February 15, 2023February 14, 2023 Mago WorkLeave a comment

Welcoming the Bees by Francesca Tronetti

Spring is one of my favorite times of year. In spring, I plan for my garden, one year a container on the deck, another year a pallet garden on the Read More …

January 31, 2023January 19, 2023 Mago WorkLeave a comment

Mother Wash it all Away by Frances Tronetti, Ph.D.

Watching the rain fall Pouring down on the windshield My day is not over, and it just has gotten worse The week started with a joke about getting a new Read More …

December 27, 2022December 27, 2022 Mago WorkLeave a comment

(Book Review) Raven Grimassi, What We Knew in the Night: Reawakening the Heart of Witchcraft (Newburyport, MA: Weiser Books, 2019) Reviewed by Francesca Tronetti

[Editor’s Note: This book review was first published in S/HE: An international Journal of Goddess Studies Vol 1 No 1, 2022.] Whether you go into a chain bookstore, an independent Read More …

December 21, 2022December 21, 2022 Mago WorkLeave a comment

2023 Post-Pandemic Resolutions by Francesca Tronetti

As we prepare for 2023, I can’t help but wonder if we will finally enter the expected post-pandemic. 2021 was as bad as 2020, with lockdowns still in effect and Read More …

October 19, 2022October 16, 2022 Mago WorkLeave a comment

Hygge as a component in Goddess Spirituality by Francesca Tronetti, Ph.D.

Hygge vs. Capitalist Spirituality As my research into capitalist and lazy spirituality continued, I became convinced that the more things we buy, the more we isolate ourselves from spirituality. Even Read More …

September 21, 2022September 18, 2022 Mago WorkLeave a comment

(Prose) The Goddesses of Autumn by Francesca Tronetti, Ph.D.

I love autumn. It is arguable my favorite season. I love wearing jeans, turtlenecks and sweaters, flannel and fleece. I love warming my hands around a hot chocolate and watching Read More …

September 14, 2022September 15, 2022 Mago WorkLeave a comment

(S/HE Article Excerpt) The Sacred Music of the Sistrum and Frame Drum: Percussion Instruments in the Worship of Goddesses from Ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece and Rome by Francesca Tronetti

[Editor’s Note: This article was previously published and is now available for a free download in S/HE: An International Journal of Goddess Studies in Volume 1 Number 1. Do not Read More …

July 15, 2022July 8, 2022 Mago Work1 Comment

Paganism and American Folk Magic Traditions by Francesca Tronetti

Pagans are people seeking spirituality. Not always religion, but true spiritual growth and freedom. Due to this desire, many seek out and learn from older cultural traditions, viewing these practices Read More …

June 15, 2022June 15, 2022 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Prose) Commerce takes us away from happiness by Francesca Tronetti, Ph.D.

Commerce, capitalism, and the economy, this is the driving force behind the stress in our lives. We must work to live, but we are told we should live to work. Read More …

May 18, 2022May 2, 2022 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

Work as a Devotion to the Divine Feminine by Francesca Tronetti

As you read the title you might think, ‘What does she mean by that? What kind of work qualifies as devotion? Working in a Goddess temple? Teaching? Opening a pagan Read More …

March 16, 2022March 16, 2022 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Essay 4) Click Here to Download Spirituality by Francesca Tronetti

The spiritual and self-care market walks a fine line between those who legitimately wish to help others along their spiritual path or deal with mental or emotional issues and those Read More …

February 9, 2022February 6, 2022 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Essay 3) Click Here to Download Spirituality by Francesca Tronetti

I enjoy watching TV shows set in the 1970s, primarily comedy ones and a few serious ones. A reoccurring episode plot was someone whose child joined the Hari Krishnas or Read More …

January 24, 2022January 10, 2022 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Essay 2) “Click Here” to Download Spirituality by Francesca Tronetti

While taking my deep dive into the world of subscription boxes in the fall of 2021, I became both excited and later depressed. I loved the idea of getting oodles Read More …

2014 in review, our heartfelt thank you to our contributors, readers, and supporters!

