January 3, 2020December 29, 2019 Mago Work Admin1 Comment

(Poem & Prose) what you say to me by Susan Hawthorne

what you say to me the muscles on your flanks ripple like quicksilver the play of your mouth is a die thrown six times it flips into the endless sky Read More …

(Art) Dissection of a Thought Balloon by Belinda Subraman

I sense my grandmothers. I am now the age they always seemed to be with stern blood understanding once removed from the sting of judgment. Wisdom nods unconventionally seasoned by tolerant love, compassionate wishes ancestral salutes through antique scents of creaking floors of mulch and cannabis. The breeze heavy with Earth’s kiss reminds me the trees were my friends their nuts and leaves my toys. Childhood obsessions, dreams of desire turn inside out. Autumn freshness wombs inward toward the fire. (Meet mago contributor) Belinda Subraman
(Essay 2) Encountering Motherhood Divine: Towards a Sacred Economy by Nané Ariadne Jordan, Ph.D.

[Author’s note for 2022: This essay was presented in March of 2006, at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion, Western Region, at Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, California. I am revisiting my older ideas as based from my thealogical (study of goddess) and birth-based scholarly work. The notion of society moving towards a sacred economy is more pressing than ever.] Baby side / tree of life (Nane Jordan photo credit) I note my ideas on this theme predate the work of Charles Eisenstein and his notion of “Sacred Economics.” I had not heard of him or his work at the time of my own ponderings. Rather, I was immersed in considering the embodied, ecofeminist energetics of freely birthing mothers, alongside my studies of the ancient matrifocal Minoan-Cretan culture, as based in my community-based birth work as a lay midwife, knowing the sacredness of birthing mothers as contiguous to honouring our human interrelationship with Mother Earth as our primary matrix—as I imagine the Minoans may have. I see the Minoans as having lived from a sacred economy in their spiritualized, communal distribution of foods, goods, and resources, towards all citizens through their ancient Goddess architectural complexes. I am mindful of this communal, communing economy as related to what Genevieve Vaughan names the “Maternal Gift Economy,” as I note here in. Though I see gift economy as key, I would say a “sacred economy” is an activated gift economy that is both practically and spiritually grounded in cosmological Goddess matri-worldviews. In the case of the Minoans, a whole culture ritualized mother-love, social care, and life-based spirituality to honour reciprocity with the land through architecture that ceremonially transmits and distributes the abundance, love, and regenerative, birth-based gifts of Mother Earth. This worldview and way of life honours interconnected human and earth-based cycles of birth, life, death, and regeneration. Archeologist Marija Gimbutus highlighted the life-giving, Mother Earth-based principle of regeneration as the sacred, organizing matri-ethics of the Minoans, along with other Neolithic cultures she unearthed, and named them a “Civilization of the Goddess.” It is not my intention to offer a fully develop theory/thearia herein. I have extensively written elsewhere on the matri-power of birth-giving and placentas from contemporary mother-centred perspectives (Jordan, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020). I note this brief study below as an intriguing view into understanding the ancient Minoans as a Goddess-template of a sacred economy, so that we may widen understanding of what a matri-culture did and can be. Sacred Economy: Previously in 2006, this essay was a slide list with detailed footnotes. I have brought my footnotes forward into the text, to imagine the Goddess-centred, ecological-economic-complexes of Minoan society as a template for a sacred economy through their ancient integrated ritual structures and uses thereof. I posit Minoan culture as a practice nexus for sacred, reciprocal, human-Earth, place-based interconnections as ritualized through matricentric community life. I dive into Minoan sacred architectural space via the scholarly sources cited herein, adding my own interpretations and imagining to that of the noted scholars. 1) Map of – Kefti and surrounds / Ancient Crete (Castledon 1990: fig. 11). Crete was called Kefti by the ancient Egyptians. Kefti and Egypt enjoyed trade and travel between their Mediterranean sea-connected civilizations. 2) Ritual bowl – made of red stone, found sitting in the antechamber to the Throne Room of the Palace of Knossos – Palatial period, 1600 BC (Alexiou 1968: 67). I see this as a ritual offering bowl for water libations in ceremony. In my own birthkeeping way, I call it a “placenta” bowl as if it held the sacred form of the after-birth. 3) Eileithyia cave – entrance to the sacred cave of Eileithyia at Amnisos on north coast of Crete. One of the oldest shrines on the island, its use dates from the Neolithic period (5000 – 2600 BC). In her Greek manifestation, Eileithyia is understood as a Goddess of childbirth, where her chthonic (underground) womb-aspect was worshipped here. A fig tree stands at the entrance (Alexiou 1968: 24). Caves continued to be utilized as places of worship well into Greek and Roman times. Offerings of libations are noted throughout the cave in the presence of cups, bowls and jugs on flat rocks used as altars. Votive offerings such as seals, bronze figurines depicting worshippers, tools, needles, and double axes, were placed in between rocks or stalagmites, on flat ledges, or thrown down deep chasms. Seasonal agricultural festivity, and visitation through pilgrimage, is noted in some caves through the presence of large pithoi (standing vessels/jars). These storage containers presuppose the collection, redistribution, and feasting on food/produce, as does the presence of dining equipment such as jugs, bowls, and plates (Marinatos 1993: 124). Pithoi are large womb-like containers, where gestation and birth is suggested in the regenerative matri-principle of life, life-giving, and life-sharing in community. 4) Eileithyia cave Again, from the Goddess Eileithyia, understood to be a Minoan Goddess connected to birthing, where mothers and others visit for ritual, ceremonial and contemplative connection to the life-giving principle of birth itself, both actual and metaformic—a metaform means beyond “metaphor” through culture practice, aka poet-philosopher Judy Grahn’s metaformic theory. I have long looked to birth as an activating principle for society and culture at large, to reawaken birth-based cultures of matri-power, love, and care that honour birth as sacred female power, being the undergirding force of our lives on Mother Earth. Not in any reductionist way, but knowing birth itself as wisdom force of life and life-giving, centred in a matri-ethics of care and continuity of life for thriving of all. 5) Mt. Ida – view from the Palace hill at Phaistos. Mt. Ida is the snow-capped peak on the left, the twin peaks to the right are known as the Digeris Saddle. Under this Saddle lies the Kamares cave whose 100ft wide and 60ft high entrance is visible with the naked eye on a clear day (Alexiou 1968: 48). Peak sanctuaries were visited by people throughout ancient Crete, even after the ‘official …
(Essay 2) Future of Identity: Reclaiming the Northern Pagan Tradition by Jillian Burnett

