Extra Typology Vol #2 -Â 1. Introduction/ The Book
So, for this installment of Extra Typologyâ, I consulted one Matthew Campling, or rather, his book âEssence and the Enneagramâ, for another take on the typology system known as âEssence Typeâ, âPlanetary Body Typeâ or â12 Type Enneagramâ.Â
I chose this book because it was one of the more popularized version of the system, likely to be what most are working from, as well as a fairly generalized version with less esoterics stuff - Or so I thought.Â
The author catches themselves repeatedly having moment where theyâre like, âThis would lead too far/is not the subject hereâ and tries to keep it brief as to not beat a reader over the head, but they still very much refer to & rely on it less artfully than the other person did, and seem to thinkÂ
For example they argue that it has to be 6 (main) types because of some cool numerology trick he can do but if I get basic real numbers you understand that a number with a repeating series of numerals after the decimal point really isnât that special and that you could find one for lots & lots of number sequences... Ultimately itâs not a huge essential characteristic of the universe but an artifact from using decimal numbers, in, say, base 60 (which the summerians used) or 12 (which actually makes more sense because it has more divisors) the digits would be quite different.Â
They also have this fishy sounding bit about how speaking speed supposedly impacts your mindset - Like, Iâm sure forcing yourself to talk differently to actually reach a different mindset is effective in the sense all suggestion & conscious effort is, but, how would this even hold up against cultural differences & different language sentence melodies?Â
I have to remind myself that non-nerds tend to be a lot more âfuzzyâ about this as I was when I was younger so a lot of this might actually impress a casual reader who doesnât have a very structured, mechanistic grasp on science or psychology & thus might be more easily impressed by this (but probably understands a lot about som of the bajillion things IâM clueless about, donât get me wrong)
But even when it comes to the material itself, I am retroactively very glad I also bought the other book. It was more self-aware about the esoterics and even when it comes to the actual material itself, it was more in-depht and mechanistic, giving a dynamic understanding of the reasons behind reaction & how to deal with them, the inner dynamis rather than just stating pros cons & traits.
Also for a school of thought espousing nonjudgement and a system supposed to work through nonjudgement (instead of becoming annoyed at ppl or yourself you accept that its just their nature) they could do a bit better on the nonjudgemental part - I mentioned that in the last book, the Venusians kinda got the short end of the stick, being somewhat portrayed as bland & boring (and I suppose some of them can be), but even so it (if perhaps a tad condescendingly) aknowledges their value & explains the inner mechanics quite illustratively, and the author admitted that they might be a tad biased as a Jovian.Â
In this book, the short end of the stick goes to the Lunar and Lunar-Venus (sadly - their webside made the latter out to sound quite interesting), which is a bit unfortunate as Iâm a Lunar myself & the descriptions were such that itâd be hard to recognize myself in them if I hadnât read the other book.Â
I mean I get that to some extent this whole exercise is to be about self-discovery & observation/reflection and that involves swallowing or at least contemplating the occasional bit of negative feedback, pitfalls & warning so I try to at least evaluate the info & will try to present the authorâs POV here but at the same time thereâs some other info or other perspectives I know to be valid which suggests that at least some bits are unfair -Â
If we were to put this in mbti terms, itâs an ExxJâs perspective or misunderstanding of IxxP types, and, hey, I used to mindunderstand EJs too as a teenagers, thinking they seemed rather frantic & crazy driven to do superficial things that donât really matter even self-destructive things, doesnât help that EJs,  are rather prominent & visible in society and, in the case of ESJs, very common & thus seen as ânormalâ so I was aware of a difference there perhaps also because as a 4-fixer Iâm sensitive toward noticing differences so Iâd wonder, âAm I just more woke than most peeps?â, âAm I somehow defective?â and the usual teenager shtick.Â
That said itâs quite possible for an IxxP, especially one whoâs more 4/5 than 6/9, to be perfectly happy as & even seek out the outcast or subculture role & eventually I grew up & made my peace with it.  Eventually I realize that some of the EJs really want what they are working for  and that what I want is just different without there needing to be a value judgement. (After all whatâs wrong with them doing what they want as long as theyâre ethical? Who am I to say itâs a bad goal? Itâs just their version of being themselves. Conversely I canât complain about the consequences of what I strive towards even if its different from societyâs pervasive EJ values. And while there is harmful bias to some extent EJs are pervasive because they care about making themselves heard in broad society more than we do.)
I guess this is only fair after the privilege that most mbti stuff is written by fellow Ne users to the chagrin of the sensors. If most mbti-cians are intuitives, then most Essence Type writers tend to be Jupiters with Mild mars admixture. Just because the perspective is a bit skewed doesnât mean that the information, though presented through a lens & requiring a grain of salt, is useless tho, not as long as the reader is willing to think for themselves, âexcavateâ the pure observations & Â bring their own perspective to it.Â
Indeed the strenght of this book is that it specifically considers a lot of contexts that these differences could come to bear in (albeit briefly & bare bones-y) & preents them in an applicable manner - work, romance, friendship, leisure etc. Â
At first I thought this book would be my primary source with the previous one bought more for entertaining curiosity and having different perspectives & interpretations of the same system, but I think the other book is ultimately better, especially since this one doesnât really spare you the esoterics. The other seemed aware that different typologies are tools whereas this one goes out of its way to argue the âcorectnessâ which might be interesting for the sorts of people who like to argue theology but doesnât really impress or appear relevant to me personally, itâs a âhow many angels fit on the tip of a needleâ type question. - Thereâs also the potential POV that the 9gram describes the potential masks or distortions ppl have whereas this one describes whatâs underneath, though I do not personally subscribe to it, my opinion being that a great deal of personality is inborn but what version of it you become, how much potential you tap & how much you accept yourself is up to nurture & choice/will. Â
I appreciate that the author tried to make it widely understandeable without dumbing it down, but it was a bit... hm... to see them talk about the âgreat important deep wisdomâ they shared with us when it was pretty simplistic... You can tell they heard it fro their esoterics âteacherâ and were mighty impressed but they seem to be telling us this impressiveness more than theyâre suceeding at showing it.Â
Simplicity is IMHO one of this systemâs strenghts but the thing here is that, I guess, the author tried to explore the âeveryone lowkey has all types/energies/human nature aspectsâ to come up with a dynamicity akin to what some other systems have like tritypes or mbti function dynamics.