Dear Magoists of the world, With your love and support, it has been possible for us to transform our distances into communications–our diaspora into the Diaspora, as Mary Daly wished–for the year of 2014! It is with our great joy, gratitude, and solidarity that we share with you 2014 reports. We, editors, are infinitely thankful for our Mago Contributors and Mago Supporters who have generously and passionately continued to share your talents, visions, hearts, researches, and resources with us. Return to Mago Readers, please join me, Helen Hwang (Founding Director and Co-editor), in giving my special thanks to our Mago editing sisters, Rosemary Mattingley, Mary Saracino, and Donna Snyder, whom I dearly love and respect for their free services and Sisterhood to make Return to Mago possible for another year! We look forward to your continuous love and support for the coming year! Mago blessings to you, your loved ones, and all in WE!
(Prose) The Grandmothers by Sara Wright

When I first arrived in Abiquiu the Pedernal stood out above the other mountains with its imposing triangular shape and flattened top. Initially this mesa fascinated me because Georgia O’Keeffe painted it so often, but after a while, although I liked the Pedernal it became one mountain amongst many others… However, I also knew that the Navajo’s mythical Changing Woman was born on this flat – topped mesa and that story continued to intrigue me.
(Special Post 2) "The Oldest Cilivization" 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.
(Poem) Red Oak Prayer by Sara Wright

Photo by Sara Wright All Hallows 2020 Guardians… Cranes, Lizard who drinks from both fire and water and has a passionflower tail (with “buds and balls” – wow both genders – ‘he’ used to be male. Great Bear, Awi Usdi Red Oak you were a patient seedling who waited years for a green door to open beyond a cobalt sky. The fallen pine offered you ‘the way.’ At last you shine! Bittersweet orange and scarlet, oversized leaves tenaciously holding on when most others are withering away. Light winds, gifts of rain, maple leaves and scented needles compost your future. Deep roots meet with Pine People Your friends I’m told, fusing mycorrhizal threads into complex patterns that stretch across the forest floor, All search for minerals: nitrogen, phosphorous, precious water too. Nourished, you thrive. Not even insect damaged leaves can still your will to live. I feel you singing a love song to the sun. Eat all the light you need during this golden autumn before winter slows your blood and you fall asleep. Dreaming Our Future. I hug you with hungry eyes wondering who planted your seed. Was it cached by Squirrel or Jay? From acorn to tree – From DNA to Form. Horizontal Gene Transfer? Grow straight and tall. Leaf out, unfurl pointed fingers. Deep verdant green is summer shade. Come fall the Oak Fields of Yore will strengthen each limb prepare you to sleep, nurturing and protecting the Wise Wo/Man you already are. Working Notes/Prayer: I turn towards the steadfast oaks in my deepest distress. May I stand tall, stay with unwelcome betrayals, deep loneliness, a monster at the helm, insanity, murders, wars, bow again and again to ‘what is’. Like the druids and wise women healers who came before them, may I find refuge and strength within your groves, gain further perspective, and never forget how grateful I am to be alive and living among so many wise beings – both plant and animal and those invisible ones who inhabit the spaces in between. This year comes to an end in human induced chaos and communal exile – cultural realities that are inescapable unless virtual reality has stolen the human soul. With a madman’s insanity, the word ‘future’ loses meaning. Or creates terror of monumental proportions… We have lost so many animals, trees, roots, and people to death, indifference, dishonesty, cruelty, or starvation of one kind or the other. Our precious planet screams and still we refuse to listen…. Fires and Floods – Killers abound. Too many with guns. Our Greed has gone viral like Covid 19, killing millions, and now there is no turning back. It is spiking in Maine (first time since spring – now it’s a real threat here) and the rest of the country. Some of us have stayed awake through this holocaust, but I am one who must force herself to climb into each day with a resolve that is slowly eroding, collapsing a floor that once held me secure. I am sinking into mold, fog bound, marshy oblivion… So I cry out for the comfort of trees who bend love over bare branches, listening for the Messenger who clasps his heart around my dreams. In Greek mythology we uncover a totally different story. Oak trees were associated with thunder and lightening. The tree was sacred to Zeus and the gods of the sky most of which were war gods. Curiously, Oaks often survive being hit by lightening. I can’t help wonder if the oak tree that I am growing inside might be able to withstand being hit by lightening? With a full moon dimming the stars in the sky I cry out to the Great Bear: What will the Hunter’s Full Moon reveal? COYOTES HOWL NIGHT OF 10/30 – full moon 9 am tomorrow… trickster’s reign begins… Water Blessing (1): Release: shame that I need so much help now to the fire Water Blessing(2) : Blessing of the House – 4 corners… House, self – health of my BODY, animals, friends. Breathing and Prayer (1) Prayer that the floors of our house will hold…that we will be safe… that my body will manage the mold – somehow. That our bodies like the house body will get the help we need… (2) Prayer that I might become the oak who can withstand fire and lightening strikes…whose strength will help me deal with the future . (3) a prayer for RAIN… (4) a fervent prayer to stay emotionally attached – emotionally to a few people to help with loneliness… Giving thanks for surviving this year, for every act of courage I have mustered to live with the hole that permeates body and soul as well as my house. A hole and rotting timbers. Honoring myself. Giving thanks for trees, for finding “home” after four years of desert wandering… giving thanks for appreciating each breath I take inside and out. For seeing and hearing Sandhill cranes! And at this 11th hour I give thanks for Marcus and Mark – the Son and his Father who have come into my life – a slender but tough and honest thread of hope that now interrupts my fear… (Meet Mago Contributor) Sara Wright
(Pandemic Poem 2) Transmuted by Jyoti Wind