Art by Jillian Burnett Cultural Change The new tribalism rejects the conformity of the previous generations and accepts countercultures into the mainstream. Dominant culture is not rejected, but is changing. Just as tattoos are common, and marijuana is decriminalized and now legalized—social taboos have shifted. The world is changed. Other markers of the change in the social fabric are the plummeting rates of population growth as well as double declining marriage rates. Even traditional gender is being questioned in today’s two spirit and trans movements of inclusion and acceptance. Trends like quiet quitting and lying flat express dissatisfaction with the rat race. Commodity fetishism, consumerism and the worship of wealth are dying trends. They are replaced by northern pagan virtues of generosity, gift giving, exchange, and balance. These make for a more wholesome and equitable society. The changing values are important topics that can change school systems, country wide consumption of agriculture immigration quotas, as well as federal education standards. Sadly, these critical topics don’t get too much press coverage in mainstream media outlets or news TV. An example of changes in society’s laws are legislation regarding sexuality. In the first world these are moving to be more inclusive and equitable. In developing places in the world we still have for example bans on being gay in countries in the far east, south east Asia, as well as south west Asia and Africa. We take identity and sexual orientation for granted in the west and in the first world. Those rights are hard won but it is also important to realize their place in the ancient world view, as that framework shapes law making as well as social justice. Embracing inclusivity, in the Poetic Edda of the Norse tradition, the Þrymskviða as well as the Lokasenna both explain how Loki changed his sex, and identified as a woman. Loki also married the giantess Angrboða and gave birth to three children. This gender bending God was not disparaged for his sexual fluidity; he often came up with clever solutions to mitigate the negative effects of chaos as it surrounded the Asgardian Gods. Noting those traditions, modern pagans also may embrace non-traditional lifestyles, ranging from polyamory, or non-traditional families as the mom-commune movement, a type of intentional community. These new types of villages are based on shared responsibilities, share values and shared resources. Digital nomadism, as found in the vanlife movement has millions of people converting vans into minimalist vehicular adventures. People work remotely and enjoy living without massive debt, without the financial liability of one to two earners living on a property that a hundred years ago would have had one or two families living on it. The average mortgage price compared to salaries at worst in the past two decades was 20 times. Increased capitol requirements now have lessened that to ten times, but it took a massive global housing market crisis to effect that change. Today’s pagans live in communities and are seen as sharing recourses. The tiny-house movement, off-grid communes and digital-nomad movements suggest that an ecologically minded, financially sustainable, diy lifestyle that minimizes the carbon footprint is valued by the pagan community. This revival of old ways may also include at home food preparation-moving away from ultra-processed chemically-enriched nutrient-added nourishment or soylent. Other revivals include fitness such as yoga, healthy food awareness such as veganism, and other kids of natural back-to-the-land social revival. There are millions who now knit and crochet, preferring home-spun to store bought. There are fashion movements like cottagecore, that idealize romantic rural life with natural simplicity. There are even new dating trends like tradwife, that idealize the time before women entered the workforce. Stay-at-home girlfriend is also a movement, as people decide how they want to spend their time with their partners in this life. There are DIY cheese mongers, making vegan and almond milk mozzarellas. Homebrewing ale and IPA is making a comeback that hasn’t seen this much popularity since the 13th century. The new trends seek satisfaction and contentment focusing on simplicity of home and hearth. Another example of the societal change is reflected in the arts and crafts industry has seen billions in growth in the past decade, as more artisans leave corporations and enter e-commerce. People are going back to the simplicity of bartering their wares and showcasing their crafts. (To be Continued) https://www.magoism.net/2020/08/meet-mago-contributor-jillian-burnett/
(Call for Contributions) Time of changes

This is a time of changes. Yet, as the French saying goes, ‘The more it changes, the more it stays the same.’ To change with integrity, we often need to explore and even re-explore our unchanging roots, those we know of, those we are unaware of, to discover and sometimes to re-discover. For many of us reading and contributing to Magoism, the Way of S/He, exploration of our roots has led us to express our discoveries as writing or art or some other medium. Have you shared your discoveries here yet? Many readers would love to see your essay, poem, art, film or music. Previous contributors, it would be great to have more submissions from you. Potential contributors, please consider submissions! It can be something new, or it can be something you’ve already published, stand-alone, part of a series, an extract. We’re looking for all genres, any already published, any new genre you might have created. At this time, we’re particularly looking for poetry and art, but submissions of any genre are always warmly welcomed. We’ve posted most submissions we’ve received. So give it a go, we’d love to hear from you! June is solstice month, so you might wish to consider a submission with a solstice theme, southern or northern hemisphere. Here’s a guide to what we’re broadly looking for: http://magoism.net/people/call-for-contribution/ We, the co-editors, contributors, and advisers, have started the Mago Web (Cross-cultural Goddess Web) to rekindle old Gynocentric Unity in our time. Now YOU can help us raise this torch high to the Primordial Mountain Home (Our Mother Earth Herself) wherein everyone is embraced in WE. There are many ways to support Return to Mago. You may donate to us. No amount is too small for us. For your time and skill, please email Helen Hwang (magoism@gmail.com). Please take an action today and we need that! Thank YOU in Goddesshood of all beings! (Click Donate button below. You can donate by credit card or bank account without registering PayPal. Find “Don’t have a PayPal account?” above the credit card icons.)
Betsy’s Garden #4 by Susun Weed

