January 23, 2024January 25, 2024 Mago WorkLeave a comment

(Gogyoshi) A Miracle Worker by Barbara Anna Gaiardoni

The White Unicorn Creature beyond time and space Can heal every wound Her quiet tears of pride Flow freely down UN TAUMATURGO L’Unicorno Bianco Creatura oltre il tempo e lo Read More …

(Prose & Art 3) The Goddess: Foundation of My Spirituality by Noris Binet

Metamorphosis by Noris Binet Now many years latter it has become very obvious to me that the heart is at the forefront of most spiritual traditions, that the heart is the place where we are united. The phrase “one heart” has circumscribed the whole planet fostering a world culture with the heart as the center of our humanity. Slowly, more and more, I sense the heart will be the symbol that unites us all and that we will place it on the top of our altars at home or in the public space as a reminder that we all have One Heart from which to live life. Awakened by the Goddess I don’t recall growing up hearing of any female spiritual teacher who was considered an awakened being or enlightened in any spiritual tradition, and such was unthinkable in patriarchal religious systems. Maybe one might hear of The Mother (Ramakrishna’s wife), but I think that it has only been lately that she has been considered an awakened being. I had many women in my life who not only inspired me and supported me in my spiritual quest but not one was considered awakened. Finally, now we can talk about women reclaiming openly and being called and considered spiritual masters, awakened beings. This is a very important aspect in our human evolution. We have crossed the line from the (ignorant) days when whether women possessed souls was discussed in patriarchal religious systems to the present time when women are awakening all over and realizing their true nature and are engaged as spiritual teachers in their own right. This is magnificent! When I met my spiritual teacher Gangaji I was absolutely ready to open up and surrender to what she offered me, which was freedom from entanglements. Her true transmission was direct, and it required nothing from me other than to stop seeking “something” out there and the realization that what I had been seeking was already here in me just as I was. This teaching was both radical and revolutionary. It had become clear to me that it was necessary to have a female teacher to be able to open fully and to totally trust. Our meeting together continues to be an ongoing love affair through which my own real nature as love has been revealed, I am in reverence and filled with gratitude by this amazing grace wherein this life is an instrument for awakening, for self-realization and for this love, as the core of my being. Like me, my teacher is not anyone special (neither of us were born from enlightened parents). She is just a woman who by grace awakened to her true nature and is devoted to bringing this awareness to any man or women who wants to discover their own true self. When asked once by an interviewer who she was, she answered “I am your own self, there is no separation between you and me, we are the same one, the same self, the same Love.” This declaration is true freedom! For me this is the nature of the Goddess, of the sacred feminine, the non-dual nature, the all-inclusive awareness that embraces everyone as its own self. Being awakened by the goddess is like falling onto the lap of the grandmother where love is the only language and the only sweet ambrosia that allows the heart to be exploded by love and to be in love with the whole of existence, which includes even sorrow and death. The Language of the Goddess Cultivating the Goddess, being in alignment with the Goddess, serving the Goddess, maintaining a connection with the Goddess, receiving guidance from the Goddess are genuine interests that typically surface in everyone of us. For me cultivating and maintaining my connection with the Goddess requires vigilance, surrender and peace in my heart. It requires vigilance because the mind-conditioned pattern of a value system that supports fear and devaluation of the feminine can unconsciously undermine us. And, vigilance requires awareness, a moment-to-moment awareness to be alert when we sacrifice the present moment for the story line in our mind, reliving the past or imagining the future. It requires that we are willing to see and listen instead of thinking unconsciously. That we are willing to surrender to life’s unfolding in front of us, instead of escaping with our habitual compulsive patterns of believing our constant stream of thoughts. Sitting silently periodically to become aware of the thought-stream storyline is very useful and supports us in understanding how the mind functions. Investigating further by self-inquiry about the validity of our thoughts and their attendant beliefs system is a very important key for our own liberation from the tyranny of the mind. Surrender can be a very ambiguous word with many different connotations depending upon where we are coming from. What I notice about surrender is that it is not an action that one takes, such that we surrender to something external or internal to us, rather, surrender in this context means that we do not resist the movement of life (whether “positive” or “negative”) in such a way that we create conflicts and suffering. This surrender is about being willing to listen to life totality and see its movements without judging them. When we are able to look outside the lens of our judging tendencies, then we can see a clear image of what is being presented to us, which is neither good nor bad; it simply is: Life with its up and down revealing itself to be mysteriously wise and kind. Peace in the heart is the most important ingredient of living life in harmony and in happiness while embracing life as it is, with all its challenges and all its glory. As the years pass I am increasingly aware that only from a place of peace in our hearts can we discover that love is our true nature and that it is possible to live life from this love, where there is …
(Essay) The Elder by Sara Wright

I walk by her every day. This past summer a golden yellow spider took up housekeeping in the hole at her center; now a gossamer web stretches across the entrance of what once was a hairy woodpecker’s home. An emerald canopy shades the ground beneath her feet. In the fall, she burns fire and gold into the sky surrounding her. All winter she sleeps leafless, a startling angular silhouette, pressed against the sky. Snow birds take shelter in her deep cavern. Early spring brings robins to her door as miniature leaflets unfurl.
(Video) Ways to walk with ancestral family patterns by Cynthia Tom

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXWQr3D4gM8 Cynthia walks us thru her Hungry Ghosts art installation for 2018 Dia de Los Muertos @SOMArts Cultural Center, San Francisco. Curated by RioYanez and Carolina Quintania, created by Rene Yanez. Cynthia shares how she is healing herself by unraveling and exploring her ancestral family patterns of trauma. Colonization, patriarchy, extreme discrimination. She has learned that her self-doubt and depression are not hers, but learned behavior that can be unlearned. She shares this thru her art https://www.cynthiatom.com and art based healing workshops like https://www.aplaceofherown.org Https://www.ateliercynthiatom.com for merchant as meditation. https://www.magoism.net/2021/07/meet-mago-contributor-cynthia-tom/
Dance Dramas as an Instrument of Political Change by Dorothea Kahena Viale, Ph.D.

