January 13, 2016November 15, 2019 RTM EditorLeave a comment

(Essay) The Living Earth: What She Reveals by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This is an edited version of a radio program by the author in 1994, on 2BLU 89.1 FM, Blue Mountains, Australia, in the context of a series called “Remembering the Read More …

December 23, 2015November 15, 2019 RTM EditorLeave a comment

(Essay) Coming Home to Our Senses: Placing Ourselves with Story By Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This essay is an edited excerpt from Chapter 8 of the author’s book PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. In the Old Western Way, The receipt of story by eyes Read More …

November 18, 2015November 15, 2019 RTM Editor1 Comment

(Essay) Mary as Christian Goddess by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This is an edited version of a radio program by the author in 1994, on 2BLU 89.1 FM, Blue Mountains, Australia, in the context of a series called “Remembering the Read More …

October 30, 2015November 15, 2019 RTM EditorsLeave a comment

(Poem) Blessing of the Ancient One by Glenys Livingstone

Taking the pose of Bird-Headed Snake Goddess I invoke Her, Ancient One. She has set Her seal upon me. I feel Her passion and Her anger within me. She Read More …

October 14, 2015March 31, 2022 RTM Editor1 Comment

(Essay) A Cosmic Metaphor for Creativity by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This is an edited excerpt from the author’s doctoral research, “The Female Metaphor – Virgin, Mother, Crone – of the Dynamic Cosmological Unfolding: Her Embodiment in Seasonal Ritual as Catalyst Read More …

September 16, 2015November 15, 2019 RTM EditorLeave a comment

(Essay) Spring Equinox Thoughts by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

Spring Equinox (or Eostar as it is often named) may be storied as the Seasonal Moment of Heraic Return. I have summarised the Moment as ‘stepping into the joy and Read More …

August 19, 2015November 15, 2019 RTM EditorsLeave a comment

(Poem) Beginning Again by Glenys Livingstone

The Mother within reweaves the Fabric – the torn Fabric torn in the weak spots. She sets to work with all Her love and consciousness picking up Read More …

July 15, 2015November 15, 2019 RTM EditorLeave a comment

(Essay) Women and Religion – What’s Happening by Glenys Livingstone (1980)

This is the third in a three part series of old articles and papers by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D. that were written in the 1980’s and 1990’s, two of which were Read More …

June 17, 2015November 15, 2019 RTM EditorLeave a comment

(Essay) Winter Solstice – Celebrating Birthing New Being by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

Winter Solstice is the time in our annual orbit around Sun when the dark part of the day is longest. Traditionally it has been celebrated by our Gaian ancestors in Read More …

May 13, 2015July 4, 2023 RTM Editor1 Comment

(Essay) Exodus 1980 Revisited by Glenys Livingstone (1994)

This is the second in a three part series of old articles and papers by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D. that were written in the 1980’s and 1990’s, two of which were Read More …

April 20, 2015November 15, 2019 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Essay 5) Response by Dr. Glenys Livingstone to Magos, Muses, and Matrikas: The Magoist Cosmogony and Gynocentric Unity by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.

[Author’s note: This paper is published in the journal, the Gukhak yeonguronchong 국학연구론총 (Issue 14, December 2014). Here it will appear in five sequels including the response by Dr. Glenys Livingstone. Numbers Read More …

March 9, 2015November 15, 2019 RTM Editor3 Comments

(Essay) Notes on Leaving Christianity by Glenys Livingstone (1989)

This is the first in a three part series of old articles and papers by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D. that were written in the 1980’s and 1990’s, two of which were Read More …

February 9, 2015November 15, 2019 RTM EditorLeave a comment

(Essay) Lammas/Imbolc Earth Moment February 2015 by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

In the Southern Hemisphere, it is the Season of the waxing dark … we are just past the cross-quarter moment named as Lammas, between Summer Solstice and Autumn Equinox: it Read More …

Meet Mago Contributor, Mary Ann Beavis

Mary Ann Beavis (Ph.D., Cambridge University) is Professor of Religion and Culture at St. Thomas More College, the University of Saskatchewan (Saskatoon, Canada). Her areas of specialization include Christian Origins, Feminist Biblical Interpretation, and Women and Religion. The courses she teaches include “Goddesses in Myth and History,” and her current research project, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada, is a study of women who blend Goddess Spirituality and Christianity. Her books include Mark’s Audience, Jesus and Utopia, Mark (Paideia Commentaries), and Hebrews (Wisdom Commentaries), and two edited volumes, The Lost Coin: Parables of Women, Work and Wisdom, and Feminist Theology with a Canadian Accent. She is the author of many peer-reviewed articles, five of which reflect her current interest in the Mary Magdalene/Mary of Bethany tradition.
Bulletin Board

August 28, 2017 Dear Readers and Contributors, Return to Mago E-Magzine has moved to a server and is now up running again. If you still don’t see the new website, please refresh your browser’s cache. http://www.wikihow.com/Clear-Your-Browser%27s-Cache (This might be helpful.) As you will see, she has been radically remodeled and will continue to accommodate new applications in the coming weeks. Please check out up-to-date new features: 1. A new widget/application on the sidebar will randomize to show previous posts. This means that readers have access to old posts that would have been otherwise fossilized. Nonetheless, the new website does not allow old post to be commented. For this, I have created a comment form, “I like what you said because…” and made it available on the sidebar. Please feel free to check out older posts and encourage our contributors by leaving your comments in the form and submitting it. Your comments will be posted under “Reader’s Notes” available through the sidebar widget. You will see all of these devices on the sidebar and can’t miss them. https://www.magoism.net/notes-to-an-old-post/ 2. Anyone who is interested in submitting her/his contribution, please feel free to use the submission for included in Call for Contributions. RTM August Newsletter is still coming. Talk to you soon again! Executive Editor/Co-founder Helen Hwang
(Fiction) The Renegrade Goddess Breaks the Rules by Carolyn Lee Boyd

