August 29, 2017 – Return to Mago E-Magazine (RTME)

(Art) Star of Ishtar by Tamara Wyndham

Star of Ishtar (doubled), mixed media in an ice cream lid, 4 inches diameter x 5/8 inch deep, Art by Tamara Wyndham Inanna is the Sumerian goddess of war, love, and fertility. Ishtar is the Akkadian name of the same goddess. They started as separate goddesses, but were syncretized by the poet/priestess Enheduanna. Inanna/Ishtar’s most common symbol was the eight-pointed star. The eight-pointed star seems to have originally borne a general association with the heavens,[80] but, by the Old Babylonian Period (c.1830 – c.1531 BCE), it had come to be specifically associated with the planet Venus, with which Ishtar was identified. Here I have attributed the more pointed form of the star to Ishtar and the more rounded version to Inanna, though that is my artistic interpretation. I started making these as street altars, placing them on abandoned buildings for passersby to notice. But have since made more for personal household altars. https://www.magoism.net/2025/03/meet-mago-contributor-tamara-wyndham/
(Story 2) The Spirit in the Teapot by Carolyn Lee Boyd

Art, “Woman with Bountiful Bowls” by Nanri Tenney While the Spirit despaired at the state of the world, Goddess whispered to the Spirit, “look again.” The Spirit now looked into the homes and hearts of women, whom she was specially tasked with caring for, and saw where Goddess had hidden Herself. Spirit saw tea parties, beauty salons, and quilting bees where women had gathered and shared themselves with one another for generations. She stood by women all over the world who were risking their lives to educate girls and delighted in the young ones devouring the knowledge. She smiled at dance teachers showing young women how to love their bodies and be strong and expressive. She was in awe of protesters who placed themselves in the way of bullets and tear gas to demand rights denied too long. She observed billions of acts of kindness in which one woman helped another feed herself and her family, leave abusive homes or just feel cared for. She saw women gather to heal the Earth. It was not in the palaces and processions, but in the ordinary ways of everyday life in which Goddess still dwelled.It was time for Spirit to rise from her slumber and once again serve the people of the Earth. But, how to manifest herself? Through what door could she enter their world? She followed the whistle to the kitchen of one woman and spotted the teapot. She witnessed how the teapot was transforming the woman who drank the tea through memories of her grandmother who had been the embodiment of Goddess on Earth. She saw how teapots and tea had been the center of so many gatherings of women and she knew what she must do. The Spirit entered the teapot and it began to glow with light. The spout became the snake, ready to do its part to bring about the needed changes. The Spirit popped out of the teapot, the blooming top her new headdress, and she made a transforming tea for every woman on Earth. Whether it magically appeared in a cup they were holding, or it rained down on them as part of a monsoon, or became part of their bodies in some other way, each woman received her share. Lucia suddenly tasted the warmth and sweetness of the tea. She began to think not of her own sadness and loss, but of all those who had made the tea she was drinking. She saw in her mind the seed of the tree plant and the sun and water that made the plant grow and the bees who pollinated the blossoms. She thought of those who had picked the tea, packed it for shipping, who worked in the offices of the tea company and the cashier who sold it to her in the supermarket. She envisioned the ocean that carried it to her continent and the plants making the ink on the box, the maker of the teapot and the forger of the iron of the stove. Each of these beings was necessary to create this one cup of tea just as all beings had a part to fill in healing the world. Lucia suddenly knew she was not alone and that she, too, had a mission only she could fulfill. Lucia heard a hesitant knock. She looked through the peephole and recognized a neighbor in the building, carrying a bag of groceries. She opened the door. Her neighbor said “Excuse me. I was in the store this morning and saw you working. I was about to come over and say hello when I heard the manager say you were laid off. That’s happened to me, too. I picked up a few extra things I thought might help tide you and the kids over. You just let me know if there is anything else I can do to help, ok?” and then closed the door. That is just what my grandmother would have done, Lucia thought. The Spirit looked again through the eyes of the soul and saw the pieces of the snake beginning to come together again, shining, powerful, and joyful. Her work done for just that moment, she poured herself a sip of tea from Lucia’s pot, surveyed the world, and smiled. Nanri Tenney Artist Statement Woman with Bountiful Bowls, a symbol for forward movement and positive feminine energy in our times. This spiritual woman on a teapot lid is offering bowls of food to all. She is holding the world in balance with her nurturing creativity and sustainability. The round teapot represents the world in the process of returning to a healthy state. The spout and handle morphs the globe into a peaceful serpent dragon, a vehicle for positive transformation. The cut-up dead snake below the teapot is the shadow world and represents the transgressions that are done to the earth and its just peoples. The woman’s generous, wholesome work is victorious over these dishonorable exploits. May this creative endeavor of words and image bring kindly awareness to all who read it for the benefit of all sentient beings. Drawing is Nanri Studio (c) 2012 Nancy Richardot Tenney (aka Nanri) is part of a bi-cultural artistic family, and from a young age she was fortunate to travel, experience art, and live in several countries. Her French and American heritage, design education, and exposure to many fascinating cultures around the world has ensured her a continuing life of artistry, enterprise, and originality. Nanri has practiced graphic design, illustration and photography professionally since receiving her BFA degree at the Rhode Island School of Design. She has had design studios in Trinidad, WI, San Francisco, CA, Concord, MA, and Maynard, MA where she has been the principal designer of a small design firm, Nanri Studio for 14 years. She teaches Natural Awareness Meditation and is an active volunteer with the climate crisis movement. (End of the Story) https://www.magoism.net/2016/08/meet-mago-contributor-carolyn-lee-boyd/
(Essay 2) From Heaven to Hell, Virgin Mother to Witch: The Evolution of the Great Goddess of Egypt by Krista Rodin

