October 24, 2022October 25, 2022 Mago WorkLeave a comment

(Book Excerpt 2) Re-Membering with Goddess: Healing the Patriarchal Perpetuation of Trauma by Trista Hendren

A Note on Styles, Preferences and Names Trista Hendren Re-Membering with Goddess contains a variety of writing styles from people around the world. Various forms of English are included in Read More …

(Poem) Heyoka by Sara Wright

Artwork by Sara Wright When I gazeinto these reflectionsI know whoI ambentwillow lowhoo hooa weaverof relationshipbridging worldsI’m toldwedto sacred land.Grandmotherwears green pearlsbruises purple black or red Grandfathersings to Black Bears streaked in crazystripes Tewa Elderinstructs playthe drum a centeredcrossfour directionshold weaverdreamerreceiverbridgemakerit is notfor meto knowhow taking astand for Lifewill manifest how intentcan healor harmor whenacceptanceis all Weaver, Bridge makerDreamerReceiverReversals tooBackwardsand forwardsI go.black and whiteHeyoka Sings to coyotesin red clay.Backwardsand forwardsI go.black and whiteHeyoka sings to coyotesin red clay.Author’s Note: Who or what is a Heyoka? In many if not all Indigenous tribes but especially well known in the Lakota – Sioux tribes, Heyoka is present as a kind of clown who serves as a spiritual leader by speaking and acting in opposite ways to those around him. This power is not gender dependent. Heyoka behavior is designed to disrupt ordinary perception by challenging societal norms helping people to confront uncomfortable truths about themselves by holding up a contradictory mirror.A person may become a Heyoka after experiencing a vision or dream of the Wakíŋyaŋ, or the Thunder Beings. The vision grants sacred power to the Heyoka, which they share with their people through humorous and/or unconventional actions. In Lakota mythology, Heyókȟa is also the name of the spirit of thunder and lightning itself. This spirit is portrayed with emotions opposite the norm laughing when sad and crying when happy. Laughter, seen as a precious gift, helps the community cope with suffering. Other behavioral examples include wearing clothes inside out or riding a horse backwards. A Heyoka embraces and embodies the contradictions of life. Blunt, honest observations by Heyoka figures cut through pretense to expose hypocrisy and hidden feelings, acting as a catalyst for growth. Intuition and emotional insight are an intrinsic part of this spiritual force. These figures are often described as highly intuitive and empathetic, sensing the emotional energy of others. (Meet Mago Contributor) Sara Wright – Return to Mago E*Magazine
(Prose) The Day my Father became a Beaver by Sara Wright

The morning my father died I dreamed that he had become a beaver. After the call came and the shock wore off (he had just been operated on apparently successfully and was in his fourth day of recovery in the hospital), the dream still wouldn’t let go of me. The dream wouldn’t let go of me. I kept contemplating its meaning during the following weeks while his maternal family and I planned a memorial service and his ashes were delivered to me.
(Poem) Sisters of the Deep Waters and Making Space by Lucy Pierce

Sisters of the Deep Waters I am very grateful to the beautiful Jane Hardwick Collings for her enduring request for a mermaid image, inspiring me to connect with these watery beings of the fluid, emotive realms of the ocean. I hadn’t realised my inner mermaid until now! Prints available on Etsy (www.etsy.com/shop/lucypierce) Making Space I am making space. I am making a space within which I am enough, in and of myself. A space with an edge beyond which I end and you begin. I am making space in rejection of the belief that there is not room enough for me to exist, for me to shine and storm, to inconvenience and disrupt, to radiate and transform. I am reaching in through the flesh and the sinew, I am pulling on bones, stretching out muscles, making room within for all that I was born to be. I am being stretched and wrung, squeezing out all that is not love, all that would keep me small, all that would have me believe that I am not enough. I am wrestling out the voice that would tell me that I am only safe in the inbetween spaces of dark matter. I am making space for me to birth myself into being. I am making space in my pelvis so that the three million year old woman can come to rest there, and guide my every step from her ancient womb. I am making space in my heart for a thousand orgasmic blossoms to bloom, ecstatically fragrant, thunderously robust, exquisitely tender. I am making space in defiance of the story that I am a worthy receptacle for other people’s pain, the contract that I make with them to take them into myself and have them seek their healing through me. No more! I am making space and I give you back to yourself. I am making space in order that when I travel out to the far reaches of the cosmos a part of me stays close to home, to hold my self worth by the hearth fire with the Grandmothers, not allowing me to take all of me, all the way out there, in search of the loving boundary for the small, waiting child within me, because in this space that I have made for myself I know that I am loved and infinitely lovable, and here I am safe. I am making a space with an edge through which I can filter your opinion of me, so that even if you don’t like me, I can still like myself. I am making space for the fierce Mumma roar, the ancient wild protectress, who is unshakable in her mercy for the vulnerable and the innocent, for the unloved and the wounded. I am making space in my throat for the full bodied blooming of my song, the voice of my power to meet the world unbound and free, blossoming and bold. I am making space for vision to be received, and for the will to enact the call of what I know to be true, I am making space so that the gap between my vision and my actioning is seamless, because there is space to say Yes to what is mine to give and I am answerable to none but the ancient lore of life. I am making space for the blood to flow, and to be reclaimed by the land and to receive the ancient lineage of my dream speak through the precious thread of my moon time, and to drink deep of the Earth, primal, raw and sensual. I am making space to swell and to undulate, to unravel and enfold, to dance and to sing, to sleep and to dream, to love and to play. I am making a space where I am sovereign queen, from here I do not give myself away, from here I am whole, from here there is time and space for me. I am making space to hold my tender, frightened child with such a fierce authority of love, I am making the space to take responsibility for myself, and my unmet need so that I can set my loved ones free. I am making space to suckle from the stars, the sweet milk of vision and mystery and the ancient story of our belonging. I am making space to let the Earth mate with the Cosmos, in sacred union, through the holy passage of my body I am making space for my ancestors to shudder through my bones, their raucous No to all that does not serve my purest becoming, and their Yes to that which gently opens a clean fold of being that will serve all of our futures. (Meet Mago Contributor) Lucy Pierce
(Prose & Poem) Surabhi and Nandini by Susan Hawthorne

