February 7, 2020January 19, 2020 Mago Work Admin1 Comment

(Poetry & Prose) Of corroboree frogs and climate change by Susan Hawthorne

The habitat of the southern corroboree has been severely damaged during the bushfires in Australia. They live in a small alpine area in Kosciuszko National Park. This frog and so Read More …

The Liminal Feminist: An Ethereal Journey into Magical Spaces by Claire Dorey

Hecate Swirl by Claire Dorey May the new wave of feminism be liminal. May the fundamental force of the universe, which is female, root in our hearts and heads. An omniscient observer, midwifing her ‘world soul’, in lucid slumber, biding Her time, is absorbing magic from the dark spaces She sought refuge in. Hers is a consciousness of ‘in-between’ spaces, endlessly spiraling – accessible to those who are ready to align. “We are the blood of the witches you thought were dead we carry witchcraft in our bones whilst the magic still sings in our head [ ] you cannot burn away what has always been aflame” – Witch, Nikita Gill, Goodreads. Second Wave slogans and gestures illuminated the tyranny at the root and core of patriarchal culture, but now is the time to shift r-evolution to the clair senses: claircognizance, clairaudience, clairsentience, clairvoyance. Liminal spaces are places to move through, but how can we invoke the ancient deities lingering there and what can they teach us about female power? Hecate, Goddess of magic and witchcraft, is calling. She suggests we birth an awakening by channelling the Primordial Wave of Feminism, which simply ‘was’ and ‘is’ the way of the cosmos. Companion stars dancing in orbit, the ancient pairing of Hecate and [acting through] Medea remind me of Thelma & Louise. “By the mistress I worship/… Hecate, dwelling in the inmost recesses of my hearth,/ no one will bruise and batter my heart and get away with it” – Medea. Willhouse, Adam, Hecate and Medea, Medea, (Euripides 394-397). 7th Dec. 2017. Women in Antiquity. “Louise, no matter what happens, I’m glad I came with you.” – Thelma. Khouri, Callie, writer. Scott, Ridley, director. Thelma & Louise, with Susan Sarandon, Geena Davis, Harvey Keitel, Michael Madsen. 1991. MGM Studios: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. Thelma and Louise morphed into Warrior Queen fugitives, rebelling in, what I will argue, was a divine and fearless, ecstatic state, following a cataclysmic, life changing event (rape), leading to an epiphany. “I feel really awake. I don’t recall ever feeling this awake.” – Thelma, Thelma & Louise. Archaic rampage was divine and apocalyptic: when lioness Sekhmet ran riot, her flaming ‘eye’ incinerated all She saw whilst, in drunken trance, She vomited rivers of Red Rage. Medea rampaged with poison! Empowered by Hecate, triggered by patriarchy, moon on fire, pounding mandrake, aconite, dittany, belladonna and colchicine, Medea worked with healing plants that are deadly in untutored hands. This ’Root Cutter’ wisdom, of sacred herbs and poisonous plants, released intoxicating potential and a spiralling, mind-altering epiphany: women’s wisdom was tolerated when it served the system of male privilege that is patriarchy, otherwise it was considered evil. From Titan to Olympian, as World Soul, with roots in the underworld, head in the cosmos, Hecate withstood regime changes, intermingling with tyrants Hades and Zeus whilst, as survivor companion and guru, she empowered Persephone and Medea and sheltered Hecuba and Gale/Galinthias. She also jeered off rapist Hermes. “Each time a woman stands up for herself [ ] she stands up for all women.” – Maya Angelou. Goodreads. As the Olympian male divorced himself from the Earth Mother, he claimed civility and philosophy as the masculine domain, whilst marginalising women because they were creatures of cycles. Philosophers were major players in these culture wars, that took aim at women’s autonomy. “The courage of a man is shown in commanding, of a woman in obeying” – Aristotle. The Politics. Translated by Trevor Saunders and T. Sinclair, 17 Sep. 1981. Penguin Classics. Visual people scrutinise symbols alongside mythology. Just as the unspoken word holds power, in images ‘negative’ space holds meaning. Liminal space brews magic. “When the human race learns to read the language of symbolism, a great veil will fall from the eyes of men.” – Hall, Manly P.. Melchizedek and the Mystery of Fire. Goodreads. Hecate’s Strophalos, a spinning wheel, described as a golden orb spiralling from a thong, aligns the spinner with orbital resonance, unleashing a flow of possibilities and consciousness from ‘in-between’ spaces. “I had imagined myself alone in believing that spiders should be the totem of writers. Both go into a space alone and spin out of their own bodies a reality that has never existed before.” – Steinem, Gloria. My Life on the Road. Goodreads. Hecate Three Faces by Claire Dorey Since the Goddess emerges from within and since the Golden Spiral expresses the exquisite geometry of galaxies and the human form, I imagine Hecate transcending realms as Penta to Hexa; apple to honeycomb; as Fibonacci sequences of the Golden Spiral, to Goddess numbers ‘3, 6 and 9’. So is there a mathematical spell for asking Hecate to spiral out of the void into awareness? At a glance: as the Golden Spiral, ‘1, 2,3,5,8 and 13,….’, Hecate has one key, two torches and three faces. A five-pointed star (Pentacle) is created by Venus orbiting the sun every eight Earth years, equivalent to thirteen Venus years… and there are thirteen moons. As Chthonia, Hecate’s serpents may represent Fibonacci numbers, Kundalini shakti and chthonic wisdom spiraling to infinity. As the ‘3,6 and 9’, She is the Triple Goddess, with three faces, domains and directions, revolving around a six-pointed star (Hexagram). ‘6’ is the first ‘perfect number’ (link to description). Sources are sketchy: in Pythagoras’s theory, metempsychosis, ‘6³’ [6x6x6] is the periodic time for soul regeneration. Nine is the Nine Ennead, Muses, Maidens, Mothers, Sisters, Sorceresses and the Nine Mago (link to reference). Mayan calendars made use of Earth-Venus cycles (link to this math). Venus is a shape-shifter, appearing as the ‘5, 6, and 8-pointed’ star in various mythologies. Seven is the Pleiades. As the dyad, Venus has two faces, appearing as twin stars – Phosphorous (Lucifer), the morning star and Hesperus, the evening star. The nocturnal womb space is gated by Venus. Perhaps Hecate’s two torches are metaphors for this. Venus spins in the opposite direction to Earth. Astrological conjuncts may open portals as cosmic energies converge. One Roman spel, invoking Hecate, draws upon an eight-pointed …
Deanne Quarrie