Lotus flower, Longs Gardens, PA. Photo by Jyoti Wind We are changed. Even if not sick, even though not asymptomatic, even though not on the front lines, the virus has changed us. On a mental, emotional and cellular level, we are changed. Our future is not where we thought we were going. Our present is drastically different. A virus transmutes its host. Its host is the world. We have all been transmuted one way or another. https://www.magoism.net/2020/08/meet-mago-contributor-jyoti-wind/
(Essay 2) Mago Halmi (Great Mother) Shapes Topographies with Her Skirt: An Introductory Discussion by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

[Author’s Note: This essay was included in the journal, S/HE: An International Journal of Goddess Studies (Vol 3 No 1, 2024). Footnotes numbers here differ from those of the original article.] Namu Wiki image General Observations The combination of the crone (the female) and the cosmogonist (the supreme divine) may come as odd to many moderns. In fact, they have meandered through the mind of Korean folklorists for the last few decades.[1] That many local topographies that these stories refer to are historical, scenic, and/or ritual sites proves vital in ascertaining the importance of Mago Halmi folktales. Many of these places are also known for archaeological finds, historical anecdotes, or cultural and ritual practices. In some cases, the 21 sample stories represent only a version of the story or an abridged version. Many stories are still currently told. Sources inform that there are more stories told by men than women. Mago Halmi folktales are the first-person plural (“we” and “our”) narratives told by the storytellers who have been transmitted the stories by their ancestors. Truth is that Mago folktales are unapologetic in endorsing “Mago Halmi” as the supreme divine. Mago Halmi stories link the Creatrix, women, and girls. The message is that designating the female as the representative of the Creatrix is soteriological, aligned nature’s way of nurturing Life. The 93 tales of the skirt motif are only a portion of Magoist cosmogonic folktales. They are drawn from the large pool of folk stories, approximately over several hundreds, which I have documented for the last twenty-some years.[2] These skirt-motif stories, which come with placenames, recur throughout all provinces of South Korea.[3] The majority of 93 stories displays the basic narrative structure: Mago Halmi (Great Mother, Grandmother, or Crone) is told to have placed or altered such local topographies as mountains, menhirs, dolmens, cairns, and strongholds by bringing them in her skirt from elsewhere. The cosmogonic tales of Mago Halmi indicate that: (1) Cosmogony is the major theme of Mago folklore and toponymy. (2) “Mago Halmi” is the standard reference for the cosmogonist among the populace. (3) The skirt motif is an apparatus to assure the female principle of the Magoist Cosmogony. (4) The skirt motif is, although the most favorably mentioned, only one of many ways of describing Mago Halmi’s creation. After the skirt, urination may come next. All human actions are attributed to Mago Halmi in her creation: defecation, walking, handcrafting, hand-searching, foot-printing, prop-using, and sighing. (5) Mago