Kamadhenu, The Wish-Granting Cow Made in Rajasthan, India c. 1825-55 Artist/maker unknown, India, Rajasthan, Jodhpur or Nathadwara Opaque watercolor and metallic pigments on paper 5 x 5 inches (12.7 x 12.7 cm). Wikimedia Commons. I have been studying Sanskrit for a little more than decade. I took it up because I love ancient languages. But more than that, I wanted to have direct access to myth and poetry, to be able to translate these for myself and give them my own spin. I discovered the joy of this some thirty years ago when learning Ancient Greek. This year we have been translating the Raguvamsha of Kalidasa. The story concerns a king and his wife who are having trouble conceiving a child. It doesn’t sound like much of a story for a feminist take informed by lesbian-centric thinking. But that is until you take into account the cow who was previously disrespected because the king was preoccupied with other things and failed to act appropriately. In order to reverse this he has to spend time doing her bidding, protecting her and spending all day and night with Nandini for three weeks. I have been writing about mythic cows since 2009 when the figure of Queenie came to me. She is a universal cosmic cow with knowledge that goes back through the ages. She claims to have created the universe and her evidence is contained in language: galaxy a word that is derived from the Greek for milk; indeed the Milky Way. While Queenie does not make an appearance in this poem, any poem I write about cows has her looking over my shoulder. In the front of my book Cow (2011) you can find the etymological connection between Gau (Skrt: cow) and Queen (a word derived from Skrt: cow who is a woman rich in cows). Surabhi is a wish-fulfilling cow and Nandini is her daughter. Surabhi is also referred to as Kamadhenu. What I like about the story is that there are no temples to her, rather it is the cow herself who is sacred. It is an interior worship. In my retelling in this poem, I decided not to tell it forwards but instead backwards, as you would expect from a lesbian. The section I am telling comes from the end of Canto 1 and the beginning of Canto 2 (backwards). The wish-fulfilling cow and her calf. Her body contains images of other Hindu deities.Photo © Susan Hawthorne, 2019 Surabhi and Nandini it’s a story that can be told in reverse how we orbit the cosmic cow to solve our aridity her udder full spilling milk across the sky her dugs as big as jugs death is an event on the horizon when Nandini enters the Himalayan cave her bellow reverberates in the hollow a sound chamber of rumbling echoes twenty-one days we sleep with her waiting on this wish-fulfilling cow day and night the interstellar space between her horns is a fissure to other worlds at dusk in the space between light and dark she shines red like the star on the forehead of Taurus Rohini visible in between worlds like the sound of the wind-fluting bamboo singing life walking in the apron of the forest our eyes dry from fasting flowering trees shower us with falling blossoms birdsong echoes as the vines hold fast to the trunks there are many acts of worship for a cow offer her sweet grasses and scratch her red hide wave away the flies that settle on her wide shoulders become her shadow standing stopping when she does move on sit down drink water when she does by these means you will follow the way of the cow follow in her dusty wake her four dugs are the four oceans filled with unending seas of milk This poem is from Susan Hawthorne’s forthcoming collection of poems, The Sacking of the Muses which will be published in 2019. (Meet Mago Contributor) Susan Hawthorne.
(Poem) My Imaginary Cat by Harriet Ann Ellenberger

[Editors’ Note: Learn about how the “Nine Poets Speak” series came to be in place here.] Photo by Matthew Larkin, on Unsplash Living alone and feeling lonely,I was looking for comfort,but my one-bedroom apartmenthas a no-pets policy.How I longed for the sensualand intelligent presence of a feline companion,a conversation partnerwho would nuzzle me and purrwhen we went to sleep,a furry friendly familiaradept at mind-to-mind communication.I saw no way out of lonelinessuntil one morning I wokewith the poem title “My Imaginary Cat”and the name “Phoebe.”I couldn’t resist.I started thinking about Phoebe,trying to see her in my mind’s eye, and soon enough I was talking to her out loud,like the child with an imaginary friend.Phoebe seemed to reconnect me with my childhood memories of play. My mother would drape a bed sheetover the kitchen table,and my little brother and Iwould crawl into the cave under the tablewith our black tomcat, who was so gentlethat my brother used him as a pillow.We had no trouble believing we were in a cave,nor did we have any trouble believing thatthe rusty swing set in the backyardwas our log cabin.Now, as post-industrial civilizationcomes slowly, then quickly, undone,I crave the simple pleasures of childhood play,and Phoebe, my imaginary cat,gives them to me with her attentionand her dance of response. https://www.magoism.net/2013/05/meet-our-contributor-harriet-ann-ellenberger/
(Poem) Belgian Upper Paleolithic Bear Cult by Robin Scofield

