August 3, 2015October 2, 2019 RTM Editors1 Comment

(Prose) Wise Women by Alex Purbrick

I was born into a tribe that for several hundred years burnt, tortured and drowned its wise women, its healers, its medicine women. We lost our old ways, our love Read More …

May 15, 2015October 2, 2019 RTM EditorsLeave a comment

(Poem) Jeanne of the Congo by Janine Canan

No, she was not burned at the stake. She was tied to a tree while gangs of men raped her over and over for many weeks. After her first Read More …

April 15, 2015October 2, 2019 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Poem) If We Were Rooted by Mary Saracino

If we were rooted to the ground like trees or roses would we understand how intimately our lives are entwined with the Mystery? She carries us in her arms, Read More …

September 15, 2014October 2, 2019 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Book excerpt) Heretics: A Love Story by Mary Saracino

Chapter 1 The Dream Shardana woke with a start. The chilling dirge of a howling wolf rang in her ears. Her heart raced. She rubbed her eyes, but was unable Read More …

June 18, 2014November 15, 2019 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Solstice meditation) Three Candles Meditation by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This meditation particularly expresses Winter Solstice Poetry – the Poiesis of the Creative Cosmos at this Seasonal Moment, when the the ancients of my heritage celebrated the significance of the Read More …

June 2, 2014October 2, 2019 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Essay) Don’t Take It Lying Down: Reproductive Autonomy and the Goddess by Dr Kaalii Cargill

Once upon a time, when “God was a woman”[i], anywhere from 35000 years ago until about 3500 years ago in some parts of the world, the life-giving power of the Read More …

May 14, 2014October 2, 2019 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Poem) many breasted by Susan Hawthorne

the many-breasted ones are here in droves from Rome comes Lupa in company with harpies griffins and Egyptian phoenix they howl and call like a rabble of banshees Read More …

May 9, 2014October 2, 2019 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Budoji Essay 5) The Magoist Cosmogony by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

Part 5: Magoist Cosmology “The primary aim of Magoist cosmology lies in lifting up the conceptual veil in people’s mind so that they can see what is given at birth.” Read More …

April 16, 2014October 2, 2019 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Easter Essay 2) The Secret of the Sacred Garden: The Garden of Eden and the Orchard of the Virgin by Harita Meenee

To trace the connection between the gardens of Aphrodite and Adonis on the one hand and the garden of the Resurrection on the other, we have to examine if the Read More …

April 14, 2014October 2, 2019 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Easter Essay 1) The Secret of the Sacred Garden: From Aphrodite’s Vulva to the Resurrection by Harita Meenee

What possible connection could there be between the sacred gardens of Aphrodite and the resurrection of Jesus? Interestingly, according to the Gospel of John, his burial occurred in a garden, Read More …

March 20, 2014October 2, 2019 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Equinox art) Inanna by Lydia Ruyle

Inanna is Queen of Earth and Heaven.

March 6, 2014January 15, 2023 Mago Work Admin1 Comment

(Meet Mago Contributor) Frances Guerin

Frances Guerin holds a Ma Visual Arts, LaTrobe University Bendigo, Dip Ceramics, Federation University Ba Hons Philosophy/ Women’s Studies LaTrobe Melbourne Campus. Her work is influenced by Irish Contemporary Art, Read More …

March 5, 2014October 2, 2019 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Art Essay 1) An experience of the Cailleach Beare, primordial creatrix of ancient Ireland Frances Guerin

I was summoned to Ireland by a crow tapping its beak loudly against my window just after dawn for many months. In frustration I yelled out, “Who are you and Read More …

(Prose) Starting the Garden by Francesca Tronetti

Wikimedia Common’s image Spring is still many weeks away, but for the gardener, the process of life has already begun. While the compost pile thaws, breaks down, then freezes with the new snow. Starting and stopping over and over again. Until one day, the sun stays out and warm. Birds have started to return from their winter roosts. The buzzards are back, searching for the carrion frozen in the snow. It is the middle of March, and the seeds for the garden have been planted. Sage and basil fill one starter tray. Canterbury bells, delphinium, lupine, cosmos, perennial flowers, fill a few more. After spending eight weeks in the fridge, a large tray of lavender seeds sits in the sun, waiting for its warmth to coax them to grow. They will be started in the gentle sun, but once they break the surface, they will be under the care of grow lights, giving them the eight hours of growth they need to thrive. Another tray is filled with vegetable seeds, and five types of peppers are waiting to sprout. Three are hot peppers, bound for the community garden. Two are sweet peppers, some for the community, some for me. My mini peppers have such a high germination rate that I will be giving away seedlings to my coworkers this year, I hate to let them go to waste, so the sprouting seeds will have to go into the soil soon. Eggplant, beefsteak tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, cilantro, and kale, are planted and sitting under the sun. It is the time to watch and wait, to check the moisture in the soil while the first greens poke their heads above the starting mix. For the first few weeks, they don’t need anything from us aside from water. Nature has provided them with the nutrients they need to start on their way. But, they are not in nature; they are in a sterile mix with minimal nutrition. After a time, the gardener must provide what nature normally would. Carefully measured amounts of liquid fertilizer must be added each week, half of what would be used for full-size plants. After that, the seedlings will be transplanted every few weeks to larger pots, giving the roots room to grow; until late May or early June when they are placed in the sun-warmed soil of the garden. Those seeds which do not like to be started and moved will also be planted into this soil. Squashes and sunflowers, lettuce and spinach, beet and carrots, flowers and herbs. They can be bought in pots at a garden center, but they prefer to start, live, and flower in one place. So much activity occupies the gardener inside and outdoors in the next few months. Growing and tending tender seedlings, digging up rocks and raking in compost, and setting up beds and supports, which will soon be used. Then there are the little things, the bird feeder, roosts, and water sources for pollinators. Laying out a plan to mix flowers and vegetables in a manner pleasing to the eye. Wikimedia Common’s image If Persephone was returning to her mother’s arms today, she would see the earth still barren and covered with snow. But her siblings, the daughters and sons of other goddesses and gods are helping to make her return joyous. When we finally step out, there will be instant explosions of color which will last until the snow again covers the ground. Beginning with the first flowers, there are continuous blooms from the fruiting trees as they entice bees to visit them, from the tall flowers planted for the butterflies, from the vegetables as they ripen and fill the eyes with shades of yellow, orange, red, and purples. The color will continue into the fall, when the warm colors take over from the sunflowers, pumpkins, corn, and winter squash. This entire life cycle of the summer is dependent on the now. When it is too cold to work outside; when the blowing winds will kill the tender spouts. It starts now, with a few seeds placed in small pots, covered, and set out to warm in the weak sun. https://www.magoism.net/2018/11/meet-mago-contributor-rev-francesca-tronetti-ph-d/
(Essay 1) Why the World Needs Creatrix Studies? by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.

