July 17, 2018October 2, 2019 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Tribute 2) Barbara Mor, “Relentless Love”: Letters 1988-2002 from a Writer’s Best Friend by Jack Dempsey

Here below is, to me, the core statement of what Barbara was hoping to help us recover in “GCM” and her poetry, the very center of Human Being which was Read More …

July 16, 2018October 2, 2019 Mago Work1 Comment

(Prose) Friendship by Deanne Quarrie

Many years ago I read the book, Soul Mates, Honoring the Mystery of Love and Relationship, by Thomas Moore. I was incredibly impacted by what Thomas Moore discussed in this Read More …

July 9, 2018October 2, 2019 Mago WorkLeave a comment

(Book Excerpt 5) Re-visioning Medusa Eds. by Glenys Livingstone, Trista Hendren, et. al.

The Medusa Imaginal Pegi Eyers WHEN I PUT ON MY PAPER MEDUSA MASK,154 my serpent jewelry and snakeskin robes, I embody an ancient feminine force of resistance, seeking to shut Read More …

July 7, 2018October 2, 2019 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Prose Pt.1) Transcending Boundaries – Hatshepsut’s Path to Destiny by Alaya Advaita Dannu

Dreams are important because they are moments when humans are stripped of nanderekó or rational thought. Dreamers are in a spiritual state where the awá or “integral being” can emerge, connecting them Read More …

July 5, 2018October 2, 2019 Mago Work1 Comment

(Book Excerpt 2) Finnish Goddess Mythology and the Golden Woman: Climate Change, Earth-based Indigenous knowledge and the Gift By Kaarina Kailo

Finnish Goddess Mythology and the Golden Woman: Climate Change, Earth-based Indigenous knowledge and the Gift Kaarina Kailo 2018 Introduction (Continued) I will explore the little-known Finno-Ugric Gift ecologies and lifeways as carriers Read More …

July 4, 2018October 2, 2019 Mago Work Admin1 Comment

(Art) Mycelium Medusa by Liz Darling

(Meet Mago Contributor) Liz Darling.

July 3, 2018October 2, 2019 Kaalii CargillLeave a comment

(Photo Essay 11) Goddess Pilgrimage 2017 by Kaalii Cargill

[Author’s Note: In July 2017, I set out on a 4 month pilgrimage to the Unites States, Italy, France, Spain, Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt. I name it a “pilgrimage” because Read More …

June 29, 2018October 2, 2019 Mago Work2 Comments

(Book Excerpt 1) Finnish Goddess Mythology and the Golden Woman: Climate Change, Earth-based Indigenous knowledge and the Gift By Kaarina Kailo

Finnish Goddess Mythology and the Golden Woman: Climate Change, Earth-based Indigenous knowledge and the Gift Kaarina Kailo 2018 Introduction Literature and the stereotyping of culture establish complete control over truth Read More …

June 27, 2018October 2, 2019 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Poetry and Photography) Midsummer Eve by Sara Wright

It sounds so appealing a time of revelry, crackling bonfires, staying up all night to witness the dawn. Why do we celebrate this longest day of the year as Read More …

June 26, 2018October 2, 2019 Mago Work1 Comment

(Art 5) Grace, Ishtar, Infancy the very beginning of by Megha

At the center of Life, She dwells From the center of Life, She leads She who embodies darkness and light She Eternal Grace Infancy – the very beginning of Remember Read More …

June 13, 2018October 2, 2019 Mago Work2 Comments

(Art) The beginning of Wisdom by Susan Abbott

Much of my art attempts to be in a space of beginning, the imagined consciousness of creation, the religious imagination of reconnecting with the place/being from which I came. In Read More …

June 11, 2018October 2, 2019 Mago WorkLeave a comment

(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 Read More …

May 30, 2018October 2, 2019 Mago Work1 Comment

(Art) Maryam on the Mesa by Susan Abbott

How the work is born: It started out as a simple landscape sunrise painting. We have spectacular sunrises out on Copper Mountain Mesa where I was living in Joshua Tree Read More …

