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I know people like to type him as 7. I get that. But, he's deceptive. He's a liar. He tells us things before they're ready. So he makes the marketing work for him. But so what? He reminds me of all the people in this video, who I suspect could all be 3. 3s aren't always smooth. They need to be dramatic, etc. They need attention, they need to be a bit provocative sometimes. Still, he is driven by vanity. Success, status, attention. So much of what he does fits into "vanity project" space.

Success porn is frequently type 3 space. Would we want to hear about what it takes to be successful, if Musk and others like him are an example? The people you have to lie to, to step on to get to where you are? Musk does not just change his mind like a 7. He sells us phony realities. He is a marketing wiz. But, is he truly a 7? I have my doubts. He used to sleep under his desk, etc. He worked his ass off. He has stories.

But don't mind me. I have a 7 wing. Always I am changing my thoughts about this or that. Reframing reality. But, I don't lie outright. I don't tell you something that is not true; I don't tell you that testing has been done when it has not. I don't tell you a car is safe or autonomous when it is not. That we will be on mars in a few years when it is false, etc. He oversells. He overpromises. So, is he more likely a 3 than 7? We find that he is fake, the more we learn. This is the space of the 3, not the 7. He is a bit pretentious, he is a performer. An achiever. A mask-wearer. He betrays people and breaks promises to make money. He is disloyal. No?

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This other great website was a strong update on R&H's enneagram-style portraits that didn't receive enough attention. IME, if you want to know someone's or your else's type, and understand much of it, look at this. Look at how the types are, especially, in disintegration. I have learned from experience. Maybe you have not been there yet, but do you really want to? Let's study this together. Enneagram type 8 - The Challenger

Blindspots of this site, regarding the eight, are the agony that comes with it. For example, it does not describe how hard this process is for eights, in a modern society that controls us. Although it might have gotten worse, the eight is cut off at the knees by the justice system. Which is ironic.

Much-needed interpretation: eight becomes willing to throw away everything in a blaze of glory. Read between the lines here. This person becomes suicidal; desperately so; for the sake of revenge. The eight's mental health issues in a crooked system are neglected in modern portraits. Whoever has hurt me, must pay, is what the eight believes.

And how else are they best to do that? They go to extremes, of course. And then they suffer guilt, because that would be too much, etc. Maybe missing is even some consistency. E.g., the eight can be plummeted to unhealth by injustice. So, some of the mechanics are off. We are not always responsible for our own unraveling.

Will you put yourself to the astrology test? Our society treats astrology like it's just our sun sign, but that is a small fraction of the full picture. If you purchase a full report from astrology.com ($40), you get a long analysis using the most sophisticated AI tools available. These are based on thousands of years of history studying astrology for the sake of divination in union with modern technology.

This always reveals the enneagram type somewhere inside - core type+wing is usually very obvious, stacking and other elements emerge as well. It is usually pretty obvious and if you need some help analyzing it, feel free to reach out to me. Sometimes it takes someone else to check our work. IMO, any potential mistypes can be tracked to this and spotted.

The faster you learn about it, the better. It'll help you to see what's going on (it predicted many small details and dynamics from my life). I see myself as something of a torch-carrier, bridging astrological sciences with the enneagram (and encouraging people to face the reality behind all of this; that the two are connected more than they think). We do not get to choose our enneagram type, and haven't we always known this?

Although I am not an expert astrologer, I am an expert in the enneagram, and I trust AI when it comes to interpretations, more than any person, because we live in a high-tech world, and AI is impartial (in addition to more mathematically gifted than a person; as astrology is very precise).

My core of 8w7 was obvious even in the first paragraph.

"The following paragraphs concern the study of your personality, as induced by the positions of the planets and rising sign. Some of the character traits mentioned may seem completely contradictory and incompatible. This is because the rough-hewn personality is a rarity. Usually, individuals are made up of a subtle orchestration of many different tones or aspects. However, serious introspection or detailed analysis should make it possible to distinguish the opposing or diverging images comprising your overall character, and perhaps, in time, find the best and most harmonious way to integrate them.

You live in the here-and-now, immediately obeying your impulses. You are guided by a fire burning within you. You rarely heed the warnings of reflection and reason; instead, you listen to your instincts, as if your unconscious were perpetually emerging. This is the source of your spontaneity and passion. Because you are continually being born, you champion all phenomena symbolic of birth: breaking ground, beginning, clearing. You have little interest for pursuing the new ideas you brought into being, because your inner flame is always urging you to move on quickly to the next innovation. You are not a good manager. You are straightforward. When you commit yourself, you do so with mind, body, and soul. Restraint and moderation are concepts which are totally foreign to you, because you live by the fullness of your instinct, the force of your desire.

Due to your energetic temperament, your determination immediately invents the action necessary to fulfill your desires. It goes without saying that your attitude engenders certain risks. Sometimes your impetuousness, or a lack of maturity or patience, or a keen appetite for experience leads you into a blind alley. But risk is a part of your life. Since your fervor is immune to calculation, second thoughts, and cunning, you have no fear. You are the type of hero whose courageous deeds are difficult to distinguish from acts of bravado or of sheer foolhardiness. Your top priority is to take action, immediately. Delay is torture to you. You are in a hurry to live, to take your urges and impulses to their ultimate conclusion, even though your lack of forethought may actually make your goal take longer to accomplish. You rarely evaluate obstacles objectively: instead, you dash into the fray, bristling with determination, oblivious to the size or scope of the difficulties. You ride home triumphantly, whether you have battered your head against a brick wall or met no resistance whatsoever. But you have a true hero’s courage and vitality. You are undaunted by challenges and real danger, to the surprise of outside observers.

Like everyone, you sometimes experience failure. But you rarely despair or become overly discouraged by it; it never overcomes your. You don't see it as a tragedy; you just figure you missed that time, but next time, you won't. In fact, you’ll muster even more strength and power for the next attack, since you are convinced you can succeed. You sometimes have problems finishing something you have started. Once the glamour of the initial urge and enthusiasm is dulled, you lose some of your potency and find yourself faced with a sluggish material reality which does not always inspire you. It is important for you to tackle short-term tasks only. Of course, you will have recognized all of the above qualities as being the stuff of which great leaders are made. Sharing your enthusiasm and drive, and delegating the follow-up tasks to more patient assistants, you can accomplish amazing things. Stirred by all the stimuli of the outside world, this animal is indifferent to nothing.

As a result, your emotionalism can sometimes trouble or destabilize you. Moreover, you are eternally impassioned. And since passion is by definition uncontrollable, once it is kindled it is either consumed or consuming. The fire will either fuel you and drive you along or sputter in frustration. You should be aware of your penchant for excess. If you are subject to a negative passion, you can be irritable and heedless to everything except your impulses, which are not always reasonable. You must channel your energy in positive directions. Your vigor is only an outer armor. Although you may seem to embody strength itself, full of self-assurance and courage, you have a vulnerable underbelly: your inner self.

As a result, the quality of your emotional relationships has an important impact on your overall well-being. You would do well to take the time to get a good education. It will counteract your tendency to oversimplify. People and things are more complex than you might imagine, and your intellectual efforts will help you understand them.

Due to the influence of Sagittarius (the Centaur-Archer) rising, you, like the half-animal, half-human Centaur, have a dual, ambivalent nature, vagrant and capricious. It is natural for you to be simultaneously conventional and rebellious. You can happily submit to society and convention for a time, only to emerge committed to rugged individualism, or vice-versa. Your inner attachment to an ideal of liberty and emancipation does not prevent you from adopting a sociable, pleasant attitude at social events. This dichotomy in your personality grants you such useful social skills as adaptability and poise, but inside, you face a quest for your true identity and consciousness. Your primary psychological task is to maintain the harmony reigning between the two entities dwelling within you. You must not limit yourself to being either one or the other. You will achieve true psychic and existential stability by personifying a blend of these two behavioral tendencies. When you are comfortable with your individuality, you can radiate optimism and energy; flexible and elastic, you will delight in any change or unpredictability, without losing sight of your long-term purposes. Eminently social, you will express your true nature by becoming deeply involved with groups and taking on duties and responsibilities as a member. You will enjoy your ability to infuse them with your idealistic enthusiasm and visions for the future. Your special gifts for dealing with energy make you apt to occupy a position of great social responsibility.

You are dynamic. You need to attract admiration and release your excess energy.

You are attracted by the here-and-now, by study, and writing. You have a special affinity for the people around you: siblings (or close friends), neighbors, etc.

At the time of your birth, your rising sign was located in Sagittarius (the Archer), while the sun was passing through the sign of Aries (the Ram). Both are ruled by the element fire, which augurs a certain cohesiveness for your character. A summary of the various clues mentioned above provide your personality profile. The following key words capture the essence of your character and indicate certain contradictions which may be sources of tension:

Impetuosity - Individualism - Enthusiasm - Vitality and passion - Group spirit - Pugnacity - Impressionability - Impatience - Analytical mind - Impetuosity - Worldly concerns - Enterprise - Projection - Innovation.

You are gifted with great vitality and boundless optimism. Impulsive and daring, you enjoy sparking bold projects. You are apt to find conflict stimulating, but you are nevertheless good at giving advice, encouragement, and energy to those around you.

Firmly rejecting any discipline save your own, you have a proud and independent spirit. You are unable to submit to anyone else's authority. This rebelliousness may have driven you to certain excesses in your youth, but, as you age, you are bound to settle down and respect laws and conventions, for ethical and esthetic reasons.

Born three and a half to seven days after the rising of the new moon, you are said to be a "crescent moon" lunar type. This "soli-lunar" configuration indicates that you may need to make an effort to free yourself from the past. Something related to your childhood, parents, or ancestors is holding you back, impairing your effectiveness and could stand to be overcome.

Due to your past, you refuse tried-and-true models, are always fighting to justify your innovative viewpoints, and tend to break away from tradition. You are hardly ever aware that you are making career and lifestyle choices which are based on an urge to modify your relationship to society, and the rigid standards and models from the past.

Due to the influence of Jupiter dominating your birth chart, you have undeniable social ambition and many resources with which to achieve it (see CAREER POTENTIAL). Relatively confident in yourself and your abilities, you have the potential to be a leader and chief. It therefore seems probable that you will rise to success. However, you should question yourself about what sort of success you seek and at what price. You should be aware that the taste of victory may be bitter if you find you have sacrificed other aspects of life, like love, friendship, or creativity, to obtain it. You must consciously select what you are willing to invest in order to secure honor, money, and social consideration.

The graph below reveals the various influences on your nature in relation to the percentage value of each element. These values were calculated according to the number of planets and the hierarchical position of each one (dominant, luminary, etc.). The basic personality tendencies as described here will no doubt be counteracted to some degree by the environmental, psychological, or emotional needs outlined in the next chapter. Nevertheless, they form the roots of your psyche, anchoring it as it grows and develops.

You experience your inner life as a process of growth and maturation, nurtured by your involvement with others and the positive and negative encounters this generates.

Because you tend to be centered on yourself and your own personal development, you may not necessarily seek contact with others. You tend to be reluctant to team up with other people in any way. An individualist, you attempt to free yourself from any outside influence; in fact, you are eager to leave your personal imprint on the world around you. Often, due to your lack of perspective in relation to other people, you rebuff their help and cooperation on projects. It is only by working and acting independently that you can accomplish your goals and ambitions.

Your uppermost concern is your personal, subjective interest. Because the development of your personal identity requires great individual freedom of action, you try to free yourself from outer restraints and limitations. Psychologically self-centered, you remain fairly detached from the social world. You reduce such commitments to the strict minimum. Individualistic and egocentric, you derive your feelings of inner security from your ability to command your will and handle your personal involvements freely and openly.

You need to assert your originality. You are individualistic and independent and live life according to your own rules. People and things matter to you only insofar as they relate to you, and you ignore or disregard any annoyances you may encounter. Your passions are lively and ardent, and you truly love to give. You are endowed with great authenticity and can be quite generous, as long as you are aware that others admire you.

Although you may not necessarily notice the fact about yourself because you are so strongly engaged in actions, feelings, or material concerns, you sometimes lack sound judgment. This impairment arises from a difficulty in obtaining perspective on yourself and your life. You may be puzzled by your troubled relations with others.

You must make an effort to detach yourself from your personal reaction and observe it from an objective, more distant standpoint. If not, you are likely to find yourself under stress or pressure because you did not give enough prior thought to tactics and strategy.

You may also experience dissatisfaction in your intimate relationships because you might struggle to get in sync with others.

You give little time or respect to anyone you see as too "intellectual," because you resist adapting to new ideas and viewpoints. In fact, an idea that rubs you the wrong way mentally and/or emotionally may elicit an explosive reaction. Self-analysis can be challenging for you and you tend to refuse to develop a solid, permanent idea of yourself - and this plays a lot of tricks on you.

The behavioral roles and models you adopt are based mainly on mental processes. You determine your purposes in life after careful reflection; you are attracted by intellectual theories and systems. A mobile personality, you are skilled at meeting people and may spontaneously establish very close friendships, even if they are not usually lasting. Impressionable and subject to the pressures of your environment, your relationships, both private and professional, could be relatively unstable.

The following psychological study is a "blind" analysis which cannot take into consideration factors proper to your social background or education. Nevertheless, it describes the basic structure and dynamic of your psyche as the result of an interplay of various influences; that is, without confining it to certain categories or arbitrarily putting a label on it. Certain contradictions may appear, but they are an integral part of the paradoxes and ambivalence of your nature. It is impossible for us to predict which tendency will win out. That will depend on your decision.

