May 11, 2026May 9, 2026 RTM Co-Editor M Saracino

(Prose Poem) The Shattering of Earth Woman Sara Wright

Photo by Sara Wright

Where are the owls that sing through the night until dawn? Their Silence is deafening. When I walk to the river I feel absence keenly, a precursor to the anguish that will pour through each vein and artery of this aching body when I read the words: “Trump lives on”.

Dismissed.
Silenced
Rape wills on.

The Owls have gone into hiding, sequestered in the gracious arms of the Matriarchs of the Bosque, the Cottonwoods, whose butterfly canopy still protects them from unseeing eyes.

But the leaves are falling in drifts, scattering delicately scalloped hearts over desert ground. From lemon to bronze. Hearts that are broken fall to earth like the leaves do, I think, after witnessing the fall.

I thought I saw a luminous glow reflected on shining leaves just after dawn when the clouds parted for a rising sun, but now I see the trees were the Source of that Light, not its reflection. Like the owls whose dark eyes penetrate the night.

The absence of the owls today is no coincidence for they are in mourning for the women who love them.

The wind blows open my door as I write these words.

Nature’s response to sorrow is to open the door.

I remind myself that soon the trees will be bare and the owls will seek protection from caves carved into sandstone cliffs.

I want to follow these birds into the coming night, take comfort from “the dark ways of knowing” to find peace in this Earth Woman Shattering.

Allow a river of grief to flow unimpeded…

If only I could.

(Meet Mago Contributor) Sara Wright – Return to Mago E*Magazine

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(Essay) Cybele, the Patron Deity of Rome by Francesca Tronetti, Ph.D.

Votive relief from the Archaeological Museum of Brauron depicting the taurobolium ritual, Wikipedia Commons Cybele became a vital part of the religious life of everyday Romans. She was integrated into the pantheon of gods and was considered the protectress of the city of Rome to whom she brought peace and plentiful harvest. Her cult was supported not only by the ordinary people but also by the government and enjoyed aristocratic patronage.[1] As Tripolitis explains, “(Cybele’s) cult continued to gain great popularity and spread to every part of the known world…Cybele’s severe and rigorous demands provided a deep religious experience and a psychological exhilaration.”[2] This time was the heyday of the mystery cults of Rome, and Cybele became one of the chief deities. She was called Augusta, the Great One; Alma, the Nourishing One; Sanctissima, the Most Holy One. Roman emperors considered her to be the highest deity of the Empire and Augustus Caesar, the first emperor of Rome, took his title from her epithet. Emperor Julian, who ruled from 361–363 CE, wrote a hymn in which he called her a Virgin, “Wisdom, Providence, Creator of our Souls.”[3] However, as popular as Cybele was, there were still certain Phrygian elements to her cult worship which the Roman authorities could not accept, which led to limited participation in the cult for Roman citizens.[4] The Romans found the extravagance of the ceremonies, the enthusiasm of the Galli[5] to castrate themselves, their hypnotic dances accompanied by loud flutes and the tympanum/timbral[6] which were played as the Galli castrated themselves, to be repugnant.[7] Early on the Roman authorities confined the rites of the Megalensia to the temple on the Palatine Hill, except for the procession and the public games. During this time, Romans were not allowed to participate in the rites, serve as priests/priestesses, play music on the sacred instruments, or join the orgies which included the Galli. This restriction was lifted in the reign of Claudius (41–54 CE).[8] Under Emperor Claudius, the cult acquired a new vigor and became one of the most popular and favored of the foreign cults. By the end of the first century CE the popularity of Cybele’s cult had spread throughout the Roman Empire in the Western world. The restrictions barring Roman citizens from participation in the cult were removed. Roman men and women were then able to take part in the processions, and Roman men could join the Galli.[9] Under Claudius, a new annual cycle of festivals was established. The new festival, held from March 15 through March 27, introduced Attis as the consort of Cybele and raised him to prominence, which he had not previously held until this Roman cult. It is thought that this “new” festival was simply the previous Phrygian festival of Attis which had been forbidden under Roman rule.[10] As with all mystery cults, the specific ritual practices of the Cybelines were not recorded. However, there were numerous references in ancient poems and stories which, when taken together they give us a picture of what the rituals of Cybele in ancient Rome may have entailed. One phrase continually reappeared in Latin, Greek, and Phrygian refers to the rite called the taurobolium. A Cybeline priestess says this phrase “I have eaten out of the drum: I have drunk out of the cymbal: I have carried the Kernos[11]: I have entered (stole into) the bridal chamber.”[12] Another version more specific to the Galli is “I have eaten from the drum: I have drunk out of the cymbal: I have become a mystic votary of Attis.”[13] In the taurobolium the novitiate, after having eaten and drunk, goes to a chamber underneath the ritual area and stands under a grating. A bull is led in and stands on the grating, it is then stabbed to death with a sacred spear, and the initiate is washed and reborn from the blood.[14] Cybele was not the only foreign goddess worshiped freely during this time. Roman and Greek Gods and Goddesses, the Egyptian Isis, the Hebrew YHWH, the more recent cult of Mithras, all flourished in a Rome, which rejoiced in its polytheism and religious freedom. This freedom of religion was to change with the rise of the cult of Christ and their insistence that their God was the only God and to allow the worship of any other deity was blasphemous and an abomination. (To be continued) (Meet Mago Contributor) Francesca Tronetti [1] Triplolitis, Religions of the Hellenistic-Roman Age, 33. [2] Ibid., 36. [3] Gadon, The Once and Future Goddess, 197. [4] Tripolitis, Religions of the Hellenistic-Roman Age, 33. [5] The eunuch priest/priestesses of Cybele. Some scholars believe that at least some of the Galli were transsexual or transgendered since they dressed and lived as women after their castration. [6] Drums. [7] Tripolitis, Religions of the Hellenistic-Roman Age, 33. [8] Ibid., 33. [9] Ibid., 33. [10] Ibid., 34. [11] An earthenware vessel, associated with the mystery cults, with one or more small cups holding offerings attached to a circular stand. [12] Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Greeks. [13] Firmicus Maternus, “Error of the Pagan Religions.” [14] Prudentius, “Peristephanonx, 1011–50,” 96–97.
(Poem) Most Days by Mary Saracino

