August 31, 2022August 18, 2022 Mago WorkLeave a comment

(Poem) Sky Woman comes to Earth by Sara Wright

Every twig is singing a song of thanksgiving to Sky Woman who gifts steady rain nourishing earth’s parched body. Cracked ground softens soaks in minerals and scent sensing wonder. No Read More …

(Prose) Our Loss of Od by Deanne Quarrie

Freyja is an Old Icelandic goddess of the Earth, fertility, and beauty. Her name means “Lady.” Freyja is known to be very beautiful and sexual. It is thought that Freyja was first in union with Od. This union represented what is known in Old Icelandic as sam-vit, a state of united consciousness. In other words, consciousness that reflects a state of being united, integrated, or whole. Od had vanished from Her life causing her to weep for his loss. Where her tears fell on the land, they turned to amber and where they fell in the Sea they became gold. Amber and gold are both sacred to Freyja. From the time he left, she continued to travel and search for him. We come into this world as infants, and in that state only experience the present moment. We know our mothers from the heart beat felt in the womb and perhaps through other senses as yet undefined. We know at any given moment that we are hungry or content, wet or dry, sleepy or wakeful. Our ability to see is not fully developed and at first we see only hazy images around us. We are born knowing how to cry. It is our only way to communicate as infants. Our interests focus only on “self” and our own needs. We are, except for this ability to cry, basically helpless, unable to do anything except be where we are placed and are totally dependent on those who care for us. As we mature, however, we begin to hear and identify sounds, see colors and shapes and taste foods we like or dislike. We learn to smile when something pleases us and we learn to laugh when feeling happiness. We learn to recognize other people, sounds and gestures and eventually the many words spoken to us. We learn to scoot, crawl and finally walk. With that we learn to mimic and then, with understanding, communicate with speech. We still however, live very much in the “now.” As children, if not damaged by the care given us, we are fully sensing beings. We may not always understand our sensory perceptions because our experience is limited but we use our senses easily. We are creatures of exploration and discovery. Using an Old Icelandic term once more, you might say finna is fully active at this time. Finna is a critical and innate element of being that is critical to our spiritual and physical health and well-being. It means to discover, find, perceive, notice, feel, learn, to come across, and to meet. Something happens to us when we are old enough to enter school. We are placed in an environment where sensory exploration is no longer the focus but rather we begin to develop left brain perception, through reading and writing. We are taught to be more analytical, oriented toward mental processes rather than sensory awareness. Because of the rigid conformity required of us, we lose the ability to be open and much of the inherent wonder and deep curiosity of our own body’s desire to be open to our environment is lost. For those of us on a spiritual path, awareness of this loss comes to us as we seek answers to our own spiritual questions. Our yearning is much like that of Freyja for her Od. We have body memories of our connections to the sacred in those simple ways of childhood. We may not consciously remember what it is like to be open to all that is around us, but there is an inner yearning to seek and find, no matter how elusive it might be. Once we recognize that we are sacred beings and one with our Source, as well as everything else around us, the connections begin to grow. We take ourselves out into nature. We learn to really “see” what is around us. We learn that everything can speak to us, tell us what we need to know, if we listen. We study our past, digging deeply into our ancestors spiritual past wanting to know who their gods and goddesses were and we actively engage with them in our own lives. We learn that our bodies truly are our temple because they house our sacred spirit. From this we begin to see the advisability of caring for our bodies and begin eating in healthy ways. We learn to take care of this “temple” we have been given or have chosen for ourselves. If we allow it, music can enter our souls and speak to us, recalling far distant longings, awakening emotions hidden deeply within. Our food can give us new pleasure, with taste sensations unnoticed before. We learn about our deep inner nature, our lightness and our shadow. We acknowledge and love both. We see who we are though our learning about ourselves, perhaps through the many self-development avenues available to us. We learn to love who we are no matter if flawed or not, because we know that all are flawed in one way or another and we see that even “flawed” is a faulty perception. As we explore the five senses given to us at birth, opening in our perceptions, somehow another sense is developed and it is a returning of our own intuitive awareness. We have the ability to know of things seen by the inner eye and heard by inner ears. We delight in the sense of touch, both in the touching and in the being touched. And so this ongoing search for Od that we have leads us into a return to a natural state of openness and from there to an inner consciousness that reflects the state of being united, integrated, and whole. When we are in that state we are able to access all that we need to manifest all possibilities in life. Our Freyja will have found her Od. Meet Mago Contributor, Deanne Quarrie
(Poem) Being Here Now by Harriet Ann Ellenberger

Midwife clay image from cave-shrine of Eileithyia at Inatos, near Tsoutsouros, Crete, dated 9th-6th century BCE As earth warmsand her ice fields meltand the skeletal bones of her crust shiftand her hot core cooks up something new,human structures collapsealong with the Siberian permafrost. Being here is like being born:everything is dark and tumultuousand you don’t know where you’re headedand you didn’t ask for thisbut this, whatever it is, is already happeningand it’s too late to bail out now. Call the midwife,Call the female shaman,Call 911Multiverse,We have to learn to let go. [Author’s Note: 3 July 2020. Thanks to Jack Dempsey for sending me the photo, which he describes as “a little clay bowl crafted in post-Minoan Crete: likely, a midwife holding and comforting a woman giving water-birth” (from the cave-shrine of Eileithyia, goddess-patron of mothers, at Inatos, near Tsoutsouros, Crete, dated 9th˗6th cent. BCE). His main website on Minoan Crete is Ancientlights.org.] https://www.magoism.net/2013/05/meet-our-contributor-harriet-ann-ellenberger/ (Meet Mago Contributor) Harriet Ann Ellenberger.
(Book Review) Marguerite Mary Rigoglioso’s The Secret Life of Mother Mary: Divine Feminine Power For Personal Healing and Planetary Awakening by Mary Saracino

