The goal of 'individuation' in Jungian psychology is the 'actualization of the Self'. ² The process whereby this is achieved, in which the unconscious is successfully incorporated into the personality, can alternately be viewed as involving a spiritual 'realization' - almost as if BY DEFINITION. 'Individuation', reports Jaffe, 'must be understood in religious language as the [Christ-like] realization of the 'godly' in the human...'. The son of God must also thus 'be understood as a symbol of the Self in this sense, as the innermost core of the personality, in which the personality is at the same time contained'.

Karma Pakshi 1204-1283

For Jung, God remained a 'transcendental mystery', the 'mystery of all mysteries'. But as the archetype of the Self realizes itself in the mundane world, in the life of the individual, it manifests its divine nature, as 'a numen, an originally 'nameless ineffable''. ³

Seen from the perspective of the individual or consciousness, it is called individuation; seen from the dynamic of the archetypal image of God, it is called incarnation. ... The real history of the world seems to be the progressive incarnation of the Deity. (Jaffe, Was C.G. Jung a Mystic, page 81)

...the myth of the necessary incarnation of God can then be understood as man's creative confrontation with the opposites and their synthesis in the Self, the wholeness of his personlity. (Jung, in Von Franz's Psychotherapy, page 195)

The epitome of self-realization, as this is understood in the system underlying the Tibetan Book of the Dead, is the individual who can consciously incarnate, asserting the kind of control over the re-incarnation process that skilled lucid dreamers ^3a assert over the dream-process. The Tibetan word for an individual who has consciously self-embodied in a new incarnation in this way is 'tulku'. Karma Pakshi, the central figure in the 9-figured mandala pictured above, and the thirteenth-century head of one of the four main schools of Tibetan Buddhism, is believed to have been the first to have been recognized as a 'tulku'. As such, he symbolizes the advanced stage of spiritual practice required for such an accomplishment and his mandala is used in a form of Annuttara Tantra visualization that enables the practitioner to make a connection with the lineage that he represents, and the advanced spiritual energies that he literally 'embodies'. The visualizations are considered most effective in constellating the complex pattern of spiritual energies represented by the figures in the mandala, and drawing the enlightened 'spirit' of the lineage down into a manifest situation, for the benefit of others.

In the Tibetan Buddhist classic, THE HUNDRED THOUSAND SONGS OF MILAREPA, the revered eleventh century yogin, poet and hermit-saint sings, "By the gracious instruction of my Guru, In the abstruse inner meaning of Tantra    understood, Through the practice of Arising and Perfecting Yoga , Is the Vital Power engendered And the inner reason for the microcosm    realized. Thus in the outer world I do not fear the illusory obstacles. To the Great Divine Lineage I belong, with innumerable yogis great as all Space".[4]

The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism classifies all Buddhist doctrines into NINE stages of spiritual path, nine 'vehicles' entailing slightly different approaches, tailored to persons of differing capacities.

The 7th, 8th, and 9th are subdivisions of the Annuttara Tantra, considered the highest tantra.⁵

In the Annutara Tantra there are two main practices, which are interwoven. The first is called 'Arising Yoga ' (Kye-Rim), in which the individual identifies with Tantric Creation, in the form of visualizations involving detailed configurations of specific deity figures. This corresponds to a 'constructive' phase of meditation, in which the mandala is made manifest. The other practice is called 'Perfecting Yoga' (Dzog-Rim), in which the visualization is dissolved, and 'one identifies oneself with the Ultimate Perfection or great Nirvana'. ⁶. Roughly speaking, these two correspond to the 'two orders' that we have described the mandala in general as seeking to reconcile. It is of these two yogas that Milarepa sings in the passage excerpted in the box to the left.

In the esoteric practices associated with Tantra, the spirit ('drala', in Tibetan) of enlightenment is drawn down into the manifest world by the presentation of a mandala, which is considered a consecrated or 'sacred' environment capable of supporting such energies. The mandala is, indeed, 'offered' to the enlightened energies that are invited to occupy it, and the practice of making the 'mandala offering', and the attitude with which such offerings are made, supersede in value the actual physical designs which, in the West, we mistaken for the mandala proper.

