November 15, 2017October 2, 2019 Mago WorkLeave a comment

(Art 2) Shaktika, Infancy the very beginning of by Megha

Infancy – the very beginning of Remember the earliest part of your life, when you were a baby!!! It is extremely rare for anyone to remember their own infancy. An Read More …

(Prose) Healing Medicine From the Woods by Hearth Moon Rising

Hearth Moon Rising, Writer Is your heart weary? Is your spirit longing for beauty? Does sorrow consume your thoughts? Are you lonely? The woodland thrush has the antidote for you. The most evocative of the Eastern Woodland singers, the Veery, the Hermit Thrush, the Swainson’s Thrush, and (especially) the Wood Thrush have a melody that hits the heart chakra just right. The song is often characterized as “haunting,” not because it is scary but because it seems to echo through the forest late on a sunny afternoon. https://youtu.be/mcR6XrnD7Yc Wood Thrush You may not have the good fortune to hear this somewhat uncommon bird in the forest, or you may need the song’s uplifting powers in the wintertime, but birding CDs and bird sites on the Internet have recordings of the song. The woodland thrushes can also be invoked during healing rituals. I like to display photographs of healing animals to imbibe their energy in a subtle way. As a treatment for depression or low spirit, this bird may be the ticket. The song has a melancholy edge to it that respects sadness even as it soothes it. The woodland thrushes thrive in large intact forests with tall trees, usually deciduous or mixed deciduous-coniferous forests. They eat insects and berries. They nest on the ground or in the lower branches of trees. The male, who has the pretty voice, takes an active role with the female in raising young. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtJ14MV64WY Veery Most of the woodland thrush songsters are declining in population. The Wood Thrush is even considered in danger of extinction if remedial measures are not taken. Loss of forest habitat not only in northern breeding ranges, but in Central American wintering areas, is critical. Steps taken in the US to protect this species will not be enough, which illustrates the importance of conservation efforts across national boundaries. We are all connected. https://youtu.be/6Zc9XyQVlTQ Wood Thrush Pair at Nest (no sound) Further reading: Wood Thrush life cycle at Audubon: https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/wood-thrush Wood Thrush conservation efforts at Cornell All About Birds: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/saving-the-wood-thrush-qa-with-ron-rohrbaugh/ Overview of Woodland Thrushes: https://www.nhpr.org/post/something-wild-thrushes#stream/0 Recordings of Hermit Thrush and Swainson’s Thrush can also be heard on the Cornell website. https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Hermit_Thrush/sounds https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Swainsons_Thrush/sounds https://www.magoism.net/2013/04/meet-mago-contributor-hearth-moon-rising/
Meet Mago Contributor, Melissa LaFlamme

Melissa La Flamme is a visionary artisan of cultural evolution. As an author, poet, activist, Jungian & shamanic psychotherapist and Troublemaker, she kindles soul’s smoldering longing for everything real. She helps hack and track the smell of our longing to fully inhabit our life. She shows us how to enact our own Prison Break, from the inner and outer Lockdowns we have unknowingly built. Melissa teaches the soul’s clandestine trade. The trade of the Code Breaker of our one authentic life. The way of the Holy Hacker of our soul. The one writhing alive in our glistening, raving heart, vulnerable, ravished, undone and messy in a world where anything but is the safe way to belong. Visit her at www.jungiansoulwork.com and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MelissaALaFlamme.
(Poem) The Rain by Francesca Tronetti

Just wash it all away from me In the cooling rains of summer The sticky sweat from my back and hair The red flush in my face Let the rain take it all away. The crisis has passed, is passing The immediate responsibilities are done Sit still, listen to the birds The thunder rolls through the sky The breeze cools. I don’t even mind when the power goes off When I’m in darkness with the battery running down I’ve got the candles lit, the window open A tale of adventure demands candle light This is a good evening. I’m tired, you’re tired, we’re tired Let me sit and look out the window No gardening nor errands to run today And listen to the water drip and run and splash Let go all our anger, anxiety, stress. Find the center, the calming place Meditate and reflect on what has happened What we have endured, suffered, survived Put it all into a little ball, hold it in your hands And let the rain take it all away.(Meet Mago Contributor) Francesca Tronetti, Ph.D. https://www.magoism.net/2018/11/meet-mago-contributor-rev-francesca-tronetti-ph-d/
(Art) Don't Be Afraid to Lay An Egg by Elaine Drew

This painting of an Old European goddess, based on a figure found in Anatolia,
(Essay 4) *Click Here* to Download Spirituality by Francesca Tronetti

The spiritual and self-care market walks a fine line between those who legitimately wish to help others along their spiritual path or deal with mental or emotional issues and those who want to make several quick bucks. Along the way, I found businesses that understood that the pagan spiritual path had many branches that people sometimes walked in tandem. Other companies just threw a bunch of pentacle branded items in a box with some herbs because they think that’s what being pagan means. And perhaps to them, that is all that being a pagan means. When I was looking at boxes, I was in awe of the herbalism boxes. As someone interested in gardening, I thought it would be good to learn herbalism. However, herbalism is like any other practice or skill. It involves devoting a significant portion of your time to learning the art. You need to spend time making tinctures and salves or infusing oils. While I thought I would enjoy doing that, I quickly found I didn’t have the time or space to learn the craft. The same is true if you want to learn about and balance your chakras; lazy spirituality will not help you there. This practice takes time and dedication. It is not simply a matter of incorporating some extra meditation and a new mantra into your routine. A small ‘balance your chakras’ set I found in a store had weekly tasks including exercise, evaluating your finances, and examining your relationships with people. Really, for $5, it was an excellent investment in improving multiple facets of your life which affect your mental, physical, and spiritual well-being. After much trial and error, I decided to keep receiving two boxes, Spiritual Goodies and the Intentional Witch mini box. Spiritual Goodies leans more to Eastern practices; however, I enjoy the books included in the package, making the box helpful for my spiritual inquiry. The box is primarily about teaching the recipient. It has meditation practices and simple spell work, which is a good box for exploring a new spiritual path. The Intentional Witch mini box is a small box that contains a candle, a crystal or piece of jewelry, incense, and the necessary components to a spell for a specific intention. The larger box has a similar theme, where each month, the subscriber sets an intention, and items and rituals are curated to help them meet that intention. The subscriber cannot request a specific intention for the smaller monthly box. However, the boxes I have received so far have been for practical purposes, such as helping with my job hunt. Several of the boxes I tried, such as Tamed Wild and Witch’s Moon, are best used by knowledgeable practitioners. These boxes focus more on using magic and ritual in one’s daily life and provide pages for a grimoire and ritual and altar items to expand one’s practice and knowledge. While I do not subscribe to the boxes, I check back in on the company website. Their online stores offer past packages, and some of them contain items that I could use in my practice. I also check back with other boxes, such as Lunarly, which sometimes offers past packages at a much lower price, one I feel is worth what they contain. But, of course, this is my opinion based on my spiritual needs and path at this time. And my path is changing as I grow my practice and transition to a new stage in my life. At the end of this project, I have reached some conclusions about the spiritual subscription box market. The primary finding is that before you decide to try out a box or three, you need to know a bit about the spiritual path you want to explore. If you try searching for subscriptions online or on a site like CrateJoy.com, you will quickly become overwhelmed with the number of boxes available. As of this writing, there are 166 listed under Spiritual and New Age, with 56 in the Witch subcategory. Going in without a plan, you can be pulled in multiple spiritual directions because many things look interesting. The pages for these boxes have been set up to display the best of their offerings. Photos show boxes overflowing with items or altars set up using items from the delivery. Of course, these photos often showed the contents of several boxes or used larger items bought from an online store operated by the same company. A little research on reviews and watching some unboxing videos on YouTube can be very helpful. You can see what comes in each box to determine if the package is worth your money. Seeing what you are getting can help shake the stars out of one’s eyes and judge what you bring into your spiritual life. Due to Covid and other reasons, by 2020, I was burned out on so many levels that I didn’t know what I needed anymore. This is partly why I started the project, to explore a range of spiritual practices and maybe find one that worked for me. And, since I was diving into the deep end of commercial spirituality, I decided to take others along for the journey to keep me engaged and involved with the services on an intellectual level and a spiritual one. As you have read, sometimes, I succeeded, and sometimes I didn’t. Sometimes I loved the surprises of the boxes, and sometimes I was angry and felt ripped off. I learned through the project that the method for choosing a spiritual subscription box was much the same as finding a spiritual path. The fancy-looking expensive box might leave you feeling hollow inside. But you might discover spiritual peace by following a few different practices and using what works for you. I found that most of the boxes I explored were legitimately attempting to help the subscriber on their spiritual path. Even a box that initially seemed very superficial displayed later depths. It encouraged its user …
(Essay) Winter Solstice – Celebrating Birthing New Being by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