Halmi cosmogonic stories embody the pacific and egalitarian ethos of Koreans. (6) Women are the primary representative of Mago Halmi. (7) “Mago Halmi” embodies the merged persona of the Magoma Divine (Mago, the Creatrix, and Goma, the Heavenly Shaman Queen Mother or the Heavenly Hera). (8) The submerged character of Goma, better known as Ungnyeo (Bear/Sovereign Woman), manifests as the Cetacean Goddess or the Water Goddess. Goma connects the Cetacean Divine and Mago, the Creatrix. (9) The folkloric persona of Mago Halmi displays a broad range of divine identities including the cosmogonist, the mountain deity, the Magoist luminary or Mage (Seonin 仙人), the sea deity, the strong girl, and the giant woman. (10) Mago Halmi cosmogonic tales define its storytellers as the People of the Creatrix. And vice versa. Magoist Koreans have created, innovated, and transmitted Mago Halmi cosmogonic stories. (11) That Mago Halmi folktales and placenames recur densely in the Korean Peninsula substantiates the mytho-history of Magoism, a schema of human evolution within the matriversal reality of WE/HERE/NOW. To understand the nature of Mago Halmi skirt motif cosmogonic folktales, a via negativa approach is helpful: Mago Halmi, the Cosmogonist, does NOT create local topographies from nothing. She is told to move, shape, and/or alter near and distant topographies. Mago Halmi, the Cosmogonist, did NOT complete “creation” of the world once in the beginning. Her “creation” takes place HERE and NOW in WE. Mago Halmi, the Cosmogonist, does NOT reside apart from the natural world, HER offspring. Perceived through her human progeny, S/HE acts like village women, mothers, and girls. The divide between the divine and the human is thin and crossed. Likewise, the divide between the sacred and the worldly or the profane is blurred. Mago Halmi, the supreme divine, does NOT punish or award one people over the other. S/HE is the Cause and the Source of ALL in the Matriverse. Life proceeds according to the principle of causal becoming. In almost all skirt-motif stories, Mago Halmi does NOT accompany her male counterpart. Men are NOT present in most Mago Halmi skirt stories. [1] Scholarly articles on Mago Halmi folktales have mushroomed among Korean folklorists for the last two decades. At large, they show a range of focuses belonging to one or more of these three categories: classification of Mago Halmi folktales, Mago Halmi’s identity and her toponyms, and ideas to utilize them for local attractions. These three categories, however, have become so widely circulated among experts and the public that it is difficult to cite them individually. [2] I realize that the full scale of Mago folklore and toponymy escapes an attempt to document. Considering that Magoist Cetaceanism is at the root of the ethos and the mythos of Koreans, Mago folklore and toponymy permeate the very fabric of Korean culture. [3] Mago folktales and placenames are not limited to South Korea. My documentation includes a broader range of pan-East Asian countries, North Korea, China, and Japan, which I call the cultural hemisphere of ancient Magoist Korea. (To be continued) https://www.magoism.net/2013/07/meet-mago-contributor-helen-hwang
(Photo Essay 4) Goddess by Kaalii Cargill

