Bridgit Mask

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"Brigit never really left Her sacred places. The women of Kildare still refer to her in the present tense.  The Catholics made Her Saint Bridgid, but She is really the ancient Celtic Goddess, the same one Great Britain was named after. Fires are still lit in Her honor, Brigid's well is still sacred. You can feel Her still immanent in Ireland, continuous from the distant past - the Lady who never abandoned Her people, even when they were driven from their homelands to the New Worlds."

Diane Darling

I am Brigid, Lady of the Celts
Creatrix of the Island of Ireland
Midwife to new life in the spring.

Leave a cloth outside your door -
For I shall be abroad on Brigid's Eve
I am Lady of the Flame, Mistress of changes

Feel my hand on yours as you craft your lives
I am Lady of the Well, the deep well
That reaches into the darkness and rises to the light

I am the fount of Inspiration for poet and bard
Call me by my many names: Breezh, Bridey, Brigit, Breed
Sweet Mary of the Gaels, midwife to Christ
When once again amongst us he is born.

I am with you, children of the children of
The Lost Isles, the Western Shores
Far flung, far from your homelands -
I have not forgotten you.

Remember me when the poet sings
When the cow rises from the calving
and the fever leaves the brow.

Raise a glass of golden mead to Brigid,
Lady of the Celts.

by Diane Darling (2000)
Photographs courtesy Thomas Lux

Amaterasu Omikami Mask

AMATERASU

 by Mary Kay Landon 

Hail and Awake!

You children of the blue, brown and green earth,

You who tread in space and time.

I come to you today from My shining abode

In heaven

Far away yet so close.

I am Amaterasu Omikami,

The Great Woman Who Possesses Noon,

Ruler of heaven,

Queen of all nature’s forces,

Goddess that is the Sun.

Golden, gleaming,

Startling, luminous,

Fierce — and gentle,

I light your way,

I warm your bones,

I stoke your tired feet,

I fire your imagination.

Without Me

And My brilliance that is so benificent,

The rice and all the other green things of the earth

Would wilt and die.

And there you would squat

At death’s door

Cold — hungry — wicked —

Doomed —

To a fate as premature shadow

In the valley of the dead.

I know, for it almost happened —

Just once.

My drunken brother Susanowo

So angered Me with his bloated pride

I took leave of you.

And hid My light self in a cave,

Refusing to move,

Refusing to come out

Even though outside

I knew

The dark air grew cold,

The plants no longer yielded fruit,

And the World began to die.

All this I nearly allowed —

But the other gods and goddesses,

Facing death, as well,

Gathered outside My cave.

They summoned forth an eight-armed mirror

And hung strings of jewels on the branches of the Sakaki tree,

They muttered ritual sayings,

And the voluptuous young goddess Ama no Uzume began to dance.

She danced —

And danced,

And danced

Whipping up an ecstasy so great among the gods and goddesses

That they began to laugh

And laugh —

Louder and louder

Hahahahaha

Hahahahahahahahha

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Finally I peeked out of the cave,

Demanding to know —

What the fuss was all about,

And then I saw Myself.

In the mirror.

Amazed by My beauty,

Stunned by the luminescence

Streaming off My brow and filling the world

Turning it once again green,

And coming back to Me

In this reflection.

Today I, Amaterasu,

Goddess of the Sun,

Come to you from My shining abode

To bestow upon you two gifts:

But with these gifts

You must also take

The eight-armed mirror.

Hang it outside your cave.

And aim it directly at your soul.

Then,

As I had done before you,

You must venture out of your cave,

Out into My light, My air.

And you must open your eyes,

Into that mirror,

And allow ME

To introduce

YOU  To  YOURSELF

As if, 
For the first time.

Welcome home.

Sayonara.

Inanna Mask

INANNA:  The Great Goddess of Sumeria

I am the morning and evening star 

I go down into darkness and arise dancing

I mount the sky to my high throne

The starry heavens are the robe upon my shoulders

I am the loud-thundering storm

The rain upon the land,

The shimmering midday heat

The welcome floods that feed the thirsty land

At the end of day, all creatures lift their eyes to me,

Make love in my name. 

