Where did the Enneagram come from?
The history of the Enneagram is not completely clear. The symbol itself has been seen in ancient India and was the subject of Pythagoras. The symbol was introduced by George Gurdjieff in the early 1900s as a model to explain any natural whole phenomenon or process includes the universal laws of 1, 3, and 7. He claimed to have learned it from the Sufis, although there isnt clear evidence of this. The first person known to have used the symbol to explain the 9 personality types was Bolivian Oscar Ichazo, who learned of the system in the 1950s. The source of his knowledge isnt clear, but he has acknowledged some study of the Gurdjieff materials. He began teaching the Enneagram as part of a broader program in the late 1960s, which continues today as the Arica Institute. One of Ichazos early students was Argentine Psychologist Claudio Naranjo, who brought the Enneagram to the United States. It spread to a first wave of important Enneagram teachers including one of my primary teachers, Helen
The history and transmission of the Enneagram are mysterious and complicated affairs, although they become clearer if we distinguish between the Enneagram symbol and the descriptions of the nine types which are gaining such worldwide attention. The symbol (the circle with the inner triangle and hexagon) is ancient, dating back to Pythagoras or even earlier. The concept of the nine personality types has elements rooted in several traditional teachings such as the Seven Deadly Sins (beginning in the 4th century), and the Kabbalah (beginning in the 12th century) but the psychological descriptions of the types, on the other hand, are modern and are the work of modern authors. George Gurdjieff brought the symbol to the West around 1900, and Oscar Ichazo was the first to synthesize the symbol with elements of the teachings about the types. He was the first to identify the core qualities of each of the nine types, and his work was expanded on by the psychiatrist Claudio Naranjo who also intro
The origins of the Enneagram are to be found in the late 3rd century and 4th century AD, and in the establishment of the Byzantine Empire, centered in Constantinople. Plato’s school, the Academy, still flourished in the Empire, producing brilliant students who were matched against equally gifted writers from the embryonic Christian mystical tradition. Leading the students of the pagan Academy, was Ammonius Saccas, who taught both Christian and pagan students. It was his great fortune to have as two of his students the greatest writers of late antiquity, Plotinus and Origen. These two great and immensely talented writers were to transform the state of metaphysical philosophy in both East and West. The second great influence at this time was the rise of the Christian mystical tradition in the deserts of Egypt, Syria and Palestine, founded by the extraordinary St Anthony of Egypt. It was Anthony, Origen and subsequent writers such as Athanatius, Evagrius, Augustine and the like, who were
The history and transmission of the Enneagram are mysterious and complicated affairs, although they become clearer if we distinguish between the Enneagram symbol and the descriptions of the nine types which are gaining such worldwide attention. The symbol (the circle with the inner triangle and hexagon) is ancient, dating back to Pythagoras or even earlier.