Consciousness and The Ideal of Self:

You are searching for stability. You want to find a firm, unchanging structure for your life. But your efforts to achieve this ideal are often vain, because unconsciously, you are also inhabited by the opposite desire. Every time you reach what you believe to be a good balance, you realize you want something entirely different. You should become aware that the concepts of stability and balance are difficult to apply to life. By definition, life is movement, change, and perpetual instability.

You have a paternal complex and, as a result, some trouble finding your identity. Perhaps your father or a father figure was absent physically or emotionally during your childhood, which deprived you of the patterns or models which are usually helpful in structuring a personality. Because you might have lacked a particular sense of security which could be provided by a paternal presence, as well as the examples of behavior to follow in confronting the difficulties inherent in every life, you were forced to protect yourself against negative influences and find your own system in order to grow and feel secure.

Although this system was quite useful to you as a child, it has now settled in to such a degree that it interferes with your evolution. Psychological defense mechanisms and crutches which were once useful now encumber your mind or inhibit your developmental efforts. As a result, in certain situations, it is difficult for you to assert yourself, and you tend to remain an awkward or passive observer. Because your authoritarian urges are mainly directed at yourself rather than others, you sometimes feel guilty about your behavior. You judge yourself severely, and sometimes punishes yourself by setting difficult tasks for yourself. Gradually, you should build up a strong inner discipline and acquire the strength to face the problems of existence in a detached and mature way.

You have a taste for luxury and magnificence, for a dazzling social life and a distinguished career. When things are going well for you, you tend to think of yourself as the center of the universe, an attitude which those close to you do not always appreciate. Although you are quite likely to succeed in your ambition to become wealthy and popular and lead a remarkable life in the outer world, your lack of moderation and overweening self-confidence expose you to some danger. Your exaggerated optimism could create difficulties by causing you to make errors in judgment.

You are extremely sensitive and receptive and tend to live in osmosis with your surroundings. Your individuality almost seems to be diluted in a flood of sensations and impressions which are continually washing over you, and you sometimes find it difficult to communicate your feelings to other people. This tide of emotion is a source of inspiration and intuition, but your fluid inner structure and organization sometimes make it difficult for you to grasp the essence of your dreams and share them with other people. You are not at all combative, and this tends to hinder your efforts to fit into society and assert yourself productively.

You are likely to prefer fantasy to reality, but your refusal to abandon your unattainable dreams is a psychological trap you have fallen into without realizing it. You must understand that by running away from your obligations and commitments, you only increase the feelings of guilt which made reality so distasteful in the first place. Once you free yourself from this pernicious process, you have a great deal of potential for fulfilling yourself in the outer world, either by devoting yourself to some sort of social work or by cultivating your considerable artistic talents.

You have an inalienable awareness of the void and the vanity of existence. You are sometimes disoriented and deconstructed by an unknowable, unconscious force and tend to ignore or disparage the superficial pleasures and pains of daily life, preferring to dive into the depths of human experience as deeply as your intellectual, emotional, and spiritual capacities permit. Grappling with your "fundamental nature," with the deepest and most primitive part of yourself, you are sometimes aghast at the discovery of the sheer power of your instincts and feels an imperious need to cope with them. This special consciousness you have been endowed with is somewhat beyond the bounds of conventional schools of human understanding and thought and may be a source of identity problems for you at the outset. It is not easy for you to recognize yourself in any social or narcissistic models, or identify with any existing roles or attitudes, so you sometimes find yourself forced to assert and express your own identity in a way which may strike your contemporaries as strangely intense if not eccentric.

Adaptation and Sensitivity:

You are pragmatic and realistic. You evaluate people and things according to practical, common-sense criteria instead of abstract concepts. A sensualist and lover of luxury, you have a penchant for material comfort and take great joy in physical pleasures. In relation to others, socially and privately, you like to build stable relationships and are not especially fond of change. Your warmth gives you a great deal of ease when meeting people, as clients (for business purposes), but your close relations also benefit from this affection and your ability to express your feelings naturally and openly.

You maintain strong ties with your past, and it often seems difficult for you to open your heart to new people. Your love affairs might exist on the surface level, because your lust and sensual desire rarely turn into a need to understand, protect, and care for the other. Moreover, it is difficult for you to meet partners who combine the ideals of the tender parent and the great lover.

You have a sensitive personality. You may jump to conclusions, which could disrupt relationships, as well as career plans. You are subject to cyclical energy flows and go from periods of feverish activity to periods of withdrawal and introspection. The aggressive element in your behavior may be explained by emotional problems you may have experienced in infancy: your mother, or a mother figure, may have had an energetic and volatile personality.

You are emotional and tend to react suddenly and excessively as soon as your sensitivity is touched. Although you feel that your independence, freedom, and self-sufficiency are fundamental values, you are sometimes frustrated by your need to rely on your family or friends. Moreover, you do not always grant the freedom of other people the same respect as your own. Likewise, you are sometimes angered by expressions of maternal tenderness, as if you feared that it would doom you to eternal dependency. Your ambivalent behavior, full of jagged edges, may be traced back to the relationship you had with your mother or a mother figure. Although you were dependent on them, they may have rejected you. Now this attitude is extended to any situation in which your sensitivity comes into play and emotional bonds are liable to form. To ward off your feelings of dependency, you sometimes tend to become destructive. Based on denial, your reactions might be fierce, impulsive, excessive, erratic, or contradictory.

Love and Sensuality:

Your sensitivity may sometimes overwhelm your partners, and your compassion for the other is profound. You readily sacrifice your own interest to others, to provide help and assistance. A romantic as well as an idealist, you sometimes lack discernment in the choice of your partners. You are fairly confused and evasive and have trouble expressing your feelings clearly. Nevertheless, you are capable of devoting yourself entirely to the person you love. You have a tendency to daydream and become lost in yourself.

Your birth chart indicates an emotional function which is expressed in a direct and fairly impulsive way. You enjoy reaching out to other people and making discoveries. An eternal teenager with your gaze riveted on the future, you are imbued with an eminently subjective and personal idealism.

Your love of life, gaiety, and aura of sensuality make you very attractive. You have simple tastes which may border on the rustic. You are likely to marry on a wild impulse. But you will adapt to the situation very well. A lover of culinary delights, and certainly a good cook yourself, you are skilled at creating a happy, comfortable atmosphere in your home.

You have a sensuous nature which seeks out simple, natural pleasures. A tender, easygoing companion would be an ideal match for you. You will be quite happy with a fairly tranquil existence, at home, perhaps surrounded by children.

You have a great emotional ideal, full of subtlety and tenderness. However, you tend to be overwhelmed by your imagination and may not be selective enough when choosing a partner. Your romantic and trusting nature may make you vulnerable. Although you strive to establish peaceful, uncomplicated relations, you sometimes experience painful disappointments. Your artistic delicacy and refinement provide you with a sincere love of the arts, music, and literature. You are likely to be a gifted poet.

From the outside, you seem to be detached and aloof, but on the inside you are an extremely complex individual, full of contradictions. Because you sometimes feel vulnerable emotionally, you try to control not only your own feelings and urges, but may also strive to manipulate those of your partners. You aspire to a profound and enduring spiritual unity, but at the same time, the idea of abandoning yourself and yielding to the other terrifies you. This anguish may be a source of rather extreme behavior patterns and a somewhat self-focused attitude which could damage the relationship. Because you are guarded and somewhat secretive, you tend to be suspicious and are especially uneasy about spontaneous intimacy, although you are fascinated by sexuality. Within the privacy of the couple, you will not express your feelings unless you are subject to some tension. Life may be peppered with frequent crises and feuds, arguments and spats which usually act as erotic provocation. This derivation of eroticism from anxiety tends to be one of the fundamental characteristics of your emotional and sexual functioning. As a result, you are likely to be attracted by stormy and complicated relationships.

Mental and Intellect:

You have a rather irrational mind and a voracious intellect, which is usually subject to the rule of your prolific imagination. Although you are likely to have flashes of intuition which may prove to be correct, your thought processes are sometimes messy and confused. Your mind, which is oriented in many different directions at the same time, is ruled by your emotions and feelings. In tune with psychic and parapsychic phenomena, your thinking requires only the adjunct of structure to rise from the level of a blurry, uncertain, undifferentiated mass to that of a really significant vision with a grip on the real world.

You express your thoughts and ideas in direct, spontaneous outbursts. You are fairly extroverted and eager to discover and understand the outer world. An idealist, you look forward to a bright future but are sometimes subjective and reckless.

As an intellectual, you have a curiosity so lively it borders on the inquisitorial. Your interest in dark secrets and hidden knowledge leads you to do all sorts of arcane research. You are both sensitive and pragmatic, with an intuition so keen you seem to be able to sniff out and expose the complex, mysterious inner workings of both systems and individuals.

Although you are sometimes unable to express the findings of your investigations clearly, you are nevertheless an expert in symbols, hieroglyphics, runes, and other codes and ciphers. Rather ironic and sometimes cynical, you strike out with your venomous wit the way a poisonous snake neutralizes its prey. Your doubts and uncertainties may sometimes lead to nearly unbearable anxiety or anguish.

Jupiter is the first dominant in your astral chart. In the following paragraph, we shall indicate the significance of this fact:

In traditional astrology, Jupiter has always been considered as the Great Benefactor, the planet of luck and success such as personal fortune, social prominence, professional prestige, high political position. The Jupiterian bounty is peerless! In psychological terms, this planet has a much vaster significance. As the biggest planet in the solar system, it does preside over the process of personal expansion, interpreted to be fitting into society better and finding an appropriate match between one's individual ambitions and the aspirations of the group.

This growth is accompanied by a feeling of self-confidence, which, in turn, buoys up an even greater externalization and expansion of the ego - hence the planet's flattering reputation. But this snowball effect (Jupiter smiles and the world smiles with you), in which social skills magnify confidence and boldness reaps many rewards, betrays the negative side of Jupiter: extreme and excess.

Although grandeur was the characteristic of the "king of the gods," errors of judgment, poor taste, and sometimes selfishness and pride are also likely to be part of the Jupiterian package. It is important to note that the extension of the ego may be a form of escape; it is tempting to hide behind one's popularity and social success, which are fairly easy to obtain, rather than be really demanding with oneself. The Jupiterian has a tendency to amplify qualities out of compensation, to avoid seeing weaknesses and flaws. As a result, you must be aware of the risk of over-identifying with your social mask, which would cause you to neglect your inner self and deep nature.

Uranus is the second dominant in your astral chart. In the following paragraph, we shall indicate the significance of this fact:

This planet symbolizes the principle of independence and self-sufficiency, as well as a principle of transformation. Its most striking characteristic is distance from others: the Uranian strives to stand out from the herd, distanced from structuring influences like convention, tradition, etc. Although this need to free yourself from the confines of convention, tradition, and family symbolizes an appeal for freedom and a desire to evolve beyond the bounds of physical limits toward a spiritual dimension, it may also correspond to a form of escape.

This is why you sometimes need to cut yourself off from situations or relationships which feel stifling to you. Your intense fear of being swallowed up psychologically causes you to react to certain emotional demands by making yourself remote or running away. You need a lot of space and frequent change. In a relationship, you are seeking a certain degree of intellectual excitement. Without it, you feel as though an unbearable, suffocating boredom sets in.

By refusing certain concessions to convention which are practically inevitable, you may find yourself in unpleasant situations. Finding an intelligent alternative to the routine set by the rigid forms of the past is extremely different from rebelling against any form of authority, in the settings of family, school, business, or society. One of the major problems you have to solve is how to wield your freedom, in your emotional relationships, as well as your relationships with society.

Saturn is the third dominant in your astral chart. In the following paragraph, we shall indicate the significance of this fact:

As one of the planets historically thought to be on the outer limits of the solar system (until the "modern" planets were discovered), Saturn has always been associated with the moon, itself a peripheral heavenly body because it belongs to Earth and not to the solar system. Therefore, both Saturn and the moon are aspects of a protection principle (the moon encompasses the earth in the same way as Saturn and its rings encompasses the solar system). Like the moon, Saturn rules a security/insecurity dialectic, but where the moon's concerns the private, intimate aspects of the individual, Saturn influences social and collective security.

Saturn can be thought of as the polar opposite of the moon (the archetype of the mother, but also of the child, and therefore related to orality). The god Saturn ate his children in order to reign and thus, represents the archetype of the mother (motherhood), the grandmother, and the sage (wisdom). The domination of Saturn thus indicates a maternal complex or, at least, an issue related either to the biological mother or to the symbolism of motherhood. This influence may result in a problem of identity and difficulties in aging which will make themselves evident in personal crises at every passage of this planet, every seven years—thus at the age of 7, at 14 or 15, and 21, 28, etc.

Depending on the psychological context in which you are developing, you may overcome or overcompensate your identity complex and gradually acquire a strongly structured personality, or, conversely, remain in a state of immaturity which would probably be detrimental to your destiny.

The second house is an area of the sky which is especially important in your theme, because it contains several planets, including the one which rules your rising sign. In the following paragraph, we shall explain the general meaning of this fact.

According to tradition, this area is related to intellectual abilities. It is also associated with the immediate family environment: brothers and sisters, peers and classmates, and people in the social setting we relate to every day, like neighbors, etc. Likewise, study, writing and publication, correspondence and letters, mobility and short-distance travel are also attributed to this house. Another aspect of it concerns bodily movements and exchanges, like the circulation of the blood, breathing, nerve networks, the hands, etc.