And when sweet sleep has ended

I fill the bedchamber with day.

Once,  I went below

To my sister, Ereshkigal

To the the Queen of Death.

She took my  lapis measuring rod

She took my life into herself

She hung me to rot upon the wall.

But Ereshkigal could not bear the pain of living.

She traded my corpse away

For the promise of healing.

But I arose reborn:

And I returned to the above world.

I took back my rod

And  my crown and my lapis sceptre.

Every year my lover  Dumuzi

Leaves me grieving

to return to the halls of my sister.

The land mourns for Dumuzi.

But he is too is reborn, 
the shepherd of the fields and the  soil

To plough his seed into the Queen of Earth and Sky.

I bring you many gifts:

I bring the arts  of allure and delight,

And flax and cream and barley for your table,

I give you paper and pen, the book, the art of speech.

Oh, my people!

Parade before me in your finest robes,

Sing to me with your drums,

Make offerings to me,

Of incense, sweet-smelling cedar,

Fine, fat sheep, long-haired sheep,

Butter, cheese, and dates.

Return with Me from your shadow lands.

Use my gifts with honor.

Enter My House,

Eat from my table,

Sleep in my bed.

Take unimagined pleasures.

By Mary Kay Landon

painting by John Singer Sargeant

New Kali Mask

KALI

Once upon a time the world became populated by demons.
They filled the world with their copious greed,
and reproduced themselves endlessly. 

They consumed the light of day, they soiled the air
they ate the trees, they swallowed the waters
they devoured the lands 
with their insatiable greed

Eating, eating.  Fill me!  Fill me!

Until there were no more things of beauty made, 
or new dreams dreamed, 
or children born.

    The unborn ones called to me,
    The ones yet to come:

   The time had come
    to say Enough
    and No More

I am the Goddess of No More!

I, I am the one who devours
I, I  am the eater, fool.

I  am the shadow 
of all those who cannot remember
 how to say enough
and No More

Maybe I just feel like dancing.
Maybe I just feel like dancing......

I, I am the Mother
Of all those
who are yet to come

    Jai Ma
    Kali Ma  


 by Lauren Raine

 When the Hindu Gods could not defeat a plague of demons, they called at last upon Kali.

 Severed heads adorn Her necklace, Her skin is black as night, and Her tongue protrudes from Her black face with the bloodlust of battle, and the immense laughter of Kali, destroyer of illusion, who sees beyond all appearances. Kali's dance is the destruction that must occur for each new beginning. Kali's love is tough love; yet the dancing feet and the flaming sword of Kali are among the most powerful expressions of Divine Love.

I wanted to create a performance for Kali. As I drove to the event, I brought a costume, and snake with me, thinking the snake represented the serpentine energy of the kundalini. But I didn't know what to do.

I went on stage, and read a paper, I just let the mundane despair come out. "I can't stand it!" I said, and then I turned my back to the audience, just breathing, and whispered, "When I meditate, sometimes I become a Goddess......." Then I put on the mask. And a hot, hot energy seemed to rip through me. I turned around, and words fell out of my mouth.

As I picked up the snake, I remember saying, "This is the Kundalini, this is the serpent." I spoke about how we channel that enormous energy into sexuality, but we don't understand that it can rise further into our hearts, our vision centers, infusing our entire being. All of this was spontaneous! I genuinely can't say it was I, Drissana, who did it. When I went into the dressing room later, I was shaking. It was as if Kali had left, and I was just this small, exhausted person, who for a moment had been inhabited by that ferocious intelligence.

Kali is the surgeon. She cuts away what has to go. I ask for that quality when I have to cut something out of my life; an addiction, or a relationship that no longer is about growth. And I ask it be done precisely, this cutting away of dis-ease, malignancy, the aspects that no longer serve. Kali was the last resort savior. When the Gods couldn't kill the demonic forces that ravaged the Earth, they called on a woman's wrath.

We all have the ability to call the Goddesses into ourselves. I can do this in my dance, but in everyday life it's more difficult. That's why I thrive on performance, because I can freely let those forces work through me. What I forget is that we can call on them at other times. We've forgotten that the Goddess dwells within us, all the time, and not just when we wear a mask, or are in workshop, or a ritual. We are, in Tantric terms, extensions or emanations of the Gods and Goddesses - we are their material aspects. We're not bodies that are seeking the spirit, we're spirits that are seeking bodily experiences.

Remembering is a devotional practice. In the Hindu tradition, everyone has a deity they focus on as their personal deity. In the West, as we begin to reclaim the Goddess for spiritual practice, we each need to create a relationship with the Goddess form we have chosen, in order to manifest what we need for spiritual and emotional growth, to invoke the help we need. That practice is not just cerebral. We function out of our whole self, our bodies and spirits. The body-mind. That is where we re-member, we communicate with the Goddess within ourselves.

Women need to become angry. Now.   About the women of Afghanistan, the meaningless wars, the destruction of our environment. The demons of insatiable lust are devouring our planet. Those souls who await the future are being denied their birthright. 

Kali is the catalyst for saying "No more". She's the voice of women whose voices aren't being heard, women who need to open their mouths and speak for the first time. It's time to embrace the sword of Kali and start cutting away the delusions that are destroying our world. This is the ferocious mother who says "get away from my children, or I'll kill you." Mothers today aren't saying that. They're giving their children away. Giving them away to war, giving them away by allowing our environment to be depleted, giving permission to the powers that be to destroy their future. 

This time of change is the dance of Kali.

by Drissana Devananda (1999)

New White Buffalo Calf Woman Mask

WHITE BUFFALO CALF WOMAN

As a beautiful young maiden I appeared bearing a sacred pipe,
And inside the village’s big medicine tipi,
together we conducted ceremony.

I showed the people
How to lift the pipe up to the sky,
toward Grandfather,
And down to the earth,
toward Grandmother.
And to the four directions of the universe.

I told them the smoke rising from the bowl
Was the living breath
of the great Grandfather Mystery. 

“With this pipe,” I said,“Walk a living prayer.
With your feet resting upon the earth
And the pipestem reaching into the sky,
Your body forms a living bridge between
The Sacred Beneath and the Sacred Above.
Now we are one:

Earth, sky, man, woman,
And all living things.
We are all relations,
The pipe holds them all together.” 

Next I instructed
In the seven sacred ceremonies of the pipe: 

The first was the sweat lodge purification ceremony.
The next was for naming the children.
The third was for healing,
The fourth was  the adoption ceremony.
The fifth  the marriage ceremony.
The sixth was the vision quest.
And the seventh  was the sundance ceremony.

As I walked away, I became a Buffalo, and I rolled over four times:

First I turned into a black buffalo;
Second  into a brown buffalo;
The third into a red buffalo;
And the fourth time I became a white buffalo calf.

 As soon as I departed that day
Great buffalo herds appeared from beyond the horizon
And some of their number allowed themselves to be killed
So the people might live.

I have not forgotten you.
That white buffalo calf born not so long ago,
Is but one glimmer from the beyond
Of My imminent return.

To grant your people
who are My people
another bridge
To knit the world above
And the earth below
Together again.


by Mary Kay Landon

"White Buffalo Calf Woman and the Sacred Pipe" By Marcene Quenzer

Long, long ago two young men were part of a hunting encampment in the rolling hills of the great prairies. As they scanned the horizon, among the long, waving grasses, they saw in the distance a light approaching. As the light drew nearer, they it became the figure of a luminous woman, walking through the prairie grass with long, flowing hair, carrying a bundle on her back.

These men were of two very different natures. The first man who saw her approaching looked upon her only with lust. He saw that she was a beautiful woman, alone and undefended in the wilderness, and he went toward her with intent to take advantage of her. As he approached, the mysterious woman opened her arms and her cloak, and drew him to her. As the other young man watched, he saw a brilliant light surround them. And after a short while, the woman opened her arms. From her shawls fell the bones of his companion. They fell from her arms, and crumbled to dust, quickly scattered to the four directions by the prairie winds.

The second young man was what was called a True Warrior. His desire was only to serve the greater needs of All Our Relations, to align himself in his intentions with the sacred Hoop. He spoke to this radiant woman with awe, and begged her to come to his people, to teach them. "Yes", she said to this good man, "I will come if you will go before me and prepare a lodge."

A great lodge was made. When all were gathered, the woman walked into the village, entered the lodge, and opened her bundle, revealing a catlinite pipe with a long feathered wooden stem. And then she taught them the sacred pipe ceremony.

"The bowl of this pipe" she told them, "is of red stone, and it represents the Earth, our Mother and Grandmother. And carved into the bowl is a buffalo calf, who represents all the four-leggeds who live upon our Mother, and who sustain us. The stem of this pipe is wood, which represents all the growing beings upon the Earth. And the feathers which adorn the stem are the feathers of the great Eagle, and they represent the winged ones. All these peoples are united in the pipe ceremony. When you pray with this pipe, all send their prayers with you to Wakan Tanka, the Great Spirit."

When she had given her teachings, the holy woman left the village, and walked out into the prairies alone. As they watched, in the far distance she stopped at a buffalo wallow. There, she rolled on the earth, and as the dust cleared, there stood a white buffalo calf, a white buffalo calf that disappeared as it ran into the distance. And the people named her "White Buffalo Calf Pipe Woman".

 from  BUFFALO WOMAN COMES SINGING

by Brooke Medicine Eagle, 1991

New Oshun Mask

OSHUN

 by Mary Kay Landon 

From the river Oshun deep in Nigeria

Whence came My name

I come to you today —

Clothed in burnished copper grace,

all done up with My cowrie shells and brass bracelets,

Sporting My fan, winking in My mirror.

You love Me, because you must —

Enraptured by My essence,

Snuggled in My tender-hearted embrace,

Permeated by My soft lust,

You can only want what I ask.

call on Me by name,

Oshun

Thoughts, Whispers, Words, Shouts

I hear, hold and answer to them all.

Oshun — Oshun — Oshun!

Call on Me by name

whenever women are  degraded,

whenever sweetness is despised

whenever kindness is shouted down,

whenever beauty lies broken.

Oshun — Oshun — Oshun!

Call on Me by name

when a child’s simple cry for a hair ribbon goes unanswered,

when a woman must give her body to sex without pleasure,

whenever the forces of greed once again

rape nature in the name of progress.

Oshun — Oshun — Oshun!

Call on Me by name

when the dry dust of habit and utility,

Threaten to blot out beauty and sensuality,

love and compassion, from the field of daily life.

Call on Me by name

And I will return

Sashaying in My orange skirts,

all done up with My cowrie shells and brass bracelets,

Sporting My fan, winking in My mirror.

To inspire and comfort you,

With My presence and touch —

Soft yes, but carrying a force

that can move mountains.

Ashay.  

Birth of Oshún by Karmella Haynes

Pele Mask

PELE


I am Pele Honua Mea
Ka wahine ‘ai honua,
the woman who devours the land.

Feel the heat where steam dances
above the earthcracks  at Wahine Kapu,
between the rope folds of pahoehoe lava.

See the play of sunlight
on My ebony skin
a shimmering rainbow of color.

I am She Who shapes the sacred land.

I erupted in the ocean long ago!
In ecstasy I spewed my lava into the sea
in clouds of red, and black and white
I built the islands called Hawaii.

Honor me and my sacred mountain, Kilauea!
Take not one small rock from my body!
Honor  me or feel my wrath!

E nihi ka hele, walk softly!

You call me capricious, violent.
But my fires are the deep fires of Creation
Shaping  new lands:
Deep in the sea
I stir the great waters
I stir the air

Rising from the core of the Earth -
I, Pele Honua Mea
stir the cauldron of life!

Use My energy in correct action
Use My passion for righteous change
begin again in new and fertile ground!

Ignite!  Be transformed

at this time of the great change!
Arise and dance with me!

                    .......Mary Kay Landon

Making masks for the Parliament of World Religions performance, here at last is Pele, the Great Goddess who is the Spirit of Kilauea, the volcano of Hawaii. 

Pele has many native stories, and many contemporary stories of Her peculiar, as well as fiery,  manifestations as well.......

