“Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask and he’ll tell you the truth.”

– Oscar Wilde

Purim is around the corner. I’ve been thinking about this idea, how dressing up – mixing up and playing with the external presentation of our appearance – can sometimes be just the key to a deeper expression of our truth.

The 5th line in Human Design carries a lot of projection. People see what they want to see in you. It’s often advised to wear something to distract away from the projection field.

Someone once suggested, “Perhaps wearing glasses is just the protection you need from the world”.

This idea that sometimes the truth of what you have to say, or even of who you are, needs a filter somehow. Or else it’s too strong.

That’s what clothing is.

Alef is the letter of the soul, pure spirituality.

The following three letters area what cover it. They spell beged – which means either clothing – or betrayal.

Do you let your outside presentation completely disguise who you are and betray your inner essence? Or do you let your clothing reveal as it covers?

And how exactly do you do that?

By carefully picking your clothes so that they are as near as possible an expression of who you are?

By dressing uniformly to divert attention elsewhere, onto what you really want people looking at? So you have more time to spend on other things?

By choosing costumes that are so outlandish and “not-you” that they immediately beg to be interpreted and fit into the concept of who you are?

I don’t know if there are right or wrong answers. Perhaps it’s a question of style.

But there’s one day a year in the Jewish calendar where we get to play with our own and other people’s expectations of who we are and what we look like. We get to experience our energy filtered through a costume. And in some way it brings out hidden parts of us that don’t always get to see the light of day.