June 28, 2024June 24, 2024 Mago Work2 Comments

The Three Tree Goddesses in the Bible by Janet Rudolph

For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, (Jeremiah 17:8 KJV)[1] And we shall be likened to trees, Read More …

(Poem) Forest by Susan Hawthorne

I have been thinking about climate grief recently and the effect that climate catastrophe is having on so many parts of the world, so many animals and the natural environment. My other worry is the terrible effect of crossing from the wild to the human in ways that should not be happening. Rainforests are not especially hospitable to humans and there is good reason for this. They are important sinks for the planet and for the health of biodiversity. The poem below begins with a saying from the Djiru people who are the traditional custodians of the land in Far North Queensland where I live. The poem was written after Category-5 Cyclone Larry in 2006 when we were battered by 300 kph winds. At that time, cassowaries were starving and locals cut fruit to put out so they wouldn’t starve. This photo was taken in May 2020 and we have not had a big cyclone since 2011. Photo by Susan Hawthorne Forest Casuarius casuarius johnsonii no wabu, no wuju, no gunduy no forest, no food, no cassowary ―Djiru saying. A girl goes into the forest the forest is a rainforest her guide is a cassowary the cassowary knows her way through the forest she knows all the fruits of the forest she is mistress of the forest the fruits are red blue orange green and yellow the girl must collect the fruit Along comes a big wind a wind that lifts and twists the trees round and round so that their trunks are spiralled the wind hauls trees out of the earth and throws them every which way the girl shelters under the heavy black feathers of the cassowary which pin her to the ground When the big wind has passed the girl is disoriented she no longer knows which way is up she hardly knows which is east or west which is sun which is moon clouds scud across the sky but they have lost their shapes no longer are there stories in the clouds just loss The cassowary tries to comfort the girl at first there is plenty of fruit fallen fruit native plum lilly pilly quandong the girl wanders behind disconsolately from time to time she nibbles at the rotting flesh but it soon sours the bitter seed takes over from the soft flesh As the days pass the cassowary must wander further and further afield she ventures into places she’s never been before followed by the girl soon the fruit is nowhere to be found the two sit down to wait for windfall quietly they drop into sleep quietly they die ‘Forest’ is from my collection Earth’s Breath. https://www.spinifexpress.com.au/shop/9781876756734?rq=Earth%27s%20Breath Please note: Spinifex Press has a new website, so old links might not work. Please check out the new site with a Medusa photo I took in Rome. https://www.magoism.net/2013/12/meet-mago-contributor-susan-hawthone/ (Meet Mago Contributor) Susan Hawthorne, Ph.D.
(Poem) Star-Crossed by Melissa La Flamme

I feel your heat stirring silently between the tender folds of sleeping and waking, opening to the delicate, potent time each day when residue of viscous dreams coalesce the gravity of desire. De sirée,
(Poem) Herstory Rhyme of Feminine Wilds by Joan Powell

Previously published in Women-Church: An Australian Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, issue #4 Autumn 1989 Ideas for this Herstory Rhyme came from WEBSTER’S FIRST NEW INTERGALACTIC WICKEDARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE conjured by Mary Daly in cahoots with Jane Caputi. I announce Daly news I share it with Pride from the Lunatic Fringe which spreads far & wide. *** I’m a brewster who brews in my cauldron at night and make magic potions to take away fright. *** I wriggle and roar when I leap on my broom and wantonly fly in my starry night room. *** I’m a queer crafty Witch a Wise One who sees the wasters who harm the bats and the trees. *** I take up my labrys and chop through all lies and lustily laugh while I flash my Wild Eyes. *** I’m a dangerous Nix, a Vixen, a Bear I do daring deeds with snakes in my hair. *** I study unlearning I heal and inspire I’m a sinister dragon I breathe words of Fire. *** I’m a Scold who scalds users with a Hot boiling Stare. It is the Hour of Thirteen coming through Everywhere. *** I’m a Monster, a Nag, an Ogre outrageous, as Weird as a Wild Cat I break open cages. *** I’m Moon-Wise & Shrewd a Seer,a Sooth-sayer, sensing deceptions I am a truth-sayer. *** I frisk and I frolic I boundary dance with finny and furry as they splash and they prance. *** And sometimes I meet with Muses and Sprites; we nourish ourselves at our Sacred Sites. *** We make music that zings far out to the skies; the Spelling Bees hum as harmonies rise. *** Our words are like birds in flight or at rest we wake up our sisters with songs they love best. *** These songs are angelic, they draw and they soar – they are Clues in the Maze; they Spin from our Core. *** We have a large hammer for cracking the rules that damage our lives and our Terrible Tools. *** The Tools that we treasure are our Wits and our Rage they keep us Revolting to a Venerable Age. *** We are Spinners of Webs and love to cavort; we go anticlock-wise with a horse-laughing snort. *** Our cloaks are our courage – a rainbow protection they conjure Old Hags with love and affection. *** Our ancestral mothers are Prudes of Deep Passion unwinding the binding in hair-raising fashion. *** Now it’s time for a picnic a snakey parade. Let’s hop, skip and slither and get the food made. *** We will go to the beachfront with animal friends. They are very good Guides on spirals and bends. *** They tumble and scamper, they crawl and they run. They come from all over, they are ready for fun. *** The wild horses thunder, they bring some wild cows – there are crabs and a turtle echidnas and sows. *** The dolphins and whales call out as they dive. Come to Deep water – you’ll know you’re alive. *** The jackass is laughing, brolgas dance up the beach. Crackpots and Crones know what these teachers teach. *** We belong to the land, Her songlines and dreams We sing up the country, the forests and streams. *** Here lives the Goddess of Wisdom and Love Well of Divine Grace the Queen of Above. *** We remember our Dead now in Her strong embrace, We, the Living, are part of a Powerful Race. *** Woman most Sensuous the One who gives Birth the Bread of our Lives and Blood of our Earth. ******** Read Meet Mago Contributor Joan Powell.
(E-Interview) Kaalii Cargill by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

