The original schools in which I learned the enneagram, the Gurdjieff work and Ichazo’s Arica Institute, used the enneagram to expose the personality—the false personality—in all its horrors and deceptive illusions. The idea was that by exposing the negative aspects of personality—those very aspects the student rarely sees—the personality looses its grip on us and becomes transparent. In this transparency the essence or soul—the true self--shines through.
 
As the enneagram moved into (Ichazo would say, devolved into) the world of western psychology, the work changed. Working with the enneagram became more about seeing the high and low sides of personality and moving toward the high side, as well as seeing the traits of others and, through this seeing, accepting others as they are. In my view both approaches have merit at different stages of spiritual and psychological work. That is the power of the enneagram.
 
In either case the work with the enneagram is about self-knowledge and the immense power of self-knowledge. As Jesus said in the Gospel of Thomas (part of saying 3), “When you know yourself, then you will be known, and will understand that you are children of the Living Father. But if you do not know yourselves, then you live in poverty and embody poverty.”