Winter Solstice is the time in our annual orbit around Sun when the dark part of the day is longest. Traditionally it has been celebrated by our Gaian ancestors in many regions of our planet as the birth of light, the birth of form. The stories of many cultures tell of the Great Mother giving birth to the Divine Child on this night. It is this Seasonal Moment for which the ancient pre-Celtic indigenous Europeans apparently built Newgrange (Bru na Boinne is its indigenous name), completing the major structures there between 3200 and 3700 B.C.E.[1]. The inner chamber wall of this mound is carved with the Triple Spiral motif, and at the Winter Solstice it is illuminated for seventeen minutes by the rising sun. This was confirmed by modern academia only in 1969[2] with minds that at that time had little comprehension of what its significance might be. Few accounts really understand the significance of the triple spiral at this stage: a Goddess frame of mind may be helpful, as mythographers have not been prepared to allow Goddess any cosmic function and “her possible role among the people of the Celtic realms”.[3] Marija Gimbutas notes the link of the triple spiral and other triplicities to Goddess as “the triple source of life energy necessary for the renewal of life”[4], and Michael Dames associates the triple spiral there with the triple goddess, known as Eriu-Fodla-Banba in that local place.[5]
(Poem) Lavender by Andrea Nicki

You have come to understand that if women are like flowers you are most like lavender: wild, earthly, resilient, abundant
(Book Excerpt 2) Finnish Goddess Mythology and the Golden Woman: Climate Change, Earth-based Indigenous knowledge and the Gift By Kaarina Kailo

Finnish Goddess Mythology and the Golden Woman: Climate Change, Earth-based Indigenous knowledge and the Gift Kaarina Kailo 2018 Introduction (Continued) I will explore the little-known Finno-Ugric Gift ecologies and lifeways as carriers of this knowledge—something to which we are waking up slowly. We are beginning to value the rich resources of berries and mushrooms in the woods, and to collect fishermen’s, woodworkers’, handicraft peoples’ and tradition keepers’ lore (Mustonen 2009). I founded with Sari Koopman the tradition-gathering association of Lore&Loom with this in mind. Through the remnants of prehistoric cultures reflected in Finno-Ugric stories, Norse sagas and Russian legends,[6] we can gain knowledge of the ancient worldview and replant the seeds of lost best practices. Stories are not just stories. They have the power to change paradigms, the models by which we live and to trigger interest in us for deeper ecovisions than what patriarchal master narratives allow for. Ancient legends and narratives are indeed an inspiring window for peeking into past wisdom although many of them are just plain entertainment, humor or even silly tales. What is more, the myths and legends that have been written down between the l2th and the l9th centuries in Scandinavia and the present-day Finland bear the distorting marks of Christian and patriarchal societies. However, thanks to modern matriarchal and gender studies, as well as archeomythology (among many other new fields), we now have methods for recovering at least some of the reality behind the intentional distortions of the primary materials. ……..My own theoretical stance combines the best insights of ecofeminists (for all their variety), and the theories produced at the interface of these schools of thought by our network, Feminists for a Gift Economy (www.gift-economy.com). The mind-shifting new theories that have led me to write this and other books combine the findings of modern matriarchal studies and the theories of the Gift or Gifting by Indigenous and non-indigenous women in our network. Genevieve Vaughan, whose theories of the Gift and of the maternal epistemology are among my major influences, started as a critic of Marxist theories and semiotics…. I believe we would all agree, in our research network, that the study of representations and myths by which we live, is as important as the macrolevel analysis of the means of production and the politics of self and other in neoliberal capitalist modernism. The stories we are brought up with are not just entertainment or edutainment. We think through the core stories and myths that help naturalize our notions about how the genders (perceived as male and female) should live and behave, and about what is desirable or undesirable in human lifeways…… Having written books and articles dealing with neoliberal politics, with monoacculturation, monoculture and the patriarchal worldview from a Marxist-ecofeminist perspective, I do not belittle the role of the more recognizably “political” stance (Kailo 2018c, 2010, 2007a). Because the label of “essentialism” is often used to discredit alternative feminist methods that value the “feminine” or the “maternal”, I emphasize that the focus here is not on biology but on gendered worldviews and metaphors adopted to guide our thinking. The maternal order of matriarchal societies is based on maternal values, and men, too, identify with the human norm of homo donans (giving human), not the homo economicus (economically oriented human) that represents the current masculated norm of the human. Homogenizing global culture with its obsessive materialism must be replaced by a return to local culture, local food production, local currency, local democracy, and local wisdom of living in harmony with nature instead of with the abuses of agro-business. Multidimensional diversity should replace the monocultures of the mind that are also reflected in the hierarchical dualisms also of monotheistic religions of the One and Only True (Male) God (Mies & Shiva l993; Goettner-Abendroth (l995 [1980]—– Many feminist scholars share my concern about the impact of stories as the mythic underpinnings of patriarchal thought policing and mind colonization. For example, they approach myths as reflection pools of social and gender relations. There are many political reasons for studing women’s myths and mythic history. It is a pursuit in its own right, as women have the right to know of alternatives to the patriarchal master narratives that offer a slanted, perverted, distorting lens regarding past woman-friendly societies. However, women’s mythologies also provide information that together with other multidisciplinary methods help revisit past societies with their alter-native social arrangements, gender relations, and attitudes towards the environment. In this book I present Finnish origin myths, believing as do Native people, that they often contain the original instructions of a culture, or reflect the primal gender of the divinities. They also reveal our affinities with the ecocosmology of other Northern, neighboring people. …. For theorists of patriarchy, the heroism-oriented patriarchal mythic narratives form a small but all-the-more influential period in the overall history of humanity. As Gimbutas (l991) and Von Werlhof (2011) among others have proven, the patriarchal Kurgan invasion from the East gradually led to the erosion and overthrow of the more peaceful, matriarchal cultures in Europe.[7] This book seeks to transmit the view that we need to foster and promote Earth democracy as a radical form of openness, using the best practices and knowledge systems that the world has today. These go beyond the Eurocentric corporate monocultural view of only one truth. We need to become aware of the limitations and biases of the dominant scientific model as well as of all types of master narratives. To mend the broken webs of the planet requires undoing the master identity, the short-sighted human norm based on homo economicus. … Pohjola is my term with Terra Feminarum for the mysterious area of Northern Europe and its neighboring Finno-Ugric and Uralic peoples, that no doubt shared influences across Paleolithic-Neolithic times, and even beyond. Trying to locate and situate this mystical Land in a geographically and temporally indisputable manner would be hubris. Science is at best educated guesswork and creative speculation based on the selection and combination of facts and theories. Men have …
(Essay) Orphic Mysteries and Goddess(es) of Nature, Greek Hymns Honoring the Divine Feminine by Harita Meenee