Water Fountain at The Rose Garden, Minneapolis, MN photo by Mary Saracino Most days, I feel as if I live in a parallel universe, another reality where women are primary, having given birth to every human on Earth. In that parallel existence, our power to create life within our wombs is honored, our intuition is sacred our understanding of community connects us to all other beings, human or not. In that other reality, peace prevails because wealth is measured by love and kindness and service to others, not by amassing money, material goods, or power. In that reality, conflict is resolved by communication, not war. All people are equal. The Earth is honored as the giver of food, water, and shelter. And life is valued not because it can be commodified, but because it is a precious gift. In that world, I reside; in that world, I resist the unholy powers that seek to undo the natural order. In that world, we work together to preserve, protect and love one another. Most days, I am haunted by my memory of that world, the times before the takeover began. I know that what once was, could be again, if only we would reclaim what is rightfully ours. https://www.magoism.net/2013/05/meet-mago-contributor-mary-saracino/
(Essay 3) How Mother Nature Died: The bio-cosmic rupture of European Renaissance by Luciana Percovich

[This essay was presented at Roma Goddess Conference, May 22-23, 2021, under the theme of “Goddess & Environment – Save Mother Earth.”] From the V to the XV century, Early and Late Middle Ages It took another millennium to the slow but crucial transformations that finally erased what was left of the numinous alliance between female centered vision and natural forces. Through forced Christianization, imposed from high by the courts, cathedrals, castles, and cities on people living and working in the countries and mountainous zones, the male anthropomorphic divine erection gave up progressively with all connections with Nature, now narrated and reduced to His creation. The Creation became more and more Transcendent and Incorporeal – but Masculine nonetheless, as Divine/God is uncreated, not generated by matter and blood, and Mind alone is pure and creative. Until a New Man living in walled cities was born with arms and goods, as Athena from the head of Zeus. It happened during Humanism and the triumphal Re-naissance. Resistance was fierce and never-ending, lay, and ecclesiastic authorities had to endure a war without quarter to control the peasant revolts often guided by women, to restrain the female order. This process lasted for centuries, had to overcome the strong endurance of “paganism” all around the fortified mansions and walled towns. It had to confront with the central role of women in the agricultural world, thanks to their millennial knowledge of plants, herbs, and body anatomy, handed down orally, generation after generation along a lineage starting from the gatherers and hunters of the Paleolithic. Women still treated illnesses and accompanied the passages between the world of the living and of the dead: they were now called prophetesses, seers, enchantresses, singers, sometimes appreciated court counselors. A paradigmatic ending of this long strife which invested all aspects of life and prepared industrialization is to be found in the Enclosures Acts emanated between 1700 and 1810 that concluded a process of progressive elimination of open fields, common wastes and of the communitarian style of life of million peoples, a process which had begun in the XIII century. The metaphor of Mother Earth went on and on. Even in the XVI century, she continued to be represented as a living organism, nature/earth was still called Alma Mater, the Anima Mundi was imagined as feminine, the Microcosm laws reflected the Macrocosm ones. How Descriptions contain Instructions Carolyn Merchant in The Death of Nature underlines the invisible power of metaphors and of unconscious presuppositions, that is what we automatically or traditionally think to be true, and often results stronger than the mere matter of facts. She reconstructs the change in metaphor that occurred after Renaissance, particularly between the XVI and XVII centuries, inviting to recognize and fully understand the normative importance of descriptive statements, in this case on nature. The Renaissance image of the Nurturing Earth still brought within ethic rules and limitations: as long as the earth was considered a living sensitive and maternal organism, every destruction or withdrawal had to be limited and blamed. With the mounting success of the Scientific Revolution in mechanization and rationalization, in the growing new technologies aimed to produce goods of every kind, a new image of an unrestrained overwhelming and Disordered Nature broke through, gaining ground. It was time for the new industrious men, safe beyond the walls of cities and minds, to gain Power over nature. “Two new ideas, mechanism – nature as a collection of inanimate parts – and the rule and mastery over nature became central concepts in the Modern World.” From Mother Nature to nature as inanimate machineThe change in perception and representation (imaginary) from Nature as a living Organism to nature as an inanimate Machine introduced/reflected many philosophical and practical consequences:- a dramatic erasing of feminine principles – the subjection of nature to the new machines, an enthrallment to measurements, a promise of free exploitation, unrestrained commercialism, industrialization, marketing. – the “monstrification” of the herbalists, seers, healers as WITCHES. The Witches (Green 1510) The Magician becomes a Manipulator As the witches were burning, the devastation of nature began to be depicted. In synchronicity, during the Burning Times – the most atrociuos event in the history of humankind – another devastation, more “egalitarian” for it involved lands, animals, humans without difference of sex or age, was spreading around planet Earth: the colonization of other continents, the long Kurgan wave of the Modern Age. While millenarian forests were cut in Europe to build ships, colonization spread everywhere, pillaging of wealth beyond imagination from native peoples began to be brought to Europe and Africans kidnapped and trasported as slaves, while poors and landless Europeans were transformed in nude uprooted bodies which began to be trained to follow the order of the machines. The mechanistic view of nature/Earth/cosmos as a set of inanimate parts spread in philosophical, political and nascent scientific thinking alike. Illustrious examples were Francis Bacon, René Descartes, Isaac Newto, Tomas Hobbes. The masculine language of The Bible, widely available thanks to the invention of print, became the main and most diffuse religious text and supported the enterprise: the rovers were the missionaries of God. (To be continued) https://www.magoism.net/2013/10/meet-mago-contributor-luciana-percovich/
(Poem) Tharros, Sardegna by Mary Saracino