Early modern humans stepped over bear bones, finding a niche for each of the red ochre bear skulls painted by hand, eye sockets turned outward in the Mother Bear cave, den of the Great Goddess.
(Essay) Once in Okinawa by Luciana Percovich

It’s a common trait of the most ancient religions in human history, that the cult could only occur in the open air – as still the Celts expressed, “in a space not built by human hands.” This trait is proper to pre-patriarchal civilizations all over the world, as in the Japanese archipelago of Okinawa, studied by J. Herbert in La Religion d’Okinawa. In what is considered the most ancient form of Japanese religion, the Ryu-Kyu Shinto, where priestly duties are performed exclusively by women, there is no difference between the worshipped divinity and the place of worship (utakis). Since the sacredness of these places are full of divine essence, the divinities themselves are simply called by the name of that place. In this form of ancient Shinto, where no central authority rules the beliefs, every priestess (noros and tsukasas) enjoys a full independence for what concerns the mythology and the form of cult of which she is the mediator and guarantor. Kinamon, the main divine character, who is also called Nirai-Kanai, is a dual creature, at once male and female, another frequent trait in the most ancient myths of creation all over the world. Nirai-Kamai is not worshipped in a temple but rather in the trees and in the rocks where she originated at the beginning of creation. As in Australian mythology, where creation rose from the Dreamtime, and every rock or rivulet of water manifests on the physical plane a Dream of an Ancestor/tress, these places are so holy that they cannot be acceded by anybody but the priestesses and only in some occasions. The access to the six main holy places of the archipelago is strictly limited or even forbidden: in the whole island of Kudaka, where the first human creature was created by Ama-mi-Kiu, Nirai-Kanai’s daughter, nobody is allowed to live, and in the western beach of Okinawa where, up to the beginning of the second world war, only the kami-tsukasas were admitted. Even though a human intervention has been carried out to underline the attention and care paid, the place of cult — be it a holy mountain, a hole, a clearing of grass or sand, a hidden spring in a forest, a cave, a cavern, a stack or a wall of rock, a grove, a single tree or simple thick stones “from which the sun rises,”– must strictly be in the open air. In Okinawa, the basic form of the “temple” is a small wall of dry stones coming up straight from the floor, not higher than 70 cm, sometimes overcome by a stone slab where oblation is put; it is often surrounded by another small wall or by a set of circular trees as a means of containment or protection. Similar utakis are generally in the open countryside, in a wood or on a beach, though they can sometimes be found near a village, in which case they act as “guardians.” Their function recalls Ala, the great mother of the Ibos, in Nigeria, who used to be sitting inside the porch of a small wooden temple in such a way that all the inhabitants of the village could see her, meaning that her soul was fluttering over the whole community. Another interesting word to understand the force and width of this sacredness of nature as the place of divine expression (source/soul of the creation and of the perennial creative energy, which needs to be kept whole and pure to ensure its continuity) is ibi which, according to some sources, refers to the divinity itself. In this case other than the place of cult — while according to other sources it is the holiest part of the utaki — Ibi could also include a whole forest or the sea itself. A modest building can be found near the main utakis, destined to the purification of the noros before the rituals, which further confirms that the holiest place is in the open air, whereas the closed place is a secular construction, used only by priestesses to get prepared for the sacred ceremonies. In Europe and in the Mediterranean area, the columns of the first temples and of the later sacred architecture were created by imitating the natural environment, the clearing surrounded by the trees: forests of stone where air still flew among the marble trunks. Only later they were enclosed by Christianity with walls – sometimes looking almost temporary or erected hastily: to hide the holy place, to isolate it, to separate it from nature, which starts to get desacralized and finally becomes an inanimate entity to exploit. This separation can be seen in many churches, from the Jesuits’ one downtown in Lisbon to the Doric temple of Athena, which is now part of the cathedral of Ortigia (Syracuse, Sicily), where the columns are still well visible and powerful, not completely included in the perimeter walls. The catastrophic drama of the Death of Nature occurs in this passageway, in these enclosures, dealt with by Carolyn Merchant in her homonymous book[1] in which she retraces the crucial centuries terminating in the “Renaissance,” that is the turning point from the magic-holistic to the scientific vision. But consider that numerous apparitions of Mary took place in a tree. La Madonna di Fatima (Portugal), one of the well known holy places of Christianity, tells us how eternal the holy tree is to people’s imagination. There, the Virgin Mary appeared on a holm oak at the beginning of the twentieth century, in the middle of a grove of olive, oak and fruit trees sloping down to a perennial spring. Sanctuaries have too often become places where male violence has chosen to explode, as is the case in Okinawa. Today, all over the world, the sacredness of natural places and of the vegetal kingdom have been repeatedly desecrated and without any limits, as in the decayed Italian landscape, once populated by “divine feminine beings, wonderfully skilled in magic and medicine art, the only ones who know the virtues of certain herbs, of …
(Prose) Healing Medicine From the Woods by Hearth Moon Rising

