Nehanda is our representative from sub-Saharan Africa. She keeps showing up in the story as a visionary, a mystic, which makes her a likely Old Soul and one of the spiritual leaders of this troupe. Nehanda is a shaman and spiritual leader, which is a very good quality to have for our African character. Nehanda hasn’t settled on an archetype yet, possibly a Type 5. She might also turn out to be an Old Soul Type 2 or Type 6, or something else. She is a quiet woman of power. Steel. She could be a very steely and under-the-radar archetype of some kind, but it appears the Enneagram is not the best way to characterize her. Nehanda defies attempts to categorize her as an Enneagram type.
Saditha has not settled on an archetype quite yet. Perhaps she is a Type 9, which is the Diplomat, the Balancer, the Counselor, the one who wants to make sure that everyone is happy and secure. Originally I had her as a Type 1, the Warrior-Activist, because the Feminine in the Middle East has a strong core of fire energy and power. However, she has a very critical role to play in the episode Jerusalem and the Jewel of Abraham, and in that role she will probably have to be a Type 9. Considering how much diplomacy is required of women who have to handle all the cultural baggage of the Middle East, Type 9 is not a bad choice.
The “China” character has not spoken yet and doesn’t have a name. However, because she is in a culture where women are typically suppressed, female pregnancies are terminated, newborn girls are killed, and girls are sometimes sold into slavery to provide money for the family, she is not going to be a shy and timid and retiring type. If she is shy and retiring at first, then her character development will be freeing herself of that oppressive baggage. She could end up being a Type 8. Type 8 is The King or The Queen or Leader, a person who has a big personality and acts as a natural leader, who gravitates naturally to being a CEO. We might not have a Type 8 in this line-up. If not, then “China” is going to be a woman who lifts herself up with courage and grit, even though it doesn’t come naturally or easily due to cultural programming. If those countries in East Asia, which China is representative of, had their way, women would all be permanently Type 2 mothers, providers, servants. They need a lot more Princess Leias and Marion Ravenwoods out that way, but this character probably can’t fit that profile, that’s a U.S. profile. A successful character model for a woman from China is probably going to look different, brazen or queenly may or may not work. We’ll see.
Tom is the military character. He is likely either a current or ex- U.S. Marine. He is also very close to Carlos; something happened in their childhood that bonded them and made them closer than brothers. Military veterans are typically male, warrior, martial type (Type 1). Type 6 would be a perfect counterpoint, because Type 6 is The Friend, the person who is always welcoming and accepting and encouraging. That’s a perfect model for the U.S. Military’s role in the world. Tom is attached to CENTCOM, the U.S. military command which covers the Middle East.
Sheryl acts like a Type 1, the Warrior-Activist, like the character Jimmy Looks Twice in the movie Thunderheart. She spits fire. She is becoming a major league baseball player and changing that male-dominated culture, a woman who is breathing energy and power into Native American Culture, because that culture can’t be timid any longer, it must have pride and strength. Both the China character and Sheryl, this Native American, would benefit as a Type 8. We’ll see.
Carlos is leaning towards being a Type 2, the Server and Giver and Provider, because (1) it’s a common archetype in the USA, a huge segment of the population is in the serving and giving professions; (2) the Server is stereotypically female, so having a male Server is healthy for this culture; and (3) it provides balance for a U.S. culture that places too much importance on renegade and wildly independent characters, like Steve McQueen and Charles Bronson and Marlon Brando, etc., not to mention the people currently attached to the White House. Type 2 is more like a Luke Skywalker than a Han Solo. We could use some older soul elements in this very young soul culture, so Carlos is an Old Soul.
The Michael System
In the Michael system, people are classified into the following groups:
Infant Souls
Baby Souls
Young Souls
Mature Souls
Old Souls
As you trend from bottom to top in soul age, you go from most conservative (Infant Soul) to least conservative (Old Soul)
Infant Souls are people who have so few lifetimes of experience here, that they are basically terrified of everything new and terrified of change and of anything other than stable structure. Complexity is overwhelming, philosophy and belief structure must be simple. Lots of black-white thinking and inflexible belief systems, because security comes first. Fundamentalist religious people, like Jehovah’s Witnesses, are typically Infant and Baby Souls. People who feel most safe and secure in a government job. Bureaucratic agencies that are predictable and change little, attract this Soul age. The military as well.
Baby Souls are like the Trump Republicans. They don’t have the maturity or the courage to do much more than stick to the old cultural norms. “Tradition” is a big word to conservatives and Republicans, because tradition gives them security, even if that tradition is a tradition of slavery, crimes against humanity, etc. If you are speaking with an Infant, Baby, or Young Soul, you’ll know it, because you will feel like you are addressing a (sometimes much) younger person.
Young Souls might be more advanced conservatives, like the Republicans voting for Biden, the people coming out of cultural denial, out of the cultural brainwashing. The man who wrote It Was All a Lie and other people who have emerged from cult brainwashing are likely Young Souls progressing towards Mature.
Mature Souls are the fairness and justice advocates, the social and political change agents. Many Europeans here. Democrats, Greens, educated people, journalists, philosophers, many of the more mature people in the field of education. The Star Trek characters are Mature Souls, driven to improve the worlds they find and to help whenever they can.
Be advised that academia also attracts younger soul ages than Mature, because they like the secure structure and the predictability and relative safety from the challenges of the real world.
Old Souls are the ones who have been there and done that. Old Souls are drawn to being hermits and even homeless. Security isn’t that big a deal anymore. They don’t need a secure structure in every area of their lives. They are drawn to spirituality and the mysterious disciplines, the English for example are clearly an Old Soul culture because they love mysteries and the occult. Not materialistic, instead inwardly focused. Obi-Wan and Yoda are obvious Old Soul archetypes in the popular culture.
Human Archetypes in The Enneagram
Type 1: Warrior-Activist
Type 2: Server-Giver: mother, teacher, nurturer, provider, servant
Type 3: the Achiever: beauty, image, ambition
Type 4: Artist, Lover of the Unusual
Type 5: Student, Investigator, Teacher
Type 6: the Friend
Type 7: Hedonist, Lover of Life
Type 8: King, Queen, Leader, e.g. Orson Welles, Santa Claus
Type 9: Diplomat, Balancer
The Type 5 is the Student, the Investigator. Think of the stereotype of Albert Einstein or Thomas Edison or Madame Curie, lab rats who are endlessly working on their experiment, their invention, their creation, leaving the sink full of dirty dishes and empty pizza boxes lying around because they are lost in their creative pursuits. That’s the stereotype. Always investigating, always learning.
Homages
each Character has a history, their name was chosen as an homage to certain people
few of the Character names are accidental or arbitrary, there is usually an association with a real person
more detail at a future time