[Author’s Note: This series based on a chapter in Goddesses in Culture, History and Myth seeks to demonstrate how many of the ideas behind the Ancient Egyptian goddesses and their images, though changing over time and culture, remain relevant today.] The Egyptian Holy Family Osiris, the leading male figure in the Egyptian pantheon, started out as the god of vegetation; he was aligned with his sister-wife, Isis, who was recognized for her cunning and for her use of magic. Nephthys, who is most often in a supporting role, was aligned with their brother Seth, who, with the exception of a brief time during the First Intermediate Period (ca. 2180-2055 BCE), was associated with chaos and negative effects. In this early Cain and Abel story, Seth, jealous of Osiris, tricked him into getting into a pre-cut and sized coffin, shut it, and nailed the lid tight and then sent him down the river to suffocate and drown. When Isis realized what had happened she immediately went in search of her love, accompanied by her sister, both as birds flying over the Nile, the Delta, and the eastern Mediterranean coastal ways. In Byblos, Isis found that the king and queen of that region had come across a pillar shaped like a coffin in the waterways and had had it installed in their palace without knowing what it was. When Isis found them, she disguised herself as an old woman who sought work as a nanny in order to obtain access to the palace. Isis became quite fond of the royal couple’s son and wanted to give him immortality. One day when she thought she was alone with the boy, she held him to the fire to burn off his mortal elements. The queen unexpectedly saw what was going on and, not understanding the reason, rushed in to rescue him. After she held him safely in her arms, Isis unveiled the disguise, explained what she had intended to do, and why she was there. The amazed queen was crestfallen at what she had done and, after some discussion the king gave Isis Osiris’ coffin pillar to take back with her to Egypt. She traveled with her precious cargo to the Nile Delta, where she and her sister hid the wooden box amid the reeds. At some point she was able to open the coffin and lie with her deceased husband; the outcome of their miraculous, in some versions ‘immaculate’, coupling was Horus, the falcon god, born from the remnants of the fertile earth, power, magic, cunning and love.2 A different legend3 says that Horus found his father in Busiris and asked his mother and aunt to turn Osiris’ head so that he wouldn’t drown. They brought him to land and then set about the mummification process. Either way, Seth found out about the rescue and swooped in to hack Osiris’ body into fourteen pieces, scattering them across the land. Horus, with his falcon all-seeing eyes, Isis and Nephthys all set out to find the pieces and put him back together again. They found all but one of Osiris’ parts, his penis. Without the reproductive organ, the god could no longer be responsible for vegetation, but after Isis and Nephthys had carefully wrapped the body to create the first mummy, he became the Lord of the Afterlife, the judge for those entering Duat, the place of Egyptian Afterlife. Isis and Nephthys, both sky goddesses, thus, became associated with the Underworld and Afterlife as Osiris’ companions, and protectors of those who passed through the Hall of Judgment. Judgment after death was based on Ma’at’s 42 Negative Confessions that establish universal order. Hall of Judgment with Amit and Ma’at Feather, Papyrus, Egyptian Museum, Cairo. Photo, K. Rodin The Confessions were to be recited as one’s heart was laid on the scale of justice against Ma’at ostrich feather. If the deceased could not successfully keep their heart, when weighed against their thoughts and actions while alive, at least as light as the feather, their heart, and hence their self, would be eaten by the monster Amit and destroyed forever. The 42 Confessions grace the sides of tombs and sarcophagi so that the deceased would know how to respond when judgment day came, thereby shielding the deceased from chaos, destruction and annihilation. Seth, was successful in his mission, however, in that the earth was no longer always fertile. There were periods when it was dry and unfruitful. The correlation to the exile from the Garden of Eden story in the Bible is quite clear. In both cases, the crafty tempting serpent, Seth is often depicted as a half-serpent, led to actions that resulted in the loss of bliss and the beginning of human suffering. People are protected in their struggle, however, by the Egyptian holy family: Osiris, as gateway to the Afterlife, Isis the loving wife and mother, and Horus, the falcon son, whose earthly incarnation is that of the Pharaoh who protects those in this life. Notes 2 James H. Breasted, Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1972) 25-29. T.G.H. James, Myths and Legends of Ancient Egypt (NY: Bantam Books, 1972) 28-35. Plutarch, “Isis and Osiris,” 15-18, http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/e/roman/texts/plutarch/moralia/isis_and_osiris*/a.html 3 Breasted, Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt, 27-28. (To be continued) Read Essay 1 here. Meet Mago Contributor, Krista Rodin.
Meet Mago Contributor, Mary Ann Beavis

Mary Ann Beavis (Ph.D., Cambridge University) is Professor of Religion and Culture at St. Thomas More College, the University of Saskatchewan (Saskatoon, Canada). Her areas of specialization include Christian Origins, Feminist Biblical Interpretation, and Women and Religion. The courses she teaches include “Goddesses in Myth and History,” and her current research project, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada, is a study of women who blend Goddess Spirituality and Christianity. Her books include Mark’s Audience, Jesus and Utopia, Mark (Paideia Commentaries), and Hebrews (Wisdom Commentaries), and two edited volumes, The Lost Coin: Parables of Women, Work and Wisdom, and Feminist Theology with a Canadian Accent. She is the author of many peer-reviewed articles, five of which reflect her current interest in the Mary Magdalene/Mary of Bethany tradition.
(Poem) Fuerza Ancestral/Ancestral Strength by Xánath Caraza (in Spanish and English)

Fuerza ancestral Fuerza de mujer Delicada Que fluye en aguas rojas Pensamientos concéntricos Fuerza que renace Se enreda en las copas de los árboles Cihuacóatl Fuerza creadora que canta Que despierta Que guía entre el oscuro laberinto Que susurra al oído el camino extraviado Que invita a vivir Tonantzin
(Art) Setting the Stories Free, an INTUIT Card collage meditation by Cynthia Tom

Art by Cynthia Tom In case of chronic heartache: Rx – sit quietly and ask who wants your attention. Your little self will metaphorically tap you on the shoulder. Let him/her/they spend time with you to gather a hug and reassurance that you are there for you. Self-sooth your little self to heal into and celebrate who you have become. https://www.magoism.net/2021/07/meet-mago-contributor-cynthia-tom/
(Poem) Tarantella by Susan Hawthorne