The desert sky is expressive, vast, incredibly textured at times. An arbor of medicinal cat’s claw (uno de gato) provides shade. Rattlesnake is hiding, fast asleep. Toad is at home, dreaming of fat flies. Corn spirals in a woven basket. Even the mitochondria are dreaming. Life is so beautiful. https://www.magoism.net/2024/12/meet-mago-contributor-susun-weed/
(Essay 4) Mago Halmi (Great Mother) Shapes Topographies with Her Skirt: An Introductory Discussion by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

[Author’s Note: This essay was included in the journal, S/HE: An International Journal of Goddess Studies (Vol 3 No 1, 2024). Footnotes numbers here differ from those of the original article.] Namu Wiki image The Magoma Divine, the Magoist Cosmogony, and Magoist Cetaceanism Unraveling the skirt motif stories and placenames of Mago Halmi is no small task in that they display the multi-layers of meaning. Mago Halmi oral myths are not just gynocentric in characteristics but also numerological and draconian. The utterance of the numeral nine (and ninety-nine and three), which recurs frequently in our sample stories, is a call to the matriversal consciousness of the Nine Mago Creatrix: ALL are the offspring of the Creatrix and will return to HER by way of the Cosmic Music, the ceaseless interplay of socially charged nine numbers. The numeric symbol of nine inundates the folktales and placenames of South Korea (and beyond), substantiates that Magoism was a world-wide phenomenon in the past. Tantalizing the mind with visual, auditory, and cerebral images, the 21 sample stories that this essay examines unfolds the soteriological meaning system of Magoist Cetaceanism. Foremost, the language of Mago Halmi folklore and toponymy has its own grammar built on the underpinnings of Magoist Cosmogony, Magoist Cetaceanism, and Magoist thealogy, as well as the mytho-history of Magoist Cetaceanism. Given that cosmogony is the central theme of Mago folktales, the skirt-motif that this essay discusses stands as an exegesis of the Magoist Cosmogony. The Magoist Cosmogony refers to the matriversal (of the maternally perceived universe) consciousness of the ultimate reality of WE/HERE/NOW. In short, it is a maternal way of understanding the infinitely unfolding reality, a tiny portion of which we humans ride. The Magoist Cosmogony constitutes the basis of Magoism, the Way of the Creatrix. The full-fledged concept of the Magoist Cosmogony comes from the Budoji (Epic of the Emblem Capital City), the principal text of Magoism.[1] Mago is the Cause of ALL to be born, growing, and transforming within the Matriverse. However, Mago is not the ultimate cause of the open-ended reality of WE/HERE/NOW. Primordial entities, including stars and Mago, are brought forth by the Cosmic Music, the ceaseless interplay of sonically charged nine numbers (from one to nine), for which I coined the term, Sonic Numerology.[2] Mago, born through the Cosmic Music, governs the Matriverse together with HER Two Daughters (the Mago Triad or Samsin 三神). The Mago Triad in turn governs the solar system with their Eight Daughters (the Nine Mago Creatrix or Gurang 九郞). The Magoist Cosmogony is the account of the Female.[3] The male has not arrived on the scene yet. It is about the primordial reality prior to the bifurcation of sexes. The Nine Mago Creatrix is a parthenogenetic entity. The supreme divine is of the Sole-Mother. Skirt-motif Mago Halmi folktales reflect the parthenogenetic primordial reality by the story of a virgin, sole-mother, widow, and mother (see No. 19 in [Table 3]). The importance of the skirt-motif cosmogonic Mago Halmi folktales lies in the fact that they depict “Mago Halmi” as the merged persona of the Magoma Divine (Mago and Goma). Recognizing Goma is essential in decoding the Mago Halmi character in folktales. Beneath the thin layer of amnesia, Goma is tangible in Mago Halmi folktales. Mago and Goma appear inseparably merged in folk stories. Nonetheless, they differ substantively. While Mago is the Cosmic Mother/Creatrix, Goma is a deified historical figure. Technically speaking, the non-cosmogonic divine character refers to Goma. She is attributed to the builder of cultural constructs made of natural landmasses including strongholds, megalithic structures, and cairns. That is contrasted with Mago, the Cosmogonist, who is attributed to the cosmic shaper of local mountains, rivers, and seas. As Mago shapes the celestial and planetary surroundings, Goma shapes the socio-political-cultural surroundings. Also, Goma is the Cetacean Goddess or the Sea Goddess and associated with the Goma toponyms (see [Table 6]) from which I assess that Goma is the originator of Magoist Cetaceanism as well as the Magoist Cosmogony.[4] That said, a specific reference of “Mago Halmi” in a certain folktale or a group of folktales tends to swing within the spectrum of the Magoma Divine. For example, Gaeyang Halmi from Buan, North Chungcheong Province largely embodies the Cetacean Goddess (see Tale F S-73), whereas Seolmundae Halmang from Jeju Island embodies the Cosmogonist (see Tales G S-79 and G S-81). The Goma faith has shaped the landscape of Korean indigenous culture and religious practices. Nonetheless, modern Koreans are blind to see how broadly and pervasively she manifests in Korean traditional culture and history. She is not recognized because she is the lens.[5] Magoism is her vision. In that sense, my work on Magoism takes the lens of Goma. And the Korean ethos and mythos are rooted in the Goma faith. Commonly known as Ungnyeo (Bear/Sovereign Woman) among Koreans, Goma is the female protagonist in the Korean foundation myth, which I call the Goma Myth.[6] Suffice it to say that, deified as the Heavenly Hera (Cheonung) or Hanung (Magoist Hera), Goma is venerated as the greatest deity born of a woman. As a Shaman Queen Mother of Old Magoist Korea, Goma inaugurated the confederacy of Nine States (3898-2333 BCE). I hold that the matriversal consciousness of the Creatrix is Goma’s soteriological engine. The aquatic, meteorological, numerological, and draconic motifs concern Goma’s Magoist Cetaceanism. Apart from the Goma Myth, Mago Halmi folktales and placenames stand as the reservoir of the Goma legacy. Mago Halmi folktales in general intimate two layers of tradition. The first one is an older layer, Magoism, and the second one is the newer layer, Magoist Cetaceanism. I have defined Magoist Cetaceanism as the matriversal consciousness, which venerates the bio-sonic-aquatic-ecological behavior of whales as an indispensable blessing to All on the planet.[7] The difference between Magoism and Magoist Cetaceanism lies in the fact the former does not involve a conscious articulation of Mago Halmi on the part of people. On the one hand, Magoism as spirituality manifests as a direct (read mind-to-mind) …
(Art Poem) Our Lady of Guadalupe by Yvonne M. Lucia