Hearth Moon Rising, Writer Is your heart weary? Is your spirit longing for beauty? Does sorrow consume your thoughts? Are you lonely? The woodland thrush has the antidote for you. The most evocative of the Eastern Woodland singers, the Veery, the Hermit Thrush, the Swainson’s Thrush, and (especially) the Wood Thrush have a melody that hits the heart chakra just right. The song is often characterized as “haunting,” not because it is scary but because it seems to echo through the forest late on a sunny afternoon. https://youtu.be/mcR6XrnD7Yc Wood Thrush You may not have the good fortune to hear this somewhat uncommon bird in the forest, or you may need the song’s uplifting powers in the wintertime, but birding CDs and bird sites on the Internet have recordings of the song. The woodland thrushes can also be invoked during healing rituals. I like to display photographs of healing animals to imbibe their energy in a subtle way. As a treatment for depression or low spirit, this bird may be the ticket. The song has a melancholy edge to it that respects sadness even as it soothes it. The woodland thrushes thrive in large intact forests with tall trees, usually deciduous or mixed deciduous-coniferous forests. They eat insects and berries. They nest on the ground or in the lower branches of trees. The male, who has the pretty voice, takes an active role with the female in raising young. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtJ14MV64WY Veery Most of the woodland thrush songsters are declining in population. The Wood Thrush is even considered in danger of extinction if remedial measures are not taken. Loss of forest habitat not only in northern breeding ranges, but in Central American wintering areas, is critical. Steps taken in the US to protect this species will not be enough, which illustrates the importance of conservation efforts across national boundaries. We are all connected. https://youtu.be/6Zc9XyQVlTQ Wood Thrush Pair at Nest (no sound) Further reading: Wood Thrush life cycle at Audubon: https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/wood-thrush Wood Thrush conservation efforts at Cornell All About Birds: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/saving-the-wood-thrush-qa-with-ron-rohrbaugh/ Overview of Woodland Thrushes: https://www.nhpr.org/post/something-wild-thrushes#stream/0 Recordings of Hermit Thrush and Swainson’s Thrush can also be heard on the Cornell website. https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Hermit_Thrush/sounds https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Swainsons_Thrush/sounds https://www.magoism.net/2013/04/meet-mago-contributor-hearth-moon-rising/
(Poem) Help Us, Household Spider, Weave Love into Our Web by Carolyn Lee Boyd

By Thomas Bresson – Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27600470 Welcome, household spider, to our homeOur Earth of your favorite dusty cobwebbed corners,Metaphorical baskets of unwashed clothes, dark’s mysterious sanctuaries.We glory in your silver filaments,Geometric miracles of delicacy, pearl-colored strandsStrung like holiday lights in the lightbulb’s glow. Your industrious usefulness in the ecosystem and otherworldly artistryIn the midst of our human world’s cosmic-level messinessIncites our admiration and awe.Please, look upon our dwelling as your ownAnd help us make it a place of both order and wonder. While we struggle with our everyday human tasksOf doing our part to make our planet as it should be,We stare in astonishment at your fertility and persistence.If we bumble into your masterpiece, rip it from the wall,Undo your hours of designing, constructing, creating,You patiently and forgivingly start again.Please, may we use your example toWeave the web of understanding and healingAcross our planet until we, too, make our worldA masterpiece of loving, insightful, brilliant and beautiful connection You are always busy, weaving in the nightAs our heads lie sleepless on our pillows.Once again, our world’s balance has slipped off its axisAnd is rolling far away we know not where.Throw us a web to catch it in our waiting handsWhen our future is uncertain.Together, we will tack sanity back onto our planet where it belongs.We will darn whole our world’s broken places;Someday it will shine with sparkling filaments of happiness.But always we will leave your everyday spider webs beSo that you, too, can have a safe home for your children,Made from your nurturing and labor, for your future and ours. A couple of days after finishing this poem I walked into my bathroom and encountered a spider who was hanging by a thread attached to the ceiling, her face at just the height of mine. We looked into each other’s eyes for just a moment until I said that soon someone else would be coming in who I was afraid might not see her and so would wipe through the thread, sending her tumbling to the floor. Instantaneously, she began withdrawing her thread until she was safely back in the light fixture. I took this to be her blessing on the poem. https://www.magoism.net/2016/08/meet-mago-contributor-carolyn-lee-boyd/

(Special Post) BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE FOR EL PASO ARTIST MARIO COLÍN by Donna Snyder

