August 31, 2017October 2, 2019 Mago Work2 Comments

(Prose) What is Apple Branch Dianic Witchcraft? By Deanne Quarrie, D. Min. HPS

Dianic Witchcraft For every woman who calls herself Dianic, you will receive a different response to that question. Rather than quote other sources, let me just create for you who Read More …

August 30, 2017October 2, 2019 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Art) Initiation – Discovery by Susan Clare

Our journey towards conscious awareness, on the path of the Goddess, may lead us to encounter the energy of initiation. On first contact, we shy away from its fierce glare Read More …

August 28, 2017October 2, 2019 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Poem) Can You Hear? by Jhilmil Breckenridge

A breeze wafts over ribbons and police barricades. Ambulances flash red but I cannot hear their wails. I see a woman’s back heave, her red dupatta1 fallen. A young girl Read More …

August 28, 2017October 2, 2019 Mago WorkLeave a comment

Bulletin Board

August 28, 2017 Dear Readers and Contributors, Return to Mago E-Magzine has moved to a server and is now up running again. If you still don’t see the new website, Read More …

August 26, 2017October 2, 2019 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Meet Mago Contributor) Meghanaiyegee Venketasamy (Megha)

Meghanaiyegee Venketasamy (Megha), a daughter born and raised in Mauritius – an island loaded with a deep legacy of slavery, colonization, people of colors from around the globe. Such diversity Read More …

August 25, 2017November 8, 2019 Mago Work2 Comments

(Essay) This Disease Cannot Be Excised: Countering Patriarchal Religion by Hearth Moon Rising

It is clear to many feminists that the most important and challenging avenues for pursuing women’s liberation in the twenty-first century are elimination of poverty and freedom from violence. Violence Read More …

August 24, 2017October 2, 2019 Mago Work Admin1 Comment

(Song) Our Lady of Guadalupe by Genevieve Vaughan

Our Lady of Guadalupe was originally the indigenous goddess Tonantsin, Mother Earth. Our Lady of Guadalupe

August 23, 2017October 2, 2019 Mago Work Admin1 Comment

(Art) Coming of Age by Jassy Watson

This image tells the story of a girl’s journey to womanhood. Grandmother, Mother and maiden make

August 22, 2017October 2, 2019 Mago Work Admin1 Comment

(Book Excerpt 4) Single Mothers Speak on Patriarchy Ed. by Trista Hendren & Pat Daly

Call To Action Trista Hendren One question that repeatedly came up during the compilation of this anthology was: What can I do to help? I have given this question Read More …

August 21, 2017October 2, 2019 Mago Work4 Comments

(Prose) Dog Days, Holly, Spears and Swords by Deanne Quarrie, D.Min.

We are in what are called the “dog days” of summer. Imagine that the ancients thought that Sirius (one of the dog constellations) was the cause of the extra hot Read More …

August 20, 2017October 2, 2019 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Meet Mago Contributor) Susan Clare

Painting, for 20 years, in Jamaica, I included meditation and path-working in my studio practice. Since returning to England, I’ve shown in juried exhibitions in London and Essex, been awarded Read More …

August 18, 2017October 2, 2019 Mago Work Admin1 Comment

(Poem) Daffodils by Andrea Nicki

Their heads hang low from weeks of battering rain. They must find it hard to trust, meet the gaze of the new sun. Still, they hold their mouths open– a Read More …

(Music) We Are the Women Who… by Alison Newvine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozrupNDrbS0 “We Are” is a tribute to the healers, midwives and other women who were persecuted and killed during the centuries of European witch hunts. This piece honors the sacred wisdom held by women that patriarchal religious forces were determined to destroy. This sacred season of the witch is also a season of reclamation. We are reclaiming our wisdom, our power, our sacred worth, our interconnectedness. We are reclaiming our darkness and our light. Spiral Muse creates music exploring the exquisite pain and beauty of the human experience. We are guided by Spirit and the awe inspiring power of the Sacred Mother on our quest for healing. We write and produce songs of praise, protest and healing, centering around Goddess and women’s lived experiences. This song appears on our most recent album Fire of Hope. Our song writing process is highly collaborative. The lyrics for “We Are” were written by Lana Dalberg, published author and the band’s violinist. The melody was written by myself and the choral arrangement by Kathleen Neville-Shinn, founder of Brigid’s Flame, a center for Goddess-centered healing services. The piece weaves together three voices and the violin to create a haunting four-part harmony. This song is an early release from our upcoming album, “Fire of Hope,” coming out this winter. All of our music is available on Spotify, iTunes, Amazon Music, Apple Music, Youtube and other electronic music platforms. Lyrics We are the women who mixed the herbs Our wisdom Earth, our knowledge it’s plants We are the midwives who shepherded life We moved in darkness to bring forth the light We are the ones with hearts on fire Burned at the stake, our wisdom seemed lost We are the ones who grow from ashes And now, anew, our wisdom arises https://www.magoism.net/2023/10/meet-mago-contributor-alison-newvine/
(Essay) The Internet and Research on Goddess History and Culture by Francesca Tronetti, Ph.D.

NYC Public Library Research Room”Not everyone has access to large research libraries, instead the internet has become their information source.” Francesca Tronetti Scholars are consistently engaged in research of one type or another. Whether they are looking for primary sources, reevaluating established works, or considering new findings, there is always something new to discover. Academic scholars are fortunate enough to have credentials which allow them access to libraries and museum collections that laypeople cannot access. Laypeople which include pagan individuals who wish to research and revive ancient traditions but may not have the background in history, anthropology, classical studies, or religious studies. Instead, they spend hours trolling through libraries, used bookstores, and online archives. They find and bring together multiple sources to create a better understanding of an ancient religious practice. When Cathryn Platine began researching the worship of Cybele in the ancient world in the 1990s the internet personal webpages were being posted, online bookstores were reprinting ancient texts, and the forum boards allowed people to connect with other like-minded researchers. Cathryn remembers finding niche publishing houses which often were the only source for some documents. She remembers “Llewellyn Press started by publishing great arcane books you could not get anywhere else, they republished antique books of ceremonial magic.”[1] Today Llewellyn does not offer these arcane books, most of which were primary source material. The rare books Cathryn bought from Llewellyn are now mainly produced by reprint publishers such as Kessinger Publishing and can be ordered through their website[2]or found on Amazon.com. The internet also played a vital role in Cathryn’s research on the worship of Cybele in Phrygian and Rome. She did most of her research during the 1990s in the early days of the internet. During this time, educational institutions and museums across the globe were beginning to digitize their collections and make them available online. Maps of archaeological excavations, pictures of the artifacts, and site reports were also starting to appear online. Tufts University began the creation of the Perseus Digital Library,[3] an online collection of ancient texts and stories with translations and complete publishing information. Additionally, individuals were making out-of-print material available for free online. One book was vital to Cathryn’s research and my dissertation, and its story demonstrates how crucial it was to have documents available online. Much of the history of Cybele’s worship which Cathryn told me, and which she wrote in her book The Cybeline Revival,[4] was without citation. She told me, “When we started this, we weren’t paying attention to citing things, we wanted to get [the information is written] down and share it.” Over Yule of 2016, when I had returned to the Maetreum to pick up books and talk to Cathryn and Viktoria, I asked Cathryn where she had gotten some of her quotes. Specifically, I was interested the phrase “I have drunk from the cymbal,” a quote which I had spent a year looking. Cathryn’s book was the only source I had for the phrase, and in all my research I had never found it in any other writing. This time, while sitting in her office, she directed me to her bookshelves and told me that she might have the source for that phrase. Cathryn told me to pull out a blue binder and inside was the title page to a book, printed off the internet, Pagan Regeneration: A Study of Mystery Initiations and Secret Rites in the Graeco-Roman World by Harold R. Willoughby.[5] I looked through the text, and there was the quote, twice with two different cited sources. I was elated, for a year I had been searching for this reference and here it was. Cathryn told me that I could borrow the binder to look at, but I could not take it out of the house. Willoughby’s book had been out of print for decades, and she was not going to lose her only hard copy.[6] She found the PDF copy online in the late 1990s or early 2000s and had printed it out, which she said was good because the website she found it on no longer existed. Curious to see if I could find a print copy, I did a Google search. Sure enough, it had been republished and was now available on Amazon. Pagan Regeneration was first published in 1929, and the next publishing date I found was 2009. Aside from the online copy, Cathryn had found, Willoughby’s book had not been reprinted for almost eighty years. This experience, and other stories she told me demonstrated the amount of work that went into her research on Cybele. Some of the older texts had, in the 1990s, been out of print for between twenty and seventy years[7] if not longer. The availability of out of print material, whether through an online archive, a reprinting publisher or the sale of a book on eBay or Amazon, is of immense advantage to professional and lay scholars. Cybele and Attis: The Myth and the Cult has never been republished after its translation into English in 1977, even though it is referenced in any book or project dealing with the worship of Cybele or her cult. Having the primary source in your hands, rather than using a quote of a quote of a paraphrase, is vital to gathering factual data and researching reliable conclusions. Online publishing scholarly and out-of-print material gave Cathryn, and the other priestesses access to the information they needed to revive the worship of Cybele. It is true that the internet is now home to conspiracy websites and sometimes the ravings of people claiming to be experts. However, we cannot forget that it was the first place where people could access material that had previously been available to academics. And, the internet continues to be a place where researchers of all backgrounds can share information and sources to enhance our understanding of the material and spiritual world. (Meet Mago Contributor) Rev. Francesca Tronetti. [1] Platine, in interview with author, October 28, 2015. [2] Kessinger …
[Essay] I am woman by Kaalii Cargill