“Nature, mother goddess of all… almighty one… primordial… law-giver of the gods… Leader, ruler bringing life… Destiny and fate, fiery breath…” These phrases belong to the Orphic Hymn to Nature (Physis in Greek, from which the words physics and physical derive). It’s hard to find a more telling description of the Divine Feminine’s immense powers in all of the Hellenic literature! The Orphic Hymns form a collection of 87 poems, each one dedicated to a specific deity. They were used in the rituals of a group practicing a mystery religion, most probably in Asia Minor. Those initiated in the Orphic Mysteries claimed Orpheus as their founder — he was the most famous legendary musician of Greece, son of the Muse Kalliope, and husband of Eurydike. His existence (real or imagined) is shrouded in the mists of a mythical past, but his followers were active from the 6th century BCE on. The dating of the hymns is a controversial subject. Some scholars think they were composed in the late Hellenistic era (3rd — 2nd c. BCE), while others place them in Roman times, in the 1st — 3rd century CE. However, it seems quite likely that the content of these verses is based on much older material. The powerful presence of goddesses in the Orphic collection is unquestionable — out of 87 poems 41 are dedicated to female deities, many of whom are also mentioned in the hymns to gods. Olympian figures, like Demeter and Aphrodite, are highly praised, often in unexpected ways: Everything from you derives; you yoked the world and rule over three realms, giving birth to all that is in heaven, on the fruitful earth, in the ocean depths… (Orphic Hymn to Aphrodite, 4-7) Moreover, some of the poems honor primordial goddesses of nature, such as Gaia, Nyx (Night), Selene (the personification of the moon) and Tethys, an old and venerable sea deity. They also praise Rhea-Cybele, the orgiastic “Mother of Gods and human beings” (14, 9; cf. 27, 1, 7). The goddess of justice in her diverse forms, as Dike, Dikaiosyne and Nemesis, also figures prominently in the collection. Could this highly important role of female divinities reflect the significance of women in the group using the Orphic Hymns? We certainly know that women participated enthusiastically in most of the mystery religions of the ancient world; it seems that the Orphic one was no exception, in spite of certain misogynist elements present in it. We might wonder then if some of these verses, whose poets remain anonymous, could have been written by female authors. Why not, after all? Hellenistic women, like Anyte, Nossis and Moiro, are often delighted to mention and praise goddesses in their poems. One way or another, it is exciting to see female deities honored in such a whole-hearted and fascinating way as revealed in the Orphic texts. Above all, the Hymn to Nature brings to light the age-old Mother Goddess of many names, the supreme Creatress, “dancing with whirling noiseless feet” her eternal dance of life and growth… Orphic Hymn to Nature Nature, mother goddess of all, ingenious mother, crone! Creatress of many, sovereign ruler, all-taming, always untamed. Celestial, all-shining, almighty one, + * honored and supreme in every way, imperishable, primordial, first-born. Praised by people, seasoned and wild, nocturnal, light-bringer, dancing with whirling noiseless feet. Pure, law-giver of the gods, unending and the end, shared by all, yet alone untouched. Self-fathered, fatherless, desired and sublime full of lovely flowers, delightful one. Friendly and knowing, weaving, mixed with many things. Leader, ruler bringing life, maiden who nurtures all. Self-sufficient, lady of justice! You of many names the Kharites obey. Protectress of the air, of land and sea, bitter to the wicked, to the obedient sweet. All-wise, all-giving, care-taker, queen of all, growth-bringer, fertile, ripener of fruit. Father and mother of all, nurturer and nurse, giver of swift births. Force of the seasons, fruitful one and blessed! Giver of all arts, creator, many things you shape, setting all in motion, eternal, + goddess of the sea. Prudent and skilled, in everlasting swirl whirling the swift flow, ever-flowing, moving in cycles, shape shifting. Seated on a fine throne, honored, you alone decide, being far above those who scepters hold. Loud thundering, fearless and strong, force that tames all. Destiny and fate, fiery breath, eternal life, immortal providence; all + is in you, + since you alone create. Goddess, to you I pray: bring + in rich + seasons, peace, growth to all and health. Author’s Note: *The symbol + indicates that the manuscript is worn out at this point, hence the words cannot be read clearly and their interpretation is uncertain. Bibliography and Further Reading Athanassakis, Apostolos N. The Orphic Hymns: Text, Translation and Notes. Atlanta, GA: Society of Biblical Literature, 1988. Guthrie, W.K.C. Orpheus and Greek Religion. 2nd ed. Princeton, NJ: PrincetonUniversity, 1993. Long, Asphodel P. In a Chariot Drawn by Lions: The Search of the Female in Deity. Freedom, CA: The Crossing Press, 1993. —. “Orphic Hymns.” Arachne 9. 1989. Available online, http://www.asphodel-long.com/html/orphic_hymns.html. Mystical Hymns of Orpheus. 2nd ed. Translated by Thomas Taylor. Chiswick: 1824. Reprinted by Kessinger. Available online, http://www.theoi.com/Text/OrphicHymns1.html. “Orphic Hymn to Demeter.” Translated by Harita Meenee. http://hmeenee.com/1773/index.html. Orphic Hymns. 3rd ed. Τranslated by D. P. Papaditsas and Helen Ladia. Athens: “Hestia” Bookstore, 1997. Snyder, Jane McIntosh. The Woman and the Lyre: Women Writers in Classical Greece and Rome. Carbondale, IL: Southern IllinoisUniversity, 1989. First published in She Is Everywhere! Volume 3: An anthology of writings in womanist/feminist spirituality (iUniverse 2012), co-edited by Mary Saracino and Mary Beth Moser. The anthology has been selected to receive the Enheduanna Award for excellence in the field of women’s spirituality from the Master’s Program in Women’s Spirituality at Sofia University (formerly the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology) in Palo Alto, California. The book is available at http://www.amazon.com/She-Everywhere-Anthology-Writings-Spirituality/dp/1462064337.