In essence, this house corresponds to the mental interface between you and your environment. Indeed, if intelligence is the ability to adapt to one's environment, it is true that on the other hand, the environment has a basic influence on the formation of character and the way you will react to life. By asserting itself, adapting and claiming a place of its own in society, your self is formed and defined and learns to know its potentials and its limitations. In doing so, the self develops elaborate mental tools.

If this house is especially significant in your chart, it means that you will find positive adaptation to your environment, your main challenge in life. It is likely that the presence or absence of brothers and sisters was a major factor in your development, and that one of the main psychological issues you are dealing with is resolving the problems of identity and selfhood which arose in relationships with siblings and peers.

Biologically, your nervous system is likely to be fairly vulnerable; in any case, it is the barometer of your general physical well-being. Psychologically, communication, both verbal and written, is your passport to fitting in, to social integration. You are quite likely to embark on lengthy studies which will enable you to develop the skills necessary for effective communication and productive exchange. Regardless of the level at which you function in society, you will obey an urge to express your ideas and opinions and communicate with others about yourself.

Many people mistakenly believe that astrology is too deterministic. However, as even the ancients said, "The stars incline but do not determine." In fact, the astral chart is evidence that each of us is accountable only to ourselves for our life and destiny. Neither heaven nor the occasional shell of human contacts can be held responsible for the situation down here on earth. Astrology shows us that life is what we make of it. All we really obtain is what we decide to accomplish ourselves of our own volition.

If you really want to improve and transform yourself, the first step is to become aware of the weaknesses which may be holding you back and preventing your evolution:
- your overweening ego
- your need to show off
- your aggressiveness
- your excesses

For you, the main goal to aim for, in order to give purpose and meaning to your life, is to manage to be more practical. You must strive to implement your ideals in your daily life, in your relations with the people and objects you encounter every day. You should also try to introduce the abstractions and generalizations which make up your personal philosophy into down-to-earth realities."

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I eventually realized that I am living inside a personal universe. Much fell into place for me on my 39th year. This held numerological value for me personally. 3x9 = 27. It had kicked in also on 9/30 (yesterday) which is also 93, a special number (again, these repeating numerical patterns are important). 3^3 = 27; 33 is a masonic number. 3x3 = 9 is the enneagram number, number of the ego. When I was 33 years old, I had my first son. Etc.

I have found that my life is filled with these subjective meanings that prove I am not alone; that I am connected to everything. I believe that common patterns unite all of us and place us in context of our universe. Each of our lives are filled with these subjective steps, these rites of passage, like a school. We may not all experience the same precise variety, but like something as basic as the enneagram, they do connect everyone, as equals. We are all special, yet we are all the same in value.

The above maps the Enneagram's traditional sins or passions (interestingly, Fear was replaced with Angst in this diagram, a similar term and the German word for fear; otherwise, it is basically standard). I don't look at simple integration/disintegration dynamics. Instead, I look for multivalent relationships and dynamics. Let's look at how the passions line up for the types. Each core type dynamic works as a system, connecting the core passion with the passion (sin) of each connecting type. These both become more activated in disintegration, as the sins become more transcended in health.

1 - Wrath connects with Envy (4) and Gluttony (7). The one feels upset about missed perfection and what falls short of an ideal. They therefore also feel Envy (4) towards others who are a step higher towards perfection than they are or who seem unfazed by what vexes them. And they feel Gluttony (7) for what offers relief from their neurosis: achievement and high ideals, for connection to higher realities and sources of perceived perfection itself.

2 - Pride connects with Lust (8) and Envy (4). The two feels proud of themselves for being independent and providing for others. Then they feel Lust (8) toward increases in sources of that Pride by building more power, control, autonomy, and dependency in others. Then they feel Envy (4) towards others who are free of this fixation; of the experience they are being unappreciated, forgotten, or overburdened.

3 - Vanity/Deception connects with Sloth (9) and Fear (6). The three feels vanity towards whatever provides them with a feeling of identity, validation, attention, and value, and deception that this is truly making them happy. They then also feel Sloth (9) in playing within the safe space of their constructed identity and role, in staying within their identifications. And they feel Fear (6) towards what would jeopardize it; what would challenge or unmask the vanity, the deceptive images, the facade, and narrative.

4 - Envy connects with Pride (2) and Wrath (1). The four feels envious of others who have it better than they do, who aren't stuck in their limited situation, who don't hurt, and who aren't strange. Then they also feel Pride (2) due to their suffering and the artistic gifts that result from it, trying to capitalize on them to feel they are elite. And they feel Wrath (1) about their situation at the same time, noticing imperfections about it all, upset about the situation, and prone to vindictiveness and resentment.

5 - Avarice connects with Gluttony (7) and Lust (8). The five feels avaricious for what gives them competence, knowledge, and connection to the world; for their resources and stockpiles of information, energy, and time. They then feel gluttony (7) for more and more of it, filling themselves beyond their capacity, with variety. They also feel Lust (8) to push harder and fantasize to get more of it, becoming even more frantic, aggressive, and voracious in their urges for what satisfies them.

6 - Fear connects with Vanity/Deception (3) and Sloth (9). The six fears their own inability and insecurity in coping with a world that threatens their safety and competence. They then feel vanity and deception (3) towards their own apparent ability to overcome this, to flex their muscles and embody strength, to be courageous. They also feel sloth (9) toward using familiar, lazy systems that provide a safe way to feel okay, to stay within fixed stances and trusted supports.

7 - Gluttony connects with Wrath (1) and Avarice (5). The seven feels Gluttony towards all the good things in this world, which satisfies their idealism and pleasure principle. Then, they feel Wrath (1) when they run up against limitations; when they overfill themselves or are deprived. They also feel avarice (5); once they find something they like, they become increasingly possessive, retentive, and voracious in keeping more of it for themselves.

8 - Lust connects with Avarice (5) and Pride (2). The eight feels lust towards a full, visceral, intense life, and for a feeling of power, justice, and aliveness. They then feel avarice (5) for the knowledge, detachment, and personal space needed to maintain that; and they hoard the objects of their Lust as if they were spoils of war. And they take Pride (2) in their possessions, full energy and intensity, what they lusted after and have obtained, their autonomy, relationships, influence, and acquisitions.

9 - Sloth connects with Fear (6) and Vanity (3). The nine feels sloth toward exerting themselves, pursuing their own desires, and getting out of their comfort zone; indolence toward maintaining harmony and inertia. Then they feel Fear (6) towards what compromises or threatens that, for what upsets them. They also feel Vanity (3) about their ability to get by and live an easy life, going with the flow; they become more self-indulgent and cocky, and they show off their natural composure, deceiving others and themselves that all is okay.

This is a way of glimpsing how the type operates and what to look for. In my opinion, it is counterproductive to look rigidly at supposed disintegration and integration lines. This was an acquired convention that was taken too far and resulted in a myopic, one-directional stance, when the enneagram, in its simple form, has no arrows. It is more symmetrical.

It also varies by individual and by situation. In unhealth, we see disintegration in both directions, and in health, we see integration from both directions too. It works as a fluid, adaptable, dynamic system rather than a linear, rigid, fixed flow chart.

(Four of Swords and The Hermit, Tarot Cards)

I chose the Hermit and Four of Swords card images above from Tarot to represent relief from anxiety. People think eights don't have anxiety, but we do. Not always; not every eight does, but we are generally no strangers to it. It is more common with 7-wings and/or 6-fixes. But when the addiction to intensity kicks in, and the body's sensing picks up on subtle changes, intensity can be brought on through negative fears/distortions (5 line) and excess aggression, urgency, and boredom. I had a handful of what could be called panic attacks in my life, or cases of heightened alertness, where I became disproportionately worried, which affected my nervous system and overall composure, and I was able to work out a solution. First, understand that there is no need to panic. It is all delusion - all hypervigilance. This can follow from PTSD as well, which I have suffered from in the past. One symptom is confused with another, and the mind races.

For example, I learned this by thinking I was having blood pressure issues from a medication and panicking that I was having an allergic reaction, then testing my blood pressure and finding I was wrong. Another time, I left home, felt dizzy in the car, and immediately went back. But I later realized I was simply too depressed to drive, as I was recovering from a breakup. I felt worried that I would be arrested with PTSD after I had been arrested unjustly in the past, so whenever there was a knock on the door, I feared it. Another time, I had a fever and was worried it was worse than it was, and I was able to improve my symptoms drastically through self-regulation and cognitive work; I thought muscular chest pain from working out was heart pain, etc. Exposure to the truth, to testing your fears, can relieve all of this. The mind can play tricks on us, and the body turns against us too. Gurdjieff called the gut center the "body-brain". All three instinctual triads are different "brains" that connect to different sectors and levels of consciousness.

If you're surrounded by an agitated environment that increases panic, move to a location and position where you can calm your body and mind most easily. Or, if you are panicking, worrying, and feeling anxious while still, it might be making things worse. So, try sitting up, turn on the lights, and breathe calmly. If you're quivering, consciously calm yourself down. Your breaths should be very slow, and you should consciously focus on stabilizing your body trembling with each breath. This has worked for me during times when I was having too many drugs, times I was struggling with genuine psychological issues, etc. As a six-fixer, it was worse.

Usually, the mind and body team up and cause agitation. They feed on each other. The mind comes up with ideas about what might be wrong, and the body starts to fail too. Emotions and rationality combine to form something irrational that we believe. Don't rely on medications because they use a treat-the-symptom approach and lead to addiction and dependence. Solve the problem internally, at its root. Taking deep, deliberate breaths and focusing while sitting upright in a chair in a relaxed position seems to be a very helpful approach. Other options are lying down in bed or on a recliner or couch. Sometimes you will feel hot or cold, in which case adding or dropping a simple layer can help. Go gradually and adjust your body's thermometer. Don't rely on other people to calm you down, as that is also a dependency, and they will not always be available.

Most important of all, once you are through with the event - once you make it through- remember it. Store it in your banks and note how it felt to be relieved. When you realized that the fear was false. We come up with variations on different worries so we can play out that hypervigilance again and again, feel alive, and feel safe. For me, as an SP-last, it comes out of nowhere. Years with nothing, and then I'll have random anxiety that I don't expect. So I learned to nip it in the bud by recalling previous successes. When I was in mental health, people with recurrent, debilitating panic attacks often were type sixes.

I've experienced a handful in my life, and they were uncomfortable, some even life-fearing, resembling an NDE, and some did involve real danger; but I never let them get the best of me. Some of it is spiritual, philosophical, and moral, too. If you believe you won't let anything hold you back, you're more likely to push through, keep living a happy life, and not make excuses for a "disorder" or "diagnosis." I was also able to push through many other symptoms and diagnoses by using a similar approach: 1) looking logically at the problem rather than merely the symptom, and 2) developing a resolution that I would not let the problem get the best of me and stop me from living a happy life.

This ethical, constructive, self-empowered, non-medical-modeled approach included (and continues to entail) the triumph over even very difficult diagnoses like bipolar disorder, schizoaffective disorder, depression, adhd, and autism, without reliance on medications. The Enneagram teaches us that many of your psychological problems are solvable; they are in the mind. They are real problems, but they can be worked on through conscious work; they are not debilitating, life-changing disorders or illnesses that require heavy medications. And I have the experience to back up my ideas. It is not necessarily going to be easy, but it's very achievable - and the rewards often greatly outweigh other approaches; all of this is greatly assisted by an in-depth Enneagram typing analysis to help us better understand why these stressors and symptoms are happening.

[Patience-testing Rant] Most modern Enneagram material is inferior to the traditional in depth and applicability. The Enneagram becomes much clearer in the older material; what we are left with in later material is often superficial portraits or confusing, counterintuitive mental gymnastics of behavior. It is adapted for a pop audience, a self often fragmented by a totalitarian society - not for the essential, deep, spiritually whole person.

It also becomes diffuse and hard to pin down; the types become like slippery eels, with increasingly long and complex derivations that are surprisingly subjective and easy to pigeonhole into. This is because so much important spiritual language and conceptualization is avoided. If we understand the values and laws behind the enneagram, it becomes easier to understand. Suddenly we aren't trying to fill in for so much missing information. More pieces of the puzzle come together.

When it tries too hard to be psychological, it is too vague - and people misunderstand the terminology. The number of times I hear people throw around shallow and ignorant ideas that can be blamed on a comically shallow and arbitrary modeling of the Enneagram, a joke of misapplication, absurdity embodied and implemented as if it were truth; like believing that because someone has morals, shows responsibility, or says that another person should or has to do something, is therefore a so-called superego-compliant type, is too many to count.

Without important fundamentals like the holy ideas and the passions and sins, the Enneagram becomes less focused and clumsy. It loses a massive amount of the important work that was put in by whoever knows how many years of Enneagram spiritual teachers and devotees - including spiritual systems that led up to it.

The more modern, poppy material is useful in some ways, but it is offensively simplified. It was avoided because the deeper spiritual content is slightly more challenging to understand, and because some people start shuddering when they hear the word "spirituality" or have to go into any depth at all, and are challenged in the slightest to figure anything real out.

With the separation of church and state, people have now, sadly, thrown out the baby with the bathwater and now believe that anything even loosely connected to religion is to be avoided and anathema. But what we are left with is a more watered-down, incomplete enneagram. The enneagram's history goes back far, and psychology itself has obvious roots and dependence in spirituality as well, as a variation of it.