The Secret Life of Mother Mary: Divine Feminine Power For Personal Healing and Planetary Awakening, Marguerite Mary Rigoglioso, PhD (Bear & Company, July 2024); https://www.innertraditions.com/books/the-secret-life-of-mother-mary Reviewed by Mary Saracino Marguerite Rigoglioso’s most recent book, The Secret Life of Mother Mary: Divine Feminine Power For Personal Healing and Planetary Awakening, is not the Catholic version of the Blessed Virgin Mother that most people are familiar with. She is definitely not the Blessed Virgin Mary I knew of growing up Catholic in the 1950s and 1960s. Rigoglioso’s depiction of Mary is noncanonical, subversive (in a positive way), and decidedly anything but the submissive, passive patriarchal receptacle promoted in Christian theology. Rigoglioso contends that Mary was an active player in the conception, birthing, and rearing of Jesus. She was also his mentor, teaching him all he knew about ministering to people, performing miracles, etc. And after his death, she played a primary and active role with the apostles. Rigoglioso is the world’s foremost authority on the history of virgin birth and has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in the United States and United Kingdom. The founding director of Seven Sisters Mystery School, she is the author of several books, including The Mystery Tradition of Miraculous Conception: Mary and the Lineage of Virgin Births (Bear & Company, 2021), Virgin Mother Goddesses of Antiquity (Palgrave MacMillian, 2010) The Cult of Divine Birth in Ancient Greece (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), and her PhD dissertation, Bearing the Holy Ones: A Study of the Cult of Divine Birth in Ancient Greece (California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, 2007). In The Secret Life of Mother Mary, this revelatory understanding of Mary is presented in seven chapters: Why Mother Mary Is Worth Rediscovering, Mary’s Remothering of Me, Mary as a Conscious Priestess of Divine Birth, The Power of Mary’s Holy Womb Chakra—and Yours, Mary as Healer, Mentor, and Women’s Champion, Mary’s Full Ascension to Divinity, and Mary’s Connection to the Subtle Angelics of Nature. Rigoglioso’s book is steeped in extensive cross-cultural, multidisciplinary research (citing, among others, Sri Kaleshwar, Cindy Lindsay, Ally Kateusz, Maximus, and Rudolph Steiner). The book is also rooted in the author’s deep spiritual practice and her psychic/channeling abilities. She brings to light earlier versions of the Gospels that are not part of the Catholic Canon, including the Gospel of Bartholomew, the Gospel of Philip, the Infancy Gospel of James/Birth of Mary, the Gospel of Mary [Magdalene], and the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew. Rigoglioso writes: “What we learn in all of these lesser-known sacred texts about Mary, then, is that she was a tremendously influential, tremendously spiritually adept, and tremendously powerful holy woman” (p. 79). In The Secret Life of Mother Mary, Rigoglioso notes that Mary: “… is hardly the passive girl who allowed the Divine to have its way with her, as we’ve been brought up to accept. This is a mature woman with gumption, courage, intelligence, and leadership capacities that we’ve never been told about” (p. 78). This Blessed Virgin Mary is a direct manifestation of the Divine Mother. The term, virgin, is applied with the understanding that it refers to a woman unto herself; inviolable, sovereign, a divinely born avatar. Rigoglioso notes that Mary was a priestess, a master of Divine Love and the Womb Mysteries. Her name, Mary, is a moniker for her status as such. Rigoglioso writes: “As we have learned, the very name that was passed down to us as Mary probably comes from the Egyptian Meri, an honorific priestess title that meant ‘beloved of, loving, lover, and the one who is loving’” (p. 126). Through the power of the Holy Womb Chakra, Mary was a priestess initiated into the Divine Mysteries. Thus empowered, she gave birth, parthenogenetically to Jesus (my understanding of parthenogenesis is that a woman would give birth to a female, but here, obviously that is not the case). This was made possible by using sacred medicine or herbs designed to help open her awareness to the interdimensional realms, so she could manifest an Avatar. Mary was also parthenogenetically conceived by her mother Anne. Rigoglioso tells us that, from the age of six months, Mary was tended by virgin priestesses and she continued her early life with them in the temple. Rigoglioso also discusses how Elizabeth, Anne’s sister and Mary’s aunt, was a supportive mentor to Mary when she was in the early stages of her pregnancy with Jesus (p. 75). Rigoglioso notes: “This…helps us recognize to a greater degree than ever before how Mary is an intimate champion of humanity’s healing and spiritual awakening. She encourages the expansion of consciousness far beyond what is typically thought possible in ordinary third-dimensional life. Indeed, she is all about helping people to achieve their own God/dess Self (p. 125). In addition to being steeped in scholarship, the book’s seven chapters, provide a spiritual primer for those interested in deepening their understanding of and relationship to the noncanonical Mary with integration activities and information on how to access guided online meditations. Rigoglioso invites readers to keep a Mary Journal to chronicle their experiences of Mary and their thoughts and feelings about this spiritual endeavor, …guiding them on an experiential and intellectual journey. Thus, Rigoglioso’s book is as much a personal endeavor as an academic (historical/herstorical) exploration and revelation of who and what Mary the mother of Jesus was and is to the author and to the world/Earth. Ultimately, Rigoglioso’s book exponentially expands the traditional understanding of Mother Mary. Her revelations will broaden your understanding—if not outright blow your mind. After reading this intriguing and information-rich book, you will never see Mother Mary in the same way again. https://www.magoism.net/2013/05/meet-mago-contributor-mary-saracino
(Video & Poetry) Resurgence 2020 by Lila Moore

