April 30, 2021April 3, 2021 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Story 2) The Spirit in the Teapot by Carolyn Lee Boyd

While the Spirit despaired at the state of the world, Goddess whispered to the Spirit, “look again.” The Spirit now looked into the homes and hearts of women, whom she Read More …

April 29, 2021April 3, 2021 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Art) The Flowering by Glen Rogers

While The Flowering, a series of small monoprints, is an obvious nod to Spring with its images of renewal and re-birth, here I borrow from a universal visual language honoring Read More …

April 28, 2021March 15, 2021 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Poem) Fling Open the Doors by Arlene Bailey

Where are we going Mother And how will we get there Sister By staying connected Woman And allowing for difference There’s a storm brewing You can feel it on the Read More …

April 27, 2021April 27, 2021 Jude Lally2 Comments

Sewing as Prayer by Jude Lally

To sew is to pray. Men don’t understand this. They see the whole but they don’t see the stitches. They don’t see the speech of the creator in the work Read More …

April 26, 2021April 3, 2021 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Story 1) The Spirit in the Teapot by Carolyn Lee Boyd

Lucia poured water into the tea kettle and set it on the stove. She then measured two scoops of tea leaves into her grandmother’s century-old teapot, too distraught to notice Read More …

(Art) Eyes of the Virgin by Mario Colín

The Eyes of the Virgin no longer exist. They were painted in memory of Monseñor Gómez, on the exterior wall of the party hall of Holy Family Church in the historic Sunset Heights neighborhood of El Paso, Texas, on the side of I-10, directly across the river from Juárez, Chihuahua, México.
(Video 14) Genevieve Vaughan & Chiquie Estrada in Maternal Gift Economy: Breaking Through by Genevieve Vaughan

(Words of Invitation) Drawing on Maternal Gift Economy theory, the suppressed wisdom of women, and the traditions and ethics of Indigenous societies, this integrated programme of presentations sponsored by the International Feminists for a Gift Economy Network will offer new insights, perspectives, and challenges to the underlying market-based mentality of the dominant world order. In this time of crisis and systemic upheaval, the model of the Maternal Gift Economy on which our survival depends at the beginning of life, is being revealed and celebrated. The interdependence of all living beings can now be made visible and honored. Mother Earth provides the model of an economy based on gifting that we receive as young children from our nurturers—before we are alienated into market exchange. We must make the transition from the exploitive Euro-American patriarchal/dominating and capitalistic ideology to a gift-based economy and culture grounded in the values of nurturing and care rather than competition and greed. We invite you to join us in exploring the possibilities in this series of presentations and dialogues that bring together those who have been laboring to articulate the principles of the Maternal Gift Economy, protect Indigenous values, and practice peaceful and just community building. The time is now for all humans to cooperate rather than compete. Please join us! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sq9eHFINGbA&t=9s Presented by Genevieve Vaughan and the International Feminists for a Gift Economy. Featuring Marta Benavides and Patricia Mukhim For more information on the Maternal Gift Economy, see here. https://www.magoism.net/2014/06/meet-mago-contributor-genevieve-vaughan/
(Poem) Despite games played to entertain by Maya Daniel

Despite games played to entertain They are waging unjust war The country sides are under attack Still, and more treacherously By AFP’s US-inspired Oplan Bayanihan The country sides are burning With abuses and daily death threats Thinly camouflaged by “civilian missions” While there are men taking combat operations There are also troops in full battle gear Awkwardly giving haircuts, Then, play games to entertain, And donate recycled school textbooks Get some groupies and make these Pictures take the rounds on facebook.
[Essay] I am woman by Kaalii Cargill

