Enneagram
About two years after starting our research, having examined several hundred clinical cases according to our energy-based method, we realized that in what we define as sexual subtypes, emerges two very characterized aspects, a more masculine and the other more feminine. We agreed to named them Mars and Venus in reference to the symbolism of these gods of Greek Antiquity. Sexual Mars subtype appears as an aggressive, combative, competitive, energetic, anxious and obsessive individual, and sexual Venus subtype as someone charming, charismatic, compassionate, dependent and abandonic.
The best keywords we have found for this sexual Venus subtype, we owe to Irini Rockwell, disciple of renowned Tibetan Buddhist teacher, Chögyam trungpa, who the first, in the 1970s revealed to the American public the fabulous system of the five Wisdom Families (Vajra, Ratna, Péma, Karma, Bouddha), then reserved for the practitioners during the famous traditional three-year retreats. Few texts are devoted to their study. Key words we give you here concern the Wisdom Family Padma/Lotus, which, according to our research, fully corresponds to the fourth subtype Venus.
Positive aspects:
Compassion, love, affection, kindness, intuition, openness of heart, contact, harmony, empathy, kindness, affability, sweetness, charm, delicacy, refined taste, finesse, love of art and beauty, artistry, loving state, romance, seduction, magnetism, charisma, attractiveness, sensitivity, sensuality, pleasure, intimacy, purity, pristinity.
Negative aspects :
Desire and obsessive attachment. burning, all-consuming and destructive Passion. Desire to please. Great need for love. Need for intimacy, fusion, attention. Excessive dependence. He lives in the eyes of the other. Intense heartache. Feels lack cruelly. Feelings of abandonment, separation, isolation, loss, desolation. Depression. Melancholy. Emotional instability and credulity. Frivolity. Lust. Erotomania. Perversion. Manipulation. Hysteria.
“Passion: the desire to feel
healthy activities: magnetize, communicate
neurotic activity: fantasizing, manipulate
Emotions: Passion, desire to merge
sense of failure: feel incomplete, lonely and depressed
defence mechanisms: desire to please
fears: boredom, mediocrity, reject
Quality: compassion
Wisdom: discriminating awareness (i.e. What is good for themselves and the other in the relationship)” [i]
Wisdom family: Padma
“Padma, literally means “lotus flower.” The symbol of the enlightened padma family is the lotus, which grows and blooms in the mud, yet still comes out pure and clean, virginal and clear.Padma neurosis is connected with passion, a grasping quality and a desire to possess. We are completely wrapped up in desire and want only to seduce the world, without concern for real communication.A person with padma neurosis speaks gently, fantastically gently, and he or she is seemingly very sexy, kind, magnificent, and completely accommodating.When padma neurosis is transmuted, it become fantastically precise and aware; it turns into tremendous interest and inquisitiveness. Everything is seen in its own distinct way with its own particular qualities and characteristics. Thus the wisdom of padma is called discriminating-awareness wisdom” (Chögyam Trungpa, Journey without a goal).
The core vital sensation of Pema Family/Venus subtype is isolation.”In reaction, we generate the compulsion to consummate, and to cling to the comforting proximity of people, places, things and ideas. We find our world to be an emotional desert and attempt to crowd out our loneliness by indiscriminately grabbing at the experience of union with any focus of our fleeting attention. We misinterpret the discovery of isolation/separation as the need to unify as quickly as possible with further and yet further focuses of seductive proximity.”[ii]
There is a real risk of confusing the emotional types (2, 3, 4) and specialy the type 4 of the Enneagram, described as a romantic, but also enneatype 6, specialy the sexuel 6 (Force beauty) with this fourth subtype.
You can see more in EM, issue 200 : “The birth of Venus, or Close encounter of the Fouth Type ”
Some famous cases of Sexual/Venus : Maryline Monroe, Brigitte Bardot, Laetitia Casta, Isabelle Adjani, Rudolf Noureev, etc…
And of course Maryline Monroe :
[i] Irini Rockwell, The Five Wisdom Energies. Shamballa Publications.
[ii] Ngak’chang Rinpoche & Khandro Déchen, Embracing Emotions as the Path, http://arobuddhism.org.
A new article on Enneagram Monthly about Enneagram and constitution and also share your comments with us on enneagram monthly group
Our next article will be on the System of the 5 subtypes of the Enneagram, related to the Cross of Jung, the 5 Wilhem Reich character structures, the 5 Wisdom Families.
