Tri-types: Journeying Deeper With the Enneagram
If you’re like me and really appreciate the wisdom of the enneagram, but also feel like it boxes people in, then I might just have some good news for you: there’s a thing called tritypes, and it’s shockingly inclusive.
The term “tritype” was coined by enneagram researcher Katherine Fauvre and it has roots in Oscar Ichazo’s teaching. The enneagram only forms one perfect triangle (between the 3, the 6, and the 9) but it forms two additional, evenly spaced, triangular points: the 4–1–7 and the 2–8–5. These points are each separated by a space of two numbers, and they connect all three triads (the head, the heart, and the gut) together.
Fauvre argues that although we still have a dominant type, we also have a dominant tritype, and that each number in our tritype can tap into its wings.
For example, I tested as a 4–1–7, but when wings were taken into account, as a 4w5–1w9–7w8. For me this makes way more sense then simply being a four. I know four is my dominant type, but I also feel like I tap into those other numbers in the different triads. This explains that while I primarily identity as a four, I can also strongly identify with ones and how I’ve even mistyped as a seven — they’re both part of my tritype.
To enneagram purists this may sound like a real load, but I think it actually opens the enneagram up to be more inclusive and life-giving for those who use it as a tool for self discovery and discernment. The human personality is way more nuanced than one specific number, and our patterns and behaviors are not always as linear as we (or others) think they are.
What the theory of tritypes basically argues is that the entire enneagram is connected. At various moments in our lives and in different situations we can actually connect with each number — we’re not as boxed off as we might think.
Anyone whose studied theology or psychology shouldn’t be shocked by this — humans are complex and complicated creatures, made in the image of a complex and multifaceted God. Seemingly disparate parts of our personalities actually make up the one person God created in His image, just like all the parts of the body make up one living being, even though those parts look and function differently (1 Cor. 12:12). On a psychosomatic level, Our personality is made up of our ego, superego, and id, all of which function together as the person embodied in the world.
So the next time someone says, “oh my gosh, you’re being such a seven right now,” smile and say, “well, it might be a little more complicated than that.” Then, direct them to this test, and hopefully watch as the mysteries of the enneagram are unveiled.
