January 16, 2017October 2, 2019 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Poem) The Pythian Oracle and Epilepsy by Susan Hawthorne

The language in my tongue My tongue has blossomed in my mouth It is filled with language It spreads like a big red balloon With language caught inside Read More …

January 11, 2017October 2, 2019 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Prose) Dark Matrix, Dark Matter, Dark Mother by Rhyannan

THE DARK MOTHER The Dark Mother ‘face’ of the Goddess has probably existed since the beginnings of self-reflective awareness. In fact, it is likely that so-called ‘primitive’ concepts of Read More …

January 7, 2017October 2, 2019 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Meet Mago Contributor) Malgorzata Oleszkiewicz-Peralba, Ph.D.

Dr. Malgorzata Oleszkiewicz-Peralba was born in Poland, and spent her childhood both in Warsaw and Montevideo, Uruguay, visiting many countries in Europe, Africa, and South America. During her adult years Read More …

January 6, 2017October 2, 2019 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Book Excerpt) Sexism and U.S. History by Elizabeth Hall Magill

What are the Roots of U.S. Patriarchy? As Barbara Berg asserts in Sexism in America, “Sexism, it’s fair to say, is America’s default setting.”[i] The United States was established as Read More …

January 4, 2017October 2, 2019 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Poem) Come Eat My Roses/ the Feminine Renewal Calls By Louisa Calio

I’ve seen the horrors of the wasteland yet to come

December 31, 2016October 2, 2019 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Meet Mago Contributor) Starr Goode

Starr Goode, MA, teaches literature at Santa Monica College. Producer and moderator for the cable TV series, The Goddess in Art, it is now available on YouTube. She is the Read More …

December 30, 2016October 2, 2019 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Photo Poem) The Arctic Dome by Harriet Ann Ellenberger

If you were within the polar vortex, high above earth, the breath in your lungs would freeze.

December 29, 2016October 2, 2019 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Prose) Becoming by Deanne Quarrie

The Year 2016 is coming to a close. It is a time of endings and a time of beginnings. That is the wonderful thing about our cycles. We all have Read More …

December 28, 2016October 2, 2019 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Book Excerpt) Bearing Witness Transmigration by Danica Anderson, Ph.D.

For seventeen years, I bore witness to the Bosnian women war crimes and war survivors. In my clinical informed Kolo (Slavic Folk Circle and/or Round Dance) Trauma practices I realized Read More …

December 25, 2016October 2, 2019 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

Harriet Ann Ellenberger

Read all posts by Harriet Ann Ellenberger. Harriet Ann Ellenberger Harriet Ann Ellenberger was an activist in the U.S. civil-rights, anti-war and women’s liberation movements before immigrating to Canada at Read More …

December 24, 2016December 31, 2022 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Meet Mago Contributor) Jennifer Powell

Jennifer Powell has a B.A. Hon in Fine Art and a Grad Dip in Transpersonal Art Therapy and Counseling. She has facilitated workshops in self-development using the Goddess Archetypes for Read More …

December 23, 2016October 2, 2019 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Poem) This Morning, the North Star by Phibby Venable

This morning the north star kindled the dawn in violet and salmon But, I could see through the bare branches how the day meant to be I had watched the Read More …

(Prose) Feeding the Birds…. Refuge by Sara Wright

Photo by Sara Wright It’s another gray snowy day with large white flakes falling from the sky… January lasts “forever” every single year. I feed chickadees on my window ledge until the squirrels show up; then I scatter seed on the ground. Chickadees begin their day just before 7 AM when it is still dark, coming to the ledge. Today the turkeys are absent, fluffed up monks still hidden under hemlock boughs. The blood male cardinal appears with his usual message. I peer into the forest as the turkeys make their way across the brook and start up the hill while gazing at sage green shield lichens and two pure white birches that stand out like sentries, peeling white skin. Some maples and many hemlocks border the brook that is running clear of ice. A multitude of twigs and evergreen spires sway, branches twist and bend filling every inch of space, a comforting sight, even though all the deciduous trees are bare. Global warming turns snow to rain and back again in every storm creating ice bound paths, easily traversed by my little dogs. Dangerous for me. Often now I am housebound. This gray world of mine needs animation from within… The birds and my little night- flying squirrel remind me that flight can be a good exercise, even if it is only in my mind – but any flight I may make must be attached to my body. My body needs solid grounding and the separation I feel from rich brown earth, now covered by snow threatens to sever one from the other, I know. That I need extra protection at this time of year is sharply etched in my psyche. I light sage daily as I invoke the Four Directions. Following my dreams closely I receive nudges like those I feel and sense when I am free to roam through my favorite forest. I meditate on a dream of a blue green serpent with red crosses on his back. Blue green earth and betrayal behind my back. I am forewarned… Paying close attention to my beloved dogs and indoor plants, I take deep pleasure from the fact that all are thriving. Twice now two plants have spoken; one imaged an offering I needed to make for personal protection. Another produced an illumination: The root connection to my children remains, part of the great underground mycelial network, regardless of their behavior. I feel ambivalence around this news having suffered for so long, and finally being purged of want or need, the latter a Life Blessing. A second dream tells me to add a frog to my enclosure, a place where a child that is also me lives … The next dream reveals that this child is no bigger than a little red berry (berries contain seeds) and that living inside a protected space allows her to thrive because she is safe. Yet another dream reveals an emerald evergreen princess pine, a diminutive forest ground cover shimmering through the snow. The meaning behind this plant dream remains obscure until I spy the spore bearing tuft in my winter bouquet. Severing the ‘candle’ from the plant I carefully spread the seed dust on the moss of my terrarium. Seeds! Offering or Intention – I am not sure – probably both. My terrarium is bursting with life. Last fall I collected wild plants from the beloved forest, where my little brother roams free, to fill a container…. By creating a miniature woodland without conscious intention, I created a safe space, not just for a child but for me. Every morning I open the doors to mist the air and let the sweet earth scent of a forest in miniature remind the adult that winter is but one of four seasons and spring will come. Inside this oasis a partridgeberry catches my eye immediately. Little stone frog sits at the edge of the pool, the She Bear is in the foreground, head bowed, her red heartline hidden. Both Zuni fetishes. Lichen and mosses abound, dripping from lichened wood. Hemlock heartwood, driftwood from the deep lies against the glass; two hemlock seedlings are planted just to the right. Death to Life. Rotting leaves curl, brown edged, like Pulmonaria, once common now a rare lichen. Gradually a few stones move in, chert from Changing Woman’s Mountain, granite from my friend an Oglala Sioux Medicine Man. The first two offerings I was instructed to leave here for Winter Protection… A few wispy turkey feathers lay against the back glass wall. The child directs who and what enters this space; plants and my dreams fill in the blanks. Imagination turns the key. Until this morning I thought we were finished with offerings, but I was wrong. As I read an article that Carolyn Lee Boyd had written about witch stones, I suddenly recalled my brother’s Algonquin amulet, one he used to wear around his neck. Rummaging through my old jewelry bag I discovered the leather thong, but inexplicably it had been cut. The round stone with its hand drilled hole was gone. How could this be? Bereft, I tore through everything I had before finding lost treasure. Clasping the stone in hungry hands it suddenly hit me. The anniversary of my brother’s death was five days away. Every year for the last 51 years there has been something that re -attaches me to him in a visceral way… Here was the final offering. This one for the dead. When I examined the petroglyphs etched on the stone I remembered the fish, the sun, and the arrow on one side. The opposite side held the end of the story picturing a teepee – like structure, a place to hang fish, and stars falling to earth. A prayer for good fishing? A Witch Stone. When I looked at the rounded edge I was stunned. I didn’t remember that a serpent circled the periphery, meeting up with a lizard, face to face. Serpents and Lizards – north and south. …
The Liminal Feminist: An Ethereal Journey into Magical Spaces by Claire Dorey

