April 27, 2020April 16, 2020 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Essay 11) The Norse Goddesses behind the Asir Veil: The Vanir Mothers in Continental Scandinavia by Kirsten Brunsgaard Clausen

[This part and the forthcoming sequels are an elaborated version of the original article entitled “The Norse Goddesses behind the Asir Veil: The Vanir Mothers in Continental Scandinavia—a late Shamanistic Read More …

April 24, 2020April 24, 2020 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Art) Temperance (Cetaceans and the Cosmic Uterus) by Susan Abbott

This was a study I did for the Temperance card of the Tarot deck. Lots going on in the cosmic uterus with the whale, the dolphin, the fetus, the night Read More …

April 21, 2020April 21, 2020 Glenys D. LivingstoneLeave a comment

(Essay 2) Crack in the Alienated Colonised Mind by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This essay is part 2 of an edited excerpt from the author’s Introduction to her book PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. Being “Other” The sense of being “other”: that Read More …

April 20, 2020April 20, 2020 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Essay) The Pandemic and the Magic of Solidarity by Harita Meenee

How can we deal with the coronavirus pandemic while also pursuing our dreams of a different world? Here are some thoughts from an introvert spiritual activist. It’s the April of Read More …

March 28, 2020November 2, 2021 Mago Work Admin2 Comments

(Call for Contributions) On the Coronavirus and Your Goddess Feminist Activist Spirituality

October 14, 2021 Update: Dear ongoing or new contributors, Hope this finds you well and safe. It feels like we have been passingthrough a long tunnel. It’s been nearly 2 Read More …

March 20, 2020August 20, 2023 Mago Work2 Comments

(Multi-genre) The Last of the Scottish Orca’s by Jude Lally

Orca John Coe off the Isle of Eigg 2014 photo by Arisaig Marine It was an emotional journey in 2018 following the lives of Tahlequah, her calf, and her pod in Read More …

March 19, 2020May 21, 2020 Kaalii CargillLeave a comment

(Photo Essay 2) Grandmothers by Kaalii Cargill

The so called “Venus” figurines are figures from prehistory that I prefer to call “Grandmothers”. The figurines were carved from soft stone, bone or ivory, or formed of clay and Read More …

March 17, 2020March 18, 2020 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Whale Essay 1) Whales in Korean Linguistics by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.

[This and the subsequent essays are an earlier version of the forthcoming book manuscript, tentatively entitled The Salvific Bond between Whales and Matriarchs: Magoist Cetaceanism in Traditional Korea.] Although Magoist Read More …

March 16, 2020September 30, 2020 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Special Post 3) Multi-Linguistic Resemblances of “Mago” by Mago Circle Members

[Below conversations took place in 2011. In fact, it is the earliest discussion on the topic.] Linguistic connections of Mago/Magu and Magi Helen Hwang Below “Magi” from Wikipedia: Magi ( Read More …

March 13, 2020March 13, 2020 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Essay 7) The Blending of Bön, Buddhism and the Goddess Gemu in Mosuo Culture by Krista Rodin

Differences among the Traditions Mosuo chieftains had strong ties with the Buddhist monastic structure as, according to Shih, “the Lamaist theory of the unity of divinity and personality provided the Read More …

March 10, 2020February 28, 2020 Mago Work Admin2 Comments

(Prose & Art) The Magnificent – The Last Great Whale, The Mother of All by Noris Binet

One shining morning I was standing on a deck looking at the waters of the Pacific. I don’t recall how I got there but because the ocean holds the purity Read More …

March 5, 2020April 15, 2020 Mago Work Admin3 Comments

(Essay 10) The Norse Goddesses behind the Asir Veil: The Vanir Mothers in Continental Scandinavia by Kirsten Brunsgaard Clausen

March 4, 2020March 2, 2020 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Essay) From Gaia and Dionysus to Jesus and Mary Magdalene by Harita Meenee

“How would you like to be interviewed for a book that questions the historical existence of Jesus?” asked Minas, a journalist, editor, and old-time friend of mine. “I’d love it Read More …

(Art Essay) The Leader: Taming the Wolf Power with Art by Sanna Pöyhönen

Copyrighted by Sanna Pöyhönen The Wolf Lady / the Leader was born during the first days of the war of Ukraine in 2022. The Leader gathers a pack together, and empowers it to accomplish her mission with vision, strength and charisma. She is inspiring, independent, and persistent. Nobody challenges the relevance of her objectives, and she doesn’t stop. Ever. She is the only one of my Great Ladies sculptures that was sold immediately. I think there was a reason she needed to move away from my home, because she represents powers that have dominated my whole adult life. I’ve always had a tremendous need to achieve goals that I give to myself or that are given for me. This grit, stamina, or ‘sisu’ as we called in Finnish has enabled me to succeed in my studies, build an international career in the fast paced digital tech, gather some property, and also start another career in art and make it somewhat a success too. Copyrighted by Sanna Pöyhönen However, now when I look back at my life, many of my past goals don’t make sense anymore and I can only wonder why I was obsessive about them. The wolf power has also caused me two burnouts, and I believe I wasn’t always the easiest person to work with – if you were in between me and my goals – and for sure I haven’t always been the best partner or stepmother. I learned to understand this pattern of mine only recently, and how much anxiety it has caused in my life. Luckily, a friend of mine pointed out what is the opposite of wolf, what if you read it backwards. The opposite of wolf is FLOW. Today I’m learning to flow like water. Instead of fiercely pushing my own agenda, I seek collaboration, seize opportunities, and if I really don’t need to run towards something – I rest. The old Finnish goddess Marjatera (Loveatar, Louhi) was the mother of wolves and also a creator of nine horrible diseases. In Kalevala, she’s the mighty Lady of the North, a witch queen and the main opponent of Väinämöinen in the battle for the magical artefact Sampo. —- The Leader is from my art series called the Great Ladies. It was originally shadow work to recover from burnout, and turned out to be a truly magical project for me. I keep finding ancient goddesses and archetypes that resemble my ladies. There’s thirteen of them at the moment. I usually start the work by ink painting and proceed to ceramic sculptures. Casted statues and prints from the paintings are available for sale. Copyrighted by Sanna Pöyhönen https://www.magoism.net/2025/09/meet-mago-contributor-sanna-poyhonen/
(Photo Essay 3) Goddess Pilgrimage 2018 by Kaalii Cargill

