May 23, 2022May 15, 2022 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Tribute 1) In Loving Memory of Eve Helene Wilkowitz by Jack Dempsey, Ph.D.

She was not a document. She was not a number or a photograph. Not an abstract idea or a madman’s fantasy. She was flesh and blood. —Susan Griffin, Pornography and Read More …

(Essay) Winter Solstice Repose by Sara Wright

I awaken to the lovely song of my dove who is coaxing up the dawn as the turning of the wheel is occuring. When I go outside to feed the birds I gaze up into the giant cottonwood tree in the east studded with stars in the predawn sky. Arcturus and Jupiter are brilliant against a velvet blue firmament. I listen for the owls… Last night anticipating tonight’s bonfire down by the river, I celebrated my ritual in our bird room with its blue green lights to honor the Earth and a crown of candles to honor the women of myth who wear them at this turning. The effect was stunning – the crown and the lights, the burning white sage sanctifying this space. A bruised deep pink and purple sky soon caught fire outside my window. My rituals are simple and each is written according to the inner dreaming self who directs these seasonal turnings of the wheel. As I blessed my dogs, my bird, myself with river water, I allowed my present grief to flow through me… every year it’s the same this mixture of sadness and gratitude. Yesterday morning I awakened with an image of a perfect round red cedar tree slice that somehow had the four directions or the equilateral cross superimposed over it, and yet the circular tree also contained the cross…In the dream this image was attached to an entire tree and someone was telling me that I needed to find a way to separate one slab from the whole supine trunk of the tree because this was my piece. Reflecting on this dream I was struck by the double meaning of the cross and the four directions…. The cross indicating suffering and death perhaps, the four directions signifying life and a “good red road.” The fact that the trunk was one of great girth the sense I had was that I was participating in a mythical reality of Oneness, and that my piece of tree trunk held one piece of the tale just as the rest of the tree held the whole. It was enough, and all day I carried this story in my heart. Winter Solstice is a time to rest, a time to reflect, a time to seek repose. “Winter Woman” is very much with me as is the prayer that I might lean into her stillness to find my own sense of peace. In my mind I see Freya, the Snow Goddess with a crown of stars on her head flying across the frozen tundra in her chariot, rabbits leaping over snowdrifts as they lead their goddess on… This winter season like every other is a gift that Nature offers – it is always our choice to embrace what is, and I am grateful to be alive to make this choice. Blessings to All (Meet Mago Contributor) Sara Wright
(Essay 2) Poet as Initiate: A Rebirth of the Goddess & The Darkmother in Women’s Poetry in the 70’s by Louisa Calio

Poet as Initiate: A Rebirth of the Goddess & The Darkmother in Women’s Poetry in the 70’s[i] (for my mother Rosa) “She is you, she is me, she is our mother’s murmurings, chantings, hummings all her days”[ii] Rites of Isis When I first wrote those lines in the early 1970’s, I hadn’t yet named the process going on within me, nor had I discovered the works of Lucia Chiavola Birnbaum, which would link the dark mother to my own Sicilian and Neapolitan heritage, as well as our collective African roots. I had seen my life undergoing major transitions, a divorce, job loss, a descent, as well as explorations into new and submerged territories of learning, a “remembering” of African culture and religion as well as a reconnection to people from Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia. In the grips of powerful unconscious forces, I was called to renewal or Initiation. Turning inward for guidance, I felt drawn to a copy of E.A. Wallis Budge’s Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection. There was the image of the great eye I had been drawing since I was a child. There was the name of the Goddess who was initiating me: Isis! Hers was the story of a feminine deity who was making herself; not a cursed and sinful female ancestor like Eve, but a powerful and inspired dark mother who dared to call upon the sun god, Ra, for her equal place in the universe, as well as for a healing of her beloved, Osiris, and their child, Horus. Here was an earlier trinity, with a powerful female deity that saw man as her brother and was putting the pieces of their broken soul back together for all humanity’s benefit.[iii] These ideas were simultaneously emerging in other women poets, artists, writers, historians, dancers, and mothers as well in the late sixties and early seventies. This is well documented now, but was not so then. On reflection, this was a very lonely and perilous passage especially as evidenced in poets like Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton. Initiation, even when guided by instinct and archetypal memory, challenges the stability of the ego and one’s sanity. Yet, it seemed as if a seed, planted by our ancestors and the dark mother a millennia ago was bursting forth and about to give birth. Poetry is also a way of knowing, much like dreaming. The poet/artist lives at the borderlands where inner revelation meets outer experience. She values the inner and imaginary, because it is the source of creativity. Poetry explores the far reaches of the psyche and the depths of feeling in a heightened language carried by breath. At its best, we can call poetry a language of the soul. Many women were wrestling with issues of soul proportion and daring to express the most personal and intimate experiences of being human and female in our time. After two thousand years of patriarchy, a history marked with periods of persecution, witch burning, torture, severe punishment and repression of all dark others, especially women, the silence was about to be broken wide open. While occasionally women writers of the past from Emily Dickinson to Virginia Woolf in her important essay, “A Room of One’s Own,” called out for soul space in our lives, room for the meditative, for process rather than product, as well as respect for the feminine voice, their calls were not widely heard; too many like Woolf were buried under severe depression and covered by a legacy of Victorian artifice and politeness. The accumulated pain of generations, once hidden by conformity, silence, and acquiescence to tribal order and false “codes of honor”(see Daniela Gioseffi’s poem “Bicentennial Anti-Poem for Italian-American Women”)[iv] that buried acts of violence against women in deep depression, mental illness and silent suffering, seemed to reach a critical mass in the late 1960’s, and as the work of Dr. Chiavola Birnbaum fully documents,[v] began to give voice to what eventually became a feminist spiritual movement and its poetry. While initiation in ancient times took place in the temple after many years of preparation, modern women poets of the spirit often began their journeys unconsciously, the result of years of inner turmoil and outer situations with people who did not validate them. Whether their initial quest was for love, friendship, a mate, to understand oneself or simply bear one’s pain, these women journeyed into the caves of their unconscious rousing the sleeping demons of the soul. Often unprepared for a spiritual ordeal, the poet was driven inward by an energy larger than herself; if she survived the encounter, she could pull from the deep, the new image and energy from which to create, heal and continue. In the words of the Jungians, these writers were engaged in a “re-mythologizing of their lives,” a search for meaning that led to a rediscovery of our relationship to the Great Mother and the Greater Mysteries which address the larger purpose for which we are born. Two pioneering poets who contributed to an earlier evolution of the feminine communal soul were Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton.[vi] Their works preceded the new wave by more than ten years and are discussed in an earlier essay, “Rebirth of the Goddess- Part I”. Daniela Gioseffi, Diane Di Prima, Ntozake Shange, Alice Walker, Starhawk and myself were some of the poets who found that protesting and rebelling, though important for exposing the evils of lopsided patriarchy, were not enough to heal them. To heal, one had to confront, time and again, the collective negative beliefs about the feminine and their brutal manifestations, and then transform them one by one within. In the late 1950’s, the dark mother had not yet been renamed or celebrated. SHE was still locked in stone, a “Stasis in darkness/substanceless blue…”[vii] or a distant intellectual ideal of ancient history, or distorted into a literal Virgin or sinful Eve. While the new poets also experienced a deep despair over the old values of patriarchy and the abuses it spawned, they did …
(Essay) The August Moon and the Virgin Mary by Harita Meenee

