September 27, 2021September 27, 2021 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(She Summons Excerpt) I am in Everything by Alex Purbrick

I am in Everything Minds swirling in panicked fears, Lives running too fast, No time to wipe tears. Elders warned this age would be, One of great speed, fury and Read More …

(Essay 2) Making the Gynocentric Case: Mago, the Great Goddess of East Asia, and Her Tradition Magoism by Helen Hwang

[Editor’s note: Numbers of endnotes differ from the original ones in the article] Reconstructing Gynocentric Korean Identity Scholars in the West, upon assessing a religion or deity of the non-Western world, tend to pair the topic with a modern nation. Thus, they often project their modern knowledge of the nation or culture onto the indigenous religion or deity they study. Such a methodology betrays the assumption that the modern notion of national identities is time-proven and bias-free. In this process, one’s perception of other people’s cultural expression is molded by Western-made modern knowledge of that people. This kind of knowledge ceases to exist outside the Western mind. Some go further to point out that the religious expression of a non-Western country in point is colored by the air of nationalism that is culturally on the rise in that country. This kind of assessment suggests the idea that a cultural expression fostered by nationalist zeal is inauthentic or impure and therefore of less value for study. While such conclusions are not necessarily wrong, I find it misguided. Done so, it prepares the ground for Western scholars to wield the authority of Western hegemony over the non-Western world. Precisely, it is blind to the fact that no cultural expression in modern times is free from nationalist ethos. Modern life is inherently shaped by the shade of nationalism whether it is in a non-Western world or a Western world. In my view, the question to be asked is: How can we assess a religious expression of a people beyond the modern notion of national identities? Or how can we go beneath the modern notion of national identities in order to assess a religious expression of a people? I hold that the modern category of national identities in particular causes harm to the study of the goddess. Modern nationalities go hand in hand with the impetus of patriarchal religions that do away with the female principle. There is an unmistakable difference between the male divine and the female divine when their manifestations are found cross-nationally. It is generally assumed that exchange of cultures between nations allows the male divine to be disseminated from one people to another. It is true that patriarchal religions have traveled around the globe and disseminated their gods into other nations. When it comes to the goddess whose worship is widespread across nations, such as the case of Mary in the West, however, this kind of reasoning proves to be inadequate. Antithetical is the idea that patriarchal religions actively promote the transmission of the great goddess from one nation to the other. Thus, the very perception of the transnational goddess is systematically thwarted in the realm of patriarchal religions. Androcentric researchers may choose to either dismiss as anomalous the topic of the goddess whose manifestation is found cross-nationally or treat her as a local deity severing her from her transnational context. This has been done to the topic of Mago. While Mago’s manifestation exists across the national boundaries of Korea, China, and Japan, it differs in nature, density, and complexity in these countries. Likewise, primary sources also show different traits according to the country. Korean sources surpass her Chinese counterparts not only in number but also in density and complexity. Mago’s supreme divinity is essentially affirmed in Korean sources, whereas it is treated as unknown in Chinese and Japanese counterparts. More to the point, the Budoji, the principal text that re-emerged in Korea in 1986, asserts that Koreans were the defenders of Old Magoism (Magoism in pre-patriarchal times) against the pseudo-Magoist Chinese regime. How can we understand the primacy of Korean Magoism without resorting to the modern notion of nationalist identities?
(Essay) Persephone by Susan Hawthorne

I have been writing about Persephone for decades. In 1982 I wrote a short thesis for an MA (Prelim) in Classics on the Homeric Hymns to Demeter and Aphrodite. The story of Persephone is the catalyst for the Homeric Hymn to Demeter when Persephone is abducted by Hades, god of the Underworld. But this is a story turned on its head. Persephone was originally the Queen of the Underworld and Hades is a patriarchal home invader. He has stormed her realm, taken over, called himself king of the Underworld. Persephone, in this process of shift from gynocentric to androcentic, was raped and stripped of all her earlier powers. It’s a very sad story. One of the things that strikes me as odd is that the patriarchal mythographers turned it into a story of child abduction and rape, as if that would be an okay way to represent the tale. Perhaps it is because they wanted to erase the idea of Persephone as a powerful woman: Goddess of the Underworld is someone to reckon with. So instead they infantilise her, make it look as if it was her idea, after all she was wandering around on a hillside full of hyacinths with no protection other than a few girlfriends when Hades swept her off her feet and onto his horse. In my collection The Butterfly Effect (2005), I refer to the Persephone story in two poems, one called ‘The Dead’, one of several poems that are reveries on my mother’s death. Later in the collection a poem called ‘Greek’ which is about Virginia Woolf and HD where I write about Virginia: She said, I defied them I have a friend, a poet who can read Greek In secret I learned from her It helped her unravel the birdsong She heard them as they sang witness to her Victorian violations Their song the same as on the day when Persephone was raped and Zeus couldn’t care less. In my book Cow (2011), I go further, expressing directly the grief felt by both Demeter and Persephone. Each tells the other what she experienced: mother to daughter: daughter to mother. It is clear that Demeter was aware of Hades character, whereas Persephone thought of him as her charming uncle. By the time I am writing Lupa and Lamb (2014) Demeter has become an anti-rape activist and an ecofeminist and she slams the liberal feminist Empress Livia for ignoring her. While Demeter drank ‘only barley water’, Livia was sharing in ‘cakes coffee tea and drinks’. Demeter goes on to complain about having a soap factory built over her shrine at Eleusis. Eleusis was so sacred that no one talked about what happened there for at least 2000 years. By this time, Demeter is one angry woman who has clearly developed a radical feminist analysis of her predicament. And Persephone is picking up one her radicalism. In my most recent book, Dark Matters (2017), I revisit the story. This time I see it through the lens of warfare. Persephone is the stolen child, the child who is kidnapped during war and disappeared. Her best friend Kyane, cries so much she melts into liquid. But Persephone herself becomes an activist, no longer the child victim, she is prepared to take her own life in hand. This comes through in a conversation between Rapunzel and Persephone following a conscioussness-raising session. I suspect that I will continue to write about Persephone and Demeter as it is such a rich and multi-dimensional story. My original research has itself expanded and taken on new dimensions. This is what thinking about mythology can do for you. Meet Mago Contributor Susan Hawthorne
(Short Story) Man Without Woman by Kaalii Cargill

