March 4, 2021January 30, 2021 Mago Work Admin1 Comment

(Pandemic Poem 8) To all of you future beings by Jyoti Wind

To all of you future beings who may never realize, know that there were those of us who held the world in Universal Light during the darkest days, so that Read More …

(Essay 1) 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 Abstract This essay examines the skirt-motif Mago Halmi (Great Mother) cosmogonic folktales from Korea. Out of several hundred tales, I have sought 93 tales, which reference the skirt-motif. In the 93 skirt-motif tales, which come with placenames, Mago Halmi is said to have moved rocks and mountains in her skirt across lands and seas and shaped local topographies located in the current places wherein the stories are told. Given the immensity of data, I have chosen 21 sample stories and translated them for the investigation. In these stories, Mago Halmi is depicted as a giant and strong crone figure who shapes local strongholds, cairns, and megalithic structures apart from the natural constructs of mountains and rocks. The stylized narrative structure, which recurs throughout the Korean peninsula, bespeaks the glorious history of Magoism, the matriversal tradition of Old Korea, during which women held the socio-political-cultural leadership. On the one hand, the skirt is a metaphor for the cosmic womb, which underscores the female identity of the Creatrix. On the other hand, it is a modal prop to convey the principle of causal becoming; ALL is affected by all else and is in the process of becoming. Mago Halmi who carries landmasses in her skirt is susceptible to open possibilities. Sometimes rocks and lumps of soil leak from the cracks of her skirt to form the current topographies, for example. When all are co-related and caused by all else, we are revealed to the matriversal (of the maternally perceived universe) reality of WE/HERE/NOW. Beginnings as well as endings are taking place HERE and NOW in WE. By focusing on the cyclic origin of local landscapes, Mago Halmi folktales instill in their storytellers and listeners a particular type of consciousness that recognizes the consanguineous origin of ALL from the Creatrix – the Magoist Cosmogony. The folk persona of Mago Halmi, sometimes replaced with a historical or mythological female deity or a woman (a mother, a sister, a virgin, a sole-mother, and a widow), refers to the Magoma Divine (a merged divine character of Mago, the Creatrix, and Goma, the Heavenly Shaman Queen Mother). Importantly, the broad and rich information released by Mago Halmi folktales unearth the submerged layer of the Goma faith. With Goma exposed, the oral text of Mago Halmi cosmogonic folktales stands as a folk interpretation of the Magoist Cosmogony, the written account of the ever-present beginning in the Budoji (Epic of the Emblem Capital City). In short, Mago Halmi folklore and toponymy release the deepest layer of Magoist Cetaceanism (the Magoist veneration of Cetaceans), which underpins the Magoist Cosmogony. Aquatic-draconian-numerological-auditory themes show how pervasively Magoist Cetaceanism is permeated in Korean traditional folk culture. Keywords Mago Halmi, folklore, toponymy, skirt, Goma, Magoist Cosmogony, Magoist Cetaceanism, Magoist thealogy, nine-numerology, dragon, whale, Cosmic Music, Sonic Numerology Introduction This essay examines overall characteristics of 93 Korean Mago Halmi (Great Mother) folktales concerning the skirt motif and introduces 21 sample tales. 21 stories are chosen because 93 folktales drawn from all provinces of South Korea (except for one tale from North Korea) are too many and too complex to discuss in an essay. Mago Halmi is told to have moved rocks and mountains in her skirt across lands and seas and shaped local topographies located in the current places wherein the stories are told. Intriguingly, these stories and placenames offer rich information not only about Mago Halmi (Magoist Cosmogony, Magoma Divine, and Magoist Cetaceanism) but also about socio-historical-cultural-geographical backgrounds. They offer raw data, which stand as the oral version of a Magoist thealogical encyclopedia. Given the immensity of data, I have chosen 21 sample stories and translated them for the discussion. In these stories, Mago Halmi is depicted as a giant and strong crone character who shapes strongholds, cairns, and megalithic structures as well as mountains and rocks. Mago Halmi is sometimes replaced with a historical or mythological woman (a mother, a sister, a girl, a virgin, a sole-mother, and a widow). The skirt motif is a metaphoric device for the female identity of the Cosmogonist or the Cosmic Womb. Mago Halmi, the Cosmic Mother, is the Cause for ALL, her progeny. S/HE endorses the specificities of natural and cultural topographies. There is a deeper thealogical meaning. The skirt is a modal apparatus to convey the Magoist worldview that ALL is becoming in the ever-present timespace. ALL are not fixated in their past or present conditions. Future is open. Mago Halmi is not an exception. S/HE is susceptible to unfolding possibilities. Mago Halmi is attributed to the cosmic architect who has arranged natural and cultural topographies for the lives of humans. As an architect considers all possibilities in the process of building, Mago Halmi takes into consideration unfolding possibilities. Sometimes, she modifies her action upon hearing the construction of the original project is completed. Other times, rocks and lumps of soil are leaked from the cracks of her skirt to form the current topographies. And she gets distracted, gets upset, and gets tired out of which she modifies the course of her construction plan. These narrative apparatuses indicate an open-ended process of creation that takes place ever-presently according to the principle of causal becoming. “Mago 麻姑” is not a name of a particular female deity from Korea or Daoist China. It is an Old Korean word for the Cosmic Mother or the Creatrix. “Halmi” is an intentionally crafted homonym to mean Great Mother, Grandmother, and Crone. S/HE is the Source and the Cause of ALL in the Matriverse (maternally perceived universe). In folktales, Mago is addressed as Mago Halmi, a collective utterance for the Magoma Divine, referring to the merged persona (Mago, the Creatrix, and Goma, the Heavenly Mudang Queen Mother or the Heavenly Hera). Put differently, “Mago Halmi” manifests as a multifold persona, featuring the Cosmogonist, the Cetacean Goddess, …
(Meet Mago Contributor) Dale Allen