[Author’s Note: In May 2018, I set out on a 3 month pilgrimage to Greece, Turkey and the prehistory sites of “Old Europe”. Once again my main focus was “visiting with the Grandmothers”.] Anatolia Anadolu is the Turkish word for Anatolia (greek). Anadolu means “Land full of Mother”: Ana = Mother, dolu = full. Mother Goddess is often acknowledged in Turkish museums and archeological sites, unlike countries where the “G” word (Goddess) rarely appears. Twice in Anatolia, local men proudly produced Lydia Rule’s work to show me – a book and a small banner. One explanation is that the Land has always been known as Mother, so recognising Mother Goddess makes sense. Anatolian Mother Goddess figures (part one): Meet Mago Contributor Kaalii Cargill
(Essay 2) Poet as Initiate: A Rebirth of the Goddess & The Darkmother in Women’s Poetry in the 70’s by Louisa Calio

Redemption Ntozake Shange did the same work of redemption when she created her choreopoem in the San Francisco Bay area: For Colored Girls who have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf. Performing her sacred rite in bars, cafes, galleries, women’s studies departments and other spots, this modern-day ritual would eventually emerge on Broadway in 1976 at the Booth Theater produced by Joe Papp. Seven women dressed in rainbow colors shared their stories, their loves, music and some of the grief of black women in a wilderness of human relationships where friends are capable of rape and husbands of murdering their children.
(Essay 2) Open, Please!: Persian & Islamic Tales of Women Rescued by Mountains by Krista Rodin, Ph.D.

[Editor’s Note: All photos are taken by the author.] There are numerous pirs, Zoroastrian saint pilgrimage sites, in Iran, but according to Iranian scholars Mary Boyce, Michael Fischer and the Iranian Heritage Institute, the six main ones are all near the ancient city of Yazd, which lies near the center of the country. According to Mary Boyce in her article “Bibi Shahrbanu and the Lady of Pars”: A study of the Zoroastrian cult of these shrines is not without complexity. In the observances there the high ethical teachings of Zoroaster are certainly not forgotten; but the Yazdis are tenacity itself, and they appear also to maintain some of the ritual of the old Iranian religion, practiced in Persia before the coming of the prophet and reformed by him to a still undetermined extent. Together with such rites of unknown antiquity, there exist also certain superficial concessions, largely in terminology, made in modern times to Islam, to secure a measure of respect for these holy places and save them from desecration.[i] She goes on to explain that the generic story now told about these sites relates back to legends of the Arab invasion in 649, when King Yazdegird III’s family fled to Yazd. When they weren’t safe even in the desert city, the children escaped to the mountains where they asked Ahura Mazda for help and he opened up the various mountains to them; they found shelter and nourishment within the rocks. Only the Queen didn’t make it to the mountains as she was too exhausted from the journey. Calling for help as she fell to the ground, the earth accepted her. A well shrine is dedicated to her. Two of these sites demonstrate a progression in the generic narrative and are of particular interest for this paper, Pir-e Sabz, ‘Green Saint,’ one of the main Zoroastrian pilgrimage sites worldwide, and Pir-e Banu about 100 km west as the bird flies from Pir-e Sabz or 115 km from Yazd on dirt roads, which is the easier, though still quite arduous, way to get there. Both sites relate similar stories to those of Bibi Qyz and Bibi Parau. Pir-e Sabz, Iran The site of Pir-e Sabz is colloquially referred to as Chak Chak, which means ‘drip, drip’ for the waters that sprang from the mountain when Princess Nikbanu asked for something to drink to quench her thirst and for refuge. In the story, Princess Nikbanu was one of the daughters of Yazdegird III, the last Sassanian king (r. 633-649/650), who fled the Arab invaders in 649 both to protect her Zoroastrian faith from the Muslim invaders as well as to keep the royal Persian-Aryan bloodline free from ‘Arab contamination’.[ii] While there is little archeological evidence to support the story, it is one that has become ingrained in popular belief. According to historians, there are a number of versions of what happened to Yazdegird III’s family. One rendition states that the family was together when the Arabs caught up with them in what is now Turkmenistan, another that one of his daughters, Shahrbanu was captured and married Husayn, and that his son Firoz II escaped with the family to Tajikistan and from there he went on to China to offer his services to the T’ang emperor.[iii] Regardless of historical veracity, the legends offer a different truth. Chak Chak lies in the middle of a mountain ridge in the center of a desolate desert about a third of the way up a very steep rocky slope. There is a small stream at the foot of the mountain range that flows from a waterfall at the site. As at Nokhur, there is a sacred tree that springs out of the water creating an abundance of greenery in the middle of a sea of dusty sand. The greenery amidst the rocks gives the site its official name, Pir-e Sabz; sabz means green. Oddly, the tree is appropriate to the Zoroastrian shrine as it has two trunks from the same core that rise out of the now cement covered floor and out the ceiling on the southern side of the fire temple shrine. The shrine itself has a fairly new lotus petal fire altar in the middle of the room with water seeping through the rock face on the western wall. The northern side of the shrine belongs to the mountain. Pilgrims come throughout the year, including Muslims, to honor the mountain, its water and the woman who found refuge. As with the other sites, there are particular high holy days for worship, which for this site is generally around mid-June. Sacrifices were made during these holidays, and Chak Chak was renown as the site for sacrificing sheep, which ties it back to much earlier traditions. Inside Pir-e Sabz shrine, Iran The Pir-e Banu site is also associated with a descendant of Yazdegird III, the Princess Banu Pars. Banu is another Persian term for “Lady” and may well stem from a title offered to the ancient goddess of water, Anahita, or Anahid. [iv] Princess Banu Pars is said to have made her escape from the Arabs through the desert to near the current village of Erdinjan, where she came across a peasant with a cow. She begged him for a drink and he milked the cow for her, but the beast kicked the bowl out his hands before he could give it to her. As the invaders were approaching she broke away stumbling over boulders along a dried up riverbed, until exhausted she fell to the ground and begged Ahura Mazda for help. The mountain rock opened and she slipped inside, as it closed in front of the invaders, a piece of her veil became stuck. They say that a fragment of the cloth was still visible until about a 100 years ago by which time it had been worn away by faithful pilgrims grasping at it. The shrine is set, not high in the mountains, but on a rocky platform a few feet above …
(Art Essay 1) Conversations with Women and Plants: A transcendental opening via the Voynich portal by Claire Dorey