Hecate Swirl by Claire Dorey May the new wave of feminism be liminal. May the fundamental force of the universe, which is female, root in our hearts and heads. An omniscient observer, midwifing her ‘world soul’, in lucid slumber, biding Her time, is absorbing magic from the dark spaces She sought refuge in. Hers is a consciousness of ‘in-between’ spaces, endlessly spiraling – accessible to those who are ready to align. “We are the blood of the witches you thought were dead we carry witchcraft in our bones whilst the magic still sings in our head [ ] you cannot burn away what has always been aflame” – Witch, Nikita Gill, Goodreads. Second Wave slogans and gestures illuminated the tyranny at the root and core of patriarchal culture, but now is the time to shift r-evolution to the clair senses: claircognizance, clairaudience, clairsentience, clairvoyance. Liminal spaces are places to move through, but how can we invoke the ancient deities lingering there and what can they teach us about female power? Hecate, Goddess of magic and witchcraft, is calling. She suggests we birth an awakening by channelling the Primordial Wave of Feminism, which simply ‘was’ and ‘is’ the way of the cosmos. Companion stars dancing in orbit, the ancient pairing of Hecate and [acting through] Medea remind me of Thelma & Louise. “By the mistress I worship/… Hecate, dwelling in the inmost recesses of my hearth,/ no one will bruise and batter my heart and get away with it” – Medea. Willhouse, Adam, Hecate and Medea, Medea, (Euripides 394-397). 7th Dec. 2017. Women in Antiquity. “Louise, no matter what happens, I’m glad I came with you.” – Thelma. Khouri, Callie, writer. Scott, Ridley, director. Thelma & Louise, with Susan Sarandon, Geena Davis, Harvey Keitel, Michael Madsen. 1991. MGM Studios: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. Thelma and Louise morphed into Warrior Queen fugitives, rebelling in, what I will argue, was a divine and fearless, ecstatic state, following a cataclysmic, life changing event (rape), leading to an epiphany. “I feel really awake. I don’t recall ever feeling this awake.” – Thelma, Thelma & Louise. Archaic rampage was divine and apocalyptic: when lioness Sekhmet ran riot, her flaming ‘eye’ incinerated all She saw whilst, in drunken trance, She vomited rivers of Red Rage. Medea rampaged with poison! Empowered by Hecate, triggered by patriarchy, moon on fire, pounding mandrake, aconite, dittany, belladonna and colchicine, Medea worked with healing plants that are deadly in untutored hands. This ’Root Cutter’ wisdom, of sacred herbs and poisonous plants, released intoxicating potential and a spiralling, mind-altering epiphany: women’s wisdom was tolerated when it served the system of male privilege that is patriarchy, otherwise it was considered evil. From Titan to Olympian, as World Soul, with roots in the underworld, head in the cosmos, Hecate withstood regime changes, intermingling with tyrants Hades and Zeus whilst, as survivor companion and guru, she empowered Persephone and Medea and sheltered Hecuba and Gale/Galinthias. She also jeered off rapist Hermes. “Each time a woman stands up for herself [ ] she stands up for all women.” – Maya Angelou. Goodreads. As the Olympian male divorced himself from the Earth Mother, he claimed civility and philosophy as the masculine domain, whilst marginalising women because they were creatures of cycles. Philosophers were major players in these culture wars, that took aim at women’s autonomy. “The courage of a man is shown in commanding, of a woman in obeying” – Aristotle. The Politics. Translated by Trevor Saunders and T. Sinclair, 17 Sep. 1981. Penguin Classics. Visual people scrutinise symbols alongside mythology. Just as the unspoken word holds power, in images ‘negative’ space holds meaning. Liminal space brews magic. “When the human race learns to read the language of symbolism, a great veil will fall from the eyes of men.” – Hall, Manly P.. Melchizedek and the Mystery of Fire. Goodreads. Hecate’s Strophalos, a spinning wheel, described as a golden orb spiralling from a thong, aligns the spinner with orbital resonance, unleashing a flow of possibilities and consciousness from ‘in-between’ spaces. “I had imagined myself alone in believing that spiders should be the totem of writers. Both go into a space alone and spin out of their own bodies a reality that has never existed before.” – Steinem, Gloria. My Life on the Road. Goodreads. Hecate Three Faces by Claire Dorey Since the Goddess emerges from within and since the Golden Spiral expresses the exquisite geometry of galaxies and the human form, I imagine Hecate transcending realms as Penta to Hexa; apple to honeycomb; as Fibonacci sequences of the Golden Spiral, to Goddess numbers ‘3, 6 and 9’. So is there a mathematical spell for asking Hecate to spiral out of the void into awareness? At a glance: as the Golden Spiral, ‘1, 2,3,5,8 and 13,….’, Hecate has one key, two torches and three faces. A five-pointed star (Pentacle) is created by Venus orbiting the sun every eight Earth years, equivalent to thirteen Venus years… and there are thirteen moons. As Chthonia, Hecate’s serpents may represent Fibonacci numbers, Kundalini shakti and chthonic wisdom spiraling to infinity. As the ‘3,6 and 9’, She is the Triple Goddess, with three faces, domains and directions, revolving around a six-pointed star (Hexagram). ‘6’ is the first ‘perfect number’ (link to description). Sources are sketchy: in Pythagoras’s theory, metempsychosis, ‘6³’ [6x6x6] is the periodic time for soul regeneration. Nine is the Nine Ennead, Muses, Maidens, Mothers, Sisters, Sorceresses and the Nine Mago (link to reference). Mayan calendars made use of Earth-Venus cycles (link to this math). Venus is a shape-shifter, appearing as the ‘5, 6, and 8-pointed’ star in various mythologies. Seven is the Pleiades. As the dyad, Venus has two faces, appearing as twin stars – Phosphorous (Lucifer), the morning star and Hesperus, the evening star. The nocturnal womb space is gated by Venus. Perhaps Hecate’s two torches are metaphors for this. Venus spins in the opposite direction to Earth. Astrological conjuncts may open portals as cosmic energies converge. One Roman spel, invoking Hecate, draws upon an eight-pointed …
(Photo Essay 2) Goddess by Kaalii Cargill

[Author’s note: This series of photo essays is inspired by themes that have emerged for me as I’ve been visiting with the Grandmothers in Nature, archaeological sites, and museums around the World.] “The patriarchal denial of the Mother becomes the political denial of the people; which becomes the total mechanization, via capitalization, of the human body. And as the body moves, so does God move: the Biblical capitalist West has created God as a prison-keeper, as a factory-boss, rather than as a living cosmos. God as an assembly-line rather than a dance . . .” Barbara Mor, quoted in Jack Dempsey, (Tribute 2) Barbara Mor, “Relentless Love”: Letters 1988-2002 from a Writer’s Best Friend by Jack Dempsey. Return to Mago E*Magazine, July 17, 2018. Read the whole piece here: https://www.magoism.net/…/tribute-2-barbara-mor-relentless…/ The dance of the living cosmos – a play of light, moving water, birds soaring, women dancing . . . Magura Cave (Rabisha Cave), Bulgaria. Bat guano painting, 6000-8000 BCE. Devatashka Cave, Lovech Province, Bulgaria. Paleolithic cave shelter, Krumovgrad, Bulgaria. Amazing sky near “Badjaliata” Cave, Silistra, Bulgaria. Water dancing (somewhere in Europe) Nature playing, Goreme National Park. Anatolia. Magical portal, Vespasianus Titus Tunnel, Samandağ, Hatay Province, southern Turkey. The Pool of Abraham (Balikli Göl), Sanliurfa, Anatolia. Mythic street theatre, Gozo, Malta. Candles at Petra, Jordan. Blue Grotto, Malta. “Dance”, Henri Matisse (1909). Museum of Modern Art, New York. Aegina Island, Greece. Meet Mago Contributor KAALII CARGILL
(Poem & Photography) Autumn Equinox 2025: The Cutting Away and the Gathering In by Sara Wright

