MBTI Type: ESFP

As a child, Maleficent notices minor things in her environment and is quick to respond to them – healing a broken limb and rushing off to rescue gemstones off a human interloper. As an adult, she often throws herself into the front lines in a fight, and challenges the king in hand-to-hand combat. She is quick to act, saving a raven’s life and turning him into a human, a horse, a wolf, a bear, and whatever else she might need. She feels confident in her physical surroundings, brashly walking into the castle to break her curse on Aurora, then shape-shifting her companion into a dragon to protect herself. In the second film, she comes alive finding other fae “like her” (Fi) and wanting to introduce them to her world. She manages to make it to the castle alive, despite the exploding bombs going off around her, and saves Aurora’s life from a lethal fall. Maleficent glories in her wings and how they let her feel the wind. She filters everything through how she feels about it. She is, at first, a warm and welcoming faerie but after Philip’s betrayal, she becomes jaded and cynical. She speaks to no one about her betrayal and the loss of her wings; much later, when Aurora asks what became of them, Maleficent answers, “I do not want to talk about it.” Because she has never known “true love’s kiss,” and believes it is all a lie, she believes her curse is unbreakable. She wavers between tormenting the faeries for fun, because they are fools, and looking after Aurora, because the child touches her heart. She shape-shifts a raven into whatever form she needs of him, to suit her own whims. Because she does not like Philip’s mother, she forbids the union, then experiences deep betrayal at the realization Aurora believes her responsible for a curse. Maleficent flies away to process these feelings on her own. She “comes alive” discovering there are others of her kind, and they thrive together in a far-off place. Ultimately, her ability to control her feelings, and her deep love for Aurora, help her put aside her wrath and show mercy to her enemies. She is an effective ruler over the Moors. Her tert-Te can also be harsh and even cruel, such when she punishes an innocent child for his father’s sins, in her unwillingness to forgive, and her inability to creatively think of a way to break the curse. When she fails to remove it, Maleficent simply thinks it’s unfixable. Her Ni is not very powerful; she never once imagines Stephan’s intentions are anything but innocent, despite his long absence. She becomes bitter and wrathful, doing everything she can to guide Aurora toward that moment when, at sixteen years old, she will prick her finger on a spinning wheel and fall into a deep sleep. She gives no thought to figuring out the true person responsible for casting the curse that implicates her in spelling King John.

Enneagram: 8w9 so/sx

One of the theories of the Enneagram is that childhood experiences shape us into adopting certain defense methods; Maleficent’s betrayal and the loss of her wings took her from a kind-hearted girl (a 2) and shaped her into an 8 – someone who does not trust easily, and who wants to hold the power in a situation in order to feel safe. But she is not in disintegration; she uses the methods and tactics of the 8, by being powerful, controlling, and assertive. Maleficent establishes herself as the “Protector” of the Moors. In the second film, upon seeing her own kind’s children, she even volunteers to “protect them” in the outside world, because she sees them as defenseless and innocent. This innocence softened her heart, and helped her integrate toward 2 – but only in her care for Aurora. The rest of the world still sees the domineering 8 who does not hold back her anger. Her 9 wing, however, desires peace and numbness from pain.