To close the gap between masks and identity, there is another tool of the shaman called a fetish. Cultures the world over have used fetishes of one type or another, and I don’t mean a subject of obsessive thought. I mean an object that is believed to be possessed, not by the shaman but by one of the powers of the universe, be that a spirit or something more abstract.

The cross is a fetish? Yes, indeed it is.

Now the purpose of the fetish is to give this power an independent place, its own space, and make it easy to focus on and interact with. We have fetishes still, but we spit in the face of masks.

iPhones? Yes. We revere the great god success, and we perceive that many things are supposed vessels of this success. If we have the fetish called a degree or the fetish called money. Money is nothing other than a fetish, worthless beyond its association with an idea. We think we choose fetishes freely.

I guess any “ism” can be a considered a fetish if it gains any ground in shaping people? An “ism” is a mask, one of the death masks. The difference between a fetish and a mask is whether we relate to it as an independent presence, or we identify as it.

Now let’s remove all masks from everything. Imagine that for a moment, and then, if you will, describe what some aspect of your life would be like without masks.

Aimless.

The first thing I thought of was a group of undead zombies going after a piece of meat. Zombie is still a mask. You have to remove it too. Zombie is just a death mask.

A world full of objects? How would we know an object without putting a mask on it?

Without the mask of skin, we would suffer endless infection. Indeed. We would rapidly die, as we would become a feast for every fungus and bacteria imaginable.

It would be a formless world? It would be a formless world. The original meaning of the word soul in Greek was a reference to form, otherwise you have formless matter.

Formless = soul less? Yes.

Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.

Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~