View all posts by Deanne Quarrie. Deanne Quarrie. D. Min. is a Priestess of the Goddess, and author of five books. She is the founder of The Apple Branch where she mentors women who wish to serve as priestesses. There she teaches courses in Feminist Dianic Wicca, Druidism, the Ogham and Northern European Mysteries. She is also an adjunct professor at Ocean Seminary College. She is the founder of Global Goddess, a worldwide organization open to all women who honor some form of the divine feminine, and the publisher of The Oracle, and online magazine for Goddess Women.
(Bilingual Poetry & Art 2) Coronavirus: An Initiation by Noris Binet

Title: PrayerfulMedia: AcrylicCopyrighted by Noris Binet 3 What Remains of This Body Today we can stop as when we were born with neither goal, nor future We can become naked without any mental clothes to protect us We can be barefoot and stand on the ground without anything separating us from the humid earth Without rings, bracelets or necklaces, with nothing to beautify or decorate our bodies remaining more and more naked as when we are born Today we can stop, stand barefooted without adornment… and discover how to offer to life what remains of this body! 4 Clemency Noris Binet © 4/4/20. Ajijic, Mexico Clemency! We ask clemency for all the countries falling beneath what moves invisibly without us noticing it. Clemency for all peoples that are overwhelmed, and leniency for the Big Golden Apple that is being eaten away from various corners Clemency for New York that can’t stop, For the city that never sleeps where so many have passed through and enjoyed its relentless turning like a Ferris wheel ride that raises us to the clouds, from where we saw its peak … Clemency because right now it still can’t stop! Stop, city of immigrants people from everywhere are inhabiting you … stop for the first time and let death pass … Do not let it stop in your hands and nest in your chest … I ask for mercy for all your people, who are my people, immigrants from all over the world that inhabit you Mercy for New York the golden apple eaten away from many corners. Stop and let death pass. (End of the Poetry) 3 Lo Que Queda de Este Cuerpo Como nacemos Hoy podemos detenernos Sin meta, ni futuro Podemos quedarnos desnudos Sin ropa mental que nos proteja Podemos quedarnos descalzos Y pisar la tierra Sin zapatos aeróbicos, sin nada Que nos separe del húmedo suelo Podemos quedarnos sin anillos, Aretes o collares, sin nada que adorne la belleza que son nuestros cuerpos Y vernos mas y mas desnudos Como cuando nacemos. Hoy podemos detenernos, descalzos Sin joyas…y descubrir como nacemos ofrendando la vida que le queda a este cuerpo! 4 Clemencia Clemencia, Clemencia pedimos para todos los pueblos que van cayendo bajo lo que llega invisible sin que nos demos cuenta Clemencia para todos los pueblos que están avasallados clemencia para la manzana de oro que se va carcomiendo por varios rincones Clemencia para Nueva York que aún no logra detenerse clemencia, clemencia para la ciudad que nunca duerme por donde tantos hemos pasado y disfrutado de su incesante girar como la de un carrusel que nos subió a las nubes desde allí vimos su cúspide… Clemencia porque en este momento Aún no logra detenerse. Detente ciudad de emigrantes donde estamos todos los pueblos Habitándote… Detente por primera vez Y deja que la muerte pase… Que no se detenga en tus manos Y se anide en tu pecho… Clemencia pido por todas tus gentes, que son mis gentes, emigrantes de todos los pueblos que te habitan Clemencia para Nueva York la manzana de oro carcomiéndose por todos Los rincones. ¡Detente! https://www.magoism.net/2019/08/meet-mago-contributor-noris-binet/ (Meet Mago Contributor) Noris Binet
(Poem) The Truth of Vikings by Donna Snyder

The music in her head makes her scared as if Vikings still brandished their blades from the decks of ships fierce as dragons afloat in an ageless riverThe leaves are chill flames Cold rains obscure the water’s source Hiding it away like the secret of a woman’s aging bodyShe is apples and pears She ripens in her own sweet skin Only the moon can match the luster of her opalescent bellyHer mouth makes shadows Her fingers are a doorway and her hair a burning bush Iconic as a religious artifact still sticky and sweet insideShe is on route to the end of being on the back of a red swan She is on the way to nothingness made tolerable by ritual and fire and the howling of inconsolate womenThey no longer believe that love will save them from sorrow There is no home now they wail there is no safe placeDeath tastes like winter flowers She knows this because she knows things she is not supposed to knowShe stands so close she can hear warriors telling each other secrets The truth is that neither love nor death diminishes you The way to truth is a life suffered The way to truth is a drunken waltz She stands so close her howl is lost in the roar of the music inside her head She is wordless before the fact of Vikings Rain and a woman’s sluggish heat Truth is found in a harsh yellow light This poem was published on The Montucky Review http://montuckyreview.blogspot.com/search/label/Donna%20Snyder
(Book Review) Gillian M. E. Alban’s The Medusa Gaze in Contemporary Women’s Fiction by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

