“Astrology and the Enneagram” is an excellent article by Douglas and Olivia Rosestone that lays a foundation for an intelligent and open minded way of looking at the multidimensional ways in which our psychological patterns interface within our individual psyches. Archetypal systems are not primarily based on left brain (logic/analytical) “objective” ways of thinking—that’s the department for practical inquiry into how the material world works. The right brain engages in (intuitive/thoughtful) “subjective” ways of thinking about what lies beyond the boundaries of ordinary life and who we are before we develop our social identity that is formed largely by our environment and culture. Self-reflection, meditation and study of archetypal systems are typically the domain of the right brain. Recent research has shown that abilities such as math (surprise, surprise) are actually strongest when both halves of the brain work together. Neuroscientists are actually finding that the two sides of the brain work together to perform a wide variety of tasks.
Douglas and Olivia are aware how in the modern technological culture the emphasis is shifting towards left brain activities and material/sensory well-being. It’s our loss if we fail to make our habitual patterns more obvious and improve our ability to take new actions in order to release self-defeating behaviors. The more we understand the workings of our inner lives, the more we actualize our outer lives, realize our true potential as individuals and as a collateral benefit become better family and community members. The enneagram of course is an archetypal system, and astrology has always been considered the mother of all archetypal systems; pre-dating hieroglyphs and writing by thousands of years.
Jennifer Schneider and Ron Corn’s “Perfectionist-Achiever (One-Three) Couple” is a good choice of types with distinct slant towards practical (left brain) efficiency about life and how it requires the occasional “reset” in the subjective (right brain) department. In the descriptions you can really see the “cleanliness” about the relationship. No mess or fuss, well organized and comfortable. Perfectionists and Achievers collaborate very well as a no-nonsense, goal-directed team. Achievers and Perfectionists are attracted to each other because both are high-energy types who work hard and accomplish a great deal, drawing a lot of their identity from their work. And both value productivity and efficiency...and worry about what others think of them.
If these traits are overdone, these two types need to be careful that their relationship doesn’t become like two ships passing in the night, taking time to connect is a must. Perfectionists in particular need to avoid becoming too reclusive and can almost give up on life, what with all the correcting and perfecting of it in search of their own little world of perfection and serenity. Achievers do well to not keep pushing “forward” until they lose touch with the where, how and why they are headed in such a hurry.
“Enneagram Field Guide: Eights” by Carolyn Bartlett deserves a central place among the reference texts for any therapist or friend who needs some help in understanding this powerful type. Eights are known for their directness, and intensity with which they approach life, their demanding and confrontational nature, and tendency towards protectiveness and ability to nurture. Like the sun that nourishes all plants or burns them up, Eights can assume either role, that of a fair and compassionate judge and that of the vindictive bully.
“Unlocking the Enneagram Part 2” by Arthur Kranz continues to unfold deeper layers of each type, by placing that type’s number in the position usually reserved for Type 9 and then complete the inner triangle in the usual direction of integration to position 3 and then to position 6. This automatically shows the two Balance Points of the Dominant Affective Group Triangle in the two other centers. It also represents balanced and harmonious growth as every type learns about its own primary Type and the rest of its own Dominant Affective Group. Overall it depicts the first three steps in the first stage of the Hidden Path Journey, the completion of the Enneagram’s central triangle form for each type and most importantly follows Gurdjieff’s instruction to first seek self-knowledge on the path to liberation from the ego.
For the second stage of the Hidden Path Journey, you complete the Hexad form for each type generating Steps 4 through 9. The second stage represents the journey to know “the Others” – “To Understand” the other types that represent the other Freudian styles that are different from your own style. It encompasses the next six steps of the path and completion of the Hexad form.
For the third stage of the Hidden Path Journey we look at the Circle of the Enneagram associated with the “Ascending Spiral Path”. The intention is to incorporate and integrate as many of the different perspectives, essences and energies of all the other types as is humanly possible in our short life-journey so that the dualistic concept of “I” versus “the Others” is turned into harmony with ourselves and others, seeing both as part of the One.
Tim Vreeland describes in this series the three extraordinary 20th century architects and how their enneagram point can be seen in their work and personal lives. This month: “Louis I. Kahn (1901 – 1974) The Life and Work of a Sexual One.” Tim caught up with Kahn in 1953 when he returned from Rome to complete his architectural studies at Yale—it was as someone highly dissatisfied with the insubstantiality, the thinness and the lack of robustness and plasticity of the modern architecture of that period compared to the glories of architecture he had been exposed to in Italy. It was the New Yale Art Gallery, designed by Kahn and just completed, that restored Tim’s confidence in the possibility of modern architecture. It had solidity, presence, weight. Kahn had rediscovered from his sojourn in Rome the architecture of mass and structure. Like Michelangelo, he could proclaim that “weight never sleeps.”
Kahn was something of an “activist” and talked like an Old Testament prophet in aphorisms using words poetically, cryptically, to reflect the images in his mind. Students adored these utterances—often having only the faintest understanding of what he was talking about—but it was a relief from all that Harvard claptrap about functionalism, turning our backs on history and less-is-more. Kahn also instructed his students to draw their buildings as they were built, from the ground up.