Sandhill Cranes – a Nation of Women with Wings by Sara Wright

Sara wright in NM at the Bosque del Apache, photographer unknown Historically they used the Eastern flyway but were extirpated by hunting… a slow recovery is in process and the stately Sandhill cranes are once again returning to breed in Maine… so far only birders have been keeping track of their numbers but these majestic pre-historic birds have haunting cries that are often described as bugles, rattles, croaks and trumpets and can be heard 2 -3 miles away. They also utter sounds that combine a kind of brrring in unison. Their impending arrival next month calls up a chant I love… “There’s a river of birds in migration, a nation of women with wings.There’s a river of birds in migration, a nation of warriors with wings.” I remember the chill that crawled up my spine as those words seeped into my body all those years ago… I wept, not knowing why. I had exactly the same experience when I first heard the brrring cries of Sandhill cranes heading towards the river to roost in New Mexico seven years ago. Entranced, I stood there struck dumb – awed as tears slid down my face. I re -membered, felt something – but didn‘t know what it was… and whatever it was/is still haunts me when I hear that song or recall the cries of the Sandhills circling round in the sky to orient themselves to the right direction before heading to their northern home to breed. I am a woman in migration, a woman with wings…. Today when I listen to the cranes on You Tube, – I‘m impatient thinking about them and need to hear their eerie unearthly calls before they arrive – I am keenly aware that we have lost three billion birds. And even in the fields I visit to watch Sandhills feeding on old grain and corn I also see the signs: POISON STAY OUT. This vulnerable population is ingesting pesticides that are sprayed on the fields – not just here but everywhere. Not one birder I know who visits these fields to watch the cranes ever mentions those signs. The cranes are also actively hunted in the fall and spring along the Eastern (Tennessee and Kentucky) and Central Flyways (fourteen more states situated on or near the central highway – the route most heavily traveled). In Maine there is not enough evidence to be certain about just how the Sandhills get here, but my guess is that they use the Eastern Flyway because they remember the route from long ago when they once migrated to Maine in healthy numbers. Some observers in Maine and other New England states believe they are seeing the same flock (s) migrating north and south. These birds, like so many species, were extirpated by hunters… it’s taken a couple of centuries for them to begin a cautious return. That we have Sandhills nesting so close to my home is a source of poignancy and pure joy. I am a woman who sees… Women and Birds belong together: we are the hunted ones, dismissed despised, invisible, murdered. Like birds. Who will notice when we are gone? I am only too aware of how many women we have lost to violence, rape, and murder – the reality that patriarchy perpetuates. Men must have their guns. Women must remain silent or be silenced … We could rise up as ‘a nation of women’ to stop the carnage but as things stand now most women can’t even be civil to one another across the isles. Our resistance to quelling the bird and animal hunting massacre speaks to our tacit acceptance of the superiority of man, the rightness of his love of guns and lust, our acceptance of the worst objectification women have ever been subjected to, and the need to allow the killing machine to continue. Just like the birds we are under attack by the NRA. Is our only viable option flight? What I have learned from the various women’s movements is that taking to the streets is not enough, standing up for our beliefs is not enough. Truth telling is not enough. Endurance is not enough. Patriarchy isn’t crumbling – Yet. I’d like to think it might be in its death throes because this destructive system is now turning on itself – like a dragon swallowing its own tail. Nature is also intervening to redress hubris and imbalance, graphically demonstrating to humans how stupid we have become as a species. As we poison the fields the Sandhills feed in, we poison ourselves. The elements of wind and water make certain that no home grown food or field will be spared. I am a woman in flight. I dream of joining the cranes, who in their most ancient wisdom understand that no species survives without genuine community. Not pockets of like-minded folks, but the kind of community that embraces all differences, in deference to the whole. Our culture praises human endeavors and independence while I look to cranes who reveal and reflect the interdependence that all of us need to survive. Leave until it’s safe to return? I‘m learning how to listen…. During the month of March I don my feathery cape, becoming a bird woman who is obsessed by bird migration. Even with masses of snow covering the ground my beloveds are starting to migrate to their summer homes and breeding grounds. Each morning I consult Cornell’s bird cast to find out which birds flew over my county last night. At First Light, long before dawn I am outdoors standing in the snow recording a new migrant call, a cardinal song, a courting male dove, turkey twittering, gobbling, chickadee convocations – embracing a chorus of avian concertos. I watch the pair of ravens fly through a deep blue crack between twilight and dawn, silent, perhaps praying for all. Messengers in flight. I scatter the first round of seed. Once inside I place some on my windowsill so that the chickadees and I are …
(Art) She Who Has Faith in the Unknown by Jassy Watson

This is a painting I did in the second half of 2013 titled “She who has Faith in the Unknown”. She is my Inner Priestess Self.
(Art) Alchemist: Soulfire by Virginia Masson

Burning in our souls when we arrive on the planet are our deepest longings. The Alchemist archetype helps to bring them to the light and put them into play in the world. (Meet Mago Contributor) Virginia Masson
(Prose) The Myths of the Goddess Abused by Deanne Quarrie

As I read the myths of the Goddess throughout time, I see that She is abused through mythology and how She lost their power through the patriarchy, I feel Her rage deep in my body! But while I feel that rage, I also know that it is important that we read these myths with the understanding that they speak of not just what happened to the image of the Goddess, but what happened, and still happens today, to women and the earth upon which we live. Beginning with emphasis being placed on Goddess as fertile Mother, while leaving out all that She is, and by “spreading Her out” with specialized tasks and new names, Her power was divided and lessened. People began to view her in all the many segments and as something apart from themselves as well as divided – black versus white, good versus bad, beautiful versus ugly instead of Whole and Complete Immanent in All… Also with the invasion of more war-like tribes where power was seen as “power over” and about control, those warring men brought their angry, raping sky gods to control the women who were once free. With the concept of ownership, both of land and of women, the necessity for control arose, to keep what they perceived of as their own.
Sun and Earth Rise Over the Lake by Carolyn Lee Boyd