Resurgence 2020 When the cat left her imprint on the Paleolithic cave’s wall to possess a body, Sekhmet was awakened and born from her stony flesh. The dreamers saw the feline-woman quenching her thirst with the blood of the flooding Nile, reclining on the back of a crocodile, weaving into a papyrus scroll the myths of civilizations and eons. The lotus dreamers dreamt of her being carried to the muddy shore on the back of a crocodile, a cat hidden by papyrus plants, breathing eternal life into the mouth of her priestess. The video integrates footage of performance with video projections, clips shot at the British Museum, Royalty-Free footage of lioness & cat, and graphically manipulated drawings by Moina Bergson Mathers. Performed, shot and edited by Lila Moore, 2019 Recommended viewing quality: Select setting on the horizontal menu bar. Next, select 1080p. More Digital Poems of Ritual Magic, here (Meet Mago Contributor) Lila Moore, Ph.D.
(Nine Poets Speak) Woman Know Thyself by Arlene Bailey

[Editors’ Note: Learn about how the “Nine Poets Speak” series came to be in place here.] Art by Amanda Lindupp, https://www.facebook.com/sacredpathart The life of the woman whohears the call of the wildand carries the magicfrom ancient lineagesis juicy and complex.We strive for healingand transformationfor both ourselvesand our world.This quest sets thechallenge of embracingboth our light and our dark,the obvious parts and thosethat hide in the shadows.~Woman Know Thyself~is a paraphrased adaptionfrom the lintel on theTemple of Delphi.Deep self-knowingis the Holy Grail we seek. Arlene Bailey (c) 2021-2025 (Meet Mago Contributor) Arlene Bailey – Return to Mago E*Magazine
(Commemorating Mary Daly 2) My Memoirs of Mary Daly (1928-2010) by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

[Author’s Note: My personal encounter with Mary Daly, a U.S. post-Christian feminist thinker, goes back to 1994, if not earlier. I stayed in Korea from 1994-1997 during which I translated two of Mary Daly’s early books, Beyond God the Father: Toward a Philosophy of Women’s Liberation 하나님 아버지를 넘어서 (Seoul: Ewha Women’s University Press, 1996) and Church and the Second Sex 교회와 제 2의 성 (Seoul: Women’s News Press, 1997) in Korean. I carried with me to the U.S.A. our correspondences in the form of letters and documents mostly faxed to each other for the period of more than two decades. Later at one point I digitized them in images. Through these memoir series, I share some highlights of my memories with Mary Daly, her influence on my feminist thinking, and my own radical feminist journey to Magoist Cetaceanism.] I stayed in Korea from an early month in 1994 until August 15 1997 when I came to Claremont California, USA. I first contacted Mary Daly by letter sometime in 1994. (Mary’s 2007 recommendation letter states that I first contacted her in 1994. See my previous essay part 1 here.) I lost my own letter mailed to her home address and her school address. I had sent the same letter to her in two addresses to ensure her receipt. My memory is vague regarding what I told her in my first letter. I must have told her my story of disillusionment to Christianity. But my first actual conversation with her was a phone call. (See my previous essay part 1 here.)I received a formal letter from her, faxed to me dated April 22 1996, shown below. From Mary’s letter, I can infer the contents of my first letter to her. First off, I must have told her that the publisher, Ewha Women’s University Press, notified me that my proposal to translate one of her books in Korean was accepted. As I write this, my memories return one by one. A feminist professor of Ewha Women’s University, Hyeong Cho, who was on the editorial board of this press at that time, sent me a heartfelt letter (and later I spoke with her by phone), saying that the press had decided on translating Beyond God the Father earlier but could not find a qualified translator. Thus, she said that they were happy to receive my proposal. I danced to myself out of joy, celebrating the launching of my radical feminist voyage. I intuited that my ship was embarking.It was likely that I proposed to the press that I wanted to translate one of Mary Daly’s books and proposed two or three books including Gyn/Ecology: Metaethics of Radical Feminism, which was my favorite. (At that time, I wanted to translate only one book but ended up doing another one the next year and published it by a different press.) I remember myself telling Mary Daly that I submitted a proposal to the press. I told her that I personally hoped to translate Gyn/Ecololgy. Mary did not agree with my idea of translating Gyn/Ecology because of numerous wordplays and neologisms employed in it, I think she explained it to me that much. Given the time of the 1990s, Mary was under attack from many directions amongst feminists. And Gyn/Ecology was a controversial book, harshly debated by non-white feminists. (I learned that only afterward, during my years of Ph.D. studies coursework at Claremont Graduate University, Claremont California). The 1990s was a vulnerable time for her in particular. And Mary may have been in need of shielding her books from possible attacks. I loved this book thoroughly. Upon hearing from me about the press’ decision to go with Beyond God the Father, Mary affirmed that the press’ choice was the best one. I went along with the press and Mary. Deep inside me, however, I still wished to translate Gyn/Eocology. I was unafraid of translating Gyn/Ecology or any of her books. My mind was as clear as crystal. Nothing could be intimidating to me. The confidence that I had is hard to explain. I knew I would convey Mary Daly’s thoughts in Korean correctly because I knew what it was to me (it was shape-shifting and a ray of light that arrived to me from far). Gyn/Ecology gave me wings. If there were no one Korean word to fit, I would have used two or three words with hyphens. If this book was chosen by the press, the landscape of Korean feminist discourse at least linguistically would have been altered. I don’t know how Gyn/Ecology was accepted by Korean feminists. Even in translating Beyond God the Father, I had to coin numerous Korean words. And I was able to explain them by creating translator’s notes. I enjoyed creating new words. I was a self-identified poet and a philosopher from my teen years, even if I majored in chemistry for undergraduate studies. Nothing could have stopped me from the course of my life that was just about to take shape in a new form, a radical feminist. (In another space, I would like to tell you how I came across her book, Gyn/Ecology. I already explained how I came upon Beyond God the Father. Also why I was so happy during this time of translating Mary Daly’s books.)Secondly, I must have told Mary that I was going to a graduate school in Los Angeles California to study feminist theology in the summer of 1996. This was a small school run by a former Catholic organization of religious sisters. I had decided to return to a graduate school to study post-Christian feminist theology or feminism in religion. To continue a graduate study was my second choice in my early twenties. I tried the first card, which was to live my life as a Catholic overseas missionary in a foreign land, but learned that that was not what I wanted for the rest of my life. The school in Los Angeles that I applied for admission proved to be unavailable …
(Meet Mago Contributor) Alex Purbrick