Photo by Sara Wright There is something very special about ‘the cutting away and gathering in’ … my very wild gardens are flattened, my wildflower field has just been mowed, trees are turning, and I am possessed by joy. It’s at this time of year that the sky opens into a field of dreams. I walk down through the pines to watch the stars appear at dusk – the open field widens my vision. The Great Bear circumnavigates the sky and as other constellations crystalize, I can imagine that it’s possible to re- imagine, to re- weave the threads around the cross-cultural web that is broken. Ordinary perception fails. I am also reminded that everything changes, and that the seasonal round is the foundation of life. In this same field during daylight hours birds feast on thousands of scattered seeds that have been baked in summer heat. I’m amazed by an illumination. At both equinoxes near and far meet. September dawned cool and stayed that way. The hummingbirds knew – almost all migrated southward the night of September 1st. Within a week the swamp maples were tipped in crimson, bright green ferns paled yellow to ochre, salmon, pink. Orange tipped sugar maples followed suit as carotenoid pigments emerged. As more chlorophyll recedes anthocyanin turns some leaves plum purple, others bright red – a few are still tipped in lime. Others catch fire. Photo by Sara Wright Every morning, I stand at my windows peering into a background of green as the colors deepen and the Light of Fall Splendor becomes All There Is. I sneak out the door for a brief meander while Coalie sleeps. One morning, I discovered a bumblebee hiding under a wild aster leaf. Some blossoms were not yet open. Was she sleeping or just waiting patiently for a nectar filled blossom to open? The sight of a single bumblebee our most important pollinator brought tears to my eyes. I admired her tenacity, humbled by all I did not know. Of course, this leaf turning is a process, and precisely why I make a point of paying such close attention. I am determined not to miss a moment knowing that these days will culminate all too soon in an impossible tangle of mostly bare deciduous trees and tired evergreens accompanied by winter’s chill. Aside from joy, a deep poignancy marks these fleeting days. For two years I have mourned the loss of what I call ‘fire on the mountain’– inside and outside – the joy and brilliance that accompanies autumn changes seems to affect me internally. The first year it rained all summer, the next unseasonable heat blew in noxious air throughout September. Without cool night temperatures, insect ridden maple leaves rattled like bones before sinking onto moss covered floors. This year a reprieve. Not even severe drought is diminishing the wonder I am experiencing each dawning. If the season is short, so be it. I peer into still mirrors instead of flowing waters, walk through papery leaves, revel in the joy that Coalie experiences as she snuffles under detritus seeking scents beyond my imagining. When outdoors my chihuahua lies down and stretches out, belly to ground. Her whole body seems to be communing with Earth. Does she feel Natures’ heartbeat, and the gurgling sound of tree sap that is gradually descending to commune with tree roots? Photo by Sara Wright I remember the dream I had about Coalie the night before she arrived. She was a bright green earth star – two stars inscribed -one on the outside, the other within. Last night in a dream Coalie was almost hidden by tall grasses, sniffing/ snuffling away in a field. I can feel her pleasure, her childlike wonder. I also experience relief because I know that she is old enough to be protected from tick borne diseases…At the same time I listen to a dream voice that cautions me to keep her out of places like this one. The Mother Field. Any ‘field’ of influence carries both a positive and negative charge so I heed the warning – literal or not. Coalie lives so close to the ground that I suspect she knows where the Old Grandmothers are hiding. Last week in the woods she unearthed a missing wild orchid just after I verbalized my disappointment to the trees. ‘Nodding Lady’s Tresses’ I quiped. Fragrant Daughters of the Earth – Yes! This ‘field of abundance’ endures even though light frost has tipped the ferns. The air carries the sweetest scent of newly cut hay. I’ve been collecting seed pods that are drying around Changing Woman’s Mountain (whose address changed last spring at the spring equinox) and yesterday Coalie grabbed a milkweed pod. Oh, what an impossible mess – Airborne feathery seeds literally flew around the house! The cheerful faces of flaming orange nasturtiums are oblivious to all but a killing frost. I stripped the bean tree and brought in the scarlet runner bean pods to finish ripening indoors. Nasturtium seeds too. Picked up fat acorns and buried one near Lucy’s grave, was given some ‘painted ladies’ that shine like pearls swimming in polished leather.* Once the bee tree is under a warming sun, honey bees seek the sweet nectar as do a multitude of tiny wild bees. Honey bees visit here only twice a year, once during the spring cherry, apple pear/crabapple bloom and now for the bee tree finale (old fashioned hydrangea). Asters continue to draw in a few two spotted bumblebees like the one I saw this morning, but this is the only bee species that has been with me this whole season. Butterflies are totally absent. Some changes are more than unwelcome – frightening by implication, but I will not dwell on them here. The Autumn Equinox Turning comes only once a year when a sleepy sun star turns green leaves gold, forest shadows deepen, and the curtain parts… I walked to the bridge and crossed it on a whim, listening to …
(Prose part 2) African Initiation by Louisa Calio

Part Two: Departure The six month visit in Ghana had finally come to an end. Although it was the last night for sharing a supper or sitting by the fire to tell or listen to a story, no one could eat or find voice to speak. Only the sound of the crackling fire broke the heavy silence. Ashneen was away, but had promised to be back by morning. Ashtai had already left for the country. Only Kwame, Essie and the young children remained to sit out their final vigil.
(E-Interview) Kaalii Cargill by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

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

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

Hello RTM Contributors and Readers, RTM (Return to Mago E-Magazine) is evolving and we co-editors invite you to join us to touch base and discuss salient matters concerning the upcoming Nine Sister Networking project. This meeting of us is symbolic as well in coping with the onset of the AI era. Where will we as matriversal feminist find/draw/create (re-)sources of our spirit at the arrival of AI waves? We, RTM Co-editors and Bloggers, invite you to one hour Zoom meeting at 12 PM on Dec 27 PST. It is free of charge and open to the RTM Community. If you are interested in attending, please email Dr. Hwang (ninemagos@gmail.com) for the Zoom link. We look forward to hearing from many of you!!! Intriguingly and timely, our interweaving has been materialized in the form of E-Interviews, Nine Posts Speak, and lately the Nine Sister Networks for the last two years and the last few months intensively. You will see them in the new menus in our website:https://www.magoism.net/education-program/nine-sister-networks/https://www.magoism.net/education-program/nine-poets-speak/ https://www.magoism.net/education-program/e-interview There are some important agendas for us to consider for the upcoming months and years to come. We want to form and visualize our individual and collective voices spoken through your ongoing contributions, E-interviews, Nine Poets Speak (NPS), and Nine Sister Networks (NSN). RTM has been made possible by the lonely, radical, but collective voices of our contributors. We have been here standing firmly like the sound of the whale-bell that goes far out to the hearers… We sowed with the hope to see the sprouts. And it is time to look at our sprouts! The Nine Sister Networking (NSN) project can serve as a new channel to connect, reach out, and evolve. The current plan is to create a locus for all organizations and individuals who have been e-interviewed as well as our poets, artists, and writers to be featured as a united body of the Matriversal Community. Timely and thankfully, Mago Academy’s Creatrix Studies Programs launched successfully this fall with the support of our partner, Ubiquity University. Creatrix Studies programs can create a room for you who will be the leading force of the Nine Sister Networks project to offer workshops and mini-courses. So possibilities are endless. It has taken 13 years to come this far together as RTM contributors. Some of you who began with me are still here. That is already a success and blessing to us! Mago Blessings to ALL in WE,RTM Co-editors and Bloggers
(Poem) Creation Myths by Donna Snyder