Born in Juárez in 1959, Mario Colín lived his entire life in the Five Points area of Central El Paso, where he attended Houston Elementary and Austin High School. From the age of fifteen, he worked as a construction worker, building silos and other large construction projects across the U.S.A., at some point hitch hiking from the Pacific coast to the Atlantic shores. In his late twenties, he began to focus all his attention and energy on art, which had been an interest since early childhood, working as a muralist and portrait painter. Much of his art is of a religious nature, although he also painted secular art, portraits, and historical scenes. Colín painted his first mural of the Virgin of Guadalupe in collaboration with deceased artist Chuck Zavala in 1987 at Esparza’s Grocery, a small store in Central El Paso. It has now become a shrine, with community members building a stone arch and bringing flowers and candles, and has been pronounced a religious site by the parish church. Since that first mural, Colín has painted over 40 pieces of public art, many of which have become landmarks. Many of those murals are in that same Central El Paso neighborhood, on or near Piedras, including the House of Pizza, Los Alamos Grocery, The Elbo Room bar, the former Sanitary Plumbing at Piedras and Fort Boulevard. Colín twice painted a 25 foot mural of the Virgin of Guadalupe, at Alameda and Zaragoza, across from the Ysleta mission. The first version, painted in 1997, became decayed, but was a popular landmark. That mural has appeared in periodicals, art books, calendars, many newspaper articles, and in photographs exhibited in the El Paso Art Museum and galleries. In 2004, Señor José Villalobos donated and members of the community contributed money to pay laborers to replaster the wall of the century-old adobe building where it is located, and Colín repainted the entire mural for donations from passers-by and community members. Colín’s work has also been featured on the International History Channel and Canal 44, XHUI TV, in a Ford television commercial, and numerous times in the El Paso Times and the defunct El Paso Herald-Post, as well as in periodicals such as Texas Monthly, Dallas Morning News, Texas Observer, Austin American Statesman, Stanton Street magazine; literary journals such as Mezcla and GypsyMag.com; in documentaries including Walls that Speak: El Paso’s Murals, directed by Jim Klaes; in art books such as Colors on Desert Walls: The Murals of El Paso and Texas 24:7, and in various editions of Chicano Studies: Survey and Analysis, a text book used throughout the country.
(Special Post 3) Why Goddess Feminism, Activism, or Spirituality? A Collective Writing

[Editor’s Note: This was first proposed in The Mago Circle, Facebook Group, on March 6, 2014. We have our voices together below and publish them in sequels. It is an ongoing project and we encourage our reader to join us! Submit yours today to Helen Hwang (magoism@gmail.com). Or visit and contact someone in Return to Mago’s Partner Organizations.] Helen Hwang I study and advocate Goddess feminism or Magoism because it is a way of living for me. I find myself in Mago (the Great Goddess) who in turn leads me to the Way wherein I learn how to become the person who I can be. It has to be Mago, the Female Divine, because She is real! She is the Primordial Mother who is the Beginning and the End of everything to us on the planet Earth. She teaches me the real. I can’t negotiate Her to anything less. Helen Hye Sook Hwang, Ph.D. California http://magoism.net Bridget Robertson A Goddessian I was introduced to a form of meditative journeying by a resident in my grandmother’s retirement community. She approached to me. I know she was at least part Native American, and that alone made her the topic of much gossip in the building. Her Rose colored lipstick, deep brown eyes, wrinkles that only helped illuminate her face and a chiffon scarf that matched none of her clothes. I thought she needed help with her groceries. She didn’t. She had me stop the elevator. and directly asked about my looking tired. My response was about being, busy balancing all the areas of my life. In fact I was exhausted doling out time like pieces of pie.
(Special Post) Discussion on Mother-Daughter Wound by Mago Circle Members

[Mago Circle members discussed and answered the question, “What do you think of this (the topic article below)? If you are a feminist, it is something that you would promote? If so, why? If not, why not?” The discussion took place on May 15, 2017 and shortly thereafter in The Mago Circle.] Topic Article: “For The Daughters Who Don’t Love Their Mothers – Screw Mother’s Day” by Sade Andria Zabala Everyone talks about a mother’s unconditional love. But what if it doesn’t exist? Daughters are socially expected to be close with their mothers. But are you one of the women who aren’t? Mother’s Day isn’t just for celebrating moms. It’s a day some of us dread because we are reminded we grew up (or are still) unloved, not good enough. (Read the whole article here.)

(Video) A Samhain Ceremony by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

