While knowledge of the types has tended to be the central focus of the modern Enneagram, sincere students also learn that the Enneagram symbol has an incredibly rich and profound background. This session will focus on some of the broader and deeper frameworks of the Enneagram found in a number of ancient sources which all point to our consciousness as being part of a much larger context–that we have an objective role in the greater cosmos. For the ancients, only the fully felt understanding of this context, cultivated through Living Presence, could bring to us a sense of meaning, deeper purpose, and genuine compassion. We will examine ideas from the Fourth Way teachings of Georges Gurdjieff, as well as elements of Christian mysticism, Sufism, Cabala, Greek philosophy, and other hermetic teachings that lead to a different view of reality that embraces paradox: the ever changing dance of dynamism and stillness, flow and structure, true masculine and true feminine. We will see that such wisdom gives us a new and more conscious foundation on which to build our lives. The session will include meditation, exercises, and music, to bring the power of presence and direct experience to our inquiry into our true place in the cosmos.

Russ Hudson is the Director of the Enneagram Institute, a founder of the IEA, and the co-author with Don Richard Riso of five major books on the subject, including The Wisdom of the Enneagram and Personality Types. He has been teaching this work around the world for the last 22 years.