O Lady of Guadalupe, I imagine you smiling at the celebrity you’ve become. Your image is everywhere, on coffee mugs and T-shirts, earrings and dish towels, your colorful legacy a talisman of hope for common folk laboring in the daily grind. Our longing for compassionate presence, a mother’s unconditional love and tender care is met by your sweet gaze. Along with Juan Diego, your first incredulous disciple, we believe in miracles – believe that roses can bloom on rocky ground, in wintry desolation. Meet Mago Contributor, Yvonne M. Lucia
(Prose & Poetry) Do You Believe in Magic? by Deanne Quarrie

I went online to dictionary.com and pulled three definitions for the word “magic.” The art of producing illusions as entertainment by the use of sleight of hand, deceptive devices, etc., conjuring. To pull a rabbit out of a hat by magic. The art of producing a desired effect or result through the use of incantation or various other techniques that presumably assure human control of supernatural agencies or the forces of nature. Any extraordinary or mystical influence, charm, power, etc. The magic in a great name; the magic of music; the magic of spring. The first definition is the one that most people think of when the word is used. The second is what people think storybook witches and wizards do and the third, a great way of using the word when talking about marvelous things in life.
(Prose) “First Light Reflection…” by Sara Wright

This morning I awakened to the same smoky blue gray clouds that brought in twilight last night, clouds that bled black ink into a fiery sky. The air was mild, 30 degrees, as I stepped outside to witness with wonder the dawn breaking – that moment when time ceases and the earth holds her breath. As I scattered seed for the birds a solitary robin sang from the cottonwood, the first spring song I’ve heard him sing this year. Was he heralding the birth of First Light? Suddenly a cacophony overhead: a gaggle of geese flew so low I could see dark wings and white bellies, and as they soared they too were honking with the greatest enthusiasm, a collective song sung with one voice. It was impossible to escape the sense that my avian friends know that today was a special day, a day when the whole earth celebrates the return of the light. When the sun broke over the horizon, a golden orb shining through the trees the smoke was already fading into a deep blue sky. I stood at the gate overlooking Avanyu’s river, (the Pueblo Serpent, whose horned watery undulating image is pecked into so many stones on the highest rubbly mesas), for a moment I felt a sharp pang of grief that the water was so low, but the shimmering serpent seemed intent upon reflecting the beauty of the sky above, and no more. Ancient peoples noted the return of the light and celebrated, each in their own way. Some of us have not forgotten the old ways and live them still and I will always be filled with gratitude for the women’s spirituality movement which developed out of a feminist perspective in the 80’s, because it helped women and men to dive into the cultural meanings behind these cyclic turnings of the wheel resacralizing the earth and her seasonal shifts for many. These turnings that were once considered holy by all peoples… In Celtic lore it is Brigid’s Fire and Light that we honor today. Brigid is goddess of the forge, she works with fire and metal and is a transformer herself; she is also a poet and writer, a great source of artistic inspiration. In my “First Light” ritual (my name for this turning) I always light a “crown” of candles on this day – this circle of light embodies the wholeness that I associate with the sanctity of the earth in darkness as well as light. Groundhog Day is the only vestige of the ancient ritual practice associated with the She Bear, “Mother of All” that remains part of American tradition. On February 2nd, today, the bear (who shapeshifted into a groundhog in the United States) first emerged from his den to determine when spring would come. If the bear saw his shadow spring was still six weeks away and the bear returned to his den to sleep. In actuality wild bears sometimes stir, and males often emerge briefly on the first warm, sunlit, late winter days, so this cultural story has a basis in the habits of real wild bears. What fascinates me about this myth is the shadow element that is associated with the return of the light of the sun. The brighter the light, the darker the shadow… it is easy to forget that light always brings shadow along as its doppelganger… It is important to be mindful of this truth. I think about the custom of the European Shrovetide Bear who was chained and led from house, forced to dance on hot coals to bless the fields for the coming year. This wild animal – a real bear (probably a grizzly) – was tortured for reasons that remain unclear to me unless I consider that the bear has been forced to carry our human shadow element for millennium and was used as a stand in for containment of the dark side of humanity – as an animal scapegoat. Remember, the bear was chained. (Perhaps we need to re-visit this idea of containing the dark side of humanity, which seems to be out of control as we continue to destroy life on this planet). For me, this coming of the light has a shadow aspect that I can feel in my body as a kind of uncomfortable buzz. As a bear researcher I experience raw fear for all the hibernating wild bears who are still snug and safe in their winter dens. From the time these animals first emerge in the spring they will be mercilessly hunted down by men – men who continue to project their dark destructive impulses onto these animals and slaughter them. So this coming of the light is not just about the return of light and the greening of the earth, but reflects the reality of human darkness and the cruelty inherent in the human condition. This knife edge is important to acknowledge as we move into the spring of the year because it is too easy to forget that light and dark are always part of one whole, and to experience one side is to be opened to the other. (Meet Mago Contributor) Sara Wright