[Author’s Note: This essay was published in S/HE: An International Journal of Goddress Studiess V5 N1 (2026). Footnotes numbers of these sequels do not match with those in the original publication.] Abstract Creatrix Studies is about reviving the pre-patriarchally originated legacy of Matriversalism, the Way of the Matriverse (maternally perceived universe). It is an oeuvre of my life and a contribution to the world as a matriversal feminist of Korean descent. Creatrix Studies has arrived with the aim of guiding the searching mind to Matriversalism in the face of an escalating planetary uncertainty posed by AI-backed technologies in particular in the coming decade. It recognizes that the scope of patriarchal history and teaching is too myopic to assess the course of human ontology on the planet. According to my research on Ceto-Magoism (the Whale-guided Way of Mago, the Creatrix), the pre-patriarchal Neolithic world reached a civilizational apogee in human history. By adopting cetacean intelligence and venerating the Cetacean Providence (the dragon), archaic Ceto-Magoists named and tapped into the cosmogenic force, the Cosmic Music, and reified it in the human world. Simply put, heaven was realized on earth by Neolithic Ceto-Magoists. And it was the Cosmic Mother who was exalted. The Origin Mother — the Cosmic Mother (personal and theistic) and the Creatrix (non-personal and non-theistic) — represents the Cosmic Music, the central tenet of Ceto-Magoist cosmology. The cetacean-human alliance of the Neolithic gave birth to the soteriological consciousness of the Creatrix Mother. Ceto-Magoists of Old Korea (the One Mother People of the Earth) carved out matriversal ontology (the maternal way of intercosmic becoming) in the form of civilization, which I call Ceto-Magoist civilization, for generations to come. Ceto-Magoism entails brilliant, pacific, and spiritual civilizational advancements including matristic governance, calendrics, maritime prowess, architecture, astronomy, linguistics, education, religion, geography, medicines, and cures as well as sono/numeric institutions. That Goma, better known as the Bear/Head Woman among Koreans, was the founder of Ceto-Magoism is largely unknown. As the Shaman Queen of the fourth millennium BCE, she established and flowered Ceto-Magoist civilization. These civilizational inventions were carried out to the world by the “mermaids” and “mermen” under the leadership of Goma and her Mudang Head successors of Old Korea for the mission of restoring matriversal ontology in the human world. The pre-patriarchal world maintained unity not only among peoples but also with the natural world headed by the Cetacean Divine. Based on the plethora of primary sources including The Budoji (Epic of the Emblem Capital City), drawn from Korea, China, Japan and beyond, I have reconstructed Ceto-Magoist Studies to explore and advocate the pre-patriarchally originated matriversal legacy cultivated, flowered, and innovated by the Neolithic cetacean collaborators. Unveiling the cetacean-human alliance, Ceto-Magoism comes to us as the matriversal language shrouded in worldwide religious practices and mythologies. Keywords Cosmic Mother, Mago, Creatrix, Matriverse, Old Korea, Goma, whales, dragon, Ceto-Magoism, Matriversalism, cosmology, ontology, civilization, soteriology, second-wave feminism, Goddess Studies, feminist spirituality, mythology, Neolithic, Zhuangzi This essay discusses the central pillars of Creatrix Studies drawn from my Ceto-Magoist research and its methodology. Creatrix Studies treats multidisciplinary works on the Cosmic Mother to investigate how they can be reassessed in a new light of matri-cosmology (the way of knowing the Matriverse) released by Ceto-Magoist Studies. Creatrix Studies is not just a collective summing of Goddess talks focusing on her creative or creating nature. Matriversalism (the Way of the Matriverse) that Creatrix Studies unfolds is not merely a syncretic conclusion or a broad inference of Goddess research results and spiritual practices. Creatrix Studies springs up from its own root, Ceto-Magoism (the Whale-guided Way Mago, the Creatrix), which manifests cross-culturally in various forms. Ceto-Magoism constitutes the core of Old Korea (the One Mother People and Land of the Earth).[1] Unpacking Ceto-Magoism entails the mytho-historical-cosmological legacy of Old Korea. That is, Ceto-Magoism is the indigenous text, which explains not only the origin of ancient “Goddesses” but also the full-fledged, pre-patriarchal feature of matri-cosmology and matriversal ontology. Creatrix Studies rooted in Ceto-Magoism necessarily explores pre-patriarchal Old Korean history, mythology, and culture as the matriversal context for all deities including the male. Once the paradigm of Ceto-Magoism is recognized, Creatrix Studies will not only house Goddess talks at large but also offer the framework to assess how worldwide Goddess topics are interrelated. Further it will reexamine patriarchal histories and religions as well as mythologies, wherein Matriversalism is appropriated and distorted. Creatrix Studies channels what has been lost in the course of history, the pre-patriarchally originated matristic legacy, which I call Ceto-Magoism. The etiological nature of Ceto-Magoism sheds a new light on the themes of world-wide deities, histories, and myths. Creatrix Studies is an applied format of Ceto-Magoist Studies, which serves as a forum to cross-examine individual research processes and results and build new insights concerning the Cosmic Mother. Both Creatrix Studies and Ceto-Magoism are new in mainstream academia. Intriguingly, the onset of Creatrix Studies coincides with the expansion of AI (Artificial Intelligence) in global life. I present Creatrix Studies as a sign of the times. I hope that it should be known to humanity before AI-powered mechanical ontology takes shape. And that is the mission of Ceto-Magoism. Creatrix Studies guides the direction of AI-equipped human intelligence to cope with global crises and bring a new terrestrial equilibrium. On the one hand, Ceto-Magoism is recognizable as the symbol of sea-monsters/dragons/serpents often demonized in major world religions and mythologies. On the other hand, it is simply forgotten or remains covert today. Because the concept of the Creatrix is absent in patriarchal religions, erased or replaced by the male god, it is necessary for Creatrix Studies to outsource matri-cosmology unleashed by Ceto-Magoist Studies. Methodologically, Creatrix Studies is an iconoclastic field, which plows the untouched and ever-unfolding depth to overturn the patriarchal crust. Thus far unchecked patriarchal premises and assumptions would be questioned. For example, Creatrix Studies contests such assumptions: that human history began with patriarchy; that God created the world; and that the male is normative. Further, our scholars in Creatrix Studies finally are invited to …
(Art) The Empty Womb by Liz Darling