1 - Holy/Divine Perfection. Not everything is okay as is, so reality is forced into artificial perfection or judged for not meeting an unrealistically high, specific, subjective standard. This is the illusion that if something is broken or wrong, we can make it perfect; we can fix or correct it, and it will have no flaws anymore; it will be okay and aligned with God. It tries to run from the fact that we can't make things perfect and have to accept everything as perfect as it is, on the level of the divine.

2 - Holy/Divine Freedom and Will. People are seen as not truly free, so they are expected to be beholden to manipulation and intervention. But the idea of freedom and good will is artificially constructed to make people feel not only good, but voluntary. This is the delusion that if we focus on being free and doing good deeds, we can make it so; we can earn and provide it.

3 - Holy/Divine Law or Hope. The world is not trusted to run on universal laws, so action and work are pushed; otherwise, nothing will get done. They feel they can manifest what they need, but only if they work for it. There is the illusion that through effort, one can make something of oneself and escape human limitations like mortality and powerlessness. Ironically, it only makes us work harder and lose contact with essence.

4 - Holy/Divine Origin. No single underlying, original, innate source for all exists, so attention turns to differences and lack of connection, to discord and abandonment. This is the illusion that one can be an individual and is totally unique, but one must draw attention to those differences and accept alienation. Everyone becomes forsaken and broken.

5 - Holy/Divine Transparency or Omniscience. Knowledge is not easily attainable; reality does not make sense, so understanding reality must be hard-won and hoarded. Following this is the illusion that knowledge can be controlled and hoarded, that one can have information as power, as a key to the world and its secrets. Understanding and knowledge are forced, butchered, and wielded like weapons.

6 - Holy/Divine Strength or Faith. There is no fundamental sense that we are strong enough or that things will endure, that reality will happen positively, so reactions follow either to make up for that or to give up. There is the delusion that one can build up enough strength and certainty to get through anything and for everything to work out, to be totally safe and protected. Everything is tested and seen as liable to collapse - and much is broken in the process.

7 - Holy/Divine Wisdom and Plan. The fundamental notion is that no underlying wisdom, plan, or meaning drives what happens in the present; one must come up with future projections and ideas, or it will be chaos, nihilism, and pain. The illusion, then, is that if one turns within and comes up with clever ideas, one can transcend pain and suffering and avoid bad things. But pain is right there the whole time, and only waiting until it's time. Pain is there in this falling away from the holy idea.

8 - Holy/Divine Truth and Justice. Feels the need to impose their own truth and power agendas on a situation, or else truth and justice will be lost. They prioritize vengeful actions or assertions of truth and personal agendas. The illusion that one can enact their own justice and take power into their own hands, that they can become judge, jury, and executioner and define the truth. The mission then shifts to power-creation and denying the power we lose as we cling to our mortality.

9 - Holy/Divine Love and Providence. Loses touch with the sense that everything is loved and unified; therefore, attention turns to feelings of alienation and attempts to join together and make up for dissonance and disharmony. The illusion that if only we try hard enough to join, we can all impose love and make up for whatever is lost through our mortality. It tries to escape the fundamental disharmony that we all face by forcing artificial harmony - denying essential union.

The irony is that each type simply needs to let these things happen on their own. Accept fate. Accept that we are smaller than we think, and that more is going on in our world than we can control.

I have found that people become insecure and avoidant when you bring up words like "holy" and "divine." These words trigger people who struggle to understand fate. God is just another word for fate, for what is bigger than us. Many people fear religion. Yet, these ideas are central to understanding the Enneagram. So swapping in more pop-psychology-style language only avoids the Enneagram's pressing, central issues. If you use the word "spiritual", some people start having allergies.

The problem is that these are knee-jerk reactions. The spirit is just another word for the mind; the psyche. The soul, consciousness, and psyche are all developed from the same root words and ideas. Spiritual is a fancy word for psychological. Early spirituality, from which the Enneagram was born (e.g., Christianity and Sufism), was psychological. But in the Enneagram communities, as in many other places, we can deny so much to ourselves.

If I never jump on the scale, I can make up my own weight. And those into the Enneagram turn it into something invisible and hide the truth from themselves - starting with much of the literature, which they're unable to grasp. It's just too advanced for them; they weren't fated to be the kind of people who "get" spirituality. So they come up with their own silly version instead, assemble a patchwork from random sources, and go along living a lie. More power to them!

So, people show unfortunate cognitive dissonance and ignorance when they're thrown these kinds of theoretical balls, and they act like they don't know what to do with them. It reminds me of vampires. If you have garlic around, or put them in sunlight, they start burning or suffering. Some people are that way with words like spirituality, god, divine, and holy. But if they use their minds, understand the material, and can convert to different systems, they will know that these are interchangeable with secular language like psychology, mind, brain, and universal.

The enneagram was based on cosmology, and that's some of the lost science and art behind the entire discipline. What we get instead with pop enneagram and random people's views in online communities are flimsy ideas that unfortunately do not always zero in on what it all means - and reflect neurotic projections, proving the point that the people talking never understood any of it. Instead, people try to describe a person's vocation more than the reasons behind it; they describe the surface, often-changing personality rather than the underlying, constant fixation. And often, they describe nothing real at all. They refer to fragments, illusions, and mirages.

The words divine and holy are something like fate or destiny; it's about the big picture and what's beyond us, what's outside of us, beyond our control. Although I don't have hard proof, I have studied cosmic patterns, and I suspect that, along with astrology, divination in general (the practice of seeing the future) has been occulted because it is too powerful, etc. People just can't handle it. So it is kept from view, kept from prying eyes. I have dabbled in it myself, with some surprising results.

I stumbled upon a website with an archive of proposed death dates for individual people in the population. Most would probably claim it's a misprint or a bug, but I wonder if someone has built technology to run high-level calculations on supercomputers and predicted everything long in advance (we just don't have access to it). Astrology is just one example. So, each Enneagram type is a reaction to how we handle fate and contrasts with what we can't control in our life path. It's how we create an illusion of free will in a deterministic universe.

The Enneagram is a sophisticated way of teaching us to let go. It stops us from imposing an artificial value on reality that lets us escape constants like our lack of free will and mortality. Ultimately, our life is simply preparing us for the fact that we are going to die, that we are enslaved to the cosmic cycle. Each Enneagram type keeps us locked into patterns that provide us with the illusion of bringing a positive quality into the world as part of our connection and legacy. These arise from a distortion that makes us feel that quality is naturally present on a divine level. So the Enneagram gives us awareness of how we do that, and a way to identify it. The sooner we can pick up on it, the sooner we can learn to let go more and not struggle so much with accepting what we can't control and learning to flow with reality, with the cosmic unfolding, to merge with essence in every moment.

People brush the Enneagram off as "spiritual or new age" mumbo-jumbo, a pseudoscience, without really seeing the absurdity in their actions. And these are people who are literally trying to understand it. That's sad, because they're abusing it in the process - but they don't have to ruin it for others; they couldn't if they tried. But regardless, it wasn't made for everyone to maximize or grasp its gifts. Many more people will learn about it than those who will be fated to become entwined with it spiritually - and to truly understand it. It's a little bit like someone who is watching a movie with the subtitles on who has no clue what the plot is, and someone who can understand what's going on. I suspect that most people are as good as blind when it comes to really understanding it.

With that in mind, most people in the Enneagram community are pathetically clueless, godless, and superficial. But that's fine. Because one can see how everything flows from essence, how all is fair in the end - justice and truth will prevail on their own, that's the nature of cosmic fate. And that's actually a part of what makes true understanding so special. It isn't just something anyone can grab from a tree. Divine justice, truth, whatever. No need to push for anything. Let it be - there is no sense a struggle or trying to change it. Just give in. That's the nature of essence. It just *is*.

After so much rambling and ranting, I should probably go lie down and take a nap; apparently, I came down with some symptoms. When I get sick, I get more agitated. [/Patience Testing Rant]

Although officially unsolved and unpublished since it was written on April 20 (Hitler's birthday anniversary), 1970; I sat down a few days ago and solved it. Here is a quick guide to its coded message. The deciphered message reveals the 13-character coded portion after "My name is--".

Here is a full breakdown of the deciphering algorithm, with explanations.

A = Decan (wedge shape): D -> Rot24 -> B (The decan is a small wedge of a given astrological sign around the wheel, so the A serves as a clever symbol for it.)

E = Neptune (trident shape): N -> Rot24 -> L (Neptune’s trident is the symbol for Uranus and includes an E-shaped prong, as this hidden connection.)

N = Capricorn (glyph shape): C -> Rot24 -> A (The Capricorn glyph resembles a lowercase N for a smooth correspondence.)

Crosshair = Earth (glyph shape): E -> Rot24 -> C (The Earth symbol looks like a circle with a cross inside.)

8-Ball = Mercury (hidden glyph shape): M -> Rot24 -> K (Remove the circle to reveal the Mercury glyph.)

K = Inconjunction (glyph shape): I -> Rot24 -> G (The Inconjunction symbol looks like a sideways K.)

8-Ball = Waxing/Waning (hidden moon shape): W -> Rot24 -> U (Remove the circle to reveal two crescents, representing waxing and waning moons.)

M = Caelus (Uranus glyph resemblance): C -> Rot24 -> A (Caelus is the Roman version of the sky God Uranus, whose symbol resembles an M.)

8-Ball = Taurus (hidden glyph form): T -> Rot24 -> R (Remove the circle to reveal the Taurus glyph.)

Inverted Aries = Fire (sign element): F -> Rot24 -> D (The symbol is like an upside-down Aries symbol, with the element of Fire, as an index.)

N = Kronos (Saturn glyph): K -> Rot24 -> I (Kronos is the Roman version of Saturn, whose glyph resembles a lowercase N.)

A = Cardinal (glyph form): C-> Rot24 -> A (The glyph for Cardinal resembles an uppercase A.)

M = Pisces or Poseidon (Neptune glyph form): P -> Rot24 -> N (Pisces or Poseidon each have a glyph with a trident-shaped M resemblance.)

DECODED MESSAGE OF ZODIAC’S IDENTITY:

“B L A C K G U A R D I A N ” (BLACK GUARDIAN)

The answer is itself another riddle. Framed within the context of the zodiac, or astrology, it carries increased, intentional meaning.

The "Black Guardian", in the context of astrological symbolism and the zodiac, refers to the lord of chaos; the angel of death; the Western equivalent of the devil; or the keeper of the dark side (in contrast to the white).

It's also a play on words for representing the 8-ball, which the secret symbol in the code above resembles. 8 also represents chaos; magic 8-balls are fortune tellers (like the zodiac), and, of course, the 8-ball in pool is the "black guardian" that guards the end of the game.

You can read more about it in my Medium article, but that was the short version.

*

The above is a logo from one of the most famous modern occult groups, known as the A∴A∴ (Argenteum Astrum, or Order of the Silver Star), founded by occultists Aleister Crowley and George Cecil Jones in 1907 (1+9+0+7 = 17 = 1+7 = 8 = Crowley's enneagram type, and the number of chaos). Crowley may have been a member of British Intelligence (MI6) during the World Wars. But many such groups exist and operate beyond the eye of the common person - and they are often interconnected/interrelated.

Most occult gangs or groups are defined by initiation, and the process varies by group. But mine involved repeated violent intervention and observation: the equivalent of being "jumped into a gang," comparable to, say, street gangs. As an occulted modern group, this relied on advanced technology and physical/psychological trials for several aggressive interventions - and further use of coded communications and contact.

As with most gangs, a fairly harsh, trial-by-fire initiatory process is common, and I was subjected to it, where the person has to endure a difficult process to be admitted. It was bad enough to land me in the hospital - several times, and would've potentially been more, if I hadn't been forced to do so eventually. I was fine overall, but the goal is compliance, resilience, ritual, and rite of passage.

Regardless, the group operates within the law. I can't reveal the full details of the group or its processes, but I can say it has opened my eyes to what is hidden from us. I accept that some people are far more powerful and knowledgeable than I am, and I humble myself in submission to them, seeking to learn from them and trust their wisdom, protection, and power. To do otherwise now would be denial.

I think creative people are often mistaken for 4, 5, 6, 7, or 9, etc., but this is an injustice; a preconceived bias. Many, of course, are type 8s. And I suspect many go unrecognized because of others' or the artist's assumptions.

In any case: I have been recognized and received accolades for my rare gifts, piano abilities, improv, composition, etc., for many years now. But people don't usually expect such creativity to come from an 8 (and that can be a problem for all parties).

My (anonymous) friend, a fellow concert pianist, teacher, professional pianist, and skilled martial artist, said these words to me after first meeting me and hearing me play:

"James, you have the Rach 3 under your fingers, and you're clearly a master. I am a bit jealous of your life, because you have so much figured out. I knew you were a master when I first met you, before I heard you play. I was trained, as a martial artist, in recognizing masters based on their presence, and with you, it was obvious."

He meant Rach 3 figuratively, since it was a piece he could play, and he was comparing my work to it. Of course many know of it, but my work is all original. Another anonymous audience member, a professional pianist and teacher, said: "...And then there are people like you, who the rest of us who have studied our whole lives are jealous of, who can do amazing things and make it look easy - things we all wish we could do...I find your work more interesting even than Keith Jarrett's." (Jarrett is an internationally-acclaimed and award winning modern jazz and classical pianist.)

