Enneagram and Intuition: How Intuitive is Each Type?

When talking about Enneagram and intuition, it is important to understand that each Enneagram type has the capacity to develop and use their intuition effectively. However, some Enneagram types may have easier access to their gut feeling, while others need time or guidance to tap into their intuitive powers.

In this article, we’ll analyze why some Enneagram types seem more intuitive than others, how each type uses their intuition, and how it impacts their everyday lives. We’ll also offer advice related to Enneagram and intuition to help each type learn how to benefit the most from it.

Let’s dive in!

What is the Enneagram and How Does it Work?

Enneagram is a personality theory that seamlessly blends influences from ancient wisdom, modern philosophy, and personality psychology into a unique system of nine personality types. These types are categorized based on their core strengths, weaknesses, fears, and motivations.

Unlike most other personality theories that base typing on observable traits, the Enneagram focuses on the forces that drive each type’s behavior and how they construct their life strategies.

Some of the founding concepts of Enneagram personality theory are:

• Enneagram wings—introducing the concept of Enneagram subtypes
• Enneagram arrows—explaining how each type changes depending on whether they are experiencing growth or regression
• Enneagram motivations—describing what drives each type’s behavior

The Connection Between Enneagram and Intuition

The connection between the Enneagram and intuition lies in the fact that the Enneagram, as a personality system, is highly intuitive in its essence. As such, it is a great tool to help you find and recognize your inner voice and translate your intuition into actionable insights.

Intuition, traditionally defined as the ability to sense things without conscious reasoning, is inherent to every Enneagram type. So, there’s no question whether certain types have intuition but how much they listen to and use it in life.

Enneagram and Intuition: How Does Each Type Use It?

Exploring Enneagram and intuition and how each type uses it allows us to understand many delicate differences between the types.

Some types may use their intuitive powers at work, some in their love life, but the fact is that the better the integration between one’s intellect and emotions is, the sharper their intuition will be.

So, let’s analyze how intuitive each Enneagram type is and how their intuition impacts their decision-making process.

Enneagram Type 1—The Perfectionist

Ones, with their strong moral compass and the need to constantly grow and improve themselves and the world around them, often rely on their gut feeling when making decisions. Belonging to the Enneagram gut triad, Ones are well connected with their feelings and tend to base their judgment on both emotional and rational factors.

However, they are also very idealistic and may be prone to neglecting their inner voice when it conflicts with their rigid moral norms. When such conflict happens, they tend to overthink and obsess over irrelevant details, thus clouding their intuition.

Enneagram and intuition tip: Rely more freely on your inner voice, even when it goes against the standard norms. By doing so, you will achieve a better balance between your idealism and acceptance.

Enneagram Type 2—The Helper

Twos, driven by the desire to earn love by catering to others’ needs, are one of the most emotional Enneagram types. Their intuition is strong yet entirely directed toward reading others’ needs and wishes.

Combining their emotional intelligence and intuitive ability gives them a unique advantage in communication, building relationships and partnerships, and making connections. On the flip side, they may also use their refined intuition to manipulate others, as they often know what others need even before they figure it out themselves.

Enneagram and intuition tip: Allow your intuition to help you find the elusive balance between staying true to yourself and caring for others. You flawlessly follow your gut feeling when it comes to pleasing others, but you neglect it too quickly when asserting your own needs.

Enneagram Type 3—The Achiever

Threes are driven by a need to be successful in everything they do, as their core motivation revolves around impressing others and earning their love by performing perfectly. As a result, Achievers are goal-oriented and efficient, and their intuition is primarily directed toward assessing opportunities for success.

Therefore, Threes often have a sharp instinct for business and take wise risks intuitively, giving them a unique advantage over their competition. However, their need to shine bright and impress others momentarily may lead to them overlooking opportunities for long-term success or ignoring their own wishes at the cost of pleasing social expectations.

Enneagram and intuition tip: Learn to use your intuition to guide you toward choices that make your heart sing, not only to recognize commercial opportunities. Your intuition is your great advantage in the business world, but it can also help you feel more emotionally fulfilled by helping you make heart-centered choices.

Enneagram Type 4—The Individualist

Fours, characterized by the need to explore their own psychological depths and express their unique identity, are among the most intuitive Enneagram types. Their intuition blends with their introspectiveness, allowing them to understand human emotions on a very deep level.

However, their emotions are just as intense as their intuition, making it hard for Fours to distinguish between their emotional projections and intuitive insights. They can also easily mistake their impulsive urges for intuitive breakthroughs. As a result, they may experience a lot of confusion.

Enneagram and intuition tip: Learn emotional regulation techniques and take control of your feelings. This way, you will be able to achieve greater clarity and balance between your inner insights and external perception.

Enneagram Type 5—The Investigator

The Investigator is a highly intellectually oriented type, known for their need to explain everything with logic and common sense. They are generally prone to refusing the entire notion of intuition, as they find logic way more reliable and sensible.

However, despite not being fond of it, Fives, too, have a strong inner voice. The thing is, they are more proficient in ignoring it than any other Enneagram type. Fives are known for separating their emotions from their logic, making it hard for them to tap into their gut feeling.

Enneagram and intuition tip: Explore scientific studies on intuition to understand its value and learn to integrate it alongside logic. Intuition isn’t the enemy of logic; on the contrary, the two can support each other.

Enneagram Type 6—The Loyalist

The need for security drives Loyalists, and their intuition is, therefore, mostly directed toward recognizing safety threats. Due to excessive worry and overthinking, Sixes don’t find it comforting enough to rely on their inner voice but seek guidance from others they perceive as authorities.

So, since their intuition mostly comes in the form of hypervigilance and foresight, the Loyalists fail to use it in a more creative way that would allow them to experience more peace and joy in life.

Enneagram and intuition tip: Master the art of healthy positive thinking to be able to access your intuition and use it effectively, not only to protect yourself but to unlock your full potential. Learning to differentiate between intuition vs. anxiety will lead you to a significant intuitive breakthrough.

Enneagram Type 7—The Enthusiast

The free-spirited Enthusiasts are led by the desire to experience all the joys life offers, unburdened by fear and worry. They are very future-oriented, which is one of the reasons why their intuition is very strong. In addition, Sevens follow their inner voice wherever it takes them, relying entirely on their intuitive insights in life.

However, considering their impulsiveness, Enthusiasts can sometimes confuse their impulsive urges with intuitive insights, leading to wrong choices and unwise decisions.

Enneagram and intuition tip: Learn to listen to your inner voice even when you don’t like what you hear. It is not necessary for you to sacrifice stability to be able to enjoy spontaneity; you can do both by learning to distinguish your intuition from your impulses.

Enneagram Type 8—The Challenger

The assertive Enneagram Type Eight is known for its strong will and determination. This type is driven by the desire to be the master of its destiny, and its intuition is one of the most powerful assets in their pursuit of power.

Eights hear their inner voice loudly and clearly, and they follow it fiercely, even when it goes against social or ethical norms. For this reason, they are sometimes described as criminal minds, but in general, their intuition is the reason why they are so bold and ready to take risks in life.

Enneagram and intuition tip: Learn to take a break to preserve the clarity of your inner voice. Your strong gut instincts can overshadow your empathy and hinder your relationships, as your intuition is primarily egocentric. Practice using it to understand others better, not just to support your own pursuits.

Enneagram Type 9—The Peacemaker

Enneagram type Nine has a very refined intuition that helps them mediate conflicts and restore harmony in a very tactful and thoughtful way. Since they find relationships and community the most important things in life, their intuition is predominantly directed toward sensing others’ needs.

Due to their inherent tendency to go with the flow, they easily neglect their inner voice to blend in. This may lead to many delays and a lot of confusion in their lives as they fail to understand their own needs at the cost of catering to those of others.

Enneagram and intuition tip: Learn to separate your intuition from your compassion and protect your personal boundaries. By doing so, your intuition will only become stronger in time, and you’ll be able to help others even more.

How Can Enneagram Types Develop Their Intuition?

Enneagram types can develop their intuition by mapping the obstacles that stand in the way between them and their inner wisdom. Although each Enneagram type is unique, there are certain issues typical of each Enneagram triad, and addressing those can significantly help boost Enneagram intuition.

So, here are some insights about Enneagram intuition based on the triad your type belongs to:

Heart Types

Enneagram Types Two, Three, and Four belong to the Enneagram Heart Triad, meaning their core emotion is shame. The core emotion is the feeling these types experience as a response to extreme stress and describes the experience they try to protect themselves from.

When it comes to Enneagram and intuition, this means that each time Twos, Threes, and Fours feel ashamed, their judgment may be clouded and their intuition blocked.

So, the key to reinforcing intuition for them lies in exploring their shame from childhood to adulthood, recognizing its triggers, and overcoming it using different psychological tools.

Head Types

Fives, Sixes, and Sevens belong to the Enneagram Head Triad, which means that fear is their core emotion and shapes how they react in stressful circumstances. Therefore, all head types are prone to experiencing a lot of anxiety as the most common form of fear.

Moreover, their fear pushes them to overthink and intellectualize their experience of reality, thus neglecting their intuition.

To tap their way back to their intuitive powers, Head types need to learn to manage their anxieties and focus more on exploring the mind-body connection. Becoming more aware of the connection between feelings and bodily sensations, Head types will learn to feel safer in their bodies, let go of fear, and trust their inner voice.

Body Types

The Enneagram Body Triad, which includes Eights, Nines, and Ones, is also called the Gut Triad. For these types, the reactions to stress are shaped by anger, which is their core emotion. Eights express their anger directly while Ones and Nines suppress it, but all three of them feel the full intensity of their rage.

All Body types also have a very strong gut feeling and powerful intuition. However, Eights are most likely to use it effectively because they don’t hold on to their anger inside, allowing for a more free flow of their emotions and clearer insights.

In general, Body types need to become aware of their anger and learn to manage it healthily to ensure their intuition's clarity.

Ready to Rewire Your Intuition With Enneagram?

Take our free Enneagram test and learn how to unlock your full potential.

Key Takeaways

We hope analyzing the connection between Enneagram and intuition inspired you to explore your intuitive potential and make the most of it!

Now, before you go, let’s make sure you remember the key insights about Enneagram’s inner guidance from this article:

• All Enneagram types have a different kind of intuition and can cultivate it to achieve more clarity and better connection with their inner voice.
• Heart types need to learn to address their shame and control their emotions to experience the full potential of their intuition.
• Head types need to overcome their fears to learn to recognize their inner voice.
• For Body types, addressing and managing anger is the key to using their intuition effectively.