Alex Purbrick lives in the Shetland Islands in the far north of Scotland. She is a Mother, Writer and Artist. Alex lived and worked for four years with the late Corbin Harney at his healing centre, Poohabah in Tecopa, California. She helped Corbin manage the day to day running of Poohabah as well as organise his speaking engagements to public groups throughput the Southwest. Alex is the editor of The Nature Way (University Nevada Press, 2009) which tells the life story of Corbin Harney and his spiritual teachings of living in harmony with nature and our Mother Earth. As a writer and artist Alex uses her words and art as a prayer for all nature continuing the vision that we are all One People on One Mother Earth.
(Poem) 'Crane Dance' by Anne Wilkerson Allen

Crane Dance We danced at the edge of pale waters, not caring if we missed a step or fell into the wake of each others jubilance. We leapt in the moonlight, contours of light and shadow reflected in the depths of the lake. The soft down at the base of her feathers was a gentle caress on the breeze of tender love and her silver eyes embraced me. “Why are you afraid of what you feel? Kindle the furnace of your heart and let go, or you will never know yourself” I beheld my nakedness and abandon and felt complete freedom in that moment, as with a trusted lover. “Mother,” said she, and I looked behind me. “Mother,” said she, and stepped closer to my fear because the voice was not of my child. In her voice I heard the yearning of a million hearts I felt the aching of a thousand needs And the brokenness in my own heart that I don’t know. I don’t know if I have enough to feed them all. Translated to French by Pierre Leclair Traduction (anglais > français) Nous avons dansé au bord des eaux pâle, ne pas se soucier si nous avons manqué une étape ou ont diminué dans le sillage de chaque jubilation autres. Nous sauté dans la lune, contours d’ombre et lumière reflété dans les profondeurs du lac. Le duvet à la base de ses plumes était une caresse sur la brise de l’amour tendre et ses yeux d’argent m’a embrassé. «Pourquoi avez-vous peur de ce que vous ressentez? Meublez votre cœur avec passion. Si vous ne lâchez pas, vous ne serez jamais se connaître » Je regardai ma nudité et d’abandonner et ressenti une liberté totale en ce moment, comme avec un amant de confiance. «Mère», dit-elle, et j’ai regardé derrière moi. «Mère», dit-elle, et s’approcha de ma peur parce que la voix n’était pas de mon enfant. Dans sa voix, j’ai entendu le désir d’un million de cœurs J’ai ressenti le mal d’un millier de besoins Et le brisement dans mon propre cœur que je ne sais pas. Je ne sais pas si j’ai assez pour nourrir tous.. ******************************************************** 鶴の舞蒼々とした水辺で自由気ままに踊っていました。ステップが絡もうとも、互いの歓喜の航跡に落ちてしまおうとも気にせずに月の光の中で心躍らせ、光と影の輪郭は湖の奥深くに映し出されていました羽の奥のにこげが愛の風の中で優しく揺れて輝いた眼差しがわたくしを包み込みました “自分の情感を怖がることはありません。心の炬に火を点けて、身を任せなさい。そうすれば本当の自分を見つけられますから“ 私はすべてを曝け出しました。感じるままに、その瞬間、完全なる自由が得られました。愛する人に身を任せた時のように「お母さん」と呼ばれて、私が振り返りました「お母さん」と呼ばれて、不安が近寄りましたその声は、わが子のものではないのですその声には大勢の叫びと悲痛な願いが入り混じり、そして砕けてしまった私の心を感じました。果たしてこれらの願いを満たすことは出来るのでしょうか。 Translated by Kunibumi Izumi 訳：　泉国文
(Poem) We Belong Here by Mary Saracino

