What do you think?
Rate this book
Facets of Unity: The Enneagram of Holy Ideas
A “heartily recommend[ed] ” text for “Enneagram enthusiasts . . . and followers of every spiritual tradition ”—by the creator of the Diamond Approach to Self-Realization (Helen Palmer, author of The Enneagram )
Facets of Unity presents the Enneagram of Holy Ideas as a crystal clear window on the true reality experienced in enlightened consciousness. Here we are not directed toward the psychological types but the higher spiritual realities they reflect. We discover how the disconnection from each Holy Idea—defined as an unconditioned, objective understanding of reality—leads to the development of its corresponding fixation, thus recognizing each types deeper psychological core. Understanding this core brings each Holy Idea within reach, so its spiritual perspective can serve as a key for unlocking the fixation and freeing us from its limitations.
Facets of Unity presents the Enneagram of Holy Ideas as a crystal clear window on the true reality experienced in enlightened consciousness. Here we are not directed toward the psychological types but the higher spiritual realities they reflect. We discover how the disconnection from each Holy Idea—defined as an unconditioned, objective understanding of reality—leads to the development of its corresponding fixation, thus recognizing each types deeper psychological core. Understanding this core brings each Holy Idea within reach, so its spiritual perspective can serve as a key for unlocking the fixation and freeing us from its limitations.
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
127 people are currently reading
580 people want to read
About the author
A.H. Almaas
146 books209 followersA.H. Almaas is the pen name of A. Hameed Ali, the creator of the Diamond Approach to Self Realization. The Diamond Approach is a contemporary teaching that developed within the context of awareness of both ancient spiritual teachings & modern depth psychological theories.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
September 6, 2008
Usually Almaas is too heady for me, but this book is working. He has a great introductory chapter on Basic Trust! I disagree with his thesis that our enneagram type is "caused" by the type of parenting we receive since I was able to tell which types my boys were (and other friends children) within a week of their birth! Certainly parenting impacts us, but we come to earth with strong pre-dispositions. Emphasis on Holy Ideas---and I'm really working with these to open my psyche to the divine--never a bad idea.
March 10, 2017
That’s a great book to read. I will definitely re-read it. Lucidly written, lots of useful information about archetypal Ideas, with practical implications in terms of tracking down one’s ego defense mechanisms.
December 31, 2022
This is a must-read for everyone who is studying enneagram. This is an Enneagram 101 book regardless of how you rate it or feel about it.
Almaas explains the timeless concepts behind each enneagram type. He gives spiritual depth to each enneagram type. Most enneagram literature fixates on the surface behaviors of types and thus reduces them to meaningless stereotypes. Almaas goes far beyond this and tells us about the psychospiritual origins of each type.
I also love how Almaas acknowledges that nobody really has one ego fixation, we have all of them and we need to work on all of them. This means that nobody is limited from working on a part of themselves just because they don't show the right surface characteristics to be labelled a "type x".
I rated this book 4 stars instead of 5 because I found it to be repetitive and overly heady. Almaas definitely drove his point home that each Holy Idea is a different way of viewing the same reality when he repeated "all is one" so many times in elaborate word salads. Almaas missed a lot of opportunities to demonstrate the Holy Ideas in reality, through examples of art, history and culture. His writing can be very abstract. It's easy to not know wtf you're reading at times... there's lots of mumbo jumbo that could be simplified. But overall, lots of really helpful spiritual truths elucidated by this book, and an excellent making sense of the enneagram symbol.
Almaas explains the timeless concepts behind each enneagram type. He gives spiritual depth to each enneagram type. Most enneagram literature fixates on the surface behaviors of types and thus reduces them to meaningless stereotypes. Almaas goes far beyond this and tells us about the psychospiritual origins of each type.
I also love how Almaas acknowledges that nobody really has one ego fixation, we have all of them and we need to work on all of them. This means that nobody is limited from working on a part of themselves just because they don't show the right surface characteristics to be labelled a "type x".
