Origins
In his book, In Search of the Miraculous, Ouspensky claimed that the enneagram was part of the teachings originally presented by G.I. Gurdjieff in Russia during the First World War. Gurdjieff is quoted by Ouspensky as claiming that this form of enneagram was an ancient secret and was now being partly revealed for the first time; however, he said that hints and partial representations of the symbol could be found in esoteric literature.
Although no earlier publication of the Fourth Way version of the enneagram can be cited, it has been proposed that it may derive from, or be cognate to, the Jewish Tree of Life (Kabbalah) as used in Renaissance Hermeticism (which used an enneagram of three interlocking triangles, also called a nonagram) or a nine-pointed figure used by the Christian medieval philosopher Ramon Llull.
Idries Shah, a populariser of Sufism, has claimed that the enneagram has a Sufi provenance and that it has also been long known in coded form disguised as an octagram. Another claim to a Sufi provenance is offered by the Sufi Enneagram website. The archives of the Naqshbandi Sufi order of Daghestan provide an account of a meeting between Gurdjieff and Shaykh Sharafuddin Daghestani in which the secret of the Nine Points was transmitted to Gurdjieff
Robin Amis claims an Orthodox Christian origin, claiming that both Gurdijeff and Ouspensky developed their teaching with insights gained from visits to Mount Athos.
Another proposal suggests the diagram is a map of the chakras from yogic schools.
Read more about this topic: Fourth Way Enneagram
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