The experience of becoming a mother transformed the way I view the female body and the creation of life. Inspired by performing in Eve Ensler’s “The Vagina Monologues,” I use the vulva as a symbol of female power. This work reflects my disgust with the Christian Church’s role in male-dominated societies. Patriarchal religion has relegated women to inferior, subservient roles both in worship and domestic settings. Due to the vast influence of Abrahamic faiths, this damage to women extends beyond communities of worship and pervades secular society. I was raised in Christianity, and although I am now agnostic, I have been profoundly influenced by Christian ideas and teachings, both positive and negative. I juxtaposed vulvas with the traditional style of religious iconography to connect the spiritual and visceral aspects of my experience as a woman as well as provoke thought about how Christianity has been used to dominate and marginalize women for centuries. Regardless of personal belief, acknowledging the divine in female form has potential for profoundly affecting social change and empowering women and girls to view their lives as sacred and significant. (Meet Mago Contributor) Liz Darling.
(Essay 7) The Blending of Bön, Buddhism and the Goddess Gemu in Mosuo Culture by Krista Rodin

Differences among the Traditions Buddhist Temple, Lugu Lake. Goddess Gemu behind right hand flags. Photo K. Rodin 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 Moso chief with another possible ground to claim perpetual legitimacy of reign.”[1] These chiefs associated primarily with Zhameige and the Gelugpas. They were installed, or at least condoned, by Chinese regional bureaucrats. While the chiefs were men, daily social, and cultural activities were governed by women. Politically, Buddhism was a key structural thread for the elite, yet in every other way the Goddess Gemu and Daba traditions held sway in the people’s minds and hearts. Some of the differences between Daba and Buddhist ideas and practices include: – Dabas believe in the immortality of the soul; Buddhists do not. – Dabas use meat as sacrificial offerings in their ceremonies, which is anathema to Buddhists. – Dabas lack any hierarchical or structural institution, but rather function similarly to shamans; Buddhists have highly structured monastic institutional traditions. – Dabas rely on experiential training; Buddhists rely on both textual and experiential training. – Dabas do not use written story-based sacred texts; Buddhists do. – Daba traditions and rituals are passed on through oral transmission, Buddhist through both oral and written transmissions. – Dabas look to nature and the invisible world to balance the spirits; Buddhists seek to overcome the senses through meditation. They have almost diametrically opposed views of the world. Prior to the Social/Democratic Reform there were three levels of dabas: 1) the now non-existent haba, who utilized Tibetan sacred books, were psychopomps and had powerful magic; 2) the paddaba, the diviner who could see malevolent spirits; and 3) the pvdabba, the incantatory who knew how to chant the rituals to exorcise malevolent ghosts.[2] In addition to dabas, and lamas, which is the local term for any Buddhist monk, in Yongning, there is a long-standing tradition of shamans and diviners, called soma and zheda. Soma are vegetarian and deal exclusively with gods. They often perform in company with lamas who chant sutras to guide their journeys. The zheda cannot fly like the soma can, and they only deal with ghosts they can see, but with whom they cannot directly communicate. They also cannot communicate directly with humans, but need a translator to interpret their messages during their trance.[3] The soma and zheda can be either men or women and were invested by the Living Buddha. Today, without the Living Buddha, this tradition is in limbo. The dabas were practically wiped out during the Cultural Revolution. Their ritual implements were destroyed and no one was allowed to train the next generation. Lamu Gatusa, a Mosuo scholar, tried to reverse this trend in the 1990s when he organized twenty young men to train with two respected dabas. He also collected and recorded all known daba ceremonies and translated them into Mandarin.[4] For the people, the differences among the levels of daba, the lamas, the soma and zheda were not problematic. Dabas performed certain ceremonies, shamans and lamas others, and often the same event would have both dabas and lamas performing their ceremonies, e.g., funerary rites, to ensure that all the spirits were appeased.[5] The differing systems influenced each other over time. According to Mathieu, by the mid-20th century the dabas disassociated themselves from blood sacrifice and left that to their assistants. She also states, “In the Buddhist regions of Yongning, ordinary men and women likewise repent of their meat eating habits through daily penitence, by praying and circumambulating the village soto, stone burners in which the Moso light ritual fires.[6] (To be continued)Meet Mago Contributor, Krista Rodin, Ph.D. [1] Ibid., 244. [2] Christine Mathieu, “The Moso Ddaba Religious Specialists,” Naxi and Moso Ethnography: Kin, Rites, Pictographs, eds. Michael Oppitz and Elizabeth Hsu (Zürich: Völkerkundemuseum, 1998), 213. [3] Ibid., 211. [4] Ibid., 210. [5] Shih, “Mortuary Rituals and Symbols among the Moso,” 105-107. [6] Mathieu, “The Moso Ddaba Religious Specialists,” 211.
(Art) Thin Places by Liz Darling

