Select a type to begin.
The concept of “red” can hardly convey the myriad shades that we experience in life. It’s not even possible to say when “red” stops and “orange” starts, and different cultures divide up the color wheel in different ways. Our basic words for colors are weak, vague, and arbitrary.
Yet, any description of a flower or an item of clothing would be incomplete without reference to basic colors. This isn’t merely broad categorization: we would also struggle with delicate nuance if we couldn’t, for example, suggest a shade of orange go a smidge "redder”. Working in combination and contrast, a small set of concepts can convey the finest of details.
To portray the complexity of the self and other, we can select from any number of palettes, and Enneagram is a dubious choice among them. It lacks the historical wisdom of Astrology, the mainstream acceptance of Myers–Briggs, and the empirical backing of Big Five. Why prefer it?
I keep returning to Enneagram not for theoretical reasons, but practical ones. Particularly as a common tongue among friends, Enneagram has reliably fostered conversations that are revealing, challenging, and often very funny. It is concerned with the strategies you use to navigate life, particularly those strategies you run on autopilot and to excess. It is often harsh and demands deeper self-awareness. Admittedly, it can be hard to stare at your interior in the mirror and not cringe. But the deep, dark shades of the palette reliably produce stunning, memorable portraits.
I created this page because I felt that the existing online resources fell short of the excellent books that have been written. Everything here is an excerpt from a book that I highly recommend. Each linked book contains much richer information than these quotes can hope to convey, and I encourage you to purchase any of them as a next step.