Grandmother of Willendorf, c. 24,000-22,000 BCE(Naturhistorisches Museum, Vienna) ‘People who menstruate.’ I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud? JK Rowling this week in a social media post – https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1270749170215903232) This Twitter comment by JK Rowling has ignited a firestorm of criticism and abuse about her “transphobia”. Yet nowhere did she say that trans lives don’t matter. What she dared to say is that women’s lives do matter. Apparently that is a controversial idea. It has been a controversial idea for millennia. Male jealousy of women’s powers has a long history. An ancient Chinese myth tells the story of the Moon-goddess, Chang-O, who controlled menstruation. Chang-O was so offended by male jealousy of her powers that she left her husband, who quarrelled with her because she had all the elixir of immortality, the menstrual blood, and he had none.[i] Chang-o’s solution was to leave earth and take up residence as the moon. In other times and places, women have not been so fortunate: Murder. At least 87,000 women were intentionally killed in 2017 globally. More than a third (c30,000) were killed by their current or former intimate partner [United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (2019). Global Study on Homicide 2019, p. 10.]. https://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/ending-violence-against-women/facts-and-figures Slavery. In 2016 there were more than 4 million victims of sex trafficking globally. The victims of sex trafficking are predominantly women and girls [International Labour Organization; https://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/glotip/2018/GLOTiP_2018_BOOK_web_small.pdf] Cosmetic Surgery. Worldwide in 2018, over 10 million cosmetic procedures (plastic surgery) were performed on women. [https://www.isaps.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/ISAPS-Global-Survey-Results-2018-new.pdf] The transition from matrifocal to patriarchal societies and religions involved a determined attempt to take the power of creation from women. Cultural historian, William Irwin Thompson, has said that: “this effort to displace the female seems to be the archetypal foundation for civilisation, for mankind has been at it ever since; whether he is challenging mother nature in flying away from her in rockets, or in challenging her on earth through genetic engineering, man has not given up the attempt to take away the mystery of life from the Great Mother and the conservative feminine religion.” [iii] If we comply with the gender police and stop talking about “women”, we lose a way of thinking about and talking about this takeover. Whether or not women literally become mothers, whether or not they menstruate is not the issue – it is women who can give life through their bodies. Life does not come through men’s bodies, test tubes, or incubators; life still comes into being through women’s bodies. Despite contraceptive chemicals and more than two thousand years of negative conditioning, women’s bodies continue to respond to the cycles of the moon, to the rhythms of Nature. Take a moment to consider the ordinary and extraordinary fact that women have always been able to do something that men cannot do: grow and bring forth new life from their bodies. If we take this for granted, or if we see it as a burden women must bear, or a limiting identity, we continue the takeover that started millennia ago. Of course a woman does not have to become pregnant, give birth, and nurture a child to be a woman. The claiming of reproductive autonomy and choice is a vital aspect of feminism, but this does not negate the fundamental life-giving power of women, Nature, Goddess. Just because an individual women chooses not to become a mother, or is unable to do so, has nothing at all to do with the fundamental reality of women as life-givers – with the fundamental reality of Goddess as Great Mother. Yet we become gagged because claiming this life-giving power somehow threatens the identity of women who do not give birth (and of men who have never been able to). How does that even make any sense? I can celebrate my sisters even when I’m not walking their walk. I can respect and support trans people without giving away my ground as woman. Today we are on the threshold of losing this reverence for the life-giving power of women, Nature, Goddess. To science and technology. To patriarchal religions. To the misinformation of a patriarchal culture that denigrates Nature. To imposed political correctness, to our own complacency. We are facing one of the greatest threats since the takeover of women’s ways two or three thousand years ago. As co-editor of the MAGO BOOKS anthology – She Summons – I have been reflecting on why we called this project “She Summons”. This is what we wrote about it: We have chosen the title for the next collective writing trilogy, She Summons. As a verb, “to summon” means:– urgently demand (help)– call people to attend (a meeting) As a noun, “a summons” means:– a call to convene: convoking– a call for specified action– a bid to come: sending for– a calling forth: evoking There is an urgency in a summons. I hear the cry of Mother: “Do not let this happen! Do something!” [i] BG Walker, 1990, Women’s Rituals: A Source Book, San Francisco, Harper & Row, p.104 [ii] Genesis, 4:16 [iii] W I Thompson, 1981, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture. New York, St Martin’s Press, p. 163. Meet MAGO Contributor KAALII CARGILL
(Prose) A Return of the Light by Deanne Quarrie

