A Type Of Occultism

 

If anyone doubts that the Vatican II sect is not the Roman Catholic Church, one need look no further than "Fr." Richard Rohr (b. 1943) for proof. Invalidly ordained a Franciscan priest in 1970, Rohr has been spreading lies and introducing an occult practice to millions of people for years, while never being censured in any way by the sect. Popular in many Vatican II sect parishes and retreat centers is the enneagram (pronounced "any-a-gram"). Members of the Vatican II sect are told it is a very ancient Christian tool for the discernment of spirits, for the struggle with our capital sin, our "False Self," and the encounter with our True Self in God. (See Richard Rohr and Andreas Ebert, The Enneagram: A Christian Perspective [2001], pg. xxiii). In reality, the enneagram is nothing more than a doorway to the occult that has invaded many disciplines; theology and psychology to name but two.

In this post, I will show the occult origin and true meaning of the enneagram, how it is falsely portrayed by heretics like Rohr, and the dangers involved in using it. 

Enneagram: A Figure of Evil

(I wish to credit the many sources cited in the compilation of this post, especially in the formation of this section. They are numerous and I take credit for none of it---Introibo). 

The enneagram is a figure composed of three parts. There is an outer circle, an inner triangle and an irregular hexagonal figure containing nine points that touch the outer circle. Each part of it is connected to gnostic spirituality: the circle represents unity, the inner triangle "the law of three," and the hexagon "the law of seven." By discovering your "personality type" (a number from one to nine) you can become "your true self." Most enneagram teachers use the nine points on the enneagram to represent nine personality types that, according to enneagram teaching, apply to all people. The nine types fall into three groups of three, associated with the head, the heart, and the “gut.” Every person inevitably embodies one of these nine personality types as soon as they choose a basic mode of responding to the world at about the age of four. Enneagram teachers claim that by use of the enneagram one can explain why people tend to act in particular ways and can prescribe goals for adjustment and development of one’s own personality. The first step is to determine one’s personality type from among the nine possibilities.

Once one’s personality type is determined, they teach that one should strive to attain the characteristics of the personality type indicated by following the diagram in the prescribed manner. One will make progress by moving against the direction of the arrows. For example, a personality of type one should try to become like a seven, not a four. According to enneagram teaching, you must shed your "false self" and find your "true self" in the enneagram's teachings. The most popular book on how to use the enneagram, The Road Back to You: An Enneagram Journey to Self-Discovery, by Ian Morgan Cron and Suzanne Stabile (2016) is based off of Rohr's teachings. On pg. 24, we are told:

The Enneagram teaches that there are nine different personality styles in the world, one of which we naturally gravitate toward and adopt in childhood to cope and feel safe. Each type or number has a distinct way of seeing the world and an underlying motivation that powerfully influences how that type thinks, feels and behaves.

Once you take the test to identify your personality type, you will come to realize:

The true purpose of the Enneagram is to reveal to you your shadow side and offer spiritual counsel on how to open it to the transformative light of grace. (pg. 31; Emphasis mine).

Then you work to rid yourself of your "old self" and become your "True Self" and the person God wants you to be. Rohr and his heretical, occult disciples are spreading this throughout the Vatican II sect through retreats and parish "spirituality courses" or "workshops." Many Vatican II sect clergy give "homilies" on it. (See fscenter.org/content/programs-retreats/enneagram). 

This false narrative about the "benefit" of the enneagram is used to persuade others that it is rooted in Christian history. Author Christopher L. Heuertz, in his book The Sacred Enneagram: Finding Your Unique Path to Spiritual Growth (foreword by "Fr." Richard Rohr), proposes the possibility the enneagram was in use in other ancient non-Jewish and non-Christian cultures and mystical religions. Some of the “evidence” cited is from New Age sources such as Beatrice Chestnut (b. 1964), a student of New Agers Helen Palmer and Dr. David Daniels (1934-2017).  Heuertz suggests Greek philosopher Pythagoras (c. B.C. 570 - 495) is said to have used a drawing resembling the Enneagram symbol as his spiritual signature after learning of it in Heliopolis, which was the center of worship of the Ennead or the nine deities of ancient Egyptian mythology. (See The Sacred Enneagram, pg. 43).