“There is in Celtic mythology the notion of ‘thin places’ in the universe where the visible and the invisible world come into their closest proximity. To seek such places is the vocation of the wise and the good — and for those that find them, the clearest communication between the temporal and eternal. Mountains and rivers are particularly favored as thin places marking invariably as they do, the horizontal and perpendicular frontiers. But perhaps the ultimate of these thin places in the human condition are the experiences people are likely to have as they encounter suffering, joy, and mystery.” Peter Gomes (Meet Mago Contributor) Liz Darling.
(Photo Essay 8) Goddess Pilgrimage 2017 by Kaalii Cargill

[Author’s Note: In July 2017, I set out on a 4 month pilgrimage to the Unites States, Italy, France, Spain, Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt. I name it a “pilgrimage” because my main focus is what I call “visiting with the Grandmothers”, although I also encountered many other wonderful people and places. This series of Photo Essays is an invitation for you to visit with the Grandmothers I met on my journey . . .] SPAIN The Cybele Palace in Madrid is the home of the City Council – a grand old building with a “Refugees Welcome” sign on the front. It is located on the Plaza de Cybele which has a fountain with a statue of Cybele with two lions. Elvissa, V-VI BCE, Museum of Archaeology of Catalonia, Barcelona. Barcelona Egyptian Museum. Many Egyptian tombs included statues of naked women; originally interpreted as concubines (!), they are now understood to represent Isis and Nephthys. Wooden statue, 2040-2134 BCE. Necklaces, 4000-3000 BCE. . Meet Mago Contributor Kaalii Cargill
(Prose) ‘Mother’ West Wind and Mary’s Gold by Sara Wright

Photo by Sara Wright One day last week it almost drizzled. When I stepped outside that morning I was engulfed by fragrant mist. Rarely does light fog give the thirst- driven forest a temporary reprieve, greening needles, and encouraging tiny leaves to unfurl. With this destructive weather pattern in place the next round of west wind hits the following day, graying out the green and cracking open the earth, perhaps bringing down another round of trees. The Cloud people continue to withhold the precious gift of water… We have been suffering from drought for so long now that every tree, bush, and plant appears without an emerald coat. Harsh northwest winds, unseasonable heat, cold, and air so dry my lips are cracking have stunted most spring growth. Wildflowers have shrunk to half their size, and in places the woods are bare. High ground is parched. Lowlands are dry, and frogs, toads, and salamanders have few vernal pools in which to lay eggs. A glaring sky that denies the earth healing rain month after month brings on deadly headaches, my body’s response to endless frustration and longing. Yet, in my woods one delicate crown of heart shaped leaves has a single Marsh marigold flower blooming in its center, and the fruit trees are budded –my cherry tree has fat round blossoms. I am surprised the trees are putting forth flowers this year because they have been starved for rain for two years running, but I also know that species survival is Nature’s priority, and some of the fruits that will follow will possibly birth new seedlings. One more year of drought and they may not bloom at all. Windigo is a malignant spirit that the Northern Algonquin tribes fear. He feeds on scarcity and loss appearing on the fierce and deadly Northwest Wind. Made of ice he turns forests into matchsticks and haunts the human soul. I think this force has taken over our land this spring. It has surely entered my heart. Late this afternoon, on Mother’s day, I dug another Marsh marigold to join her wild sister, remembering the child that marveled at the gilded flower that bloomed so profusely in the middle of a mucky swamp early in May. I thought about my mother who once loved wildflowers as much as I do. It was then I realized that by my actions I had invited the Great Mother to come as “Mary’s Gold” to ease my grief. No one knows why this flower was chosen to honor “Our Lady” but marsh Marigolds are native to the US and blossom only at Ladytide, the spring festival that honors Mary. On Mother’s Day she wears a crown that circles the Earth. No matter what weather pattern is in place this wildflower blooms at the same time every year. Another kind of Marigold (Calendula/Tagetes – two species) comes from Mexico and the Mediterranean respectively, and this plant is the one most people are familiar with. It grows in many gardens, is used as a medicinal herb, to make wine, and as a seasoning. In Mexico it is placed on graves. The later grows from spring through fall and is phototropic, meaning that it follows the sun opening around 9 AM and following the sun. Around 3 PM the flower enters a state of slumber. Sometimes described as ‘the flower of grief’, both kinds of marigolds holds dew that falls at night cascading over delicate edges like tears in the morning. It is interesting to me that the two kinds of marigolds are totally separate species and yet both celebrate Mary…The delicate Marsh marigold fades rapidly with late spring heat falling into dormancy (like most wildflowers), while the other heavily cultivated marigolds bloom on. I suspect the Wild Goddess prefers to honor Mary on Mother’s Day and then let her go… (Meet Mago Contributor) Sara Wright https://www.magoism.net/2014/12/meet-mago-contributor-sara-wright/
A Scottish Photo Essay by Jude Lally