Our world is at a turning point between catastrophe and the opportunity for peace, equality, and environmental sustainability. Perhaps creating new stories that speak to the challenges of our time and more hopeful ways of being can help us make better choices for our future. Photography by Carolyn Lee Boyd You have asked how the people of the 21st century turned our planet from catastrophe to paradise, and I will tell you. It began with one woman. One morning she stumbled, thirsty and fragile, to the edge of what had once been a deep and wide lake full of fish, seaweed, ducks, loons, lampreys and turtles. As she scraped the sand to cup a few drops for her parched lips, she glanced at a faded reflection of the sun ascending over the small pool now deserted by all life except luminescent algae. She had witnessed a thousand other sunrises from this shore in decades past, and this morning’s sight brought to mind one such childhood dawn when her bare feet waded into the frigid water and a baby crayfish tickled her toes. She had taken so much for granted then — wild mint’s sweet taste, the geometric perfection of beached clamshells, the steady rhythm of the waves’ pulse. Her reminiscence brought her pleasure and she laughed. The path to the lake’s desolation began billions of years ago when Earth spun barren, desiccated, and desolate around the Sun’s inferno. In this lifeless void, the Sun and the Earth found each other in that liminal border between being and becoming and fell in love. Where others would have seen only sterility, they discovered in their tender bond the poetry of fire and air sparking birth and the magic of soil and water nurturing a diverse and abundant harmony of beings. Soon our planet teemed with colors, fragrances, tastes, sounds, textures, motion, and the jubilation of never-ending regeneration. The Sun and Earth bestowed on each species special talents such as healing, virtue, beauty, or strength. To humans they gave inner eyes to envision their planet as a paradise, opening like a lotus to the magnificence already present in it and a unique artistry to enhance its vibrancy with their own works of mind, body, and soul. Just as the love the Earth and Sun felt for each other powered the creation of life on our planet, so would the love of humans for the land and sky generate ever-new glorious futures. Earth and Sun’s trust in each other was reflected in their faith that humans would never forget our responsibility to all other life and so never envision into being only narcissistic pleasure or view ourselves as supreme over other creatures. By the 21st century, however, it was precisely because of this lack of reverence for our global home that many turned the miracle of imagination into mere selfish invention. They remade stunning landscapes into citadels of concrete, hollowed out the planet’s treasures, and banished millions of species of trees, flowers, animals, birds, and insects to oblivion. We traded millennia of awe for seconds of deathly intoxication. As their beloved dream world disintegrated, the Sun and Earth could not face one another and so they began to close their eyes to our planet. Sunlight’s soft glow dimmed, water never fell to the ground, fire destroyed what was left, and life all over the planet began to decline back into barrenness. But then the woman at the lake’s edge laughed. The sound echoed in the deep silence of the isolation of the Earth and Sun. They awoke and watched in wonder as the woman’s attention returned to the reflection of the sunrise on the lake and the power within her it evoked. Her love of the lake, begun in the the openness of childhood and growing within her all her life, sparked her fervor to recover the planet as it had been and more, just as the Sun had fired the original Creation. It was nourished and embraced by all the kindness and love from other living beings she had experienced from birth, just as the Earth’s impulse to generation had nurtured our planet’s burgeoning life. Now, to her, the sunrise’s reflection was not just light rays bouncing off the water’s surface, but a bridge between the world as it had become and the future paradise that was taking shape in her mind and soul. Photography by Carolyn Lee Boyd She became the spirit of energy and genius, her eyes raised to the hopeful enlightenment of the sun. She embraced wholeness and connectedness, her eyes lowered to the grace of the Earth. She imagined our planet as it might have been had she and all other humans always understood that love for the land and sky is at the heart of our miraculous gift of imagining a future as wondrous as she had believed the world to be as a child. She determined that, together, humans could birth this new world into physical being and, now knew that we could, we must. She rose on trembling legs and began to express the truth of our special artistry to all humans who would listen, wandering from village to village, eventually reaching every continent. Together we determined that our planet would not die. From our gathered mind’s eyes arose an aspiration for our planet so exquisite that to desecrate it rather than bringing it into being was unthinkable. We were finally inching towards fulfilling our destiny and we began to partner with the Sun and Earth to regenerate life in all its forms. Now, generations later, humans come again to the shores of the thriving lake, tasting the tiny, flavorful wild strawberries and wiggling their fingers playfully amongst the minnows. We have discovered our secret. Still, we have learned that our mission is no more or less than any other species, it is simply different, and all are as necessary to our planet’s paradise as we are. Billions of years ago the Sun and the …
(Art) Patriotic Paganism: The Fine by Andrea Redmond

Ella Young, art by Andrea Redmond Do you remember Miss Price, the trainee witch played by Angela Lansbury in Bedknobs and Broomsticks? Her magic was inspired by a patriotic desire to prevent a German invasion of England. Her fictional efforts reflect the factual magical workings of The New Forest Witches led by Gerard Gardner.[1] There is a long tradition of witches utilising their magic as a form of political resistance. The North Berwick Witches raised a storm to wreck a ship of Scottish forces, while British counterparts in 1588 to help fight off the Spanish Armada and in 1805 to end Napoleon’s threat to England. In 2017 the Magic Resistance Movement worked monthly spells to defeat Donald Trump’s re-election bid. On the Island of Ireland, several mystical methods were used as methods of resistance. Islanders on Tory had a cursing stone used in 1884 to wreck HMS gunboat Wasp, which was coming to displace the impoverished villagers. The ship sunk with 50 perishing.[2] A poet, mystic and revolutionary Ella Young[3], created a group The Fine in Ireland, which conducted rituals to end British colonial rule of Ireland. Renowned as a poet, folklorist, Poems, was published in 1906, and her first work of Irish folklore, The Coming of Lugh, was published in 1909. Her close friend, Maud Gonne illustrated both Lugh and Young’s first story collection, Celtic Wonder-Tales (1910). The poet Padric Colum said of her work – “When she retells something from myth of folklore, she is not merely relating an interesting legend: she is telling part of a sacred history” (Murphy,6,2008) This collaborative relationship with Maud Gonne extended beyond the literary, to spiritual and revolutionary circles. Yeats was so; jealous of the relationship between the two women- he referred to Ella as his bête noir or black beast. Ella was referred to by her American circle of friends as an “Irish Mystic,” “Druid” or “White Witch. She was described as epitomising a Druidess, pale, ethereal, in flowing garments like an ancient priestess. Maud said of her that she was an extraordinary woman, frail in appearance but with an iron will. In the 1911 Irish Census, she listed her religion as pagan. During her student years in London, she became a member of the Theosophical Society, during the tenure of Madame Blavatsky. Meeting Macgregor Mathers and wife Moina, and on one memorable occasion she listened to the unearthly voice of Æ (George Russell) who was to have had a profound influence on her mysticism and literary art. Back in Dublin, Æ is believed to have initiated her into his Hermetic Order with Maud, and Yeats in attendance. Her membership in the society brought her in contact with intellectuals’, rebels and artists who were also interested in spiritualism. Her acquaintance with Æ resulted in becoming one of his select group of protégés known as the “singing birds”. Ella Young The origin of the name The Fine, biographers: McDowell associates with the word fingers; while Murphy with the Fianna. A further theory is that it referred to The Fellowship of the Four Jewels- the four sacred treasures of the Tuatha de Dannan: the Sword of Light of Nuada, Lugh’s spear, Cauldron of the Dagda, and Stone of destiny- representing the powers of the land if Ireland. However, it is more likely that Fine may refer to Find, the ancient Irish personification of wisdom and knowledge. Maud Gonne states its origins came around 1900, after a long meditation by Ella, on the ancient Greek symbol the swastika, long before it was associated with the rise of fascism. To Ella it was like a rising of a hand in an old form of Gaelic salutation. Ironically the form of salutation between members was the raising of one hand which Ella felt was an old Gaelic tradition. Later echoed in elements of the straight-arm Roman salute utilised by European fascism and by Eoin Duffy’s Irish Blueshirts. She formed the group after leaving Æ’s Hermetic Society which she felt had little symbolic relationship with Ireland. While Æ was a student of sacred books of the east, Ella was of the Irish gods and legends. Maud stated that the objective of The Fine was to draw together in the freeing of Ireland, the wills of the living and of the dead in association with the earth and elements all seen as living entities by Ella The group would go to various sacred sites; a favourite was Irelands Eye, an Islandoff of the coast of Dublin. Ella saw it as representing earth and they often travelled to it, with Ella sailing them over by boat. She would conduct the ritual , lighting a ceremonial fire and burning herbs she had gathered from across Ireland. Invocations were made to the Irish gods to unite all of Ireland and asking specifically for them to bring back Lia Fail -the stone of destiny, which had been taken by the English and is now housed in the Crown Room, Edinburgh Castle and brought out recently for Charles Coronation. Maud relates that she could feel the spiritual forces around them, some hostile; some blind to human needs or wants, more interested in their own existence. The fire also held a utilitarian purpose to boil their kettle for tea. They ensured that they left no mark upon the site, and this was something very important to Ella to leave no trace. Ella went often where her visions bade her to go. One pilgrimage was to Slieve Guillion, in Armagh, which Ella saw as sacred and linked to Manannan Mac Lir. Ella became a devotee of the god, referring to him as a shape shifting god of pranks and hilarity. On one occasion a member of The Fine attempted to invoke the mountain in her bed which caused a whirlwind possession of her mind and body. Maud noted that sacred mountains are too strong for mortals; it’s like inviting a lion to play with you. Members of The Fine were women, and included Maude Gonne, Helena Moloney ( actress, trade …
(Meet Mago Contributor) Alex Purbrick