“One of the strongest links we still have to the Goddess is through the life-giving power of the feminine. Women still give life through their bodies. This is so obvious that we forget the magic of it. Life does not come through men’s bodies, test tubes, or incubators; life still comes into being through women’s bodies. Despite contraceptive chemicals and more than two thousand years of negative conditioning, women’s bodies continue to respond to the cycles of the moon, to the rhythms of Nature. The ancient magic of the life-giving power of the feminine is still with us.” Except from Don’t take It Lying Down: Life According to the Goddess, Dr Kaalii Cargill PhD. Birthing or menstruating woman, Göbekli Tepe, c 9000BCE. Carved pole with birthing woman at base, Göbekli Tepe, c 9000BCE. Giving birth, Çatalhöyük, 7500-5700 BCE. Sheel-na-gig, Ireland, c 12th Century CE. And the attempted takeover: Contrary to “God’s” instruction, “pagan fertility symbols” credit divine powers to the creation instead of the father God creator . You bet they do! Meet Mago Contributor KAALII CARGILL
(Essay Part 1) Restoring Dea – Female Metaphor for Deity by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This essay is the first part in a series of edited excerpts from chapter 3 of the author’s book, PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. Almost every ancient culture’s creation myth begins with Her.[1] In the beginning was the Matrix, and the Matrix was all there was. “Before creation a presence existed …(which)… pervaded itself with unending motherhood.”[2] This Matrix was not “feminine”, in any stereotypical way, which would limit Her to a certain mode of being. She was beyond all pairs of opposites. As the beginning and end of all things, She contained it all – she was yin and yang, right and left, dark and light, linear and cyclic, immanent and transcendent. There was not an either/or. She was not carved up into bits, apportioned a certain fragment of being – She was a totality. She bore within herself all of the polarities.
I Cerridwn by Jennifer Powell

Art by Jennifer Powell I have long been held in the sway of the Welsh myths and Cerridwen had always held great power for me. She was seen as a triple Goddess as a shapeshifting Shamaness and a Birth and Death Mother. I was inspired by the image of her rising as the moon at twilight and taking the dying Sun into her body to sail across the ocean of night to birth the Sun at dawn. It gave me a hopeful sense of the potential of the new day and that the power of creating that day is now and has always been in my hands. This painting is about seven years old and as usual when it was finished it got stuck in a dark corner and I hardly saw it. Then a few months ago after the death of my beloved I had to move house. I decided to hang the painting in the study just a few feet from where I am now sitting at my computer. It wasn’t just the loss of my beloved but also the house we had shared together, and I felt like I had been disassembled, deconstructed. My life was never going to be the same again and I had to make myself anew. Because I had painted myself as Cerridwen the image gave me some comfort some hope. Perhaps it is because it is coming up to the anniversary of my great sorrow or maybe I had let myself get a bit overwhelmed, but I seemed to manufacturing difficulties for myself. I was contemplating this while looking at the painting and I noticed something I had never really seen before but there is a slight look of weariness in my painted face. I saw and felt my humanity I didn’t want to be responsible all the time I wanted to rest from the creation of myself and my life I wanted to sleep it all away. Last weekend I was visited by one of my oldest and dearest friends and we did what we have done whenever possible over the last fifty-five years, we drank gallons of tea and put the world to rights. We would share our joys and pains confess our struggles and pull tarot cards for inspiration and insight. The last card of the three incredibly pertinent cards had a line in it so powerful it vibrated through me like a great bell. It is from the Osho Zen Tarot pack and the card is called We Are The World. “When we can combine our tremendous inner wealth to create a treasure of love and wisdom that is available to all, we are linked together in the exquisite pattern of eternal creation.” All my adult life whenever I have been low or ill or in a dark place people have said to me, “Jennifer are you painting you know you are only well when you’re working.” They are right I know that, but it is not just the work although it certainly does help keep me sane. But it is about being caught up in that “exquisite flow” That creative energy that flows through the universe the energy with which the Divine makes itself manifest. It is time for me to get back into the boat create myself anew as a new dawn awaits me. https://www.magoism.net/2016/12/meet-mago-contributor-jennifer-powell/