Beginning with some quotes from this ovarian book: “Alban reflects throughout this book on the myriad ways women and girls are gazed upon within patriarchal cultures as well as examples of how women assert their right to look, stare, or claim an apotropaic gaze of power and anger …”. from the Foreword by Margaret Merisante, Ph.D., Feminist Comparative Mythologist. “Women are by no means merely the passive object of the other’s gaze; these writings show them asserting agency … I thus reclaim the gaze for women as active agents in their own right.” page 6. “… women are now defiantly asserting their independent scopic force under the banner of Medusa, staring down any attempts to diminish them.” page 22. “The dominant social gaze in our societies is male … which objectifies them as sexual beings, whether admired, or dismissed as unworthy of observation and lacking the dignity of complete human beings. Objectified through such looks, women are evaluated as merely female rather than appreciated as human.” page 24. “Devouring mothers cause their daughters trauma, as do those who abandon and fail to care for their child, leaving the child longing for her mother; … Most mothers fall between these two extremes. They are neither devouring or monstrous, nor abandoning or negligent, but as fallible humans, they often fall short of the high standards required in the task of mothering remaining condemned as not-enough for their demanding task. Mothers may embody the monstrosity of Medusa, or they may simply be inadequate in fulfilling their arduous mothering role, however desperately they do their utmost …” page 201 *** Some decades ago I reflected on my childhood experience of being observed: A strong part of the cultural milieu in which I grew, was that I felt identified as sex object … with no subjectivity, no space to Be. Pornographic magazines of the day depicted women being constantly pursued by salivating men – either there was an assumption that she desired this, or they did not care to ask her. And Christian cosmology appeared to condone the imposition of a dominant will upon another – at the very heart of it is “the sacrifice of the lamb”. Women have been especially vulnerable, with their submission openly advocated. “Marilyn”, they sometimes called me, simply because of my babyhood waved platinum hair … Marilyn was suggested to me by this naming, as someone I could model myself after. … I don’t remember any other significant famous women in the first decade of my life. As a child I was very conscious of being looked at, and perhaps on reflection, it was because I was female. I felt transparent and vacuous. I remember believing that others (particularly adults) could see my thoughts. The Great Male Metaphors of the day – God and Santa – knew everything about me. The male humans imitated the Deity with constant Gazing, in magazines, movies, wall calendars. I could only hope to be chosen to be worthy of his desire, yet at the same time it was known that he could be dangerous. I felt acutely the identification of myself with the “inanimate” world, as it was understood to be – dead and inert.[i] I remember the first time that I consciously felt being seen/heard as human rather than sex object. I was forty-two years old, and speaking on the phone to the organiser of the Dalai Lama’s visit to Australia, about volunteering to assist; I got off the phone and contemplated this novel vision of myself … human being. I love the Table of Contents of this book: this table in itself could bend a few brains, give cause for pause. Here is just a sample, though you may select others as alluring.[ii] The Self in the Petrifying Gaze of the Other The Gaze of the Double in the Mirror–My Sister! Mother as Monstrous Medea: the Mother’s Devouring Love. Gaia and Demeter: Mother Earth Sacrifice in Mothering Birth and Mothering: The Thing Itself Matriarchal Survivors Demeter/Persephone; Mother-Daughter Longing Medusa’s Redemptive Evil Eye This book offers many insights as the reader is taken through multiple literary works. It could be a journey through hellish places you have been, or quandaries you have known, and how your spirit intuitively coped, put strategies in place to ensure your survival. In the section “Medusa’s Redemptive Evil Eye”, the author describes how Elaine in Margaret Atwood’s Cat’s Eye “creates a Madonna for herself in the shape of an apotropaic Medusa eye in her moment of direst need, and this force rescues her by fortifying her against the hostility of so-called friends.”[iii] The journey could also be into the hellish places of other women you may have heard about in popular press and opinion, who have been harshly judged; and there may be evocation of another vision from within her frame, and compassion – a rethinking of popular judgements. In “Devouring Clytemnestra and Electra”, Alban notes: “Domineering, interfering, or infanticidal mothers do suggest the monstrosity inherent in mothering. The commonest cause of maternal infanticide has been illegitimacy; …”[iv] wherein a woman remains “helplessly trapped within sexual and moral mores, …”.[v]And another wherein the mother is “caught in the terrible dilemma of exerting Medea power over her daughter by killing her in order to prevent her return to slavery.”[vi] In a patriarchal, androcentric context, even everyday choices for women, such as, about how to raise a child in a hostile environment, whether it is safe to go out, how to dress, how to exercise authority, take the lead – have had to be considered more carefully and strategically, often defensively. As woman (again) cloaks herself, situates herself,[vii] regains vision of herself from within her own skin, she is able to take action with greater clarity and integrity, and confidence that she can hold her own. This book The Medusa Gaze is an empowering reflection on the complexities of woman’s situation, across diverse cultural experiences and personal particularities, gazing as it is from within female eyes, thus …
(Poem) The name of god is O by Susan Hawthorne

Ishtar on an Akkadian seal, Wikimedia Commons The name of god is O She was born in Baghdad between the legs of that fertile crescent The O The zero invented here between the waters of the Tigris and the Euphrates The Gate of Ishtar shines one hour’s drive from Baghdad Paradise, Eden’s Garden, the cradle … all rising out of the sand Towers fall like the speakers incomprehensible leaping from the listing Babel The O The zero The zero and the one are returning to Baghdad in the shape of bombs Babylon fell Babylon with its women falling, falling … We are Babylonians The one Our godhead the horror occurring in the city of too many nights The one dropping out of the sky birds dying mid-flight piercing the fragile O Disney duplicates replace the old languages with the one true tongue American English slipping between the fissures The centre of the world It was here they cry now moved below the horizon of the setting sun Ishtar’s sky boat setting far too low The zero and the one the binary base prevailing here in Baghdad it was ancient time it was Ur time It was base ten and base sixty one to ten one to sixty one hour and one minute The Hanging Gardens wilt and die The flowerbeds of the Sumerians poisoned by those proclaiming one world one market How many bombs can you drop from an unpiloted aircraft in one hour? What is the power of one? How many years of history can you decimate? How many civilians can you count without the zero? There have been too many bombs dropping recently. This poem was written during the bombing of Iraq. This poem was published in my book The Butterfly Effect (2005) https://www.spinifexpress.com.au/shop/p/9781876756567 (Meet ) Susan Hawthorne https://www.magoism.net/2013/12/meet-mago-contributor-susan-hawthone/
(Book Excerpt 2) Asherah: Roots of the Mother Tree ed. by Trista Hendren Et Al

