Enneagram // Enneagram Types and Essential Qualities of Being

Pure consciousness is clear and open. Just as colorless light contains different frequencies or colors, so too does neutral consciousness inherently include various qualities of consciousness, such as clarity, openness, stillness, peace, non-resistance, unshakability, unconditional love, freedom, etc.

Some of these qualities of consciousness are thematically more closely related than others. For example, non-resistance and unshakability are closely linked because non-resistance and permeability require something that cannot be shaken. In other words, the unshakable is so unshakable that it can be absolutely non-resistant. This allows it to perceive and experience everything exactly as it is – this is objectivity. And serenity. While remaining alert at the same time.

The quality of consciousness, “Unshakable Non-Resistance,” is associated with incorruptibility and the will for truth, as well as the ability to maintain both a stable and flexible focus, i.e., to be resilient. The color that comes to mind here is white: purity, on which everything can be clearly seen as it is. These and other related qualities of consciousness are collectively referred to as the “White Essence,” in contrast to, for instance, the “Red Essence,” where power and vitality are dominant.

All the different essential qualities of consciousness are potentially inherent in humans, but due to conditioning and unprocessed experiences, they are often not accessible. Thus, people long for their own true nature and suffer because they are separated from it – and they try to artificially create what they yearn for and miss. For example, someone may puff themselves up because they lack self-confidence (counterphobic Enneatype 6). Or they may make themselves seem harmless and loving so as not to be perceived as a threat by others and thus be left alone (phobic Enneatype 6). Or they strive for status and prestige in order to be valued and recognized as someone important (Enneatype 3). – In this way, different compensation, avoidance, and defense mechanisms develop, forming the various Enneatypes, depending on the severity and nature of the loss of essential qualities of consciousness.

When the “White Essence” is lost – which characterizes Enneatype 6 – the experience and knowledge of one’s own indestructibility and unshakability are lost, and one feels insecure and vulnerable. There is a lack of steadfastness and security. One feels unfit to meet the demands of life, constantly living in a state of threat.

Enneatype 6 has two variations: the phobic and the counterphobic. While the phobic 6 may freeze in terror or tremble with fear, knees buckling and breaking down, seeking order, structure, orientation, and safety in intellectual matters (often confused with Type 1), or being friendly and helpful (sometimes mistaken for Type 2) to ensure others perceive them as non-threatening and leave them alone, the counterphobic 6 stands firm like a rock in the storm, defying the crashing waves of life’s challenges, facing them head-on, providing security and stability. This can even manifest in an aggressive and dominant manner, often causing them to be mistaken for an Enneatype 8.

While the phobic 6 lacks self-confidence, the counterphobic 6 compensates for this with powerful, provocative self-assurance and becomes the heroic figure who confronts challenges and overcomes them.

When fate knocks on the door of the counterphobic 6, they knock back forcefully, ready to „grasp fate by the throat,“ as Beethoven expressed it. This knocking of fate and the confident return knock can be heard in the opening of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. The triumphant victory is musically represented at the end of the Fifth Symphony.*

The strategies of both variants of Enneatype 6 are attempts to compensate for the lack of access to the essential quality of “White Essence” – certainty of one’s indestructibility, substance, security, the will for truth, which includes non-resistance to one’s own experience – in a way that makes life and survival possible.

The psychological-spiritual Enneagram enables one to recognize which wounds have led to which survival strategies and Enneatype fixations, so that one can break free from them. It also allows, in a further step – through conscious processing and exploring of wounds and compensatory strategies – access to the related essential qualities of being, allowing one to authentically and fulfillingly shape their life!

*: Listen to Claudio Naranjo from minute 33:40 to 51 via this link.

For more information about the seminar on the „Enneagram and Essential Qualities“ (Advanced Course I), click on this link.

Interested in the main seminar on Essential Qualities of Being and Self-Realization? Find more information via this link.