“The Enneagram was demanding that I look to it first, and only through its lens could I look to God second.”

That’s just one of the revelations made by author and Oxford theology student Christina Lynn Wallace.

For years, Christina loved the Enneagram—a tool that has become popular in counseling and recovery circles. It helped her understand herself. It gave language to her struggles, her relationships, her emotions, and even her marriage. Like many Christians, she encountered it almost entirely through Christian sources and believed it was simply a helpful tool for self-awareness and spiritual growth.

Then her mother asked her a question she couldn’t shake: Have you ever really looked into the origins of it?

What followed was months of research that eventually led Christina to publicly walk away from the Enneagram altogether. And there are some shocking findings, including one of the founders admitting to having something or someone take over his body while writing aspects of the framework.

In this episode, we have one of the most nuanced and difficult conversations we’ve ever had on the podcast. Christina walks through the documented origins of the Enneagram, including the occultic and spiritual practices tied to several of its foundational figures, and explains why she ultimately came to believe the issue runs deeper than personality theory. At the center of the discussion is a bigger question—one that directly connects to addiction, recovery, identity, and discipleship:

What happens when something other than Jesus becomes the lens through which we understand ourselves?

This conversation is not about panic, shame, or cheap outrage. In fact, both Christina and I openly acknowledge that many people—including us—have found aspects of the Enneagram helpful. But we also wrestle honestly with the danger of allowing any system, framework, program, or personality tool to become an identity rather than simply a descriptor. As well as believing that our relationship to God is determined by a tool or test.

We also discuss the tension Christians often face when dealing with things that may have pagan or occultic roots. Can something be redeemed? What does discernment actually require? And how do we avoid both fear-driven legalism and spiritual naïveté?

Whether you agree with every conclusion in this episode or not, this conversation will challenge you to think more deeply about worship, identity, sanctification, and the subtle ways idols can disguise themselves as tools for healing.

We explore:

— Why Christina originally loved the Enneagram and found it genuinely helpful
— The research that caused her to completely reevaluate its origins
— The occultic practices connected to several foundational figures behind the Enneagram
— Why identity and idolatry became the central issue for her
— The similarities between addiction, misplaced worship, and personality-based identity systems
— Whether Christians can redeem tools or practices with pagan roots
— The difference between using a tool and being shaped by it
— How Christians should think about discernment without falling into fear or paranoia
— Why so many people in recovery and church culture are drawn to the Enneagram
— What repentance and “renouncing” the Enneagram practically looked like for Christina
— The danger of filtering your relationship with God through any framework besides Christ
— How confession, repentance, prayer, and sacramental practices gave Christina the freedom she had been looking for

Read Christina's research: Part 1 and Part 2
Christina's Substack: The Battle Cry
Visit her website and join her writing course
Our podcast episode on The Screwtape Letters
Get Gospel-centered addiction recovery resources and help: veritasrecovery.org
Follow me: @jonseidl
Order my new book, Confessions of a Christian Alcoholic