[Author’s Note: This story is based on the writing of Enheduanna, the world’s first named author. Enheduanna lived in ancient Sumer 2285-2250 BCE and was the daughter (either literally or figuratively) of the war-like empire-builder Sargon of Akkad. Enheduanna wrote of Inanna in distinctly different ways at different times. The following short story imagines the events behind those differences.] Enheduanna, from a cylinder seal, c2300 BCE For man without woman there is no heaven in the sky or on earth. Without woman there would be no sun, no moon, no agriculture, and no fire. Arab Proverb In 1922, archaeologists from the University of Pennsylvania and the British Museum began a joint venture in southern Iraq to uncover the ancient city of Ur. In their third season, members of the expedition unearthed pieces of a small, round alabaster disc. On the mended disc they found these words: Enheduanna, true lady of Nanna, wife of Nanna, Daughter of Sargon, king of all, in the temple of Inanna . . . The leader of the expedition, Sir Leonard Woolley, wrote: . . .now we have En-he-du-an-na, and she is a very real person; she lived at Ur and she had her court there as beseemed a princess.[i] # Two millennia before Woolley translated the disc, Enheduanna walked the tiled floors of the Harbour Palace built on the banks of the Buranun at the Eastern side of the city of Urim. The mud-brick walls whispered secrets, and the tiled floors echoed with the swish of purple-trimmed robes . . . Enheduanna walked those floors for forty years, High Priestess of Urim at her father’s command. Daughter of Sargon, Warlord and King, Enheduanna had come to the Temple later than most, a haughty, fine-boned girl, resentful at her banishment from the King’s Halls. The Priests and Priestesses of Urim whispered that Sargon’s daughter had only been placed there to strengthen his hold on the land. Enheduanna knew the truth of that herself. What she did not know in her early days in the Temple was the full power of the Great Ones honoured by the people of Urim. Three years after her appointment, Enheduanna sat in the reception-room of the Temple, awaiting the arrival of her father. The room was resplendent with painted pillars, woven rugs, and stone statues; Sargon’s rule had seen the land of Ki-en-gir thrive, the trade routes open all the way to Harappa in the West. But what brought the mighty Sargon to the Harbour Palace? Enheduanna sat tall in her raised chair and calmed her racing heart with measured breaths. What did she have to fear from her own father? Sargon strode into the hall alone and dismissed the attendants with a flick of his bejewelled hand. They ran like frightened goats at the smell of a lion. Enheduanna inclined her head; a High Priestess, closest to the Great Ones, did not bow, even to a King. Sargon’s booming laugh echoed from the walls. Enheduanna flinched. She had forgotten how big he was: tall as a young date palm, broad as an ox, with gleaming eyes and a great, oiled beard that covered his chest. With three great strides Sargon crossed the room and lifted her into his arms. Enheduanna was three-years old again, wrapping her arms around his neck, breathing in frankincense and sweat. Her chest tightened as if the life were being squeezed from her. A scream rose to her throat . . . The King placed her back down. Confused and dizzy, Enheduanna swallowed the scream and held tightly to the carved arms of the chair, all the composure of a High Priestess lost. Which, she thought ruefully, was probably the King’s intention. “It is time for the High Priestess to shape the future of Urim,” said Sargon, voice booming like a drum. That made no sense, but Enheduanna knew better than to ask a question. She had made that mistake once when she was younger, and the subsequent public humiliation had made Sargon’s views about women and power quite clear. “You will compose a song of praise for the most holy Inanna,” said the King. Enheduanna waited, throat tight, barely breathing. “You will celebrate her as warrior, fierce defender of the King, bloodthirsty Queen of Heaven who ensures victory over those who rebel.” Enheduanna shivered. She may not have entered the Temple willingly, but even she knew this was a travesty. She also knew that she would do exactly as her father commanded. “You will elevate her to the highest place among the Great Ones. I want the people to see Her power strengthening what I am building. I want them to honour me as they do Her.” His voice rumbled like thunder. Enheduanna had a fleeting glimpse of herself at three, a child standing alone at the edge of the Palace gardens. Sargon turned to leave, and Enheduanna’s memory dissolved like a dream. # That night, as Enheduanna pressed her stylus into a fresh clay tablet to write the first lines of a new verse for Inanna, she recalled the image of the child at the edge of the gardens . . . . . . It had been a hot day, high in the Emesh season, and they had all been there: her father, her mother, her brothers and their mothers, the King’s advisors, and a retinue of attendants . . . The men clustered around her father, waving their hands in the air, buzzing like bees. Enheduanna slipped her hand free from her mother’s to follow a line of ducklings waddling along the edge of an irrigation canal. She may even have walked all the way to the river, but the mother duck suddenly leapt into the air, flapping and squawking. The ducklings scattered. Enheduanna found herself alone at the edge of the gardens, facing a great, tawny creature with eyes like carnelian stones. A warm, musky smell wrinkled Enheduanna’s nose, and she reached out to touch the lioness. An attendant ran along …
(Essay 7) The Norse Goddesses behind the Asir Veil: The Vanir Mothers in Continental Scandinavia by Kirsten Brunsgaard Clausen

[This part and the forthcoming sequels are an elaborated version of the original article entitled “The Norse Goddesses behind the Asir Veil: The Vanir Mothers in Continental Scandinavia—a late Shamanistic Branch of the Old European Civilization?” by Märta-Lena Bergstedt & Kirsten Brunsgaard Clausen, included in Goddesses in Myth, History and Culture (Mago Books, 2018) Edited by Mary Ann Beavis and Helen Hye-Sook Hwang.] The Holy Crones, Mothers and Maidens – Guardians of Life in Vanaheim Fig. 18. Proud Mothers of Old The process we have undertaken to un-wrap the original Vanir mothers from their Asir goddess clothing and functions for the sake of being able to observe them in their own rights, has gradually unfolded a group of powerful female images, shimmering in their own natural potential. As shamanic entities or at least as strong mythic archetypes, they once seem to have served as eternal models of inspiration. Beside them, we most often find their allied brother-partners, together with whom the mothers formed a social base for the upbringing of her children. This alliance granted both parts free access lovers at their own choice. Storytelling about the old mother figures must have granted pleasure to the humans at all life-stages, giving existence bearing, hope and trust. We are happy to now share our findings of their stories, and to let them step forward, at times also accompanied with both their brothers, and their lovers. HEL — Great-Grandmother of the Universe In Edda mythology not all of the significant Vanir mothers were given roles to play within the Asir Court of Asgård. The Asir gods may have wanted these left-outs to fulfill other roles outside the divine Asir domain, not least for the sake of contrasting Asgård. At least, this was true for the Universal Grandmother, the exalted Crone, the Great-Grandmother Hel. In the Eddas, Odin put her away deep down in the Underworld, in Nifelheim (Home of the Mists) and gave to her the unpleasant task of superintending the miserable Hell, designed for non-heroes, yielding corpses dead from illness and age, and to reign over its nine worlds.[1] Never the less, her name, Hel signals that she is the Grandmother of the Hele, meaning wHole and (H)all, even Holy. Hel (whole) personifies or maybe rather, is the complete unity of the Three-in-One-idea (Three and the triangle was the holy numbers before dualism[2]). Hel is One and She is All, She is the trunk of the Tree-of-Life braided together from its three roots; She is the three threads of the Norns, separately spun and intertwined into one string of yarn. She is the image of Life consisting of three parts: spirit, body-movement, and senses.[3] And metaphorically she is the human fate, the whole person twisted together from the three birth-gifts spun together into one personality;[4] she is the timeless individual beyond its three ages. Therefore she is the ancient triad of maiden-mother-crone, and the whole world consisting of the inseparable trinity, the moon, the earth, and the sun (Fig. 19). She is identified as the Old Källing/Kärring (Da/Sw), and parallels the Celtic Cailleach.[5] Her archaic name is familiar in all Indo-European languages, but surprisingly and also speaking in favor of her universality the Grandmother-Hel-concept, it is found also in non-Indoeuropean languages like Basque, Finnish, and seemingly also in Arabic/Hebrew, stretching perhaps as far as Korea to the ancient, pre-patriarchal Crone Mother of All, known as Halmi, Halmae, Halmoni, Halmui, Halmang (-mi/me/ma is mother). The Korean icon, Halmi, has legends telling about her function that are similar to those of the European Hel and Crone Mother, e.g. shaping land by dropping boulders.[6] Fig. 19. Hel and her three manifestations. Rock Art 4000 BCE. Alta, Norway. – drawing from original. According to the researchers the authors Gun and Göran Liljenroth, the form Hel appears with – interchangeable vowels, a-e-i-o-u-y (-ä-ö-å) (Hal, Hel, Hil, Hol, Hul, Hyl), giving; Holy, Hallo, Hell, He(a)ling, Help, Holly, and wHole; and with – mute or lost H; Alter, All, Old, Elder-tree, Elderly, etc.[7] In Nordic languages huld means beautiful; hyld means eldertree; häll is rock; eld/ild is fire, hailstorm, etc — words all associated with Hel, her manifestations and her five elements. The German hell (light) corresponds with the Greek helios (sun); the Basque (H)ilargi (moon) and hil (month), and here the Arab words, hilal (Moon), counts in. Once in early times, over-ranking the two lower gods Jahve (YHWH) and Baal, the ancient Ugaritic and Hebrew High-God was named El (El Eljon). [8] He received all his ruling power from his wife/sister Asherah,[9] a fact that points towards a still earlier concept that prior to patriarchy in Israel, El may once have been the all-female grandmother Hel. Also the ancient male god Tub-Hal, “the one who gives birth or brings forth” may in a distant past have been the original mythical grandmother.[10] Countless geographical names all over Europe are dedicated to Grandmother Hel – Halle, Hull, Holland, Hellas, Hillerød, Halland, Helsingborg, and Helsingland (Land blessed by Hel) etc. In the Asir take-over, Grandmother Hel was neither forced to march to Asgård, nor was she wanted there. And for good reasons. War-based PIE religions valuing both murder and dying young, had invented the double exit for the dead. They insisted on a heavenly place for reward, fabricated to motivate young warriors for battle. In Scandinavia Odin set up Valhall (Battlefield Hall). The whole Valhall-idea intended to reflect heavenly and divine values on earth, sanctioning the idealizing of battles and fights, and the duty of loyalty towards authorities. This whole set-up was crucial if to encourage young men to go to battle field and die.[11] For warriors wounded and slain by pointed iron, the realm of Valhall beckoned with its daily combats, nocturnal feasting on beer and pork, and free access to blooming virgins, forever. And to make the idea fully clear, Valhall needed an opposite – and here Hel’s domain came into use. The famous Icelandic writer, Snorri Sturlasons depicts Hel-Vid or Hel-vi as a scary shadow-land, ruled by restlessness, …
(Meet Mago Contributor) Tina Minkowitz

Tina Minkowitz is a lesbian feminist, a human rights lawyer, and a survivor of psychiatry. She contributed significantly to the creation of new norms in international law requiring the abolition of involuntary psychiatric hospitalization and treatment, through her work on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Currently she focuses on transforming society’s response to madness and personal crisis, and promoting comprehensive deinstitutionalization through a reparative justice approach. She is founder and president of the Center for the Human Rights of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry, and her work can be found at www.chrusp.org, https://uio.academia.edu/TinaMinkowitz, and https://tastethespring.wordpress.com/.
(Essay 2) The Role of Castration in the Worship of the Great Mother Goddess Cybele by Francesca Tronetti, Ph.D.