[Author’s note: Page numbers are referenced as they appear in the actual manuscript as per The Voynich Manuscript,Yale Books, not this PDF. Link to PDF of the Voynich Manuscript, holybooks.com. Feel free to peruse before reading.] Art by Claire Dorey Prick of nettle, thorn of rose, stalk of henbane, loosely tied with bindweed tendrils, this wild and deadly bouquet expresses the soul and sting of the nemophilist wanderer, whose forager sisters meet beneath the walnut tree. Head in the stars, hands in the hedgerows, toes rooted in the soil, our boundaries are marked with armfuls of plant magic gathered along moonlit tracks where wild flowers grow. We are keepers of a kaleidoscope of plant wisdom remembered, not written down. Meadowsweet, oregano, poppy, rue, liquorice, mandrake: a stream of plant consciousness flows from the mystical botanical, astrological and figurative illustrations in the veiled codex that is the Voynich Manuscript. Intuition says women created it. Will I still love it if the creators turn out to be male? Dated from 1404, bound in vellum, this portfolio of plant possibilities, journeying through the creator’s wild imagination, continues to baffle. I’m not a translator, botanist or astrologer, I’m searching for the Divine Female within symbolism, so I’m not decoding the undeciphered script. I’m stepping through the Voynich portal, hoping the images can teach me about the transcendent relationship between women and plants. There are botanical sketches; astrological charts; medicine wheels; star maps; cartoonish drawings of nymphs and women (few of men); pharmaceutical leaf and root recipes with ‘where to cut’ diagrams and some kind of spell list or index. Henbane, dittany, belladonna, poison hemlock, colchicum, aconite: trawling through lists of curative plants, I learn medicinal uses vary. Many double as emmenagogues, abortifacients, galactagogues, contraceptives and anodynes. Meticulous knowledge is essential – some are deadly. Women’s wisdom was rooted in plant magic since body autonomy, nutrition, ceremony and psycho-spiritual expression depended upon it. Flower in the cosmos, leaves on the Earth plane, roots in the underworld, these plant sketches resemble the World Tree. Stylised and truncated to fit on the page, perhaps these, mostly unrecognisable botanicals, are drawn from observation, imagination, descriptions, ancestral memory, mythology, even floral motifs travelling the Silk Route. “Sometimes, while painting, something wild gets unleashed. Something of the process of dreams recurs.” – Adnan, Etel. Popova, Maria. Art and the Nocturnal Imagination: Painter, Poet, and Philosopher Etel Adnan on Dreaming and Creativity, The Marginalian. Minoan art shows women with ‘levitating’ lilies and crocus. In ancient Egypt women were drawn in harmony with the hallucinogenic blue lotus. Female shamans were buried with cannabis. The witches of Thessaly were astronomers and herbalists. So how did women’s transcendent relationship with plants spiral to persecution? “Sola dosis facit venenum.” – Paracelsus (born 1493), The dose makes the poison, Wikipedia. In Euripides’ play, Medea, 431 BCE, Medea invoked Hecate then rampaged with poison, a metaphor for ‘wisdom in the minds of women’ being poison that destroys the system of male privilege that is patriarchy. Did the Voynich aim to preserve millennia of women’s sacred herbal knowledge, anticipating a fall from ‘divine to demonic’? Untranslated it’s hard to say, although during the Renaissance, a turbo-charged era of learning, men competed with women’s medicinal wisdom. Patriarchal propaganda claimed female healers were witches and fraudsters. In 1484, Pope Innocent VIII declared ‘witches’ as heretics. “It takes one generation for local traditional plant knowledge to get forgotten.” – Harkford, Robin. Edible and Medicinal Wild Plants of Britain and Ireland. Borage, wild carrot, wormwood, Angelica: the script is encoded, so maybe the images are too. So far there is only one plant I can identify with confidence – chicory. An astrological chart (p57) shows Polaris, around which words and nymph-women spin, assuming the four rotational positions of Ursa Major, forming the Swastika, a logo corrupted by patriarchal regimes. Similar images of women in celestial spin decorate a Samarra platter, 5000 BCE. “We discouraged the inner journey, the quest for a center. So we lost our center and have to find it again.” – Anaïs Nin. Goodreads. In this image, a square, formed of eight circles, circumscribes Polaris. It’s corners may represent the four rotational positions of ‘Corner Star’ Alkaid, part of the Ursa Major constellation. As the SE Corner Star detaches from the star grid a mystical, nymph-deity raises her arm to catch it and harness it’s energy. “I would not think to touch the sky with two arms” – Sappho, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho. Goodreads. In medieval astronomy Alkaid, source of apotropaic magic, was associated with Venus, the Moon, magnetite and chicory, the ‘clock flower’ [Magnetite is found in Magnesia in Thessaly and on the moon. ‘Virus lunare’ is a potent elixir created by the witches of Thessaly (using crystals?) harnessing moon ‘liquid’ to activate herbs]. The pull out, double page diagram (following p85), a larger version of the eight-circle-square, must be a star map. Stars, decorated with anthers, filaments and petals, are drawn as ‘flower worlds’ with tubular plant stems and conical hoods acting as energy conduits, pumping out star magic. Twin pathways joining the stars resemble the Pictish double-disc symbol. Art by Claire Dorey Do these visuals hold clues to meaning? These are my thoughts: chicory centre’s many Voynich astrological, medicine wheels. Petal-like wavy lines, represent Alkaid magic. Chicory blue represents sky magic, petal power and phlegmatic symptoms. Green represents magical plant brews – think Absinthe. Tubular plant stems syphon astro-plant magic. Roots in the underworld may tap spirit wisdom. Amulets protect. The recurring, six-pointed star is Venus, possibly representing dawn, dusk, dosage, hexes, spells, or the apotropaic power of the Goddess. Link to medieval manuscript, showing planet Venus and a woman with a six pointed star over her yoni. Lunar crescents may represent cycles, dates, deities or phlegmatic symptoms. Fennel, chicory, fenugreek, yarrow, nettle: perhaps flowers are colour coded according to the humours – yellow bile (think dandelion), black bile (roots?), blood (red) and phlegm (blue). The four humours, central to medieval medicine, incorporated the …
(Prose) Witches Butter by Sara Wright