Alex Purbrick lives in the Shetland Islands in the far north of Scotland. She is a Mother, Writer and Artist. Alex lived and worked for four years with the late Corbin Harney at his healing centre, Poohabah in Tecopa, California. She helped Corbin manage the day to day running of Poohabah as well as organise his speaking engagements to public groups throughput the Southwest. Alex is the editor of The Nature Way (University Nevada Press, 2009) which tells the life story of Corbin Harney and his spiritual teachings of living in harmony with nature and our Mother Earth. As a writer and artist Alex uses her words and art as a prayer for all nature continuing the vision that we are all One People on One Mother Earth.
(Art) Motherhood by Liz Darling

(Meet Mago Contributor) Liz Darling.
(Essay) ‘The Hard Side of Aphrodite’ by Hearth Moon Rising

She is a goddess to be approached with caution, even trepidation. If you feel no apprehension in matters involving her, then you have no thought of danger, obstacles, shattered illusion, broken trust – and if so you are a fool. Aphrodite does not like fools. Robert Graves says of Aphrodite: As Goddess of Death-in-Life, Aphrodite earned many titles which seem inconsistent with her beauty and complaisance. At Athens, she was called Eldest of the Fates and sister of the Erinnyes [Furies]: and elsewhere Melaenis (“black one”);…Scotia (“dark one”); Androphonos (“man-slayer”); and even, according to Plutarch, Epitymbria (“of the tombs”). How could the goddess of love and beauty be associated with the frightful Furies or with Fate, always cruel because she decrees that life must meet with death? The Greeks saw beauty and ugliness in terms of complementarity. This is somewhat different from the Christian duality which sees another set of opposites, good and evil, at continual war with one another. The complements of beauty and ugliness give birth to each other. Thus when Uranus is castrated by his son Cronus, his genitals flung into the ocean fertilize the sea-mother, precipitating the birth of Aphrodite. Out of an ugly incident arises something of great beauty. When Aphrodite and the god of war Ares get together, the child of their tempestuous fling is the goddess Harmonia, harmony, who is herself mother of the warring Amazons. Another child of Aphrodite, the ugly Priapus with the grotesquely huge phallus, tends a famous garden of gorgeous pear trees. Aphrodite’s husband is the misshapen and crippled Hephaestus, the unparalleled metal craftsman, who creates exquisite jewelry and other ornaments. The story that best describes the nature of Aphrodite comes from the Greco- Roman myth “Cupid and Psyche.” Psyche is a young woman of extraordinary beauty who is compared to Aphrodite and even attracts a group of worshipers. Aphrodite considers this comparison a challenge and responds by putting Psyche through her paces. She arranges for Psyche to marry a terrible monster, a scheme that Eros (Cupid), who usually carries out his mother’s bidding, thwarts because he has fallen in love with Psyche himself. Aphrodite disrupts this romance and devises a series of seemingly insurmountable tests for Psyche to pass before she can be reunited with Eros. Psyche has no blemish on her character, she is completely innocent, but it is this very innocence that Aphrodite finds objectionable. Psyche must develop and display a strength of character before Aphrodite can embrace her. Psyche’s last trial is a harrowing trip to the underworld to obtain for Aphrodite a small box of beauty from the death goddess Persephone. This trial, which underscores the relationship between Aphrodite and death, is a calculated set-up. Though Psyche has been warned not to look inside the box, no woman could resist the temptation to snatch a bit of extra beauty, not even a woman as beautiful and good as Psyche. It turns out that Persephone’s “beauty” is the sleep of death. Perhaps it is inaccurate to say that Aphrodite does not like innocence; rather, innocence is something she actively seeks to destroy. Aphrodite is the goddess of hard lessons, of maturity. She forces her followers to grow up and learn about truth, which as the Greeks knew well is often ugly. One of the ways she compels mortals to develop character is through romantic love. Sexual attraction is a part of her terrible plot to make us understand and work through our difficulties and conflicts with others. I well remember the resentment I felt after encountering one of Aphrodite’s trials. The experience involved confrontations with betrayal, deception, and the self-serving machinations of so-called allies. It was one of those grueling experiences where, if the lessons are recognized right way, their importance is not understood for many years. As I nursed my ill feelings, reviewing the part I felt Aphrodite played in my difficulties, I said to myself, “and if she were to come into this room right now, I would not even think she was pretty.” Aphrodite immediately rose to the challenge. My jaw dropped as she entered and I felt stunned, numb, unable to form a thought of my own, confronted with her beauty. Eventually her figure faded in an onslaught of flowers of every color and kind imaginable, thousands of them. I understood then that Aphrodite’s beauty is so great that it cannot be contained in the female form – or in any form. I could do nothing but kneel and say, “Yes, you are beautiful. The most beautiful thing I have ever seen.” Sources Apuleius. The Golden Ass. Robert Graves, trans. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1951. Evslin. Gods, Demigods and Demons: An Encyclopedia of Greek Mythology. New York: Scholastic Book Services, 1975. Graves, Robert. The Greek Myths. London: Penguin Books, 1960.