(Special Post Mother Teresa 4) A Role Model for Women? by Mago Circle Members

Part IV: Illumination and Consensus Reached [Editorial Note: The following is an edited version of the discussion that took place spontaneously on Mago Circle from March 1, 2013 for about two weeks. It was an extensive, heated, yet reflective discussion, now broken into four parts to fit the format of the blog. We thank each and all of the participants for your openness, generosity, and courage to stand up for what you believe and think! Some are marked as anonymous. As someone stated, something may have been “written in the heat of the moment” and some might like to change it at a later time. So we inform our readers that nothing is written in stone. As a matter of fact, the discussion is ongoing, now with Magoism Blog readers. Please comment and respond as you wish.] Diane Horton: [C], how is it that you do not see that MT had no right to sacrifice other people for any purpose whatsoever? None of us have the right or the place to “sacrifice those we care about” for anything. She was not “above them”. And she had abundant means to do far more for them, to cure and comfort them. If indeed she imagined she had some lofty motivation as you so fervently believe, to use the power she had to withhold medical care from the poverty stricken sick and dying in some misguided and ultimately cruel attempt to bring the world’s attention to their suffering and produce compassion within those who would not otherwise feel it is the most monstrous miscarriage of any expression of what you might refer to as “love” that I have heard of outside of Jim Jones killing all of his followers in Ghana. That’s not Love. That’s not Compassion. That is Manipulation, and manipulation is ego-based. Anne Wilkerson Allen: Yes. It is an indoctrination so deep and so prolonged that it takes a lifetime to overcome…and we rely on the love and compassion of others to help bring us to this understanding….thanks, Diane. Diane Horton: Love you, Anne. [C]: Is thinking that any human being sacrificing inside their very soul, their morals, & all that entails, is actually of lesser value than outside human pain, suffering, even death itself, right? Diane Horton: I’m not sure I understand the question really, but I’ll try a response: one’s inner and outer life are of equal importance because they are all the whole person.
(Special Post Isis 3) Why the Color of Isis Matters by Mago Circle Members

[Editor’s note: The discussion took place in Mago Circle during the month of July, 2013. Our heartfelt thanks go to the members who participated in this discussion with openness and courage.] Part 3 Isis, Arab Women Revolution, and Black Goddesses Naa Ayele Kumari Going back to the original topic of the post…. Some quotes ” Women are in half the society… How come there are only 7 in the Assembly… and they are all Islamist! ” I can’t beat up my wife and almost kill her and call it discipline… this is not discipline… this is abuse and insanity” http://youtu.be/y4umifTLSII 12-Year Old Explains Egyptian Revolution in Under 3 Minutes www.youtube.com Max Dashu It is tremendously heartening to see these insights being expressed, and spread. The Salafis have made such inroads, and now the pushback is happening. Harita Meenee Dear Naa Ayele Kumari, thank you actually reading my post and commenting something relevant to it. It’s refreshing when someone does hear what we have to say instead of projecting their own notions. Building a solidarity movement with those who are oppressed but fighting is very important during these critical times! Harita Meenee See also: https://www.facebook.co/intifadat.almar2a?fref=ts The uprising of women in the Arab world انتفاضة المرأة في العالم العربي حرية الفكر ، حرية التعبير ، حرية الاعتقاد ، حرية التنقل ، حرية الجسد ، حرية اللب…See More Glenys Livingstone … as you say Max …” way too much of it going on” – amongst people who should know better (I would have thought): “Dark goddess as terrifying, challenging, white goddess as benign; “black magic” as harmful; I see way, way too much of this going on out there.” And related to that in my mind is all the “love and light” business that is so common: the Ground of Being is Dark … it seems to me that mystics have always understood the quintessential darkness of Love/Deity. Max Dashu Sure. I would just like to add that the critique raised here addressed issues much broader than the substance of the article, which made some good points. But once the choice of graphics flagged the issue of representation, people had much more to say about that old yet still very fresh wound which is constantly reopened by the cultural habit of whitening Egypt, or interpreting Africa through a eurocentric lens. It is not on any one person to carry the weight of that; we all have a responsibility to address the issues, but especially those of us of European heritage need to familiarize ourselves with how this plays out over and over. Just as men have a responsibility to speak up in support of women when patriarchal assumptions are on board. We all can learn something from each other, along all the various axes of domination, and overthrow them in coalition. Naa Ayele Kumari I have often considered where the roots of this psychology comes from. It is dualistic thinking that causes us to compare and contrast, then sum up judgement of good or bad and place a value on each. It extends into competition and justification for war. It also doesn’t escape me that often this came with certain civilizations who systematically destroyed others. It didn’t just happen with blacks in Africa… but blacks in Asia and the Indus Valley as well. With the Aryan invasions of India, came the eventual introduction to lighter divinities and more emphasis on male divinities. Southern Indians, Sri Lankans are very dark… even more so than many African Blacks. The caste systems implemented by the Aryan invaders did the same thing to them casting them as “untouchables”. With that came the marginalization of their black female divinities such as Kali. Kali actually has 10-16 forms… from compassionate mother, the fountain of wisdom, to she of great beauty but she is minimized as just destructive and terrifying… especially as Brhaman, Vishnuu, and Shiva grow in popularity. One of Kali’s statues has her black self standing on top of Shiva because she conquered him. Later there is a discussion in on of the Hindu text explaining Kali (as Parvati) after being subdued by Shiva she becomes lighter. Further they have stories about him rejecting her and calling her blackie which made her do austerities to rid herself of her black skin. Naa Ayele Kumari It should not be overlooked that in the Story of Alice in Wonderland… a story intended to keep Goddess elements for future generations, has the Elder sister ( the Queen of Hearts) portrayed as man, ego, and power driven who cuts off heads and has a fierce dragon…a clear reference to Kali. The White goddess as the younger sister is her opponent… and her mission is to usurp the throne of the Queen of Hearts even though she was the rightful heir as the oldest … or primordial. Stories like these also reinforce the stereotypes and negative iconography. Max Dashu Yes, it is pervasive in many cultures of domination. Demons are portrayed as black not only in Europe, which we know well, but also in China and in a lot of Buddhist iconography. In modern India, the sweet goddesses are shown as pink, the wrathful as black; and Krishna (name means “dark”) is turned powder blue. (Another of his titles, s’yam, also meaning dark, is the word translated as “green” in Green Tara.) The countercurrents (Black Mazu, loving Kali – esp in Bengal and south India, Black Madonna) bubbled up from the common people, who knew and longed for something other than the dominant racialized hierarchy. Naa Ayele Kumari I am just discovering Mazu ( Matzu/LuShui) in China today! Never knew about her. This discussion has led me to look deeper for black goddesses in Asia. Max Dashu Taoist spiritual tradition often refers to Xüan Nü, which can be translated in several ways. You’ll usually see it rendered as “the Mysterious Female,” a phrase that occurs in the Dao De Jing (Tao Te Ching), and this is a valid translation; but what is less emphasized is that it also means “the Dark Woman.” In […]
(Special Post 7) Why Goddess Feminism, Activism, and Spirituality?