Photo by Sara Wright The other day I found the most beautiful fungus on an aging white pine set against deep green moss that was almost arcing over the brook. When I looked up Dacrymyces palmatis I discovered that its common name was “Witches Butter”. That figures I thought – this must mean that this plant has medicinal qualities, and of course it does along with the fact that the fungus is edible. Any time I see the word witch associated with a plant if I am not familiar with it. I start digging into research inevitably coming up with the same kind of information – the plant/ tree/ fungus/slime mold is edible and has medicinal value. The word witch as many of us know has at its root to bend or shape. Shape -shifting by non –ordinary means. Witches were and are healers that use herbs, talk intimately with animals, are counseled by plants and humming trees. Witches wait patiently for instructions. It’s no surprise that in fairy tales witches almost always live in the woods and are solitary creatures by nature and design. After having spent the most creative more than half of my life living alone by choice, my non – human neighbors have become my teachers. It is painfully obvious to me that listening to nature is an art form lost to western culture. Observing, listening, refusing to make judgments or draw premature conclusions allows Nature’s truths to seep slowly into our bodies. I think of this process as a kind of percolating – extraordinary knowledge and insights arise out of these complex relationships with the rest of nature that only some Indigenous cultures seem to be able to maintain today. Although I am not a witch in the western tradition as in Wiccan I am one having been initiated by nature. I’ll give the reader one recent example. A number of years ago while walking through a Bosque along the river in NM on a daily basis during the winter months, always before dawn, I began to sense light emanating from under my feet underground. I could feel that this light was beneficent but it also seemed that I was tapping into the unknown. Very mysterious. I was learning something but what? Having learned to trust my body’s truth I waited for more information. When I learned that the latest research in western science had discovered that mycelial networking operated much like the human brain does by creating synapses accompanied by sparks of light that wove the roots below my feet into one tapestry that stretched across unbroken ground, I still experienced as sense of awe and wonder! I thanked my body for hearing the message: We are all connected! At least in some places. These networks stretch across parts of the desert in the wetlands if they are protected as this area was. Most desert lands have been trashed by cattle grazing destroying the networking. The same process occurs in more temperate areas when roads are paved over the earth, cities are built or agribusiness pollutes the earth with chemicals. I could go on here. My point? If earth was allowed to be in her natural state the underground networking would stretch across the whole planet. It is amazing to think that such complex communication lines lie just under the surface of our feet. One of the things I love most about being in unbroken stretches of forest, and I do have one nearby (12,000 plus acres), is that it is very easy to slip into that light trance state while walking slowly. Softening my vision with intent I feel and sense that communication occurring beneath my feet, experience being loved by something so much greater, than I can comprehend. Every time I enter this forest I can her/him casting a veil around me as I slip into “all there is”. My only thought afterwards is to give thanks for the two people who saved this land from destruction. The witch in me is always repeating the same words: let the Powers of Nature leads you Home. I listen with deep love and appreciation, grateful for instruction. https://www.magoism.net/2014/12/meet-mago-contributor-sara-wright/
(Art) Cailleach, The Queen of Winter by Judith Shaw

The Cailleach (KAL-y-ach), which literally translates as the “Veiled One” is an ancient Goddess whose origins are unknown. When the Celts arrived in Ireland and Scotland she was there. Over time Her name came to mean “old wife” or “old woman”. And yet she was thought to never grow old, an all powerful, ageless, Goddess of transformation. In one of her stories, Cailleach, as an old hag, seeks love from the hero. If he accepts Her, She then transforms into a beautiful young woman, symbolizing the transformation occurring in the depths of winter when the seeds lay dormant in the earth. Yet alive within this dormancy is the promise of rebirth in the spring. She is the guardian of the life force, finding and nourishing the seeds, commanding the power of life and death. As the final phase of the Triple Goddess, she rules the eternal wheel of reincarnation. Cailleach personifies death and the transformative power of darkness. She leads us through death to rebirth. The Cailleach, a Dark Goddess of nature, is clearly one with the land. Sometimes depicted with one eye, She sees beyond duality peering into the Oneness of all Being. She is the embodiment of winter, clothing the land with the whiteness of snow. The sacred stones are Her special places. She leaps from mountaintop to mountaintop, dropping rocks to create sacred hills, the Sidhe. She carries a slachdam, the Druidic rod or a hammer with which she wields power over the seasons and the weather, unleashing powerful and cleansing storms.
(Essay) Rediscovering Matilda Joslyn Gage as the pioneering anti-colonialist feminist thinker by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.