Photo by Carolyn Boyd Free will, that deep and fiery conundrum, had never been more perplexing than when the Great Creatrix coiled a lump of ultimate reality in Her hands to make human beings. She constructed humans to have fragile but powerful bodies, minds, and souls. This combination of vulnerability and might made them potentially genius and awe-inspired co-creators as well as reckless and enormously dangerous. She could abandon these beings all together and ensure the well being of all other life on the planet, giving up all the beauty and love they might bring into being, but She had become both fascinated by and motherly towards them and was determined to find a way to bring them into the growing web of Earthly life. She had three paths before Her. She could make us unconsciously follow instinct alone, unaware of ourselves or Her, playthings wallowing in a shallow, dreary, and carefree but absolutely safe existence. We could be aware of Her and ourselves, but only do and be what She decreed, more companionable and sheltered from peril but still unfree without the possibility of growth. Or, She could grant us our will, opening the door to a magnified world of brilliance, inspiration, and magic, or, if we did not follow the basic directions of the universe, doom all life on Earth to annihilation. Finally She decided that if She were to offer free will, She and the other Earth goddesses could not make this first decision between living in a harmless world and liberty for us. She gathered the goddesses and told them that humans must determine our own fate by choosing to go down one of the three paths alone. The goddesses must not interfere even though it would be easier for all if we took the first or second. But one renegade goddess, who liked the glisten in our eyes and eagerness in our voices, already singing with glee at the prospect of life on Earth, did. She quickly covered the first two paths with tree branches. If our eyes were still too young and blurry to really perceive three paths forward instead of one, well, was that really her fault? If we were to take the path of free will, no goddess must influence us by warning us of possible consequences if we stumbled, the Great Creatrix said. Maybe a few small failures might turn us back from both freedom and possible disaster onto one of the safer paths, She mumbled. But the renegade goddess, who already loved our free-wheeling species and wanted us to succeed, did. She whispered myths into our ears warning of a world made barren by violence and disrespect for the Earth. She gave holy women the gift of prophecy. These were just suggestions, so they could not be called guidance, wouldn’t you say? Finally, the Great Creatrix said, If humans set off on that third path we must make our own vision of the future and plan to achieve it. Perhaps, without help, it will be small and manageable, the cynical aspect of Her sighed. Yet, the renegade goddess, when she came to live in our houses and feel a deep kinship with us, did. She planted in our minds yearning for a sweeping paradise of Nature, beauty, peace, and justice, and then challenged us to make these hopes reality. She offered instructions through feelings of compassion, awe, and gratitude in how to care for all beings and the Earth. After all, humanity deserved a little head start, did we not? Many millennia went by after the first humans began our walk down that third path of free will, and catastrophe loomed. True, we could claim exquisitely insightful and moving music, dance, art, and literature and stunning acts of courage and compassion. We had ventured deep into our own beings and out into the very cosmos. Yet, brutal violence was accepted as part of every day life. The planet was failing and would soon be as infertile and lifeless as the worlds in the renegade goddess’s warning stories. People distrusted themselves and each other, scoffing at the vision of an abundant, kind, creative world as naive and dull. The renegade goddess sat down at the nexus of the three crossroads and crumpled to the ground in despair. What had she done? Was she wrong to have believed the humans would do all the good she had believed they were capable of? A flock of starlings gathered on the soil around her, pushed out of their usual habitat by human greed. The renegade goddess had one last idea. She bade each of them fly back to the world of humans and when they saw someone who they thought would listen, they were to give the message that “The renegade goddess believes in you. Have faith that you can make the most outrageously amazing paradise you can imagine. Break the rules that keep you from being who she knows you can be.” A million times a day they delivered their messages right into the souls of humans who were inspired into transcendent reverence by their formations. (Maybe you’ve heard them yourself?) The renegade goddess kept her eyes on the horizon, waiting for signs of what the humans would do with their destiny. Finally, she saw the birds’ murmuration, but wasn’t it much bigger? Were there a million more birds than before from an Earth that now welcomed them because the humans had changed their ways? Or was it an illusion born of too much hope? The renegade goddess waited to see what news they would bring her. And the Great Creatrix smiled. Perhaps She had chosen free will for the humans all along, but knew they would need a goddess who would stand with them every moment of every day. But, She couldn’t possibly in good faith create a situation where a renegade goddess would come to love humans absolutely by being forced to break the rules for them. But She did. …
(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 seller, or a metaphysical shop, you will find a wide array of Pagan/Magic/Witchcraft books. More are being published every year as alternative spiritual practices become more normalized in mainstream American society. A majority of these books are How-To guides for new practitioners filled with spells and instructions for rituals that introduce the author’s understanding of magic. These books are marketed towards the solitary practitioner and do not require the learner to participate in group learning or study from a teacher. However, this was not always the case. When witchcraft first became popular in the 1960s, few books were available to students, and if you wanted to learn, you needed to find a teacher. Finding a teacher often involved chance meetings in shops or a comment to a friend who “knew someone” who was a practitioner. Once you found a teacher, you would be introduced to a hidden world of magical gatherings, teachers, and writings that imparted knowledge to those who they took under their wing. One such student was the author Raven Grimassi. Raven Grimassi (1951-2019) was an authority on witchcraft, the occult, and spiritual practices. With over 45 years of experience in esoteric traditions, Grimassi was a recognized expert on Italian witchcraft who published over twenty books. While his belief system and teachings do not focus on Goddess worship, he referred to her as the Queen of the Witches in his book Italian Witchcraft. This, his final work, reflects the witchcraft he was introduced to as a young man and what the craft has since become. Drawing on his own experiences as a young student of mysticism and authors such as Eliade Mircea, Erich Neumann, and Doreen Valiente to deliver the “spiritual legacy, or perhaps, the mystical lineage” (Grimassi, xi) of contemporary witchcraft. With a few meaningful sketches to guide the reader, each chapter of the book is dedicated to explaining a different concept of witchcraft based on the teachings Grimassi learned from his teachers and what he learned from the works of scholars. With some of these concepts, Grimassi offers instructions for different rituals which serve as an initiation into witchcraft. The book serves as both a text explaining the history and spiritual beliefs of witchcraft and as a text for self-initiation into the craft. By combining different ritual phases with an explanation for why it is done, Grimassi offers us a similar initiative experience to his own when he was taught witchcraft. Grimassi tells the reader how he was introduced to witchcraft in 1960s San Diego. Growing up with folk magic or what he calls the peasant tradition of Witchcraft from Europe, he often traveled far to find items for rituals or spell work. At an herbal tea shop, where he purchased herbs that would not make good tea, the owner Elizabeth commented that the herbs were “good for other things” (Grimassi xiv). She gave him a knowing look and directed him to a man named Don, who ran an occult bookstore, and he introduced Grimassi to Lady Heather, who ran a coven. Lady Heather initiated Grimassi into witchcraft. In chapter one, he describes the teachings of the night, the lore on which witchcraft was based. Next, he explains some common witchcraft symbols and where they originated from, such as legends and Celtic mysteries or Italian folk magic. The first ritual presented is what he calls The Witchening, a five-step process that forms the foundation for the practice of witchcraft. The following two chapters describe how witchcraft is viewed as a religion and the metaphysical principles which denote the higher and lower planes. Chapter four addresses one of the main arguments leveled against pagans and witches, that witchcraft is not the expression of long-held traditional beliefs but was instead made up by its founders. Grimassi points out that every tradition was “made up” at some point, and instead, people may be receiving the teachings of the earth as their ancestors once did. He describes some of these differences between those who learn witchcraft through initiation in a group and solitary practitioners. The first four chapters explain the history and metaphysics behind witchcraft, grounding the reader in a deeper understanding of the practice. These chapters flow nicely into the next part of the book, where self-initiation takes place. In chapter five, Grimassi tells us the history of Old Magic as understood by the Christian church. Here Grimassi explains the meaning behind the pentagram and other symbols associated with witchcraft. Finally, he presents the reader with several small rituals for charging objects for use in different practices or spell work. Chapter six is the reader’s introduction to the practice of magic, what it is, the components which are essential to working magic, and the tools associated with the witch. However, unlike most books for those who seek self-initiation, Grimassi does not start by telling you the tools you need, setting up your altar, and giving you a ritual to bring something into your life. Instead, it is not until chapter five, after the reader has a deeper understanding of what witchcraft is and what it means, that he even tells the student about the tools they will need. The remainder of the book describes axioms in magic such as the rule of three and the witches’ creed, names for the Divine common to Wicca and traditional witchcraft, a few rites, and methods of divination in witchcraft. The final chapter reminds the reader that the witch is not a person who can use magic to enrich themselves but has a spiritual duty to perform in the world. Chapter six is where Grimassi earns my respect as a teacher who uses magic while following the Goddess. As part of my spiritual journey, I recently stepped back from the group I had been initiated into years ago. I needed to recharge …
(Review) Reliable and Readable Scholarship on Ancient Egypt: A Bibliography by Hearth Moon Rising