There are many ways to create change in society. I was considered a good girl; parents liked when my friends and I played together. I was always creating games for us to play, and we never caused trouble. However, I started rebelling against the existent order of things from a young age. I grew up in Bed-Sty Brooklyn. My friends and I were all connected to a hyphenated American culture. I was Sicilian/American, others were Maltese/American, South America/American, Puerta Rican/American and so on. When I asked my mother where the white people were, she told me they had money lived in Manhattan. Later, I realized that she meant Northern Italians, British, etc. When we met someone new, it was common to ask their heritage. No big deal. So, it came as a shock when I introduced somebody new to the group and there was resistance. I had watched this girl looking out her window every day and she looked sad. I would cross the street and talk to her. We exchanged stories. I asked her to come play with us. She said her mom wouldn’t let come out. She had to watch her little brother. Well, my humble self, told her, don’t worry I will talk to your mother and convince her to let you play with us. And I did. She was black; African-American. When she joined us, I was in for a shock. My friends would not play with her. Why this one hyphen bothered them, with all the mixtures we had, was beyond me. So, I played with my new friend, and let my other friends fend for themselves. I realized that, while I had other black friends before, I had played where they lived, not on my block. After a very short while, my friends got over themselves and joined us. What helped was that I was the one that usually made-up new things to do, when they got bored. For example, I created a skating army. My mom worked in a sweat shop as a seamstress. Pay was low but one of the few benefits was that she could take home scraps of material that were too small to make clothes with. She made all of us these cute hats which we wore while skating. We were quite proud of our selves. I created routines (which I much, much later realized were choreographies). Having the hats made us feel connected. The next run ins were with the Church (Catholic, of course). The earliest that I remembered occurred when I was about 7 years old. I told a priest from the parish that I wanted to be an altar boy. He said that couldn’t happen, but that I could be an altar girl. I asked him what altar girls did. He replied that they cleaned the altar linens. I responded angrily, that if I wanted to do housework, I would help my mother at home. I demanded that he give me the address of our local bishop. I was sure the priest was just against women and couldn’t believe that it was a rule of the Church. But, of course, it was. Many decades later, I went to Italy as a part of a Women’s Studies in Religion course. Gianluigi Gugliametto, a fellow student, set up a fabulous tour in Italy which included a church where nuns ran the services. The one exception was that a priest consecrated the host which the nuns distributed to the congregation. A step forward. One last Catholic Church run in… When it came time for Confirmation, we had to choose a name for Confirmation. I chose Athena. The nun told me that it had to a saint’s name. I replied confidently that it was a Goddess name and wasn’t that better!? Umm…. None of them agreed. I was bummed. I ended up using the most common name Mary because I lost interest. As I grew and learned, the manner of things I felt needed change expanded. I have marched, voted, attended rallies and I have signed petitions. I was squished against a chain link fence while police dogs threatened to maul us (during the Nixon administration). I was a founding member of the Black Student Union. It was by request. When they asked, I looked at them, pointed at my skin, and looked at them questioning. They said we know, but, ummmmm, we need to have a white person to get the Union OK’d. OH! So, you need me to be your token? They replied yeah…Sorry but we trust you. Do I have to go to many meetings? No, you don’t have to go to any, unless you want to. I said you have a deal. But the action that has made the most impact, are the thirty something dance dramas I have created. All were created and performed at the Long Beach WomanSpirit Summer and Winter Solstice Faires. Some were performed also at MECDA (Middle Eastern Culture and Dance) events. The arts are profound way to create change because they engage people in a way that is not dry and draw them into the story. With the dance dramas, our stories were danced, had dialogue, and always had an interactive part to include the audience. I usually added a give-away to help them continue the energy after the fair. This including of the audience gave them ownership to continue action the taken when they got home. What was nice is that at our regular meetings, they would let me know how things went. The first or second one I created, I danced alone. It was for LBWS. A member of our community, who was overwhelmed attempted suicide. He, also, caused other problems. But, underneath, he was a good person. He had ended up in jail with no one to bail him out. He was very depressed. I created a dance drama, where I was dressed in black, the sky cooperated by being overcast. I don’t remember the words …
(Essay 2) The Piggly Wiggly and the Black Madonna by Mary Saracino

[This is Part 2. Read Part 1 here.] To further stoke the fires of my Catholic ambivalence, ten years after my mother left him, my father petitioned the Archbishop to annul their twenty-three year marriage. He had fallen in love with a widow named Rose and wanted their marriage blessed by the Church, an act that would have been forbidden to him as a divorced man. With enough witnesses and enough cash, my father was able to reverse the effects of the Holy Sacrament of Marriage, into which he had entered with my mother, and erase the Church’s long-term memory. In the process, he relegated to illegitimacy, the souls of the six children he had sired with my mother. In the eyes of Mother Church, my brothers and sister and I became bastard-children. In a strange twist of canonical logic, the daughter of my mother and her priest boyfriend had become the only legitimate offspring in my family. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why my father has felt compelled to say Novenas for his sons and daughters, as if his nine-day devotions in our honor will placate his Catholic God, seduce Him into forgiving us our dubious birthright and accept us into the Kingdom of Heaven.
(Mago Almanac Excerpt 6) Introducing the Magoist Calendar by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

Mago Almanac: 13 Month 28 Day Calendar (Book A) Free PDF available at Mago Bookstore. 28 DAY MENSTRUAL CYCLE The moon’s tidal lock is no astronomical phenomenon that concerns celestial bodies only. Women’s menstruation cycle is also locked to the calendric cycle of 28 days or 4 cycles of 7 days. The 28 day cycle refers not just to the lunar motion. It also indicates women’s menstrual cycle. Because the lunar calendar that moderns are familiar with is of the 29.5 day cycle based on the waxing and waning phases of the moon, even women themselves tend to see their menstruation cycle to be 29 or 30 days. However, this can be reconsidered. Statistics and researchers report that its average length of duration is 28 days.[18] When it comes to the 28 day calendric cycle, the cyclic synchronicity between the moon and women is of no coincidence. It is a given by nature, the fulcrum of the Magoist Calendar. At the core of the Magoist Calendar is the primordial consciousness that women’s fertility cycle is synced with the lunar cycle. They synchronize not only numerically but also symbolically. Enabling and nurturing life on Earth, they, the lunation and women’s biological rhythm, unfold the Mago Time in which all other members of the inter-cosmic reality mutually synchronize. Humans and human cultures enter the standard intergalactic time through the moon-women calendric cycle. The word, “menstruation,” is etymologically linked with “moon” and “month” in many languages of the world including English, French, Italian, Spanish, German and Greek. In the English language, the terms “menstruation” and “menses” are derived from the Latin “mensis” (month), which is also related with the Greek mene (moon) and the roots of the words, month and moon.[19] Barbara Mor and Monica Sjoo note the linguistic and semantic connection of the moon-menstruation-month words and writes: And both words [moon and menstruation] are related, through Indo-European roots, to the Old English word, mona (moon), deriving from me, which meant both “mind” and “measurement.” All are cognates – moon, mind, measurement, month, menstruation – since it is the moon mind that establishes measurement, including calendars.[20] The case is similar in the Korean language. In Korean, dal 달 or wol 月 means both moon and month. Women’s menstruation is called dal-geori 달거리 (lunar occurrence) or wol-gyeong 月經 (lunar weaving). The calendar is called dal-ryeok 달력 (the moon calendar). Although its etymology is unknown, it is highly plausible that ddal 딸 (daughter) is derived from dal, the moon. Also Dal 달as affix means land, place, and a celestial body. The dal-related words show a broad range of meanings. Such verb as dal-da 달다 (to weigh or to be sweet), dal-i-da 달이다 (to boil down), dal-a-o-reu-da 달아오르다 (to get hot, to reach an apex, to flush) and dal-ri-da 달리다 (to run) share the root, dal. There is more evidence about the 28 day cycle of the moon-month-menstruation in Korean traditional culture. We hear even today that Koreans count the period of pregnancy as 10 months not 9 months. Precisely, 10 months (40 weeks, which is 280 days) reflects the practice of the Magoist Calendar in which a month has 28 days. Barbara Mor and Monica Sjoo also note that “pregnancy has the duration of exactly 10 lunar months”, and that midwives in many indigenous cultures of the world used the lunar calendar stick to calculate the period of pregnancy .[21] When all is said and done, the moon, month, and menstruation, linguistically, numerologically, etymologically, and cross-culturally refer to the 28 day cycle of the Magoist Calendar. The 28 day periodic synchronization of the moon and the menstruation is the key to the pre-patriarchal gynocentric calendar. Robert Graves in The White Goddess: A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth maintains that the Coligny Calendar was of 13 months and 28 days based on the luni-menstrual cycle and writes: Moreover, twenty-eight is a true lunar month not only in the astronomical sense of the moon’s revolutions in relation to the sun, but in the mystic sense that the Moon, being a woman, has a woman’s normal menstrual period (‘menstruation’ is connected with the word ‘moon’) of twenty-eight days.[22] Graves rightly notes that the synchronization of the lunation and women’s menstrual cycle undergirds the structure of the Coligny Calendar and assesses that “[it was] possibly brought into Britain by the Romans of the Claudian conquest”.[23] From this, we may infer that the 13 month calendar was spread to Britain by the Romans around the first century CE. The connection between the lunar calendar of 13 months and menstruation is also made by John Kellermeire. In particular, Kellermeire infers that “the lunar calendars would not have been merely methods of keeping time but also reflective of the resonance between the phases of the moon and the sacred menstrual cycles of women”.[24] To be accurate, it is not the phases of the moon per se but the motions of the moon that the ancients considered in sync with the menstruation. Kellermeire’s insight goes further to connect the 13 cycles of the moon and menstruation. According to the researchers, he says, in the relief the “Venus of Laussel” found in France, dated 25,000 to 20,000 BCE, the bison horn with 13 notches that she holds, indicates the number of lunation and/or the number of menstrual cycles in one year. Kellermeire, after such feminist scholars as Mor and Sjoo and Grahn, goes on to attribute women to the inventor of mathematics. Judy Grahn ascribes menstruation to the parameter of human civilizations. Grahn’s insight that time measured through the cycles of menstruation is necessarily cyclic rather than linear and quantitative is precisely in accordance with the spiraling nature of time perceived in the Magoist Calendar. Grahn asserts that Paleolithic women themselves, the menstruant, were likely the originator of the 13 month lunation system. Furthermore, she maintains that the rite of menstruation gave rise to the measurement of time and the lunar notation and writes: [O]ur ancestors may have learned to think numerologically through …
(Poem) Between the Realms by Arlene Bailey