Dale Allen has for 25 years shared the healing energy of the sacred feminine through her work: In Our Right Minds, which has been widely acclaimed at universities, conferences, corporations,theaters, and expos across the US, Canada, from Kauai to Dubai, the UN Commission on the Status of Women, and the Parliament of the World’s Religions. Her new book on Amazon is an International Bestseller, and the film version has been awarded in 19 Independent Film Festivals worldwide. In Our Right Minds is a sweeping journey covered clearly and in short order – judiciously illuminating the history and relevance of the Goddess archetype, and its connection to our right-brain intelligence. In Our Right Minds garners praise for being well-researched, balanced, without blame, and inclusive of all the human family. A veteran of corporate, commercial, and creative communications, Dale’s extensive resume includes hundreds of voice-over, on-camera, theater and live presentation projects.
(S/HE V2 N1 Book Review) Susan Ackerman’s Gods, Goddesses, and the Women Who Serve them, Reviewed by Mary Ann Beavis

[This is from S/HE: An International Journal of Goddess Studies (V2 N1, 2023) Its online edition and paperback are available at Mago Bookstore.] Susan Ackerman is a professor of women’s, gender and sexuality studies at Dartmouth College whose research has focused on women’s religious practices in ancient Israel since the 1980s. This book is a compilation of previously published works relating to women’s religion and goddess worship from as early as 1989, most of them prefaced by short introductions where Ackerman reflects on their significance from her standpoint as a mature scholar. The book is divided into four parts: Goddesses, Priests and Prophets, Queen Mothers, and Women and Worship. The chapters in Part One investigate the identities and practices associated with ancient Israelite and other Ancient Near Eastern goddesses beginning with a pioneering investigation of the deity referred to as the Queen of Heaven in the biblical Book of Jeremiah (4:16-20; 44:15, 25) (“And the Women Knead Dough”). This goddess, for whom the women of Jerusalem are said to have baked bread cakes, poured out libations, and burned incense, has similarities with “The great East Semitic goddess Ishtar, Ishtar’s West Semitic Counterpart, Astarte, the West Semitic goddesses Anat and Asherah, and even the Canaanite goddess Šapšu” (p. 7). Ackerman concludes that the deity in question particularly shares the characteristics of Astarte and Ishtar, both heavenly Queens—especially Ishtar—whose worship included the offering of bread cakes. Chapter 2, “Asherah, the West Semitic Goddess of Spinning and Weaving?”, considers the evidence for the ancient Hebrew/Canaanite mother goddess Asherah as the patron of women’s textile production hinted at by the reference in 2 Kings 23:7 to women weavers who lived in the Jerusalem temple compound during the reign of Josiah (c. 640-609 BCE). In view of the ubiquity of goddesses of spinning and weaving in the ancient Mediterranean world (Inanna, Uttu, Tayet, Athena), Ackerman surmises that these women, who were banished from the temple precincts during the Josianic reform, were producing garments to be draped over the cult images of Asherah housed in the temple. The chapter also contains an interesting consideration of the hypothesis that the eshet h̩ayil (“valiant woman”) of Proverbs 31, who weaves luxury fabrics for her household (vv. 22-23), is a personification of Woman Wisdom, a figure informed by the ancient goddess Asherah. The final chapter in the section, “The Women of the Bible and of Ancient Near Eastern Myth” considers the similarities between the Enuma Elish’s account of the defeat of the mother goddess Tiamat by her son Marduk and the notorious story of the Levite’s concubine (pîlegeš) in Judges 19. Ackerman does not posit a direct relationship between the two narratives, but points out that in both cases, a female figure (Tiamat, the pîlegeš) defies ancient near eastern gender norms and is destroyed and dismembered in horrendous acts of male violence. Part Two of the book beings with “Why Is Miriam Also among the Prophets? (And Is Zipporah among the Priests?)”. In fact, five women mentioned in the Hebrew Bible are called prophets (nĕbî’â)—Miriam, the sister of Moses (Exodus 15:20), Deborah the judge (Judges 4:4), the wife of the prophet Isaiah (Isa 8:3), Hulda, the prophet who verified the “book of the law” conveniently discovered during the Josianic reform (2 Kings 22:14; 2 Chronicles 24:22), and Noadiah, an opponent of Nehemiah (Nehemiah 6:14). These women, Ackerman posits, appear at liminal moments in the history of Israel when “the gender conventions that more usually restrict women from holding religious leadership can be suspended” (p. 100). Similarly, Zipporah, the wife of Moses, performs the priestly act of circumcising her infant son during the liminal site of an unspecified lodging on the family’s return to Egypt. Chapter 5, “The Mother of Esmunazor, Priest of Astarte,” investigates the issue of why priestly roles for women were exceedingly rare in Ugaritic and Hebrew religion, whereas upper-class women of surrounding cultures, like the Phoenician khnt (priestess), queen mother of Esmunazor II of Sidon (5th century BCE) played priestly roles. Ackerman theorizes that women of child-bearing age were excluded from blood sacrificial roles due to the ritual impurity incurred by menstruation and childbirth specific to these cultures. This issue is further investigated in “Priestesses, Purity, and Parturition,” which shows that menstrual impurity was by no means universally regarded as an impediment to female priesthood in the region. Further, Ackerman speculates that pre-pubescent girls, like the frame-drumming ‘ălamôt of Psalm 68:26, were able to access Yahweh’s sanctuary, whereas women of reproductive age were confined to the sanctuary’s periphery (2 Kings 23:7; Ezekiel 8:14; Exodus 38:8). Part Three focuses on another class of women past childbearing age—queen mothers, who, like the mother of Esmunazor, served as priestesses. In “The Queen Mother and the Cult in Ancient Israel,” Ackerman argues that the king’s mother (gĕbirâ) served not only as a trusted advisor to her son, but also as priestess of Asherah, Yahweh’s divine consort (1 Kings 15:2, 9-13; 2 Chronicles 11:20-22; 15:16). As royal representative of the goddess, the queen mother would have been able “to function as the second-most powerful figure in the royal court, superseded only by her son” (p. 169). The next chapter, “The Queen Mother and the Cult in the Ancient Near East,” situates the sacerdotal role of queen mothers in other West Semitic cultures; in a final section, Ackerman notes the attribution of the queen mother role to Mary in the New Testament infancy narratives and in the Protevangelium of James, where the child Mary is dedicated to the temple, and she and other virgins spin the wool for the temple curtain, until she reaches puberty. The two chapters in Part Four are devoted to considerations of Israelite women’s worship in the domestic sphere, encompassing the house of the God, the temple, the royal palace, and the family residence. In “At Home with the Goddess,” Ackerman concludes that Asherah worship was not confined to the elite, or to women; rather, she sees “a close interrelationship between the Asherah cult …
(Poem) The Trees Talk to Me by Mary Saracino