Most modern Witchcraft and Paganism draws significantly on ancient Egyptian religion, which is only natural since ancient Egypt has had such a profound influence on European culture. Although the general public is not so well informed, most Witches and Pagans are hip to the fact that, in addition to living on the African continent, ancient Egyptians were dark skinned and had African features. Aside from how this invalidates white supremacist notions, however, many of those drawing on ancient Egyptian culture have not considered the implications of this. Ancient Egyptians were ethnically distinct from Indo-European, Old European, and Semitic groups. They were African, sharing a cultural pre-history with the rest of northeastern Africa. This means that when looking at Egyptian goddesses or Egyptian medicine or Egyptian spells, acquiring a basic knowledge of Egyptian perspective is important.
(S/HE Article Excerpt) A Scottish Goddess: An Introduction to The Evidence by Stuart McHardy

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

https://thegirlgod.com/re-membering.php Motherline Re-Membering Amber R Balk, Ph.D. Incarnating into a home devoid of goddess, I was born in 1982 into a fundamentalist Christian family in rural Tennessee to a Native American mother and a father of English, Irish, and Welsh descent. Not only was there was no goddess at home but none in the entire town, except perhaps a brief glimpse of her in the Catholic church, a fact my Pentecostal mother considered repulsive and heretical. I was not allowed to go near the Catholic church, not that I felt particularly called to visit. Both parents were disconnected in various ways from ancestral roots, but it was more explicit and malicious on my mother’s end. Her dark skin, obsidian eyes, and raven-blue-black hair she regarded as an abomination, a curse. Ever strategic, she chose my father for his pale skin, blond hair, and blue eyes. Being Native American was taboo in our household. Right up there with the goddess. Right up there with pagan (generally pronounced with a spat). Right up there with The Devil. These things were bad and would earn you a nonstop, one-way ticket to eternity in hell. “Mama, what should I put on the tests for race? White? Native American? Other?” Truly perplexed, I asked this after my first day of standardized testing in elementary school. Spontaneous combustion. “YOU ARE WHITE!!!” she growled. “Oh. Hmmm… [glances at brown arm, looks at mother’s obvious non-whiteness] Okay, but…” “But nothing.” End of conversation. Thankfully, I have always been rebellious and headstrong. I knew something was terribly off in her words and actions, but it would take many years to gain understanding. Re-membering would be largely a solo journey. I tried to find answers everywhere but ran into endless locked doors. I did not realize this lack of external answers was habitually turning me to look inward instead. I did not think I had any answers. With time, I realized this inherent self-mistrust was inaccurate and unnecessary. Like internalized racism, internalized disempowerment serves to break one down from the inside out. When the weapon is seeded as a self- activating force through generations of oppression, hatred, and abuse, it is particularly insidious. Challenging to see, much less root out. But it is possible. Dismemberment helps, but re- membering is essential. The following story is told in bits and pieces of lived experience, woven together through blood, breath, prayer, and ritual. The demanding journey required much: 20+ years of Jungian analysis, countless hours weeping and screaming in Holotropic Breathwork sessions, lots of dreamwork, late night conversations with wonderful friends, notebook after notebook of journaling, a degree in women’s spirituality, another degree in transpersonal psychology, and countless prayers and ceremonies. I share my story with the hope and intention that it will serve others on parallel paths of re-membering. 2006. Dismemberment commences. I cut myself out of my parents’ home. The choice clear, either become a submissive housewife like my mother or shape myself into an accomplished professional. A westward call whispered its beckoning since I was about eight years old. With heaves of daring determination and a willingness to sever ties and leave all my friends and family, I finally arrive in California. Initially, it is an ecstatic self- homecoming. I enter doctoral studies as a perfectionistic, driven 24-year-old. Focused. Ambitious. Competitive. And perhaps narrow-minded, which I translate as hyper-fixated on lofty goals. With certainty, I am confident this is an ideal approach to life. A good girl, I swallow my patriarchal lessons whole. Dismemberment continues as aspirations and drive are stripped away. In my first year of graduate studies, it creeps in slowly and overtakes me in a disorienting fog that I never saw coming. Nothing works. My research ideas are rejected (however, I am offered the option of pursuing a male professor’s research ideas instead, which I politely decline and then find myself increasingly ostracized and unsupported). My spark fades. Before long, I am struggling for direction, frantically treading water. This quickly develops into a full-blown attempt to keep my head above tumultuous waves, and when this fails, I sink to the bottom, swallowed by the depths of a dark night of the soul. These clichéd metaphors are intended to sidestep the boring and mundane details of daily lackluster life. For a feisty, ambitious young woman under the impression that she is fierce, independent, and on a mission, this layer of dismemberment is probably the most painful. Before this point in my development, I thought I had escaped patriarchal trauma, but it slowly begins to reveal itself through the stripping. In desperation I sign up for a Lakota-style vision quest in Mt. Shasta, hoping for clarity but also longing for a taste of Native American perspective, so lacking from my Native American life. My ancestors are Choctaw and likely of other southeastern tribal affiliations—we do not really know. I usually identify myself as “a descendant of the southeastern peoples of the Mighty Mississippi River Valley.” The Mississippi is my mother goddess. Lakota culture is quite different, in background, cosmology, and region, but the teachings I receive are much better than the nothing my mother dishes out. After months of preparation, both physically and spiritually, I spend four days and three nights camped on Mt. Shasta beneath tall pines with little more than prayer ties and courage. On the third day, I am meditating in a pleasantly receptive state of mind. A hummingbird hovers overhead, and ripples of iridescent energy course through my body. I ask questions in my mind and hear immediate responses. After playing around with this newfound entertaining ability, I summon my most important query: “Will I be a good psychologist? I mean, will I make a difference in the world?” Instead of an immediate response, there is a long pause. Wind snakes through the trees. A squirrel barks. I am about to give up waiting when the words come: “You… will be a wonderful mother.” I roll my eyes and huff. This is the …
(Video) A Samhain Ceremony by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVRoK2XNeqw The purpose of the video is for ceremony and I suggest pausing the video where it suits you, to add your own processing, embellishments and/or your own drum, percussion and voice wherever you please. I have made short spaces in the video where it could be paused. For more full participation in the ceremony, you could have some past photos of yourself, an altar with ancestor photos, a gingerbread snake, some apples sliced up, and some apple juice. The script for this Samhain ceremony is offered in Chapter 4 of my book A Poiesis of the Creative Cosmos: Celebrating Her within PaGaian Sacred Ceremony, with all acknowledgements and references there. However I want to acknowledge here the inspiration and some text of Robin Morgan’s poem “The Network of the Imaginary Mother” in her book Lady of the Beasts, for which I was given permission in my book. I also acknowledge here the paraphrase of some words by Starhawk in her book The Spiral Dance, used in the rite of Sailing to a New World. I also use a line from the poem Song of Hecate by Bridget McKern. The elements of Water, Fire, Earth and Air on the altar in this video are placed in directions that are appropriate to my region in the Southern Hemisphere, and East Coast Australia: you may place yours differently, and transliterate when I mention the direction (which I do minimally). For the rite of the Transformation Journey (remembering old selves) I use an adaptation of a children’s game “In and Out the Windows”, where each participant travels in and out of upraised and linked arms of the circle, and when ‘in’ may speak and /or show photos of themselves from the past. Some may choose to remember any self from the entire evolutionary story, with whom they would like to identify. The game seems appropriate to what each being does existentially in so many ways, over the eons as well as in our personal lives. The chant can be found on YouTube. The photos used are a collage of footage and photos from the 2024 Samhain ceremony at my place in Wakka Wakka country, South East Queensland Australia, and from previous Samhain ceremonies I facilitated over the decades in MoonCourt, Goddess ceremonial space in NSW Australia, Darug and Gundungurra country. Music credit: All music used in this video is by Tim Wheater, which has previously generously allowed me to use in my work. The pieces used are from Tim’s CD Fish Nite Moon: they are Ancient Footsteps, Fish Nite Moon, Spiritbirth, and Conception. I thank my partner Robert (Taffy) Seaborne for his participation in the creation of the video.
(Art) The Voice of the Grandmother by Janie Rezner

