Masks Revisited

[jarandhel]

I haven't really made much progress with designing my new mask yet... instead I'm being drawn to further explore the nature of masks and the ways in which I and others work with them. I would like to begin a dialogue with others on that subject.

I do not believe that I am unique in the way in which I work with masks... indeed, I have taken it for granted for quite some time that others use many of the same methods for working with masks that I do. This premise has seemed to be supported by finding examples of what I would view as maskwork in other magickal and mundane traditions. From the Jungian concept of the persona, to the passion plays of egyptian high magic, to the drawing down of the moon in wicca... all of these are things that I would view as one form or another of maskwork. As do the NLP concept of modeling and the magickal technique of associating one's magickal name with a somewhat older magickal persona that you desire to grow into. (I am unsure what tradition that technique comes from, it is one that I encountered as I was first becoming involved with magick and I no longer recall the source.)

My use of masks also seems strongly connected with the fact that I am quite aspected. I often find it easier to access memories or abilities that I have had in other lives by visualizing my body shifting into the body I had then, mentally clothing myself in the garments I wore then. My swordwork becomes smoother and more graceful when I visualize myself in my elven body in that manner. In a less kin-specific example, I also find it easier to speak in front of groups if I adopt my "human professional" mask. The mental mask helps to evoke certain traits from within me, allowing me to access them at need.

The problem is that masks such as the ones I use can also become restrictive. It is a kind of shapeshifting as much as it is anything else, and certain masks tend to limit the skills I will easily be able to access in a given situation. My human professional mask, for instance, leaves very little room for me to think of such things as magick, Flows, and even empathy. That is why I have decided to make a new one.

The new mask, the "elven professional" mask, is a sort of nested mask in a way... the concept being more or less that of an elf who uses his experience in intrigue and politics combined with subtle illusion and suggestion to pass himself off as a human and become successful in the mundane businessworld. It would also be easily adaptable for circumstances where the formal professional attitude is appropriate but there is no need for a human seeming. The mask is something of a mixture of invocation and evocation... evoking those experiences and traits that are already present within me which would be most useful for me to have access to in such a situation, while invoking those I wish to possess but have not yet achieved. It is based in part off of my own inner nature, and in part on archetypal figures who serve as fitting models for appropriate action in such circumstances.

Does anyone else work with masks in this way, or a similar way? Whether you do or not, I'm interested in hearing everyone's thoughts and reactions relating to all such forms of maskwork. Whether they are favorable ones or otherwise. :)

Comments

[ebonhost.livejournal.com]

Masks... hmm. Well, here we have two different but similar things. If one of the main Fronts, who are picked specifically to be able to move and function in our everyday life (job/social/whatever since, for example, Shane is not someone who would be allowed out in general public due to the fact that he's psychotic and unpredictable) needs to alter themselves slightly to fit what's needed (since they're often picked by relative ability to handle stress) then they mask themselves somewhat. In this way, both Erik and Kale, a 15 and 16 year old, respectively, masked themselves to appear older and more mature for our last job. They both tried to appear the professional, although we don't force ourselves to cover our eccentricities because we just can't bring ourselves to pretend to be someone we're not, if that makes sense.

The other main use of masks are our "polite" masks. These are the masks we wear so that Person A, who we have to be polite to for whatever reason (we need them to do something for us, someone we care about has asked us to be polite and not cause trouble, etc.) has no idea that while we're smiling and laughing with them we're probably thinking about torturing them or killing them very slowly on the inside or just in general about how much we don't like them. Case in point- our creepy slutty cousin who will sleep with anyone (including hitting on family members) and who is ruining her child by being unattentive thinks that I'm one of her best friends in all the world. So much so that I'm privy to some of her secrets. These work, I think, because of our naturally high charisma and our ability to deftly manipulate people into thinking or doing as we like. Thus, the mask we throw out looks very real to the person interracting with it. (This type of mask is more often used in personal situations than our professional business mask, which can hide dislike of co-workers or bosses, but doesn't seem as efficient at it.)

The thing we use that we don't consider masks is programs. Programs are different because they're not used by any one person. Programs run independantly to accomplish their tasks. The problem -we- find with programs is that they tend to mutate and become "alive" since we have to put a lot of personality groundwork into one. (It's really, in all seriousness, like creating a person. An intentional personality split, if you prefer.) This method has been used for everything from storing our anger (Jasper), to creating independant beings who are supposed to be able to maintain a completely unbiased view of our life (Erik, Sigurd) so that it can get us out of a bad situation and/or take over if something traumatic happens to us. We also, at least once, used that method to deliberately clone someone in here, but that is considered an illegal use internally and the person who did so got in trouble.

Did that make sense? (I just got up, so I'm not sure...)

[jarandhel.livejournal.com]

It makes sense to me. I think that my idea of masks is closer to your idea of programs, but still well before the point where they would split off into a seperate individual.

[feonixrift.livejournal.com]

I distinguish between inner and outer 'masks'.. The inner ones being useful personality constructs for viewing the world, the outer ones being ways of interfacing with society. For me, any inner mask can use just about any outer mask .. although the effects can differ greatly. I also create, destroy, and modify both on a regular basis.

This separation means, for instance, that by knowing the bounds and rules of a "corporate" outer mask, I could use that as a way of expressing the opinions of any inner mask.. So 'elven corporate' or 'goth corporate' or 'cute girly corporate' or 'very unavailable girl corporate' or 'govsuits are us corporate' would just naturally follow for me.

The caveat to that is .. inner masks have to be done to a very high detail level for that to work, and it still takes a little while to adapt things. Also, outer masks have to be quite abstract, which can be hard to accomplish against the conformist pressures of society.

(Sidenote: Inner masks != personalities.. More like frameworks of thought, some parts of the mind may or may not understand them. For me, personalities are also a fluid and everchanging thing (for the most part), yet (for instance) I can still understand and use the inner masks that I initially made as a kid.)

(Sidesidenote: While this scheme works for me for the most part, I'm adding another detail to it currently.. Namely that all masks, inner or outer, are going to have aspects of the very long standing parts of my personality firmly embedded in them. I consider this kind of internal metaconsistancy useful for protection against the battering influences of the world, but haven't had a chance to test it out yet .. still working on the design stuff.)

[jarandhel.livejournal.com]

Hmm... I think that for the most part I blend what you would consider inner and outer masks... I think this is because I find it difficult to dynamically adjust things for every possible pairing of inner and outer mask. It's easier for me to make a completely seperate mask for each pairing and slip into them as appropriate. In practice it's probably the same thing more or less, just a different naming convention and perhaps more planning given to what each pairing would be like.

[zaecus.livejournal.com]

Yes. That sounds familiar, and is very close to what I'm working on right now if it's not actually the same thing. However, although I tend to start and finish the process consciously, I don't keep a controlling eye and conscious record of what all goes into the mask if have any intent of it becoming permanent, like what I'm doing now. I find that, for me, knowing how it was built makes it way too easy to take apart at inopportune times by just wondering why I did/said/thought something the way I did.

[jarandhel.livejournal.com]

I find that the subconscious associations I make serve to flesh it out sufficiently that I won't spontaneously tear it apart... but everyone functions differently with regard to stuff like that. :)

[jarandhel.livejournal.com]

I've thought of one other thing that I use my masks for that I had not mentioned previously: projecting an aura which affects the perceptions of others. For instance, if I project the qualities of maturity and competancy, my human professional mask becomes much more effective at achieving its purpose. It's a fairly standard use of what I would consider maskwork, and is also the most common modern example of the uses of glamour that I am aware of.