The Essence of the Inner Core

The four most important features of the Andean worldview which are found in their artwork are collectivity, reciprocity, transformation, and essence. Collectivity means that they the whole was more important than its parts, individual, which don’t have to be equal. Reciprocity is when a part is countered by or related to another. Transformation is dealing with one state of being to another and cycles, such as life and death. Essence is how the Andeans preferred symbolic reality over outward appearance. Although the mentality of Andean society was to favor the whole over the part, socially cultures were extremely unequal. Hierarchy dominated the social and political structure of most Andean cultures. The social hierarchy of the Andes influenced the art. Because the role of a person and his position in society were important, Andean arts also focus on a person’s position in society.

The Andean viewpoint focused on a cyclical thinking. Life and death were not seen as separate entities, but as just parts of a greater ever-revolving process. The world was seen as constantly changing between different elements and the art of the time showed this. Different transformations, such as shaman priests changing from their human form to animals to super naturals, united them of cyclical forms.

 Andean art tended to focus on a person’s role in society, rather than their specific personal qualities. Duality is found through the art’s stress on interlocked opposites, pairs, doubling and mirror images. Andeans believes in a universe of transformations form one plane of existence to another. The theme of transformation and cyclical thinking is seen through the dynamic circular compositions that can be found throughout the works of art.
The view , “essence” or the “inner core” was valued over outward appearance. For example, essence explains how the Nasca Lines are too large to be seen; it is not necessarily important that an image be visible for its essence to be conveyed. 'Andean art favored the symbolic reality, the inner core, over outward appearance.

What Mask Should I Wear Today?

“The most important kind of freedom is to be what you really are. You trade in your reality for a role. ...You give up your ability to feel, and in exchange, put on a mask.”

- Jim Morrison

Our mask is the image or facade we present to others. It is our false self that we developed in response to our environment. I think most people wear masks to protect themselves. Most people don't like to admit it but we all feel vulnerable about something. We have different reasons for using a mask. We may want to protect ourselves from getting hurt or rejected by others. We may want to become what others want us to be, in order to be accepted by them. Perhaps we feel no one would like or love who we truly are, so we hide our true self. Or we might not like ourselves so we try to pretend to be like someone else. When those situations come up, so do the masks. I think insecurity and fear lie behind most masks. Many of us just want to feel accepted.

If we are conscious of our masks then we know we are not what we pretend to be. Many are not aware of the mask they present to others.
What kind of mask do we wear? Our mask changes to meet the demands of the environment. In other words, our mask or false self depends on our external world whereas our real self relies on our internal world. Our mask reacts to the demands of our environment and our true self responds to our needs and desires. We may push ourselves to be perfect in how we look and/or how we act.

I also believe that sometimes you gotta wear a mask to get your point across or get stuff done... It's like putting on a game face for any given situation.