February 14, 2017October 2, 2019 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Prose) What Matters by Harriet Ann Ellenberger

Guadalupe has an arm around quotidian Mary they have begun to howl not worrying that the moon is not in the right phase  it’ll come says the second Mary  when Read More …

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

(Book Excerpt 4) The Mago Way by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.

[Author’s Note] The following is from Chapter One, “What Is Mago and Magoism and How Did I Study HER?” from The Mago Way: Re-discovering Mago, the Great Goddess from East Asia, Read More …

February 9, 2017October 2, 2019 Mago WorkLeave a comment

(Prose) Sequana and Blessed Water by Deanne Quarrie

Water is the daily necessity for earth’s creatures. When the Continental Celts were looking for a new homeland, they ventured west from the known river valleys of the great landmass Read More …

February 2, 2017October 2, 2019 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Essay) The Disease of Patriarchal Capitalism by Genevieve Vaughan

Women’s Worlds, Ottawa, July 6, 2011 We European/Americans have been infected by the disease of patriarchal capitalism and we have carried it to all the populations where we have settled. Read More …

January 31, 2017October 2, 2019 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Poem 2) pears (still so terrified) by Kerryn Coombs-Valeontis

(still so terrified of pears) stretched with birthing its sacrifice of tenderness – summer’s cervix dilated with chart- reuse-grained generosity curved into cooling evenings fruition, delivered at the splendour of Read More …

January 25, 2017October 2, 2019 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Essay) When My Mother was born by Kathleen McKern Verigin

When my mother was born her mother couldn’t vote. My grandmother and mother were both homemakers, raising children while taking in laundry, babysitting and sewing jobs. As a young girl, Read More …

January 24, 2017October 2, 2019 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Art) Dancing With the Tree of Life by Shiloh Sophia

That declaration of readiness,

January 20, 2017October 2, 2019 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Prose) Bleached Tree Roots by Sara Wright

Election Dream: November 9th Just an image: I see bleached, broken, slashed, and severed tree roots scattered over the entire horizon – which seem to stretch out in front of Read More …

January 18, 2017October 2, 2019 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Poem) This Time by Melissa La Flamme

“To passively accept an unjust system is to cooperate with that system, and thereby to become a participant in its evil.” —Martin Luther King This time, we resist the reflex Read More …

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 …

November 3, 2016October 2, 2019 Mago Work Admin1 Comment

(Book Excerpt 4) Jesus, Muhammad and the Goddess, the Girl God anthology by Trista Hendren

Jesus, Muhammad and the Goddess: a Girl God Anthology. Edited by Trista Hendren, Pat Daly and Noor-un-nisa Gretasdottir Part 4 Joan Baez said that “Action is the antidote to despair.” That may be so, Read More …

November 2, 2016October 2, 2019 Mago Work Admin1 Comment

(Art Prose) Painting for the Earth by Jassy Watson

I have spoken about the social responsibility of the artist on numerous occasions. This blog approaches a similar topic but in direct relation to using art as a potent tool for change and as Read More …

October 27, 2016October 2, 2019 Mago Work Admin1 Comment

(Book Excerpt 3) Jesus, Muhammad and the Goddess, the Girl God anthology by Trista Hendren

Jesus, Muhammad and the Goddess: a Girl God Anthology. Edited by Trista Hendren, Pat Daly and Noor-un-nisa Gretasdottir I realized yesterday that I have expected feminism to fix the entire world and now Read More …

(Poem) Heyoka by Sara Wright

Artwork by Sara Wright When I gazeinto these reflectionsI know whoI ambentwillow lowhoo hooa weaverof relationshipbridging worldsI’m toldwedto sacred land.Grandmotherwears green pearlsbruises purple black or red Grandfathersings to Black Bears streaked in crazystripes Tewa Elderinstructs playthe drum a centeredcrossfour directionshold weaverdreamerreceiverbridgemakerit is notfor meto knowhow taking astand for Lifewill manifest how intentcan healor harmor whenacceptanceis all Weaver, Bridge makerDreamerReceiverReversals tooBackwardsand forwardsI go.black and whiteHeyoka Sings to coyotesin red clay.Backwardsand forwardsI go.black and whiteHeyoka sings to coyotesin red clay.Author’s Note: Who or what is a Heyoka? In many if not all Indigenous tribes but especially well known in the Lakota – Sioux tribes, Heyoka is present as a kind of clown who serves as a spiritual leader by speaking and acting in opposite ways to those around him. This power is not gender dependent. Heyoka behavior is designed to disrupt ordinary perception by challenging societal norms helping people to confront uncomfortable truths about themselves by holding up a contradictory mirror.A person may become a Heyoka after experiencing a vision or dream of the Wakíŋyaŋ, or the Thunder Beings. The vision grants sacred power to the Heyoka, which they share with their people through humorous and/or unconventional actions. In Lakota mythology, Heyókȟa is also the name of the spirit of thunder and lightning itself. This spirit is portrayed with emotions opposite the norm laughing when sad and crying when happy. Laughter, seen as a precious gift, helps the community cope with suffering. Other behavioral examples include wearing clothes inside out or riding a horse backwards. A Heyoka embraces and embodies the contradictions of life. Blunt, honest observations by Heyoka figures cut through pretense to expose hypocrisy and hidden feelings, acting as a catalyst for growth. Intuition and emotional insight are an intrinsic part of this spiritual force. These figures are often described as highly intuitive and empathetic, sensing the emotional energy of others. (Meet Mago Contributor) Sara Wright – Return to Mago E*Magazine
(Book Excerpt 6) How to Live Well Despite Capitalist Patriarchy by Trista Hendren