The Gift, art by Roberta Orpwood The Old Ones have gatheredRound me, holding my handsAnd sheltering my broken heart,Supporting my body and soulAs I am stripped of everythingI’ve ever known, everything thatGives me meaning and heretoforeHas defined me as meAs I navigate the Death Mysteries,Erishkigal’s meat hook and thePromise of new tomorrows,New life and disintegration ofWhat no longer serves me,I wonder…Who is the Me that will move forward?Who is the Me that will fade away?How will I know the difference andWill I be able to discern what to burn,What to seed for new growth andWhat to release to the winds of change?Can I, like Inanna, release everythingWalking naked into the new now?It has been a long, deep descent into theCave of all time – the Cave of Before,Now and a Future still very much unknownI have learned much, released much, cryingTears upon tears upon tears and still I knowThere is more to comeI don’t want to question every choice, everyDecision I’ve ever made and, yet, DeathCalls us to do that, calls us to be the SerpentWho sheds her skin clearing the energiesOf the past so that She may move forwardCreating… truly creating… new lifeNo longer a fallow entity, but a well-tendedAnd nourished/nurtured landscape of stillUnknowable, but effing amazing potentialIf only… IF ONLY… we acknowledge thePowerful lessons Grandmother HecateHas taught us in this season of Death and herGreat mysteries, in this season of the primal belowAs the Sun’s light grows and as we approachThat point on the Great Wheel known as Imbolc,I look to the old stories and rituals realizingThis new now is a both/and place – a portal –Where we stand with one foot still in the darknessand the Death Mysteries as we simultaneouslyfly toward the Light of a new day and new lifeLight. Dark. Death. Life.Truly they are two sides of the same thingIntertwined so that we may find our trueStanding in any given momentI stand with my heart in the both/and ofThese places of stillness and contemplation,Transformation and the tiniest movementOf seeds of new growth, these placesOf new gifts just waiting to be revealedIt is truly a portal as I contemplate walkingThrough to the next light, the next dark,The teachings of the both/and, living in theLife of one who moves between the realmsAs Her Soul is called to a new lifeAs She is called to exist inThe Magical, Mystical Immortal RealmWhere one may/can walk throughAll the worlds simultaneously knowing,This is not only their work in the world,But their gift to the worldANDThe gift to their Soul. https://www.magoism.net/2020/04/meet-mago-contributor-arlene-bailey/
(Essay) The ‘G’ Word and ‘F’ Word: Death Consciousness by Danica Anderson PhD

The ‘G’ words, gender and the Goddess, are being rendered passé and many women prefer not to hear of or be associated with them. Recently, the media used the Goddess Isis’ name and bestowed it upon a terrorist group. However, this desecration of the sacred and the maligning of the Goddess is nothing new in the media. For instance, in 2004, the Roman Catholic fanatic Riordan, education master for the state of California, “during a public appearance at a Santa Barbara library, told a young girl that her first name, Isis, meant ‘stupid, dirty girl.’ He later apologized and said he was joking” (Peter Nicholas, 2004). When I read the Roman Catholic Riordan’s remark about the Goddess Isis’ name my immediate reaction was how his remarks display an aggression against the Goddess and all those females who mirror the Goddess yet have no understanding or knowledge of Her. All the media attention on ISIS, an ultraviolent terrorist group, reveals an ignorance of the Goddess Isis’ prehistory and spirituality. The ignorance of Isis has led to the demonization of the Goddess. The misuse of the Goddess Isis as the name of a terrorist group engaged in gynocide (mass murder of females) and mistreatment of anyone of the female gender further condones violence against women.
(Essay 3) *Click Here* to Download Spirituality by Francesca Tronetti