Helen Hye-Sook Hwang I have known Dr. Kaalii Cargill for more than a decade. Kaalii came to The Mago Work through the first volume of She Rises: Goddess Feminist Activist Spirituality trilogy and stayed as a volunteer throughout other major projects of The Mago Work thereafter. In fact, Kaalii, as co-editor with me, formatted the manuscript and published She Rises Volume 1 by Mago Books and taught me how to use Amazon’s publishing platform for the publication of Mago Books. I was attracted to her life’s project, Soul Centered Psychotherapy, but did not have an opportunity to learn more about it. I am grateful that you answered my question about it here. It is my honor and joy that we have completed this e-interview at this point in our life’s journeys.Your below account on Soul Centered Psychotherapy is a new perspective that I have not heard elsewhere when it comes to therapy. “In this sense, therapy is not about fixing something that is broken but about attending to the rich language of the soul as it manifests in our day to day lives. Part of this is being open to enchantment – the sense of mystery in which we find value, love, and union with the world around us by attending to the rhythms and cycles of nature, the moon, the seasons, and our own mind-body systems.” I can see that your Soul Centered Psychotherapy is aligned with my research and advocacy of Ceto-Magoism (the Cetacean-Caused Way of the Creatrix) referring to the mytho-historical-cultural expression of the matriversal (of maternally perceived universe) soteriology. Methodologically, Soul Centered Psychotherapy is a practical way of doing Ceto-Magoist research for individuals, which aim at solid and profound transformation. Hwang You have founded and operated The Kairos Center and Soul Centered Psychotherapy for many years. Tell us about them and how they have influenced your own life? Kaalii Cargill The Kairos Centre came into being as a response to dissatisfaction with the sort of counselling and psychotherapy that was most commonly available in the late 1980s in Australia. Kairos is a word from ancient Greek meaning ‘the right or critical moment’, in contrast with Chronos, which means ‘chronological or sequential time’. Kairos is the soul’s timing rather than the timing of the logical mind. I worked with my partner Andrew to develop a therapeutic approach that valued relationship, mindfulness, embodied experience, the energetic field, meaning, enchantment, and the sacred – we called it Soul Centred Psychotherapy. This was at a time when the word “soul” had not been used so ubiquitously in advertising and mainstream culture. Western culture has traditionally valued mind and spirit, as in science and organised religion, and neglected soul, as in the sacred, embodied experience of being human. We offered training in Soul Centred Psychotherapy for 30 years. Soul Centred Psychotherapy attends to the human experience through the everyday stuff of life: our thoughts, emotions, body sensations and symptoms, and the relationships we have with others and the world. Value, meaning, and healing emerge from within each person’s unique process of inner work rather than from any external ideal of health, wealth, or happiness. In this sense, therapy is not about fixing something that is broken but about attending to the rich language of the soul as it manifests in our day to day lives. Part of this is being open to enchantment – the sense of mystery in which we find value, love, and union with the world around us by attending to the rhythms and cycles of nature, the moon, the seasons, and our own mind-body systems. The sacred aspect of the work involves meaning, honouring, and enchantment. This is similar to Jung’s idea of the Self as the central organising principle of the psyche, as well as the idea of the Anima Mundi or World Soul. In Soul Centred Psychotherapy some of the great myths that have informed humanity are studied and brought present in the form of story, images, and enactment. This can take the form of rituals that develop spontaneously in a session or are planned over several sessions.Hwang You have written and published novels. Tell us about them, as you feel appropriate for our RTM readers. Cargill I have written and published 6 novels and one non-fiction book. My novels all incorporate elements of sacred traditions – Western Mystery Traditions, Goddess Spirituality, and Nordic Mythology. The Element Series is a young adult epic fantasy trilogy. The system of magic in these novels is based on the alchemical and Wiccan traditions of working with the elements of Air, Fire, Water, Earth. The Warrior Queen Chronicles is a fantasy trilogy based in Nordic mythology – co authored with Kellianna Girouard, an American Neo-Celtic singer and songwriter whose performances of song and chant are inspired by myth, magic, sacred places and ancient times. Daughters of Time is a speculative/historical novel that asks “What if . . .?” What if Abraham, father of the three faiths, had conceived a child with a priestess before the fall of ancient Sumer? What if the child’s descendants were prophesied to carry balance (Goddess) through two millennia to the present day? What if an ancient prophecy can save the World? Daughters of Time is interwoven with archaeological, historical, and mythological details that reveal the ancient world, following a line of daughters and the way of Goddess through ancient Sumer, Egypt, and Jerusalem, and into the modern world. My non-fiction book, Don’t Take It Lying Down: Life According to the Goddess emerged from my PhD thesis in which I explored mindbody birth control. Don’t Take It Lying Down invites readers to see through the collective beliefs, attitudes and practices that bind women to a world view that denies power, choice, and control in many aspects of our lives. It is about Goddess and what has been lost. It is about reclaiming our birthright. It is also a book about mindbody birth control. This radical approach challenges many of our culture’s assumptions about women …
(Video) Autumn Equinox Goddess Slideshow by Glenys Livingstone

On March 20th at 16:15 “Universal Time” (as it is named) EarthGaia our Planet crosses the midpoint of Her orbit between the last Solstices – Summer (in the South) and Winter (in the North). It is a moment of balance of dark and light for the whole Planet. In the Southern Hemisphere it is the Season of Autumn Equinox with the balance about to tip into increasing dark after the dominance of light for six months. This balance moment in the dark part of the annual cycle is associated poetically with receiving of the harvest and with the descent to wisdom and to the power of the dark: the grief and power of loss. It is a journey that all beings take, mirrored in sacred stories of descent; and it may be an initiation into the vision and knowledge of the eternal cycle of being and dying … it was celebrated in this way in the ancient rites of the Mother-Daughter (Demeter-Persephone) Mysteries in Greece for thousands of years.
(Poem) Women of my Surroundings by Alshaad Kara