The stones share their secrets with the sea, the brilliant blue sky, the tasseled grasses, the trees—and any humans who will listen— defying history’s edicts to remain silent. Parched by the wind and the rain, the stones speak fiercely of love and of times lost as outcroppings of brilliant wildflowers sing sacred songs in the sunlight.
(Poem) To a Departed Spirit by Helen Benigni

Photography by Helen Benigni https://www.magoism.net/2022/12/meet-mago-contributor-helen-benigni/
(Mosaic Art Essay) Mary Magdalene, from the Shadows and into the Light by Lilian Broca

This is my fourth series of art works based on myth and biblical stories that impart models of human behaviour. For many years I had been inspired by mythological stories, as they speak of, in the words of Mircea Eliade, the eminent Romanian scholar of religious studies, the eternal aspects of life such as love, beauty and heroism, all of them giving great value and profound meaning to life. Over the last two decades, as our society sees rapid technology advancement, a large number of artists have been turning to computers for inspiration creating mostly abstract art. However, after all this time of computer generated artworks I believe that now there is a need for the return to a more humanist approach to art and the artistic experience. This type of art satisfies our emotional and spiritual needs, a tradition that spans many centuries. Its insightful and invaluable aspects contributed immensely to the advancement of civilization. Today when we enter museums and view the art work, we imagine and appreciate those long gone artists painting, printing or carving, with diligence and with reverence. In creating mosaics with a humanist outlook, aside from the emotional and spiritual nourishment gained, I am also able to convey my respect for the preceding centuries of artistic output; moreover, the humanist approach provides another means of viewing narratives in art, another window into the soul without relying on the written word. A great deal of research was required in order to understand and execute mosaics for the present series highlighting the biblical figure, Mary Magdalene. As with the previous series, I did not consider the historicity of the biblical figures I chose to work with in the Mary Magdalene series. I regard biblical and apocryphal stories in my research as mythology; consequently, as mythological female figures, my protagonists become essential archetypes for the role models needed in maintaining a balanced and healthy society. In the last 2,000 years we have been offered almost exclusively masculine achievements immortalized in mosaics and other permanent materials as heroes and hence role models, an aspect totally detrimental to women. In order to render the female experience equal in cultural and perhaps even in religious value to that of the male, I offer the veneration and acceptability of Mary Magdalene equal to the profuse and extravagant representation of male heroes in mosaic art seen throughout the ages. This was achieved by using monumental sizes for my mosaic panels and costly material for their execution, such as hand-made Venetian glass, gold and semiprecious stones. Dr. Angela Clarke, the curator of this Mary Magdalene mosaic exhibition, writes in her essay “Breaking Down Barriers: Antiquity and Post Modernity:” In art history and literature discourse the work of women artists and women’s stories are always associated with the intimate and the small, as if they dare not take up valuable space and time. Broca expressly desires that these stories of women should take up space, time and even more room should be made for female achievement in future. By telling these stories of ancient heroic women in monumental media she demands space for diversity of opinion. Most importantly she wants to construct a history which reveals to future generations that the voice and face of history is not entirely a masculine one, even in the militarized world of antiquity.[1] In my previous narrative mosaic series on biblical Queen Esther and apocryphal Judith, I clearly depicted the tactics used by these two wise and courageous, young female heroines. Youth was the only window of opportunity for all women in ancient times if they were to use their feminine beauty to achieve a desired goal. During that strategic but narrow window, beautiful Esther and Judith employed the only weapon they possessed—female sexuality—in their fight for survival for themselves and for their community. Unlike them in many respects, yet equally courageous, loyal and determined, Mary Magdalene survived not only fierce enemies wishing her harm once Yeshua or Jesus died on the cross, but also the ensuing 2,000 years of denigration, defamation and vilification. I chose Mary Magdalene as the series’ protagonist because she qualifies for the courageous woman who left her sanctuary, her family home, to follow a single man without a fixed address or a permanent job, travelling the country accompanied by 12 other men, teaching God’s words. She joined Jesus and followed Him despite being a single female living in a patriarchal society when women were in general terms treated as lesser mortals with few of the privileges bestowed on men. By leaving behind her family and her comfort zone, Mary Magdalene showed a sense of independence and self-assurance rarely found in women of her time. At the start of this new Mary Magdalene mosaic series, as usual, extensive research came first. Eight months of reading on the subject even before I began sketching, provided me with one of several versions of this ancient story that I decided to explore. While the canonical Gospels portray Mary Magdalene as the repentant sinner who abandons her wicked ways to follow Yeshua, or Jesus, several Gnostic writings, usually dated to 2nd and 3rd centuries, paint a drastically different picture of her. These depict Mariam (Mary) as Yeshua’s most beloved disciple, as his rightful successor and even as a potential wife. In addition, it is written that she was endowed with knowledge, vision and insight far exceeding that of the Twelve Disciples. The Gnostic Gospel of Philip names Mary Magdalene as Jesus’ companion; Gnostic writings also describe tensions and jealousy between Peter and Mary Magdalene, as well as between her and the other disciples. Deciding on which scenes would best portray Mary Magdalene as the protagonist and the job of hiring live models, followed. At this point another very important aspect of a cohesive series of works had to be decided on, namely, the common motif which appears in every mosaic. This unifying motif acts as a visible continuity in all the panels, a consistency and connection of …
(Quilt Art) Väinätär, Veen Emo, Mother Goddess of the Watery Ways, Creation of the world by Kaarina Kailo

