February 6, 2026January 22, 2026 Mago Work3 Comments

(Prose Poem) Cloths by Susan Hawthorne

Our stories are threads, follow the thread, the colour and you will find us. Woven words. It’s easy once you know how. We learn with fingers, the old women teach. Read More …

February 4, 2026January 21, 2026 Mago WorkLeave a comment

(Art Essay) The Rise and Fall of Dragon Consciousness by Claire Dorey

When Sophia, a divine, female light Being, representing wisdom, fell into the Great Dragon of Darkness, it was a fall from grace. Seeking knowledge beyond Christian doctrine, was considered a Read More …

February 3, 2026January 31, 2026 Mago WorkLeave a comment

The Inuit, a Vibrant Culture Under Threat by Sara Wright

The Inuit make up about 88 percent of the people in Greenland, and most speak the Inuit language with the remainder speaking Danish. Up until the present the greatest challenge Read More …

January 30, 2026February 1, 2026 Mago WorkLeave a comment

Why the World Needs Matriversal Archetypes? by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

[Author’s Note: This essay is a revised version of my presentation to the She Rises Salon, “Poets Lead Goddess Feminist Activist Spirituality Movement” held on April 12, 2025.] Without the Read More …

January 28, 2026November 26, 2025 Mago WorkLeave a comment

(Art Essay) The Water Coven: Memory of the Great Sea by Sanna Pöyhönen

This work is called The Water Coven. I have always loved to swim in wild waters. My favorite places both in Finland and in the Netherlands are next to a Read More …

January 27, 2026March 13, 2026 Mago WorkLeave a comment

(Nine-Sister-Networks News-Update) #1 January 2026

Submit your update to be included in the forthcoming News Update by the 15th here. [Editorial: Return to Mago E-Magazine (RTME)’s News Update begins to promote networks among organizational representatives Read More …

January 24, 2026January 28, 2026 Mago WorkLeave a comment

(Search) Volunteer Opportunity with Nine-Sister Networks News-Update Project

Go to the first issue of the Nine-Sister Networks News-Update here. Return to Mago E-Magazine (RTME) is seeking a team of volunteers to assist in the movement of Matriversal Feminism (formerly Read More …

January 23, 2026January 18, 2026 Mago WorkLeave a comment

(S/HE V4 N1-2 Book Review) Kaarina Kailo’s Sauna Culture, Sweat and Spirituality by Elizabeth Ann Bartlett, Ph.D.

[Editor’s Note: This was included in the journal, S/HE: An International Journal of Goddess Studies (Vol 4 No 1-2, 2025).] Sauna Culture, Sweat and Spirituality: On the Architectonics and Cosmology of Sacred Read More …

January 21, 2026February 25, 2026 Mago WorkLeave a comment

Budoji, the Principal Text of Ceto-Magoism, English Translation Available by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

The Budoji is the principal text of Ceto-Magoism (the Whale-guided Way of Mago, the Creatrix). Comprising a total of 33 chapters, Dr. Helen Hye-Sook Hwang provides her 25 year-painstaking English Read More …

January 20, 2026January 21, 2026 Mago WorkLeave a comment

(Nine Sister Networks E-Interview) Freia Serafina Titland and The Divine Feminine Film Festival by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.

[Editor’s Note: Return to Mago E-Magazine (RTME) introduces Sister Organizations under the banner of the Nine Sister Networks as a way of consolidating Matriversal Feminism previously known as Goddess Feminist Activist Spirituality. Read More …

January 19, 2026December 24, 2025 Mago WorkLeave a comment

(Book Excerpt 4) Asherah: Roots of the Mother Tree ed. by Trista Hendren Et Al

[Editor’s Note: This excerpt series is from Asherah: Roots of the Mother Tree ed by Claire Dorey, Janet Rudolph, Pat Daly, and Trista Hendren (Girl God Books, 2025).] Asherah: High Read More …

January 17, 2026January 19, 2026 Mago WorkLeave a comment

Call for Poems for Nine Poets Speak: Forging New Visions and Hopes

Return To Mago E-Magazine (RTME) is a platform that values poets who witness the arrival of AI waves and sing for the Way of Life that values human creativity. We are Read More …

January 13, 2026January 16, 2026 Mago WorkLeave a comment

(NSN Highlight) Call for Papers & Workshops for 2026 S/HE Divine Studies Online Conference

[Editor’s Note: Nine Sister Networks (NSN) is the Return to Mago E-Magazine’s project undertaken to lead the movement of Matriversal Feminism, formerly called Goddess Feminist Activist Spirituality.] Words of InvitationWe Read More …

(S/HE Article Excerpt) A Scottish Goddess: An Introduction to The Evidence by Stuart McHardy