[Editor’s Note: This excerpt series is from Asherah: Roots of the Mother Tree ed by Claire Dorey, Janet Rudolph, Pat Daly, and Trista Hendren (Girl God Books, 2025).] About this Anthology by Trista Hendren Asherah: Roots of the Mother Tree contains a variety of writing styles from people around the world. Various forms of English are included in this anthology and we chose to keep spellings of the writers’ place of origin to honor/honour everyone’s unique voice. There are two common spellings of our Goddess: Asherah and Ashera. We have honored each contributor’s choice. It was the expressed intent of the editors to not police standards of citation, transliteration and formatting. Contributors have determined which citation style, italicization policy and transliteration system to adopt in their pieces. The resulting diversity reflects the diversity of academic fields, genres and personal expressions represented by the authors.[1] Mary Daly wrote long ago that, “Women have had the power of naming stolen from us.”[2] The quest for our own naming, and our own language, is never-ending, and each of us attempts it differently. People often get caught up on whether we say Goddess or Girl God or Divine Female vs. Divine Feminine. Personally, I try to just listen to what the speaker is trying to say. The fact remains that few of us were privileged with a woman-affirming education—and we all have a lot of time to make up for. Let’s all be gentle with each other through that process. If you find that a particular writing doesn’t sit well with you, please feel free to use the Al-Anon suggestion: “Take what you like, leave the rest!” That said, if there aren’t at least several pieces that challenge you, we have not done our job here. Reading through these pieces has reminded me of the depths my own faith of origin has gone to uphold patriarchal lies whilst burying the Goddess.[3] I often say I have developed an allergy to the Bible due to the harm caused by its teachings. The Bible is no longer a holy book for me. Based on my personal experiences, I consider it a “Text of Terror.”[4] Reading some of the passages contained in this book was triggering for me. Claire suggested we implement several tactics to draw readers past ‘biblical freeze’—and we have done so to ensure people are not triggered past the point of taking in all the content. This anthology, perhaps more than any other, was challenging for me personally. I have wanted to focus on Asherah for many years now, but given my personal experience in the Lebanon, and the ongoing genocide in Gaza, I find even the word “Israel” to be triggering at times. Due to colonization, wars and other factors, including our own regionally-fueled assumptions, there seem to be missing words and gaps in our geography as well. No where is this more prevalent than in the “Holy Land.” I find Layla K. Feghali words to be helpful in understanding this ancient land: “Cana’an was also part of the Fertile Crescent, sharing significant relationships with ancient Sumeria (present-day Iraq and eastern parts of Syria). The cultures and migrational lineages of these diverse territories are born in relationship to Egypt, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, the Horn of Africa, the Nile, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Mediterranean Basin. Modern borders are insufficient at capturing these significant genetic, ecological, geographical, and cultural relationships, reducing them to geopolitical dynamics and modern cultural identities, many of which have been redefined and altered over time by colonial influences and empires. In English, the term for this area is “the Levant,” rooted in the word “rising” and the concept of the orient—an eastern place where the sun rises, which beckons the question Palestinian scholar Edward Said has posed, “East of where?”[5] I have watched in horror at the atrocities in the land of our Great Mother Goddess. I have witnessed Her ancient trees being destroyed. I have seen small children under rubble and trapped in burning buildings. I have seen mothers wailing in agony. I weep with Asherah at the injustices inflicted in the name of “God.” The entire World needs Her peace again. May the roots of the Mother Tree pull us tightly into Her healing embrace. [1] This paragraph is borrowed and adapted with love from A Jihad for Justice: Honoring the Work and Life of Amina Wadud. Edited by Kecia Ali, Juliane Hammer and Laury Silvers. [2] Daly, Mary. Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism. Beacon Press, 1990. [3] See Jesus, Muhammad and the Goddess. Girl God Books. 2016. An anthology on the Tripple Arabian Goddesses is also in the works. [4] Trible, Phyllis. Texts of Terror: Literary-Feminist Readings of Biblical Narratives. Fortress Press; 1984. [5] Feghali, Layla K. The Land in Our Bones: Plantcestral Herbalism and Healing Cultures from Syria to the Sinai—Earth-based pathways to ancestral stewardship and belonging in diaspora. North Atlantic Books; 2024. https://www.magoism.net/2013/08/meet-mago-contributor-trista-hendren/
(Prose) The Cat Goddess in Ancient Egypt by Hearth Moon Rising

Ancient Egypt is rightfully seen as the apogee of cat worship. Less well known is the ideological basis of that worship. Even as superstitions of cats as purveyors of evil magic have been supplanted by cute Internet kitties, modern assumptions infuse popular understanding of Egyptian cat worship. Photo: Schuyler Shepherd To gain a comprehensive picture of cat worship in Ancient Egypt, we first have to look at lion worship, which predated and informed later worship of the domestic cat. Lion deities abounded in the Nile River Valley. Every locality had a lion deity and a lion cult. As the Nile Valley came under unified political control, lion deities became unified under one name, or other deities acquired lion aspects. Sekhmet. Kom Ombo temple, 150 B.C.E. Photo: Remih. Lions were once native to most countries bordering the Mediterranean, but Egyptians understood a few things about lions that early Greeks and Mesopotamians did not. They knew that lions are felines – related to cats, not dogs. Think about it for a moment: all other wild felines are solitary creatures, living in isolated family groups only to raise young. Lions, on the other hand, live in extended family groups and hunt in a coordinated fashion like some canines. Another Egyptian insight was that the lioness, not the male lion, is central in the lion pride. The females do most of the hunting, choose their mating partners, and communally nurture young, making decisions for the pride on that basis. The lion mainly eats the food provided by the lioness and fights with other lions. Jungle Cat goddess defeating snake god. Note the long ears. From the tomb of Inherkha, 1300 B.C.E. Egyptians remained animal worshippers, only partially anthropomorphizing their animal deities, even as the society became technologically advanced. They incorporated many types of animals into daily life, in temples as divine representatives and in houses as pets. The earliest small feline pet was the Jungle Cat, and this is the cat depicted on papyrus until the African Wildcat, probably imported from the southern kingdom of Nubia, supplanted the native cat as a pet. Egyptian breeding programs with the African Wildcat eventually produced the consistent genetic aberrations from the original animal that are the hallmark of a domesticated species. Egyptians may not have been the first to keep the African Wildcat as a pet (the jury on that is still out), but all domestic cats today are believed to be descendants of the Egyptian ones, despite initial government efforts to ban feline exports. Aside from differences in appearance, domestic cats differ from their wild ancestor most pointedly in aggression and sociability. While most people don’t consider their affectionate kitty an aggressive animal, the domestic cat is a relentless hunter, to the detriment of bird populations, killing even without eating or caching prey. It’s not difficult to see why this would be a desirable trait in a grain-based economy, but Egyptian cats were valued not only for rodent control but for killing poisonous snakes. African Wildcat. Photo: Sonelle. The idea of the sociable cat defies modern stereotypes of the independent creature who, in Rudyard Kipling’s words, “walks by himself,” but domestic cats can and do get along well with one another. Legendary cat fights occur when males fight over fertile females or unrelated cats are brought together. Studies of feral domestic cat populations have found that, unlike the African Wildcat, domestic cats prefer to live in complex social structures when food is plentiful. This makes the domestic cat more like the lion than other felines. Sociability would have been an important trait for populations of domestic cats housed together in temples, and the lion goddess was easier to manage in her diminutive form. In contrast to other Mediterranean cultures, Egyptian feline deities were goddesses, not gods, and the priesthoods of feline deities were often female. The Egyptian word for cat, “mau,” was a term of endearment for young girls. Cat goddesses had large retinues of female musicians, and the instrument particularly favored was the sistrum. Temple worship was an elite affair for women and men, linked with nobility and government, the liturgies guarded and privileged. In contrast to the Sumerian temples with their accessible architecture, Egyptian temples, closed to the public, housed the important statues and ceremonies inside inner sanctums that even temple personnel might not see. The populace participated in worship during the public festivals, when the gods in their statues would be taken out of their temples into the open air. The most popular festivals were the feline ones, lasting many days. The wine poured freely on these occasions, sexual activity was ubiquitous, and the din from percussion instruments was overpowering. The sistrum was a favorite instrument of the cat goddess. From Tutankhamen’s tomb. 1350 B.C.E. Photo: Harry Burton. The most famous Egyptian cat goddess, Bast, was originally a lion goddess who morphed into a domestic cat. In contrast to other lion goddesses, such as Sekhmet, Bast was always a gentle lioness. As synchronization of Egyptian deities progressed, Sekhmet and Bast became aspects of the same feline goddess, with Bast as domestic cat her beneficent aspect. Bast brought fertility, love, children, and health, while the fierce Sekhmet would be invoked for protection. Amulet of goddess Bast. 700 B.C.E. Photo: Rama. Sources: See this article.(Meet Mago Contributor) Hearth Moon Rising.
(Photo Essay 7) Goddess Pilgrimage 2018.