A collection of photos from the Isle of Eigg, in the lands of the Ancestral Mothers of Scotland Guided by the bones Yellow iris Window view from Croft #6 – a historic croft Inspired by the lands of the Mother Honoring the Cailleach Honoring the ‘Big Women’ of the island. The Gaelic name of Eilean Nam Ban Mora translates to the English, Isle of the Bg Women At the Well of the Holy Women The Gloaming (Scottish twilight) On shell beach at 10.45 pm Looking out from the Oracles Chamber Watching seals play in the water A little Hebridean scene in needle felting it might be the middle of summer but chilly nights require a rather lovely woodier My clay woman – connecting me to the generations and generations of women who created figurines as they petitioned the Great Mother (Meet Mago Contributor) Jude Lally.
(Quilt Art) Untitled by Kaarina Kailo

I have not given this a title as I am not sure what culture it is from. It is a doll I found at a flee market which I sewed into my quilt piece. https://www.magoism.net/2016/03/meet-mago-contributor-kaarina-kailo/

(Special Post) Discussion on Mother-Daughter Wound by Mago Circle Members

[Mago Circle members discussed and answered the question, “What do you think of this (the topic article below)? If you are a feminist, it is something that you would promote? If so, why? If not, why not?” The discussion took place on May 15, 2017 and shortly thereafter in The Mago Circle.] Topic Article: “For The Daughters Who Don’t Love Their Mothers – Screw Mother’s Day” by Sade Andria Zabala Everyone talks about a mother’s unconditional love. But what if it doesn’t exist? Daughters are socially expected to be close with their mothers. But are you one of the women who aren’t? Mother’s Day isn’t just for celebrating moms. It’s a day some of us dread because we are reminded we grew up (or are still) unloved, not good enough. (Read the whole article here.)
(Special Post Mother Teresa 2) A Role Model for Women? by Mago Circle Members