(Special Post Isis 2) Why the Color of Isis Matters by Mago Circle Members

[Editor’s note: The discussion took place in Mago Circle during the month of July, 2013. Our heartfelt thanks go to the members who participated in this discussion with openness and courage.] Part 2 The Color Talk in Goddesses Kahena Dorothea Athena was also whitened which is sad. However the statues were worshiped by many women to whom they brought comfort. And their origins were later remembered by the abundance of Black Virgins that became important in Italy and other parts of Europe. I don’t see Dark Goddesses as shadows but as having depths of Creativity and Knowledge. My main Goddess is Kirke and the bast relief I have of her is a chocolate brown. Diane Horton The worship of Isis broadened from Egypt to all the countries bordering the Mediterranean, as well as the Middle East and the isles called now the British Isles. She and Her worship were virtually everywhere in the westernly known world of the time! She IS the Goddess of 10,000 Names! And as such she was adapted to each culture’s vision of Her. She was the basis of all the” Black Madonnas”. I do not think of this as Isis/Auset representing the “dark” Goddess as something somehow bad or to be dealt with, but rather that ancient darkness represents infinite potential, eternal creativity/fertility, the beginning and ending of all things, and the always deepening knowledge of magick. Max Dashu However, there is a politics of representation that we all need to be aware of, that pushes original African iconography down and away, and fronts Europeanized images. There is no possibility of “colorblindness” in such a system; a restoration of the original must be actively striven toward. This is incumbent on all of us not of (recent) African descent. Otherwise we perpetuate the injurious status quo, instead of overturning it. Harita Meenee I agree with those who say that race is largely a social construct. Its roots seem to lie in colonialism and the slave trade. I would also like to add that racism is used to oppress people of different nationalities and colors. Ηere in Greece the IMF neo-liberal policies are destroying our economy (and lives); they go hand in hand with a vicious racist campaign against immigrants, along with the rise of a neo-Nazi party. This is part of an effort to redirect people’s anger away from the government and bankers, towards those who are poor and foreign and often have a different color or religion. Fortunately, many grassroots activists are responding to this by building a strong anti-racist, antifascist movement. You can see our Facebook page below. It’s in Greek but the photos are quite revealing. If anyone is interested in learning more about the situation here, please message me and I’ll try to find some articles in English for you. https://www.facebook.co/19JanuaryATHENSvsFASCISM?fref=ts 19 Γεναρη – ΑΘΗΝΑ ΠΟΛΗ Αντιφασιστικη Μπροστά στη κλιμάκωση της φασιστικής απειλής και της ρατσιστικής βίας, στη εμφάν…See More Naa Ayele Kumari Let me put this in the context of something you might understand. This is a goddess group that honors the feminine and the power it represents. People in this group understand the oppression and misrepresentation of women. We understand the implications of misogynistic patriarchal thinking. We understand the implications of stealing the information, rites, and traditions from goddess centered cultures and rephrasing them into male dominated themes… especially those that then went on to oppress women today. This is the same thing that has happened as it related to race and our cultures. It infuriates us when a man may say… why do we have to focus on the goddess? Let us just accept that we are all human and no special consideration should be given to anyone because of their gender. Or, this is just a distraction or social construct and it really doesn’t matter. We understand the blatant disregard and ignorance of those statements. Yet, the same is true for race and people of other races. Your attitude and casual disregard perpetuates a lie that you are comfortable with and don’t wish to move from that comfort zone. It means you don’t have to be accountable for the injustices or oppression it continues to perpetuate in the larger culture toward people who do not look like you. As far as I am concerned, I truly believe that the dark goddess for many with white skin IS their shadow… It is the part of themselves that they deny and fear. That you may have come from black people may scare you… even when the science proves it. That deep down… you fear what you don’t understand. To even confront it is frightening… something that you would rather ignore and deny… Yet… here we are. Black, Yellow, Red… people.. women… who have been oppressed for thousands of year because of this… and are asking… to be seen in their true likeness… not as you wish them to be… or fear them to be. Naa Ayele Kumari Thank you Max Dashu, I so appreciate your scholarship and dedication to the truth where ever you find it… and Helen Hwang for staying open to it as well. [Someone withdrew the threads.] Rick Williams No, you can’t passively aggressively slither your way out of this, reread your own statements and that last post contradicts most of your ascertains. I can’t believe that you honestly say fire away at you like you’re some sort of martyr and VICTIM of being misunderstood, not at all, I understand you very well. I don’t think you understand yourSELF. That’s the real tragedy. Rick Williams “The Lips of Wisdom are Closed except to the Ears of Understanding.” It is in quotes, and it’s part of Ancient Wisdom, of Tehuti, DJehuti, or Hermes Trimegitus… The Great Scribe of KMT.. they have alot of pretty pictures of him all over KMT(Egypt).. still have no idea what you are saying have the time. Max Dashu Thank you Naa Ayele for taking the time to make the extremely apt analogy of women’s oppression to clarify the politics of race oppression […]
(Special Post 6) Why Goddess Feminism, Activism, or Spirituality? A Collective Writing

[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. 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.] Esther Essinger “Why Goddess, when “GD” is perpetrating so much grief? 1) First, it’s vital to know that Goddess is NOT “GD” in a skirt. It is demanded of NO one that they “believe” or “have faith”, so there can be no guilt (and no punishment! (No Hell below us, thank you John) in NOT choosing to interest oneself in these particular Stories, myths, legends and tales which center the Cosmic Female, the Universal Mother, Mother Earth /Mother Nature at their core. No evangelism happening here!
(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 […]