[Author’s Note: In May 2018, I set out on a 3 month pilgrimage to Greece, Turkey and the prehistory sites of “Old Europe”. Once again my main focus was “visiting with the Grandmothers”.] Blaubeuren, Germany. The “Venus” of Hohle Fels (also known as the “Venus” of Schelklingen) is an Upper Paleolithic Mother Goddess figurine made of mammoth ivory. She was found in 2008 in Hohle Fels, a cave near Schelklingen, Germany, and is dated to between 35,000 and 40,000 years ago, belonging to the early Aurignacian, at the very beginning of the Upper Paleolithic. This Mother Goddess figure is kept in the wonderful Prehistory Museum of Blaubeuren (Urgeschichtliches Museum Blaubeuren). She is in a quiet room much like a shrine. Also in the museum are other finds from Hohle Fels and the surrounding area: Bone flute, Hohle Fels, 35,000-40,000 BCE Red ochre painting (red like blood), Hohle Fels, c15,000 BCE One evening we gathered in Hohle Fels Cave, sitting on the rocks in the timeless darkness, while Carolyn Hillyer and Nigel Shaw (Seventh Wave Music) evoked ancient gatherings with music and song: Meet Mago Contributor Kaalii Cargill

(Special Post Mother Teresa 2) A Role Model for Women? by Mago Circle Members

[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.] Part II: We Disagree! Stand up for what you believe but be open-minded! Naa Ayele Kumari: I am going to step away from the common responses and say this… Binary is only no in betweens if you choose sides and can’t see the whole. I have been a part of black consciousness movements and women’s movements and both have the capacity for progress as well as extreme viewpoints. Both have the capacity to become so hypercritical that the movement itself transcends common human compassion and understanding. Mother Teresa was a human being with flaws and goodness. She had a public image and private fears and insecurities.. l like all of us. She lived her life the best way she knew how.. Like all of us. She made mistakes.. misjudgments.. Like all of us. But she also DID help and inspire others to help too. It is this dualistic thinking that forces people to feel like they have to assign the label of good or bad and no in between. None of us are all good or all bad.. so it seems to me that to label her has an evil traitor who let people die is no better than labeling her an Angel of god who did no wrong. She was a woman who lived her life and managed to come to worldwide fame and inspire others to love at a time and in an institution that was highly patriarchal and women were not raised up at all. Mother Goddesses in Africa were known for great nurturing and care symbolized by carrying a baby and also carried a machete on the other side for justice. This was the fine balance of wholeness…she was the gentle rain and the storm.. This was binary, but not one or the other but both.. Opposite ends of the same pole. [H]: I’m having a powerful visceral effect from this conversation. I feel as if I’m going to vomit violently. Mother Teresa comes to me in dreams and meditations. Makes me wonder what kind of person I’m seen as if I attract her energy. I have always felt so much love for her. Naa Ayele Kumari: If she comes in your dreams and it has been healing for you… Allow it/ her to continue to be healing for you. Its all about love and anything that is not love… Leave it be.. Vomiting is rejecting something that doesn’t belong with you. Embrace love my sister. Antonia McGuire: I think we may all agree that all belief systems initially began to promote a sense of goodness or fairness to some degree, but over time they are corrupted and produce both advantages and disadvantages. Donna Snyder: Yes, Gandhi, too. Back in the 90’s when I was in a band/performance art troupe called Central Nervous System, I shocked all the guys in the band coming out with an improv in response to a melody played on a banjo tuned like a sitar, called exactly that-Yes, Gandhi. Now make no mistake, he is one of my heroes, devoid of the falsified sentimentality that clings to MT. Gandhi’s work was for the world, for the masses, not for the appropriately humbled. Yet I spoke out about his sexual practices, his use of female bodies. Telling the truth about a hero requires courage. Retreating into a blind defense of a myth is a form of ethical cowardice. Anne Wilkerson Allen: Strangely I had a discussion with someone about the “hero’s journey” moving from metaphorical to physical being part of the problem…..when the “demons” are human instead of our own flaws, there seems to be a tendency to point the finger (and gun barrel) elsewhere. [B]: Fascinating & thought-provoking conversation, all. I think the biggest stumbling block I have with MT is how her acceptance of the dogma of the Catholic church blinded her to seeing and then being moved by the suffering of others enough to do something to alleviate & not vicariously celebrate it. No wonder she “suffered a lack of connection with the Divine”. This crisis with her spirituality seems to have been divorced from her and others’ body wisdom. Self-abnegation (perhaps not the same as “sacrifice”) ultimately backfires because some small part of us insists, “I am worthy!” To which I say, “We are all worthy!” [H]: I do not see or feel that she vicariously celebrated the suffering of others. I feel that she devoted her life to deeply loving and serving the poorest of the poor. I have not been to Calcutta and I have also seen some unimaginable poverty in India that is not like anything that I’ve been exposed to before. I truly believe that she had a very deep way of working with suffering that is not necessarily visible to those more accustomed to modern medical intervention and the resources available for such. I have participated in a very small amount of poverty medicine and the resources that we take for granted are just not readily available to MANY. I learned very powerfully from my experience how blessed and fortunate and often very careless we really are with our precious resources. This discussion has been a learning experience for me. I am trying to not take the critical comments […]
(Review) Journey into Dreamtime by Munya Andrews, reviewed by Glenys Livingstone

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

[Mago Circle members discussed and answered the question, “What do you think of this (the topic article below)? If you are a feminist, it is something that you would promote? If so, why? If not, why not?” The discussion took place on May 15, 2017 and shortly thereafter in The Mago Circle.] Topic Article: “For The Daughters Who Don’t Love Their Mothers – Screw Mother’s Day” by Sade Andria Zabala Everyone talks about a mother’s unconditional love. But what if it doesn’t exist? Daughters are socially expected to be close with their mothers. But are you one of the women who aren’t? Mother’s Day isn’t just for celebrating moms. It’s a day some of us dread because we are reminded we grew up (or are still) unloved, not good enough. (Read the whole article here.)