To a Greek person, the word “August” brings two things to mind. One is the August moon. Captivating and erotic, we observe it with awe as it spreads its glow on the dark sea waters. It keeps on striking a chord. Strange? Not at all since the moon is a powerful archetypal symbol. Myths, which speak the language of the soul, adore it. Almost all peoples and cultures have created traditions and beliefs related to it. Though it might be easy to reject lunar lore as mere superstition, we cannot deny that the moon captures our imagination. My own relationship with it is deeply personal. My pseudonym, Meenee, is a variant of mene, an ancient Greek word for the moon. It is also another name for Selene, the Moon Goddess. “Taurokeros (Bull-horned) Mene” she is called in the Orphic Hymn 9, which sings her praises: “Mother of time, bringer of fruit … all-seeing … jewel of the night, leader of stars,with your long mantle you travel in spirals, all-wise maiden…” I’ve spent endless hours studying the symbolism of the moon, and yet it still seems to hide many secrets. Perhaps it’s because of its associations with the three greatest mysteries of life: birth, love and death. The moon “is born” and “dies” again each month, following a never-ending cycle: waxing, full moon, and waning. For a night it completely disappears from the sky and then it pops up again in the form of a thin crescent. One could hardly find a more apt symbol of rebirth. The earth’s satellite teaches something that we all too often forget: everything in life comes full circle and ends, but after that happens, something new arrives to takes the place of the old. Death is often followed by new birth. Maybe that’s why the moon became associated with goddesses who protect childbirth, like Artemis, as well as with figures connected to the Underworld, such as Hekate. Furthermore, lunar symbolism often accompanies Mother Goddesses, such as Isis and Artemis Ephesia. It’s not surprising if you think that the monthly journey of the moon lasts 29.5 days, approximately as much as a menstrual cycle. That’s why it was connected with the concepts of fertility and motherhood. Interestingly, anthropologists who travelled to remote places discovered that such beliefs had survived until recent years. For example, Greenlanders as well as some of the people in Nigeria attributed to the moon the power to cause pregnancy. The same was believed by the Buryats of Western Mongolia. Similarly, the Maori, natives of New Zealand, thought that the real husband of a woman is the moon. The Moon in Christianity and Islam Up to this day, the role of the moon remains alive in many traditions. For example, the crescent adorns Muslim mosques. Let’s not forget that this shape, often accompanied by a star, was a symbol of Hekate and of the ancient city of Byzantium, whose protectress she was. The Roman Emperor Constantine made Byzantium into his new capital, renaming it Constantinople, after himself. Thus, the symbol of the crescent moon was passed on to the Christianized empire that historians call Byzantine. We can see this symbol on coins, as well as in churches and on icons. Sometimes the accompanying star has been changed into a cross. Yet the crescent moon is a very ancient symbol, used not just by Greeks but also by many other peoples, such as the Babylonians, Persians and Phoenicians. The combination of crescent and star also appears on pre-Islamic coins of South Arabia. Moreover, it was used by Pre-Islamic Turkic nations such as the Göktürks, who lived in medieval Inner Asia. When the Ottoman Empire succeeded the Byzantine, the Turks made the crescent its central emblem. It didn’t take a big leap for it to become the symbol of Islam, which has been called “Religion of the Crescent Moon.” Christianity did not altogether abandon this age-old shape. In the biblical Book of Revelation we encounter a mysterious figure: “A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.” (XII, I) The Catholic Church identifies this cosmic being with the Virgin Mary, the “Queen of Heaven,” who is sometimes depicted standing on a crescent. Interestingly, in 2011, Catholic residents of Goa in India claimed that they could see an apparition of hers with baby Jesus on the moon. That caused them to panic, thinking that the vision was a bad omen signaling the end of the world! The Church had to adopt Pagan symbols in order to become more palatable to the people it conquered. I was raised as a Christian Orthodox, yet I never felt much of an affinity for this religion. As a child and teenager, I kept turning my eyes towards the Hellenic goddesses and gods I saw in books and museums. As an adult, I was fascinated to discover the many ancient elements incorporated into what was supposed to be the “one and only true religion.” I saw how in Eastern Orthodoxy Mary had clearly become a Christianized version of the Divine Mother. Naturally, she had also taken on the mysterious glow of the moon. During the Great Saturday (Easter Eve) service, she is called tekousa selene, the moon that gave birth to the “Savior, the sun of justice.” Orthodox images associating her with the crescent are rare, but they do exist. One example is the Galaktotrophousa, the Nursing Madonna, painted by the Cretan artist Emmanuel Tzanfournaris in the 16th century. Painted in Byzantine style, it depicts Mary sitting on a large crescent. Another interesting icon, which has become very popular because it is considered miraculous, is Our Lady of the Gate of Dawn. The original image, also known as the Virgin Mary of Ostrobramska, is located in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. She appears to emerge from a large silver crescent; it was not a part of the original painting but …
I Made an Aroma Cone: Female Power and the Immerse Aroma Experience by Claire Dorey