Livia’s outdone herselfthe room is aliveleaves shimmer in lightbirds all a-twitterluscious balls of fruit hanging our favourite goddessesappear as plantsquince brings luck in lovepomegranate binds love and deathpoppy a favourite from Eleusis Diana Venus and Ceres are dancingin a circle withHecate Aphrodite and Demeterthe first triad from Romathe second from Greek Sicilia Cybele appearswild iris entwinedin a pine branch processionsome women need pageantryuna processione femminile Diana why the ilexis there something we should know?others enter bearing a veritable pharmacopœia from shrubs and herbs the nieces of Sicilian Medusaand a group of Maori girlsare trading tongue gesturesfor now it is playfulbut each knows how fear can kill Olympias and Agave arm in armsnake-braceleted mænads twirl dust stormsthe world is awhirl Psappha shoutswe are the ones I wrote aboutsomeone in some future time will remember me una processione femminile: Italian: a procession of women Cover art by Suzanne Bellamy, ‘Starship’, porcelain, 1989. Notes The tarantella is an ancient Italian dance possibly connected to Dianic rituals. I first heard about the tarantella when Australian author, Finola Moorhead, was writing her feminist novel Remember the Tarantella in the late 1970s. The novel ends with a dance that takes place in 4553 BC. Fifty women gather under a full moon between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The women dance and at the end of the dance “each woman releases her menstrual flow into the pit of smouldering wheat.” (p. 306). My poem ‘tarantella’ is a memory of a party held by Empress Livia of Rome. The party includes women from many eras, from the Mediterranean to the Pacific Ocean. At this imagined party women share and celebrate their understanding of the universe, of plants and birds and most of all, of women’s history. It is from my collection Lupa and Lamb which was written when I was a Literature Resident in Rome for six months. © on Finola Moorhead, 1987 and 2011 © on Susan Hawthorne, 2014 https://www.magoism.net/2013/12/meet-mago-contributor-susan-hawthone/
(Art Essay) The Language of Stars by Claire Dorey

The Language of Stars by Claire Dorey Follows: Seshat Mistress of the Yoniverse “An artist should stay for long periods of time looking at the stars in the night sky.” – Marina Abramović – An Artist’s Life Manifesto: Marina Abramović’s Rules of Life, Solitude, and Silence, Popova, Maria, The Marginalian. [1] Nut, Hathor, Sothis and Seshat embody star gazing within the flesh of their being. Sun dropping to the dunes, emerald eyes glinting, these exotic, perfumed, resolutely strong and divinely feminine Goddesses recline upon gilded stools, sipping hibiscus tea. As the light fades to indigo they take up their positions in the cosmogenic womb space, ethereal costumes merging with the nocturnal sky: astral headdress; lapis hair; panther skin and sheath dress scattered with glittering constellations, reminding us there is life out there in the cosmos…. and it’s female. Beyond sartorial expression there are other ways the Sky Goddess weaves celestial geometry and motion into the fabric of civilisation. Awakening us to our transcendent selves and to the power of the night, Nut personifies the eternal void and Milky Way; Sothis embodies the heliacal rising of Sirius, marking the start of the Sothis Year; ‘Lady of the Stars’ and cosmic Mother Cow, Hathor births the sun; Seshat records time and uses a star clock and Ursa Major to plot the layout of temples. “The decans of Egyptian astronomy were 36 stars or star groups near the ecliptic whose rise or transit could be used to tell the time during the night.” – Smit & Palarczyk, Egypt: Temple of Dendera,, Pinterest. [2] Rebalancing the universe, by revisiting the Sky Goddess Matrix, is important because the female connection to the heavens was severed by sky god religions. Seshat was eclipsed by Thoth, Hermes and Hermes Trismegistus. Seshat Mistress of the Yoniverse discusses the symbolism hidden within Her headdress and Her method of using Meskhetiu (Ursa Major) and a merkhet (star clock) to plot the layout of temples. This method also seems to work on architectural drawings of the Great Pyramid, plotting the height, external slopes and positions of inner chambers. “The Cheops Pyramid [ ] becomes an Amplifier or a Resonance Chamber because all it’s finest measurements are encoded in our human form.” – Jain 108. [3] Perhaps Seshat harnesses celestial motion to draw cosmic consciousness into both sacred architecture AND the art within it, including drawings and sculpture of the human form. Harpist Ani Williams and Antoine Seronde [4] talk ‘temple scale’ – drawing down ‘cosmic musical frequency’ into sacred spaces – so why not pull cosmic motion and proportion into temple art, connecting sentient beings on earth to a higher consciousness? ““Seshat opens the door of heaven for you.” Spell 10 – the Coffin Texts.” – Mutere, Malaika. [5] Predating spare-rib mythology by eons, did Seshat create woman in the image of the Goddess, as a cosmological reflection of a universe in motion? We consider the idealised, ultra-realist forms of classical sculpture to be High Art, assuming other representations of the human form are unaccomplished in comparison. Ethereal white marble ‘perfection’ is aspirational. The less body-centric, ancient Egyptian portrayal of the human form may draw upon the astrological proportions and motion of various constellations. I’ve sat with this idea for months now because it’s difficult to prove since there’s simply eons of ancient Egyptian art. Visualising the Energy in Hathor’s Temple simplified it’s artwork into a grid system of triangles, whilst pondering some meaning behind this. Now I’m looking at Dendera (also known as Hathor’s ‘Womb of Time’) with new eyes, wondering if Seshat’s method of using stars, to create structure, plots the human form and layout of the artwork there. Rotating ‘Meskhetiu’ (Ursa Major) in increments around the North star, placed upon Hathor’s third eye, appears to plot the dimensions, contours and positions of features, including extended eye-liner, of Hathor’s curiously proportioned, cow-like face, sitting atop the pillars at Dendera. Interestingly, in ancient Egypt Ursa Major is called the ‘ox-leg’. Generally nature’s code, the golden ratio and the fibonacci sequence, shape universal balance and proportion, yet once seen, it’s hard to un see this constellation reflected in Her face. She also tops the sistrum, so perhaps this instrument is in conversation with Ursa Major. It appears celestial motion, expressed for example as a foot moving forward, implies there is a cosmic destination that deities, profound beings and ordinary humans move towards – the Book of the Dead is also know as the Book of Going Forth by Day. As opposed to the geo-centric vision of man at the centre of his universe, ancient Egyptian imagery appears to express humanity as part of a cosmos in motion. Revisiting the Sky Goddess Matrix, time and again, peels away complex layers of celestial consciousness held within the language of symbol. Understanding consciousness, which reveals itself in increments, is a slow and organic process, rather like fermenting wine. “For one consciousness to understand another – to understand what it is like to be another – might be the supreme challenge of communication and coexistence….” – Popova, Maria, Music, the Neural Harmonics of Emotion, and How Love Recomposes the Brain, The Marginalian. [6] On the Hypostyle Ceiling an image of Hathor’s Eye, [7], encircled by Her mirror, faces a ‘precession’ of fourteen deities, including Nut, Sekhmet, Isis and Tefnut, all with one foot forward, moving towards their celestial destination. The fourteen are possibly part of the 36 decans (ten day weeks) of the Sothis Year. Fourteen may relate to the Isis / Osiris myth (he was chopped into fourteen pieces, Isis retrieved thirteen). I’m pretty certain their destination is ‘Sirius Rising’ because superimposing an image of Canis Major over this composition – Sirius is part of this constellation – lining the Dog Star up with Hathor’s pupil, the other stars in the constellation mark the outer corner of Her Eye; the direction of Her tear duct (symbolising the inundation of the Nile?); the distance between brow and liner; three points on the mirror’s circumference; and the positioning of panels of hieroglyphs flanking …
(Essay 5) blackbird and a pear tree by Lucia Chiavola Birnbaum