Ditch Your Car My reformation from country club princess to granola mama didn’t happen all at once. I had been slowly evolving for a while, but things changed drastically for me when I met Anders and experienced his culture in Norway. As with most travel and exposure to other cultures, it’s what I noticed about what we took for granted as “normal” here that opened my eyes the most. I didn’t realize how badly we denigrated those who don’t drive cars in the U.S. until I re-watched The 40-Year-Old Virgin with Anders. While I still find that movie hysterical, it is interesting social commentary that the nerdy virgin rides a bike. Anders noticed it right off the bat. “Men who don’t drive cars here are really treated like losers aren’t they?” I realized he was right. How many times are people completely identified with their cars? How many times has a woman turned down a nice guy because she didn’t like what he was driving? And how do men complete the role of “man” if they cannot pick up a woman for a date? Let’s be honest: It does seem weird. We take it for granted in the U.S. that people own cars. And the richer they are, the nicer that car should be. The owning part of that usually means they have financed a car—or rather, that they’re indebted to someone else for their sense of self. On my first trip to Norway, it was wet and rainy every day. We traveled by foot, bus or train. Every excursion required that we walk at least 10 minutes up or down a steep hill. I saw many people of all ages walking up and down the hill all day long, many carrying heavy bags of groceries. It wasn’t so bad. I got used to the rain and the exercise felt good throughout the day. I have always believed that you had to have a car. My second husband was a high-end car dealer for most of our marriage. Seeing how people lived in Norway was the first time I actually stopped and thought about whether having a car was necessary. When I came home, I decided to sell my car. In the suburban community I previously lived in, it would have been nearly impossible to live without a car, so I eased into it. During the transition, I got used to walking more. In the suburbs, when you walk, people assume you must be having car problems. I can’t tell you how many times a friend stopped, worried that my car had broken down. While I appreciated the sentiment, I found it quite amusing! I decided to move back to a flatter, more urban part of Portland where I could walk nearly everywhere. I sold more than half my belongings and moved into a smaller space we shared with another family. We walked to and from school every day, stopping on the way home for groceries. It was easier than I ever thought it could be. Americans spend an average of 75 minutes a day in their cars—butI always hated driving. It made me tired and cranky to sit in traffic. I now spend an average of 75 minutes a day walking, which means I’m in fairly good shape without a gym membership. When I need to go somewhere distant, I take public transport. On some occasions, I borrow a vehicle—but that’s more and more uncommon. I have also used Uber and Zipcar at times, which gave me a few more options. I have now spent more than 7 years without a car, and I rarely miss it. I have not done all the math, but I know I have saved tens of thousands of dollars every single year. I don’t have insurance, car payments or gas and maintenance expenses. And, I’m in a good mood from all the daily exercise I get. I don’t plan to own a car again. This frees up quite a bit of money for other things that are more important to me. I know many people will find the thought of not owning a car practically insane. But consider this: Driving a car is the most air polluting act an average citizen commits.39 If you cannot fathom life without a car, at least consider driving less if you are able-bodied. You will save money, gain health and stop participating in the destruction of Mother Earth. Find more info on this book here.(Meet Mago Contributor) Trista Hendren.
(Prose Poem) Cassandra by Susan Hawthorne

The prose poem, Cassandra, is a summary of a long-standing interest I have in the interaction between the structure of knowledge and belief systems. In the late 1970s I wanted to write a PhD on the structure of belief systems in the ancient world. In a way I am still working on this. At the time, no one in the academic milieu I inhabited understood what I wanted to do, so I left and wrote my novel, The Falling Woman.
(Art Essay 1) The Reddening: Alchemy, Dragons, Psychology and Feminism – a short version by Claire Dorey