Art by Claire Dorey Follows Understanding Tanit through Felt Experience, Visualising the Energy in Hathor’s Temple , Girls On Top , and A Bun in the Oven Scent is transcendental. Aroma, memory and emotion intertwine like serpents coiling around the wrists of the Goddess. Fragrance lifts the veil to the limbic system, to the amygdala and hippocampus, where emotion and memory are stored. Whether floral, citrus, musk, exotic or spicy the perception of scent is a holistic one, as tangible as touch, triggering floods of memory, taking us from our current mental state to another place entirely. Great temples built to honour the Female Divine used perfume to raise mass consciousness. My desire to understand the relationship between rising Female Power and Sacred Triangle symbolism leads me to the Aroma Cone – a fashion statement or deeply spiritual experience where an etheric perfumed aura veils the body? Can I permeate the ancient psyche if I wear one and who – Goddess or Queen – will be invoked when I do so? Just like that I’m flown to the Queen Bee. The Bee pictogram, symbol of royalty, precedes Queen Hatshepsut’s signature. According to historians the Aroma Head Cone first appeared in artwork during her reign 1479 – 1458 BC. There are images of musicians and seated women sharing fragrant cups, perfumed lotus blooms and symbolic fabric strips, wore beeswax Aroma Cones, as dancers waft through veils of fragrance, gyrating hips releasing energy – rhythm and aroma lifting the veil to Divine Feminine consciousness. The Bee Dance was an intoxicating Egyptian dance and dance is how bees communicate where the nectar is. Most figurative images, dawn and sculptural, in ancient Egyptian art are formulaic. Their structure can be broken down into a series of triangles implying they are divine units with a specific role within their mythological system. Images of dancers and musicians tend to be free flowing, implying they are on the outside – perhaps as energy agitators. Ancient Egyptians linked the nectar of consciousness with perfume, flowers, music, ritualistic dance, honey, bees and beeswax. Magical beeswax was used to create effigies for ritual so presumably the beeswax cone had great spiritual significance. “One of the earliest instances of the magical use of wax is in the Westcar Papyrus.” – Hilda Ransome, The Sacred Bee in Ancient Times and Folklore. Bees were considered to be the tears of Ra; Egypt was the Land of the Bee; the Queen or King was the Beekeeper; honey was the Nectar of the Gods and it was used as currency; the ka-soul was imagined as both bee and bird; the voices of souls were thought of as bees; and the golden apples of immortality ripened in the sacred Garden of the Bee. “When Ra weeps [ ] the ground turns into working bees. [ ] wax and honey come into being.” – Salt Magical Papyrus (The Sacred Bee: Ancient Egypt, Planet Bee Foundation). Was Hatshepsut channelling past, present and future energy of the Minoan Bee Goddess; the Melissae – the oracular Bee Nymph priestesses; the Anatolian Mother Goddess who wore a Beehive crown; Cybele as a pillar, pregnant with pollen; Artemis who’s dress was decorated with ‘bee people’; Demeter ‘the Pure Mother Bee’; and Neith, Goddess of the ‘House of the Bee’? A golden pendant of Hathor was found in a beehive shaped tomb, dating to 1500 BC, in Greece, implying there was a flow of spiritual thought between cultures. Since I’m using felt experience to understand ancient ritual I’m making an Aroma Cone from linen strips dipped in molten wax, infused with essential oils. I’m using Nag champa but they would have used a plethora of ingredients including honey, acacia, myrrh, cinnamon and frankincense. Winding the strips around a conical mould the Conical Loaf pictogram meaning ‘to give’ comes to mind, as do images of Neith, spinner of destiny, ’Opener of the Ways’, psychopomp and warrior, Sun Goddess of weaving and embalming – the linen strips are down to her! Bees flock to the yellow flowers of Her symbol, the Acacia tree, used for incense, perfume and embalming gum. “Lady of the anointing oil and also of the making of cloth” – Hymn to Neith. Frescos depict a creamy beeswax cone with a yellow ‘crown’ which, in the absence of hard evidence, I’m guessing is beeswax or another fatty substance infused with a heady concoction of honey, spices and perfume. “The perfume [ ] was an oily salve, not the liquid we use today [ ] it was rubbed on the body or burned as incense to make a smoke-based scent.” – Hannah Fielding, Perfumes of Ancient Egypt. How did wearing the Perfume Cone make me feel? The soft, malleable cone is perfectly weighted for soothing the cranium. It feels like acupressure. Ancient Egyptians wore wigs, my cone sits on hair. Balancing the cone makes me stand up straight, lengthening and energising the spine. There is something divine, exquisite, evocative, mystical, magical and trance inducing about being veiled in aroma falling from head to toe. I do feel as if the ‘veils of illusion’ are falling away and I’m imagining the Mother Goddess, ruler of the hive, who is enshrouded in honey and crowned with a halo of bees. “She walked into the fragrance of the god. [ ] his love passed into her limbs” – inscription, Deir el-Bahri, where Hatshepsut’s temple is. Neith’s crowning symbol is either a shield with arrows or a weaving shuttle, shaped as a torus, where energy folds into the heart/mind centre and out again. Similarly wearing the Aroma Cone is a top down immersive experience opening channels so energy can rise, possibly as kundalini. It’s all about love, sensory experience, purification and flow. Interestingly the Apis Bull wore a purifying beehive crown. He also generated ‘bee people’ souls. Was Hatshepsut taking Egypt back to a time when the Queen Bee represented the matriarch? Did the cones represent Ra’s tears falling upon the heads of the female worker bees – the ‘ka-soul bees’? In the …
(Invocation) Sekhmet of the Red Power, Blood Power, the Devourer by Nuit Moore

Photograph: Ritual Dance of the Activated Red Sekhmet from the author’s performance in 2013. O Sekhmet! Of the red power Blood power The devourer We hear your roar on the crescent shore- now is the hour! Lion Queen fertile breasted Scarlet zenith crested Flame of the eclipse glow and the lunar crimson flow You reveal the visceral raw Unveiling all, Unveiling all, In the abyss of the maw. O Sekhmet! Of the red power Blood power The devourer https://www.magoism.net/2019/02/meet-mago-contributor-nuit-moore/
Spirit Salve for Stormy Times – Imbolc by Alison Newvine