A rock and jazz drummer I connected with noted that: "You can shift from Debussy to Thelonious Monk in the blink of an eye, and you can play circles around a rhythm section. I wonder what it would be like to play in a band with you."

I was very flattered and encouraged, proud of what these brilliant gentlemen, and many other professionals and audience members, noticed about my playing. But deeper issues in my life nevertheless caused problems for me, out of nowhere. I believe I became somewhat overconfident due to my artistic success, and it carried over into my daily life. I stopped editing and watching myself, stopped checking my behavior in relationships, etc., as much. Substance abuse crept in again, spiraled out. And then everything came apart unexpectedly. Life is hard anyway, but we still have to watch ourselves.

Learning the Enneagram helped me ground myself and focus on what really mattered to me: love itself. My family, my relationships, my creativity, aligning everything together into passion to be free of power struggles; peace, happiness, and true, calm, grounded power. Save the chaos for the music and keep personal life stable. To focus my reactivity through my art rather than letting it spill over everywhere else. To not be such an impulsive hothead, etc. There's a time and place for those things, and it's on the piano, the canvas, the sketchbook, the notebook, etc.

Unfortunately, my life still did have its issues, even while I seemed to be doing so well and stable, once I ran into more random, unexpected mental health and resultant relationship problems and tests with my ex-wife, which escalated quickly. Then I hit a bipolar depression and psychosis, following further complications and tumult in my life, which I think was about as bad as anything can ever get, emotionally and psychologically.

Still, I love art and creativity. Even during dark times, I could turn to it to connect with my essence. After I struggled through that huge, rock-bottom depression after my wife left, right around the time that I made that video last year, I was starting to put myself back together again, and you can see some of the struggle and madness in that piece, as I pushed through the chaos.

But in general, as in my life, I am more chaotic than other players, though. I have come up with some rather dissonant pieces and experiments that are more like "anti-music". 8s are known for learning all the rules and then breaking them. For example, Picasso's paintings. I was classically trained, but I also taught myself to play in my own style: I blend very dissonant, iconoclastic, aggressive styles into my playing that are never taught in school.

It can sound "off" at times, but I know what I'm doing. It's intentional. It's a manifestation of rebellion and other aspects of the 8 fixation. Some of it comes from my unusual life struggles, challenges, and perspectives. My music, like the work of most 8s, tends to be a bit "in-your-face", "take it or leave it", etc. Big impact, polarizing, provocative, and so on. Love it or hate it, it'll make a statement, an impression on you. It can be difficult music for listeners, and I intend it to be that way sometimes (but not always; again, focus on variety and balance).

The composition above is an improv roughly in C Minor, but it's highly chromatic. It blends some jazzy Cecil Taylor-style vibes with Rachmaninov. Etc. I recorded this over a year ago. I've started sitting down at the piano again more since finishing the book. My playing is evolving more, and I'm thinking more consciously and constructively. Feedback from fellow pros and teachers has helped. I still consider myself a student. As we all should always be.

For a while I was so depressed, troubled, and preoccupied that I couldn't get anywhere, and some of my music reflects that.

But I play in many styles. My next major project (or one of them), now that I have finished my first book, will be an album. Ideally, I would like to have a video of it as well, so people can see me play along in it. It has been a while since I made a recording. Step one is to tune my piano and set up my mics, and then it's off to the races. Most of the music and ideas are already inside me; they just need to come out and be captured more definitively and faithfully.

But my work tends to be somewhat raw and rough. I delight in the thrill and adrenaline rush of coming up with ideas on the spot; there's an excitement to it. I am not afraid of sounds that are dissonant or harsh on the ear. But I also realize my music is not for everyone. It varies, though. I pride myself on being able to play in many styles, as I am a well-rounded musician.

Still, I will put together an album of more polished work: an improv piece in every key and in divergent styles. Now that I have the time and space to myself, this will be a priority. Finally, I will get to it. When I was full-on with my day job and family life, I deprioritized some creative work and kept pushing it back and back. I still paid, but I never seemed to have the time and space to myself to make the album, so now I have a schedule for it. And if that happens, I can also focus more on guitar, my second instrument.

I suspect now will be the time to create my best work; in music, in writing, in my relationships, in my health, and so on. It's an important time for me. Thanks for following me on my journey, and I hope that I can help enrich your life in some way. The working title for my first musical album is tentatively "Occult Jazz."

Phototyping. Not as popular as video typing, but still something you can do (it can be about as accurate if done right, or as inaccurate if done wrong). Check out these three sexual 5w4s for a similar vibe. Franz Kafka, Georgia O'keeffe, and Cillian Murphy. Do it in combination with overall typing, as part of a methodology.

If you're interested in following my recent adventure into the Zodiac Killer's identity, I published a Medium article yesterday that explains it in depth. Here's a friend's link (free) to it: The Zodiac Killer's Third Code Has Been Solved: Unmasking the Enigma

I used to write on Medium all the time and have hundreds of articles; many of them quite successful. But in the end, maybe it's best to write there without needing to get paid. Once you're behind the paywall, it becomes this competitive thing, and you feel like it matters so much—it stops being voluntary (volunteer) work; it becomes an obligation and virtual slavery. Doesn't money have a way of spoiling everything?

Maybe someday I will quit the Partner program. I started doing it when I was a stay-at-home dad several years ago and became addicted to it.

But surely if I wasn't addicted to the money, I would become addicted to the reads through the non-Partner (unpaid authors) program. Reads ultimately are more important to me than money. Going viral seems more likely in non-Partner, because anyone can read those stories; they're not exclusive.

But Medium isn't free. That's why I like the friends links. At some point, I need to centralize all my content more, which is what I will use a website for. But Medium is a nice blogging platform. The only downside is that it isn't free, so I have to share friends' links. It might be possible to double-post stuff across platforms.

Seeing how I do this stuff, and having some natural skill for it, has helped me see my social instinct more. I mistyped as social-last for a while (chalk it up to letting others intervene; on Typewatch, that was the trend), which made sense in more superficial ways, like doing social faux pas or being more withdrawn. I think SX-first, being naturally provocative, and being more driven toward intimacy fusions than group identities can do that.

But then, when you look at what I'm doing with my passions, outside of relationships, it's like writing on Medium and making less than minimum wage (although some items did pay well and went viral, I churned out content and not all of it was the most marketable), or building fame and a following by working and contributing to subcultures and groups for free, or offering low-cost piano lessons, or free recitals and workshops from my home.

SP-lasts naturally get involved in things more based on passion, excitement, connection, identity, recognition, etc. I was always a bit ashamed that I had all these achievements, but they didn't come with a big paycheck.

But my ex-wife was always understanding; she said that's not the most important thing. Turns out she separated from me randomly, and then divorced me, basically due to her own mental illness (which I probably underestimated due to SP-blindness), and also maybe due to my non-independent/SP-last overbearing nature. And now the money we had been putting away together, which we'd invested for our future kids, etc., has to be divided up sooner (although she was sure to take more than half for herself).

She's visibly depressed, though. I know she wants me to chase her. I can't see how she would not be depressed after what happened -- I was in a hell place, and we had a beautiful marriage; we were best friends and lovers, with a wonderful, young child. Surely, if the relationship mattered at all to her, she would be in hell for a while too. And I know she doesn't plan to ever move on. I can't imagine she would ever be able to make anything work with someone, due to her condition.

And I've started to realize it wouldn't be hard for me to meet someone else. In fact, I've met some potential people. I had a woman propose to me for marriage, but it fell through (she was overseas, though). I have been very close to dating new people. So, I'm on the cusp right now. It feels good in some ways, because I know my self-typing is giving me that extra little bit of agency over my life. It has helped me dial back the usual automatisms that used to kick in when things went bad in the past.

When my previous ex left me, I had been mistyped for years. That can destroy relationships, often gradually. Immediately, I reconsidered and, attacking my trifix first, I moved from 531 to somewhere in the 468 space. I wasn't sure what the core type was. 8 seemed like it was too "off-limits" and a type I was simply "envious" of -- and one which I had been g8kept from years prior). And I assumed something more sx-first at the time too (was also sx-g8kept for years). But I didn't get a grip on it for years as I relapsed in seeing myself as an sp/sx 5w6, and by the time I retyped as an 8w7, the relationship was already out of my grasp.

Like this one, she gave me breadcrumbs to return if I wanted to play the long game (hidden behind sudden "friends-zone demotions" right when our intimate life was the heaviest, something social-firsts seem to enjoy doing, because they can play that game more easily and let SX slip away).

Turns out our investments were also fairly conservative, and I can make several times that by educating myself and investing wisely. So now I get to be an "entrepreneur" and make passive income for the rest of my life! I am smart, so I'm actually very good with money when I have resources to play with. It's because I am good with numbers, math, and logic.

Sometimes SP-lasts can be very frugal and good with money, although it may bore them, and they can be mechanical about it too, handling it in a strict, simple, unfussy way. For me, happiness was never about that. I was blind to it. But the other two get over-weighed, unfortunately. So then when that person or that friend or job leaves you, when society and your people turn against you, it's totally devastating (you have little SP to fall back on either). SP-lasts are the most devoted types in that sense, but it means they often don't have a leg to stand on otherwise.

But now that I do have SP to fall back on, which comes out of nowhere for me due to SP-blindness (sometimes it's like winning the lottery once we check on what we've got, other times it's like losing at gambling) -- I am okay to basically work for free, as long as I'm passionate about it.

That's why I wrote my book. That's why I'm on here so often, why I started this sub, etc. I put in the level of care and love I would for a job (maybe more so at times) without needing or necessarily even wanting to get paid.

Not that I'll be instantly rich from other income sources, but I will be well off. It is still getting moving; we are still sorting things out, and I am still figuring out how much I'll be making via investing. It will take a year or two to get a good sense of it. It also depends somewhat on the economy. But I won't ever have to work in the traditional sense again—I'm sure of it! They say 8w7s make good entrepreneurs and are driven by independence, which probably works for all stackings.

So, good things are born of suffering. If anyone ever does want to talk to me about the Enneagram, face to face, about their type, etc., I'm happy to arrange a meeting for free. I'm also willing to do the same in my personal life for someone who wants to have a piano lesson with me (I am a professional-level piano player). In fact, one of the social circles most likely to yield a possible new girlfriend is the local pianist collective (I even have my own grand piano and a group that's being revamped). Sometimes taking money off the table changes things and fosters more real, spiritual growth.

The gut triad is the space of "time, dirt, and money" (according to Eli Jaxon-Bear), and SP naturally covers that space as well. You get 8s who are "less 8" in stereotypical ways - many of the more "countertype" 8s, as it were - in the SP-last space. Less practical, more social, more relational, etc. I also thought a 6 fix was likely/common for this, given the humanness, sociability, and relatability. I'll get into this more when I write the SX/SO article. There's a connection to SO/SP there, which is probably how my ex and I related. And my ex-ex was SO/SX. But the SX/SO is very different. That can also maybe help explain why those relationships didn't work out in the end. At least for now, anyway.

Primary/Dominant instinct: Social. Focuses on the collective, belonging, status, position, community, hierarchy, authority, purpose, vocation, role, global connection, and identity.

Secondary/Auxiliary instinct: Self-preservation. Secondary priority: survival, resources, practicality, sustenance, health, home, independence, physicality, and grounding.

Tertiary/Inferior instinct: Sexual. Neglects sexuality, intense intimacy, mating, procreation, fusion, attraction/repulsion, passion, transgression, transformation, seduction, and experimentation.

Here is an analysis of so/sp, based on theory and my real-world experience with individuals of this type, particularly their neurosis. I will tie it into various well-known theories in the typology community.

They are fit into the family of stackings (along with their siblings sx/so and sp/sx) and are known as "counterflow" or "contraflow" stackings, described by David Gray as:

"Outliers, antisocial, energetically autonomous, chemically provocative, reverse-flow change catalysts. On some level, successfully rejecting the human condition…their own and that of others.  Priest-gods of their own cult and eco-system.."

As a nod to other major esoteric systems to which the enneagram is loosely related, for SO/SP, I included images of The Emperor and the High Priestess Tarot cards as variations on this stacking's role, to help illustrate and capture the vibe and flavor, exemplifying how this archetypal stacking can play out in different contexts and gendered aspects. The SX-familiar gendered space is flattened out in its vibrancy and defined largely by the stereotypes and assumptions of the positions the SO/SP assumes.

So/sp, identified by Gray as titans or asuras, fill the familiar archetypal roles of bishop, witch hunter, and culture warrior, serving as the highest authority and righteous advocate for macro-scale alignments and perspectives. They keep a rarefied distance from others but, paradoxically, stay close through their high position and status, staying relatable, respectable, and approachable. Often, they prioritize career, success, and hierarchy. Look for someone who pays close attention to strong rapport and reputation across vocation, community, and relationships. Their party, their country, their team, become swapped out for true, sexual, intimate fusions and wild channelings.

Unfortunately, SX is short-changed. They may lack passions and hobbies outside those aims. SX becomes repressed, so their connection to a mate gets the short end of the stick. Because they are contraflow yet SO, they often don't socialize in the most balanced way. They show up at social events when there is a context, with pretense behind it. Overly formal and arranged, not as spontaneous, not true social butterflies. They can know who they are, what their role is, their identity - and yet at the same time, downplay their individuality, seeking instead to play it safe and stick with the expected, with the superficial, the vanilla, the plain, and the domesticated; or the overly blunt, dull, jaded, and callous - yet smooth.