Naranjo is credited to have the first put the personality disorders (PD) of DSM IV in the Enneagram (in character and neurosis), but Ichazo before propouned his own classification.
| Ichazo | Naranjo | |
| Type 1 | Obsessive-Compulsive | Obsessive-Compulsive |
| Type 2 | Narcissistic | Histrionic |
| Type 3 | Histrionic | X |
| Type 4 | Borderline | Masochistic |
| Type 5 | Schizoid or Anti-Social | Schizoïd |
| Type 6 | Paranoid | Paranoid |
| Type 7 | Schizotypal | Narcissic |
| Type 8 | Passive-Aggressive | Sadistic |
| Type 9 | Avoidant/Dependent | Dependant |
As note Jeffrey Young (in his book, Shema Therapy), the different personality disorders of the DSM IV correspond mainly to behavior disorders. Young states that the core personality schema is cognitive and emotional, and behavior is a defense mechanism to cope with the schema. In our clinical observations since fifteen years, we clearly see that ennea-types is connected to cognitive and emotional schemas, and subtypes to the behavioral defense mechanism. For example, type 6 is schema of vulnerability. If the subtype is more introverted, the individual will surrender to his schema (phobic 6), and if he is more extraverted he will counter attack his schema (counter phobic 6). It’s exactly the same with the nine types as we already stated earlier (#Enneagram Monthly, Issue N° 206)
Our clinical observations confirm the statement of Young : the personality disorders of the DSM IV is more connected to the subtypes (behavioral defense mechanisms) rather than the types (core personality schemas).
For example,
- sx mars : obsessive compulsive PD,
- sx venus : histrionic PD,
- sc : masochistic PD,
- sp : narcissic PD,
- st : schizoid PD
(sx : sexual, sc : social, sp : self preservation, st : spiritual).
The consequences is that every type can be histrionic (and not only the 2), every type can be narcissic (and not only the 7), every type can be obsessive compulsive (and not only the 1), every type can be masochistic (and not only the 4), every type can be schizoid (and not only the 5).
Most of people say a type is not a behavior, although most of the time, we can hear such things as : he is a 4 because he is an artist, he is a 5 because he is a loner, he is a 1 because he is perfectionist, he is a 8 because he is strong, and so on… but don’t you think that artist, loner, perfectionist, strong… sounds like behavior ?
We need to re define ennea-types for what they are : distortion of perception on a cognitive and emotional level, and subtypes for what they are : behavioral defense mechanisms.
We will deepen that topic in the next article on enneagram monthly.
The link between constitution and enneagram leads us to deepen the knowledge of enneagram. It represents the fondamental basis on which our model is built. In order to understand all its implications it is needed to fully aknowledge what is constitution and how it applies to enneagram.
Body, Energy and Mind:
the anthropological model
In the classic medical traditions, since ancient times, constitution is described on three levels: body, energy and mind. Let’s define these three terms to avoid misunderstandings.
Continue reading
Welcome, dear readers and friends, on the new English page of the MARIE Institut, dedicated to the research of Bernadette and Frederic on the Enneagram.
We will publish posts regularly to explain all the different aspects on our new Model, on a both theoretical and practical point of view, such as the fundamental energetical basis of the 3 Centers, the correlation between the 9 types with the Hippocratic and the 5 Taoist Elements, the correlation between the Subtypes and the 5 Jungian Functions, the 5 structures of Character of W Reich, the 5 Wisdom Families of the Buddhist Tradition, and more.
Some other will be on the Homeopathy and Enneagram, but only on a general level.
Some portraits will be proposed also on this page , in a more practical way
This blog will go complementary to Enneagram Monthly Group and magazine and will explore in a deeper way some different topic.
Please, feel free to ask us if you want specific subject to be more explained.
Picture : Thomas Edwin Mostyn Enora Malagré : type 2, wing 1 Alizée : type 3 (no wing for 3) Jennifer Lawrence : type 7, wing 8 Prince Harry : type 4, wing 5, Lady Gaga : type 2, wing 1 Karl Lagerfeld : type 5, wing 4
Portrait Georges Clairin
Sarah Bernhardt’s configuration ( 1844-1923 ) :
For us, Sarah Bernhardt’s type couldn’t be in any cases of a type 4, in which it would have been very tempting to class in for this great artist, whose nickname was “the golden voice”, but in the type 7 of enneagram.
Centre : Mental
Type 7
Wing : type 8
Cofix : type 4, et type 8
Subtypes/Elements : Air/Feu