[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. Special thanks to Trista Hendren, founder and author of The Girl God, who passionately and painstakingly promotes the message of each contributor via Facebook’s memes. Without Trista’s devotion to the advocacy, this collective effort would not have continued. 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.] Kaalii Cargill: Life emerges from the Feminine: Woman, Nature, Goddess. When we value the life-giving power of the Feminine we are less likely to kill other human beings who have been held in a mother’s arms.

(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.
A PaGaian Wheel of the Year and Her Creativity by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This essay is an excerpt from Chapter 2 of the author’s new book A Poiesis of the Creative Cosmos: Celebrating Her within PaGaian Sacred Ceremony. for larger image see: https://pagaian.org/pagaian-wheel-of-the-year/ Essentially a PaGaian Wheel of the Year celebrates Cosmogenesis – the unfolding of the Cosmos, none of which is separate from the unfolding of each unique place/region, and each unique being. This creativity of Cosmogenesis is celebrated through Earth-Sun relationship as it may be expressed and experienced within any region of our Planet. PaGaian ceremony expresses this with Triple Goddess Poetry understood to be metaphor for the creative dynamics unfolding the Cosmos. At the heart of the Earth-Sun relationship is the dance of light and dark, the waxing and waning of both these qualities, as Earth orbits around our Mother Sun. This dance, which results in the manifestation of form and its dissolution (as expressed in the seasons), happens because of Earth’s tilt in relationship with Sun: because this effects the intensity of regional receptivity to Sun’s energy over the period of the yearly orbit. This tilt was something that happened in the evolution of our planet in its earliest of days – some four and a half billion years ago,[i] and then stabilised over time: and the climatic zones were further formed when Antarctica separated from Australia and South America, giving birth to the Antarctica Circumpolar Current, changing the circulation of water around all the continents … just some thirty million years ago.[ii] Within the period since then, which also saw the advent of the earliest humans, Earth has gone through many climatic changes. It is likely that throughout those changes, the dance of light and dark in both hemispheres of the planet … one always the opposite of the other – has been fairly stable and predictable. The resultant effect on flora and fauna regionally however has varied enormously depending on many other factors of Earth’s ever-changing ecology: She is an alive Planet who continues to move and re-shape Herself. She is Herself subject to the cosmic dynamics of creativity – the forming and the dissolving and the re-emerging. The earliest of humans must have received all this, ‘observed’ it in a very participatory way: that is, not as a Western industrialized or dualistic mind would think of ‘observation’ today, but as kin with the events – identifying with their own experience of coming into being and passing away. There is evidence (as of this writing) to suggest that humans have expressed awareness of, and response to, the phenomenon of coming into being and passing away, as early as one hundred thousand years ago: ritual burial sites of that age have been found,[iii] and more recently a site of ongoing ritual activity as old as seventy thousand years has been found.[iv] The ceremonial celebration of the phenomenon of seasons probably came much later, particularly perhaps when humans began to settle down. These ceremonial celebrations of seasons apparently continued to reflect the awesomeness of existence as well as the marking of transitions of Sun back and forth across the horizon, which became an important method of telling the time for planting and harvesting and the movement of pastoral animals. It seems that the resultant effect of the dance of light and dark on regional flora and fauna, has been fairly stable in recent millennia, the period during which many current Earth-based religious practices and expression arose. In our times, that is changing again. Humans have been, and are, a major part of bringing that change about. Ever since we migrated around the planet, humans have brought change, as any creature would: but humans have gained advantage and distinguished themselves by toolmaking, and increasingly domesticating/harnessing more of Earth’s powers – fire being perhaps the first, and this also aided our migration. In recent times this harnessing/appropriating of Earth’s powers became more intense and at the same time our numbers dramatically increased: and many of us filled with hubris, acting without consciousness or care of our relational context. We are currently living in times when our planet is tangibly and visibly transforming: the seasons themselves as we have known them for millennia – as anyone’s ancestors knew them – appear to be changing in most if not all regions of our Planet. Much predictable Poetry – sacred language – for expressing the quality of the Seasonal Moments will change, as regional flora changes, as the movement of animals and birds and sea creatures changes, as economies change.[v]In Earth’s long story regional seasonal manifestation has changed before, but not so dramatically since the advent of much current Poetic expression for these transitions, as mixed as they are with layers of metaphor: that is, with layers of mythic eras, cultures and economies. We may learn and understand the traditional significance of much of the Poetry, the ceremony and symbol – the art – through which we could relate and converse with our place, as our ancestors may have done, but it will continue to evolve as all language must. In PaGaian Cosmology I have adapted the Wheel as a way of celebrating the Female Metaphor and also as a way of celebrating Cosmogenesis, the Creativity that is present really/actually in every moment, but for which the Seasonal Moments provide a pattern/Poetry over the period of a year – in time and place. The pattern that I unfold is a way in which the three different phases/characteristics interplay. In fact, the way in which they interplay seems infinite, the way they inter-relate is deeply complex. I think it is possible to find many ways to celebrate them. There is nothing concrete about the chosen story/Poetry, nor about each of the scripts presented here, just as there is nothing concrete about the Place of Being – it (She) is always relational, a Dynamic Interchange. Whilst being grounded in the “Real,” the Poetry chosen for expression is therefore at the same time, a potentially infinite expression, according to the heart and mind of the storyteller. NOTES: [i] See Appendix C, *(6), Glenys Livingstone, A Poiesis of the Creative …
(Prose & Photography) Equinox Reflection by Sara Wright