Kali Durga. Lilith. Medusa. We call upon you now. Let us be creators amidst the destruction. Guide us in the Birthing of Your Arising. Hekate. Isis. Freja. Inanna and Ereshkigal. We pray to expand our circles of care and compassion As we hold our boundaries. May we not be misled by the appearance of things And once again abandon our spells. This past week has felt like we are careening into the underworld…again. How many times will the storm gods come and how is it that they are still worshipped more than the Mother? It is winter here in this land where the facade of democracy is in its final stages of crumbling, on display for all to see. It is a moment when it is difficult yet necessary to trust in the dance of the Destructive Mother. We cannot stop the towers from falling but we can seed what we want to grow from the rubble. Still, the grief and horror of these times cannot be bypassed by conceptualizing divine meaning. We will bear witness and we will suffer. And we will love and create and protect and mourn and sing. We will be the balance. As we approach Imbolc in the northern hemisphere, the midpoint between winter and spring, may we honor the grief and desolation of this historical moment while we simultaneously dream of spring and Her arising. Let us honor the Hag of Winter, the Wise One who watches over us as we navigate the cold and storms within and around us. The words of this song were adapted from a poem written by WeMoon poet Sherri Rose-Walker. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fu3M_5gcDcg Hag of night let me not Die in the ice here alone Hag of winter let me not Die in the night here alone I am the ragged thorn Clutching the steel blue sky Struggling in the iron earth Sending filaments deep That they might reach With tiny searching threads The living water and the warmth Let me cohere with stone The pulse of life slows to their gait Let me still the beating of my heart And listen to the windwolves race Across the sky, moon on their fur Until somewhere in the dormancy of winter I come to cherish the alchemy of decay And the white owl, no friend of the day Creature of the night soaring high Open this gnarled heart hidden deep within Where the blossoms bud, swell and bloom Harbingers of light from winter days of old Distilled in the clarity of cold Hag of night let me not Die in the winter of my soul Hag of winter let me not Die in the night and be gone https://www.magoism.net/2023/10/meet-mago-contributor-alison-newvine/
(Photo Essay 2) Grandmothers by Kaalii Cargill

The so called “Venus” figurines are figures from prehistory that I prefer to call “Grandmothers”. The figurines were carved from soft stone, bone or ivory, or formed of clay and fired. Over the last 5 years, I have been visiting with the Grandmothers. This series of posts includes images and impressions of those visits. Delphi, Greece When I think of standing in Delphi, I remember the mountains and the cicadas. Before the sanctuary at Delphi was dedicated to Apollo, the sibyls/ wisewomen resided in a cave high on the slopes of Mt Parnassus (2,457 m /8,061 ft above sea level). Temple of Apollo, Delphi I walked among the classical ruins – the temple, the sibyl rock, the tholos – and drank from the Castalian Spring. Tholos, Temple of Athena, Delphi Sitting in the shade of an olive tree, listening to the cicadas, I understood why the ancient Greeks represented music as a cicada sitting on a harp. Surely the people walking there thousands of years ago heard the same song . . . Olive trees on the path to the Tholos, Delphi The Corycian Cave sits high above the temple ruins. The landscape holds the memories and meaning of this place – the long, slow climb up the side of the mountain, the flickering shadows beneath the fir trees, the ever-present cicadas. I visited the cave alone, entering through the small opening, climbing down the rocky slope into a vast cavern (90m long, 60m wide, 50 m high). Entrance to Corycian Cave Main cavern, Corycian Cave In the half light, the huge stalagmites emerged from the shadows – Grandmothers waiting forever for us to remember them. Formed by Nature over millennia, these figures echo the shapes of prehistory Grandmother figurines. Grandmother stalagmite, Corycian Cave Water drops fell slowly from the roof of the cave, taking all the time in the world to form the next layer on the silent guardians of the cave. I listened for Her voice. Between the soft sound of dropping water there was only silence – a deep, eternal silence. Water drops, Corycian Cave Meet Mago Contributor KAALII CARGILL
(Prose) The Goddesses of Autumn by Francesca Tronetti, Ph.D.

Wikimedia Commons image I love autumn. It is arguable my favorite season. I love wearing jeans, turtlenecks and sweaters, flannel and fleece. I love warming my hands around a hot chocolate and watching the wind blow colorful leaves off the trees. I love pulling out my cozy socks and planning my winter projects. I love everything. Except for the pumpkin spice, which I hate. Most people I know also love autumn, usually for the same reasons. They love Halloween, warm clothes, and cooler temperatures, which make our outdoor activities more tolerable. They love the colors of autumn in nature and clothes, the plaids and denim, and all things black cat. Autumn is a favorite season for many people. But, what is to say that the Goddess(es) don’t also embrace autumn as her followers do? Let us take a quick look at some of the Goddesses of the Harvest and how their attributes mirror what we enjoy about the season. In some Pagan traditions, autumn is when the Goddess changes her form, name, or attributes. Cerridwen, or Kerridwen, from Celtic traditions, is the keeper of the cauldron, a goddess of knowledge, rebirth, and transformation. New life and new ideas come out of the darkness of death or the shortened days. She crosses between the physical and the spirit realm and reminds us to honor our ancestors. Cerridwen would fit right into most of our friend groups. Autumn is a great time for cooking up a large stew full of freshly harvested carrots and potatoes, both crops from the earth. As we brace ourselves for the early darkness, we plan what we will do with that time. Will we settle down in front of a fire with a history book on warrior women, or are we determined to finally finish that book of crosswords without looking in the back for the answers? And as Halloween approaches, we could turn off the slasher and gore flicks and instead take time to remember and honor those whom we will miss as Thanksgiving and Christmas approach, and they are no longer here to celebrate with us. Hestia is another Goddess who has many autumn qualities. The Greek Goddess watched the hearth and the home, and offerings of sweet wine and food were left as offerings in her temples. In autumn, we return home, for a visit or permanently. Food is part of the experience, coming home to a pot roast in the slow cooker, baking cookies in the afternoon just because, or trying out the new bread recipe which fills the house with the warm, golden smell. The encroaching darkness draws us home sooner, and we gather around the fireplace or kitchen to spend time together because even though there is nothing out there, the dark and cold make things a little scary outside. Pachamama is an Incan Goddess of fertility, a mother of earth and time. She watches the planting and the harvesting of the crops giving everything needed to sustain life. Myths say that she can cause earthquakes to punish those who anger her—a reminder to honor her and the earth. Powerful earthquakes are rare where I live; we get hundreds of small ones yearly. But that doesn’t mean that we are beyond nature’s grasp. Here in farm country, the worst blowing snow occurs across the fields, where trees have been cleared, leaving barren land without protection from the sub-zero winds. Twenty-four inches of snow can fall in 24 hours, and stronger storms have recently left us trapped for days before the plows come. Pachamama brings both the harvest which sustains us during the cold winter months and the wicked weather that many fear when they must go out to work. Respect for nature is vital during this time of year. Understanding how the weather moves across the Great Lakes, down from Canada, or up the Eastern Seaboard before heading inland will keep one safe. These are just a few of the Goddesses of the harvest and their attributes which cross over into how my friends and I enjoy and appreciate this time of year. If you are among those who live for and love autumn, embrace it. And as you enjoy these activities, cooking a meal with your harvest, warming yourself by the fireplace, learning a new skill or hobby, or gathering with friends, take a moment to think about the Goddess you are reflecting, and give a little thanks to her for all she gives you during this season. The earth gives one last bountiful harvest, a riot of color and scent, before falling deathly quiet under a blanket of snow. Winter is the time of death before the rebirth of spring, but autumn is not the death throws of nature. It is it’s last hurrah before the animals and plants shut themselves up for the long sleep, not knowing who will wake up again in the spring. Wikimedia Commons image Embrace this last hurrah, even while we get busy and stress about driving to or from work in the snow and ice. While we stock up on pantry staples at the market so there is always a quick meal to be made. Take the time to slow down with a warm cup and a good book or magazine, sit and listen to the rustling of the leaves as mice scamper through them. Pay attention as the days get quieter, as the noise of the insects dies away. Give thanks for this time of change and embrace the coming uncertainty of the darkness. https://www.magoism.net/2018/11/meet-mago-contributor-rev-francesca-tronetti-ph-d/
(Special Post 5) Multi-Linguistic Resemblances of “Mago” by Mago Circle Members

