Home›Sources›The Enneagram: G. I. Gurdjieff's Esoteric SymbolSourcesThe Enneagram: G. I. Gurdjieff's Esoteric SymbolCitation FormatsGeneral ReferenceGeneral Reference Citation TextDivinity Atlas. "The Enneagram: G. I. Gurdjieff's Esoteric Symbol." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://dev-divinity.interactiveatlas.org/sources/the-enneagram-g-i-gurdjieffs-esoteric-symbol.Copy General ReferenceAPA StyleAPA Style Citation TextDivinity Atlas. (n.d.). The Enneagram: G. I. Gurdjieff's Esoteric Symbol. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://dev-divinity.interactiveatlas.org/sources/the-enneagram-g-i-gurdjieffs-esoteric-symbolCopy APA StyleBibTeXBibTeX Citation Text@misc{divinityatlas-the-enneagram-g-i-gurdjieff-s-esoteric-s, author = {Divinity Atlas}, title = {The Enneagram: G. I. Gurdjieff's Esoteric Symbol}, year = {2026}, url = {https://dev-divinity.interactiveatlas.org/sources/the-enneagram-g-i-gurdjieffs-esoteric-symbol}, note = {Accessed August 30, 2026} }Copy BibTeXCarole Cusack is a scholar of new religious movements and Western esotericism, and this is a peer reviewed journal article in Aries, a specialist academic journal for the study of esotericism, not a practitioner's guide to the Enneagram. Its method is historical, tracing the Enneagram symbol back through Gurdjieff's own teaching and asking what he actually meant by it, as distinct from the personality typing systems built on it later. Its strength is that separation, it treats the symbol's origin and its later popular use as two different questions and does not let one stand in for the other. As a single journal article rather than a book length study, its limit is depth, it establishes the historical line clearly but does not exhaustively cover every later offshoot of the system.FactsClaims Backed By This Source (251 claims)Comments (0)Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)FactsAssessmentReliability TierWell-attested1Carole Cusack's peer-reviewed journal article in Aries, a specialist academic journal for the study of esotericism, tracing the Enneagram symbol back through Gurdjieff's own teaching and separating it historically from the personality-typing system Oscar Ichazo built on it later.NotesWell-attestedPeer-reviewed history of the enneagram. Separates Gurdjieff's nine-pointed figure (presented to his Moscow and Petersburg groups in 1916, first printed in Ouspensky's In Search of the Miraculous, 1949) from the enneagram of personality built on it by Oscar Ichazo in Chile in the late 1960s and taught by Claudio Naranjo in California from 1970. The claimed ancient Sufi or desert-father descent is not supported by evidence.CitationAuthorWell-attestedCarole M. CusackPublisherWell-attestedAries: Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism 20, no. 1 (Brill), pp. 31-54Publication YearWell-attested2020URLWell-attestedhttps://brill.com/view/journals/arie/20/1/article-p31_2.xml?language=enSource TypeWell-attestedpeer-reviewed articleClaims Backed By This Source (251 claims)This source backs 251 claims across the atlas. As facts: 218 well-attested, 2 scholarly debate, 9 popular myth - corrected. As cited relationships: 3 holds. Plus 19 entities citing it as a general reference with no single fact or relationship attached.Disposition By TopicEnneagram Types, 152 claims: 134 well-attested, 9 popular myth - corrected, 9 general references.Articles, 27 claims: 27 well-attested.Enneagram Triads, 27 claims: 24 well-attested, 3 general references.Categories, 20 claims: 18 well-attested, 2 general references.Historical Figures, 9 claims: 4 well-attested, 2 holds, 3 general references.Sources, 8 claims: 8 well-attested.Organizations, 4 claims: 3 well-attested, 1 general references.Secret Societies, 4 claims: 2 scholarly debate, 1 holds, 1 general references.Well-attested218ArticlesGurdjieff, the Symbol, and the Sufi ClaimHow the System Asks to Be UsedNaranjo, Esalen and the Route into AmericaStructure beneath the nineSymbol and typologyThe Body or Gut TriadThe Commercial Life of the SystemThe Enneagram in Christian SettingsThe Head or Thinking TriadThe Heart or Feeling TriadThe Sarmoung Claim, and How to Weigh ItThe three centresType Eight in the SystemType Five in the SystemType Four in the SystemType Nine in the SystemType One in the SystemType Seven in the SystemType Six in the SystemType Three in the SystemType Two in the SystemWhat the Work Actually Asks a Pupil to DoWhere the Body Triad Came from, and How RecentlyWhere the Head Triad Came from, and How RecentlyWhere the Heart Triad Came from, and How RecentlyWhere the Passions Come FromWings, Arrows and Instinctual SubtypesCategoriesEnneagram TriadsEnneagram TypesEnneagram TriadsBody (Gut)HeadHeartEnneagram TypesThe AchieverThe ChallengerThe EnthusiastThe HelperThe IndividualistThe InvestigatorThe LoyalistThe PeacemakerThe ReformerHistorical FiguresDon Richard RisoRuss HudsonOrganizationsArica InstituteSourcesThe Enneagram: G. I. Gurdjieff's Esoteric SymbolScholarly debate2Secret SocietiesSarmoung BrotherhoodPopular myth - corrected9Enneagram TypesThe AchieverThe ChallengerThe EnthusiastThe HelperThe IndividualistThe InvestigatorThe LoyalistThe PeacemakerThe ReformerHolds3Historical FiguresDon Richard RisoRuss HudsonSecret SocietiesSarmoung BrotherhoodGeneral References19CategoriesEnneagram TriadsEnneagram TypesEnneagram TriadsBody (Gut)HeadHeartEnneagram TypesThe AchieverThe ChallengerThe EnthusiastThe HelperThe IndividualistThe InvestigatorThe LoyalistThe PeacemakerThe ReformerHistorical FiguresDon Richard RisoG. I. GurdjieffRuss HudsonOrganizationsArica InstituteSecret SocietiesSarmoung BrotherhoodComments (0)No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.Sign in to join the discussion.Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.View At A Past YearThe atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.Show This Year