In these traditions there are actual practices that are referred to as 'mandala practices', and the mandala that is offered in these practices is more often VISUALIZED than physically rendered as a complex graphic design. The visualization is often accompanied and/or represented by a hand-gesture or 'mudra' such as the one depicted in the photo to the above left, or a series of complex movements on which rice and other materials are piled on a small hand-held 'mandala disc' or plate such as the one seen to the left, below.

The closest approximation that we have seen in recent popular Western culture to mandala practice, in intent and process, was depicted in the film 'Field of Dreams'. The protagonist, a midwestern farmer, inspired by a voice that tells him 'build it and they will come', constructs a baseball diamond in his cornfield, to the dismay of friends, family, and neighbors. The diamond draws down the ghosts of baseball greats of times past, and is thereby infused with the spirit of the 'lineage' associated with this sport and the energies that they possess - creating a constellation that has healing powers for various people who are attracted to it, and for the farmer's family and the community in general. Included in the host of spirits that are drawn into the mandala is the deceased father of the protagonist, with whom a more intimate and satisfying connection is thereby made possible for the son.

To mistake the visual designs that are commonly referred to as 'mandalas' for the actual offering practices and the psycho-spiritual fields in which these take place would be like mistaking the baseball diamond for the game of baseball. By looking at a baseball diamond, for instance, it is difficult to tell that the field of play is occupied by two teams of nine players, or that the play that takes place on this field involves a nine-stage process (called 'innings'). As we shall see, it is often the movement that takes place ON the field that is of the utmost importance in understanding such fields, a truth that Gurdjieff was inclined to emphasize with respect to the Enneagram. 'In order to understand the enneagram, it must be thought of as in motion', Ouspensky quotes him as having said. 'A motionless enneagram is a dead symbol; the living symbol is in motion' ^6b. And so he painted the symbol on the floor, and had his students move in dance from point to point.

At a certain stage in the process of becoming conscious, says Jaffe, 'the individual experiences the image of God as a reality in his own soul.' In the religious traditions that we are considering here, this happens not only via mandala configurations of the type that are displayed in paintings and diagrams, but also in other experiences in which the primordial structural feature of consciousness that underlies mandala construction is directly revealed to the individual. Prior to this, the only awareness that the individual has of this profound and fundamental feature of reality is of the 'unfathomable antinomy in [his/her] own deepest nature', as Jaffe ⁷ puts it, which sometimes expresses itself as neurosis, or occasionally as paradoxical dream images or creative inspirations. As we shall see, in the Enneagram various 'unfathomable antinomies' that are intimately associated with personality types can be mapped onto the profound spiritual insights of which they are a perverted manifestation.

If the psychic 'black-out' that we described in Part I (in which the individual in meditation falls into a peaceful but uselessly 'unconscious' and undifferentiated revery) is the characteristic pitfall associated with the first half of the spiritual path, in which the aspirant seeks to realize 'emptiness' or 'essence', there is an equally dangerous pitfall associated with the second half of the path, which deals with 'embodiment' - what Jung referred to as 'inflation'. For Buddhism, the prophylaxis and/or antidote for this problem is 'egolessness' - which, as we shall see in later parts in this series, can be associated with the form of spiritual insight which comes most naturally to the Enneatype Two.

These distinctly SPIRITUAL features of Jung's psychology continue, to this day, to be treated by mainstream Western psychology as the 'mystical' and suspect elements of his work. They are not actively embraced, even by the personality typologies that are offshoots of Jung's 'Psychological Typology', such as the MBTI. But neither are they explicitly rejected. The MBTI simply remains silent on such issues. But what about the Enneagram?

Section Two - Nine Stages of the Spiritual Path

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The Enneagram, even in its mere appearance as a symbol, has much of worth to tell us about itself - and the information that it provides in this way is frequently missed, or ignored, even amongst those who subscribe to the Enneagram as a personality typology. We submit that the symbol itself provides adequate PRIMA FACIE evidence for the claim that the personality system associated with it was, at one time at least, an intentionally spiritual one that intended to address issues that individuals typically confront on advanced stages of the path.