(Special Post 3) Nine-Headed Dragon Slain by Patriarchal Heroes: A Cross-cultural Discussion by Mago Circle Members

[Editor’s Note: This and the ensuing sequels are a revised version of the discussion that has taken place in The Mago Circle, Facebook group, since September 24, 2017 to the present. Themes are introduced and interwoven in a somewhat random manner, as different discussants lead the discussion. The topic of the number nine is key to Magoism, primarily manifested as Nine Magos or the Nine Mago Creatrix. Mago Academy hosts a virtual and actual event, Nine Day Mago Celebration, annually.] Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: Xiang Yao or Xiangliu is the Chinese equivalent to Hydra in Greek mythology. And Hercules is to Yu, the Great, founder of the Xia dynasty. We will see in the course of this discussion that the myth of Yu, the founding ruler of Xia, the oldest dynasty of China, who slains the nine-headed snake, is only a variation of its older prototype, the myth of Huangdi who fought Chiu, the alliance of the Nine Han Giants (East Asian/Korean Magoists). “According to the Classic of Mountains and Seas, Xiangliu was a minister of the snake-like water deity Gonggong. Xiangliu devastated the ecology everywhere he went, leaving nothing but gullies and marshes devoid of animal life. Eventually, Xiangliu was killed by Yu the Great, whose other labors included ending the Great Flood of China. In other versions of the story, Xiangliu was killed by Nüwa, after being defeated by Zhurong, but his blood was so virulently poisonous that the soil which it soaked could no longer grow grain.[1] An oral version of the Xiangliu myth was collected as late from Sichuan as 1983, in which Xiangliu is depicted as a nine-headed dragon, responsible for floods and other harm.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiangliu Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: Ancient China had to demonize the pre-Han myth of the nona Mago because it bespeaks the matriarchal/gynocentric history that it overthrew… the past that had to be severed in order to fake patriarchal originality. With this in mind, we have a better look on patriarchal mythopoeia, which appears to be complex but, nonetheless, transparent in its motive to hide/hijack pre-patriarchal gynocentric histories. “One of the most harrowing myths from ancient China is the story of Gonggong’s rebellion. You can revisit the whole story here, but the quick version is that the evil water god Gonggong attempted to drown the world and was only prevented from doing so by the heroic last resort actions of the beneficent creator goddess Nüwa, who cut the legs off the cosmic turtle in order to set things to rights. In the chaos of the climactic battle, however Gongong’s chief minister and partner in crime Xiangliu the nine-headed snake monster completely escaped. Filled with bitterness about Gonggong’s failure, Xiangliu crawled away across the soggy lands of Szechuan (which were water-logged after the nearly world-ending floods). Wherever he went, the snake monster left permanent fens and swamps which were toxic to life. His very being had become steeped in poison, and his progress through the damp and moldy world had to be stopped. Yu the hero, the third of the three sage kings, finally caught up with the nine-headed monster and killed him in a pitched battle. Yet still there was a problem: Xiangliu’s pestiferous blood has poisoned the whole region, which now stank of rot. Crops would not grow and civilization began to falter. Yu dug up the blood soaked soil again and again, but the corrupted blood of the monster just sank deeper into the ground. Finally, Yu excavated a deep valley by Kunlun mountain and rid the world of Xiangliu’s toxins. With all of the land he had excavated he built a great terraced mountain for the gods. Yu then went forth to found the kingdom of Xia, the first civilized state in Chinese history. Of course some people say that Yu did none of this, that, it was the goddess Nüwa who once again came forth to battle the monster and undo the damage he had caused. Then, with accustomed modesty she let Yu take the credit and begin his kingdom (for Nüwa cared not for empty praise and hollow glory but only for the well-being of her children).” https://ferrebeekeeper.wordpress.com/2013/09/24/xiangliu-the-nine-headed-snake/ Max Dashu: These patriarchal heroes! Nova Scheller: What a fascinating thread…that the nine headed hydra correlates to the nine headed dragon as a linkage to patriarchy or gynocentric/ matriarchal beginnings…the root being in Korea! Dropping into your work of so many years…a privilege as well as informing some of my personal awareness. Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: Nova Scheller, indeed! The myth of slaining the nine-headed snake/dragon across cultures shows; (1) The onset of patriarchy did not come naturally but forcefully, which proves that patriarchy is not original. It was a reaction to what had been before, its matrix. Patriarchy faked its originality by inventing the myth of demonizing and killing the female principle. (2) Patriarchal rules established across cultures adopted the mythic motif of slaining the nine-headed snake or dragon, which appears to be of Chinese origin. (3) The Nine Mago mythic system preserved in Korean Magoism testifies to gynocentric/matriarchal beginnings, which were remembered by peoples of the ancient world. (4) Furthermore, Korean Magoist mythology explains the origin/meaning of the nona Goddess symbol. Let’s explore how the Nine Mago pantheon was remembered in East Asian myths and religions. For this, we need to unravel the patriarchal mythopoeia of Goma, the Shaman ruler of Old Magoist East Asia/Korea. Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: In principle, we can tell if an ancient rule/culture was patriarchal or gynocentric by the myth of the nine-headed snake/dragon. In the case of ancient China whose heroes are told to have killed the opponent, the nine-headed snake. Nonetheless, the people’s memory of pre-patriarchal gynocentric history never dies. The nine symbolism is still described as auspicious. It revives time and time again throughout history. In other words, ancient China was a small regional power, only modern scholarship seals it all mighty China. Find out what other ancient myths concern about the nine female symbolism. (To be continued) Join us in The Mago Circle https://www.facebook.com/groups/magoism/.
(Special post) Laurie Baymarrwangga, Senior Australian of the Year 2012

Posted with permission in Return to Mago on ‘Australia Day’, 26 January 2014 (Australian time), in recognition of the ill-treatment and misunderstanding of Aboriginal people that was set in train when, in 1788, white people first settled in the land now known as Australia.
(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.