Photography by Sara Wright I gaze out my bedroom window and hear yet another golden apple hit the ground. The vines that hug the cabin and climb up the screens are heavy with unripe grapes and the light that is filtered through the trees in front of the brook is luminous – lime green tipped in gold – My too sensitive eyes are blessedly well protected by this canopy of late summer leaves. The maples on the hill are losing chlorophyll and are painting the hollow with splashes of bittersweet orange and red. The dead spruces by the brook will probably collapse this winter providing Black bears with even more precious ants and larvae to eat in early spring. I only hope that some bears will survive the fall slaughter to return to this black bear sanctuary; in particular two beloved young ones… Mushrooms abound, amanitas, boletes morels, puff balls, the latter two finding their way into my salads. The forest around my house is in an active state of becoming with downed limbs and sprouting fungi becoming next year’s soil. The forest floor smells so sweet that all I can imagine is laying myself down on a bed of mosses to sleep and dream. The garden looks as tired as I am; lily fronds droop, yellowing leaves betraying the season at hand. Bright green pods provide a startling contrast to fading scarlet bee balm. Wild asters are abundant and goldenrod covers the fields with a bright yellow garment. Every wild bush has sprays of berries. My crabapple trees are bowed, each twig heavy with winter fruit. Most of the birds have absconded to the fields that are ripe with the seeds of wild grasses. The mourning doves are an exception – they gather together each dawn waiting patiently for me to fill the feeder. In the evening I am serenaded by soft cooing. One chicken hawk hides in the pine, lying in wait for the unwary…Just a few hummingbirds remain…whirring wings and twittering alert me to continued presence as they settle into the cherry tree to sleep, slipping into a light torpor with these cool September nights… Spiders are spinning their egg cases, even as they prepare to die. I can still find toads hopping around the house during the warmest hours of the day. Although the grass is long I will not mow it for fear of killing these most precious and threatened of species. I am heavily invested in seeing these toads burrow in to see another spring. My little frogs sit on their lily pads seeking the warmth of a dimming afternoon sun. Soon they too will slumber below fallen leaves or mud. I am surrounded by such beauty, and so much harvest bounty that even though I am exhausted I take deep pleasure out of each passing day of this glorious month of September, the month of my birth. Unlike many folks, for me, moving into the dark of the year feels like a blessing. Another leave -taking is almost upon me, and I am having trouble letting go of this small oasis that I have tended with such care for more than thirty years… I don’t know what this winter will bring to my modest cabin whose foundation is crumbling under too much moisture and too many years of heavy snow. In the spring extensive excavation will begin. A new foundation must be poured and this work will destroy the gardens I have loved, the mossy grounds around the south end of the house that I have nurtured for so long. In this season of letting go I must find a way to lay down my fears, and release that which I am powerless to change. Somehow… I have no idea what I will return to except that I have made it clear that none of my beloved trees be harmed. I am grateful that Nature is mirroring back to me so poignantly that letting go is the way through: That this dying can provide a bedrock foundation for another spring birth. As a Daughter of the Earth I lean into ancient wisdom, praying that this exhausted mind and body will be able to follow suit. (Meet Mago Contributor) Sara Wright.
Samhain/Deep Autumn within the Creative Cosmos by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This essay is an edited excerpt from Chapter 4 of the author’s new book A Poiesis of the Creative Cosmos: Celebrating Her within PaGaian Sacred Ceremony. Traditionally the dates for Samhain/Deep Autumn are: Northern Hemisphere – October 31st/November 1st Southern Hemisphere – April 30th/May 1st though the actual astronomical date varies. It is the meridian point or cross-quarter day between Autumn Equinox and Winter Solstice, thus actually a little later in early May for S.H., and early November for N.H., respectively. A Samhain/Deep Autumn Ceremonial Altar In this cosmology, Deep Autumn/Samhain is a celebration of She Who creates the Space to Be par excellence. This aspect of the Creative Triplicity is associated with the autopoietic quality of Cosmogenesis[i] and with the Crone/Old One of the Triple Goddess, who is essentially creative in Her process. This Seasonal Moment celebrates the process of the Crone, the Ancient One … how we are formed by Her process, and in that sense conceived by Her: it is an ‘imaginal fertility,’ a fertility of the dark space, the sentient Cosmos. It mirrors the fertility and conception of Beltaine (which is happening in the opposite Hemisphere at the same time). Some Samhain/Deep Autumn Story This celebration of Deep Autumn has been known in Christian times as “Halloween,” since the church in the Northern Hemisphere adopted it as “All Hallow’s eve” (31st October) or “All Saint’s Day” (1st November). This “Deep Autumn” festival as it may be named in our times, was known in old Celtic times as Samhain (pronounced “sow-een), which is an Irish Gaelic word, with a likely meaning of “Summer’s end,” since it is the time of the ending of the Spring-Summer growth. Many leaves of last Summer are turning and falling at this time: it was thus felt as the end of the year, and hence the New Year. It was and is noted as the beginning of Winter. It was the traditional Season for bringing in the animals from the outdoor pastures in pastoral economies, and when many of them were slaughtered. Earth’s tilt is continuing to move the region away from the Sun at this time of year. This Seasonal Moment is the meridian point of the darkest quarter of the year, between Autumn Equinox and Winter Solstice; the dark part of the day is longer than the light part of the day and is still on the increase. It is thus the dark space of the annual cycle wherein conception and dreaming up the new may occur. As with any New Year, between the old and the new, in that moment, all is possible. We may choose in that moment what to pass to the future, and what to relegate to compost. Samhain may be understood as the Space between the breaths. It is a generative Space – the Source of all. There is particular magic in being with this Dark Space. This Dark Space which is ever present, may be named as the “All-Nourishing Abyss,”[ii] the “Ever-Present Origin.”[iii] It is a generative Place, and we may feel it particularly at this time of year, and call it to consciousness in ceremony. Some Samhain/Deep Autumn Motifs The fermentation of all that has passed begins. This moment may mark the Transformation of Death – the breakdown of old forms, the ferment and rot of the compost, and thus the possibility of renewal.[iv] It is actually a movement towards form and ‘re-solution’ (as Beltaine – its opposite – begins a movement towards entropy and dissolution). With practice we begin to develop this vision: of the rot, the ferment, being a movement towards the renewal, to see the gold. And just so, does one begin to know the movement at Beltaine, towards expansion and thus falling apart, dissolution. In Triple Goddess poetics it may be expressed that the Crone’s face here at Samhain begins to change to the Mother – as at Beltaine the Virgin’s face begins to change to the Mother: the aspects are never alone and kaleidoscope into the other … it is an alive dynamic process, never static. The whole Wheel is a Creation story, and Samhain is the place of the conceiving of this Creativity, and it may be in the Spelling of it – saying what we will; and thus, beginning the Journey through the Wheel. Conception could be described as a “female-referring transformatory power” – a term used by Melissa Raphael in Thealogy and Embodiment:[v] conception happens in a female body, yet it is a multivalent cosmic dynamic, that is, it happens in all being in a variety of forms. It is not bound to the female body, yet it occurs there in a particular and obvious way. Androcentric ideologies, philosophies and theologies have devalued the event and occurrence of conception in the female body: whereas PaGaian Cosmology is a conscious affirmation, invocation and celebration of “female sacrality”[vi] as part of all sacrality. It does thus affirm the female as a place; as well as a place.[vii] ‘Conception’ is identified as a Cosmic Dynamic essential to all being – not exclusive to the female, yet it is a female-based metaphor, one that patriarchal-based religions have either co-opted and attributed to a father-god (Zeus, Yahweh, Chenrezig – have all taken on being the ‘mother’), or it has been left out of the equation altogether. Womb is the place of Creation – not some God’s index finger as is imagined in Michelangelo’s famous painting. Melissa Raphael speaks of a “menstrual cosmology”. It is an “ancient cosmology in which chaos and harmony belong together in a creation where perfection is both impossible and meaningless;”[viii] yet it is recently affirmed in Western scientific understanding of chaos, as essential to order and spontaneous emergence. Samhain is an opportunity for immersion in a deeper reality which the usual cultural trance denies. It may celebrate immersion in what is usually ‘background’ – the real world beyond and within time and space: which is actually the major portion of the Cosmos we live in.[ix] Samhain is about understanding that the Dark is a fertile place: in its decay and rot it seethes with infinite unseen complex golden threads connected to the wealth of Creativity of all that has gone before – like any …
(Essay) Conceiving, Imagining the New at Samhain by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