[This is a summary of discussion that took place around 2014 in The Mago Circle, Facebook group.] Magnetic Meridians, Wikimedia Commons Marka Zenmyo: Lash goes into the roots of magic, magi, and majestic, which is a word that has been coming to mind recently. Majesty. Majestic. It’s really a beautiful word. Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: Jigsaw puzzles are putting together. Below from https://www.livius.org/articles/concept/magians/. Magians Magians (Old Persian Maguš): experts in Iranian religious – probably: oral – traditions, perhaps belonging to a Median tribe. They are to be distinguished from priests. Magians and magicians A Magian (Oxus Treasure) When discussing the Magians of ancient Persia, one thing should be clear from the very start: Magians have nothing to do with magic or wizardry. The confusion, however, is understandable or – in any case – very old. In the sixth century BCE, the Greek philosopher Heraclitus of Ephesus directed his prophecies against the wanderers of the night: the Magians, the Bacchantes, the Maenads, and initiates. Heraclitus threatens them with tortures after death, he threatens them with fire, for what they believe to be initiations in the mysteries are in fact impious rites. Heraclitus’ threats are well chosen, because, as we will see below, the Magians venerated fire and believed in rewards and punishments after death, which was a common religious idea in Iran. This was the first time that the word “Magians” was used negatively. Later authors lumped the expression together with words like “charlatan” and “wizard” and gave the word its now common meaning. The famous Macedonian philosopher Aristotle of Stagira (384-322), who had not spent part of his life in Persia’s western territories for nothing, felt himself forced to state explicitly “that the Magians neither know nor practice sorcery”.note (Read more.) Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: On Magian Order:https://www.metahistory.org/…/telestics/IlluminatiNIHI.php Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: https://www.amazon.com/Not-His-Image…/dp/193149892X AMAZON.COM Not in His Image: Gnostic Vision, Sacred Ecology, and the Future of… Marka Zenmyo: One of the most important books I’ve ever read. Period. Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: Yes, I can see that. Magoism is not in the picture yet. I am excited as well! Lizzy Bluebell: Helen Hye-Sook Hwang – “Not in His Image” – an enlightening ex-posit-ion!! Utter respect !! Thankyou! I so agree !! Some initial, important points to ponder:1. “The NHL uses the Coptic RHOME and the Greek anthropos interchangeably for humanity, the species, not “man,” the male gender, andros in Greek.” YES! This sleight-of-hand is also how the esoteric symbol for the YONIC RO/RU (Vesica Pisces or Piscis meaning SOURCE) was inverted by the Egyptians into a horizontal MOUTH symbol – then further inverted by Constantine’s Labarum – Greek RHO (P) superimposed by an “X” (Chi). Similarly, the US dollar $ sym-bowl achieves the same ‘end’ – by pronging Sophia’s feminine ‘silent-gnosis’ and energy on his RO-D – which ‘he’ rode with roads to Rome and Rho-des.2. “The Gnostic teacher today would insist that intervention is an event to be discovered as it is happening, rather than predicted as an act of divine will, or merely observed as a spectacle that requires no human involvement. The conditions that precede intervention, as well as the conditions in which it comes to be implemented or manifested, are to be determined by human imagination and critical intelligence, not by blind faith.” YES! My fav way of seeing it “the balls are still in the air” – we are still juggling them – but I sense the ‘fat lady is singing’ and also, that she has now emerged from the ‘back room’.3. “The assertion that “her name is Silence” presents a clue pointing to the way that Sophia intervenes in the world event. It is instructive to combine that clue with another key passage from the cosmological text, On the Origin of the World (II, 5.25)When Pistis saw the impiety of the Lord Archon she was filled with anger. Acting in her invisible form, she spoke in this way: “You are mistaken, blind one — false deity who cannot see. There is an immortal luminous child, the Anthropos, who came into existence before you and who will appear among your spectral forms (plasmata). This luminous child will trample you in scorn just as a potter’s clay is pounded (into a lump). And you will sink away to your proper zone, the abyss (of gravity), along with those who belong to your legion.For at the consummation of your work, the entire defect [of Archontic illusion] exposed in the light of truth will be abolished, and [that illusion] will be as if it never had been.” YES ! It’s clear (to me) that all book-burnings of the past were such attempts!4.Your story of the silent child drawing and scribbling gave me goosebumps – this is me!! This is ME now, and was the same me at age five. I CAN speak, but rarely do. I write and scribble instead! Trista Hendren: I wrote out a ton of quotes from that book when I read it several years ago. Good stuff! Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: You can see how “Mago” is linguistically co-related across cultures and regions here. You can do the keyword search with “Magus” and “Magi” etc. as well. Hope this helps, let me know please. Kirsten Brunsgaard Clausen: It´s thrilling, isn’t it?! Marka Zenmyo shared a link (on August 25, 2016) My [Marka Zenmyo’s] notes: Ancient cultures used sound and water to harness the earth’s magnetic energy to amplify food production, healing centers, etc… Then she goes deeper into Chavin culture (Peru) and Egyptian culture. Finding parallels in the use of magnetic energy. She talks about magnetic field around Earth and around us as a protective shield against high frequency rays. Theorizes about future Zero Point could signify shift out of body consciousness into body-less consciousness… The Sine Wave. Path of the Sun is the East West feminine energy line that forms a sine wave as it travels around the earth. North south is masculine. The Sun’s path used to go right through Giza. Then Earth’s axis shifted. Lion is exactly where Path of the Sun crossed the Path of the Earth (The Great Year) which travels in opposite direction. The …

