SPIRITUALITY STUDIESVolume 10 / Issue 2 FALL 2024
Spirituality Studies 10-2 Fall 2024 Publisher: The Society for Spirituality Studies Published in partnership with the Monastic Interreligious Dialogue and the European Union of Yoga Available online: www.spirituality-studies.org Editor-in-Chief: Doc. Dr. Martin Dojčár PhD. Graphic Design: Martin Hynek Contact: editor@spirituality-studies.org ISSN 1339-9578 Donate Spirituality Studies’ mission is to deliver high-quality studies, articles, educational materials, and information related to spirituality in its various forms. At the same time, the journal provides a forum for sharing personal spiritual experiences. By combining academic and experiential approaches to spirituality, Spirituality Studies aims to provide a unique platform for dialogue between a variety of viewpoints, approaches, and methodologies in the study of spirituality. Spirituality Studies publishes all articles under the open access policy, allowing for unlimited public use. Please consider donating to support the continued publishing of Spirituality Studies as an open-access journal for free. ←← George Ivanovich Gurdjieff (1867–1949). Portrait by Janet Flanner and Solita Solano, 1925–1935, colored. Content 1 Editorial Martin Dojčár 2 The Enneagram’s Science of the Soul Samuel Bendeck Sotillos 23 In Search of the Authentic: Contributions of Jewish Mysticism to a Conceptualization and Experience of the Self Jeffrey Katzman, Ben Bernstein, Matthew Ponak 43 Ancient and Modern Understanding of the Functions of Kōśas Gejza M. Timčák, Gábor Pék 57 Kundalinī and the First Two Dimensions of Perception: Matter and Emotion Monique Rebelle 66 Bullying in the Context of Adolescents’ Experience of Spirituality and Loneliness Kristína Dědová, Anna Sleziaková, Veronika Mihaliková 81 From Atheist to Seeker: A Path to Becoming a Skeptical Believer Elaine Leeder
Spirituality Studies 10-2 Fall 2024 1 EDITORIAL Editorial Among the distinguishing features of spirituality, the inversion of consciousness seems to be the central one. This term refers to an intentional modality of consciousness, in particular “a reversed movement of attention turned from objects to itself”, by which consciousness comes back to itself and recognizes itself as consciousness (Martin Dojčár, Self-Transcendence and Prosociality, Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2017, 147). The philosophical equivalent of the term is transcendence or self-transcendence. It is the intentional consciousness or ego that is transcended so that the non-intentional modality of consciousness can come into play as “uncovered” (Gr. alétheia). Most spiritual traditions condition this central process of self-transcendence by stilling or ceasing (Sa. nirodha) the movements of the intentional consciousness or mind (Sa. citta vṛtti – “thought waves” or “mental fluctuations”, which are “fluctuations of intentional consciousness”). This is the case in Indian traditions of yoga, as well as Christian traditions of mysticism, or traditions of ṣūfism in Islam, to name just a few of the major families of spiritual traditions. In these traditions, stilling or ceasing of the movements of the intentional consciousness is approached through access to the vital energy (Sa. prāṇa, He. néfesh), performed either intentionally or unintentionally, and manifested as Kuṇḍalinī śakti, as described, for example, by Monique Rebelle in the current issue of Spirituality Studies. Spiritual practices serve this very purpose – the inversion of consciousness – and in their own way contribute to its realization. It is this kind of internalization that should be considered the hallmark of any authentic spirituality. For ten years, Spirituality Studies has addressed these very issues at the heart of spirituality and continues to do so. The Fall 2024 edition brings forward some of the key themes for understanding spirituality, such as the subject-object relationship, the unmanifested and manifested aspect of reality, or spiritual symbolism and the structure of human existence. I invite you, dear readers, to delve into these topics and be inspired by the insights of the authors featured in the Fall 2024 edition of Spirituality Studies. Cordially Martin Dojčár
2 Spirituality Studies 10-2 Fall 2024 6* 3* 4+ 53° 6° 2- 7+ 0 9* 9° 1+ 8Figure The sacred psychology and its psycho-spiritual development according to the traditional Enneagram can be broadly envisioned by the following nine points (Bakhtiar 2013b): Samuel Bendeck Sotillos The Enneagram’s Science of the Soul 1+ Hypocrisy 2- Cowardice 3* Fear 4+ Rashness 5- Timidity 6* Envy 7+ Greed 8- Ignorance 9* Disbelief
Spirituality Studies 10-2 Fall 2024 3 Samuel Bendeck Sotillos Samuel Bendeck Sotillos, PsyD, LMFT, LPCC, CCMHC, NCC, CPRP, CCTP, MHRS, is a practicing psychotherapist in California, who has worked for many years in the field of mental health and social services. His focus is on the intersection between psychology, culture, and spirituality. He is a member of the Task Force on Indigenous Psychology (Division 32 of the American Psychological Association), an advisor to the Institute of Traditional Psychology, on the scientific board of the Knowledge and Hope Foundation, and on the editorial board of a few journals. He has written four books and edited one. His most recent work is The Quest For Who We Are: Modern Psychology and the Sacred (2023). He has written over five dozen articles and one hundred book reviews in a wide range of journals. His email contact is samuelbendeck@yahoo.com. Received May 13, 2024 Revised June 10, 2024 Accepted June 11, 2024 Key words Enneagram, mental health, sacred psychology, spirituality, ṣūfism The emergence, in the modern West, of the nine-pointed Enneagram continues to confound and intrigue. Furthermore, the true source of this symbol (and its application) also remains enigmatic to a secular mentality. Due to the diminishment of religious consciousness in today’s world, esoteric wisdom has been appropriated for mass consumption and relegated to the psychic dimension of life only. Given its powerful influence, the Enneagram has also been weaponized by profane forces to, paradoxically, undermine the sacred altogether. At the heart of all wisdom traditions around the globe, one finds a rich “science of the soul”. Its far-reaching metaphysical outlook can help to demystify the inscrutable origins of the Enneagram, thus making its esoteric symbolism not only intelligible to modern seekers, but also spiritually operative. The quest to understand ourselves beyond our mere egoic personality is key to an authentic spiritual life, and to unveiling the true significance of the Enneagram. In exploring this phenomenon, a “transpersonal” framework has been adopted that aligns with the insights found in the world’s great wisdom traditions and their sacred psychologies.