Los Altos Trees, photo credit: Mary Saracino The trees talk to me. They tell me to slow down, don’t push it. let the wind pour through me. I need to be sturdy enough to bend gracefully, and yield to powers bigger than me. If I do not heed their message, I will break. I can’t find the seed the core of what I came here for. I want to crack open and pour forth spilling words cascading sentences a wild waterfall of paragraphs and stories. I want to froth like an ocean creating meaning from the ebb and flow of my ferocious passions. But I am parched, hard with the insistence of “NOW!” The birches watch and smile. With papery curled eyes they wait for me to relax and breath. “Go play,” they say. “Go play. The rest will come.” The wind whispers her tender invitation tickling the leaves with the promise of inspiration. Out of play the images will flutter my heart will dance and I will freely express all manner of glorious beginnings. https://www.magoism.net/2013/05/meet-mago-contributor-mary-saracino
(Video) A Journey to the Heart of Things by Janie Rezner

https://vimeo.com/47905631 Performance at Matriarchal Studies Conference, May 2012 Read Meet Mago Contributor Janie Rezner.
Meet Mago Contributor, Judith Shaw

Judith Shaw is a graduate of the San Francisco Art Institute, and has been interested in myth, culture and mystical studies all her life. From a college paper on Beauty and the Beast to a much later series of paintings on Beauty and the Beast…From a student painting of circles to her current fascination with the interlocking circles of sacred geometry…From reading When God Was A Woman in the early 70′s to her ongoing visual exploration of the role of the Goddess in our modern world…From her very first oil painting of a tree to her most current painting, The Mother Tree— her early influences of Jackson Pollack’s abandon, and Van Gogh’s emotionality are evident. Originally from New Orleans, she has traveled in Mexico, Central America, China, Europe and Greece and lived in Mexico and Greece. The passion and bright colors of many of these places have affected her palette and style. Judith makes art, dances with abandon and experiences the world through travel and study. Her work, which expresses her belief in the interconnectedness of all life, can be seen on her website at http://judithshawart.com
(Poem) Baklasan by Maya Daniel

Baklasan (peasants struggling to own a land) Don’t tell us to set our roots into the air We need the land, and we are raising slogans And cries of storm to take the sky And make rain to water the soil Think of those lands on whose breasts We exist with all the grass and leaves, Taking our plows and sing the song of crops To fill the arteries of wind with the song of life, We want such land where dusts round the year Mourn and scream soundless to touch our hands, We will give the vast world with eternal green Where plants and foods grow for life; The clouds will stay with us, and the rains Of peace, we will take these lands These belong to us, our lands, our lives. (Meet Mago Contributor) Maya Daniel.
(Art) Santa Niña—South American Saint of Winds & Breezes by Sudie Rakusin

Santa Niña inspires us to bend with the harsh winds of change, and to treasure the caresses of the gentle breezes that move through our lives. Wind is an incredibly powerful force of nature. Hurricanes form when the ocean absorbs too much energy from the sun. Air rises, forming a vortex, and the speed increases enormously, becoming a spinning storm of destruction that spans tens of thousands of square miles. These heavy winds carry away all that is in their path, and what they leave in their wake is unrecognizable. Sometimes the affect of the wind is much quieter, wearing down rock over centuries, carving grooves into canyons and shifting sands. It sweeps across the land, changing its texture, sculpting its surface with its chisel. Many earthly wonders have been marked by the wind’s hand. Like the air around us, our lives do not stand still. Pressure shifts, the strength and direction of the wind changes. There are seasons for monsoons and hurricanes, seasons in which change blows through our lives, blustery and devastating, leaving no room for us to ignore its passing. Eventually its power ebbs into a breeze that caresses our face more softly. Artist’s Note: The natural flow in my Feminist practice and Spiritual belief was to become an ardent and dedicated spokeswoman for animals and the environment. I am a vegan. My decision to stop eating meat was always an ethical and spiritual one. I cannot take another life for my subsistence. I believe animals have their own reason for being and they have the right to live out their purpose, not one we impose upon them. My art reflects my passion and love for animals as well as my respect and appreciation for the Earth. I paint, draw, and sculpt the world I dream of inhabiting. A place where the natural world is treated with deference and there is no hierarchy among humans and animals. In my world, we all walk the Earth in harmony. My art is the best way I know to express these feelings. www.sudierakusin.com (Meet Mago Contributor) Sudie Rakusin.
(Essay 3) What It’s Like to Live on Wimmin’s Land by Hearth Moon Rising