According to Kalevala, Ilmatar as the first created being floated in the great nothingness, finally lifting her knee so a teal (sometimes an eagle) could lay its egg on it. The egg rolls into the water, breaks, and its different parts create the universe. The moon is created from the white of the egg, while the yolk yields as its Gift the yellow sun. The Earth and the luminaries (the sky, moon, and stars) are thus the fruit of the cosmic female womb. Ilmatar cannot be separated from the Mother of Watery ways and both are portrayed floating on the primal seas. Veen emo is clearly an ancient shaman figure as she can transform herself according to the needs of her role as Primal Creatrix using both water and air as her primal ingredients. This quilt work honors also a more recent water mother, Väinätär, as the mother of Väinämöinen, the main hero of Kalevala. https://www.magoism.net/2016/03/meet-mago-contributor-kaarina-kailo/
The Advocate by Sara Wright

Photo by Sara Wright Recently I had a serious accident and ended up in a nursing home after the surgery. My experience in this house of horrors was terrifying. Without any family support I was left to a health system that is hopelessly broken. Drugged on my arrival it was a few days before I realized that the 17 drugs were making me sicker than I already was. I take only one regular medication and it wasn’t until I refused all but my one medication for PTSD/anxiety that my head began to clear. I was left alone under bright lights for my entire stay, and it remains to be seen whether I have suffered permanent eye damage as a result because I am so photophobic. The noise was unbearable making it impossible to sleep. No one bathed me or cleaned the filthy room. Ringing for help brought no one to my aid most of the time. It is important to state that there were exceptions, a couple of dedicated aides and three nurses, but no one was reliable on a daily basis. Because I was unable to eat the fatty unpalatable food, I lost pounds every few days. I was slowly starving. I remember thinking that I was going to die in this place, and it was this dawning realization that brought be back to the edge of life. That, and the visits from my beloved Vet who despite so many other obligations managed to come to see me, bringing nourishing soups that his wife made whenever he could. Food I could eat. Gary’s love and concern for me was visceral, and often we just sat in the dark as he held my hand. We have been friends for many years, and he was the person I called before I left for the hospital to come and take my hysterical dogs whose haunting screams will reverberate through my body for the rest of my life. In ten years, my little girls and I had never been separated. Gary, in between holistic medical and herbal lecturing across the country also managed to have someone bring the dogs to me for visits. Meanwhile he made sure they were cared for. The first time Hope and Lucy saw me they just stared at me dumbly. No reaction. They believed I was dead. The moment Gary became Power of Attorney my life suddenly changed radically. I had already told staff I was not going to stay, but before this shift I was aware that these people had no intention of letting me go until they thought the time was right. Up until then I had absolutely no control over my life. The very next day I was released. Coming home severely dehydrated, and so emaciated I could barely stand upright, it was with profound relief that I fell into my own bed, sensing again the reality of my close encounter with death. Visits from my dogs, my beloved forest, trees with leaves drifting to the ground, the sound of my brook, incredibly kind women (just the opposite of the bitch who told me she was caring for my plants and dumping the de humidifiers, my plants were moldy on my return and the de -humidifiers had been turned up to 70 ), daily conversations with Gary and visits from other out of state friends helped me to balance out the terror. This week Hope and Lucy finally came home. I feel blessed. I am incredibly grateful to the many people that have genuinely supported me, and when I recover, I am going to volunteer to help others, just as I have been helped. The generosity of so many has moved me deeply, but Gary’s steadfast attention and love have been the cornerstone of my recovery. The depth and breadth of friendships like this one cannot be adequately expressed in words. The most important reason I am sharing this story is to alert and implore anyone who has irresponsible, uncaring untrustworthy family members, or none at all, take concrete steps to have someone become a legal Advocate before tragedy strikes, because in this broken health system without someone to intervene on your behalf, a person is doomed. https://www.magoism.net/2014/12/meet-mago-contributor-sara-wright/
(Essay 1) The Norse Goddesses behind the Asir Veil: The Vanir Mothers in Continental Scandinavia by Kirsten Brunsgaard Clausen

