Sharing the book review I have written for Helen Hye-Sook Hwang’s book,
The Mago Way: Re-discovering Mago, the Great Goddess from East Asia (Volume 1) by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.
“The beginning of the Great Goddess is still taking place and all are invited to join the ecstatic celebration of life on the earth, HER garden.” p. 9
The Mago Way by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang has been an illuminating and thoroughly enjoyable read. Once I began to read, I took my time, absorbing each passage and chapter of this cosmological perspective in relation to other experiences and ideas that embrace and shape my life and my deep ways of thinking/being. With reference to the quote heading this review, I chose it because I feel this reality: my twelve year old son calls me Magu, his term of endearment which allows a resonance within me that teaches – yes, the beginning is still taking place, and while we manifest in variety, we are all linked in the self-sustaining system of Earth, indeed, of the solar system.
With insight into the interpretation of the Korean Budoji (Epic of the Emblem City), from a gynocentric and feminist stance, seemingly still so misunderstood and feared, Hwang opens a great portal for learning and renewal for society and the foundational values that imbue society, for as the title of the First Passage states, The Personal is Political and Cosmic. With this work she brings East Asian myth and her radical feminist scholarship into the spotlight. I was particularly fascinated by her studies and theories in light of a connection with European Cailleach, whom I hold as a central navigation system for my life, and with the Magoist “family tree” in light of studies in mtDNA by Bryan Sykes, whose system of Ancestral Clan Mothers stemming from an unbroken lineage of sisters, was singing in my mind as I read of Mago and her two daughters, four grand-daughters, and eight great-grand-daughters giving birth to all living beings.
The Mago Way is a precious addition to my collection re-membering and celebrating the Great Cosmic Mother, Goddess.
Louise M Hewett, author of the Pictish Spirit series of novels, Mist, Wind, Flowers and Storm.
(Meet Mago Contributor) Louise M Hewett.
Re: review The Mago Way: “With insight into the interpretation of the Korean Budoji (Epic of the Emblem City), from a gynocentric and feminist stance, seemingly still so misunderstood and feared, Hwang opens a great portal for learning and renewal for society and the foundational values that imbue society, for as the title of the First Passage states, The Personal is Political and Cosmic.
Yes, yes yes.!
Thank you, Sara. It is the Budoji that I intended to introduce to the world. The 13 Moon 28 Day Magoist Calendar is one way to substantiate its value to the world… Its cosmic scale needs science and cross-cultural research by many.
Oh, Helen this is a huge project that you are engaged in – and I agree wholeheartedly – the 13 moon calendar is one way to express these cosmic elements. Amazing really – what you are doing!