(Special Post 2) 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: Here is another image of the nine-headed Lernaean Hydra slain by Herakles. https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydra_(mythology)… Glenys Livingstone: Yes, the Hercules story is more documentation of the Old Battle, of the rise of the “hero” to slay the Mother, when in the earliest of times he served with his beauty and labours. It is so interesting to see the analogies in other cultures/places as you are doing Helen, especially in Asia – it seems important work. Your perseverance is paying off, and will. Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: Glenys, I am re-reading a book on Chinese mythology and found a lot more on the nine Magoist symbolism. Someday, I hope to write about the topic in its own right. Glenys Livingstone: This chapter’s work is good re the Old Battle in Greek mythology: Valaoritis, Nanos. “The Cosmic Conflict of Male and Female in Greek Mythology”, in From the Realm of the Ancestors: An Anthology in Honor of Marija Gimbutas. Joan Marler (ed). Manchester CT: Knowledge, Ideas and Trends Inc., 1997, p.247 – 261. Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: Now back to the female divine who is depicted with the nine heads. See the nine-headed Guanyin/Kannon/Gwaneum. Also note that her icon comes in eleven-headed (the 8 Daughters and the Triad Creatrix, which makes eleven). http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/kannon.shtml Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: The symbol of nine dragons was adopted by imperial China. See the Nine Dragon Wall China. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine-Dragon_Wall Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: We connect the dots. When Guanyin is depicted with nine dragons, it conveys that the nine symbolism was/is once deemed sacred. https://i.pinimg.com/originals/4a/17/b3/4a17b33d9a4ae53bad6466a0eaf11722.jpg How popular the Guanyin icon, three headed and eight armed, to this day! Simply Google “eight armed Guanyin.” Below is from the Late Ming Dynasty, China. https://www.google.com/search?q=eight%20armed%20guanyin… She comes in a different name, Ushnishavijaya, in Tibetan Buddhism. https://www.himalayanart.org/items/65445 Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: We can draw that the female deity such as Guanyin and Ushnishavijaya, just to name two, is venerated in association with the nine symbolism. Within the mytho-history of Magoism, I infer that Guanyin or Ma Guanyin is a persona embodying Goma, the Magoist Shaman ruler of Danguk (3898 BCE-2333 BCE), the head of Nine Hans (Magoist Koreans). Note that Magoist shamans or priestesses are called “Mago.” See my essay, “Goma, the Shaman Ruler of Old Magoist East Asia/Korea and Her Mythology,” in Goddesses in Myth, History and Culture (Lytle Creek, CA: Mago Books), 2018. The insight that the major Goddesses in East Asia and beyond point to the same and old divine persona is NOT farfetched, considering that the nine-headed snake or dragon representing the female sovereignty of pre-patriarchal times is slain by male heroes across cultures. Judy E Foster: I’d have to agree with you here. As usual, interesting information! Patty Kay: My meditation this morning was on a history of mysticism. While I’m in the midst of appropriating all of the wonderful beliefs I find here, I also have found a strand in my own tradition that helps me understand why all the Divine Feminine stuff makes so much sense to me. I’ve been trying to determine when the patriarchal world view took over. According to this history, mysticism began to emerge in about 800 to 500 BCE. Could it be that mysticism kept alive the ancient understanding of the cosmos? This is just speculation, but in it I’m answering my own questions. (To be continued) Join us in The Mago Circle https://www.facebook.com/groups/magoism/.
(Special Post 8) Why Goddess Feminism, Activism, and Spirituality?

[Editor’s Note: This was first proposed in The Mago Circle, Facebook Group, on March 6, 2014. We have our voices together below and publish them in sequels. Special thanks to Trista Hendren, founder and author of The Girl God, who passionately and painstakingly promotes the message of each contributor via Facebook’s memes. Without Trista’s devotion to the advocacy, this collective effort would not have continued. It is an ongoing project and we encourage our reader to join us! Submit yours today to Helen Hwang (magoism@gmail.com). Or visit and contact someone in Return to Mago’s Partner Organizations.] Marija Krstic-Chin To remember who we really are (nature, cycles, network, creative force, one, infinite…) for the benefit of all of humanity and all living things; and to unite and unify as we broadcast, hand down, protect and defend this truth and each other against the oppressive intentions and actions of patriarchal perpetrators, puppets, and pawns who seek to enslave us by various old and new divide-and-conquer strategies.
(Special Post 7) Why Goddess Feminism, Activism, and Spirituality?