Artwork by Claire Dorey A course in Color Therapy introduced me to Carl G. Jung’s The Red Book [1], a mystical picture book, painted by his own hand, serving as a visual and symbolic exploration of his principles of analytical psychology. Symbols hold power. Drawing is a conduit to the subconscious. Wisdom is creative. Creativity is wisdom in action. The cosmos is creative. Chaos is creative. Destruction is creation. Many pages, which I’ve been privileged to turn, are illustrated with Dragons and serpents, representing the shadow archetype: darker aspects of the self; the conscious mind confronting the unconscious; and psychological insights leading to growth. [View more images in links at the end of this essay] The Reddening So why call it The Red Book? Almost certainly the name comes from Rubedo, meaning “reddening,” or “wholeness,” the ultimate stage of alchemy. Alchemy attempts to explain material, psychological and spiritual transformation through color changes. Nigredo [corrosion / swallowing the sun / the Green Lion] is the blackening; Albedo [purification] is the whitening; and Citrinitas [transition] the yellowing. The intention is to turn base metals and the soul/psyche/ego into their highest forms, which are gold, spiritual gold and/or enlightenment, and/or immortality, resulting from a fusion of opposites, expressed as a hermaphrodite, as the alchemic journey proceeds. Medieval dragons and alchemy In many mythologies, the Dragon represents primordial chaos and cycles of destruction and creation. *European Medieval alchemists, (12th-13th centuries) and *Renaissance and *Early Modern alchemists (14th-17th centuries) sought to harness this power for their process, so they drew Dragons. * From here on, when I use the term *alchemy, it refers to European, Medieval, Early Modern and Renaissance alchemy, not Arabic, Egyptian, Post Modern, or New Age alchemy, unless stated. It could be argued *alchemy could be an art genre. Carl G. Jung’s gouache paintings drew inspiration from these illustrations. His “active imagination” tapped into Dragon consciousness, [2] meanwhile his “genius” paintbrush transformed cosmology to mandalas, and *alchemy to psychology. *Alchemy distills mythology and can be considered polarizing when viewed through a feminist lens. It seeks to harness the energy of opposites, including the [polarized] feminine principle, expressed as the White lion, passivity, mercury and moon; and the masculine principle, expressed as the Red lion, sulphur, active energy, and sun. It appears the dynamic sun and warrior Goddesses, including Sól, Anat and Nana, none of whom are passive, and the rampaging lion Goddess Sekhmet, who “sees and drinks red,” are overlooked in *alchemy. The Arabic Alchemists The alchemy of Hermes Trismegistus, was a fusion of Egyptian mysticism, Greek mythology and Christianity. However *alchemy took root in Europe when Arabic alchemical texts [3] were brought here by, those self-righteous invaders, the Crusaders. Liber de compositione alchemiae (“Book on the Composition of Alchemy”) was translated into Latin circa 1144 [4]. The crusaders also brought the myth of George and the Dragon to Europe. Limiting beliefs and male power In *alchemy, chemical process entwines with egotistical quests for immortality, as man seeks a god-like status. Gnosis means direct knowledge of God. Even though the female principles, including Sophia (wisdom) and Venus, are part of the *alchemic process, because wisdom has been in the male domain, *alchemy is often portrayed as centering on the divine male wisdom of Hermes Trismegistus, Thoth, Hermes, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Paracelsus and God. In my view, *alchemy was destined to fail because, even though it sought to harness female power, which would have been quite radical at the time [when women were spiritually silence by the church], the ultimate container was Christian doctrine, where ALL possibilities lead to the godhead. It could be said, science and religion should not mix, although science and spirituality should. It was also destined to fail because, according to current scientific theories, gold forms in space, not on Earth. At a time when patriarchy was seizing control of female wisdom, *alchemists sought to distill metals and philosophies, in the same way wise women healers distilled herbs at home, for medicinal remedies, using clay pots, alembics and condensers. [5] …….continues in part two View images from the Red Book here. [a] The Visionary Mystical Art of Carl Jung: See Illustrated Pages from The Red Book, January 28th, 2020 Open Culture https://www.openculture.com/2020/01/the-visionary-mystical-art-of-carl-jung.html [b] Kriegman, Mitchell Carl Jung’s Red Book – The Visionary Swiss Psychoanalyst’s Secret Book of Dreams. Mar 20, 2014. Santa Barbara Independent. https://www.independent.com/2014/03/20/carl-jungs-red-book/ [c] Carl Jung The Red Book. Jan 2.2025. The Doors of Perception. https://doorofperception.com/2025/01/carl-jung-the-red-book-liber-novus/ With thanks to Portal Ibis for their fantastic collection of imagery. References [1] The Red Book The Red Book (Philemon) 1st Edition by C. G. Jung (Author), Sonu Shamdasani (Editor, Translator), Mark Kyburz (Translator), John Peck (Translator) amazon.https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393065677/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=openculture-20&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=0393065677&linkId=d9fffbb88eba29f2c8f312acb2da8dcb [2] The Red Book of Carl G. Jung: Its Origins and InfluenceThe Red Book and Beyond. Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/red-book-of-carl-jung/the-red-book-and-beyond.html [3] The Muslim Alchemists. Science Abbey https://www.scienceabbey.com/the-muslim-alchemists/ [4] No. 10. The book of the Composition of Alchemy, Transcribed with an introduction by Adam McLean. Alchemic Texts. Alchemy website. https://www.alchemywebsite.com/hrs10.html#:~:text=The%20translator%20was%20Robertus%20Castrensis,the%20Algebra%20of%20al%2DKwarizimi. [5] Wise Women: Traditional Cures and Remedies. Museum of Cambridge. https://www.museumofcambridge.org.uk/wise-women-traditional-cures-and-remedies/ [6] Egyptosophy. Echoes of Egypt. https://echoesofegypt.peabody.yale.edu/egyptosophy/narrative [7] Isoora. March 29. 2014. Isis the Alchemist. Isiopolis. https://isiopolis.com/2014/03/29/isis-the-alchemist/ [8] De Abreu, Kristine. October 17, 2023. Six Women Alchemists: Their Obsessions and Inventions. Explorers Web. https://explorersweb.com/women-alchemists/ [9] Translated by G. S. R. Mead, Gnostic Scriptures and Fragments. Pistis Sophia. The Gnostic Society Library. http://www.gnosis.org/library/pistis-sophia/index.htm [10] M. Rieder, Paula. On the Purification of Women : Churching in Northern France, 1100-1500. (The New Middle Ages.) Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. Pp. 257. scholarworks. wmich.edu https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1012&context=mff [11] Lishtar, ALCHEMICAL SYMBOLISM IN SUMERIAN MYTH AND RELIGION. https://www.gatewaystobabylon.com/religion/sumalch1.htm [12] Dieu-Le-Vent, Annie. Ishtar, the real holy whore of Babylon, May 14, 2023. https://anniedieuleveut.com/2023/05/14/ishtar-the-real-holy-whore-of-babylon/ [13] Stephany, Timothy j.The Descent of Ishtar: both the Sumerian and Akkadian versions. Paperback. 12 Nov. 2015 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Descent-Ishtar-Sumerian-Akkadian-versions/dp/1517611369# [14] Stifler, Bill. Babylonian Creation Myth: Tiamat and Marduk (Merodach) https://www.billstifler.org/myth/files/2D-001-03-babylonian_creation.htm (To be continued) ———————————————————————————— https://www.magoism.net/2021/12/meet-mago-contributor-claire-dorey
(Essay) Such as it is… by Jillian Parker