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

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

I am a secularist rather than a ritualist, but I can’t help but be drawn into the celebrations that people make when they honour the passing of the seasons. Even as a child I felt the disconnect between Christmas and the hot dusty days of summer. When Christians invaded and colonised Australia they brought their holidays but did not consider changing the dates to match the seasons. I was in India recently, invited as a speaker at the Hindu Lit For Life Festival in Chennai where I had lived ten years ago. The last day of the festival was the first day of Pongal. A friend, feminist economist Devaki Jain, who had grown up in Chennai eighty years earlier invited me to join her in a car ride to see Pongal celebrations in the streets. This is a Tamil festival dating back at least a thousand years, a sun festival, welcoming the next six months of the sun’s journey, also a harvest festival. During this time many women produce beautiful drawings, known as kolam. In my book Cow I wrote a poem about kolam which I think says more than I can explain here. what she says about kolam where they are drawn and when is all important early morning is auspicious it sets the shape of the day the hard ground is cleaned points of white grain sprinkled she works quickly she knows her design for the day runs the powdered grain from point to point it is a mandala a yantra a sign so the forces of the universe align themselves with her intentions Back to Pongal. The festival goes for four days. On the first day, which is called Bhogi, people are on the streets with the fruits of harvest, piles of tumeric and stacks of sugar cane tied in bunches. My friend, Devaki, bought flowers to take back to her room in the hotel. The second day, called Thai Pongal, I was invited to a harvest lunch at the house of my friend Mangai who is a playwright, theatre director and human rights activist. The word ‘pongal’ means ‘boiling over’ or’ overflow’ and I saw this in the cooking of the sweetened rice dish into which each of the twelve people present poured some water and milk as it almost overflowed the pot. This sweet rice dish was added to the collection of other dishes on the table. I cannot tell you what they were, but the meal was delicious. After lunch everyone relaxed, someone sang, we talked and caught up on news. The third day, is called Maatu Pongal, and cattle are at the centre of celebrations on that day. I don’t know if this line up of cattle had anything to do with the day’s celebration but there they were tied up alongside a very busy main road. These were not cows and I did not see any cows with decorated horns and flowers on their heads. on that day as I have on other occasions. On the fourth day, Kaanum Pongal, things begin to wind down. One of my co-speakers at the festival said she would be visiting family members on that day. The kolams are drawn again, sugar cane is consumed and people go back to their daily lives. What I liked about being in Tamil Nadu during the Pongal festival is that it felt absolutely right. The time of the year, the connection with harvest, so I did not feel the discomfort I so often feel in the midst of the out-of-season commercialised holidays as they are celebrated in Australia. Susan Hawthorne’s book Cow is available worldwide from distributors in USA, Canada, UK, from all the usual online retailers or from Spinifex Press. http://www.spinifexpress.com.au/Bookstore/book/id=215/ © Susan Hawthorne, 2019 (Meet Mago Contributor) Susan Hawthorne.
(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
The Ceremonial Creative Cosmos by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This essay is an excerpt from Chapter 3 of the author’s new book A Poiesis of the Creative Cosmos: Celebrating Her within PaGaian Sacred Ceremony. The Cosmos is a ceremony, a ritual. Dawn and dusk, seasons, supernovas – it is an ongoing Event of coming into being and passing away. The Cosmos is always in flux, and we exist as participants in this great ritual event, this “cosmic ceremony of seasonal and diurnal rhythms” which frame “epochal dramas of becoming,” as Charlene Spretnak describes it.[i] Swimme and Berry describe the universe as a dramatic reality, a Great Conversation of announcement and response.[ii]Ritual/ceremony[iii] may be the human conscious response to the announcements of the Universe – an act of conscious participation. Ceremony then may be understood as a microcosmos[iv] – a human-sized replication of the Drama, the Dynamic we find ourselves in. Swimme and Berry describe ritual as an ancient response humans have to the awesome experience of witnessing the coming to be and the passing away of things; they say that a “ritual mode of expression” is from its beginning “the manner in which humans respond to the universe, just as birds respond by flying or as fish respond by swimming.”[v] It is the way in which we as humans, as a species, may respond to this awesome experience of being and becoming, how we may hold the beauty and the terror. Humans have exhibited this tendency to ritualize since the earliest times of our unfolding: evidence so far reveals burial sites dating back one hundred thousand years, as mentioned in the previous chapter. We often went to huge effort in these matters, that is almost incomprehensible to the modern industrialised econocentric mind: the precise placing of huge stones in circles such as found at Stonehenge and the creation of complex sites such as Silbury Hill may be expressions of some priority, indicating that econocentric thinking – such as tool making, finding shelter and food, was not enough or not separate from the participation in Cosmic events. Ritual seems to have expressed, and still does actively express for some peoples, something essential to the human – a way of being integral with our Cosmic Place, which was not perceived as separate from material sustenance, the Source of existence: thus it was a way perhaps of sensing “meaning” as it might be termed these days – or “relationship.” Swimme and Berry note that the order of the Universe has been experienced especially in the seasonal sequence of dissolution and renewal; this most basic pattern has been an ultimate referent for existence.[vi] The seasonal pattern contains within it the most basic dynamics of the Cosmos – desire, fullfilment, loss, transformation, creation, growth, and more. The annual ceremonial celebration of the seasonal wheel – the Earth-Sun sacred site within which we tour – can be a pathway to the Centre of these dynamics, a way of making sense of the pattern, a way of sensing it. One enters the Universe’s story. The Seasonal Moments when marked and celebrated in the art form of ceremony may be sens-ible ‘gateways’ through the flesh of the world[vii] to the Centre – which is omnipresent Creativity. Humans do ritual everyday – we really can’t help ourselves. It is simply a question of what rituals we do, what story we are telling ourselves, what we are “spelling”[viii] ourselves with – individually and collectively. Ceremony is actually ‘doing,’ not just theorizing. We can talk about our personal and cultural disconnection endlessly, but we need to actually change our minds. Ceremony can be an enabling practice – a catalyst/practice for personal and cultural change. It is not just talking about eating the pear, it is eating the pear; it is not just talking about sitting on the cushion (meditating), it is sittingon the cushion. It is a cultural practice wherein we tell a story/stories about what we believe to be so most deeply, about who and what we are. Ceremony can be a place for practicing a new language, a new way of speaking, or spelling – a place for practicing “matristic storytelling”[ix] if you like: that is, for telling stories of the Mother, of Earth and Cosmos as if She were alive and sentient. We can “play like we know it,” so that we may come to know it.[x] Ceremony then is a form of social action. NOTES: [i] Spretnak, States of Grace, 145. [ii] Swimme and Berry, The Universe Story, 153. [iii] I will use either or both of these terms at different times: I generally prefer “ceremony” as Kathy Jones defines it in Priestess of Avalon, Priestess of the Goddess, 319. She says that ritual involves a repeated set of actions which may contain spiritual or “mundane” elements (such as a daily ritual of brushing one’s teeth), “whereas ceremony is always a spiritual practice and may or may not include ritual elements.” The PaGaian seasonal celebrations/events are thus most kin to “ceremony,” although I do not perceive any action as “mundane.” However, “ritual” is more commonly used to speak of how humans have conversed with cosmos/Earth. [iv] Spretnak, States of Grace, 145. [v] Swimme and Berry, The Universe Story, 152-153. [vi] Ibid. [vii] Abram speaks of “matter as flesh” in The Spell of the Sensuous, 66, citing Maurice Merleau-Ponty, The Invisible and the Invisible (Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 1968). [viii] Starhawk used this term on her email list in 2004 to describe the story-telling we might do to bring forth the changes we desire. [ix] A term used by Gloria Feman Orenstein in The Reflowering of the Goddess (New York: Pergamon Press, 1990), 147. [x] As my doctoral thesis supervisor Dr. Susan Murphy once described it to me in conversation REFERENCES: Abram, David. The Spell of the Sensuous. New York: Vintage Books, 1997. Jones, Kathy. Priestess of Avalon, Priestess of the Goddess. Glastonbury: Ariadne Publications, 2006. Orenstein, Gloria Feman. The Reflowering of the Goddess. New York: Pergamon Press, 1990. Spretnak, Charlene. States of Grace: The Recovery of Meaning in the Postmodern Age. San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1993. Swimme, Brian and Berry, Thomas. The Universe Story: From the Primordial Flaring Forth to the Ecozoic Era. New York: HarperCollins, 1992.

