The Spiritual Dimension of the Enneagram: Nine Faces of the Soul

by Sandra Maitri

A groundbreaking exploration of the spiritual dimension of working with the enneagram by one of its earliest students and teachers in America.

Here is one of the first books to explore in an authentic and comprehensive way the original spiritual dimension of the enneagram. Among the most knowledgeable teachers of the enneagram in America, Sandra Maitri shows how the enneagram not only reveals our personalities, but illuminates a basic essence within each of us. She shows how traversing the inner territory particular to our ennea-type can bring us profound fulfillment and meaning, as well as authentic spiritual development.

Genres: Psychology, Spirituality, Nonfiction, Self Help, Personal Development, Philosophy, Personal Growth

336 pages, Paperback

First published March 6, 2000

Reviews

[Jenny Mckeel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the Enneagram who has a spiritual bent. This book was incredibly helpful to me and one that I will return to many times. The depth and specificity with which the author explores the psychological behavior of the different types was really impressive to me. The chapter on my type was pitch perfect and the book as a whole was a real eye opener in many ways. I really am so glad I read it.

[Bridgett · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the spiritual angle of this book, which resembles Buddhism a bit to me. I really identified with a lot of the spiritual struggles described for the different enneagram types. The book also helped me figure out which enneagram type I most connect with (4).

[Miranda · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book will kick your butt but is very accurate. eerily so. don't read it if you're already feeling down

[Peter Wiinholt · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was very ambivalent towards this book. On one hand I found the premise very engaging, and the description of the personality type that most tests ascribe to me seemed unusually dead on even in some uncomfortable ways. And so it was very enlightening and insightful. However I found the book extremely negative and depression. The whole premise is about loss and all of the personality type descriptions are overwhelmingly dark and negative. No mention of any positive traits. The diagrams itemizing the characteristics of each type employ words like "stinginess", "cowardice", "revenge". According to the premise, all coping with separation from the essence leads to depressing characteristics. I find that hard to buy, and feel that the author is only looking at half the picture. She, herself, says that the creation of personality is essential to self awareness in order to reconnect with essence. So, that doesn't come with any positive qualities at all??

[Brooke Warner · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am an enneagram junkie. This is the best book out there on the subject, in my opinion. I've read a lot of them.

[Caroline Donahue · Rating 5 out of 5]

i quite love this book. it is a great intro to the enneagram which dives really deep into the topic and goes beyond reductionistic models and really gets to the heart of the matter. for those wishing to really get into it, this is your book. a classic i have returned to many times.

[Anne Van · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely interesting and thought provoking......a description of nine basic personality types (I'm so Type Seven, I immediately loved it as a system!). A look at both internal dynamics, and how others might see you.

[Willa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maitri gives a deeply felt impression of the various Enneagram types, which is helpful to use next to Riso and Hudson. However although I think the Enneagram system is brilliant as a typology, I believe it is overrated as a spiritual path or tool.

[Saiisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had never heard the word Enneagram before but I picked up the book because I liked the second half of the title: "Nine Faces of the Soul" which intrigued me. Although the concept of an enneagram is new to me, I felt very comfortable reading the book, because it's very much in alignment with my own inner understanding of a soul's evolution. Sandra Maitri goes into thorough detail about the descriptions of each "face" of the soul, and I appreciated that!

The reason I'm giving it a 4 stars and not a 5 is because I couldn't figure out a way to find my own soul face, even though there was a whole chapter about it at the end. And I think without that personal recognition, I felt like I was missing a piece of the presentation.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is very nuanced. It brings greater depth and clarity to the psychological and spiritual structures of the enneatypes than Riso & Hudson and Palmer & Daniels books - which are more key for understanding what the Enneagram of personality is as a system. This book has influenced my perspective on the similarities between the types based on the interconnectedness and wholeness of the basic needs (passions and fixations) of each type, as well as their essences and virtues. Its a beautiful, complex book, which I will definitely want to refer to often and try to continue to digest.

[Roben · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a personal eye opener. I will turn to it many times as I've found this to be the best out there on the study of enneagrams. Indispensable but tough personal work is available in these pages.