I. Woman smiles Woman smiles, her face starred, exotic birds tattooed around her mouth, beneath her eyes, around her nose. Delicate teeth exposed to heaven, confident that no one scorns. Woman smiles at Okie brothers, Indian lovers. Grandmas squatting over iron pots of lard & lye. Good black river bottom, green with growth– the kind that feeds, the kind that chokes, the kind that covers graves. Candles flicker. Drums beyond the walls. Fiddles call the jumping boys who chant & dance & scare away the spirits. Rain on a tin roof. Honeysuckle raising Cain on the side porch. Dogs under the floor boards, warm and waiting. Woman smiles. Calls, “China! Africa!” Sings, “India, America!” And the sweet dogs crowd around her knees and make her dance. Woman smiles– a wedding vase, a water bird, a box of roots. A rocking horse. A basket facing east. Out of the earth a mist floats and fondles the turtle and the deer. Stars on her face–Woman smiles. Beads on her head–Woman smiles. Bird at her chin–Woman smiles. Stone in her pocket–Woman smiles. Rainbows behind her–Woman smiles. Behind the mask, we find Woman. And once truly found, Woman smiles. God giving birth by Monica Sjoo, 1965 II. Creation A fairy handed me beads and a string of tiny bells, fairy bells, he called them, and wound them across my shoulders. The beads hang down my chest, promise cool breezes, grey clouds hiding the new blue sky. I sleep late. Bells tinkle and tell me a tale about a place where God smiles and pulls the world from between her legs. In my dream, a turtle escapes a thoughtless lunch of wilted lettuce and white bread. His home painted on his back, his jaws break twigs. His scaly feet carry him over the roots of elms and sumac. He traces his bottom and tail across rich, black earth. God smiles, her vast bottom turned up to the sky. She bends to stroke the back of turtle. Her vast bottom extends to infinity–quite a spread! God smiles, and pulls the world from between her legs. God smiles at the world–its blue oceans, persimmon clouds, continents green & black. God has dogs named China, India, Africa, America. “China!” she calls, “India!” And the sweet dogs crowd around her knees and make her dance. Gaia the great mother takes the body grass sculpture by Lena Lervik, Lund Sweden, 1998 III. Dream I dream of God lying on the earth, beneath a warm sun, beneath a cool breath of wind that strokes the soft skin of her necks & thighs. A fairy whispers in my ear that God is a woman who is at all times being pleasured. Out of that dream of pleasure unfolds the world.

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

Born in Juárez in 1959, Mario Colín lived his entire life in the Five Points area of Central El Paso, where he attended Houston Elementary and Austin High School. From the age of fifteen, he worked as a construction worker, building silos and other large construction projects across the U.S.A., at some point hitch hiking from the Pacific coast to the Atlantic shores. In his late twenties, he began to focus all his attention and energy on art, which had been an interest since early childhood, working as a muralist and portrait painter. Much of his art is of a religious nature, although he also painted secular art, portraits, and historical scenes. Colín painted his first mural of the Virgin of Guadalupe in collaboration with deceased artist Chuck Zavala in 1987 at Esparza’s Grocery, a small store in Central El Paso. It has now become a shrine, with community members building a stone arch and bringing flowers and candles, and has been pronounced a religious site by the parish church. Since that first mural, Colín has painted over 40 pieces of public art, many of which have become landmarks. Many of those murals are in that same Central El Paso neighborhood, on or near Piedras, including the House of Pizza, Los Alamos Grocery, The Elbo Room bar, the former Sanitary Plumbing at Piedras and Fort Boulevard. Colín twice painted a 25 foot mural of the Virgin of Guadalupe, at Alameda and Zaragoza, across from the Ysleta mission. The first version, painted in 1997, became decayed, but was a popular landmark. That mural has appeared in periodicals, art books, calendars, many newspaper articles, and in photographs exhibited in the El Paso Art Museum and galleries. In 2004, Señor José Villalobos donated and members of the community contributed money to pay laborers to replaster the wall of the century-old adobe building where it is located, and Colín repainted the entire mural for donations from passers-by and community members. Colín’s work has also been featured on the International History Channel and Canal 44, XHUI TV, in a Ford television commercial, and numerous times in the El Paso Times and the defunct El Paso Herald-Post, as well as in periodicals such as Texas Monthly, Dallas Morning News, Texas Observer, Austin American Statesman, Stanton Street magazine; literary journals such as Mezcla and GypsyMag.com; in documentaries including Walls that Speak: El Paso’s Murals, directed by Jim Klaes; in art books such as Colors on Desert Walls: The Murals of El Paso and Texas 24:7, and in various editions of Chicano Studies: Survey and Analysis, a text book used throughout the country.
(Special Post Isis 2) Why the Color of Isis Matters by Mago Circle Members

[Editor’s note: The discussion took place in Mago Circle during the month of July, 2013. Our heartfelt thanks go to the members who participated in this discussion with openness and courage.] Part 2 The Color Talk in Goddesses Kahena Dorothea Athena was also whitened which is sad. However the statues were worshiped by many women to whom they brought comfort. And their origins were later remembered by the abundance of Black Virgins that became important in Italy and other parts of Europe. I don’t see Dark Goddesses as shadows but as having depths of Creativity and Knowledge. My main Goddess is Kirke and the bast relief I have of her is a chocolate brown. Diane Horton The worship of Isis broadened from Egypt to all the countries bordering the Mediterranean, as well as the Middle East and the isles called now the British Isles. She and Her worship were virtually everywhere in the westernly known world of the time! She IS the Goddess of 10,000 Names! And as such she was adapted to each culture’s vision of Her. She was the basis of all the” Black Madonnas”. I do not think of this as Isis/Auset representing the “dark” Goddess as something somehow bad or to be dealt with, but rather that ancient darkness represents infinite potential, eternal creativity/fertility, the beginning and ending of all things, and the always deepening knowledge of magick. Max Dashu However, there is a politics of representation that we all need to be aware of, that pushes original African iconography down and away, and fronts Europeanized images. There is no possibility of “colorblindness” in such a system; a restoration of the original must be actively striven toward. This is incumbent on all of us not of (recent) African descent. Otherwise we perpetuate the injurious status quo, instead of overturning it. Harita Meenee I agree with those who say that race is largely a social construct. Its roots seem to lie in colonialism and the slave trade. I would also like to add that racism is used to oppress people of different nationalities and colors. Ηere in Greece the IMF neo-liberal policies are destroying our economy (and lives); they go hand in hand with a vicious racist campaign against immigrants, along with the rise of a neo-Nazi party. This is part of an effort to redirect people’s anger away from the government and bankers, towards those who are poor and foreign and often have a different color or religion. Fortunately, many grassroots activists are responding to this by building a strong anti-racist, antifascist movement. You can see our Facebook page below. It’s in Greek but the photos are quite revealing. If anyone is interested in learning more about the situation here, please message me and I’ll try to find some articles in English for you. https://www.facebook.co/19JanuaryATHENSvsFASCISM?fref=ts 19 Γεναρη – ΑΘΗΝΑ ΠΟΛΗ Αντιφασιστικη Μπροστά στη κλιμάκωση της φασιστικής απειλής και της ρατσιστικής βίας, στη εμφάν…See More Naa Ayele Kumari Let me put this in the context of something you might understand. This is a goddess group that honors the feminine and the power it represents. People in this group understand the oppression and misrepresentation of women. We understand the implications of misogynistic patriarchal thinking. We understand the implications of stealing the information, rites, and traditions from goddess centered cultures and rephrasing them into male dominated themes… especially those that then went on to oppress women today. This is the same thing that has happened as it related to race and our cultures. It infuriates us when a man may say… why do we have to focus on the goddess? Let us just accept that we are all human and no special consideration should be given to anyone because of their gender. Or, this is just a distraction or social construct and it really doesn’t matter. We understand the blatant disregard and ignorance of those statements. Yet, the same is true for race and people of other races. Your attitude and casual disregard perpetuates a lie that you are comfortable with and don’t wish to move from that comfort zone. It means you don’t have to be accountable for the injustices or oppression it continues to perpetuate in the larger culture toward people who do not look like you. As far as I am concerned, I truly believe that the dark goddess for many with white skin IS their shadow… It is the part of themselves that they deny and fear. That you may have come from black people may scare you… even when the science proves it. That deep down… you fear what you don’t understand. To even confront it is frightening… something that you would rather ignore and deny… Yet… here we are. Black, Yellow, Red… people.. women… who have been oppressed for thousands of year because of this… and are asking… to be seen in their true likeness… not as you wish them to be… or fear them to be. Naa Ayele Kumari Thank you Max Dashu, I so appreciate your scholarship and dedication to the truth where ever you find it… and Helen Hwang for staying open to it as well. [Someone withdrew the threads.] Rick Williams No, you can’t passively aggressively slither your way out of this, reread your own statements and that last post contradicts most of your ascertains. I can’t believe that you honestly say fire away at you like you’re some sort of martyr and VICTIM of being misunderstood, not at all, I understand you very well. I don’t think you understand yourSELF. That’s the real tragedy. Rick Williams “The Lips of Wisdom are Closed except to the Ears of Understanding.” It is in quotes, and it’s part of Ancient Wisdom, of Tehuti, DJehuti, or Hermes Trimegitus… The Great Scribe of KMT.. they have alot of pretty pictures of him all over KMT(Egypt).. still have no idea what you are saying have the time. Max Dashu Thank you Naa Ayele for taking the time to make the extremely apt analogy of women’s oppression to clarify the politics of race oppression […]
(Special Post 2) Multi-linguistic Resemblances of “Mago” by Mago Circle Members

