about the Enneagram

About the Enneagram

• The enneagram is a psychospiritual tool which offers insight into habits of personality...and a path to greater understanding of and compassion for self and others. The word ennea comes from the Greek word for “nine” and grammos which means “figure.”   

• The enneagram is both a development of modern psychology as well as a system which has roots in ancient philosophical and wisdom traditions.  The enneagram's lineage includes the Christian Desert Fathers of the second and third centuries and medieval manuscripts. The enneagram of personality, as we now know it, arrived on the scene in the U.S in the 1970's through a group of Jesuits in Chicago. Modern spiritual teachers and psychologists of various perspectives have given the enneagram a fresh presentation. 

• Determining your enneagram type is a starting point on the enneagram path which encourages integration of body, mind, and spirit. With increased awareness of how you unconsciously react to life, you are able to lessen your attachment to habitual responses.
   

Benefits of Enneagram Knowledge

• Improved relationships with friends, family, and work colleagues. 

• Increased awareness, acceptance, presence, gratitude.  Decreased frustration and resentments.

• Increased self-knowledge benefits the experience of the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola, discernment, and 12-Step Recovery paths.