[Editor’s Note: This was first proposed in The Mago Circle, Facebook Group, on March 6, 2014. We have our voices together below and publish them in sequels. Special thanks to Trista Hendren, founder and author of The Girl God, who passionately and painstakingly promotes the message of each contributor via Facebook’s memes. Without Trista’s devotion to the advocacy, this collective effort would not have continued. It is an ongoing project and we encourage our reader to join us! Submit yours today to Helen Hwang (magoism@gmail.com). Or visit and contact someone in Return to Mago’s Partner Organizations.] Kaalii Cargill: Life emerges from the Feminine: Woman, Nature, Goddess. When we value the life-giving power of the Feminine we are less likely to kill other human beings who have been held in a mother’s arms.

(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 …
Happy New Year, Year 2/5916 Magoma Era! by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

“The Bell of King Seongdeok, known as the Emille Bell, a massive bronze bell at 19 tons is the largest in Korea.” Wikimedia Commons. Cast in 771, the bell reenacts the music of whales to remind people of the Female Beginning, the self-creative power innate all beings. Today is Day 2 of the New Year in the reconstructed Magoist Calendar characterized by 13 months per year and 28 days per month. We are heading toward the Solstice that falls on Dec. 21/22 (Day 5 of the first month in the Magoist Calendar), which happens to be the day of the first full moon of Year 2. Below is the details about the Magoist Calendar. https://www.magoacademy.org/2018/03/27/magoist-calendar-13-month-28-day-year-1-5915-me-2018-gregorian-year/ The Gregorian year 2018 marks a watershed in that we began to implement the Magoist Calendar. The Magoma Era is based on the onset of the nine-state confederacy of Danguk (State of Dan, the Birth Tree) traditinally dated 3898 BCE-2333 BCE. We just passed Year 1 or 5915 Magoma Era (the Gregorian 2018). For Year 1, we had the New Year Day on December 18 of 2017, the first new moon day before the December Solstice. That makes December 18 of 2017 our lunation 1, the first lunar year that the reconstructed Magoist Calendar determines its first day of the Year 1! Although relatively short in history, the Mago Work began to celebrate the Nine Day Mago Celebration on the day of December Solstice annually since 2015. With the reconstructed Magoist Calendar, we placed it in its due timeframe, the Ninth Month and the Ninth Day, which fell on August 8, 2018 (US PST) and celebrated it for the first time according to the Magoist Calendar. Apparently, this had to be a mid-Summer event. This left us with another seasonal event, the New Year/Solstice Celebration. For Year 2, we hold the 3 Day New Year/Solstice Celebration on December 20, 21, and 22 (December 22 to be the Solstice Dat in PST) and the Virtual Midnight Vigil as a precussor to the New Year Day. http://www.magoacademy.org/2018/07/17/2018-5915-magoma-era-year-1-nine-day-mago-celebration/ https://www.magoacademy.org/home-2/new-year-solstice-celebrations/ We just greeted the Year 2 by holding the event called Virtual Midnight Vigil during which we sounded the Korean temple bell, in particular the Emile Bell or the Divine Bell of King Seongdeok the Great, to the world. A few from around the globe (Germany, Korea, Italy and the US) participated in it or hosted their own local vigils. The Korean temple bell is the key symbol for the Magoist Calendar as well as the Magoist Cosmogony. It is not a coincidence that it is struck on the midnight of the New Year’s Eve. It is Korean tradition that even modern Koreans gather at the bell tower in Seoul to hear the sound of the bell at midnight. And these bells are gigantic weighing 19 tons in the case of the Emile Bell. That this convention has an ancient Magoist root remains esoteric. For not only they strike the bell 28 times in the evening indicating the 28 lunar stations that the Moon stops by in the sky throughout the year (please read below what the 28 day lunar journey means and how it is represented by women). But also the Korean temple bell is no mere acoustic device to play the beautiful sound only. It is designed to reenact the Magoist Cosmogony. https://www.magoacademy.org/2018/12/14/virtual-midnight-vigil-dec-17-2018-to-new-year-year-2-5916-magoma-era/ That said, that is not what’s all about the Korean Magoist convention of welcoming the New Year by sounding the temple bell, however. That the bell sound is a mimicry of the music of whales has been in the hand of wisdom seekers! Ancient Korean bells testify that whales are with us in the journey of the Moon and her terrestrial dependents headed by women. You may like to hear the sound of the Magoist Korean whale bell included in the Participation Manual for Virtual Midnight Vigil below. Happy New Year to all terrestrial beings in WE/HERE/NOW! https://www.magoacademy.org/2018/12/16/participation-manual-for-virtual-midnight-vigil-year-2/
Lammas/Late Summer in PaGaian tradition By Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