Mesa at Jemez Springs, New Mexico, photo credit: Mary Saracino We belong here. The seeds we sow, the harvest we reap create our cultural legacy, rooted in ancient memories of plants, and place, and people, woven together by time and heritage. We are of this earth, made of soil and soul. We are of this land, as much a part of it as the stones and trees, the sky and water. We share our stories to remember, bequeathing our inheritance to our sons and daughters, honoring our gifts, celebrating our intergenerational bonds. We belong here, and here belongs to us, our blood and bones, our minds and hearts, our eyes and hands, our sweat and tears, blessing the fields and one another forever and ever and ever. https://www.magoism.net/2013/05/meet-mago-contributor-mary-saracino

(Special Post Mother Teresa 3) A Role Model for Women? by Mago Circle Members

Part III: The Debate, What Went Right/Wrong with Mother Teresa? [Editorial Note: The following is an edited version of the discussion that took place spontaneously on Mago Circle from March 1, 2013 for about two weeks. It was an extensive, heated, yet reflective discussion, now broken into four parts to fit the format of the blog. We thank each and all of the participants for your openness, generosity, and courage to stand up for what you believe and think! Some are marked as anonymous. As someone stated, something may have been “written in the heat of the moment” and some might like to change it at a later time. So we inform our readers that nothing is written in stone. As a matter of fact, the discussion is ongoing, now with Magoism Blog readers. Please comment and respond as you wish.] [C]: Unfortunately, Mother Theresa is not understood here in some of these comments: To be in any way critical of Mother Theresa using what was the state of the world in her time & the poor & dying as tools of compassion, even more so when left to die visibly barely cared for, as a teaching method must not be looked at as unfeeling on her part as it was her greatest sorrow to use them so horribly as means to an end, but they were what she had at hand. Was never her intention to use any money to save them, would negate their very suffering purpose as well. She did not believe we all had learned the lesson yet in her time so she had to pretend to be solving the problem while continuing the problem. You see, the money was a byproduct of no importance to her, used just to get the peoples’ attention by using what they valued, let the Church have it for other things for it had served it’s purpose by bringing her sought after awareness of the poor & dying into view. In pretending to like & accept attention to herself, honors, & even challenges to these choices, all for one purpose to fool, to get the poor & dying attention, is why she was so distressed near the end by the means she had to use to reach that end! And perhaps her sheer loss of hope at having to stoop to such measures which reflects on the sad state of the rest of us. Wondering here where the money went doesn’t understand anything of what she was trying to do. [C]: Thank You Naa Ayele Kumari for plowing through my thoughts enough to ‘like’ even! Could I be understood that Mother Theresa’s intentions were ‘higher’ than just taking care of the poor & dying in institutions, but to have the people understand there should be ‘feelings’ for them so they would never ever even have to be cared for in such ‘style’? She sacrificed these many nonpeaceful deaths to display, to show, to the whole world the direction it was heading, for the saving of the future multitudes of suffering & deaths if no one understood & cared soon. She dreamed these future lives would be right & good & their deaths would be the same attended by loved ones of their own, no need for group interference. She did not wish to just contain such tragedy, but to eliminate it from the whole earth forever. In the smaller scale view of some today the institutions are a necessary step, however Mother Theresa thought this a false step on a horrible path in the wrong direction, & she knew this, & dreamed beyond! To send away, to cage, the suffering, old, & sick in any society is a crime against Mother Nature no matter what the excuses or how pretty the packaged institution is presented! [Z] Did not foresee the discussion would provoke such indepth and rich responses. It feels that we are getting close to the bottom of the matter that has not been brought up for so long, not in my life time. Profound interactions that make us aware of the aspects of how our thinking and living can be based on the kind of values we hold. I treat each and all of you in the hand of our goddesses. Anne Wilkerson Allen: I think the Mother always moves us back toward compassion. Whether we have a sense of deity or not, we can all understand contextually how she was used and that her “beliefs” left her with such poverty of spirit that her entire life is under the microscope. I wonder, will the media ask what the Church has done with all their Billions or simply focus on a dead nun indoctrinated by the system? Diane Horton: No, I am sorry. [C], that is an incredible rationalization of Mother Teresa’s actions. Unbelievable actually. For you to justify her not using the extraordinary amount of money sent to her by saying that she chose to use these horrible deaths to bring attention to the sick and the dying and evoke compassion in people – that is the most megalomaniac position possible! Did she assume the role of God then?? That is outrageous! To think that she had the means to relieve these poor people’s sufferings and chose not to in order to USE them is even more heinous to me! I cannot wrap my head around how you think that is a good thing. She already HAD evoked compassion for these people. That’s why the money poured in! And all the “pretending” and lying you said she did for the greater good? NO. Compassion and empathy are a basic human response to suffering. “She sacrificed these nonpeaceful deaths” REALLY?! She had no right. And she was wrong. I can see no lofty ideal she was displaying there. Diane Horton: Forgive, me. I could not let what was said there lie. I won’t say anymore. Everyone has their own perspective. And each perspective together makes the whole. Blessed Be. [C]: On this […]
(Special Post) Why I choose to be an RTM contributor by Glenys Livingstone

The contribution of my writing to Return to Mago E-Magazine has evolved since it began four years ago, into a deeply mutually enhancing relationship. The time and effort taken to write carefully and in alignment with my heartfelt passions and insights, and then to be able to publish to a receptive audience, has always been rewarding – for me personally and apparently for many who received it.
(Special Post 1) "The Oldest Civilization" and its Agendas by Mago Circle Members

[Editor’s Note: The following discussion took place in response to an article listed blow by the members of The Mago Cirlce, Facebook group of Goddessians/Magoists from May 6 to May 10, 2016. Readers are recommended to read the original article linked below that has invoked the converation.] “The Danube Civilization: Oldest in the World” in The Ancient Ones upon the ruins of our ancestors, published April 3, 2016.

