In the Olmec culture the mask was considered an icon of transformation. It makes visible the charismatic and shamanic power of the wearer; who was either a ruler or shaman. Often the mask has an expression of an otherworldly nature, as if submerged in an ecstatic trance. A mask will never change, it is unaffected by emotion or time, and will forever express the virtues the sculptor endowed upon it. This quality of the eternal appealed to Olmec rulers. The sheer power of this stone mask is monumental in scope. There is a sense it is a product of nature, elemental and beyond comprehension. Yet, a very skilled sculptor was needed to carve the intricate designs. These abstract patterns give the face a reptilian or snake-like quality. Snakes were an important feature in Olmec religion. The rainmaking rites performed by Olmec shamans involved using live rattlesnakes or arboreal fer-de-lances. Perhaps masks such as this one were part of ritual ceremonies and worn by the priests or hung on poles. This is not difficult to imagine given its almost primordial character, which seems to come from another dimension. In many respects the Olmec themselves seem not to have been of this world; and objects such as this extraordinary mask appear as living proof.