Image from Unplash No shame, no shyness,They fed me with strength.Despite the world being harsh,They did their best to bear everythingIn order for me to survive.My anger towards this worldWas their puissance to voice out.Life was never easy for them.It was a game of circumstances.But the blood I have in my body,Is their contribution making meA feminist of perspectives. https://www.magoism.net/2023/12/meet-mago-contributor-alshaad-kara/
(Essay 1) From Heaven to Hell, Virgin Mother to Witch: The Evolution of the Great Goddess of Egypt by Krista Rodin

[Author’s Note: This series based on a chapter in Goddesses in Culture, History and Myth seeks to demonstrate how many of the ideas behind the Ancient Egyptian goddesses and their images, though changing over time and culture, remain relevant today.] From Cosmos to Mother The goddess in Ancient Egypt had many pictorial and ideological forms that changed according to era and location. She was the goddess of the sky, harboring the sun during the night and giving birth to the day; she was the mother of creation; the queen of the stars, while at the same time the avenger of Ra, destroying humanity on the great god’s order. She was the protector of childbirth as well as the queen of the Underworld and Afterlife. She protected those who followed Ma’at’s laws of universal justice and order, through the deceased’s ability to accurately respond to her 42 Negative Confessions. She was the winged woman, the lioness, the cat, and the hippopotamus. She was wisdom and cunning. One of the earliest Ancient Egyptian creation legends explain how air and moisture in the forms of the god Shu and the goddess Tefnut unite. The universal order and justice established in this process is overseen by the goddess Ma’at. The first couple’s offspring, Nut as sky, and Geb as earth, are held apart by Shu to form the world. Shu is depicted with an ostrich feather, as is the goddess Ma’at, showing their primordial connection. Over time, the sky mother Nut became associated with Hathor as the mother of humankind. Hathor takes a number of forms including a sun disk, a cow, or in her angry form, a lion, which is also one of Tefnut’s symbols. Hathor’s role changes depending on what she is needed for, from the vengeful Eye of Ra to the protector of childbirth. Isis, an ancient goddess who came into her own in the late Middle Kingdom and was prominent during the Ptolemaic and Roman periods, merged with Hathor in the iconography in the New Kingdom. She is primarily seen as the protecting mother watching out for the faithful in this life and the afterlife along with her sister, Nephthys. Isis, Orisis and their son, Horus form the Egyptian Holy Family. Isis with baby Horus is one of the most common models for Mary and the baby Jesus, but Isis is also the goddess who tricked Ra into telling her his secret name. She is the goddess of magic along with Heka. This dual role, that of mother protectress and cunning magician who understands and manipulates her opponent’s psychological makeup, is also seen in the legends and iconography of Greek goddesses, especially Athena, Aphrodite, Hera, Demeter, Persephone and Hecate. While there is not a direct correlation between the goddesses in the two traditions, the ideas they represent and the transition from sky goddesses to those of the Underworld through a psychological journey into unknowable and invisible worlds is similar and relates to the portrayal of modern day witches. This series based on a chapter in Goddesses in Culture, History and Myth seeks to demonstrate how many of the ideas behind the Ancient Egyptian goddesses and their images, though changing over time and culture, remain relevant today. There are three main creation stories from ancient Egypt, the oldest of which was recorded in the Pyramid Texts, the hieroglyphic and pictorial inscriptions in 5th-6th Dynasty Old Kingdom pyramids in Sakkara (ca. 2600-2200 BCE). In these early texts there are different versions for the appearance of the first god, but they all agree that the Sun-god emerged out of primeval chaos. The names of the primordial god differ by time and location. In one temple the text speaks of Ptah, who arose out of an egg, while others mention him as the winged beetle, Khepri; most commonly, though, he is Atum, who in later texts is also known as Ra, or Re, and even later as Re-Atum. Regardless of the particular name and attributes, the primordial Sun-god formed two children, Shu, air, and Tefnut, moisture. There is also a belief that Tefnut should be associated with fire rather than moisture, or both. The first pair, i.e., the combination of air, heat and moisture, gave birth to two children, Geb, the earth, and Nut, the sky. As Geb and Nut were inseparable, Atum insisted that Shu separate the two. In the inscriptions, Shu stands or kneels on Geb while supporting Nut’s arched body. Nut is the mother sky that eats the night giving birth to the day. Her body is illustrated as covered with stars indicating the Milky Way as a passageway through time and space. She is also likened to a cow, giving birth to life sustaining forces. Geb lies fallow until brought to life by Nut. Shu sustains the cycle by separating the two and supporting the heavens. Shu is usually depicted with an ostrich feather on his head, the symbol of Ma’at, which represents universal justice and order, which appeared at the creation of the world. This early legend clearly shows that ancient Egyptians understood the cycles not just of night and day, but also of the interaction of air, heat and moisture as elements of creating life on earth. They didn’t necessarily relate to these concepts as abstract ideas, however, as Lurker states: “The majority of ancient Egyptians didn’t live in a world of abstract concepts, they used images to convey their ideas of the cosmos, much the way modern Hindus do with their deities.”1 The ostrich feather as a symbol of justice is particularly interesting as ostrich parents share in the responsibility of caring for the eggs and the young. As ostrich eggs are the largest bird eggs, they represent wealth and fertility. This came to be seen as the symbol for renewal and rebirth. Shu and Ma’at’s ostrich feathers not only represent air, as many feathers in mythology do, but also the universal world order that holds the elements of the cosmos in place. If the elements become imbalanced, …
(Poem & Photography) The Gate by Sara Wright