It is now October, and the arc of the sun’s light has slowly begun shifting, the days are growing shorter in the North, where I live above the 61st parallel. The mornings present a biting chill and the bitter-cloying scent of decay. Birch and poplar leaves sift onto the forest floor, the roads and even the hoods of the vehicles. At this juncture, it is tempting to want to linger in the amber splendor, or to send a yearning glance back at summer’s infusion of chlorophyll. And yet again, perhaps it is time take stock of the stores at hand: to sort over the harvest, to perform an accounting of where I am along the path. I seize a calendar to assist in this task. Among the commemorations of October 9 include World Post Day, Leif Erikson Day, the Takayama Autumn Festival and Independence Day in Uganda. South Korea marks the day with a celebration of the 566th anniversary of the creation of the creation of the Korean alphabet, by King Sejong the Great. This holiday is known as Hangul Day (한글날). It is also the feast-day of the mysterious Dionysius the Areopagite. In my house, on this day, I am drawn to ponder and remember the words of a writer I became acquainted with while still practically a child: Iulia de Beausobre. Iulia was the wife of a Russian aristocrat who survived years of imprisonment and ordeals in Stalin’s concentration camps before immigrating to England. When my worries overcome me, when obstacles appear insurmountable, I remember Iulia. My invisible mentor’s writing left such an imprint on me, there have actually been times I have looked for her, imagined her silhouette standing in the shadows, watching over me during my darkest days. In turn, it is as if I sense her thoughts and yearnings, during the time of her greatest anguish, while she was incarcerated, when she had a vision she later described thusly: “Then came a Voice: Out of the confines of eternity I flew to humanity as light. From person to person I flow as warmth. When the great sun rises in the heart of humanity, I flow back to the limits of eternity as love. I am the pivot of the human world. I am eternity. My breath is Peace. Seek in the miracle of warmth flowing from harrowed person to harrowed person. Seek and you will find me.” –Iulia de Beausobre, from The Woman Who Could Not Die
(Tribute) In Memoriam, Carol Patrice Christ (1945-2021) by Mara Lynn Keller

“In Goddess religion death is not feared, but is understood to be a part of life, followed by birth and renewal.” — Carol P. Christ Carol Patrice Christ died peacefully on July 14 from cancer. Carol was and will remain one of the foremothers and most brilliant voices of the Women’s Spirituality movement. At the conference on “The Great Goddess Re-Emerging” at the University of California at Santa Cruz in the spring of 1978, Carol delivered the keynote address, “Why Women Need the Goddess: Phenomenological, Psychological, and Political Reflections.” Christ proposed four compelling reasons why women might turn to the Goddess: the affirmation and legitimation of female power as beneficent; affirmation of the female body and its life cycles; affirmation of women’s will; and affirmation of women’s bonds with one another and their positive female heritage (Christ 1979). Carol graduated from Yale University with a PhD in Religious Studies and went on to teach as a feminist scholar of women and religion, women’s spirituality, and Goddess studies, at institutions including Columbia University, Harvard Divinity School, Pomona College, San Jose State University, and the California Institute of Integral Studies, where she was an adjunct professor since the inception of the Women’s Spirituality, Philosophy and Religion graduate studies program in 1993. Christ published eight profoundly thoughtful and inspiring books, several in collaboration with her friend and colleague Judith Plaskow, whom she met at Yale: Diving Deep and Surfacing: Women Writers on Spiritual Quest (1986)Woman Spirit Rising: A Feminist Reader in Religion, anthology co-edited with Judith Plaskow (1992)Odyssey with the Goddess: A Spiritual Quest in Crete (1995) Weaving the Visions: New Patterns in Feminist Spirituality. Anthology co-edited with Judith Plaskow (1989) Laughter of Aphrodite: Reflections on a Journey to the Goddess (1987)Rebirth of the Goddess: Finding Meaning in Feminist Spirituality (1998)She Who Changes: Re-imaging the Divine in the World (2004)Goddess and God in the World: Conversations in Embodied Theology. Co-authored with Judith Plaskow (2016) Christ’s first book, about women writers on spiritual quest, is a book of spiritual feminist literary criticism that focused on feminist authors Kate Chopin, Margaret Atwood, Doris Lessing, Adriene Rich, and Ntozake Shange. She discovers four key aspects to women’s spiritual quest: the experience of nothingness; awakening (to the powers that are greater than oneself, often found in nature); insight (into the meaning of one’s life); and a new naming (in one’s own terms). She emphasizes the importance of telling women’s stories in order to move beyond the stories told about women by the male-centered patriarchy. Her concluding chapter speaks of a “Culture of Wholeness,” that encompasses women’s quest for wholeness, and she adds that, for this wholeness to be realized, the personal spiritual quest needs to be combined with the quest for social justice. After first travelling to Greece in 1981 with the Aegean Women’s Studies Institute led by her friend Ellen Boneparth, Carol fell in love with the country. She chose to live in Greece, first in Molivos on the beautiful island of Lesbos, and then moving recently to Heraklion, Crete. She had a passion for saving the environment and was active in the Green movement in Greece. she also had a love for swimming in the Aegean and sharing Greek food and wine with friends in Greece and from overseas. Carol’s fascination with Crete, ancient and modern, led her to found the Ariadne Institute for the Study of Myth and Ritual, through which she offered an educational tour, “Pilgrimage to the Goddess” twice annually. These tours introduced many to a direct experience of the ancient Earth Mother Goddess in Crete (goddessariadne.org). In her most recent article, for the Encyclopedia of Women in World Religion: Faith and Culture, Christ wrote about the Goddess religion and culture of her beloved island of Crete, and the roles women played in that “egalitarian matriarchal” civilization. Her eloquent words speak not only to the Goddess religion of ancient Crete, but also to the spirituality and ethical values she also cherished, which are much needed in our own culture today. As discerners and guardians of the mysteries, women created rituals to celebrate the Source of Life and to pass the secrets of agriculture, pottery, and weaving down through the generations. The major rituals of the agricultural cycle involved blessing the seeds before planting, offering the first fruits of the harvest to the Goddess, and sharing the bounty of the harvest in communal feasts. These rituals establish that life is a gift of the Goddess and institute gift-giving as a cultural practice. As women controlled the secrets of agriculture, it makes sense that land was held by maternal clans, that kinship and inheritance passed through the maternal line, and that governance and decision-making for the group were in the hands of the elders of the maternal clan. In this context, the intelligence, love, and generosity of mothers and clan mothers would have been understood to reflect the intelligence, love, and generosity of the Goddess.* *Carol P. Christ, “Crete, Religion and Culture” Encyclopedia of Women in World Religions: Faith and Culture across History [2 volumes] edited by Susan de-Gaia | Nov 16, 2018 ABC-Clio Santa Barbara 2019. https://www.magoism.net/2021/07/meet-mago-contributor-mara-lynn-keller-ph-d/
(Video 16) Genevieve Vaughan & Chiquie Estrada in Maternal Gift Economy: Breaking Through by Genevieve Vaughan