A family story told in art, names, places, denied cultures, black and sensual madonnas, diversity of beliefs, visionary and healing Santa Lucia of Sicily During the second week of our journey we came to the African coast of south Sicily memorialized in the blockbuster film series, Il Commissario, which may be the best social history of this coast of the contemporary African Mediterranean. With 2014 eyes I looked incredulously at the region where my father and his family left for America in 1912—fleeing miseria, a misery connoting poverty and the humiliations of living in the poor south of Italy. Changed spectacularly since Wally and I were there in 2010, the stretch of Sicily fronting Africa has become a north Italian and international summer spa of northerners seeking the sun and sea. In August, 60,000 tourists come to the marinas of Ragusa Ibla, Scicli, Modica, and Noto. We arrived a few days after the end of high season when most of the tourists had gone . . . leaving high end hotels, restaurants, shops and white sandy beaches with a baroque backdrop. The mixture of ancient echoes, high technology, contemporary rock music, and the sun and the sea sent my senses reeling.

(Special Post 6) Nine-Headed Dragon Slain by Patriarchal Heroes: A Cross-cultural Discussion by Mago Circle Members

[Editor’s Note: This and the ensuing sequels are a revised version of the discussion that has taken place in The Mago Circle, Facebook group, since September 24, 2017 to the present. Themes are introduced and interwoven in a somewhat random manner, as different discussants lead the discussion. The topic of the number nine is key to Magoism, primarily manifested as Nine Magos or the Nine Mago Creatrix. Mago Academy hosts a virtual and actual event, Nine Day Mago Celebration, annually.] Helen Hwang Without knowing nine numerology, it is NOT possible for us to understand the depth of Magoism, an anciently originated tradition of Old Korea/East Asia that venerated the Creatrix. “Giants” are the hallmark for the Goma, the people of Danguk (nine-state confederacy led by Goma, the Magoist Shaman queen). Those giants are not described as a singular people. They come in “81 brothers,” as mentioned below. We know what “brothers” mean, it is 81 sisters! Changing or translating a female-connoted term to the male proves its agent to be patriarchal. And Chiyou or Chiu (in Korean) is the ruler of Nine Ris (Guri), another name for Nine Hans (Guhan). Check this out: “Chiyou (蚩尤) was a tribal leader of the Nine Li tribe (九黎) in ancient China.[1] He is best known as a king who lost against the future Yellow Emperor during the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors era in Chinese mythology.[1][2][3] For the Hmong people, Chiyou[4] was a sagacious mythical king.[5] He has a particularly complex and controversial ancestry, as he may fall under Dongyi[1]Miao[5] or even Man,[5] depending on the source and view. Today, Chiyou is honored and worshipped as the God of War and one of the three legendary founding fathers of China.” “According to the Song dynasty history book Lushi, Chiyou’s surname was Jiang (姜), and he was a descendant of Yandi.[6]According to legend, Chiyou had a bronze head with a metal forehead.[1] He had 4 eyes and 6 arms, wielding terrible sharp weapons in every hand.[7] In some sources, Chiyou had certain features associated with various mythological bovines: his head was that of a bull with two horns, although the body was that of a human.[7] He is said to have been unbelievably fierce, and to have had 81 brothers.[7] Historical sources often described him as ‘cruel and greedy’,[6] as well as ‘tyrannical’.[8] Some sources have asserted that the figure 81 should rather be associated with 81 clans in his kingdom.[5] Chiyou knows the constellations and the ancients spells for calling upon the weather. For example, he called upon a fog to surround Huangdi and his soldiers during the Battle of Zhuolu. TRIBE Chiyou is regarded as a leader of the Nine Li tribe (九黎, RPAWhite Hmong: Cuaj Li Ntuj) by nearly all sources.[1] However, his exact ethnic affiliations are quite complex, with multiple sources reporting him as belonging to various tribes, in addition to a number of diverse peoples supposed to have directly descended from him.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiyou Helen Hye-Sook Hwang Below is from my article, “Goma, The Shaman Ruler Of Old Magoist East Asia/Korea, And Her Mythology,” included in Goddesses in Myth, History and Culture (Mago Books, 2018). Goma is also credited for designating queens of the bear clan to state rulers. Another account of the Goma myth reads, “She looked after numerous spiritual persons and wise persons. Accepting women of the bear clan, Hanung made them rulers (后). Goma chose queens of the bear clan to make them nine state rulers. Note that Danguk is a nine state confedearcy. That Danguk’s nine states were headed by the queens of the bear clan is, among others, corroborated by Chinese mythological accounts. Chinese myth informs that Chiu, Huangdi’s opponent in an epic war, was aided by “a tribe of giants from the far north.”[1] In Chinese mythology, Gonggong and her minister, Xiangliu, symbolized as a dragon with nine heads in the body of a snake, are depicted as an enemy of Emperor Yu of Xia (ruled c. 2200–2100 BCE). Such a story is aligned with Sinocentrism inscribed in Chinese mythology that antagonizes pre-Chinese history of Old Magoist Korea/East Asia. In Chinese mythology, Gonggong (龔工) is described as a sea monster whose minister Xiangliu (相栁 Mutual Willow) is told to have been defeated by Yu, the Great.[2] Assuming the character hu (后 xia in Chinese pronunciation) to mean a male ruler’s wife, androcentric scholars have translated the above account as “Hanung received his queen from the bear clan. And he instituted the rite of matrimony.” This proves to be a modern androcentric bias in that hu originally means a “ruler.” This is the case of the logographic character whose original meaning has changed from “a female ruler” to “a male ruler” and to “the wife of ruler” over time. Ancient Chinese texts betray ample evidence. For example, Xiahou (夏后 Ruler of Xia) and Houyi (后羿 Ruler of Yi) respectively refer to a male ruler. Xiahou refers to Yu of Xia. Other ancient Chinese texts include the Classic of Poetry (詩經商頌玄鳥), the Zuozhuan (左傳) and the Book of Document (書經).[3] [1] C. Scott Littleton, ed. Mythology: The Illustrated Anthology of World Myth & Storytelling (San Diego: Thunder Bay Press, 2002), 414. Cited in Hwang, Finding Mago, 239 in note 494. [2] Lihui Yang, Deming An and Jessica Anderson Turner, Handbook of Chinese Mythology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 214-5. [3] Goma, “Goma, The Shaman Ruler Of Old Magoist East Asia/Korea, And Her Mythology” Goddesses in Myth, History and Culture (Mago Books, 2018), 272. Helen Hye-Sook Hwang I am realizing that even ancient Chinese people depicted Chiyou as female. When her image is cropped from the whole frame, it is hard to tell. But see her in the attached image of the whole frame. In comparison with Chinese heroes (supposedly including Yellow Emperor) on the left side, she and her ally are depicted as a figure in a curvy body line. Of course, Chiyou was pejoratively depicted as she was an opponent to the future Chinese emperor, […]
(Special Post) BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE FOR EL PASO ARTIST MARIO COLÍN by Donna Snyder