These essays don’t have to be read in order, but previous ones are here and here. Teddy Bear Cholla at Joshua Tree National Park. Photo: Matthew Field In the early nineties a mysterious respiratory illness emerged on the Navajo reservation. The illness claimed few victims, but most of those stricken died, and – even more unsettling – most were young and previously healthy. Epidemiologists pounced on empirical data while health officials informed an alarmed public that the disease was contained and not transmissible between humans. Those of us living in the Sonora Desert on wimmin’s land were concerned about our own exposure. Though we were several hundred miles from the Navajo reservation, the similarities in our low tech way of life made us wonder. We spent most of our days outdoors rather than in our cramped living quarters. A few trailers had running water but most women carried water in buckets to their domiciles. Old and rustic buildings had nooks and crannies for wildlife to nest. Fires used for heating, cooking, and ritual meant woodpiles, and woodpiles attract all kinds of vermin. Though most of the women were spectacularly uninterested in the patriarchal news media, we followed reports on this unknown illness thoroughly (and suspiciously). Eventually the culprit was declared to be a variant of hantavirus, already common in Asia but heretofore unidentified in the Western Hemisphere. The vector was determined to be Peromyscus maniculatus, the North American Deer Mouse. Humans became exposed to the virus by breathing air contaminated with Deer Mouse feces and urine. A cursory examination of medical history revealed that the disease was an endemic one that had recently flared into an epidemic, possibly fueled by a mouse irruption. Health officials emphasized that the vector was only one recalcitrant member of the Deer Mouse family, but we maintained a skepticism that was eventually confirmed. Hantavirus is endemic in many Deer Mouse populations throughout Arizona, New Mexico, southwestern Texas, southeastern California and the northern Mexican states. People in cities, or even in modern houses in the backcountry, are at miniscule risk of exposure, unless they also ranch or farm. People in rustic living conditions can usually avoid exposure, if they take precautions. Thus began the wimmin’s land war on mice. We donned gloves, wrapped bandanas around our faces, and restacked wood, clearing out nests and feces. We plugged holes under structures and closed doors where possible. We became scrupulously clean about cooking and washing up, no easy feat in primitive circumstances. We habitually scanned the area for nests in an ongoing campaign we could not afford to relax. Cactus Deer Mouse. Photo: Sally King, US National Park Service. Even before we recognized them as vectors of a deadly disease, the mice were a nuisance. They quickly spoiled any food not hermetically sealed. They dragged sharp cactus balls into houses or even into beds. They chewed the outdoor extension cords some women funneled to their huts for lighting, so that you had a choice of fire danger from candles or fire danger from electrical cords. They even got under the hoods of cars and ate the wire insulation, so that you had to start your car every few days and check under the hood. The constant harassment from mice was one of the reasons we tolerated snakes on the land, even rattlers. Z Budapest once told me that, in folklore, mice are “the enemy of women.” I thought that was overstating their deleterious qualities just a bit, but, I’ll tell you, I grew to hate the critters. Yes, they are cute and cuddly looking. They’re also smart, tenacious, quick-footed, and impossible to intimidate absolutely. Like dogs in a Disney movie, they will always find their way home when relocated. I’ve seen them drive even dedicated vegans to deploying death-traps. The war between mice and women will always be a draw, but it’s war we must keep fighting. Further Reading: If you need to address hantavirus concerns around your domicile. https://www.countynewscenter.com/cactus-mice-test-positive-for-hantavirus-first-local-detection-of-2020/ If you want to read more about the Cactus Deer Mouse. https://arizonadailyindependent.com/2017/01/08/the-cactus-mouse-another-creature-of-the-night/ About the history of the Sin Nombre orthohantavirus. https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/sin-nombre-virus https://www.magoism.net/2013/04/meet-mago-contributor-hearth-moon-rising/

(Special Post 1) Multi-linguistic Resemblances of “Mago” by Mago Circle Members

“Ma” in “Mago” and “Ma-Gaia” Mother Goddess, ca.7250-6700 BCE, Catal Huyuk Turkey [Conversation between Carol P. Christ, Ph.D. and Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.] Carol P. Christ (CPC): Below is culled from “Gaia” in Wikipedia: The Greek word γαῖα (transliterated as gaia) is a collateral form of γῆ (gē, Doric γᾶ ga and probably δᾶ da) meaning Earth, a word of uncertain origin. R. S. P. Beekes has suggested a Pre-Greek origin. In Mycenean Greek Ma-ka (trans. as Ma-ga, “Mother Gaia”) also contains the root ga-. Helen Hye-Sook Hwang (HHH): “Mago” and “Goma” are closely linked. Gom or Goma means the bear and Magoist shaman queen of the late fourth millennium BCE. She is also related with the Big Bear constellation. “Go” is used as a modifier referring to Mago or the Goddess in various texts of East Asia. “Mago” is related with “magi,” whose singular form is “magus” or “magos.” Will have to check for more details and the source. CPC: My intuition is that “ma” and “na” are baby talk for mother. In other words, preceding any language. Mycenean is IE language, “Pre-Greek” is not IE. CPC: Below is “Mother” from Wikipedia: Synonyms and translations The proverbial “first word” of an infant often sounds like “ma” or “mama”. This strong association of that sound with “mother” has persisted in nearly every language on earth, countering the natural localization of language. Familiar or colloquial terms for mother in English are: Aama, Mata used in Nepal Mom and mommy are used in the United States, Canada, South Africa, Philippines, India and parts of the West Midlands including Birmingham in the United Kingdom. Mum and mummy are used in the United Kingdom, Canada, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, Hong Kong and Ireland. Charles, Prince of Wales publicly addressed his mother Queen Elizabeth II as “Mummy” on the occasion of her Diamond Jubilee. Ma, mam, and mammy are used in Netherlands, Ireland, the Northern areas of the United Kingdom, and Wales; it is also used in some areas of the United States. In many other languages, similar pronunciations apply: Maa, aai, amma, and mata are used in languages of India like Assamese, Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu etc. Mamá, mama, ma, and mami in Spanish Mama in Polish, German, Russian and Slovak Māma (妈妈/媽媽) in Chinese Máma in Czech and in Ukrainian Maman in French and Persian Ma, mama in Indonesian Mamaí, mam in Irish Mamma in Italian, Icelandic, Latvian and Swedish Māman or mādar in Persian Mamãe or mãe in Portuguese Mā̃ (ਮਾਂ) in Punjabi Mama in Swahili Em (אם) in Hebrew A’ma (ܐܡܐ) in Aramaic Má or mẹ in Vietnamese Mam in Welsh Eomma (엄마, pronounced [ʌmma]) in Korean In many south Asian cultures and the Middle East, the mother is known as amma, oma, ammi or “ummi”, or variations thereof. Many times, these terms denote affection or a maternal role in a child’s life. HHH: The name for Goddess seems as ancient as the language itself. [“Ma” being the first intentional word to be spoken by a baby.] Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: Scholars and mythologists agree that “ma” means both one’s mother and the Goddess, I quoted it in my dissertation written in 2004. Judy E Foster: Brilliant discussion, Helen and Carol! So many revelations… hard to keep up! But do continue, its fascinating – makes so much sense. (To be continued)Join the discussion of this and other topics in The Mago Circle, Facebook Group.
(Special Post Isis 3) Why the Color of Isis Matters by Mago Circle Members