(Special Post) Why I choose to be an RTM contributor by Glenys Livingstone

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

Dear Contributors, Do you know that Return to Mago (RTM) E*Magazine is entering its fifth year this fall? And, thanks to our collective effort, we are still growing! As of today, our contributors have grown to more than 130 in number and our readership is from about 140 countries around the world. We have some hundred email followers as well as Wordpress blog followers. We draw 3000-4000 clicks per month on average; that is no small accomplishment for a Goddess blog that is named after a yet-to-be heard word, Mago (the Great Goddess), and that began from scratch.

Lammas – the Sacred Consuming by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

Lammas, the first seasonal transition after Summer Solstice, may be summarised as the Season that marks and celebrates the Sacred Consuming, the Harvest of Life. Many indigenous cultures recognised the grain itself as Mother … Corn Mother being one of those images – She who feeds the community, the world, with Her own body: the Corn, the grain, the food, the bread, is Her body. She the Corn Mother, or any other grain Mother, was/is the original sacrifice … no need for extraordinary heroics: it is the nature of Her being. She is sacrificed, consumed, to make the people whole with Her body (as the word “sacrifice” means “to make whole”). She gives Herself in Her fullness to feed the people …. the original Communion. In cultures that preceded agriculture or were perhaps pastoral – hunted or bred animals for food – this cross-quarter day may not have been celebrated, or perhaps it may have been marked in some other way. Yet even in our times when many are not in relationship with the harvest of food directly, we may still be in relationship with our place: Sun and Earth and Moon still do their dance wherever you are, and are indeed the Ground of one’s being here … a good reason to pay attention and homage, and maybe as a result, and in the process, get the essence of one’s life in order. One does not need to go anywhere to make this pilgrimage … simply Place one’s self. The seasonal transition of Lammas may offer that in particular, being a “moment of grace” – as Thomas Berry has named the seasonal transitions, when the dark part of the day begins to grow longer, as the cloak of darkness slowly envelopes the days again: it is timely to reflect on the Dark Cosmos in Whom we are, from Whom we arise and to Whom we return – and upon that moment when like Corn Mother we give ourselves over. This reflection is good, will serve a person and all – to live fully, as well as simply to be who we are: this dark realm of manifesting is the core of who we are. And what difference might such reflection make to our world – personal and collective – to live in this relationship with where we are, and thus who we are. We all are the grain that is harvested and all are Her harvest … perhaps one may use a different metaphor: the truth that may be reflected upon at this seasonal moment after the peaking of Sun’s light at Summer Solstice and the wind down into Autumn, is that everything passes, all fades away … even our Sun shall pass. All is consumed. So What are we part of? (I write it with a capital because surely it is a sacred entity) And how might we participate creatively? We are Food – whether we like it or not … Lammas is a good time to get with the Creative plot, though many find it the most difficult, or focus on more exoteric celebration. May we be interesting food[i]. We are holy Communion, like Corn Mother. Meet Mago Contributor Glenys Livingstone NOTES: [i] This is an expression of cosmologist Brian Swimme in Canticle to the Cosmos DVD series.
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 …
(Poem) Samhain by Annie Finch

In the season leaves should love, since it gives them leave to move through the wind, towards the ground they were watching while they hung, legend says there is a seam stitching darkness like a name. Now when dying grasses veil earth from the sky in one last pale wave, as autumn dies to bring winter back, and then the spring, we who die ourselves can peel back another kind of veil that hangs among us like thick smoke. Tonight at last I feel it shake. I feel the nights stretching away thousands long behind the days, till they reach the darkness where all of me is ancestor. I turn my hand and feel a touch move with me, and when I brush my young mind across another, I have met my mother’s mother. Sure as footsteps in my waiting self, I find her, and she brings arms that hold answers for me, intimate, waiting, bounty: “Carry me.” She leaves this trail through a shudder of the veil, and leaves, like amber where she stays, a gift for her perpetual gaze. From Eve (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2010) (Meet Mago Contributor) Annie Finch
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 …
Samhain: Stepping Wisely through the Open Door by Carolyn Lee Boyd