Kahn wrote about the relationship between light and silence, a recurring theme in his philosophical musings. He believed that silence (the desire for expression) and light (the means of expression) must work together before creative resolution can occur. Carl Jung had proposed a similar dichotomy between male and female, yang and yin, animus and anima.
Douglas and Olivia are aware how in the modern technological culture the emphasis is shifting towards left brain activities and material/sensory well-being. It’s our loss if we fail to make our habitual patterns more obvious and improve our ability to take new actions in order to release self-defeating behaviors. The more we understand the workings of our inner lives, the more we actualize our outer lives, realize our true potential as individuals and as a collateral benefit become better family and community members. The enneagram of course is an archetypal system, and astrology has always been considered the mother of all archetypal systems; pre-dating hieroglyphs and writing by thousands of years.
Jennifer Schneider and Ron Corn’s “Perfectionist-Achiever (One-Three) Couple” is a good choice of types with distinct slant towards practical (left brain) efficiency about life and how it requires the occasional “reset” in the subjective (right brain) department. In the descriptions you can really see the “cleanliness” about the relationship. No mess or fuss, well organized and comfortable. Perfectionists and Achievers collaborate very well as a no-nonsense, goal-directed team. Achievers and Perfectionists are attracted to each other because both are high-energy types who work hard and accomplish a great deal, drawing a lot of their identity from their work. And both value productivity and efficiency...and worry about what others think of them.
If these traits are overdone, these two types need to be careful that their relationship doesn’t become like two ships passing in the night, taking time to connect is a must. Perfectionists in particular need to avoid becoming too reclusive and can almost give up on life, what with all the correcting and perfecting of it in search of their own little world of perfection and serenity. Achievers do well to not keep pushing “forward” until they lose touch with the where, how and why they are headed in such a hurry.
“Enneagram Field Guide: Eights” by Carolyn Bartlett deserves a central place among the reference texts for any therapist or friend who needs some help in understanding this powerful type. Eights are known for their directness, and intensity with which they approach life, their demanding and confrontational nature, and tendency towards protectiveness and ability to nurture. Like the sun that nourishes all plants or burns them up, Eights can assume either role, that of a fair and compassionate judge and that of the vindictive bully.
“Unlocking the Enneagram Part 2” by Arthur Kranz continues to unfold deeper layers of each type, by placing that type’s number in the position usually reserved for Type 9 and then complete the inner triangle in the usual direction of integration to position 3 and then to position 6. This automatically shows the two Balance Points of the Dominant Affective Group Triangle in the two other centers. It also represents balanced and harmonious growth as every type learns about its own primary Type and the rest of its own Dominant Affective Group. Overall it depicts the first three steps in the first stage of the Hidden Path Journey, the completion of the Enneagram’s central triangle form for each type and most importantly follows Gurdjieff’s instruction to first seek self-knowledge on the path to liberation from the ego.
For the second stage of the Hidden Path Journey, you complete the Hexad form for each type generating Steps 4 through 9. The second stage represents the journey to know “the Others” – “To Understand” the other types that represent the other Freudian styles that are different from your own style. It encompasses the next six steps of the path and completion of the Hexad form.
For the third stage of the Hidden Path Journey we look at the Circle of the Enneagram associated with the “Ascending Spiral Path”. The intention is to incorporate and integrate as many of the different perspectives, essences and energies of all the other types as is humanly possible in our short life-journey so that the dualistic concept of “I” versus “the Others” is turned into harmony with ourselves and others, seeing both as part of the One.
Tim Vreeland describes in this series the three extraordinary 20th century architects and how their enneagram point can be seen in their work and personal lives. This month: “Louis I. Kahn (1901 – 1974) The Life and Work of a Sexual One.” Tim caught up with Kahn in 1953 when he returned from Rome to complete his architectural studies at Yale—it was as someone highly dissatisfied with the insubstantiality, the thinness and the lack of robustness and plasticity of the modern architecture of that period compared to the glories of architecture he had been exposed to in Italy. It was the New Yale Art Gallery, designed by Kahn and just completed, that restored Tim’s confidence in the possibility of modern architecture. It had solidity, presence, weight. Kahn had rediscovered from his sojourn in Rome the architecture of mass and structure. Like Michelangelo, he could proclaim that “weight never sleeps.”
Kahn was something of an “activist” and talked like an Old Testament prophet in aphorisms using words poetically, cryptically, to reflect the images in his mind. Students adored these utterances—often having only the faintest understanding of what he was talking about—but it was a relief from all that Harvard claptrap about functionalism, turning our backs on history and less-is-more. Kahn also instructed his students to draw their buildings as they were built, from the ground up.
Kahn wrote about the relationship between light and silence, a recurring theme in his philosophical musings. He believed that silence (the desire for expression) and light (the means of expression) must work together before creative resolution can occur. Carl Jung had proposed a similar dichotomy between male and female, yang and yin, animus and anima.