Samhain costume & mask
Asphodel, the primary spiritual community of Cauldron Farm, has a Samhain ritual. Each year a different tradition or lineage is chosen, and the afterlife or underworld or whatever is presented, staged outdoors, with participants usually going down the woodland path and into the ritual field, with stations or activities along the way. We have had some real great events, usually organized by someone who is affiliated with that particular path or pantheon.
This year the theme was the Tibetan Book of the Dead. I was the King of the Hell-beings, so I made a mask and then put together the rest of the costume. It was my first time doing a mask with Rigid Wrap (muslin strips with plaster), and I used Fast Mache for the eyebrows. The latter is a fluffy stuff which you get wet and shape. I didn't have the best means for mixing and forming, so it was a bit of a mess. But wonderful stuff. Actually it was my first time making a mask of this sort at all. It was intended for an evening ritual, so I was OK with its imperfections.
While I was sad to miss the entire effect of the dozen or so encounters, the King of Hell rules over those who are consumed by anger, who will be reborn as hell beings. The antidote is love. Being someone who has plenty of anger to sling at the institutions of injustice, it was good for me to don my regalia and sit in my sector of the labyrinth under the full moon, waiting, with the other rulers of the lokas, for the crowds to process through the preceding bardo phases. Good to contemplate where hanging on to anger can get a person, and what the power is which redeems.
Photos behind the cut!
This year the theme was the Tibetan Book of the Dead. I was the King of the Hell-beings, so I made a mask and then put together the rest of the costume. It was my first time doing a mask with Rigid Wrap (muslin strips with plaster), and I used Fast Mache for the eyebrows. The latter is a fluffy stuff which you get wet and shape. I didn't have the best means for mixing and forming, so it was a bit of a mess. But wonderful stuff. Actually it was my first time making a mask of this sort at all. It was intended for an evening ritual, so I was OK with its imperfections.
While I was sad to miss the entire effect of the dozen or so encounters, the King of Hell rules over those who are consumed by anger, who will be reborn as hell beings. The antidote is love. Being someone who has plenty of anger to sling at the institutions of injustice, it was good for me to don my regalia and sit in my sector of the labyrinth under the full moon, waiting, with the other rulers of the lokas, for the crowds to process through the preceding bardo phases. Good to contemplate where hanging on to anger can get a person, and what the power is which redeems.
Photos behind the cut!