Born in Juárez in 1959, Mario Colín lived his entire life in the Five Points area of Central El Paso, where he attended Houston Elementary and Austin High School. From the age of fifteen, he worked as a construction worker, building silos and other large construction projects across the U.S.A., at some point hitch hiking from the Pacific coast to the Atlantic shores. In his late twenties, he began to focus all his attention and energy on art, which had been an interest since early childhood, working as a muralist and portrait painter. Much of his art is of a religious nature, although he also painted secular art, portraits, and historical scenes. Colín painted his first mural of the Virgin of Guadalupe in collaboration with deceased artist Chuck Zavala in 1987 at Esparza’s Grocery, a small store in Central El Paso. It has now become a shrine, with community members building a stone arch and bringing flowers and candles, and has been pronounced a religious site by the parish church. Since that first mural, Colín has painted over 40 pieces of public art, many of which have become landmarks. Many of those murals are in that same Central El Paso neighborhood, on or near Piedras, including the House of Pizza, Los Alamos Grocery, The Elbo Room bar, the former Sanitary Plumbing at Piedras and Fort Boulevard. Colín twice painted a 25 foot mural of the Virgin of Guadalupe, at Alameda and Zaragoza, across from the Ysleta mission. The first version, painted in 1997, became decayed, but was a popular landmark. That mural has appeared in periodicals, art books, calendars, many newspaper articles, and in photographs exhibited in the El Paso Art Museum and galleries. In 2004, Señor José Villalobos donated and members of the community contributed money to pay laborers to replaster the wall of the century-old adobe building where it is located, and Colín repainted the entire mural for donations from passers-by and community members. Colín’s work has also been featured on the International History Channel and Canal 44, XHUI TV, in a Ford television commercial, and numerous times in the El Paso Times and the defunct El Paso Herald-Post, as well as in periodicals such as Texas Monthly, Dallas Morning News, Texas Observer, Austin American Statesman, Stanton Street magazine; literary journals such as Mezcla and GypsyMag.com; in documentaries including Walls that Speak: El Paso’s Murals, directed by Jim Klaes; in art books such as Colors on Desert Walls: The Murals of El Paso and Texas 24:7, and in various editions of Chicano Studies: Survey and Analysis, a text book used throughout the country.
(Special Post 2) 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.] Harriet Ann Ellenberger I got involved with women’s liberation in the early 1970s, so involved that it became my life for many years. During those beginnings of what is now called “the second wave of feminism,” everything was new to us and everything was mushed together — the political, the economic, the intellectual, the emotional, the spiritual. I liked that a lot; it felt as if all the parts of myself were coming together. During that time, I learned something crucial the imagery and concepts of patriarchal religion justify and are embedded in the material structures of oppression. I don’t know which came first, institutionalized oppression (of everyone; I’m not speaking here only of women) or the religious expression of that oppression. All I’m certain of is that patriarchal religion permeates, for example, the Oxford English Dictionary, which I use all the time, in conjunction with Websters’ First New Intergalactic Wickedary of the English Language, conjured by Mary Daly in cahoots with Jane Caputi.