(Essay) The Wheel of the Year and Climate Change by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This essay is an edited excerpt from Chapter 2 of the author’s book A Poiesis of the Creative Cosmos: Celebrating Her within PaGaian Sacred Ceremony. https://pagaian.org/pagaian-wheel-of-the-year/ The Wheel of the Year in a PaGaian cosmology essentially celebrates Cosmogenesis – the unfolding of the Cosmos, in which Earth’s extant Creativity participates directly, as does each unique being. The Creativity of Cosmogenesis is expressed through Earth-Sun relationship as it may manifest and be experienced within any region of our Planet. In PaGaian tradition this is expressed with Triple Goddess Poetry, which is understood to be metaphor for the creative dynamics unfolding the Cosmos. At the heart of the Earth-Sun relationship is the dance of light and dark, the waxing and waning of both these qualities, as Earth orbits around our Mother Sun. This dance, which results in the manifestation of form and its dissolution, as it does in the Seasons, happens because of Earth’s tilt in relationship with Sun: and that is because this tilt effects the intensity of regional receptivity to Sun’s energy over the period of the yearly orbit. This tilt was something that happened in the evolution of our planet in its earliest of days – some four and a half billion years ago, and then stabilised over time: and the climatic zones were further formed when Antarctica separated from Australia and South America, giving birth to the Antarctica Circumpolar Current, changing the circulation of water around all the continents … just some thirty million years ago[i]. Within the period since then, which also saw the advent of the earliest humans, Earth has gone through many climatic changes. It is likely that throughout those changes, the dance of light and dark in both hemispheres of the planet … one always the opposite of the other – has been fairly stable and predictable. The resultant effect on flora and fauna regionally however has varied enormously depending on many other factors of Earth’s ever changing ecology: She is an alive Planet who continues to move and re-shape Herself. She is Herself subject to the cosmic dynamics of creativity – the forming and the dissolving and the re-emerging. The earliest of humans must have received all this, ‘observed’ it, in a very participatory way: that is, not as a Western industrialized or dualistic mind would think of ‘observation’ today, but as kin with the events – identifying with their own experience of coming into being and passing away. There is evidence to suggest that humans have expressed awareness of, and response to, the phenomenon of coming into being and passing away, as early as one hundred thousand years ago: ritual burial sites of that age have been found[ii], and more recently a site of ongoing ritual activity as old as seventy thousand years has been found[iii]. The ceremonial celebration of the phenomenon of seasons probably came much later, particularly perhaps when humans began to settle down. These ceremonial celebrations of seasons apparently continued to reflect the awesomeness of existence as well as the marking of transitions of Sun back and forth across the horizon, which became an important method of telling the time for planting and harvesting and the movement of pastoral animals. https://pagaian.org/pagaian-wheel-of-the-year/ It seems that the resultant effect of the dance of light and dark on regional flora and fauna, has been fairly stable in recent millennia, the period during which many current Earth-based religious practices and expression arose. In our times, that is changing again. Humans have been, and are, a major part of bringing that change about. Ever since we migrated around the planet, humans have brought change, as any creature would: but humans have gained advantage and distinguished themselves by toolmaking, and increasingly domesticating/harnessing more of Earth’s powers – fire being perhaps the first, and this also aided our migration. In recent times this harnessing/appropriating of Earth’s powers became more intense and at the same time our numbers dramatically increased: and many of us filled with hubris, acting without consciousness or care of our relational context. We are currently living in times when our planet is tangibly and visibly transforming: the seasons themselves as we have known them for millennia – as our ancestors knew them – appear to be changing in most if not all regions of our Planet. Much predictable Poetry – sacred language – for expressing the quality of the Seasonal Moments will change, as regional flora changes, as the movement of animals and birds and sea creatures changes, as economies change[iv]. In Earth’s long story regional seasonal manifestation has changed before, but not so dramatically since the advent of much current Poetic expression for these transitions, as mixed as they are with layers of metaphor: that is, with layers of mythic eras, cultures and economies. We may learn and understand the traditional significance of much of the Poetry, the ceremony and symbol – the art – through which we could relate and converse with our place, as our ancestors may have done; but it will continue to evolve as all language must. At the moment the dance of dark and light remains predictable, but much else is in a process of transformation. As we observe and sense our Place, our Habitat, as our ancestors also did, we can, and may yet still make Poetry of the dance of dark and light, of this quality of relationship with Sun, and how it may be manifesting in a particular region and its significance for the inhabitants: we may still find Poetic expression with which to celebrate the sacred journey that we make everyday around Mother Sun, our Source of life and energy. It has been characteristic of humans for at least several tens of thousands of years, to create ceremony and symbol by which we could relate with the creative dynamics of our place, and perhaps it was initially a method of coming to terms with these dynamics – with the apparently uniquely human awareness of coming into being and passing away[v]. Our need for …
The Passing of Last Summer’s Growth by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