(Mago Almanac Planner Year 5 Excerpt 3) 13 Month 28 Day Magoist Calendar by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

[Author’s Note: This and its sequences are a newly added portion in the Mago Almanac Planner Year 5, equivalent to the Gregorian Year 2022. Because the Budoji did not explain further about time units smaller than 1 day, I did not follow through some possible implications in previous Mago Almanac volumes. Next year’s Mago Almanac Planner for Personal Journey: 13 Month 28 Day Calendar Year 5 or 5919 MAGOMA ERA is forthcoming in Mago Bookstore (October 25, 2021). PDF version is available for purchase.] We set the new moon day of the Winter Solstice month in 2017 as the New Year of Year 1. With that, we are able to tap Magoist days into Gregorian days that we moderns use. Then, how do we bring down a Magoist time in the scheme of the Gregorian time? How do we determine the onset of New Year in the Magoist Calendar? When would be the midnight of New Year in Year 1? That requires a translation of Mago time into Gregorian time. We can designate midnight as a midpoint in time equidistant from the sunset of New Year’s Eve to the sunrise of New Year. As local times vary around the globe, the midnight of New Year varies in states and cities. In Los Angeles, California USA, the first Magoist midnight falls on 23:29 on December 17, 2017 for Year 1. That would be 07:29 on December 18, 2017 in UTC. Year 1Year 2Year 3Year 4Midnight12/17/2017 23:2912/17/2018 23:2912/17/2019 23:2912/16/2020 23:30Sunset16:45, 12/1716:45, 12/1716:45, 12/1716:44, 12/16Sunrise6:53, 12/186:53, 12/18 6:53, 12/186:53, 12/17 (Sunset and sunrise times in Los Angeles, USA) The below table shows the first Magoist midnight (around 0.33 AM) falls on December 18, 2017 in Gyeongju, South Korea. That would be 15:33 on December 17, 2017 in UTC. Year 1Year 2Year 3Year 4Midnight12/18/2017 0:33.512/18/2018 0:32.512/18/2019 0:32.512/17/2020 0:32.5Sunset17:11, 12/1717:11, 12/1717:11, 12/1717:11, 12/16Sunrise7:28, 12/187:27, 12/18 7:27, 12/187:27, 12/17 (Sunset and sunrise times in Gyeongju, South Korea) We can imagine a spiral progression of years from Little Calendar (one year) to Medium Calendar (two years) and to Large Calendar (four years). Every year has one leap day, whereas every fourth year has another leap day in the middle of the year. Cyclic time, as it progresses, creates rhythm and harmony in the human world. Little Calendar (1 year)13×1=13 months364 days+1 leap day=365 daysMedium Calendar (2 years)13×2=26 months2x(364 days+1 leap day) =730 daysLarge Calendar (4 years)13×4=52 months4x(364 days+1 leap day)+1 leap day=1,461 days (End of the series) https://www.magoacademy.org/virtual-midnight-vigil-to-new-year/ https://www.magoism.net/2013/07/meet-mago-contributor-helen-hwang/
(Essay 3) The Magoist Calendar: Mago Time inscribed in Sonic Numerology by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

[Author’s Note: This is my latest research that has led me to restore the 13-month, 28-day Mago Calendar, which will be included at the end of its sequels. See Mago Almanac: 13 Month 28 Day Calendar (Book A), published in 2017.] THE SECOND CALENDAR Then, the Earth had increasingly so much work in all regions. Biodiversity went overboard. The terrestrial song became uncontrollable. The initial calendar became defunct. Lifeforms were left uncoordinated. The Earth fell into disorder, as she had no one to tune the song of earthlings in harmony with the cosmic music of creativity. The Earth was in need of sentient beings who could undertake the task. Mago’s descendants were to be born. Humans were entrusted to cultivate the earthly sound property by the Nine Mago Creatrix. The Budoji writes:
(Mago Essay 2) Toward the Primordial Knowing of Mago, the Great Goddess by Helen Hwang