[Jennifer Louden · Rating 3 out of 5]

Closer to 4 stars (I hate rating books) and while I learned a few new insights into the Enneagram, I also felt her tone at times was a bit dire. Do not start with this if you do not know the Enneagram but good if you don't understand subtypes or the inner child angle.

[Nickole · Rating 4 out of 5]

I definitely do not recommend this book if you are not ready to be hit with a serious mirror of your baggage. Blew my mind...and had me in tears a few times. Tough read but I am glad I did.

[Spencer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Man I am quite broad on these enneagram tests. I think so anyways. But maybe that just exactly what a self deceptive type 9,5,4,or 7 would say! One site said that
4 is a heart type
5 is a head type
9 is a gut type
Maybe thats just my dominant mode in each of those sort of orientations? Shrug

But I did like the stuff in the book abt what we are all spiritually striving for in our own way. Much quotes from Naranjo, Almaas, Gurdjeiff. Notes-

Our ego type (personality) mediates our experience of reality. There are 9 different enlightened perspectives of reality achievable when personality is transcended (and 9 illusions when it isnt)

9 Holy Love- Ultimate Nature is loving
1 Holy Perfection- the nature of all things is good
2 Holy Will- da universe is unfolding by divine will
3 Holy Law- no one is acts apart from the whole
4 Holy Origin- all is a manifestation of Source
5 Holy Omniscience- we are one thing
6 Holy Faith- our nature is divine
7 Holy Plan- every soul is unfolding perfectly
8 Holy Truth- duality is illusory

When we are present the contents of our soul reveal themselves and we can get closer to going beyond personality. Most psychology believes incorrectly that personality is ultimately real.

We have all 9 types within us but one is most pronounced and has an associated fundamental delusion that shapes us

Our first lived dualism is pleasure and pain and how we strive for pleasure and avoid pain is most fundamental to our personality structure. Then we experience separateness, the pain of which adds another layer on our ego structure. This is “the fall”. It is experienced in the first few years of life.

Point 9 is common to all as a start. A loss of ones essential nature, and identifying with your seeming corporeal body.

We all try to fill our inner emptiness or distract ourselves from it. We need to face it. We need to contact our depths and retrace our developmental steps. We need to appreciate the magnitude of our imprisonment in our self image.

9’s
They have forgot their real self and deepest nature. They feel this lack. They have forgot that Ultimate nature is loving. And that they are beautiful. Although they see the beauty in others. They do not feel lovable or worthy of love. They place others before themselves, do not take care of their needs, and rarely assert. They are excellent mediators but conflict averse. They dont pay attention to their feels. They are dependable and kind. And forgetful. They get stuck and obstinately hold on to patterned behavior. They have the least bias but its because they forget what they feel and believe. They need to connect with and inhabit their body. This will bring up years of neglected feels.

4’s
They want to be seen as unique. They value their taste and are drawn to art. They envy. They can become addicted to cathartic unproductive emoting and therefor identifying with the personality. They have melancholy and perpetual mourning from their sense of disconnection with the divine. They feel abandoned, adrift. Longing becomes more important to them than getting. (Like gamblers addicted to “almost” winning?) They unconsciously cling to idea of themselves as forsaken. But blame themselves for it and beat themselves up w inward, not outward, aggression. Fully being oneself is a source of shame. Although sometimes they defiantly behave shamefully, either way, its not directly contacting experience. They need to surrender.

5’s
They value solitude, and act like they dont care. They felt unwanted as a child. And withdraw because of the pain of neglect from a loved one. They hide from life. They detach. They observe rather than participate. They feel puny. They have few material possessions. They have to confront their emptiness.

7’s
They are optimistic, interested. Its all good. But they may not be fully present to everything because of dreaming of future enfolding. They have a pain of the disconnection of the vibrancy if life. Prone to spiritual bypassing as a way of masking fear. They live in a utopian reality of their mind. Have a problem with setting limits and can create a tyranny of good vibe expectations. Aka the hippies

Remember-
Source is everything. We dont need to connect with it. We need to recognize it as us.