Day of the Dead altar, via Wikimedia Commons According to Celtic tradition, on Samhain (October 31 for those in the north and April 30 for those in the south) the doors between the human and spirit worlds open. Faeries, demons, and spirits of the dead pour out of the Otherworld to walk the Earth. In the past, some would try to hurry ghosts past their houses or ward off evil spirits by setting jack o’lanterns in their windows. They avoided going outside, especially past cemeteries, lest they be snatched away to the Otherworld. In ancient times, some offered sacrifices to propitiate deities. However, others have invited in the souls of friends and family who have passed away. In Brittany, according to W.Y. Evans-Wentz’s Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries, people would provide “a feast and entertainment for them of curded-milk, hot pancakes, and cider, served on the family table covered with a fresh white tablecloth, and to supply music” which “the dead come to enjoy with their friends” (p. 218). Other cultures also have such welcoming traditions. In Korea, as so beautifully described by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang in her posts about her family’s mourning for her father (Part I and Part II), in Mexico on the Day of the Dead, and elsewhere, food and flowers are brought to cemeteries to honor those no longer in the realm of the living. Many of us live in a society where death is pushed out of sight and Samhain’s sacred traditions have devolved into Halloween, a commercialized children’s holiday. Still, it seems to me that the pandemic, climate catastrophes, and war have made death much more present in our everyday thoughts over the past couple of years than before, so perhaps this year’s Samhain offers us the opportunity to re-examine Celtic and other practices of the past and present to see what insights and meaning they may have for us. Jack o lanterns: By Mihaela Bodlovic, via Wikimedia Commons All these ancient practices respect the spirit world and its power. Whether you believe that the Otherworld can wreak havoc on us at Samhain or not, the realm where spirits dwell clearly has power. Its allure can take us away from focusing on mundane, daily challenges or, more positively, open our eyes to the value of relating to forces that can give richness and meaning to our lives. At the same time, we must remember that each domain has its own power. We can use our physical bodies in beneficial ways that those in the Otherworld cannot. We must respect the power of the Otherworld as well as our own. Some kinds of healing are only possible when we welcome those from the Otherworld into our lives in a healthy way, whether through holiday visits or every day through remembrance, meditation, prayer, or other means. I’m of an age when many of my beloveds are in the Otherworld and so I am beginning to find that the idea of being able to sit with someone I have lost is cause not for fear, but rather joy and comfort. Perhaps those who have longstanding wounds from the past can heal by remembering those we have lost at Samhain and forgiving them or ourselves or realizing that we are no longer bound to those who have hurt us and are now gone. Samhain can also reassure us of the truth of our intuitive sense that our beloveds who we grieve are with us still, in some way, on this night and throughout the year. When we participate in the celebration of Samhain’s opening of doors to the Otherworld, if only for a day, we are honoring our own participation into the great cycle of life, death, and rebirth. We are expanding our vision of ourselves to be more than our bodies on the Earth and experiencing ourselves as connected to many realms, seen and unseen, spirit and human. We are accepting that at some time we will also become ancestors, with all the responsibility that entails and the fulfillment of taking our place in the complex matrix of being that is our universe. When we interact with the souls of those we have lost in ways that are healthy for us, however we may choose and believe that happens, we can also better celebrate the realm of the living. Just as we may listen in various ways for positive messages from those whom we have lost, we can ensure that we are expressing important guidance to those who will come after us by who we are and how we live our lives. We can express that life is worth living, even with all its traumas, and that we respect both the boundaries and the doors between the worlds so that we may continue living fully in our physical bodies on our beautiful, awe-inspiring Earth. I hope my message to my descendants will be: Love your lives. Build on what we have done and do better. Leave behind what we left you that no longer serves. If you feel alone, remember that you have thousands of generations of mothers sending you unconditional love and also generations of women coming after you eager to pick up where you left off. According to Mary Condren in The Serpent and the Goddess, in the most ancient times, “Samhain had been primarily a harvest feast celebrating the successful growth and gathering of the fruits of the past year” (p. 36). While we in the north are coming into the season of death, those in the south are experiencing Beltane, the first moments of spring when the doors between the worlds are also open. The eternal cycle of life, death, and regeneration turns again. Whether you are celebrating Samhain or Beltane, know that this holy time offers us all a chance to enter into the task of maintaining harmony with those we have loved before and for bringing balance between life and death, winter and summer, and the realm of the living and …