Available in S/HE V1 N1 [Editor’s Note: This article was previously published and is now available for a free download in S/HE: An International Journal of Goddess Studies in Volume 1 Number 1. Do not cite this article in its present form. Citation must come from the published version in S/HE: An International Journal of Goddess Studies (https://sheijgs.space/).”] In oral tradition from Scotland’s two oldest indigenous languages, Gaelic and Scots, there are references to powerful supernatural female figures who in pre-Christian times may well have been perceived of as goddesses. While we can never reconstruct the specificities of belief patterns of the pre-literate past, the attributes of this being, the Cailleach in Gaelic, and the Carlin in Scots, can be understood as deriving from an indigenous mythology centered on a supernatural female figure. This evidence exists within literary records, often deriving from oral traditions, recorded oral tradition, contemporary oral tradition, place-names and perhaps most interestingly, in the landscape itself. Such material comes from all over Scotland and exists in both of Scotland’s surviving indigenous languages Gaelic and Scots. In this brief overview of the evidence, we will look at material from both linguistic traditions, in which the supernatural figure of the Cailleach in Gaelic and the Carlin in Scots, feature as both landscape creator and weather-worker. In a forthcoming work, Scotland’s Sacred Landscape, due to be published by Luath Press in 2022, I shall present more evidence and, given the extent of the material hope, beyond that, to create a more definitive collection of the material in either book or on-line database form. It should be noted that in Scottish culture, unlike among our cultural cousins in both Ireland and Scandinavia there are no extant records of any kind of pantheon of gods and goddesses from early literary sources. This is part of a general scarcity of early literary sources in Scotland which has been attributed to ongoing destructive invasions from respectively Northumbria, Scandinavia and, on many occasions, England, combined with an unfortunate outbreak of church-directed vandalism during the initial period of the Scottish Reformation in the latter years of the sixteenth century. In the forthcoming work I will consider parallel evidence from particular sites in both Ireland and Scandinavia which could be used to posit a similar underlying feminine-centered belief system in both areas to the one I suggest was extant in Scotland’s far past. In Scotland we have a single reference from Bishop Carsewell in the sixteenth century to the popularity of tales of the Irish Tuatha de Danaan, but within our oral tradition I have found no evidence that this material was ever widespread here.[1] This is particularly striking when we realise that Scotland, like Ireland, has a great many localised tales of Fionn MacCumhaill and the Fianna. That this is down to the close relationship between Irish and Scottish Gaelic is unarguable, but it is all too often forgotten, or ignored, that both countries were heavily settled by Scandinavian incomers from the eighth century onwards. A perhaps forgivable but unfortunately Romanticised attitude towards material deriving from the Celtic languages has tended to overshadow this historical reality. The extent to which the pantheons of Gods in both Ireland and Scandinavia may in fact have been essentially literary creations by classically and biblically focused monks is one that remains unresolved. As McCone put it, …monastic propagandists and genealogists were ruthless reshapers of the past in the interests of the present, studies of early Irish sagas show…them to be deliberate literary compositions primarily geared to contemporary concerns rather than mere antiquarian assemblages, however archaic or traditional the elements so manipulated.[2] Given that any underlying feminine-focused beliefs and traditions similar to the Scottish evidence would have been anathema to the essentially gynaephobic worldview of the monkish scribes and those directing them, it is little wonder that references to any such beliefs are almost entirely absent from surviving records. The possibility of the over-masculinising of supposedly indigenous belief in both Ireland and Scandinavia, in both of which literacy was the exclusive domain of Christian monks in the period when the source materials for the respective pantheons were first written down, is not one that should be avoided. Such material may well have been created in Scotland, but if so, none has survived. However we do have some later literary references, which suggest that the idea of the supernatural, landscape-creating, weather-working female had deep roots in indigenous culture. The Gyre Carlin appears in poetical works in the Scots language from the sixteenth century, where her role as a landscape maker and shaper is presented in burlesque form – in the poem “The Gyre Carlin”[3] she “luts fart” North Berwick Law (one of the Paps of the Lothians) and in the “Maner of the Crying of Ane Play” (the Manner of the Crying of a Play) she “pishes the watters of the Forth.” [4] The survival of these works is due in great part to them having been known at the Royal court showing that such material had a strong hold on even the supposedly upper levels of Scottish society.[5] It was noted by several early visitors to Scotland that not only did the King of Scots share a language, Scots, and thus a culture, with the population of central Scotland, but that he was approachable in a way that was not the norm in the rest of Europe. One of the poets at the court of James IV was William Dunbar (c.1460-c.1530). In a remarkable analysis of William Dunbar’s poem, “The Tua Mariit Wemen and the Wedo” (the Two Married Women and the Widow) the Australian poet A. D. Hope suggested that the poem was derived from what he saw as a “fairy cult” extant in Scotland at the time of the poem’s composition.[6] The poem is essentially a discussion between two young married women and a widow about the relationship between the sexes and in their attitudes they clearly show that they are of independent mind. Hope sees this as deriving …
(Poem) Children of Our Dreams, We Are With You by Carolyn Lee Boyd

I often think of my ancestors and I sometimes wonder, “Did they ever think of me?” I think they did in their own way, doing what they thought would make the lives of those who would come after them better than their own, though I have never found anything directly addressed to their descendants. So here is my missive to my own descendants, meant to be read by them long after I am gone and to inspire me to make their future better with my actions now. Now I am of air and wishes, no longer flesh,bones, and blood, but you carry within youall that I once was. When you sleep, the air of your breathconnects you to all that ever existed, even me.Listen, do you hear my sighs in the moonlight?As you gather round the fire’s flames, do youfeel my kisses in the sparks that soar up to heaven?When you plunge your hands in the black soildo you know my DNA is there, beneath your fingernails?Do you ever feel the salt of my ancient tearsin your body water’s flow? My eyes are closed forever, but when yourub your eyes at sunrise and stand at the thresholdof your doorway, tell me, what do you see?Do you spy a billion stars fading, visible onlynow that our century’s overbearing night lights have dimmed?Are a million birds soaring, so many thatsometimes they obscure the sky’s pure lapis lazuli hue?Are the honeyed bees swarming in trees dripping in gold?I have to know, do your seas teem with salmon, dolphins,glowing coral, singing whales?Have our wastelands grown to old growth forests,now home to reindeer, cougars, beavers, buffalo, and wolves? We envisioned our best hopes for you to walk inimagined lands of peace and plenty whereyou would be free to be all you are,loved always and loving mightily every instant of your lives.Forgive us if our visions were too small,If we were too bound by our suffering, our terrors, our limiting ideashanded to us by our own ancestors.If your world is not the paradise we hoped for or you need,reach out across those veils of time and spaceso that we may hold your hand and offer youwhat wisdom we lacked when alive but know now,what love we could not give for we did not know your namesbut which we tender you in abundance now,what joy delighted us in the beauty that still remained in our own timeof our fragile and wounded world. It is your turn now to embrace what we dreamedand dream so much more for those who come after you,even knowing that no dream that is majestic, compassionate,radiant enough to pass to the future can happen in one lifetime.Our human dreaming is a constant movement,an ongoing rhythm, spanning generations,reaching out from time to time to time.Be kind to us who left you the world we made,Lovingly if not always perfectly,And know that you have our blessings always. Kmaidlow, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons https://www.magoism.net/2016/08/meet-mago-contributor-carolyn-lee-boyd/
(Poem) Nana Haiku by Virginie Colline

Sunny femmes fontaines the strength of Niki’s women the contagious dance
(Prose) “I write life. Life, what borders on death” by Nane Jordan

