Quotes about Masks

To God's magnificent masquerade - as us!

Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.

Days I kept busy
with fractured angels' client masquerades.

Ever since learning I wasn’t the only unreal person in the world, I’d developed an annoying habit of studying people to determine their true ontological status. I studied people in class, the library, the cafeteria, my dorm, around campus, while running the Gargoyle Castle Loop. Now, under the influence of acid, I began to suspect everyone was unreal. That behind all the masks and makeup, the smiles and laughter, the quips and repartees, there was a good chance of finding absolutely nothing.

All of these are names given me by other people, but not names I would have given myself.  My name is not mine, it's theirs.  It's a series of costumes put on my life by other people.

Our lives can be considered a sacred quest.  It is a quest which may have begun in this lifetime or many lifetimes before.  It is a quest to find ourselves:  who and what we really are.  To do this we must first cease to pretend to be what we are not.  We must cast away our Persona or mask.  We must be prepared to confront the Shadow, that which we are and rather were not.  Only then can we unify our conscious and unconscious minds and so give birth to the hidden Sun - the Self.