[This part and the forthcoming sequels are an elaborated version of the original article entitled “The Norse Goddesses behind the Asir Veil: The Vanir Mothers in Continental Scandinavia—a late Shamanistic Branch of the Old European Civilization?” by Märta-Lena Bergstedt & Kirsten Brunsgaard Clausen, included in Goddesses in Myth, History and Culture (Mago Books, 2018) Edited by Mary Ann Beavis and Helen Hye-Sook Hwang.] Fig. 1. Bronze Age Stronghold, Stockholm “Once, something else existed”[1] In the beginning there was a war …, so the Icelandic Eddas on Norse mythology of the Asir-belief state for the beginning of time.[2] But the fact is that before this first war, there was peace in Scandinavia, and peace for millennia – society was not yet organized and dominated by warfare values.[3] Instead another type of society, akin with the Old European Society lingered on in Scandinavia until the decline of the Roman Empire. In this society, Norse goddesses like Hel (Hell); Natt (Night); När/Njärd (Nerthus, Earth); Freya/Fröja (Völva/shaman and guardian of Growth); Ran (Mother of the Sea); Idun, the Apple Maiden, and many others are primarily known from medieval scripts, dating 11th‒13th century were neither Asirs, nor goddesses. The Mothers of Old were knitted into the new and rather late 4th century Asir world of gods, and Asir mythology itself reports that in principle all their new goddesses originated from an earlier layer of cosmology – that they belonged to Vanaheim (Vanir Home), Alfheim (Elven Home), and some to Jotunheim (Giants’ Home). And further, they were all taken into Asgård (the Asir Court) as hostages in the peace-agreement that followed the first Asir-Vanir war, which, seemingly on purpose the Asir High-god, Odin, ended in a draw.[4] Our research has set out to find out, who these Norse goddesses may once have been in their original Vanir cultural and mythological context, predating Asir mythology. By means of different disciplines and based on a mytho-historical-archaeological perspective, the main aim of this article is to present some of the most well-known Vanir mothers. In order to find the Old Mothers, we have had to work our way through layers of patriarchal, war dominated history of Scandinavia, as well as Christianity and Asir religion. Scandinavian Pagan religion – two, not one Although the Old Norse (ON) texts themselves make clear references to two different systems and orders of society in Scandinavia – the Vanirs and the Asirs – Nordic pre-Christian religion is traditionally portrayed as one single pagan religion based on war and fertility. At times, references are made to an underlying culture of fertility and wealth, predating Asir religion, but with no further explanations concerning its substance.[5] We will review this perception by means of archaeology and religious history, and other fields. Already for decades the possibility of a substantial shift of power and ruling structure taking place in Scandinavia around 400CE has been discussed.[6] Today, there is quite a widespread acceptance that a new kind of warrior-based and elitist dynasty did establish itself in this period, radically changing society into a hierarchical and military stratified system not seen before in Scandinavia. Design and framework for the new society took its inspiration mainly from the Roman Empire itself, but also adopted ideas from different European cults further south, associated with the Roman Empire, e.g. the Mithras cult, Christianity, and thereto from the Huns.[7] The new system overrode former borders and authority. In Scandinavia, this meant that former loyalty to one´s own clan and tribe was now challenged by the quick expansion of the house-carl system (följeväsen, hird), where young warriors swore their oaths of loyalty to non-kindred or foreign kings. The profound change in mentality does show even in landscape as the new Asir religion and ideology manifested itself in the building of strongholds dating from c. 450, and later halls and royal estates and temples. Although new strongholds were carefully erected close to the much older Bronze Age borgs or hill-forts, the two differed considerably in function. The older Bronze Age borgs were once used in a society, characterized by archaeologist Åsa Wall as collective and mythic,[8] peaceful and female led, whereas the new 4th century forts are generally suggested as military camps for training and initiation of youngsters into the closed and exclusive warrior brotherhood of the Asir-belief, modelled with unmistakable inspiration from the Mithras and Roman Emperor Cult, which will be discussed further below. The military forts were soon after succeeded by the first royal halls and temples.[9] A hierarchical pantheon of Asir warrior gods naturally challenged the old Vanir-belief system. In the beginning of this era the old tradition of laying down gifts of sharing into lakes and sacred groves at ancient holy places was abandoned,[10] simultaneously the first findings of war-trophic offerings appear in Scandinavia.[11] Archeologists like Lotte Hedeager and Charlotte Fabech and others suggest a dramatic shift in the 5th Century, meaning that a new kind of elite took control and birthed territorial thinking for the first time.[12] Religious history points to a phenomenon designating patriarchal take-overs world-wide, that this is accompanied also by a new hierarchical religion. The new patriarchal religion will most often keep certain core elements from the older layer of local divinities and legends, and knit them into the new construction, for the sake of stability and legitimacy. Local older icons is dressed in new garments and given partly old, partly new legends about them, as well as they are equipped with new or supplementary areas of function. This process is generally known as the acculturation or syncretistic process.[13] We will argue that the patriarchal take-over in Scandinavia was no exception. For legitimacy, the 5th Century elite initiators of Asir religion found good reasons to interweave spiritual entities from the local, pre-existing Germanic culture. Professors of Archeology Kristiansen and Larsson indirectly confirm the syncretic process of the Asir belief, putting it like this: “It is remarkable that this central Bronze Age myth should not [?] be …

(Special Post 2) 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.] Harriet Ann Ellenberger I got involved with women’s liberation in the early 1970s, so involved that it became my life for many years. During those beginnings of what is now called “the second wave of feminism,” everything was new to us and everything was mushed together — the political, the economic, the intellectual, the emotional, the spiritual. I liked that a lot; it felt as if all the parts of myself were coming together. During that time, I learned something crucial the imagery and concepts of patriarchal religion justify and are embedded in the material structures of oppression. I don’t know which came first, institutionalized oppression (of everyone; I’m not speaking here only of women) or the religious expression of that oppression. All I’m certain of is that patriarchal religion permeates, for example, the Oxford English Dictionary, which I use all the time, in conjunction with Websters’ First New Intergalactic Wickedary of the English Language, conjured by Mary Daly in cahoots with Jane Caputi.
(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 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?

(Video) Autumn Equinox/Mabon Poetry by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