Goddess provisions at cratejoy.com I enjoy watching TV shows set in the 1970s, primarily comedy ones and a few serious ones. A reoccurring episode plot was someone whose child joined the Hari Krishnas or lived at a temple whose leader preached a mi of esoterism, Buddhism, and Hinduism. There was always some conflict with the parent trying to remove their children from the group. The police would then have to find the child, who used a new name, typically of Hindi origin. I only saw one episode where the group was not depicted as a cult or a way to earn money. In an episode of Lou Grant, a father wanted to ‘rescue’ his son from the Hari Krishnas and hired a deprogrammer. However, when he realized that the deprogramming would involve hurting his child, he instead just took his son down the street for a walk and talked with him. The episode ended with the father deciding to stay in his son’s life even though he didn’t like the Hari Krishnas. That was indeed a heartwarming episode, but it was in the minority, as I mentioned. Most shows portrayed these spiritual groups as being led by white men with long beards and robes, attracting young women to work for them. Others were con artists who sought to take older people’s retirement savings. These were fictional depictions of a sad truth. Unfortunately, Eastern and Indigenous spirituality are for sale to too many people. You just need the proper marketing. However, sometimes the marketing can backfire on the companies in spectacular ways. In 2018 Sephora, a make-up company that includes the Bare Minerals brand, decided to offer a $42 Witch tarter Kit for sale in their stores. The kit would consist of a sage smudge stick, crystals, tarot cards, and perfume. The company immediately faced a backlash from witches and pagans and pulled the product. Urban Outfitters’ clothing company caused a similar reaction when they began selling palo santo sticks in their stores. These were not spiritual self-care companies, metaphysical shops, or even bookstores where one could pick up a book on spirituality. Instead, it was clear that they were offering these items to sell them to a young demographic whose interest in spirituality was growing because they knew this demographic shopped at their stores. These international companies garnered a lot of attention because they were so large and announced their products through social media. But stores such as five below and dollar tree, which are trading in on people’s interest in chakras and mindfulness, don’t receive the same attention. This is because they are small and niche, they don’t have the same brand marketability, and the pagans and magic users who shop there like that tools and candles can be purchased cheaply. Consumer mega-giant Wal-Mart is also aware that pagans use their stores and now sell statues of goddesses and gods for between $25-$100, depending on the size and materials. Again, there is not a lot of backlash, possibly because those who would search Wal-Mart.com for a Triple Goddess statue don’t want to have the items pulled. It’s a combination of needs and economics. Sephora foundation can sell for $32 a bottle, and they make a line of clean and vegan make-up products. They market their products to a demographic that is aware of cultural and spiritual appropriation and can take their business elsewhere financially. These larger companies are called to account for their actions because they are million or billion-dollar companies. If you start a protest at a Dollar Tree, an everything for a dollar store, not many people will care. The store caters to those in the lower socioeconomic demographic and doesn’t have the same social media following that the other stores do. No influencer is calling Dollar Tree out for their charka incense, probably because they don’t know it’s there. While Sephora, Urban Outfitters, and other companies have been called out for cultural and spiritual appropriation, we need to remember that they are not putting these products on the market to be insensitive. They are doing so to make money and cash in on the spirituality wave washing through the American markets. A wave enhanced by the growth of social media and the work of ‘influencers.’ Social media is filled with images and videos of meditation and spaces decorated to make them look like temples. I love pictures of sunrooms with brightly colored meditation pillows on the floors, plants cascading down the walls or suspended in hangers, fairy lights adding a sense of magic. The rooms look peaceful and relaxing. They are a place where you never hear your cell phone going off and can listen to waves crashing on a beach for hours. The economic side of capitalist spirituality is, to my mind, part of what moved charkas and mindfulness into mainstream American culture. First, there was an existing market of practicing pagans, and there was a growing market of people who wanted to cast spells and have crystals because it seemed cool, and then there was a market of people who were burned out and seeking something to help them handle their lives. As soon as any product hits the market, a slew of imitators seek to cash in on the hype. While the missteps of Sephora are more out in the open, their attempts to cash in on the spiritual growth market fit in with what I saw in some of the boxes. Teas and facial treatments as part of self-care, with a lunar theme to keep it “goddessy.” Crystals to fill and cleanse your space and self-care oracle decks where you can pick a card and take on a self-care challenge. The self-care/spirituality market overlap is incredible and often hard to pull apart. When one month you can see a definite focus on the spiritual, the next month can have witch kitsch and fancy hot chocolate. Deciding the line is difficult because how each box presents itself in its ads versus its offerings …

(Special Post 4) 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.] Yvonne Lucia: “Feminism is the radical notion that women are people.” -British suffragist and journalist Rebecca West “When the God is male, the male is God.” -Mary Daly Yvonne Lucia sacredartportal.com Lila Moore: My first piece of performance art was a ritual inspired by Isis. However, as a young artist, my interest in combining art and ritual was devalued by my teachers and critics alike. I felt isolated and persecuted. Only after relocating to London was I able to gradually understand that my personal and creative aspiration was integral part of a collective and global feminine and feminist awakening. I realised that personal experiences of women have political perspectives, and that being a contemporary woman artist positions me in the midst of historical and cultural enterprise. As an artist-film-maker and scholar, I have regarded my work as a spiritual quest, exploring through dance-ritual and art films the interaction of the body and psyche with the natural environment and technology. In the 21st century, my interest in the healing and transforming aspects of images on screen has been combined with a growing sense of activism. It seems inconceivable to take images of nature out of context by ignoring the ecological holocaust which is evident everywhere. I have felt compelled to ask whether the needs of the body and mind can be separated from the needs of the Earth?
(Special Post 5) Why Goddess Feminism, Activism, or Spirituality? A Collective Writing

[Editor’s Note: This was first proposed in The Mago Circle, Facebook Group, on March 6, 2014. We have our voices together below and publish them in sequels. It is an ongoing project and we encourage our reader to join us! Submit yours today to Helen Hwang (magoism@gmail.com). Or visit and contact someone in Return to Mago’s Partner Organizations.] Annie Finch For me, Goddess is completely different from God–Goddess means acceptance of the sacred WITHIN the physical instead of transcending the physical; acceptance of death and life as equally sacred; and the holiness of changing cycles…. Annie Finch, Maine anniefinch.com Marie de Kock Why Goddess spirituality? Goddess spirituality is crucial for our survival and the survival of our planet. I’m referring to every woman’s connection and relationship with her own Spirit which resides in her heart, and her own divine ability to create, which springs from her womb. The womb is infinitely more than a reproductive organ; it is a replica of the Cosmic Womb or Mago. From that profound pool of infinite silent knowledge, women can access the solutions so urgently needed to recover the equilibrium the world with its God spirituality has lost, and women can dream the solutions into being. It is the intelligence of the heart and intelligence of the womb that humanity needs in order to balance out the ill effects of our noisy ‘rational’ left brained society. Women carry the keys to the wisdom within them. Female spirituality is the door. Marie is in Chile for now http://ninenormalwomenwithwings.com Leslene Della-Madre Goddess among many things to me is a verb–Goddessing. “Goding” isn’t the same. She is Love in action in all things–she is the cosmic gen-Her-ator bringing life into form from primordial chaos, the twin serpents of coming and going. She is the plasMA of the YoniVerse filling space with her divine essence creating great beaded necklaces of galaxies all connected to each other by electric pathways. She is the All and Eternal. Leslene Della Madre, California USA midwifingdeath.com Diane Horton Sacred Goddess Sisterhood Each of our stories as women who have come to embrace the Goddess are varied and interesting. Certainly interesting to each other, as our spirits long to resonate with another who has had a similar journey. Mine began while I was still a member of the Episcopal Church and a Christian. But relative to many, it was not that long ago, just 18 years. Some women have been knowing and worshiping the Goddess for more than 30 years, some have only just come to the reawakening and re-membering recently. Some of us call ourselves witches, some priestesses, or both. Some do not identify with either of those words and simply say they have immersed themselves in the Divine Feminine, or that they worship the Goddess. Some will say they are Pagan or Wiccan or Dianic Wiccan. Whatever we call ourselves, or do not call ourselves, we are all Sisters in Goddess, those who worship the Great Mother. And though our numbers are growing, seemingly almost daily, we are still in a minority. We need those who are articulate to voice our views and we need wise teachers who can share practices, philosophy and knowledge with those who are eager for such spiritual food. One of the great things about this Goddess Path is that, although there is much written and oral knowledge to be had for those who seek it, the deepest part of this path is experiential. Personal experience with Goddess, deep within ourselves, and having our eyes opened to Her all around us all the time, seeing and feeling Her magic in our lives, knowing Her love and nurturance in our hearts. We have no dogma, no set of rules or commandments, no rigid ideology. We have our own hearts to guide us into all acts of love and pleasure, compassion, humility and reverence which are Her rituals. When we express strength, hold our power and honor life, as well as giggle and laugh, those are Her rituals, too. There are the Women’s Blood Mysteries, which set women apart from men who worship the Goddess, but that should serve to unite women in a strong eternal bond, not alienate men. There is no place for hierarchy. We are all women equal to each other as daughters of the Goddess. We cannot, we must not, allow the patriarchal mindset to contaminate Feminine Spirituality. No hierarchy, no duality, no controlling others. If we want to see a world in which the Divine Feminine is prominent, the world that many of us believe is coming, we need to take a good, hard look at ourselves in the mirror of our Sisters’ eyes and all of us individually commit ourselves to Unity, Sisterhood and Unconditional Love. That does not mean we will never disagree, and sometimes disagree vehemently, but it does mean we do not allow those disagreements to fracture us as a body of women or to damage or destroy our Sisterhood. There are many teachers who have their own followings of students, their own coursework, their own publications and newsletters, their own festivals they work all year to organize and make manifest. This is a good thing! Especially with the national economy the way it is now many, many women cannot afford to travel very far from their homes, so the fact that there are festivals in diverse parts of the country is no doubt just as the Goddess desires. Those who know of Her and hear Her call are greatly benefited by all of these in mind, heart and spirit. We all need each other. We who can spread this information far and wide need to do so, not just think of and promote the one group or project we are involved in ourselves individually. This is the BIG PICTURE. This is how the movement moves forward. This is how the Goddess gathers Her women (and men). Unification of purpose. Standing together. Supporting each other in concrete ways. We are Women of Goddess. Her spirit […]
(Special Post 2) Nine-Headed Dragon Slain by Patriarchal Heroes: A Cross-cultural Discussion by Mago Circle Members