[Author’s Note: This essay and its sequels are part of a longer chapter for a book I am working on. The book is based on my dissertation research at the Maetreum of Cybele in Palenville NY. I wanted to share some of my historical research and I will be presenting more essays on Mother Goddess worship in the ancient world and contemporary interest in the Feminine Divine.] Attis, the son/lover of Cybele was not part of her mythology until around 1000 BCE. It was after this time that the vegetation god Attis was introduced and became part of the legends. The legends which reference Attis are primarily found in the Anatolian worship of Cybele and are believed by Stone to be surviving remnants of the earlier Goddess religion when she was the unnamed Great Mother.[1] While there are multiple variations of the myth of Attis, the most common tale concerning the death of Attis is this. Statue of Galli priest from late 2nd century CE Rome. Wikimedia Commons For Attis, the princely young shepherd of the fields had once been set upon by a lustful monster and, in revulsion and lest he be forced into unfaithfulness to his Holy Mother, tore his genitals from his body and died beneath an evergreen tree while his fallen blood nourished flowers beneath him. There his fallen body lay lifeless until Cybele herself came upon it. She wrapped his mutilated body in mourning cloth and took him, and the tree near which he had died, to the deep, dark cave where she lived on the summit of Mount Ida.[2] In a later myth, Attis resurrects after three days and becomes Cybele’s lover. The Romans were so enamored with Attis that each year they held a festival celebrating Attis’ death and resurrection. However, Attis was not the only figure who underwent castration to show his devotion to his deity. Castration appears in many ancient writings regarding Goddess religions, and there are repeated references to eunuch priests in ancient Sumer, Babylon, Canaan, and Anatolia.[3] The classical texts put the number of eunuch priests as high as five thousand in some cities.[4] In Anatolia, the eunuch priests referred to themselves as Attis to signify their commitment to the Goddess.[5] There are representations of priests in female clothing, such as the eunuch priests are said to have worn, found throughout the Near East. Stone quotes Stylianos Alexiou, former Curator of the Antiquities of Crete, who believes that: The priests and musicians wearing long feminine robes fall into a special category. This practice has led to the surmise that perhaps owing to Syrian influence; there existed companies of eunuch priests in the Cretan palaces. During a later period, the eunuch priests of Cybele and Attis in Asia Minor formed a similar class.[6] According to this theory the males castrated themselves in service to the Goddess. However, some scholars disagree with this interpretation. Stone theorizes that as men began to gain power, possibly as society shifted from egalitarian or matrifocal customs and became more patriarchal, they replaced priestesses even in Goddess religions. The priests may have initially earned their place in the temple by identifying with the Goddess’ castrated son/lover and undergoing castration themselves. Their castration may also have been an attempt to imitate the female priestesses who held power in the temples.[7] G. R. Taylor, who wrote the abridged version of Briffault’s The Mothers, agrees with this interpretation. Taylor writes, “The first step in the limitation of the status of women was to take over from them the monopoly of the religious function.”[8] Graves points out that “All priestly robes, skirts, aprons, sottanas are indeed everywhere of an essentially feminine character.”[9] Another possibility, one supported by the modern Cybeline priestesses, is that some of these men were what we today identify as transsexual or transgender. These men removed their maleness through ritual castration in order to identify as a woman and wear women’s robes. For whatever reason the priests castrated themselves, they did eventually take much of the power from the female priestesses during the Classical Period. However, even as the introduction of the Indo-European sky gods usurped the place of the Goddesses, which were diminished and sometimes changed into evil monsters,[10] humankind could not eliminate the feminine from this new version of the cosmos. The Goddess was kept alive by her inclusion in the male-centered religious pantheons as mothers, wives, daughters, and consorts. Though her ancient function as Mother of All Things was temporarily eliminated during this patriarchal period, mystery cults devoted to the worship of Demeter, Isis, and Cybele did remain active during this time until the rise of Christianity and the closing of the shrines and temples to the Goddess by the fourth century CE.[11] (To be continued) (Meet Mago Contributor) Francesca Tronetti, Ph.D. [1] Stone, When God was a Woman, 146. [2] Leeming, The Oxford Companion to World Mythology, 82–83. [3] Ovid, “Book 4: April 4, The Megalesian Festival of Cybele”; Borgeaud, Mother of the Gods, 48–49; Vermaseren, Cybele and Attis, 115; Stone, When God Was a Woman, 149; Catullus, “The Adventures of Atys” 1894. [4] Stone, When God Was a Woman, 149. [5] Ibid., 149. [6] Ibid., 149. [7] Ibid., 149. [8] Ibid., 150. [9] Briffault, The Mothers, 276. [10] Lemming, The Oxford Companion to World Mythology, 133. [11] Ibid., 133
(Book excerpt) Mother Medusa: Regenerative One by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

An essay from the forthcoming anthology Re-visioning Medusa: from Monster to Divine Wisdom edited by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D., Trista Hendren, and Pat Daly. I first saw Her in myself, and gave voice to Her, after I had given a paper on Women and Religion, at the Women and Labour Conference in Australia in 1980; and the paper had attracted quite a bit of media attention. I felt myself to be seen as She was: that is, as some-thing completely out in and of, the wilderness – though I did not yet correctly name Her: I did not really know who She was at that time. I did not know my heritage then – my Hera-tage: it was only just beginning to emerge from the Great Below. As a method of processing this experience I had a dialogue with Society as an entity. It proceeded thus:
Meet Mago Contributor Ruma Chakravarti

Ruma Chakravarti was born in Africa, had her schooling in India and has lived in six countries. A high school mathematics teacher in her other life, Ruma is an avid blogger, writer and people watcher. Her interests include Rabindranath Tagore, reading, folklore and music, crafts, gardening and films. She currently lives in Adelaide, Australia with her family which includes three children, one dog and one rabbit. Her blogs include: http://animikha.wordpress.com/: Translations of Tagore http://banglarmukh-ruma.blogspot.in/: Translations of other Bengali writers. Published posts from the recent: (Prose poem) Plaiting (Human Rights Day poem) A maid for Mrs X
(Essay 2) The Myriad Faces, Marvelous Powers, and Thealogy of Greek Goddesses by Mara Lynn Keller, Ph.D.

