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Miscellaneous Enneagram Theory Info
Self-Preservation
(sp/sx)
Sp/so: Tim Ferriss, Joe Rogan, Jocko Willink, Taylor Swift
(SP): This Instinct’s “eye” habitually lands on the various conditions of the physical self — ‘me’. Concerns here include shelter, food, attention on one’s own health and finances. And the immediate conditions of the tactile environment (hot/cold, light/dark, dry/humid, clean/dirty, quiet/loud, etc), which, for some people, can translate to prominent perceptions about the emotional charge or tone of a given space, the intangibles of a setting: inviting/disturbing, familiar/haunting, enticing/disquieting. SP-dominant people are often those who put much attention into the principles animating their overall day-to-day way-of-life. On some level, there’s a tendency to unconsciously monitor their gauges closely, referencing back into themselves, weighing how much energy or time or money is being expended in any given action/process or interaction with others. “How much time and energy is this interaction, right now, worth to me?” Much value can also be placed on cultivating resources – money, tools (of all kinds), time, practical know-how, material provisions and objects of various kinds for various purposes, etc. – stockpiling for future expenditure in service of survival and/or comfort. Particular worth is placed on ‘getting things done’ and building or acquiring things that will last. The majority of the World’s population is SP-dominant, also referred to as SP-first to indicate the highest totem in the Instinctual stacking. This overall global predominance of SP is one reason we see the general public so easily swung around on the end of a stick by news of natural disasters and imploding financial markets. (David Gray)
Manifests in 3 zones: Health and well being, practical know-how, domesticity. (Jessica Dibb and Russ Hudson)
Sexual
(sx/sp)
(SX): This is being ‘in heat’ (psychologically), exploring for ‘electrical juice’, the narcotic of attraction, pushing the envelope, the edge, pouring through for that peak something, fanning out electric-colored peacock feathers, the sense of being a half-something on the hunt for the other half, exposure to potential self-destruction in the realms of Social and Self-Preservation. ‘The World as a mating dance,’ broadcasting the self as a beautiful object, attempting to allure with the ‘art of me’ (my aesthetic, my music, my art, my taste), casting a net (or a pheromone) out for that certain someone to complete an electrical circuit, a nose for the individualized scent of the soul we long to burn our imprint into, and they into ours. Chemistry, not intimacy. Involuntary attraction and repulsion. Archetypally, this Instinct rules the alchemical processes, transformation/transmogrification, metallurgy, phoenix rising from the ashes, the radical rebirth in the wild-eyed shaman whirling in fire and blood. Some authors have sought to tame this Instinct with new names, such as Intimate or one-to-one, but any attempt at reworking the Instinct into something wholesome/spiritual/romantic misses the mark: the Sexual Instinct is an unbridled narcotic of wanting, untethered by ethics/morality. Recklessness. A live wire longing to burn…and be burned to death. The classical image of Eros’ arrow (erotic attraction) shot through the heart accurately alludes to the danger here: potential ruin and destruction under the guise of Love.
Manifests in 3 zones: Edge/Aggression/ Pushing the envelope, Broadcasting/Charisma, Immersion/Fusion
Social
so/sx
(so/sx)
so/sp: Noam Chomsky, Bernie Sanders, AOC, Matthew McConaghey
(SO): Here, the eye lands on the health of the collective, building mutual support, being for someone or some group, affiliating, co-creating, participating, contributing, involvement. Bonding and relationship-building belong in this category, not with the Sexual Instinct. Social gives us the ‘intelligence’ to read people and respond to them, adapt to them, communicate and interpret subtleties. All language, words, verbal exchanges fall under the purview of this Instinct. SO can go low though: It sparks the response that burns witches at the stake, exterminates populations that are deemed ‘diseased vermin’ or those that are lesser/lower in some way… or can also put an undue amount of attention into status, rank, respectability, pedigree, reputation, strata, provenance. Otherwise, wholesome cleanliness and the ‘white light’ Apollonian themes of order, law, history, medicine, higher education, government, lofty eternal principles and ideologies get their first push and continued attention from the Social Instinct. According to evolutionary biology, this Instinct is the latest to have emerged, perhaps the ‘more advanced and complex’ Instinct, i.e.- the stuff that animates our impulse toward the Humanities, altruistic vision, goodwill, the ‘higher good’, the conceptual space of civilization and religion. Social is the bodily sensation of not being a closed circuit. Perhaps the bridge or link between instinct and the wider-view emotions that inspire animals to care for their young; this is the parenting instinct. The connection to history and participation in the collective human journey. (David Gray)
Manifests in 3 zones: Reading and Adapting, Bonding and Affiliating, Participation/Contribution
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Soc = air & sunlight, wind, atmosphere
Sx = fire, electricity, lightening, ignition
Sp = earth, ground, dust, coal
sx/sp- muddy, lava-like, piercing
sp/sx- earthy, down-to-earth, grounding
sx/so- sunny, fiery, inciting
so/sx- airy, translucent, connecting
so/sp - soapy, dry, elevating
sp/so - grounded, light, fruitful
Soc = 'active masculine' - Apollo
Sx = 'active feminine' - Venus/Dionysus
Sp = neutral (contained/solipsistic)
sp=childhood, this is when we need resources to grow and feel protected
sx=late teens/adulthood, this is when we link to others and create our own families
soc=mature age, once our own children have grown up we engage in the wider social issues of our community
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