Photography by Sara Wright Unaccustomed to joy his kindness barely torched her cells still under fierce attack from too many anti –bodies. What registered was quick – silver shining a clasp so easily undone… A golden sun illuminated two leaf strewn paths gilded in bronze. Welcomed by Hemlocks at Mary’s House , she conjured partridgeberry a creeping vine hugging mossy granite boulders, crimson berries on display. He couldn’t know that his act of generosity opened a floodgate to hope. Below, the river eyed an orange clad hunter stalking his prey with outright suspicion. The stars that night repeated the story… Orion pursues the Great Bear on her Spiral Journey until he slips beneath the horizon for another year. In many ancient and some extant goddess traditions November is considered to be “the space in between”. In the Celtic tradition the old year comes to a close with All Hallows and the Feast of the Dead, a three day festival that ends with All Souls day on November 2nd. The new year doesn’t begin until winter solstice… During this dark month a starry firmament wraps her cloak around us. This is a time to reflect and dream, to create intentions, to let go of what is no longer needed. It is a time to acknowledge and deal with rage and sorrow, limitations, aging, illness, the loss of family and friends – I could go on and on here. If we can lean into this month with an open yet wary heart new insights illuminate the night and this is my cyclic intention for this month. Not to get caught by extremes, or to act out dark feelings, but to own and take responsibility for them as best as I can. November is a double-edged month. Hunters abound. Stars spiral around the night sky telling an ancient story of the hunter and his prey, perhaps highlighting that relationship between the two is part of ‘all there is’. The fact that humans project this story onto the stars suggests this pattern has persisted for millennia and involves all life, and all species, at least those on earth. I am so grateful to be learning to accept this cycle for what it is. When I wrote this poem it was to honor the kindness of one man who literally created a gate through which I could pass in order to reach Mary’s House, my refuge. It wasn’t until afterwards that it occurred to me that this incident occurred during the first week of November just after All Soul’s day. Or that in more than one sense a gate had become permeable, and I had been invited to come and go at will … I want to stay awake to what is – embracing gratitude and grief in equal measure. I lean into the darkness with gratitude, believing my grief opens me to greater compassion for myself and for others, while taking deep pleasure in the low light and long shadows, crystal raindrops on bare trees, and the slow rise of the sun… (Meet Mago Contributor) Sara Wright https://www.magoism.net/2014/12/meet-mago-contributor-sara-wright/
(Poem & Art) The Place of the Next Light by Arlene Bailey

The Way-Shower, Arlene Bailey, ©2020 I’ve held it all in, all the hopes and dreams, the cries of despair… Held it all in until today. Until today when I felt this net of despair fall over me choking me, strangling me, blocking the air so I couldn’t breathe. I saw her tears – Lady Liberty – as we locked eyes and knew in our hearts that the soul of our nation is now on the auction block. I keened for hours in the woods. Keened for what has already been lost… what is currently being lost… what is potentially still to come. I made altars and offered ritual. Screamed guttural prayers to the Mother of All that enough is enough! Still the tears came, but the keening vocals grew quieter as I had no more to give. Even the crows and hawks went silent sensing a pause of sacred reverence. Where to now I asked? Where do you want to go She replied? I don’t know. I’m tired and disillusioned and want to crawl into my cave and have the Old Ones wrap their arms around me. Then that is what you do. But before you go, you offer… One last prayer to the dreamtime… One last offering of hope planted in these darkening times… One last ritual of rebirth that even now gestates in the womb of the Mother, that gestates in the womb and heart of you… One last offering given with all the fight of the Warrioress that lives within you. Then you rest and wait and trust the Ancient Ones to guide you through to the place of the next light. What if there is no more light I ask? Only darkness and evil? Evil has and will always exist She said, but so does the light. Find that place and know the light always returns. Perhaps dimmed, perhaps brightly illuminative, but the light always returns. Until that time… Rest so you are able to still build altars to new possibilities and keen over the bones of what is lost. Rest until that time you can give voice to the both/and. Until that time, vision and dream and allow the Ancestors to wrap you in ancient wisdom, ancient knowing as you embrace the sacred dark. Until such time the light rises like the woman you are, blazing and empowered and screaming like the Banshee taking no prisoners, as you build altars to the sacred new. As you remember you are a Daughter of the Cosmic Mother… Daughter of the As Above, So Below you aspire to the heights and plunge the depths as you walk between the worlds. So scream like the Banshee and keen over the bones. Light the fires of ritual and offer prayers to the Ancient and Future ones. Though the world may change, and perhaps Not in the way you desire, you will survive and even prosper IF you remember who you are and the power you hold. https://www.magoism.net/2020/04/meet-mago-contributor-arlene-bailey/ __________________________________________ The Place of the Next Light by Arlene Bailey, ©2020