Long, long ago, before we had something called a calendar, the ancient people had only the seasons and cycles of the Sun, Moon and the Stars to help them track time. They did not know that our Earth traveled around the Sun, only that there were seasons when the days were shorter and much colder and that there were seasons when the days were long and the temperatures warm. They also knew that it was the warm, long-day season in which they could grow food and hunt for meat without the hardships of less Light and frigid temperatures. Those seasons of shorter days were perilous for them. They did not have the life-saving inventions we have today – the ways to keep warm, the sources of fresh food – there were so many things that kept them in fear of the darker days. Because of the importance of knowing these things, they learned ways in which to track the Light of the Sun and to know when the days would get shorter and when they would get longer. To this day, all over the world, there are giant rock formations and other structures that mark these important events. The time that marked the season when the days began to grow shorter were marked with celebrations showing gratitude and thankfulness for a plentiful harvest season. They wanted their gods to know how much they appreciated their gifts. When the days began to shorten and the cold set in, the people were afraid of what the winter cold might bring. They knew it would bring disease, hunger and frigid temperatures from which they might not survive. They knew there would be loss of life, for it was inevitable. To them, the return of Light meant a return of warmth, a return of green and the ability to once more produce food. The return of Light was a return to Life. The day that marks the return of Light is the Winter Solstice, for that is when we shift on our axis and our Earth once more turns toward the Sun for Light and warmth. Clearly it is a slow process. It is not an abrupt change but rather slow, but at the moment of the Winter Solstice, the change begins. As a result there was great joy among the people for it meant that warmth was returning. Soon they would be able to till the soil. Soon they would be able to grow food and their livestock would be able to graze on fresh new grass and they would soon no longer have to fear freezing to death should their shelter fail them. People all over the world celebrated this event. Each culture has its own mythology telling how and why all of this happens. It is a time filled with hope for all people, regardless of the religion they practice. A Return of the Light brings hope to all people everywhere. You can imagine the joy felt with the return of the Light. As individuals today, we might view this Return of Light as a tiny spark bursting from our hearts – the first spark of change – the first spark of creation. We can take this hope within and find it in our own hearts, see our own spark, we will see that this is a beautiful Light of Hope for All. I am the Source I dream the dreams I am the spark Creation lives in me Creation lives in me ~ Song by Jana Runnells~ Meet Mago Contributor, Deanne Quarrie
(Art) Bee goddess by Lydia Ruyle

The emblem of Potnia, the Minoan-Mycenaean Mistress, is a Mother Bee.
(Poem) The Blessings of Ravioli by Mary Saracino

The ravioli lay on floured pillow cases on your dining room table looking like stuffed pillows themselves — the dough kneaded smooth, then rolled to the right thickness, the spinach and ricotta filling dropped like clusters of snow-crusted grass onto the naked strips of pasta, plumped into fullness with a quick fold of the dough, the corners tucked in place with the pinch of a fork. Your hands move in a holy rhythm. You anoint the ravioli with flour to prevent them from drying out. White halos the arch of your cheekbone as you laugh and sprinkle, saying, “Bless these ravioli,” like some Italian nun. I laugh, too, reminded of my Catholic grade school days. I wish we had known each other then. We could have draped our little girl bodies in my grandmother’s gaudy red and yellow aprons and watched her wrinkled fingers press each ravioli into perfect form. “The secret’s in the touch,” she told me. Life is full of such holy mysteries. How could I have known the blessings of ravioli passed from Grandma’s hands to mine, and now to yours. I touch your floured fingertips and smile. There is grace here and beauty beyond words. Originally published in Writers Who Cook, Herringbone Press (Minneapolis: 1993). https://www.magoism.net/2013/05/meet-mago-contributor-mary-saracino
(Poem) Resurrection by Sara Wright

Photo by Sara Wright Yesterday, rain, fog and mist lifted the snow into sweet moisture – laden air. This morning the skin of the earth turns white and wild winds howl. I rest in peace. A little gray titmouse wakes me up. Spring weather is “bewildering”. The origin of the word bewilder helps explain why I find these radical changes so comforting. The word bewilder is a combination of two words “thoroughly,” and “wilder”…to lure into the wild. Perhaps to return to the source. The weather is still wild…. Although Earth’s wilderness is fragmented to such an extent that it doesn’t exist anymore at the moment except as weather, it lives on as potential. Without human interference this pulsing blue –green planet spinning through dark space is more than capable of rewilding herself. This is Resurrection. https://www.magoism.net/2014/12/meet-mago-contributor-sara-wright/
(Art) Ninhursaga by Pegi Eyers

Art by Pegi Eyers The ancient Sumerian “Mountain Mother,” Ninhursaga gave birth to a family of deities and created the first humans. She was associated with the omega symbol (womb), the tree of life, and the sacred serpents. “Her soul message reminds you to honor your maternal Ancestors for their gifts of love, wisdom and grace.” (This is included in She Rises: What… Goddess Feminism, Activism and Spirituality? Volume 3) (Meet Mago Contributor) Pegi Eyers.
The Servants of the Cailleach by Jude Lally

Cailleach and the Wolf. Digital art by Jude lally In folk etymology, January is known as Faoileach, wolf month. An entire month where the wolf is both figuratively and symbolically at the door. While food resources may well be running low, the wolf also experienced hunger which drove them from the wild places and closer to town. The winds of the wolf month are described as being sharp, ravenous, and tearing, like the jaws of a desperate and hungry predator. Wolf in the storm Digital art by Jude Lally Dark storm clouds racing across the land, blasting icy winds and striking hail is the Cailleach riding a wolf. A long fluffy tail sweeping down brings a heavy rain shower, while a lighter layer of grey cloud is the old hag’s tattered skirts. Sadly the wolf only approaches in spirit and rides with the Cailleach in shapeshifting clouds for man’s hunger to obliterate the species from Scotland was ferocious enough that the last wolf was said to be shot in 1680, in Killiecrankie, Perthshire. That was the official record while other tales say they kept on in wild places, up until the 18th century. My Grandmother always said that March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb, another saying, this one of February, is that it comes in with the head of a serpent, and goes out with a peacock’s tail. But if February were to come in with a peacock’s tail and leave with the head of a serpent, or march to come in like a lamb and leave like a lion, then there would be a lot to worry about, especially if your existence depended on sheep, cattle, and fishing. Naming the patterns of weather kept a track of recognized periods and what to expect. If spring is on your mind you might well forget that the beginning of March can bring snow, but when your birthday is in early march you remember that more often than not snow is due. Lapwing, or Green Plover Spring is divided up into several parts. After the Faoillech (the stormy), next is The Whistle, also called the Plover, which is the first week of March, a week of whistling winds. “I am the bare, swift, leggy plover, I can kill both sheep and lambs’ The Dogfish is actually a Catshark and its egg sack often washes up on beaches – known as a mermaids Purse. Photo source: www.beachcombingmagazine.com/blogs/news/a-mermaid-s-purse The period of weather known as the Gobag (Dog-fish) is the second week of March, which is a week of heavy rains. ‘Gobag, Gobag Mother of the month of cold, Thou didst kill the sheep and the lean lamb, Though didst kill the grey goat in two watches, And the speckled stirk in one’. In some of these weeks, there is a borrowing of days, three days from April might be inserted into March – experienced as a false sense of spring, which then is swallowed up by sweeping winds. These three borrowed days are then experienced in April, a few days of gusts of winds which then will disappear as spring progresses. Cailleach and her Cauldron, the Whirlpool of Corryvrecken. Digital art by Jude Lally And so the wolf (the stormy), the dogfish, and the plover are referred to as servants of the Cailleach. As March progresses and cycles towards Spring Equinox, which was New Year in Scotland up until the 16th century, comes the days of the Cailleach. This marks the last of the storms as the weather begins to wain, seen in stories of the Cailleach, the great crone of Gaelic belief. The storms are short, overtaken by sunshine breaking through. The lines of this verse suggest the Caillech trying to defeat this new budding energy and failing miserably. Shootings here and sprouting there,It eludes me everywhere;Overhead and underfootBud and blade blossom shoot. It escaped me below, it escaped me above,It escaped me between my two hands,It escaped me before, it escaped me behind,It escaped me between my two eyes.It escaped me down, it escaped me up,It escaped me between my two ears,It escaped me thither, it escaped me hither,It escaped me between my two feet.I threw my druidic evil wand,Into the base of a withered hard whin bush,Where shall not grow ‘fionn’ nor ‘fionnidh, She strikes here, she strikes there, She strikes between her legs, but the grass grows too fast for her, and in despair, she throws the hammer from her, and where it lighted no grass grows. She threw it beneath the hard holly tree, Where the grass or hair has never grown. Black Reading these lines I can see them playing out on the hills out of my window – huge rain sheets bring lashing rains, which are very brief and then the sun breaks through. Dark clouds move in again, obscuring the sun, only for sunbeams to shine down and light up the new green. Ben Lomond (local mountain on the east shore of Loch Lomond) disappears again in a veil of rain, and like a magic show suddenly appears again with a great rainbow. The next day arrives, like the day borrowed from April when you can leave your winter coat at home. This pattern of weather is solidified in the fight of the Cailleach with spring, sometimes with St Brighid, Bride, making a special appearance, in embellished tales. These patterns of weather never quite adhered to calendar dates, and this is why they were given stories to recognize this tumultuous period. As long as each story played out you could keep track of the rough pattern and know that soon it would be soon time to plant seeds, tend to sheep and lambs, and head out in fishing boats and begin to feed themselves from the land’s bounty. But what happens when March borrows entire weeks from April or even June? Then June borrows two weeks from March and new crops are flooded, giving us the wettest summer or record. …