(Words of Invitation) Drawing on Maternal Gift Economy theory, the suppressed wisdom of women, and the traditions and ethics of Indigenous societies, this integrated programme of presentations sponsored by the International Feminists for a Gift Economy Network will offer new insights, perspectives, and challenges to the underlying market-based mentality of the dominant world order. In this time of crisis and systemic upheaval, the model of the Maternal Gift Economy on which our survival depends at the beginning of life, is being revealed and celebrated. The interdependence of all living beings can now be made visible and honored. Mother Earth provides the model of an economy based on gifting that we receive as young children from our nurturers—before we are alienated into market exchange. We must make the transition from the exploitive Euro-American patriarchal/dominating and capitalistic ideology to a gift-based economy and culture grounded in the values of nurturing and care rather than competition and greed. We invite you to join us in exploring the possibilities in this series of presentations and dialogues that bring together those who have been laboring to articulate the principles of the Maternal Gift Economy, protect Indigenous values, and practice peaceful and just community building. The time is now for all humans to cooperate rather than compete. Please join us! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGD5uXmMPzc&t=1s Discovering Genocidal History: Indigenous Children Speak from the Grave featuring Sherri Mitchell – Weh’na Ha’mu Kwasset (Penobscot Nation) and Miigam’agan (Wabanaki/Mi’kmaw). Moderated by Letecia Layson. Presented by Genevieve Vaughan and the International Feminists for a Gift Economy. July 3, 2021. For more information on the Maternal Gift Economy, see here. https://www.magoism.net/2014/06/meet-mago-contributor-genevieve-vaughan/
(Art) Migration by Liz Darling

The red is sort of symbolic as blood in the water – a nod to our terribly polluted oceans and damage to marine life (and by extension, all of us). (Meet Mago Contributor) Liz Darling.
(Nine Sister Networks E-interview) Max Dashu of the Suppressed Histories Archives by Carolyn Lee Boyd

[Editor’s Note: Return to Mago E-Magazine (RTME) introduces Sister Organizations under the banner of the Nine Sister Networks as a way of consolidating Matriversal Feminism previously known as Goddess Feminist Activist Spirituality. If you are interested in interviewing or being interviewed for this project, please see here. This interview was conducted through a Zoom meeting and its video recording and script are available below.] Carolyn: Welcome! I’m Carolyn Boyd, a contributor to the e-magazine Return to Mago and I will be interviewing Max Dashu, founder of the Suppressed Histories Archives. The interview is a part of an effort by Return to Mago E-magazine to introduce Sister Organizations under the banner of the Nine Sister Networks as a way of consolidating Matriversal Feminism, and making all our works more visible. First, let me introduce Max. Max Dashu founded the Suppressed Histories Archives in 1970 to research and document global women’s history. She teaches with images from her collection of more than 80,000 pictures, on female cultural heritages across time and space. She is internationally known for her expertise on iconography, matricultures, patriarchy and systems of domination; medicine women, shamans, witches, and the witch hunts. She is the author of Witches and Pagans: Women in European Folk Culture, 700-1100 which was published by Veleda Press in 2016 and Women in Greek Mythography: Pythias, Melissae and Titanides, which was published in 2023. So let’s start and get to some questions. Probably the most basic question is what is the overall mission of the Suppressed Histories Archives? Max: To scan the cultural record and to document women’s history on a fully global level. To research in an interdisciplinary way, looking from many angles, at many streams of information: from archaeology, history, Indigenous orature—all kinds of cultural testimony. To synthesize that information, to get some idea of who women have been in different times and places. The cultural record is, of course, incomplete, since much of it has been destroyed by patriarchalization and conquest. This undertaking is an ongoing process, that I won’t ever finish, of gathering, sifting and sorting, correcting and adding, comparing, and synthesizing. It’s not more complete, but it’s more than what we have been given—which is not much. What we want to know has been withheld, distorted, contested—or destroyed. All of us have a birthright to this ancestral knowledge, which has been hidden, sequestered in specialist corners of academia. We’re trying to trace our real history and heritages. Carolyn: I know that the Suppressed Histories Archives offers this information in many different ways. Could you tell us some of the things that you offer? Max: The visual evidence, for one thing, in photo essays, web pages and, increasingly, in videos. I do a lot of commentary on things that are coming through in present day research. So, for example, genome studies have thrown up a lot of information, revealing matrilocal societies and patterns of conquest. Historical linguistics is another important source of deep history. In my social media and annual courses I share commentary and links to articles and other resources. Carolyn: You actually have a pretty astounding reach. I think that you now have 267,000 followers on Facebook. Max: On the Suppressed Histories page on Facebook, that’s right. About 15,000 more on youtube, academia.edu and other platforms, with some overlap. Carolyn: That’s just amazing. What would you say some of the themes are that run though all this work that you are doing that you think are most important for people to know about now. Max: There are a lot of themes, such as female spheres of power, and where they persist even under patriarchy. My starting point was asking “Are there any places in the world where women are free,” and looking for matriarchal societies. They show a constellation of patterns, not only matrilineage and matrilocality, but social motherhood, communitarian kin groups, female authority commensurate with contribution, the work women do to sustain the life support matrix. The much-buried spiritual leadership of women, from medicine women to oracles and priestesses, and cultural wars to do away with them. Another theme is culturally significant symbols, recurring patterns. For example, the ancient female figurines were a starting point in my search for women in history; that’s what turned up in the paleolithic and neolithic archaeology, and even in later cultures. And from there it widened out into Goddess cosmologies and philosophies: the Creatrix, Great Mother, or Mother of the Gods (the netjeru, orisha, kachina). Old Woman, Cosmic Weaver; the female Divine as the Waters, Fire, Earth or the Heavens, as Snake Woman, Bee, Tiger or Jaguar Woman, Bear Mother, Spider Grandmother. Moon, Sun, planets, especially Venus (Inanna, Ishtar, Aphrodite, Oshun), or constellations, such as the Pleiades. Also principles of divine Law: Maāt, Dao, Wyrd, Aluna—and the ancestral mothers. I go into this spectrum in my article “The Meanings of Goddess,” and in my visual talks, especially Deasophy (“Goddess Wisdom,” my alternative to the feminist neologism “thealogy,” after christian “theology”). As Judy Grahn wrote, “Grand Grand Mother is returning…” I’m very interested in understanding patriarchy as a historical process, instead of a universal from the beginning of time. How did it come about? this colonization of women’s bodies and minds, in all its variations and common patterns around the world. Divide and Conquer is a main strategy of domination. They divided women in order to institute the patrilineage and the sexual double standard to ensure paternity, its basis. They pitted sisters of the patriline versus married-in wives (and often versus enslaved women) as several African feminists have pointed out. Early slavery was female slavery, as anthropologists caught on to long ago.We have to look at how conquest affects women, rape as basic to warfare. Men taking female captives turns into systemic trafficking of women, which degraded women’s status across the board, defining them as potential chattel. In The Iliad, even the royal women of Troy are taken captive and enslaved. The Trojan princess Kassandra is raped and becomes an enslaved concubine. So, the violence …