(Special post) Interweaving Mago Threads by Mago Circle Members

“Mago” tradition Magoism is a new word to the modern Western vocabulary, yet it has its linguistic roots in many parts of the globe and in an ancient knowledge and know-how almost lost. Dr Helen Hwang determinedly and methodically is excavating the little-understood historical Mother-Goddess knowledge of Korea, and its traditions, the Mago, and Magoism, and in doing so is unlocking another previously invisible door, and replacing another ripped-off corner of the global map of significant, almost-lost tradition and forgotten knowledge. This is a most welcomed prospect. The newness of this discovery for those who learn of it fills them with excitement because every step to remember the ancient ways, particularly the lost Goddess ways, and those ways that hint of Source, are crucial to humanity remembering itself. Moderns have become accustomed to modes of mind that strip the soul and psyche of finer attunement to earth, sea, stars and each other. This renders most adrift on a sea of seeming limitless freedoms, to be picked up by any technological hook that would substitute for inner knowing. The map becomes the new computer wiring, insurance policy or bank regulation to follow. But once we scrape from our psyches the encrustation of mind most moderns have settled with (which calcifies the innate senses and finer antennae of knowing, emboldening technologically driven modes of mind and being to take their place), then we are on our way to a vivifying recollection. Here is an earlier presentation of the “mago” root word in “imago” or image. Not coincidentally, perhaps, it is connected to maps. (Mary Ann Ghaffurian, culled from Through a Darkened Door—Light, Part 2 by Mary Ann Ghaffurian PhD [http://magoism.wordpress.com/2012/11/26/through-a-darkened-door-light-part-2-by-mary-ann-ghaffurian-phd/]) A very special online, global group Dearest X, …Which brings to mind the “other” reason why I wanted to write to you … Other than just saying “hello” and letting you know that you are very much missed, I also wanted to share with you about a very special online, global group that I have had the honor of being a part of. This group is called Mago Circle and it was founded by my dear friend, “sister” and colleague, Helen Hwang. Helen’s work and commitment to restoring Mago, Ancestral Mother Goddess, to her rightful place as progenitor and creatrix of the Korean people, has not only been admirable but truly critical during a time when we are in real need for inspiration from thought leaders and scholars with a solid foundation in the arts and research of the sacred feminine. As you know, with the roots of Korean shamanism in the realm of women, it makes perfect sense that Korean spirituality must also have sprung within the womb of Woman … the great cosmic goddess, Mago. While Helen’s work is very much grounded in meticulous research — showcasing Korea to the rest of the world in all of Her depth, herstory, and vibrance — it is more importantly, founded in genuine intentions of love, transparency, and humility. I know that Helen can explain the depth, breadth, and height of her work much better than me so I think it will be better to have her directly share more of herself with you; what I simply hope to do through this letter is perhaps help serve as a familiar hand …. reaching out to you and letting you know that your presence and blessings as a well-regarded and much-admired Korean female shaman and scholar would be much appreciated in Mago Circle. Do you remember, X, … you once told me … about 20 years ago: “Sanity is insanity with a focus.” These words I still remember and hold true … they have helped me through times that were truly dismal and chaotic in my life, and with this reassuring and transformational way of looking at myself, looking at my life, looking at the world, I have made it through. My life continues to have its share of insanity, but I know that with focus, all sanity is restored. I know that my letter to you today may feel unexpected and random (especially after not having seen each other for so, so long), but as you know, somehow, life brings us through twists and turns that may seem awkward and strange at first, but upon retrospect, all makes complete sense. In closing, may I have the honor and pleasure of introducing Helen Hwang and the Mago Circle to you … I realize that you must be very busy, but it is my sincere hope that you will find a little time to acquaint yourself with Helen and this wonderful group of women (and men) who are very much dedicated to restoring the balance and peace of Korea and the world via Mago and her goddess sisters of many names… (Wennifer Lin, culled from her letter to her old friend) I share your call for staying connected with each other at a time of cultural and religious tensions. I too believe that all tensions arise from a patriarchal system of hegemony or domination. In the absence of patriarchal hegemony, there would be little or no tension among human beings. The belief in the Mother Goddess would remove the necessity for aggression and hence domination of other human beings or animals. In the eyes of the Mother, every living being is her creature. Hence love, kindness, nurturing and all that is beautiful would prevail everywhere. Am I sounding too idealistic or am I pining for a utopian society that is just not possible? But in theory, it is possible to return to the spirit of Mother, manifest in everything in nature and in our thoughts and actions. With admiration and preservation of Mother we can change the world for a better place. So with this in mind, I submit to all women (who are the living image of the Great Mother Goddess) and goddess lovers in the world to unite in our efforts to bring back the ideals of the Great Goddess. As an academic, I […]
(Special Post 6) 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.] Esther Essinger “Why Goddess, when “GD” is perpetrating so much grief? 1) First, it’s vital to know that Goddess is NOT “GD” in a skirt. It is demanded of NO one that they “believe” or “have faith”, so there can be no guilt (and no punishment! (No Hell below us, thank you John) in NOT choosing to interest oneself in these particular Stories, myths, legends and tales which center the Cosmic Female, the Universal Mother, Mother Earth /Mother Nature at their core. No evangelism happening here!
(Special Post 5) Why Goddess Feminism, Activism, or Spirituality? A Collective Writing

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

(Book Excerpt) Held in the Womb of the Wheel of the Year by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