(Video) Autumn Equinox/Mabon Poetry by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

The Autumnal Equinox occurs each year in the range of March 20-23 in the Southern Hemisphere, and in the range of September 20 -23 in the Northern Hemisphere. Autumn Equinox is a point of sacred balance: it is the point of balance in the dark part of Earth’s annual cycle. Sun is equidistant between North and South as it was/is at Spring Equinox, but in this dark phase of the cycle, the trend is toward increasing dark. Henceforth the dark part of the day will exceed the light part: thus it is a Moment of certain descent … and a sacred Moment for feeling and contemplating the grief and power of loss, for ceremoniously joining personal and collective grief and loss with the larger Self in whom we are. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcZflKLkvP8 Below is the text of the video. It is based on the traditional poetry for PaGaian Autumn Equinox/Mabon ceremony[i]. This is the Moment of the Autumnal Equinox in our Hemisphere – the moment of balance of light and dark in the dark part of the cycle. The light and dark parts of the day in the South and in the North of our planet, are of equal length at this time. We feel for the balance in this moment – Earth as She is poised in relationship with the Sun … breathing in the light, swelling with it, letting our breath go to the dark, staying with it. In our part of Earth, the balance is tipping into the dark. We remember the coolness of it. This is the time when we give thanks for our harvests – all that we have gained. And we remember too the sorrows, losses involved. The story of Old tells us that Persephone, Beloved Daughter, is given the wheat from Her Mother – the Mystery, knowledge of life and death. She receives it graciously. But she sets forth into the darkness – both Mother and Daughter grieve that it is so. Demeter, the Mother, says: “You are offered the wheat in every moment … I let you go as Child, most loved of Mine: you descend to Wisdom, to Sovereignty. You will return as Mother, co-Creator with me. You are the Seed in the Fruit, becoming the Fruit in the Seed. Inner Wisdom guides your path.” We give thanks for our harvests – our lives they are blessed. We are Daughters and Sons of the Mother. Yet we take our Wisdom and all that we have gained, and remember the sorrows – the losses involved. We remember the grief of the Mother, of mothers and lovers everywhere, our grief. Persephone descends. The Beloved One is lost. Persephone goes forth into the darkness to become Queen of that world. She tends the sorrows. The Seed represents our Persephones, who tends the sorrows – we are the Persephones, who may tend the sorrows. We go out into the night with Her and plant our seeds. Persephone blesses us with her fertile promise: “You have waxed into the fullness of life, And waned into darkness; May you be renewed in tranquility and wisdom[ii].” These represent our hope. The Seed of life never fades away. She is always present. Blessed be the Mother of all life. Blessed be the life that comes from Her and returns to Her. We tie red threads on each other: we participate in the Vision of the Seed – of the continuity of Life, that continues beneath the visible. The Mother knowledge grows within us. Our hope is in the Sacred Balance of the Cosmos – the Thread of Life, the Seed that never fades away: it is the Balance of Grief and Joy, the Care that we may feel in our Hearts. NOTES: [i] Glenys Livingstone, PaGaian Cosmology, p. 239-247. [ii] Charlene Spretrnak, Lost Goddesses of Early Greece, p. 116. REFERENCES: Livingstone, Glenys. PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. NE: iUniverse, 2005. Spretnak, Charlene. Lost Goddesses of Early Greece: a Collection of Pre-Hellenic Myths. Boston: Beacon Press, 1992/1978.
A Southern Hemisphere Perspective on Place by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This essay is an edited excerpt from the Introduction to the author’s book PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion, which was an outcome of her doctoral research/thesis entitled The Female Metaphor – Virgin, Mother, Crone – of the Dynamic Cosmological Unfolding: Her Embodiment in Seasonal Ritual as Catalyst for Personal and Cultural Change. This doctoral work was in turn a documentation and deeper research of the Seasonal ceremonial celebrations that the author was already engaged in for over a decade. The whole of the process is here named as her “Search”. photo credit: David Widdowson, Astrovisuals. The site of seasonal ceremonial celebrations will always be significant. In my case, the place in which I have created them has been notably in the Southern Hemisphere of out Planet Earth. The fact of my context being thus – the Southern Hemisphere – had contributed in the past to my deep internalized sense of being “other”, and dissociated from my senses, since almost all stories told were based in Northern Hemisphere perspective. Yet at the same time this context of inhabiting the Southern Hemisphere contributed to my deep awareness of Gaia’s Northern Hemisphere and Her reciprocal Seasonal Moment: thus, awareness of the whole Planet. My initial confusion about the sensed Cosmos – as a Place, became a clarity about the actual Cosmos – which remained inclusive of my sensed Cosmos. PaGaian reality – the reality of our Gaian “country” – is that the whole Creative Dynamic happens all the time, all at once. The “other”, the opposite, is always present – underneath and within the Moment. This has affected my comprehension of each Sabbat/Seasonal Moment, its particular beauty but also a fullness of its transitory nature. Many in the Northern Hemisphere – even today – have no idea that the Southern Hemisphere has a ‘different’ lunar, diurnal, seasonal perspective; and because of this there often is a rigidity of frame of reference for place, language, metaphor and hence cosmology[i]. Indeed over the years of industrialized culture it has appeared to matter less to many of both hemispheres, including the ‘author-ities’, the writers of culture and cosmos. And such ‘author-ity’ and northern-hemispheric rigidity is also assumed by many more Earth-oriented writers as well[ii]. There has been consistent failure to take into account a whole Earth perspective: for example, the North Star does not need to be the point of sacred reference – there is great Poetry to be made of the void of the South Celestial Pole. Nor need the North be rigidly associated with the Earth element and darkness, nor is there really an “up” and a “down” cosmologically speaking. A sense and accountof the Southern Hemisphere perspective with all that that implies metaphorically as well as sens-ibly, seems vitally important to comprehending and sensing a whole perspective and globe – a flexibility of mind, and coming to inhabit the real Cosmos, hence enabling what I have named as a ‘PaGaian’ cosmological perspective, a whole Earth perspective. It has also been of particular significance that my Search has been birthed in the ancient continent of Australia. It is the age of the exposed rock in this Land, present to her inhabitants in an untarnished, primal mode that is significant. This Land Herself has for millennia been largely untouched by human war, conquest and concentrated human agriculture and disturbance. The inhabitants of this Land dwelt here in a manner that was largely peaceful and harmonious, for tens of thousands of years. Therefore the Land Herself may speak more clearly I feel; one may be the recipient of direct transmission of Earth in one of her most primordial modes. Her knowledge may be felt more clearly – one may be taught by Her. I think that the purity of this transmission is a significant factor in the development of the formal research I undertook – in my chosen methodology and in what I perceived in the process, and documented; from my beginnings as a country girl, albeit below my conscious mind in the subtle realms of which I knew little, to the more conscious times of entering into the process of the Search. In this Land that birthed me, ‘spirit’ is not remote and abstract, it is felt in Her red earth[iii]. Aboriginal elder David Mowaljarlai described, “This is a spirit country”[iv], and all of Her inhabitants, including non-Indigenous, may be affected by the strength of Her organic communication. It took me until the later stages of my research to realize the need to state the importance of this particular place for the advent of the research: the significance of both the land of Australia, and the specific region of the Blue Mountains in which I was now dwelling, as well as the community of this particular region, which all lent itself to the whole process. The lateness of this perception on my part, has to do with the extent of my previous alienation; but the fact that it did occur, is perhaps at least in part attributable to the unfolding awakening to my habitat that was part of the project/process. The specific region of the “Blue Mountains” – as Europeans have named them – is significant in that I don’t think that this project/process could have happened as it did in just any region. David Abram says, “The singular magic of a place is evident from what happens there, from what befalls oneself or others when in its vicinity. To tell of such events is implicitly to tell of the particular power of that site, and indeed to participate in its expressive potency[v]”. Blue Mountains, Australia: Dharug and Gundungurra Country The Blue Mountains are impressive ancient rock formations, an uplifted ancient seabed, whose “range of rock types and topographical situations has given rise to distinct plant communities”[vi]; and the presence of this great variation of plant communities, “especially the swamps, offer an abundance and variety of food sources, as well as habitats for varied fauna”[vii]. I feel that this is the case for …
Imbolc/Early Spring – a Season of Uncertainty by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

