The evolution of a mask

The Evolution of a Mask 

Masks have been used ask iconic spiritual dialog, versed for centuries as a voice, and a statement in meaning and spoken-unspoken verse. 

The comedy (Thalia)  and tragedy (Melpomene) masks of theatre are icons of the extreme nature of our human psyche. Originating from ancient Greece, they were a symbol of transformation, the symbol of expression,  an enactment depicting the extreme yet the human range of the mental-emotional consciousness and unconscious spirit that all of us have within one’s inner state. 

The world’s great indigenous cultures used masks as rituals, rites of passage, initiation ceremonies, healing rituals, war rituals, and held many social-cultural and valid meanings to explore by identifying their experiences and enacting of the expressive experience of both active and passive pathways steps.  They saw mask-based rituals as a collective union, a unity of feeling, passion, and united measures of direct intent.  Each mask came with a dance, a theme, a song, and a bio-energetic marker directing a statement of experience.  

In Western American spiritualist culture masks for eons have been made a statement of hiding the inner self, of not being true to the soul within, and have been archetypical in nature as a negative ego icon.  “Ones fooling themself, or lying to themself, or not being true to their own authentic nature” have been common to address a social-cultural statement of masking, especially since the 1930’S with the underground behaviors, keeping up with the jones, the inability to address duress, and the speakeasy culture. This became the voice of the unliberated mind, the adulterer, the reckless, and the mask’s greatest weakness.  

In the wake of healing theory,  in the 1960s and the eras where Jungian and Freudian, and other philosophies became sub-cultural explanations in theory the masks became blame and the ritual of linage, ancestry, and fault-blame reasoning of genetic inheritance vs social-cultural behavior put healing of one’s psyche into an impossible spin of taking responsibility for the theater within and the masks being unrecognizable without mindful observances and intentful self-awareness. 

In today’s new emergent culture masks have new emergent meaning.  We as a global culture have to address this meaning in our every day, the hidden meanings, and verbs are critical for us as a collective union to accept and understand.  These masks are meant to change our lives. To understand globally we have to regain the role of assuming responsibility for ourselves, our health, and the health of our planet.  These masks show us that we have lost sight of being Stuarts of healthy mindful living, Stuarts of the future longevity of the beautiful earth we all call home, of family and of the important values that the soul and spirit’s song within the god spark of all knows to be valued and true.   

We have a materialistic keeping up with the joneses culture- does it matter? We have selfish wants and desires driving us to extremes, does it work?  Do we have a want and waste culture in every garage, basement?  Do you value and treasure every object in your home?  We have global warming and our scientists and journalists do their best to try to explain it but lack a way to get it to who can make a difference.  

Covid is a sickness that represents our social-cultural, and societal ignorance of stewarding for a sustainable way. A statement that each and every one of us must take a role help. Today we have daily masks because of COVID variants which are a statement of being responsible to minimize the disease spread, to do your part to help the world crisis heal.  Masks are healing, a statement nature has made loud. Covid shows us the lack of sustainability in our cultural mentality and behavioral society bred by greed.  Our new cultural masks are asking us to take responsibility for our role,  responsibility for our own innate healing, to return to going within to address mindful psyche of emotional sustainable character, and to remind ourselves to address the spirit of integrity, the love of our home the planet, and heal our social-cultural behavior of greed driving the way of daily living.

Masks today are very emotional for all people, we share this in common. We all do our part, we all have a story and some of it is very saddening. Some of us lost those close and dear- I am not exempt. Some of us feel isolated and alone,  or have a hard time coping, and self work is very much among us for spiritual healing. We all are being challenged, no one is exempt, and yet the world will recover. Lets make it work.

Sincerely,

Cynthia WarwickCertified Holistic Health & Wellness Counselor Iwww.CynthiaWarwick.com

Cynthia Warwick is a  Ayurveda Certified Wellness Counselor, Life Coach, and a holistic complimentary alternative intuitive practitioner,  and mind-body-spirit- wellbeing counselor-teacher.