(Video) Winter Solstice Breath Meditation by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

Winter Solstice/Yule Southern Hemisphere – June 20 – 23. Northern Hemisphere – December 20 – 23 Winter Solstice is a celebration of the Mother/Creator aspect of the Triple Goddess in particular – as both Solstices may be, as dark or light come to fullness. Winter Solstice Moment celebrates the ripe fullness of the Dark Womb, and the gateway from that fullness back into new growing light. It is a Birthing Place – into differentiated being, and Her birthing happens in every moment in the breath, and is seamlessly connected with all layers of being – of self, Earth and Cosmos. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDsVZzXtoyM The Text in the Meditation[i] Take a deep breath and let it go. Notice the Void at the bottom of emptying your breath … feeling it, and feeling the Urge to breathe as it arises. And again … feeling it over and over – this breath that arises out of the full emptiness in every moment, birthing you in every moment. – Recall some of the birthings in your life, your actual birth – see it there in your mind’s eye … you coming into being – your Nativity, your Nativity. Recall projects you have brought into being, new beings within yourself, perhaps children, new beings in others, how you have been Creator and Created – even at the same time … who was birthing who? Staying for a while with the many, many birthings in your life. – recalling now Earth-Gaia’s many birthings out of the Dark everyday … the dawn is constant as She turns. See Her in your mind’s eye – the constant dawning around the globe, the constant birthing. Recall Earth’s many births right now of all beings – as day breaks around the globe – the physical, emotional, spiritual births. Her many, many birthings everyday, and throughout the eons. recalling now Universe-Gaia’s many birthings – happening in every moment – right now in real time and space … supernovas right now, stars and planets being born right now. Her many, many birthings in every moment and throughout the eons. – recalling now Universe-Gaia’s many birthings – happening in every moment – right now in real time and space … supernovas right now, stars and planets being born right now. Her many, many birthings in every moment and throughout the eons. Come back to your breath – this wonder – none of it separate … the Origin Ever-Present, birthing you in every moment – out of Her Fertile Dark, in real time and space. Feeling this breath, Her breath. NOTES: [i] Glenys Livingstone, PaGaian Cosmology, Winter Solstice ceremonial script, p. 195-196. Reference: Glenys Livingstone, PaGaian Cosmology. Music: Fish Nite Moon by Tim Wheater, permission generously given Images: – Birth of the Goddess, Erich Neumann, The Great Mother, pl. 155. See https://pagaian.org/book/cover-goddess-image/ – Winter Solstice window, MoonCourt Australia 2016 – some sources unknown
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.
(Essay) Ceremony as “Prayer” or Sacred Awareness By Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

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

This essay is an excerpt from the Introduction of the author’s new book A Poiesis of the Creative Cosmos: Celebrating Her within PaGaian Sacred Ceremony. Meditation cushion in circle of decorated stones My ancestors built great circles of stones that represented their perception of real time and space, and enabled them to tell time: the stone circles were cosmic calendars.[i] They went to great lengths and detail to get it right. It was obviously very important to them to have the stones of a particular kind, in the right positions according to position of the Sun at different times of the year, and then to celebrate ceremony within it. I have for decades had a much smaller circle of stones assembled. I have regarded this small circle of stones as a medicine wheel. It is a portable collection, that I can spread out in my living space, or let sit in a small circle on an altar, with a candle/candles in the middle. Each stone (or objects, as some are) represents a particular Seasonal Moment/transition and is placed in the corresponding direction. The small circle of eight stones represents the flow of the Solstices and Equinoxes and the cross-quarter Moments in between: that is, it represents the “Wheel of the Year” as it is commonly known in Pagan traditions. I have found this assembled circle to have been an important presence. It makes the year, my everyday sacred journey of Earth around Sun, tangible and visible as a circle, and has been a method of changing my mind, as I am placed in real space and time. My stone wheel has been a method of bringing me home to my indigenous sense of being. Each stone/object of my small wheel may be understood to represent a “moment of grace,” as Thomas Berry named the seasonal transitions – each is a threshold to the Centre, wherein I may now sit: I sense it as a powerful point. As I sit on the floor in the centre of my small circle of stones, I reflect on its significance as I have come to know the Seasonal transitions that it marks, over decades of celebrating them. I sense the aesthetics and poetry of each. I facilitated and was part of the celebration and contemplation of these Moments in my region for decades. It was always an open group that gathered, and so its participants changed over the years but it remained in form, like a live body which it was: a ceremonial body that conversed with the sacred Cosmos in my place. We spoke a year-long story and poetry of never-ending renewal – of the unfolding self, Earth and Cosmos. We danced and chanted our relationship with the Mother, opened ourselves to Her Creativity, and conversed with Her by this method. All participants in their own way within these ceremonies made meaning of their lives – which is what I understand relationship to be, in this context of Earth and Sun, our Place and Home in the Cosmos: that is, existence is innately meaningful when a being knows Who one is and Where one is. Barbara Walker notes that religions based on the Mother are free of the “neurotic” quest for indefinable meaning in life as such religions “never assumed that life would be required to justify itself.”[ii] I face the North stone, which in my hemisphere is where I place the Summer Solstice. From behind me and to my right is the light part of the cycle – representing manifest form, all that we see and touch. From behind me and to my left is the dark part of the cycle – representing the manifesting, the reality beneath the visible, which includes the non-visible. The Centre wherein I sit, represents the present. The wheel of stones has offered to me a way of experiencing the present as “presence,” as it recalls in an instant that, That which has been and that which is to come are not elsewhere – they are not autonomous dimensions independent of the encompassing present in which we dwell. They are, rather, the very depths of this living place – the hidden depth of its distances and the concealed depth on which we stand.[iii] This wheel of stones, which captures the Wheel of the Year in essence, locates me in the deep present, wherein the past and the future are contained – both always gestating in the dark, through the gateways. And all this has been continually enacted and expressed in the ceremonies of the Wheel of the Year, as the open, yet formal group has done them, mostly in the place of Blue Mountains, Australia. PaGaian Cosmology altar/mandala: a “Womb of Gaia” map Over the years of practice of ritually celebrating these eight Seasonal Moments – Earth’s whole annual journey around Sun, I have been held in this creative story, this Story of Creativity as it may be written – it is a sacred story. Her pattern of Creativity can be identified at all levels of reality – manifesting in seasonal cycles, moon cycles, body cycles – and to be aligned with it aligns a person’s core with the Creative Mother Universe. I have identified the placing of one’s self within this wheel through ceremonial practice of the whole year of creativity, as the placing of one’s self in Her Womb – Gaia’s Womb, a Place of Creativity. All that is necessary for Creativity is present in this Place. All may come forth from here/Here – and so it does, and so it has, and so it will. NOTES: [i] See Martin Brennan, The Stones of Time: Calendars, Sundials, and Stone Chambers of Ancient Ireland (Rochester Vermont, Inner Traditions, 1994). [ii] Barbara Walker, The Woman’s Encyclopaedia of Myths and Secrets (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1983), 693. [iii] David Abram, The Spell of the Sensuous (New York: Vintage Books, 1997), 216. REFERENCES: Abram, David. The Spell of the Sensuous. New York: Vintage Books, 1997. Brennan, Martin. The Stones of Time: Calendars, Sundials, and Stone Chambers of Ancient Ireland.Rochester Vermont: Inner Traditions, 1994. Walker, Barbara. The Woman’s Encyclopaedia of Myths and Secrets. San Francisco: …
(Essay) The Emergence celebrated at Spring Equinox by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