Like the previous book it supposes that the main types are more like âpotsâ we all draw from to some degrees, some of us being pretty clearly in one and others being hybrid types, & ut tries to get into when we use each energy & how we could benefit from more flexible approprite responses - so far so good, thatâs ultimately what all typology tells us (watch yourself & consider if your usual course of action is wise here) but Iâm not sure if it made sense to characterize this dynamicity or reaction range as the other types, or, I see how itâs an useful shorthand but the specific way the author did it, their dynamicity system wasnât that good, they failed to really connect it to common RL experiences outside of just sprouting their jargon & interpreting things in that light which gave it less explanatory power and, even worse, led to the types being rather pidgeonholed, especially in terms of life areas & situations, as opposed to the whole, interconnected picture the other book painted, depicting friendship, romance, family & work related to the basic principles of the type in which some are simply navigated more naturally & confidently than other.
From the descriptions here youâd wonder why the Lunar is even an intellectual Type, the whole picture of ânocturnal moody strong introvertâ is distorted through a lens that mostly characterizes it as being childlike and self-absorbed & basically being everyoneâs inner brat who doesnât have ârealâ insights but surely thinks they do, like, it does happen that people, and often lunar-ish people, do that sometimes but this guy just throws it out as a blanket statement, and who the hell wants to be infantilized, or identify with something like that?Â
I suppose phrasing it like this is gonna appeal to the proud disney fans & the like & the guy phrased it IMHO Â a lot better in his youtube video (âSome people arenât meant to grow upâ... though really, isnât it more that grownup for us is something different than for a Venusian or how society equates âgrow upâ with conform? ) Of course if they read this theyâd probably think of what an utterly Lunar thing to say that is, but, Â I liked the other guyâs approach to vices that treated the serious pitfalls as optional & Â described in a structural manner how they coul both arise from & distort the actual essential self.Â
He does say that each type acts out its own âinterpretationâ of the other types/energies/reaction styles, but I think an elaboration of what these perspectives seen through the lens your âhomeâ type (his terminology) specifically look like (in terms of quality, skew & attitude and not just situation) would have gone a long way to make his constructs âflowâ.Â
Adding to that, is that this version doesnât include the Solar type (and indeed associates the jovian with the sun) - at first I thought that since they were popularizing it they thought it sounded too âsnowflakeyâ (I disdain that word/concept of it as an insult tho), but now I think it was more because of their numerology trick they thought was indicative of why there should be only 6.Â
Part of why I checked out the other book was that I felt Solar was describing something specific & here it seems to have been kind of absorbed into Lunar or Jupiter-Lunar, further making the Lunar a bit flakier & harder to grasp and I thought it was an useful distinction (I am most definitely NOT a Solar, at least not beyond the everyone-has-all-potentials level.)
This situation-reducing works even worse for the hybrid types, which, for one thing, are at times described rather differently than they are in the other book - Iâll still present the descriptions in case hybrid individual identify better with these versions but overall I still think itâs better to just describe the main energies so people, who are all individuals anyways can pick & discern in which aspects & situations they act more like one or more like the other type; Surely better than how this book sorta ends up characterizing the Lunar-Venus hybrid as being all about irresponsible promiscuous fucking & then in every list of situations lits that as a factor or  Itâs kinda one-dimensional & dissapointing since it sounded kinda interesting at first.Â
Kinda like the cognitive functions where you can say that you use some more then others & some very easily (though I donât think the essence energies & the functions can be equated, they seem to describe different things, despite some overlaps; The functions seem to further describe & take place in entirely in the neocortex/ âintellectual centerâ albeit taking in information from below whereas either variety of ennagram seems to look more at different makeups for the whole of the psyche including ppl who have most of the emphasis/trust in other parts than the intellect, though ultimately the distinctions are somewhat illusory especially where âhigherâ emotions or âquickâ reasoning come in.Â
One thing the author does sucessfully showcase with a good example is that he is sorta describing something specific & that the system has interesting distinctions - For exaple generally, describing someone as âwarmâ or âkindâ would be treated as almost synonymous descriptions of general niceness, but in the context of this, you average Lunar person could be described as âkindâ but would be too aloof to be described as âwarmâ, whereas a Venusian will be very apparently âwarmâ but may not necessarily be described as âkindâ, whereas someone to whom both adjectives apply is probably a Jovian type.Â
Before we get into the actual content, I want to again stress that this is gonna be my interpretation of the material through the lens of what I understood or thought important or wanted to âexcavate/filter outâ. If youâre seriously interested in this you can get the book yourself & if you donât have the time or money to do that, just be aware that this is my interpretation not the commonly accepted be all end all truth.Â