4 Spirituality Studies 10-2 Fall 2024 We shall show them Our signs upon the horizons and within themselves, until it be manifest unto them that it is the truth. – Qurʼān 41:53 Each of the Nine Points is represented by one of nine saints who are at the highest level in the Divine Presence. They are the keys to unfold powers within the human being, but there is no permission to use these keys. – Shaykh ‘Abd Allāh al-Fā’iz ad-Dāghestanī (quoted in Kabbani 2004, 404) If an idea is true, it belongs equally to all who are capable of understanding it; if it is false, there is no credit in having invented it. A true idea cannot be ‘new’, for truth is not a product of the human mind; it exists independently of us, and all we have to do is to take cognizance of it; outside this knowledge there can be nothing but error. – René Guénon (2004a, 56–57) 1 Introduction The enigmatic origins of the nine-pointed symbol known as the Enneagram (ennea in Greek means “nine,” and gram means something “written” or “drawn”) – consisting of a circle, an inner triangle (connecting 3-6-9), and an irregular hexagon (connecting 1-4-2-8-5-7) – has captivated and perplexed people ever since its first appearance in the West around 1916 (Moore 1986/1987). At the same time, there are few more prominent examples of a blatant appropriation of esoteric knowledge by popular culture as we find with the Enneagram. That the nine-pointed figure of the Enneagram has entered into the mainstream illustrates its strange fate and perhaps the fate of all things of a spiritual nature. One of its key popularizers, Helen Palmer, writes: “[T]he enneagram was arguably the worst-kept secret in spiritual history” (quoted in Special Forum 1997, 14). There has been a great deal of speculation about the origin and application of the Enneagram, but its true nature remains elusive. What part of it is fact and what part fiction or allegory? The Enneagram may go back as far as the Babylonian civilization, but even contemporary efforts to unveil this ancient symbol remain inconclusive. British scientist and mathematician John Bennett (1897–1974) recounts: “I concluded… that this symbol and the ideas for which it stands, originated with the Sarmān society about 2500 years ago and was revised when the power of the Arabic numerical system was developed in Samarkand in the fifteenth century” (1973, 293). The Enneagram has migrated from the fringes of pop psychology or New Age fads to the mainstream. Its new status has been described as follows: “[T]he Enneagram is being popularized in America and used as a new psychological parlor game – ‘Want to find your Self? Take a number!’ – which is very unfortunate” (Wilber 1996, 210). Given its wide-ranging utility, we can see how the Enneagram is “a sleeping giant, awakened in our times” (Metz and Burchill 1987, 11). This study has been undertaken to rectify some widespread misconceptions. Although the Enneagram remains largely enigmatic, this does not prevent us from making useful observations regarding its meaning and use. First, interpreting the Enneagram through a secular lens that ignores sacred tradition, cannot fully fathom its significance, because this approach fails to see how it can be used as an adjunct to spiritual growth. Furthermore, reductionist attempts to comprehend the nine-pointed symbol through modern psychology also fall short for the same reason. Laleh
Spirituality Studies 10-2 Fall 2024 5 Samuel Bendeck Sotillos Bakhtiar’s (1938–2020) ground-breaking research – which adopted a spiritual hermeneutic (Ar. ta’wil) – has given a renewed focus on the traditional origins of the Enneagram within Islamic spirituality (Bakhtiar 1993; 1994a; 1994b; 2013a; 2013b). Thus, through a discernment that is properly metaphysical, the Enneagram may be viewed as a universal symbol that can support wayfarers on any path. This study argues that only when the Enneagram is situated within humanity’s spiritual traditions can we comprehend its meaning and utility as a sacred psychology. It is through a “science of the soul” grounded in metaphysics and cosmology that the nine-pointed symbol becomes operative for the purposes of healing and transformation. From the perspective of sacred symbolism, the Enneagram reveals a spiritually “operative” aspect. René Guénon (1886–1951) writes, “the whole of nature amounts to no more than a symbol of the transcendent realities” (2004b, 22), and additionally “the entire natural order can in its turn be a symbol of the divine order” (2004c, 10). Everything in the manifest world of the five senses pertains to symbolism. Frithjof Schuon (1907–1998) observes that “to exist is to be a symbol” and that we need sacred tradition to supply us with “wisdom… to perceive the symbolism of things” (2002 57). Our identity as human beings, and the meaning of our lives, are inseparable from symbolism and its metaphysical significance. In learning again to discern the “signs of God” (Lat. vestigia Dei; Ar. āyāt Allāh), we can reintegrate the science of the cosmos with a science of the soul, a unitive knowledge that had never been sundered prior to the modern age. Awakening to our True Self is to recognize our fundamental identity in the Divine. In contrast, modern psychology is confused as to what comprises our fundamental personhood. The relative reality of the ego is perceived to be who we really are, whereas the personal dimension of our being is rooted in a transcendent origin. For this reason, Clement of Alexandria (c. 150–c. 215) could say: “[I]f one knows himself, he will know God” (1867, 273). Phenomenology, as contextualized in the epistemological pluralism of the sacred, will be the interpretive framework adopted in our analysis. This approach to the study of the Enneagram will be undertaken in a manner consistent with the method expounded by Henry Corbin (1903–1978); that is, “tracing a thing