(Special Post 3) 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: Xiang Yao or Xiangliu is the Chinese equivalent to Hydra in Greek mythology. And Hercules is to Yu, the Great, founder of the Xia dynasty. We will see in the course of this discussion that the myth of Yu, the founding ruler of Xia, the oldest dynasty of China, who slains the nine-headed snake, is only a variation of its older prototype, the myth of Huangdi who fought Chiu, the alliance of the Nine Han Giants (East Asian/Korean Magoists). “According to the Classic of Mountains and Seas, Xiangliu was a minister of the snake-like water deity Gonggong. Xiangliu devastated the ecology everywhere he went, leaving nothing but gullies and marshes devoid of animal life. Eventually, Xiangliu was killed by Yu the Great, whose other labors included ending the Great Flood of China. In other versions of the story, Xiangliu was killed by Nüwa, after being defeated by Zhurong, but his blood was so virulently poisonous that the soil which it soaked could no longer grow grain.[1] An oral version of the Xiangliu myth was collected as late from Sichuan as 1983, in which Xiangliu is depicted as a nine-headed dragon, responsible for floods and other harm.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiangliu Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: Ancient China had to demonize the pre-Han myth of the nona Mago because it bespeaks the matriarchal/gynocentric history that it overthrew… the past that had to be severed in order to fake patriarchal originality. With this in mind, we have a better look on patriarchal mythopoeia, which appears to be complex but, nonetheless, transparent in its motive to hide/hijack pre-patriarchal gynocentric histories. “One of the most harrowing myths from ancient China is the story of Gonggong’s rebellion. You can revisit the whole story here, but the quick version is that the evil water god Gonggong attempted to drown the world and was only prevented from doing so by the heroic last resort actions of the beneficent creator goddess Nüwa, who cut the legs off the cosmic turtle in order to set things to rights. In the chaos of the climactic battle, however Gongong’s chief minister and partner in crime Xiangliu the nine-headed snake monster completely escaped. Filled with bitterness about Gonggong’s failure, Xiangliu crawled away across the soggy lands of Szechuan (which were water-logged after the nearly world-ending floods). Wherever he went, the snake monster left permanent fens and swamps which were toxic to life. His very being had become steeped in poison, and his progress through the damp and moldy world had to be stopped. Yu the hero, the third of the three sage kings, finally caught up with the nine-headed monster and killed him in a pitched battle. Yet still there was a problem: Xiangliu’s pestiferous blood has poisoned the whole region, which now stank of rot. Crops would not grow and civilization began to falter. Yu dug up the blood soaked soil again and again, but the corrupted blood of the monster just sank deeper into the ground. Finally, Yu excavated a deep valley by Kunlun mountain and rid the world of Xiangliu’s toxins. With all of the land he had excavated he built a great terraced mountain for the gods. Yu then went forth to found the kingdom of Xia, the first civilized state in Chinese history. Of course some people say that Yu did none of this, that, it was the goddess Nüwa who once again came forth to battle the monster and undo the damage he had caused. Then, with accustomed modesty she let Yu take the credit and begin his kingdom (for Nüwa cared not for empty praise and hollow glory but only for the well-being of her children).” https://ferrebeekeeper.wordpress.com/2013/09/24/xiangliu-the-nine-headed-snake/ Max Dashu: These patriarchal heroes! Nova Scheller: What a fascinating thread…that the nine headed hydra correlates to the nine headed dragon as a linkage to patriarchy or gynocentric/ matriarchal beginnings…the root being in Korea! Dropping into your work of so many years…a privilege as well as informing some of my personal awareness. Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: Nova Scheller, indeed! The myth of slaining the nine-headed snake/dragon across cultures shows; (1) The onset of patriarchy did not come naturally but forcefully, which proves that patriarchy is not original. It was a reaction to what had been before, its matrix. Patriarchy faked its originality by inventing the myth of demonizing and killing the female principle. (2) Patriarchal rules established across cultures adopted the mythic motif of slaining the nine-headed snake or dragon, which appears to be of Chinese origin. (3) The Nine Mago mythic system preserved in Korean Magoism testifies to gynocentric/matriarchal beginnings, which were remembered by peoples of the ancient world. (4) Furthermore, Korean Magoist mythology explains the origin/meaning of the nona Goddess symbol. Let’s explore how the Nine Mago pantheon was remembered in East Asian myths and religions. For this, we need to unravel the patriarchal mythopoeia of Goma, the Shaman ruler of Old Magoist East Asia/Korea. Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: In principle, we can tell if an ancient rule/culture was patriarchal or gynocentric by the myth of the nine-headed snake/dragon. In the case of ancient China whose heroes are told to have killed the opponent, the nine-headed snake. Nonetheless, the people’s memory of pre-patriarchal gynocentric history never dies. The nine symbolism is still described as auspicious. It revives time and time again throughout history. In other words, ancient China was a small regional power, only modern scholarship seals it all mighty China. Find out what other ancient myths concern about the nine female symbolism. (To be continued) Join us in The Mago Circle https://www.facebook.com/groups/magoism/.
(Special Post) To Contributors: Strengthening Our Roots by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