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

Photography by Sara Wright I gaze out my bedroom window and hear yet another golden apple hit the ground. The vines that hug the cabin and climb up the screens are heavy with unripe grapes and the light that is filtered through the trees in front of the brook is luminous – lime green tipped in gold – My too sensitive eyes are blessedly well protected by this canopy of late summer leaves. The maples on the hill are losing chlorophyll and are painting the hollow with splashes of bittersweet orange and red. The dead spruces by the brook will probably collapse this winter providing Black bears with even more precious ants and larvae to eat in early spring. I only hope that some bears will survive the fall slaughter to return to this black bear sanctuary; in particular two beloved young ones… Mushrooms abound, amanitas, boletes morels, puff balls, the latter two finding their way into my salads. The forest around my house is in an active state of becoming with downed limbs and sprouting fungi becoming next year’s soil. The forest floor smells so sweet that all I can imagine is laying myself down on a bed of mosses to sleep and dream. The garden looks as tired as I am; lily fronds droop, yellowing leaves betraying the season at hand. Bright green pods provide a startling contrast to fading scarlet bee balm. Wild asters are abundant and goldenrod covers the fields with a bright yellow garment. Every wild bush has sprays of berries. My crabapple trees are bowed, each twig heavy with winter fruit. Most of the birds have absconded to the fields that are ripe with the seeds of wild grasses. The mourning doves are an exception – they gather together each dawn waiting patiently for me to fill the feeder. In the evening I am serenaded by soft cooing. One chicken hawk hides in the pine, lying in wait for the unwary…Just a few hummingbirds remain…whirring wings and twittering alert me to continued presence as they settle into the cherry tree to sleep, slipping into a light torpor with these cool September nights… Spiders are spinning their egg cases, even as they prepare to die. I can still find toads hopping around the house during the warmest hours of the day. Although the grass is long I will not mow it for fear of killing these most precious and threatened of species. I am heavily invested in seeing these toads burrow in to see another spring. My little frogs sit on their lily pads seeking the warmth of a dimming afternoon sun. Soon they too will slumber below fallen leaves or mud. I am surrounded by such beauty, and so much harvest bounty that even though I am exhausted I take deep pleasure out of each passing day of this glorious month of September, the month of my birth. Unlike many folks, for me, moving into the dark of the year feels like a blessing. Another leave -taking is almost upon me, and I am having trouble letting go of this small oasis that I have tended with such care for more than thirty years… I don’t know what this winter will bring to my modest cabin whose foundation is crumbling under too much moisture and too many years of heavy snow. In the spring extensive excavation will begin. A new foundation must be poured and this work will destroy the gardens I have loved, the mossy grounds around the south end of the house that I have nurtured for so long. In this season of letting go I must find a way to lay down my fears, and release that which I am powerless to change. Somehow… I have no idea what I will return to except that I have made it clear that none of my beloved trees be harmed. I am grateful that Nature is mirroring back to me so poignantly that letting go is the way through: That this dying can provide a bedrock foundation for another spring birth. As a Daughter of the Earth I lean into ancient wisdom, praying that this exhausted mind and body will be able to follow suit. (Meet Mago Contributor) Sara Wright.
Summer Solstice Poiesis by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

Seasonal Wheel of Stones Both Summer and Winter Solstices may be understood as particular celebrations of the Mother/Creator aspect of the Creative Triplicity of the Cosmos (often named as the Triple Goddess). The Solstices are Gateways between the dark and the light parts of the annual cycle of our orbit around Sun; they are both sacred interchanges, celebrating deep relationship, communion, with the peaking of fullness of either dark or light, and the turning into the other. The story is that the Young One/Virgin aspect of Spring has matured and now at Summer Solstice her face changes into the Mother of Summer. Summer Solstice may be understood as a birthing place, as Winter Solstice may also be, but at this time the transiton is from light back into dark, returning to larger self, from whence we come: it is the full opening, the “Great Om”, the Omega. I represent the Summer Solstice on my altar wheel of stones with the Omega-yonic shape of the horseshoe. I take this inspiration from Barbara Walker’s description of the horseshoe in her Woman’s Encyclopaedia of Myths and Secrets, as “Goddess’s symbol of ‘Great Gate’[i]”; and her later connection of it with the Sheil-na-gig yoni display[ii]. Sri Yantra. Ref: A.T. Mann & Jane Lyle, p.75 Summer Solstice is traditonally understood as a celebration of Union between Lover and Beloved, and the deep meaning of that is essentially a Re-Union: of sensed manifest form (the Lover) with All-That-Is (the Beloved). This may be understood as a fullness of expression of this manifest form, the small selves that we are, being all that we may be, and giving of this fullness of being in every moment: that would be a blissful thing, like a Summerland as it was understood to be. The boundaries of the self are broken, they merge: all is given away – all is poured forth, the deep rich dark stream of life flows out. It is a Radiance, the shining forth of the self which is at the same time a give-away, a consuming of the self.In traditional PaGaian Summer ceremony each participant is affirmed as “Gift”[iii]; and that is understood to mean that we are both given and received – all at the same time. The breath is given and life is received. We receive the Gift with each breath in, and we are the Gift with each breath out. As we fulfill our purpose, as we give ourselves over, we dissolve, as the Sun is actually doing in every moment. The “moment of grace”[iv]that is Summer Solstice, marks the stillpoint in the height of Summer, when light reaches its peak, and Earth’s tilt causes the Sun to begin its “decline”: that is, its movement back to the South in the Northern Hemisphere (in June), and back to the North in the Southern Hemisphere (in December). Whereas at Winter Solstice when out of the darkness it is light that is “born”, as it may be expressed: at the peak of Summer, in the warmth of expansion, it is the dark that is “born”. Insofar as Winter Solstice is about birth, then Summer Solstice is about death, the passing into the harvest. It is a celebration of profound mystical significance, which may be confronting in a culture where the dark is not valued for its creative telios; and it is noteworthy that Summer Solstice has not gained any popularity of the kind that Winter Solstice has globally (as ‘Christmas’). The re-union with All-That-Is is not generally considered a jolly affair, though when understood it may actually be blissful. Full Flowers to the Flames Summer is a time when many grains ripen, deciduous trees peak in their greenery, lots of bugs and creatures are bursting with business and creativity: yet in that ripening, is the turning, the fulfilment of creativity, and it is given away. Like the Sun and the wheat and the fruit, we find the purpose of our Creativity in the releasing of it; just as our breath must be released for its purpose of life. The symbolism used to express this in ceremony has been the giving of a full rose/flower to the flames. Summer is like the rose, as it says in this tradition[v]– blossom and thorn … beautiful, fragrant, full – yet it comes with thorns that open the skin. All is given over. All is given over: the feast is for enjoying With the daily giving of ourselves in our everyday acts, we each feed the world with our lives: we do participate in creating the cosmos, as many indigenous traditions still recognise. Just as our everyday lives are built on the fabric of the work/creativity of all who went before us, so the future, as well as the present, is built on ours, no matter how humble we may think our contribution is. We may celebrate the blossoming of our creativity then, which is Creativity, and the bliss of that blossoming, at a time when Earth and Sun are pouring forth their abundance, giving it away. In this Earth-based cosmology, what is given is the self fully realized and celebrated, not a self that is abnegated – just as the fruit gives its full self: as Starhawk says, “Oneness is attained not through losing the self, but through realizing it fully”[vi]. Everyday tasks can be joyful, if valued, and graciously received: I think of Eastern European women singing as they work in the fields – it is a common practice still for many. We are the Bread of Life Summer Solstice celebrates Mother Sun coming to fullness in Her creative engagement with Earth, and we are the Sun. Solstice Moment is a celebration of communion, the feast of life – which is for the enjoying, not for the holding onto. We do desire to be received, to be consumed – it is our joy and our grief. Brian Swimme says: “Every moment of our lives disappears into the ongoing story of the Universe. Our creativity is energising the whole[vii]”. As it may be ceremoniously affirmed: we are (each is) …
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.
(Essay and Video) Cosmogenesis Dance: Celebrating Her Unfolding by Glenys Livingstone