The Spring Equinox Moment occurs September 21-23 Southern Hemisphere, March 21-23 Northern Hemisphere. The full story of Spring Equinox is expressed in the full flower connected to the seed fresh from the earth; that is, it is a story of emergence from the dark, from a journey, perhaps long, perhaps short, through challenging places. The joy of the blossoming is rooted in the journey through the dark, and an acknowledgement of the dark’s fertile gift, as well as of great achievement in having made it, of having returned. Both Equinoxes, Spring and Autumn, celebrate this sacred balance of grief and joy, light and dark, and they are both celebrations of the mystery of the seed. The seed is essentially the deep Creativity within – that manifests in the Spring as flower, or green emerged One. the full story: the root and the flower As the new young light continues to grow at this time of Spring, it comes into balance with the dark at Spring Equinox, or ‘Eostar’ as it may be named; about to tip further into light when light will dominate the day. The trend at this Equinox is toward increasing hours of light: and thus it is about the power of being – life is stepping into it. Earth in this region is tilting further toward the Sun. Traditionally it may be storied as the joyful celebration of a Lost Beloved One, who may be represented by the Persephone story: She is a shamanic figure who is known for Her journey to the Underworld, and who at this time of Spring Equinox returns. Her Mother Demeter who has waited and longed for Her in deep grief, rejoices and so do all: warmth and growth return to the land. Persephone, the Beloved Daughter, the Seed, has navigated the darkness successfully, has enriched it with Her presence and also gained its riches. Eostar/Spring Equinox is the magic of the unexpected, yet long awaited, green emergence from under the ground, and then the flower: this emergence is especially profound as it is from a seed that has lain dormant for months or longer – much like the magic of desert blooms after long periods of drought. The name of “Eostar” comes from the Saxon Goddess Eostre/Ostara, the northern form of the Sumerian Astarte[i]. The Christian festival in the Spring, was named “Easter” as of the Middle Ages, appropriating Goddess/Earth tradition. The date of Easter, which is set for Northern Hemispheric seasons, is still based on the lunar/menstrual calendar; that is, the 1st Sunday after the first full Moon after Spring Equinox. In Australia where I am, “Easter” is celebrated in Autumn (!) by mainstream culture, so we have the spectacle of fluffy chickens, chocolate eggs and rabbits in the shops at that time. There are other names for “Eostar” in other places …the Welsh name for the Spring Equinox celebration is Eilir, meaning ‘regeneration’ or ‘spring’ – or ‘earth’[ii]. In my own PaGaian tradition, the Spring Equinox celebration is based on the Demeter and Persephone story, the version that is understand as pre-patriarchal, from Old Europe. In the oldest stories, Persephone has agency in Her descent: She descends to the underworld voluntarily as a courageous seeker of wisdom, and a compassionate receiver of the dead. She represents, and IS, the Seed of Life that never fades away. Spring Equinox is a celebration of Her return, Life’s continual return, and thus also our personal and collective emergences/returns.We may contemplate the collective emergence/returns especially in our times. I describe Persephone as a “hera”, which of old was a term for any courageous One. “Hera” was a pre-Hellenic name for the Goddess in general[iii]. “Hera” was the indigenous Queen Goddess of pre-Olympic Greece, before She was married off to Zeus. “Hero” was a term for the brave male Heracles who carried out tasks for his Goddess Hera: “The derivative form ‘heroine’ is therefore completely unnecessary”[iv]. “Hera” may be used as a term for any courageous individual: and participants in PaGaian Spring Equinox ceremony have named themselves this way. The pre-“Olympic” games of Greece were Hera’s games, held at Her Heraion/temple[v]. The winners were “heras” – gaining the status of being like Her[vi]. At the time of Spring Equinox, we may celebrate the Persephone, the Hera, the Courageous One, who steps with new wisdom, into power of being: the organic power that all beings must have, Gaian power, the power of the Cosmos. This Seasonal ceremony may be a rejoicing in how we have made it through great challenges and loss, faced our fears and our demise (in its various forms), had ‘close shaves’ – perhaps physically as well as psychicly and emotionally. It is a time to welcome back that which was lost, and step into the strength of being. Spring Equinox/Eostar is the time for enjoying the fruits of the descent, of the journey taken into the darkness: return is now certain, not tentative as it was in the Early Spring/Imbolc. Demeter, the Mother, receives the Persephones, Lost Beloved Ones, joyously. This may be understood as an individual experience, but also as a collective experience – as we emerge into a new Era as a species. Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme speak of the ending of the sixty-five million year geological Era – the Cenozoic Era – in our times, and our possible emergence into an Ecozoic Era. They describe the Ecozoic Era as a time when “the curvature of the universe, the curvature of the earth, and the curvature of the human are once more in their proper relation”[vii]. Joanna Macy speaks of the “Great Turning” of our times[viii]. Collectively we have been away from the Mother for some time and there is a lot of pain. At this time we may contemplate not only our own individual lost wanderings, but also that of the human species. We are part of a much bigger Return that is happening. The Beloved One may be understood as returning on a collective level: …
(Video) Autumn Equinox/Mabon Poetry by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

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

(Essay 3) The Magoist Calendar: Mago Time inscribed in Sonic Numerology by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

[Author’s Note: This is my latest research that has led me to restore the 13-month, 28-day Mago Calendar, which will be included at the end of its sequels. See Mago Almanac: 13 Month 28 Day Calendar (Book A), published in 2017.] THE SECOND CALENDAR Then, the Earth had increasingly so much work in all regions. Biodiversity went overboard. The terrestrial song became uncontrollable. The initial calendar became defunct. Lifeforms were left uncoordinated. The Earth fell into disorder, as she had no one to tune the song of earthlings in harmony with the cosmic music of creativity. The Earth was in need of sentient beings who could undertake the task. Mago’s descendants were to be born. Humans were entrusted to cultivate the earthly sound property by the Nine Mago Creatrix. The Budoji writes:
(Poem) Knowing Mago Calendar by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