Grandmother of Willendorf, c. 24,000-22,000 BCE(Naturhistorisches Museum, Vienna) ‘People who menstruate.’ I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud? JK Rowling this week in a social media post – https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1270749170215903232) This Twitter comment by JK Rowling has ignited a firestorm of criticism and abuse about her “transphobia”. Yet nowhere did she say that trans lives don’t matter. What she dared to say is that women’s lives do matter. Apparently that is a controversial idea. It has been a controversial idea for millennia. Male jealousy of women’s powers has a long history. An ancient Chinese myth tells the story of the Moon-goddess, Chang-O, who controlled menstruation. Chang-O was so offended by male jealousy of her powers that she left her husband, who quarrelled with her because she had all the elixir of immortality, the menstrual blood, and he had none.[i] Chang-o’s solution was to leave earth and take up residence as the moon. In other times and places, women have not been so fortunate: Murder. At least 87,000 women were intentionally killed in 2017 globally. More than a third (c30,000) were killed by their current or former intimate partner [United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (2019). Global Study on Homicide 2019, p. 10.]. https://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/ending-violence-against-women/facts-and-figures Slavery. In 2016 there were more than 4 million victims of sex trafficking globally. The victims of sex trafficking are predominantly women and girls [International Labour Organization; https://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/glotip/2018/GLOTiP_2018_BOOK_web_small.pdf] Cosmetic Surgery. Worldwide in 2018, over 10 million cosmetic procedures (plastic surgery) were performed on women. [https://www.isaps.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/ISAPS-Global-Survey-Results-2018-new.pdf] The transition from matrifocal to patriarchal societies and religions involved a determined attempt to take the power of creation from women. Cultural historian, William Irwin Thompson, has said that: “this effort to displace the female seems to be the archetypal foundation for civilisation, for mankind has been at it ever since; whether he is challenging mother nature in flying away from her in rockets, or in challenging her on earth through genetic engineering, man has not given up the attempt to take away the mystery of life from the Great Mother and the conservative feminine religion.” [iii] If we comply with the gender police and stop talking about “women”, we lose a way of thinking about and talking about this takeover. Whether or not women literally become mothers, whether or not they menstruate is not the issue – it is women who can give life through their bodies. Life does not come through men’s bodies, test tubes, or incubators; life still comes into being through women’s bodies. Despite contraceptive chemicals and more than two thousand years of negative conditioning, women’s bodies continue to respond to the cycles of the moon, to the rhythms of Nature. Take a moment to consider the ordinary and extraordinary fact that women have always been able to do something that men cannot do: grow and bring forth new life from their bodies. If we take this for granted, or if we see it as a burden women must bear, or a limiting identity, we continue the takeover that started millennia ago. Of course a woman does not have to become pregnant, give birth, and nurture a child to be a woman. The claiming of reproductive autonomy and choice is a vital aspect of feminism, but this does not negate the fundamental life-giving power of women, Nature, Goddess. Just because an individual women chooses not to become a mother, or is unable to do so, has nothing at all to do with the fundamental reality of women as life-givers – with the fundamental reality of Goddess as Great Mother. Yet we become gagged because claiming this life-giving power somehow threatens the identity of women who do not give birth (and of men who have never been able to). How does that even make any sense? I can celebrate my sisters even when I’m not walking their walk. I can respect and support trans people without giving away my ground as woman. Today we are on the threshold of losing this reverence for the life-giving power of women, Nature, Goddess. To science and technology. To patriarchal religions. To the misinformation of a patriarchal culture that denigrates Nature. To imposed political correctness, to our own complacency. We are facing one of the greatest threats since the takeover of women’s ways two or three thousand years ago. As co-editor of the MAGO BOOKS anthology – She Summons – I have been reflecting on why we called this project “She Summons”. This is what we wrote about it: We have chosen the title for the next collective writing trilogy, She Summons. As a verb, “to summon” means:– urgently demand (help)– call people to attend (a meeting) As a noun, “a summons” means:– a call to convene: convoking– a call for specified action– a bid to come: sending for– a calling forth: evoking There is an urgency in a summons. I hear the cry of Mother: “Do not let this happen! Do something!” [i] BG Walker, 1990, Women’s Rituals: A Source Book, San Francisco, Harper & Row, p.104 [ii] Genesis, 4:16 [iii] W I Thompson, 1981, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture. New York, St Martin’s Press, p. 163. Meet MAGO Contributor KAALII CARGILL
Female Metaphor for Cosmic Unfolding: a Template of Wholeness by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This essay is the preface to my doctoral thesis (Social Ecology, 2002) which was titled The Female Metaphor – Virgin, Mother, Crone – of the Dynamic Cosmological Unfolding: Her Embodiment in Seasonal Ritual as a Catalyst for Personal and Cultural Change. I smile at this title because it is such a long title and when it was printed in the order of service for the university graduation ceremony, it took up so much space; and also when it was read out. This is a good thing for women’s work to take up so much visible and audible space, because women’s work does in fact constitute so much of the ground of being, largely unnoticed across the globe in recent millennia; and my thesis, and the action research involved, was all about re-constituting Her, for me personally as well as for the collective – a contribution to our Her-itage. And so, the Preface as I wrote it then: I reflect on this thesis process – how it has been an alive process, a living process, “a butterfly flitting around the garden”. It is a study of this nature – dynamic – therefore bound to miss so much. Within the time frame, and within my capacity for observation and experience, I have received as much of the subtleties of the dynamics as I could. A butterfly pinned in a box used to be accepted once as a basis for knowledge of the butterfly … it is not any longer. It is not possible for this work to be a logical, complete package; it can only ever be partial. I am aware that this kind of thinking can be an excuse for a lack of diligence and careful commitment, but I believe that this is not the case. On the contrary, I believe that it is because of my careful attention to the nature of the work, that I have realized its depths and my novice status. As Denzin notes, in the context of interviews though it is relevant in a broader way here in this context, “The subject is more than can be contained in a text, and a text is only a reproduction of what the subject has told us. What the subject tells us is itself something that has been shaped by prior cultural understandings. Most important, language … displaces the very thing it is supposed to represent, so that what is always given is a trace of other things, not the thing – lived experience – itself” (quoted by Miller and Glassner 1997:101). Much of this thesis can only be like the painting of a picture. Even if it could be a photograph, it would never be the complete experience. When one photographs a magnificent vista, even with the best of equipment, it can never be adequate to the experience; and it can never fully expose the depths of what is actually there. In the case of my presenting of this work and the “equipment” that is being used: I am attempting to describe with text/words, experiences and multivalent understandings. It is being perceived and written from within the perspective of my own being with all its present limitations and inhibitions. So, a ‘photograph’ is not possible, nor adequate. It will be a ‘painting’, an impression, of the Female Metaphor, of the Seasonal Moments, and the complex web of the evolution of their expression in ritual celebration; and so too will be the describing of the experience – the data. It cannot be complete. As will become clear in the unfolding of the research and its results, it can only ever be a work ‘in progress’, as I attempt to articulate and plumb the depths of a wisdom tradition that is both ancient and ‘not-yet’, both forgotten and yet to be conceived. There are subtle layers, and more subtle layers – some of which this research has been able to apprehend/perceive, and some of which at this stage is unspoken/unperceived. It is my perception that the nature of the Seasonal Moments is, that once the ‘feeling’ for each of them is received by the reader/participant, then it grows in its own way … within the context of their being. It is then up to the receiver to take it further if they wish, translating their experience into it, letting it become a point of relationship with Gaia – which is and must be, particular/personal. Thus the ‘telling’ of the significance of the Sabbats/Seasonal Moments is only ever a small piece – partial. There are layers and layers of story associated with each one, and this research is part of the adding of new layers in our time. Each time it is received by another person, there is a new layer of story – their stories. This thesis is the presentation of a Cosmology, and an art form that expresses and celebrates it, and researches its effects on the hearts and minds of participants – primarily and including myself. The research processes became for me, a practice of deepening into this Cosmology. I realize now at the end of the official research process, how much this Cosmology represents for me a template of wholeness … which the Universe must be. I have been prepared to trust myself to this template. Author’s note: this thesis became the basis for my book PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion, published in 2005. References: Livingstone, Glenys. PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. NE: iUniverse, 2005. Livingstone, Glenys. The Female Metaphor – Virgin, Mother, Crone – of the Dynamic Cosmological Unfolding: Her Embodiment in Seasonal Ritual as Catalyst for Personal and Cultural Change. Ph.D. thesis, University of Western Sydney, 2002. Miller, Jody & Glassner, Barry. “The ‘Inside’ and the ‘Outside’: Finding Realities in Interviews” in Qualitative Research: Theory, Method and Practice. David Silverman (ed). London: Sage, 1997, pp. 99 – 112.
(Story 1) Freeing the Goddess in Her Outlaw Heart by Carolyn Lee Boyd

Photo by Carolyn Lee Boyd [This fictional story is for all those women who have risked their lives and well being to take on the spiritual stewardship of their communities and the planet over the past millennia.] Part 1 Victoria always knew, but yet didn’t, that she bore the rhythm of the cosmos within her heart. With each beat, blood surged through her body, but at the same time ensured the rising and setting of the sun, the never-ending path of the seasons with the Earth, the soaring of the planets in their orbits, the breathing in and of the universe. It was not always this way. Until a millennia ago, her family had, on a continent far away and since time immemorial, aligned themselves with the rhythm of our planet and the worlds above and below through rituals and prayers to the goddess of the land. When their traditions were outlawed, one of her ancestors, unknown and unnamed, welcomed her goddess, and so also the cycles of the cosmos, into her body and those of her descendants to save the generations to come. The gift and burden of this inheritance was, after centuries, eventually passed to Victoria and she obliviously carried it for five decades. Then, when her body could no longer stand the strain, her heart would sometimes lurch as if trying to flee its cage and time would slip out of sync. Her kitchen stove clock would move forward a half-hour when she turned her back for a moment, or friend would call in the afternoon and start the same morning’s conversation, and so on. Over the day, time would right itself, but it was disconcerting. Assuming her problem was medical and maybe even psychiatric, she consulted a doctor, who told her that her heart was burning out from unknown stress. The doctor had never seen such a thing before and had no treatment for it. It was just a matter of time before her heart would simply stop, the doctor said, and apologized for the failings of modern medicine. Victoria told her it wasn’t her fault and went home. That evening, she stood outside her cottage, oriented herself to the North Star and waited, as she had done in times of trouble since childhood. Her mother had always made sure she could recognize the constellations and knew how they moved from dusk to dawn and season to season. Sometimes an answer to her dilemma would come as she contemplated the story of one constellation or another, but often she would just come to understand the solution as she watched the stars in their slow journey across the sky. This evening, however, the constellations were all wrong. Some were missing altogether and others had appeared that Victoria had never seen before. She watched to see if they would right themselves until she fell asleep leaning against a giant oak in her yard. When she awoke a couple of hours later, all was as it should be in the heavens. “I was out in this very field last night and I didn’t see a thing,” her cousin Sheila said the next afternoon. Victoria had dropped by Sheila’s farm to tell her what happened and ask her if she had noticed anything odd about the constellations recently. Victoria knew that Sheila paid close attention to the skies for clues as to the weather and changes in the seasons as part of implementing traditional agricultural techniques on her farm, which she hoped to pass down to her daughter and son someday. “Whatever is going on, it isn’t good news for farmers who follow old-time methods. A lot of the when to plant or harvest depends on when something happens in the sky. Our ancestor farmers would have been at their stone circles the next night doing ceremonies and praying to the goddess of the land and sky to get everything back into their right places. Of course, when our family settled on this continent a few generations ago, they left the knowledge of all that behind so we’re out of luck,” Sheila said. They looked at each other silently for a long time till they realized that there was really nothing more to say. So Sheila went back to teaching her daughter and son how to harvest their winter wheat with a scythe instead of a machine, moving slowly and carefully across the field. “It takes longer,” she had told Victoria, “but you begin to feel a part of the soil. It’s worth it.” (To be continued) (Meet Mago Contributor) Carolyn Lee Boydhttps://www.magoism.net/2016/08/meet-mago-contributor-carolyn-lee-boyd/
Sun and Earth Rise Over the Lake by Carolyn Lee Boyd