It is the Season of Samhain/Deep Autumn in the Southern Hemisphere at this time. In the PaGaian version of Samhain/Deep Autumn ceremony participants journey to the “Luminous World Egg” … a term taken from Starhawk in her book The Spiral Dance[i], where she also names that place as the “Shining Isle”, which is of course, the Seed of conception, a metaphor for the origins of all and/or the female egg: it is the place for rebirth. Artist: Bundeluk, Blue Mountains, Australia. The “luminous world egg” is a numinous place within, the MotherStar of conception: that is, a place of unfolding/becoming. The journey to this numinous place within requires first a journey back, through some of each one’s transformations, however each may wish to name those transformations at this time. The transformations for each and every being are infinite in their number, for there is “nothing we have not been” as has been told by Celts and others of Old, and also by Western science in the evolutionary story (a story told so well by evolutionary biologist Elisabet Sahtouris, particularly in her video Journey of a Silica Atom.) Ceremonial participants may choose selves from biological, present historical self, or may choose selves from the mythic with whom they feel connection; from any lineage – biological or otherwise. Selves may also be chosen from Gaia’s evolutionary story – earlier creatures, winged or scaled ones … with whom one wishes to identify at this time. Each participant is praised for their “becoming” for each self they share. When all have completed these journeys/stories of transformation, the circle is lauded dramatically by the celebrant for their courage to transform; and she likens them all to Gaia Herself who has made such transitions for eons. The celebrant awards each with a gingerbread snake, “Gaian totems of life renewed”[ii]. gingerbread snakes Participants sit and consume these gingerbread snakes in three parts: (i) as all the “old shapes” of self that were named; and (ii) remembering the ancestors, those whose lives have been harvested, whose lives have fed our own, remembering that we too are the ancestors, that we will be consumed; and (iii) remembering and consuming the stories of our world that they desire to change, the stories that fire their wrath or sympathy: in the consuming, absorbing them (as we do), each may transform them by thoughts and actions – “in our own bodyminds”. When all that is consumed “wasting no part”, it is said that “we are then free to radiate whatever we conceive”, to “exclaim the strongest natural fibre known” – our creative selves, “into such art, such architecture, as can house a world made sacred” by our building[iii]. This “natural fibre” is a reference to the spider’s thread from within her own body, with which she weaves her web, her home; and Spider has frequently been felt in indigenous cultures around the globe as Weaver and Creator of the Cosmos. Spider the Creatrix, North America, C. 1300 C.E., Hallie Iglehart Austen, The Heart of the Goddess, p.13 In the ceremony, participants linked with a thread that they weave around the circle, may sail together for a new world “across the vast sunless sea between endings and beginnings, across the Womb of magic and transformation, to the “Not-Yet” who beckons”[iv]: to the Luminous World Egg whereupon the new may be conceived and dreamed up. Samhain/Deep Autumn ceremony is an excellent place for co-creating ourselves, for imaginingthe More that we may become, and wish to become. This is where creation and co-creation happens … in the Womb of Space[v], in which we are immersed – at all times: and Samhain is a good season for feeling it. References: Livingstone, Glenys. PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. NE: iUniverse, 2005 Sahtouris, Elisabet. Earthdance: Living Systems in Evolution. Lincoln NE:iUniversity Press, 2000. Starhawk, The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess. NY: Harper and Row, 1999. Swimme, Brian. The Earth’s Imagination.DVD series 1998. NOTES: [i]p.210 [ii]a version of this Samhain script is offered in Chapter 7 PaGaian Cosmology [iii]These quoted phrases are from Robin Morgan, “The Network of the Imaginary Mother”, in Lady of the Beasts, p.84. This poem is a core inspiration of the ceremony. [iv]“Not-Yet” is a term used by Brian Swimme, The Earth’s Imagination, video 8 “The Surprise of Cosmogenesis”. [v]note that creation does not happen at the point of some god’s index finger, as imagined in the Sistine Chapel – what a takeover that is!
(Essay) Summer Solstice/Litha Within the Creative Cosmos by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This essay is an edited excerpt from Chapter 9 of the author’s book A Poiesis of the Creative Cosmos: Celebrating Her within PaGaian Sacred Ceremony. The dates for Summer Solstice/Litha are: Southern Hemisphere – December 20-23 Northern Hemisphere – June 20-23 A Summer Solstice altar The ‘moment of grace’[i] that is Summer Solstice, marks the stillpoint in the height of Summer, when Earth’s tilt causes the Sun to begin its ‘decline’: that is, its movement back to the North in the Southern Hemisphere, and back to the South in the Northern Hemisphere. This Seasonal Moment is polar opposite Winter Solstice when it is light that is “born,” as it may be expressed. At the peak of Summer, in the bliss of expansion, it is the dark that is “born.” Insofar as Winter Solstice is about birth, then Summer Solstice is about death. It is a celebration of profound mystical significance, that may be confronting in a culture where the dark is not valued for its creative telios. Summer Solstice is a time for celebrating our realized Creativity, whose birth we celebrated at Winter Solstice, whose tenderness we dedicated ourselves to at Imbolc/Early Spring, whose certain presence and power we rejoiced in at Spring Equinox, whose fertile passion we danced for at Beltaine/High Spring. Now, at this seasonal point, as we celebrate light’s fullness, we celebrate our own ripening – like that of the wheat, and the fruit. And like the wheat and the fruit, it is the Sun that is in us, that has ripened: the Sun is the Source of our every thought and action. The analogy is complete in that our everyday creativity – our everyday actions, and we, ultimately, are also “Food for the Universe”[ii] … it is all how we feed the Universe. flowers to flames – everyday creativity consumed Like the Sun and the wheat and the fruit, we find the purpose of our Creativity in the releasing of it; just as our breath must be released for its purpose of life. The symbolism used to express this in ceremony has been the giving of a full rose/flower to the flames.[iii] We, and our everyday creativity, are the “Bread of Life,” as it may be expressed; just as many other indigenous traditions recognize everyday acts as evoking “the ongoing creation of the cosmos,”[iv] so in this tradition, Summer is the time for particularly celebrating that. Our everyday lives, moment to moment, are built on the fabric of the work/creativity of the ancestors and ancient creatures that went before us; and so the future is built on ours. We are constantly consuming the work and creativity of others and we are constantly being consumed. The question may be asked: “Who are you feeding?,”[v] and consideration given to whether you are happy with the answer. It is the Sun that is in you. See how you shine. Summer Solstice is a celebration of the Fullness of the Mother – in ourselves, in Earth, in the Cosmos. We are the Sun, coming to fullness in its creative engagement with Earth. We affirm this in ceremony with: “It is the Sun that is in you, see how you shine.” It is the ripening of Her manifestation, which fulfills itself in the awesome act of dissolution. This is the mystery of the Moment. Brian Swimme has described this mystery of radiance as a Power of the Universe, as Radiance: the shining forth of the self is at the same time a give-away, a decline of the self – just as the Sun is constantly giving itself away. This Solstice Moment of Summer is a celebration of communion, the feast of life – which is for the enjoying, not for the holding onto. Summer and Winter Solstices are Gateways – between the manifest and the manifesting, and Summer Solstice is a Union/Re-Union of these, a kind of meeting with the deeper self. Winter Solstice may be more of a separation, though it is usually experienced as joyful, because it is also a meeting, as the new is being brought forth. The interchange of Summer Solstice may be experienced as an entry into loss – the Cosmological Dynamic of Loss, as manifestation passes. Beltaine, Summer Solstice and Lammas – the next Seasonal Moment, may be felt as the three faces of Cosmogenesis in the movement towards entropy.[vi] The light part of the annual cycle of Earth around Sun is a celebration of the Young One/Virgin quality of Cosmogenesis, with Her face gradually changing to the Mother/Communion quality; and through the Autumn, the dark part of the annual cycle, it is a celebration of the Old One/Crone quality, whose face will gradually change also, back to the Mother/Communion. They are never separate.In this cosmology, desire for full creativity has been celebrated as the allurement of the Cosmos, and being experienced as gravity, as relationship with Earth, our place of being, how She holds us. At both Solstices there is celebration of deep engagement, communion. REFERENCES: Livingstone, Glenys. A Poiesis of the Creative Cosmos: Celebrating Her within PaGaian Sacred Ceremony. Girl God Books: Bergen, Norway, 2023. Spretnak, Charlene. States of Grace: The Recovery of Meaning in the Postmodern Age. San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1993. Starhawk. The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess. New York: Harper and Row, 1999. Swimme, Brian. Canticle to the Cosmos. DVD series. CA: Tides Foundation, 1990. NOTES: [i] As Thomas Berry named the Seasonal transitions. [ii] Swimme uses this expression in Canticle to the Cosmos, video 5 “Destruction and Loss.” [iii] This is based on the traditional Litha (Summer Solstice) rite described by Starhawk, The Spiral Dance, 206. [iv] Spretnak, States of Grace, 95. [v] As Swimme asks in Canticle to the Cosmos, video 5 “Destruction and Loss.” [vi] Just as Samhain, Winter Solstice and Imbolc may be felt as the three faces of Cosmogenesis in the movement towards toward form – syntropy.