(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 […]
(Special Post Isis 3) Why the Color of Isis Matters by Mago Circle Members

[Editor’s note: The discussion took place in Mago Circle during the month of July, 2013. Our heartfelt thanks go to the members who participated in this discussion with openness and courage.] Part 3 Isis, Arab Women Revolution, and Black Goddesses Naa Ayele Kumari Going back to the original topic of the post…. Some quotes ” Women are in half the society… How come there are only 7 in the Assembly… and they are all Islamist! ” I can’t beat up my wife and almost kill her and call it discipline… this is not discipline… this is abuse and insanity” http://youtu.be/y4umifTLSII 12-Year Old Explains Egyptian Revolution in Under 3 Minutes www.youtube.com Max Dashu It is tremendously heartening to see these insights being expressed, and spread. The Salafis have made such inroads, and now the pushback is happening. Harita Meenee Dear Naa Ayele Kumari, thank you actually reading my post and commenting something relevant to it. It’s refreshing when someone does hear what we have to say instead of projecting their own notions. Building a solidarity movement with those who are oppressed but fighting is very important during these critical times! Harita Meenee See also: https://www.facebook.co/intifadat.almar2a?fref=ts The uprising of women in the Arab world انتفاضة المرأة في العالم العربي حرية الفكر ، حرية التعبير ، حرية الاعتقاد ، حرية التنقل ، حرية الجسد ، حرية اللب…See More Glenys Livingstone … as you say Max …” way too much of it going on” – amongst people who should know better (I would have thought): “Dark goddess as terrifying, challenging, white goddess as benign; “black magic” as harmful; I see way, way too much of this going on out there.” And related to that in my mind is all the “love and light” business that is so common: the Ground of Being is Dark … it seems to me that mystics have always understood the quintessential darkness of Love/Deity. Max Dashu Sure. I would just like to add that the critique raised here addressed issues much broader than the substance of the article, which made some good points. But once the choice of graphics flagged the issue of representation, people had much more to say about that old yet still very fresh wound which is constantly reopened by the cultural habit of whitening Egypt, or interpreting Africa through a eurocentric lens. It is not on any one person to carry the weight of that; we all have a responsibility to address the issues, but especially those of us of European heritage need to familiarize ourselves with how this plays out over and over. Just as men have a responsibility to speak up in support of women when patriarchal assumptions are on board. We all can learn something from each other, along all the various axes of domination, and overthrow them in coalition. Naa Ayele Kumari I have often considered where the roots of this psychology comes from. It is dualistic thinking that causes us to compare and contrast, then sum up judgement of good or bad and place a value on each. It extends into competition and justification for war. It also doesn’t escape me that often this came with certain civilizations who systematically destroyed others. It didn’t just happen with blacks in Africa… but blacks in Asia and the Indus Valley as well. With the Aryan invasions of India, came the eventual introduction to lighter divinities and more emphasis on male divinities. Southern Indians, Sri Lankans are very dark… even more so than many African Blacks. The caste systems implemented by the Aryan invaders did the same thing to them casting them as “untouchables”. With that came the marginalization of their black female divinities such as Kali. Kali actually has 10-16 forms… from compassionate mother, the fountain of wisdom, to she of great beauty but she is minimized as just destructive and terrifying… especially as Brhaman, Vishnuu, and Shiva grow in popularity. One of Kali’s statues has her black self standing on top of Shiva because she conquered him. Later there is a discussion in on of the Hindu text explaining Kali (as Parvati) after being subdued by Shiva she becomes lighter. Further they have stories about him rejecting her and calling her blackie which made her do austerities to rid herself of her black skin. Naa Ayele Kumari It should not be overlooked that in the Story of Alice in Wonderland… a story intended to keep Goddess elements for future generations, has the Elder sister ( the Queen of Hearts) portrayed as man, ego, and power driven who cuts off heads and has a fierce dragon…a clear reference to Kali. The White goddess as the younger sister is her opponent… and her mission is to usurp the throne of the Queen of Hearts even though she was the rightful heir as the oldest … or primordial. Stories like these also reinforce the stereotypes and negative iconography. Max Dashu Yes, it is pervasive in many cultures of domination. Demons are portrayed as black not only in Europe, which we know well, but also in China and in a lot of Buddhist iconography. In modern India, the sweet goddesses are shown as pink, the wrathful as black; and Krishna (name means “dark”) is turned powder blue. (Another of his titles, s’yam, also meaning dark, is the word translated as “green” in Green Tara.) The countercurrents (Black Mazu, loving Kali – esp in Bengal and south India, Black Madonna) bubbled up from the common people, who knew and longed for something other than the dominant racialized hierarchy. Naa Ayele Kumari I am just discovering Mazu ( Matzu/LuShui) in China today! Never knew about her. This discussion has led me to look deeper for black goddesses in Asia. Max Dashu Taoist spiritual tradition often refers to Xüan Nü, which can be translated in several ways. You’ll usually see it rendered as “the Mysterious Female,” a phrase that occurs in the Dao De Jing (Tao Te Ching), and this is a valid translation; but what is less emphasized is that it also means “the Dark Woman.” In […]
(Special Post Mother Teresa 1) A Role Model for Women? by Mago Circle Members