Artwork, “The-great-mother” by Julie Stewart Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: On the word, Magi/Magus, from Magi – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Magi (/ˈmeɪdʒaɪ/; singular magus /ˈmeɪɡəs/; from Latin magus) were priests in Zoroastrianism and the earlier religions of the western Iranians. The earliest known use of the word magi is in the trilingual inscription written by Darius the Great, known as the Behistun Inscription. Old Persian texts, predating the Hellenistic period, refer to a magus as a Zurvanic, and presumably Zoroastrian, priest. Pervasive throughout the Eastern Mediterranean and Western Asia until late antiquity and beyond, mágos was influenced by (and eventually displaced) Greek goēs (γόης), the older word for a practitioner of magic, to include astronomy/astrology, alchemy and other forms of esoteric knowledge. This association was in turn the product of the Hellenistic fascination for (Pseudo‑)Zoroaster, who was perceived by the Greeks to be the Chaldean founder of the Magi and inventor of both astrology and magic, a meaning that still survives in the modern-day words “magic” and “magician”. In the Gospel of Matthew, “μάγοι” (magoi) from the east do homage to the newborn Jesus, and the transliterated plural “magi” entered English from Latin in this context around 1200 (this particular use is also commonly rendered in English as “kings” and more often in recent times as “wise men”).[1] The singular “magus” appears considerably later, when it was borrowed from Old French in the late 14th century with the meaning magician. … An unrelated term, but previously assumed to be related, appears in the older Gathic Avestan language texts. This word, adjectival magavan meaning “possessing maga-“, was once the premise that Avestan maga- and Median (i.e. Old Persian) magu- were co-eval (and also that both these were cognates of Vedic Sanskrit magha-). While “in the Gathas the word seems to mean both the teaching of Zoroaster and the community that accepted that teaching”, and it seems that Avestan maga- is related to Sanskrit magha-, “there is no reason to suppose that the western Iranian form magu (Magus) has exactly the same meaning”[4] as well. But it “may be, however”, that Avestan moghu (which is not the same as Avestan maga-) “and Medean magu were the same word in origin, a common Iranian term for ‘member of the tribe’ having developed among the Medes the special sense of ‘member of the (priestly) tribe’, hence a priest.”[2]cf[3] Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: On the word, Gaia, from Gaia (mythology) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia In Greek mythology, Gaia (/ˈɡaɪə, ˈɡeɪə/ GHY-ə, GAY-ə;[1] from Ancient Greek Γαῖα, a poetical form of Γῆ Gē, “land” or “earth”),[2] also spelled Gaea (/ˈdʒiːə/ JEE-ə),[1] is the personification of the Earth[3] and one of the Greek primordial deities. Gaia is the ancestral mother of all life: the primal Mother Earth goddess. She is the mother of Uranus (the sky), from whose sexual union she bore the Titans (themselves parents of many of the Olympian gods) and the Giants, and of Pontus (the sea), from whose union she bore the primordial sea gods. Her equivalent in the Roman pantheon was Terra.[4] … The Greek name Γαῖα (Gaĩa)[5] is a mostly epic, collateral form of Attic Γῆ[6] (Gê), Doric Γᾶ (Gã, perhaps identical to Δᾶ Dã)[7] meaning “Earth”, a word of uncertain origin.[8] Robert S. P. Beekes has suggested a Pre-Greek origin.[9] In Mycenean Greek Ma-ka (transliterated as Ma-ga, “Mother Gaia”) also contains the root ga-.[9][10] Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: Greek mythology of Gaia’s family tree is remotely evocative of the Magoist genealogy written in the Budoji (Epic of the Emblem City), the principale text of Magoism. In Korean, “Mama” is also an honorary title referring to the royal family including ruler, ruler’s mother, father, grandmother and so on. This suggests that “ma” means “mother,” “ruler,” and “Goddess” all at once in gynocentric/gynocratic (Magoist/Magocratic) societies, pre-patriarchal in origin. Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: I came to search the etymology of “montgomery” in relation to Mt. Mago or Mt. Goya and am led to such related terms as Gomer, Gog, Magog. Montgomery (name) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Montgomery or Montgomerie is a surname from a place name in Normandy.[1] Although there are many stories of its origin,[2][3][4][5] An old theory explains that the name is a corruption of “Gomer’s Mount” or “Gomer’s Hill” (Latin: Mons Gomeris), any of a number of hills in Europe named in attribution to the biblical patriarch Gomer,[2] but it does not explain the final -y or -ie (the phonetical evolution would have been *Montgomers) and it does not correspond to the old mentions of the place name Montgommery in Normandie : Monte Gomeri in 1032 – 1035, de Monte Gomerico in 1040 and de Monte Gumbri in 1046 – 1048.[6] More relevant is the explanation by the Germanic first name Gumarik,[7] a compound of guma “man” (see bridegroom) and rik “powerful”, that regularly gives the final -ry (-ri) in the French first names and surnames (Thierry, Amaury, Henry, etc.). Moreover, the name is still used as a surname in France as Gommery,[8] from the older first name Gomeri.[9] Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: On the word, Gomer below from Wikipedia. Gomer (גֹּמֶר, Standard Hebrew Gómer, Tiberian Hebrew Gōmer, pronounced [ɡoˈmeʁ]) was the eldest son of Japheth (and of the Japhetic line), and father of Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah, according to the “Table of Nations” in the Hebrew Bible, (Genesis 10). The eponymous Gomer, “standing for the whole family,” as the compilers of the Jewish Encyclopedia expressed it,[1] is also mentioned in Book of Ezekiel 38:6 as the ally of Gog, the chief of the land of Magog. Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: On the word, Gog and Magog from Wikipedia. Gog and Magog: They are depicted as monsters and barbarians from the East/Eurasia. Gog and Magog (/ɡɒɡ/; /ˈmeɪɡɒɡ/; Hebrew: גּוֹג וּמָגוֹג Gog u-Magog; Arabic: يَأْجُوج وَمَأْجُوج Yaʾjūj wa-Maʾjūj) are names that appear in the Hebrew bible (Old Testament), the Book of Revelation and the Qur’an, sometimes indicating individuals and sometimes lands and peoples. Sometimes, but not always, they are connected with the “end times”, and the passages from the book of Ezekiel and Revelation in particular have attracted attention for this reason. From ancient times to the late Middle Ages Gog and Magog were identified with Eurasian nomads such as the Khazars, Huns and Mongols (this was true also for Islam, where they were identified first with Turkic tribes of Central Asia and later with the Mongols). Throughout this period they were conflated with various other legends, notably those concerning Alexander the Great, the Amazons, Red Jews, and the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, and became the subject of much fanciful literature. In modern times they remain associated with apocalyptic thinking, especially in the United States and the Muslim world. Helen […]

(Essay) Conceiving, Imagining the New at Samhain by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

