An Exploration into Type Seven Epicure Themes: 2026
How to Live: In the moment!
Hi All— I mentioned at the last class that when I discovered this book I enjoyed it So Much that I never took notes. I just dove into it and never came out… singing the words Seven Four One Seven Seven Seven all the way. I now think of this book as a biographical version of A Gentleman In Moscow :) if you were with us for that.
Apologies to the first group that these are late (and now posted on the website). The content may help you see the point I am making that this master of The Essay was likely seeing through the lens of THE EPICURE….
7 Themes: FREEDOM, POTENTIAL, TRAVEL LIGHTLY, THINK ABOUT THINGS FROM ALL PERSPECTIVES, Give to Caesar what is Caesars and get on with life… REFRAME TO THE POSITVE, AVOID RESTRICTIONS, VALUE CURIOSITY AND LEARNING THRU NOT-KNOWING. There is an interest in ethics and dignity of all (Connection Type 1) but without morality, and an interest in depth and beauty (Type 4) without the melancholy or specialness. A Type Six DUTY Wing is present, along with his ability to maneuver through and exert POWER THROUGH SYSTEMS using a Type Eight Wing.
The man had it all! Including a curious cat :) This man must have been: DELIGHTFUL.
“most genial of interlocutors and hosts” “unplanned” “curious”
How To Live? I believe is Type 7 vs How One Should Live? which would be Type 1
Chapter 1: Don’t Worry About Death. While friends saw him as gregarious (7s are referred to as the loquacious type by enneagram author Naranjo-- referring at times to an inner chatter but sometimes and outer insistence on being around ideas) he would frequently be afraid and thinking of death (Fear/Thinking Type 567). By his 40s and 50s, he was liberated into lightheartedness. He now refused to worry about anything. Death could not be prepared for and in fact, it could be a welcome party and parting. This ceased to be a thinking obsession topic,
What saves Thinking Types from Madness: Real Experience. (He almost died, or he did die and came back.)
From then on, he tried to import some of deaths, delicacy and buoyancy into life. “Bad spots” were everywhere. We do better to “slide over this world a bit lightly, and on the surface” … through this discovery of gliding and drifting, he lost much of his fear and came to Life.
Chapter 2, he is ready to retire and consecrates his home to freedom, tranquility, and leisure—7 values. The author describes his library and collections as a chamber of marvels. on the ceiling was written from Sophocles: there is no more beautiful life than that of a carefree man; lack of care is a truly painless evil.
pg 10: “The inactivity generated strange thoughts and a “melancholy humor” which was out of character for him. No sooner had he retired. He said, then his mind had galloped off like a runaway horse.”…. he needed blinders on like a horse—I use horses needing blinders on as a metaphor for what makes 7s feel safe: Restrictions & Focus. He decided that the nature of **himself** and his attention was worthwhile to observe and record!!
He is a self-referencing EnneaType like a 7 (or a 4 or 8): Focus First is "Me" and aren't I interesting?!!
“ Changes in direction… questioning attitude…” with no interest in presenting any consistency.
He may be linked to Type 4 with his interest in interior experiences, meaning and depth, but his lack of melancholy means NOT A 4.
Page 45: “He found practical affairs a bore and avoided them as much as possible.” Sevens ultimate avoidance: Boredom (restriction/pain)
55: Succeeded in an hedonistic approach to education… “having been guided in life by his own curiosity alone he grew up to be an independent minded adult following his own path in everything rather than deferring to duty, and discipline – an outcome, perhaps more far-reaching than his father had bargained for.”
A SEVEN'S FOCUS IS OFTEN ON: Restrictions and Limitations, and then turning them into no limits...
56: “ He grew up in the company of the greatest writers of antiquity rather than the provincial French of his Neighbourhood. It also cut off more conventional ambitions because it led him to question everything that other other people drove for… The young Montaigne was unique. He did not need to compete, he barely needed to exert himself. He grew up constrained by some of the most bizarre limits ever imposed on a child, and at the same time had almost unlimited freedom. He was a world unto himself.“ Sevens **delight** in seeing others overcome restrictions, in seeing folks move beyond potential-- this is often a lived experience for them.
68: He was egalitarian in his reading, it was camaraderie. “ his role in reading remained the one he had learned from Ovid: pursue pleasure… ‘I do nothing without gaiety.’” …” in truth. He did work hard sometimes, but only when he thought the labor was worthwhile… But no doubt he did abandon whatever bored him: that was how he had been brought up after all.” Sevens have an egalitarian everyone-is-the-same view of power (we all put on a skirt or pants so we're all not telling anyone what to do...)
“Everything approached in gentleness and freedom, without rigor and constraint.”
71: Promoting his own virtue of Freedom “ he presented himself as floating through the world on a blanket of benevolent vacancy.” HAHAHA! OMG this is the best quote ever!
73: MonkeyMind: He was “restless” and maybe only played at sloth as An idea. “ forget much of what you earned and be slow witted “ allows you to be FREE.
74: Sevens see restrictions as part of their habit of mind— and he saw his short stature as his main restriction.
WINGS
Type Six Wing: Loyalty to LaBoetie and also his father; Type Eight Wing: ability to be stronger than stature and to litigate, survive in political difficulties!
Chapter 6– This is a short but useful history and explanation of what Type 7 Philosophy is named after. Epicurians, Stoics, Skeptics.
Hey! Let's think about something else!!!!! "Later in his life he use the trick of diversion against his own fear of getting old and dying. The years were dragging him towards death he could not help that but he need not look at it head on. Instead, he face to the other way, uncombed himself by looking back with pleasure over his youth and childhood”
Page 158 “My thoughts fall asleep if I make them sit down… my mind will not budge unless my legs move it.” Type Seven-- impatience, monkey mind.
Pg 159 Limiting Restrictions, Avoiding Boredom: Author says he had issue with *the principle * of being obliged to be sexual with only one person.
—--
How to Live? pg 148
Pascal, as much as Descartes, wanted to escape but never could. To Montaigne, it would be obvious why such escape is impossible. No one can rise above humanity: however high we ascend, we take that humanity with us. At the end of his final volume, in its final version, he wrote:
“It is an absolute perfection and virtually divine to know how to enjoy our being rightfully. We seek other conditions because we do not understand the use of our own, and go outside of ourselves because we do not know what it is like inside. Yet there is no use our mounting on stilts, for on stilts we must still walk on our own legs. And on the loftiest throne in the world we are still sitting only on our own rump.” !!!!!!!!! Notice the EGALITARIAN view, no one is above anyone, no one can tell me what to do, we all have points of view--- very Type Seven perspective.
BTW: Doing a yoga class with InsightTimer, this randomly popped up on the screen yesterday:
"Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happen." (Epictetus)
I'll post more notes if/when I have them. I hope this helps you see this man in a new light...
| description_type_seven_the_epicure.pdf |
| wagner_type_seven.pdf |
