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Raymundus Lullus or Ramon Lull was born in 1232 in Spain at a time of transition from Islamic beliefs towards Christianity.
Originally Lull was a courtier and unashamed seducer of the wives of other courtiers. After considerable effort to seduce a particular lady, she finally let him into her chambers and revealed a withered breast. Taking this as a sign from God, Lull gave up his hedonistic ways and joined the Franciscan order, dedicating his life to converting Muslims to Christianity.
He travelled widely attempting to convert Muslims to Christianity. After fasting and contemplation for several days, Lull experienced what he believed to be a divine revelation, he attempted to combine spirituality logic and art and was also know for his poetry as a lyrical troubadour.
By the early 1300's Lull had integrated many religious beliefs in his art, principly Christian, his art is also mixed with influences from Islam and the Jewish Cabala representations of the Tree of Life.
His art represents the nine aspects of God operating to create anything in the world in a similar way to the Cabala or three divisions of angels. Lull aimed to represent sacred art of a mathematical nature that was a representation of the laws of God.
The eccentric Spanish genius is sometimes credited with being a founder of ideas in artificial intelligence, that some of his thinking is a computational process involving combining symbols in a mechanical way.
Lull's work with disks was an attempt to mathematically prove the words of the Bible. Lull may have influenced later developments in mathematics and logic when Leibniz and Newton both invented a form of analysing integers and calculus, though Newton called his method fluxions.
A mechanical watch for a 27 Hour day. The is no logical reason why the day is divided into 24 hours, it was just the historical adoption of the Sumerian and Babylonian time measure of 24 hours in a day.
Three periods of nine hours, Each hour is 53.333 minutes long, for the mathematicians, that recurring bit is the link, the break or shock to somewhere else...
Incidently, if you say "decimated", you mean exactly 10% were wiped out. It comes from the Latin for 10, deci so to decimate comes from the fact that the Roman army killed one in ten of their own men after the Roman defeat at Cannae by Hannibal.
The historian Polybius saw Rome's success as partly the result of its willingness to enforce discipline, to punish by decimation - the killing of every tenth man - in any military unit that had displayed cowardice.
You decimated them, did you? You killed only one in 10, what are the other nine doing right now? Generally the current usage of a word can become accepted, but where it has a specific historical example and the latin name for 10, deci, I believe the measurement meaning 10% should be preserved, measurement has historical meaning for humans on earth, meaning for Lull's divisions of angels into groups of 9 and 12. The enneagram is about timing and movement, personality is a small variable, it depends on how strong your will is?
A strong will is not subject to the same mechanical forces as someone who does not know their true selves.
In the esoteric teaching of numerology, there are more ancient philosophical links a well, therapeutic healing vibrations, the music of the spheres, the law of seven and the density of matter.
Ouspensky, a student of Gurdjieff, using a The Table of Hydrogens like a spiritual Periodic Table of the Elements calculated how much more intelligent humans are than a chair, using measures of the density of matter and the frequency of vibrations!
The Front cover of Arithmologia published in Rome in 1665 by Athanasius Kircher. Kircher was born in 1602 and was said to be a polymath, knowing a lot about many things in the Christian and philosophical tradition. His art is in the tradition of Ramon Lull and is another attempt at sacred art, to mathematically define GOD.
At a time when Isaac Newton was working on Principia Mathematica, Kircher was reverting to symbolic representations of the seven then known planets, with nine personality types.
Newton was also still involved in ancient traditions and may have poisoned himself with Mercury vapor in alchemical experiments trying to transmutate base metals into gold.
The 1600's was a time of the development of scientific ideas, but it was also strongly influenced by deference to historical authorities.
A pioneer of natural sciences, artist, priest and student of hieroglyphical writing Kircher depicted nine orders of angels in three triangular divisions, each one seems to have a different expression on
its face, each placed on a cardinal point of the symbol. The enneagram is probably not an ancient symbol, but does date back further than Kircher's representation which seems to be influenced by the art of Ramon Lull from 1308.
who depicted 360° on the circle of nine.