back to its source, to its archetype” (1980, 3). Corbin translated phenomenology as kashf al-maḥjūb or “unveiling of the hidden” as informed by the spiritual hermeneutics (Ar. al-ta’wīl) of Súfism [1]. In the same way, a phenomenological approach is taken here as a method of studying the essence (or essential meaning) of phenomena in a way that is not limited to a given religious or spiritual form. Without knowing its origins, one cannot account for the Enneagram, and its meaning will thus be left to the winds of conjecture and subjective whim. Ichazo explains: “[T]hey have created an unending labyrinth over the descriptions and suppositions of each type with no other foundation, except for the wit of their own opinion. No wonder the contradictions amount, and there is no way they will ever get into any agreement” (quoted in Isaacs and Labanauskas 1996, 18). What fundamentally distinguishes a sacred from a modern perspective – not only with respect to the Enneagram – is the attribution of a divine origin to all traditional symbols, rather than to a source based solely on human contrivance. It is a traditional understanding of symbols, alone, that provides the integrated knowledge necessary to situate them beyond a purely psychological point of view. The world’s sapiential traditions unanimously recognize that “symbolism is of ‘non-human’ origin” (Guénon 2004c, 9). We must therefore distinguish two ways of comprehending the Enneagram: a traditional interpretation rooted in divine revelation, and a modern approach that is divorced from the sacred. The Enneagram has profound implications for our understanding of the human psyche and its spiritual potential, yet this is not to suggest that its purpose is merely “psychological”. Such an outlook can only lead to psychologism – the reduction of reality exclusively to the domain of the psyche, which is to fundamentally confuse ontological levels. In the same way that the human microcosm is a tripartite entity – consisting of Spirit, soul, and body – so too the cosmos at large, according to traditional cosmologies, has a three-fold structure, comprising realms that are spiritual, psychic, and corporeal. Titus Burckhardt (1908–1984) observes that “man in his integral nature… is not only a physical datum but, at one and the same time, body, soul, and spirit” (1987, 173). An exclusive use of the Enneagram for the sole purpose of understanding the empirical personality, at the expense of what transcends it, is to radically curb its metaphysical scope and integrative potential. Such reductionism not only undermines a profound understanding of this nine-pointed symbol, but of everything pertaining to the transcendent order. What is needed is a deeper discernment that differentiates New Age parodies from authentic expressions of the sacred. This degeneration is what Guénon refers to as “a parody of spirituality, imitating it so to speak in an inverse sense, so as to appear to be its very opposite” (2001b, 267).
6 Spirituality Studies 10-2 Fall 2024 2 Gurdjieff and the Introduction of the Enneagram to the Modern West The Enneagram became largely known in Western circles through contacts made with the Naqshbandī Sufi order, founded by Bahā ad-Dīn Naqshband Bukharī (1318–1389). George Ivanovich Gurdjieff (1877–1949) learned about the Enneagram through his association with the Naqshbandī Shaykh ‘Abd Allāh al-Fā’iz ad-Dāghestanī (1891–1973) [2]. As noted by James Moore (1929–2017), a highly regarded biographer of Gurdjieff: “[T]he enneagram is sui generis and G. I. Gurdjieff, if not its author, is at least its first modern proponent” (1986/1987, 1). He initially presented the nine-pointed figure to his Russian pupils in Moscow and Petrograd (Saint Petersburg) in 1916. The first book to discuss the Enneagram did not appear until 1949, when Russian mathematician and esotericist Pyotr Demianovich Ouspensky (1878–1947), a distinguished disciple of Gurdjieff, released his work In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of an Unknown Teaching. Ouspensky, who first met Gurdjieff in Moscow in 1915, recounts Gurdjieff’s words on the significance of the nine-pointed figure (quoted in Ouspensky 1949, 294): Speaking in general it must be understood that the enneagram is a universal symbol. All knowledge can be included in the enneagram and with the help of the enneagram it can be interpreted. And in this connection only what a man is able to put into the enneagram does he actually know, that is, understand. What he cannot put into the enneagram makes books and libraries entirely unnecessary. Everything can be included and read in the enneagram. The following underscores the centrality of the Enneagram to Gurdjieff’s Fourth Way (Webb 1987, 505): The most important use which Gurdjieff made of number symbolism is the figure of the enneagram, which he said contained and symbolized his whole System. His enneagram consists of a circle with the circumference divided into nine points which are joined to give a triangle and an irregular six-sided figure. Gurdjieff said that the triangle represented the presence of higher forces and that the six-sided figure stood for man. He also claimed that the enneagram was exclusive to his teaching. ‘This symbol cannot be met with anywhere in the study of occultism, either in books or in oral transmission,’ Ouspensky reports him as saying. ‘It was given such significance by those who knew, that they considered it necessary to keep the knowledge of it secret.’ Because of the emphasis which Gurdjieff placed on this diagram, his followers have sought high and low for the symbol in occult literature. Bennett claims that it cannot be found anywhere; and if disciples of Gurdjieff have in fact discovered the figure, they have kept it very quiet. 