Elizabeth Wagele (1939–2017) was an American artist, musician, and

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, p ...

of books on the

Enneagram of Personality The Enneagram of Personality, or simply the Enneagram (from the Greek words meaning "nine"and meaning something "written" or "drawn", is a model of the human psyche which is principally understood and taught as a typology of nine interco ...

and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).

Life

Wagele was raised in

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the capital and most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in Utah. With a population of 200,133 in 2020, th ...

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

, until she was 10 when her family moved to

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and E ...

. She spent much of her time drawing, playing the

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

, or making up stories with her dolls as a child.

Music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...

played a major role in her life as a friend and spiritual guide, especially

Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the ''Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard wor ...

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classic ...

Brahms Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped with ...

, Bartók, Charles Mingus,

Billie Holiday Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan; April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz and swing music singer. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner, Lester Young, Holiday had an innovative influence on jazz music and pop s ...

, and other classical and

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

composers A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

. A gifted pianist who majored in

music composition Musical composition can refer to an original piece or work of music, either vocal or instrumental, the structure of a musical piece or to the process of creating or writing a new piece of music. People who create new compositions are called c ...

, she studied piano with

Tanya Ury Tanya Ury (born October 1951, London) is an activist, author and artist. Since 1993 she has lived in Cologne, which is where many of her family members, including well-known German-Jewish authors, came from. Her arresting video, photographic ...

and Bernhard Abramowitsch and composition with

Andrew Imbrie Andrew Welsh Imbrie (April 6, 1921 – December 5, 2007) was an American contemporary classical music composer and pianist. Career Imbrie was born in New York City and began his musical training as a pianist when he was 4. In 1937, he went to Par ...

and graduated cum laude from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, in 1961. She studied, taught, and performed piano while raising her four children, and began writing books in 1993 with her friend, Renee Baron. Wagele partially supported herself in college by playing in a jazz combo. Wagele died on March 27, 2017, in Berkeley, California. She is survived by her husband, four children and seven grandchildren.

Works

Books

Wagele wrote about the Myers-Briggs system, especially

introversion The traits of extraversion (also spelled extroversion Retrieved 2018-02-21.) and introversion are a central dimension in some human personality theories. The terms ''introversion'' and ''extraversion'' were introduced into psychology by Carl ...

. An award-winning cartoonist, she illustrated her books with cartoons and was known for the humor in her writing. In 1994, Baron and Wagele published a book on Enneagram personality typology geared toward the general reading public: ''The Enneagram Made Easy'', which has been translated into 17 languages. The book was on the ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The ...

’s'' best sellers list for Quality Paperbacks in the Bay Area in 1994. ''Are You My Type, Am I Yours?'' was published in 1995. In 1997, Wagele wrote ''The Enneagram of Parenting'', the first book to suggest that teachers and parents use the Enneagram to broaden their acceptance and understanding of children. ''The Happy Introvert – A Wild and Crazy Guide for Celebrating Your True Self'' was published in 2006. She included a section on the movie ''

Napoleon Dynamite ''Napoleon Dynamite'' is a 2004 American comedy film produced by Jeremy Coon, Chris Wyatt and Sean Covel, written by Jared and Jerusha Hess and directed by Jared Hess. The film stars Jon Heder in the role of the titular character, a nerdy ...

'', along with chapters on relationships, children, Jung,

neurology Neurology (from el, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the brain, the spinal ...

, personality, and

creativity Creativity is a phenomenon whereby something new and valuable is formed. The created item may be intangible (such as an idea, a scientific theory, a musical composition, or a joke) or a physical object (such as an invention, a printed Literature ...

. Kathleen Grant Geib reviewed it as, "A delightful and informative guide for folks who call themselves introverts. Wagele sheds lights on differences between extroverts and introverts (25 to 30 percent of the U.S. population) and introduces main points of the fascinating personality survey, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Fun illustrations add humor." ''Finding the Birthday Cake – Helping Children Raise Their Self-Esteem'', a book for children was published in 2007. It seeks to help children build high self-esteem. ''The Career Within You'', in 2009, was co-authored with Ingrid Stabb. It has been called "the perfect career book". David Daniels, Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science Stanford Medical School, and author of ''The Essential Enneagram'' called ''The Career Within You'' "a groundbreaking work." He described how the book provides for nine personas "thoughtful and clear descriptions, how each style relates to the spectrum of career choices and a powerful method to determine the path that best fits you. You will discover what career best fits your style and in the process a more fulfilling life." ''The Enneagram of Death – helpful insights by the 9 types of people on grief, fear, and dying'' was published on July 13, 2012, by the International Enneagram Association. Mario Sikora, president of the International Enneagram Association said, "This first book being published by the IEA is by the popular and prolific Liz Wagele - eare glad to be supporting it and thankful that Liz has entrusted us to bring forth this important contribution to the field." ''The Enneagram for Teens - Discover Your Personality Type and Celebrate Your True Self'' was published in September 2014 by PLI Media.

CDs

On Wagele’s ''The Beethoven Enneagram'' CD (1999) she discussed

’s personality and life and plays from his piano sonatas to demonstrate her belief that the nine Enneagram types can be heard in his music. On her ''Enneagram Variations'' CD (2006) she improvised variations on "Jack and Jill" and "Chop Sticks", playing them in ways that she believed expresses each of the nine Enneagram styles. Both of these CDs were performed at International Enneagram Association conferences.
International Enneagram Association Past Conferences

References

External links

''Psychology Today'', "The Career Within You" semi-monthly blogs 2009 to 2017 by Elizabeth Wagele''Psychology Today'', "Obituary: Elizabeth Wagele (1939-2017)" by Ingrid Stabb
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wagele, Elizabeth 1939 births 2017 deaths American women cartoonists American classical musicians American self-help writers Artists from Berkeley, California Musicians from Berkeley, California Artists from Salt Lake City Writers from Berkeley, California Women in classical music Writers from Salt Lake City Musicians from Salt Lake City Classical musicians from California American cartoonists 21st-century American women