[Editor’s note: The discussion took place in Mago Circle during the month of July, 2013. Our heartfelt thanks go to the members who participated in this discussion with openness and courage.] Part 3 Isis, Arab Women Revolution, and Black Goddesses Naa Ayele Kumari Going back to the original topic of the post…. Some quotes ” Women are in half the society… How come there are only 7 in the Assembly… and they are all Islamist! ” I can’t beat up my wife and almost kill her and call it discipline… this is not discipline… this is abuse and insanity” http://youtu.be/y4umifTLSII 12-Year Old Explains Egyptian Revolution in Under 3 Minutes www.youtube.com Max Dashu It is tremendously heartening to see these insights being expressed, and spread. The Salafis have made such inroads, and now the pushback is happening. Harita Meenee Dear Naa Ayele Kumari, thank you actually reading my post and commenting something relevant to it. It’s refreshing when someone does hear what we have to say instead of projecting their own notions. Building a solidarity movement with those who are oppressed but fighting is very important during these critical times! Harita Meenee See also: https://www.facebook.co/intifadat.almar2a?fref=ts The uprising of women in the Arab world انتفاضة المرأة في العالم العربي حرية الفكر ، حرية التعبير ، حرية الاعتقاد ، حرية التنقل ، حرية الجسد ، حرية اللب…See More Glenys Livingstone … as you say Max …” way too much of it going on” – amongst people who should know better (I would have thought): “Dark goddess as terrifying, challenging, white goddess as benign; “black magic” as harmful; I see way, way too much of this going on out there.” And related to that in my mind is all the “love and light” business that is so common: the Ground of Being is Dark … it seems to me that mystics have always understood the quintessential darkness of Love/Deity. Max Dashu Sure. I would just like to add that the critique raised here addressed issues much broader than the substance of the article, which made some good points. But once the choice of graphics flagged the issue of representation, people had much more to say about that old yet still very fresh wound which is constantly reopened by the cultural habit of whitening Egypt, or interpreting Africa through a eurocentric lens. It is not on any one person to carry the weight of that; we all have a responsibility to address the issues, but especially those of us of European heritage need to familiarize ourselves with how this plays out over and over. Just as men have a responsibility to speak up in support of women when patriarchal assumptions are on board. We all can learn something from each other, along all the various axes of domination, and overthrow them in coalition. Naa Ayele Kumari I have often considered where the roots of this psychology comes from. It is dualistic thinking that causes us to compare and contrast, then sum up judgement of good or bad and place a value on each. It extends into competition and justification for war. It also doesn’t escape me that often this came with certain civilizations who systematically destroyed others. It didn’t just happen with blacks in Africa… but blacks in Asia and the Indus Valley as well. With the Aryan invasions of India, came the eventual introduction to lighter divinities and more emphasis on male divinities. Southern Indians, Sri Lankans are very dark… even more so than many African Blacks. The caste systems implemented by the Aryan invaders did the same thing to them casting them as “untouchables”. With that came the marginalization of their black female divinities such as Kali. Kali actually has 10-16 forms… from compassionate mother, the fountain of wisdom, to she of great beauty but she is minimized as just destructive and terrifying… especially as Brhaman, Vishnuu, and Shiva grow in popularity. One of Kali’s statues has her black self standing on top of Shiva because she conquered him. Later there is a discussion in on of the Hindu text explaining Kali (as Parvati) after being subdued by Shiva she becomes lighter. Further they have stories about him rejecting her and calling her blackie which made her do austerities to rid herself of her black skin. Naa Ayele Kumari It should not be overlooked that in the Story of Alice in Wonderland… a story intended to keep Goddess elements for future generations, has the Elder sister ( the Queen of Hearts) portrayed as man, ego, and power driven who cuts off heads and has a fierce dragon…a clear reference to Kali. The White goddess as the younger sister is her opponent… and her mission is to usurp the throne of the Queen of Hearts even though she was the rightful heir as the oldest … or primordial. Stories like these also reinforce the stereotypes and negative iconography. Max Dashu Yes, it is pervasive in many cultures of domination. Demons are portrayed as black not only in Europe, which we know well, but also in China and in a lot of Buddhist iconography. In modern India, the sweet goddesses are shown as pink, the wrathful as black; and Krishna (name means “dark”) is turned powder blue. (Another of his titles, s’yam, also meaning dark, is the word translated as “green” in Green Tara.) The countercurrents (Black Mazu, loving Kali – esp in Bengal and south India, Black Madonna) bubbled up from the common people, who knew and longed for something other than the dominant racialized hierarchy. Naa Ayele Kumari I am just discovering Mazu ( Matzu/LuShui) in China today! Never knew about her. This discussion has led me to look deeper for black goddesses in Asia. Max Dashu Taoist spiritual tradition often refers to Xüan Nü, which can be translated in several ways. You’ll usually see it rendered as “the Mysterious Female,” a phrase that occurs in the Dao De Jing (Tao Te Ching), and this is a valid translation; but what is less emphasized is that it also means “the Dark Woman.” In […]
(Special Post 5) Why Goddess Feminism, Activism, or Spirituality? A Collective Writing