3 Oscar Ichazo, Claudio Naranjo, and the Enneagram of Personality Types Although Gurdjieff made the Enneagram known in the contemporary West, it was Oscar Ichazo, the Bolivian-born founder of the Arica Institute (arica is a Quechua word meaning “open door”) – established in New York in 1971 – who is recognized as having developed the system of the psychological typology of the Enneagram [3]. Because of his codification of personality types, some refer to Ichazo as the “Father of the Enneagram”. Prior to establishing the Arica Institute, Ichazo founded the Instituto de Gnoseologia in 1968, where he gave instruction in the enneagon (Ichazo’s term for the Enneagram), and taught protoanalysis (his word for the knowledge obtained from analysis of human personality through the Enneagram) in 1969 at the Instituto de Psicología Aplicada in Santiago, under the sponsorship of the Chilean Psychological Association (Ichazo 1991). Ichazo discusses the process of how he became a spiritual teacher, and what lay behind his instruction of others, as follows: “I went into a divine coma for seven days. When I came out of it I knew that I should teach; it was impossible that all my good luck should be only for myself. But it took me two years to act on this decision. Then I went to Santiago and started lecturing in the Institute for Applied Psychology” (quoted in Keen 1973, 64, 67). Due to the many unknown details of Ichazo’s life, one could draw interesting parallels between Ichazo and the Peruvian-born Carlos Castañeda (1925–1998), who was himself a New Age icon, even dubbed the “Godfather of the New Age” (Wallace 2003, 16) [4]. Ichazo’s notoriety spread throughout the counter-culture movement following his involvement in the 1973 cult-classic film The Holy Mountain, directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky (b. 1929), a Chilean-French filmmaker. All the actors, including Jodorowsky
Spirituality Studies 10-2 Fall 2024 7 Samuel Bendeck Sotillos himself, are reported to have participated in Arica training before shooting the movie. Jodorowsky invited Ichazo, whom he recognized as a spiritual master, to come to Mexico where the film was going to be made so as to receive his instruction. Ichazo accepted this invitation by initiating Jodorowsky into his first psychedelic experience through LSD, which was instrumental in the development of his perspective. Jodorowsky was also introduced to the sensory deprivation tank by a pupil of Ichazo’s in November 1973, along with a host of other representatives of the counter-culture and Human Potential movements (Lilly 1977, 220–21). It has been suggested that the use of psychedelic drugs was a common feature of the Arica training, and Ichazo himself was exposed to these early on in his life, when he had contact with indigenous peoples in South America who used mind-altering substances for ceremonial purposes. He said: “I had contact with Indians and they introduced me to psychedelic drugs and shamanism while I was in my early teens” (quoted in Keen 1973, 64). Claudio Naranjo (1932–2019), a Chilean psychiatrist regarded as a pioneer of the Human Potential movement, was another innovator of the Enneagram of personality types. Naranjo sought to further his understanding of both psychology and spirituality, having visited the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, a leading center for the Human Potential movement. While at the institute, he encountered Fritz Perls (1893–1970), the German-born psychiatrist and psychotherapist known as the “Father of Gestalt Therapy,” which influenced his theoretical outlook. Perls’s impact upon the Human Potential movement and modern psychology itself may be summarized best in his own words: “Freud took the first step… I accomplished the next step after Freud in the history of psychiatry” (Perls 1979, 35). Naranjo became apprenticed under Perls and was considered one of his three successors at the Esalen Institute. Naranjo initially learned about Ichazo in 1969, through various Chilean students who shared their experiences with him about Ichazo. Initially, Naranjo corresponded with Ichazo but then decided to visit Chile to meet him in person. Following his return to California, Naranjo spread the word to others about Ichazo and the Arica training. Soon thereafter, Naranjo, along with John Lilly (1915–2001) – a physician and psychoanalyst – were part of the first group of fifty-four Americans (many of whom were from the Esalen Institute and Big Sur) who traveled to Arica in Chile, during July 1970, to study with Ichazo. What precisely took place between Ichazo and Naranjo is unknown and will likely remain a mystery. However, we do know that Naranjo decided to leave Ichazo after several months of training with him and returned to the United States. We might add that, by Ichazo’s own account, he had no dispute with Naranjo. Upon returning to the San Francisco Bay Area, Naranjo began to teach the Enneagram of personality types (or ego fixations) that he had learned from Ichazo. Consequently, Ichazo’s influence on the Esalen Institute was legendary, and many of the early disciples who studied under him in Chile returned to propagate the Arica training at Esalen, which was reflected in The Esalen Catalog (Winter 1972) [5]. In September 1971, Naranjo established the SAT (“Seekers After Truth,” a phrase borrowed from Gurdjieff) Institute in Berkeley in order to amalgamate his knowledge of modern psychological theories, from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), and to correlate them with the Enneagram and an assortment of other spiritual methods (for example, Buddhist meditation, Gurdjieffian attention exercises, and Sufi stories). It is important to note the SAT Institute predated, by a decade, the flurry of interest in the Enneagram as it relates to personality types within the New Age movement and mainstream psychology. 