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Exploring the ENNEAGRAM

— exploring yourself

The Enneagram, growth, and inner work

If you have been engaging with the Enneagram for a while, you might have realised the model in itself does not really do anything. Sure, intellectual understanding can pile up — but then what? It might also be that you are very aware of the need for you in this equation and have been doing various formats of inner work for many years. Whichever is the case, this page is a bit of an orientation into my approach to this part, and what I offer in the way of inner-work-sustenance.

We can rest assured that when it comes to understanding the depth of the Enneagram, we will never be quite fully taught. Just “the basics” alone — the true seat of type with all its aspects of passions, heart wounds, and essential qualities; what wings mean or do not mean; the significance of the arrows, and so on and so forth — can have us occupied for quite some time. And then, there’s plenty of deepening to be looked into: object relations, social styles, coping strategies, levels of development, the scrambling of the centres, and so on. We have the instinctual drives, which make up a whole topic of their own. And then we haven’t even mentioned all the extra tweaks and further-developments theories with various type- and subtype-combinations.

But again, while we can keep probing deeper into the theory, if it’s actual growth we week, we need both sides of the “know thyself”-coin, and we realise that the “knowing” in question stretches into territory that is not — cannot be, in fact — covered by the mind.

Information vs experiential knowing

All Enneagram theory (except obviously flailing-in-the-dark type theories that don’t quite hold water) offers tons of information that is helpful in describing ourselves, or others. But describing people wasn’t really the original purpose of the Enneagram. Of course, this fact does not mean we cannot use it for that — but if we want to use it for growth, for active participation in our own individual evolution, that looks a bit different. Sure, the information can provide some helpful theoretical pointers as for how personality is shaped, but theories, no matter how accurate they are, can only take us so far.

While there is tons of Enneagram material online, both free and for purchase, most of that material is just that: theories, or facts, about the model or its types. Almost none if it is offering pointers for actual growth work; yet less of it offers practical directions. But that — the practical, experiential aspect of the inner work — being my first love, it is what I primarily want to offer.

I cannot work on “my type(s)” — I can only work on me

Furthermore, real inner work, furthermore, isn’t really conducted on a type, or a type combination — it’s conducted on, with, and by ourselves. And this statement is not about hair-splitting. We might think that of course I work on me — I mean, who else could I be exploring? But many people doing inner work still conduct it from and on their type, or types, with a directed, narrow focus.

The fact, though, is that after the first revelations when we recognise our core personality type (which, granted, can go on for a while), working from our type will limit our discoveries, rather than inform them. This is because true inner work needs to be done from all the centres, not just the head. And information, however high-quality, is provided from, and addressed to, the head centre. This is fine, obviously; we often need a reason to start looking (which many times is provided by the head), and when we’ve made discoveries involving the other two centres, afterwards we spontaneously sort and integrate our insights mentally — again, a head-centred skill.

The in-between — the forgotten space where the magic happens

But between the spark that ignites any therapeutic process or explorations (which might come from the head, but does not necessarily) and the post-experiential integration, other processes need to happen. This is the bit which is so often skipped over, or at least dramatically minimized, in large parts of the Enneagram world.

This visceral and emotional part, which makes up significant chunks of the full journey, is exploratory. It’s experiential. It involves the felt sense of various energies moving in, and sometimes around, the body. It involves emotional connection; the allowing and feeling and sometimes expression of actual emotions, which might in turn be a front for other, more deeply buried material — and so on and so forth. It involves welcoming whatever this inner flow presents us with, following reactivity to its core, accepting ourselves however we present in the here and now, daring to see and meet and stay with that, and neither shrink back, nor blame, nor intellectualise, nor seek to justify … well, you get the picture. Finding and non-judgementally staying with it. When we can allow, and invite, these parts of the journey, that’s real growth work.

My two primary categories of offerings:

  • Intermediate Enneagram theory, generally in a context that provides an experiential, embodied aspect. This might be about the levels of balance, centre distortion and scrambling, instinctual drives and zones, or any Enneagram concept that might be under-taught or otherwise in need to increased clarify, and
  • Avenues for inner work which do not in themselves start from “type”, but which allows for a non-restricted exploration, still being conducted from an Enneagram-informed perspective, where we can and do apply Enneagram knowledge as this becomes relevant.

Within these two categories, I offer (free and paid)

The following additional categories are coming soon
(register and sign up for the newsletter here to stay informed)
  • “Evergreen” courses which you follow on your own schedule
  • Subscriptions to privileged material on Patreon.com

And, unless you already know,
I want to tell you about these books! 🤓

First of all, there’s Aspects of You by Cicci Lyckow Bäckman (i e, yours truly) | This book provides a deep-dive into the centres of intelligence, such as they appear in all of us, and the instinctual drives. The overwhelming majority of Enneagram introductions (even the good ones!) tend to leave us with a feeling that some people have more of one centre than the other two, or even lack access to a certain centre, depending on where we sit on the Enneagram cycle. Nothing could be further from the truth, and even if we are a fair bit into our exploration of the Enneagram, I do recommend the book.

Then, there are two books by Sandra Maitri that I recommend to any serious intermediate Enneagram student, particularly those who are interested in the inner growth aspect:

The Spiritual Dimension of the Enneagram by Sandra Maitri | This book goes to the core, and moreover, view the types and their psychological structures from the inside, as it were. While you don’t need to have extensive knowledge about either psychology or psycho-spirituality starting out, prepare to get plenty of that perspective. You would likely benefit from having some basic understanding of the types before diving into this one, since it’s describing the inner workings of the outer traits, behaviours, and attitudes that are traditionally associated with each type.

The Enneagram of Passions and Virtues, also by Sandra Maitri, goes still deeper in the core structure behind each type, as these appear in all of us (but not as strongly, obviously). Again, her perspective provides a beautiful, thorough look into the depths, and slow reading with plenty of reflection is recommended.