(Review) Journey into Dreamtime by Munya Andrews, reviewed by Glenys Livingstone

Although the term “Dreamtime” is often not considered an adequate translation of the cosmology, religion or spirituality of Indigenous Australians, Munya Andrews of the Bardi people from the Kimberley region of Western Australia, acknowledges this and chooses to name her recently published book with it, explaining that: “I love the term … For me, it conjures up a magical and mysterious world.”, and she feels that the term aligns perfectly with the common global religious concept that Diety is beyond words and human understanding. For me, as Munya Andrews describes “Dreamtime”, it seems resonant with the sense of “ever-present Origins”[1]; that is, original space and time that is omnipresent. This is a space/place that I understand to be referred to as “between the worlds” and “beyond the bounds of space and time”, by Indigenous Europeans (Pagans), a tradition with which I am familiar. I understand it to be a sentient world in which we are immersed actually, and which may be revealed to the observant person in synchronous moments. With practice one may live with clearer everyday connections with this world, and Munya’s book is an important contribution to making those connections from within the cosmology of her people; and for “all beautiful souls to keep the Dreamtime alive”, as she says in the book’s dedication. This book provides informative story that should be part of every Australian’s education at various levels: it lays a groundwork and also elicits deepening understandings. The teachings offered in Journey into Dreamtime should be considered essential knowledge for living on this land named Australia, whereas heretofore most present occupants have often not had easy access to such learning. This very readable and small book provides some basic facts: for example, that there are “250 or so Indigenous nations, each having their own language, their own names and ‘country’ or tribal lands.”; and that terms such as Koori, Nunga or Murri are “pan-Aboriginal” names taken on since colonisation, for the sake of asserting a distinct Indigenous identity, in the face of forced removal from families and land. In the course of the seven chapters Munya develops understanding of Dreamtime, and also understandings of Indigenous Law, Songlines, sacred sites, bush doctors/bush medicine, Rainbow Snake, and Kindredness. I found all of this really helpful, an invitation into a world of being and relationship; and it is told with frequent analogies from Western science and academic and spiritual texts, with which the reader may be more familiar, enabling the bridge into Indigenous science and worldview. There is a list of suggested readings offered, along with links and details for further connection and learning. At the conclusion of each chapter of Journey into Dreamtime there are “Dreamtime Reflections”, posing questions for personal consideration, inviting personal participation and pathways into some actual sense of an alive self in relationship with the alive world described. This book needs to be in spaces/places where everyday people can read it, like waiting rooms of all kinds (where there are frequently Bibles); as well as in every library, and especially Australian libraries. I highly recommend Journey into Dreamtime as an educational resource, for your self, for educational programs, and/or for any group that you may gather. Aunty Munya, as she names herself, has an impressive track record of speaking engagements, mentioned at the conclusion of the book, and invites you to have her speak to your organisation. She describes her life purpose as “to create better understanding and appreciation of Aboriginal people and to leave behind a legacy of Dreamtime wisdom for generations to come.” May it be so, as readers of Journey into Dreamtime absorb its teaching and resources. To order a copy of Journey into Dreamtime visit Evolve Communities NOTES: [1]“ever-present origin” is the English translation of Jean Gebser’s Ursprung und Gegenwart, Stuttgart, Deutsche Verlag, 1966.
(Special Post 6) Why Goddess Feminism, Activism, or Spirituality? A Collective Writing

[Editor’s Note: This was first proposed in The Mago Circle, Facebook Group, on March 6, 2014. We have our voices together below and publish them in sequels. It is an ongoing project and we encourage our reader to join us! Submit yours today to Helen Hwang (magoism@gmail.com). Or visit and contact someone in Return to Mago’s Partner Organizations.] Esther Essinger “Why Goddess, when “GD” is perpetrating so much grief? 1) First, it’s vital to know that Goddess is NOT “GD” in a skirt. It is demanded of NO one that they “believe” or “have faith”, so there can be no guilt (and no punishment! (No Hell below us, thank you John) in NOT choosing to interest oneself in these particular Stories, myths, legends and tales which center the Cosmic Female, the Universal Mother, Mother Earth /Mother Nature at their core. No evangelism happening here!
(Special Post) Why I choose to be an RTM contributor by Glenys Livingstone

The contribution of my writing to Return to Mago E-Magazine has evolved since it began four years ago, into a deeply mutually enhancing relationship. The time and effort taken to write carefully and in alignment with my heartfelt passions and insights, and then to be able to publish to a receptive audience, has always been rewarding – for me personally and apparently for many who received it.

