Awakening by Amy Judd
The persona is the mask we wear to fit in. It’s the carefully cultivated ‘face’ we present to the world so that we can make a distinct impression on others and adapt to almost any environment. In this day and age, the persona has earned a bad reputation as something fake and undesirable. But the truth is, the persona itself is inherently neutral; Jung even deemed it necessary! It can serve a positive purpose as long as you have a healthy relationship to it.
Why Can’t We Just Act Natural?
The persona is formed by the ego to maximize pleasure and minimize pain. It wants to ensure that we receive the sense of safety, belonging and community that the group has to offer. Typically, the qualities we weave into our persona are based on our connection to the collective unconscious. Humans are social creatures and on some level, in order to survive, we must maintain our relatedness to the group. The group experience is developmentally valuable because it mirrors our areas of unconsciousness back to us while simultaneously motivating us to integrate them.
Persona as Protection
The persona facilitates relatedness by ensuring that we act in ways that are psychologically civilized. It performs this function by protecting us against the activated unconscious. What does that mean exactly? In social situations the persona acts as a shield so that we don’t get sucked into the black hole of our unconscious ‘stuff.’ Without it, we would fall prey to complexes and projections all too easily. When we have too little persona it’s difficult to remain objective and we end up feeling sensitive and overly exposed.
As psychoanalyst Eleanor Bertine once said, “To spill out undigested stuff without consideration of its effect indicates an absence of persona utterly lacking in good taste.” A healthy persona is malleable enough that it doesn’t disguise us from ourselves. It also doesn’t prevent us from appearing to others exactly as we feel, whenever we want to do so. It is possible to strike a balance between one’s genuine personal reactions and a tactful sensitivity to others’ feelings.
Becoming the False Self
The perils of the persona occur when we begin to identify with it- when we become what we pretend to be. Consequently, we live the life of the false self, disconnected from the authentic core behind the mask. When this happens, the individual is often unsure of their own identity and the capacity to form meaningful and emotionally intimate relationships begins to wane.
The more powerfully motivated someone is to climb the social ladder, the more false and fixed their persona becomes. The person with too much persona becomes resentful and chafes at the perfection of their mask. It’s quite possible that they never remove it, even behind-the-scenes! They frequently compensate for this in their private life.
According to Jung, “A man cannot get rid of himself in favor of an artificial personality without punishment. Even the attempt to do so brings on, in all ordinary cases, unconscious reactions in the form of bad moods, affects, phobias, obsessive ideas, backsliding, vices, etc.”
Your Cosmic Persona
Astrologically speaking, the persona is signified by the Ascendant. It is the social role your family selects for you upon birth and expects you to perform accordingly. For example, a child with Capricorn Rising is often expected to be the mature and responsible achiever. Perhaps they were even forced to grow up too fast. We have certain routine ways of acting so that we can ensure our parents’ love and approval. Behavior that’s rooted in our Ascendant role can be so deeply ingrained that it’s nearly compulsive.
The Ascendant functions as a kind of social camouflage, a go-to costume that we can wear out into the world and hopefully take off when we’re alone. It is not our authentic Self- that’s symbolized by the Sun. Rather, it’s the impression that we give to other people and what we lead them to anticipate from us. Challenges arise when we become anchored in the Ascendant and entomb the true Self in a facade. The individuation process asks us to discern between who we truly are and how we come across to others.
Sources:
Art (Painting): Awakening by Amy Judd, Hicks Gallery UK
Brown, Chandler, and Elsom Eldridge. Centerpoint I. Centerpoint Foundation International, 1974.
Cunningham, Donna. How to Read Your Astrological Chart: Aspects of the Cosmic Puzzle. Red Wheel/Weiser, 1 Oct. 1999.
