Multiple Enneagram Subtypes/Instincts Question About Instinctual Variants

[Silveresque]

Are the instinctual variants supposed to exist within the enneatype as variants of that type, or are they separate? I've heard that the instinctual variants weren't actually made as a part of the enneagram, and that they're only associated with one another because they became popular at around the same time. If that's true, then are they meant to be looked at as completely separate systems, or have they perhaps come to be incorporated into one another so that the instinctual variants are variants within each type, as type-specific variant descriptions seem to demonstrate?

 

[Speed Gavroche]

Yeah, instincts are a separated typology.

 

[Mal12345]

Are the instinctual variants supposed to exist within the enneatype as variants of that type, or are they separate? I've heard that the instinctual variants weren't actually made as a part of the enneagram, and that they're only associated with one another because they became popular at around the same time. If that's true, then are they meant to be looked at as completely separate systems, or have they perhaps come to be incorporated into one another so that the instinctual variants are variants within each type, as type-specific variant descriptions seem to demonstrate?

Instinctuals are a separate typology. But G.I. Gurdjieff mentioned a fourth spiritual center which he called the "instinctive" or "moving" center. Oscar Ichavo picked up on that. So while it is related to the enneagram, it would be difficult to include this as a fourth enneagram center because of the structure of the enneagram.

That being said, there are at least four and probably seven spiritual centers to man's being. But the other centers are almost never developed, and when they are, they always subsume the lower centers. So Man One has nothing of Man Seven, but Man Seven incorporates Man One through Six. That's not to be confused with Riso's levels of development, as they only deal with Man One, Two, and Three, who are all three on the same spiritual plane. So Man Three is not more spiritually advanced than Man One and Two, unlike Man Four who is more spiritually advanced.