Lammas/Late Summer in PaGaian tradition By Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This essay is an edited excerpt from Chapter 5 of the author’s book PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. Traditionally the dates for this Seasonal Moment are: Southern Hemisphere – Feb. 1st/2nd Northern Hemisphere – August 1st/2nd however the actual astronomical date varies. See archaeoastronomy.com for the actual moment. Lammas table/altar Lammas, as it is often called[1], is the meridian point of the first dark quarter of the year, between Summer Solstice and Autumn Equinox; it is after the light phase has peaked and is complete, and as such, I choose it as a special celebration of the Crone/Old One. Within the Celtic tradition, it is the wake of Lugh, the Sun King, and it is the Crone that reaps him. But within earlier Goddess traditions, all the transformations were Hers[2]; and the community reflected on the reality that the Mother aspect of the Goddess, having come to fruition, from Lammas on would enter the Earth and slowly become transformed into the Old Woman-Hecate-Cailleach aspect …[3] I dedicate Lammas to the face of the Old One, just as Imbolc, its polar opposite on the Wheel in Old European tradition, is dedicated to the Virgin/Maiden face. The Old One, the Dark and Shining One, has been much maligned, so to celebrate Her can be more of a challenge in our present cultural context. Lammas may be an opportunity to re-aquaint ourselves with the Crone in her purity, to fall in love with Her again. I state the purpose of the seasonal gathering thus: This is the season of the waxing dark. The seed of darkness born at the Summer Solstice now grows … the dark part of the days grows visibly longer. Earth’s tilt is taking us back away from the Sun. This is the time when we celebrate dissolution; each unique self lets go, to the Darkness. It is the time of ending, when the grain, the fruit, is harvested. We meet to remember the Dark Sentience, the All-Nourishing Abyss, She from whom we arise, in whom we are immersed, and to whom we return. This is the time of the Crone, the Wise Dark One, who accepts and receives our harvest, who grinds the grain, who dismantles what has gone before. She is Hecate, Lillith, Medusa, Kali, Erishkagel,Chamunda, Coatlique – Divine Compassionate One, She Who Creates the Space to Be. We meet to accept Her transformative embrace, trusting Her knowing, which is beyond all knowledge. Lammas is the seasonal moment for recognizing that we dissolve into the “night” of the Larger Organism of whom we are part – Gaia. It is She who is immortal, from whom we arise, and into whom we dissolve. This celebration is a development of what was born in the transition of Summer Solstice; the dark sentient Source of Creativity is honoured. The autopoietic space in us recognizes Her, is comforted by Her, desires Her self-transcendence and self-dissolution; Lammas is an opportunity to be with our organism’s love of Larger Self – this Native Place. We have been taught to fear Her, but at this Seasonal Moment we may remember that She is the compassionate One, deeply committed to transformation, which is actually innate to us. Whereas at Imbolc/Early Spring, we shone forth as individual, multiforms of Her; at Lammas, we small individual selves remember that we are She and dissolve back into Her. We are the Promise of Lifeas was affirmed at Imbolc, but we are the Promise of Her- it is not ours to hold. We identify as the sacred Harvest at Lammas; our individual harvest isHer Harvest. We are the process itself – we are Gaia’s Process. Wedo not breathe (though of course we do), we borrow the breath, for a while. It is like a relay: we pick the breath up, create what we do during our time with it, and pass it on. The harvest we reap in our individual lives is important, andit is for us only short term; it belongs to the Cosmos in the long term. Lammas is a time for “making sacred” – as “sacrifice” may be understood; we may “make sacred” ourselves. As Imbolc was a time for dedication, so is Lammas. This is the wisdom of the phase of the Old One. She is the aspect that finds the “yes” to letting go, to loving the Larger Self, beyond all knowledge, and steps into the power of the Abyss; encouraged and nourished by the harvest, She will gradually move into the balance of Autumn Equinox/Mabon, the next Sesaonal Moment on the year’s cycle. References: Durdin-Robertson, Lawrence. The Year of the Goddess.Wellingborough: Aquarian Press, 1990. Gray, Susan. The Woman’s Book of Runes.New York: Barnes and Noble, 1999. Livingstone, Glenys. PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. NE: iUniverse, 2005. McLean, Adam. The Four Fire Festivals. Edinburgh: Megalithic Research Publications, 1979. Notes: [1]See note 3. [2]Susan Gray, The Woman’s Book of Runes,p. 18. This is also to say that the transformations are within each being, not elsewhere, that is the “sacrifice” is not carried out by another external to the self, as could be and have been interpreted from stories of Lugh or Jesus. [3]Lawrence Durdin-Robertson, The Year of the Goddess, p.143, quoting Adam McLean, Fire Festivals,p.20-22. Another indication of the earlier tradition beneath “Lughnasad” is the other name for it in Ireland of “Tailltean Games”. Taillte was said to be Lugh’s foster-mother, and it was her death that was being commemmorated (Mike Nichols, “The First Harvest”, Pagan Alliance Newsletter NSW Australia). The name “Tailtunasad” has been suggested for this Seasonal Moment, by Cheryl Straffon editor of Goddess Alive! I prefer the name of Lammas, although some think it is a Christian term: however some sources say that Lammas means “feast of the bread” which is how I have understood it, and surely such a feast pre-dates Christianity. It is my opinion that the incoming Christians preferred “Lammas” to “Lughnasad”: the term itself is not Christian in origin. The evolution of all these things is complex, and we may evolve them further with our careful thoughts and experience.
The Passing of Last Summer’s Growth by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

The ‘passing of last Summer’s growth’ as is experienced and contemplated in the Season of Deep Autumn/Samhain, may be a metaphor for the passing of all/any that has come to fullness of being, or that has had a fullness, a blossoming of some kind, and borne fruit; and in the passing it has been received, and thus transforms. The ‘passing of last Summer’s growth’ may be in hearts and minds, an event or events, a period of time, or an era, that was a deep communion, now passed and dissolved into receptive hearts and minds, where it/they reside for reconstitution, within each unique being. Samhain is traditionally understood as ‘Summer’s end’: indeed that is what the word ‘Samhain’ means. In terms of the seasonal transitions in indigenous Old European traditions, Summer is understood as over when the Seasonal Moment of Lammas/Lughnasad comes around; it is the first marked transition after the fullness of Summer Solstice. The passing and losses may have been grieved, the bounty received, thanksgiving felt and expressed, perhaps ceremonially at Autumn Equinox/Mabon; yet now in this Season of Samhain/Deep Autumn it composts, clearly falls, as darkness and cooler/cold weather sets in, change is clearer. In the places where this Earth-based tradition arose, Winter could be sensed setting in at this time, and changes to everyday activity had to be made. In our times and in our personal lives, we may sense this kind of ending, when change becomes necessary, no longer arbitrary: and the Seasonal Moment of Samhain may be an excellent moment for expressing these deep truths, telling the deep story, and making meaning of the ending, as we witness such passing. What new shapes will emerge from the infinite well of creativity? And we may wonder what will return from the dissolution? What re-solution will be found? We may wonder what new shapes will emerge. In the compost of what has been, what new syntheses, new synergies, may come forth? Now is the time for dreaming, for drawing on the richness within, trusting the sentience, within which we are immersed, and which we are: and then awaiting the arrival, being patient with the fermentation and gestation. Seize the moment, this Moment – and converse with the depths within your own bodymind, wherein She is. Make space for the sacred conversation, the Conversing with your root and source of being, and take comfort in this presence. We may ponder what yet unkown beauty and wellness may emerge from this infinite well of creativity. The Samhain Moment in the Northern Hemisphere is 17:14 UT 7thNovember this year. Wishing you a sense of the deep communion present in the sacred space you make for this holy transition.
(Essay) Ceremony as “Prayer” or Sacred Awareness By Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This essay is an excerpt from Chapter 3 of the author’s new book A Poiesis of the Creative Cosmos: Celebrating Her within PaGaian Sacred Ceremony. MoonCourt Ceremonial Space set for Autumn Equinox ceremony, 2013 Ritual/ceremony is often described as “sacred space.” I understand that to mean “awareness of the space as sacred”: all space is sacred, what shifts is our awareness – awareness of the depth of spacetime, and of the depth of all things and all beings. I understand “sacred awareness” as an awareness of deep relationship and identity with the very cosmic dynamics that create and sustain the Universe; or an awareness of what is involved in the depth of each moment, each thing, each being. Ceremony is a space and time given to expression, contemplation and nurturance of that depth … at least to something of it. Ceremony may be both an expression of deep inner truths – perceived relationship to self, Earth and Cosmos, as well as being a mode of teaching and drawing forth deeper participation. Essentially, ceremony is a way of entering into the depth of the present moment … what is deeply present right here and now, a way of entering deep space and deep time, which is not somewhere else but is right here. Every-thing, and every moment, has Depth – more depth than we usually allow ourselves to contemplate, let alone comprehend. This book, this paper, this ink, the chair, the floor – each has a history and connections that go back, all the way back to Origins. This moment you experience now, in its particular configuration, place, people present, subtle feelings, thoughts, and propensity towards certain directions or outcomes, has a depth – many histories and choices that go back … ultimately all the way back to the beginning. Great Origin is present at every point of space and time – right here. In ceremony we are plugging our awareness into something of that. In this holy context then – in this mindframe of knowing connection, everything one does is a participation in the creation of the Cosmos: for the tribal indigenous woman, perhaps the weaving of a basket; for another, perhaps preparing a meal; for you, perhaps getting on the train to go to a workplace. It is possible to regain this sense, to come to feel that the way one breathes makes a difference – that with it, you co-create the present and the future, and you may even be a blessing on the past. In every moment we receive the co-creation, the work, of innumerable beings, of innumerable moments, and innumerable interactions of the elements, in everything we touch … and so are we touched by them. The local is our touchstone to the Cosmos – it is not separate. Ceremony may be a way into this awareness, into strengthening it. Ceremony is actually ‘doing,’ not just theorizing. We can talk about our personal and cultural disconnection endlessly, but we need to actually change our minds. Ceremony can be an enabling practice – a catalyst/practice for personal and cultural change. It is not just talking about eating the pear, it is eating the pear; it is not just talking about sitting on the cushion (meditating), it is sittingon the cushion. It is a cultural practice wherein we tell a story/stories about what we believe to be so most deeply, about who and what we are. Ceremony can be a place for practicing a new language, a new way of speaking, or spelling – a place for practicing “matristic storytelling”[i] if you like: that is, for telling stories of the Mother, of Earth and Cosmos as if She were alive and sentient. We can “play like we know it,” so that we may come to know it.[ii] Ceremony then is a form of social action. I have found it useful to describe ceremony using and extending words used by Ken Wilber to describe a “transpersonal practice,” which is needed for real change: he said it was a practice that discloses “a deeper self (I or Buddha) in a deeper community (We or Sangha) expressing a deeper truth (It or Dharma).”[iii] My extension of that is: ceremony may disclose a deeper beautiful self (the I/Virgin/Urge to Be/Buddha), in a deeper relational community (the We/Mother/Place of Being/Sangha), expressing a deeper transformative truth (the It/Old One/Space to Be/Dharma). This is the “unitive body,” the “microcosmos” that Charlene Spretnak refers to in States of Grace.[iv] Since ceremony is an opportunity to give voice to deeper places in ourselves, forms of communication are used that the dreamer, the emotional, the body, can comprehend, such as music, drama, simulation, dance, chanting, singing.[v] These forms enable the entering of a level of consciousness that is there all the time, but that is not usually expressed or acknowledged. We enter a realm that is ‘out of time,’ which is commonly said to be not the “real” world, but it is more organic/indigenous to all being and at least as real as the tick-tock world. It is a place “between the worlds,” wherein we may put our hands on the very core of our lives, touch whatever it is that we feel our existence is about, and thus touch the possibility of re-creating and renewing ourselves. NOTES: [i] A term used by Gloria Feman Orenstein in The Reflowering of the Goddess (New York: Pergamon Press, 1990), 147. [ii] As my doctoral thesis supervisor Dr. Susan Murphy once described it to me in conversation. [iii] Ken Wilber, A Brief History of Everything (Massachusetts: Shambhala, 1996), 306-307. [iv] 145. [v] As Starhawk notes, The Spiral Dance, 45. REFERENCES: Livingstone, Glenys. A Poiesis of the Creative Cosmos: Celebrating Her within PaGaian Sacred Ceremony. Girl God Books: Bergen, Norway, 2023. Orenstein, Gloria Feman. The Reflowering of the Goddess. New York: Pergamon Press, 1990. Starhawk. The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess. New York: Harper and Row, 1999. Wilber, Ken. A Brief History of Everything. Massachusetts: Shambhala, 1996.
(Art & Poem) Candelmas/Imbolc by Sudie Rakusin & Annie Finch

IMBOLC DANCE From the east she has gathered like wishes. She has woven a night into dawn. We are quickening ivy. We grow where her warmth melts out over the ice. Now spiral south bends into flame to push the morning over doors. The light swings wide, green with the pulse of seasons, and we let her in We are quickening ivy. We grow The light swings wide, green with the pulse till the west is rocked by darkness pulled from where the fire rises. Shortened time’s reflecting water rakes her through the thickened cold. Hands cover north smooth with emptiness, stinging the mill of night’s hours. Wait with me. See, she comes circling over the listening snow to us. Shortened time’s reflecting water Wait with me. See, she comes circling From Calendars (Tupelo Press, 2003) Art is included in Celebrating Seasons of the Goddess (Mago Books, 2017). (Meet Mago Contributor) Sudie Rakusin (Meet Mago Contributor) Annie Finch
(Essay and Video) Cosmogenesis Dance: Celebrating Her Unfolding by Glenys Livingstone

The dance begins with two concentric circles, which will flow in and out of each other throughout the dance, resulting thus in a third concentric circle that comes and goes. The three circles/layers are understood to represent the three aspects of Goddess, the Creative Triple Dynamic that many ancients were apparently aware of, and imagined in so many different ways across the globe. In Her representation in Ireland as the Triple Spiral motif, which is inscribed on the inner chamber wall at Bru-na-Boinne (known as Newgrange)[1], She seems to be understood as a dynamic essential to on-going Cosmic Creativity, as this ancient motif is dramatically lit up by the Winter Solstice dawn. It seems that this was important to the Indigenous people of this place at the time of Winter Solstice, which celebrates Origins, the continuing birth of all. Thus I like to do this Cosmogenesis Dance, as I have named it[2], at the Winter Solstice in particular. The three aspects that the dance may embody, and are poetically understood as Goddess, celebrate (i) Virgin/Young One – Urge to Be as I have named this quality – the ever new differentiated being (also known as Fodla in the region of the Triple Spiral)[3]. This is the outer circle of individuals. (ii) Mother – the deeply related interwoven web – Dynamic Place of Being as I have named this quality – the communion that our habitat is (also known as Eriu in the region of the Triple Spiral)[4]. This is the woven middle circle where all are linked and swaying in rhythm. (iii) Crone/Old One – the eternal creative return to All-That-Is – She who Creates the Space to Be as I have named this quality (also known as Banba in the region of the Triple Spiral)[5]. This is the inner circle where linked hands are raised and stillness is held. The three concentric layers of the dance may be understood to embody these. The Cosmogenesis Dance represents the flow and balance of these three – a flow and balance of Self, Other and All-That-Is. It may be experienced like a breath, that we breathe together – as we do co-create the Cosmos. Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme have named the three qualities of Cosmogenesis in the following way: – differentiation … to be is to be unique – communion … to be is to be related – autopoiesis/subjectivity … to be is to be a centre of creativity.[6] The three layers of the dance may be felt to celebrate each unique being, in deep relationship with other, directly participating in the sentient Cosmos, the Well of Creativity. The Cosmogenesis Dance as it is done within PaGaian Winter Solstice ceremony expresses the whole Creative Process we are immersed in. It is a process of complete reciprocity, a flow of Creator and Created, like a breath. There is dynamic exchange in every moment: that is the nature of the Place we inhabit. The dance may help awaken us to it, and to invoke it. The Cosmogenesis Dance on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dR73MDMM9Fk For more story: Cosmogenesis Dance for Winter Ritual For Dance Instructions: PaGaian Cosmology Appendix I Meet Mago Contributor Glenys Livingstone NOTES: [1] The Triple Spiral engraving is dated at 2,400 B.C.E. [2] This dance is originally named as “The Stillpoint Dance”, or sometimes “Adoramus Te Domine” which is the name of the music used for it. I learned it from Dr. Jean Houston in 1990 at a workshop of hers in Sydney, Australia. I began to use the dance for Winter Solstice ceremony in 1997, and it was only in the second year of doing so that I realised its three layers were resonant with the three traditional qualities of the Female Metaphor/Goddess, and also the three faces of Cosmogenesis. I thereafter re-named and storied the dance that way in the ceremonial preparation and teaching for Winter Solstice. See Glenys Livingstone, PaGaian Cosmology: pp. 280-281 and 311. [3] Michael Dames, Ireland: a Sacred Journey, p.192. [4] Michael Dames, Ireland: a Sacred Journey, p. 192. [5] Michael Dames, Ireland: a Sacred Journey, p. 192. [6] Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry, The Universe Story, p. 71-79. I have identified these qualities with the Triple Goddess, and the Triple Spiral in the synthesis of PaGaian Cosmology: see Glenys Livingstone, PaGaian Cosmology, particularly Chapter 4: https://pagaian.org/book/chapter-4/ References: Dames, Michael. Ireland: a Sacred Journey, Element Books, 2000. Livingstone, Glenys. PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. Lincoln NE: iUniverse, 2005. Swimme, Brian and Berry, Thomas. The Universe Story: From the Primordial Flaring Forth to the Ecozoic Era. NY: HarperCollins, 1992.
(Photography & Poetry) Thoughts of Spring by Deanne Quarrie