Wikipedia Image Matilda Joslyn Gage (1826-1898), the 19th century United States radical feminist thinker, activist, and author, stands as the forerunner of anti-colonial matriarchal feminist advocates. Gage, pointing out that U.S. federalism was borrowed from the structure of matriarchal Iroquois confederacy known as Six Nations, nestles her feminist thought at the root of non-Eurocentric matriarchal polities.[1] Historically, the U.S. government issued the Indian Appropriations Act in 1851 and 1871, which illustrates how legally the U.S. took over the territory of First Nations people. Having lived through the Gilded Age, the last few decades of the nineteenth century marked by a rapid expansion of capitalist economy during which more than a half of First Nations territories fell under the U.S. statehood, Gage saw what a woman was not expected to see, U.S. Founding Fathers betrayed First Nations people, the Clan Mothers of the Iroquois confederacy in particular. Gage witnessed that the U.S. government stole the constitution of the matriarchal Iroquois confederacy for its own agenda of perpetuating and expanding colonialist capitalist patriarchy. In 1987 and 1988 over a century later from her time, the U.S. House passed and amended “H.Con.Res.331, A concurrent resolution to acknowledge the contribution of the Iroquois Confederacy of Nations to the development of the United States Constitution and to reaffirm the continuing government-to-government relationship between Indian tribes and the United States established in the Constitution,” which reads: Acknowledges the contributions made by the Iroquois Confederacy and other Indian nations to the formation and development of the United States. Reaffirms the government-to-government relationship between the United States and Indian tribes. Reaffirms the trust responsibility and obligation of the Government to Indian tribes, including Alaska Natives. Acknowledges the need to exercise good faith in upholding treaties with the various tribes. [2] While the above appears to be a belated but necessary public recognition on the part of the U.S. Congress, Gage, if she returns today, would deplore it for it is a final seal to dismiss the fact that the very formation of the U.S. statehood exploited the matriarchal tradition of the Iroquois Confederacy. H.Con.Res.331 is a symbolic act that legitimizes the colonialist usurpation of matriarchal power. Patriarchal hijacking of the latter is justified in the name of democracy once and for all. Also gone are anti-colonialist U.S. feminist advocacies in the public domain. In the foreground, Gagean anti-colonialist matriarchal feminist thought has become further marginalized among feminists, if ever recognized. The young hear no anti-colonialist feminists in the so-called first wave of feminism in the nineteenth century. Students are encouraged to swallow the postmodern bubbles of anti-colonial feminist discourse, a deplorable impasse in the mind of women. In the Background, however, Gagean feminism ignites a new awareness that women from around the world CAN build alliances following nature’s diversity in unity within the worldwide tradition of Matriarchal Mothers. That is the underpinning of Magoist feminism, which propels the writing of this book. Targeting the patriarchal nature of U.S. federalism, Gage refused to become a mere suffragist feminist for white women exclusively. She saw an old colonialist Eurocentric patriarchy in pursuit of its new capitalist gains resettling as the U.S. statehood in Turtle Island. And Christianity was the engine that boosted its colonialist patriarchal politics. Christianity provided U.S. Founding Fathers with moral authority not only to dominate their own women but also to appropriate the matriarchal Iroquois confederacy for the making of the U.S. Constitution, a new colonialist rule disguised as democracy. Put differently, U.S. Founding Fathers were religiously sanctioned to keep women as a property of men and take the land as they advanced into new territories. They found no better ally than Christianity, which put forth the ideology that God is the male and vice versa. The male is God. In short, Gage demanded that the U.S. government must follow the footsteps of the matriarchal Iroquois confederacy. She was no mere women’s suffrage feminist but a radical advocate of matriarchal leadership in modern politics. For this, she, along with her colleagues, focused on Christianity, a driving force behind U.S. patriarchal and colonialist politics. Christianity needed to be shaken, if not dismantled. How did she do that? By outsourcing matriarchal rules of the worldwide non-Eurocentric world, Gage sought to undermine the espousal between Christianity and U.S. federalism. The suffragist right for white women would mean an agreement in the colonialist appropriation of Iroquois matriarchy, a subjugation not a liberation for white women. Thus, Gage urged that U.S. Founding Fathers must incorporate the matriarchal rule of the Iroquois confederacy. In this regard, Gage’s feminism was distinguished from her contemporary suffragist feminists including Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Gage’s critique of Christianity, often lumped together with that of other feminists of her time, was never limited to an equal participation for women in the church or a liberation of women from its oppressive teaching. She opposed Christianity not only because it was oppressive against women but also because it was the colonialist religion, which endorsed white men to rule over against native peoples. For Gage, the newly formed U.S. government was nothing but a new form of patriarchy fully charged with its Eurocentric colonialist and capitalist goals. Gage foresaw the future wherein the U.S. would dominate international politics and spread a modern form of patriarchy, democracy. Seemingly secular, democracy promulgated by the U.S. government relies on Christianity. That Christianity is the largest religion of the planet is not irrelevant to the domination of Eurocentric U.S. democracy. Today without a direct support of Christianity, the modern political system of democracy has successfully instituted itself as an ideal form of government for modern nation-states. That would be a modern contribution of the U.S. to the world’s patriarchy. Consequently, moderns fetishize democracy at the expense of matriarchal socio-political practices. Gage’s critique opens the door to the insight that modern patriarchy is maintained through the international politics of Eurocentric colonial democracy represented by the United States. Gagean feminist thought, underestimated if not forgotten today even among feminists, sheds light on how …
(Fiction/Essay) What Foolishness is This? Cerridwen’s Cauldron is for All of Us by Carolyn Lee Boyd