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

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

Lammas, the first seasonal transition after Summer Solstice, may be summarised as the Season that marks and celebrates the Sacred Consuming, the Harvest of Life. Many indigenous cultures recognised the grain itself as Mother … Corn Mother being one of those images – She who feeds the community, the world, with Her own body: the Corn, the grain, the food, the bread, is Her body. She the Corn Mother, or any other grain Mother, was/is the original sacrifice … no need for extraordinary heroics: it is the nature of Her being. She is sacrificed, consumed, to make the people whole with Her body (as the word “sacrifice” means “to make whole”). She gives Herself in Her fullness to feed the people …. the original Communion. In cultures that preceded agriculture or were perhaps pastoral – hunted or bred animals for food – this cross-quarter day may not have been celebrated, or perhaps it may have been marked in some other way. Yet even in our times when many are not in relationship with the harvest of food directly, we may still be in relationship with our place: Sun and Earth and Moon still do their dance wherever you are, and are indeed the Ground of one’s being here … a good reason to pay attention and homage, and maybe as a result, and in the process, get the essence of one’s life in order. One does not need to go anywhere to make this pilgrimage … simply Place one’s self. The seasonal transition of Lammas may offer that in particular, being a “moment of grace” – as Thomas Berry has named the seasonal transitions, when the dark part of the day begins to grow longer, as the cloak of darkness slowly envelopes the days again: it is timely to reflect on the Dark Cosmos in Whom we are, from Whom we arise and to Whom we return – and upon that moment when like Corn Mother we give ourselves over. This reflection is good, will serve a person and all – to live fully, as well as simply to be who we are: this dark realm of manifesting is the core of who we are. And what difference might such reflection make to our world – personal and collective – to live in this relationship with where we are, and thus who we are. We all are the grain that is harvested and all are Her harvest … perhaps one may use a different metaphor: the truth that may be reflected upon at this seasonal moment after the peaking of Sun’s light at Summer Solstice and the wind down into Autumn, is that everything passes, all fades away … even our Sun shall pass. All is consumed. So What are we part of? (I write it with a capital because surely it is a sacred entity) And how might we participate creatively? We are Food – whether we like it or not … Lammas is a good time to get with the Creative plot, though many find it the most difficult, or focus on more exoteric celebration. May we be interesting food[i]. We are holy Communion, like Corn Mother. Meet Mago Contributor Glenys Livingstone NOTES: [i] This is an expression of cosmologist Brian Swimme in Canticle to the Cosmos DVD series.
(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.
(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: …
Lammas/Late Summer in PaGaian tradition By Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This essay is an edited excerpt from Chapter 5 of the author’s book PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. Traditionally the dates for this Seasonal Moment are: Southern Hemisphere – Feb. 1st/2nd Northern Hemisphere – August 1st/2nd however the actual astronomical date varies. See archaeoastronomy.com for the actual moment. Lammas table/altar Lammas, as it is often called[1], is the meridian point of the first dark quarter of the year, between Summer Solstice and Autumn Equinox; it is after the light phase has peaked and is complete, and as such, I choose it as a special celebration of the Crone/Old One. Within the Celtic tradition, it is the wake of Lugh, the Sun King, and it is the Crone that reaps him. But within earlier Goddess traditions, all the transformations were Hers[2]; and the community reflected on the reality that the Mother aspect of the Goddess, having come to fruition, from Lammas on would enter the Earth and slowly become transformed into the Old Woman-Hecate-Cailleach aspect …[3] I dedicate Lammas to the face of the Old One, just as Imbolc, its polar opposite on the Wheel in Old European tradition, is dedicated to the Virgin/Maiden face. The Old One, the Dark and Shining One, has been much maligned, so to celebrate Her can be more of a challenge in our present cultural context. Lammas may be an opportunity to re-aquaint