[Editor’s Note: This was first proposed in The Mago Circle, Facebook Group, on March 6, 2014. We have our voices together below and publish them in sequels. It is an ongoing project and we encourage our reader to join us! Submit yours today to Helen Hwang (magoism@gmail.com). Or visit and contact someone in Return to Mago’s Partner Organizations.] Annie Finch For me, Goddess is completely different from God–Goddess means acceptance of the sacred WITHIN the physical instead of transcending the physical; acceptance of death and life as equally sacred; and the holiness of changing cycles…. Annie Finch, Maine anniefinch.com Marie de Kock Why Goddess spirituality? Goddess spirituality is crucial for our survival and the survival of our planet. I’m referring to every woman’s connection and relationship with her own Spirit which resides in her heart, and her own divine ability to create, which springs from her womb. The womb is infinitely more than a reproductive organ; it is a replica of the Cosmic Womb or Mago. From that profound pool of infinite silent knowledge, women can access the solutions so urgently needed to recover the equilibrium the world with its God spirituality has lost, and women can dream the solutions into being. It is the intelligence of the heart and intelligence of the womb that humanity needs in order to balance out the ill effects of our noisy ‘rational’ left brained society. Women carry the keys to the wisdom within them. Female spirituality is the door. Marie is in Chile for now http://ninenormalwomenwithwings.com Leslene Della-Madre Goddess among many things to me is a verb–Goddessing. “Goding” isn’t the same. She is Love in action in all things–she is the cosmic gen-Her-ator bringing life into form from primordial chaos, the twin serpents of coming and going. She is the plasMA of the YoniVerse filling space with her divine essence creating great beaded necklaces of galaxies all connected to each other by electric pathways. She is the All and Eternal. Leslene Della Madre, California USA midwifingdeath.com Diane Horton Sacred Goddess Sisterhood Each of our stories as women who have come to embrace the Goddess are varied and interesting. Certainly interesting to each other, as our spirits long to resonate with another who has had a similar journey. Mine began while I was still a member of the Episcopal Church and a Christian. But relative to many, it was not that long ago, just 18 years. Some women have been knowing and worshiping the Goddess for more than 30 years, some have only just come to the reawakening and re-membering recently. Some of us call ourselves witches, some priestesses, or both. Some do not identify with either of those words and simply say they have immersed themselves in the Divine Feminine, or that they worship the Goddess. Some will say they are Pagan or Wiccan or Dianic Wiccan. Whatever we call ourselves, or do not call ourselves, we are all Sisters in Goddess, those who worship the Great Mother. And though our numbers are growing, seemingly almost daily, we are still in a minority. We need those who are articulate to voice our views and we need wise teachers who can share practices, philosophy and knowledge with those who are eager for such spiritual food. One of the great things about this Goddess Path is that, although there is much written and oral knowledge to be had for those who seek it, the deepest part of this path is experiential. Personal experience with Goddess, deep within ourselves, and having our eyes opened to Her all around us all the time, seeing and feeling Her magic in our lives, knowing Her love and nurturance in our hearts. We have no dogma, no set of rules or commandments, no rigid ideology. We have our own hearts to guide us into all acts of love and pleasure, compassion, humility and reverence which are Her rituals. When we express strength, hold our power and honor life, as well as giggle and laugh, those are Her rituals, too. There are the Women’s Blood Mysteries, which set women apart from men who worship the Goddess, but that should serve to unite women in a strong eternal bond, not alienate men. There is no place for hierarchy. We are all women equal to each other as daughters of the Goddess. We cannot, we must not, allow the patriarchal mindset to contaminate Feminine Spirituality. No hierarchy, no duality, no controlling others. If we want to see a world in which the Divine Feminine is prominent, the world that many of us believe is coming, we need to take a good, hard look at ourselves in the mirror of our Sisters’ eyes and all of us individually commit ourselves to Unity, Sisterhood and Unconditional Love. That does not mean we will never disagree, and sometimes disagree vehemently, but it does mean we do not allow those disagreements to fracture us as a body of women or to damage or destroy our Sisterhood. There are many teachers who have their own followings of students, their own coursework, their own publications and newsletters, their own festivals they work all year to organize and make manifest. This is a good thing! Especially with the national economy the way it is now many, many women cannot afford to travel very far from their homes, so the fact that there are festivals in diverse parts of the country is no doubt just as the Goddess desires. Those who know of Her and hear Her call are greatly benefited by all of these in mind, heart and spirit. We all need each other. We who can spread this information far and wide need to do so, not just think of and promote the one group or project we are involved in ourselves individually. This is the BIG PICTURE. This is how the movement moves forward. This is how the Goddess gathers Her women (and men). Unification of purpose. Standing together. Supporting each other in concrete ways. We are Women of Goddess. Her spirit […]