I rated this book 4 stars instead of 5 because I found it to be repetitive and overly heady. Almaas definitely drove his point home that each Holy Idea is a different way of viewing the same reality when he repeated "all is one" so many times in elaborate word salads. Almaas missed a lot of opportunities to demonstrate the Holy Ideas in reality, through examples of art, history and culture. His writing can be very abstract. It's easy to not know wtf you're reading at times... there's lots of mumbo jumbo that could be simplified. But overall, lots of really helpful spiritual truths elucidated by this book, and an excellent making sense of the enneagram symbol.
October 18, 2021
This book didn't resonate with me that much, but it's something I'd like to go back to at some point and give another try. I felt like the chapters on each of the types had interesting concepts, and felt accurate at least for my type (4), but the writing style and some of the language used didn't really appeal to me at the time.
September 27, 2015
Best Enneagram book I ever read.
Best description of Basic Trust, also.
Best description of Basic Trust, also.
July 29, 2021
Experiencing Being is key to transformation
Incredible study of the Holy ideas. I loved how this book detailed the importance of experience Being as essential to understanding the enneagram. The explanations of the delusions and virtues of each time as they pertain to objective reality was incredible. Once of the most useful Enneagram books I’ve come across for true transformation.
Incredible study of the Holy ideas. I loved how this book detailed the importance of experience Being as essential to understanding the enneagram. The explanations of the delusions and virtues of each time as they pertain to objective reality was incredible. Once of the most useful Enneagram books I’ve come across for true transformation.
July 18, 2018
Great overview of the enneagram system of understanding psychology and insights of the real in man's inner essence. Almaas' painstaking efforts at accuracy and precision on topics that easily confuse is much appreciated.
December 4, 2025
The way it links non dual insight with enneagram is genius, however it falls short at explaining it in any reasonable way. I feel like I'm getting some insight at what's being pointed to however to fully decode the message requires more time than I am willing to invest.
July 11, 2018
A little thin there are bvetter books
March 3, 2021
A little inaccessible at first. Spends a lot of time rewording the same ideas to make sure you get it.
Read
August 28, 2025girl what.
May 11, 2024
This book is for enneagram users who are looking for spiritual actualization. This knowledge is quite esoteric, and can seem crazy if you did not come here looking for those ideas.
This book elucidates the Holy Ideas, a very challenging task, since most of its readers are not enlightened and cannot conceive of the Ideas. The author explains what is known as *basic trust* and goes on to explain that it is not possible to explain it in words. So he decides to do the next best thing, elucidate the Facets of Unity, that is the Holy Ideas, that are different angles of viewing reality objectively, and having basic trust.
I have not read a book this life-changing since I read "Buddha in Redface" by Eduardo Duran. Yet again this is about spirituality, bringing different spiritual traditions of the world together at once, although I am more used to that concept by now. I should get more and more used to it, since I am beginning to see the common thread. Enneagram users will have an easier time understanding these Holy Ideas, these seem like an advanced, more esoteric read. I came out of this book with a better understanding of the Enneagram types.
It remains to be seen how far this book will go in helping me. Although the book is finite, the Diamond Approach prescribed would take a long time to see any results, but I am intrigued, and I am beginning to believe in the teachings of the author.
This book elucidates the Holy Ideas, a very challenging task, since most of its readers are not enlightened and cannot conceive of the Ideas. The author explains what is known as *basic trust* and goes on to explain that it is not possible to explain it in words. So he decides to do the next best thing, elucidate the Facets of Unity, that is the Holy Ideas, that are different angles of viewing reality objectively, and having basic trust.
I have not read a book this life-changing since I read "Buddha in Redface" by Eduardo Duran. Yet again this is about spirituality, bringing different spiritual traditions of the world together at once, although I am more used to that concept by now. I should get more and more used to it, since I am beginning to see the common thread. Enneagram users will have an easier time understanding these Holy Ideas, these seem like an advanced, more esoteric read. I came out of this book with a better understanding of the Enneagram types.