As we have shown, Mandala figures are typically organized in such a fashion as to enable the 'ineffable' aspect of human experience to achieve embodiment, to 'incarnate', as Jaffe puts it, in the mundane 'real' world that is circumscribed by the affective, cognitive, and perceptual dimensions of human experience. To explain the capacity of psyche to re-structure in such a way as to accomplish this feat, Jung posited the existence of a faculty that he called the 'transcendent function', associated with a process that he named 'individuation'. This process, as one might expect, is a complex one, with distinct stages. In order to explain the stages of this process, one finds Jungians frequently referring to a nine-phased cycle that was described in the 'Rosarium Philosophorum', a medieval alchemical text.

In his book The Mystery of the Coniunctio - Alchemical Images of Individuation, Jungian analyst Edward Edinger diagrams the Rosarium cycle in the following way. As you'll notice, he uses a circle that is similar to the Enneagram insofar as it is divided into nine-points. In other spiritual traditions also, as we shall see, the number nine is reserved for enumerating stages of the spiritual path.⁸

The Rosarium Cycle

The transcendent function, which is distinctly different from the other four functions, comes into play when the profound personality transformation that is represented by the mandala begins to occur in the individual. It performs a '...transformation of the opposites into a third term, a higher synthesis', which is precisely what equilateral triangles (such as the one in the center of the Enneagram) depict in Gurdjieff's system, according to Ouspensky.^8a

The synthesis that is achieved by the transcendent function is 'expressed by the so-called UNITING SYMBOL which represents the partial systems of the psyche as UNITED on a SUPERORDINATE, higher plane. All the symbols and archetypal figures in which the process is embodied are vehicles of the TRANSCENDENT FUNCTION.' ⁹ The mandala is, of course, a 'uniting symbol' of this kind. And the Enneagram is a particularly relevant example of such a mandala insofar as it emphasizes this synthetic quality, if one is to believe Ouspensky's interpretation of the meaning of the equilateral triangle at its center.

In the special state of consciousness associated with such mandala figures (and hence also 'represented' by them), a truly grand synthesis takes place, and 'we experience ourselves concurrently as limited and eternal...' ¹⁰, according to Jaffe. When this experience becomes a fully conscious one, a special class of mandala representations called 'double mandalas' will often appear. As we shall see further on in this series of papers, the Enneagram is such a 'double mandala' figure - in which one mandala, representing the 'mundane' world is superimposed on another, representing the 'sacred' word'. Two imcommensurable 'orders of existence' are thus explicitly brought together in the same figure.

Although Ouspensky did not, to our knowledge, use the term 'mandala' to describe the Enneagram - either in the original or the Jungian sense of the term - he did conceive of the figure as a symbol having the most profound import.

Speaking in general it must be understood that the enneagram is a UNIVERSAL SYMBOL. All knowledge can be included in the enneagram and with the help of the enneagram it can be interpreted. ... A man can be quite alone in the desert and he can trace the enneagram in the sand and in it read the eternal laws of the universe. And every time he can learn something new, something he did not know before. ... The understanding of this symbol and the ability to make use of it gives man very great power. It is ... the philosopher's stone of the alchemists. (Ouspensky, In Search of the Miraculous, page 294)

Jung, who made frequent reference to the philosopher's stone in his work, was the first to reveal its psychological meaning as a symbol of the 'Self'. The following passage, in an article entitled 'Spiritual Development in Alchemy' by Rudolph Bernoulli, leads us to believe that the spiritual accomplishment represented by the philosopher's stone is tantamount to a liberation FROM what is often referred to in Enneagram circles as 'personality fixation'.

