Knight

## Life Task

To achieve faith that nothing from the outside can hurt his or her essence; to attain trust and strength of courage.

*"I am affectionate and skeptical."* - Knight Principle

## **Description**

Like all enneaclasses, the name "Knight" is not referring to any classes from media that utilize the same name. Rather, it was the name selected to better convey specific information about other gamers and to gamify the powerful notions found in the **Enneagram.**Every person has access to all the classes but primarily settles on one which frames the personality. Accessing other classes' potentials and maximizing the capacity of the primary class takes a large degree of work and effort, and this work could be viewed as lessons an entity must overcome to become unified.

The Knight class fixation is deeply and fundamentally existential, and there exists at the core of a Knight a tight knot of anxiety, an essential disquietude, and a deep seated desire to find something or someone stable enough in which to place some trust.

Given this essential dynamic, it is not surprising therefore to find that Knights have core issues centering around the contrast between faith and skepticism, trust and distrust, and the legitimate exercise of authority versus the abuse and misuse of power.

All Knights share these core issues, but they respond to them in quite a wide variety of ways, making the Knight class the most variegated of all the enneaclasses.

Knights are essentially thinking types and tend to utilize their minds in their attempt to find a solid foundation. Knights are looking for something in which to believe or someone in whom they can place their trust.

Knights feel that if they can find “one sure thing,” they can quiet their restlessness, and achieve some semblance of much needed “peace of mind.” This desire for some solidity, combined with their general suspiciousness, gives rise to a complicated relationship to those they view as authorities.

The side of the Knight which is looking for something to believe in, is often very susceptible to the temptation to turn authority over to an external source, whether it be in the form of an individual or a creed. But the Knight’s tendency towards distrust and suspicion works against any sort of faith in authority and often even presents as anti-authoritarianism.

Thus, two opposite pulls exist side by side in the personality of the Knight class, and will assume different proportions in different individuals, frequently alternating in the same individual.

Some Knights never find a system or an authority which satisfies their questioning nature. These tend to root themselves in more personal loyalties – loyalties to family, especially children, or to their friends or causes. Knights, in general, tend to form strong personal bonds. One of the more appealing aspects of the Knight personality is the trueness they can show to those they love.

Feeling essentially unsure themselves, they find some comfort in being true to others, in being steadfast. Knights can show real perseverance when it comes to their personal relationships and they can give of themselves selflessly – without expectation of reward and with little need of special recognition.

The loyalty of Knights is something of a two edged sword however, as Knights are sometimes prone to stand by a friend, partner, job or cause long after it is time to move on.

The issues which confront Knights are then, in some fundamental respect, elemental concerns which confront all human beings. It is the fate of enneaclass Knight to be forced to address these issues most centrally. The integrity with which this is done is determined by the extent to which the Knight overcomes fear or succumbs to it.

Many Knights are naturally prone to doubt and self-questioning. In some Knights, this internal dynamic is projected outwards, and Knights are notorious for adopting the position of the “devil’s advocate.” Many Knights are, thus, prone to questioning and challenging the motives and beliefs of those around them.

## **Class Identification Questions**

Every entity falls primarily within one of the enneaclasses, originally. While it can be difficult to elucidate which correlates with any individual, these nine questions (for each class) were designed to analyze certain aspects of the personality so that one can come to an understanding of their class.

1. As you get up in the morning, are you enlivened when you have a full schedule of diverse activities for the day?
2. Are you generally more at ease entertaining in the comfort of your own surroundings, even though it means more work for you?
3. Would you say that dedication to home, family, marriage, and/or community are the basic values out of which you live your life?
4. As a person who takes responsibility seriously, do you often resent and feel overburdened by the number of people who make irresponsibility a way of life?
5. As a general rule, do you need to gather the opinions of others -- family, friends, co-workers -- before making a decision?
6. Having strong opinions about life, do you mistrust and become upset with people who attempt to justify and expand the "gray areas"?
7. Do you feel more connected with people who are important to you when you know the details of what's going on in their lives on a regular basis?
8. Are you a hard-working, organized person who prefers to keep to a tight schedule, even to the point of scheduling your vacation or relaxation time?
9. Would you have more confidence in and loyalty toward an authority figure who laid down specific rules rather than one who was flexible and able to "go with the flow"?

## **Preoccupations**

Preoccupation relates to the matter of being preoccupied or engrossed with something, so what you might find here are areas of examination with which this class might find themselves involved.