[Elina Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

It could get a little too repetitive and spiritual for my taste (religious), but overall a very interesting perspective, that I believe has a lot of ground in truth. The enneagram descriptions are in my opinion very real patterns, that can be observed in human psychology and societal trends. I found the main descriptions to be a little exaggerated. Hence, I’m not sure people can be neatly divided into these types, but I think most people are ”flavours” of the types. The chapter on the ”soul-children” of the types adds more nuance into the enneatypes, basically arguing that the types function as masks to a socially unaccepted, yet instinctive part of ourselves. In contemporary psychological terms, the types can perhaps be understood as coping mechanisms. I found a lot of these ”soul-child” descriptions to be even more accurate than the original type descriptions, as they covey how people can display paradoxical traits (the type & its soul-child, persona & shadow) instead of being caricatures. The book seems rather grounded in Jungian psychology, as a lot of the core concepts seem equivalent to Jungian concepts, such as the shadow, personality, ego, collective unconscious, archetypes?, and sychronicity. I find this book, as well as Jungian psychology to be a very insightful and deep take on the human mind and behaviour. It is more interesting and useful than a lot of contemp. psychology, which largely focuses on quantifiable traits and phenomena.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I could find a single person who wanted to discuss the Enneagram of Personality, I would never talk about anything else.

Sandra Maítrí was a student of Claudio Naranjo who established the system as we know it, based on the work of Oscar Ichazo and (more broadly) on that of Gurdjieff. Contemporary authors have largely moved away from the spiritual roots, focusing solely on psychodynamics. I was curious to explore the spiritual aspect, and while I’m not entirely sold on that lens, I did find insights in this book that I haven’t encountered anywhere else. I’m type 5. What are you?

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I guess I am not smart enough or evolved enough to understand and appreciate this book. Could only read a few pages at a time, skipped over some sections. Lots of psychology with an emphasis on the negative traits of each type. I do not think I have any better understanding of the enneagram.
Seems like many of the books are one extreme or the other, very deep and intense like this one, or overly simplistic!

[Karla Samman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una forma muy interesante de ver el eneagrama y de dirigir al lector hacia su comprensión. Ha sido una lectura dura, a veces deprimente, ya que muestra partes que no nos gusta ver de nosotros mismos. Considero muy importante leerlo con la mente abierta, tal vez no todo lo que dice haga sentido, pero vale la pena considerarlo. Tomo de este libro lo que me ha resonado y siento que me puede ser de utilidad para mi desarrollo y crecimiento.

[Gary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing book, the spiritual perspective presented in this book is incredibly profound, deep, and yet is written in a very accessible, easy to read way, and presents its ideas in a non-theistic manner. It's frightening how spot on and on point every line in this book is. This is THE Enneagram book if you want to peel back the layers of your personality to uncover the deepest forgotten core of yourself within.

[Lynnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book I will go back to often. A Zoom with Enneagram friends is talking about the book, and it’s fascinating how different the takes are. Most important for me is the way Maitri talks about the spiritual expansion possible using the enneagram as a springboard. I think the whole concept of the enneagram has little value unless it’s a tool for growth rather than an end in itself.

[Mandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book did a great job integrating psychological work into spiritual development for each type. Its perspectives and sensibilities are somewhat different from and the insights may be deeper than The Wisdom of the Enneagram and The Road Back to You.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Truly spiritual and specific yet accurate. It’s kind of like a weird mix between astrology and enneagram. Not in the sense of talking about signs and planets but in the sense of “your mom was probably neglectful”.

It’s making me question my own motives and reactions.

[Lucia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Epic book!

I can’t recommend this book enough. The author brings the dimension of spirituality with the enneagram as a frame to explore the soul. It has a lot of depth fir the enneagram

[Benoît · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un des meilleurs livres sur l'Enneagramme. L'approche est plus spirituelle que psychologique. Le concept d'Enneatype enfant est original. Le livre n'est par contre toujours facile à lire : quelques longueurs et lourdeurs.

[Tom Suhar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very detailed and very good book about the nine types and spiritual growth.

[Bethany · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best enneagram book I have come across so far. The section on the Soul Child (Ch 11) is like a well-needed slap to the face.

[Eva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Igualmente recomendado por mi psicólogo, da mucho que pensar, pero es un poco demasiado espiritual para mí.

[Deep · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating. A lot of new insights.

[Aileen Bernadette Urquhart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best book on the Enneagram that I have ever read.

[Robert Lowry · Rating 2 out of 5]

A good read but a bit heavy on Freud and generic spirituality.