At the beginning, the hero lives fully in his Identity - the emotional armor we all carry to protect us from our deepest fear... our wound.

This is our persona, a false self we present to the world. Through the course of the hero's life, he must gradually confront…

… and overcome that fear to achieve whatever goal he sets for himself. The hero must abandon this emotional armor and…

… risk standing up for who he truly is, as he strives to transform from the mask that we call ourselves into the Essence of what we really are.

[Latin - essentia; "to be" - the inward nature, true substance, or constitution of anything, as opposed to what is accidental, phenomenal, illusory]

For three simple words represent the journey we all share. An adventure we all encounter, created by the cosmos to reveal the very best of us, our Essence.