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

The Spring Equinox Moment occurs September 21-23 Southern Hemisphere, March 21-23 Northern Hemisphere. The full story of Spring Equinox is expressed in the full flower connected to the seed fresh from the earth; that is, it is a story of emergence from the dark, from a journey, perhaps long, perhaps short, through challenging places. The joy of the blossoming is rooted in the journey through the dark, and an acknowledgement of the dark’s fertile gift, as well as of great achievement in having made it, of having returned. Both Equinoxes, Spring and Autumn, celebrate this sacred balance of grief and joy, light and dark, and they are both celebrations of the mystery of the seed. The seed is essentially the deep Creativity within – that manifests in the Spring as flower, or green emerged One. the full story: the root and the flower As the new young light continues to grow at this time of Spring, it comes into balance with the dark at Spring Equinox, or ‘Eostar’ as it may be named; about to tip further into light when light will dominate the day. The trend at this Equinox is toward increasing hours of light: and thus it is about the power of being – life is stepping into it. Earth in this region is tilting further toward the Sun. Traditionally it may be storied as the joyful celebration of a Lost Beloved One, who may be represented by the Persephone story: She is a shamanic figure who is known for Her journey to the Underworld, and who at this time of Spring Equinox returns. Her Mother Demeter who has waited and longed for Her in deep grief, rejoices and so do all: warmth and growth return to the land. Persephone, the Beloved Daughter, the Seed, has navigated the darkness successfully, has enriched it with Her presence and also gained its riches. Eostar/Spring Equinox is the magic of the unexpected, yet long awaited, green emergence from under the ground, and then the flower: this emergence is especially profound as it is from a seed that has lain dormant for months or longer – much like the magic of desert blooms after long periods of drought. The name of “Eostar” comes from the Saxon Goddess Eostre/Ostara, the northern form of the Sumerian Astarte[i]. The Christian festival in the Spring, was named “Easter” as of the Middle Ages, appropriating Goddess/Earth tradition. The date of Easter, which is set for Northern Hemispheric seasons, is still based on the lunar/menstrual calendar; that is, the 1st Sunday after the first full Moon after Spring Equinox. In Australia where I am, “Easter” is celebrated in Autumn (!) by mainstream culture, so we have the spectacle of fluffy chickens, chocolate eggs and rabbits in the shops at that time. There are other names for “Eostar” in other places …the Welsh name for the Spring Equinox celebration is Eilir, meaning ‘regeneration’ or ‘spring’ – or ‘earth’[ii]. In my own PaGaian tradition, the Spring Equinox celebration is based on the Demeter and Persephone story, the version that is understand as pre-patriarchal, from Old Europe. In the oldest stories, Persephone has agency in Her descent: She descends to the underworld voluntarily as a courageous seeker of wisdom, and a compassionate receiver of the dead. She represents, and IS, the Seed of Life that never fades away. Spring Equinox is a celebration of Her return, Life’s continual return, and thus also our personal and collective emergences/returns.We may contemplate the collective emergence/returns especially in our times. I describe Persephone as a “hera”, which of old was a term for any courageous One. “Hera” was a pre-Hellenic name for the Goddess in general[iii]. “Hera” was the indigenous Queen Goddess of pre-Olympic Greece, before She was married off to Zeus. “Hero” was a term for the brave male Heracles who carried out tasks for his Goddess Hera: “The derivative form ‘heroine’ is therefore completely unnecessary”[iv]. “Hera” may be used as a term for any courageous individual: and participants in PaGaian Spring Equinox ceremony have named themselves this way. The pre-“Olympic” games of Greece were Hera’s games, held at Her Heraion/temple[v]. The winners were “heras” – gaining the status of being like Her[vi]. At the time of Spring Equinox, we may celebrate the Persephone, the Hera, the Courageous One, who steps with new wisdom, into power of being: the organic power that all beings must have, Gaian power, the power of the Cosmos. This Seasonal ceremony may be a rejoicing in how we have made it through great challenges and loss, faced our fears and our demise (in its various forms), had ‘close shaves’ – perhaps physically as well as psychicly and emotionally. It is a time to welcome back that which was lost, and step into the strength of being. Spring Equinox/Eostar is the time for enjoying the fruits of the descent, of the journey taken into the darkness: return is now certain, not tentative as it was in the Early Spring/Imbolc. Demeter, the Mother, receives the Persephones, Lost Beloved Ones, joyously. This may be understood as an individual experience, but also as a collective experience – as we emerge into a new Era as a species. Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme speak of the ending of the sixty-five million year geological Era – the Cenozoic Era – in our times, and our possible emergence into an Ecozoic Era. They describe the Ecozoic Era as a time when “the curvature of the universe, the curvature of the earth, and the curvature of the human are once more in their proper relation”[vii]. Joanna Macy speaks of the “Great Turning” of our times[viii]. Collectively we have been away from the Mother for some time and there is a lot of pain. At this time we may contemplate not only our own individual lost wanderings, but also that of the human species. We are part of a much bigger Return that is happening. The Beloved One may be understood as returning on a collective level: …
(Mago Almanac Excerpt 7) Introducing the Magoist Calendar by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

Mago Almanac: 13 Month 28 Day Calendar (Book A) at Mago Bookstore. YEARLY LEAP DAY AND EVERY FOURTH YEAR LEAP DAY Each Sa includes a Dan of the big Sa. A Dan is equal to one day. That adds to 365 days. At the half point of the third Sa, there is a Pan of the big Sak (the year of the great dark moon). A Pan comes at a half point of Sa. This is of Beopsu (Lawful Number) 2, 5, 8. A Pan is equal to a day. Therefore, the fourth Sa has 366 days. Each year has a leap day (Dan), which makes a total of 365 days. Every fourth year is a leap year that has a leap day (Pan), which makes a total of 366 days. The Dan day comes before the New Year in the winter solstice month. And the Pan day comes before the first day of the summer solstice month in the fourth year. The above, however, does not indicate when the New Year comes. Logographic characters of Dan and Pan each suggest their meanings. While each year includes the Dan day (the morning), every fourth year has the Pan day. A unit of four years makes the Big Calendar. Dan (旦 Morning) Leap day for every first three years Pan (昄 Big) Leap day for every fourth year I have postulated that the year begins on the Dan day (one leap day), a day before New Year that comes in the month of Winter Solstice in the Norther Hemisphere. And the Pan day comes on the day before the first day of the 7th month that has Summer Solstice in the fourth year in the Norther Hemisphere. Years Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Months Dan Dan Dan Dan 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 5 5 5 5 6 6 6 6 Pan 7 7 7 7 8 8 8 8 9 9 9 9 10 10 10 10 11 11 11 11 12 12 12 12 13 13 13 13 Days 365 365 365 366 The Magoist Calendar’s intercalation involves one leap day every year and one leap day every four years. That is, each year has one extra day to make it 365 days. Every fourth year has an extra day to make it 366 days. Four years has a total of 1461 days (365×3+366), which makes the mean of 365.25 days. Considering that the month is following the sidereal period rather than the synodic period, it is inferred that the year also follows the sidereal year rather than the solar year. In fact, Magoist Calendar’s one year is very close to today’s 365.25636 days of the sidereal year compared to 365.24217 days of the solar year or the tropical year. Given that, as seen below, the Budoji mentions the tiniest discrepancy of one leap day for 31,788,900 years, the discrepancy between 365.25 and 365.25636 (0.00636 day) can be explained that the year was actually 365.25 days at the time of Budo circa 2333 BCE, 4440 years ago. In other words, there is a discrepancy of 0.12375936 seconds between 2017 CE and 2333 BCE. Regarding Lawful Numbers 2, 5, 8, it is involved as follows: 365 days (3+6+5=14, 1+4=5) Lawful Numbers 2, 5, 8 refers the unit of 365 days (364 days with one intercalary day). Further dynamics are unknown. The sidereal year refers to the time taken by the Earth to orbit the sun once with respect to the distant stars. In contrast, the solar or tropical year means the time taken by the Earth to orbit the sun once with respect to the sun. The sidereal year, 365.25636 days, is about 20 minutes and 24 seconds longer than the mean tropical year (365.24217 days) and about 19 minutes and 57 seconds longer than the average Gregorian year of 365.2425 days. The difference occurs primarily because the solar system spins on its own axis and around the Milky Way galactic center making the solar year’s observed position relative. Time is no independent concept apart from space and the agent. The very concept of time is preceded by the agent bound in a space. It is always contextualized. In Magoism, both calendar and time are born out of the cosmogonic universe, the universe that is in self-creation. Like calendar, time is to be discovered or measured. It is a numinous concept. The very concept of time testifies to the reality of the Creatrix. Time proves the orderly movement of the universe into which we are born. Calendar patterns time, whereas time undergirds calendar. How can we measure time? We are given the time of the Earth that comes from its rotation, revolution, and precession in sync with the moon and the sun (and its planets). One type of time is the solar time. The solar time is a calculation of time based on the position of the sun. Traditionally, the solar time is measured by the sundial. The solar time is, however, specific to the Earth only. It is valid only for the-same-observed-location. It is not made to be used for the time of another celestial body. For example, Mars’ solar time has to be measured independently based on its own rotation and revolution rates. The solar time is an isolated time. It is static and exclusive, not made for the time of other celestial bodies. By nature, it is unfit for connection and communication across celestial bodies. The second type is the sidereal time. The sidereal time is a time scale based on the rate of Earth’s rotations measured relative to the distant stars.[29] Because the observed position is in the far distant stars beyond the solar system, the sidereal time may as well be called an extrasolar stellar time. We can think of the observer’s position of an imaginary cosmic bird far out there, infinitely far beyond not only the solar system and …
(Photography & Poetry) Thoughts of Spring by Deanne Quarrie