Dear Contributors, Do you know that Return to Mago (RTM) E*Magazine is entering its fifth year this fall? And, thanks to our collective effort, we are still growing! As of today, our contributors have grown to more than 130 in number and our readership is from about 140 countries around the world. We have some hundred email followers as well as Wordpress blog followers. We draw 3000-4000 clicks per month on average; that is no small accomplishment for a Goddess blog that is named after a yet-to-be heard word, Mago (the Great Goddess), and that began from scratch.
(Special Post Isis 3) Why the Color of Isis Matters by Mago Circle Members

[Editor’s note: The discussion took place in Mago Circle during the month of July, 2013. Our heartfelt thanks go to the members who participated in this discussion with openness and courage.] Part 3 Isis, Arab Women Revolution, and Black Goddesses Naa Ayele Kumari Going back to the original topic of the post…. Some quotes ” Women are in half the society… How come there are only 7 in the Assembly… and they are all Islamist! ” I can’t beat up my wife and almost kill her and call it discipline… this is not discipline… this is abuse and insanity” http://youtu.be/y4umifTLSII 12-Year Old Explains Egyptian Revolution in Under 3 Minutes www.youtube.com Max Dashu It is tremendously heartening to see these insights being expressed, and spread. The Salafis have made such inroads, and now the pushback is happening. Harita Meenee Dear Naa Ayele Kumari, thank you actually reading my post and commenting something relevant to it. It’s refreshing when someone does hear what we have to say instead of projecting their own notions. Building a solidarity movement with those who are oppressed but fighting is very important during these critical times! Harita Meenee See also: https://www.facebook.co/intifadat.almar2a?fref=ts The uprising of women in the Arab world انتفاضة المرأة في العالم العربي حرية الفكر ، حرية التعبير ، حرية الاعتقاد ، حرية التنقل ، حرية الجسد ، حرية اللب…See More Glenys Livingstone … as you say Max …” way too much of it going on” – amongst people who should know better (I would have thought): “Dark goddess as terrifying, challenging, white goddess as benign; “black magic” as harmful; I see way, way too much of this going on out there.” And related to that in my mind is all the “love and light” business that is so common: the Ground of Being is Dark … it seems to me that mystics have always understood the quintessential darkness of Love/Deity. Max Dashu Sure. I would just like to add that the critique raised here addressed issues much broader than the substance of the article, which made some good points. But once the choice of graphics flagged the issue of representation, people had much more to say about that old yet still very fresh wound which is constantly reopened by the cultural habit of whitening Egypt, or interpreting Africa through a eurocentric lens. It is not on any one person to carry the weight of that; we all have a responsibility to address the issues, but especially those of us of European heritage need to familiarize ourselves with how this plays out over and over. Just as men have a responsibility to speak up in support of women when patriarchal assumptions are on board. We all can learn something from each other, along all the various axes of domination, and overthrow them in coalition. Naa Ayele Kumari I have often considered where the roots of this psychology comes from. It is dualistic thinking that causes us to compare and contrast, then sum up judgement of good or bad and place a value on each. It extends into competition and justification for war. It also doesn’t escape me that often this came with certain civilizations who systematically destroyed others. It didn’t just happen with blacks in Africa… but blacks in Asia and the Indus Valley as well. With the Aryan invasions of India, came the eventual introduction to lighter divinities and more emphasis on male divinities. Southern Indians, Sri Lankans are very dark… even more so than many African Blacks. The caste systems implemented by the Aryan invaders did the same thing to them casting them as “untouchables”. With that came the marginalization of their black female divinities such as Kali. Kali actually has 10-16 forms… from compassionate mother, the fountain of wisdom, to she of great beauty but she is minimized as just destructive and terrifying… especially as Brhaman, Vishnuu, and Shiva grow in popularity. One of Kali’s statues has her black self standing on top of Shiva because she conquered him. Later there is a discussion in on of the Hindu text explaining Kali (as Parvati) after being subdued by Shiva she becomes lighter. Further they have stories about him rejecting her and calling her blackie which made her do austerities to rid herself of her black skin. Naa Ayele Kumari It should not be overlooked that in the Story of Alice in Wonderland… a story intended to keep Goddess elements for future generations, has the Elder sister ( the Queen of Hearts) portrayed as man, ego, and power driven who cuts off heads and has a fierce dragon…a clear reference to Kali. The White goddess as the younger sister is her opponent… and her mission is to usurp the throne of the Queen of Hearts even though she was the rightful heir as the oldest … or primordial. Stories like these also reinforce the stereotypes and negative iconography. Max Dashu Yes, it is pervasive in many cultures of domination. Demons are portrayed as black not only in Europe, which we know well, but also in China and in a lot of Buddhist iconography. In modern India, the sweet goddesses are shown as pink, the wrathful as black; and Krishna (name means “dark”) is turned powder blue. (Another of his titles, s’yam, also meaning dark, is the word translated as “green” in Green Tara.) The countercurrents (Black Mazu, loving Kali – esp in Bengal and south India, Black Madonna) bubbled up from the common people, who knew and longed for something other than the dominant racialized hierarchy. Naa Ayele Kumari I am just discovering Mazu ( Matzu/LuShui) in China today! Never knew about her. This discussion has led me to look deeper for black goddesses in Asia. Max Dashu Taoist spiritual tradition often refers to Xüan Nü, which can be translated in several ways. You’ll usually see it rendered as “the Mysterious Female,” a phrase that occurs in the Dao De Jing (Tao Te Ching), and this is a valid translation; but what is less emphasized is that it also means “the Dark Woman.” In […]

