Doing The Right Thing

The Reformer and Justice. Enneagram Type 1's

It was wonderful to reengage with Enneagram studies on Paros last month and it got me thinking yet again about how tarot and the Enneagram connect. When I am on retreat in Greece I give tarot readings to some of the participants. The ways in which people engage with the cards, and the ways in which their Enneagram types inform the readings is inspiring to me. What if we could hone in on specific cards which connect with Enneagram types? Not to simplify or boil down meaning, but to expand our understanding of how the two systems can interact.

The Enneagram Type 1 is referred to by the name “The Perfectionist” or “The Reformer.” From an archetypal standpoint think of someone who is on a mission to make the world a better place, both at the micro and macro levels.

The tarot card which reminds me most of Enneagram type 1’s is Justice.

First let’s talk a bit about the Enneagram Type 1.

I’ll start with my dear friend Maureen. Maureen knows how to make everything look better. She has an amazing sense of style, and as a real estate agent, stages her homes for sale with a vision I can only admire, not emulate. Maureen knows the right way to do just about everything and is always looking for ways to improve her surroundings. She is the person who has all the right tools on a camping trip or picnic. Last summer we sat gazing at the bright blue Aegean sea and her critical mind honed in on the palm trees and their need of trimming. Her sense of perfection translates to a sense of moral authority and social justice as well, and she campaigns for what she thinks is right in the world. She contributes to political causes, writes letters, and I’ve known her to march in more than one protest. She follows her gut with an internal sense of how to move through the world doing what is correct.

Justice

One of the tarot cards which make sense within the Type 1 personality is Justice. Justice appears in the Waite Smith deck as a royal figure seated on a throne, holding a balance in one hand and a sword in the other. Swords represent the workings of the mind and communication, and the scales remind us of fairness and what it means to be balanced in our assessments. Our Type 1’s like to be seated in the throne like our figure. They know what is right in the world, and want the power to make it happen. The Justice card reminds us that a just world is possible, with the right people making it happen. And those people will often be Type 1’s.

For this purpose I’m not getting into the subtypes or wings. I’m thinking about how archetypes can create a bridge between the Tarot and Enneagram. I’ve been thinking long and hard for the past couple of years about why I’m so enchanted with both ways of looking at human behavior. The Tarot is interpretive and loose and artistic and literary in a way the Enneagram is not, however the Enneagram is multilayered and complex in its own beautiful angular way. Both modalities are interested in looking at how we behave, how we think, what our motivations are, and both have a certain mystery, the liminall space between knowing and unknowing. By looking at the archetypes which connect them, in this case “The Reformer” and “Justice,” this can lead us to a better understanding of ourselves and others, as well as offering an opportunity to look at the two systems in an interconnected way.

Are there cards in the tarot which remind you of an Enneagram type 1?

Resources

My favorite resources for the Enneagram come from Beatrice Chestnut and Uranio Paes, specifically their most recent book, The Enneagram Guide to Waking Up. This book is a great introduction for beginners, and is also a good resource for Enneagram afficionados. Chestnut was the first person to flesh out the concepts around subtype and arrived at three subtypes per Enneagram type, resulting in 27 distinct types.

xoH