4 Claudio Naranjo, the ‘Breach of Secrecy’, and the Enneagram for Mass Consumption Several figures who had trained directly with Naranjo (or received instruction from those who studied under him) are responsible for the mass dissemination of the Enneagram as most people understand it today. Some of those exposed to Naranjo’s early teaching on the Enneagram have gone on to become teachers themselves, such as Robert Ochs (1930– 2018), Helen Palmer, Kathy Riordan Speeth, A. H. Almaas (also known as A. Hameed Ali), Sandra Maitri, Peter O’Hanrahan, and Reza Leah Landman. Naranjo’s commitment to complete secrecy regarding the teachings of the Enneagram of personality types was something that he felt very strongly about, as we can see from his admission (Naranjo 1996, 16): Let me just say that the teaching I did in 1971/73 was restricted to two groups. One met during one and a half years, and the other for only six months, I believe. Both were subject to a considerable reserve. This reserve was made explicit through a signed commitment that nobody
8 Spirituality Studies 10-2 Fall 2024 was to teach this, which I felt necessary because I was under a commitment of reserve with Ichazo at the time. Robert Ochs, a Jesuit priest who attended the SAT Institute, took extensive notes during Naranjo’s teaching on the Enneagram and taught it to other Jesuits at Loyola University in Chicago, making these teachings available to the Jesuit community at large. Those who had access to these teachings were Patrick H. O’Leary, Paul Robb, and Jerome Wagner. Before long, these notes on the Enneagram teaching had spread throughout North America. Considering the popularity of the Enneagram within Catholic circles, it is significant to consider this interest in light of the events following the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965), which have fundamentally compromised Western Christianity, as these desacralizing forces also inevitably spread to Protestant denominations leading to the pervasive secularism that is found throughout the West today (see Coomaraswamy 2006). The faithful have been cautioned: “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2 Timothy 4:3–4). While efforts have been made to claim Christian origins for the Enneagram (see Rohr and Ebert 2001), some have become very critical of its application to personality types, and lament its ties to the New Age movement within Christian circles (see Pacwa 1992). September 1984 saw the first book published on the nine-pointed symbol (The Enneagram: A Journey of Self Discovery by Maria Beesing, Robert J. Nogosek, and Patrick H. O’Leary). Don Richard Riso (1946–2012) encountered the early Enneagram material made available by Ochs in 1974, through one of Ochs’s initial students by the name of Tad Dunne (while Riso was in a Jesuit seminary in Toronto). In 1987, Riso published his first book on the Enneagram, Personality Types. Helen Palmer, psychic and self-proclaimed “Queen of the Enneagram” (Ichazo 1991, 112), published her first book on the subject in 1988. According to Palmer, she did not breach Naranjo’s pact to secrecy, as this was not a requirement within the SAT group in which she participated: “I did attend nine sessions of a public enneagram class with no ‘secrecy’ requirement” (quoted in Special Forum 1997, 13). Palmer has no qualms over having aided the popularization of the Enneagram, as long as it has been in the service of consciousness expansion: “I’m happy to be a popularizer, as long as what I’ve accomplished stands for popularization of the fact that type plays a part in accessing higher consciousness” (quoted in Smoley 1994, 19). Shortly after Palmer’s book hit the marketplace, Naranjo published his Ennea-Type Structures: Self-Analysis for the Seeker in 1990. From this juncture on, interest in the Enneagram has spread like wildfire. Naranjo (1996, 16) laments the fact that his early teachings on the Enneagram were released and that his students did not honor his request for secrecy: I want to only say parenthetically that I was not happy with the fact that the commitment to secrecy was not kept, that the enneagram came to the streets a little prematurely. I felt critical of people taking initiative in writing about information that had not been originated by them, and who were acquainted with only a fragment of a traditional body of knowledge that is considerably more complex. Ichazo makes a thought-provoking and no less sobering assessment of the explosion surrounding the Enneagram of personality types on the global marketplace: “The types that have become popular are ‘mind games,’ with rather no foundation whatsoever” (quoted in Isaacs and Labanauskas 1996, 18). Gurdjieff makes a cautionary remark concerning the popularization of the Enneagram, and of its limitations when devoid of the esoteric knowledge that is necessary to access its inner dimensions: “The knowledge of the enneagram has for a very long time been preserved in secret and if it now is, so to speak, made available to all, it is only in an incomplete and theoretical form of which nobody could make any practical use without instruction from a man who knows” (quoted in Ouspensky 1949, 294). 5 Oscar Ichazo, Claudio Naranjo, and the Fourth Way teaching It is important to note the connection between Ichazo and Naranjo, in relation to the teachings of Gurdjieff, as both were very familiar with the latter’s Fourth Way system. Ichazo confirmed that he came in contact with the ideas of Gurdjieff in the early 1950s through Ouspensky’s book, In Search of the Miraculous. An early exponent of both Gurdjieff’s teaching and the Enneagram to the Spanish-speaking world was Rodney Collin (1909–1956), a British disciple of Ouspensky’s. Rodney and his wife immigrated to Tlalpan (on the outskirts of Mexico City) in 1948, accompanied by a number of Ouspensky’s followers and, in 1952, he published The Theory of Celestial Influence (Es. El Desarrollo de la Luz).