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

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

Day of the Dead altar, via Wikimedia Commons According to Celtic tradition, on Samhain (October 31 for those in the north and April 30 for those in the south) the doors between the human and spirit worlds open. Faeries, demons, and spirits of the dead pour out of the Otherworld to walk the Earth. In the past, some would try to hurry ghosts past their houses or ward off evil spirits by setting jack o’lanterns in their windows. They avoided going outside, especially past cemeteries, lest they be snatched away to the Otherworld. In ancient times, some offered sacrifices to propitiate deities. However, others have invited in the souls of friends and family who have passed away. In Brittany, according to W.Y. Evans-Wentz’s Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries, people would provide “a feast and entertainment for them of curded-milk, hot pancakes, and cider, served on the family table covered with a fresh white tablecloth, and to supply music” which “the dead come to enjoy with their friends” (p. 218). Other cultures also have such welcoming traditions. In Korea, as so beautifully described by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang in her posts about her family’s mourning for her father (Part I and Part II), in Mexico on the Day of the Dead, and elsewhere, food and flowers are brought to cemeteries to honor those no longer in the realm of the living. Many of us live in a society where death is pushed out of sight and Samhain’s sacred traditions have devolved into Halloween, a commercialized children’s holiday. Still, it seems to me that the pandemic, climate catastrophes, and war have made death much more present in our everyday thoughts over the past couple of years than before, so perhaps this year’s Samhain offers us the opportunity to re-examine Celtic and other practices of the past and present to see what insights and meaning they may have for us. Jack o lanterns: By Mihaela Bodlovic, via Wikimedia Commons All these ancient practices respect the spirit world and its power. Whether you believe that the Otherworld can wreak havoc on us at Samhain or not, the realm where spirits dwell clearly has power. Its allure can take us away from focusing on mundane, daily challenges or, more positively, open our eyes to the value of relating to forces that can give richness and meaning to our lives. At the same time, we must remember that each domain has its own power. We can use our physical bodies in beneficial ways that those in the Otherworld cannot. We must respect the power of the Otherworld as well as our own. Some kinds of healing are only possible when we welcome those from the Otherworld into our lives in a healthy way, whether through holiday visits or every day through remembrance, meditation, prayer, or other means. I’m of an age when many of my beloveds are in the Otherworld and so I am beginning to find that the idea of being able to sit with someone I have lost is cause not for fear, but rather joy and comfort. Perhaps those who have longstanding wounds from the past can heal by remembering those we have lost at Samhain and forgiving them or ourselves or realizing that we are no longer bound to those who have hurt us and are now gone. Samhain can also reassure us of the truth of our intuitive sense that our beloveds who we grieve are with us still, in some way, on this night and throughout the year. When we participate in the celebration of Samhain’s opening of doors to the Otherworld, if only for a day, we are honoring our own participation into the great cycle of life, death, and rebirth. We are expanding our vision of ourselves to be more than our bodies on the Earth and experiencing ourselves as connected to many realms, seen and unseen, spirit and human. We are accepting that at some time we will also become ancestors, with all the responsibility that entails and the fulfillment of taking our place in the complex matrix of being that is our universe. When we interact with the souls of those we have lost in ways that are healthy for us, however we may choose and believe that happens, we can also better celebrate the realm of the living. Just as we may listen in various ways for positive messages from those whom we have lost, we can ensure that we are expressing important guidance to those who will come after us by who we are and how we live our lives. We can express that life is worth living, even with all its traumas, and that we respect both the boundaries and the doors between the worlds so that we may continue living fully in our physical bodies on our beautiful, awe-inspiring Earth. I hope my message to my descendants will be: Love your lives. Build on what we have done and do better. Leave behind what we left you that no longer serves. If you feel alone, remember that you have thousands of generations of mothers sending you unconditional love and also generations of women coming after you eager to pick up where you left off. According to Mary Condren in The Serpent and the Goddess, in the most ancient times, “Samhain had been primarily a harvest feast celebrating the successful growth and gathering of the fruits of the past year” (p. 36). While we in the north are coming into the season of death, those in the south are experiencing Beltane, the first moments of spring when the doors between the worlds are also open. The eternal cycle of life, death, and regeneration turns again. Whether you are celebrating Samhain or Beltane, know that this holy time offers us all a chance to enter into the task of maintaining harmony with those we have loved before and for bringing balance between life and death, winter and summer, and the realm of the living and …
(Essay) Ceremony as “Prayer” or Sacred Awareness 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. MoonCourt Ceremonial Space set for Autumn Equinox ceremony, 2013 Ritual/ceremony is often described as “sacred space.” I understand that to mean “awareness of the space as sacred”: all space is sacred, what shifts is our awareness – awareness of the depth of spacetime, and of the depth of all things and all beings. I understand “sacred awareness” as an awareness of deep relationship and identity with the very cosmic dynamics that create and sustain the Universe; or an awareness of what is involved in the depth of each moment, each thing, each being. Ceremony is a space and time given to expression, contemplation and nurturance of that depth … at least to something of it. Ceremony may be both an expression of deep inner truths – perceived relationship to self, Earth and Cosmos, as well as being a mode of teaching and drawing forth deeper participation. Essentially, ceremony is a way of entering into the depth of the present moment … what is deeply present right here and now, a way of entering deep space and deep time, which is not somewhere else but is right here. Every-thing, and every moment, has Depth – more depth than we usually allow ourselves to contemplate, let alone comprehend. This book, this paper, this ink, the chair, the floor – each has a history and connections that go back, all the way back to Origins. This moment you experience now, in its particular configuration, place, people present, subtle feelings, thoughts, and propensity towards certain directions or outcomes, has a depth – many histories and choices that go back … ultimately all the way back to the beginning. Great Origin is present at every point of space and time – right here. In ceremony we are plugging our awareness into something of that. In this holy context then – in this mindframe of knowing connection, everything one does is a participation in the creation of the Cosmos: for the tribal indigenous woman, perhaps the weaving of a basket; for another, perhaps preparing a meal; for you, perhaps getting on the train to go to a workplace. It is possible to regain this sense, to come to feel that the way one breathes makes a difference – that with it, you co-create the present and the future, and you may even be a blessing on the past. In every moment we receive the co-creation, the work, of innumerable beings, of innumerable moments, and innumerable interactions of the elements, in everything we touch … and so are we touched by them. The local is our touchstone to the Cosmos – it is not separate. Ceremony may be a way into this awareness, into strengthening it. 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”[i] 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.[ii] Ceremony then is a form of social action. I have found it useful to describe ceremony using and extending words used by Ken Wilber to describe a “transpersonal practice,” which is needed for real change: he said it was a practice that discloses “a deeper self (I or Buddha) in a deeper community (We or Sangha) expressing a deeper truth (It or Dharma).”[iii] My extension of that is: ceremony may disclose a deeper beautiful self (the I/Virgin/Urge to Be/Buddha), in a deeper relational community (the We/Mother/Place of Being/Sangha), expressing a deeper transformative truth (the It/Old One/Space to Be/Dharma). This is the “unitive body,” the “microcosmos” that Charlene Spretnak refers to in States of Grace.[iv] Since ceremony is an opportunity to give voice to deeper places in ourselves, forms of communication are used that the dreamer, the emotional, the body, can comprehend, such as music, drama, simulation, dance, chanting, singing.[v] These forms enable the entering of a level of consciousness that is there all the time, but that is not usually expressed or acknowledged. We enter a realm that is ‘out of time,’ which is commonly said to be not the “real” world, but it is more organic/indigenous to all being and at least as real as the tick-tock world. It is a place “between the worlds,” wherein we may put our hands on the very core of our lives, touch whatever it is that we feel our existence is about, and thus touch the possibility of re-creating and renewing ourselves. NOTES: [i] A term used by Gloria Feman Orenstein in The Reflowering of the Goddess (New York: Pergamon Press, 1990), 147. [ii] As my doctoral thesis supervisor Dr. Susan Murphy once described it to me in conversation. [iii] Ken Wilber, A Brief History of Everything (Massachusetts: Shambhala, 1996), 306-307. [iv] 145. [v] As Starhawk notes, The Spiral Dance, 45. REFERENCES: Livingstone, Glenys. A Poiesis of the Creative Cosmos: Celebrating Her within PaGaian Sacred Ceremony. Girl God Books: Bergen, Norway, 2023. Orenstein, Gloria Feman. The Reflowering of the Goddess. New York: Pergamon Press, 1990. Starhawk. The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess. New York: Harper and Row, 1999. Wilber, Ken. A Brief History of Everything. Massachusetts: Shambhala, 1996.
(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 …
Summer Solstice Poiesis by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

