If You're An Enneagram 6, This Is The Number You're Most Compatible With

The Enneagram system breaks down core traits into nine basic personality types. However, beyond your type and its description, there may be fluidity between the numbers on either side of your type, as well as a direct progression for your personal growth and potential regression toward stress behaviors, per The Enneagram Institute. For example, the kind Type Six, known as the Loyalist, is a great friend to have by your side and combines some of the best traits of Type Five, the Investigator, and Type Seven, the Enthusiast. When a Six exhibits a clear leaning toward either of these flanking types, it's called their wing.

Because of wings and sub-types, there is plenty of room for variability within the Enneagram's structure, and compatibility between the types can become less easily generalized and predicted. However, dominant traits can be explained and grouped by threes in the Enneagram's Intelligence Centers, like the Six's thoughtfulness — gained from their position in the Thinking Center of the diagram — and their tendency to be anxious — due to their dominant emotion, fear.

In gauging compatibility between the types, experts draw on their strengths, areas for improvement, and basic relationship needs to suggest pairings that might be both supportive and positively challenging. 

Per The Enneagram Institute's introduction to Intelligence Centers, Type Six is the most anxious of the three types located in the Thinking Center. At their best, Sixes are cooperative communicators who are always ready to plan and work out logistics to avoid catastrophe. According to Truity, when they are able to get their fear under control, they can be self-aware and deeply honest about their anxieties. However, if they attempt to hide their fears, their decisions may betray them as their primary motivators.

Because of the effort it takes to win a Six's trust, a dedicated, consistent partner is the one to build a healthy foundation for the relationship. Type Nine is the person for the job, according to mindbodygreen; they are led by their Instinctive Intelligence center, and their calm attitude, reliable behavior, and grounding energy can help bring them down from crisis mode. While Nines can help Sixes learn to embrace and trust others, Sixes' loyalty will build Nines' self-confidence and allow them to come out of their shells. The mind and body come together in this pairing, making it both a sensical and sensual pairing.

The Enneagram Institute provides an analysis of each potential pairing in the Enneagram, and their prognosis for Sixes in relationships with Nines is highly positive. The description acknowledges that this pair is one of the sturdiest couplings among potential combinations and that they find happiness together with relative frequency. This pairing typically shares a set of values that inform the way they live their lives, which makes their compatibility especially visible at the surface level. Since Nines are naturally more trusting than Sixes, this might rub off on their overly cautious partners, leaving them more optimistic than when they first met. 

However, the similarities between these two types have the potential to create barriers in terms of voicing issues and releasing stubborn points of view. Both Sixes and Nines have a stubborn streak, and neither is comfortable when things appear to be changing quickly. They are also deeply dedicated to their responsibilities and roles in their community, so this might take them away from their partner more than their supportive dynamic may accommodate. Per Truity, Type Six could find their feelings of security in the relationship dissipating as their partner retreats into a world of personal obligations, leaving them potentially vulnerable.