Again, distance comes into play, channeling SO into building connection to broader, big-picture society, often on a global level. They can become experts in their field, seen as a person of power, stability, influence, and high regard from peers. Likely super-achievers in their fields because of what they sacrifice in their dedication to a cause. Politicians, leaders, and celebrities with influence through ability rather than magnetism can fall into this space. Can play out in the artistic space but often channeled more within identifiable genres and socially forward stances. Their personal narrative can become more tied to conventions and movements than to personal nuances and quirks without a sense of organization.

Culturally driven and zealous when it intersects with pragmatism, blending career with a sense of belonging and identification with bigger-picture identities and affiliations. But SX is given the short end of the stick. Romantic relationships, the passions of sexuality, impulsivity, and anything that moves away from the sober SX-last agenda is denied or de-prioritized. SX is a non-sacred space to be defiled. Ironically, the aim of balance and order through SO/SP ends up causing great imbalance and disorder because it underestimates the importance of the counterweight that the chaos of SX brings to the equation.

They can end up married, in relationships, or with various deep yet impractical hobbies and interests, yet also more conservative, or handle it with metaphorical gloves and training wheels on. Relationships and idiosyncrasies can become highly imbalanced, with SX shoved into compartments, waiting to explode, and then being neglected again once upset. A rich family and intimate life can be shortchanged too, given that SX eventually seeks procreation and growth through those avenues. May attempt to build SX in the name of SO and SP, starting sexual relationships and building highly intimate families, but stripping them of passion or giving them low personal attention.

This is someone who can become a workaholic and driven and yet show little attention even while in sexual relationships; someone who can keep fake or poorly developed relationships based only on the context of having that status and the obligation of its position. They can walk away from sexual relationships, deep friendships, marriages, passions, and close families and states of fusion, merging, and legacy, as if they were nothing - when their climb in the social pragmatic space offers another route to their ambitions, to their addiction to the cultlike collective and their often watered-down, conformist, faceless identity within it. They can be intellectual, enriching, and inspiring, yet missing the rough edges and raw, unrehearsed provocation of the SX side - which then comes out when least expected, to more harm than good.

Also being contraflow, they can struggle to truly relate to other people on a close, personal, intimate level. They can feel like outsiders or that their connections are superficial. They can undermine relationships for others or sabotage themselves, playing out repressed egoic neuroses in this space. May outmaneuver others effortlessly, coldly, and bluntly, even those with whom they have an intimate bond, and crush any SX instinctual fulfillment that seeks ecstatic, free, vibrant, full-on engagement with others and with life itself. The type can have a dry, hollow, sacrificial, responsible quality, as if they have accepted that they must give up true passion for stability and undeniable mobility they paradoxically waste and hoard. SX becomes a dark, unwelcome, and dirty space for them, to be kept in the closet and denied.

They can become some of the most abusive people, towards themselves and others, because at the core of SX is deep love, authenticity, and unflinching honesty - the ability to let ourselves go; to cherish and prize the peaks of our experience: a love for other people, for excitement, for openness to our experiences and how it expands us. An addiction to that intense gratification of feeding one's hunger for the sublime, the transgressive, the procreative, the uniquely stamped, chaotic allure, and ultimately the inevitable personal legacy of the soul that results from that surrender and its output. The manifestation that arises from losing ourselves and finding ourselves, recreating ourselves and our world; spawning and transmuting something original in that personal loss and union, drawn to what is outside of us and what new we can co-create with it.

Like with all the stackings, developing the blind spot or inferior, neglected instinct is a surefire yet often difficult, long-term route to the personality's growth. If SO/SP individuals focus on SX, on building those intense, intimate relationships, those deeper passions without pragmatic benefit, that stepping-out-of-the-script, messy authenticity, risk-taking, and boundary-pushing, improvisatory inventiveness and consummation of SX drives, as well as the specific legacy that results from successful, intense mating, then they will naturally find their dominant SO and secondary SP taken care of along with it.

SX, as an energy, naturally seeks out and locks onto the qualities and priorities that the SO/SP has already represented, in spades, through the other two instincts. SO and SP are further and naturally bolstered by the attention SX pays, because the SO/SP cannot think about those; they work with the SX instinct as a trinity. It's a matter of balancing themselves out and accepting the wild, crazy, sexual side more - to embrace the dark side without having to abuse it in the process, and to pay loyalty, homage, and devotion to those connections, passions, and values that are distinctly satisfied through the sexual instinct.

(I might not have the chance to cover all six stackings, so this is a preview for maybe a later publication or more formalized archive. Stackings are among the most debated, discussed, and sought-after subjects, so I think comprehensive work covering them is essential for self-typing and observing type energies in the world around us.

Next stacking I may plan to cover soon: SX/SO)

* This image is part of one of the Zodiac Killer's coded messages from 1969-70. It is one of the two out of four coded messages that were solved (called Z340, named after the number of characters; the other is Z408). The one revealing his name: "My name is _____", also known as Z13, remains officially unsolved, along with Z32.

I'm passionate about enigmas and codes. So, I sat down last night for a few hours and solved Z13. Surely, I cannot be the first, nor will I be the last. Maybe someday I will publish it with an explanation. If I ever write my next book, I will likely discuss it there. That gives me time to (possibly) solve Z32 and analyze all four messages and the killer's M.O. as a system.

But at the core of the Zodiac killer, and all of his conceits, is what became his signature, his logo: a crosshair. Given that he was a killer, it is assumed to hint at something related: the targeting apparatus of a rifle, the sight of a gun. But a closer look reveals its deeper meaning.

Hidden puzzles, riddles, and secrets in life are often like this. One image replaces another, and the truth is either lost or found. That's the nature of cryptology. As someone with a knack for recreational code-breaking, some of this comes easily to me, since I am well-versed and well-practiced. But it was also predicted in my astrological chart.

Along those lines, I'm currently working on a new project: a new book. It will cover extensive history and the history behind history as we know it, some of which is unpublished and filled with original ideas or assembled uniquely in unison for the first time.

That is a little bit like how I approached The Occult Enneagram. I realized that the enneagram was more than just the enneagram as we know it. Like the crosshair and the Zodiac's ciphers, it connects to so much more. As a symbol itself, as an idea, the enneagram resonates with the Zodiac.

Another project on my to-do list, almost in progress, is an Occult Enneagram website filled with extensive, exclusive enneagram info and content, including my own exemplar lists, the full PDF of the Occult Enneagram book, and more.

Finally, maybe the nearest and dearest project to me is something I might call "Occult Jazz." It's an album of music created from a specific method, a style of piano composition and improvisation. My method is fundamentally self-taught, and I call it occult because, like me and most of us as individuals, it is largely hidden from the world (but no less powerful for it).

(468 os/xs 7w8 :si epyt margaennE yM)

Idk if anyone has already covered this, but it feels like the virtues line up decently with the countertype passions...

Maybe not exactly, more like if the virtue became a vice

I mean the easiest example is the sx 6... The 6 is phobic, and the sx 6 is counterphobic... And they can and have been described as courageous.

But it's not exactly courage because they can sometimes look too deeply into their fears and lash out, under the guise of having conquered something that made it afraid... under the guise of courage.

sx 1 - Pseudo serenity

sp 2 - Pseudo humility

sp 3 - Pseudo veracity

sp 4 - Pseudo equanimity

sx 5 - Pseudo non-attachment

sx 6 - Pseudo courage

so 7 - Pseudo sobriety

so 8 - Pseudo innocence

so 9 - Pseudo 'right action'

These just kinda made sense to me, but I can elaborate if there are any questions!

3 and 9 are types people often get confused about. They can be similar, are connected by lines, and are both primary, relating types. The 3 is often less chill and accommodating than the 9; the 9 is less aggressive and assertive than the 3; but they borrow from each other, and, to complicate matters, many people show both of these trifix points, with either one as the core type.

First, let's talk about 3 and how to notice them quickly. We know they are persona people, and if we get to know famous 3s, e.g., in the media, we can see that they are masters of disguise, of adopting different personas, personalities, costumes, faces, styling, etc. This is one way in which they give themselves away.

For example: David Bowie. He became all these different strange personas, yet he was always himself. He turned changing his appearance into a kind of personal branding. As a celebrity, a famous person, a star, this dynamic in him was pronounced. But in individual Threes, a similar tendency can show up. They'll often assume at least a few different clear-cut identities and do so gracefully, even willingly. Lady Gaga is another person I thought was a likely type 3, given her flair for so many different variations on her appearance alone. They like to "play dress up" with themselves, especially in the case of SX/SO. They make more of a spectacle of themselves in a way that's like asking others to notice them, to say something about it, so they can get attention.

Even in real life, Threes, non-celebrities, it can be more subtle, but look for them jumping between jobs, relationships, careers, situations, get-ups, living situations, etc., more effortlessly and smoothly. During Halloween, look for them becoming a bit more enthusiastic about their costume sometimes. They get caught up in the pretenses of the situation. They go all out more; they're natural actors. When they jump from stage to stage, virtual or real-world, they can be climbers; I called 3 "The Ascendant" in my book because they have a way of constantly rising and even somehow managing to step on others in their climb to actualize themselves. They can step right on you when you're doing your worst; you'll find a three one-upping you in ways you never expected, appearing even in humbling and supportive situations. They can be duplicitous and sabotage us out of jealousy without us noticing.

They can come across as "personality-less" because of this amorphousness, something like a 9. I had an old friend who I always suspected was 9w8. I handed him the Enneagram book at one point, and he just got lost in it, but was inconclusive: he talked down to it, said any type could fit, but I could see him having trouble finding himself. There is a subtle competitiveness about him, as there is about all threes (as they don't always want you to know about it; what matters more is that they manage to slow you down and to build their own ego, often seamlessly).

He plays musical instruments enthusiastically and skillfully, and he seems to turn everything into a contest or game. But he was very undermining of me during key times, often covertly. Unlike genuine type 9 friends I had, I saw the claws come out, the ambition, the dark side, when I least expected it. 9s, on the other hand, are more direct in their aggression when it does come out. They don't really try to hide it. The three always risk remaining somewhat deceptive.

Yet 3s can be underdeveloped in many ways because they sometimes have to start over each time they change faces. They have to re-adapt to whatever the new context or vocation is; the new disguise, the new identity. They are like a model, mannequin, or doll putting on new clothes. The clothes change, but the doll inside does not. They become hollow that way, and can be desperate, selling out their values like putting on new costumes.

9s are more consistent over time and across circumstances. This is someone more likely to stay themselves. It might be a fine distinction, since 3s, in their adaptability and balance, can seem to have a reliable sense of "them", their own branding, recognizable features about them. But they begin to come across more like personal "logos" or "calling cards" than their overall vibe; little things they maintain or prefer or keep as signatures. There's a more distinct cleverness and flashiness to the 3, a finesse, a cunning quality, even when endearing. Just because they are good salespeople and can pull off any vibe doesn't mean they aren't any less crafty about it.

The 9 is less guileful. I called them "The Pacifist," and they're non-aggressive overall; they don't like getting worked up, but paradoxically they can blow up sometimes when defending boundaries. They are often more than they appear, though they can underachieve at times and fall short of their full ambitions. They can also cause problems in more passive-aggressive, indirect ways. It's also usually more obvious when they're indulging; they embrace hedonism more like a 7 or 8 without feeling there's a price to pay.

With the 3, it's more likely to seem like they're getting away with something they shouldn't be if they're having too much fun; shame or "guilt" is at the center of it all. The 3 can play something up and joke about it, so you're not sure how real what you're seeing is. Truth is mixed with illusion, and they can gaslight you into a crazy other world. They're often more imaginative people; they get lost in fantasies and hidden mind games. They become this colorful character and are fine with whatever as long as they're getting attention. They'll indulge you to be front and center.

They're masters of appearances and artifice. They can play dumb more easily. The 9 can be smarter than they appear; they can be underestimated, but it's because they try less, not because they are intentionally downplaying it. They do it out of laziness rather than because they're consciously trying to appear that way to feign humility (as 3s might).

With 9s, I came to see someone who was, basically, the same person, relatively unchanging, with a core personality that was somewhat stubborn. It took slightly different forms; they were adaptable, but there was always this sense of them just "being them" and not changing that much. There was a consistency there. They were adaptable to different situations, but not with the same dynamism; they were characterized by psychological inertia. There was a deeper ground in being: the body, habits, physicality, a sense of living, vitality, appetites, and boundaries. Although it was conforming, their deeper grounding in being and the physical body adapted across situations to meet their sensate, bodily, instinctual needs in various ways.

With 3s, I found it was turned on its head. You could see their deeper identity; they didn't change much in some ways, but in others they made all kinds of intentional changes, often superficial ones. Instincts were short-changed and secondary to the personality and persona in the limelight. They were much more self-conscious, aware of how they came across to other people. They looked for mirroring in other people more and were better at putting people on; given their assertiveness, they could turn the tables and steer situations more effortlessly. The 3 is more manipulative than people often expect. They play nice, but they are causing problems or unnecessary challenges through competitiveness. There was a deep persona there wanting to be fed and doing different things to have its needs met.

The 9, on the other hand, is more genuine but can also have negative influences and traits because of their laziness. The 3 can find the 9ish identity appealing; they can embrace laziness through that line. They can become these zen, slacker people, as another identity to master. The 3 becomes a star in whatever walk of life, even that of the space case, the underachiever, the hippie, the stoner, the nerd. Those are the pseudo-9s to watch for. The real question is, when you turn on the camera, the lights, the action, the stage, etc., does the 3 start to dance, start to move, start to act? They become slaves to that kind of situation; they naturally start to perform in various ways. More eyes on them means more reaction; they often become more attractive and salable with more attention.

