Female Masks

About the deck

A deck about what a woman puts on over herself to be accepted, and about the air that is missing underneath it.

The deck holds 160 metaphorical associative cards: 80 pictures of women in various states and 80 strips describing feelings, qualities and states.

The point of the deck is that many states and reactions turn out to be put on rather than natural: a defense, or simply a convenient mask with the real woman hiding behind it.

The deck works with three levels. A mask is put on for a short time and comes off easily. A costume is a role a woman has to live in for a long time because of circumstances. A diving suit is the one with no air in it, the one a woman lives inside for years, often without realizing it.

The aim of the work is to find your masks, costumes and diving suits and come back to being natural, feminine and strong in your own right.

The deck can be used as a deep diagnostic, clarifying, deepening, resourcing, transformational and supporting tool in counseling, therapy, training and psychological transformation games.

With the “Female Masks” deck you can

• see your masks in different situations
• notice the moment when being natural is lost
• tell a light mask from a costume and from a diving suit
• understand what each mask is put on for and what it protects
• review your psychological defenses to see whether they are still needed
• see where a woman plays a role without realizing it
• understand what living without air in a diving suit costs
• find a safe way to take off what is not needed
• recognize your true self without masks and roles
• bring back your natural reaction as a source of strength

Questions to ask the deck

Work starts from these questions. Choose one, the one that speaks to you more strongly than the rest, and work with it, because only one role is examined well in a single session.

1. How do I look in this situation?
2. Which mask, costume or diving suit am I wearing here?
3. Which one do I use most often in my life?
4. What do I need to take off in order to be myself?
5. Which of my reactions are not natural to me?
6. Where do I pretend?
7. In which situations do I play a role without noticing it?
8. What is my most effective pretending strategy, and what does it solve?
9. Which role is it time for me to stop playing?
10. Where am I short of air?
11. Who would see me as I really am?
12. Who was I before I put this on?

The whole series

“Woman Within Me” is 10 decks that work as a single system: light and shadow, the girl within, the mirror of truth, breakdowns of energy, masks, sources of harmony, artifacts of power, portraits and archetypes.

See the whole series →