Cerridwen. By Christopher Williams. Art UK, Public Domain “What foolishness is this?” Cerridwen’s voice railed in exasperation and anger over the drone of my inner voice as I reread Her myth. Not waiting for my reaction, She continued. “I look out over your world and see how my gift of inspiration has been misused, the opportunity for divine creation taken away from most people in your age of celebrity and the idolatry of fame and fortune, leading to a dulling of your world and imaginative catastrophe. My story as you have heard it has beauty and meaning but perhaps it is now time to change perspectives and see it also from another point of view. Let me tell you a second version of the story. J.M. Edwards ‘Y Mabinogion’, Wrexham., 1901, Public Domain “When my son was born he was called Afagdu, ‘Utter Darkness.’ Because he did not look like other children, it was feared he would never be accepted by society. What child is ugly to a mother? If no one else would love him, I would make up for it by loving him a thousand times more, not by having him drink some overboiled elixir. “Brew up a potion from herbs to give him brilliance and wisdom, they said. Do they think that I do not have the power to see into the future, that I do not know what would happen? That evil servant Gwion stole the concoction. And the cauldron burst open and poisoned the world. Or so they thought. I did indeed make a mixture of herbs, but not the one they believed. “They said I chased Gwion aided by my friends who let me borrow their bodies, the greyhound, an otter, a hawk, and a hen. Knaves. Why would I chase someone who stole something that can never be stolen, if indeed it had been genius? Or that, in reality, was worthless to him? Did they think I couldn’t make more potion if I had wanted to, if the potion had been what gave the gift of the muses? “They say I ate the traitor Gwion as a grain of wheat and gave birth to him as the great bard Taliesin. Who thinks I could be forced to unwillingly give birth to such a one? Gwion escaped our household and made up a tale to explain his odd origin when he wished to be perceived as a great bard of mythical origins. “I did give birth when I heard the story he had conjured, but not to a being, but rather to a revelation that inspiration belongs not to the gods and their chosen elite, but rather to all. Brilliance comes not from memorizing hundreds of stories, poems, and genealogies like the bards, but from hard-won life experience and the knowledge it brings that love is our only true muse. “But I let the story continue to be told far and wide. I did not speak against it because it uttered helpful truths, but here is another beneficial true story. How much love must a mother have for her child to carefully forage and prepare the herbs, then place them in a gigantic pot, and ensure they are carefully tended for a year and a day? Would not Afagdu have received from this not false genius, but the knowledge that, though he was reviled by everyone else, his mother deeply loved him? Might this have not given him the confidence he needed to find the virtuosity within himself to write dazzling poetry and be the most celebrated bard in history had not Gwion intervened? Might his name Utter Darkness instead have meant the womb inside the Earth and within each of us where we take the manifestations of love and make them into artistic jewels that shine, sometimes in their terribleness, sometimes in their joy of being? Might not the works of Gwion, later known as Taliesin, actually have been those of Afagdu, the credit stolen by history once both were long gone from the human realm? By Steve Jurvetson – Flickr: Dragon’s Breath, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32756767 “When the cauldron broke, it was not poison that spilled across the world, it was imagination and artistry. The gods had wanted the genius of creation to be under their control, to be only for those they chose, with no love, grace, or passion for life’s everyday beauty. They thought that since I was immortal, too, I would be their servant and let Gwion steal the potion. But I did not, nor did they know that the potion was nothing more than random herbs and that the love of its making was the magic. “Instead, once Afagdu had been made luminous by the mixture made possible by my motherly love, I spread the potion over the whole world, into those places that ordinary humans, as the gods call them, (Are there ordinary humans? No, anyone who survives life as a mortal is extraordinary) venture but never the gods. I infused inspiration into the daily and seemingly mundane acts of romance, into human cries of grief heard only by themselves and those close to them, into the warmth of small acts of friendship, into the billion exchanges between parents and children that happen every day, into the often silent human yearning for the sea and forest. It is now inextricably part of everything on Earth that bridges humans to other elements of their cosmos, all that helps them find and fulfill their place in the realm of mortality. The bounty of the cauldron was not a potion, but love and the knowledge of how to use it to create works of beauty, wisdom, and truth out of the struggles and delights of daily human life. “Taking inspiration from the tyranny of the gods and giving it to humanity is how I now choose to use my own enlightenment.” And then Her voice was silent. In the 21st century’s world it can seem as if Cerridwen’s cauldron …

(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) The Goddess Inanna: Her Allies and Opponents by Hearth Moon Rising

Inanna’s Descent to the Underworld is one of the most fascinating myths ever told. Not just because it is profound and enlightening, although it is certainly that. It’s an exciting journey that ignites the imagination, and female characters are at the hub of the action. This is a tale of power: power that is demanded, power that is won, power that is appropriated, and power that cannot be escaped. The story follows the fertility goddess Inanna, who brought civilization to Mesopotamia, as she seeks to expand her realm by venturing into the world below. Inanna’s experiences in the great below, her escape, and the wild events that unfold as a result of her caper are the focus of the tale.
(Special Post 1) "The Oldest Civilization" and its Agendas by Mago Circle Members

[Editor’s Note: The following discussion took place in response to an article listed blow by the members of The Mago Cirlce, Facebook group of Goddessians/Magoists from May 6 to May 10, 2016. Readers are recommended to read the original article linked below that has invoked the converation.] “The Danube Civilization: Oldest in the World” in The Ancient Ones upon the ruins of our ancestors, published April 3, 2016.

(Art & Poem) Candelmas/Imbolc by Sudie Rakusin & Annie Finch

IMBOLC DANCE From the east she has gathered like wishes. She has woven a night into dawn. We are quickening ivy. We grow where her warmth melts out over the ice. Now spiral south bends into flame to push the morning over doors. The light swings wide, green with the pulse of seasons, and we let her in We are quickening ivy. We grow The light swings wide, green with the pulse till the west is rocked by darkness pulled from where the fire rises. Shortened time’s reflecting water rakes her through the thickened cold. Hands cover north smooth with emptiness, stinging the mill of night’s hours. Wait with me. See, she comes circling over the listening snow to us. Shortened time’s reflecting water Wait with me. See, she comes circling From Calendars (Tupelo Press, 2003) Art is included in Celebrating Seasons of the Goddess (Mago Books, 2017). (Meet Mago Contributor) Sudie Rakusin (Meet Mago Contributor) Annie Finch
(Music) Songs for Samhain by Alison Newvine

