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Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy
Welcome to Day 932 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.
This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom
The Enneagram System - The Wings and Levels of Development - Ask Gramps

We are broadcasting from our studio at ‘The Big House’ in Marietta, Ohio. Thank you for joining us for our five days per week, wisdom and legacy building podcast. This is Day 933 of our Trek and time for our Philosophy Friday series.  Each Friday we will ponder some of the basic truths and mysteries of life, and how they can impact us in creating our living legacy.  As we continue on this trek called life, sometimes we have questions about life, so our Friday trek is a time where we can ‘Ask Gramps.’   Gramps will answer questions that you would like to ask your dad or granddad, but for whatever reason, this is not possible.  No matter how old we are, I know that all of us would like the opportunity to ask dad or gramps questions about life in many areas.

Today is the fourth episode in a new series delving into what makes each of us respond as we do to life situations. Understanding ourselves and how others may interpret life through their paradigm will allow us to interact with each other with more love and compassion.   We began with an overview of the enneagram specifically from a Biblically based perspective.  We then looked at how the Enneagram system works.  Last week we explored a little deeper the aspects of why the enneagram is such a powerful tool in understanding yourself, and how it can help you to understand others that you interact with and impact. Today we will explore what is referred to as ‘wings’ which are the numbers on either side of your predominate personality style.  If you have missed any of our past three Friday series, I would recommend going back and listen to them or read the Wisdom Journals.  As a review, the tool that we refer to as the Enneagram (Any-a-Gram) is a circle with 9 interconnected points (Ennea refers to 9 and Gram referring to a drawing).  Check out today’s Wisdom Journal for a representation of it.  I have also included in today’s Wisdom Journal a copy of ‘The Enneagram At-A-Glance’ which was compiled by Suzanne H Eller.  If you would like me to send you a PDF copy click on this link. The Enneagram At-A-Glance . I would also recommend a recently released book ‘The Road Back to You’ written by Ian Morgan Cron and Suzanne Stabile.  It is an excellent book about an enneagram journey to self-discovery.

When I discovered the depth of the Enneagram, it opened up a new horizon of understanding of myself first, and also helps me to understand others better. The Enneagram is the most useful tool of this type I’ve encountered for personal growth.  Keep in mind though, it is still only a tool, and cannot replace or usurp the precepts that are found in God’s Word.

So the questions for the next several week or months will be:

“Hey, Gramps, why do people act and react to situations and circumstances in life differently?  How can I gain wisdom to better understand myself and others so that I can love, serve, and minister to them on a deeper level?” 
The Enneagram System – The Wings and Levels of Development



The Wing


No one is a pure personality type: everyone is a unique mixture of his or her basic type and usually one of the two types adjacent to it on the circumference of the Enneagram. One of the two types adjacent to your basic type is called your wing.

Your basic type dominates your overall personality, while the wing complements it and adds important, sometimes contradictory, elements to your total personality. Your wing is the “second side” of your personality, and it must be taken into consideration to better understand yourself or someone else. For example, if you are a personality type Nine,