We all wear masks. Some call them aspects and in astrology, they are represented by the signs and the planets in our charts. They are different parts of ourselves that we create to navigate our world. We use the masks all the time and we change between them seamlessly.
We wear the at home mask then change to a parent mask when our child walks in from school. We put on our driving mask and head off to our parents house. There we change the mask and become a child to our parent. We put on our work mask when we go to work, a manager, an employee. We wear a partner mask, a sister mask or a brother mask, we are a cousin and an aunty, an uncle, a friend, an artist, a ceo, a farmer, a technician, a good person, a helper, a successful person, a failure, a strong person or any other to fit the occasion. You get the idea.
Our essence, which is non-definable, can easily create new masks to engage with the different experiences and the roles we play.
There can be a tendency to strongly identify with a particular mask and to confuse it with who you really are. Not realising that there are multitude of other masks to replace the role you thought you were. And this can become a problem when the conditions change. You loose your job. The children fly out of the nest. Your partner leaves.
These kind of changes can create a lot of stress, struggle and suffering if the identity is primarily connected with the one role. People can experience depression. Many Japanese men committed suicide when they lost their job in the recent financial crisis. Parents may try to hold on tightly and not let their children go.
Being a rock, a 'man of steel', a stable, steady and unchanging person used to be virtues, but they worked for a different era. The world was different then. Today there is no standing still and the pace of change will only quicken. The ability to change is essential.
The many changes that we face can be traversed in an elegant and resilient way. It helps to play with our own masks and this gives us the experience of just how malleable, adaptable and flexible we really are. Awareness, as always, is the key. Notice how you change the roles that you play in different situations. How easily you put on a suitable mask. Explore different and new situations and notice how quickly you create a new mask and adapt.
This will give you the experience and the realisation of just how many options and potentials you have and how easy it is to recreate yourself in a new way. Then the change can be something to look forward to rather than be feared.