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

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

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

In the season leaves should love, since it gives them leave to move through the wind, towards the ground they were watching while they hung, legend says there is a seam stitching darkness like a name. Now when dying grasses veil earth from the sky in one last pale wave, as autumn dies to bring winter back, and then the spring, we who die ourselves can peel back another kind of veil that hangs among us like thick smoke. Tonight at last I feel it shake. I feel the nights stretching away thousands long behind the days, till they reach the darkness where all of me is ancestor. I turn my hand and feel a touch move with me, and when I brush my young mind across another, I have met my mother’s mother. Sure as footsteps in my waiting self, I find her, and she brings arms that hold answers for me, intimate, waiting, bounty: “Carry me.” She leaves this trail through a shudder of the veil, and leaves, like amber where she stays, a gift for her perpetual gaze. From Eve (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2010) (Meet Mago Contributor) Annie Finch
Imbolc: Through Goddess Eyes by Carolyn Lee Boyd

Photo by Carolyn Lee Boyd In times past, Creation’s Winter cupped me in her icy hand of sanctuary Gathered in, I sucked dormant life, and slumbered Till Earth’s rebirthing groans awakened my new body Now, older and full of life’s weeping and wondering awe At all that has happened in my decades on Earth I must shake myself into consciousness My seed’s opaque, blinding hull disintegrates and Bodyless, at last I can see through Goddess eyes I ache as my blood paints each flower petal I spin the whirlwind that cannot stop creating abundance I push the seasons through the year that mortals believe revolve of their own accord. Through Goddess eyes I can see me, I inhabit Winter’s hand as my own. I make the cold to slow creation of outside of me To gather the seed into fertile stillness within. That burgeons in my own time. https://www.magoism.net/2016/08/meet-mago-contributor-carolyn-lee-boyd/
(Music) Songs for Samhain by Alison Newvine

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

(Photo Essay 3) ‘Gaeyang Halmi, the Sea Goddess of Korea’ by Helen Hwang

Part III: Archaeology Bespeaks What Ideological Hetero-sexuality Can’t Do Our story-tellers informed us that Gaeyang Halmi is venerated and celebrated on January 14th annually on the lunar calendar. There are two separate rituals performed on that day. Villagers, both men and women, offer their ritual ceremony in the morning in Confucian style. The officiant must preserve the purification ritual, confining oneself to home to avoid ominous affairs for a week prior to the ceremony. After the ceremony of the villagers, Mudang groups come from outside the town and offer their Shaman rituals. A cleavage between two groups is still freshly detected in their narratives. While villagers conform to the Confucian style rituals with a despising but curious eye for the female-centered Shaman rituals, Mudangs are much more powerful in their capacities to command people, spirits, and materials. The Shamanic ritual celebration is fairly well-known domestically as well as overseas to the Chinese and the Japanese, according to our lore transmitters. People from China and Japan come to join the Mudang rituals, a vestige of the intercultural celebration that may have originated in ancient times, a point to be elaborated later. What caught my attention was the fact that the ritual celebration is known as the Ritual of Yongwang (the Dragon King) not the Ritual of Gaeyang Halmi. Our two narrators, Mr. Jeong Dong-Uk and Ms. Jeong Si-Geum, brother and sister, testified contradictorily vis-à-vis the Dragon King. Mr. Jeong mentioned that Gaeyang Halmi is the wife of Dragon King,[i] whereas Ms. Jeong spoke of Gaeyang Halmi as a solo deity without spouse. Ms. Jeong sternly said, “She was alone [without spouse]. She had eight daughters.” “It is said that there used to be a house wherein Gaeyang Halmi and her eight daughters lived together. I saw the cooking pots and household things in the ruin,” added Ms. Jeong. [Interestingly, the motif that she saw the cooking pots and other kitchen items in the ruin reminded me of other Mago folk stories from other regions. People seem to take such artifacts as pots and household things discovered in the ruin as an indication that the myth of Mago Halmi who is told to have lived in the place is plausible.] The topos of “the dragon king” was likely added later on to comply with Confucian ideology. In fact, none of our narrators mentioned the dragon king as the main deity of the Suseong Shrine. The fact that it is called the ritual of the dragon king suggests another layer of erosion/castration/dethronement done to the supreme divinity of Gaeyang Halmi.
(Book Announcement 4) Introduction (part 2) by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