Spring At the highest point on the tree, you stretch, reaching for the sun. Your pink petals elegant in their grace, you stand alone. Bravest of all, for leaves have yet to come to offer shade Branches bare except for furry buds that will soon follow in imitation of your daring first move. Intrepid flower of Spring, I feel like you in my yearning for the Sun!
(Essay) Winter Solstice/Yule within the Creative Cosmos by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This essay is an edited excerpt from Chapter 5 of the author’s book A Poiesis of the Creative Cosmos: Celebrating Her within PaGaian Sacred Ceremony. Dates for Winter Solstice/Yule Southern Hemisphere – June 20 – 23. Northern Hemisphere – December 20 – 23 This Seasonal Moment is the ripe fullness of the Dark Womb and it is a gateway between dark and light. It is a Birthing Place – into differentiated being. Whereas Samhain/Deep Autumn is a dark conceiving Space, it flows into the Winter Solstice dark birthing Place – a dynamic Place of Being, a Sacred Interchange. This Seasonal Moment of Winter Solstice is the peaking of the dark space – the fullness of the dark, within which being and action arise. It is the peaking of emptiness, which is a fullness. As cosmologist Brian Swimme describes: the empty “ground of being … retains no thing.” It is “Ultimate Generosity.”[i] In Vajrayana Buddhism, Space is associated with Prajna/wisdom – out of which Upaya/compassionate action arises. Space is highly positive – something to be developed, so appropriate action may develop spontaneously and blissfully.[ii] In Old European Indigenous understandings, the dark and the night were valued at least as much as light, if not more so: time was counted by the number of nights, as in ‘fortnights,’ and a ‘day’ included both dark and light parts … it was ‘di-urnal’. I have been careful with my language about that inclusion in the ceremonial ‘Statement of Purpose’ for each Seasonal Moment. This awareness is resonant with modern Western scientific perceptions about the nature of the Universe: that it is seventy-three percent “dark energy,” twenty-three precent “dark matter,” four percent “ordinary matter.”[iii] The truth is that we live within this darkness: it is the Ground of all Being. In Pagan traditions since Celtic times, and in many other cultural traditions, Winter Solstice has been celebrated as the birth of the God; and in Christian tradition since about the fourth century C.E., as the birth of the saviour. But there are deeper ways of understanding what is being born: that is, who or what the “saviour” is. In the Gospel of Thomas, which was not selected for biblical canon, it says: “If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you.”[iv] This then may be the Divine Child, the “Saviour”: it may be expressed as the new Being forming in the Cosmogonic Womb,[v] who will be born. We may celebrate the birth of the new Being, which /who is always beyond us, beyond our knowing … yet is within us, burgeoning within us – and within Gaia. What will save us is already present within – forming within us. The Winter Solstice story may emphasize that what is born, is within each one – the “Divine” is not “out there”: it may be said, and expressed ceremoniously, that we are each Creator and Created. We may imagine ourselves as the in-utero foetus – an image we might have access to these days from a sonar-scan during pregnancy. This image presents a truth about Being: we are this, and it is within us, within this moment. Every moment is pregnant with the new. It will be birthed when holy darkness is full. Part of what is required is having the eyes to see the “new bone forming in flesh,” scraping our eyes “clear of learned cataracts,”[vi] seeing with fresh eyes. That is what the fullness of the Dark offers – a freshening of our eyes to see the new. And the process of Creation is always reciprocal: we are Creator and Created simultaneously, in a “ngapartji-ngapartji”[vii] way. We are in-formed by that which we form. In Earth-based religious practice, the ubiquitous icon of Mother and Child – Creator and Created – expresses something essential about the Universe itself … the “motherhood” we are all born within. It expresses the essential communion experience that this Cosmos is, the innate and holy Care that it takes, and the reciprocal nature of it. We cannot touch without being touched at the same time.[viii] We may realize that Cosmogenesis – the entire Unfolding of the Cosmos – is essentially relational: our experience tells us this is so. The image of The Birth of the Goddess on the front cover of my book PaGaian Cosmology expresses that reciprocity for me, how we may birth each other and the healing/wholing in that exchange. It is a Sacred Interchange. And it is what this Event of existence seems to be about – deep communion, which both Solstices express. Babylonian Goddess, Ur 4000-3500 BCE. Adele Getty, Goddess, 33. Birthing is not often an easy process – for the birthgiver nor for the birthed one: it is a shamanic act requiring strength of bodymind, attention, courage, and focus of the mother, and resilience and courage to be of the new young one. Birthgiving is the original place of ‘heroics,’ which many cultures of the world have never forgotten, perhaps therefore better termed as “heraics.” Patriarchal adaptations of the story of this Seasonal Moment usually miss the Creative Act of birthgiving completely, usually being pre-occupied with the “virgin” nature of the Mother which is interpreted as having an “intact hymen.” The focus of the patriarchal adaptation of the Winter Solstice story is the Child as “saviour”: even the Mother gazes at the Child in most Christian icons, while in more ancient images Her eyes are direct and expressive of Her integrity as Creator. NOTES: [i] Swimme, The Universe is a Green Dragon, 146. [ii] See Rita Gross, “The Feminine Principle in Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism.” The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology 179-192. [iii] These figures as told by cosmologist Paul Davies with Macquarie University’s Centre for Astrobiology, Australia. [iv] Elaine Pagels, Beyond Belief: the Secret Gospel of Thomas, saying number 70. See https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/story/thomas.html . [v] Melissa Raphael’s term, Thealogy and Embodiment, 262. [vi] The quotes come from a poem by Cynthia Cook, “Refractions,” Womanspirit (Oregan USA, issue 23, March 1980), 59. [vii] This is an Indigenous Australian term for reciprocity – giving and receiving at the same time. I explain it a bit further in PaGaian Cosmology, 256-257. [viii] An expression from Abram, The Spell of the Sensuous, 68. REFERENCES: Abram, David. The Spell of the Sensuous. New York: Vintage Books, 1997. Getty, Adele. Goddess: Mother of Living …

(Video) 2013 Mago Pilgrimage to Korea by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

[Author’s note: The first Mago Pilgrimage to Korea took place June 6-19, 2013. We visited Ganghwa Island, Seoul, Wonju, Mt. Jiri, Yeong Island (Busan), and Jeju Island.] Read Mago Pilgrimage Essay 1 and Mago Pilgrimage Essay 2. See Meet Mago Contributor, Hae Kyoung Ahn for “Ma Gaia Womb” chant music and Meet Mago Contributor, Helen Hwang Ph.D.
(2014 Mago Pilgrimage Report 1) Sweat Lodge in Gyodong, Ganghwa Islands by Helen Hwang

