The Enneagram of Life Paths
by Susan Rhodes
Several years ago, when I started exploring the enneagram in depth, I soon realized it was different from other systems for understanding the self—deeper, richer, and more complex.
The figure itself seemed unusual to me. I’d never encountered anything like it before. Its very appearance seemed to suggest that it must be more than just a system for classifying personality types.
As I learned more about its origins in the Gurdjieff work, I saw the truth in this impression. In his initial lecture on the enneagram, Gurdjieff stated that “the law of the octave connects all the processes of world creation,” and that “there exists a symbol” that expresses that principle. That symbol, he said, is the enneagram.
He goes on to say that “this symbol will not be met with in the study of occultism, either in books or in the oral tradition. Such tremendous importance is attached to it by those who know it that it has never at any time or at any place been published or communicated in its entirety.”1
So Gurdjieff tell us outright that he is unveiling a symbol of great significance—a symbol that was adapted years later by Oscar Ichazo and others as a way to understanding individual differences.
An interest in individual differences is what originally drew me to the enneagram. As a research psychologist, I was always drawn to seeing how people varied in their motivations and behavior. How men differed from women, how children differed from adults, and how the same people behaved differently in different situations.
by Susan Rhodes
Several years ago, when I started exploring the enneagram in depth, I soon realized it was different from other systems for understanding the self—deeper, richer, and more complex.
The figure itself seemed unusual to me. I’d never encountered anything like it before. Its very appearance seemed to suggest that it must be more than just a system for classifying personality types.
As I learned more about its origins in the Gurdjieff work, I saw the truth in this impression. In his initial lecture on the enneagram, Gurdjieff stated that “the law of the octave connects all the processes of world creation,” and that “there exists a symbol” that expresses that principle. That symbol, he said, is the enneagram.
He goes on to say that “this symbol will not be met with in the study of occultism, either in books or in the oral tradition. Such tremendous importance is attached to it by those who know it that it has never at any time or at any place been published or communicated in its entirety.”1
So Gurdjieff tell us outright that he is unveiling a symbol of great significance—a symbol that was adapted years later by Oscar Ichazo and others as a way to understanding individual differences.
An interest in individual differences is what originally drew me to the enneagram. As a research psychologist, I was always drawn to seeing how people varied in their motivations and behavior. How men differed from women, how children differed from adults, and how the same people behaved differently in different situations.