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

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

Autumn Equinox/Mabon Northern Hemisphere – September 21-23 Southern Hemisphere – March 21-23 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRJNY1LSvIs&t=1175s …oOo… The purpose of this 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. The script for this Autumn Equinox/Mabon ceremony is offered in Chapter 11 of my book A Poiesis of the Creative Cosmos: Celebrating Her within PaGaian Sacred Ceremony, with all acknowledgements and references there. In particular I mention here, credit for the story of Demeter and Persephone as told by Charlene Spretnak in her book Lost Goddesses of Early Greece. For more full participation in the ceremony, you could have one or more stalks of wheat or native grain tied with a red thread/ribbon, a garden pot with soil, a small garden trowel, a flower bulb (daffodil type), food and drink, that may represent your “harvest” – ready for eating and drinking. 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). The images used are a collage of footage and photos from the 2024 Autumn Equinox ceremony at my place in Wakka Wakka country, South East Queensland Australia, and from previous Autumn Equinox ceremonies I facilitated over the decades in MoonCourt, Goddess ceremonial space in NSW Australia, Darug and Gundungurra country. My partner Robert (Taffy) Seaborne who has participated in all the Seasonal ceremonies since Samhain 2000, adds his voice to this video. Image credits: Demeter and Persephone (500 B.C.E. Greece). Hallie Iglehart Austen, The Heart of the Goddess, p.72. Art of Demeter and Persephone on MoonCourt wall: Cernak Herself Music credit: “Gentle Sorrow” by Sky: which he has previously allowed me to use in my work. This piece of music is also used in the Autumn Equinox meditation on my PaGaian Cosmology Meditations published 2015.
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.
(Prose) Desire: the Wheel of Her Creativity by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This essay is an edited excerpt from the concluding chapter (Chapter 8) of the author’s book PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. Place of Being is a passionate place, where desire draws forth what is sought, co-creates what is needed[1]; within a con-text – a story – where love of self, other and all-that-is are indistinguishable … they are nested within each other and so is the passion for being. I begin to understand desire afresh: this renewed understanding has been an emergent property of the religious practice of seasonal celebration: that is, the religious practice of the ceremonial celebration of Her Creativity. It has been said She is “that which is attained at the end of desire[2].” Within the context of ceremonial engagement and inner search for Her, I begin to realize how desire turns the Wheel. As the light part of the cycle waxes from Early Spring, form/life builds in desire. At Beltaine/High Spring, desire runs wild, at Summer Solstice, it peaks into creative fullness, union … and breaks open at that interchange into the dark part of the cycle – the dissolution of Lammas/ Late Summer. She becomes the Dark One, who receives us back – the end of desire. It has been a popular notion in the Christian West, that the beautiful virgin lures men (sic) to their destruction, and as I perceive the Wheel, it is indeed Virgin who moves in Her wild delight towards entropy/dissolution; however in a cosmology that is in relationship with the dark, this is not perceived as a negative thing. Also, in this cosmology, there is the balancing factor of the Crone’s movement towards new life, in the conceiving dark space of Samhain/Deep Autumn – a dynamic and story that has not been a popular notion in recent millennia. Desire seems not so much a grasping, as a receiving, an ability or capacity to open and dissolve. I think of an image of an open bowl as a signifier of the Virgin’s gift. The increasing light is received, and causes the opening, which will become a dispersal of form – entropy, if you like: this is Beltaine/High Spring – the Desire[3]that is celebrated is a movement towards dis-solution … that is its direction. In contrast, and in balance, Samhain/Deep Autumn celebrates re-solution, which is a movement towards form – it is a materializing gathering into form, as the increasing darkness is received. It seems it is darkness that creates form, as it gathers into itself – as many ancient stories say, and it is light that creates dispersal. And yet I see that the opposite is true also. I think of how there is desire for this work that I have done, for whatever one does – it is then already being received. Desire is receiving. What if I wrote this, and it was not received or welcomed in some way. But the desire for it is already there, and perhaps the desire made it manifest. Perhaps the desire draws forth manifestation, even at Winter Solstice, even at Imbolc/Early Spring, as we head towards Beltaine – it is desire that is drawing that forth, drawing that process around. Desire is already receiving; it is open. Its receptivity draws forth the manifestation. And then the manifestation climaxes at Summer and dissolves into the manifesting, which is perhaps where the desire is coming from – the desire is in the darkness, in the dark’s receptivity[4]. It becomes very active at the time of Beltaine, it lures the differentiated beings back into Her. So the lure at Beltaine is the luring of differentiated beings into a Holy Lust, into a froth and dance of life, whereupon they dissolve ecstatically back into Her – She is “that which is attained at the end of Desire.” And in the dissolution, we sink deeper into that, and begin again. All the time, it is Desire that is luring the manifest into the manifesting, and the manifesting into the manifest. Passion is the glue, the underlying dynamic that streams through it all – through the light and the dark, through the creative triplicities of Virgin-Mother-Crone, of Differentiation-Communion-Autopoeisis[5]. Passion/Desire then is worthy of much more contemplation. If desire/allurement is the same cosmic dynamic as gravity, as cosmologist Brian Swimme suggests[6], then desire like gravity is the dynamic that links/holds us to our Place, to “that which is”, as philosopher Linda Holler describes the effect of gravity[7]. Held in relationship by desire/allurement we lose abstraction and artificial boundaries, and “become embodied and grow heavy with the weight of the earth[8].” We then know that “being is being-in relation-to”[9]. Holler says that when we think with the weight of Earth, space becomes “thick” as this “relational presence … turns notes into melodies, words into phrases with meaning, and space into vital forms with color and content, (and) also holds the knower in the world[10].”Thus, I at last become a particular, a subject, a felt being in the world – a Place laden with content, sentient: continuous with other and all-that-is. Notes: [1]“…as surely as the chlorophyll molecule was co-created by Earth and Sun, as Earth reached for nourishment; as surely as the ear was co-created by subject and sound, as the subject reached for an unknown signal.” As I have written in PaGaian Cosmology, p. 248. [2]Doreen Valiente, The Charge of the Goddessas referred to in Starhawk, The Spiral Dance, p.102-103. [3]I capitalize here, for it is a holy quality. [4]Perhaps the popular cultural association of the darkness/black lingerie etc. with erotica is an expression/”memory” of this deep truth. [5]These are the three qualities of Cosmogenesis, as referred to in PaGaian Cosmology, Chapter 4, “Cosmogenesis and the Female Metaphor”: https://pagaian.org/book/chapter-4/ [6]Brian Swimme, The Universe is a Green Dragon, p.43. [7]Linda Holler, “Thinking with the Weight of the Earth: Feminist Contributions to an Epistemology of Concreteness”, Hypatia, Vol. 5 No. 1, p.2. [8]Linda Holler, “Thinking with the Weight of the Earth: Feminist Contributions to an Epistemology of Concreteness”,Hypatia, Vol. …