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

This article is an edited excerpt from Chapter 7 of the author’s book PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. I always wore a special headpiece for the Seasonal ceremonies when I facilitated them over the years, and I feel that any participant may do so, not just the main celebrant. My ceremonial headpiece with its changing and continuous Seasonal decoration took on increasing significance over the years; it became a personal central representation of the year-long ceremonial art process of creating, destroying and re-creating. For the research period of my doctoral studies particularly, when I was documenting the process, I realised that this headpiece came to represent for me the essence of “She” – as Changing One, yet ever as Presence – as I was coming to know Her. In my journal for the Mabon/Autumn Equinox process notes one year I wrote: As I pace the circle with the Mabon headpiece in the centre, I see “Her” as She has been through the Seasons … the black and gold of Samhain, the deep red, white and evergreen of Winter, the white and blue of Imbolc, the flowers of Eostar, the rainbow ribbons of Beltane, the roses of Summer, the seed pods and wheat of Lammas, and now the Autumn leaves. I see in my mind’s eye, and feel, Her changes. I am learning … The Mother knowledge grows within me. The headpiece, the wreath, the altar, the house decorations, all participate in the ceremony: they are part of the learning, the method, the relationship – similar to how one might bring flowers and gifts of significance to a loved one at special moments. Then further, the removal and re-creation of the decorations are part of the learning – an active witness to transformation through time.
(Mago Almanac Excerpt 7) Introducing the Magoist Calendar by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

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

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

(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.
(Essay 1) Returning Home with Mago, the Great Goddess, from East Asia by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

[Author’s Note: This essay was first published in Trivia, Voices of Feminism, Issue 6, September 2007.] I come from Korea. When I say I came from Korea, I do not mean “Korea” in a nationalistic sense. Nationalism, reinforced by international politics as a cardinal rule of the global community, precludes the agency of women; it is a game of the patriarchal controllers. When I say I am Korean, I mean I am a Magoist Korean, a gynocentric Korean. My Korean identity refers to my cultural and historical root. Fortunately, I have found my Korean gynocentric root in the tradition of Mago, the Great Goddess, from East Asia.1
(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.

Category: Francesca Tronetti

Welcoming the Bees by Francesca Tronetti

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Mother Wash it all Away by Frances Tronetti, Ph.D.

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(Book Review) Raven Grimassi, What We Knew in the Night: Reawakening the Heart of Witchcraft (Newburyport, MA: Weiser Books, 2019) Reviewed by Francesca Tronetti

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2023 Post-Pandemic Resolutions by Francesca Tronetti

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Hygge as a component in Goddess Spirituality by Francesca Tronetti, Ph.D.

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(Prose) The Goddesses of Autumn by Francesca Tronetti, Ph.D.

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(S/HE Article Excerpt) The Sacred Music of the Sistrum and Frame Drum: Percussion Instruments in the Worship of Goddesses from Ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece and Rome by Francesca Tronetti

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Paganism and American Folk Magic Traditions by Francesca Tronetti

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(Prose) Commerce takes us away from happiness by Francesca Tronetti, Ph.D.

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Work as a Devotion to the Divine Feminine by Francesca Tronetti

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(Essay 4) Click Here to Download Spirituality by Francesca Tronetti

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(Essay 3) Click Here to Download Spirituality by Francesca Tronetti

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(Essay 2) “Click Here” to Download Spirituality by Francesca Tronetti

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Mago Almanac Year 8 (for 2025)

S/HE: IJGS V3 N2 2024 (B/W Paperback)

S/HE: IJGS V3 N1 2024 (B/W Paperback)

2025 S/HE Conference Program Booklet

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