The two images here are larger images of 1024 by 768 pixels.
When I was playing with some great long lived software now in it's 17th year called Distant Suns™ which allow you to animate the solar system and see the paths of the planets from any viewpoint in the solar system, I was surprised by these patterns produced from the orbits of the planets around our sun which is invisible in these pictures. The images in this Gallery are all produced from the paths of the nine planets around our sun. Distant Suns allows you to view the eliptical paths of the planets as they rotate around the sun. From an central spot above the sun, the rotation of planets can produce this pattern, the enneagram!
Gurdjieff first brought the two dimensional symbol to our notice (as in example A above) for him, the absolute was like every sun, sun worship, of Asheta Shamesh, the sun God divine in terms of a transitory human existence. There is a hierarchy of places to be in the "ray of creation" which are under fewer or more physical and mechanical laws.
The absolute is not governed by any laws other than its own will. Part of the teaching about the density of matter and the frequency of vibrations has to do with the number of mechanical laws each level in the system is subject to. The worst place to be is on the moon which is governed by many mechanical laws, then the planets as they orbit our sun, then the Sun, all Suns and up to the will of the absolute. It is almost a pagan sun worship cult at heart, very simple and lovely. How can a human in a single lifetime appreciate whether the sun might be intelligent or not. We are only familiar with carbon based life forms which live but fleeting seconds compared to the billions of years our sun will live for. The riddle of the Sphinx is an appropriate metaphor. What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon and three legs in the evening? The answer is man, who crawls as a baby, then walks as an adult and uses a walking stick in old age, all but a day to the Sphinx who has existed for thousands of years.
Some ideas about what possible aliens life forms other than our carbon based DNA replicators.
Having nine major planets (including Pluto), the symbol seems right for our solar system and you can use it show and calculate planetary movements.
it does add something mystical and occult to astrology.
Gurdjieff "G" essentially said, "we are all machines" A three story factory is an analogy used by G with each level requiring different inputs and energy.
To have any possibility of changing, of having an internal locus of control and free will to make informed decisions, we must"know thyself" First study ourselves.
We study everything else except ourselves as evolving humans, biology is fine, now with genetics we can uncover some associations between behaviour and genetics.
Gurdjieff spoke of humans as being like a three story factory. The challenge was to only feed each level of the factory on the correct energy and to separate the fine from the course, feeding on the appropriate inputs of food, air and impressions.
A factory can function on the lowest two levels alone. Predestined, fated to not break out of the cycle of concrete personality.
The highest story of mental food involves sifting the wheat from the chaff, only feeding on the finest rarest impressions, taking in with the assistance of breathing exercises the finest impressions possible, the most refined food for our minds. One exercise Gurdjieff used to reduce course impressions in the mind was to not allow the expression of negative emotions or thoughts, to acknowledge or observe them, but to sacrifice the suffering and not express them.
This can only happen in moments of self awareness and mental awareness and after a lot of training. Training in self study, humility and sometimes cathartic emotional, mental or physical change.
The Islamic Sufi religion preserves many mystical and even psychological foundations of the Islamic religion. Sufism was originated by Maulaana Jalalludin Balkhi born in 1207 and claimed by both Afhganistan and Turkey as their own. Sufi or shaikh means "old man" or "teacher" and mystic. Sufism is common in both branches of Islamic beliefs Sunni and Shi'ite. Some dancing Sufi are better known as "whirling dervishes".
Sufi leaders are considered ulama respected for their spiritual powers, their karamat. Sufi are less interested in worldly affairs and are more interested in a direct experience of God than most Mullas calling for a bloody jihad.
Some Sufi schools teach exercises including meditation and breathing to help discover the inner-self, the "being" Gurdjieff called it. One favourite exercise used by Gurdjieff was the STOP exercise. You can use it on your children or friends and empower them to do it to you.
