Dream meaning Dreaming of a mask

A mask in a dream asks who you are when your face is hidden. It is a dream of roles, protection and concealment, and of the distance between the face you show and what lies behind it. The reading asks who wears the mask, whether it comes off, and whether it hides, protects or plays. Masks are among humanity's oldest tools of transformation.

The Latin word persona first meant an actor's mask, and Carl Jung borrowed it for the face we present to society. Faith traditions draw a careful line. The Prophet warned against the two-faced person who comes to one group with one face and to another with a different one, yet he also taught that God loves modesty and the covering of faults.

The Malamatiyya Sufis of Nishapur went further, hiding their devotion behind an ordinary face so that their piety stayed between them and God. Rumi cautioned that many a devil wears a human face, so a hand should be taken with care. Molière gave France its masked hypocrite in Tartuffe.

Wearing a mask yourself is a role you are carrying before people, and the dream is weighing whether it is honest or two-faced; a mask stuck to the face is a role that has taken hold of you. Others in masks are people whose intentions are hidden from you, and the dream counsels care in whom you trust, without accusing anyone.

A mask falling is something concealed coming to light: relief if it was a burden, exposure if it was a deceit. Choosing a mask for a festival is play and ease, and a protective mask is a covering of faults that God loves, kept for good reason.