“To begin (writing, living) we must have death.” (Helene Cixous, Three steps, pg.7) “Writing: a way of leaving no space for death.” (Helene Cixous, Coming to, p. 3) “I armed love, with soul and words, to keep death from winning.” (Helen Cixous, Coming to, p. 2) To read Cixous is to read death, or to read life, against death. Coiling up from death is the force of love. Where death is the pre-condition for writing life, for what springs forth in vitality from the loss that cannot be reconciled. “The first book I wrote rose from my father’s tomb.” (HC, Three steps, p. 11) I am keeping notes here really, to grasp a moment in Cixous. A moment she re-plays and works inside over and over. I was going to write about “birth” in Cixous, and I will. It’s beautiful how she writes birth and births writing. But one starts with Death to arrive in Birth with her, to know this twinned love of birth from death (in life). “Writing is good: it’s what never ends.” (HC, Coming to, p. 4). Isn’t education (like writing), predicated upon death? Education, in it’s ongoing birthings, re-generating knowledge, practices, and social values as each generation grows up from, and is tutored by, the death of previous ones. We are durational beings. Derrida maintained that Cixous writes “for Life” – to which she replied in text, “had he read Tombe?” Yes, he had, and all the others, which are “on the side of life against death, for life without death, beyond a death whose tests and threat are none the less endured, in mourning even in life blood and breath, in the soul of writing.” (JD, H.C. for Life, 2006, p. xiii) (Meet Mago Contributor) Nane Jordan.
(Meet Mago Contributor) Luna Anna

Luna Anna awakened to her skills as a channel and healer in 2014 when she held her first ever Women’s Goddess Wisdom Circle, which reclaimed the attributes of goddesses through history for everyday women. She later founded The Good Goddess Project along with her friend, Jyoti. The project ensured that women fleeing war, persecution, trafficking, or abuse had access to eco-friendly toiletries packaged as a gift. Although the project has now ended, she continues to grow her advocacy for all women. Currently, Luna is the host of the Healing the Patriarchy with Love Podcast, which is listened to in 24 countries and peaked at number 79 in the Apple Top 100 charts. She lives in Cumbria in the U.K. with her two cats. She is also mother to Daniel who is grown up and living away from home. She is training to be a Quantum Hypnotherapist and has a shop at www.numonday.com/shop/luna-louise-anna/ where she sells guided meditations and transmissions. You can find Luna on most social media channels @LunaLouiseAnna.
(Goddess Writing 9) Notes by Kaalii Cargill

Thirteen Women – a feminist interpretation based on Twenty-One Women from Awakening Osiris: A New Translation of The Egyptian Book of the Dead by Normandi Ellis (2009, Red Wheel/Weiser). The lines from the original are in italics. Note: Pylon is the Greek term for a monumental gateway of an Egyptian temple. First Pylon of the Temple of Isis, originally at Philae, now on Agilkia island. Photo – Kaalii Cargill. The life-giving heart of the World beats to the rhythm of the Moon. Cycles and gyres, spiral pathways crossed by one narrow road, thin as a flint blade, that the fool walks. The ways of the Father World are devious. Temples fill with demons offering illusion. Woman walks by her own light. She comes to the first pylon. She speaks. Demon of Shame, whose heart is an accusation of unworthiness! Demon whose words are chains that chill and bind a woman’s spirit! The woman dances naked beneath the Moon. With a cry she drives away the demon. She goes on her way. Her name is “Banisher Of Shame”. Blessed is woman. She comes to the second pylon. She speaks. Grave Keepers of Tradition! Old men stroking grey beards, telling lies! Woman devours all in the flame of her lioness mouth. She goes on her way. Her name is “Burner Of Lies”. Blessed is Woman. She comes to the third pylon. She speaks. Demon of Romantic Love! Ecstasy of self loss! Madness of standing outside myself! Woman breaks the arrow, takes back the wings. She goes on her way. Her name is “One Unto Herself”. Blessed is Woman. She comes to the fourth pylon. She speaks. Demon of Phallocratic Technology! Insane desire for power! Woman spins widdershins. She goes on her way. Her name is “Subverter of Masculine Dominance”. Blessed is Woman. She comes to the fifth pylon. She speaks. Demon of Violence! Horror of rape! Woman chants. No man may come to her. No man may sleep exhausted on her breast. No man may beseech her aloud. She is eternity, essence, window onto forever. Her name is “Singer Of Truth”. Blessed is Woman. She comes to the sixth pylon. She speaks. Demon of Envy! Insidious thief of joy! None know her height, not breadth, nor magnitude. She encompasses all. Her name is “Life Giver”. Blessed is Woman. She comes to the seventh pylon. She speaks. Demon of Denial! Desperate clinging to Life! Woman weeps. She is dew and rain and tears. She is widow, concealer, sorceress. Her name is “Embracer Of Death”. Blessed is Woman. She comes to the eighth pylon. She speaks. Demon of injustice! Woman burns. Lady of the heat, she burns up transgression. Her flame is sharp, her fingers are orange spikes. She speaks with a tongue of far-reaching fire. She is necessity, justice, awesome power. Her name is “Flame That Protects”. Blessed is Woman. She comes to the ninth pylon. She speaks. Demon of Perpetual Paralysis! Robber of strength! Silencer of outcry! Woman moves. She opens the lion’s mouth. Her name is “Strength Of Trees”. Blessed is Woman. She comes to the tenth pylon. She speaks. Demon of Fear! Killer of Dreams! She roars. She fears no man on earth or beneath. She goes on. Her name is “Priestess of Heaven”. Blessed is Woman. She comes to the eleventh pylon. She speaks. Demon of Slaughter! Killer of men, women, children! Destroyer of Life! She stands guard. She pierces a man with the flame of her eye. She goes on. Her name is “Protector Of Life”. Blessed is Woman. She comes to the twelfth pylon. She speaks. Demon of False Beauty! Purveyor of potions! She shatters the mirror. She is the rising moon, radiant, bright light of the World. She goes on. Her name is “Lady Of The Outer Darkness”. Blessed is Woman. She comes to the thirteenth pylon. She speaks. Demon of Neoliberalism! Brutal materialistic logic! She finds reason to make a man miserable. She finds reason to cause a man to scream. She binds him with a cry. She speaks not his name, inquires not. In silence she interrogates his soul. She goes on. Her name is not known. Blessed is Woman. Meet Mago Contributor KAALII CARGILL
(Poem) Oh by Janine Canan

