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Making Spirit Masks
an article by Lauren Raine
Masks
are truly magical tools. Making a mask, wearing
a mask, finding it's hidden story and performing
with the very unique mask you made, can provide
many powerful opportunities for personal insight
and alchemical transformation.
Who are we, beneath the many masks of our lives?
What faces do we wear in the course of a day,
a year, a lifetime? What are the mythic masks
that inform our stories of who we are? Can we envision
our "social masks", our "shadow masks", our archetypal
masks, the Deities within each of us? Masks can
immerse us in the myths of our lives, and can help
us to find the voices of unclaimed and abandoned
aspects of ourselves that are crying for expression.
Creating and exaggerating the expression of our
"social masks", for example, can help us to loosen
identification with them, finding humor, and sometimes
no small sense of the tragic as well, by consciously
interacting with them. We find we have the freedom
to literally take those weighty masks off, to dance
more lightly within them. Making a mask of the
"Inner Child", discovering what she or he has to
say, how that buried child moves or dances, can
set free a playful vitality buried for too many
years beneath the roles we have assumed as adults,
as "professional people", as parents. Making the
"Mask of the Shadow" can also be a profoundly revealing
exercise, a ritual to name and acquaint ourselves
with our internal "monsters", the inner demons
we project onto others unless we know what their
faces look like within ourselves. They can commune
with us within the mask, through our creative imaginations,
through improvisational dialog, or within the sacred
circle of ritual theatre.
Masks, animated by our vision and our bodies, become
living metaphors, doorways into the house of our
multi-dimensional selves. In tribal cultures around
the world, masks were always made and used with
a great deal of ceremonial preparation, as they
were intended to house the spirits of the Gods and
Goddesses, the Ancestors or totem animals the tribe
wished to invoke. This same sense of the sacred
can belong to a group that enters the Magic Circle
with their masks. To wear the Mask of the Green
man is to invite that great archetypal being into
your own spirit, to make the Mask of Gaia is to
find Her presence within ourselves, and all the
Circles we share.
SPIRIT MASK WORKSHOP
With your Circle, be it a coven or a small group
of friends, begin by choosing a mythic archetype
that is important to you: an aspect of the Goddess,
or of the God, an Element, or perhaps a Power Animal
Guide. Discuss the qualities of the sacred presence
you wish to invoke. Do you need the fiery inspiration
of Bridget? Have you journeyed your personal descent
and rebirth this year? Would wearing the face of
Inanna, the Sumerian Goddess who made Her journey
into the underworld, help you to integrate your
experience? Do you need to reclaim Spring in your
life by calling the joyful Green man? Share what
the mask would mean to you. When you go home, make
an alter to the Persona of the mask, and begin
to incubate it by keeping a journal, gathering
poems, collecting objects, remembering synchronicities,
and inviting your dreams to inform your creative
process.
When you gather to make your masks set aside a weekend.
On the first day, share your writings and insights.
Then, make plaster casts of each others faces (plaster
impregnated bandages can be purchased from an art
supply store - and don't forget the Vaseline you
will need to liberally cover your face, especially
eyelashes, eyebrows and hairline!). When the mask
is dry, cut away the eyeholes and the nostrils with
an exacto knife, and trim the sides. Build on the
mask with more plaster bandage or papier-mâché if
you wish. Attach objects, leaves, and seashells
you've collected. Using acrylic paints, paint your
mask, and don't worry whether it is "perfect".
It is perfect as you imbue it with it with your
unique vision. When finished, varnish each mask
with an acrylic varnish or gel medium. Then place
them in the center of your circle to contemplate.
The next day, create a safe, sacred space in any
way you wish: by casting a Circle as a group, or
individually consecrating the space. Light votive
candles to invite the Spirits of the Masks to enter.
It is helpful to chose a member to facilitate,
sensing and calling transition points. Begin your
performance time by meditating on your mask; let
whatever comes up arise. Afterwards, play some
evocative music, and do some muscle stretching together
to relax your bodies and your minds. Separately,
claim your own private place within the circle,
and in that spot that belongs to you, explore the
mask. Put it on, see how it wants to move. Let
it move your body, and speak to you with your rhythms
or an inner dialog. If there is exuberance, dance
it. If there is sadness, investigate it. Allow
yourself to make any sounds that arise. You are
in a completely safe space, free to allow yourself
full expression.
When the facilitator senses it is appropriate,
she or he can invite the group to rest in their
places around the circle. As individuals feel the
desire, they may enter the center of the Circle
and perform the mask. What does this Being wish
to say? How does it move? What story does it tell?
How does it wish to interact with others, if it
does? Let it emerge in any fashion it wants to,
let the Spirit of the Mask come through you.
When the ritual performance is over, take off the
masks and place them in the Center. Thank the great
Beings embodied in the masks for joining your Circle,
and release them with gratitude to the Other worlds.
Place your hands on the ground, and devoke by sending
the energies you have held back down into the Earth.
Release the Circle, and then feast, drink, and share
your insights and experiences. You are now a sacred
performer.
Making
Spirit Masks - © Lauren
Raine 2000 |
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