[Editor’s Note: This Introduction is from She Rises: How Goddess Feminism, Activism, and Spirituality? Volume 2.] Pre-order available now! The Text of the Primordial Mother/the Creatrix/Mago She Rises Volume 2, like her predecessor, is born out of the Magoist vision.[i] It intends to raise the collective consciousness of WE, a cognitive symbolic system derived from the knowing of the Primordial Mother or the Creatrix. One may call it an embodied knowing or gynocentric epistemology. Our stories shed light on the holistic view in which all parts are revered as a microcosm of the Creatrix. The She Rises book is an emblem of gynocentric cosmology: All contributions are interconnected and the book is enriched by each and all contributions. This book is NOT just about what we have discovered and what we have experienced about Goddess feminism, activism, and spirituality but what and how we do with our discoveries and experiences. Where are we heading to with our knowing of S/HE? The collective consciousness of WE summons a gynocentric reality. This book is designed to show our togetherness in our uniqueness. It stands for unity that is enhanced by the diversity of individuals. The key phrase in the subtitle, “Goddess feminism, activism, and spirituality,” is a reminder of the all-embracing gynocentric way of our becoming. We ARE committed to the making of the book to reflect the gynocentric principle of unity in diversity. We allow our differences to lead us to a new (read gynocentric) territory without making ourselves fall into factionalism. Competition in a constructive manner helps us grow. But factionalism destroys us. We speak our truths not to argue or win. We speak our truths because they are true to us. Truth speaks, even when we can’t hear. And we trust ourselves to speak our truths in HER. And S/HE shall bring us together in WE. To trust in our contributors is the map that we editors have followed in She Rises collective books. In the process, we have learned that what we really need to be careful of, not the other camp of Goddessians, but what really divides us among Goddessians/Magoists. In my Introduction to She Rises Volume 1, I drew attention to the word “Goddess,” concerning our need to reclaim it despite its linguistic drawback. Summarily, we strategically adopt the word, “Goddess,” knowing its derivative and subsequently dualistic nature from the word “God” in the English language.[ii] We are aware of the functional nature of language, a means for the meaning that we intend to convey. We choose one word over another for our political and utilitarian reasons. Our use of the word “Goddess” has given us a common ground to come together and interweave the She Rises books. The Magoist vision of the book merits the stance that the Goddess is not just the female divine or a sum of female deities but the Great Goddess, the Primordial Mother. It is S/HE who allows us the holistic view of WE/HERE/NOW, the ultimate reality. We who are awakened in S/HE know that we ARE this S/HE reality. In writing my Introduction to the second book, another term has come to my attention, “feminine.” As seen in this book, some of our authors have favorably chosen the word, “feminine” in support of Goddess feminism, activism, and spirituality for reliable reasons. The context wherein the term is used is complex and highly suggestive of the female divine power. In their uses, some make it clear that the feminine refers to the female divine nature/power of women. Others use it in redefining and deconstructing patriarchal definitions of “the feminine.” It is true that “the divine feminine” or “the sacred feminine” has taken on popularity so much so that it appears almost indispensable in the Goddess Talk. Nonetheless, I hold that there is a point that we need to think and explore together the meaning of “feminine.” Linguistically speaking, referring to the gender quality of women, the meaning of “feminine” fluctuates. I find it worth broaching these questions to us: Is the term “feminine” empowering Goddess feminism? Why yes? Why no? These questions can only be answered by our authors and readers. We editors by no means advocate the purge of the term, feminine, from this book. Forcing unity is not gynocentric. We propose the question as an ongoing conversation among Goddessians. Here is my stance to the question, which is yes and no. When the context indicates an ancient (read gynocentric) or feminist meaning, the word “feminine” certainly empowers women. When “the divine feminine” indicates the Primordial Mother within an environment like this book, the word is empowering. Put differently, the meaning of “feminine” can be conveyed as gynocentric, that is, women-empowering, when “the divine feminine” refers to the Creatrix, the Great Goddess. In this case, the gender quality of “feminine” is coherent with the biological quality of “female.” The meaning of “feminine” in such context does NOT reflect the patriarchally-imposed qualities of women; the feminine is gynocentric and sacred. However, when the word “feminine” is used outside the gynocentric context, it becomes dubious in meaning, if not self-defeating, obstructing the impetus of women’s empowerment. Referring to the gender quality (read a social/patriarchal construct), of women, the meaning of “feminine” changes in different times and cultures. It is not free from socio-cultural settings. Being feminine today in the U.S. would be very different from being feminine two centuries ago. Also, being feminine today in one country would be very different from being feminine today in another country. On the other hand, the word, “female,” conveying the biological and biologically-derived quality of women, remains coherent in meaning across times and cultures. “Female” offers us a solid ground to build our feminist activism and feminist spirituality. Thus far, we women still hold the power of female biological and biologically-derived traits. The word, “feminine” alone risks a powerful conceptual ground for Goddess feminism. Precisely, it falls short in capturing the divine power of the Primordial Mother, the Creatrix. For example, I …
(Art) Nurture by Anna Tzanova

to feed and protect; to support and encourage; to foster and bring up; to train and educate; to develop and nourish; to care for and cherish… Such a multifaceted and meaningful word! It represents to me an essential quality of the Goddess. An aspect I strive to cultivate within, embody, and express externally. I use it to guide all my actions by asking myself, “Is this nurturing?”; “By doing this, what am I nurturing?” Very often, minds have been conditioned to counterpose nature and nurture, creating not only a divide, but also a controversy. The intrinsic feature of Nature is to nurture. The womb not only births, but nurtures. Nothing can be sustained or achieved without nurture. Nature teaches us the lesson of acceptance. Nurture – the lesson of patience. It also provides the opportunity and freedom of choice. Together, they intertwine and weave the entire Creation. What are you nurturing today? From She Rises: How Goddess Feminism, Activism, and Spirituality? Volume 2 (forthcoming, 2016). See (Meet Mago Contributror) Anna Tzanova.

Category: Feminism

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(Invitation) Organizers and/or Presenters for the S/HE Forum

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