(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!
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.
(Essay and Video) Cosmogenesis Dance: Celebrating Her Unfolding by Glenys Livingstone

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

Beltaine/High Spring: the traditional dates are Southern Hemisphere – October 31st or 1st November Northern Hemisphere – April 30th (May Eve) or 1st May The actual astronomical date varies, and it is the meridian point or cross-quarter day between Spring Equinox and Summer Solstice, thus actually a little later in early November for S.H., and early May for N.H., respectively. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pODpbkzfrIU The purpose of the video is for ceremony and I suggest pausing the video where it suits you, to add your own processing, embellishments and/or your own drum, percussion, music, and voice wherever you please. I have made short spaces in the video where it may be paused. The script for this Beltaine ceremony is offered in Chapter 8 of my book A Poiesis of the Creative Cosmos: Celebrating Her within PaGaian Sacred Ceremony, with all acknowledgements and references there. The elements of Water, Fire, Earth and Air on the altar in this video are placed in directions that are appropriate to my region in the Southern Hemisphere, and East Coast Australia: you may place yours differently, and transliterate when I name the direction, which I only do at the beginning. The images used are a collage of footage and photos from the 2024 Beltaine ceremony at my place in Wakka Wakka country, South East Queensland Australia, and from previous Beltaine ceremonies that I facilitated over the decades in MoonCourt, Goddess ceremonial space, in Gundungurra and Darug country, Blue Mountains Australia. To enhance participation in the ceremony, you may like to have the following: the element of Water flavoured with rose water. the element of Earth in a large dinner plate and card paper large enough for handprints, along with a bowl of water for washing hands after. a small bouquet of scented flowers and/or herbs for the element of Air. a firepot for the element of Fire. This may be a clay pot of sand into which a small amount of methylated spirits will be poured and lit: it produces a soft flame that will not set off fire alarms, though care should still be taken. a larger firepot or two – either near the altar or located where suitable, for either leaping the flames, or simply passing your hand over flames. This firepot may be a larger version of the one for the element of Fire. coloured ribbons, ideally attached to a pole/tree, but it is possible to manage this rite in another creative manner. a pink ring cake, topped with rose water and honey and petals, sliced ready for serving, but whole. sweet pink wine/juice and glasses for serving. Dance Instructions: Celebrant as #1, person next on right as #2. All 1’s face right, all 2’s face left. All 1’s go in & under first, all 2’s go out & over first. The chant for the dance around the tree (a “Novapole” in the Southern Hemipshere, a “Maypole” in the Northern Hemisphere): “We are the Dance of the Earth, Moon and Sun We are the Life that’s in everyone We are the Life that loves to live We are the Love that lives to love.” (Note: This is a slight variation of the chant written and taught to me by thea Gaia. Music credits: A few clips from Coral Sea Dreaming by Tania Rose: https://www.taniarose.net A clip from Benediction Moon by Pia from her album by that name, New World Music, 1998. A clip from “Shedville 28th Nov 05” by Nick Alias, who has generously shared his music, and given permission for me to use it. Image credits: Ishtar (Middle East, 1000 BCE), Hallie Iglehart Austen, The Heart of the Goddess, p.131. Aphrodite (Europe, 300 BCE), Hallie Iglehart Austen, The Heart of the Goddess, p.133. Xochiquetzal (Mayan, 8th century CE), Hallie Iglehart Austen, The Heart of the Goddess, p.135. Inanna/Ishtar (Mesopotamia 400 B.C.E.), Adele Getty, Goddess: Mother of Living Nature, p.39. Birth of the Goddess, Erich Neumann, The Great Mother, plate 155. Milky Way photo: Akira Fujii, David Malin images. Beau Ravn’s “Goddess” and “God” artworks (2000). Sri Yantra (1500 CE.), A.T. Mann and Jane Lyle, Sacred Sexuality, p.75.
(Essay) Contemplating How Her Creativity Proceeds by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This essay is an edited excerpt from the conclusion of chapter 5 of the author’s book, PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. It is a chapter on the process of the Wheel of the Year. for the Northern Hemisphere version: https://pagaian.org/pagaian-wheel-of-the-year/ It seems to me that the main agenda of the Cosmos is ongoing Creativity, “never-ending renewal” it may be termed, and that this is expressed in Earth’s Seasonal Wheel through the transitions of Autumn,Winter, Spring, Summer; and in the ubiquitous process of a Cosmic Triplicity of Space to Be, Urge to Be and this Place of Being, a dynamic that has often been imagined as the Triple Goddess. In the flow of the PaGaian Wheel of the Year, the Seasonal transitions of the Wheel and the Triplicity of the Cosmos come together. There are two celebrations of the Old One/Crone or the Cosmogenetic quality of autopoiesis creating the Space to Be; and they are Lammas/Late Summer and Samhain/Deep Autumn, which are the meridian points of the two quarters of the waxing dark phase. At Lammas, the first in the dark phase, we may identify with the dark and ancient Wise One – dissolve into Her; at Samhain, we may consciously participate in Her process of the transformation of death/the passing of all. The whole dark part of the cycle is about dissolving/dying/letting go of being – becoming – nurturing it (the midwifing of Lammas/Late Summer), stepping into the power of it (the certain departure of Autumn Equinox/Mabon), the fertility (of Samhain/Deep Autumn), the peaking of it (at Winter Solstice). The meridian points of the two quarters of the waxing light phase then are celebrations of the Young One/Virgin or the Cosmogenetic quality of differentiation, the new continually emerging, the Urge to Be; and they are Imbolc/Early Spring and Beltaine/High Spring. At Imbolc, the first in the light phase, we may identify with She who is shining and new – as we take her form; at Beltaine, we may consciously participate in Her process of the dance of life. The whole light part of the cycle is about coming into being: nurturing it (the midwifing of Imbolc/Early Spring), stepping into the power of it (the certain return of Spring Equinox/Eostar), the fertility (of Beltaine/High Spring), the peaking of it (at Summer Solstice). In the PaGaian wheel of ceremony there are two particular celebrations of the Mother, the Cosmogenetic quality of communion; and they are the Solstices. If one imagines the light part of the cycle as a celebration of the ‘Productions of Time’, and the dark part of the cycle as a celebration of ‘Eternity’, the Solstices then are meeting points, points of interchange, and are celebrations of the communion/relational field of Eternity with the Productions of Time. This is a relationship which does happen in this Place, in this Web. This Place of Being, this Web, is a Communion – it is the Mother; the Solstices mark Her birthings, Her gateways. The Equinoxes then – both Spring and Autumn – are two celebrations wherein the balance of all three Faces/Creative qualities is particularly present: in the PaGaian wheel, the Equinoxes have been special celebrations of Demeter and Persephone – echoing the ancient tradition of Mother-Daughter Mysteries that celebrate the awesomeness of the continuity of life, its creative tension/balance. Both Equinoxes then are celebrations and contemplations of empowerment through deep Wisdom – one contemplation during the dark phase and one during the light phase. The Autumn Equinox is a descent to Wisdom, the Spring Equinox is an emergence with Wisdom gained. I like to think of the Equinoxes, and of the ancient icons of Demeter and Persephone, as celebrations of the delicate ‘curvature of space-time’, the fertile balance of tensions which enables it all. Her Creative Place The Mother aspect then may be understood to be particularly present at four of the Seasonal Moments, which are also regarded traditionally as the Solar festivals; and in this cosmology Sun is felt as Mother. I recognize these four as points of interchange: at Autumn Equinox, Mother is present primarily as Giver – She is letting Persephone go, at Spring Equinox, She is present primarily as Receiver – welcoming the Daughter back, at Winter Solstice the Mother gives birth, creates form, at Summer Solstice, She opens again full of radiance, and disperses form. The Mother is Agent/Actor at the Solstices. She is Participant/Witness at the Equinoxes, where it is then really Persephone who is Agent/Actor, embodying an inseparable Young One and Old One. The Old One is often named as Hecate, who completes the Trio – all seamlessly within each other. Another possible way to visual it, or to tell the story, is this: The Mother – Demeter – is always there, at the Centre if you like. Persephone cycles around. She is the Daughter who returns in the Spring as flower, who will become fruit/grain of the Summer, who at Lammas assents to the dissolution – the consumption. At Autumn Equinox She returns to the underworld as seed – Her harvest is rejoiced in, Her loss is grieved, as She becomes Sovereign of the Underworld – Her face changes to the Dark One, Crone (Hecate). As the wheel turns into the light part of the cycle She becomes Young One/Virgin again. Persephone (as Seed) is that part of Demeter that can be all three aspects – can move through the complete cycle. The Mother and Daughter are really One, and embody the immortal process of creation and destruction. Demeter hands Persephone the wheat, the Mystery, and the thread of life is unbroken – it goes on forever. It is immortal, it is eternal. Even though it is true that all will be lost, and all is lost – Being always arises again: within this field of time there is never-ending renewal, eternity. This is what is revealed in the ubiquitous three faces of the Creative Dynamic/ She of Old, the Triplicity that runs through the Cosmos. The Seed of Life never …

(Poem) Knowing Mago Calendar by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