[Editor’s Note: This and the ensuing sequels are a revised version of the discussion that has taken place in The Mago Circle, Facebook group, since September 24, 2017 to the present. Themes are introduced and interwoven in a somewhat random manner, as different discussants lead the discussion. The topic of the number nine is key to Magoism, primarily manifested as Nine Magos or the Nine Mago Creatrix. Mago Academy hosts a virtual and actual event, Nine Day Mago Celebration, annually.] Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: Here is another image of the nine-headed Lernaean Hydra slain by Herakles. https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydra_(mythology)… Glenys Livingstone: Yes, the Hercules story is more documentation of the Old Battle, of the rise of the “hero” to slay the Mother, when in the earliest of times he served with his beauty and labours. It is so interesting to see the analogies in other cultures/places as you are doing Helen, especially in Asia – it seems important work. Your perseverance is paying off, and will. Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: Glenys, I am re-reading a book on Chinese mythology and found a lot more on the nine Magoist symbolism. Someday, I hope to write about the topic in its own right. Glenys Livingstone: This chapter’s work is good re the Old Battle in Greek mythology: Valaoritis, Nanos. “The Cosmic Conflict of Male and Female in Greek Mythology”, in From the Realm of the Ancestors: An Anthology in Honor of Marija Gimbutas. Joan Marler (ed). Manchester CT: Knowledge, Ideas and Trends Inc., 1997, p.247 – 261. Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: Now back to the female divine who is depicted with the nine heads. See the nine-headed Guanyin/Kannon/Gwaneum. Also note that her icon comes in eleven-headed (the 8 Daughters and the Triad Creatrix, which makes eleven). http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/kannon.shtml Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: The symbol of nine dragons was adopted by imperial China. See the Nine Dragon Wall China. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine-Dragon_Wall Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: We connect the dots. When Guanyin is depicted with nine dragons, it conveys that the nine symbolism was/is once deemed sacred. https://i.pinimg.com/originals/4a/17/b3/4a17b33d9a4ae53bad6466a0eaf11722.jpg How popular the Guanyin icon, three headed and eight armed, to this day! Simply Google “eight armed Guanyin.” Below is from the Late Ming Dynasty, China. https://www.google.com/search?q=eight%20armed%20guanyin… She comes in a different name, Ushnishavijaya, in Tibetan Buddhism. https://www.himalayanart.org/items/65445 Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: We can draw that the female deity such as Guanyin and Ushnishavijaya, just to name two, is venerated in association with the nine symbolism. Within the mytho-history of Magoism, I infer that Guanyin or Ma Guanyin is a persona embodying Goma, the Magoist Shaman ruler of Danguk (3898 BCE-2333 BCE), the head of Nine Hans (Magoist Koreans). Note that Magoist shamans or priestesses are called “Mago.” See my essay, “Goma, the Shaman Ruler of Old Magoist East Asia/Korea and Her Mythology,” in Goddesses in Myth, History and Culture (Lytle Creek, CA: Mago Books), 2018. The insight that the major Goddesses in East Asia and beyond point to the same and old divine persona is NOT farfetched, considering that the nine-headed snake or dragon representing the female sovereignty of pre-patriarchal times is slain by male heroes across cultures. Judy E Foster: I’d have to agree with you here. As usual, interesting information! Patty Kay: My meditation this morning was on a history of mysticism. While I’m in the midst of appropriating all of the wonderful beliefs I find here, I also have found a strand in my own tradition that helps me understand why all the Divine Feminine stuff makes so much sense to me. I’ve been trying to determine when the patriarchal world view took over. According to this history, mysticism began to emerge in about 800 to 500 BCE. Could it be that mysticism kept alive the ancient understanding of the cosmos? This is just speculation, but in it I’m answering my own questions. (To be continued) Join us in The Mago Circle https://www.facebook.com/groups/magoism/.

