Masks

Masks of fear

Masks of sorrow

Masks of happiness

Masks of pain

Masks of wealth

Masks of innocence

Masks of messages and stories once told

How much longer can one go on

It cracks 

and peels

and it distorts with time

Stories you once told yourself 

have turned

and wriggled 

and riled into a new form

A monstrosity of once what was

Peeling away the layers

Unprepared

You are not ready yet

But the keys lay there right in front of you

Too sick

Too weak

Not smart enough

Not young enough

Not old enough 

Not pretty enough

Not strong enough

Not…

… enough.

But you hold the key

all this smoke…

dissipates

and the mirrors…

…they shatter

And you are left with the core 

The seed

The true you

Fresh faced

Bright eyed

You let it all fall away

…and discover there is life

There is…

… you. 

Inhaling new life

It peels the layers one by one

You exhale

Taking your first step

Leaving the mountain of masks behind

©️ K. K. Powell

About the poem masks, a deep dive.

In one of the last writings, I talked about the many different hats that we wear. It was in the Hummingbird dream decoded episode, and deep dive. We looked at how one hat can weigh you down and flood over other priorities leaving us neglecting our other hats. Let’s talk about the masks we wear. These are the different masks that we wear every single day of our lives.These are masks for survival if you will. Any intelligent person knows that you have to be a chameleon in order to benefit in your existence within any society. This doesn’t mean that you must change your whole identity, but it does mean that a certain part of you needs to play a certain part to get the role at given times. If everyone could be their true and authentic selves in every moment of every day that would be wonderful. But the person who we are professionally is not the person who we are while we are at home with our friends or our loved ones. The person who we portray in courtship is not the base of who we are. The egoic mind is not who we truly are. Speaking out in fear or in anger is not who we truly are. One might argue that it is who we truly are because they have a certain point. But is that who you truly are for the entire existence of your being? You might agree that it’s not. The person who says or does things to gain popularity maybe wearing a mask that isn’t aligned with who they truly are either. 

This past year we had the lovers card of the tarot deck to define our year. When we think of the lovers card we think of a man and a woman or a pair of lovers if you will. They are standing next to each other with the sun shining down on them, blessing their courtship. Their union is divine. This is not always about the relationship between two people though. The lovers card for me is about being truly aligned with yourself. When we aren’t truly aligned with who we are deep down, we keep on wearing many masks over and over and over again. Our true self is buried under an avalanche of masks high up on that mountain. We start to miss who our authentic selves are.

As the previous year comes to a close, we enter the first new moon of the new year which is also lunar new year. In the year of the rabbit, perhaps we should think about how we are closing out the last year. What masks do we want to leave behind? What stories did we tell ourselves and others that we want to leave behind in order to create new stories.

In this new year we enter in with the chariot card of the tarot deck. The chariot card has the image of a person in a chariot with the horses chomping at the bit.

We enter the new year with the new moon, and a fresh start. It is the feeling of hunching down into a runner’s lunge. You breathe deep, and steady your heart rate as you wait for the person to sound the gun so you can start your race. This feeling is eminent. In whatever race it is that you are going to run this year to reach your goals I wish you much luck, success, and happiness. If any setbacks happen along the way, come back to this poem. Meditate. Remember who you are at the core. Take a deep breath. Slow down. Most importantly, remember…you got this!

Happy first new moon of 2023, and Happy Lunar New Year to all of you.

-K.K. Powell