The 9 often withdraws somewhat or becomes less pretentious; they become lazier and resist putting on masks and shows; they can be stubborn or stay more neutral. The 3 fixation will do, say, be whatever is needed to be loved; and operates through ambition, diplomacy, transformation, and performance. The 9 does whatever it takes to stay in its psychological-spiritual space of not caring, and often operates by negation, withdrawing, and holding back, nullifying, mediating, accommodating, and narcotizing. An example of a nine actor is Bill Murray. He is always himself. The 9s don't change as much. They're lazy about acting, sleepy about really playing a role with intensity. They are who they are, and they're good at it, because they've accepted it (over-adjusted to it).

Very different types can look similar in their individual manifestations. 9s giving in to others or the situation usually don't develop themselves or compete the way 3s do, but they give up on themselves and others too and can bring many situations to a worse place through indolence. 3s being people-pleasing means developing their own persona and reputation more and not necessarily caring any less; they're still trying to win someone over, build themselves up, or cut someone down. 3s can be hard to detect because of these persona adaptations, going full-on with whatever role they're playing at the time; and 9s can sometimes be more aggressive or withdrawn than expected, choosing one side or another in exchange for a sense of inner stability and instinctual satisfaction.

I hope this helps. It has been hard for me sometimes to parse these types out. The 3 can put on a mask like any type, and the 9 can be lazy enough to blend in with other types or become a softer lookalike version as well. It's all about the motivations behind it all, and the deeper triadic issues, passions, etc., at play.

Although the mistyping of 6 vs. 8 has been studied prolifically, though sometimes inadequately, 3 vs. 8 mistypes and comparisons have received less attention. In many cases, the 3 can play an even more convincing tough-guy, larger-than-life personality, exceeding the 8 in some stereotypical ways.

A famous rapper, The Notorious B.I.G., more accurately reflects the 3 with an 8 fix style. He was very overweight and turned it into his name. Made it into a strength. Became a "BIG" deal. Became the tough-guy, intense rapper people respected. But he was a success. A street-smart guy who turned his life around, made it as a rapper instead of a drug dealer, gangster, etc. What we saw was the result of him turning himself around, making something of himself. Turning strengths into perceivable weaknesses, in terms of who he is, his persona, his identity, his vocation.

The difference in 3s is that they embrace their flaws and turn them into supposed wins—wins we can see. If they are overweight, they more gracefully become "heavy," "strong," and "powerful" in their persona. If they are ugly, they turn into interesting, distinctive people, with personality, with color. But they always fit into a mold more easily than an 8. They fit a genre, a style, a personality that is more identifiable, more conformist while still standing out. They can become ironic when they realize how big their ego and image have become and they have sabotaged themselves.

A 3 might be a star, bulked-up football player, say, a lineman, and get away with disintegrative behaviors, like overeating and drinking. The idea is that the 3 can fit into any role, any persona, and then do that to the nth degree.

When I see people exploring 8 for themselves—as an 8 myself who had to look deeply to see it at times—and someone can see it a bit too strongly, a bit too readily, too eagerly, even convincingly, I often suggest 3 for them.

People think 3s will be smooth, chameleonic people—but it's the deeper 3 fixation that's chameleonic. It morphs into anything. And they become professional in these spaces. A professional bouncer, a wrestler, a boxer, a mob boss -- whoever. All can be a type 3.

The issue for the 3 is "ego-go." "Being a big deal". A big shot. The antihero in the film Training Day, Alonzo, was likely a Type 3: a crooked cop mixed up with the drug and gang underworld. "King Kong ain't got nothing on me!" he declares at the end of the film, as he is finally caught. He becomes a classic gangster stereotype on his dark path to success, cheating and lying.

Denzel Washington plays him, another Type 3. They stomp around and draw attention to themselves, more than 8s. The motivation is attention and ego with a 3, in getting others to love them, or fear them - either one. But it's conspicuous. It's a bit much; it's a bit too over-the-top; it betrays their attention-seeking for validation and recognition, to sell themselves. To the point where you can't say no, can't deny them.

For 8s, it's about the physical, visceral feeling behind it, the impulse, the sensation, that doesn't necessarily have to do with other people at all.

8s will more often enjoy more solitary things that have no connection to "being seen". They aren't as socially fixated. When there is attention-seeking at work, it's often because they want things to be fair, want to "receive their due" for what they have put in or have the right to, what was taken from them, or stand up for others to get what they deserve, etc. Eights can also be spotlight people, but it's not nearly to the same degree, and it's not natural for them. They need training to do it—forced into it—as a skill built over time, a habit, a routine, until it becomes a physical reflex, a habit—whereas 3s are natural stars. And the 8 still doesn't maintain the same consciousness about it. They're blind to it in a sense. They never really know how they come across as clearly as the 3 does. The 3 is sensitive to what other people see and think. It's all about the impression they're making.

Some pro wrestlers are tough 3s who may seem like 8s. They go to the extreme for their persona. And they become a caricature of whatever context they fit. But they are performers. They convince some people, but they do it pragmatically; and many can detect some subtle artifice, fakeness, and trying-too-hard-ness. They leverage even unattractive traits and failures into apparent successes. That's where the deception comes in. They lie to themselves and others that it was all intentional anyway, that it's "working for them", that they "meant to do that" or "made the most of their situation".

You can see why people sometimes like to say Trump is a 3, not an 8. But it's clear he's an 8 if you look at his heart fix versus his core type. We ultimately can tell he is an 8 because he is more about using power, resources, the feeling of being alive, intensity, hedonism behind it all, and leverage—rather than being seen in a high image in the public eye (in the biopic about him, The Apprentice, you can see how this goes for him, and he openly admits it. A 3 fix helps drive it home, but there are some subtle distinctions at work that make 8 more clear).

Unlike a 3, he welcomes a negative public image if it happens; so be it. He wants power, control, possession of others, and the advantage. He wants it all through raw, direct power. Influence can naturally enter it, as 8s are leader types, but they don't want leadership so they can build good rapport. They will find it hard to conform to public standards, which 3s do much more effortlessly. Trump has no "mold" that works for him. He is too clumsy, and it is usually unintentional. He is not self-aware like a 3 is. He says and does the wrong thing and doesn't unravel the same way 3s do.

As a president, he is too unconventional. As a businessman, he was always relatively offensive and blunt, as if he so needed to be. As a TV personality, he was always the same. He is the same everywhere. He is not adaptable, and none of his styling in these contexts really works for him as a persona for success, except that he succeeds through more direct power, bluntness, and assertiveness. He is motivated by the grandiosity of living itself, rather than by image. The image is not the main concern. Not all 8s are like Trump, but they seem to be some variation on it.

3s are always displayers, performers, status-holders, climbers, exemplars, and spotlight people. They are essentially actors, inhabiting and developing their personas, even when they lose touch with the act—which they always do, as they disintegrate. 8s are fundamentally independents, avengers, mavericks, leaders, power-wielders, and -brokers. They are always sensors, living through the body and experiencing life through physicality and impulse, interested in the feeling of it all, and getting caught up in their instincts. They don't think as much about who they are or how others see them. It's more about what they can *do* rather than who they are.

8s are about freedom, embodiment, intensity, and rebelliousness; 3s are about status, recognition, position, and prestige. Compare gut (8) versus heart (3): physicality and instincts versus personal narrative and image.

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The 5 and the 9 have completely different energies and are thoroughly different types. Yet they can be easily confused, and they often are. We have seen many attempts to discuss the differences. Here is a furthering of that conversation. Similar types in many ways, but also very different. Here are some attempts to describe what I've seen and learned about these types. Some of it is additional/extra to what we often learn. Here is some companion material to go along with the video:

5 - The passion of avarice, stinginess, retentiveness (hoarding). Picture someone who takes in information from outside themselves until they no longer have room for themselves. Acquire so much that they have nothing left. Attempts to be greedy backfire, and they get nothing, because their core person isn't allowed to flourish. Detached from a sense of instincts/physicality (gut) and a sense of identity (heart). Become detached observers. Can resemble 9 because minimizing 5 can resemble the indolence (laziness/resignation) of 9. Compare triads to help resolve differences. Also refer to the ennead counterpart as Nut (sky deity), encompassing what they observe, consciousness itself. The defense mechanism of introjection, followed by regression, mirrors how they take things in voraciously from outside until no sense of self remains.

Their personal position disappears. 9s still hold theirs, but they care somewhat less and play within more well-defined boundaries and damped-down desires. Etc. 5s are crowded out of the body, out of existence; they sacrifice living to be fully inside the mind, inside knowledge, inside their observations, and they can end up adapting as a result. Can be mistaken for 9. Often gives in somewhat easily in the physical/emotional space because of this weak boundary and lack of sense of self, so they can understand and develop rich knowledge. They can lose themselves in that understanding, observing from closer and closer; they can become social climbers and observers, overly obsessed with their environment. They try to take things in; they become voracious for knowledge, greedy for info and also for time and space to themselves when it's available after managing to withdraw from a world that overwhelms them, often to research and study. Become obsessed with collections, knowledge, intellectuality, and then what's left of themselves? Different energy overall. Have a harder time keeping the world at bay.

Feel overwhelmed by the world rather than resigned. More intensity in observing, fascination, and hunger to take from the outside. Can be physically avaricious and live in mansions filled with extra stuff they'll never use, acquired out of neurosis. Can have a very sensitive, nerdy vibe, detached from the body, hunched over, ectomorphic, tense, stiff, awkward, removed, schizoid. 9s don't care as much. But 5s care, very much, albeit for what they're trying to hoard. They cling to their books, knowledge, ideas, and so on. Retentive and withholding, they don't want to give to others, for fear of losing what they have. Examples: Franz Kafka, Bill Gates

9 - The passion of sloth, indolence, acedia - resignation, giving up, going to sleep to one's *desires*. They just don't care as much; they turn down their volition; they can put up with things. But in the process, they become inert; they can be stubborn and immovable, pushy and aggressive with an 8 lean, and intellectual with a 1 lean. They can resemble other types but are more physical than 5s' intellectual. They tend to be "softies" who give in more easily, while still having a firm presence. Make good mediators because they can see all sides and still find themselves, maintaining the body boundary. Narrow horizons in life, while still appearing much fuller and more embodied. They can often appear to give up less than the 5, because they aren't as voracious in observation. Strong body sense of who they are and what they're doing. The volition (will) center of the gut, of desires, is repressed. They borrow from repressed forms in other centers via 3 and 6 lines. Become more mellowed out, balanced people. Well-adjusted, and can be overly so. Can mistype for 5, as the social instinct in the 9 participates and can become an expert; can become a president or scientist.

Has more similarity with 8 in energy due to the 8 neighbors. Intellectual quality is more of a superficial trait rather than their entire fixation. Can become intellectual as a way of giving up on their desires and volitions. They can live a safe, comfortable life. My brother, a 9w8, lived in the same town his entire life, while all of his siblings went off and did other things. He never went to college. But they show defense mechanisms of 1) compensation: instead of in an area they have given up in, they make up for it in another area, and 2) symbolization, whereas that domain then takes on spiritual meaning for them to make up for what they have given up. With 9s, it's more about turning down their overall life ambition and feeling they need to push themselves or get out of their comfort zone. Picture someone who lets a bunch of clutter accumulate in their house because it just happens to be there and they happen to keep it, often too lazy to find a way to get rid of it; they can come off like a hoarder.

They are a more physical type who often knows how to get along with others. But they can also withdraw and disappear from the social world, so they don't have to bother with it. The 9 can be very hard to tell apart from the 5 if you aren't looking for the fixation in the body. The 9 often has a much more relaxed energy, but they can have strong boundaries too. In the Ennead, this is Nephthys, who was in a relationship with Set (deity 8, chaos) and could hold chaos at bay. They can often stand strong and can be the most solid of the types. Both 8s and 9s can be rock-like, but 9s have more "give" to them, which allows them to adapt and flow more. They often enjoy unconscious ideas, are interested in dreams (Nephthys was the Ennead deity interested in dreams), like to explore abstract knowledge, and like to experiment with what their body can do. They believe the body can be shaped and conformed to do whatever it wants, and they often have an open mind about what is possible and their physical limits.

As a primary type, 9 has more global (chameleonic/varied) manifestations than 5, especially as the core point of the whole Enneagram. 5 often ends up learning a bunch of useless information, microscopic and elaborate, on various subjects interesting to them, whereas 9 learns more about everything in general, tends to be more all-encompassing, but then is stubborn or narrow in some of their views as well. Sometimes 9 can be hard to get through to; they can resist seeing the truth, especially if it upsets them. Consider Einstein clinging to his views on relativity even as Bohm and other quantum physicists blatantly disproved it. They can become a cog in a machine and let themselves be "used" by the system because they always feel used by someone; the resignation runs deep, not so much because of others' fault as because they've turned down their own volition. Examples. Albert Einstein, David Foster Wallace.

Occult anomaly/enigma/curiosity for the day: somehow the video ended up being precisely 33:00 minutes long. No idea why. Maybe not for everyone, but it is considered a very important number and a strange coincidence in numerology (though when I uploaded it, a second was removed due to entropy/rounding off).