Available at Mago Bookstore [Editor’s Note: This and the forthcoming sequels are originally published in Goddesses in Myth, History and Culture (2018 Mago Books). Part 2 discusses Marija Gimbutas’ restoration of pre-patriarchal Old Europe as a background for matriarchal Greece.] Goddesses of Birth, Nurture, Death, and Regeneration—In Neolithic Greece The archaeologist Marija Gimbutas uncovered societies in Neolithic Old Europe (7000-3500 BCE), including regions of northern Greece that were decidedly different than the later Bronze Age societies of Eastern Europe, in which she was a leading expert. Instead of warrior-king graves (called kurgans) with a male chieftain buried with his weapons and sacrificed wives, children, horses, and gold; in the deeper earth strata, Gimbutas found burials that indicated the peoples were settled, agrarian, egalitarian, artistic, peaceful, goddess-centered, and probably matrifocal and matrilineal. She named these earlier societies of Neolithic Old Europe, “the civilization of the Goddess.” And she called the Old European set of signs and symbols inscribed on many of the artefacts, the “language of the Goddess.” This set of signs and symbols is being studied as the “Danube script;” it is the earliest known form of inscribed communication, dating to circa 5500-2500 BCE.[1] Gimbutas’ Old European studies were published in numerous journal articles and four major books: The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe 6500-3500 BC ([1974] 1983); The Language of the Goddess (1989); The Civilization of the Goddess (1991), edited by Joan Marler; and The Living Goddesses (1999), edited and supplemented by Miriam Robbins Dexter. These works describe the multi-disciplinary academic field and methodology that Gimbutas named archaeomythology. The reconstruction of the pre-Indo-European social structure of Old Europe is possible if various sources from different disciplines are used: linguistics, historical, mythological, religious, archaeological (especially the evidence from cemeteries and settlements). The society was organized around a theacratic, democratic temple community guided by a highly respected priestess and her brother (or uncle). … In all of Old Europe, there is no evidence for the Indo-European type of patriarchal chieftainate.[2] [Figure 1] Artemis, Goddess of Ephesus, many-breasted Cosmic Mother and Mistress of Animals, wearing necklace of zodiac signs and costume of sacred animals, insects, and flowers. Ephesus Archaeological Museum, Selçuk, Turkey. Photo by Diane Martin (2001). By using her methodology of archaeomythology, Gimbutas discovered at her archaeological excavations in northern Greece (at Sesklo and Achilleion),[3] social and religious patterns similar to those she found elsewhere across Europe. She found a preponderance of female and goddess figurines, along with animal, bird, and snake figurines, and a very small minority of male and god figurines. Her analysis of the signs engraved on the female figurines, found in ritual contexts, was the empirical basis for Gimbutas’ characterization of the sacred female iconography as indicating Goddess(es) of Birth and Nurture, Death and Regeneration. She said the artifacts could be interpreted as indicating many goddesses, or as indicating a Great Goddess with many postures.[4] When Gimbutas compared Neolithic Old European finds with those of Bronze Age Europe, she came to the following conclusions: The Old European and Indo-European belief systems are diametrically opposed. The Indo-European society was warlike, exogamic, patriarchal, patrilineal, and patrilocal, with a strong clanic organization and social hierarchy which gave prominence to the warrior class. Their main gods were male and depicted as warriors. There is no possibility that this pattern of social organization could have developed out of the Old European matrilineal, matricentric, and endogamic balanced society. Therefore, the appearance of the Indo-Europeans in Europe represent a collision of two ideologies, not an evolution.[5] It is this thesis of Gimbutas that male and female archaeologists have attempted to disprove, often by arguing, or simply assuming, that patriarchy evolved out of the earlier matriarchal or pre-patriarchal societies and was the next higher stage of evolution and social development. Ecofeminist philosopher-activist Charlene Spretnak critiqued the orchestrated academic backlash against Gimbutas and the thesis, and her ostracism from British and Euro-American archaeology, in her incisive article, “Anatomy of a Backlash: Concerning the Work of Marija Gimbutas.”[6] Gimbutas’ theory of the origins of European civilization in a relatively peaceful, artistic, egalitarian, Goddess-centered, and nature-embedded culture was very controversial for over four decades. Finally, in December of 2017, Gimbutas’ most prominent critic, Sir Colin Renfrew, declared that Gimbutas’ “Kurgan hypothesis” of the invasion of Old Europe by warrior clans from the area of the Eurasian Steppes had been scientifically validated by recent DNA genetic testing. His Gimbutas Memorial Lecture, titled “Marija Rediviva: DNA and Indo-European Origins” [Marjja Renewed/Revived] was presented at the prestigious Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.[7] Goddess thealogian Carol P. Christ quickly responded to his lecture in her Feminism and Religion blog, titled “Marija Gimbutas Triumphant: Colin Renfrew Concedes.” In declaring Marija Gimbutas’s Kurgan hypothesis “magnificently vindicated,” Lord Colin Renfrew, considered by many to be “the grand old man” of his field, opened the floodgates. He implicitly gave permission to other scholars to reconsider all of Gimbutas’s theories and perhaps eventually to restore her to her rightful place as one of the most—if not the most—creative, scientific, ground-breaking archaeologists of the twentieth century, “the grand old lady” of her field.[8] Gimbutas’ Kurgan hypothesis now becomes her Kurgan Theory on the invasion of Old Europe by Indo-European horse-riding nomads. Gimbutas’ work provides a new understanding of the early indigenous origins of European civilization and of the contending social dynamics between Old European and Indo-European cultures, between matricentric and patriarchal values and practices.[9] Cultural historian Riane Eisler names these contrasting social patterns, the “partnership system” and the “dominator system.”[10] (To be continued) [1] Harald Haarman, “A Comparative View of the Danube Script: and Other Ancient Writing Scripts,” in The Danube Script: Neo-Eneolithic Writing in Southeastern Europe, exhibition catalogue, Brukenthal National Museum, Sibiu, Romania and the Institute of Archaeomythology, eds. (Sebastopol, CA: Institute of Archaeomythology, 2008), 15. [2] Marija Gimbutas, Living Goddesses (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999), 125. See also Joan Marler, ”Introduction to Archaeomythology,” ReVision: A Journal of Consciousness and Transformation 23, no. 1 (Summer 2000): 2-4; Mara Lynn Keller, “Archaeomythology as …

(Special Post 2) Multi-linguistic Resemblances of “Mago” by Mago Circle Members

Artwork, “The-great-mother” by Julie Stewart Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: On the word, Magi/Magus, from Magi – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Magi (/ˈmeɪdʒaɪ/; singular magus /ˈmeɪɡəs/; from Latin magus) were priests in Zoroastrianism and the earlier religions of the western Iranians. The earliest known use of the word magi is in the trilingual inscription written by Darius the Great, known as the Behistun Inscription. Old Persian texts, predating the Hellenistic period, refer to a magus as a Zurvanic, and presumably Zoroastrian, priest. Pervasive throughout the Eastern Mediterranean and Western Asia until late antiquity and beyond, mágos was influenced by (and eventually displaced) Greek goēs (γόης), the older word for a practitioner of magic, to include astronomy/astrology, alchemy and other forms of esoteric knowledge. This association was in turn the product of the Hellenistic fascination for (Pseudo‑)Zoroaster, who was perceived by the Greeks to be the Chaldean founder of the Magi and inventor of both astrology and magic, a meaning that still survives in the modern-day words “magic” and “magician”. In the Gospel of Matthew, “μάγοι” (magoi) from the east do homage to the newborn Jesus, and the transliterated plural “magi” entered English from Latin in this context around 1200 (this particular use is also commonly rendered in English as “kings” and more often in recent times as “wise men”).[1] The singular “magus” appears considerably later, when it was borrowed from Old French in the late 14th century with the meaning magician. … An unrelated term, but previously assumed to be related, appears in the older Gathic Avestan language texts. This word, adjectival magavan meaning “possessing maga-“, was once the premise that Avestan maga- and Median (i.e. Old Persian) magu- were co-eval (and also that both these were cognates of Vedic Sanskrit magha-). While “in the Gathas the word seems to mean both the teaching of Zoroaster and the community that accepted that teaching”, and it seems that Avestan maga- is related to Sanskrit magha-, “there is no reason to suppose that the western Iranian form magu (Magus) has exactly the same meaning”[4] as well. But it “may be, however”, that Avestan moghu (which is not the same as Avestan maga-) “and Medean magu were the same word in origin, a common Iranian term for ‘member of the tribe’ having developed among the Medes the special sense of ‘member of the (priestly) tribe’, hence a priest.”[2]cf[3] Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: On the word, Gaia, from Gaia (mythology) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia In Greek mythology, Gaia (/ˈɡaɪə, ˈɡeɪə/ GHY-ə, GAY-ə;[1] from Ancient Greek Γαῖα, a poetical form of Γῆ Gē, “land” or “earth”),[2] also spelled Gaea (/ˈdʒiːə/ JEE-ə),[1] is the personification of the Earth[3] and one of the Greek primordial deities. Gaia is the ancestral mother of all life: the primal Mother Earth goddess. She is the mother of Uranus (the sky), from whose sexual union she bore the Titans (themselves parents of many of the Olympian gods) and the Giants, and of Pontus (the sea), from whose union she bore the primordial sea gods. Her equivalent in the Roman pantheon was Terra.[4] … The Greek name Γαῖα (Gaĩa)[5] is a mostly epic, collateral form of Attic Γῆ[6] (Gê), Doric Γᾶ (Gã, perhaps identical to Δᾶ Dã)[7] meaning “Earth”, a word of uncertain origin.[8] Robert S. P. Beekes has suggested a Pre-Greek origin.[9] In Mycenean Greek Ma-ka (transliterated as Ma-ga, “Mother Gaia”) also contains the root ga-.[9][10] Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: Greek mythology of Gaia’s family tree is remotely evocative of the Magoist genealogy written in the Budoji (Epic of the Emblem City), the principale text of Magoism. In Korean, “Mama” is also an honorary title referring to the royal family including ruler, ruler’s mother, father, grandmother and so on. This suggests that “ma” means “mother,” “ruler,” and “Goddess” all at once in gynocentric/gynocratic (Magoist/Magocratic) societies, pre-patriarchal in origin. Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: I came to search the etymology of “montgomery” in relation to Mt. Mago or Mt. Goya and am led to such related terms as Gomer, Gog, Magog. Montgomery (name) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Montgomery or Montgomerie is a surname from a place name in Normandy.[1] Although there are many stories of its origin,[2][3][4][5] An old theory explains that the name is a corruption of “Gomer’s Mount” or “Gomer’s Hill” (Latin: Mons Gomeris), any of a number of hills in Europe named in attribution to the biblical patriarch Gomer,[2] but it does not explain the final -y or -ie (the phonetical evolution would have been *Montgomers) and it does not correspond to the old mentions of the place name Montgommery in Normandie : Monte Gomeri in 1032 – 1035, de Monte Gomerico in 1040 and de Monte Gumbri in 1046 – 1048.[6] More relevant is the explanation by the Germanic first name Gumarik,[7] a compound of guma “man” (see bridegroom) and rik “powerful”, that regularly gives the final -ry (-ri) in the French first names and surnames (Thierry, Amaury, Henry, etc.). Moreover, the name is still used as a surname in France as Gommery,[8] from the older first name Gomeri.[9] Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: On the word, Gomer below from Wikipedia. Gomer (גֹּמֶר, Standard Hebrew Gómer, Tiberian Hebrew Gōmer, pronounced [ɡoˈmeʁ]) was the eldest son of Japheth (and of the Japhetic line), and father of Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah, according to the “Table of Nations” in the Hebrew Bible, (Genesis 10). The eponymous Gomer, “standing for the whole family,” as the compilers of the Jewish Encyclopedia expressed it,[1] is also mentioned in Book of Ezekiel 38:6 as the ally of Gog, the chief of the land of Magog. Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: On the word, Gog and Magog from Wikipedia. Gog and Magog: They are depicted as monsters and barbarians from the East/Eurasia. Gog and Magog (/ɡɒɡ/; /ˈmeɪɡɒɡ/; Hebrew: גּוֹג וּמָגוֹג Gog u-Magog; Arabic: يَأْجُوج وَمَأْجُوج Yaʾjūj wa-Maʾjūj) are names that appear in the Hebrew bible (Old Testament), the Book of Revelation and the Qur’an, sometimes indicating individuals and sometimes lands and peoples. Sometimes, but not always, they are connected with the “end times”, and the passages from the book of Ezekiel and Revelation in particular have attracted attention for this reason. From ancient times to the late Middle Ages Gog and Magog were identified with Eurasian nomads such as the Khazars, Huns and Mongols (this was true also for Islam, where they were identified first with Turkic tribes of Central Asia and later with the Mongols). Throughout this period they were conflated with various other legends, notably those concerning Alexander the Great, the Amazons, Red Jews, and the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, and became the subject of much fanciful literature. In modern times they remain associated with apocalyptic thinking, especially in the United States and the Muslim world. Helen […]
(Special Post) To Contributors: Strengthening Our Roots by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

