wow hi!! i’m the entp 6w7 double lion and thanks sm for your detailed response.
there were 2 main issues i had that i should have expressed more clearly- the first is that i felt 6w7 sort of conflicted with the double lion stereotype of charging in and being pretty fearless. i think i project a fearless persona a lot because i feel i am pretty shy and breakable inside (i was an extremely sensitive kid), but i have trouble internally with claiming it as my own because i’m insecure about my previous shyness and feel fake about it, like i’m worried i’m smothering my “true self” (even though i seriously haven’t been shy in years!). i feel more anxious, fidgety, and flighty than how i imagine a double lion. but you’ve addressed that (although i Do feel i put on masks, but that might be a model because it is deeply exhausting to project facades in the long term)
the second and more prominent worry i had is about my mbti functions and lion primary. i’ve always felt i have low fi- i have a deeply unstable sense of self (which is why i am so clearly enamored with personality tests). my fe is by comparison much higher, i have people pleasing tendencies and sometimes sacrifice standing up for my ideals (although some ideals are non negotiable) in favor of maintaining social harmony.
i also find that my fi is weak in a way where i have trouble knowing my own beliefs- others can often convince me of new stances easily if they talk long enough. (tbf i also think i can convince other people of stuff if i talk long enough lol) long term, i ultimately still process and decide whether they feel right to me and if they stick. but i often agree with and see other perspectives very easily and have to ruminate on them.
things “feel right” to me like a lion, but that doesn’t line up with the low fi i know i have?? like would a lion really be so easily convinced of a new stance in the short term like that? i guess i just feel way more reliant on social validation than a lion like i also often have the sense that others automatically know better than me, like i trust myself less. i always find myself become more birdish when i’m questioning myself because it’s so hard to rely on an internal sense of right for me. so maybe i’m a bit burnt hahaha sorry for the big mass of disorganized thoughts! but i just wanted to thank you for your detailed analysis and follow up with you
Thank you so much for following up with me!!! I'm so sorry I didn't see this sooner (I haven't checked my blog recently)!
Okay, let's break this down.
On the surface, 6w7 does seem to conflict with the Double Lion stereotype, but once you get more involved with SHC and the wonderful little community we have, you'll come to find that Double Lions come in all kinds of flavors :) There are plenty of Double Lions that are cautious and have people-pleaser tendencies. It really just comes down to whether or not your moral priorities are internal and felt and whether or not your preferred reactionary approach is just being authentic to yourself.
So it does seem like you've got some built up negative emotions surrounding your personality, and that definitely indicates there might be some burning going on somewhere, but this still reads as Lion Secondary. The thing that stands out to me is that you're most concerned with authenticity. You're worried about whether or not your confident "persona" is true to yourself because you were shy when you were younger, but let me let you in on a little secret: I was one of those super confident kids that everyone looked up to as a leader, that everyone thought was fearless, but the truth was, I was probably just as scared and fragile and flighty as you were when you were younger. In reality, everyone is. No one is truly confident right from the get-go. We're all just trying to find our way, putting on a brave face in the hopes that it'll all work out in the end. A lot of times we throw on that brave mask and part way through we realize we really do have it all together and that's when it becomes real. So it's okay if sometimes you feel like you're acting stronger than you really are, we all do that to an extent, and I don't think it makes us any less authentic.
And maybe sometimes you do put on masks. Being a Lion Secondary - 100% true to yourself 100% of the time - just isn't always feasible as much as I'm sure you wish it was. There are probably times where you have to put on a bit of a performance or a mask just to accomplish a task or work through whatever situation is in front of you. It really just comes down to what you act like when you're at your most comfortable, how you would prefer to handle a situation given optimal circumstances. In those situations, are you putting on masks, using a crafted persona, or mirroring those around you? Or are you just getting to be yourself? As a Lion Secondary (especially a Double Lion), I'm sure you're thinking "Well of course, given the best circumstances, I'd be myself! Who wouldn't?!" So it might surprise you when I tell you that is a purely Lion Secondary thing. Bird secondaries like to craft personas. Their ideal circumstances would probably be a situation in which one of their crafted personas, such as Tutor!Bird for example, comes smoothly in handy. For a Badger, they mirror the energy/vibe/demeanor of the people around them, so their ideal scenario would probably involve getting to work with a group of people who's energy they really click with and getting to bounce off each other. For a Snake Secondary, like me, my ideal scenario is adapting to whatever situation is placed in front of me so well that no one can tell I walked in completely unprepared.