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

(Pilgrimage Essay 1) Report of First Mago Pilgrimage to Korea by Helen Hwang

[Author’s note: First Mago Pilgrimage to Korea took place in June 6-19, 2013. We visited Ganghwa Island, Seoul, Wonju, Mt. Jiri, Yeong Island (Busan), and Jeju Island.] Part 1 Magoist Alchemy and Consanguinity of All Peoples My study of Mago, the Great Goddess of East Asia, has hurled me into uncharted territory. (In fact, my life hurled me onto a labyrinthine path.) Mago is not a mere subject of my study. Or, study is not a mere brain activity for me. Mago has been the answer to my intellectual/spiritual quests. And I am to carve out my own destiny. Studying Magoism has become a way of life to me. Magoism is the term that I coined to name the mytho-historical-cultural context in which Mago is venerated. Assessing a large body of source materials that I documented, I learned that Magoism is one of the most comprehensive contexts that can explain East Asian civilizations as a whole. It feels right that reconstructing Magoism, the method that I employed in studying Mago, is the reason why I study Mago. Ever since I began to contemplate the topic of Mago for study in 2000, I have visited Korea, my native land, almost annually and undertook such activities as documentation, presentation, trips, and field research for the purpose of measuring the landscape of Magoism. In enacting those projects, I have worked with a variety of groups and individuals including feminists, scholars, friends, and the general public. For the last three years, I have organized various sizes of pilgrimages to near and far places with Koreans. Those experiences have gradually led me to the unfolding mystery of Magoist spiritual/intellectual reality. That said, it was my honor and privilege to organize and lead the very first intercontinental Mago Pilgrimage to Korea from June 6 to June 19 in 2013. This pilgrimage made a memorable landmark in Magoism. About a decade ago, Mago was hardly known among goddess people in the West. And the situation was not so far different from that in Korea. At that time, I was writing my Ph.D. dissertation on Mago from a multi-disciplinary perspective, not knowing what was forthcoming. The Mago Pilgrimage envisioned the remarkable change!
(Budoji Essay 4) The Magoist Cosmogony by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

Part 4: Magoist Origin of Immortals “I maintain that Immortals originally refers to Mago’s descendants in Mago Castle, the Primordial Paradise. They are the primordial clan community of the Mago Species, comprised of the divine, demigods, and humans.” [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.] Magoist Origin of Immortals: All in the Mago Species are given the original nature of immortality or transcendence. Readers are advised to set aside the literal meaning in the English language of the words immortals or transcendents. Immortals is a translation of the East Asian term seon (仙, xian in Chinese). I choose the translation immortals over transcendents not because it is a better translation but because it is the most commonly used term by Western Daoist translators.[i] Although it is known as a Daoist term, I hold that it is pre-Daoist, namely Magoist, in origin. Primarily, it refers to the Mago Species (Mago and Her descendants) who dwelt in Mago Castle, the primordial home, to be discussed in detail in later chapters. Likewise, historical figures known as Immortals are Magoist rather than Daoist.
(Goma Article Excerpt 3) Goma, the Shaman Ruler of Old Magoist East Asia/Korea and Her Mythology by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

