The Enneagram describes nine ways a person copes with the world — nine types, each with its core desire, its core fear and its shadow. Unlike the rest of this site it cannot be computed from a birth date: it is not an astrological system, and there is no way to find your type other than answering questions about yourself. Hence the questionnaire. Answer according to how you are most of the time, not how you would like to be.
The Enneagram from scratch — and why it cannot be computed from your birth
The Enneagram says people differ less in behaviour than in what drives the behaviour. The nine types are not nine temperaments — they are nine different answers to the question of how to keep yourself safe in this world. Each type has its core desire and core fear, and everything else follows from them.
The word comes from the Greek ennea (nine) and gramma (figure). The nine-pointed figure is attributed to G. I. Gurdjieff, who taught it in the 1920s, but the typology of nine personalities was attached to it only by Óscar Ichazo and Claudio Naranjo in the 1960s and 70s. So it is not an ancient teaching, though it is sometimes presented as one.
And here is why this is the only page on the site with a questionnaire: an Enneagram type cannot be derived from a birth date. It is not an astrological system and contains no computation from the stars. Anyone claiming to determine your type from your birth invented that. We would rather ask questions.
The nine types divide into three centres of three. The gut centre (8, 9, 1) responds with the body and its base emotion is anger. The heart centre (2, 3, 4) deals with the image of oneself in others’ eyes and its emotion is shame. The head centre (5, 6, 7) deals with safety and its emotion is fear. Knowing your centre tells you which of those three runs beneath the surface even when you are unaware of it.
The wing is the neighbouring type on the circle that colours your main type. A One with a Nine wing is calmer and more yielding than a One with a Two wing, who is warmer and more people-focused. A wing is not a second type — it is a shade.
The arrows are the most practical thing the Enneagram offers. Under stress every type shifts towards another type’s behaviour, and in growth towards yet another. You do not change type — you briefly borrow another’s manner. Knowing your stress arrow tells you in advance what you will do when things go badly. No chart can give you that.
And a final thing, more important than the result: a type is not a box and not an excuse. The Enneagram does not say “this is what you are and nothing can be done” — it says the opposite. It describes a mechanism that runs automatically so that a person can stop running it automatically. If the result fits you ninety percent, it is a good result; if you also find in it what you do not like admitting about yourself, it is the right type.