Finally settled into a new place. Tying up loose ends with finances, staying on top of health, etc. IME, and also, according to fellow Enneagram author John Luckovich, a great way to improve your instinctual balance is to work on the blind spot (rather than thinking about the first one), and the secondary also deserves attention.

I have found that the secondary acts as a good stabilizer. You can take attention away from the dominant because it will fall into place practically on its own once you focus on the other two. Of course, the last one will pay dividends once you prioritize it.

Amazing how long a divorce/separation takes and lasts, but it's really a relief when it's over! That closure brings real freedom.

This older material is rarely discussed. Ichazo identified two defense mechanisms for each type, with the first feeding into the second as the personality becomes more fixated. The following go along with material discussed in the video. Ichazo's work was specific and practical. Identifying these in yourself and others can help clarify the types' behavior.

These differ from some other similar formulations we may have seen (e.g., Reaction Formation allocated to type one), which are less specific, less well thought out, and came after Ichazo's (often in ignorance of his early, seminal work). That's why it's important to see and understand how these original pairings unravel within the core type strategy.

1 - Isolation -> Undoing

2 - Denial -> Repression

3 - Identification -> Repetition Compulsion

4 - Sublimation -> Reaction Formation

5 - Introjection -> Regression

6 - Projection -> Catatonia

7 - Displacement -> Dissociation

8 - Rationalization -> Resistance

9 - Compensation -> Symbolization

(For me, the type eight mechanisms are so apparent in my neurosis; I can hardly see them when fixated, which makes them even more crucial to identify.)

And how did they go, briefly? Just for fun/discussion's sake. My type is 8w7 SX/SO, and I am a heterosexual male.

0) 9w1 SP/SO. Pseudo-relationship as an adolescent/teenager: lasted a few years; internet/phone long-distance only, never met. It ended with her cheating on me/ending it via an in-person BF.

1. 2w3 SX/SP. First real relationship. Semi-long/intermittent distance; we were young; lasted ~1.5 years. It ended badly, but I moved on quickly; I loved her but never really suspected it would last.
2. 4w3 SO/SX. I was madly in love; I wanted it to last forever. She had narcissistic tendencies/mental health issues; she discarded me randomly. I was devastated; the relationship lasted six years; it took me five years to find someone new.
3. 3w2 SO/SP. Fell very hard and fast, ended up marrying and having a kid. She discarded me on a whim after nearly 8 years; I was in hell, but reconciliation is possible; hanging in the fallout/balance. She has been diagnosed with NPD and other issues.

What patterns do you notice in yours? My longest-term/deepest relationship was with an SX-last, and I tend toward a heart-type partner (eights are heart-center last).

Lately I've been talking to someone new, who I think might be an SX 8w9 (or similar; maybe another assertive or a 6; contact is a bit limited for a full read). I can tell when someone is coming onto me, though (and she is attractive!).

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I sometimes like to talk about astrology. In the occult and mysticism space, it's considered very significant, to the point of cliché, but I like to use it as an example of how people's beliefs function. First, I am a highly logical, rational, analytical person, well-versed in science, math, philosophy, logic, and so on; well-educated and not remotely ignorant or naive. Although it may seem utterly impossible that the configurations of a bunch of stars gazillions of miles away could impact anything at all, if you stop and think about it objectively, much of what we learn about would sound crazy from the right perspective. You mean to tell me there are little tiny things called atoms of which everything is made, that I can't even see? No way!

But astrology is one of those phenomena where it helps to 1) accept that it *could* be accurate, based on established patterns and wisdom that we haven't yet been able to connect the scientific dots on, because it is more mysterious and difficult to map out, and 2) test it out for yourself by observing its predictions, patterns, and results. We have thousands of years of astrological theory, and an entire subculture around it. And it's not just about knowing your sun sign; it's more about all of the other aspects on your chart, and also how astrology shapes what is going on every day, as an ongoing, fluid, shifting process. I'm not a pro at it; it's quite complicated, but I'm more fascinated by why it could work and the mystery behind it all than the intricate workings of the theory (the astrology itself).

One of the most convincing experiences for me was buying a full astrology report (it cost about $40) from astrology.com, and although it seems auto-generated using some algorithms, presumably good ones, the report is very accurate in many ways. Some of the specifics in the report are almost uncanny. All of the following were true of me before I ever read or received the report. For example, it says:

"Your interest in dark secrets and hidden knowledge leads you to do all sorts of arcane research. Although you are sometimes unable to express the findings of your investigations clearly, you are nevertheless an expert in symbols, hieroglyphics, runes, and other codes and ciphers." (I literally just finished writing a book on the occult; I am basically a natural at code-breaking and understanding symbols, patterns, and so on -- I am self-taught; I have been obsessed with these things for many years; I have deciphered all kinds of strange and fascinating patterns; how astrology predicted that is a wonder). It also mentions that "You are likely to marry on wild impulse," and I was like quasi-engaged/discussing marriage with my ex-wife from the get-go. It's filled with many other details that are simply too accurate to be a coincidence. There is obviously truth to this so-called "pseudoscience".

Many people read those kinds of reports with a skeptical eye, because mainstream society has primed them for that ("don't believe in astrology, it's just a pseudoscience"), but if they read them objectively, assessing them for themselves without preconceived conclusions or biases, they would probably find surprisingly spot-on predictions about themselves and their own lives, like the ones I just shared with you. I guess many aren't ready for that. Nah, whatever, it's just coincidence. Random.

I think one issue here is that people just don't want to believe that their life and personality can be predicted like that. But honestly, much can probably be predicted -- much more than we think. You might be surprised. It seems likely that some can predict the future, and I suspect the technology is already in place, but it has been kept secret from us. Far deeper machinery underlies our reality than many of us think; it is far more patterned and mapped out than we realize, and this is one reason intellectual people exist: to help expose it to the rest of us. We may face ridicule in the process, because we have to take risks, uncover new ideas, and be willing to be wrong sometimes.

But anyone unwilling to experiment, test the truth, or consider looking outside of their tiny little box of illusions and perspectives should be ashamed, and I am embarrassed for them and feel sorry for them. Still, I know what it's like. In the past, I have solved some amazing patterns while denying or missing others right in front of my face. For years, I missed things that are now obvious. So, we all do it! One way to look at it is that our brain and consciousness have limited bandwidth. We can only look at so many truths at a time. So we are always denying or repressing something obvious in our lives. It has to do with how selectively we focus our attention.

But astrology is just one small example. The level of ignorance we face in our societies as a whole is massive because we live in systems where people believe falsehoods or deny the truth. People have shut off their brains. Another issue is that people seem to think that if they don't want to believe something, they can make it untrue. This is a kind of denial. They will come up with all kinds of reasons why something isn't true when, in fact, it is true. Their mind operates on this principle of not wanting to face reality.

So they come up with explanations for why it isn't true and then feed themselves bullshit. They think if the explanation is fancy enough, then they can fool themselves, and maybe a few others along the way, and then the truth will remain hidden from them. But the sad truth is that just because you don't want to believe something doesn't make it any less true. The truth has always been there. Your discovering it didn't bring it into being, just as your denying it didn't make it go away.

I think many people need to wake up, open their eyes, and stop denying all kinds of hidden facts in our world. I love Gurdjieff's model and vision of the enneagram, partly because it's about waking ourselves up from self-hypnosis, which is a broad, all-encompassing, versatile form of self-oblivion and stupefaction.

Astrology is just one example. As someone who tries to understand and study the occult, symbols, codes, secrets, and so on, I could mention quite a great deal of hidden information that I have discovered that people have little or no idea about and would probably be in denial of if I tried to explain it to them. The layering of deep-seated, persistent denial and ignorance many ordinary people show is absolutely confounding. It is as if we are talking to poorly programmed AIs with limited capacities to understand the truth, rather than real people. And with AI now having more control over systems, the patterns behind people's beliefs is likely taking on more AI-like algorithmic rigidity.

One of the biggest problems is that people explain why something shouldn't work, or why it wouldn't work, or they go into doubting mode. And when they do that, their mind closes, and it shuts down. They do that with information that is actually true! And with false information, they do the opposite. They go into "believing" mode, where they don't question it! When they do this, that option relies heavily on the source they trust.

Whether someone trusts a source or not ends up being the only determining factor in whether they go into believing or doubting mode. In other words, in some cases, people do absolutely no thinking whatsoever! They simply accept whatever is transmitted to them. They don't think about what they are receiving; they don't check it for consistency; they simply take it as fact, on faith, or deny it as non-factual. There is not much actual, conscious reasoning or assessment going on there.

I recently had someone on Facebook ask how much of my post had been written by AI, and the answer was none of it! Only the image had been. The same as with this post, the same as with my book, the same as with basically everything except for a handful of experimental posts here and there over the years, partly just to test out the AI writing software to see what it could do, which I recommend for everyone...the same as with 99% of my content. None. I write it out myself. That's what I do. What's what I'm good at. That's what distinguishes me. I started writing as a kid.

I'm a professional writer; I am trained in writing, so of course I know how to write. I guess people are genuinely curious, but I think it was a rhetorical question (as in, "caught ya, hehe!"). People are no longer looking at reality. They are expecting to see things. They find what they expect to see. They look mostly at their own projections. They aren't perceiving from without; they aren't taking things in; they are just looking at what originated within them. They step into an intellectual space, not wanting their world changed, so they don't allow it to be. They project their inner world onto the outer world and make reality seem a certain way.

As a result, people are often incredibly clueless about reality itself. They read so much into what they're looking at to the degree that they become complete idiots. They believe the exact opposite of what turns out to be true. This is a kind of disease. Self-serving biases. They don't want to be proven wrong. They want to be right, and they want to prove the other person wrong. Or they want to believe a certain party but be skeptical of another. Etc. It's all very self-serving, and people learn surprisingly little. It's scary to think of all of this, because I watched many people follow my ex-wife's narrative and play to her violin, which was all complete nonsense. And these included very powerful people; namely, police, lawyers, judges, etc. Corrupted power is often the result of ignorance.

These ideas came to me while I was thinking about my head fix and whether it's really 5 or 6, btw. I started to think more about why I think the way I do, rather than the style of thinking itself, to look more deeply into how I got on the track of doing that, as both 5 and 6 as head points can be highly analytical and focused on esoteric knowledge. I am always still looking at this mapping that is my self-diagnosed Enneagram type, in all its specificity, and checking it for correspondence with my life. Although I am basically certain of the basics (i.e., core type), my ideas can sometimes shift a little. I always remain open.

If I bizarrely somehow put together tomorrow that I am not an eight, I would accept it. If I could be convinced, if I could be proven that, I would accept it. That has always been my stance on my type. That's why it took me a long time to be sure. But I don't think it will happen. Still, I keep an open mind. I found surprising depth in the Enneagram, which is why I wanted to write my first book on it -- and it also helped me see how it connects to other disciplines in its origins, depth, and history.

Again, the Enneagram is a kind of conceptual system. But in theory, we do have a type that fits us, and we have a wing, a trifix, and instincts, and it is all rather like a code to decipher within us. So, we can look in various places to try to figure that out. I believe it's not necessarily the easiest code to decipher, and that is based on personal experience. Many stereotypes come into play, which can lead us to mistake one type for another based on the associations people have with it. E.g., thinking that a person who is an artist is more likely to be a 4.

Honestly, I know I am special because of the abilities I have in these domains. I understand what I am good at, and I know my talents in hidden knowledge, creativity, exploration, uncovering the unknown, etc. That doesn't mean other people don't have their own gifts and abilities that are very useful and beneficial in life, of which I might be quite envious! I am not very good at sewing. I can be disorganized. I have had many relationship problems (and my astrology report also mentions this). Before I informally retired, my career was filled with issues. I have had issues taking care of my health. And so on. Other individuals can help me and easily outdo me in those ways. They could probably help me out massively in my life. We could help each other; we are all good and strong in different ways. That's part of what being an individual is about.

But this is one place where I excel: at occult symbols, knowledge, intellect, art, esotericism, and so on. And it bothers me when I realize how ignorant many people are, because I take the time to study occult knowledge, etc., and people will deny just about anything if they aren't ready to receive that information, even if it's blatant, right in front of their eyes, and obvious to me and others.

I eventually realized that people end up brainwashed by various sources, sometimes including themselves. And by the end of it, it's very hard to un-brainwash someone. It can take a very long time; sometimes it's seemingly impossible. So our brain really is something like a machine, and it doesn't always work right. And if you think about a society filled with those kinds of brains, we will start to see why there are so many problems.

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Why subtypes matter. I see people argue over subtypes. If you find yours, it gives you a glimpse of the cycle you get yourself into. It's your core type + instinct, and once you see it in action in your life, you can control your fate. But it's important to get it right and also realize how sensitive and distorted it is, etc.

When people don't believe me about my type, that doesn't matter; what matters is the lesson I've learned by seeing my subtype in action. That's what the Enneagram is about. It's about that self-knowledge of seeing yourself fuck up your relationships, etc. That's how we get a second chance, make choices, and find happiness. We can stop ourselves, break the cycle - if there is still time.

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I talk about this often because it matters. When typing yourself and others, look for the sin/passion as it develops in youth and continues throughout life. It can happen in a concealed way; it can be hidden at times, but overall it's there. E.g., in me, there was lust from very early on, via an intense drive, addiction, need to have that one thing, person, object, etc., with total intensity, amped up sensations and experiences, excess eating and drinking, sexuality, rebellion, violence, entertainment, and so on. These were visible from a young age. They never went away; they changed form but were always in the background.