Goddess Saraswati grabbed me and will not let me go! We are plunging over the cascades crashing onto the roiling river, charging onward toward some Ocean, they say, but I have never seen, oh Shyama, what am I, your seeming child, supposed to hold onto? This pure Energy, this overwhelming Power, this supreme Force has swept me totally out of control and Yes! I say it, I pronounce it, I am helpless in this unnamable and forever unnamed. Oh Vak, I give up! Divinest Beauty, sacred-most Knowledge, treasure of Language, subtlest music of Creation—these pitiful words will never crawl anywhere near the nearest edge of what you Are. And I who have always been your adoring slave am now nothing more than yours. Oh annihilating One!!! Oh Goddess!! (Meet Mago Contributor) Janine Canan.
(Meet Mago Contributor) Alison Newvine

Alison Newvine is psychotherapist, singer, songwriter and a nature-loving, queer creative. Her psychotherapy and consultation practice centers around trauma healing, spiritual inquiry, psychedelic integration, and empowerment work with women, gender expansive folks, couples and the queer community. Her writing is featured in Mago Books Celebrating Intercosmic Kinship of the Goddess, Weaving Our Way Beyond Patriarchy by Womancraft Publishing, as well as several anthologies published by Girl God Books. Along with her band, Spiral Muse, she writes and produces music dedicated to the Goddess and to sacred feminist values and visions. Their newest album, “Fire of Hope,” explores themes of rebirth and healing. You can learn more about her psychotherapy and consultation services at alisonnewvine.org and you can find the music of Spiral Muse at spiralmuse.band.
(Book Excerpt 7) For-Giving: A Feminist Criticism of Exchange by Genevieve Vaughan

[Editor’s Note: The following sequels are from For-Giving: A Feminist Criticism of Exchange by Genevieve Vaughan. Footnotes may differ from the original text.] General and Particular Processes One aspect of communication through language is that it narrows down the range of possible experience at the moment to a shared present which, of course, may include mention of other times and places, as well. It often provides a theme or story line around which we can organize our behavior, revisit and interpret our experience together. The story line, and the topics of our conversations, are also gifts of common ground from which our diverse subjectivities grow. I believe the way language works is by combining constant and general items in particular and contingent ways. We can identify the constant and general items by taking them out of the flow of speech in naming and definition. Their generality is in evidence when they stand ‘alone’ in this way. ‘Dogs are four-legged tail waggers that bark’ lets us consider dogs in general and the word ‘dogs’ in its generality. However, it is the use of words by the many in innumerable combinations in particular sentences that gives them their generality. Words are the common products of the collective, but so are general communicative needs. When any ‘thing’ becomes pertinent or valuable enough to the many, so that people often need to form inclusive relations with each other in its regard, a word arises socially to fill that need. If the need to form the inclusive relations is only contingent and fleeting, we satisfy it by creating a sentence–combining words that satisfy needs regarding the constant aspects of the thing or topic. A contingent and fleeting communicative need can arise regarding any part of on-going experience. In ‘After the storm, the sun made the water drops sparkle,’ a contingent communicative need for a relation with others regarding a particular transitory situation is satisfied by combining words, which are also used elsewhere in other sentences regarding other contingent situations. The elements of those situations are relevant to the society of verbal communicators repeatedly, so that a common need arises for a verbal gift that can be given for them, and a constant word arises to satisfy the need.[1] A single word can also be used to satisfy needs regarding different kinds of things in homonymy. One kind of ‘thing’ can become related to different words in synonymy. Needs build upon each other, and communicative needs can arise with regard to verbal as well as to nonverbal contexts. If the situation giving rise to a contingent communicative need is complex, we can put together a discourse by combining sentences, which we use to satisfy a variety of contingent communicative needs regarding that situation. Sentences work together in discourses to bring forward a common topic and to satisfy a variety of communicative needs arising in its regard. (To be Continued) Meet Mago Contributor, Genevieve Vaughan

(Special Post 1) "The Oldest Civilization" and its Agendas by Mago Circle Members

[Editor’s Note: The following discussion took place in response to an article listed blow by the members of The Mago Cirlce, Facebook group of Goddessians/Magoists from May 6 to May 10, 2016. Readers are recommended to read the original article linked below that has invoked the converation.] “The Danube Civilization: Oldest in the World” in The Ancient Ones upon the ruins of our ancestors, published April 3, 2016.
(Special Post Mother Teresa 1) A Role Model for Women? by Mago Circle Members