(Book Excerpt) Held in the Womb of the Wheel of the Year by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This essay is an excerpt from the Introduction of the author’s new book A Poiesis of the Creative Cosmos: Celebrating Her within PaGaian Sacred Ceremony. Meditation cushion in circle of decorated stones My ancestors built great circles of stones that represented their perception of real time and space, and enabled them to tell time: the stone circles were cosmic calendars.[i] They went to great lengths and detail to get it right. It was obviously very important to them to have the stones of a particular kind, in the right positions according to position of the Sun at different times of the year, and then to celebrate ceremony within it. I have for decades had a much smaller circle of stones assembled. I have regarded this small circle of stones as a medicine wheel. It is a portable collection, that I can spread out in my living space, or let sit in a small circle on an altar, with a candle/candles in the middle. Each stone (or objects, as some are) represents a particular Seasonal Moment/transition and is placed in the corresponding direction. The small circle of eight stones represents the flow of the Solstices and Equinoxes and the cross-quarter Moments in between: that is, it represents the “Wheel of the Year” as it is commonly known in Pagan traditions. I have found this assembled circle to have been an important presence. It makes the year, my everyday sacred journey of Earth around Sun, tangible and visible as a circle, and has been a method of changing my mind, as I am placed in real space and time. My stone wheel has been a method of bringing me home to my indigenous sense of being. Each stone/object of my small wheel may be understood to represent a “moment of grace,” as Thomas Berry named the seasonal transitions – each is a threshold to the Centre, wherein I may now sit: I sense it as a powerful point. As I sit on the floor in the centre of my small circle of stones, I reflect on its significance as I have come to know the Seasonal transitions that it marks, over decades of celebrating them. I sense the aesthetics and poetry of each. I facilitated and was part of the celebration and contemplation of these Moments in my region for decades. It was always an open group that gathered, and so its participants changed over the years but it remained in form, like a live body which it was: a ceremonial body that conversed with the sacred Cosmos in my place. We spoke a year-long story and poetry of never-ending renewal – of the unfolding self, Earth and Cosmos. We danced and chanted our relationship with the Mother, opened ourselves to Her Creativity, and conversed with Her by this method. All participants in their own way within these ceremonies made meaning of their lives – which is what I understand relationship to be, in this context of Earth and Sun, our Place and Home in the Cosmos: that is, existence is innately meaningful when a being knows Who one is and Where one is. Barbara Walker notes that religions based on the Mother are free of the “neurotic” quest for indefinable meaning in life as such religions “never assumed that life would be required to justify itself.”[ii] I face the North stone, which in my hemisphere is where I place the Summer Solstice. From behind me and to my right is the light part of the cycle – representing manifest form, all that we see and touch. From behind me and to my left is the dark part of the cycle – representing the manifesting, the reality beneath the visible, which includes the non-visible. The Centre wherein I sit, represents the present. The wheel of stones has offered to me a way of experiencing the present as “presence,” as it recalls in an instant that, That which has been and that which is to come are not elsewhere – they are not autonomous dimensions independent of the encompassing present in which we dwell. They are, rather, the very depths of this living place – the hidden depth of its distances and the concealed depth on which we stand.[iii] This wheel of stones, which captures the Wheel of the Year in essence, locates me in the deep present, wherein the past and the future are contained – both always gestating in the dark, through the gateways. And all this has been continually enacted and expressed in the ceremonies of the Wheel of the Year, as the open, yet formal group has done them, mostly in the place of Blue Mountains, Australia. PaGaian Cosmology altar/mandala: a “Womb of Gaia” map Over the years of practice of ritually celebrating these eight Seasonal Moments – Earth’s whole annual journey around Sun, I have been held in this creative story, this Story of Creativity as it may be written – it is a sacred story. Her pattern of Creativity can be identified at all levels of reality – manifesting in seasonal cycles, moon cycles, body cycles – and to be aligned with it aligns a person’s core with the Creative Mother Universe. I have identified the placing of one’s self within this wheel through ceremonial practice of the whole year of creativity, as the placing of one’s self in Her Womb – Gaia’s Womb, a Place of Creativity. All that is necessary for Creativity is present in this Place. All may come forth from here/Here – and so it does, and so it has, and so it will. NOTES: [i] See Martin Brennan, The Stones of Time: Calendars, Sundials, and Stone Chambers of Ancient Ireland (Rochester Vermont, Inner Traditions, 1994). [ii] Barbara Walker, The Woman’s Encyclopaedia of Myths and Secrets (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1983), 693. [iii] David Abram, The Spell of the Sensuous (New York: Vintage Books, 1997), 216. REFERENCES: Abram, David. The Spell of the Sensuous. New York: Vintage Books, 1997. Brennan, Martin. The Stones of Time: Calendars, Sundials, and Stone Chambers of Ancient Ireland.Rochester Vermont: Inner Traditions, 1994. Walker, Barbara. The Woman’s Encyclopaedia of Myths and Secrets. San Francisco: …
Lammas – the Sacred Consuming by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

Lammas, the first seasonal transition after Summer Solstice, may be summarised as the Season that marks and celebrates the Sacred Consuming, the Harvest of Life. Many indigenous cultures recognised the grain itself as Mother … Corn Mother being one of those images – She who feeds the community, the world, with Her own body: the Corn, the grain, the food, the bread, is Her body. She the Corn Mother, or any other grain Mother, was/is the original sacrifice … no need for extraordinary heroics: it is the nature of Her being. She is sacrificed, consumed, to make the people whole with Her body (as the word “sacrifice” means “to make whole”). She gives Herself in Her fullness to feed the people …. the original Communion. In cultures that preceded agriculture or were perhaps pastoral – hunted or bred animals for food – this cross-quarter day may not have been celebrated, or perhaps it may have been marked in some other way. Yet even in our times when many are not in relationship with the harvest of food directly, we may still be in relationship with our place: Sun and Earth and Moon still do their dance wherever you are, and are indeed the Ground of one’s being here … a good reason to pay attention and homage, and maybe as a result, and in the process, get the essence of one’s life in order. One does not need to go anywhere to make this pilgrimage … simply Place one’s self. The seasonal transition of Lammas may offer that in particular, being a “moment of grace” – as Thomas Berry has named the seasonal transitions, when the dark part of the day begins to grow longer, as the cloak of darkness slowly envelopes the days again: it is timely to reflect on the Dark Cosmos in Whom we are, from Whom we arise and to Whom we return – and upon that moment when like Corn Mother we give ourselves over. This reflection is good, will serve a person and all – to live fully, as well as simply to be who we are: this dark realm of manifesting is the core of who we are. And what difference might such reflection make to our world – personal and collective – to live in this relationship with where we are, and thus who we are. We all are the grain that is harvested and all are Her harvest … perhaps one may use a different metaphor: the truth that may be reflected upon at this seasonal moment after the peaking of Sun’s light at Summer Solstice and the wind down into Autumn, is that everything passes, all fades away … even our Sun shall pass. All is consumed. So What are we part of? (I write it with a capital because surely it is a sacred entity) And how might we participate creatively? We are Food – whether we like it or not … Lammas is a good time to get with the Creative plot, though many find it the most difficult, or focus on more exoteric celebration. May we be interesting food[i]. We are holy Communion, like Corn Mother. Meet Mago Contributor Glenys Livingstone NOTES: [i] This is an expression of cosmologist Brian Swimme in Canticle to the Cosmos DVD series.
(Video) Autumn Equinox/Mabon Poetry by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