ourselves with the Crone in her purity, to fall in love with Her again. I state the purpose of the seasonal gathering thus: This is the season of the waxing dark. The seed of darkness born at the Summer Solstice now grows … the dark part of the days grows visibly longer. Earth’s tilt is taking us back away from the Sun. This is the time when we celebrate dissolution; each unique self lets go, to the Darkness. It is the time of ending, when the grain, the fruit, is harvested. We meet to remember the Dark Sentience, the All-Nourishing Abyss, She from whom we arise, in whom we are immersed, and to whom we return. This is the time of the Crone, the Wise Dark One, who accepts and receives our harvest, who grinds the grain, who dismantles what has gone before. She is Hecate, Lillith, Medusa, Kali, Erishkagel,Chamunda, Coatlique – Divine Compassionate One, She Who Creates the Space to Be. We meet to accept Her transformative embrace, trusting Her knowing, which is beyond all knowledge. Lammas is the seasonal moment for recognizing that we dissolve into the “night” of the Larger Organism of whom we are part – Gaia. It is She who is immortal, from whom we arise, and into whom we dissolve. This celebration is a development of what was born in the transition of Summer Solstice; the dark sentient Source of Creativity is honoured. The autopoietic space in us recognizes Her, is comforted by Her, desires Her self-transcendence and self-dissolution; Lammas is an opportunity to be with our organism’s love of Larger Self – this Native Place. We have been taught to fear Her, but at this Seasonal Moment we may remember that She is the compassionate One, deeply committed to transformation, which is actually innate to us. Whereas at Imbolc/Early Spring, we shone forth as individual, multiforms of Her; at Lammas, we small individual selves remember that we are She and dissolve back into Her. We are the Promise of Lifeas was affirmed at Imbolc, but we are the Promise of Her- it is not ours to hold. We identify as the sacred Harvest at Lammas; our individual harvest isHer Harvest. We are the process itself – we are Gaia’s Process. Wedo not breathe (though of course we do), we borrow the breath, for a while. It is like a relay: we pick the breath up, create what we do during our time with it, and pass it on. The harvest we reap in our individual lives is important, andit is for us only short term; it belongs to the Cosmos in the long term. Lammas is a time for “making sacred” – as “sacrifice” may be understood; we may “make sacred” ourselves. As Imbolc was a time for dedication, so is Lammas. This is the wisdom of the phase of the Old One. She is the aspect that finds the “yes” to letting go, to loving the Larger Self, beyond all knowledge, and steps into the power of the Abyss; encouraged and nourished by the harvest, She will gradually move into the balance of Autumn Equinox/Mabon, the next Sesaonal Moment on the year’s cycle. References: Durdin-Robertson, Lawrence. The Year of the Goddess.Wellingborough: Aquarian Press, 1990. Gray, Susan. The Woman’s Book of Runes.New York: Barnes and Noble, 1999. Livingstone, Glenys. PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. NE: iUniverse, 2005. McLean, Adam. The Four Fire Festivals. Edinburgh: Megalithic Research Publications, 1979. Notes: [1]See note 3. [2]Susan Gray, The Woman’s Book of Runes,p. 18. This is also to say that the transformations are within each being, not elsewhere, that is the “sacrifice” is not carried out by another external to the self, as could be and have been interpreted from stories of Lugh or Jesus. [3]Lawrence Durdin-Robertson, The Year of the Goddess, p.143, quoting Adam McLean, Fire Festivals,p.20-22. Another indication of the earlier tradition beneath “Lughnasad” is the other name for it in Ireland of “Tailltean Games”. Taillte was said to be Lugh’s foster-mother, and it was her death that was being commemmorated (Mike Nichols, “The First Harvest”, Pagan Alliance Newsletter NSW Australia). The name “Tailtunasad” has been suggested for this Seasonal Moment, by Cheryl Straffon editor of Goddess Alive! I prefer the name of Lammas, although some think it is a Christian term: however some sources say that Lammas means “feast of the bread” which is how I have understood it, and surely such a feast pre-dates Christianity. It is my opinion that the incoming Christians preferred “Lammas” to “Lughnasad”: the term itself is not Christian in origin. The evolution of all these things is complex, and we may evolve them further with our careful thoughts and experience.
(Video) Autumn Equinox/Mabon Poetry by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