(Photography & Poetry) Thoughts of Spring by Deanne Quarrie

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

Photo by Carolyn Lee Boyd In times past, Creation’s Winter cupped me in her icy hand of sanctuary Gathered in, I sucked dormant life, and slumbered Till Earth’s rebirthing groans awakened my new body Now, older and full of life’s weeping and wondering awe At all that has happened in my decades on Earth I must shake myself into consciousness My seed’s opaque, blinding hull disintegrates and Bodyless, at last I can see through Goddess eyes I ache as my blood paints each flower petal I spin the whirlwind that cannot stop creating abundance I push the seasons through the year that mortals believe revolve of their own accord. Through Goddess eyes I can see me, I inhabit Winter’s hand as my own. I make the cold to slow creation of outside of me To gather the seed into fertile stillness within. That burgeons in my own time. https://www.magoism.net/2016/08/meet-mago-contributor-carolyn-lee-boyd/
(Mago Almanac Excerpt 3) Introducing the Magoist Calendar by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

Mago Almanac: 13 Month 28 Day Calendar (Book A) Free PDF available at Mago Bookstore. MAPPING THE MAGOIST CALENDAR According to the Budoji, the Magoist Calendar was fully implemented and advocated during the period of Old Joseon (ca. 2333 BCE-ca. 232 BCE) whose civilization is known as Budo (Emblem City). Indeed, the Magoist Calendar is referred to as the Budo Calendar in the Budoji. Budo was founded to succeed Sinsi and reignited Sinsi’s innovations including the numerological and musicological thealogy of the Nine Mago Creatrix. The Budoji expounds on the Magoist Calendar as follows: The Way of Heaven circles to generate Jongsi (a cyclic period, an ending and a beginning). Jongsi circles to generate another Jongsi of four Jongsi. One cycle of jongsi is called Soryeok (Little Calendar). Jongsi of Jongsi is called Jungryeok (Medium Calendar). Jongsi of four Jongsis is called Daeryeok (Large Calendar). A cycle of Little Calendar is called Sa (year). One Sa has thirteen Gi (months). One Gi has twenty-eight Il (days). Twenty-eight Il are divided by four Yo (weeks). One Yo has seven Il. A cycle of one Yo is called Bok (completion of a week). One Sa (year) has fifty-two Yobok. That makes 364 Il. This is of Seongsu (Natural Number) 1, 4, 7. Each Sa includes a Dan of the big Sa. A Dan is equal to one day. That adds up to 365 days. At the half point after the third Sa, there is a Pan of the big Sak (the year of the great dark moon). A pan comes at a half point of Sa. This is of Beopsu (Lawful Number) 2, 5, 8. A Pan is equal to a day. Therefore, the fourth Sa has 366 days. At the half point after the tenth Sa, there is a Gu of the big Hoe (Eve of the first day of the month). Gu is the root of time. Three hundred Gu makes one Myo. With Myo, we can sense Gu. A lapse of 9,633 Myo-Gak-Bun-Si makes one day. This is of Chesu (Physical Number), 3, 6, 9. By and by, the encircling time charts Medium Calendar and Large Calendar to evince the principle of numerology.[12] KEY TERMS Calendric Cycles Jongsi (終是 Ending and Beginning): Cyclic periods Soryeok (小曆 Little Calendar): One year Jungryeok (中曆 Medium Calendar): Two years Daeryeok (大曆 Large Calendar): Four years Names of Year, Month, Day, Week Sa (祀 Rituals, year): One year refers to the time that takes to complete the cycle of rituals. Gi (期 Periods, month): One month refers to the period of the moon and menstruation cycle. Il (日Sun, day): One day refers to the sun’s movement due to Earth’s rotation. Yo (曜 Resplendence of seven celestial bodies, Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, week): Each weekday is dedicated to seven celestial bodies. Bok or Yobok (曜服 Duties of the Celestial Bodies, completion of a week): One week refers to the veneration of the seven celestial bodies. Names of Monthly Transition Days Hoe (晦 Eve of the first day of the month, 28th) Sak (朔 First day of the month, 1st, the dark moon) Names of Intercalation Days Dan (旦 Morning): Leap day for New Year Pan (昄 Big): Leap day for every fourth year Names of Time Units Gu (晷 sun’s shadow): Time measure, 1/300 Myo Myo (眇 minuscule): Time measure, a total of 300 Gu Myo-Gak-Bun-Si (眇刻分時 minuscule, possibly 15-minutes, minute, hour): Time measure, 9,633 Myo-Gak-Bun-Si is equal to a day Names of Three Types of Numbers in Nine Numerology Seongsu (性數Natural Number): 1, 4, 7 in the digital root Beopsu (法數 Lawful Number): 2, 5, 8 in the digital root Chesu (體數 Physical Number): 3, 6, 9 in the digital root THREE SUB-CALENDARS The Way of Heaven circles to generate Jongsi (a period, an ending and a beginning). Jongsi circles to generate another Jongsi of four Jongsi. One cycle of jongsi is called Soryeok (Little Calendar). Jongsi of Jongsi is called Jungryeok (Medium Calendar). Jongsi of four Jongsis is called Daeryeok (Large Calendar). The universe is infinite without beginning and ending. Everything runs the course of self-equilibration in relation to everything else. The Way of Heaven or the Way of the Creatrix circles and makes possible the infinite time/space to be measured and calculated. As the Way of Heaven circles, we are able to perceive Our Universe in finite measures of time/space. Time becomes measurable, as space is stabilized. Seasons and days-nights are demarcated in cyclic patterns, as the Earth makes the three cyclic movements of rotation, revolution, and precession. Calendar, born out of the inter-cosmic time, synchronizes human culture with the song/dance of the universe. The term Jongsi, which means an ending and a beginning, is equivalent to “a cyclic period” that is marked by the beginning and the end. Time (a day, a month, and a year) circles, as space (the Earth, the Moon, and the Sun) spirals. The Magoist Calendar has three sub-calendars: The period of one yearly cycle is called Little Calendar, whereas the period of two yearly cycles is called Medium Calendar and the period of four yearly cycles, Large Calendar. To be continued. (Meet Mago Contributor, Helen Hye-Sook Hwang) Notes [12] Budoji, Chapter 23. See Bak Jesang, the Budoji, Bak Geum scrib., Eunsu Kim, trans. (Seoul: Gana Chulpansa, 1986).
(Mago Almanac Excerpt 5) Introducing the Magoist Calendar by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