Now, onto MBTI and the Lion Primary conundrum.
So the unstable sense of self is something I think a lot of us struggle with, especially those of us drawn to personality tests as you've so aptly mentioned. And that's okay, or at least it's going to be okay. I think that SHC has done a lot for me; it's really helped me grow to understand myself in tangible way. I hope these personality tests will help you do the same. Of course, personality tests and communities are not therapy, and sometimes we just need to sit down with a professional and work some things out. I, personally, go to therapy, and, while it was one of the hardest decisions I ever made, it's certainly been one of the best. So I'm a big advocate for it.
Anyways, continuing on, Fi is not one of the ENTP's preferred functions, so it totally makes sense that you're more dependent on Fe (need for group consensus, people pleasing, etc.) Now, does this conflict with being a Lion Primary? I don't think so. When you mentioned maintaining social harmony, I did think for a moment that that does sound a little bit Badger, but I think you maybe have just had some stronger Badger voices in your life or environment perhaps? It seems less like something you feel on a deeply moral level, and more like something you feel is necessary for your safety in a way. Like, "I don't feel confident and safe in voicing my true beliefs in this situation, so I feel it's best to go along with how the group feels right now" instead of "These are my people, my community, and it would be wrong for me to not trust their moral judgement because they come first." The first one is a Lion Primary reasoning, and the second one is a Loyalist Primary (Badger or Snake) reasoning. You're an Enneagram 6, so I think it's very possible that you've learned social harmony is safer than social discord, and sometimes disagreements between people we're close to can set off alarms in our heads about personal safety because we relate them to a time of instability in our past where arguments and disharmony were actually a genuine threat to our safety.
"others can often convince me of new stances easily if they talk long enough"
Okay, I may be wrong, but I don't think this is a low Fi thing at all actually. I think this is a developed Fe, high Ti thing. Otherwise known as an ENTP special (although I might be the only one who calls it that lol). I really think this is just something us ENTPs do, and I don't think it has anything to do with morality. As you go on to say next, "i ultimately still process and decide whether they feel right to me and if they stick. but i often agree with and see other perspectives very easily and have to ruminate on them." I'm the exact same way, my friend. I think we ENTPs just really like to play around with ideas. As Wisteria has previously mentioned in some other posts, sometimes Lion Primaries like to do this thing called the "rubber duck method" where we like to drop ideas into the murky water of our minds and see if they float. I haven't collected enough information on MBTI as it intersects with SHC, but I wouldn't be surprised if ENTP Lion Primaries were the kind of people who do this the most. I think it just works really well with how we like to conceptualize and internalize moral systems. I kind of see it like this:
After being presented with an idea
Is the idea even a little bit possible?
If yes, then lets assume it's true.
Now let's explore it as a truth. How does it work? How does it interact with other truths? What are the weaknesses and strengths of this idea?
Does it feel right? How am I responding to it? How are other people responding to it? What final questions do I have about this?
Finally, do I actually agree with this idea and wish to incorporate it into my system or have I decided that it just doesn't hold up to scrutiny?
The important thing to note here is that you're still ruminating on how you feel about it. You consider your feelings on the matter valid input on whether or not something really is true. From what I understand, true Bird Primaries just don't see it that way. They have feelings about issues, obviously, but they personally value their logic and provable truths over their personal truths. It feels irresponsible to them, even, to choose their personal feelings over what they believe is a logical choice. I think that fact that you don't trust yourself, so you're trying to use a Bird morality and it obviously isn't making you happy, is just more proof that you really are a Lion Primary. I think there probably is some burning here, but I think you're starting to become conscious of it, which is a good thing because that means you can work to slowly unburn and start to trust yourself more. Remember, Primaries are supposed to make you feel good. So when you're trying to stay truly Bird because you don't trust your internal compass, and it's not making you feel good, that's a sign that it's not who you truly are.
I want to thank you again for sending me this ask, and I really, really hope this helped a little bit. You're actually my first ask ever, so I was super excited to see this in my inbox! Also please don't be afraid to keep sending asks or comment on this post if you want to keep this discussion going or have more questions; I promise I'm having a great time discussing SHC, MBTI, and Enneagram with you :)