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

(Goma Article Excerpt 1) Goma, the Shaman Ruler of Old Magoist East Asia/Korea and Her Mythology by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

[Author’s Note: This essay was first included in Goddesses in Myth, History and Culture, published in 2018 by Mago Books.] This essay may be called a Magoist study of the Korean foundation myth, also known as the Dangun myth. It reinstates Goma, better known as “Ungnyeo (Bear/Sovereign Woman),” the shaman ruler of pre-patriarchal Korea, who is the main character of the Korean foundation myth. Here “Mago” stands for the Creatrix and “Magoism” for pre-patriarchally originated indigenous tradition of East Asia that venerates the Creatrix.[1] Identifying Goma as the ruler Goddess of Old Korea/East Asia is by no means a new effort. She is, although few in number, alluded to the eponymous Goddess of ancient Korean States (Goma State, for example) in both historical sources and modern research. In fact, “Ungnyeo” is one of the most studied topics by Korean linguists, mythologists, and historians for it concerns the identity of the Korean people. Nonetheless, those studies tend to be monodisciplinary or androcentric in their approaches and consequently fail to assess her full-fledged supreme identity as the ancestor ruler of East Asian nations. This chapter engages in transdisciplinary, comparative, and feminist approaches to elucidating the Goma myth. At the outset, we will rename “the Korean foundation myth” “the Goma myth.” That is corollary in that she is the central figure of the story. Also it introduces Old Korea as the One People of the Creatrix, anciently known as Nine Hans (九桓 Guhan). The Goma myth restores the gynocentric multi-meaning of “Nine Hans” and “Magoist Koreans/East Asians,” which is non-ethnocentric and supra-nationalist in origin. The character, “Han (桓),” in “Nine Hans” and “Hanguk,” is complex in meaning as it connotes “one,” “whole, “great,” “good,” “same,” “bright,” “many,” “correct,” “middle,” “full” and the like. Thus, “Nine Hans” refer to the People of the Creatrix who have those qualities of the character “Han.” Koreanists have designated as Hanism (the Han thought) this inclusive and polysemic nature of the word “Han” characteristic of traditional Korean worldview.[2] Although naming it Hanism is insightful, it may be misleading without a full-fledged hermeneutics of Goma mythology. Goma, known as Ungnyeo or Gom, remains underestimated and misrepresented among modern Koreans. A common understanding of the Korean foundation myth goes that she was the bear who became a woman and married Hanung, the divine sage ruler of Old Korea, and gave birth to a son, Dangun, the founder of the proto-Chinese Joseon dynasty (2333 BCE-232 BCE). Goma is diminished to the role of a mother of an assumed male hero at best. Consequently, she is redacted from the mytho-historical context of Old Magoist Korea/East Asia (the pre-patriarchal gynocentric people of the Creartrix), and divested of her supreme identity as the dynastic founder of Danguk (3898 BCE-2333 BCE). Given the immensity and complexity of the topic and its data, it is admittedly impossible to treat them comprehensively within a chapter. While many salient themes are discussed, many others are not treated. Among the untreated are Nine Numerology and its cross-cultural manifestations beyond East Asia. This essay aims the following: (1) It provides some pivotal background discussions as well as overall characteristics of the Goma myth. (2) It introduces and delineates the four narratives of the Goma myth selectively chosen from various written texts. The fact that the topic of Goma has rarely been brought to light in its own right in the West adds to the difficulty. This has to do with the fact that pre-Chinese Korean/East Asian history is deemed heterodox, if recognized, in mainstream (read Sinocentric and patriarchal) East Asian Studies. Not only her supreme identity but also her Magoist mytho-historical context remains as non-data in the institutionalized practice of Korean Studies. Our task necessarily involves a controversial feminist methodology, debunking conventional interpretations as a product of Sinocentrism. Mainstream Koreanists have endorsed or internalized the Chinese ethnocentric worldview that is patriarchal and imperialist. Reversing the multiple reversals, the current work, as a result, exposes what is written out of the official East Asian mytho-historiography. Summary of the Goma Myth Goma had a great spirit from birth. Because of her vision of “benefiting the human world widely,” she was entrusted by the last shaman queen, Hanin of Hanguk (桓國 State of One People, c. 7199 BCE – 3898 BCE), with the task of restoring the Reign of the Creatrix. Toward the end of the Hanguk confederacy, clan names and their customs grew apart. And a belligerent tiger clan rose. They raided and plundered neighboring tribes. Goma conceived a will to pacify a social problem caused by this unruly patrilocal clan. Determined to constrain the tiger clan, she requested Hanin to send her to the troubled region. Hanin granted her wish and sent her to the region, Mount Taebaek (Great Resplendence). Leading the royal bear clan of 3,000 people, Goma arrived at Mount Taebaek and settled adjacent to the tiger clan. Rather than a military solution, she proposed a covenant for both the bear clan and the tiger clan to observe. Both clans underwent a trial, which was to dwell in a cave hall and endure 100 days without seeing the sunlight, living on mugwort and chive. I call her proposal the cave initiation, a socio-spiritual pledge to undergo the ordeal of the cave environment in order to tap into one’s innate power of restoring true human nature. The cave is a physical and metaphorical place for the womb of the Primordial Mother, the sacred space/time of unity, wholeness, and rebirth, wherein everyone once dwelt. The cave initiation represents a returning to the knowing of the common origin of all beings, the Crearix. Goma proffered the tiger clan an option of changing their predatory behaviors but they could not endure the cave initiation. The bear clan endured for three seven days (21 days) and attained the female character, the true human nature. The tiger clan was expelled to a remote designated land outside Four Seas, the territory of Old Magoist East Asia, by verdict of the law that Goma legislated. …
(Photo Essay 2) ‘Gaeyang Halmi, the Sea Goddess of Korea’ by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

Part II: The Lost Iconography of Gaeyang Halmi We visited the Suseong Shrine a second time on July 11, 2012. I looked inside the Shrine wherein a shaman ritual was being performed by a Mudang (Korean Shaman)[i] and her assistants. The Mudang in colorful ritual outfit appeared to console her female client on behalf of the spirit. The ritual continued another hour or so and we waited outside until she finished her performance. We had come here on the day of arrival in Jungmak-dong, Buan. The shrine was locked, apparently not being in use. On our second visit, the shrine was packed with four people and their instruments and equipment. It was so compact that it left no room for another person to sit; however, it was pumping up the sober energy. In fact, I have no recollection of which musical instruments were being played inside the shrine. Nonetheless, it feels like that I was hearing the sharp and high banging of the kkwaenggwari (gong) accompanied by the janggu (hourglass drum) rhythm [symbolizing the sound of thunder and rain respectively]. The “musical” sound that I heard shook off the debris of ordinary thoughts and took me to the Other Side of Reality. I began to see things clearly the way they are. I was stepping into the history of this place that I was going to discover.
(Essay 2) Returning Home with Mago, the Great Goddess, from East Asia by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

[Author’s Note: This essay was first published in Trivia, Voices of Feminism, Issue 6, September 2007. Also to be included in the forthcoming anthology She Rises: Why Goddess Feminism, Activism, and Spirituality?] An Introduction to Magoism Mago is the Great Goddess of East Asia. Nonetheless, she remains barely known to the world. Her equals, Xiwangmu (the Supreme Goddess of Daoism) and Amaterasu (the Sun Goddess of the Japanese imperial family), are said to comprise the pantheon of East Asian cosmic goddesses. Considering that these goddesses are often aligned with the ancient culture of China or Japan, one notices that the pantheon of East Asian Great Goddesses thus omits both Mago and “Korean culture.”