Make an agreement with someone you trust that when they say "STOP", you will obey exactly and freeze still in any posture and consider, What are you feeling now, your posture and breathing is it anything unusual,
your thoughts, what are you thinking, feeling or sensing, the moment you are stopped? What impression could your non-verbal body language be having on others?
Self observation in the STOP Exercise
Physical physical postures gestures
Feelings Negative emotions expressed feed negative energy
Some rebellious questioning children appreciate this exercise as it gives them the same power as an adult. They must agree to stop frozen on your command to STOP Likewise you must agree to do the same. STOP frozen by the command of a child for 20 or 30 seconds of inspired self-reflection.
Question yourself about your body posture: breathing, emotions and thoughts. "STOP" doesn't work all the time with children, you need to be an accepted significant other to "STOP" them at opportune moments for self study. An alarm clock Gurdjieff called it.
Allow children to "STOP" you, but only so many "STOP" credits, saving yours for the best times for the children's self-education.
Children can be cunning at STOPPING you at moments of weakness for self reflection.
I do believe the enneagram is a system for understanding processes of change, but I would not tie it so closely to this or that personality type.
It is more a process for self observation that does not aim for change, but knowledge of being. He also had great exercises for the mind, mental gymnastics as well as feeling, sensing is also important like a subtle awareness, a non-verbal intuition
not based on flesh and bone. A few of these exercises are included in the most readable of Gurdjieff's books, Life is real only then when I am. Practicing divided attention to carry out many mental and physical tasks at once, "do not as others do"
My grandfather Jack expressed this as, When everyone else is walking, you run, when everyone is running you walk."
Gurdjieff referred to his teaching as the way of the sly man. Ouspensky referred to it as "The Fourth Way" The first way being the way of the body, the second of the emotional and physical, the third being the priest. Few people make any effort to study themselves with any non biased academic rigour.
Very Few three story factories are working, any factory with higher levels is consuming a more subtle rarified energy which is abundant.
I can recommend the enneagram as being a process of self observation, not a religion, though I do like to say a quite prayer in my mind feeling the vibrations from the last few rays of sunlight
and give thanks for my enjoyment and appreciation of the energy of our now middle aged sun. The saintly "Asheta Shamesh", Gurdjieff called it.
Much of Gurdjieff's teaching comes from the Sufi Islamic religion, the Sufi effort is a struggle for self knowledge always directed to the self, to not express rage or even negative emotions and thoughts. The real battle in the spiritual tradition, a Jihad is an Arabic word meaning effort, in the Sufi tradition, it is a struggle against our own habits and ignorance, an earnest desire and striving for self knowledge, it is not a beligerant malice against others. The killing of innocent civilians is not part of the Sufi Islamic teaching, a real Jihad is a personal battle against our own habits and ignorance.
An enneagram sceptic.
A short History of the Enneagram personality Types theories from a sceptical "made up my mind already", Hebrew point of view, which tries to invalidate the theory of personality by reference to psychological statistics and an appeal to antiquity. Not too biased for a Hebrew scholar. He missed the middle ages and the enneagram art of Ramon Lull, so the enneagram was around at least 400 years ago, in ancient times, who knows or cares?
He quotes Gurdjieff's book "Meetings with Remarkable Men", which was utter tripe in terms of the occult knowledge and the enneagram theory. Look at his best student's book instead, In Search of the Miraculous by Ouspensky, not the bon ton literary crap he produced himself like Beelzebub's Tales to his Grandson. When you hear Meetings with Remarkable Men quoted as a reference for Gurdjieff or the Enneagram, reach for a copy of Ouspensky, probably one of the best,
most challenging books I have read and re-read many times. I can't recommend it highly enough if you are interested in self observation and the possibility of change, but forget Gurdjieff's own writings, they are to put you off.