* Procrastination of action. Thinking replaces doing. Issues with work and incompletion.
* Amnesia with respect to success and pleasure.
* Authority problems: either submitting to, or rebelling against, authority.
* Suspiciousness of the motives of others, especially authorities.
* Loyalty and duty to the cause, to the underdog, and to the strong leader.
* Fear of direct anger. Attribution of own anger to others.
* Paying attention by scanning the environment to look for clues that might explain the inner sense of threat.
* An intuitive style that depends upon a powerful imagination and single-pointed attention, both of which are natural to the fearful mind.

## **Special Abilities**

Each enneaclass has several unique traits which may be cultivated in such a ways as to give advantages when dealing with situations that are characteristic of that class. Those of the Knight can be roughly summarized to:

* being committed and faithful to family and friends
* being responsible and hardworking
* being compassionate toward others
* having intellect and wit
* being a nonconformist
* confronting danger bravely
* being direct and assertive

## **Weaknesses**

Each enneaclass also has several areas of weakness where they generally do not thrive unless work has been done towards alleviating these shortcomings. While the following examples are general statements, it is expected that most Knights dealt with or are dealing with issues of this nature:

* the constant push and pull involved in trying to make up my mind
* procrastinating because of fear of failure; having little confidence in myself
* fearing being abandoned or taken advantage of
* exhausting myself by worrying and scanning for danger
* wishing I had a rule book at work so I could do everything right
* being too critical of myself when I haven't lived up to my expectations

## **Class** **Synergy**

Some enneaclasses naturally work better together than others, which leads to many moments of understanding and misunderstanding. Many potential adverse situations can be overcome by understanding those around oneself and learning how to best optimize those others, which quite frequently results in some synergistic outcomes.

* Has strong analytic powers. Attention shifts to questioning and examining the opposite position. Doubt and a suspicion of the obvious develop clarity.
* Overvalues authority's power. Invests those who project an authoritative image with far more power than they actually possess. Feels weakened by comparison.
* Reacts against own weakness by either seeking protection from authority (loyalist) or attempting to bring it down (rebel). "At your feet or at your throat."
* Tries for superhero status as a compensation for inner anxiety. Has to prove self to others. Self-mastery. Toughing it out. Braced against fear.
* Able to act, to go full out when up against the odds. Will compete when the odds are against a win. Defends the underdog.
* Action paralysis. Finds it hard to keep moving forward effectively when success begins to materialize and hard to focus when there is no opposition. Doubt sets in until positive options begin to seem unreal.

## **Charm Guide**

Relationships among gamers of various enneaclasses are often tenuous due to a lack of understanding. This may not be of consequence in regards to relationships that are superficial or purely of a business nature, but these relationships only compose a small subset. It can be beneficial to learn what makes each class comfortable and respected in order to forge more meaningful and deeper connections. For the Knight class, some of the techniques towards achieving this end are as follows:

* Get a reality check. Are doubts based in reality or are they imagined? Name fears out loud. Check conclusions with a trustworthy friend.
* A support system is important for all classes. For Knights it's imperative.
* Contain procrastination by setting timelines and action checkpoints.
* Give equal time to positive options. Remember that negative possibilities seem more believable.
* Recognize times when thinking replaces action.
* Find safety in step-by-step guidelines for moving through frightening events rather than avoiding or magnifying their importance.
* Identify both fight and flight as fear reactions. Check yourself for hidden projections when others appear to be hostile.

## **Class Specialization**

Human evolution requires three basic survival behaviors, referred to in the Enneagram as the instinctual specializations: the self-preservation specialization, the social or group specialization, and the one-to-one or intimate specialization. Because these are survival behaviors, each Enneaclass includes all three subtypes. Although you manifest all three to some degree, you usually express one of these three subtypes more than the other two. Both environmental circumstances and your Enneaclasses's structure influence their expression, especially the core emotion associated with your adaptive strategy and what you put your energy into.

**Self-Preservation Instinctual Specialization**. Your attention and energy go to issues related to personal survival, such as safety, security, comfort, protection, and adequate basic resources of food, shelter, and warmth.

***Social Instinctual Specialization.***Your attention and energy go to issues related to your community and group membership, such as role, status, social acceptance, belonging, participation, and fellowship.

***One-to-One Instinctual Specialization.*** Your attention and energy go to issues related to connection in vital relationships, such as bonding with special others, sexual intimacy, attractiveness, closeness, union, and merging.

 Guardian | Social | Being clear about one’s role in the group or society is an overriding concern. To overcome fear and avoid rejection, this spec. needs to know the rules and create clear agreements with friends and colleagues. Yet there may be ambivalence about belonging. Doing one’s duty can be both a calling and a burden.