Part 2 Gynocentric Study of Mago’s Visual Representations [The following sequels including this one are a modified version of my paper presented to Daoist Studies, the American Academy of Religion (AAR) in 2010.] Mago [麻姑, also known as Magu or Mako] remains underrepresented if treated in modern scholarship. Little attention has been given to the topic of Magu in its own right. In the West a handful of scholars have mentioned Mago within the context of Daoism. Her transnational and trans-temporal manifestations in Korea, China, and Japan are largely unrecognized. That Magu is known as multiple identities throughout history in East Asia has gone unnoticed. In my study of Mago, that Mago’s supreme divinity as the Great Goddess has been rendered unintelligible over time under the rule of patriarchy offers a crucial insight leading to a befitting method. First of all, the perception of Her as the Great Goddess enables one to recognize a large volume of primary sources, otherwise left unattended, from across national, regional, temporal, and typological boundaries. Secondly, the primary materials in turn allow one to assess the supreme nature of the Great Goddess, Mago, apart from the theological framework of the monotheistic male god. By being a non-Western and non-patriarchal tradition, Magoism warrants a distinctive thealogy characterized by self-equilibrium and interdependence of components, part of which was discussed in Part I. Thirdly, a trans-disciplinary method is corollary in processing a variety of multi-genre materials that would not be neatly categorized in a mono-disciplinary data-pool. To say the least, it liberates itself from the tyranny of monolithic methodology, which dissects to take only a portion of data from the whole and treat it as if it is a single independent entity. In short, methodology and thealogy, being mutually supportive, lead the researcher to a rather unexplored conceptual territory, which I call gynocentrism. Gynocentrism takes the female principle as an operating system. Its system has been thwarted within the discourse of androcentric perspectives. Gynocentrism is a submerged mode of thinking in the patriarchically indoctrinated psyche. Made to be subliminal, the gynocentric mode of thinking elicits the Mago (Great Goddess) consciousness. Consequently, Mago consciousness upholds the infrastructures of gynocentric thinking. What distinguishes gynocentrism from feminism is that it redefines the male as a derivative of the Female. Gynocentrism reflects the principle of all mothers of living beings. In that sense, my study of Mago is a gynocentric endeavor to chart an alternative paradigm of doing thealogy within the context of East Asian history, mythology, and culture. It is a misunderstanding that Magoist thealogy or Magology (the study of the Great Goddess) concerns the divine only. Gynocentric thealogy is not locked into a separate domain apart from humanity, nature, and the universe. Put differently, Magology is not a mere conceptual tool that explains the divine. It summons gynocentric histories, myths, and cultures that are to be restored and rewritten. It calls for rethinking everything in a fresh light. In the sequels to follow, I bring to light a series of Mago’s visual representations expressed in paintings, ceramics, embroideries, woodprints, sculptures, and topographies, and examine Her multivalent identities in light of the large corpus of Magoist written and oral texts. Mago’s visual icons are beyond one’s documentation. They, especially those from China, are still a favored item in modern day’s auction markets. Several hundred images that I have documented are simply incomplete. Some sample images are chosen to show an array of historical/cultural/social productions, once honored and valued highly by many. Through the economy of commodification, these images have carried the cultural memory of the Great Goddess. While a number of her visual icons are undated, many are from the Yuan (1271 to 1368), Ming (1368 to 1644), and Qing (1644 to 1912) dynasties of China, the Joseon dynasty (1392-1910) of Korea, and certain historical periods of Japan. Also, many are from modern times. In them, Mago/Magu/Mako is depicted as: (1) An immortal/transcendant (仙 xian or seon, immortal or transcendant). (2) A mendicant. (3) A sea goddess. (4) A mountain goddess. (5) A crone. (6) The ancestor of shamans. And (7) A non-anthropomorphic identity or giantess as the nature-shaper or cosmogonist of local topographies such as mountains, rocks, caves, and seas. The notion of a giantess is employed to describe Her transcendental nature. In this case, Mago-named topographies alongside folk stories describe Her feature/identity of immeasurability. Needless to say, these identities overlap and merge, making up an overall picture of Mago as the Great Goddess. That is, She is each and all. These visual icons, stylized with symbolic objects, respectively demonstrate specific Magoist cultural memes once prevailing and favored among East Asians. A throng of objects such as medicinal herbs, especially lingzhi mushrooms, flowers, hoes, baskets, vessels, and animals, forms the coded syntaxes of the arcane language. In particular, a troupe of animals including deer, crane, dog, and monkey highlights the drama. Also, colophons carry not only the cultural meme but also prestige and authority for its producers and possessors. (To be continued.) [i] I have discussed this in detail in Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Seeking Mago, the Great Goddess: A Mytho-Historic-Thealogical Reconstruction of Magoism, an Archaically Originated Gynocentric Tradition of East Asia, Ph.D. dissertation (Claremont: Claremont Graduate University, 2005), 335-342; 353-361.