Part 1
20th Century Enneagram Sources: Gurdjieff, Ichazo, and Naranjo
Part 2
The Mathematical and Physical Structure of the Objective Enneagram of Personality and Consciousness
Part 3
The Objective Enneagram: Helping, Healing, and Human Potential
Why This Project Matters: A Call to Preserve Objective Enneagram Knowledge
The Enneagram of Personality—an intricate map of human consciousness rooted in mathematical laws as old as the universe itself—now finds itself at a critical place. After 55 years of transmission from Oscar Ichazo’s first formal teachings to North Americans in 1970 to the present day, although natural and inevitable in a world of subjective knowledge, this objective system of consciousness is increasingly subject to subjective interpretation.
While the Enneagram of Personality has become globally recognized, scholars of Gurdjieff have continued to decipher both the Enneagram symbol and Gurdjieff’s writings. Although the Enneagram of Process and the common-cosmic laws (which Gurdjeff brought forward) and the Enneagram of Personality held some aspects of alignment in the 1970s, Gurdjieff scholars have made significant advancements in understanding human consciousness and the ancient cosmology about the laws of the universe that Gurdjieff brought to the West. These advancements will benefit our objective understanding of the Enneagram of Personality and the fields of science in general.
This three-part series emerges from a sense of obligation to future generations so they can have access to the Enneagram’s objective foundations, free of bias that accumulates when ancient knowledge passes through the filter of contemporary culture’s need to simplify and of course through our personality’s subjective lens.
The Objective Science of the Enneagram of Process (including advancements by Gurdjieff scholars) and The Enneagram of Personality (a map of the nature of human consciousness) can be re-acknowledged and preserved.
It is clear that the Enneagram of Personality can be studied as a formal mathematical data science and, with caution, an empirical science.
Figure 1 outlines our current observations and corresponding goals. Each of the three observations will be addressed in Part 1, 2, and 3, respectively of this article.
Figure 1 Grounding the Objective Enneagram of Personality—Observations and Specific Goals
| Observation 1 (Part 1): Are we taking full note of the origins of the Enneagram? •Let’s be careful with our 21st Century perspective. •Let’s re-align with the source material by Gurdjieff and Ichazo. Observation 2 (Part 2): Are we at risk of losing sight of the objective mathematical and physical laws of the Enneagram? •Let’s keep alive the objective Enneagram of Personality, a map of consciousness rooted in the Laws of 3 and 7. •Let’s re-align with advancements made by Gurdjieff scholars in understanding the Enneagram of process and the evolution of 7 centers of consciousness. Observation 3 (Part 3): Are we on track with what Gurdjieff called “doing The Work”? That is, do we use our inner witness, and do we understand the objective process of evolving our consciousness? •Let’s make sure we have an experience of “awareness of awareness” or the “inner witness” before we type ourselves. •Let’s remember the Enneagram addresses both the symptoms of suffering and the cause; we now have objective knowledge to go beyond a well-integrated healthy personality to evolve our consciousness. |
Authors:
Denise Daniels: Developmental Psychologist, Objective Enneagram of Personality Scholar
Steven Wheeler: Mathematician, Gurdjieff and Objective Science Scholar
Project Initiated: January 27, 2025
Published: March 5, 2026
Updated: April 8, 2026
Audience and Enneagram Knowledge Sources
Audience: This article is intended for both those who already know the Enneagram of Personality and for anyone interested in the nature of objective consciousness. A section on resources is presented at the end of Part 3 so that you can learn about the Enneagram of Personality (as information on the 9 types is not articulated here). Importantly, for those interested in consciousness, the Enneagram of Personality can also be labeled as nine patterns of subjective consciousness.
Throughout the article we use a variety of labels to describe consciousness. Both Gurdjieff and Ichazo came from the Western Abrahamic Heritage of philosophical and theological labels. We also use natural world labels. They should be considered labels because both describe the same form (e.g., God = The Universe; Spirituality = Consciousness; Hope = The Laws of the Universe).
Sources: The objective Enneagram knowledge is, what today we would label a scientific discovery. Quite a few of the discoveries contained in the Enneagram were made tens of thousands of years ago. Sometimes, people refer to these discoveries as Gurdjieff or Ichazo philosophies, or teachings, or theories. That is inaccurate and misleading. Gurdjieff explicitly intended and stated he was introducing to the west ancient knowledge and worked to discern how to communicate it. Ichazo explicitly states the Enneagram of Holy Ideas and ego fixations was his scientific discovery based on study of western philosophy that emerged from Egypt.
Ichazo presented much more than the Enneagram, and that does get labelled as Ichazo theory. It is also possible that Ichazo was the first to discover the 9 Enneagram points of consciousness. However, given 300,000 years of Homo sapiens, 10,000 years since early agricultural societies, Gurdjieff’s twice mention of 27 personality types, and evidence of 9 virtues and 9 sins in the Abrahamic tradition over the last 2,000 years, it would be unlikely (although possible) that Ichazo made the sole discovery.
Please note that we do not cite specific pages or declarations (which are often taken out of context), but rather in referring to a whole article or book, encourage you to read and verify for yourself the objective knowledge we are presenting.
We also encourage you to write to us if you discern that any of the knowledge that we present is subjective. We are open and will make changes to restore objectivity. These articles will serve as a living document communicating the objective science articulated by Gurdjieff and Ichazo. See Contact Us to become a contributor.
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