Commercial Americanisation. The psychotherapy bandwagon
I have not been doing much work with the enneagram for a decade or so after intensive study, what has happened is that psychotherapy and religious fundamentalism has tried to appropriate this symbol as some mystical guide to personal change. Perhaps it can be so, but really forget all the books here and go straight to Ouspensky's In Search of the Miraculous. Like Freudians with nothing to cling to, these texts provide a superficial overview of the enneagram personality types and change, they will not satisfy a more serious student of occult meaning in the enneagram, as above so below.
I understand the enneagram as a visual symbol of the microcosm (an individual) and the planet earth. To see the real overlap between the enneagram and astrology, between 9 and 12, there is one fantastic textbook that makes all the others destined for the recycle bin, The Gnostic Circle is the best.
A student of the author of The Gnostic Circle, Frater Zephyros had a great online article on Gnostic Cycles? If you understand some astrology and are interested in the enneagram, read this book (ref Below) and forget the rest fo the rubbish.
A Christian viewpoint
This is a difficult read, to get past the "theological errors", bit when you know "theological" means a "biased view", completely wrong to start without a smattering of Darwin. Did God make the world in 4004 B.C.! I don't think so, some Cosmology The enneagram is a symbol,
not so ancient, it has occult mysterious origins and is not used much or validated by psychological statistical studies. At least they do not accept the enneagram without question, like some other Jesus fanatics.
A large volume with lots of information on the history of the enneagram, Gurdjieff and the fourth way movement.
The Gnostic Circle
by Patrizia Norelli Bachelet.
Samuel Weiser New York 1978
ISBN 0877284113
A fantastic book on astrological connections with the enneagram. This book is like the maths text for enneagram devotees. It allows you to chart your progress through life, from your time of birth (related to astrology the planets and the circle of nine) to your current circumstances.
The books comes with a chart of 360° with the year and enneagram. They use the ennegram as a symbol of change, like a cosmic watch. It charts the progress of an individual's ( and countries ) life through the enneagram. If you like the ennegram and know a little astrology, this book is the bible. I believe some of Patricia's students have even more details to offer in subsequent titles.
The eseoteric core of Gurdjieff's teachings. Ouspensky had written his own book before meeting Gurdjieff of a mathematical flavour. He charts the Table of Hydrogens, the ray of creation and the density of matter. For a serious student, this is the book to start with.
Published long after Gurdjieff's death from some of his writings, it does contain some good exercises for centering the self and also mental gymnastics to divide the attention.
Practice saying "I am" from the solar plexus, reverberating your being. Repeat to yourself with conviction, "I am", "I can", "I wish". In a group, you should tolerate others picking your chief faults, pride, vanity etc for self-observation.
To divide the attention into two parts, concentrate on your own breathing with your attention and notice the mental associations which continually distract your attention, make an effort to redirect your mental attention to your breathing and to remember yourself, the whole of yourself.
To divide the attention into three parts, feel one finger as flesh and blood, sense the next finger as a more ethereal awareness of presence and with another finger count in a series, prime numbers or add three each time, as hard a task mentally as you might get. Sensing, feeling and directed thinking.
The difference between sensing and feeling is subtle, but essential to master.
Gurdieff's opus magnum but it is a really boring and difficult read, a three book series which Gurdjieff said should be read three times, once was enough for me. It tries to give an objective perspective of the three brained beings of planet earth as if written by an alien, but I much preferred Douglas Adams for this view in his Hitchhiker's Guide, he refers to human as bipedal carbon based life forms. Don't waste much time with this book, it contains very little of the substance of his teachings.
A reasonably interesting read, shallow with little substance, but more readable than any of his other books. A short film was made out of this as well, which is difficult to find.
Raymundus Lullus or Ramon Lull was born in 1232 in Spain at a time of transition from Islamic beliefs towards Christianity.
Originally Lull was a courtier and unashamed seducer of the wives of other courtiers. After considerable effort to seduce a particular lady, she finally let him into her chambers and revealed a withered breast. Taking this as a sign from God, Lull gave up his hedonistic ways and joined the Franciscan order, dedicating his life to converting Muslims to Christianity.
The Front cover of 