[Editorial Note: The following is an edited version of the discussion that took place spontaneously on Mago Circle from March 1, 2013 for about two weeks. It was an extensive, heated, yet reflective discussion, now broken into four parts to fit the format of the blog. We thank each and all of the participants for your openness, generosity, and courage to stand up for what you believe and think! Some are marked as anonymous. As someone stated, something may have been “written in the heat of the moment” and some might like to change it at a later time. So we inform our readers that nothing is written in stone. As a matter of fact, the discussion is ongoing, now with Magoism Blog readers. Please comment and respond as you wish.] Part I: Why are we talking about Mother Teresa? [The conversation began among Anne Wilkerson Allen, Helen Hwang, and Wennifer Lin in a personal message and editor’s group. We agreed that Mother Teresa’s Western (Albanian) identity is hardly taken into consideration in the public perception of her as a secular and religious leader. Then, we decided to bring the topic to the Mago Circle.] Anne Wilkerson Allen: [A] posted this today and I think it is discussion worthy. Mother Teresa: Anything but a saint… scienceblog.com The myth of altruism and generosity surrounding Mother Teresa is dispelled in a paper by Serge Larivée and Genevieve Chenard of University of Montreal’s Department of Psychoeducation and Carole Sénéchal of the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Education… http://scienceblog.com/60730/mother-teresa-anything-but-a-saint/#IdkpoWrDtMAAVCAg.99 Anne Wilkerson Allen: It is not my desire to bash the Church – I think everyone here is fully aware of the evils of patriarchy and the way the Church has used women, abused and killed women…but Teresa is an icon in the West, in particular, of saintliness. Even non-Catholics love her. Why? And is what she did really worthy of role modeling? Anne Wilkerson Allen: This was also on the thread. Not a huge fan of Hitchens, and I think calling her work a “death cult” is extreme, but I am interested in your opinions please. Christopher Hitchens – Mother Teresa: Hell’s Angel [1994] In 1994, three years before her death, journalist Christopher Hitchens made this documentary asking if Mother Teresa’s reputation was deserved… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76_qL6fiyDw Anne Wilkerson Allen: I would also like to talk about altruism and some of the areas we have touched on before…at what point is my “help” an imposition in a third world country? Is my desire to “help” spurred by years of programming or heart? I honestly don’t know anymore. Anne Wilkerson Allen: There is also a part of me that wonders if this deflection of blame and highlighting of Teresa’s faults now is yet another “Let the women take the fall” action. Anne Wilkerson Allen: NOT that I find her blameless – her advocacy against contraception and abortion is decidedly anti-female, but there is so much focus on the Pope and the priests now….I keep wondering when the abuses of the nuns is going to come to light. Anne Wilkerson Allen: I think Ireland recently had something in the news about this… Ireland apologizes for Catholic laundry scandal Ireland’s premier has issued a state apology to the thousands of Irish women who spent years working without pay in prison-style laundries run by Catholic nuns. Former residents of the now-defunct Magdalene Laundries have campaigned for the past decade to get the government to apologize and pay compensation to an estimated 1,000 survivors of the workhouses. Two weeks ago the Irish government published an investigation into the state’s role in overseeing the laundries. It found that more than 10,000 women worked in 10 laundries from 1922 to 1996, when the last Dublin facility closed down… http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57570107/ireland-apologizes-for-catholic-laundry-scandal/ Anne Wilkerson Allen: One of my friends was one of these girls. [Z]: I have wanted to bring attention to this issue for a long time but did not have a chance or was biting my time. Now Anne is pointing out some of the crucial issues about her, Mother Teresa, I am so thankful for this opportunity for us to sort out and think collectively. Thank you Anne! [Z]: Yes, the Catholic Laundry Scandal was shared here too!!! Anne Wilkerson Allen: It’s hard. She is iconic for many women. I did not know the sordid details or the horrors – not that it excuses anything….but when I was young, I saw her as someone to emulate….and thus became immolated…. [Z]: I have been thinking all along the way that she should not be a role model for women. Can you believe that I did even as a once Catholic Sister?!!! I know that many religious women out there will agree with me too. [Z]: My critique is not much on her as a person. But the fact that she represents morality for especially women makes me mad. Oh, there seems a lot more about reasons why we should debunk the mystique of Mother Teresa. Anne Wilkerson Allen: One of the things Hirchens pointed out was that it made Westerners feel good that this wonderful white woman was helping the poor in Calcutta….though she rarely seemed to be in Calcutta. Another friend told me that he knew one of the sisters of charity and that she told him they were encouraged to flog themselves on a regular basis….sick sick sick Anne Wilkerson Allen: This is why I have a problem with the mentality that says evil exists to teach us something…..that suffering exists to highlight our joy….there is just something WRONG with that. Anne Wilkerson Allen: We are all dark and light and in-between. [Z]: I am not surprised. Yes, definitely. What a waste of time and intelligence if not already damaging many turning the navigation backward!!! [Helen Hwang calls out the individual names to join the discussion, and is responded by what follows.] [B]: In Minneapolis there is a charity founder, Mary Jo Copeland, who helps the homeless & hungry. She just received an award from the President. She seems selfless, like Mother Teresa did (at least in […]
(Special post) The Goddess Inanna: Her Allies and Opponents by Hearth Moon Rising

Inanna’s Descent to the Underworld is one of the most fascinating myths ever told. Not just because it is profound and enlightening, although it is certainly that. It’s an exciting journey that ignites the imagination, and female characters are at the hub of the action. This is a tale of power: power that is demanded, power that is won, power that is appropriated, and power that cannot be escaped. The story follows the fertility goddess Inanna, who brought civilization to Mesopotamia, as she seeks to expand her realm by venturing into the world below. Inanna’s experiences in the great below, her escape, and the wild events that unfold as a result of her caper are the focus of the tale.

(Slideshow) Summer Solstice Goddess by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