[Author’s Note: This poem was an offshoot of an essay on Magoist Calendar and Nine Numerology, to be included in the forthcoming anthology, Celebrating Seasons of the Goddess (Mago Books, 2017). I thank Genevieve Vaughan, Danica Anderson, and Harriet Ann Ellenbeger who have given me feedback to the article and inspiration to this poem.] Mago Calendar is the umbilical cord of the Great Goddess, the umbilical cord that re-members the Beginning Story of us all terrestrial beings, that enables the one and many songs/dances of the Earth, and that nourishes the human world to sing the chorus to the cosmic lullaby. Mago Calendar is the grand wheel of the Great Mother, the grand wheel that spirals the inter-cosmic orbit of truth, goodness, and beauty, that carries all earthlings to the fullest becoming, and that builds bridges into the inter-protonic galaxies. Mago Calendar is the everlasting blessing of the Nine Mago Creatrix, the everlasting blessing that scripts the ecstasy of Heavenly Numerology, that charts the Earth’s metamorphosis from the infinite to the physical, and that unfolds the Reality of the Mago Time, WE/HERE/NOW. (Meet Mago Contributor) Helen Hye-Sook Hwang.
(Essay) A Cross-Cultural Feminist Alchemy: Studying Mago, Pan-East Asian Great Goddess, Using Mary Daly’s Radical Feminism as Springboard by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

Mago is the Great Goddess of East Asia and in particular Korea. Reconstructing Magoism, the cultural and historical context of East Asia that venerated Mago as the supreme divine, is both the means and the end. Magoism demonstrates the derivative nature of East Asian religions such as Daoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism while redefining East Asian Shamanism to be the religious expression of Magoism. I encountered the topic of Mago during my doctoral studies. The topic of Mago fell out of nowhere at the time I was preparing for qualifying examinations. I had never heard the name, Mago. Only when I was able to collect a large amount of primary sources from Korea, China, and Japan, was I awakened to the cultural memory of Mago. I grew up craving the stories of Halmi (Grandmother/Great Mother), a common referral to Mago among Koreans. I had a childhood experience of being in the fairy land unfolded by my grandmother’s old stories. While “Mago” was unfamiliar to most Koreans, she was taken for granted in her many other names such as Samsin (the Triad Deity) and Nogo (Old Goddess) and place-names such as Nogo-san (Old Goddess Mountain) and Nogo-dang (Old Goddess Shrine). A Korean scholar, on a casual occasion, gave me a book entitled the Budoji (Epic of the Emblem City). He may have intuitively foreseen that I would make use of it sooner or later. The Budoji is an apocryphal text that describes the genesis event of Mago and her paradise called Mago-seong (Castle/Stonewalls of Mago) and an ensuing deployment of pre-patriarchal Korean history, thitherto unheard of. Upon my first reading of the Budoji, I was more confused than enlightened, but I felt drawn into and embraced by its mythic, historical and poetic language. I was already far along the path before I realized I was truly immersed within it! An ark of treasure emitting a pristine aura was laid before me, though I was too bedazzled to see within. Mago was there, shrouded in her old garments, seemingly obsolete, but a full and complete presence. I was tongue-tied a while. But I did inquire about Mago among Koreans. I learned that Mago was recognized by contemporary Koreans, marking the modern revival of Magoism. A movie entitled “Mago” was being made. A newly formed feminist musical band named itself “Mago.” A tea house named the “Mago Cafe” further enforced the reality that there was a pride and understanding of her existence. Foremost, I was surprised by the fact that a large number of Mago stories were available both online and written documents. Many stories that depict Mago as the nature-shaper of local landscapes such as mountains, rocks (including dolmens and megaliths), seas, villages, streams, stone-walls, and caves, were still told by the elders in small villages of Korea. I also found historical materials that mention Mago not only from Korea but also China and Japan. I brought up the subject of Mago to my advisors in time to propose a topic for my dissertation. This topic was barely known to anyone in academia. I was able to put together a bibliography with a considerable amount of source materials for my dissertation proposal. Secondary sources were, albeit small in number, also gathered. That marked the beginning of my study of Mago. I had another dissertation topic at that time. In fact, my thitherto prospective topic was Mary Daly’s feminist religious thought. Daly’s feminist thought had been the guiding light ever since I first read the Beyond God the Father in early 1990s. I encountered Mary Daly’s post-Christian thought when I was on the brink of Christianity. I had been a member of Maryknoll Sisters, an organization that opened up to me the possibility of cross-cultural living. Though I dedicated myself to implementing Christian ideals, all I could see was the necrophilic “foreground;” a world dictated by patriarchal institutions and ideologies. Feminist theology was self-transcending to me. I was unafraid of going beyond the boundary of Christianity and its God. Female subjectivity of which I was now conscious no longer held male subjectivity “neutral” or “objective.” My take of female subjectivity, however, needed to peel off another layer of ethnocentrism, Sino-centrism in East Asain studies and Euro-centrism in feminist studies. I began to re-orient myself to the new reality, “the Biophilic Background,” to borrow Daly’s term, by affirming myself, a Korean feminist, and all Others rendered as “inferior” by the patriarchal and/or Euro-centric self. I was a self-motivated feminist learner. I had spent four years alone in reading or rather soaking in Daly’s books after withdrawing from Christianity. I translated Daly’s first two books as well as one Eco-feminist book, Reweaving the World, edited by Diamond and Orenstein into Korean during that time. It was a time of self-birth as a woman-identified woman. I de-educated myself from patriarchal knowledge and ethics and spent time to reestablish my relationship with my mother. The process of de-education took place inwardly while I was reading feminist books, keeping my daily journals, and practicing meditations including physical activities such as walking and stretching. These were the things that I had already been doing. What was new to this period was that I chose things that I wanted to do especially with my body and senses. I practiced gukseon-do (a Korean traditional mind and body exercise, equivalent to yoga) on a regular basis and took art lessons including fine art and calligraphic painting. I took time in nature visiting mountains, parks, and Buddhist temples. I reflected upon my mindset to see if I was still feeding the conceptual habit of self-defeat imposed upon women by patriarchal religions and cultures. For example, I probed to see if I was still under the influence of the so-called “feminine virtues” of dependency, obeisance, and silence. For quite some years, I was caught in raw emotions of anger and grief. Nonetheless, I knew, even then, that those emotions were there to help me build myself as a life-affirming existence. Any practice that was necrophilic was something that I disassociated myself from and avoided. …