(Prose) Desire: the Wheel of Her Creativity by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This essay is an edited excerpt from the concluding chapter (Chapter 8) of the author’s book PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. Place of Being is a passionate place, where desire draws forth what is sought, co-creates what is needed[1]; within a con-text – a story – where love of self, other and all-that-is are indistinguishable … they are nested within each other and so is the passion for being. I begin to understand desire afresh: this renewed understanding has been an emergent property of the religious practice of seasonal celebration: that is, the religious practice of the ceremonial celebration of Her Creativity. It has been said She is “that which is attained at the end of desire[2].” Within the context of ceremonial engagement and inner search for Her, I begin to realize how desire turns the Wheel. As the light part of the cycle waxes from Early Spring, form/life builds in desire. At Beltaine/High Spring, desire runs wild, at Summer Solstice, it peaks into creative fullness, union … and breaks open at that interchange into the dark part of the cycle – the dissolution of Lammas/ Late Summer. She becomes the Dark One, who receives us back – the end of desire. It has been a popular notion in the Christian West, that the beautiful virgin lures men (sic) to their destruction, and as I perceive the Wheel, it is indeed Virgin who moves in Her wild delight towards entropy/dissolution; however in a cosmology that is in relationship with the dark, this is not perceived as a negative thing. Also, in this cosmology, there is the balancing factor of the Crone’s movement towards new life, in the conceiving dark space of Samhain/Deep Autumn – a dynamic and story that has not been a popular notion in recent millennia. Desire seems not so much a grasping, as a receiving, an ability or capacity to open and dissolve. I think of an image of an open bowl as a signifier of the Virgin’s gift. The increasing light is received, and causes the opening, which will become a dispersal of form – entropy, if you like: this is Beltaine/High Spring – the Desire[3]that is celebrated is a movement towards dis-solution … that is its direction. In contrast, and in balance, Samhain/Deep Autumn celebrates re-solution, which is a movement towards form – it is a materializing gathering into form, as the increasing darkness is received. It seems it is darkness that creates form, as it gathers into itself – as many ancient stories say, and it is light that creates dispersal. And yet I see that the opposite is true also. I think of how there is desire for this work that I have done, for whatever one does – it is then already being received. Desire is receiving. What if I wrote this, and it was not received or welcomed in some way. But the desire for it is already there, and perhaps the desire made it manifest. Perhaps the desire draws forth manifestation, even at Winter Solstice, even at Imbolc/Early Spring, as we head towards Beltaine – it is desire that is drawing that forth, drawing that process around. Desire is already receiving; it is open. Its receptivity draws forth the manifestation. And then the manifestation climaxes at Summer and dissolves into the manifesting, which is perhaps where the desire is coming from – the desire is in the darkness, in the dark’s receptivity[4]. It becomes very active at the time of Beltaine, it lures the differentiated beings back into Her. So the lure at Beltaine is the luring of differentiated beings into a Holy Lust, into a froth and dance of life, whereupon they dissolve ecstatically back into Her – She is “that which is attained at the end of Desire.” And in the dissolution, we sink deeper into that, and begin again. All the time, it is Desire that is luring the manifest into the manifesting, and the manifesting into the manifest. Passion is the glue, the underlying dynamic that streams through it all – through the light and the dark, through the creative triplicities of Virgin-Mother-Crone, of Differentiation-Communion-Autopoeisis[5]. Passion/Desire then is worthy of much more contemplation. If desire/allurement is the same cosmic dynamic as gravity, as cosmologist Brian Swimme suggests[6], then desire like gravity is the dynamic that links/holds us to our Place, to “that which is”, as philosopher Linda Holler describes the effect of gravity[7]. Held in relationship by desire/allurement we lose abstraction and artificial boundaries, and “become embodied and grow heavy with the weight of the earth[8].” We then know that “being is being-in relation-to”[9]. Holler says that when we think with the weight of Earth, space becomes “thick” as this “relational presence … turns notes into melodies, words into phrases with meaning, and space into vital forms with color and content, (and) also holds the knower in the world[10].”Thus, I at last become a particular, a subject, a felt being in the world – a Place laden with content, sentient: continuous with other and all-that-is. Notes: [1]“…as surely as the chlorophyll molecule was co-created by Earth and Sun, as Earth reached for nourishment; as surely as the ear was co-created by subject and sound, as the subject reached for an unknown signal.” As I have written in PaGaian Cosmology, p. 248. [2]Doreen Valiente, The Charge of the Goddessas referred to in Starhawk, The Spiral Dance, p.102-103. [3]I capitalize here, for it is a holy quality. [4]Perhaps the popular cultural association of the darkness/black lingerie etc. with erotica is an expression/”memory” of this deep truth. [5]These are the three qualities of Cosmogenesis, as referred to in PaGaian Cosmology, Chapter 4, “Cosmogenesis and the Female Metaphor”: https://pagaian.org/book/chapter-4/ [6]Brian Swimme, The Universe is a Green Dragon, p.43. [7]Linda Holler, “Thinking with the Weight of the Earth: Feminist Contributions to an Epistemology of Concreteness”, Hypatia, Vol. 5 No. 1, p.2. [8]Linda Holler, “Thinking with the Weight of the Earth: Feminist Contributions to an Epistemology of Concreteness”,Hypatia, Vol. …