Sekhmet by Katlyn Each year between December 20-23 Sun reaches Her peak in the Southern Hemisphere: it is the Summer Solstice Moment. Poetry of the Season may be expressed in this way: This is the time when the light part of day is longest. You are invited to celebrate SUMMER SOLSTICE Light reaches Her fullness, and yet… She turns, and the seed of Darkness is born. This is the Season of blossom and thorn – for pouring forth the Gift of Being. The story of Old tells that on this day Beloved and Lover dissolve into the single Song of ecstasy – that moves the worlds. Self expands in the bliss of creativity. Sun ripens in us: we are the Bread of Life. We celebrate Her deep Communion and Reciprocity. Glenys Livingstone, 2005 The choice of images for the Season is arbitrary; there are so many more that may express Her fullness of being, Her relational essence and Her Gateway quality at this time. And also for consideration, is the fact that most ancient images of Goddess are multivalent – She was/is One: that is, all Her aspects are not separate from each other. These selected images tell a story of certain qualities that may be contemplated at the Seasonal Moment of Summer Solstice. As you receive the images, remember that image communicates the unspeakable, that which can only be known in body, below rational mind. So you may open yourself to a transmission of Her, that will be particular to you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syTBjWpw3XU Shalako Mana Hopi 1900C.E. (Hallie Iglehart Austen, The Heart of the Goddess), Corn Mother. Food is a miracle, food is sacred. She IS the corn, the corn IS Her. She gives Herself to feed all. The food/She is essential to survival, hospitality and ceremony … and all of this is transmuted in our beings. Sekhmet Contemporary image by Katlyn. Egyptian Sun Goddess. Katlyn says: Her story includes the compassionate nature of destruction. The fierce protection of the Mother is sometimes called to destroy in order to preserve well being. And Anne Key expresses: She represents “the awesome and awe-full power of the Sun. This power spans the destructive acts of creation and the creative acts of destruction.”- (p.135 Desert Priestess: a memoir).A chant in Her praise by Abigail Spinner McBride: Sheila-na-gig 900C.E. British Isles. (Hallie Iglehart Austen, The Heart of the Goddess). From Elinor Gadon The Once and Future Goddess (p.338): “She is remembered in Ireland as the Old Woman who gave birth to all races of human…. In churches her function was to ward off evil”, or to attract the Pagan peoples to the church. From Adele Getty Goddess (p.66): “The first rite of passage of all human beings begins in the womb and ends between the thighs of the Great Mother. In India, the vulva “known as the yoni, is also called cunti or kunda, the root word of cunning, cunt and kin … (the yoni) was worshipped as an object of great mystery … the place of birth and the place where the dead are laid to rest were often one and the same.” Getty says her message here in this image “is double-edged: the opening of her vulva and the smile on her face elicit both awe and terror; one might venture too far inside her and never return to the light of day …” as with all caves and gates of initiation. In the Christian mind the yoni clearly became the “gates of hell”. And as Helene Cixous said in her famous feminist article “The Laugh of the Medusa”: “Let the priests tremble, we’re going to show them our sexts!” (SIGNS Summer 1976) Kunapipi (Australia) “the Aboriginal mother of all living things, came from a land across the sea to establish her clan in Northern Australia, where She is found in both fresh and salt water. In the Northern Territory She is known as Warramurrungundgi. She may also manifest Herself as Julunggul, the rainbow snake goddess of initiations who threatens to swallow children and then regurgitate them, thereby reinforcing the cycle of death and rebirth. In Arnhem Land She is Ngaljod …” (Visions of the Goddess by Courtney Milne and Sherrill Miller – thanks to Lydia Ruyle). More information: re Kunapipi. NOTE the similarity to Gobekli Tepe Sheela Turkey 9600B.C.E., thanks Lydia Ruyle.Lydia Ruyle’s Gobekli Tepe banner. Inanna/Ishtar Mesopotamia 400 B.C.E. (Adele Getty, Goddess: Mother of Living Nature) She holds Her breasts displaying her potency. She is a superpower who feeds the world, nourishes it with Her being. We all desire to feel this potency of being: Swimme and Berry express: “the infinite striving of the sentient being”. Adele Getty calls this offering of breasts to the world “a timeless sacred gesture”. Mary Mother of God 1400 C.E. Europe (Hallie Iglehart Austen, The Heart of the Goddess). A recognition, even in the patriarchal context that She contains it all. Wisdom and Compassion Tibetan Goddess and God in Union. This is Visvatara and Vajrasattva 1800C.E. (Sacred Sexuality A.T. Mann and Jane Lyle). Sri Yantra Hindu meditation diagram of union of Goddess and God. 1500 C.E. (Sacred Sexuality A.T. Mann and Jane Lyle, p.75). “Goddess and God” is the common metaphor, but it could be “Beloved and Lover”, and so it is in the mind of many mystics and poets: that is, the sacred union is of small self with larger Self. Prajnaparamita the Mother of all Buddhas. (The Great Mother Erich Neumann, pl 183). She is the Wisdom to whom Buddha aspired, Whom he attained. Medusa Contemporary, artist unknown. She is a Sun Goddess: this is one reason why it was difficult to look Her in the eye. See Patricia Monaghan, O Mother Sun! REFERENCES: Gadon, Elinor W. The Once and Future Goddess. Northamptonshire: Aquarian, 1990. Getty, Adele. Goddess: Mother of Living Nature. London: Thames and Hudson, 1990. Iglehart Austen, Hallie. The Heart of the Goddess.Berkeley: Wingbow, 1990. Katlyn, artist https://www.mermadearts.com/b/altar-images-art-by-katlyn Key, Anne. Desert Priestess: a memoir. NV: Goddess Ink, 2011. Mann A.T. and …
(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.
(Slideshow) Beltaine Goddess by Glenys Livingstone, Ph.D.

Tara, Hallie Iglehart Austen, p.122 On November 7th at 22:56 UTC EarthGaia crosses the midpoint in Her orbit between Equinox and Solstice. In the Southern Hemisphere it is the Season of Beltaine – a maturing of the Light, post-Spring Equinox. Beltaine and all of the light part of the cycle, is particularly associated with the Young One/Virgin aspect of Goddess, even as She comes into relationship with Other: She remains Her own agent. Beltaine may be understood as the quintessential annual celebration of Light as it continues to wax towards fullness. It is understood to be the beginning of Summer. Here is some Poetry of the Season: Earth tilts us further towards Mother Sun, the Source of Her pleasure, life and ecstasy You are invited to celebrate BELTAINE the time when sweet Desire For Life is met – when the fruiting begins: the Promise of early Spring exalts in Passion. This is the celebration of Holy Lust, Allurement, Aphrodite … Who holds all things in form, Who unites the cosmos, Who brings forth all things, Who is the Essence of the Dance of Life. Glenys Livingstone, 2005 The choice of images for the Season is arbitrary; there are so many more that may express this quality of Hers. And also for consideration, is the fact that most ancient images of Goddess are multivalent – She was/is One: that is, all Her aspects are not separate from each other. These selected images tell a story of certain qualities that may be contemplated at the Seasonal Moment of Beltaine. As you receive the images, remember that image communicates the unspeakable – that which can only be known in body – below rational mind. So you may open yourself to a transmission of Her, that will be particular to you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKGRoVjQQHY Aphrodite 300 B.C.E. (Hallie Iglehart Austen, The Heart of the Goddess). This Greek Goddess is commonly associated with sexuality in a trivial kind of way, but She was said to be older than Time (Barbara Walker p.44). Aphrodite as humans once knew Her, was no mere sex goddess: Aphrodite was once a Virgin-Mother-Crone trinity – the Creative Force itself. The Love that She embodied was a Love deep down in things, an allurement intrinsic to the nature of the Universe. Praised by the Orphics thus: For all things are from You Who unites the cosmos. You will the three-fold fates You bring forth all things Whatever is in the heavens And in the much fruitful earth And in the deep sea. Vajravarahi 1600C.E. Tibetan Tantric Buddhism (Hallie Iglehart Austen, The Heart of the Goddess). A Dakini dancing with life energy – a unity of power, beauty, compassion and eroticism. Praised as Mistress of love and of knowledge at the same time. Tara Contemporary – Green Gulch California ,Tibetan Buddhist. (Hallie Iglehart Austen, The Heart of the Goddess). “Her eroticism is an important part of her bodhisattvahood: the sweetpea represents the yoni, and she is surrounded by the sensual abundance of Nature. One of Tara’s human incarnations was as the Tibetan mystic Yeshe Tsogyal, “who helped many people to enlightenment through sacred sexual union with her”. – Ishtar 1000 B.C.E. Babylon (Hallie Iglehart Austen, The Heart of the Goddess). Associated with passionate sexuality (and with Roman Goddess Venus) – which was not perceived as separate from integrity and intelligence … praised for Her beauty and brains! Her lips are sweet, Life is in Her mouth. When She appears, we are filled with rejoicing. She is glorious beneath Her robes. Her body is complete beauty. Her eyes are total brilliance. Who could be equal to Her greatness, for Her decrees are strong, exalted, perfect. MESOPOTAMIAN TEXT 1600 B.C.E. Artemis 4th Cent.B.C.E. Greece. (Hallie Iglehart Austen, The Heart of the Goddess) – classic “Virgin” image – wild and free, “Lady of the Beasts”, Goddess of untamed nature. As such, in the patriarchal stories She is often associated with harshness, orgiastic rituals but we may re-story “wildness” in our times as something “innocent” – in direct relationship with the Mother. She is a hunter/archer, protector, midwife, nurturing the new and pure essence (the “wild”) – in earlier times these things were not contradictory. The hunter had an intimate relationship with the hunted. Visvatara and Vajrasattva 1800C.E. Tibetan Goddess and God in Union: it could be any Lover and Beloved, of same sex. Image from Mann and Lyle, “Sacred Sexuality” p.74. Sacred Couple –Mesopotamia 2000-1600 BCE “Lovers Embracing on Bed”, Inanna Queen of Heaven and Earth, Diane Wolkstein and Samuael Noah Kramer. Represents the sacred marriage mythic cycle – late 3rd and into 4th millennium B.C.E. (See Starhawk, Truth or Dare). This period is the time of Enheduanna – great poet and priestess of Inanna. Xochiquetzal 8th century C.E. Mayan (Hallie Iglehart Austen, The Heart of the Goddess). Her name means “precious flower” – She is Goddess of pleasure, sexuality beauty and flowers. Sometimes represented by a butterfly who sips the nectar of the flower. “In ancient rituals honouring her, young people made a bower of roses, and, dressed as hummingbirds and butterflies they danced an image of the Goddess of flowers and love.” Her priestesses are depicted with ecstatic faces. (called “laughing Goddesses” !!) She and Her priestesses unashamedly celebrated joyful female sexuality – there is story of decorating pubic hairs to outshine the Goddess’ yoni. https://www.magoism.net/2013/06/meet-mago-contributor-glenys-livingstone/ REFERENCES: Iglehart Austen, Hallie. The Heart of the Goddess. Berkeley: Wingbow, 1990. Mann A.T. and Lyle, Jane. Sacred Sexuality. ELEMENT BOOKS LTD, 1995. Starhawk. Truth or Dare. San Fransisco:Harper and Row, 1990. Walker, Barbara. The Woman’s Encyclopaedia of Myths and Secrets. San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1983. Wolkstein,Diane and Kramer, Samuel Noah. Inanna Queen of Heaven and Earth. NY: Harper and Rowe, 1983. The music for the slideshow is “”Coral Sea Dreaming” by Tania Rose.
(Essay) Walking with Bb by Sara Wright