The dance begins with two concentric circles, which will flow in and out of each other throughout the dance, resulting thus in a third concentric circle that comes and goes. The three circles/layers are understood to represent the three aspects of Goddess, the Creative Triple Dynamic that many ancients were apparently aware of, and imagined in so many different ways across the globe. In Her representation in Ireland as the Triple Spiral motif, which is inscribed on the inner chamber wall at Bru-na-Boinne (known as Newgrange)[1], She seems to be understood as a dynamic essential to on-going Cosmic Creativity, as this ancient motif is dramatically lit up by the Winter Solstice dawn. It seems that this was important to the Indigenous people of this place at the time of Winter Solstice, which celebrates Origins, the continuing birth of all. Thus I like to do this Cosmogenesis Dance, as I have named it[2], at the Winter Solstice in particular. The three aspects that the dance may embody, and are poetically understood as Goddess, celebrate (i) Virgin/Young One – Urge to Be as I have named this quality – the ever new differentiated being (also known as Fodla in the region of the Triple Spiral)[3]. This is the outer circle of individuals. (ii) Mother – the deeply related interwoven web – Dynamic Place of Being as I have named this quality – the communion that our habitat is (also known as Eriu in the region of the Triple Spiral)[4]. This is the woven middle circle where all are linked and swaying in rhythm. (iii) Crone/Old One – the eternal creative return to All-That-Is – She who Creates the Space to Be as I have named this quality (also known as Banba in the region of the Triple Spiral)[5]. This is the inner circle where linked hands are raised and stillness is held. The three concentric layers of the dance may be understood to embody these. The Cosmogenesis Dance represents the flow and balance of these three – a flow and balance of Self, Other and All-That-Is. It may be experienced like a breath, that we breathe together – as we do co-create the Cosmos. Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme have named the three qualities of Cosmogenesis in the following way: – differentiation … to be is to be unique – communion … to be is to be related – autopoiesis/subjectivity … to be is to be a centre of creativity.[6] The three layers of the dance may be felt to celebrate each unique being, in deep relationship with other, directly participating in the sentient Cosmos, the Well of Creativity. The Cosmogenesis Dance as it is done within PaGaian Winter Solstice ceremony expresses the whole Creative Process we are immersed in. It is a process of complete reciprocity, a flow of Creator and Created, like a breath. There is dynamic exchange in every moment: that is the nature of the Place we inhabit. The dance may help awaken us to it, and to invoke it. The Cosmogenesis Dance on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dR73MDMM9Fk For more story: Cosmogenesis Dance for Winter Ritual For Dance Instructions: PaGaian Cosmology Appendix I Meet Mago Contributor Glenys Livingstone NOTES: [1] The Triple Spiral engraving is dated at 2,400 B.C.E. [2] This dance is originally named as “The Stillpoint Dance”, or sometimes “Adoramus Te Domine” which is the name of the music used for it. I learned it from Dr. Jean Houston in 1990 at a workshop of hers in Sydney, Australia. I began to use the dance for Winter Solstice ceremony in 1997, and it was only in the second year of doing so that I realised its three layers were resonant with the three traditional qualities of the Female Metaphor/Goddess, and also the three faces of Cosmogenesis. I thereafter re-named and storied the dance that way in the ceremonial preparation and teaching for Winter Solstice. See Glenys Livingstone, PaGaian Cosmology: pp. 280-281 and 311. [3] Michael Dames, Ireland: a Sacred Journey, p.192. [4] Michael Dames, Ireland: a Sacred Journey, p. 192. [5] Michael Dames, Ireland: a Sacred Journey, p. 192. [6] Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry, The Universe Story, p. 71-79. I have identified these qualities with the Triple Goddess, and the Triple Spiral in the synthesis of PaGaian Cosmology: see Glenys Livingstone, PaGaian Cosmology, particularly Chapter 4: https://pagaian.org/book/chapter-4/ References: Dames, Michael. Ireland: a Sacred Journey, Element Books, 2000. Livingstone, Glenys. PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. Lincoln NE: iUniverse, 2005. Swimme, Brian and Berry, Thomas. The Universe Story: From the Primordial Flaring Forth to the Ecozoic Era. NY: HarperCollins, 1992.
(Video) An Autumn Equinox Ceremony by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

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

(Budoji Essay 3) The Magoist Cosmogony by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

“Reintroducing the concept of the Mago Species has a profound implication, compelling one’s vocabularies to be changed to the Mother’s Tongue.” [This is a translation and interpretation of the Budoji (Epic of the Emblem City), principal text of Magoism. Read the translation of Chapter 1 of the Budoji.] There were Four Heavenly Persons at the four corners of the castle. They built pillars and sounded music. Four Heavenly Persons are the four clan leaders who reside in the four corners of Mago Castle, Primordial Paradise. They are entrusted by Mago to cultivate the acoustical effect of the universe (the original music). While the translation of “pillars” is provisional, it may mean a musical instrument of some primordial sort. Given the importance of stone, a theme reiterated in later chapters of the Budoji, the pillars may refer to the stone structure that supports a musical instrument. Or they may indicate stone chimes or an acoustical rock structure.
(Book Excerpt 6) The Mago Way by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.

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

In my ongoing research on the Great Goddess known as Mago, I have discovered the number nine gynocentric symbolism as the most prominent current that constitutes Magoism and named it the Nona (Number Nine) Mago religion/civilization/mythology. Like other civilizational inventions such as the calendar and musicology, numerology is an intellectual system of knowing the Way of Nature/Universe/Creatrix. And the number nine is no arbitrary number but is the numeric code of the Creatrix or the Primordial Mother. It codifies the cosmogonic beginning of the Primordial Mother, that is, the Primordial Mago Household. It refers to the primordial principle of the solar/terrestrial beginning.