[Author’s Note: This essay was first published in Goddesses in Myth, History and Culture, published in 2018 by Mago Books.] The Goma Words The Bear Goddess In the coventional interpretation of the Korean foundation myth, “Ungnyeo (熊女)” is the name given to the bear (Gom) who received a female body upon enduring the trial of the cave initiation, married Hanung, and gave birth to a son who later became the founder of the ancient Korean state, Joseon (2333 BCE – 232 BCE). As such, “Ungnyeo” and “Gom” are unequivocally identified as the same figure. Nonetheless, the notability of “Ungnyeo” remains secular to most modern Koreans. That Gom is also involved with the bear constellation, the Northern Dipper in particular, remains esoteric at best. The bear mytheme of the Goma myth offers an insight to the etymology of both words, “Mago” and “Goma.” Given the mythological evidence that associates both Goma and Mago with the bear constellation, we may establish that the syllable “Go (姑 Ancient Goddess)” in “Mago” and “Goma” is derived from “Gom,” which means the bear in Korean. Modified by “Ma,” a universal sound for “mother,” both “Goma” and “Mago” refer to the Bear Mother. This assessment merits, among others, an explanation for the bear mytheme in the Goma myth in which Goma is depicted as the head of the royal bear clan. The bear is one of the most prominent symbols of Goma and Mago together with the nine and the tree. Goma, as the bear Goddess, holds together the animal bear, the bear worshipping people, and the circumpolar constellation of the Bears (Ursa Major and Ursa Minor) in the Northern Hemisphere. Indicating the bear totem and the bear constellation, the bear symbol runs through her myths and linguistics. In the story, the cave initiation that Goma proposed intimates the ancient bear worshippers associated with the bear’s cyclic behaviors including hibernation for the long winter months in a cave. The bear symbol is important in that it connects Goma (the queen of the bear clan), Mago (the Goddess of the bear constellation), and their devotees, “the royal bear clan,” broadly recognized across cultures. It is not surprising to note that Goma and Mago appear conflated in cultural and devotional practices. Doumu (斗母 Mother of the Northern Dipper) is a prominent example of the amalgamated divine, Magoma. Doumu is well noted for her conflating manifestations among kindred Goddesses in Daoism. Marnix Wells states that Doumu is alternatively identified as Taiyi Yuanjun (太一元君 Goddess of the Great One) and Jiuhuang Daji (九皇大帝 the Great Emperor of Nine Emperors). Doumu is considered as “Mother of Dipper” known as Doumu Yuanjun (斗母元君 “Goddess of the Chariot”) and conflated with Taiyi Yuanjun (太一元君 “Goddess of the Great One”), who is one of the Three Pure Ones. She is considered the mother of the seven stars of the Dipper and two not visible ones, the Jiuhuang Daji (九皇大帝 “Nine Great Divine Kings”).[1] Here Taiyi Yuanjun corresponds to Mago (or the Mago Triad) and Jiuhuwang Daji to Goma (or the Nine Mago Creatrix). As such, Doumu is also related to the number nine symbol, which connects Mago and Goma, a topic to be explained below. Suffice it to say that Doumu, representing Magoma, is a female personification of the inter-cosmic reality unfolded through the circumpolar constellation of the Bears in the Northern Hemisphere in sync with the eco-biotic behavior of bears, as such venerated by their devotees. Goma and the Korean Identity Goma’s alternative names include “Ungnyeo (Female Sovereign),” “Hanung (Han Sovereign),” “Cheonung (Heavenly Soverein),” “Daeung (Great Sovereign),” “Seonhwang (Immortal Emperess),” and “Daein (Great Person)” as well as “Ungssi-ja (Decendant of the Goma Clan), “Ungssi-wang” (Ruler of the Goma Clan), and “Ungssi-gun” (Head of the Goma Clan). The Goma words also include such modifiers as “Ung,” “Gom (Gam, Geum, Geom, Kami)” and “Baedal (Barkdal, Baekdal), “Dan.” Given that her worship is old in origin and non-ethnocentric in nature, the Goma epithets are not limited to the above. It is conjectured that she was revered by other names including the aforementioned Goddesses across cultures. In fact, the Magoist hermeneutic of the Goma myth enables us to reassess variant Halmi (Great Mother/Grandmother/Crone) stories in Korea that have the Magoma mytheme. Among them are Gaeyang Halmi, Seogu Halmi, Angadak Halmi, Dangsan Halmi, to name a few. In any case, the epithet “Goma” is by no means a modern invention. Intriguingly, they are found in place-names, state-names and clan-names, to be discussed shortly. The link between “Ung” and “Gom” is not something unfamiliar to most Koreans. Researchers note that “Goma-seong (Goma Stronghold)” better known “Ungjin-seong” was the capital of ancient Baekje Korea from 475 to 538 CE.[2] However, “Gom” as an alternative epithet of “Goma” remains unfamiliar to many modern Koreans. Furthermore, little known is that “Ungnyeo” is derived from “Goma,” the queen of the bear clan. Korean linguists infer that “Ungsim (熊心)” is an Idu word and should be read “Goma.”[3] Accoding to them, the second character “Sim (心)” meaning “Maeum (마음)” in “Ungsim” is an indicator of its phonetic sound, “Ma.” Following the first character “Go” in “Gom (곰), “Ungsim” should be read as “Goma.” A compound of “Ung (熊)” and “Nyeo (Woman),” “Ungnyeo” is a euphemism for “Ungsim (熊心).” Idu (吏讀 Official’s Script) is an ancient Korean writing system that uses logographic characters for the Korean spoken language. Its use is noted during the early three states (Silla, Goguryeo, Baekje) to Joseon (1392-1919) periods. That Goma is the Idu word for Ungsim offers no small insight. It holds key to unlock a broad range of the Goma words found trans-nationally in East Asia and elsewhere. The Idu word “Ungsim” for “Goma” holds the key to unlock the Goma words that permeate ancient Korean history, language, and culture. Ungsim-yeon (熊心淵 Goma Lake) and Ungsim-san (熊心山Goma Mountain) and Ungsim-guk (熊心國 Goma State) are the most prominent examples. These place-names show how Goma mythology has shaped the landscape of ancient Korean mytho-histories. Ungsim-yeon (Goma Lake) is associated with Yuhwa (Willow Tree …

(Prose Poem) The Shattering of Earth Woman Sara Wright

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Mago Almanac Year 9 Monthly Wheels

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Mago Almanac Year 8 (for 2025)

Mago Pod Bulletin #83 April 2026

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