The Autumnal Equinox occurs each year in the range of March 20-23 in the Southern Hemisphere, and in the range of September 20 -23 in the Northern Hemisphere. Autumn Equinox is a point of sacred balance: it is the point of balance in the dark part of Earth’s annual cycle. Sun is equidistant between North and South as it was/is at Spring Equinox, but in this dark phase of the cycle, the trend is toward increasing dark. Henceforth the dark part of the day will exceed the light part: thus it is a Moment of certain descent … and a sacred Moment for feeling and contemplating the grief and power of loss, for ceremoniously joining personal and collective grief and loss with the larger Self in whom we are. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcZflKLkvP8 Below is the text of the video. It is based on the traditional poetry for PaGaian Autumn Equinox/Mabon ceremony[i]. This is the Moment of the Autumnal Equinox in our Hemisphere – the moment of balance of light and dark in the dark part of the cycle. The light and dark parts of the day in the South and in the North of our planet, are of equal length at this time. We feel for the balance in this moment – Earth as She is poised in relationship with the Sun … breathing in the light, swelling with it, letting our breath go to the dark, staying with it. In our part of Earth, the balance is tipping into the dark. We remember the coolness of it. This is the time when we give thanks for our harvests – all that we have gained. And we remember too the sorrows, losses involved. The story of Old tells us that Persephone, Beloved Daughter, is given the wheat from Her Mother – the Mystery, knowledge of life and death. She receives it graciously. But she sets forth into the darkness – both Mother and Daughter grieve that it is so. Demeter, the Mother, says: “You are offered the wheat in every moment … I let you go as Child, most loved of Mine: you descend to Wisdom, to Sovereignty. You will return as Mother, co-Creator with me. You are the Seed in the Fruit, becoming the Fruit in the Seed. Inner Wisdom guides your path.” We give thanks for our harvests – our lives they are blessed. We are Daughters and Sons of the Mother. Yet we take our Wisdom and all that we have gained, and remember the sorrows – the losses involved. We remember the grief of the Mother, of mothers and lovers everywhere, our grief. Persephone descends. The Beloved One is lost. Persephone goes forth into the darkness to become Queen of that world. She tends the sorrows. The Seed represents our Persephones, who tends the sorrows – we are the Persephones, who may tend the sorrows. We go out into the night with Her and plant our seeds. Persephone blesses us with her fertile promise: “You have waxed into the fullness of life, And waned into darkness; May you be renewed in tranquility and wisdom[ii].” These represent our hope. The Seed of life never fades away. She is always present. Blessed be the Mother of all life. Blessed be the life that comes from Her and returns to Her. We tie red threads on each other: we participate in the Vision of the Seed – of the continuity of Life, that continues beneath the visible. The Mother knowledge grows within us. Our hope is in the Sacred Balance of the Cosmos – the Thread of Life, the Seed that never fades away: it is the Balance of Grief and Joy, the Care that we may feel in our Hearts. NOTES: [i] Glenys Livingstone, PaGaian Cosmology, p. 239-247. [ii] Charlene Spretrnak, Lost Goddesses of Early Greece, p. 116. REFERENCES: Livingstone, Glenys. PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. NE: iUniverse, 2005. Spretnak, Charlene. Lost Goddesses of Early Greece: a Collection of Pre-Hellenic Myths. Boston: Beacon Press, 1992/1978.
(Book Excerpt) Imbolc/Early Spring within the Creative Cosmos by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This essay is an excerpt from Chapter 6 of the author’s new book A Poiesis of the Creative Cosmos: Celebrating Her within PaGaian Sacred Ceremony. Traditionally the dates for Imbolc/Early Spring are: Southern Hemisphere – August 1st/2nd Northern Hemisphere – February 1st/2nd though the actual astronomical date varies. It is the meridian point or cross-quarter day between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox, thus actually a little later in early August for S.H., and early February for N.H., respectively. Some Imbolc Motifs In this cosmology Imbolc/Early Spring is the quintessential celebration of She Who is the Urge to Be. This aspect of the Creative Triplicity is associated with the differentiation quality of Cosmogenesis,[i] and with the Virgin/Young One aspect of the Triple Goddess, who is ever-new, unique, and singular in Her beauty – as each being is. This Seasonal Moment celebrates an identification with the Virgin/Young One – the rest of the light part of the cycle celebrates Her processes. At this Moment She is the Promise of Life, a spiritual warrior, determined to Be. Her purity is Her singularity of purpose. Her inviolability is Her determination to be … nothing to do with unbroken hymens of the dualistic and patriarchal mind. The Virgin quality is the essential “yes” to Being – not the “no” She was turned into. In the poietic process of the Seasonal Moments of Samhain/Deep Autumn, Winter Solstice and Imbolc/Early Spring, one may get a sense of these three in a movement towards manifest form – syntropy: from the autopoietic fertile sentient space of Samhain, through the gateway and communion of Winter Solstice to differentiated being, constant novelty, infinite particularity of Imbolc/Early Spring. The three are a kaleidoscope, seamlessly connected. The ceremonial breath meditations for all three of these Seasonal Moments focus attention on the Space between the breaths – each with slightly different emphasis: it is from this manifesting Space that form/manifestation arises. If one may observe Sun’s position on the horizon as She rises, the connection of the three can be noted there also: that is, Sun at Samhain/Deep Autumn and Imbolc/Early Spring rises at the same position, halfway between Winter Solstice and Equinox, but the movement is just different in direction.[ii] And these three Seasonal Moments are not clearly distinguishable – they are “fuzzy,”[iii] not simply linear and all three are in each other … this is something recognised of Old, thus the Nine Muses, or the numinosity of any multiple of three. Some Imbolc/early Spring Story This is the Season of the new waxing light. Earth’s tilt has begun taking us in this region back towards the Sun. Traditionally this Seasonal Point has been a time of nurturing the new life that is beginning to show itself – around us in flora and fauna, and within. It is a time of committing one’s self to the new life and to inspiration – in the garden, in the soul, and in the Cosmos. We may celebrate the new young Cosmos – that time in our Cosmic story when She was only a billion years old and galaxies were forming, as well as the new that is ever coming forth. This first Seasonal transition of the light part of the cycle has been named “Imbolc” – Imbolc is thought to mean “ewe’s milk” from the word “Oimelc,” as it is the time when lambs were/are born, and milk was in plentiful supply. It is also known as “the Feast of Brigid,” Brigid being the Great Goddess of the Celtic (and likely pre-Celtic) peoples, who in Christian times was made into a saint. The Great Goddess Brigid is classically associated with early Spring since the earliest of times, but her symbology has evolved with the changing eras – sea, grain, cow. In our times we could associate Her also with the Milky Way, our own galaxy that nurtures our life – Brigid’s jurisdiction has been extended. Some sources say that Imbolc means “in the belly of the Mother.” In either case of its meaning, this celebration is in direct relation to, and an extension of, the Winter Solstice – when the Birth of all is celebrated. Imbolc may be a dwelling upon the “originating power,” and that it is in us: a celebration of each being’s particular participation in this power that permeates the Universe, and is present in the condition of every moment.[iv] This Seasonal Moment focuses on the Urge to Be, the One/Energy deeply resolute about Being. She is wilful in that way – and Self-centred. In the ancient Celtic tradition Great Goddess Brigid has been identified with the role of tending the Flame of Being, and with the Flame itself. Brigid has been described as: “… Great Moon Mother, patroness (sic … why not “matron”) of poetry and of all ‘making’ and of the arts of healing.”[v] Brigid’s name means “the Great or Sublime One,” from the root brig, “power, strength, vigor, force, efficiency, substance, essence, and meaning.”[vi] She is poet, physician/healer, smith-artisan: qualities that resonate with the virgin-mother-crone but are not chronologically or biologically bound – thus are clearly ever present Creative Dynamic. Brigid’s priestesses in Kildare tended a flame, which was extinguished by Papal edict in 1100 C.E., and was re-lit in 1998 C.E.. In the Christian era, these Early Spring/Imbolc celebrations of the Virgin quality, the New Young One – became “Candlemas,” a time for purifying the “polluted” mother – forty days after Solstice birthing. Many nuns took their vows of celibacy at this time, invoking the asexual virgin bride.[vii] This is in contrast to its original meaning, and a great example of what happened to this Earth-based tradition in the period of colonization of indigenous peoples. An Imbolc/Early Spring Ceremonial Altar The flame of being within is to be protected and nurtured: the new Being requires dedication and attention. At this early stage of its advent, there is nothing certain about its staying power and growth: there may be uncertainties of various kinds. So there is traditionally a “dedication” in the ceremonies, which may be considered a “Brigid-ine” dedication, or known as a “Bridal” dedication, since “Bride” is a derivative of …
(Prose & Photography) Equinox Reflection by Sara Wright