Our world is at a turning point between catastrophe and the opportunity for peace, equality, and environmental sustainability. Perhaps creating new stories that speak to the challenges of our time and more hopeful ways of being can help us make better choices for our future. Photography by Carolyn Lee Boyd You have asked how the people of the 21st century turned our planet from catastrophe to paradise, and I will tell you. It began with one woman. One morning she stumbled, thirsty and fragile, to the edge of what had once been a deep and wide lake full of fish, seaweed, ducks, loons, lampreys and turtles. As she scraped the sand to cup a few drops for her parched lips, she glanced at a faded reflection of the sun ascending over the small pool now deserted by all life except luminescent algae. She had witnessed a thousand other sunrises from this shore in decades past, and this morning’s sight brought to mind one such childhood dawn when her bare feet waded into the frigid water and a baby crayfish tickled her toes. She had taken so much for granted then — wild mint’s sweet taste, the geometric perfection of beached clamshells, the steady rhythm of the waves’ pulse. Her reminiscence brought her pleasure and she laughed. The path to the lake’s desolation began billions of years ago when Earth spun barren, desiccated, and desolate around the Sun’s inferno. In this lifeless void, the Sun and the Earth found each other in that liminal border between being and becoming and fell in love. Where others would have seen only sterility, they discovered in their tender bond the poetry of fire and air sparking birth and the magic of soil and water nurturing a diverse and abundant harmony of beings. Soon our planet teemed with colors, fragrances, tastes, sounds, textures, motion, and the jubilation of never-ending regeneration. The Sun and Earth bestowed on each species special talents such as healing, virtue, beauty, or strength. To humans they gave inner eyes to envision their planet as a paradise, opening like a lotus to the magnificence already present in it and a unique artistry to enhance its vibrancy with their own works of mind, body, and soul. Just as the love the Earth and Sun felt for each other powered the creation of life on our planet, so would the love of humans for the land and sky generate ever-new glorious futures. Earth and Sun’s trust in each other was reflected in their faith that humans would never forget our responsibility to all other life and so never envision into being only narcissistic pleasure or view ourselves as supreme over other creatures. By the 21st century, however, it was precisely because of this lack of reverence for our global home that many turned the miracle of imagination into mere selfish invention. They remade stunning landscapes into citadels of concrete, hollowed out the planet’s treasures, and banished millions of species of trees, flowers, animals, birds, and insects to oblivion. We traded millennia of awe for seconds of deathly intoxication. As their beloved dream world disintegrated, the Sun and Earth could not face one another and so they began to close their eyes to our planet. Sunlight’s soft glow dimmed, water never fell to the ground, fire destroyed what was left, and life all over the planet began to decline back into barrenness. But then the woman at the lake’s edge laughed. The sound echoed in the deep silence of the isolation of the Earth and Sun. They awoke and watched in wonder as the woman’s attention returned to the reflection of the sunrise on the lake and the power within her it evoked. Her love of the lake, begun in the the openness of childhood and growing within her all her life, sparked her fervor to recover the planet as it had been and more, just as the Sun had fired the original Creation. It was nourished and embraced by all the kindness and love from other living beings she had experienced from birth, just as the Earth’s impulse to generation had nurtured our planet’s burgeoning life. Now, to her, the sunrise’s reflection was not just light rays bouncing off the water’s surface, but a bridge between the world as it had become and the future paradise that was taking shape in her mind and soul. Photography by Carolyn Lee Boyd She became the spirit of energy and genius, her eyes raised to the hopeful enlightenment of the sun. She embraced wholeness and connectedness, her eyes lowered to the grace of the Earth. She imagined our planet as it might have been had she and all other humans always understood that love for the land and sky is at the heart of our miraculous gift of imagining a future as wondrous as she had believed the world to be as a child. She determined that, together, humans could birth this new world into physical being and, now knew that we could, we must. She rose on trembling legs and began to express the truth of our special artistry to all humans who would listen, wandering from village to village, eventually reaching every continent. Together we determined that our planet would not die. From our gathered mind’s eyes arose an aspiration for our planet so exquisite that to desecrate it rather than bringing it into being was unthinkable. We were finally inching towards fulfilling our destiny and we began to partner with the Sun and Earth to regenerate life in all its forms. Now, generations later, humans come again to the shores of the thriving lake, tasting the tiny, flavorful wild strawberries and wiggling their fingers playfully amongst the minnows. We have discovered our secret. Still, we have learned that our mission is no more or less than any other species, it is simply different, and all are as necessary to our planet’s paradise as we are. Billions of years ago the Sun and the …
(Essay 2) Baba Part II: The Drowned Girls (A tale of Vasilisa) by Jillian Parker

With a sudden clatter, Marya, Varya, Darya, Varya, and Zarya began to shift back and forth on the table, as if attempting to dance, and they squeaked all at once, “You’d better take us outside to see Vasilisa.” So Vera, with fumbling fingers, assembled the dolls in their proper order, slipped them into her apron pocket, grabbed her own coat, and donned her own summer shoes, which, like Vasilisa’s, were plaited from birch bark.
(Art) The Portion by Andrea Redmond

Representations of the Goddess in her many manifestations Art by Andrea Redmond https://www.magoism.net/2023/09/meet-mago-contributor-andrea-redmond/