[Author’s Note: This poem was an offshoot of an essay on Magoist Calendar and Nine Numerology, to be included in the forthcoming anthology, Celebrating Seasons of the Goddess (Mago Books, 2017). I thank Genevieve Vaughan, Danica Anderson, and Harriet Ann Ellenbeger who have given me feedback to the article and inspiration to this poem.] Mago Calendar is the umbilical cord of the Great Goddess, the umbilical cord that re-members the Beginning Story of us all terrestrial beings, that enables the one and many songs/dances of the Earth, and that nourishes the human world to sing the chorus to the cosmic lullaby. Mago Calendar is the grand wheel of the Great Mother, the grand wheel that spirals the inter-cosmic orbit of truth, goodness, and beauty, that carries all earthlings to the fullest becoming, and that builds bridges into the inter-protonic galaxies. Mago Calendar is the everlasting blessing of the Nine Mago Creatrix, the everlasting blessing that scripts the ecstasy of Heavenly Numerology, that charts the Earth’s metamorphosis from the infinite to the physical, and that unfolds the Reality of the Mago Time, WE/HERE/NOW. (Meet Mago Contributor) Helen Hye-Sook Hwang.
(K-Drama Review 1) Liminal Space/Time into WE: What Hotel del Luna Displays by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

[Author’s Note: Hotel del Luna is a 16-episode Korean television drama aired in 2919. Caution is required for the spoiler. This essay is prompted by this drama, which was discussed in a new class, Experience Korean Culture through Film (EKCF) offered by Mago Academy. I am ever grateful for this opportunity to assess matriversal (read Magoist) soteriology, eschatology, and cosmology implicated in this drama. This drama takes viewers to a liminal time/space. At the liminal timespace, we see how one meets the other. Almost all objects of the drama remind viewers of their liminal property. The female main character, neither living nor dead, stands between the living and the dead. The ghost-serving moon lodge she operates is visible to both ghosts and people. So is the tree of the moon spirit, a symbol for the tree of life or the world tree, which summons the moon lodge to take place. And so are all beings with physical forms. The liminal timespace is where we find ourselves in the Reality of WE/HERE/NOW.] Copyright origin unknown. Part I: Introduction with Synopsis Jang Manwol, the female protagonist, is fixated to the tree of the moon spirit (wolryeongsu 월령수) and entrusted as the representative of the moon lodge, which serves ghosts charged with unrelenting resentments, by the Mago Divine. Mago Halmi (Great Mother, Creatrix), by providing new opportunities, awaits Manwol until she takes actions to relieve her unyielding grudge, caused by the complex socio-political misfortunes in the 7th century. Manwol is, currently neither living nor dead, expected to die and take a ride to the realm of after-life (returning to the origin) just like other ghosts in her lodge. Together with her ghost employees, she operates a large luxurious hotel, Hotel del Luna, the latest name of the moon lodge. Standing in the liminal time/space, the hotel is equipped with an elegantly decorated spacious lobby, a sky-viewing terrace, a horizon-surrounded beach, and an amusement park as well as a multiple number of rooms, each of which is catered to serve the special needs of a ghost guest. At the heart of the lodge is the tree of the moon spirit. The hoteliers welcome ghosts, diagnose the story of han (unresolved resentments) that they carry in themselves and its remedy, and execute plots to resolve resentments in a peaceful manner, to be beneficial to ALL. Upon being healed and rejuvenated with a new perspective on their past lives and the Reality of Intercosmic Life, the ghosts leave the lodge to take the ride to the realm of after-life (jeoseung 저승). The dead are supposed to take this ride to the Origin. Ghosts with unrelenting resentments escapes this route and lingers in the in-between reality of the living and the dead. Until accepting the help of the male protagonist, Gu Chanseong, sent by the Mago Divine, Manwol stubbornly continues to roam around her inbetween space/time. Insofar as she holds onto her own oath to avenge, the tree of the moon spirit remains dormant, seemingly dead. The tree, a visual locus reflecting the inner landscape of Manwol (her predecessors and successors alike), connects ghosts and people and reveals the reality of Life to them. The young man, Chanseong, misses no opportunity to choose the good and to right the wrong in ghosts and people, which is the key to straightening up the entangled karmic consequences. He prompts Manwol to heal herself: She realizes the truth about her betrayer (she was consumed by her anger against him so much so that she could not know the truth; he did not betray her but saved her) and let go of her over-1,300 year-long desire to destroy him. Affected by the grudge-releasing actions of Chanseong, she gradually chooses the path to reconcile with her past, as the Mago Divine wishes for her. The tree of the moon spirit, showing a sign of life again by putting out leaves and flowers, harbingers the end of the moon lodge. Manwol and her ghost employees as well as Chanseong reach the timespace of saying good-bye to move on to the next stage of Life’s cycle. Mawol becomes the last ghost who get helped in her lodge. The Mago Divine is seeking a new owner for the lodge so that ghosts with resentments can continue to be served. The drama is potentially transforming the human psyche from within. Tantalizing, heart-breaking, and frightening stories of the dead and the living stretch the horizon to the whole — the realm of physical life (iseung 이승), the realm of afterlife (jeoseung 저승), and the in-between realm of ghosts. In the sense that its narrative structure is built on the Korean folk belief of Mago Halmi (Great Mother, Crone, and Creatrix), and Magoism, the Way of the Creatrix, I find this drama a composite text of Magoist thealogy (a systematic understanding of Mago, the Creatrix) at the core. What the hoteliers are doing is in fact the role of Mudangs (Korean Shamans). Although Mudangs and Muism (Korean Shamanism) are strikingly absent, the drama resonates with the Muist worldview. The core message is to release unrelenting resentments of the dead on the part of the living. Intriguingly, this drama does not speak directly to humans, “Humans, do not create cheok (hatred or suffering in other beings).” Perhaps, such is too clear a message to articulate. At any rate, we are supposed to gain the lesson by listening to the stories of ghosts. What we see is that troubled ghosts with resentment are helped and guided to the journey of afterlife. The dead are expected to take the ride to the realm of after-life immediately. Ghosts are those who would not follow the path of the dead. Viewers are told why some people become haunting ghosts upon death, why ghosts seek to interfere with humans, and why ghosts are tempted to take revenge upon humans. We may say that ghosts are the confused or disrupted souls. Ghosts face extermination by the Mago Divine if they harm humans or assist an evil ghost. Consequently, evil ghosts are precluded from the cycle of rebirth. That is …
(Special post) Interweaving Mago Threads by Mago Circle Members

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