[Editorial Note: The following is an edited version of the discussion that took place spontaneously on Mago Circle from March 1, 2013 for about two weeks. It was an extensive, heated, yet reflective discussion, now broken into four parts to fit the format of the blog. We thank each and all of the participants for your openness, generosity, and courage to stand up for what you believe and think! Some are marked as anonymous. As someone stated, something may have been “written in the heat of the moment” and some might like to change it at a later time. So we inform our readers that nothing is written in stone. As a matter of fact, the discussion is ongoing, now with Magoism Blog readers. Please comment and respond as you wish.] Part II: We Disagree! Stand up for what you believe but be open-minded! Naa Ayele Kumari: I am going to step away from the common responses and say this… Binary is only no in betweens if you choose sides and can’t see the whole. I have been a part of black consciousness movements and women’s movements and both have the capacity for progress as well as extreme viewpoints. Both have the capacity to become so hypercritical that the movement itself transcends common human compassion and understanding. Mother Teresa was a human being with flaws and goodness. She had a public image and private fears and insecurities.. l like all of us. She lived her life the best way she knew how.. Like all of us. She made mistakes.. misjudgments.. Like all of us. But she also DID help and inspire others to help too. It is this dualistic thinking that forces people to feel like they have to assign the label of good or bad and no in between. None of us are all good or all bad.. so it seems to me that to label her has an evil traitor who let people die is no better than labeling her an Angel of god who did no wrong. She was a woman who lived her life and managed to come to worldwide fame and inspire others to love at a time and in an institution that was highly patriarchal and women were not raised up at all. Mother Goddesses in Africa were known for great nurturing and care symbolized by carrying a baby and also carried a machete on the other side for justice. This was the fine balance of wholeness…she was the gentle rain and the storm.. This was binary, but not one or the other but both.. Opposite ends of the same pole. [H]: I’m having a powerful visceral effect from this conversation. I feel as if I’m going to vomit violently. Mother Teresa comes to me in dreams and meditations. Makes me wonder what kind of person I’m seen as if I attract her energy. I have always felt so much love for her. Naa Ayele Kumari: If she comes in your dreams and it has been healing for you… Allow it/ her to continue to be healing for you. Its all about love and anything that is not love… Leave it be.. Vomiting is rejecting something that doesn’t belong with you. Embrace love my sister. Antonia McGuire: I think we may all agree that all belief systems initially began to promote a sense of goodness or fairness to some degree, but over time they are corrupted and produce both advantages and disadvantages. Donna Snyder: Yes, Gandhi, too. Back in the 90’s when I was in a band/performance art troupe called Central Nervous System, I shocked all the guys in the band coming out with an improv in response to a melody played on a banjo tuned like a sitar, called exactly that-Yes, Gandhi. Now make no mistake, he is one of my heroes, devoid of the falsified sentimentality that clings to MT. Gandhi’s work was for the world, for the masses, not for the appropriately humbled. Yet I spoke out about his sexual practices, his use of female bodies. Telling the truth about a hero requires courage. Retreating into a blind defense of a myth is a form of ethical cowardice. Anne Wilkerson Allen: Strangely I had a discussion with someone about the “hero’s journey” moving from metaphorical to physical being part of the problem…..when the “demons” are human instead of our own flaws, there seems to be a tendency to point the finger (and gun barrel) elsewhere. [B]: Fascinating & thought-provoking conversation, all. I think the biggest stumbling block I have with MT is how her acceptance of the dogma of the Catholic church blinded her to seeing and then being moved by the suffering of others enough to do something to alleviate & not vicariously celebrate it. No wonder she “suffered a lack of connection with the Divine”. This crisis with her spirituality seems to have been divorced from her and others’ body wisdom. Self-abnegation (perhaps not the same as “sacrifice”) ultimately backfires because some small part of us insists, “I am worthy!” To which I say, “We are all worthy!” [H]: I do not see or feel that she vicariously celebrated the suffering of others. I feel that she devoted her life to deeply loving and serving the poorest of the poor. I have not been to Calcutta and I have also seen some unimaginable poverty in India that is not like anything that I’ve been exposed to before. I truly believe that she had a very deep way of working with suffering that is not necessarily visible to those more accustomed to modern medical intervention and the resources available for such. I have participated in a very small amount of poverty medicine and the resources that we take for granted are just not readily available to MANY. I learned very powerfully from my experience how blessed and fortunate and often very careless we really are with our precious resources. This discussion has been a learning experience for me. I am trying to not take the critical comments […]
(Special Post 5) 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.] Annie Finch For me, Goddess is completely different from God–Goddess means acceptance of the sacred WITHIN the physical instead of transcending the physical; acceptance of death and life as equally sacred; and the holiness of changing cycles…. Annie Finch, Maine anniefinch.com Marie de Kock Why Goddess spirituality? Goddess spirituality is crucial for our survival and the survival of our planet. I’m referring to every woman’s connection and relationship with her own Spirit which resides in her heart, and her own divine ability to create, which springs from her womb. The womb is infinitely more than a reproductive organ; it is a replica of the Cosmic Womb or Mago. From that profound pool of infinite silent knowledge, women can access the solutions so urgently needed to recover the equilibrium the world with its God spirituality has lost, and women can dream the solutions into being. It is the intelligence of the heart and intelligence of the womb that humanity needs in order to balance out the ill effects of our noisy ‘rational’ left brained society. Women carry the keys to the wisdom within them. Female spirituality is the door. Marie is in Chile for now http://ninenormalwomenwithwings.com Leslene Della-Madre Goddess among many things to me is a verb–Goddessing. “Goding” isn’t the same. She is Love in action in all things–she is the cosmic gen-Her-ator bringing life into form from primordial chaos, the twin serpents of coming and going. She is the plasMA of the YoniVerse filling space with her divine essence creating great beaded necklaces of galaxies all connected to each other by electric pathways. She is the All and Eternal. Leslene Della Madre, California USA midwifingdeath.com Diane Horton Sacred Goddess Sisterhood Each of our stories as women who have come to embrace the Goddess are varied and interesting. Certainly interesting to each other, as our spirits long to resonate with another who has had a similar journey. Mine began while I was still a member of the Episcopal Church and a Christian. But relative to many, it was not that long ago, just 18 years. Some women have been knowing and worshiping the Goddess for more than 30 years, some have only just come to the reawakening and re-membering recently. Some of us call ourselves witches, some priestesses, or both. Some do not identify with either of those words and simply say they have immersed themselves in the Divine Feminine, or that they worship the Goddess. Some will say they are Pagan or Wiccan or Dianic Wiccan. Whatever we call ourselves, or do not call ourselves, we are all Sisters in Goddess, those who worship the Great Mother. And though our numbers are growing, seemingly almost daily, we are still in a minority. We need those who are articulate to voice our views and we need wise teachers who can share practices, philosophy and knowledge with those who are eager for such spiritual food. One of the great things about this Goddess Path is that, although there is much written and oral knowledge to be had for those who seek it, the deepest part of this path is experiential. Personal experience with Goddess, deep within ourselves, and having our eyes opened to Her all around us all the time, seeing and feeling Her magic in our lives, knowing Her love and nurturance in our hearts. We have no dogma, no set of rules or commandments, no rigid ideology. We have our own hearts to guide us into all acts of love and pleasure, compassion, humility and reverence which are Her rituals. When we express strength, hold our power and honor life, as well as giggle and laugh, those are Her rituals, too. There are the Women’s Blood Mysteries, which set women apart from men who worship the Goddess, but that should serve to unite women in a strong eternal bond, not alienate men. There is no place for hierarchy. We are all women equal to each other as daughters of the Goddess. We cannot, we must not, allow the patriarchal mindset to contaminate Feminine Spirituality. No hierarchy, no duality, no controlling others. If we want to see a world in which the Divine Feminine is prominent, the world that many of us believe is coming, we need to take a good, hard look at ourselves in the mirror of our Sisters’ eyes and all of us individually commit ourselves to Unity, Sisterhood and Unconditional Love. That does not mean we will never disagree, and sometimes disagree vehemently, but it does mean we do not allow those disagreements to fracture us as a body of women or to damage or destroy our Sisterhood. There are many teachers who have their own followings of students, their own coursework, their own publications and newsletters, their own festivals they work all year to organize and make manifest. This is a good thing! Especially with the national economy the way it is now many, many women cannot afford to travel very far from their homes, so the fact that there are festivals in diverse parts of the country is no doubt just as the Goddess desires. Those who know of Her and hear Her call are greatly benefited by all of these in mind, heart and spirit. We all need each other. We who can spread this information far and wide need to do so, not just think of and promote the one group or project we are involved in ourselves individually. This is the BIG PICTURE. This is how the movement moves forward. This is how the Goddess gathers Her women (and men). Unification of purpose. Standing together. Supporting each other in concrete ways. We are Women of Goddess. Her spirit […]

