Presenter: Denise Grobbelaar

The lecture explores the Enneagram as a tool for raising consciousness, assisting in our journey of individuation and helping us connect with our essential nature and deeper wisdom.

The world is changing exponentially in fundamental ways and requiring us to respond in new ways. The Enneagram can show us our defensive mechanisms and the implicit assumptions we have about ourselves and the world which keep us stuck in unhelpful ways of being. If we can change the automatic “operating system” according to which we function, we can truly unlock our own potential, become the complex adaptive systems we are as human beings and impact positively on the world around us.

This presentation is an introduction to the Enneagram that demonstrates the manner in which it can be used to develop the inner observer to afford more choice about the manner in which you show up in the world. Becoming aware of your unconscious motivations and how you act out certain archetypal patterns in the world will increase your flexibility as to how you respond emotionally, how you think and behave – as opposed to being stuck in outdated paradigms or worldviews.  The Enneagram teaches us to hold polarities within ourselves and integrate our shadow as we become aware of our blind spots. Learning about the Enneagram types improves human connection and intimacy because it engenders compassion for other people’s perspectives and struggles and provides better insight into your own patterns and core motivations.

Denise Grobbelaar is a clinical psychologist and Jungian Analyst working in private practice in Observatory, Cape Town. She has a keen interest in archetypal patterns, mythology, shamanism, the Enneagram, and dream work. Denise has been working with the Enneagram as a therapeutic tool and map to archetypal personality patterns since October 2017. Besides her curiosity about the human psyche, she has a deep love and a profound sense of reverence for Nature and specifically the White Lions. She leads annual Dream Appreciation retreats to the Global White Lion Protection Trust in the Timbavati. Her paper “The White Lion as Symbol of the Archetype of the Self and the Cannibalization of the Self in Canned Hunting” has been published in the 2020 Spring Issue of the Jung Journal: Culture & Psyche.