Walking with Bb: a story exploring the psychic connection between one woman and her bear. Preface: The black bear – hunting season in Maine is brutal – four months of bear hell – five if one includes the month where hunters can track bears for “practice” with hounds – separate mothers and cubs, terrorize them, tree them and do anything but legally kill them. During the legal slaughter, Hunters bait bears with junk food by putting old donuts etc. in cans and shoot the bear while he or she is eating. Most bears (82 percent) are slaughtered in this manner, the rest are killed by hounding and trapping. The season begins in August and lasts through December. Trapping, by the way, is illegal in every state but Maine. Black bears are hated, and that hatred will, of course, eventually result in their extirpation. I had a shy (male) year old black bear visiting my house this past summer with whom I developed a friendship, and what follows is part of our story: Last Saturday I was walking down the road when I remembered that I had not done my daily “circle of protection” imaging for Bb (standing as he was the day he visited me at the window early in August). When I began to do this another picture of Bb moving on all four feet with his face turned towards mine super-imposed itself over his standing image. I could almost see his expression, but not quite. I didn’t know what this imaging meant beyond that we were communicating in some unknown way, and he was in the area (not a good thing on hunting Saturdays). He had not been coming in most nights and I was worried… That night he came. He is still making nightly visits five days later, the most sequentially consistent visits since September 15th, the day I believed that he had been shot. This experience prompted me to write about telepathy and precognition. It is close to All Hallows and the full Hunter’s moon (Nov 3). I keep listening to Charlie Russell’ story which reminds me that loving bears (especially male bears) is hard, almost a sure recipe for disaster, and that I was not alone in this deep concern for and fear of losing Bb. I can barely stand to remember my other bear losses and I can’t stand feeling them. Even after I wrote about the incident with Bb, the experience seemed to carry a charge that didn’t dissipate. Had I missed something? Next I wrote “Root Healer,” exploring the possibility that as I continued to act as Bb’s “little bear mother” now employing psychic techniques to keep him safe (in some desperation as it was the only means left open to me to protect this very vulnerable yearling), that Bb’s presence might also include a gift for me and that it might involve some kind of root healing for my body because Nature thrives on reciprocity. One idea I missed completely, for it was so obvious. Bb’s image was communicating to me that we were having a psychic conversation in that very moment. It was the first time in three months of imaging protective circles that moved with him that I had confirmation from him that we were communicating effectively in this unknown way. This rarely happens. Normally when I do this kind of work, I just do it. I don’t get direct confirmation that it’s working from the animal itself (except with Lily b). Knowing this helped me make another decision I might not have made so intentionally. The hunting season will last into mid December, and I will be traveling during that last month. I keep thinking that putting actual physical distance between Bb and I might pose more of a threat for his life and I have to remind myself that psychic phenomena are not distance dependent. I should be able to image that protective circle every day and feel that it is working. Bb has already shown me that it can but I fear adding distance because I don’t completely trust my own perceptions.* I suspect believing might be an additional dimension of ensuring success when it comes to psychic protection for this bear. But how do I incorporate belief into a picture that is so clouded with personal/cultural doubt? Half the time I don’t believe myself and virtually no one except Rupert Sheldrake, Iren and Harriet have ever taken my experiences seriously. I have to remind myself that I have done this work many times dealing with doubt and it worked anyway. The point of writing this reflection might be to put me on a new edge of increasing Bb’s odds of survival. If it’s possible that an attitude that embraces believing in what I do could help me protect Bb more effectively until hunting is over and its time for him to den in peace I want to claim it. The question I need to answer now is how to go about moving into a more trusting self as a woman who continues to walk with a bear at her side? The night after I wrote the above paragraph I dream of the doubters in the roles of my parents, and in a friend. I take these dreams seriously as doubters inside me and out. These dreams may be telling me that it is unreasonable to expect me to believe that what I do works when no one else does? The problem with this idea is that on some level I do believe. I feel as if I am walking with this bear, every single day. I think about him constantly. The only thing that got me out of the house yesterday was that he was out of chocolate donuts. Something is intensifying my relationship with Bb although I never see him. I am caught in a field of bear energy and information, perhaps through some version of beauty and the beast. That an archetype is …
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 …
(Music) Songs for Samhain by Alison Newvine