(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.
(Mago Almanac Excerpt 5) Introducing the Magoist Calendar by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

Mago Almanac: 13 Month 28 Day Calendar (Book A) Free PDF available at Mago Bookstore. THE 28-13-7 INTERPLAY How does the number, 28 (days), for the lunar cycle come about? Why is it 28 days and not 29 or 30, the latter implicated in the traditional lunar calendar of East Asia? It appears that 28 days is a value closer to the moon’s sidereal period (about 27.3 days) than the synodic period (about 29.5 days). Or is it that 28 days points to the median between the synodic lunar cycle and the sidereal lunar cycle? To answer these questions, it is important to note that a value in the Mago Time captures an inter-cosmic biological cusp/juncture derived from the matrix of sonic numerology. Distinguished from the patriarchal measure of time fixated into a solipsistic space, it makes visible the interconnectedness of all bodies. It never stands as an isolated single occasion. The 28 day, 13 month calendar has to do with how we perceive the moon. There are two ways of understanding the lunar cycle; the sidereal period and the synodic period (see Figure 2). The synodic period refers to the time, about 29.5 days, that we on earth see the moon complete one round of revolution, e.g. from the full moon to the full moon. In contrast, the sidereal period refers to the actual time, about 27.3 days, that the moon takes to complete one round of revolution. While the synodic time is measured relative to the Earth (the observer’s position is on earth), the sidereal time is measured relative to the distant “fixed” stars (the observer’s position is far out at the distant stars). Since the distant stars are considered at rest, the sidereal period is taken as a universal value, not affected by the location of the viewer, we on earth. There is, apparently, a discrepancy between the lunar cycle that we on earth see the moon return to the same phase and the lunar cycle that the moon actually completes a revolution. The former is based on our observation of the moon’s phases, whereas the latter is based on the moon’s actual orbital motions. The two differs basically because all celestial bodies, the moon, earth, and sun, in the solar system are in motion. It is not just the moon that we watch revolving but Earth also revolves around the sun. We are watching the movement of the moon on a moving vehicle, earth, so to speak. Therefore, the moon has to travel about 2 more days in order for us on earth to see it in the same phase (see the green portion in Figure 2 part). At the position A of the moon in Figure 2, the moon is in line with the sun and the distant stars, which is a new moon. In the position of B (the new moon), the moon is in line with the sun but not with the distant stars. The right hand line of the green portion in line with the distant stars is where the moon started as a new moon. The moon has traveled about 2 more days to be in line with the sun. That is why the synodic period is about 2 days longer than the sidereal period. When it comes to “the lunar calendar”, moderns tend to think of it as the waxing and waning phases of the moon (29.5 days, the synodic period). The problem lies in that, following the synodic period, people see nothing beyond the moon’s phases. They overlook the fact that the moon rotates and revolves on its own axis and around the earth approximately 13 degrees every day. The synodic lunisolar calendar is a navel-gazing vision. Attending to the moon’s phases may seem benign. However, that is a planned pitfall; the synodic lunisolar calendar with 12 months in a year is here to supersede the 28 day, 13 month gynocentric calendar. Its irregularity with the number of days in a month (29 or 30 days with about 11 extra days for intercalation) is an inherently critical flaw. Its inaccuracy when incorporated within the solar annual calendar (approximately 365.25 days) stands out. Seen below in the table, the synodic lunar track results in as many leap days as a total of 44 days for 4 years, whereas the sidereal lunar track has 2 days for 4 years. The synodic lunisolar calendar undercuts the moon’s given capacity – guiding earthly beings into the intergalactic voyage of WE/HERE/NOW. In it, both the moon and women are, glorified and objectified by the viewer, cast under the male voyeuristic eye. On the contrary, the sidereal lunisolar calendar, based on the cyclic synchrony between the moon and women, offers the lens to the interconnectedness of all bodies in the universe. Synodic Lunar Track (Patriarchal) Sidereal Lunar Track (Magoist) Focus Moon’s phases Moon’s motions Days of month 29 or 30 (irregular) 28 (regular) No. of months in a year 12 13 Women’s menstrual cycle Assumed sync Synced Luni-centric Astolonomy Unknown 28 Constellations Intercalations 11 days annually, a total of 44 days for 4 years 1 day annually & 1 day every 4 years, a total of 2 days for 4 years Sources prove that the sidereal lunation is, albeit esoterically, known across cultures to this day. Through the comparative study of ancient cultures of Babylon, Arabia, India and China, W. B. Yeats (1865-1939) observes the substantive difference in dynamic between the two lunation tracks, the synodic and the sidereal. He notes that the moon’s orbital motion, apart from the sun’s, charts out the celestial sphere as the 28 Mansions. I have learned that the 28 Mansions or 28 Constellations of the Moon is a popular form of the 28 day and 13 month Magoist calendar, widely circulated among East Asians especially Koreans from the ancient time. Yeats’ following insights corroborate the Budoji’s explication of the Magoist Calendar in general and the faulty nature of the patriarchal (ancient Chinese) calendar in …
(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/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.
(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.
(Essay) Conceiving, Imagining the New at Samhain by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