Photography by Sara Wright I gaze out my bedroom window and hear yet another golden apple hit the ground. The vines that hug the cabin and climb up the screens are heavy with unripe grapes and the light that is filtered through the trees in front of the brook is luminous – lime green tipped in gold – My too sensitive eyes are blessedly well protected by this canopy of late summer leaves. The maples on the hill are losing chlorophyll and are painting the hollow with splashes of bittersweet orange and red. The dead spruces by the brook will probably collapse this winter providing Black bears with even more precious ants and larvae to eat in early spring. I only hope that some bears will survive the fall slaughter to return to this black bear sanctuary; in particular two beloved young ones… Mushrooms abound, amanitas, boletes morels, puff balls, the latter two finding their way into my salads. The forest around my house is in an active state of becoming with downed limbs and sprouting fungi becoming next year’s soil. The forest floor smells so sweet that all I can imagine is laying myself down on a bed of mosses to sleep and dream. The garden looks as tired as I am; lily fronds droop, yellowing leaves betraying the season at hand. Bright green pods provide a startling contrast to fading scarlet bee balm. Wild asters are abundant and goldenrod covers the fields with a bright yellow garment. Every wild bush has sprays of berries. My crabapple trees are bowed, each twig heavy with winter fruit. Most of the birds have absconded to the fields that are ripe with the seeds of wild grasses. The mourning doves are an exception – they gather together each dawn waiting patiently for me to fill the feeder. In the evening I am serenaded by soft cooing. One chicken hawk hides in the pine, lying in wait for the unwary…Just a few hummingbirds remain…whirring wings and twittering alert me to continued presence as they settle into the cherry tree to sleep, slipping into a light torpor with these cool September nights… Spiders are spinning their egg cases, even as they prepare to die. I can still find toads hopping around the house during the warmest hours of the day. Although the grass is long I will not mow it for fear of killing these most precious and threatened of species. I am heavily invested in seeing these toads burrow in to see another spring. My little frogs sit on their lily pads seeking the warmth of a dimming afternoon sun. Soon they too will slumber below fallen leaves or mud. I am surrounded by such beauty, and so much harvest bounty that even though I am exhausted I take deep pleasure out of each passing day of this glorious month of September, the month of my birth. Unlike many folks, for me, moving into the dark of the year feels like a blessing. Another leave -taking is almost upon me, and I am having trouble letting go of this small oasis that I have tended with such care for more than thirty years… I don’t know what this winter will bring to my modest cabin whose foundation is crumbling under too much moisture and too many years of heavy snow. In the spring extensive excavation will begin. A new foundation must be poured and this work will destroy the gardens I have loved, the mossy grounds around the south end of the house that I have nurtured for so long. In this season of letting go I must find a way to lay down my fears, and release that which I am powerless to change. Somehow… I have no idea what I will return to except that I have made it clear that none of my beloved trees be harmed. I am grateful that Nature is mirroring back to me so poignantly that letting go is the way through: That this dying can provide a bedrock foundation for another spring birth. As a Daughter of the Earth I lean into ancient wisdom, praying that this exhausted mind and body will be able to follow suit. (Meet Mago Contributor) Sara Wright.
(Prose) Halcyon for the Season by Deanne Quarrie

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

(Essay 2) Magoist Cetaceanism and the Myth of the Pacifying Flute (Manpasikjeok) by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.

Reversing the Reversed of the Buddhist Textual Erasure (Part 1) Dragon Loop and Sound Tube in the Temple Bell of Silla (57 BCE-935 CE) Restored Sillan Temple Bell (8-9th C), excavated in Uncheong-dong, Cheongju Among the many Sillan Magoist Cetacean expressions which stands out is the temple bell, traditionally known as the Whale Bell (鯨鍾 Gyeongjong). The Whale Bell, a signature device of Sillan Magoist Cetaceanism, has two distinctive features, the dragon loop and the sound tube. The dragon loop functions to hang the bell, which occurs in Chinese and Japanese bells as well. This is not to say that the dragon in Chinese and Japanese counterparts are the same as that of the Korean temple bell, a point which was discussed in an earlier part of my essay on the Korean temple bell. However, the sound tube is a feature exclusively present in Korean temple bells, which is, among others, a hallmark of the Korean temple bell, distinguished from its Chinese and Japanese counterparts. Cast adjacent to each other in the bell head, the two are depicted as if the dragon is carrying the sound tube on its back (see the image). By pinpointing the sound tube, a group of Korean scholars (Suyeong Hwang and Donghae Gwak) posit that the sound tube is a replication of the pacifying flute that defeats all (萬波息笛 Manpasikjeok), the seventh century Sillan treasure. Put differently, the Korean temple bell is an innovative remake of the pacifying flute, which is uniquely Sillan. To support their contention, they draw attention to the fact that the sound tube of some Korean temple bells comes in the form of bamboo nodes. Indeed, while most temple bells show the design of nodes etched in the upright pipe, some from the Goryeo period (910-1392) specify the nodes as those of a bamboo tree.[1] Ironically, the bell with the design of bamboo nodes is a whale-effacing variation of earlier Sillan ones with decorative nodes. The Sillan temple bells replicate the bamboo-looking cetacean flute not a bamboo-made flute. This indicates that the Buddhist erasure of Magoist Cetaceanism was gaining hegemony in the Goryeo period. In any case, what does the bamboo-like node design have to do with the pacifying flute? According to the myth of the pacifying flute, the pacifying flute is made from a mysterious bamboo tree grown in a mysteriously floating mountain in the sea. And the dragon loop is no mere functional or decorative design. In the story, the dragon presents the pacifying flute to King Sinmun the Great, the protagonist, with the message that he would be ruling the whole world with the sound. Even if agreeing that the pacifying flute is replicated as the sound tube, there is an enigma yet to be unraveled. How is the sound tube or the pacifying flute related with whales? What is the role of the dragon with regards to whales? Answering these questions requires reinstating the lost name for whales in the myth of the pacifying flute. Temple Bell in the Early Goryeo Period with the sound tube resembling bamboo nodes, Samseon-am in Jinju, South Gyeongsang Temple Bell in the Late Goryeo Period with the sound tube resembling bamboo nodes Truth is that the myth of the pacifying flute written in the Samguk Yusa (Memorabilia of the Three States), the 13th century Korean Buddhist text that depicts the mytho-history of Korea ultimately Buddhist, comes to us as an altered story. There involved a Buddhist obfuscation of Magoist Cetaceanism. As background, the Buddhist church could not but embrace folk and Shamanic practices in order to reach out to the populace. It must be said that the Buddhist church did not kill or antagonize Magoist Cetacean folk practices. Although seemingly peaceful, however, Buddhist authority aimed at the goal of a patriarchal religion: To subdue and coopt pre-patriarchal spiritual and folk practices, which is gynocentric and cetacean. The evidence of Magoist Cetaceanism had to be dismantled but not completely destroyed. To subdue the public recognition of Magoist Cetaceanism, Ilyeon, its Buddhist monk author, replaces the whale, a narwhal in particular, with “a moving mountain in the sea” and the tusk of a narwhal with “a bamboo tree growing atop the mountain.” By undoing the linguistic harness, we are able to assess the seventh century Sillan Magoist Cetaceanism. It is possible to reconstruct the cogent Magoist Cetacean story of the pacifying flute. At one point of time before the 13th century when the Samguk Yusa was written, there likely existed an original version of the story, which articulates the narwhal (외뿔고래 Oeppul Gorae or 일각고래 Ilgak Gorae) and its single tusk (Oeppul). If we reverse “a moving mountain” to “a pod of whales” and “the bamboo tree” with “the tusk of a narwhal,” the myth of the pacifying flute would make a perfect sense as follows: (A hypothetically original account of the Manpasikjeok myth) King Sinmun ordered the completion of Gameunsa (Graced Temple) to commemorate his deceased father, King Munmu. The main hall of Gameunsa was designed at the sea level to allow the dragon to enter and stroll through the ebb and flow of the sea waves. In the second year of his reign (682 CE), Marine Officer reported that a pod of whales (a little mountain) in the Sea of Whales (East Sea) was approaching Gameunsa. The king had Solar Officer perform a divination. The divination foretold that he would be given a treasure with which he could protect Wolseong (Moon Stronghold), Silla’s capital. This would be a gift from King Munmu who became a sea dragon and Gim Yusin who became a heavenly being again. In seven days, the king went out to Yigyeondae (Platform of Gaining Vision) and saw the whale (the mountain) floating like a turtle’s head in the sea. There was a bamboo-tree-like tusk (a bamboo tree growing) on its top, which became two during the day and one at night. The king stayed overnight in Gameumsa to listen to the dragon who entered the yard …
(Mago Almanac 3) Restoring 13 Month 28 Day Calendar by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

