Enneagram Derivation - a link to the Hindu

[MarkMe]

Namaste.
Over the years, I have enjoyed the use of the enneagram. It is an ancient Western tool, which has 9 types to it. Each individual is the Enneagram in its entirety, and each has a root type. This is very well documented today. (There are many sites you can read about it).

It may date back to 1000 or 2000 years ago, it appears, in 9-pointed symbols. It was from ancient times then lost in the mists of time, only to be resurrected by G. I. Gurdjieff in the 1920s, in the Ukraine, where it had been passed down verbally for many generations. It has also been kept alive by Sufi mystics. It may also have been used by ancient Greek Christians, and it has similar math to Hebrew and the kabbalah. I think of it as the swan song of western mysticism.

Gurdjieff's 4th-way Enneagram was put in writing by P. D. Ouspensky, and the derivation is musical and mathematical. Gurdjieff was a savante. Here's a quick look at the derivation...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Way_Enneagram

In the 1960s, a couple of South American psychologists got a hold of it, and crafted what has become the modern enneagram, which has since been used primarily in psychology and business management. It is also gaining inroads as a holistic tool.
Find your enneagram type:
http://www.enneagraminstitute.com/
Holistic use:
http://www.enneagramworldwide.com/
International site:
http://www.internationalenneagram.org/

Tonight's revelation for me is the idea of linking this to the Hindu at the point of chit-saddam-granthi (consciousness-rope-knot). We say here that there is a knot in a rope, and within this there is the conceptual self, and that this needs to be emptied, and untied and poof (gone). Well, it occurs to me that one's enneagram type would have to be the orientation of the knot. As such, the position of the knot is where we get our root type. Also, that when the knot is untied, I see no reason why a person would continue to have a root type.

The modern sufi system not only draws the symbol, but it overlays it with the human head. This might rhyme with the same idea.
Sufi enneagram:
http://www.sufienneagram.com/overview.html

Well, thank you for letting me share. I look forward to competing ideas, comments, or anything.

Cheers!
Mark

[Believer]

Interesting stuff Mark!

[MarkMe]

Thanks. I'll update one thing - the correct wording is chit-jada granthi, not chit-saddam-granthi.
Cheers, Mark

[Adhvagat]

I researched very little about Enneagrams, but found them to present interesting views on ones personality. It actually made me see that I enprison myself to other people's judgment a lot.

However, if we are dealing with the psyche the MBTI is an extremely rich mode to research your on mind, since it deals with your cognitive abilities, it's both broad and deep.

I also like how Junguian psychology views the human subtle constitution and how Jung viewed Religion, so that is a motivation to continue my studies on Analytical Psychology.