There's one small problem with this assertion. No authentic writings of Pythagoras have survived. (See Joost-Gaugier, Christiane L., Measuring Heaven: Pythagoras and his Influence on Thought and Art in Antiquity and the Middle Ages (2006), pg. 11). If no authentic writings of Pythagoras have survived, then the mythical “spiritual signature” cannot be authoritatively “said” to have been used. Next, Heuertz makes this bold statement:

Much has been written to suggest that the early Egyptian Christian monastic ascetics, the desert mothers and fathers, were the chief architects of the Enneagram, led by the fourth-century mystic Evagrius Ponticus. Ponticus’s writings are often cited to support theories on the Christian origins of the Enneagram, specifically as it relates to his work on his list of eight vices and virtues (in one place he names nine), which closely resemble the nine Virtues and Passions of the Enneagram as we have it today. (See Ibid, pg. 45). The claim that the enneagram goes back to Evagrius of Pontus (345-399 A.D.) and the Desert Fathers is fantasy at best and a pure falsehood at worst.

The claim is based on Richard Rohr and Andreas Ebert’s misinterpretation of a single passage in the writings of Evagrius from which the two authors imagined Evagrius was trying to describe an actual diagram. In fact, it is of interest that Rohr and Ebert did not claim a Christian origin for the enneagram in the earlier edition of their book. Ebert writes in the 1992 introduction to Richard Rohr and Andreas Ebert’s, Discovering the Enneagram: An Ancient Tool for a New Spiritual Journey (1992):

The Enneagram is a mysterious model of the psyche that is not originally Christian. I believe that the Enneagram can help us to find a deeper and more authentic relationship with God—even though it was not discovered by Christians. (See pgs. xii and xv; Emphasis mine). The claim actually was taken by Rohr from Helen Palmer (d. 1967), a New Ager psychologist who taught that everyone had "innate psychic abilities." These alleged abilities allowed her to "discern the origin of the Enneagram." It was used by ancients who had "mystical knowledge" and transformed into a "Christian tool of self-help and spiritual growth" by the early Christians. 

So much for fairy tales. Now, the true origin will be explained.

The Enneagram's Occult Origin

The word enneagram comes from Greek words “ennea” for “nine” and “gramma” for “writing” or “drawing.” The Enneagram as used today is a nine-sided diagram with nine points, each of the nine points representing a personality type. Lines are drawn connecting these points with other points. One must determine his or her type and proceed from there according to the particular teachings given. Enneagrams vary in how they are taught so there is no one standard model.

It was first used by the Armenian-Greek "mystic" George Gurdjieff (d.1949). For the personality “types” added later, it came from occultist Claudio Naranjo (d. 2019) Gurdjieff believed All knowledge can be included in the enneagram and with the help of the enneagram it can be interpreted. And in this connection only what a man is able to put into the enneagram does he actually know, that is, understand. What he cannot put into the enneagram makes books and libraries entirely unnecessary. Everything can be included and read in the enneagram. (See Ouspensky, In Search of the Miraculous [1950], p. 294)

 Gurdjieff was an Eastern Schismatic who got involved with both Freemasonry and Islamic "mysticism." He then taught "esoteric Christianity." (See Ibid, pg. 102). Gurdjieff believed all the secret laws of the universe could be seen in his diagram, and he used it to play around with mathematical formulas what he called the “Law of Seven” and the “Law of Three.” He also used the Enneagram to illustrate a special musical scale for which he developed “sacred dance” movements to act out the Enneagram, which Gurdjieff dance troupes still use today. It was never used for "personality types" until later.

Next, Oscar Ichazo, a Bolivian spiritual teacher, who ran an occult school in Arica, Chile, taught the enneagram, which he called the enneagon. He added his own ideas of “ego fixations,” which are patterns that had to be transcended to realize the true inner “essence” of Self. It is not clear how Ichazo learned about the Enneagram but some of his students believed he had learned it from Gurdjieff or Gurdjieff’s followers.

Ichazo claimed to be in contact with spirits named Metatron and the Green Qutb, though he sometimes claimed these were states of consciousness. Ichazo practiced Eastern meditation, studied the blasphemous Jewish Kabbalah, and was familiar with a host of esoteric occult practices and beliefs. (See, e.g., https://oceanmoonshine9.wordpress.com/hidden-lore-of-the-nine-points-narango-ichazo-and-the-school-1/). 