It remains to be seen how far this book will go in helping me. Although the book is finite, the Diamond Approach prescribed would take a long time to see any results, but I am intrigued, and I am beginning to believe in the teachings of the author.
November 19, 2024
Phenomenal book! One of the best books I've read on spirituality and non-duality, while grounding it in the mechanisms of the ego. I read this after Sandra Maitri's "The Spiritual Dimensions of the Enneagram", which is a more accessible guide to the Enneagram, whereas this book is more focused on the spiritual aspects of it.
The core premise is that if a person is perceiving the reality of "Being" in an undistorted way, as a non-dualistic "unity" (which is elaborated upon by the 9 "Holy Ideas" - nine "facets" that describe "unity"), and perceives oneself and all things as inseparable from this unity, then one will have "basic trust" (an implicit, pre-conceptual trust in reality itself).
But with the development of the ego, a person will lose sight of the Holy Ideas, and develop "Specific Delusions" (corresponding to each Holy Idea), which are distorted egoic perceptions of reality. And with the loss of contact with Being, there is felt the corresponding painful, deficient states called "Specific Difficulties", as well as a loss of basic trust resulting in distrustful "Specific Reactions". The book goes into detail on each of these aspects for each point of the Enneagram.
For those well-versed in Enneagram, this book deviates a bit from the mainstream characterization of the Enneatypes, and especially goes against the idea that a person is strongly defined by a singular type, but rather makes the case that every ego has all nine types within them.
The core premise is that if a person is perceiving the reality of "Being" in an undistorted way, as a non-dualistic "unity" (which is elaborated upon by the 9 "Holy Ideas" - nine "facets" that describe "unity"), and perceives oneself and all things as inseparable from this unity, then one will have "basic trust" (an implicit, pre-conceptual trust in reality itself).
But with the development of the ego, a person will lose sight of the Holy Ideas, and develop "Specific Delusions" (corresponding to each Holy Idea), which are distorted egoic perceptions of reality. And with the loss of contact with Being, there is felt the corresponding painful, deficient states called "Specific Difficulties", as well as a loss of basic trust resulting in distrustful "Specific Reactions". The book goes into detail on each of these aspects for each point of the Enneagram.
For those well-versed in Enneagram, this book deviates a bit from the mainstream characterization of the Enneatypes, and especially goes against the idea that a person is strongly defined by a singular type, but rather makes the case that every ego has all nine types within them.
May 6, 2014
Having already studied the Enneagram quite a bit, this book provided me with a more advanced understanding from a spiritual perspective, which was what I was hoping for. I learned a lot about how the different types interrelate from the way in which each chapter about the various types built off each other and emphasized the relationships among the topics. This is the second book by Almaas I've read this year, and I'm quite taken with his spiritual perspective. I look forward to reading more of his books and learning more about The Diamond Approach.
January 9, 2008
Still working through this in combination with Sandra Maitri's Spiritual Dimensions of the Enneagram. Maitri is more accessible, but the original is Almaas. Great book.
June 3, 2008
If there were cards for the Diamond Approach, I would get one. I like spiritual writing very much, and Almaas is the crem d'la crem. This book may not be the best for beginners.
March 30, 2008
This man has amazing insight into the Human psyche, and the path to Remembering our Perfection.
January 5, 2011
Loved this book. I found it so helpful. I'm reading it a second time and will probably read it a third.
November 6, 2018
Amazing, profound, deepens with every reading.
January 31, 2013
When transcend the conventional view of the enneagram as a personality map, we come to a deeper understanding of its offer. This book takes us there.
July 15, 2013
Challenging and insightful. Not the place to start, but part of the journey of understanding this system. By one of the masters of it.
December 26, 2015
Read first time in February 2013
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews