Introduction
The Enneagram of Personality (the Enneagram) is a pseudoscientific model used to identify personality types. Enneagram Tarot is our visual tool for changemakers to recognise your style, strengths and areas for development, and those around you.
I’ve drawn on my love of collage and professional experience of community-building, making social change and creating inclusive and equitable conditions to create this visual ‘Tarot Deck’ of nine cards. It’s for your personal growth and to help you better understand why and how you and others influence social change.
We all make decisions based on a mix of logic and emotion. Some of us listen to our head more than our heart, others trust their gut. To spot this at a glance, the cards are colour-coded with a yellow (gut), blue (head) or green (heart) strip to demonstrate how each type makes its snap decisions when under pressure.
Enneagram type 1s tend to operate from the gut. Your mode is instinct. You feel things in your tummy, whether you need to run to the toilet when you’re anxious or feel butterflies of excitement or nerves. These types tend to rely on gut feelings when making decisions and responding to situations.
Type 1 – The Reformer
- Core Desire: To be good, ethical, and purposeful
- Core Fear: Being wrong or caught out for lying or being hypocritical
- Basic Motivation: Striving for integrity and self-control
- Key Traits: Principled, perfectionistic, responsible
- How you can grow: Embrace flexibility, cultivate self-compassion
- Common Pitfalls: Harsh self-criticism, rigid standards
You’re driven by a strong sense of right and wrong, always aiming to improve systems and people. Your idealism fuels your leadership in campaigns for fair work practices, anti-corruption efforts, and transparent governance. You hold high standards because you believe everyone deserves integrity from their institutions.
Your Changemaking Style
- You identify policies that perpetuate inequity, then propose clear, values-based reforms.
- You coach colleagues through ethical dilemmas, encouraging inclusive decision making.
- You audit programs for bias (gender, race, disability etc) and implement corrective measures.
- You rally volunteers around standards of fairness, making space for under-represented voices.
Balanced vs. Under Pressure
- When in balance, you model integrity, listen for diverse viewpoints, and inspire trust.
- Under pressure, you can become overly critical, rigid, or distant, inadvertently silencing others.
How to Support Yourself
- Acknowledge that progress is messy by celebrating small steps toward equity.
- Invite challenges by ask colleagues from marginalised backgrounds to critique your proposals.
- Practice flexibility by adjusting standards when they block participation from underheard groups.
- Incorporate rest, because your work for justice requires sustainable energy.
How to better support Others
- Notice when “right” becomes “my way.” Pause and ask yourself who might disagree.
- Balance critical feedback with empathy. People learn best through encouragement.
- Quiet your inner judge to make room for creativity from all cultures.
- Reflect on wins that advanced inclusion. These wins reinforce equitable habits.
By coupling your high standards with openness to diverse perspectives, you transform perfectionism into principled, inclusive reform.
Just for Fun
Spirit animal: Hornet
Fun fact: The saying “stir up a hornet’s nest” is used as a metaphor for a situation that becomes chaotic, contentious, or difficult to manage due to someone’s actions. When a hornet’s nest is disturbed, the hornets inside become agitated and attack anything nearby.
The soundtrack to your life: Heal the World, Mchael Jackson
Famous people: Michelle Obama, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Greta Thunberg.