If we consider the definition of the 'self' in its all-embracing absoluteness and transcendence, as it occurs for example in the Indian Vedanta, we may be justified in saying that the philosopher's stone induces the phenomenon whose essence is that all barriers fall and that man liberates his 'self' from the trammels of personality. This liberated 'self', which has lost all connection with the person or individual, might well be designated as 'God' ... and the gradual attainment of this state would find its correspondence in the great work of alchemy, which culminates precisely in the creation of the philosopher's stone. (Bernoulli, in Spiritual Disciplines - Papers from the Eranos Yearbooks, ed. Joseph Campbell, page333)

Section Three - The 'Holy Ghost' and Number Nine

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As a consequence of his emphasis on 'symmetry', the mandalas that Jung found particularly interesting were those that utilized four-fold and eight-fold designs. As the reader may know, Jung attributed specific psychological meaning to each of the numbers from zero to ten, with four and eight representing 'completion'. Von Franz, in her work Number and Time, further elaborated on the significance of numbers - giving special attention to numbers one through four.

To summarize, the number one, according to Von Franz, implies unity. Two signifies duality; and three is dynamic and is associated with time and rhythm. Four, symbolized by the cross or 'quaternity' figure, implies completion and 'wholeness'. It is also associated with the 'four directions' that appear in the layout of most mandala figures. The four directions act as a kind of naturally-occuring geographical framework that is not unlike the x-y coordinate system used in geometry. Five signifies 'quintessence' (the implied center where the four directions come together at the cross-roads). Six, often represented by two overlapping triangles, is thus associated with the interpenetration of opposites, such as male and female. Processes are often divided into seven stages - there are seven days of the week, for instance, and it took seven days to create the world -so seven signifies 'process'. Eight is frequently depicted as a two-fold quaternity, or 'double-mandala', made of two mandalas drawn respectively on two planes that are at right angles to each other; it signifies the COMPLETION of process (which, as we have just seen, is represented by the number seven).

Interestingly, the meaning of the number nine is less clearly articulated by Von Franz. It is, in fact, treated almost as if it is superflous. If eight signifies a doubly-complete phase of development, in which psychological process successfully culminates, what work remains for the number 'nine' to do? Although we must look hard in Von Franz's book for any reference to the psychological MEANING that the number nine carries, we do find (in a footnote) an interesting hint. 'In number symbolism', she states, 'nine stands for the number of the Holy Ghost, and for all particularly potent dynamisms'. ¹¹ But no no further explanation is given. And although, in the same work, in her chapter on the 'double mandala', we find instances in which 9-fold figures seem to play a crucial role, there is no explication of the significance of the number 9 as it is employed in that context. To her analysis of these figures we shall return in our upcoming papers on 'The Enneagram as Double Mandala'.

As it turns out, the 'Holy Spirit' or 'Holy Ghost' that Von Franz associates with the number nine is often represented by the image of fire, or tongues of fire. Not an earthly fire, but an ethereal one linked to 'inspiration' ^11a. This ethereal fire symbolizes incarnate SPIRIT. Whereas our focus in the material that we presented above was on the mandala as a tool for 'drawing down' spirit into the manifold world, here we proceed to a further description of how spirit manifests in matter, one which likens it to an internal light or 'fire' ('tummo', in Tibetan).

In the Basilidian conception of the world (derived from Platonist cosmology), the 'Holy Ghost' is the '9th sphere', the level in the upper reaches of the 'external world' that borders on the 'spiritual world'.^11b Jean de Menasce, in an article entitled 'The Experience of the Spirit', describes the incarnation of spirit in matter in terms of a non-physical light that is associated with the 'ethereal fire' of the Holy Ghost. It is similar to the type of non-physical light, sometimes called 'clear light', that is described in Tibetan Buddhism (in the Book of the Dead, for instance).