(Mago Pilgrimage video 2) Ganghwa Island by Robert (Taffy) Seaborne

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ANT2cPDN-g The first day of Mago Pilgrimage 2014 to Korea, organised by Dr.Helen Hwang, was to Ganghwa Island, starting actually on Gyodong Peace Island: the group included locals, and together we walked up to the Rock of Constellation Marks located atop the Ruin of Hwagae “Castle”/Stronghold. The scenic view up there is from the Ruin of Gwanmi Stronghold (not a fortress, as present minds may think, but a “strong” place). I state all this here about the name because there was a bit of confusion in my mind when making the video. Along our way we came across an ancient sweat lodge – named Hanjeung-mak – shaped like a womb and similar to ancient constructions in other lands. As we walked we could also at some points, see across to the Demilitarized Zone and North Korea, and some in our group expressed deep distress about the loss and splitting of families, with this division.
(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.
(Photo Essay 5) ‘Gaeyang Halmi, the Sea Goddess of Korea’ by Helen Hwang

Part 5: Gaeyang Halmi, How Does She Relate with Mago? The field research concerning Gaeyang Halmi was undertaken with the thought that Gaeyang Halmi is related to Mago in some way. Such assumption is on the grounds that the folktales of Gaeyang Halmi and Mago Halmi substantively share the same motifs. In fact, I had thought Gaeyang Halmi is another name of Mago Halmi. A scrutiny has proven that the picture of their correlation is far more complex than I first envisaged, exposing the hidden nexuses of Old Magoism. This last part aims at disentangling the grips. It is indispensable for me to invite my readers to the task of reconstructing ancient East Asian mytho-history. Gaeyang Halmi embodies a partial manifestation of Mago as the Sea Goddess. Nonetheless, such a statement lacks complex subtexts that this topic involves. The Gurang (Nine Maidens) mytheme of Gaeyang Halmi sheds light on the mytho-history of Old Magoism (read Magoism in pre- and proto-Chinese times characterized by shaman rulers). To be specific, Gaeyang Halmi in the gurang pantheon suggests a yet-to-be-known shaman ruler, “Ungnyeo” (Bear/Sovereign Woman), founder of the confederacy of the nine states, which I call Danguk (ca. 3898 BCE-2333 BCE). The gurang represented by Gaeyang Halmi is no small clue to the pervasive yet misunderstood civilization of Ungnyeo. “Ungnyeo” is eponymous of the female symbolism of nine, such as the nine-tailed fox in East Asia and the nine muses and the nine forms of Durga beyond East Asia mentioned in Part IV. In short, Gaeyang Halmi oscillating between “Mago” and “Ungnyeo” in Her identity testifies to the suppressed history of Old Magoism. Methodically, I have two types of mythological texts to decipher the overtones of Gaeyang Halmi’s mytheme: folklore (oral narratives) and the written myth. Goddess mythemes, malleable yet immortal, constitute the grammar blocks of the gynocentric language that often appears “awkward” if not “ridiculous” to moderns. They need to be analyzed and interpreted. Feminist techniques are apt to sort out the sediments and decipher the diastrophic disturbances caused by patriarchal advances in the course of time. Some parallels between Gaeyang Halmi and Mago Halmi folk stories are overt. Their stories are so similar that they appear to be an identical goddess: A: The motif that Gaeyang Halmi walks on the sea, often described as wearing namak-sin (wooden shoes) or only beoseon (Korean traditional socks), is also commonly told in Mago stories especially from Jeju Island[i] and other coastal regions. B: That Gaeyang Halmi walks around in the sea to measure its depth is also told in the stories of Mago from other coastal regions. C: The mytheme that Gaeyang Halmi had eight daughters recurs in the stories of Mago, especially from the region of Mt. Jiri. Mago is said to have had eight daughters and sent them to eight provinces. Given the above, it is evident that Gaeyang Halmi lore resembles that of Mago. Were the populace confused about these two goddesses? I hold that the confusion was not a mistake but a way to convey that Gaeyang Halmi is related to Magoism rather than Mago Herself. In folklore, “why” and “how”are the questions to be interpreted, not to be read.