| abstract | - The Fourth Way enneagram is a mystic figure, believed to have been first published in 1947 in In Search of the Miraculous by P.D. Ouspensky. The term "enneagram" derives from two Greek words, ennea (nine) and grammos (something written or drawn). The enneagram is a nine-pointed figure usually inscribed within a circle. Ouspensky claimed that the enneagram was part of the teachings originally presented by G.I. Gurdjieff in Russia during the First World War. Gurdjieff is quoted by Ouspensky as claiming that this form of enneagram was an ancient secret and was now being partly revealed for the first time. Although no earlier publication of the Fourth Way version of the enneagram can be cited, it has been proposed that it may derive from, or be cognate to, the Jewish Tree of Life (Kabbalah) as used in Renaissance Hermeticism (which used an enneagram of three interlocking triangles, also called a nonagram) or a nine-pointed figure used by the Christian medieval philosopher Ramon Llull. Idries Shah, a populariser of Sufism, has claimed that the enneagram has a Sufi provenance and that it has also been long known in coded form disguised as an octagram. Another claim to a Sufi provenance is offered by the Sufi Enneagram website. Robin Amis claims a Christian orthodox origin, hypothesizing that both Gurdijeff and Ouspensky developed their teaching with insights gained from visits to Mount Athos.
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