(Video) Gurang (Nine Goddesses), Gaeyang Halmi (Grandma Gaeyang), and Goddess Gom: Exploring Old Magoism in Korea by Helen Hwang

Meet Mago Contributor, Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D. Read (Photo Essay 5) Gaeyang Halmi, Sea Goddess of Korea.
(Book Announcement 4) Introduction (part 2) 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! The Text of the Primordial Mother/the Creatrix/Mago She Rises Volume 2, like her predecessor, is born out of the Magoist vision.[i] It intends to raise the collective consciousness of WE, a cognitive symbolic system derived from the knowing of the Primordial Mother or the Creatrix. One may call it an embodied knowing or gynocentric epistemology. Our stories shed light on the holistic view in which all parts are revered as a microcosm of the Creatrix. The She Rises book is an emblem of gynocentric cosmology: All contributions are interconnected and the book is enriched by each and all contributions. This book is NOT just about what we have discovered and what we have experienced about Goddess feminism, activism, and spirituality but what and how we do with our discoveries and experiences. Where are we heading to with our knowing of S/HE? The collective consciousness of WE summons a gynocentric reality. This book is designed to show our togetherness in our uniqueness. It stands for unity that is enhanced by the diversity of individuals. The key phrase in the subtitle, “Goddess feminism, activism, and spirituality,” is a reminder of the all-embracing gynocentric way of our becoming. We ARE committed to the making of the book to reflect the gynocentric principle of unity in diversity. We allow our differences to lead us to a new (read gynocentric) territory without making ourselves fall into factionalism. Competition in a constructive manner helps us grow. But factionalism destroys us. We speak our truths not to argue or win. We speak our truths because they are true to us. Truth speaks, even when we can’t hear. And we trust ourselves to speak our truths in HER. And S/HE shall bring us together in WE. To trust in our contributors is the map that we editors have followed in She Rises collective books. In the process, we have learned that what we really need to be careful of, not the other camp of Goddessians, but what really divides us among Goddessians/Magoists. In my Introduction to She Rises Volume 1, I drew attention to the word “Goddess,” concerning our need to reclaim it despite its linguistic drawback. Summarily, we strategically adopt the word, “Goddess,” knowing its derivative and subsequently dualistic nature from the word “God” in the English language.[ii] We are aware of the functional nature of language, a means for the meaning that we intend to convey. We choose one word over another for our political and utilitarian reasons. Our use of the word “Goddess” has given us a common ground to come together and interweave the She Rises books. The Magoist vision of the book merits the stance that the Goddess is not just the female divine or a sum of female deities but the Great Goddess, the Primordial Mother. It is S/HE who allows us the holistic view of WE/HERE/NOW, the ultimate reality. We who are awakened in S/HE know that we ARE this S/HE reality. In writing my Introduction to the second book, another term has come to my attention, “feminine.” As seen in this book, some of our authors have favorably chosen the word, “feminine” in support of Goddess feminism, activism, and spirituality for reliable reasons. The context wherein the term is used is complex and highly suggestive of the female divine power. In their uses, some make it clear that the feminine refers to the female divine nature/power of women. Others use it in redefining and deconstructing patriarchal definitions of “the feminine.” It is true that “the divine feminine” or “the sacred feminine” has taken on popularity so much so that it appears almost indispensable in the Goddess Talk. Nonetheless, I hold that there is a point that we need to think and explore together the meaning of “feminine.” Linguistically speaking, referring to the gender quality of women, the meaning of “feminine” fluctuates. I find it worth broaching these questions to us: Is the term “feminine” empowering Goddess feminism? Why yes? Why no? These questions can only be answered by our authors and readers. We editors by no means advocate the purge of the term, feminine, from this book. Forcing unity is not gynocentric. We propose the question as an ongoing conversation among Goddessians. Here is my stance to the question, which is yes and no. When the context indicates an ancient (read gynocentric) or feminist meaning, the word “feminine” certainly empowers women. When “the divine feminine” indicates the Primordial Mother within an environment like this book, the word is empowering. Put differently, the meaning of “feminine” can be conveyed as gynocentric, that is, women-empowering, when “the divine feminine” refers to the Creatrix, the Great Goddess. In this case, the gender quality of “feminine” is coherent with the biological quality of “female.” The meaning of “feminine” in such context does NOT reflect the patriarchally-imposed qualities of women; the feminine is gynocentric and sacred. However, when the word “feminine” is used outside the gynocentric context, it becomes dubious in meaning, if not self-defeating, obstructing the impetus of women’s empowerment. Referring to the gender quality (read a social/patriarchal construct), of women, the meaning of “feminine” changes in different times and cultures. It is not free from socio-cultural settings. Being feminine today in the U.S. would be very different from being feminine two centuries ago. Also, being feminine today in one country would be very different from being feminine today in another country. On the other hand, the word, “female,” conveying the biological and biologically-derived quality of women, remains coherent in meaning across times and cultures. “Female” offers us a solid ground to build our feminist activism and feminist spirituality. Thus far, we women still hold the power of female biological and biologically-derived traits. The word, “feminine” alone risks a powerful conceptual ground for Goddess feminism. Precisely, it falls short in capturing the divine power of the Primordial Mother, the Creatrix. For example, I …
(Pilgrimage Essay 1) Report of First Mago Pilgrimage to Korea by Helen Hwang

[Author’s note: First Mago Pilgrimage to Korea took place in June 6-19, 2013. We visited Ganghwa Island, Seoul, Wonju, Mt. Jiri, Yeong Island (Busan), and Jeju Island.] Part 1 Magoist Alchemy and Consanguinity of All Peoples My study of Mago, the Great Goddess of East Asia, has hurled me into uncharted territory. (In fact, my life hurled me onto a labyrinthine path.) Mago is not a mere subject of my study. Or, study is not a mere brain activity for me. Mago has been the answer to my intellectual/spiritual quests. And I am to carve out my own destiny. Studying Magoism has become a way of life to me. Magoism is the term that I coined to name the mytho-historical-cultural context in which Mago is venerated. Assessing a large body of source materials that I documented, I learned that Magoism is one of the most comprehensive contexts that can explain East Asian civilizations as a whole. It feels right that reconstructing Magoism, the method that I employed in studying Mago, is the reason why I study Mago. Ever since I began to contemplate the topic of Mago for study in 2000, I have visited Korea, my native land, almost annually and undertook such activities as documentation, presentation, trips, and field research for the purpose of measuring the landscape of Magoism. In enacting those projects, I have worked with a variety of groups and individuals including feminists, scholars, friends, and the general public. For the last three years, I have organized various sizes of pilgrimages to near and far places with Koreans. Those experiences have gradually led me to the unfolding mystery of Magoist spiritual/intellectual reality. That said, it was my honor and privilege to organize and lead the very first intercontinental Mago Pilgrimage to Korea from June 6 to June 19 in 2013. This pilgrimage made a memorable landmark in Magoism. About a decade ago, Mago was hardly known among goddess people in the West. And the situation was not so far different from that in Korea. At that time, I was writing my Ph.D. dissertation on Mago from a multi-disciplinary perspective, not knowing what was forthcoming. The Mago Pilgrimage envisioned the remarkable change!

Day: January 3, 2020

(Poem & Prose) what you say to me by Susan Hawthorne

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