(Special Post 2) 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.] Harriet Ann Ellenberger I got involved with women’s liberation in the early 1970s, so involved that it became my life for many years. During those beginnings of what is now called “the second wave of feminism,” everything was new to us and everything was mushed together — the political, the economic, the intellectual, the emotional, the spiritual. I liked that a lot; it felt as if all the parts of myself were coming together. During that time, I learned something crucial the imagery and concepts of patriarchal religion justify and are embedded in the material structures of oppression. I don’t know which came first, institutionalized oppression (of everyone; I’m not speaking here only of women) or the religious expression of that oppression. All I’m certain of is that patriarchal religion permeates, for example, the Oxford English Dictionary, which I use all the time, in conjunction with Websters’ First New Intergalactic Wickedary of the English Language, conjured by Mary Daly in cahoots with Jane Caputi.
(Special Post 3) 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.] Helen Hwang I study and advocate Goddess feminism or Magoism because it is a way of living for me. I find myself in Mago (the Great Goddess) who in turn leads me to the Way wherein I learn how to become the person who I can be. It has to be Mago, the Female Divine, because She is real! She is the Primordial Mother who is the Beginning and the End of everything to us on the planet Earth. She teaches me the real. I can’t negotiate Her to anything less. Helen Hye Sook Hwang, Ph.D. California http://magoism.net Bridget Robertson A Goddessian I was introduced to a form of meditative journeying by a resident in my grandmother’s retirement community. She approached to me. I know she was at least part Native American, and that alone made her the topic of much gossip in the building. Her Rose colored lipstick, deep brown eyes, wrinkles that only helped illuminate her face and a chiffon scarf that matched none of her clothes. I thought she needed help with her groceries. She didn’t. She had me stop the elevator. and directly asked about my looking tired. My response was about being, busy balancing all the areas of my life. In fact I was exhausted doling out time like pieces of pie.
(Special Post Mother Teresa 1) 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 I: Why are we talking about Mother Teresa? [The conversation began among Anne Wilkerson Allen, Helen Hwang, and Wennifer Lin in a personal message and editor’s group. We agreed that Mother Teresa’s Western (Albanian) identity is hardly taken into consideration in the public perception of her as a secular and religious leader. Then, we decided to bring the topic to the Mago Circle.] Anne Wilkerson Allen: [A] posted this today and I think it is discussion worthy. Mother Teresa: Anything but a saint… scienceblog.com The myth of altruism and generosity surrounding Mother Teresa is dispelled in a paper by Serge Larivée and Genevieve Chenard of University of Montreal’s Department of Psychoeducation and Carole Sénéchal of the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Education… http://scienceblog.com/60730/mother-teresa-anything-but-a-saint/#IdkpoWrDtMAAVCAg.99 Anne Wilkerson Allen: It is not my desire to bash the Church – I think everyone here is fully aware of the evils of patriarchy and the way the Church has used women, abused and killed women…but Teresa is an icon in the West, in particular, of saintliness. Even non-Catholics love her. Why? And is what she did really worthy of role modeling? Anne Wilkerson Allen: This was also on the thread. Not a huge fan of Hitchens, and I think calling her work a “death cult” is extreme, but I am interested in your opinions please. Christopher Hitchens – Mother Teresa: Hell’s Angel [1994] In 1994, three years before her death, journalist Christopher Hitchens made this documentary asking if Mother Teresa’s reputation was deserved… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76_qL6fiyDw Anne Wilkerson Allen: I would also like to talk about altruism and some of the areas we have touched on before…at what point is my “help” an imposition in a third world country? Is my desire to “help” spurred by years of programming or heart? I honestly don’t know anymore. Anne Wilkerson Allen: There is also a part of me that wonders if this deflection of blame and highlighting of Teresa’s faults now is yet another “Let the women take the fall” action. Anne Wilkerson Allen: NOT that I find her blameless – her advocacy against contraception and abortion is decidedly anti-female, but there is so much focus on the Pope and the priests now….I keep wondering when the abuses of the nuns is going to come to light. Anne Wilkerson Allen: I think Ireland recently had something in the news about this… Ireland apologizes for Catholic laundry scandal Ireland’s premier has issued a state apology to the thousands of Irish women who spent years working without pay in prison-style laundries run by Catholic nuns. Former residents of the now-defunct Magdalene Laundries have campaigned for the past decade to get the government to apologize and pay compensation to an estimated 1,000 survivors of the workhouses. Two weeks ago the Irish government published an investigation into the state’s role in overseeing the laundries. It found that more than 10,000 women worked in 10 laundries from 1922 to 1996, when the last Dublin facility closed down… http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57570107/ireland-apologizes-for-catholic-laundry-scandal/ Anne Wilkerson Allen: One of my friends was one of these girls. [Z]: I have wanted to bring attention to this issue for a long time but did not have a chance or was biting my time. Now Anne is pointing out some of the crucial issues about her, Mother Teresa, I am so thankful for this opportunity for us to sort out and think collectively. Thank you Anne! [Z]: Yes, the Catholic Laundry Scandal was shared here too!!! Anne Wilkerson Allen: It’s hard. She is iconic for many women. I did not know the sordid details or the horrors – not that it excuses anything….but when I was young, I saw her as someone to emulate….and thus became immolated…. [Z]: I have been thinking all along the way that she should not be a role model for women. Can you believe that I did even as a once Catholic Sister?!!! I know that many religious women out there will agree with me too. [Z]: My critique is not much on her as a person. But the fact that she represents morality for especially women makes me mad. Oh, there seems a lot more about reasons why we should debunk the mystique of Mother Teresa. Anne Wilkerson Allen: One of the things Hirchens pointed out was that it made Westerners feel good that this wonderful white woman was helping the poor in Calcutta….though she rarely seemed to be in Calcutta. Another friend told me that he knew one of the sisters of charity and that she told him they were encouraged to flog themselves on a regular basis….sick sick sick Anne Wilkerson Allen: This is why I have a problem with the mentality that says evil exists to teach us something…..that suffering exists to highlight our joy….there is just something WRONG with that. Anne Wilkerson Allen: We are all dark and light and in-between. [Z]: I am not surprised. Yes, definitely. What a waste of time and intelligence if not already damaging many turning the navigation backward!!! [Helen Hwang calls out the individual names to join the discussion, and is responded by what follows.] [B]: In Minneapolis there is a charity founder, Mary Jo Copeland, who helps the homeless & hungry. She just received an award from the President. She seems selfless, like Mother Teresa did (at least in […]

Imbolc: Through Goddess Eyes by Carolyn Lee Boyd

Photo by Carolyn Lee Boyd In times past, Creation’s Winter cupped me in her icy hand of sanctuary Gathered in, I sucked dormant life, and slumbered Till Earth’s rebirthing groans awakened my new body Now, older and full of life’s weeping and wondering awe At all that has happened in my decades on Earth I must shake myself into consciousness My seed’s opaque, blinding hull disintegrates and Bodyless, at last I can see through Goddess eyes I ache as my blood paints each flower petal I spin the whirlwind that cannot stop creating abundance I push the seasons through the year that mortals believe revolve of their own accord. Through Goddess eyes I can see me, I inhabit Winter’s hand as my own. I make the cold to slow creation of outside of me To gather the seed into fertile stillness within. That burgeons in my own time. https://www.magoism.net/2016/08/meet-mago-contributor-carolyn-lee-boyd/
Artful Ceremonial Expression by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This article is an edited excerpt from Chapter 7 of the author’s book PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. I always wore a special headpiece for the Seasonal ceremonies when I facilitated them over the years, and I feel that any participant may do so, not just the main celebrant. My ceremonial headpiece with its changing and continuous Seasonal decoration took on increasing significance over the years; it became a personal central representation of the year-long ceremonial art process of creating, destroying and re-creating. For the research period of my doctoral studies particularly, when I was documenting the process, I realised that this headpiece came to represent for me the essence of “She” – as Changing One, yet ever as Presence – as I was coming to know Her. In my journal for the Mabon/Autumn Equinox process notes one year I wrote: As I pace the circle with the Mabon headpiece in the centre, I see “Her” as She has been through the Seasons … the black and gold of Samhain, the deep red, white and evergreen of Winter, the white and blue of Imbolc, the flowers of Eostar, the rainbow ribbons of Beltane, the roses of Summer, the seed pods and wheat of Lammas, and now the Autumn leaves. I see in my mind’s eye, and feel, Her changes. I am learning … The Mother knowledge grows within me. The headpiece, the wreath, the altar, the house decorations, all participate in the ceremony: they are part of the learning, the method, the relationship – similar to how one might bring flowers and gifts of significance to a loved one at special moments. Then further, the removal and re-creation of the decorations are part of the learning – an active witness to transformation through time.
The Passing of Last Summer’s Growth by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

The ‘passing of last Summer’s growth’ as is experienced and contemplated in the Season of Deep Autumn/Samhain, may be a metaphor for the passing of all/any that has come to fullness of being, or that has had a fullness, a blossoming of some kind, and borne fruit; and in the passing it has been received, and thus transforms. The ‘passing of last Summer’s growth’ may be in hearts and minds, an event or events, a period of time, or an era, that was a deep communion, now passed and dissolved into receptive hearts and minds, where it/they reside for reconstitution, within each unique being. Samhain is traditionally understood as ‘Summer’s end’: indeed that is what the word ‘Samhain’ means. In terms of the seasonal transitions in indigenous Old European traditions, Summer is understood as over when the Seasonal Moment of Lammas/Lughnasad comes around; it is the first marked transition after the fullness of Summer Solstice. The passing and losses may have been grieved, the bounty received, thanksgiving felt and expressed, perhaps ceremonially at Autumn Equinox/Mabon; yet now in this Season of Samhain/Deep Autumn it composts, clearly falls, as darkness and cooler/cold weather sets in, change is clearer. In the places where this Earth-based tradition arose, Winter could be sensed setting in at this time, and changes to everyday activity had to be made. In our times and in our personal lives, we may sense this kind of ending, when change becomes necessary, no longer arbitrary: and the Seasonal Moment of Samhain may be an excellent moment for expressing these deep truths, telling the deep story, and making meaning of the ending, as we witness such passing. What new shapes will emerge from the infinite well of creativity? And we may wonder what will return from the dissolution? What re-solution will be found? We may wonder what new shapes will emerge. In the compost of what has been, what new syntheses, new synergies, may come forth? Now is the time for dreaming, for drawing on the richness within, trusting the sentience, within which we are immersed, and which we are: and then awaiting the arrival, being patient with the fermentation and gestation. Seize the moment, this Moment – and converse with the depths within your own bodymind, wherein She is. Make space for the sacred conversation, the Conversing with your root and source of being, and take comfort in this presence. We may ponder what yet unkown beauty and wellness may emerge from this infinite well of creativity. The Samhain Moment in the Northern Hemisphere is 17:14 UT 7thNovember this year. Wishing you a sense of the deep communion present in the sacred space you make for this holy transition.
(Mago Almanac Excerpt 3) Introducing the Magoist Calendar by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

Mago Almanac: 13 Month 28 Day Calendar (Book A) Free PDF available at Mago Bookstore. MAPPING THE MAGOIST CALENDAR According to the Budoji, the Magoist Calendar was fully implemented and advocated during the period of Old Joseon (ca. 2333 BCE-ca. 232 BCE) whose civilization is known as Budo (Emblem City). Indeed, the Magoist Calendar is referred to as the Budo Calendar in the Budoji. Budo was founded to succeed Sinsi and reignited Sinsi’s innovations including the numerological and musicological thealogy of the Nine Mago Creatrix. The Budoji expounds on the Magoist Calendar as follows: The Way of Heaven circles to generate Jongsi (a cyclic period, an ending and a beginning). Jongsi circles to generate another Jongsi of four Jongsi. One cycle of jongsi is called Soryeok (Little Calendar). Jongsi of Jongsi is called Jungryeok (Medium Calendar). Jongsi of four Jongsis is called Daeryeok (Large Calendar). A cycle of Little Calendar is called Sa (year). One Sa has thirteen Gi (months). One Gi has twenty-eight Il (days). Twenty-eight Il are divided by four Yo (weeks). One Yo has seven Il. A cycle of one Yo is called Bok (completion of a week). One Sa (year) has fifty-two Yobok. That makes 364 Il. This is of Seongsu (Natural Number) 1, 4, 7. Each Sa includes a Dan of the big Sa. A Dan is equal to one day. That adds up to 365 days. At the half point after 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. At the half point after the tenth Sa, there is a Gu of the big Hoe (Eve of the first day of the month). Gu is the root of time. Three hundred Gu makes one Myo. With Myo, we can sense Gu. A lapse of 9,633 Myo-Gak-Bun-Si makes one day. This is of Chesu (Physical Number), 3, 6, 9. By and by, the encircling time charts Medium Calendar and Large Calendar to evince the principle of numerology.[12] KEY TERMS Calendric Cycles Jongsi (終是 Ending and Beginning): Cyclic periods Soryeok (小曆 Little Calendar): One year Jungryeok (中曆 Medium Calendar): Two years Daeryeok (大曆 Large Calendar): Four years Names of Year, Month, Day, Week Sa (祀 Rituals, year): One year refers to the time that takes to complete the cycle of rituals. Gi (期 Periods, month): One month refers to the period of the moon and menstruation cycle. Il (日Sun, day): One day refers to the sun’s movement due to Earth’s rotation. Yo (曜 Resplendence of seven celestial bodies, Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, week): Each weekday is dedicated to seven celestial bodies. Bok or Yobok (曜服 Duties of the Celestial Bodies, completion of a week): One week refers to the veneration of the seven celestial bodies. Names of Monthly Transition Days Hoe (晦 Eve of the first day of the month, 28th) Sak (朔 First day of the month, 1st, the dark moon) Names of Intercalation Days Dan (旦 Morning): Leap day for New Year Pan (昄 Big): Leap day for every fourth year Names of Time Units Gu (晷 sun’s shadow): Time measure, 1/300 Myo Myo (眇 minuscule): Time measure, a total of 300 Gu Myo-Gak-Bun-Si (眇刻分時 minuscule, possibly 15-minutes, minute, hour): Time measure, 9,633 Myo-Gak-Bun-Si is equal to a day Names of Three Types of Numbers in Nine Numerology Seongsu (性數Natural Number): 1, 4, 7 in the digital root Beopsu (法數 Lawful Number): 2, 5, 8 in the digital root Chesu (體數 Physical Number): 3, 6, 9 in the digital root THREE SUB-CALENDARS The Way of Heaven circles to generate Jongsi (a period, an ending and a beginning). Jongsi circles to generate another Jongsi of four Jongsi. One cycle of jongsi is called Soryeok (Little Calendar). Jongsi of Jongsi is called Jungryeok (Medium Calendar). Jongsi of four Jongsis is called Daeryeok (Large Calendar). The universe is infinite without beginning and ending. Everything runs the course of self-equilibration in relation to everything else. The Way of Heaven or the Way of the Creatrix circles and makes possible the infinite time/space to be measured and calculated. As the Way of Heaven circles, we are able to perceive Our Universe in finite measures of time/space. Time becomes measurable, as space is stabilized. Seasons and days-nights are demarcated in cyclic patterns, as the Earth makes the three cyclic movements of rotation, revolution, and precession. Calendar, born out of the inter-cosmic time, synchronizes human culture with the song/dance of the universe. The term Jongsi, which means an ending and a beginning, is equivalent to “a cyclic period” that is marked by the beginning and the end. Time (a day, a month, and a year) circles, as space (the Earth, the Moon, and the Sun) spirals. The Magoist Calendar has three sub-calendars: The period of one yearly cycle is called Little Calendar, whereas the period of two yearly cycles is called Medium Calendar and the period of four yearly cycles, Large Calendar. To be continued. (Meet Mago Contributor, Helen Hye-Sook Hwang) Notes [12] Budoji, Chapter 23. See Bak Jesang, the Budoji, Bak Geum scrib., Eunsu Kim, trans. (Seoul: Gana Chulpansa, 1986).
(Video) A Beltaine Ceremony by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