(Essay) Contemplating How Her Creativity Proceeds by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This essay is an edited excerpt from the conclusion of chapter 5 of the author’s book, PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. It is a chapter on the process of the Wheel of the Year. for the Northern Hemisphere version: https://pagaian.org/pagaian-wheel-of-the-year/ It seems to me that the main agenda of the Cosmos is ongoing Creativity, “never-ending renewal” it may be termed, and that this is expressed in Earth’s Seasonal Wheel through the transitions of Autumn,Winter, Spring, Summer; and in the ubiquitous process of a Cosmic Triplicity of Space to Be, Urge to Be and this Place of Being, a dynamic that has often been imagined as the Triple Goddess. In the flow of the PaGaian Wheel of the Year, the Seasonal transitions of the Wheel and the Triplicity of the Cosmos come together. There are two celebrations of the Old One/Crone or the Cosmogenetic quality of autopoiesis creating the Space to Be; and they are Lammas/Late Summer and Samhain/Deep Autumn, which are the meridian points of the two quarters of the waxing dark phase. At Lammas, the first in the dark phase, we may identify with the dark and ancient Wise One – dissolve into Her; at Samhain, we may consciously participate in Her process of the transformation of death/the passing of all. The whole dark part of the cycle is about dissolving/dying/letting go of being – becoming – nurturing it (the midwifing of Lammas/Late Summer), stepping into the power of it (the certain departure of Autumn Equinox/Mabon), the fertility (of Samhain/Deep Autumn), the peaking of it (at Winter Solstice). The meridian points of the two quarters of the waxing light phase then are celebrations of the Young One/Virgin or the Cosmogenetic quality of differentiation, the new continually emerging, the Urge to Be; and they are Imbolc/Early Spring and Beltaine/High Spring. At Imbolc, the first in the light phase, we may identify with She who is shining and new – as we take her form; at Beltaine, we may consciously participate in Her process of the dance of life. The whole light part of the cycle is about coming into being: nurturing it (the midwifing of Imbolc/Early Spring), stepping into the power of it (the certain return of Spring Equinox/Eostar), the fertility (of Beltaine/High Spring), the peaking of it (at Summer Solstice). In the PaGaian wheel of ceremony there are two particular celebrations of the Mother, the Cosmogenetic quality of communion; and they are the Solstices. If one imagines the light part of the cycle as a celebration of the ‘Productions of Time’, and the dark part of the cycle as a celebration of ‘Eternity’, the Solstices then are meeting points, points of interchange, and are celebrations of the communion/relational field of Eternity with the Productions of Time. This is a relationship which does happen in this Place, in this Web. This Place of Being, this Web, is a Communion – it is the Mother; the Solstices mark Her birthings, Her gateways. The Equinoxes then – both Spring and Autumn – are two celebrations wherein the balance of all three Faces/Creative qualities is particularly present: in the PaGaian wheel, the Equinoxes have been special celebrations of Demeter and Persephone – echoing the ancient tradition of Mother-Daughter Mysteries that celebrate the awesomeness of the continuity of life, its creative tension/balance. Both Equinoxes then are celebrations and contemplations of empowerment through deep Wisdom – one contemplation during the dark phase and one during the light phase. The Autumn Equinox is a descent to Wisdom, the Spring Equinox is an emergence with Wisdom gained. I like to think of the Equinoxes, and of the ancient icons of Demeter and Persephone, as celebrations of the delicate ‘curvature of space-time’, the fertile balance of tensions which enables it all. Her Creative Place The Mother aspect then may be understood to be particularly present at four of the Seasonal Moments, which are also regarded traditionally as the Solar festivals; and in this cosmology Sun is felt as Mother. I recognize these four as points of interchange: at Autumn Equinox, Mother is present primarily as Giver – She is letting Persephone go, at Spring Equinox, She is present primarily as Receiver – welcoming the Daughter back, at Winter Solstice the Mother gives birth, creates form, at Summer Solstice, She opens again full of radiance, and disperses form. The Mother is Agent/Actor at the Solstices. She is Participant/Witness at the Equinoxes, where it is then really Persephone who is Agent/Actor, embodying an inseparable Young One and Old One. The Old One is often named as Hecate, who completes the Trio – all seamlessly within each other. Another possible way to visual it, or to tell the story, is this: The Mother – Demeter – is always there, at the Centre if you like. Persephone cycles around. She is the Daughter who returns in the Spring as flower, who will become fruit/grain of the Summer, who at Lammas assents to the dissolution – the consumption. At Autumn Equinox She returns to the underworld as seed – Her harvest is rejoiced in, Her loss is grieved, as She becomes Sovereign of the Underworld – Her face changes to the Dark One, Crone (Hecate). As the wheel turns into the light part of the cycle She becomes Young One/Virgin again. Persephone (as Seed) is that part of Demeter that can be all three aspects – can move through the complete cycle. The Mother and Daughter are really One, and embody the immortal process of creation and destruction. Demeter hands Persephone the wheat, the Mystery, and the thread of life is unbroken – it goes on forever. It is immortal, it is eternal. Even though it is true that all will be lost, and all is lost – Being always arises again: within this field of time there is never-ending renewal, eternity. This is what is revealed in the ubiquitous three faces of the Creative Dynamic/ She of Old, the Triplicity that runs through the Cosmos. The Seed of Life never …
(Video) A Samhain Ceremony by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVRoK2XNeqw The purpose of the video is for ceremony and I suggest pausing the video where it suits you, to add your own processing, embellishments and/or your own drum, percussion and voice wherever you please. I have made short spaces in the video where it could be paused. For more full participation in the ceremony, you could have some past photos of yourself, an altar with ancestor photos, a gingerbread snake, some apples sliced up, and some apple juice. The script for this Samhain ceremony is offered in Chapter 4 of my book A Poiesis of the Creative Cosmos: Celebrating Her within PaGaian Sacred Ceremony, with all acknowledgements and references there. However I want to acknowledge here the inspiration and some text of Robin Morgan’s poem “The Network of the Imaginary Mother” in her book Lady of the Beasts, for which I was given permission in my book. I also acknowledge here the paraphrase of some words by Starhawk in her book The Spiral Dance, used in the rite of Sailing to a New World. I also use a line from the poem Song of Hecate by Bridget McKern. The elements of Water, Fire, Earth and Air on the altar in this video are placed in directions that are appropriate to my region in the Southern Hemisphere, and East Coast Australia: you may place yours differently, and transliterate when I mention the direction (which I do minimally). For the rite of the Transformation Journey (remembering old selves) I use an adaptation of a children’s game “In and Out the Windows”, where each participant travels in and out of upraised and linked arms of the circle, and when ‘in’ may speak and /or show photos of themselves from the past. Some may choose to remember any self from the entire evolutionary story, with whom they would like to identify. The game seems appropriate to what each being does existentially in so many ways, over the eons as well as in our personal lives. The chant can be found on YouTube. The photos used are a collage of footage and photos from the 2024 Samhain ceremony at my place in Wakka Wakka country, South East Queensland Australia, and from previous Samhain ceremonies I facilitated over the decades in MoonCourt, Goddess ceremonial space in NSW Australia, Darug and Gundungurra country. Music credit: All music used in this video is by Tim Wheater, which has previously generously allowed me to use in my work. The pieces used are from Tim’s CD Fish Nite Moon: they are Ancient Footsteps, Fish Nite Moon, Spiritbirth, and Conception. I thank my partner Robert (Taffy) Seaborne for his participation in the creation of the video.
(Essay) The Wheel of the Year and Climate Change by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This essay is an edited excerpt from Chapter 2 of the author’s book A Poiesis of the Creative Cosmos: Celebrating Her within PaGaian Sacred Ceremony. https://pagaian.org/pagaian-wheel-of-the-year/ The Wheel of the Year in a PaGaian cosmology essentially celebrates Cosmogenesis – the unfolding of the Cosmos, in which Earth’s extant Creativity participates directly, as does each unique being. The Creativity of Cosmogenesis is expressed through Earth-Sun relationship as it may manifest and be experienced within any region of our Planet. In PaGaian tradition this is expressed with Triple Goddess Poetry, which is 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 it does in the Seasons, happens because of Earth’s tilt in relationship with Sun: and that is because this tilt 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, 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[i]. 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 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[ii], and more recently a site of ongoing ritual activity as old as seventy thousand years has been found[iii]. 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. https://pagaian.org/pagaian-wheel-of-the-year/ 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 our 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[iv]. 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. At the moment the dance of dark and light remains predictable, but much else is in a process of transformation. As we observe and sense our Place, our Habitat, as our ancestors also did, we can, and may yet still make Poetry of the dance of dark and light, of this quality of relationship with Sun, and how it may be manifesting in a particular region and its significance for the inhabitants: we may still find Poetic expression with which to celebrate the sacred journey that we make everyday around Mother Sun, our Source of life and energy. It has been characteristic of humans for at least several tens of thousands of years, to create ceremony and symbol by which we could relate with the creative dynamics of our place, and perhaps it was initially a method of coming to terms with these dynamics – with the apparently uniquely human awareness of coming into being and passing away[v]. Our need for …
(Mago Almanac Excerpt 7) Introducing the Magoist Calendar by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

