With the Enneagram we see clearly the structure of our identity, so we can comprehend it for what it is – an adaptation, a defense proposition for the soul encased in a body. This amazingly effective and complex construct is of our own making. And it is pretty marvelous. We began creating it before thought, before language, before we knew we are separate beings relating to other separate beings.
Everyone knows their likes and dislikes, but few of us have an understanding or awareness of our core identity, and its behavior and motivations. As we adjust to this dimension of existence we let go of that state of perfect bliss that we came from, and enter fully into a reality where we need an identity structure to protect us and help us be held, loved and cared for. Our early impressions and interactions with our environment help us devise our own unique strategy for getting those needs met. In that process we begin to forget the essential ground of being that we were, and from which we came. The memory of it fades without our conscious awareness.
The identity structure gains the upper hand; telegraphs that looking towards the place of essence where we were is not a good idea. That way lies emptiness, a void, a dangerous unknown, or even something deathly. The ego identity does not want to be diminished. It will not give up control easily. Along with the help of the super ego (parental voice that gets internalized) and the Id (instinctual self) the situation is decided in favor of the of the identity construct, and the essence of pure being is obscured. This gives rise to a sense of both deep unnamed longing, the sense that something vital is missing, and a feeling of dread at looking within. We are both drawn and fear what we will find, which keeps us caught on the surface of things.
The gift of the Enneagram: it helps us notice and comprehend our identity structure so we can see it for what it is. The more you study and get to know your Enneatype, and its accompanying automatic habitual patterns and characteristics, the more transparent the identity construct becomes. You then begin to glimpse what’s underneath it – pure expansive yet grounded being. Increased contact with this true nature of yours enriches your experience of self so you can have the depth of feeling, intuition, awareness and mental reach you’ve always wanted to have. Touching these qualities more deeply in your own psyche is coming home to yourself.
You discover that you are part of a living intelligence that is vast and ever manifesting. It is love itself, the truest truth, pure joy, and profound stillness. The way toward this sense of presence, this home of the soul, is the way back through your very own being.
Enneagram work is essentially shadow work. There is a profound and real impact to be made in our selves, our families and relationships, and in our present social system, when we engage deeply with it. The more we look inward, and strengthen our knowledge and connection to our ground of being, the more effective and positively influential we will be in the world.