or the secret connection would have been discovered sooner. As a result, there are some slight distinctions between astrology and Enneagram types, which serve to obscure the link between them.
The philosopher’s wheel is a collection of philosophical, psychological, esoteric, and scientific systems that contribute to our understanding of reality, as well as our own liberation and wellness. However, the contrasts between these systems also highlight each system’s limits. They all claim to be describing the same reality, thus they must be combined. We can discover what is most true within all of them through their sometimes hidden commonalities, and therefore form a holistic perspective of ourselves and the cosmos. Astrology and the Enneagram can be viewed in the same light. They are fundamentally the same, yet each can contribute to the other because, despite having a shared source, they have evolved in isolation from one another, much like emerging species of live things acquire differences when isolated from one another, and hence give some unique insights. It’s crucial to note the differences as well as the similarities when comparing systems or utilizing one to describe another.
So, how do the two systems relate to one another? What makes the two typing systems “identical”? To find the answer, we must first acknowledge that the planets, not the signs, are the most important foundation for astrological kinds. The planets, according to astrologers, are the “actors” in a horoscope; they are the energy carriers, whereas the signs just change them. In fact, one or two of the planets are believed to “rule” each of the zodiac signs. That should answer your first question: if there are nine enneagram kinds and twelve astrology types, how can enneagram and astrology types be the same? Because there are nine planets, there are nine different sorts of planets! We are on the correct track if we change our focus from the zodiac signs to the planets. The nine enneagram kinds are the nine planetary types if the enneagram and astrology are the same.
“Goldberg (The Nine Ways of Working) argues the nine styles might as well come from different planets,” adds Enneagram therapist Mary Bast, without claiming a causal link. “The origins derive from unknown esoteric “teachers of wisdom” who have been discreet about this system,” wrote Tom Flautt and John Richards in an essay on her website. The possibilities of these “esoteric teachers” who created the Enneagram using the queen of the esoteric sciences look rather good! Because the 9 Enneagram Kinds have no accepted basis, I’m wondering if they’ll be transformed to the 9 planetary types in the future.
However, before we can compare them, we need to make two more explanations. The Sun and Moon are classified as “planets” in astrology, although the Earth is not. That’s a total of ten planets. The Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto are the planets that make up the solar system. Because Pluto had not yet been discovered, there were only nine of these “planets” when the Enneagram was created. Even today, Pluto is not usually seen as a planet, and while astrologers argue that Pluto is immensely relevant when studying the cycles and tendencies of nations, peoples, and civilizations, it is not always regarded as such on a personal level. Of course, before the 18th and 19th centuries, Uranus and Neptune, two other invisible and distant planets, were unknown. However, in Vedic astrology, their natures were accounted for by the locations of Rahu and Ketu, which were dependent on the Moon’s nodes. Again, we won’t go into depth here, but it’s probable that the Uranus and Neptune types hidden in the Enneagram were developed from Vedic astrology’s impact. Though rooted from old astrological sources such as the kabbalah and Greek and Medieval philosophy, I believe the Enneagram was mostly established in the early twentieth century, before Pluto was discovered in 1930, and was surreptitiously based on the planetary kinds known at the time. Gurdjieff is said to have created it at this period.
This website describes his and others’ contributions to the Enneagram’s development. Oscar Ichazo, the creator of Arica, is referenced, as is Claudio Naranjo.
Each visible planet “rules” two signs (excluding the Sun and Moon, which each control just one), and each planet is also “exalted” in another sign, bringing out its best attributes. Uranus and Neptune, the invisible planets, each dominate one sign, which is also ruled by one of the visible planets. After analyzing the categories and how they correspond to the planets, a clear pattern will emerge, which I will comment on. You can take a look ahead to see what’s coming up.
The pattern is summarized in this table.
In This Article...
Is there a link between the Enneagram and astrology?
The Zodiac is an astrological system that describes 12 basic signs based on the positions of the stars and planets, among other things. The Zodiac describes different personality features for each sign and provides a methodical manner to comprehend the impact of planetary positions. Are you a calm, compassionate, and imaginative Pisces? Or are you a Taurus, a hard worker who is dependable and obstinate?
Zodiac-based astrological readings are used to provide insight into a person’s personality and life path. People usually seek astrological counsel for a specific issue or relationship, and they use the Zodiac to acquire insight and make better personal decisions. An astrological reader can decipher energy’s momentum and how it manifests in a person’s life. These readings can provide answers to questions not only about your personal journey, but also about the planet’s motion. Is now a good time for you to start looking for a new career or start dating? A decent astrological reading can help you figure out what’s going on.
To develop self-awareness and obtain understanding, both the Enneagram and astrology can be employed. They are comparable in this way. There are, however, some significant and basic distinctions between the two systems. Let’s look at three key distinctions.
How you determine your Enneagram type and your Zodiac sign
One of the most fundamental distinctions between the two systems is the procedure for identifying your Enneagram type or Zodiac sign.