Beltaine/High Spring: the traditional dates are Southern Hemisphere – October 31st or 1st November Northern Hemisphere – April 30th (May Eve) or 1st May The actual astronomical date varies, and it is the meridian point or cross-quarter day between Spring Equinox and Summer Solstice, thus actually a little later in early November for S.H., and early May for N.H., respectively. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pODpbkzfrIU 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, music, and voice wherever you please. I have made short spaces in the video where it may be paused. The script for this Beltaine ceremony is offered in Chapter 8 of my book A Poiesis of the Creative Cosmos: Celebrating Her within PaGaian Sacred Ceremony, with all acknowledgements and references there. 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 name the direction, which I only do at the beginning. The images used are a collage of footage and photos from the 2024 Beltaine ceremony at my place in Wakka Wakka country, South East Queensland Australia, and from previous Beltaine ceremonies that I facilitated over the decades in MoonCourt, Goddess ceremonial space, in Gundungurra and Darug country, Blue Mountains Australia. To enhance participation in the ceremony, you may like to have the following: the element of Water flavoured with rose water. the element of Earth in a large dinner plate and card paper large enough for handprints, along with a bowl of water for washing hands after. a small bouquet of scented flowers and/or herbs for the element of Air. a firepot for the element of Fire. This may be a clay pot of sand into which a small amount of methylated spirits will be poured and lit: it produces a soft flame that will not set off fire alarms, though care should still be taken. a larger firepot or two – either near the altar or located where suitable, for either leaping the flames, or simply passing your hand over flames. This firepot may be a larger version of the one for the element of Fire. coloured ribbons, ideally attached to a pole/tree, but it is possible to manage this rite in another creative manner. a pink ring cake, topped with rose water and honey and petals, sliced ready for serving, but whole. sweet pink wine/juice and glasses for serving. Dance Instructions: Celebrant as #1, person next on right as #2. All 1’s face right, all 2’s face left. All 1’s go in & under first, all 2’s go out & over first. The chant for the dance around the tree (a “Novapole” in the Southern Hemipshere, a “Maypole” in the Northern Hemisphere): “We are the Dance of the Earth, Moon and Sun We are the Life that’s in everyone We are the Life that loves to live We are the Love that lives to love.” (Note: This is a slight variation of the chant written and taught to me by thea Gaia. Music credits: A few clips from Coral Sea Dreaming by Tania Rose: https://www.taniarose.net A clip from Benediction Moon by Pia from her album by that name, New World Music, 1998. A clip from “Shedville 28th Nov 05” by Nick Alias, who has generously shared his music, and given permission for me to use it. Image credits: Ishtar (Middle East, 1000 BCE), Hallie Iglehart Austen, The Heart of the Goddess, p.131. Aphrodite (Europe, 300 BCE), Hallie Iglehart Austen, The Heart of the Goddess, p.133. Xochiquetzal (Mayan, 8th century CE), Hallie Iglehart Austen, The Heart of the Goddess, p.135. Inanna/Ishtar (Mesopotamia 400 B.C.E.), Adele Getty, Goddess: Mother of Living Nature, p.39. Birth of the Goddess, Erich Neumann, The Great Mother, plate 155. Milky Way photo: Akira Fujii, David Malin images. Beau Ravn’s “Goddess” and “God” artworks (2000). Sri Yantra (1500 CE.), A.T. Mann and Jane Lyle, Sacred Sexuality, p.75.
(Prose) Halcyon for the Season by Deanne Quarrie

A bird for this season is the Kingfisher, also known as the Halcyon. The Kingfisher is associated in Greek myth with the Winter Solstice. There were fourteen “halcyon days” in every year, seven of which fell before the winter solstice, seven after; peaceful days when the sea was smooth as a pond and the hen-halcyon built a floating nest and hatched out her young. She also had another habit, that of carrying her dead mate on her back over the sea and mourning him with a plaintive cry. Pliny reported that the halcyon was rarely seen and then only at the winter and summer solstices and at the setting of the Pleiades. She was therefore, a manifestation of the Moon-Goddess who was worshiped at the two solstices as the Goddess of Life in Death and Death in Life and, when the Pleiades set, she sent the sacred king his summons for death. Kingfishers are typically stocky, short-legged birds with large heads and large, heron-like beaks. They feed primarily on fish, hovering over the water or watching intently from perches and they plunge headlong into the water to catch their prey. Their name, Alcedinidae, stems from classical Greek mythology. Alcyone, Daughter of the Wind, was so distraught when her husband perished in a shipwreck that she threw herself into the sea. Both were then transformed into kingfishers and roamed the waves together. When they nested on the open sea, the winds remained calm and the weather balmy. Still another Alcyone, Queen of Sailing, was the mystical leader of the seven Pleiades. The heliacal rising of the Pleiades in May marked the beginning of the navigational year and their setting marked the end. Alcyone, as Sea Goddess protected sailors from rocks and rough weather. The bird, halcyon continued for centuries to be credited with the magical power of allaying storms. Shakespeare refers to this legend in this passage from Hamlet: Some say that ever ‘gainst that season comes Wherein our Saviour’s birth is celebrated, The bird of dawning singeth all night long; And then, they say, no spirit can walk abroad; The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike, No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm, So hallow’d and so gracious is the time. Hamlet, I, i 157 When I was a young mother, and my children were little, we lived in a house that had a creek in the back yard. There were small trees along the far bank of this creek and every day, a kingfisher would sit in the branches overlooking the creek. Sometimes he sat there very quietly for a very long time. Suddenly he would dive from his perch straight into the creek. Every time he did he came out and up into the air with a fish. It gave me great pleasure to watch him from my kitchen window. I love birds. I love learning about their habits because it teaches me ways of being that are closer to nature. I love drawing birds as well. When I was a young and more able, I was an avid bird watcher, out with my friends hoping for a sight never seen before. I love the story of the kingfisher and her connection to the Halcyon Days of the Winter Solstice. It is for most of us the busiest time of year. Whether it is for the Solstice or Christmas (often both) we are in a frenzy to get things done, making sure everything is just right and perfect. I celebrate the Winter Solstice. As a priestess, my days right now are very busy creating ritual. It is at the Solstice that many passage rites are happening with the women I work with. And of course, I celebrate with my family with our magical Yule Log each year. But I try to honor those seven days before and the seven days after by trying to have the frantic moments before the Halcyon Days begin and then even when busy, hold the peace and calm of that beautiful smooth sea in my mind. Peace and love and joy surrounding the Winter Solstice make it perfect. May the Peace of a Halcyon Sea be yours in this Solstice Season. Do hold the image of that little kingfisher in mind! Meet Mago Contributor, Deanne Quarrie