The ‘passing of last Summer’s growth’ as is experienced and contemplated in the Season of Deep Autumn/Samhain, may be a metaphor for the passing of all/any that has come to fullness of being, or that has had a fullness, a blossoming of some kind, and borne fruit; and in the passing it has been received, and thus transforms. The ‘passing of last Summer’s growth’ may be in hearts and minds, an event or events, a period of time, or an era, that was a deep communion, now passed and dissolved into receptive hearts and minds, where it/they reside for reconstitution, within each unique being. Samhain is traditionally understood as ‘Summer’s end’: indeed that is what the word ‘Samhain’ means. In terms of the seasonal transitions in indigenous Old European traditions, Summer is understood as over when the Seasonal Moment of Lammas/Lughnasad comes around; it is the first marked transition after the fullness of Summer Solstice. The passing and losses may have been grieved, the bounty received, thanksgiving felt and expressed, perhaps ceremonially at Autumn Equinox/Mabon; yet now in this Season of Samhain/Deep Autumn it composts, clearly falls, as darkness and cooler/cold weather sets in, change is clearer. In the places where this Earth-based tradition arose, Winter could be sensed setting in at this time, and changes to everyday activity had to be made. In our times and in our personal lives, we may sense this kind of ending, when change becomes necessary, no longer arbitrary: and the Seasonal Moment of Samhain may be an excellent moment for expressing these deep truths, telling the deep story, and making meaning of the ending, as we witness such passing. What new shapes will emerge from the infinite well of creativity? And we may wonder what will return from the dissolution? What re-solution will be found? We may wonder what new shapes will emerge. In the compost of what has been, what new syntheses, new synergies, may come forth? Now is the time for dreaming, for drawing on the richness within, trusting the sentience, within which we are immersed, and which we are: and then awaiting the arrival, being patient with the fermentation and gestation. Seize the moment, this Moment – and converse with the depths within your own bodymind, wherein She is. Make space for the sacred conversation, the Conversing with your root and source of being, and take comfort in this presence. We may ponder what yet unkown beauty and wellness may emerge from this infinite well of creativity. The Samhain Moment in the Northern Hemisphere is 17:14 UT 7thNovember this year. Wishing you a sense of the deep communion present in the sacred space you make for this holy transition.
(Art & Poem) Spring Equinox by Sudie Rakusin & Annie Finch

A SEED FOR SPRING EQUINOX . . . till I feel the earth around the place my head has lain under winter’s touch, and it crumbles. Slanted weight of clouds. Reaching with my head and shoulders past the open crust dried by spring wind. Sun. Tucking through the ground that has planted cold inside me, made its waiting be my food. Now I watch the watching dark my light’s long-grown dark makes known. Art and poem are included in Celebrating Seasons of the Goddess (Mago Books, 2017). (Meet Mago Contributor) Sudie Rakusin (Meet Mago Contributor) Annie Finch
(Essay) Contemplating How Her Creativity Proceeds by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

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

(Photo Essay 4) ‘Gaeyang Halmi, the Sea Goddess of Korea’ by Helen Hwang

Part IV: Revival of the Gurang (Nine Maidens) Gaeyang Halmi There is more to reveal. As I write this part of the photo essay, I have encountered new information, previously made available online by individuals and organizations. It is reported that the “Suseong-dang” (水聖堂, Sea Saint Shrine) was once called the “Gurang-sa” (九娘祠, Nine Maidens Shine), of which I never heard before.[i] That Suseong-dang is a fake name blew my mind! Note the difference of gender between “the Nine Maidens Shrine” and “the Sea Saint Shrine”! The female-connoted term was stolen just like that! “Gurang-sa,” a female-referenced term as the character “rang” means a maiden, had to go due to its overt female representation. It is not without grounds that I was taken aback to see its present logography, “the Sea Saint Shrine,” on the information board.[ii] I almost heard a voice warning me, “This is not the place that you think it is!” That voice attempted to force me to leave the place without further investigation. However, I intuitively took a mental note, “Something is not correct here.” And I was right! Its name change sheds a consistent light on the meddling of patriarchal distortion/deception done to the tradition of Gaeyang Halmi. Readers are reminded of the lost painting of Gaeyang Halmi, which was replaced by that of the Sea God explicated in Part 2 of this photo essay (also Part 3). Like “the Sea God,” “the Suseong-dang” constitutes no reality. It is not only a conceptual deception but also a theft of the intangible cultural heritage, righteously committed by faceless patriarchal men disappeared into the lapse of time. It is clear that systematic erasure of the Female/Goddess has been in operation. Female power embodied whether in the name of the shrine or in the iconography was stripped away. However, it is proven once again that the Female is immortal because it constitutes the root of patriarchy. People smuggled the forbidden knowledge of the Female to later generations through oral stories. Thus, we find the folklore of the Female subversive.
(Book Excerpt 3) The Mago Way: Re-discovering Mago, the Great Goddess from East Asia

[Author’s Note: The following is from Chapter 8, The Consciousness of WE/HERE/NOW.] The Budoji stories the primordial drama of Mago’s beginning. It furnishes a yet-to-be-heard story of the beginning of the Great Goddess, the taboo story in patriarchy. It is the story of the Creatrix that patriarchy has attempted to erase. It can be temporarily forgotten but can never die because it is the story that is at the root of patriarchy. Ultimately, it is The Story that is happening HERE and NOW. The merit of the Magoist Cosmogony lies in the fact that it, through storying, restores the view of the whole, the macrocosmic view of the All. The holistic view necessarily involves the Great Goddess or the First Mother in that S/HE is the Creatrix. Time is not a linear concept, flowing from one end to the other. Time is the unified Present, happening NOW. It may be said that time is circular or cyclic, as all beings are constantly in motion to enhance the process of self-creation, which causes the whole to change ceaselessly. The Present hosts an infinite number of stories that take place in the undividable One Space HERE. The beginning of the Great Goddess is still happening and we are invited to re-cognize HER STORY in the HERE and NOW. The beginning is a process, not a single isolated event that took place in the remote past.[i] All things exist in the process of becoming HERE and NOW as part of WE. Put differently, the beginning of the Great Goddess is the LIVE SCENE/DRAMA/STORY. We are part of HER STORY. Mago’s beginning is the heart that pumps fresh blood to the body of the terrestrial becoming. The beginning of the Great Goddess is still taking place HERE/NOW. The terrestrial beginning is attributed to the Great Goddess who is self-born through the sonic movement of cosmic light. The beginning story of the Great Goddess is no ordinary one. It is of power and truth, that is, metamorphic. It provides the original text to the meaning of “salvation.” HER Beginning that is happening HERE/NOW holds all from falling into cacophony. For one thing, it delivers us from the patriarchal misconception of ultimate reality that does away with the Creatrix. The holistic view of the Creatrix is capable of saving us from misconceptions and misconduct. Ultimately, it guides us to live our life in harmony with the whole, HERE/NOW. The Magoist Cosmogony engenders the consciousness that WE ARE HERE/NOW. The universe is existent without beginning or end. In one ever-existing reality, things ceaselessly appear and disappear in relation to one another on all levels. All things are in the constant movement of autogenesis striving to arrive at a new position of balance. S/HE IS HERE/NOW telling us the STORY of WE. That is the source of our metamorphosis. Notes: [i] Process thought founded by Alfred North Whitehead, Charles Hartshorne, and John B. Cobb shares a common premise on that regard, although it does not associate ultimate reality with the Creatrix. (See Book Excerpt 1 and Book Excerpt 2. Available in Mago Bookstore.) Meet Mago Contributor, Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.
(Mago Almanac Planner Year 5 Excerpt 1) 13 Month 28 Day Magoist Calendar by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