Traditionally the Seasonal transition of Imbolc/Early Spring, celebrated in early February in the Northern Hemisphere, and in early August in the Southern Hemisphere, has been a time of nurturing the new life that is beginning to show itself, around us and within. It is a time of committing one’s self to the new life and inspiration – in the garden, in the soul, and in the Cosmos. We may include in our celebrations and contemplations of this Season the beginnings of the new young Cosmos as She was, that time in our cosmic story when She was only a billion years old and galaxies were forming; and also the new which has continually emerged throughout the eons, and is ever coming forth. The flame of being, as it has been imagined by many cultures, within and around, is to be protected and nurtured: the new being requires dedication and attention. In the early stages of its advent, there is nothing certain about its staying power and growth: it may flicker and be vulnerable. There may be uncertainties of various kinds. There is risk and resistance to coming into being. The Universe itself knew resistance to its expansion when it encountered gravitation in our very beginnings, in the primordial Flaring Forth[i]. The unfolding of the Universe was never without creative tension. The Universe knows it daily, in every moment: and we participate in this creative tension of our place of being. Urge to Be budding forth Imbolc/Early Spring can be a time of remembering personal vulnerabilities, feeling them and accepting them, but remaining resolute in birthing and tending of the new, listening for and responding to the Urge to Be[ii]of the Creative Universe within. Brian Swimme has said (quoting cultural anthropologist A.L. Kroeber) that the destiny of the human is not “bovine placidity” but the highest degree of tension that can be creatively born[iii]. many flames of being, strengthening each other These times are filled with creative tension, collectively and for most, personally as well; there is much resistance, yet there is promise of so much good energy arising. We may be witness to both. This Season of Imbolc/Early Spring may encourage attention, intention and dedication to strengthening well-being: in self, and in the relational communal context, and opening to our direct immersion in the Well of Creativity. We may be strengthened with the joining of hands, as well as the listening within to the sacred depths, in ceremonial circle at this time. NOTES: [i]As our origins (popularly named as “the Big Bang”) are named by Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme in The Universe Story. [ii]As I name this determined Virgin quality in PaGaian Cosmology. [iii]The Canticle to the Cosmos, DVD #8, “The Nature of the Human”. References: Livingstone, Glenys. PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. NE: iUniverse, 2005. Swimme, Brian and Berry, Thomas. The Universe Story: From the Primordial Flaring Forth to the Ecozoic Era. New York: HarperCollins, 1992. Swimme, Brian. Canticle to the Cosmos. DVD series, 1990.
(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.
(Mago Almanac Excerpt 7) Introducing the Magoist Calendar by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