[Author’s Note: Revised verison of this report is published in Celebrating the Seasons of the Goddess (Lytle Creek, CA: Mago Books, 2017). 2014 Mago Pilgrimage to Korea (Oct. 7-Oct. 20) was participated by a culturally mixed group of pilgrims from the U.S. Australia, and Korea. Among non-Koreans were Dr. Glenys Livingstone (co-facilitator), Mr. Robert (Taffy) Seaborne, and Ms. Rosemary Mattingly. For details, read 2014 Mago Pilgrimage. View the video on our visit to Ganghwa Islands by Robert (Taffy) Seaborne.] 2014 Mago Pilgrimage granted me ever unfolding revelations. The first of them that I would like to mention concerned the sweat lodge called Hanjeung-mak (汗蒸幕, Chamber of chill and steam).[1] Until we visited the traditional sweat lodge in Gyodong, Ganghwa Island, it did not occur to me that the origin of its modern variations[2] has to do with the rebirthing experience in the Womb of Mago. (Here Mago means the Great Goddess or the Primordial Mother.)
(Book Excerpt) The Budoji Workbook (Volume 1): The Magoist Cosmogony (Chapters 1-4)

Introduction [Author’s Note: WorkBook, The Magoist Cosmogony Volume 1 (Chapters 1-4): The Budoji (Epic of the Emblem Capital City in English and Korean Translations with the Original Text in the East Asian Logographic Language) is a a newly arrived book by Mago Books on June 8, 2020.) It has been 20 years since I first read the Budoji (Epic of the Emblem Capital City), the principal text of Magoism, a term that I coined shortly after. The Budoji was, reappeared as a book in the 1980s in Korea, largely unknown among Koreans at that time. Primarily based on the Budoji, I wrote my doctoral dissertation on the topic of Mago, the Creatrix, in 2003 and 2004. I had gathered a large corpus of primary sources, researched extensively on the topic and its related themes as well as relevant interdisciplinary works. That was to verify and support the Budoji’s validity as a reliable source. I knew that my dissertation marked the onset of my life’s search and research on Magoism. I spent the following sixteen years expanding, deepening and testing the premises that I posited in my dissertation. The subject of Mago became the axis of my life. I found myself a Magoist, following after my predecessors and contemporaries who are countless but mostly forgotten if ever known. I was finally home. The Budoji was at the root of my activities undertaken under the rubric of “The Mago Work” including teaching, publishing, and holding events like Mago Pilgrimages to Korea and Nine Mago Celebrations. The Budoji is the Book of Mago, the Creatrix, written in a systematically cogent narrative. The Budoji testifies to the forgotten mytho-history of Magoism from which modern civilizations are derived. Without the Budoji, the Origin Story of the Creatrix, would have remained unknown today. Without the Budoji, Magoism, the Way of the Creatrix, would have remained unnamed. The Budoji teaches, guides, and awakens people to the metamorphic reality of WE/HERE/NOW. Alleged to have been written in the early 5th century of Silla (57 BCE-935 CE), the Budoji ripe with noble (read matricentric) terms and symbols is salvific, offering matricentric soteriology. My task is to make the Budoji known to the world so that we can dis-cover the story of the Budoji as OUR STORY. In the Budoji, we are told why and how to live peacefully in harmony with all other people and all other species on earth and beyond. It is very slippery to write about it because of its multi-valent meaning, too bedazzling to articulate. Once told, however, the Budoji will begin to ferment something in your mind, something that has been with us all along and everywhere but made unseen. The nine-volume workbook series is an effort to make the unseen seeable and palpable. I must admit that my books, articles, essays, lectures, and events that I wrote and undertook with regards to Magoism for the last two decades are only the footnotes to the Budoji. I could not rely on traditional publications, journals, and educational institutes for my Magoist intellectual/spiritual productions. Out of necessity, I founded Return to Mago E-Magazine, Mago Books, and Mago Academy to build a wheel through which my scholarship on Magoism is interwoven and advocated. Synchronously, the birthing of my dissertation in a book form is approaching in support of the Budoji’s workbook. This book, with a slightly revised title, Seeking Mago, the Great Mother from East Asia: A Mytho-Historical-Thealogical Reconstruction of Magoism, an Archaically Originated Gynocentric Tradition of Old Korea (forthcoming June 21, 2020 by Mago Books)[1], is the thus-far available comprehensive source book to Magoism that I wrote. In 2015, I published The Mago Way: Re-discovering Mago, the Great Goddess from East Asia Volume 1 (Mago Books, 2015), based on the first two chapters of the Budoji. Since 2017, I have published Mago Almanac: 13 Month 28 Day Calendar annually, based on the Budoji’s Chapters 21-23. My other articles include “Mago, the Creatrix from East Asia, and the Mytho-History of Magoism,”[2] “Goma, the Shaman Ruler of Old Magoist East Asia/Korea, and Her Mythology,”[3] “Magos, Muses, and Matrikas: The Magoist Cosmogony and Gynocentric Unity,”[4] “Making the Gyonocentric Case: Mago, the Great Goddess of East Asia, and her Tradition Magoism,”[5] “Issues in Studying Mago, the Great Goddess of East Asia: Primary Sources, Gynocentric History, and Nationalism,”[6] and “The Female Principle in the Magoist Cosmogony.”[7] ……. How to Use the Budoji Workbook? The multivalent meaning of the Budoji’s verses will unravel gradually. At first, you may find the Budoji’s verses too dense or too technical to follow. Even in that case, I encourage you to keep reading the next chapters and the next volumes. Like a night dream, the text of the Budoji will grab your attention. However, its meaning will be slowly unfolding and unveiling in your mind. You may have more questions, as you continue to read. For the Budoji instills in the reader the deepest and broadest vision of the Great Mother, largely forgotten to moderns. The Budoji’s matricentric meaning system (the Way of Mago) takes all into consideration to awaken you including your experience, your interest, your passion, and your intellectual/spiritual aptitude. This workbook aims at initiating the process of knowing the Great Mother, Mago, and the mytho-history of Magoism (pre-patriarchal and trans-patriarchal) from within. In that sense, the Budoji Workbook is a manual with which one learns how to ignite the spark of Life that is inextinguishable and inexhaustible in the mind/heart. The Budoji Workbook allows you to interact with the verses of each chapter. You can take notes, draw images and symbols, or compose songs in the worksheets included after each chapter and in the Appendix. Personalized worksheets can serve as milestones as you proceed in the reading. Ultimately, the Budoji Workbook invites you to write, draw, or sing the storyline of each chapter in your own words and means. No preparation is required to read the Budoji. Once read, the Budoji will begin to speak to you and guide you from within. …

Author: Mago Work Admin

(Poem) The Pythian Oracle and Epilepsy by Susan Hawthorne

Like this:

(Prose) Dark Matrix, Dark Matter, Dark Mother by Rhyannan

Like this:

(Meet Mago Contributor) Malgorzata Oleszkiewicz-Peralba, Ph.D.

Like this:

(Book Excerpt) Sexism and U.S. History by Elizabeth Hall Magill

Like this:

(Poem) Come Eat My Roses/ the Feminine Renewal Calls By Louisa Calio

Like this:

(Meet Mago Contributor) Starr Goode

Like this:

(Photo Poem) The Arctic Dome by Harriet Ann Ellenberger

Like this:

(Prose) Becoming by Deanne Quarrie

Like this:

(Book Excerpt) Bearing Witness Transmigration by Danica Anderson, Ph.D.

Like this:

Harriet Ann Ellenberger

Like this:

(Meet Mago Contributor) Jennifer Powell

Like this:

(Poem) This Morning, the North Star by Phibby Venable

Like this:

Seeking Mago, the Great Mother from Old Korea

S/HE: IJGS V5 N1 2026 (B/W Paperback)

Mago Almanac Year 9 Monthly Wheels

Mago Pod Bulletin #85 August-September 2026

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this: