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Artwork - masks
by Robert Otey

The masks are like mirrors that reflect the patterns of face paintings worn during sacred ceremonies. The Huichol people understand themselves to be mirrors of the gods.

The Huichol people believe that the mirror reflects that which must be seen through in order to leave one's grand sense of self-importance and enter the place the Huichol call the "original times," before the separation of the whole into all its present forms: matter and ether, God and man and nature and the cosmos.

The masks are not worn in ceremonies, they are used to record information abut their mythology and traditions that they learn through their ceremonies, visions and dreams.


Six Inches
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Fourteen Inches
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Eight inches
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Courtesy Robert Otey and adapted here from his Site with his kind permission.

Published on January 1, 2006 by Robert Otey © 2006