mask-making!

We got to do a really cool activity in class today, one that I really enjoy teaching. Mask-making! We've just begun the "ritual" part of our "Story & Ritual" course, and I wanted to start them off with something very "real" -- something they could see and touch and experience in a very real way.

It was really interesting to me how they had a difficult time with the concept of "intention". I asked them to write down an intention for the ritual process, something that they would like to learn about in themselves or explore more deeply. Most of them really didn't believe that they would get anything out of it other than a "cool mask". But they did it anyway.

One of the great things about this ritual is that it is actually a really scary experience. You need to sit for about 20 minutes, perfectly still, without being able to see or talk. And then your mouth and nose get covered up for a little while at the end. It's very dark and kind of frightening. You feel a little helpless, too, depending on your partner to make sure nobody steps on you and that you have sufficient room to breathe.

And then, finally, you get to pull the mask off.

But it's not that easy. The plaster is stuck to your face, your eyebrows, your eyelashes, your facial hair. (Unless you covered it with enough Vaseline in the beginning, which most people don't.) So when you actually finish peeling off this plaster Band-Aid and open your eyes up to the bright sun and sky . . . well, it's a little like a re-birth. Not a huge deal, but there is definitely some emotional stuff that comes off on that mask.

So we'll do the rest of the masks on Friday and then they have a week to decorate them (absolutely any way they want) then present them to the class.

Teaching was really fun today.

Posted: Wed - October 15, 2003 at 11:22 PM

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mask-making!

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