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Abstract
The search for Enneagram origins has produced many insights but few substantial answers. Where did the diagram come from? Why just nine Types? Why a nine-pointed star with a gap at the bottom? And why this specific order of the types around the star? This article will contend that answering these questions requires following a trail that leads backwards to a time before the life of the fourth-century monk Evagrius of Pontus and the Christian desert tradition. The authors will use clues left in the work of Evagrius to piece together a puzzle that crosses cultures and centuries to reveal both the diagram and the template of archetypal personalities that illuminate the nine types. While we do not yet have all the answers we seek, the authors conclude that Evagrius has hidden in plain sight the information we need to further our search for the source of modern Enneagram studies.
Erratum
The article "Hidden in Plain Sight: Observations on the Origin of the Enneagram" by Virginia Wiltse and Helen Palmer was first published in the 2009 edition of the Enneagram Journal. At the time of publication, we were already aware of a problem with the article, so the Journal was issued with an erratum page that contained Fig. 1 of the article.
Earlier this year, the authors contacted me, as the IEA board member responsible for publications. In addition to Fig. 1, there were three other major errors in the way the article was printed:
* Footnote 42 was omitted, which led to all subsequent footnotes being off by one,
* The first sentence on p. 1 10 "In inviting his reader to parse the symbolic number 153 using Pythagorean mathematics, Evagrius was unaware of the importance of the number Nine to the Pythagoreans." should read "It is hard to imagine that the Evagrius who invited his reader to parse the symbolic number 153 using Pythagorean mathematics, was unaware of the importance of the number Nine to the Pythagoreans."
* On p. 1 13, part of the caption of Fig. 4 was placed in the text itself, directly above the figure.
After consulting with the authors, the editors and a scientific journal editor from Wiley Publications, we agreed that the appropriate solution...