[Author’s Note: This and its sequences are a newly added portion in the Mago Almanac Planner Year 5, equivalent to the Gregorian Year 2022. Because the Budoji did not explain further about time units smaller than 1 day, I did not follow through some possible implications in previous Mago Almanac volumes. Next year’s Mago Almanac Planner for Personal Journey: 13 Month 28 Day Calendar Year 5 or 5919 MAGOMA ERA is forthcoming in Mago Bookstore (October 25, 2021). PDF version is available for purchase.] Angbuilgu (仰釜日晷 Concave Sundial) dated in 1434 of Joseon Dynasty Korea (13 horizontal lines are engraved, indicating 24 seasons and 7 vertical lines indicating times of a day) UNITS OF TIME MEASURE At the half point of the eleventh Sa, there is one Gu of the big Hoe (Eve of the first day of the month). Gu is the root of time. Three hundred Gu makes one Myo. With Myo, we can sense Gu. A lapse of 9,633 Myo-Gak-Bun-Si makes one day. This is of Chesu (Physical Number), 3, 6, 9. By and by, the encircling time charts Medium Calendar and Large Calendar to evince the principle of numerology. 1 Gu (approx. 3.71 miliseconds) refers an infinitesimal discrepancy that occurs every eleven years or every ten and a half years precisely. Because Gu (a noncognitive time unit) is a time too small to count, Gu can only be treated as 1 Myo, equivalent to 300 Gu. As shown in the below table, Myo is still a tiny unit of time. 9,633 Myo equals 1 day, which is 288,990 Gu (300×9633=288,990). Because of this, there will be one extra day (9,633 Myo) every 31,788,900 years. This means, the Magoist Calendar has another (the third) leap day every 31,788,900 years (11 x 300 x 9,633). 31,788,900 years is a long time, which we will presumably not take into consideration for the Magoist Calendar dating 3898 BCE (the beginning year of Goma’s Danguk confederacy) that we are under. Because the units of Gak, Bun, and Si are not further explained in the Budoji,[1] it is difficult to designate what they indicate. Although the terms of Gak, Bun, and Si are familiar to moderns as time indicators, what each unit indicates is unknown. Given that 9,633 Myo (Gak-Bun-Si) equals 1 day (1 Il 日 일), it is conjectured that Gak-Bun-Si refers to time segments equivalent to hours, minutes, and seconds in today’s 24 hour a day scheme. 1 Myo is approximately 1.115 seconds, as 9,633 Myo is approximately 8,640 seconds. If we project the time of 1 day into a circle, the whole circle indicates 1 day. Doing this implies that time/space is inseparable in a circular notion of timespace. To specify a size of time smaller than 1 day, we can first divide the circle into two halves. Let’s call the half circle or a half day A. A (equivalent to 12 hours) equals 4,816.5 Myo or 1,444,950 Gu. Then, we divide the half circle into two halves. And let’s call it B. B refers to a quarter of 1 day or B (equivalent to 6 hours), which equals 2,408.25 Myo or 722,475 Gu. Likewise, C refers to one eighth of 1 day, equivalent to 3 hours), which equals 1,204.125 Myo or 361,237.5 Gu. A subsequent division by 2 aligns with the Physical Numbers, 3, 6, 9 in the digital root.[2] Given one sidereal day to be 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4.0916 seconds or 23.9344696 hours, 1 A would be 11 hours, 58 minutes, and 2.0458 seconds. 1 B would be 5 hours, 59 minutes, and 1.0229 seconds. 1 C would be 2 hours, 59.5 minutes, and 0.51145 seconds. The circle represents the sidereal day of 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4.0916 seconds. Note that the time divisions of 1 day (A, B, and C) follow the order of 1, 2, 4, and 8. Precisely, this is what the Magoist Genealogy of the first three generations that I illustrated above and elsewhere: The Magoist Cosmogony recounts that from one (Mago, the Great Mother) born are the two daughters (Gunghui and Sohui), which makes the triad. From the two daughters born are the four twins, which makes eight. This is observed in meiosis (cell division for sexually reproducing organisms) from one to two and to four and to eight and so forth. The Mago triad and the eight granddaughters are called Nine Magos.[3] The calendar is not just an indication of times or seasons. It is an indication of the life-organizing principle. The Magoist Calendar is a summary of cosmic and planetary life systems. From a microcosmic entity to a macrocosmic universe, all runs by the same force of Sonic Numerology, the metamorphic reality of WE/HERE/NOW. Beings, time, and space are the three inseparable aspects of one reality.(To be continued) [1] It is indeed regretful that the sequence book of the Budoji, Yeoksiji (Book of Calendar and Time), that treats calendar and time has been lost. We have only the Budoji available, the first book of 15 books of the Jingsimnok (Record of Cleansing Mind/Heart), a compendium of 3 volumes that have 5 books in each. Doubtless that the Yeoksiji (Book of Calendar and Time), the third book of Volume 1, would detail the rest of time measures and sub-calendars. [2] D would refer to one sixteenth of 1 day, equivalent to 1.5 hours, which equals 602.0625 Myo (3 in the Digital Root) or 180,618.75 (9 in the Digital Root). If we divide one eighth of 1 day by 3, it is one twenty-fourth of 1 day or E (equivalent to 1 hour). A total of 24 segments. E equals 401.375 Myo or 120,412.5 Gu. These numbers do not follow the suit of 3, 6, and 9, Chesu or Physical Numbers. 401.375 is 2 in the Digital Root and 120,412.5 is 6 in the Digital Root. [3] See this book, 112. https://www.magoism.net/2013/07/meet-mago-contributor-helen-hwang/

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