The Truth About Wings

One of the most common misconceptions I hear when discussing the Enneagram is about wings. They’re just easy enough to remember but just new enough to us to get wrong. Many, for example, will boldly proclaim with great confidence that they are an Enneagram 8 that wings 5 and sometimes 3. Sadly, this cannot be true.

In the Enneagram, wings are simply the numbers that reside on either side of each Enneagram type.

For example, as an Enneagram 4, I can “wing” to 3 or 5.

While we have one wing for each of us that is stronger than the other (think right-handed versus left-handed), we can and DO wing to both numbers on either side of our type. This is one of MANY reasons that two people of the same Enneagram type can think differently about the world around them.

As you understand your Enneagram type, you’ll notice more “tendencies” towards one side of your type number. This is your wing.

*BONUS UNEDUCATED HYPOTHESIS:

I believe that when one first takes the Enneagram test that their top three results contain the following:

Three different results that MIGHT be your number but could equally be your wing (or an indicator that at the time of the test, you were living in stress or health, in which case you would line to this number). I’ve also noticed that more times than not, two of the numbers from your top three in the test results are side-by-side number types. For example, you may test high as a 3, 4, and 8.