[This and the following sequels are from Mago Almanac: 13 Month 28 Day Calendar (Book A), Years 1 and 2 (5, 6, 9, 10…), 5915-6 MAGO ERA, 2018-9 CE (Mago Books, 2017).] We want to get back the 13th Friday. This almanac shows how that is possible. Helen Hye-Sook Hwang INTRODUCTION (Continued) HOW TO USE THE MAGO ALMANAC The Magoist Calendar employs a 28 day monthly cycle identical throughout the 13 months (see “28 DAY MONTHLY CALENDAR”). The first month of a year, however, begins with one intercalary day that falls on the eve of New Year for all years. Every fourth year has another intercalary day that fall on the eve of the first day of the 7th month (see “4 YEARS CALENDAR/1 LARGE CALENDAR”). Years are counted as a cyclic unit of four years, which is called Large Calendar. I have charted 8 Large Calendars of 32 years (see “8 LARGE CALENDARS/32 YEARS”). That said, the Mago Almanac will appear as the two types of booklets, Book A and Book B due to its Gregorian Calendar translation dates. The current booklet, Book A, includes calendric data of two years Year 1 and Year 2, the first two of the four years cyclic unit. Year 1 and Year 2 are exactly identical, when it comes to their Gregorian translations. In other words, one can use Book A for the years of 2018 and 2019 with the same Gregorian dates. Book B will include data on Year 3 and Year 4 for the two years of 2020 and 2021 in the Gregorian Calendar. As Gregorian dates intermittently run every month throughout the year and every four years with one leap day added in the month of February, both Year 3 and Year 4 will need a separate translational chart for Gregorian translation dates. While Gregorian leap days are more complicated than just one additional day in February, they won’t interfere with Mago Almanac’s Gregorian translation system until the year 2100, when it skips the leap day.[1] Book A Book B Years 1, 2… 3, 4… Common Era 2018, 2019 CE 2020, 2021 CE Mago Era 5915, 5916 ME 5917, 5918 ME Because both the Magoist Calendar (365.25 days) and the Gregorian Calendar (365.242189 days) are of the solar clendar, their dates tend to coincide every four years. For example, Year 5 and 6 will share the same Gregorian dates as Year 1 and 2. This means Book A is useful not only for Year 1 and 2 but also Year 5 and 6. Likewise, Book B is not only for Year 3 and Year 4 but also Year 7 and Year 8. Such patterns will repeat until 2100. By such recurrence, Mago Almanac will remain useful throughout the coming years. Below is the chart of 12 years (3 Large Calendars) for Mago Almanac’s two books. Book A Book B 1st Large Calendar Year 1 (2018 CE, 5915 ME) Year 3 (2020 CE, 5917 ME) Year 2 (2019 CE, 5916 ME) Year 4 (2021 CE, 5918 ME) 2nd Large Calendar Year 5 (2022 CE, 5919 ME) Year 7 (2024 CE, 5921 ME) Year 6 (2023 CE, 5920 ME) Year 8 (2025 CE, 5922 ME) 3rd Large Calendar Year 9 (2026 CE, 5923 ME) Year 11 (2028 CE, 5925 ME) Year 10 (2027 CE, 5924 ME) Year 12 (2029 CE, 5926 ME) Book A (Year 1 and Year 2) stands for the year of 2018 in the Gregorian Calendar (from December 17, 2017 till December 16, 2018) and the year of 2019 in the Gregorian Calendar (from December 17, 2018 till December 16, 2019). Year 1 (5915 ME) begins on December 17, 2017, the one intercalary day that comes on the day before the New Year’s Day. Its New Year’s day on December 18, 2017 marks the new moon day in the first month of the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. Year 2 (5916 ME) will be the same as Year 1. It begins with the one intercalary day of December 17, 2018. Its New Year’s day is December 18, 2018. However, it won’t be the new moon day since the moon’s phases are not exactly the same as the moon’s motions for the coming years. For this reason and the Gregorian Calendar’s intermittent dates involved in Book B, Mago Almanac plans to publish its yearly booklet. Book A includes Moon Phases in UTC (Universal Time Coordinated) for the years of 2018 and 2019. The cycle of moon phases (the synodic period of about 29.5 days) will run on its own path in the Magoist Calendar is based on the moon’s motions (the sidereal period of about 27.3 days). Also this almanac includes 24 Seasonal Marks in the Korean Time for the years of 2018 and 2019. Among these 24 seasons demarcated based on the solar calendar are such eight seasonal marks as Yule, Imbolc, Vernal Equinox, Beltane, Summer Solstice, Lammas, Autumnal Equinox, and Winter Solstice, whose hours vary according to the viewer location. Last but not least, this almanac taps into the self-actualizing power of the calendar, which awakens its users to the Reality of the Creatrix. Its task is to be a user’s guide to the Magoist Calendar, the Living Text of the Creatrix. A cause that is equipped with the self-realizing force is divine. Restoring the Magoist Calendar is a divine work to be accomplished by the power of the gynocentric 13 month calendar itself. Its applicability is left to the hand of users. One’s own understanding of the gynocentric calendar will do the magic within herself/himself. One’s intellectuality is the winder to one’s spirituality. Individuals awakened by the Magoist Calendar will discover a sense of belong/direction/timing, not just to a particular society/place/time but to the inter-cosmic whole, WE/HERE/NOW. One may suddenly re-member her/his kinship with all others in an unexpected way. The consciousness of WE is not a destination arrived at a future time. It is HERE wherein we are born and live. In our …
(Book Excerpt 2) Mago Almanac Planner by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.

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

Category: Glenys Livingstone

(Essay) The Living Earth: What She Reveals by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

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Mago Almanac Year 8 (for 2025)

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

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