(Photo Essay 2) ‘Gaeyang Halmi, the Sea Goddess of Korea’ by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

Part II: The Lost Iconography of Gaeyang Halmi We visited the Suseong Shrine a second time on July 11, 2012. I looked inside the Shrine wherein a shaman ritual was being performed by a Mudang (Korean Shaman)[i] and her assistants. The Mudang in colorful ritual outfit appeared to console her female client on behalf of the spirit. The ritual continued another hour or so and we waited outside until she finished her performance. We had come here on the day of arrival in Jungmak-dong, Buan. The shrine was locked, apparently not being in use. On our second visit, the shrine was packed with four people and their instruments and equipment. It was so compact that it left no room for another person to sit; however, it was pumping up the sober energy. In fact, I have no recollection of which musical instruments were being played inside the shrine. Nonetheless, it feels like that I was hearing the sharp and high banging of the kkwaenggwari (gong) accompanied by the janggu (hourglass drum) rhythm [symbolizing the sound of thunder and rain respectively]. The “musical” sound that I heard shook off the debris of ordinary thoughts and took me to the Other Side of Reality. I began to see things clearly the way they are. I was stepping into the history of this place that I was going to discover.
(Pilgrimage Essay 1) Report of First Mago Pilgrimage to Korea by Helen Hwang

[Author’s note: First Mago Pilgrimage to Korea took place in June 6-19, 2013. We visited Ganghwa Island, Seoul, Wonju, Mt. Jiri, Yeong Island (Busan), and Jeju Island.] Part 1 Magoist Alchemy and Consanguinity of All Peoples My study of Mago, the Great Goddess of East Asia, has hurled me into uncharted territory. (In fact, my life hurled me onto a labyrinthine path.) Mago is not a mere subject of my study. Or, study is not a mere brain activity for me. Mago has been the answer to my intellectual/spiritual quests. And I am to carve out my own destiny. Studying Magoism has become a way of life to me. Magoism is the term that I coined to name the mytho-historical-cultural context in which Mago is venerated. Assessing a large body of source materials that I documented, I learned that Magoism is one of the most comprehensive contexts that can explain East Asian civilizations as a whole. It feels right that reconstructing Magoism, the method that I employed in studying Mago, is the reason why I study Mago. Ever since I began to contemplate the topic of Mago for study in 2000, I have visited Korea, my native land, almost annually and undertook such activities as documentation, presentation, trips, and field research for the purpose of measuring the landscape of Magoism. In enacting those projects, I have worked with a variety of groups and individuals including feminists, scholars, friends, and the general public. For the last three years, I have organized various sizes of pilgrimages to near and far places with Koreans. Those experiences have gradually led me to the unfolding mystery of Magoist spiritual/intellectual reality. That said, it was my honor and privilege to organize and lead the very first intercontinental Mago Pilgrimage to Korea from June 6 to June 19 in 2013. This pilgrimage made a memorable landmark in Magoism. About a decade ago, Mago was hardly known among goddess people in the West. And the situation was not so far different from that in Korea. At that time, I was writing my Ph.D. dissertation on Mago from a multi-disciplinary perspective, not knowing what was forthcoming. The Mago Pilgrimage envisioned the remarkable change!
(Essay 2 Part 1) Why Do I Love Korean Historical Dramas? by Anna Tzanova

Part 1 Fans, journalists, critics, and academia in multiple fields have studied this world phenomenon; have written blogs, articles, books; and presented in conferences, dissecting, and making predictions. Still, the magic and mystery of its success persists to be as thrilling as ever. This is the way I see it: DELIGHTING THE SENSES

Category: Goddess feminist activism

(Essay 11) The Norse Goddesses behind the Asir Veil: The Vanir Mothers in Continental Scandinavia by Kirsten Brunsgaard Clausen

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(Art) Temperance (Cetaceans and the Cosmic Uterus) by Susan Abbott

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(Essay 2) Crack in the Alienated Colonised Mind by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

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(Essay) The Pandemic and the Magic of Solidarity by Harita Meenee

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(Call for Contributions) On the Coronavirus and Your Goddess Feminist Activist Spirituality

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(Multi-genre) The Last of the Scottish Orca’s by Jude Lally

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(Photo Essay 2) Grandmothers by Kaalii Cargill

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(Whale Essay 1) Whales in Korean Linguistics by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.

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(Special Post 3) Multi-Linguistic Resemblances of “Mago” by Mago Circle Members

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(Essay 7) The Blending of Bön, Buddhism and the Goddess Gemu in Mosuo Culture by Krista Rodin

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(Prose & Art) The Magnificent – The Last Great Whale, The Mother of All by Noris Binet

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(Essay 10) The Norse Goddesses behind the Asir Veil: The Vanir Mothers in Continental Scandinavia by Kirsten Brunsgaard Clausen

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(Essay) From Gaia and Dionysus to Jesus and Mary Magdalene by Harita Meenee

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

Mago Almanac Year 9 Monthly Wheels

S/HE: IJGS V4 N1-2 2025 (B/W Paperback)

Mago Pod Bulletin #85 June-July 2026

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