Because the Zodiac is an astrological system, classification is rather simple. Your zodiac sign is determined by the date, time, and location of your birth. These particulars help to build a set of coordinates for your position in the celestial realm, with all of its influences. While different astrological systems may classify you differently (for example, Western and Vedic astrology use different calculations to determine classification), your Zodiac sign is determined using quantifiable data points.
The Enneagram is a self-contained map of human consciousness that is not influenced by external events. You “self-type” using the Enneagram when you recognize which of the nine attention habits corresponds to your way of thinking and inner motivation. Self-typing is a crucial aspect of the Enneagram, thus you must be able to recognize yourself. Motivation is at the heart of the Enneagram types, and only you know why you do what you do. Behavior patterns are utilized as indicators, but motivation comes first.
This is a significant distinction. The Zodiac suggests predestination based on your birth date, time, and location, whereas the Enneagram suggests self-determination based on a personal and accurate assessment of your attention habit. Your Zodiac sign can be determined by an astrological reader. Your Enneagram type is unique to you.
Is the lens turned inward or outward?
Both techniques are intended to increase self-awareness and to answer issues about life or relationships. While astrology and the Enneagram both have this in common, their focus is different.
The Zodiac uses the stars and planets to acquire insight by turning the lens outward. As the stars and planets move across the universe and orbit each other, the time and space continuum is crucial. These connections underpin your self-awareness, and insight is founded on a grasp of external, observable cosmic variables.
The Enneagram, on the other hand, focuses inward. The map depicts human awareness, and external influences such as the stars, planets, and the passage of time have no bearing. The Enneagram, on the other hand, focuses on your own attention habits and how they influence your decision-making and interpretation of events. The system provides information on how to relax this habit of attentiveness in order to broaden your horizons.
While both the Zodiac and the Enneagram aim to provide you with more information, they do it in opposite ways.
The groupings12 Zodiac signs and 9 Enneagram types
The number of Zodiac sun signs is twelve, while the number of Enneagram fundamental types is nine at the most basic level. This means that if there was a correlation, it would not be a one-to-one relationship. This is at its most basic level; however, scholars of astrology and the Enneagram know that both systems are richly complicated and offer much more than just your basic Zodiac sun sign and basic Enneagram primary type. It becomes even more difficult to trace a direct relationship between the systems when all of the complexity of each system are taken into account.
This isn’t to say that others haven’t tried. There are numerous articles that connect the nine Enneagram types to the twelve Zodiac signs. Some even claim that astrology is based on nine planets and that the two systems are inextricably linked. These connections, in my opinion, are based on a fairly two-dimensional view of the Enneagram that ignores the intricacies of subtypes, wings, and arrows, among other things.
The Enneagram and the Zodiac have correlations based on high-level behavioral mappings, but the Enneagram is not about behavior at all. It all comes down to motivation.
What is the origin of the Enneagram?
Click on the photo to the left to watch Helen Palmer and David Daniels, co-founders and pictured in the second row from the bottom, discuss their 25-year partnership.
The Enneagram was born out of ancient tradition and is derived from the Greek terms ennea (nine) and grammos (a written or drawn symbol). George Gurdjieff, a philosopher and teacher, presented it to the modern world as a human development philosophy in 1915. Oscar Ichazo, the founder of the Arica School, arranged nine personality types around the Enneagram diagram in the late 1960s. Claudio Naranjo, MD, and other psychologists at Berkeley, CA, soon combined the Enneagram with modern psychological advancements.
Helen Palmer, a Naranjo disciple, began teaching Enneagram panel workshops in the Narrative Tradition in the early 1970s. She released The Enneagram: Understanding Yourself and Others in Your Life in 1988, which has been translated into 26 languages and is a perennial bestseller. In the same year, she and Stanford psychiatrist David Daniels, MD co-founded the Enneagram Professional Training Program (EPTP). Through our Narrative Enneagram Curriculum, which blends psychology, spirituality, and somatics with Enneagram programs anchored in the Narrative Tradition, our company has evolved into a nonprofit to preserve and promote this core work worldwide. We are an International Education Association (IEA) accredited school.
Is there any scientific evidence that the Enneagram test is accurate?
The Enneagram is a personality typology system that divides human personality into nine distinct personality types. While it has gained popularity in the fields of spirituality and business, it has received little research and is not commonly acknowledged in the realm of evidence-based psychology.
Is the Enneagram a scientifically validated system?
I’m a Type Three, according to the free enneagram personality test I did online. Type threes are described as “the achiever” or “the performer,” the goal-oriented, efficacy-oriented counterparts of Type Fours (“the romantic”) or Type Nines, depending on where you look (“the mediator). It’s not my favorite look, but it’s also unsurprising and strangely reassuring in the way that horoscopes can be.
