Which mask do you wear?

In 2020, one subject attracted maybe as much attention as the pandemic itself: “masks”. This simple but nowadays also potent word is able to trigger emotions, opinions, reflection and action. 

Different uses for different masks 

Masks have many uses, religious or shamanic rituals, entertainment, drama, aesthetics, war, disguise, protection, play, punishment. 

In shamanism, which is also universal and pre-dates any form of organized religion, it is believed that the one wearing the mask not only represents the deity, animal or demon, but they actually embody them fully. There is “no one else” behind the mask, there is only the deity in question, which is being acted out by the person wearing the mask. When a shaman or a kid playing is wearing a mask of a lion, or a monster, they are not “pretending” to be that being, they are the lion, they are the monster. The mask brings a transformational aspect to the whole representation of the ritual and marks distinctively the rupture between the one wearing it, and the one the mask actually represents. It also opens new possibilities of behaviour. One cannot roar or howl at random, but if one transforms itself into a lion or a wolf, it is not only allowed, such behavior is in a sense even expected by “the audience”. The mask protects the one behind it from any judgement, because in a (archetypal) sense, there is no one “behind that face”. 

War masks have a similar intent, applied in a different context. The one who wears it transforms themselves into a warrior-like figure, like the classic samurai mask, which protected the identity of the warrior, concealed his emotions and also had the intent to bring terror into the enemy. War face-paintings, from medieval times to modern wars, allowed this transformation and exempted the individual subject from their acts. The soldier’s identity is irrelevant, only their role exists. The uniform, mask and tools are there to make sure we all perceive that, on a consciously and unconsciously level. 

In ancient Greece, the use of masks in the theater had a functional and drama role. Athena had audiences of up to 15000 people and the use of masks made it easier for people from afar to be able to recognize the different characters and their main emotions throughout the play. The masks also helped the actors play their roles, embodying their character wholly. It is worth mentioning that women could not act in those plays, so men wearing feminine masks would play any female part. 

Masks can also be punitive, as the known history of the mysterious French prisoner wearing the Iron Mask, or the medieval “mask of shame”, resembling a donkey and usually forcefully put on a “bad pupil” or student. 

The psychological aspect

The Swiss psychoanalyst, Carl Jung, coined the term “Persona”, which is a Greek word borrowed from Latin and it means face, character, social role, mask. The Jungian term refers to the social masks we use in our lives. Whether you physically wear a mask or not, you’re certainly making use of different personas in the different social roles you play.

We naturally present ourselves differently in a family, a social circle, a love relationship, a professional role. In all of them, different masks are being put on and off, presenting different outputs of our personalities. For Jung, the development of a social persona is vital for adaptation and integrations of one’s psyche. 

The mask we use can have deep effects on our psyche depending on the archetype we are evoking. A mother will certainly evoke The Great Mother; a ruler or a person in a position of high authority can melt into The King or The Queen; a rebel or a prankster can turn into The Joker or Loki and someone acting on seduction and love, Aphrodite, Eros or Kama. They can be abstract and perceived through our actions, or very much literal and solidified into the mask device itself. 

The concern is when that identification with the persona or mask one is wearing is too strong, and one can only express oneself through that role; a mother through her children and not as a woman, a doctor through his profession and tools, a son with his constant attachment to his parents, a teacher though his books. The person has no perspective of their own reality as whole individuals and can only “exist” in relation with what society or others expect of them. They become their masks, the masks become them. 

Wearing a mask, a persona, makes it possible for us to simply function in the world. You cannot be the hunter, the father, the warrior, the dancer, the priest, the joker and the king, all at the same time. A set of priorities need to be attended and the different personas help us navigate through that, it gives us structure and stability. Jung believed that in the process of individuation, at some point you should be able to be in touch with “the one behind all masks”, but to dispense with all of them can simply bring shock to one’s psyche that cannot be sustainable for a very long time. 

We can say then, that another vital use for a mask is to bring order from the chaos. To have one or many identities, so that at some point in life you can perceive you’re not just these identities, you’re the unmanifested, making its appearance through the persona, one at a time, across our limited perception of linear time and space. 

But what do we feel when we are told we ought to wear a mask, which is the case with the present COVID guidelines? Whenever a new model of behaviour is created, there will be deviants from that model. Some people will see that adhering to it means conformity, a loss of individuality, of personal choice. Others will see a refusal to wear a mask as showing a lack of compassion and social responsibility towards others. Both attitudes can be discerned in Auroville at present. 

It is worth reflecting how many compromises we make when we decide to live in a community. To be part of it comes with rights and responsibilities, but it is always difficult to find a balance between individual freedom and collective responsibility. Aurovilians now more than ever need to be fully aware of these forces calling upon them and to find that balance, or, rather, attain to a consciousness that transcends these polarities. 

“The supramental being sees things not as one on the levels surrounded by a jungle of present facts and phenomena but from above, not from outside and judged by their surfaces, but from within and viewed from the truth of their centre”.