Dear Contributors, Do you know that Return to Mago (RTM) E*Magazine is entering its fifth year this fall? And, thanks to our collective effort, we are still growing! As of today, our contributors have grown to more than 130 in number and our readership is from about 140 countries around the world. We have some hundred email followers as well as Wordpress blog followers. We draw 3000-4000 clicks per month on average; that is no small accomplishment for a Goddess blog that is named after a yet-to-be heard word, Mago (the Great Goddess), and that began from scratch.
(Special Post 4) Nine-Headed Dragon Slain by Patriarchal Heroes: A Cross-cultural Discussion by Mago Circle Members

[Editor’s Note: This and the ensuing eight sequels (all nine parts) are a revised version of the discussion that has taken place in The Mago Circle, Facebook group, since September 24, 2017 to the present. Themes are introduced and interwoven in a somewhat random manner, as different discussants lead the discussion. The topic of the number nine is key to Magoism, primarily manifested as Nine Magos or the Nine Mago Creatrix. Mago Academy hosts a virtual and actual event, Nine Day Mago Celebration, annually.] Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: Here is how Goma is known among the ancient Chinese. She is called The Mysterious Woman of the Nine Heavens (Jiutian xuannu). Nine Heavens refer to the confederacy of nine states, Danguk or Nine Hans. Statue of Jiutian Xuannü, Wikimedia Commons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiutian_Xuann%C3%BC Another icon of Jiutian Xuannu below. https://www.tinyatdragon.com/blogs/spiritual/jiu-tian-xuan-nu-mysterious-lady-of-the-nine-heavens?fbclid=IwAR0n1Ld6tmxqTec23Pzg3DxRjEQ-DbjdGF1DU_Jjlt4eMbHdTOO9Jd7ePnc Lizzy Bluebell: Oh – now I see what the Buddha riding the deer was carrying; her Gourd. A very interesting link, thanks.”…these statues in Taoism are not for worshipping or praying. They are like a container, a magic tool, which is used to program the energies into profiles and be used for different things in Taoist magic. The outsiders cannot understand too much, and so these “Taoist secrets” are often hidden from the public in the old days or even today.” Lizzy Bluebell: Very informative passage on the power of the NINE:”Nine is the pattern of giving off power, or using up the energies of things to give off powers, just like a flashlight burning it’s battery up for the light. Sky is the pattern that relates to any pool of resources or elements that are considered the proactive party that is “starting” something or the giving side of a situation.Remember that we talk about patterns in Taoism, and it applies to everything including our FU talismans words and these special terms like Jiu Tian / Gau Tin.A practical example for this term can be used as in if you are trying to go to the kitchen and cook something for lunch. Your “sky” here is all the things in the kitchen, and ground is the kitchen itself where you put the food into “process” them. So the 9-sky stage is to have picked out the food you like and let them show themselves to let you know which one is the best to use, maybe some just smell better or some look fresher to you. Nothing has been done yet, but you are now able to “start” something because you can at least feel and sense the food’s potentials and power.” Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: Lizzy Bluebell, Oh it is gourd. Yes, I forgot about the gourd symbol for Mago/Magu. It is a container for the elixir from which one drinks. It is a common pictographic/literary theme and I have images of Magu with the gourd. Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: Lizzy Bluebell, this is one heuristic analogy. Ancient Magoists depicted/perceived the universe as Nine Heavens, an equivalent to Nine States on earth for it is the lens of Nine Numerology through which they saw everything. Because ancient China removed the history of Goma, they spiritualized/philosophized the teaching of Nine Numerology. If we have Goma’s history (and the mytho-history of Old Magoism), we can perceive the meaning of Nine Heavenly directly (not through theories or analogies). Wherever and whenever the consciousness of Nine Numerology surfaces is a manifestation of Goma’s rule/civilization/religion. This will remain forever insofar as humanity continues because Nine Numerology is the principle of nature including humans. I would say that the teaching/principle of Nine Numerology is Goma’s self-redemptive soteriological gift. Insofar as we understand and honor the Nine Mago Creatrix/Nine Numerology (the female divine in general), we are endowed with the power of self-redemption. Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: Lizzy Bluebell, the character “Xuan or Hyeon 玄” refers to the quality of gynocentric spirituality, which has been made esoteric or mystic. It refers to the spirituality of the Great Goddess (Magoist spirituality). Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: Nine Hans or Nine Heavens manifests in such place-names as Kyūkoku (九国, Nine States). Kyushu (Nine Provinces) Island, Japan, seemingly a replica of Danguk (confederacy of nine states) representing the Nine Mago Creatrix, reflects the ancient glory of the Goma’s gynocentric rule. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyushu Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: Doumu (Mother of the Northern Dipper) also comes in the icon of eight arms. Doumu, Song Dynasty, Wikimedia Commons Domu, Wikimedia Commons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doumu Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: She is often conflated with Marici seated on a boar in her iconography (affine to Gemu of the Mosuo and Durga on a tiger/lion). Here Marici is depicted as four-headed and eight-armed. Marici, Wikimedia Commons Marici (Buddhism) – Wikipedia Judy E Foster: So similar to the Indian Goddess… Helen Hye-Sook Hwang Indeed! I am afraid that we may not be able to feature some of the nine forms of Durga from “Hinduism”. Helen Hye-Sook Hwang There is more, Marici. Marici, Wikimedia Commons File:Marichi, Buddhist Goddess of Dawn, China, Qing dynasty, 18th… Marichi, Source below. Marichi (Buddhist Deity) – Kalpoktam (3 faces, 8 hands)… Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: This is new info. on the nine tripod caldrons of ancient China. “The Nine Tripod Cauldrons (Chinese: 九鼎; pinyin: Jiǔ Dǐng) were ancient Chinese ritual cauldrons. They were ascribed to the foundation of the Xia (c. 2200 bce) by Yu the Great, using tribute metal presented by the governors of the Nine Provinces of ancient China.[1] At the time of the Shang Dynasty during the 2nd millennium bce, the tripod cauldrons came to symbolize the power and authority of the ruling dynasty with strict regulations imposed as to their use. Members of the scholarly gentry class were permitted to use one or three cauldrons; the ministers of state (大夫, dàfū) five; the vassal lords seven; and only the sovereign Son of Heaven was entitled to use nine.[2] The use of the nine tripod cauldrons to offer ritual sacrifices to the ancestors from heaven and earth was a major ceremonial occasion so that by natural progression the ding came to symbolize national political power[3] and later to be regarded as a National Treasure. Sources state that two years after the […]

