Some New Masks.......

"AURORA (Dawn)"

 My friend Ann Waters is organizing a ritual event for the Winter Solstice, and as we have worked together with masks in the past, I'm delighted that she and her group are doing so again.  So these PERSONAE for the dawning of a  New Age arose from my imagination.

Dawn, of course.

"OUR LADY OF CHAOS AND ORDER"

 And these two Personae that speak, to me at least, about the cycling of all dualities, their ultimate union.  Things are ordered, things fall apart.  I think this will be the first study I'll do on "Shadow" masks, because I believe that integration of the shadow is so vital to our time, integrating balance.***

'PERSEPHONE"

Persephone, Greek Goddess of the underworld and wife of Hades, the God of Death, is also the maiden daughter of Demeter, the bringer of Spring.  In the natural world spring becomes summer, becomes fall, and becomes the darkness of winter.  And from that ending comes new life again in the Spring.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 ***From "Myths and Dreams"( http://mythsdreamssymbols.com/majorarchetypes.html)

Painting by Christina Carbone

"Jung's formulation of the concept of the archetype he called the `Archetype of Wholeness', or the Self, is fundamental to Jungian or analytical psychology. The self has to be distinguished from the ego. The ego is the conscious mind. The self is the total, fully integrated psyche, in which all opposing or conflicting elements are united and co-ordinated. Bear in mind what Jung says about the relationship between the conscious and unconscious, the unconscious contains the opposite characteristics or capabilities to those that are evident at the conscious level of the personality (e.g. if you are the extrovert type your unconscious will be introvert). At this final stage of individuation conscious and unconscious become so thoroughly integrated into one harmonious whole that those things that were previously opposites and therefore - potentially, at least - in conflict are transformed.  Jung described this state of self-realization as follows:
"This widened consciousness is no longer that touchy, egotistical bundle of personal wishes, fears, hopes and ambitions which has always to be compensated or corrected by unconscious counter-tendencies; instead, it is a .... relationship to the world of objects, bringing the individual into absolute, binding and indissoluble communion with the world at large."