Ichazo’s student, Claudio Naranjo, a Chilean psychiatrist, and spiritual seeker, took the enneagram teachings to the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, an edgy hotbed of avant-garde psychology, New Age teachings, and experiments with psychedelics (Esalen played a crucial role in the human potential movement and influenced the New Age). Naranjo came up with the 9 personality types of the modern enneagram.

Naranjo claimed later in a video that he and Ichazo made up the idea that the Enneagram was ancient when they knew it wasn’t. Naranjo also claimed that he originated the 9 types from his observations but “mostly” via automatic writing. The enneagram was then popularized by the aforementioned New Ager Helen Palmer. The thrust of the Enneagram in the New Age was and still is a gnostic seeking of the “True Self” or “divine Self.”

The Enneagram Gets Incorporated Into The Vatican II Sect

A validly ordained Jesuit priest, Fr. Robert Ochs, studied the enneagram under Naranjo with full knowledge and consent of his superiors in the 1960s. He then was promoted to a seminary professor, and one of his students, Richard Rohr, made it the focal point of his "spirituality." He became deeply involved with the enneagram and its occult teachings. He brought it into the Vatican II sect and remains a "priest in good standing," never being censured for his ideas and teachings. In 2019, Rohr wrote a book, The Universal Christ: How a Forgotten Reality Can Change Everything We See, Hope For, and Believe. This book will reveal the heretical and occult teachings of "Fr." Richard Rohr:

• Rohr is a panentheist, believing  God and the world to be inter-related with the world being in God and God being in the world. He makes a distinction between Jesus and Christ. Rohr writes: “Christ . . . was clearly not just Jesus of Nazareth, but something much more immense”(pg. 3). Since for Rohr, everything in the universe is a manifestation of God, to call Jesus a manifestation of God is to merely say that Jesus is part of the universe. Hence, the title of the book: "The Universal Christ."

• God is a subjective term that denotes a way people look at the world. “Anything that drives you out of yourself in a positive way . . . is operating as God for you” (pg. 52).

• Revelation is not a distinct, self-disclosure of God, occurring in history. “This book . . . [seeks] to reground Christianity as a natural religion and not one simply based on a special revelation, available only to a few.” (pg. 7).

• Christ is more a process than a Divine Person.  “The Christ Mystery is not a one-time event, but an ongoing process throughout time—as constant as the light that fills the universe," and so not “limiting the Creator’s presence to just one human manifestation, Jesus” (pgs. 14, 16). He goes so far as to dedicate the book to his deceased dog Venus "whom...without fear of heresy, I can appropriately say that Venus was also Christ for me."

• The Crucifixion and Death of Jesus Christ did not save anyone. The sacrificial death of Christ was “not some bloody transaction ‘required’ by God’s offended justice in order to rectify the problem of human sin.”(pg. 140). Sin is a failure to put away our "false self." Original Sin does not exist. 

• Christ did not rise from the dead but was transformed into "beams of light." “If a video camera had been placed in front of the tomb of Jesus, it wouldn’t have filmed a lone man emerging from a grave . . . [but] something like beams of light extending in all directions” (pg. 177). 

This occult heretic now peddles his enneagram everywhere. His superiors in the Vatican II sect Franciscan Order, the "bishops," and Modernist Vatican headed by Bergoglio, have not done anything against him--nor is his book condemned for heresy. 

The Five Dangers of the Enneagram

The enneagram is fraught with serious problems for anyone who gets involved with it. Since the Vatican II sect does nothing to stop it, I must sound the alarm. Do not get involved and urge others to do the same; if they are already using it, urge them to cease.

1. The enneagram has no scientific value, even as a personality test.  It has no support in scholarly or academic studies even in discovering so-called "personality types." Most enneagram tests rely on the Barnum effect, a psychological phenomenon that occurs when individuals believe that personality descriptions apply specifically to them (more so than to other people), despite the fact that the description is actually filled with information that applies to almost everyone. More recently, a variety of more advanced Enneagram tests have been developed to provide a veneer of scientific legitimacy. Their usefulness is questionable, though, since, like the Myers-Briggs test, the personality number assigned by any particular test frequently differs from other tests or changes upon retesting.