As it purifies the soul, the Spirit grants it the power to penetrate these veils; not the Vision or revelation of new mysteries, but the more delectable apprehension of the highest mysteries gives it something in the nature of a secondary light, a kind of illumination. This is the role that we ascribe to the gift of understanding: it does not, like intellectual and imaginative locutions and visions, bring more sensible lights. These subsidiary graces can lead to contemplation or provide an aura for contemplation. But the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and most particularly the intellectual gifts of knowledge and wisdom, serve to put these sensible constructions in their proper place. Estimable in their own right, as the Scriptures attest, these spiritual graces which we call sensible might easily provide the soul with a pretext for allowing itself to be drawn into the orbit of the sensible proper, or for relinquishing that forgetfulness of self necessary to the soul which should know itself only in God. (Jean de Menasche, 'The Experience of the Spirit', in THE MYSTIC VISION, page 343-4)

Note that in this description the experience of the ethereal light is construed as a 'gift', given as if by act of 'grace' - conferred ACAUSALLY, as it were. It is, in other words, 'divine' in origin, not a product of physical law. The gratuitous nature of this gift, the fact that it is 'granted freely, without justification by claim of right or merit', is symbolized by the number nine itself, which is why, as we shall see, nine is often represented as a SUPERFLOUS number.

There is a D. H. Lawrence poem that brings many of the themes that we have been speaking of here into close juxtaposition. In the poem, entitled 'Resurrection',

By clicking here activate a pop-up window with the entirety of Lawrence's poem in it.

Lawrence speaks of being 'an abassador from the halls of noiseless death' who 'awakens from the tomb' in the form of a strange light, a 'lambent' light that 'breaks from the ground'. It is, he tells us, the 'frail white light of resurrection'. 'Lambent', the dictionary explains, means 'playing lightly upon a surface without burning it, like a tongue of fire; shining with a soft clear light and without fierce heat'. In Lawrence's poem this flame is 'a tender gleam of immortality', the 'unborn' that is 'pure' and at this point 'folded' in on itself, but nevertheless capable of 'starting the glory of another year, another epoch in another year, another triumph on the face of earth, another race, another speech...'

Jung himself sometimes seems to want to treat the number nine as a kind of 'competition between four and five', like the competition that he noticed occuring between 'three and four' -

Among the various characteristics of the center the one that struck me from the beginning was the phenomenon of the quaternity. That it is not 'simply' a question of, shall we say, the 'four' points of the compass or something of that kind is proved by the fact that there is often a competition between four and three. There is also, but more rarely, a competition between four and five, though five-rayed mandalas must be characterized as abnormal on account of their lack of symmetry." (Jung, in Spiritual Disciplines, page 420)

As we shall see in our analysis of the Shri Yantra, there is a similar 'problem' that occurs - not so much between four and five, as Jung would have it - but between their doubles - eight and nine. In the Shri Yantra there are four upward directed triangles in the figure and five downward directed triangles. This creates a kind of ambiguity, for we are led to expect, by the geometry of the apparently 'symmetrical' outer figure, a total of eight triangles (signifying completion of process). But actually we wind up with nine! This diagram, considered the most profound of meditation diagrams in the Indian system, the 'yantra of all yantras', reveals something rather extra-ordinary about the essential nature of the number 'Nine' - presenting it as a superfluous, EXCEPTIONAL (ie, magical) entity.

And it raises a universal problem, associated with the 'superflous ninth', that is similar to the one Jung identified in respect of the 'missing fourth'. Just as the first half of the number series (one to five) psychologically represent the first half of the spiritual path - in which the realization of 'emptiness' (represented by the 'missing fourth') is sought - the second half of the number series (from five to nine) represents the second half of the spiritual path - in which one returns from emptiness to 'form', which involves a gratuitous 'final step' in which spirit literally 'matters'. And just as obstacles in the first half of the path can constellate around the peculiar nature of the 'missing fourth', issues regarding the 'superflous ninth' arise in the second half of the path.

While Jung focused his attention on the psychological developments required for the move from the number three to the number four, and on the cultural and evolutionary significance of this (vis a vis the emphasis in Christianity on the 'trinity', for instance), Ouspensky and Gurdjieff were more inclined to explore the psychological meaning of the numbers appearing in the latter half of the series - on Seven, Eight, and Nine in particular - and on the special issues associated with these, as we shall see in next week's installment.