Mago Almanac: 13 Month 28 Day Calendar (Book A) Free PDF available at Mago Bookstore. THE 28-13-7 INTERPLAY How does the number, 28 (days), for the lunar cycle come about? Why is it 28 days and not 29 or 30, the latter implicated in the traditional lunar calendar of East Asia? It appears that 28 days is a value closer to the moon’s sidereal period (about 27.3 days) than the synodic period (about 29.5 days). Or is it that 28 days points to the median between the synodic lunar cycle and the sidereal lunar cycle? To answer these questions, it is important to note that a value in the Mago Time captures an inter-cosmic biological cusp/juncture derived from the matrix of sonic numerology. Distinguished from the patriarchal measure of time fixated into a solipsistic space, it makes visible the interconnectedness of all bodies. It never stands as an isolated single occasion. The 28 day, 13 month calendar has to do with how we perceive the moon. There are two ways of understanding the lunar cycle; the sidereal period and the synodic period (see Figure 2). The synodic period refers to the time, about 29.5 days, that we on earth see the moon complete one round of revolution, e.g. from the full moon to the full moon. In contrast, the sidereal period refers to the actual time, about 27.3 days, that the moon takes to complete one round of revolution. While the synodic time is measured relative to the Earth (the observer’s position is on earth), the sidereal time is measured relative to the distant “fixed” stars (the observer’s position is far out at the distant stars). Since the distant stars are considered at rest, the sidereal period is taken as a universal value, not affected by the location of the viewer, we on earth. There is, apparently, a discrepancy between the lunar cycle that we on earth see the moon return to the same phase and the lunar cycle that the moon actually completes a revolution. The former is based on our observation of the moon’s phases, whereas the latter is based on the moon’s actual orbital motions. The two differs basically because all celestial bodies, the moon, earth, and sun, in the solar system are in motion. It is not just the moon that we watch revolving but Earth also revolves around the sun. We are watching the movement of the moon on a moving vehicle, earth, so to speak. Therefore, the moon has to travel about 2 more days in order for us on earth to see it in the same phase (see the green portion in Figure 2 part). At the position A of the moon in Figure 2, the moon is in line with the sun and the distant stars, which is a new moon. In the position of B (the new moon), the moon is in line with the sun but not with the distant stars. The right hand line of the green portion in line with the distant stars is where the moon started as a new moon. The moon has traveled about 2 more days to be in line with the sun. That is why the synodic period is about 2 days longer than the sidereal period. When it comes to “the lunar calendar”, moderns tend to think of it as the waxing and waning phases of the moon (29.5 days, the synodic period). The problem lies in that, following the synodic period, people see nothing beyond the moon’s phases. They overlook the fact that the moon rotates and revolves on its own axis and around the earth approximately 13 degrees every day. The synodic lunisolar calendar is a navel-gazing vision. Attending to the moon’s phases may seem benign. However, that is a planned pitfall; the synodic lunisolar calendar with 12 months in a year is here to supersede the 28 day, 13 month gynocentric calendar. Its irregularity with the number of days in a month (29 or 30 days with about 11 extra days for intercalation) is an inherently critical flaw. Its inaccuracy when incorporated within the solar annual calendar (approximately 365.25 days) stands out. Seen below in the table, the synodic lunar track results in as many leap days as a total of 44 days for 4 years, whereas the sidereal lunar track has 2 days for 4 years. The synodic lunisolar calendar undercuts the moon’s given capacity – guiding earthly beings into the intergalactic voyage of WE/HERE/NOW. In it, both the moon and women are, glorified and objectified by the viewer, cast under the male voyeuristic eye. On the contrary, the sidereal lunisolar calendar, based on the cyclic synchrony between the moon and women, offers the lens to the interconnectedness of all bodies in the universe. Synodic Lunar Track (Patriarchal) Sidereal Lunar Track (Magoist) Focus Moon’s phases Moon’s motions Days of month 29 or 30 (irregular) 28 (regular) No. of months in a year 12 13 Women’s menstrual cycle Assumed sync Synced Luni-centric Astolonomy Unknown 28 Constellations Intercalations 11 days annually, a total of 44 days for 4 years 1 day annually & 1 day every 4 years, a total of 2 days for 4 years Sources prove that the sidereal lunation is, albeit esoterically, known across cultures to this day. Through the comparative study of ancient cultures of Babylon, Arabia, India and China, W. B. Yeats (1865-1939) observes the substantive difference in dynamic between the two lunation tracks, the synodic and the sidereal. He notes that the moon’s orbital motion, apart from the sun’s, charts out the celestial sphere as the 28 Mansions. I have learned that the 28 Mansions or 28 Constellations of the Moon is a popular form of the 28 day and 13 month Magoist calendar, widely circulated among East Asians especially Koreans from the ancient time. Yeats’ following insights corroborate the Budoji’s explication of the Magoist Calendar in general and the faulty nature of the patriarchal (ancient Chinese) calendar in …
(Prose) Halcyon for the Season by Deanne Quarrie

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

It is the Season of Samhain/Deep Autumn in the Southern Hemisphere at this time. In the PaGaian version of Samhain/Deep Autumn ceremony participants journey to the “Luminous World Egg” … a term taken from Starhawk in her book The Spiral Dance[i], where she also names that place as the “Shining Isle”, which is of course, the Seed of conception, a metaphor for the origins of all and/or the female egg: it is the place for rebirth. Artist: Bundeluk, Blue Mountains, Australia. The “luminous world egg” is a numinous place within, the MotherStar of conception: that is, a place of unfolding/becoming. The journey to this numinous place within requires first a journey back, through some of each one’s transformations, however each may wish to name those transformations at this time. The transformations for each and every being are infinite in their number, for there is “nothing we have not been” as has been told by Celts and others of Old, and also by Western science in the evolutionary story (a story told so well by evolutionary biologist Elisabet Sahtouris, particularly in her video Journey of a Silica Atom.) Ceremonial participants may choose selves from biological, present historical self, or may choose selves from the mythic with whom they feel connection; from any lineage – biological or otherwise. Selves may also be chosen from Gaia’s evolutionary story – earlier creatures, winged or scaled ones … with whom one wishes to identify at this time. Each participant is praised for their “becoming” for each self they share. When all have completed these journeys/stories of transformation, the circle is lauded dramatically by the celebrant for their courage to transform; and she likens them all to Gaia Herself who has made such transitions for eons. The celebrant awards each with a gingerbread snake, “Gaian totems of life renewed”[ii]. gingerbread snakes Participants sit and consume these gingerbread snakes in three parts: (i) as all the “old shapes” of self that were named; and (ii) remembering the ancestors, those whose lives have been harvested, whose lives have fed our own, remembering that we too are the ancestors, that we will be consumed; and (iii) remembering and consuming the stories of our world that they desire to change, the stories that fire their wrath or sympathy: in the consuming, absorbing them (as we do), each may transform them by thoughts and actions – “in our own bodyminds”. When all that is consumed “wasting no part”, it is said that “we are then free to radiate whatever we conceive”, to “exclaim the strongest natural fibre known” – our creative selves, “into such art, such architecture, as can house a world made sacred” by our building[iii]. This “natural fibre” is a reference to the spider’s thread from within her own body, with which she weaves her web, her home; and Spider has frequently been felt in indigenous cultures around the globe as Weaver and Creator of the Cosmos. Spider the Creatrix, North America, C. 1300 C.E., Hallie Iglehart Austen, The Heart of the Goddess, p.13 In the ceremony, participants linked with a thread that they weave around the circle, may sail together for a new world “across the vast sunless sea between endings and beginnings, across the Womb of magic and transformation, to the “Not-Yet” who beckons”[iv]: to the Luminous World Egg whereupon the new may be conceived and dreamed up. Samhain/Deep Autumn ceremony is an excellent place for co-creating ourselves, for imaginingthe More that we may become, and wish to become. This is where creation and co-creation happens … in the Womb of Space[v], in which we are immersed – at all times: and Samhain is a good season for feeling it. References: Livingstone, Glenys. PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. NE: iUniverse, 2005 Sahtouris, Elisabet. Earthdance: Living Systems in Evolution. Lincoln NE:iUniversity Press, 2000. Starhawk, The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess. NY: Harper and Row, 1999. Swimme, Brian. The Earth’s Imagination.DVD series 1998. NOTES: [i]p.210 [ii]a version of this Samhain script is offered in Chapter 7 PaGaian Cosmology [iii]These quoted phrases are from Robin Morgan, “The Network of the Imaginary Mother”, in Lady of the Beasts, p.84. This poem is a core inspiration of the ceremony. [iv]“Not-Yet” is a term used by Brian Swimme, The Earth’s Imagination, video 8 “The Surprise of Cosmogenesis”. [v]note that creation does not happen at the point of some god’s index finger, as imagined in the Sistine Chapel – what a takeover that is!

