This stuff is fascinating… did you ever wonder why some people do the things they do? Did you ever wonder why WE do some of the things we do?

The Enneagram (say any-a-gram) is such a neat system, because it can explain that stuff, it can help us understand ourselves better, and what’s really important is, it can help us understand everyone else.

It’s a really ancient system going all the way back to the Sufis in the Middle East, and it’s still here, alive and well. It is so darn accurate, it can make your toes curl up. The Enneagram symbol shows a nine-pointed star within a circle and represents the nine different “types” of people there are. It also shows how we are all connected.

Here’s a quick explanation of how we became the people we are today……

Babies are born completely innocent and functioning almost entirely from their right brain hemisphere. The left brain hemisphere is like a clean slate waiting to be written on. As the baby becomes a small child, his or her personality begins to form, and reasoning begins. It doesn’t take too long to realize what makes Mum or Dad happy. Each child learns to act a certain way to “fit” in.

So now the child that came into the world complete with many different kinds of gifts, and will start favoring one gift over all the others. The other gifts are still with the child as he or she grows up, but one seems to work specially well with the family, and this one gets the most workout, until it is automatic.

Of course, everyone has many of the same qualities within them, the point is that by the time we have grown up, we tend to use one gift more than the others, out of habit. Wouldn’t it be great if we could all be using all those gifts, all the time, in equal amounts?

Now the hard part starts, because only you know how to identify yourself as one of the nine numbers…

Here are some characteristics of each number that should help you out:

One – The Perfectionist

Two – The Helper

Three – The Achiever

Four – The Romantic

Five – The Observer

Six – The Questioner

Seven – The Adventurer

Eight – The Asserter

Nine – The Peacemaker

I suggest you get some books on the subject. There are lots of do-it-yourself tests on different sites but I think they are a waste of time . I’ve never known anyone that’s received an accurate answer.

Here’s a few good books:

“The Enneagram” by Helen Palmer

“Discovering the Enneagram” by Richard Rohr and Andreas Ebert

“What’s My Type” by Elizabeth Hurley and Theodore Dobson

THE BEST BOOK OF ALL:

“The Enneagram Made Easy” by Renee Baron & Elizabeth Wagele

Links to other sites on the Web:

Working with the Enneagram

Dave’s Enneagram Pages

Becca’s Enneagram Message Board

Enneagram Personality Types (Australia)

The Gathering Place Bulletin Board (moves really slowly though)

Using the Enneagram to Create Characters

EnneaEx Enneagram Personality Types

http://www.swlink.net/~pipinz/enneagram-center.htm