Imbolc/Early Spring – a Season of Uncertainty by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

Traditionally the Seasonal transition of Imbolc/Early Spring, celebrated in early February in the Northern Hemisphere, and in early August in the Southern Hemisphere, has been a time of nurturing the new life that is beginning to show itself, around us and within. It is a time of committing one’s self to the new life and inspiration – in the garden, in the soul, and in the Cosmos. We may include in our celebrations and contemplations of this Season the beginnings of the new young Cosmos as She was, that time in our cosmic story when She was only a billion years old and galaxies were forming; and also the new which has continually emerged throughout the eons, and is ever coming forth. The flame of being, as it has been imagined by many cultures, within and around, is to be protected and nurtured: the new being requires dedication and attention. In the early stages of its advent, there is nothing certain about its staying power and growth: it may flicker and be vulnerable. There may be uncertainties of various kinds. There is risk and resistance to coming into being. The Universe itself knew resistance to its expansion when it encountered gravitation in our very beginnings, in the primordial Flaring Forth[i]. The unfolding of the Universe was never without creative tension. The Universe knows it daily, in every moment: and we participate in this creative tension of our place of being. Urge to Be budding forth Imbolc/Early Spring can be a time of remembering personal vulnerabilities, feeling them and accepting them, but remaining resolute in birthing and tending of the new, listening for and responding to the Urge to Be[ii]of the Creative Universe within. Brian Swimme has said (quoting cultural anthropologist A.L. Kroeber) that the destiny of the human is not “bovine placidity” but the highest degree of tension that can be creatively born[iii]. many flames of being, strengthening each other These times are filled with creative tension, collectively and for most, personally as well; there is much resistance, yet there is promise of so much good energy arising. We may be witness to both. This Season of Imbolc/Early Spring may encourage attention, intention and dedication to strengthening well-being: in self, and in the relational communal context, and opening to our direct immersion in the Well of Creativity. We may be strengthened with the joining of hands, as well as the listening within to the sacred depths, in ceremonial circle at this time. NOTES: [i]As our origins (popularly named as “the Big Bang”) are named by Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme in The Universe Story. [ii]As I name this determined Virgin quality in PaGaian Cosmology. [iii]The Canticle to the Cosmos, DVD #8, “The Nature of the Human”. References: Livingstone, Glenys. PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. NE: iUniverse, 2005. Swimme, Brian and Berry, Thomas. The Universe Story: From the Primordial Flaring Forth to the Ecozoic Era. New York: HarperCollins, 1992. Swimme, Brian. Canticle to the Cosmos. DVD series, 1990.
A PaGaian Wheel of the Year and Her Creativity by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This essay is an excerpt from Chapter 2 of the author’s new book A Poiesis of the Creative Cosmos: Celebrating Her within PaGaian Sacred Ceremony. for larger image see: https://pagaian.org/pagaian-wheel-of-the-year/ Essentially a PaGaian Wheel of the Year celebrates Cosmogenesis – the unfolding of the Cosmos, none of which is separate from the unfolding of each unique place/region, and each unique being. This creativity of Cosmogenesis is celebrated through Earth-Sun relationship as it may be expressed and experienced within any region of our Planet. PaGaian ceremony expresses this with Triple Goddess Poetry understood to be metaphor for the creative dynamics unfolding the Cosmos. At the heart of the Earth-Sun relationship is the dance of light and dark, the waxing and waning of both these qualities, as Earth orbits around our Mother Sun. This dance, which results in the manifestation of form and its dissolution (as expressed in the seasons), happens because of Earth’s tilt in relationship with Sun: because this effects the intensity of regional receptivity to Sun’s energy over the period of the yearly orbit. This tilt was something that happened in the evolution of our planet in its earliest of days – some four and a half billion years ago,[i] and then stabilised over time: and the climatic zones were further formed when Antarctica separated from Australia and South America, giving birth to the Antarctica Circumpolar Current, changing the circulation of water around all the continents … just some thirty million years ago.[ii] Within the period since then, which also saw the advent of the earliest humans, Earth has gone through many climatic changes. It is likely that throughout those changes, the dance of light and dark in both hemispheres of the planet … one always the opposite of the other – has been fairly stable and predictable. The resultant effect on flora and fauna regionally however has varied enormously depending on many other factors of Earth’s ever-changing ecology: She is an alive Planet who continues to move and re-shape Herself. She is Herself subject to the cosmic dynamics of creativity – the forming and the dissolving and the re-emerging. The earliest of humans must have received all this, ‘observed’ it in a very participatory way: that is, not as a Western industrialized or dualistic mind would think of ‘observation’ today, but as kin with the events – identifying with their own experience of coming into being and passing away. There is evidence (as of this writing) to suggest that humans have expressed awareness of, and response to, the phenomenon of coming into being and passing away, as early as one hundred thousand years ago: ritual burial sites of that age have been found,[iii] and more recently a site of ongoing ritual activity as old as seventy thousand years has been found.[iv] The ceremonial celebration of the phenomenon of seasons probably came much later, particularly perhaps when humans began to settle down. These ceremonial celebrations of seasons apparently continued to reflect the awesomeness of existence as well as the marking of transitions of Sun back and forth across the horizon, which became an important method of telling the time for planting and harvesting and the movement of pastoral animals. It seems that the resultant effect of the dance of light and dark on regional flora and fauna, has been fairly stable in recent millennia, the period during which many current Earth-based religious practices and expression arose. In our times, that is changing again. Humans have been, and are, a major part of bringing that change about. Ever since we migrated around the planet, humans have brought change, as any creature would: but humans have gained advantage and distinguished themselves by toolmaking, and increasingly domesticating/harnessing more of Earth’s powers – fire being perhaps the first, and this also aided our migration. In recent times this harnessing/appropriating of Earth’s powers became more intense and at the same time our numbers dramatically increased: and many of us filled with hubris, acting without consciousness or care of our relational context. We are currently living in times when our planet is tangibly and visibly transforming: the seasons themselves as we have known them for millennia – as anyone’s ancestors knew them – appear to be changing in most if not all regions of our Planet. Much predictable Poetry – sacred language – for expressing the quality of the Seasonal Moments will change, as regional flora changes, as the movement of animals and birds and sea creatures changes, as economies change.[v]In Earth’s long story regional seasonal manifestation has changed before, but not so dramatically since the advent of much current Poetic expression for these transitions, as mixed as they are with layers of metaphor: that is, with layers of mythic eras, cultures and economies. We may learn and understand the traditional significance of much of the Poetry, the ceremony and symbol – the art – through which we could relate and converse with our place, as our ancestors may have done, but it will continue to evolve as all language must. In PaGaian Cosmology I have adapted the Wheel as a way of celebrating the Female Metaphor and also as a way of celebrating Cosmogenesis, the Creativity that is present really/actually in every moment, but for which the Seasonal Moments provide a pattern/Poetry over the period of a year – in time and place. The pattern that I unfold is a way in which the three different phases/characteristics interplay. In fact, the way in which they interplay seems infinite, the way they inter-relate is deeply complex. I think it is possible to find many ways to celebrate them. There is nothing concrete about the chosen story/Poetry, nor about each of the scripts presented here, just as there is nothing concrete about the Place of Being – it (She) is always relational, a Dynamic Interchange. Whilst being grounded in the “Real,” the Poetry chosen for expression is therefore at the same time, a potentially infinite expression, according to the heart and mind of the storyteller. NOTES: [i] See Appendix C, *(6), Glenys Livingstone, A Poiesis of the Creative …
Happy New Year, Year 2/5916 Magoma Era! by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