Mago Almanac: 13 Month 28 Day Calendar (Book A) at Mago Bookstore. YEARLY LEAP DAY AND EVERY FOURTH YEAR LEAP DAY Each Sa includes a Dan of the big Sa. A Dan is equal to one day. That adds to 365 days. At the half point of the third Sa, there is a Pan of the big Sak (the year of the great dark moon). A Pan comes at a half point of Sa. This is of Beopsu (Lawful Number) 2, 5, 8. A Pan is equal to a day. Therefore, the fourth Sa has 366 days. Each year has a leap day (Dan), which makes a total of 365 days. Every fourth year is a leap year that has a leap day (Pan), which makes a total of 366 days. The Dan day comes before the New Year in the winter solstice month. And the Pan day comes before the first day of the summer solstice month in the fourth year. The above, however, does not indicate when the New Year comes. Logographic characters of Dan and Pan each suggest their meanings. While each year includes the Dan day (the morning), every fourth year has the Pan day. A unit of four years makes the Big Calendar. Dan (旦 Morning) Leap day for every first three years Pan (昄 Big) Leap day for every fourth year I have postulated that the year begins on the Dan day (one leap day), a day before New Year that comes in the month of Winter Solstice in the Norther Hemisphere. And the Pan day comes on the day before the first day of the 7th month that has Summer Solstice in the fourth year in the Norther Hemisphere. Years Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Months Dan Dan Dan Dan 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 5 5 5 5 6 6 6 6 Pan 7 7 7 7 8 8 8 8 9 9 9 9 10 10 10 10 11 11 11 11 12 12 12 12 13 13 13 13 Days 365 365 365 366 The Magoist Calendar’s intercalation involves one leap day every year and one leap day every four years. That is, each year has one extra day to make it 365 days. Every fourth year has an extra day to make it 366 days. Four years has a total of 1461 days (365×3+366), which makes the mean of 365.25 days. Considering that the month is following the sidereal period rather than the synodic period, it is inferred that the year also follows the sidereal year rather than the solar year. In fact, Magoist Calendar’s one year is very close to today’s 365.25636 days of the sidereal year compared to 365.24217 days of the solar year or the tropical year. Given that, as seen below, the Budoji mentions the tiniest discrepancy of one leap day for 31,788,900 years, the discrepancy between 365.25 and 365.25636 (0.00636 day) can be explained that the year was actually 365.25 days at the time of Budo circa 2333 BCE, 4440 years ago. In other words, there is a discrepancy of 0.12375936 seconds between 2017 CE and 2333 BCE. Regarding Lawful Numbers 2, 5, 8, it is involved as follows: 365 days (3+6+5=14, 1+4=5) Lawful Numbers 2, 5, 8 refers the unit of 365 days (364 days with one intercalary day). Further dynamics are unknown. The sidereal year refers to the time taken by the Earth to orbit the sun once with respect to the distant stars. In contrast, the solar or tropical year means the time taken by the Earth to orbit the sun once with respect to the sun. The sidereal year, 365.25636 days, is about 20 minutes and 24 seconds longer than the mean tropical year (365.24217 days) and about 19 minutes and 57 seconds longer than the average Gregorian year of 365.2425 days. The difference occurs primarily because the solar system spins on its own axis and around the Milky Way galactic center making the solar year’s observed position relative. Time is no independent concept apart from space and the agent. The very concept of time is preceded by the agent bound in a space. It is always contextualized. In Magoism, both calendar and time are born out of the cosmogonic universe, the universe that is in self-creation. Like calendar, time is to be discovered or measured. It is a numinous concept. The very concept of time testifies to the reality of the Creatrix. Time proves the orderly movement of the universe into which we are born. Calendar patterns time, whereas time undergirds calendar. How can we measure time? We are given the time of the Earth that comes from its rotation, revolution, and precession in sync with the moon and the sun (and its planets). One type of time is the solar time. The solar time is a calculation of time based on the position of the sun. Traditionally, the solar time is measured by the sundial. The solar time is, however, specific to the Earth only. It is valid only for the-same-observed-location. It is not made to be used for the time of another celestial body. For example, Mars’ solar time has to be measured independently based on its own rotation and revolution rates. The solar time is an isolated time. It is static and exclusive, not made for the time of other celestial bodies. By nature, it is unfit for connection and communication across celestial bodies. The second type is the sidereal time. The sidereal time is a time scale based on the rate of Earth’s rotations measured relative to the distant stars.[29] Because the observed position is in the far distant stars beyond the solar system, the sidereal time may as well be called an extrasolar stellar time. We can think of the observer’s position of an imaginary cosmic bird far out there, infinitely far beyond not only the solar system and …
(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

(Photo Essay 1) ‘Gaeyang Halmi, the Sea Goddess of Korea’ by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

Part I: Living Tradition Bearers and Her Shrine, Suseong-dang I had the privilege to join a field trip to collect the folk stories of Gaeyang Halmi, the Sea Goddess, in Buan-gun (Buan County), North Jeolla Province, South Korea July 10-12, 2012. The team comprised a group of graduate students studying Korean Literature at the Kunguk University (Kim Jungeun, Cho Hongyoun, Lee Won-Young, Hwang Sungup, and Lee Boohee) headed by Dr. Shin Dong-Hun, Dr. Park Hyeon-Suk, and myself.[i]
(Art) Nurture by Anna Tzanova

to feed and protect; to support and encourage; to foster and bring up; to train and educate; to develop and nourish; to care for and cherish… Such a multifaceted and meaningful word! It represents to me an essential quality of the Goddess. An aspect I strive to cultivate within, embody, and express externally. I use it to guide all my actions by asking myself, “Is this nurturing?”; “By doing this, what am I nurturing?” Very often, minds have been conditioned to counterpose nature and nurture, creating not only a divide, but also a controversy. The intrinsic feature of Nature is to nurture. The womb not only births, but nurtures. Nothing can be sustained or achieved without nurture. Nature teaches us the lesson of acceptance. Nurture – the lesson of patience. It also provides the opportunity and freedom of choice. Together, they intertwine and weave the entire Creation. What are you nurturing today? From She Rises: How Goddess Feminism, Activism, and Spirituality? Volume 2 (forthcoming, 2016). See (Meet Mago Contributror) Anna Tzanova.
(Book Announcement 5) Introduction (part 3) by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

[Editor’s Note: This Introduction is from She Rises: How Goddess Feminism, Activism, and Spirituality? Volume 2.] Pre-order available now! Engendering the Gynocentric Economy In the sense that the She Rises collective writing project does NOT begin with a ready-made blueprint, it is distinguished from a standard anthology. More to the point, this book is a book of the Goddess. By saying that, I do not mean that it is just about the Goddess. It is created in a gynocentric way and it serves a gynocentric purpose. Motivations matter; the task of the She Rises collective writing was first undertaken as a way of enhancing the Goddess/Mago Movement in 2014.[i] It has taken place spontaneously by the hand of volunteers. It relies on the gynocentric economy, a system of enabling the life of all beings operated through voluntary collaboration and egalitarian coordination. As an extension of the Gift Economy that Genevieve Vaughan advocates, the gynocentric economy is based on the voluntary sharing of one’s available resources for the whole.[ii] Gift-givers not only give what we can give freely but also enable a whole new (read non-patriarchal) mode of doing economic activities. In other words, they summon gynocentric reality to take place. Gynocentric economy secures free gift-giving activities and at the same time is shaped by the latter.

Day: August 29, 2017

Seeking Mago, the Great Mother from Old Korea

S/HE: IJGS V5 N1 2026 (B/W Paperback)

Mago Almanac Year 9 Monthly Wheels

Mago Pod Bulletin #85 August-September 2026

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