Weird Stuff Around the Mouth: Theatre Masks, India and Bes

Dr. Steven B Halls | October 2025

This material was originally posted to Facebook on 2025-10-04 - view original post.

I don't like weird stuff around the mouth. Theatre masks from Roman times in image A and B, why is that? It's also in India on image C, F and G, and on Bes from Egypt/Mesopotamia in image H.

Theatre masks from Roman times, India and Bes from Egypt show weird styles around the mouth, with eyebrows having the same styles and being a barrier symbol that bulges up or down. Wavy hair like a lions mane may show an edge effect near the portal edges, like escaping energy at the edges.

Forcing myself to look, the eyebrows have the same styles as the mouth, on image C, F G, and maybe H. Eyebrows can be a barrier symbol that bulges up or down. Frida Kahlo on image D uses her face to illustrate symbolism, and wings are a barrier, the bird body and head show an upward flow direction. That's fairly common for forehead symbols to indicate upward flow, (called 'third eye' or 'pineal' for no good reason). But center flow paths are bidirectional. Image E has an upward red symbol between the eyebrows and a white downward symbol on the nose. Decoding noses is a hard challenge. The theatre masks with the grapes and downward bulge eyebrows at the center, are a downward symbol. Not shown, but something I'm working on, are symbols that are predominantly just eyebrows and nose.

Back to weird mouths, the mouth is often used as a portal symbol and it can do outflow and inflow. Is there a barrier around the mouth? Maybe, but wavy hair reminds me of lions mane, and from recent posts, I think it shows an edge effect near the portal edges, like escaping energy at the edges. Maybe. I might need to rethink eyebrows too. Summary, a simple post showing theatre mask weird beards have the same concept expressed in India and on Bes. It's not just a literal "style" of combing hair.