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

Autumn Equinox/Mabon Northern Hemisphere – September 21-23 Southern Hemisphere – March 21-23 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRJNY1LSvIs&t=1175s …oOo… The purpose of this video is for ceremony, and I suggest pausing the video where it suits you, to add your own processing, embellishments and/or your own drum, percussion and voice wherever you please. I have made short spaces in the video where it could be paused. The script for this Autumn Equinox/Mabon ceremony is offered in Chapter 11 of my book A Poiesis of the Creative Cosmos: Celebrating Her within PaGaian Sacred Ceremony, with all acknowledgements and references there. In particular I mention here, credit for the story of Demeter and Persephone as told by Charlene Spretnak in her book Lost Goddesses of Early Greece. For more full participation in the ceremony, you could have one or more stalks of wheat or native grain tied with a red thread/ribbon, a garden pot with soil, a small garden trowel, a flower bulb (daffodil type), food and drink, that may represent your “harvest” – ready for eating and drinking. The elements of Water, Fire, Earth and Air on the altar in this video are placed in directions that are appropriate to my region in the Southern Hemisphere, and East Coast Australia: you may place yours differently, and transliterate when I mention the direction (which I do minimally). The images used are a collage of footage and photos from the 2024 Autumn Equinox ceremony at my place in Wakka Wakka country, South East Queensland Australia, and from previous Autumn Equinox ceremonies I facilitated over the decades in MoonCourt, Goddess ceremonial space in NSW Australia, Darug and Gundungurra country. My partner Robert (Taffy) Seaborne who has participated in all the Seasonal ceremonies since Samhain 2000, adds his voice to this video. Image credits: Demeter and Persephone (500 B.C.E. Greece). Hallie Iglehart Austen, The Heart of the Goddess, p.72. Art of Demeter and Persephone on MoonCourt wall: Cernak Herself Music credit: “Gentle Sorrow” by Sky: which he has previously allowed me to use in my work. This piece of music is also used in the Autumn Equinox meditation on my PaGaian Cosmology Meditations published 2015.
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 …

(Book Excerpt 6) The Mago Way by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.

[Author’s Note] The following is from Chapter One, “What Is Mago and Magoism and How Did I Study HER?” from The Mago Way: Re-discovering Mago, the Great Goddess from East Asia, Volume 1. Footnotes below would be different from the monograph version. PDF book of The Mago Way Volume 1 download is available for free here.] Magoism, East Asian Religions, and Magoist Mudangs As mentioned above, Magoism refers to the totality of human civilization that is ultimately gynocentric. Speaking from a narrow perspective, Magoism is the primordial matrix from which such East Asian religions as Daoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism were derived. In the light of Magoism, a patriarchal religion is redefined as a pseudo-Magoism that which has co-opted the Way of the Great Goddess (Magoism) with the androcentric reversal of the female
(Budoji Essay 4) The Magoist Cosmogony by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

Part 4: Magoist Origin of Immortals “I maintain that Immortals originally refers to Mago’s descendants in Mago Castle, the Primordial Paradise. They are the primordial clan community of the Mago Species, comprised of the divine, demigods, and humans.” [This is a translation and interpretation of the Budoji (Epic of the Emblem City), principal text of Magoism. Read the translation of Chapter 1 of the Budoji.] Magoist Origin of Immortals: All in the Mago Species are given the original nature of immortality or transcendence. Readers are advised to set aside the literal meaning in the English language of the words immortals or transcendents. Immortals is a translation of the East Asian term seon (仙, xian in Chinese). I choose the translation immortals over transcendents not because it is a better translation but because it is the most commonly used term by Western Daoist translators.[i] Although it is known as a Daoist term, I hold that it is pre-Daoist, namely Magoist, in origin. Primarily, it refers to the Mago Species (Mago and Her descendants) who dwelt in Mago Castle, the primordial home, to be discussed in detail in later chapters. Likewise, historical figures known as Immortals are Magoist rather than Daoist.
(Budoji Essay 5) The Magoist Cosmogony by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

Part 5: Magoist Cosmology “The primary aim of Magoist cosmology lies in lifting up the conceptual veil in people’s mind so that they can see what is given at birth.” [This is a translation and interpretation of the Budoji (Epic of the Emblem City), principal text of Magoism. Read the translation of Chapter 1 of the Budoji.] Magoist cosmology: Magoist cosmology, knowing of the female principle of Magoist cosmogony (story of the Female Beginning), reconstitutes, heals, and maintains the original vision of gynocentric soteriology. Its primary function is to guide humanity according to the law of nature whereby all things are born and evolve into their greatest potential. In short, Magoist cosmology is a gynocentric mode of thinking that shows the Way of all beings. By extension, it is an inherent principle of nature- and women-honoring civilizations. I suggest Magoist cosmology, underpinning of the Magoist cosmogony, as an antidote to the detriments of patriarchal consciousness. Its female principle restores the original unity among all entities, which has been thwarted by patriarchal cosmologies. Comprising the most foundational program of human consciousness, so constitutive that no one is born without it, Magoist cosmology is ever active and accessible to people. Nonetheless, it is made dormant in the conscious mind of people under patriarchal cultures. Thus, the primary aim of Magoist cosmology lies in lifting up the conceptual veil in people’s mind so that they can see what is given at birth.