2. The enneagram’s origins are in the occult. The enneagram is not an ancient Christian tool that has been around for ages but was invented in the 1970s by Oscar Ichazo and Claudio Naranjo from automatic writing. What is automatic writing? Automatic writing is a form of spirit contact where you allow a spirit to write through you. You become, in effect, a medium. As I've written before, mediums are condemned by both the Bible and Church teaching. "Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD; because of these same detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you." (See Deuteronomy 18:10-12; Emphasis mine.) According to theologian Jone, "Spiritism claims to be able to communicate with the spirit world and endeavors to establish such commerce with it. Although spiritism is for the most part fraud, still the intention alone to enter into communication with spirits is gravely sinful. Therefore, it is mortally sinful to conduct a spiritistic seance or to act as a medium." (See Moral Theology, pg. 100; Emphasis mine). Imagine if you were told to use a Ouija Board to "understand yourself better" and "grow closer to God." That is as blasphemous as the use of the enneagram for "spiritual growth in God." The enneagram is inspired by the forces of Hell.

3. Heretic and Occultist "Fr." Richard Rohr popularized and "Christianized" the enneagram. To state that something which originated with the automatic writing of two occultists was really something used by early Christians, was a fable told to Rohr by a New Ager. Rohr now happily perpetuates this false narrative. Moreover, you cannot make something "Christian" which has no scientific validity, and is inimical to genuine Catholic spirituality. There can be no "Catholic Tarot Cards." Yet Rohr will continue to make the ludicrous claim that the enneagram is now "Christianized" since its alleged use by "Desert Fathers." 

Rohr also claims we are not all born sinners, as he denies Original Sin in particular and redefines personal sin. We need to put off our “false selves” and discover the divine ("True Self") within ourselves. Rohr promotes the enneagram as a great tool to do that. He has gained a huge following, especially among millennials, but his teachings are heretical and must be rejected. 

4. The enneagram excuses sin. Each "personality type" from 1 to 9, has a "weakness" that is inherent and (allegedly) very hard to get rid of to be your "True Self." Therefore, you have an excuse as to why you steal, watch porn, take God's Name in vain, etc., because you are a particular personality type, and it's hard to change. It's not your fault you are like this, and you are a guiltless "work in progress." There is nothing really wrong as long as you want to find your "True Self."

5. The enneagram emphasizes self over Christ. You need to discover and work on your personality type to achieve advancement in "spiritual growth." Do not work on eliminating sin and gaining virtue via Christ and His One True Church. The enneagram's types supplant the Sacraments, The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the Rosary, etc. as the pathway to salvation. 

Conclusion

The enneagram is an occult tool promoted by a heretical Vatican II sect "priest" to pull people away from the true path to sanctification and salvation. Your "personality type" and achieving your "True Self" by means of the enneagram's teachings become supreme. The Vatican II sect allows it to be promoted (there was a "warning" against it by the Vatican II sect "bishops" in the United States about 20 years ago, but no formal condemnation). Actions speak louder than words. In a post by journalist Austen Ivereigh in 2016, he stated:

On the Enneagram, that personality-type identifier first created by the desert fathers which received its modern form from the Jesuits, Francis is an Eight — as Father Richard Rohr OFM, the leading Catholic authority on the Enneagram, has confirmed to me in an email.

(Pope Francis, incidentally, knows the Enneagram well and is not against it. But he is wary of the way it can be misused and lead to excessive introspection if not deployed within a solid spiritual framework.)

(See cruxnow.com/analysis/2016/12/francis-80-redeemed-leader-looks-like; Emphasis mine). 

Replace "enneagram" with "Ouija Board" or "seances" in that statement by Ivereigh and see if it makes any sense. Richard Rohr, despite publishing multiple heresies against the most basic dogmas of the Church, has not been censured in any way and functions as a Vatican II sect "priest." If anyone reading all this cannot see that Bergoglio cannot be pope and the Vatican II sect cannot be the Roman Catholic Church, they should add a tenth "personality type" for such people---The Culpably Ignorant.