Spirituality Studies 10-2 Fall 2024 9 Samuel Bendeck Sotillos Although it is suggested that Ichazo appropriated the teachings of the Enneagram from Gurdjieff without giving him due credit, Ichazo denies such claims. The Gurdjieff Foundation of California has stated the following about Ichazo and his institute: “The Bolivian founder of Arica expounds his system, a popular psychological training which draws – usually without acknowledgment – on several of the Gurdjieff ideas, especially the symbol of the enneagram (called here the ‘enneagon’)” (Driscoll 1985, 89). Palmer links Ichazo’s “new tradition” with New Age thought because of his theoretical departure: “He [note: Ichazo] has moved the Enneagram from a Sufi context, from a Christian esoteric context, from the Gurdjieff context, and couched his ‘new discovery’ in an eclectic, new age spiritual growth context” (quoted in Ichazo 1991, 111). Others suggest that “the enneagram is a teaching device used by the Sufi school and developed by Ichazo” (Lilly and Hart 1975, 333). While Ichazo admitted to having read all Gurdjieff’s books (and those of his disciples), he responded to the accusation of having borrowed from his work, and not giving him due credit, as follows: “In synthesis, though I have gone through all of Gurdjieff’s material, as well as all the important literature about him, I have never come to an ‘idea’ that I can call the unique apport [note: a term indicating the paranormal transference or appearance of an object] of Mr. Gurdjieff” (Ichazo 1991, 93). Here Ichazo appears to adopt Gurdjieff’s concepts without giving him credit for them. Ichazo alludes to the syncretic underpinnings of the Arica Institute: “Arica is not as much my invention as it is a product of our times. The knowledge I have contributed to the school came to me from many sources I encountered in my peculiar quest” (quoted in Keen 1973, 64). Although Ichazo has studied the numerous religious and mystical systems of the world and warns against syncretism (the indiscriminate mixing of heterogeneous ideas in an attempt to fashion a synthesis), it is not clear if Ichazo (quoted in Bleibtreu 1982, 176) had a traditional spiritual affiliation or whether he offered a more nuanced version of the piecemeal approaches found in the New Age movement: You cannot make a cocktail of traditions. That is totally false. I was not doing that at all. At any time I would teach one distinct path, just that path without including any elements of a different path. Or more clearly, suppose: If we were doing some Sufi exercise we would be working that Sufi exercise exclusively, not mixing Súfism with yoga, or yoga with Zen, etc. We worked them as separate units and never really mixed them. We were studying these traditions, just as you can study geography, mathematics, or history, and yet you don’t confuse them: each is a different science with a different method. Ichazo (1991, 104) went as far as to say: “Since I am proposing a completely new method, I am certainly correct when I say ‘I am the root of a new tradition’” [6]. According to Naranjo, “he [note: Ichazo] asserts that he received the enneagram of character-fixations by direct inspiration” (quoted in Parkin and Fittkau 1996, 22). What was the source of this “inspiration”? Ichazo claims to have received his instruction from the Metatron of the Kabbalah, the prince of the archangels, and from the mysterious “Green Qu’Tub” (likely referring to Khaḍir meaning “the Green One” in the Islamic tradition), and claims that both entities are in theory available to all Aricans. Indeed, a person “may receive instructions from the higher entities such as Metatron, the prince of the archangels, who has given instructions to Ichazo” (Lilly and Hart 1975, 341). Furthermore, “The interior master of all Aricans is called the Green Qu’Tub. He may or may not make himself known to individual Aricans, depending on the stage of development of the student” (341). Ichazo (1991, 106) emphasizes that the Enneagram came to him as in a vision, and its development into a system is his alone: They came to me, 108 in all, as in a vision, showing their internal relations with complete clarity, in 1954 in Santiago, Chile. Not only am I the holder of the beginning of this tradition, but also, as can be absolutely and concretely proven, the 108 enneagons and the entire system in all its terms have been developed by me, only and exclusively, and I am more than ready to contest it publicly. Naranjo informs us that he first learned about the Enneagram through the Fourth Way teaching in his early youth: “I was first acquainted with the enneagram by reading Ouspensky’s ‘In Search of the Miraculous’ when I was in my late teens” (quoted in Parkin and Fittkau 1996, 22). It was this early exposure to the Fourth Way teaching of Gurdjieff that led Naranjo to study with Ichazo. “[M]y main interest in learning from Oscar Ichazo was a conviction that he was a link to the Sarmouni – the school behind Gurdjieff” (quoted in Parkin and Fittkau 1996, 22). Naranjo has stated that Ichazo had, on several occasions, alluded to his affiliation with the Sarmouni or the “School of the Bees” – the same ancient source from which Gurdjieff obtained certain Sufi teachings, which is what drew Naranjo to Ichazo: “As we worked with Oscar [note: Ichazo], I had no doubt about regarding him as a link with that tradition which had been the main element in Gurdjieff’s own background” (1996, 16).
10 Spirituality Studies 10-2 Fall 2024 Yet Ichazo later appears to have denounced Gurdjieff’s influence on the formation of the Arica system, as Naranjo explains: “Originally, Oscar Ichazo claimed that the enneagram was passed on to him orally by the Sarmouni, a Sufi brotherhood. In a recent interview, he said that he had never met a single Sufi who knew about the enneagram” (quoted in Parkin and Fittkau 1996, 22). We need to take heed of Moore’s intimation regarding Gurdjieff’s encounter with the Sarmouni: “Gurdjieff’s provocative claim to have found and entered ‘the chief Sarmoung Monastery’ is in effect a litmus test, differentiating literal minds from those preferring allegory” (1991, 31). Naranjo (1990, viii) initially gave credit to his teacher for the psychological typology of the Enneagram, admitting that it was “Oscar Ichazo, through whom I first became acquainted with the ‘enneagrams of personality’ during a series of lectures dictated [note: by Ichazo] at the Instituto de Psicologia Aplicada (Santiago) in 1969, under the sponsorship of the Chilean Psychological Association”. In 2010, however, he recanted this in two separate interviews, claiming that he did not in fact learn ennea-types from Ichazo (see Gold 2010; McNay 2010). Naranjo stated that he intentionally gave authorship to Ichazo, who was more famous than he, in order to draw people to the Enneagram and thus establish a correlation between the ancient Sufi origins of the Enneagram – purportedly brought to the modern West through Gurdjieff – and Ichazo leading up to him. Palmer (1991, 46) gives credit to Ichazo by