“The Bell of King Seongdeok, known as the Emille Bell, a massive bronze bell at 19 tons is the largest in Korea.” Wikimedia Commons. Cast in 771, the bell reenacts the music of whales to remind people of the Female Beginning, the self-creative power innate all beings. Today is Day 2 of the New Year in the reconstructed Magoist Calendar characterized by 13 months per year and 28 days per month. We are heading toward the Solstice that falls on Dec. 21/22 (Day 5 of the first month in the Magoist Calendar), which happens to be the day of the first full moon of Year 2. Below is the details about the Magoist Calendar. https://www.magoacademy.org/2018/03/27/magoist-calendar-13-month-28-day-year-1-5915-me-2018-gregorian-year/ The Gregorian year 2018 marks a watershed in that we began to implement the Magoist Calendar. The Magoma Era is based on the onset of the nine-state confederacy of Danguk (State of Dan, the Birth Tree) traditinally dated 3898 BCE-2333 BCE. We just passed Year 1 or 5915 Magoma Era (the Gregorian 2018). For Year 1, we had the New Year Day on December 18 of 2017, the first new moon day before the December Solstice. That makes December 18 of 2017 our lunation 1, the first lunar year that the reconstructed Magoist Calendar determines its first day of the Year 1! Although relatively short in history, the Mago Work began to celebrate the Nine Day Mago Celebration on the day of December Solstice annually since 2015. With the reconstructed Magoist Calendar, we placed it in its due timeframe, the Ninth Month and the Ninth Day, which fell on August 8, 2018 (US PST) and celebrated it for the first time according to the Magoist Calendar. Apparently, this had to be a mid-Summer event. This left us with another seasonal event, the New Year/Solstice Celebration. For Year 2, we hold the 3 Day New Year/Solstice Celebration on December 20, 21, and 22 (December 22 to be the Solstice Dat in PST) and the Virtual Midnight Vigil as a precussor to the New Year Day. http://www.magoacademy.org/2018/07/17/2018-5915-magoma-era-year-1-nine-day-mago-celebration/ https://www.magoacademy.org/home-2/new-year-solstice-celebrations/ We just greeted the Year 2 by holding the event called Virtual Midnight Vigil during which we sounded the Korean temple bell, in particular the Emile Bell or the Divine Bell of King Seongdeok the Great, to the world. A few from around the globe (Germany, Korea, Italy and the US) participated in it or hosted their own local vigils. The Korean temple bell is the key symbol for the Magoist Calendar as well as the Magoist Cosmogony. It is not a coincidence that it is struck on the midnight of the New Year’s Eve. It is Korean tradition that even modern Koreans gather at the bell tower in Seoul to hear the sound of the bell at midnight. And these bells are gigantic weighing 19 tons in the case of the Emile Bell. That this convention has an ancient Magoist root remains esoteric. For not only they strike the bell 28 times in the evening indicating the 28 lunar stations that the Moon stops by in the sky throughout the year (please read below what the 28 day lunar journey means and how it is represented by women). But also the Korean temple bell is no mere acoustic device to play the beautiful sound only. It is designed to reenact the Magoist Cosmogony. https://www.magoacademy.org/2018/12/14/virtual-midnight-vigil-dec-17-2018-to-new-year-year-2-5916-magoma-era/ That said, that is not what’s all about the Korean Magoist convention of welcoming the New Year by sounding the temple bell, however. That the bell sound is a mimicry of the music of whales has been in the hand of wisdom seekers! Ancient Korean bells testify that whales are with us in the journey of the Moon and her terrestrial dependents headed by women. You may like to hear the sound of the Magoist Korean whale bell included in the Participation Manual for Virtual Midnight Vigil below. Happy New Year to all terrestrial beings in WE/HERE/NOW! https://www.magoacademy.org/2018/12/16/participation-manual-for-virtual-midnight-vigil-year-2/
(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.
(Photography & Poetry) Thoughts of Spring by Deanne Quarrie

Spring At the highest point on the tree, you stretch, reaching for the sun. Your pink petals elegant in their grace, you stand alone. Bravest of all, for leaves have yet to come to offer shade Branches bare except for furry buds that will soon follow in imitation of your daring first move. Intrepid flower of Spring, I feel like you in my yearning for the Sun!
Samhain: Stepping Wisely through the Open Door by Carolyn Lee Boyd

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

(2015 Mago Pilgrimage) Neuk-do (Serpent Island) by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

I wanted to visit Neuk-do because of the Mago story told in the region. Its name Neuk-do, which means the Serpent Island (구렁이섬), whispers a deep memory of the gynocentric past. However, people today seem to be oblivious to this. Our guides did not inform us of the meaning of the island’s name. I relished being surrounded by an air of mystery about the island during our visit. Also I was drawn to Neuk-do because it is under the administration of Sacheon City. The place-name, Sacheon (泗川 or 四川 Xichuan in Chinese), is no unknown place in the mytho-history of Magoism. Like many other place-names, “Sacheon,” recurs in both present-day China and the Korean peninsula. They, although written in slightly different characters, concern Magoism (stories, place-names, or topographies). In the case of the Chinese “Sacheon,” Magoism is systematically suppressed and replaced by Daoism. Today China boasts of Xichuan Province as a birthplace of Daoism. Mt. Qingcheng (青城山) in Dujiangyan City, is known as one of the ancient Daoist centers. Our data are, albeit often sketchy, ample to indicate the importance of Mt. Qingcheng in Daoist history. It is a place wherein Zhangling (34-156) or Zhang Daoling, the founder of Tianshi (天師 Celestial Master) Daoism, founded the doctrine of Daoism and died. Yellow Emperor, the pre-dynastic hero of the third millennium BCE, is commemorated. The Temple of Eternal Dao(常道觀 Changdao Guan) located in Mt. Qingcheng is noted for its oldest hall, the Shrine of the Yellow Emperor, built during the Sui dynasty (605-618).[i] Also the place-name, Dujiangyan(都江堰), reflects the ancient irrigation system originally constructed in circa 256 BCE during the Qin dynasty.[ii] Alongside a number of Daoist temples extant today, there are Magoist place-names and topographies, Magu Cave (麻姑洞 Magu-dong) and Magu Lake (麻姑池 Magu-chi) also known as Heavenly Lake (天池). Located adjacent to Shangqing Palace (上清宫 Supreme Clarity Palace), Magu Lake has a story that Magu collected water for her alchemical practice.[iii] “Mago” is alternatively used with “Cheon (Heaven, 天 Tian in Chinese),” as is in “Heavenly Lake.” As in other places, such Magoist place-names in Xichuan have survived Chinese mytho-historiography that has obliterated pre-Chinese Magoism and replaced it with Daoism. Note that Magu is never articulated as the Creatrix in Chinese historiography, whereas her supremacy is adumbrated in Chinese folklore and place-names. Chinese mytho-historiography has paid the price for its matricide: Its origin will never be explained. To say that Xichuan is a Daoist birthplace is a misleading. Xichuan is a pre-Daoist center of Magoism whose origin possibly dates to the time of Danguk (3898-2333 BCE). From the Korean sources, fortunately, we are able to assess that Xichuan was a place of significance from pre-Dangun times. According to the Handan Gogi (Archaic Histories of Han and Dan), Daeeup extant today near Mt. Qingcheng, Xichuan Province, was a place wherein Dangun began her career. The Handan Gogi reads, “Dangun began her career in Daeeup (大邑 Great Town, Dayi in Chinese). All people feared and obeyed her virtue as a divine being. When she was at age 14 in the year of Gapjin (2357 BCE), Sovereign Ungssi, upon hearing her divine virtue, appointed her as Biwang (Auxiliary Ruler) to administrate Daeeup (Great Town) [Female connoting words are mine].”[iv] Thomas Yoon points out that Daeeup is not a fictitious place-name but an actual site extant today in Chengdu, Sichuan.[v] Mr. Kigap Kang, former politician but now an orchard owner who experiments with nature-based farming for fruit trees in Sacheon City, arranged our meeting with the Director of the Sacheon City Cultural Center. The Director alongside his companion met us in his office. They told us Neuk-do’s stories of Mago Halmae. Then, we drove to the road off the shore where we could look out across the stepping stones in the sea that were said to have been placed by Mago Halmae. The tide was high and we could see only the tips of rocks. I could see the island across the adjoining water. Neuk-do had unusual topography as it was an elongated island conjoined by two mountainous isles. From such topography the name, the Serpent Island, may have derived. Houses are populated in the conjoined area. We drove to Neuk-do via a modern bridge with the hope of running into someone who could guide us to the site of Mago stepping stones. A native of Neuk-do, our guide-to-be, happened to be right there, when we got off the car. Mr. Gyeung Jang, a 61 year-old fisherman and native of Neuk-do, showed us the site in the sea where Mago is said to have placed stepping stones. Due to the high tide, we could only see the top parts of Mago’s stepping stones upper edge over the waterline. He also led us to peeking Mago Halmi’s washing laundry rock and estimated its size to be about two meters high at the low tide. He added, Mago Halmi was so tall and giant that she needed a tall rock. The motif that the giant Mago Hami carried a boulder to construct standing stones or dolmens and the story of Mago’s laundry rock commonly recur in other regions. During dinner at a seafood restaurant in Neuk-do, our conversations grew. Mr. Jang informed us of the fact that the whole island of Neuk-do is designated as a cultural and notable site by the province and the state. Its archaeological unearthing began in the early 1980s and has brought out numerous multi-period findings (about 13,000 items) ranging from the Neolithic to the early Iron Age. The unearthed include shell mounds, house sites, human and animal burials, pottery, and daggers that originated from not only Korea but also Yayoi Japan and Nangnang China. As such, Neuk-do has come to be known as a site of ancient transnational maritime centers in East Asia.[6] As I write this, the Mago story turns out to have several versions. I will share three versions here. In one account, Mago Halmae, so tall and giant, walked around the sea. She brought rocks …
(Bell Essay 5) The Ancient Korean Bell and Magoism by Helen Hwang