(Photo Essay 3) ‘Gaeyang Halmi, the Sea Goddess of Korea’ by Helen Hwang

Part III: Archaeology Bespeaks What Ideological Hetero-sexuality Can’t Do Our story-tellers informed us that Gaeyang Halmi is venerated and celebrated on January 14th annually on the lunar calendar. There are two separate rituals performed on that day. Villagers, both men and women, offer their ritual ceremony in the morning in Confucian style. The officiant must preserve the purification ritual, confining oneself to home to avoid ominous affairs for a week prior to the ceremony. After the ceremony of the villagers, Mudang groups come from outside the town and offer their Shaman rituals. A cleavage between two groups is still freshly detected in their narratives. While villagers conform to the Confucian style rituals with a despising but curious eye for the female-centered Shaman rituals, Mudangs are much more powerful in their capacities to command people, spirits, and materials. The Shamanic ritual celebration is fairly well-known domestically as well as overseas to the Chinese and the Japanese, according to our lore transmitters. People from China and Japan come to join the Mudang rituals, a vestige of the intercultural celebration that may have originated in ancient times, a point to be elaborated later. What caught my attention was the fact that the ritual celebration is known as the Ritual of Yongwang (the Dragon King) not the Ritual of Gaeyang Halmi. Our two narrators, Mr. Jeong Dong-Uk and Ms. Jeong Si-Geum, brother and sister, testified contradictorily vis-à-vis the Dragon King. Mr. Jeong mentioned that Gaeyang Halmi is the wife of Dragon King,[i] whereas Ms. Jeong spoke of Gaeyang Halmi as a solo deity without spouse. Ms. Jeong sternly said, “She was alone [without spouse]. She had eight daughters.” “It is said that there used to be a house wherein Gaeyang Halmi and her eight daughters lived together. I saw the cooking pots and household things in the ruin,” added Ms. Jeong. [Interestingly, the motif that she saw the cooking pots and other kitchen items in the ruin reminded me of other Mago folk stories from other regions. People seem to take such artifacts as pots and household things discovered in the ruin as an indication that the myth of Mago Halmi who is told to have lived in the place is plausible.] The topos of “the dragon king” was likely added later on to comply with Confucian ideology. In fact, none of our narrators mentioned the dragon king as the main deity of the Suseong Shrine. The fact that it is called the ritual of the dragon king suggests another layer of erosion/castration/dethronement done to the supreme divinity of Gaeyang Halmi.
(K-Drama Review 1) Liminal Space/Time into WE: What Hotel del Luna Displays by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

[Author’s Note: Hotel del Luna is a 16-episode Korean television drama aired in 2919. Caution is required for the spoiler. This essay is prompted by this drama, which was discussed in a new class, Experience Korean Culture through Film (EKCF) offered by Mago Academy. I am ever grateful for this opportunity to assess matriversal (read Magoist) soteriology, eschatology, and cosmology implicated in this drama. This drama takes viewers to a liminal time/space. At the liminal timespace, we see how one meets the other. Almost all objects of the drama remind viewers of their liminal property. The female main character, neither living nor dead, stands between the living and the dead. The ghost-serving moon lodge she operates is visible to both ghosts and people. So is the tree of the moon spirit, a symbol for the tree of life or the world tree, which summons the moon lodge to take place. And so are all beings with physical forms. The liminal timespace is where we find ourselves in the Reality of WE/HERE/NOW.] Copyright origin unknown. Part I: Introduction with Synopsis Jang Manwol, the female protagonist, is fixated to the tree of the moon spirit (wolryeongsu 월령수) and entrusted as the representative of the moon lodge, which serves ghosts charged with unrelenting resentments, by the Mago Divine. Mago Halmi (Great Mother, Creatrix), by providing new opportunities, awaits Manwol until she takes actions to relieve her unyielding grudge, caused by the complex socio-political misfortunes in the 7th century. Manwol is, currently neither living nor dead, expected to die and take a ride to the realm of after-life (returning to the origin) just like other ghosts in her lodge. Together with her ghost employees, she operates a large luxurious hotel, Hotel del Luna, the latest name of the moon lodge. Standing in the liminal time/space, the hotel is equipped with an elegantly decorated spacious lobby, a sky-viewing terrace, a horizon-surrounded beach, and an amusement park as well as a multiple number of rooms, each of which is catered to serve the special needs of a ghost guest. At the heart of the lodge is the tree of the moon spirit. The hoteliers welcome ghosts, diagnose the story of han (unresolved resentments) that they carry in themselves and its remedy, and execute plots to resolve resentments in a peaceful manner, to be beneficial to ALL. Upon being healed and rejuvenated with a new perspective on their past lives and the Reality of Intercosmic Life, the ghosts leave the lodge to take the ride to the realm of after-life (jeoseung 저승). The dead are supposed to take this ride to the Origin. Ghosts with unrelenting resentments escapes this route and lingers in the in-between reality of the living and the dead. Until accepting the help of the male protagonist, Gu Chanseong, sent by the Mago Divine, Manwol stubbornly continues to roam around her inbetween space/time. Insofar as she holds onto her own oath to avenge, the tree of the moon spirit remains dormant, seemingly dead. The tree, a visual locus reflecting the inner landscape of Manwol (her predecessors and successors alike), connects ghosts and people and reveals the reality of Life to them. The young man, Chanseong, misses no opportunity to choose the good and to right the wrong in ghosts and people, which is the key to straightening up the entangled karmic consequences. He prompts Manwol to heal herself: She realizes the truth about her betrayer (she was consumed by her anger against him so much so that she could not know the truth; he did not betray her but saved her) and let go of her over-1,300 year-long desire to destroy him. Affected by the grudge-releasing actions of Chanseong, she gradually chooses the path to reconcile with her past, as the Mago Divine wishes for her. The tree of the moon spirit, showing a sign of life again by putting out leaves and flowers, harbingers the end of the moon lodge. Manwol and her ghost employees as well as Chanseong reach the timespace of saying good-bye to move on to the next stage of Life’s cycle. Mawol becomes the last ghost who get helped in her lodge. The Mago Divine is seeking a new owner for the lodge so that ghosts with resentments can continue to be served. The drama is potentially transforming the human psyche from within. Tantalizing, heart-breaking, and frightening stories of the dead and the living stretch the horizon to the whole — the realm of physical life (iseung 이승), the realm of afterlife (jeoseung 저승), and the in-between realm of ghosts. In the sense that its narrative structure is built on the Korean folk belief of Mago Halmi (Great Mother, Crone, and Creatrix), and Magoism, the Way of the Creatrix, I find this drama a composite text of Magoist thealogy (a systematic understanding of Mago, the Creatrix) at the core. What the hoteliers are doing is in fact the role of Mudangs (Korean Shamans). Although Mudangs and Muism (Korean Shamanism) are strikingly absent, the drama resonates with the Muist worldview. The core message is to release unrelenting resentments of the dead on the part of the living. Intriguingly, this drama does not speak directly to humans, “Humans, do not create cheok (hatred or suffering in other beings).” Perhaps, such is too clear a message to articulate. At any rate, we are supposed to gain the lesson by listening to the stories of ghosts. What we see is that troubled ghosts with resentment are helped and guided to the journey of afterlife. The dead are expected to take the ride to the realm of after-life immediately. Ghosts are those who would not follow the path of the dead. Viewers are told why some people become haunting ghosts upon death, why ghosts seek to interfere with humans, and why ghosts are tempted to take revenge upon humans. We may say that ghosts are the confused or disrupted souls. Ghosts face extermination by the Mago Divine if they harm humans or assist an evil ghost. Consequently, evil ghosts are precluded from the cycle of rebirth. That is …
(Essay 1) Magoist Cetaceanism and the Myth of the Pacifying Flute (Manpasikjeok) by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.