way of the Fourth Way teachings: “The correct placement of the emotional passions was produced by Oscar Ichazo, and with that deceptively simple arrangement of what Gurdjieff called Chief Feature, the Enneagram code became available to us”. Naranjo stated that, under his tutelage, Ichazo spoke minimally about the Enneagram and said nothing about the specific ennea-types he later developed: “He [note: Ichazo] didn’t talk about the enneagrams of personality more than two hours during our year with him” (1996, 16). Incidentally, Naranjo credits E. J. Gold, who was also influenced by Gurdjieff, for coining the term “ennea-type”. Naranjo then tells us that he obtained his theories about the psychological types of the Enneagram through “automatic writing” or “psychography”, before verifying them through observation (quoted in Gold 2010). We must not neglect the fact that Naranjo himself never completed his tutelage with Ichazo before taking on students himself: “Claudio [note: Naranjo] broke with Oscar [note: Ichazo] very early on, before completing Oscar’s training. Claudio took the enneagram with him, thus starting a tradition within the enneagram community” (Eli Jaxon-Bear quoted in Special Forum 1997, 15). Naranjo affirms the significance of his instruction under Ichazo in understanding personality types and the structure of the personality: “To this awakening of a ‘clinical eye’ I owe everything that I was able to learn about personality types and personality in general from then on, and for the intellectual experience of an increasing coalescence of what information on the subject I acquired” (2003, xxx). Palmer emphasizes what she considers Ichazo’s chief contribution to the Enneagram of personality types: “Most important, Ichazo had placed the types correctly on the nine-pointed star” (1991, 47). Naranjo dually credits the impact of Gurdjieff’s introduction of the Enneagram: “I could say that the enneagram of the Sarmouni acted as a magnet in my mind to bring together the pieces of psychological lore that, until then, were separate, an organizing catalytic factor causing the relative chaos of the information to come into a more precise pattern” (2003, xxx). Naranjo was initially going to call his first book on the Enneagram Character Structure and Psychodynamics in the Light of the Enneagram of the Sarmouni, in order to illustrate his indebtedness to the Sarmouni in its title; but he later renamed it (Naranjo 1990). An additionally important influence upon Naranjo’s outlook is the influence of the pseudo-Sufi teacher Idries Shah (1924–1996): “I should interpolate here for the sake of context that, as many who were deeply affected by the Gurdjieff heritage, I had been disappointed in the extent to which Gurdjieff’s school entailed a living lineage. I had turned in my search towards Ṣūfism and had become part of a group under the guidance of Idries Shah” (2003, xxviii). Although (to our knowledge) Shah only references the Enneagram in one book under the heading “Symbols, especially the Enneagon” (Shah 1997, 286–87), he was a key source for the popularization of Súfism in the West that has filtered into modern psychology [7]. However, it has been well demonstrated that Shah’s brand of Súfism is highly distorted and does not reflect the authenticity of traditional Islamic spirituality [8]. Riso insists that the Enneagram of personality types is a contemporary innovation, and the credit needs to go to Ichazo and Naranjo, not to any ancient origins. He has called those within the “enneagram community” to stop romancing the Enneagram; however, this appears to be a change from his initial position as reflected in an earlier publication: “I not only have much to learn but also much for which to give thanks, especially to those ancient masters who have handed down to us the profound wisdom of the Enneagram” (Riso 1992, 117). Kathleen Riordan Speeth, who was raised in the milieu of Fourth Way teachings (seeing as her parents were disciples
Spirituality Studies 10-2 Fall 2024 11 Samuel Bendeck Sotillos of Gurdjieff), firmly asserted that the nine-pointed figure derived from Islamic esoterism: “The central symbol of the Gurdjieff work, the enneagram, is almost certainly of Sufi origin – an indication of the importance of these teachings in the system Gurdjieff developed” (Speeth 1989, 9). Palmer, who also avows that the origins of the Enneagram are to be found in the mystical dimension of Islam, dedicated her first book on the Enneagram to Lord Pentland (Henry John Sinclair, 1907–1984), a prominent disciple of Ouspensky and Gurdjieff who became the president of the Gurdjieff Foundation in both New York and California: “The Enneagram is an ancient Sufi teaching” (Palmer 1991, 3). Ichazo nevertheless questions the Sufi origins of the Enneagram: “I know Ṣūfism extensively – I’ve practiced traditional ‘zhikr’, prayer, meditation – and I know realized Sufi sheiks. It [note: the Enneagram] is not part of their theoretical framework. They couldn’t care less about the Enneagon” (quoted in Goldberg 1993, 24). A. H. Almaas, who took part in the early SAT group under Naranjo, presents the connection between Gurdjieff, Ichazo, and Naranjo (1998, 3) in a summary fashion that sheds light on contemporary understandings of the Enneagram: The nine-pointed symbol of the Enneagram first made a significant appearance in the modern West through the teachings of G. I. Gurdjieff, an Armenian mystic, around the turn of the century. Gurdjieff appears to have learned it from a secret school in the Middle East, a school steeped in a spiritual tradition that is at least two thousand years old. He did not, as far as we know, teach the Enneagram of personality fixation, which is currently the most widely known Enneagram. This Enneagram, which has become popular in recent years, came mostly from Claudio Naranjo, a Chilean psychiatrist and teacher, who learned it from Oscar Ichazo, a South American spiritual teacher. It is not clear which parts of this Enneagram teaching originated with Ichazo and which were added to or elaborated upon by Naranjo in the context of his extensive knowledge of depth psychology. Naranjo, from whom we learned the body of knowledge associated with the Enneagram, related it to the Middle Eastern school with which Gurdjieff was associated, but clearly stated that he received the basic knowledge of the Enneagram from Oscar Ichazo. We will defer to Naranjo’s assessment of the current state of the “enneagram community” that he was instrumental in launching: “I see the movement as pervaded by a combination of greed and arrogance, and by a great disrespect toward the sources of the knowledge” (quoted in Parkin and Fittkau 1996, 23). We again cite Naranjo: “I will finish by saying that I have been ambivalent about the enneagram movement that I have unwittingly fathered… looking in retrospect, we may say what Oscar [note: Ichazo] used to say concerning the excitement of the enneagram movement (and this was one of his most favorite slogans): ‘the devil doesn’t know for whom he works’” (Parkin and Fittkau 1996, 17). 