Enneagram Wings: How To Find Yours & Why They Matter
Your wing matters because it helps you be more precise, making the tool more helpful.
Kiselev Andrey Valerevich / Shutterstock.com Why the Enneagram? The Enneagram is a fantastic tool to help you to be your finest.
It reveals the lies you tell yourself, your fears, and your unexpressed emotions. It points you toward the areas of your life that need healing. It shows you a path forward.
Once you name your Enneagram type, the adventure begins. Your type is where you go under stress. It is the automatic behavior you do without intention or effort. It is your default when the rest of you is closed down.
Learning your type can take months — even years. Some online tests can help you, but there is no perfect one.
There are also other factors to consider, like your Enneagram wing.
Pick the Enneagram wing that fits
Learning your Enneagram type and wing can help you to find your authentic self.
Once you name your type, then you can discern your wing. Explore what type on either side your own feels more familiar to you. It is rare for us to land precisely on one type.
Your type never changes, but your wing could change over time. To be fulfilled, you want to have two strong wings.
Wings can alter the way you show your peculiarities. You will have behavior patterns of your core type and your wing.
The challenge of identifying your core type
You may have a challenge determining your core type with your wing. If you are strong in both, it may take some time to discern which is which. If both numbers fall in the same triad, it will be even more challenging.
Do not worry if it takes some time for you to discern your core type and wing. The important thing is that you use the Enneagram to help you notice how you show up each day. It will help you to notice your inner stories, the lies you tell yourself and the many ways you sabotage yourself.
What combination of type and wing fits you? Read below to begin to discover your type and wing.
Know your enneagram types and corresponding wings
Type One (reformer):
- Wing option 9:
The nine wing causes Type One people to be calmer, more peaceful, objective and distant. This combination takes on the Type Nine's strength, to see different points of view.
- Wing option 2:
The two wing causes Type One to be friendlier, more helpful, critical and manipulating. This combination takes on the capacity of the Type Two of wanting to help others.
Type Two (helper):
- Wing option 1:
The one wing causes Type Two people to be more idealistic, fair, self-critical and disparaging. This combination takes on the capacity of the Type One to know better ways of doing things.
- Wing option 3:
The three wing causes the Type Two person to be more self-assured, bold, outgoing and competitive. This combination tends to be more creative and be able to see the big picture as Type Three brings to the world.
Type Three (achiever):
- Wing option 2:
The two wing causes Type Three people to be more self-reflective, sensitive, creative, and pretentious. This combination tends to take on the erroneous belief of the Type that they have to earn love.
- Wing option 4:
The four wing causes Type Three people to be reflective, delicate, artistic, inventive and pretentious. This combination tends to take on the hunger for authentic relationships and can get caught up in mood swings like Type Four people.
Why the Enneagram? It can help release you from your fears.
Type Four (individualist):
- Wing option 3:
The three wing causes Type Four people to be more talkative, upbeat, motivated, striking and image conscious. This combination tends to take on the Type Three's hunger for success and the need to be noticed.
- Wing option 5:
The five wing causes Type Four people to be more introverted, rational, eccentric, retained and depressed. This combination tends to take on more of the Type Five person's ability to observe and live in their fantasy world.
Type Five (investigator):
- Wing option 4:
The four wing causes Type Five people to be more creative, human-centered, sensitive, empathic and self-centered. This combination tends to take more of Type Four's ability to see beauty in places most of us can not see.
- Wing option 6:
This six wing causes Type Five people to be more dependable, worried, cynical and cautious. This combination tends to take more of the Type Six's ability to see problems before they happen.
Type Six (loyalist):
- Wing option 5:
The five wing causes the Type Six people to be more reclusive, academic, wary and aloof. This combination tends to take on the Type Five's need to thoroughly understand something before they are willing to share the information.
- Wing option 7:
The seven wing causes Type Sixes to be more outgoing, worldly, active and hasty. This combination tends to take on the Type Seven's hunger to have fun and avoid internal pain.
The Enneagram can help you to find your courage.
Type Seven (enthusiast):
- Wing option 6:
The six wing causes Type Seven people to be loyal, engaging, reliable and charming. This combination tends to take on the Type Six's desire to keep themselves safe with their family.
- Wing option 8:
The eight wing causes Type Sevens to be more energetic, forceful, competitive, and materialistic. This combination tends to take on the Type Eight's desire to force things to happen when they fear someone is trying to hold them back.
RELATED:
Type Eight (challenger):
- Wing option 7:
The seven wing causes Type Eight people to be unrestrained, inventive, spirited, fast and insensitive. This combination tends to take the Type Seven's desire to get the best out of every moment of life.
- Wing option 9:
The nine wing causes the Type Eight to be more mild-mannered, calm, approachable and quietly firm. This combination tends to take on the Type Nine's desire for everyone to get along.
Type Nine (peacemaker):
- Wing option 8:
The eight wing causes Type Nine people to be more outgoing, confident, and antiauthoritarian. Depending on their mood, they will fluctuate between authoritarian and conciliatory.
- Wing option 1:
The one wing causes Type Nine people to be more systematic, critical, emotionally controlled and conforming. This combination tends to take on Type One's hunger to save the world.
Wings are meant to work together
Once you identify your strongest wing, it might be time to work on your weaker one.
After all, you need both wings to be strong to fly.
You will need more than the Enneagram to help you. Once you discover your map, you will need practice to help you connect with your quiet mind, the sensations of your body and your heart.
Once you discover how you are getting stuck, it is time to begin letting go of what is blocking you by naming it and feeling the sensations and emotions that go with it.
Identifying your type and wing helps you be more precise in helping uncover what is blocking you.
It can help you do things like find the right job. It helps you to discover your path toward a more joyful and meaningful life.
The question is, are you ready for the journey?
Roland Legge is a Certified Identity Life Coach and a minister in the United Church of Canada in Yorkton, Saskatchewan.