Pod of narwhals, northern Canada, August 2005. Image courtesy of Kristin Laidre. Wikemedia Commons Manpasikjeok (the pacifying flute that defeats all) is a legendary flute, purportedly made from a narwhal’s tusk, originating in the 7th century Silla (57 BCE-935 CE). King Sinmun (r. 681-692) had a revelation concerning “a bamboo tree” growing on a mysterious mountain floating in the Sea of Whales, today’s East Sea of Korea. From this tree, a flute was made with which he was able to protect the whole world. As a national treasure of Silla, this instrument was famed to defeat all enemies at the time of troubles. What we have is the accounts of the pacifying flute recounted in Korea’s official historical texts. Two sources from the Samguk Sagi (Historical Records of the Three States) and the Samguk Yusa (Memorabilia of the Three States) shall be examined. Not surprisingly, whales are made unrecognizable not only within the story but also in the official history books of Korea. Magoist Cetaceanism was subjected to erasure in the course of Korean official history, but apparently not in the time of King Sinmun of Silla. The myth of Manpasikjeok testifies to Sillan Magoist Cetaceanism upheld by 7th century Sillan rulers. We are reading a Magoist Cetacean myth, however, told by people of a later time when Magoist Cetaceanism was no longer recognized. The fact that these two official historical texts of Korea recount the narrative of Manpasikjeok speaks to its significance: The story is told with a sense of mystery or suspicion. While the Samguk Sagi overtly treats the author’s sense of disbelief, the Samguk Yusa provides a full narrative in tantalizing but mystified details. How was Manpasikjeok 萬波息笛 created in the first place? Below is the Samguk Sagi version of the story: According to Gogi (Ancient Records), “During the reign of King Sinmun, a little mountain emerged in the East Sea out of nowhere. It looked like a head of a turtle. Atop the mountain there was a bamboo tree growing, which became two during the day and became one at night. The king had his subject cut the bamboo tree and had it made a flute. He named it Manpasik (Pacifying and Defeating All).” Although it is written so, its account is weird and unreliable.[1] Written by Gim Busik (1075–1151), a Neo-Confucian historiographer, the above account betrays an unengaged author’s mind in the story. For Gim, Korean indigenous narratives like Manpasikjeok are anomalous, if not unreliable, by the norms of Chinese history. In contrast to the former, the Samguk Yusa details the Manpasikjeok story in a tantalizing sense of mystery. Its author Ilyeon (1206-1289) was a Buddhist monk, a religious historian who saw the history of Korea as fundamentally Buddhist from the beginning. He elaborates the story with factual data but fails to bring to surface the cetacean underpinning of the myth. It is possible that Magoist Cetaceanism had already submerged much earlier than his time. King Sinmun (r. 681-692) had built the temple, Gameun-sa (Graced Temple), to commemorate his late father King Munmu (r. 661-681) who willed to become a sea dragon upon death. The relic of King Munmu had been spread in Whale Ferry (Gyeongjin 鯨津), also known as the Rock of Ruler the Great (Daewang-am) located in the waterfront of the East Sea also known as the Sea of Whales. Evidence substantiates that King Munmu was a Magoist Cetacean devotee clad in a Buddhist attire. Or today’s Buddhologiests call it Esoteric Buddhism. The Manpasikjeok myth may be called the story of King Sinmun’s initiation to Magoist Cetaceanism. Before explicating the Samguk Yusa account, which is prolix and complex, I have summarized the Samguk Yusa’s account as follows: (Summary of the Manpasikjeok Myth) King Sinmun ordered the completion of Gameunsa (Graced Temple) to commemorate his deceased father, King Munmu. The main hall of Gameunsa was designed at the sea level to allow the dragon to enter and stroll through the ebb and flow of the sea waves. In the second year of his reign (682 CE), Marine Officer reported that a little mountain in the East Sea was approaching Gameunsa. The king had Solar Officer perform a divination. The divination foretold that he would be given a treasure with which he could protect Wolseong (Moon Stronghold), Silla’s capital. This would be a gift from King Munmu who became a sea dragon and Gim Yusin who became a heavenly being again. In seven days, the king went out to Yigyeondae (Platform of Gaining Vision) and saw the mountain floating like a turtle’s head in the sea. There was a bamboo tree growing on its top, which became two during the day and one at night. The king stayed overnight in Gameumsa to listen to the dragon who entered the yard and the substructure of the main hall. Then, there was darkness for seven days due to a storm in the sea. After the sea calmed, the king went into the mountain to meet the dragon. The dragon told him that, if he made a flute out of the bamboo tree, the whole world would be pacified. The king had the bamboo tree brought out of the sea and made it into a flute, which became a treasure of Silla. The mountain and the dragon disappeared. The flute, when played during times of the nation’s trouble, brought peace. Thus comes its name, Manpasikjeok (the pacifying flute that defeats all). During the reign of King Hyoso (r. 692-702), his son, the flute continued to make miracles. Thus it was renamed Manmanpapasikjeok (the pacifying flute that surely defeats all of all). One day, it was reported to King Sinmun that a little mountain was approaching Gameunsa. That mountain had a mysterious bamboo tree atop. On the seventh day from then, he went out to Yigyeondae (Platform of Gaining Vision), the whale watch place near Gameumsa. Then, he stayed overnight in Gameunsa to hear the dragon who entered the temple yard through the ebb and flow of the …