Spring At the highest point on the tree, you stretch, reaching for the sun. Your pink petals elegant in their grace, you stand alone. Bravest of all, for leaves have yet to come to offer shade Branches bare except for furry buds that will soon follow in imitation of your daring first move. Intrepid flower of Spring, I feel like you in my yearning for the Sun!

(Budoji Essay 3) The Magoist Cosmogony by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

“Reintroducing the concept of the Mago Species has a profound implication, compelling one’s vocabularies to be changed to the Mother’s Tongue.” [This is a translation and interpretation of the Budoji (Epic of the Emblem City), principal text of Magoism. Read the translation of Chapter 1 of the Budoji.] There were Four Heavenly Persons at the four corners of the castle. They built pillars and sounded music. Four Heavenly Persons are the four clan leaders who reside in the four corners of Mago Castle, Primordial Paradise. They are entrusted by Mago to cultivate the acoustical effect of the universe (the original music). While the translation of “pillars” is provisional, it may mean a musical instrument of some primordial sort. Given the importance of stone, a theme reiterated in later chapters of the Budoji, the pillars may refer to the stone structure that supports a musical instrument. Or they may indicate stone chimes or an acoustical rock structure.
Mago, the First Mother from East Asia by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

[Excerpts from “Mago, the First Mother from East Asia,” Creatrix Media Live (CML) Roundtable Radio Talk with Dr. Helen Hye-Sook Hwang. May 23, 2011] Jayne DeMente: Welcome Helen, I was fortunate to read some of your research and I applaud you because, we in the Western WSE movement have long needed to hear more from Asian women spiritual leaders and feminists and your reference to the Neolithic timeline… For our listeners and participants online, let’s lead with the question of who is Mago, was she a mother figure, what is Magoism, does any other deity pre-date her? Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: *Mago is the great goddess known to East Asians throughout history. She is the first mother of all, cosmogonist, and ultimate sovereign/ruler. She has many names. Among them are Triad Deity (Samsin), Grandmother (halmi), Auspicious Goddess (Seogo), Evil (Magui), and Old Goddess (Nogo). She is also known as the Giantess who shaped the natural and cultural landscape. Her manifestations are so multivalent that one may think they do not refer to the same goddess. She was well loved, given high esteem, celebrated by East Asians in the past. She was almost completely forgotten, however in modern times, up until the 1980s in Korea, when the principle text of Magoism, the Budoji, re-emerged. *Mago is a mother figure in the sense that she bore two daughters, Kunghee and Sohee, and managed her household called the Castle of Mago, the primordial paradise of humanity. She is the ancestor of all races. She takes care of everything on earth via the equilibrium of cosmic music/sound/vibration. *Magoism is the term that refers to the totality of culture/civilization venerating Mago as the great goddess. It is a tradition largely unnoted but co-opted and distorted in major East Asian religions. The concept of Magoism helps one identify and understand Mago’s multivalent manifestations that are found trans-nationally. It also makes possible to name the female-centered original/primal civilization that gave birth to the forthcoming East Asian civilizations and religions. *Whether Mago is the earliest deity known to East Asia is unknown. In fact, there are goddesses unearthed from “pre-historic” archaeological sites without their names. The life-sized goddess statue was unearthed in the site of Hongshan Culture, northeastern region of present China dating from 4,700 to 2,900 BCE. The heavy use of jade along with the partly bear-figured female icon is congruent with the account of Magoism in the Budoji. Also, of course, there are numerous female figurines called dogu excavated in Japan’s “pre-historic” times. The ancient origin of Mago or Magoism has a merit to explain some facts that remain a mystery, so to speak. Korea is also known as the land of dolmens. Half of the world megaliths are populated in the Korean peninsula. There are numerous pyramids found in mainland China. There is a documentary film about the sunken temple beneath the sea of Okinawa Japan, etc. dating to 10,000 years ago. *Then, how early does Mago date to? It is difficult to date the earliest evidence of Mago or Magoism simply because written history does not exist in pre-patriarchal times. As you see here, when we talk about the earliest of something, everyone assumes it is of Chinese. So let me follow this line of thought: Ge Hong’s record on Magu from China dates to the early fourth century CE (Ge Hong 283—343 CE). However, Daoist scholar Robert Ford Campany states that the cult of Mago dates back to the Stone Age. It is more difficult to date Mago in Korean records simply because ancient written records did not survive. Two books, the Budoji and the Handan Gogi, alleged to have been written in the late 4th or early 5th century and subsequent later times, which refer to Mago otherwise known as Samsin (Triad Deity) remain controversial. Considering that the name Mago is embedded in Korean language as in “gom,” “geum,” and “gam,” whose meaning indicates ruler, sovereign, and head, the origin of Mago is as old as these words. Likewise, most materials that recount Mago as cosmogonist are of folklore, place names, literature, arts, and debris of historical and religious records, most of which are difficult to date for its origin. Anniitra Ravenmoon: Thank you Helen, you have done much academic research and hold several degrees, can you explain to us how your education or experience informed you regarding Mago? Helen: *I would say that encountering Mago as a doctoral research topic is ultimately prompted by my intellectual quest as a Korean feminist. Following radical feminism of Mary Daly, I wanted to seek spirituality that is not only non-patriarchal but also East Asian and Korean. This made me study feminism and East Asian religions, histories, and cultures, etc. I end up with so much to study over the past decade and a half. I did not take up graduate studies as a means to develop an academic career. I loved reading and studies from youth. This kind of attitude is not that practical in the job market. However, I believe this is the right path for me. To look back, I did not follow the ready-made conventional path of life. I was a dreamer and idealist. I still value those qualities in myself and others. I used to think to myself, if I had remained a Christian, I would not have sought Mago. How could I? Likewise if I had resorted to Buddhism, I would not have encountered Mago. Because I wanted to carve out my own spiritual path as a Korean feminist, I was able to encounter Mago. Another factor at work in my study of Mago is the cultural or spiritual tradition of cultivating the Dao, the Way, in East Asia. I wanted to find out what the truth was, how I could make the most out of my life and etc. So I tried the shoes of a Catholic overseas missionary for a while. Leaving Christianity behind, however, helped me realize the cultural heritage that I have within. It was …
(Book Excerpt 1) Mago Almanac Planner for Personal Journey by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.

