Enneagram // From Ego to True Self – With the Help of the Enneagram

Being happy, living a fulfilled life, realizing one’s potential, and finding self-actualization within a nourishing and secure web of relationships, where we can simply be who we are—who wouldn’t want that?

As social mammals, humans long for genuine contact and true connection with others. For this to happen, those around us need to be in true contact with themselves—something that, unfortunately, is quite rare. Others can only truly see and love us when they truly see and love themselves, and know who they really are. Only then can they see us as we truly are.

Thus, despite all the care and attention we receive after birth, we are often fundamentally alone in the true sense of the word. Loneliness, as a deficient form of being alone, is accompanied by neediness (longing for love and recognition), fear (of isolation and being lost), and anger (stemming from despair, powerlessness, and hopelessness). These form the three fundamental centers of our ego-experience as we become what others—based on their expectations—want us to be, in order to at least artificially belong. As a result, instead of developing our True Self, we form an artificial self—the ego—that we eventually come to believe is who we are.

Most people still have a vague connection with their core and feel that something fundamental is missing. Unable to find it within themselves, they search for it outside—in relationships, careers, leisure activities, faith, or other value systems, as well as in status and material goods. Some realize, however, that these external things cannot fill the inner void, and so they begin to search within, turning their gaze inward and confronting what they actually find there.

On this inner journey, one needs the desire to be authentically oneself, along with a stable focus, clear awareness, and self-regulation, in order to face, in a controlled and regulated way, what has so far felt overwhelming and has been avoided. The Enneagram, which emerged from this introspective process, can serve as a helpful map for this journey.

In its graphical representation, the Enneagram forms a circle, symbolizing unity and wholeness. The three fundamental centers of the ego—neediness, fear, and anger—are depicted as three sectors of this circle of unity. Each sector corresponds to a body zone: neediness to the chest (emotions), fear to the head (thoughts), and anger to the gut (instincts and body sensations). Each of these three sectors has three manifestations, resulting in nine Enneatypes. Each of the nine Enneatypes has two neighboring types that influence it, three subtypes, and is connected to two other Enneatypes, reflecting the dynamic nature of the human psyche.

The Enneagram is a psycho-spiritual map that allows us to become aware of our subconscious identification with one or more Enneatypes and awaken to what we truly are. This is the transformation from ego to True Self.

Simply learning about the Enneagram and seeing it as a system of personalities will not liberate you! On the contrary, it may lead to an even stronger identification with your ego-personality. First and foremost, you must genuinely want to be free in a profound and existential way. It must be about the pure truth of what and how being is, and thus also about what and how you truly are—no matter the cost!

This requires an all-encompassing need, a fundamental intention, and a non-negotiable determination, unshakeable courage, and steadfast perseverance, to truly be authentic and free within. It requires an unwavering commitment to truth, a pure existential love for the truth!

In addition, it requires detailed knowledge of the entanglements in which one is trapped, and the practical wisdom of proven methods of self-exploration and transformation, to free oneself from these entanglements. All of this is provided by a teaching of the Enneagram rooted in the essential!

Eventually, you will awaken and free yourself enough from unresolved entanglements to know, through direct experience, that you are the universe, being, pure consciousness—individuated and incarnated here and now as this human being. And as this fulfilled Self, you will shape and live your life moving forward!