Despite the fact that the enneagram test has been around for decades, its popularity is growing. It’s used for team-building and bonding in the workplace. It’s promoted as a tool for introspection on social media as a means to describe one’s place in the world. The hashtag #enneagram, for example, has over 50 million views on TikTok, with people posting enneagram-themed videos with descriptions like “apparently this test is designed to make you weep” and “when someone calls out an enneagram 3/7/8 for making themself the center of attention.”
Not really, in a nutshell. It was met with skepticism by the specialists I contacted. Sanjay Srivastava, the head of the University of Oregon’s Personality and Social Dynamics Lab, says it’s not founded on a scientific theory, and his criticism is mostly based on a lack of data. Rodica Damian, director of the University of Houston’s Personality Development and Success Lab, says that if someone is looking for a valid and reliable personality test, they should look into the Hogan Personality Inventory or the Big Five personality test, though its universality has been questioned.
Luke Smillie is the director of the University of Melbourne’s Personality Processes Laboratory. “Frankly, the enneagram is probably near the top of the ‘tests I would not suggest’ list,” he says. At best, it’s pseudoscientific.
What is the enneagram test?
Its philosophy is founded on Master Ichazo’s teachings, whom Smillie characterizes as a “spiritual teacher.” Its basic elements were synthesized by Ichazo in the mid-20th century, according to a 2020 paper published in The American Journal of Psychiatry, and were adapted and introduced into the United States in the early 1970s by psychiatrists who were excited about using it as a part of psychoanalytic training.
The nine personality types are linked to unique strengths, basic beliefs, limits, and relationship methods. People are divided into core kinds and nearby “wing types,” according to the theory. My test revealed that I am a 98 percent match for Type Three and a 96 percent match for Type Two, which is my wing.
While the enneagram test is utilized in a variety of settings, from human services to academia, it is widely acknowledged that there is a paucity of serious scientific study on its applicability.
According to Smillie, the classification of category categories is problematic since personalities differ in degree rather than kind. The category kinds are also not formed empirically from data; they are not the outcome of a comprehensive examination and quantification of the various ways in which people differ psychologically. Instead, he sees them as “‘top-down’ projections of notions about the human condition held by specific individuals.”
“Those concepts aren’t necessarily ‘evil’ or’wrong,’ but they weren’t established and tested scientifically,” Smillie argues.
This raises serious doubts about their accuracy as depictions of what individuals are like in real life and how people differ psychologically.
Personality’s focal point
Personality tests aren’t all created equal, and there’s a chance they’ll be misapplied.
According to Smillie, decades of study indicate the presence of a multidimensional personality framework made up of roughly five to six features. The Big Five and the HEXACO, a six-dimensional model developed by psychologists in 2000, are his two favorite models. He also feels that “personality assessment can be beneficial in a wide range of practical settings, including advertising, educational settings, dating services, and organizational psychology.”
Some firms have also been chastised for relying too heavily on personality testing to make employment decisions and diagnose workplace problems. Incoming associates at McKinsey & Company, for example, are requested to take the Myers-Briggs test, which experts say lacks evidence for accuracy. While studies show that the Big Five exam accurately predicts behavior, Quartz notes that there is a claim that many of its online versions are engineered to produce sexist findings.
Srivastava believes that evaluating how personality tests might be abused is a worthwhile endeavor.
“Choosing a good test is not enough to use personality assessment effectively in the business,” he argues. “You must be prepared to think about a wide range of ethical, legal, and technological concerns that will influence how you use it.”
The fact that these tests have been criticized does not negate the importance of personality testing.
“Personality,” Smillie continues, “is the most exciting topic in psychological science for me.”
It’s the study of what makes people tick, with the goal of describing and comprehending human individuality.
He points out that psychology is fundamentally about people, and personality plays a role in many of the phenomena studied by psychologists. Smillie argues that the answer to many psychological problems is “it depends,” which means that it depends on who you are and what you enjoy.
It’s also a good idea to know your personality. It reveals your strengths and weaknesses, as well as the types of activities you might be most suited for and why you might react to particular stressors and challenges in your own unique way.
People who want to use personality tests for the sake of curiosity or amusement, according to Srivastava, should do so. When these tests are used in high-stakes circumstances, such as workplaces and schools, when concerns of ethics and fairness arise, it’s vital to consult experts and make sure you’re utilizing a scientifically sound exam.
What is the most uncommon Enneagram type?
The Reformer is a rationalist who is also idealistic. They are principled, goal-oriented, self-disciplined, and perfectionist. They’re the types who carry around planners or bullet notebooks, volunteer for a good cause, and spend time with friends and family with purpose. The trouble with reformers is that they are so focused on their flaws that they never pause to smell the roses. When things aren’t in order, it can be tough for them to enjoy life. They are frequently advocates or professors who despise making mistakes. Others frequently describe them as critical or judgmental. They also place a premium on cleanliness and honesty.
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