6 Origins of the Enneagram and Islamic Spirituality Although the Enneagram is known to have several different origins, a primary source can be found within the esoteric tradition of Islam. Yet this does not detract from the universal dimension of this symbol as it applies to all revealed religions and their “science of the soul.” As previously indicated, a significant encounter – that reveals the traditional genesis of the Enneagram – took place between Gurdjieff and Shaykh ‘Abd Allāh al-Fā’iz ad-Dāghestanī, who was raised and trained by his maternal uncle, Shaykh Sharafuddīn ad-Dāghestanī (1875–1936) of the Naqshbandī Sufi order. It was this meeting, along with a number of key Sufi works, that not only provide a richer context for the Enneagram – or the “face of God” (Ar. wajh Allāh) as it is known in Súfism – but unveils its esoteric depth as well. Bennett also made the acquaintance of Shaykh ‘Abd Allāh (Kabbani 2004, 449–51). We cite the following account of this encounter at length in order to show that the wajh Allāh is clearly a spiritual symbol connected to a major divine revelation (quoted in Kabbani 2004, 404). As soon as they met, Shaykh Abd Allah said, ‘You are interested in the knowledge of the Nine Points. We can speak on it in the morning after the dawn prayer [note: fajr]. Now you eat something and rest.’ At the time of the dawn prayer, Shaykh Abd Allah called Gurdjieff to come and pray with him. As soon as the prayer finished, the shaykh began to recite Surah YaSin from the Holy Quran. As he finished reading, Gurdjieff approached him and asked if he could speak of what he had just experienced. Gurdjieff said: ‘As soon as you finished the prayer and began to recite, I saw you come to me and take my hand.’ We were transported to a beautiful rose garden. You told me that this garden is your garden and these roses are your disciples, each with his own color and perfume. You directed me to one particular red rose and said, ‘That one is yours. Go smell it.’ As I did, I saw the rose open and I disappeared within it and became the rose. I entered its roots, and
12 Spirituality Studies 10-2 Fall 2024 they led me to your presence. I found myself entering into your heart and becoming a part of you. Through your spiritual power I was able to ascend to the knowledge of the power of the Nine Points. Then a voice, addressing me as Abd an-Nur, said, ‘This light and knowledge have been granted to you from the Divine Presence of God to bring peace to your heart. However, you must not use the power of this knowledge.’ The voice bid me farewell with the salutation of peace and the vision ended as you were finishing the recitation from the Quran. Shaykh ‘Abd Allāh replied: Surah YaSin was called ‘the Heart of the Quran’ by the Holy Prophet and the knowledge of these Nine Points was opened to you through it. The vision was by the blessings of the verse, ‘Peace! A World (of salutation) from a Lord Most Merciful’ (36:58). Each of the Nine Points is represented by one of nine saints who are at the highest level in the Divine Presence. They are the keys to untold powers within the human being, but there is no permission to use these keys. This is a secret that, in general, will not be opened until the Last Days when the Mahdi appears and Jesus returns. Others have traced the Enneagram to the influence of the Kabbalistic Sefirot, through Medieval Christian philosopher Ramón Lull (1232–1315), and the German Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher (1601–1680) who published Arithmologia in 1665 – containing the Enneagram on the frontispiece of the volume – was reported to have influenced Gurdjieff’s ideas on the nine-pointed symbol (Webb 1987) [9]. Gurdjieff is also recorded as having said that another one of its origins is in “esoteric Christianity” (quoted in Ouspensky 1949, 102). Ichazo (1991, 101) alludes to the ancient sources of the Enneagram as follows: The enneagon figure, which the Gurdjieffians affirm that I took from their Master, is in fact one of the forms known as ‘seals’, which were produced by the Pythagorean school (500 BC), and the Platonic mathematicians (300 BC) who studied the internal relation of numbers with geometrical forms, giving to each number, not only their characteristics, but their internal interrelations. Although the Enneagram contains a sacred psychology, it is essentially a method of spiritual transformation. However, contemporary Enneagram proponents typically overlook or misunderstand this aspect because they invariably confuse the domain of the psyche with that of the spiritual. To reduce the Enneagram solely to a system of psychology, or a codification of personality types, serves to distort our understanding of this sacred symbol by undermining its ontological and cosmological foundations (Nasr 1994, vii–viii). The human psyche is subordinate to what is higher than itself (i.e., the Spirit). This principle has been, for the most part, rejected by modernity, which has cut itself off from transcendence thanks to the secularizing tenets of the Enlightenment project. The main danger to which personality type theory all too easily lends itself is psychologism – the reduction of the Spirit to merely psychological states. This aberration largely defines the contemporary “spiritual” scene, especially New Age thought, yet this malady also afflicts modern psychology as a whole. 7 Psychologizing the Enneagram The prevalence of this reductionism reflects a profane mentality that continues to dominate the present day. In particular, it shows how traditional symbols, such as the Enneagram, can be usurped by a materialist psychology. The question now arises as to why it is important to unearth one’s particular ennea-type. Palmer (1991, 9) presents two reasons for this which, in themselves, are helpful in conducting our everyday life: (i) “The reason for discovering your own type is so you can build a working relationship with yourself”; and (ii) “The second reason to study your type is so you can understand other people as they are to themselves, rather than as you see them from your own point of view”. This exclusive focus on “typology” or “fixation” is a recent phenomenon, and bears no resemblance to the Enneagram’s traditional use. The problem with a desacralized interpretation of Enneagram personality types is that it lends itself to a ‘static’ view of people, by falsely identifying the empirical ego with a person’s true identity. This error is testimony to a psychologism that obscures the existence of a higher order (Oscar Ichazo quoted in Isaacs and Labanauskas 1997, 21): The Enneagram authors have made the grave mistake of making this theory into a typology of nine ‘personality types’ as tools for ego aggrandizement, instead of a method of ego-reduction and final transcendence of the lower ego that, in fact, is like a sickness that has to be cured and transformed, in order to become completely developed human beings in a state of self-liberation.
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