Enneagrams: What You Need to Know

It seems like everyone these days is trying to find themselves and their inner calm through some sort of practice, meditation, or personality test. From chakras to crystals to enneagrams, there are many paths to enlightenment and healing. One such methodology is to take an enneagram test and see what enneagram personality type you are.

What are Enneagrams? 

Enneagrams offer a place where one can identify their personality and worldview in nine different personality types. These nine types (or "enneatypes," "ennea" means "nine") are identified by a number and names.

• The Reformer
• The Helper
• The Achiever
• The Individualist
• The Investigator
• The Loyalist
• The Enthusiast
• The Challenger
• The Peacemaker

Unlike other energy states or techniques like chakras or meditation, enneagrams are thought to be something you are born with and it dictates your emotions, reactions, and values. Each enneatype that is discovered through an enneagram test offers a methodology of living and reacting to life depending on your mental health and stress. Just like with most energy states, an unhealthy imbalanced person can look and act differently than a balanced one.

Decoding the Enneagram Symbol

The most used enneagram symbol was created by authors Riso and Hudson with a circle surrounded by evenly spaced numbers moving clockwise with connecting hexagrams. Unlike diagrams using just the body, such as the chakra diagram, the enneagram symbol is focused more on a social connectedness than the body.

Here are the main elements: 

• Circle - The circle symbolizes human life and our wholeness connected together via the numbers.
• Lines – Each enneatype is connected to two other types across the circle representing where the person has come from, either in childhood or repressed memories, and where they could grow into as they develop their own self-identity and state. These also represent how a person deals with growth and stress.
• Triangle – The triangle lays between numbers 3, 6, and 9. It represents the Law of Three stemming from three separate sources: the Active, the Passive and the Neutral.
• Hexad – The hexad represents the Law of Seven and how life is not a linear journey but one that you must walk through with different process or steps along the way.
• Wings - The two types that flank the identified enneatype are called the wings. The connection between these numbers shows the variance of personality one can have based on their emotional wellbeing.

Why Take an Enneagram Test?

An enneagram test is valuable to understand a person’s potential growth throughout their lives and how they manage relationships. Unlike chakras or chi that you develop and grow as you age, it is believed you are born with your enneagram type. Since each enneatype upholds different beliefs and characteristics, it is important to take an enneagram test to find out what is at the core of your value system. You will then be able to see how these beliefs and values affect your relationships with other people and how you react to stress. 

What is the Difference Between the Enneagram Test and Other Typologies?

You’ve probably come across many different types of personality tests through the years and a lot of employers are now using them when creating teams and building better organizations. The biggest difference between most personality tests and the enneagram test is that enneagram believers think that enneagram is something you are born with and develop as you age.

Most would agree that enneagram stems from what you are born with and how you develop it as a child and that dictates your relationship with yourself and others as you grow, physically and spiritually. Others believe that your personality is something that you grow through time and experiences only. This is an inevitable question of nature vs. nurture. Either way, some say that enneagram typing is one of the easiest ways to map a personality.

Whether you are looking to deepen your connection to a higher being, you can look within yourself with an energy typology like chakras or you can look at your personality typology like enneagram testing. Either one will help you connect with a higher state of being and conscientiousness of your true self.