My feeling in making this mask was that She is one of the great Elemental builders of the planet, those great intelligent forces that bring forth the molten source of new lands and new life from the heart of the Earth.

I look forward to seeing the mask performed!

The World Parliment of Religion 2015

http://www.parliamentofreligions.org/

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"What the audience saw when a dancer looked through the eyes of the mask was the Goddess Herself, an ancient and yet utterly contemporary presence, looking across time, across the miles."

Diane Darling,  Playwright

In Salt Lake City in  October  at the Parliament of World Religions a group of women and men will be  will be literally  “bringing the Goddess to life”.  “Goddess Alive!” is produced and written by M. Macha NightMare (Aline O’Brien), with Mary Kay Landon.  Participants will use my “Masks of the Goddess” Collection to create a ritual theatre event honoring the many faces of the Divine Feminine throughout the world.   

The Masks of the Goddess Project began in 1998, and since then the ever-evolving, multi-cultural collection of masks have travelled around the U.S. to different communities for dance, storytelling, exhibit, and personal invocation, always collaborative.

"The work of our group was not to re-enact the ancient goddess myths, but to take those myths to their next level of evolutionary unfolding. We are the mythmakers.”   

Katherine Josten, The Global Art Project

In 1999 I was invited to create masks for the Invocation of the Goddess at the 20th Annual Spiral Dance in San Francisco.   I wanted to offer the collection as contemporary "Temple Masks" devoted to the Goddess.    It’s been my great privilege to see the masks used in numerous communities, as well as to produce several events myself, and over the years an archive of performances, stories, and interviews has accrued as the Collection travelled, gathering story.  

 

What does the story of Sedna, ocean mother of the Inuit, have to teach us about reciprocity with  nature?   What happens when an audience member stands before the Gnostic "Mirror of Sophia"?   How is the "Descent of Inanna" about a woman’s journey toward wholeness?  What might Spider Woman, the native American creatrix/weaver, communicate to us as she weaves a Web with the audience?

As the Goddess is invoked through the masked dancer’s performance, these stories come alive as a visible Presence.   Through the medium of masks, we have sought to re-claim and re-invent for today the universal, ancient, important stories of the Goddess, as well as empowering women to explore each archetypal presence within herself.   Masks are potent bridges for transformation, and by working with the mask as both performance and invocation the process serves as a blessing for both the audience and the dancer. 

Macha Nightmare and colleagues such as Ann Waters, Mana Youngbear, Diane Darling and others have evolved some simple, and yet very effective ways to work with the masks and community ritual theatre – one such is the use of the “Greek Chorus” to tell each story as the dancers emerge.  They have also included in their performances original music by collaborating musicians, and a ritual component that allows for interaction with the audience/celebrants.
In 2013 I produced a new series I called "Numina - Masks for the Elemental Powers",  for a new play by Ann Waters - "The Awakening - Our Changing Earth".   The Romans believed that places were inhabited by  intelligences they called Numina, and many gardens or springs had little shrines dedicated to them, the "genius loci", of a particular place. I have often asked myself how we can regain this sense of  communion with the elemental powers of place that are the true wellsprings of myth. 

In the past, "Nature" was not  a "backdrop", or a "resource" – it was a  conversation with many voices and many faces.  The "Numina Masks" arise from worldwide Goddesses associated with place, such as fiery Pele of Kilaua in Hawaii, or The Lady of Avalon, felt so strongly at the sacred wells of Glastonbury….. or the deep mystery of the desert, the realm of the ancient “Bone Goddess”.  My masks arise from my imagination, but invite others to  collaboratively "join the conversation".  This year (2015) I continue to create new masks for the Masks of the Goddess Collection, and the collection continues to be available to groups and individuals.  For information:   www.masksofthegoddess.com 

References:

Darling, D. (2000)    Interview excerpt,  “Masque of the Goddess”,  Sebastopol, Ca (2000)
Josten, K. (2004).   Unpublished journal of “Restoring the Balance” cast, Tucson, Az (2004).

Photographs illustrating this article are with permission of  Thomas Lux, Ann Beam, and Jerri Jo Idarius.