The season of Samhain is upon us. This playlist is an offering for this descent into the sacred darkness, and a companion for the journey into the underworld. Invocation of Witches features music by Loreena McKennitt, Marya Stark, Inkubus Sukubus, Wendy Rule, my band Spiral Muse, and many others. It is a soundtrack for ceremony and each song expresses a different face of the spirit of the witch. May this Samhain season guide you gently into the dissolution of what no longer serves, the honoring of what is complete and the cultivation of the inner space that will gestate what is yet to come. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2CFNoH9exhloz3w95P3Rlb?si=270cf01fabb8421c https://www.magoism.net/2023/10/meet-mago-contributor-alison-newvine/

(Book Excerpt 2) Mago Almanac Planner by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.

Details for Mago Almanac Planner are available here. [Author’s Note: This is Part 2 of the Preface. Read Part 1 of the Preface here.] PREFACE What Mago Almanac Planner Offers There is nothing more plainly indicative of the fallacy of patriarchal thinking, that is, the perspective of male-supremacy than the 12 month calendar. Considering that the calendar is the basic foundation for human activities, the standard 12 month calendar that the modern world is adapting functions to maintain patriarchy. According to the Budoji (Epic of the Emblem Capital City), the principal text of Magoism, the 12 month calendar was first invented and introduced by Yao (ca. 2356-2255 BCE), the pre-dynastic ruler of ancient China to replace the 13 month Magoist Calendar. The newly risen patriarchal rule needed to amend the female-centered 13 month calendar, which would make the Mother-Nature bond invisible. First of all, the 12 month calendar has an irregular number of days (28, 29, 30, or 31). The inconsistent number of days is an indication that the 12 month calendar is out of tune with Nature’s rhythm, ultimately Sonic Numerology. Reality is distorted. Fundamentally based on the imposed or presumed balance within the scheme of dyads (the male and the female), the 12 month calendar propagates a hierarchical dualism. In the dyad, the two are viewed as independent single entities disconnected from each other so that it allows one to be superior to the other (A>B). The worldview it represents is reductionist; the evolutionary process of life is predetermined. On the other hand, the 13 month calendar has 28 days in a month. It is regular and rhythmic, a sign of a healthy living entity. In tune with Nature’s rhythm, the 13 month calendar guides us into an infinitely creative and open-ended worldview based on Sonic Numerology (musical interplay of nine numbers), the cosmogonic force of WE/HERE/NOW. Numerologically aligned, the 13 month 28 day calendar leads us to an ever-unfolding reality. The triadic principle, an epitome of Nine Numerology, stands for the web of spiral interconnection. One divided by three leads to the realm that never ends as it goes 0.3333… for example. That said, what is the better way to restore the lunar-female song and dance than women themselves by charting out the menstrual cycle in the 13 moon calendar? Mago Almanac Planner provides tools for menstruators to mark menstrual dates side by side with lunation dates. We want our modern-day maidens and mothers to see how their own menstrual cycles run in harmony with all other beings in the Natural World! Menstruation is a calendric indicator designed to guide human societies. Biology is not only social but also cosmic. Menstruation is never a separate biological phenomenon. For non-menstruators, Mago Almanac Planner opens the door to each day, week, and month of the cosmic song and dance. We are about to move the axis of our consciousness in tune with all else in the universe!Book information on Magoist Calendar Year 4 and Magoist Calendar Planner Year 4 here. (To be continued) https://www.magoism.net/2013/07/meet-mago-contributor-helen-hwang/ [1] This is a topic that will be treated in detail in my forthcoming book, The Magoist Calendar: Mago Time Inscribed in Sonic Numerology.
(Book Excerpt 6) The Mago Way by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.

[Author’s Note] The following is from Chapter One, “What Is Mago and Magoism and How Did I Study HER?” from The Mago Way: Re-discovering Mago, the Great Goddess from East Asia, Volume 1. Footnotes below would be different from the monograph version. PDF book of The Mago Way Volume 1 download is available for free here.] Magoism, East Asian Religions, and Magoist Mudangs As mentioned above, Magoism refers to the totality of human civilization that is ultimately gynocentric. Speaking from a narrow perspective, Magoism is the primordial matrix from which such East Asian religions as Daoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism were derived. In the light of Magoism, a patriarchal religion is redefined as a pseudo-Magoism that which has co-opted the Way of the Great Goddess (Magoism) with the androcentric reversal of the female
(Essay 2) Why Reenact the Nine-Mago Movement? by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

[Author’s Note: The sequel of this essay is released in preparation for 2015 Nine-Day Solstice Celebration Project.] Part 2 Goddess Goma, the Magoist Shaman Ruler, and Her Nona-Mago Tradition Not until the autumn of 2012 did the pervasive manifestation of the number nine symbolism in Magoism surface in my consciousness. The information that the shrine of Gaeyang Halmi (Gaeyang Grandmother/Goddess), the Sea Goddess of Korea, was once called the Temple of Gurang (Nine Goddesses 九嫏祠) awakened a deep memory in me. It was a revelation to me and I began to connect the dots! That summer, I had joined the field research team of Konkuk University’s Korean Oral Literature graduate program. With them I visited the Shrine of the Sea Saint (Suseong-dang 水聖堂) in Buan, North Jeolla, S. Korea to collect folklore from the locals. Only when I was processing the data that the team gathered to write a report, did I come across the original name of the shrine, the Temple of the Nine Goddesses. And the Nine Goddesses refer to Gaeyang Halmi and her eight daughters. It is unknown how and when it was replaced by the current name, the Shrine of the Sea Saint. It is evident, however, that a linguistic femicide took place; the female-connoted term, the Nine Goddesses, was replaced by the sex/gender neutral term, the Sea Saint.

Author: Mago Work

(Prose Poem) Cloths by Susan Hawthorne

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(Art Essay) The Rise and Fall of Dragon Consciousness by Claire Dorey

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