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

“Reintroducing the concept of the Mago Species has a profound implication, compelling one’s vocabularies to be changed to the Mother’s Tongue.” [This is a translation and interpretation of the Budoji (Epic of the Emblem City), principal text of Magoism. Read the translation of Chapter 1 of the Budoji.] There were Four Heavenly Persons at the four corners of the castle. They built pillars and sounded music. Four Heavenly Persons are the four clan leaders who reside in the four corners of Mago Castle, Primordial Paradise. They are entrusted by Mago to cultivate the acoustical effect of the universe (the original music). While the translation of “pillars” is provisional, it may mean a musical instrument of some primordial sort. Given the importance of stone, a theme reiterated in later chapters of the Budoji, the pillars may refer to the stone structure that supports a musical instrument. Or they may indicate stone chimes or an acoustical rock structure.
(Essay 2 Part 3) Why Do I Love Korean Historical Dramas? by Anna Tzanova

Part 3 UNIVERSAL APPEAL The worldwide success of Korean historical drama began in 2004, when Dae Jang Geum (대장금), “The Great Jang Geum”, or “Jewel in the Palace”—a Sageuk relating a compelling story about the life of the legendary first woman who became a supreme royal physician in 16th century Joseon—was aired in over 60 countries around the world. Since then, the number is much higher, not taking into consideration DVD sales, pirated DVDs, plus the millions who have seen the drama globally via the Internet. In Iran, Dae Jang Geum was so popular that reports claim Iranians began organizing their mealtimes so as not to interfere with the show’s broadcast. In India, after seeing the series one prisoner wrote an open letter to the broadcast company in Korea saying, “This serial has been of great influence in my personal life, as well adding a lot to my positive approach towards life. I dare say it is not a motivation for only people like me, but for everyone.”[i] In Zimbabwe, the audience protested to a TV station and requested the airing of Dae Jang Geum instead of the Olympic Games when the two timetables clashed.[ii] To me, “Jewel in the Palace” is not just a very beautiful and inspirational piece of art. Seeing it from a personal angle, it is a great reminder of all that is wrong with our medical science, health care, and industrialized food production. How science needs to be as much cerebral as cordis. All the good that can come of turning our eyes and respect back to Mother Earth and all her sentient beings. The importance of not only quality food, but also the way the ingredients are grown, nurtured, collected and stored; the way food is prepared; the thoughts and feelings food is infused with, and how it affects not only the taste, but also the health of those who would consume it. The true holistic approach to health and well-being, as well as how titles and following institutional protocols, doesn’t secure quality of care. The natural curve in the onset and development of every disease, and how its abrupt interruption leads to dire consequences in the long run. The compassion and inner qualities of character a true healer should pursue and cultivate. Korean historical drama offers layers of meaning and understanding. The viewers are not only gently guided to open their hearts and feel, but also to think. Stories are not only well told; internalization by the audience is encouraged. Thus, the experience becomes very personal, and a deep connection between the creators and the spectators is established. Hwang Seongbin quotes a science and technology researcher who shared his opinion on Korean period drama when they met at an international conference reception: “I like Korean historical drama, because the story is told from the perspective of the people, rather than from that of those in power.”[iii] The transnational issues we all face, such as greed, corruption, deceit, conspiracies, abuse, and war, are depicted in their cruelty as shared experiences. Through that and the exploration of universal themes like love, kindness, loss, yearning, overcoming adversities, following one’s passion, achieving one’s dream, and many more, our global communality is fortified. Another trait worth noting is the depiction of traditionally oppressed women. It is a growing tendency in Sageuk to give center stage to heroines. Even when they are not the protagonist, they play significant roles supporting or guiding the protagonist’s efforts: creating nurturing environments, serving as examples of right action, and assisting the protagonist in his growth. There is a fascination, respect, honor, and affection that female leads are surrounded by or treated by the hero. Women in Korean historical drama are strong in a graceful way, using skill and genuine power as opposed to aggression and brutal force. They are persistent in their efforts and courageous in their actions. Despite being sidetracked by hindrances, they never lose focus on their goals. Ultimately, they are never deterred from accomplishing their dreams, transforming or inspiring everyone else in the process. In that regards, women in Sageuk serve as great initiators of change. They embody the most pliable element of all—water—nourishing, never stagnant, unstoppable, constantly adaptable, following its course through and around obstacles, cleansing, reshaping, and renewing. In the words of Clair Webber: “Undoubtedly, there is something inexplicable about K-pop and K-dramas. Whether it is the courage of civil disobedience in North Korea, peace in the Middle East, or female empowerment in Pakistan—South Korean cultural imports have the uncanny ability to foster hope in some of the most seemingly hopeless situations.”[iv] This is what “soft power”, a term coined in 1990 by Harvard political scientist Joseph Nye[v], truly is. “They fight with arms, but we—with our hearts,” states Empress Ki in the Sageuk with the same name. I’d love for humanity to hear this message and finally learn how to avoid or deal with conflicts. I am not going to quote or start analyzing different dramas one-by-one. I will leave you to find your own point of view and preferences. Signing up for Mago Academy’s Korean Historical Drama course would be a good place to start. I hope you will consider joining and experiencing first-hand everything I mentioned above, and much more. Korean culture has a specific flavor that distinguishes it from other Asian cultures. It is humble, but resilient. It is charming, heart-centered, perceptive, thoughtful, and caring. It has a lot to offer. Give it a try. But I have to warn you, it might be addicting. (Read Essay 1, Essay 2 Part 1, Essay 2 Part 2) Notes: [i] Busis, Hillary, Korean Dramas: A Beginner’s Guide, Entertainment Weekly, (April 11, 2014) [ii] Gowman, Philip, The Redemptive Power of Lee Young-ae, London Korean Links, (January 13, 2008) [iii] Voluntary Agency Network of Korea blog, Hallyu Report III – Korean Drama, Friendly Korea, My Friend’s Country, (01/09/2013) http://korea.prkorea.com/wordpress/english/2013/01/09/hallyu-report-ii-korean-drama/ [iv] Weber, Clair, K-Pop, K-Dramas, Hallyu – South Korean Culture Around the Globe, About Education, (2015) [v] …
(Book Excerpt 5) The Mago Way by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.

[Author’s Note] The following is from Chapter One, “What Is Mago and Magoism and How Did I Study HER?” from The Mago Way: Re-discovering Mago, the Great Goddess from East Asia, Volume 1. Footnotes below would be different from the monograph version. PDF book of The Mago Way Volume 1 download is available for free here.] How My Education and Experience Helped Me Study Mago The topic of Mago came to me in time for writing my doctoral dissertation for the Women’s Studies in Religion program that I was enrolled in at Claremont Graduate University. My graduate education, which I crafted to be a feminist cross-cultural alchemical process of de-educating myself from the patriarchal mode of knowledge-making, led me to encounter the hitherto unheard-of Goddess of East Asia, Mago. I came to read the Budoji, the principal text of Magoism, in 2000 and did some basic research to find out that Mago was known among people in Korea and that S/HE was also found in Chinese and Japanese sources.