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[Traditional Enneagram] Having some hangups with Enneagram...

Jaidyn

New member
Joined
Feb 15, 2013
Messages
30
MBTI Type
ENFP
Enneagram
9w1
Instinctual Variant
sx/so
Hello there! It has been a long time since I have been here. I am a fan of the enneagram, I know with certainty my type, wings, variants, etc through many articles online including some I found elsewhere. I recently acquired some books on the enneagram and I swear it is like I hit a brick wall.
I am not a very spiritual minded person. Honestly it is something I struggle with. I mention that because when I read the books I have, I just "feel" like I get hammered with "holy" or "Grace" this, "Divine" that... "our true identity as Spirit or Essence". Mind you, most of this is from the "Understanding the Enneagram" book by Riso-Hudson. I know they aren't universally loved in the ennagram community here, but it is one of the books I have. I am currently waiting for "The Enneagram" by Helen Palmer and hoping it is not so "mystical" sounding.

Don't get me wrong... I am not opposed to a mystical origin if there is one and who knows. Maybe there is something to that. I am not opposed to that. But I just am curious... what is the easiest way to really get into the enneagram without getting all that stuff thrown at me? Or is that just a perspective of only a couple authors? For anyone else having the same issues, how do you get around the mystical/religious undertones that appear to be prevalent?

Thank you for your time.
 

Kasper

Diabolical
Joined
May 30, 2008
Messages
11,590
MBTI Type
ENTP
Enneagram
9w8
Instinctual Variant
so/sx
Gloss over the parts that focus on spirituallity or God, or frame them in a way that works for you.

I'm not a big fan of Riso and Hudson, Palmer's language is a lot more practical imo, and her works are pretty non-spiritual, but appreciating different writers is not about the spirituality in their language for me (I do dislike that stuff though), a couple of the more interesting reads for me are Maitri and Almass who use a lot of spiritual language when talking about the Holy Ideas. All I do is ignore the connection of spiritual things to anything supernatural and instead see it as a more universal abstract concept, if you ignore that aspect there's a lot of value that can be gained.

Or just keep reading and find which writers gel for you.
 
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