Part V: The Nine Nipples and Korean Magoist Identity Part V demonstrates the difference in bells of Korea, China, and Japan with regard to the relief of nine nipples. Chinese bells after the Han dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE) got away with the nipples wholesale, whereas Japanese bells inaccurately mimicked nine nipples. On the other hand, the nine nipples continued to be sculpted on Sillan Korean bells and throughout history. In fact, the nine nipples became the hallmark of Korean bells. Why did post-Han China discontinue the nine nipples, a legacy from Shang and Zhou times? What made Japan mimic the nipples on the bell? What does it mean that Korean bells kept the nine nipples intact throughout history? These questions remain unanswered without the framework of the mytho-history of Old Magoism that defines ancient Korea as the creator and defender of Magoism in pre- and proto-Chinese times. The fact that bells with the nine nipples re-emerged during 7th-8th century Silla (57 BCE-935 CE) is no accident. In fact, it supports the premise that Old Magoism during which Magoist female shamans ruled was revived by Sillan leaders. Silla Koreans took the role of witness to the legacy of Old Magoism before it vanished into the subliminal memory of history once and for all. Like other symbols of the number nine such as the nine dragons, nine-tailed fox, and nine maidens that I have shown in a series of preceding essays, the nine nipples are the cultural/conceptual relic from the bygone Magoist history underlying Sinocentric historiography of East Asia. On one level, the relief of nipples forged on the bells from Korea, China, and Japan in one way or another at some point of history substantiates the cultural influence of Old Magoism across the national boundaries of East Asia. On another level, the fact that the nine nipples characterize Korean bells throughout history suggests the primary association of ancient Koreans with Magoism. Korean bells have served the mission of carrying the cultural memory of Old Magoism. Let us backtrack a bit and ask: Is it possible to conclude that the Zhou bell was the original model of the Sillan bell? It is dubious to deem that the Sillan bell took the model of the Zhou bell solely. That is primarily because the Sillan bell is far more explicit than the Zhou bell in female symbology. The Zhou bell’s nipples are not even called nipples. Foremost, official history of ancient China has no explanation for the female principle embodied in the nine nipples of Zhou and Shang bells. It appears that the Han dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE) was the landmark that defined China without regard to its attitude toward Old Magoism. The umbilical cord was not only cut off but also used to matricide, marking the birth of full-fledged patriarchy. The bloody hand was washed in falsified historiography. The Han dynasty marks the period of transition from the pseudo-Magoist to the anti-Magoist for China. In other words, China as a political force began, or rather continued, to abandon the legacy of Old Magoism and forged a new identity of patriarchal rulership in writing. In about four centuries thereafter, we find the bells of the Dang dynasty (618-906) utterly non-traditional in style, showing no sign of female symbology. Bell, Chen Dynasty (575), China Jingyun Bell, Tang Dynasty (711), China Protruded knobs are expressed in Jingyun bell cast in 711 CE but hard to associate them with nipples. The number nine symbology is no longer included. Instead, the magnitude in size and weight (247 cm and 6,500 kg) was there to adumbrate what has gone into oblivion, the magical work of epiphany. Discontinuity between Zhou bells and Dang bells cannot be more overt. As seen in above images, Chinese bells of the post-Dang period are adorned in entirely new styles among which the convoluted end-lines are one of the most distinctive features. Creativity without harmony is no ingenuity but an expression of confusion. Power without harmony is only a disguise of fear and guilt. And harmony comes from the Great Goddess, Mago. The contrast of the Dang bell is heightened when it is juxtaposed with the contemporaneous Sillan counterpart. It is unequivocal that the Sillan Korean bell is closer to the Zhou bell in appearance than the Dang bell to the Zhou bell. Experts may deem this as a corollary that ancient Silla was under the influence of Zhou culture. However, I suggest that both Silla and Zhou took the footstep of the pre-Chinese tradition of Old Magoism. Put differently, there were older models that are not fully exposed at this time. Precisely, Sinocentric thinking is under investigation. On the part of proto-Chinese Korean history, according to mainstream historians, Joseon (2333 BCE-232 BCE) is rendered a myth lacking historicity. Silla not only duly inherited the heritage of Old Magoism but also sought to revive the rule of Old Magoism whose political stance strikingly differed from her contemporaneous neighboring state, Dang China. In fact, the Dang dynasty (618 CE-906 CE) coexisted with the united Silla period (668 CE-936 CE), shorter than the last third of the Silla period (57 BCE-935 CE). What prevents one from thinking that Silla inherited the symbolism of nine nipples directly from pre-Chinese East Asian/Korean Magoist Culture? Interestingly, Japanese bells have nipples whose numbers are, nonetheless, inconsistent, more than nine. While showing no overt symbology of female sexuality, the Japanese bell displays the nipples in the four corners aligning with its predecessors. In comparison with Korean bells, nonetheless, they are evidently monotonous in artistry. Absent are the breast circumferences as well as the seats for nipples. Neither goddess images nor intricately designed rinceau designs are employed. However, a hue of mimicry is echoing. The lack of originality in Japanese bells seemed plainly noticed by the Japanese themselves upon encountering Korean bells. More than fifty Korean bells were taken to Japan during the colonial period (1910-1945) and even before then and still remain there. Among them, six bells are known from Silla, cast before the 10th century CE. In fact, the bell in Unjuji, Japan, is alleged …
(Essay 3) Making the Gynocentric Case: Mago, the Great Goddess of East Asia, and Her Tradition Magoism by Helen Hwang

[Editor’s note: Numbers of endnotes differ from the original ones in the article] Claiming the Budoji (Epic of the Emblem City) as a Principal Text of Magoism The Budoji (Epic of the Emblem City) stands out from other sources for its systemic and refined mytho-historical account of Old Magoism. Alleged to have been written in between the late fourth and early fifth century of Silla Korea (57 BCE-918 CE), the Budoji is the Sillan testimony to the history of Budo (Emblem City), a replica of Mago’s Citadel. It is a book that summons ancient Koreans to remember the glorious history of their Magoist ancestors particularly Budo, better known as Dangun Choson Korea (2333 BEC-232 BEC). Budo’s construction and administration in East Asia for nearly two millennia are attributed to the leadership of Imgeom or Dangun. She is the third of the triad sovereigns of Old Magoism after Hanin and Hanung. Designating the civilization of Budo as a direct successor of its previous civilization Sinsi (Divine Market) attributed to the leadership of Hanung, the Budoji traces the Magoist pedigree of pre-patriarchal civilizations ultimately back to Mago and her paradisiacal community, Mago’s Citadel.[i] Composed of thirty-three chapters, its epical narrative is replete with unheard but resonant concepts and symbols such as cosmic music, triad, parthenogenesis, mountain paradisiacal community, genealogy, and so on. Among others, the Budoji unleashes one most fascinating cosmogonic account yet-to-be-known, the story of Mago’s beginning.[ii] Mago, emerged by the cosmic music alongside the stars in the primordial time, began her procreation. Then she initiates the natural process of self-creation. She had her offspring to procreate and asked them to administer the paradisiacal community in Mago’s Citadel. She is the cosmic being who listens to the rise and fall of the cosmic music. The primary task of Mago’s community was to produce Earthly musical resonance that corresponds with the music of the universe. The sonic balance between the universe and the Earth is absolutely essential to the survival and prosperity of the earthly community.[iii] The Budoji not only makes it possible to recognize a large corpus of transnational primary sources as coherent within the context of Magoism but also enables the researcher to understand erosion, variation, and mutation wrought on individual data in the course of history. Budoji’s mytho-historical framework is particularly crucial in assessing the large number of folkloric and topological data that are otherwise seen anomalous or corrupted. For example, the stories that Mago lived in a rock or Mago carried large boulders on her limbs and built megalithic structures find resonance in Budoji’s narratives. Its accounts concerning rocks and landmasses are too complex to present here. Some examples are: Mago began her act of creation by moving and dropping a heavenly landmass and into heavenly water; Magoist sovereigns became rocks that made resonating sounds upon death. In short, Magoism animates pre-Chinese history of East Asia otherwise labeled as “primitive societies.” It entertains the idea that animism and shamanism are not isolated practices but the older religious forms of Magoism.