[Author’s Note: Year 4’s Mago Almanac celebrates the birth of Mago Almanac Planner for Personal Journey. The Magoist 13 month 28 day calendric movement has grown steadily and we welcome the public as well!] PREFACE: What Mago Almanac Planner Offers The Mago Almanac Planner for Personal Journey enchants people and our societies to live with a sense of the natural timespace patterned by the luni-menstrual rhythm in company with the earth’s song and dance. This is not a statement of poetic fancy unsupported by science or mathematics. We are invited to walk through the matrix of Sonic Numerology, the organizing force of Life. The 13 month 28 day Magoist Calendar returns calendric regularity to us. Calendric regularity is the very vision that unfolds the metamorphic reality of WE/HERE/NOW. Unlike the 12 month irregular day calendar that modifies the natural rhythm to serve the purpose of controlling people, the Magoist Calendar guides human activities within the natural rhythm to harmonize the human world with the natural world. The Mago Almanac Planner is built to provide flesh to the bones of the Mago Almanac. Taking the latter as foundation, Mago Almanac Planner partitions a year into the units of weeks and days. The regularity of 28 days makes it possible to lay out 52 weeks and 364 days with one or two extra days seamlessly. The rhythm of nine numbers becomes transparent. Each day of a year is named accumulatively in order i.e. the first to 364th. Likewise, each week of a year is named accumulatively in order i.e. Week 1 to Week 52. Each day is given the daily number, the moon phase, and/or 24 Seasonal Marks. Special days include such double dates as New Year (1st Moon 1st Day), double second (2nd Moon 2nd Day), double third (3rd Moon 3rd Day), and so forth. By writing the Mago Almanac Planner, I have observed that Double Ninth (9th Moon 9th day) overlaps with the 16th mark of 24 Seasonal Marks, Ipchu (立秋 Entering Fall) or Lammas in the Northern Hemisphere. The day of Double Ninth is indeed the center point of a year! Also the interval of 24 Seasonal Marks is about every 15 days, whereas that of 8 Seasonal Marks is about every 45 days. In three Appendixes, I have provided a traditional style of one year calendar, Year 4’s 364 Days (52 Weeks) with 2 Extra Days and their Gregorian Dates or the conversion chart, Large Calendar 1 (Years 1-4) marked in Gregorian C. Dates, and Year 4 Lunar-Menstrual Chart in which one can add their menstrual dates in relation to the moon phases and seasonal marks. As a whole, the Mago Almanac Planner is designed to personalize one’s own celebratory or commemorative days in tune with nature’s rhythm. This Planner marks the 4th year (Volume 4) of the revived Magoist Calendar, Mago Almanac: 13 Month 28 Day Calendar. We are about to complete the first Large Calendar, which refers to the first four years (Years 1-4). We set the new moon date (December 18) before Winter Solstice in 2018 in the Northern Hemisphere as the first lunation of the revived Magoist Calendar. If we count the year from the onset of the nine-state Danguk confederacy (3898 BCE-2333 BCE) founded by Goma, Magoist Shaman Queen Mother, our Year 1 would be 5916 ME (Magoma Era). Technically speaking, the Magoist Calendar formed at the time of our beginning came to be reincarnated on December 18, 2018 in the Northern Hemisphere (hereafter it implies the Northern Hemisphere otherwise indicated.) The year 2018 for the rebirth of the revived Magoist Calendar was arbitrary in that it could have been in 2017 or 2019. In retrospect, I must say that we are lucky to set the time of our first lunation on December 18 2018 because it makes the calendric migration process the smoothest. This means that our Magoist Calendar runs as less as 13 days behind the Gregorian Calendar. If we had begun in 2017, our New Year would have been December 17. Only one day difference. However, if we had begun in 2016, our New Year would have been on November 29. Likewise, if we had begun in 2019, our New Year would have been on November 26. These dates are the new moon date before Winter Solstice, the New Year day. The Magoist Calendar charts the human world into the Reality of WE/HERE/NOW. The Magoist Calendar needs to be in use today, which means that it has to be translated into the language of the Gregorian Calendar. For we have lost the actual counting of the Magoist Calendar into our days in the course of patriarchal history. Mago Almanac serves the purpose of making our calendric migration possible from the 12 month Gregorian Calendar to the 13 month Magoist Calendar. It guides our collective journey in the Mother TimeSpace interwoven by the cosmogonic force of Sonic Numerology, the musical interplay of nine numbers, which gives birth, nurtures, and transforms all beings in the cosmos. Intriguingly, I have realized only last year that the Magoist Calendar is identical with “the 13 Moon Turtle Calendar,” the calendar of North American indigenous peoples, which adopts the turtle shell that has 13 inner sections and 28 outer sections for the calendar of 13 moons and 28 days (see figure). This speaks volumes that the 13 month 28 day calendar was once widely known among peoples of the ancient world. The Magoist Calendar restores the link between lunation and menstruation as a 28 day monthly cycle, a topic that I have discussed in my essay, “Introducing the Magoist Calendar: Original Blessing of the Womb Time,” included in this planner. Why do we need to reinstate the calendar that is based on the luni-menstruation rhythm? That is because the Magoist Calendar is in accordance with Sonic Numerology. Put differently, the moon-women duet inscribed in the 13 month 28 day calendar is given by the Natural World. In fact, the Magoist Calendar is the first and …

Month: August 2017

(Prose) What is Apple Branch Dianic Witchcraft? By Deanne Quarrie, D. Min. HPS

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(Art) Initiation – Discovery by Susan Clare

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(Poem) Can You Hear? by Jhilmil Breckenridge

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Bulletin Board

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(Meet Mago Contributor) Meghanaiyegee Venketasamy (Megha)

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(Essay) This Disease Cannot Be Excised: Countering Patriarchal Religion by Hearth Moon Rising

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(Song) Our Lady of Guadalupe by Genevieve Vaughan

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(Art) Coming of Age by Jassy Watson

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(Book Excerpt 4) Single Mothers Speak on Patriarchy Ed. by Trista Hendren & Pat Daly

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(Prose) Dog Days, Holly, Spears and Swords by Deanne Quarrie, D.Min.

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(Meet Mago Contributor) Susan Clare

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(Poem) Daffodils by Andrea Nicki

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Mago Almanac Year 9 Monthly Wheels

S/HE: IJGS V4 N1-2 2025 (B/W Paperback)

Mago Almanac Year 8 (for 2025)

Program Booklets

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