It is the Season of Samhain/Deep Autumn in the Southern Hemisphere at this time. In the PaGaian version of Samhain/Deep Autumn ceremony participants journey to the “Luminous World Egg” … a term taken from Starhawk in her book The Spiral Dance[i], where she also names that place as the “Shining Isle”, which is of course, the Seed of conception, a metaphor for the origins of all and/or the female egg: it is the place for rebirth. Artist: Bundeluk, Blue Mountains, Australia. The “luminous world egg” is a numinous place within, the MotherStar of conception: that is, a place of unfolding/becoming. The journey to this numinous place within requires first a journey back, through some of each one’s transformations, however each may wish to name those transformations at this time. The transformations for each and every being are infinite in their number, for there is “nothing we have not been” as has been told by Celts and others of Old, and also by Western science in the evolutionary story (a story told so well by evolutionary biologist Elisabet Sahtouris, particularly in her video Journey of a Silica Atom.) Ceremonial participants may choose selves from biological, present historical self, or may choose selves from the mythic with whom they feel connection; from any lineage – biological or otherwise. Selves may also be chosen from Gaia’s evolutionary story – earlier creatures, winged or scaled ones … with whom one wishes to identify at this time. Each participant is praised for their “becoming” for each self they share. When all have completed these journeys/stories of transformation, the circle is lauded dramatically by the celebrant for their courage to transform; and she likens them all to Gaia Herself who has made such transitions for eons. The celebrant awards each with a gingerbread snake, “Gaian totems of life renewed”[ii]. gingerbread snakes Participants sit and consume these gingerbread snakes in three parts: (i) as all the “old shapes” of self that were named; and (ii) remembering the ancestors, those whose lives have been harvested, whose lives have fed our own, remembering that we too are the ancestors, that we will be consumed; and (iii) remembering and consuming the stories of our world that they desire to change, the stories that fire their wrath or sympathy: in the consuming, absorbing them (as we do), each may transform them by thoughts and actions – “in our own bodyminds”. When all that is consumed “wasting no part”, it is said that “we are then free to radiate whatever we conceive”, to “exclaim the strongest natural fibre known” – our creative selves, “into such art, such architecture, as can house a world made sacred” by our building[iii]. This “natural fibre” is a reference to the spider’s thread from within her own body, with which she weaves her web, her home; and Spider has frequently been felt in indigenous cultures around the globe as Weaver and Creator of the Cosmos. Spider the Creatrix, North America, C. 1300 C.E., Hallie Iglehart Austen, The Heart of the Goddess, p.13 In the ceremony, participants linked with a thread that they weave around the circle, may sail together for a new world “across the vast sunless sea between endings and beginnings, across the Womb of magic and transformation, to the “Not-Yet” who beckons”[iv]: to the Luminous World Egg whereupon the new may be conceived and dreamed up. Samhain/Deep Autumn ceremony is an excellent place for co-creating ourselves, for imaginingthe More that we may become, and wish to become. This is where creation and co-creation happens … in the Womb of Space[v], in which we are immersed – at all times: and Samhain is a good season for feeling it. References: Livingstone, Glenys. PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. NE: iUniverse, 2005 Sahtouris, Elisabet. Earthdance: Living Systems in Evolution. Lincoln NE:iUniversity Press, 2000. Starhawk, The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess. NY: Harper and Row, 1999. Swimme, Brian. The Earth’s Imagination.DVD series 1998. NOTES: [i]p.210 [ii]a version of this Samhain script is offered in Chapter 7 PaGaian Cosmology [iii]These quoted phrases are from Robin Morgan, “The Network of the Imaginary Mother”, in Lady of the Beasts, p.84. This poem is a core inspiration of the ceremony. [iv]“Not-Yet” is a term used by Brian Swimme, The Earth’s Imagination, video 8 “The Surprise of Cosmogenesis”. [v]note that creation does not happen at the point of some god’s index finger, as imagined in the Sistine Chapel – what a takeover that is!

(Video) Gurang (Nine Goddesses), Gaeyang Halmi (Grandma Gaeyang), and Goddess Gom: Exploring Old Magoism in Korea by Helen Hwang

Meet Mago Contributor, Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D. Read (Photo Essay 5) Gaeyang Halmi, Sea Goddess of Korea.
(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!
(Mago Almanac Planner Year 5 Excerpt 1) 13 Month 28 Day Magoist Calendar by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

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

Category: Goddess feminist activism

(Prose) Wise Women by Alex Purbrick

Like this:

(Poem) Jeanne of the Congo by Janine Canan

Like this:

(Poem) If We Were Rooted by Mary Saracino

Like this:

(Book excerpt) Heretics: A Love Story by Mary Saracino

Like this:

(Solstice meditation) Three Candles Meditation by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

Like this:

(Essay) Don’t Take It Lying Down: Reproductive Autonomy and the Goddess by Dr Kaalii Cargill

Like this:

(Poem) many breasted by Susan Hawthorne

Like this:

(Budoji Essay 5) The Magoist Cosmogony by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

Like this:

(Easter Essay 2) The Secret of the Sacred Garden: The Garden of Eden and the Orchard of the Virgin by Harita Meenee

Like this:

(Easter Essay 1) The Secret of the Sacred Garden: From Aphrodite’s Vulva to the Resurrection by Harita Meenee

Like this:

(Equinox art) Inanna by Lydia Ruyle

Like this:

(Meet Mago Contributor) Frances Guerin

Like this:

(Art Essay 1) An experience of the Cailleach Beare, primordial creatrix of ancient Ireland Frances Guerin

Like this:

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)

Post-Event Participation: 2026 S/HE Creatrix Studies Conference

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this: