January 31, 2014October 2, 2019 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Essay) Saving Mother Earth—and Ourselves by Trista Hendren

It took me a long time to understand the connections between the rape and abuse of women worldwide and the rape and abuse of Mother Earth. My children changed all Read More …

January 13, 2014January 14, 2020 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Essay 2) Con-Text: Personal/Cultural/Cosmic Stories by Glenys Livingstone, Ph.D.

This essay is a version of an excerpt from Chapter 2 of her book PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. Further to my unfolding awareness of the nature of my Read More …

December 30, 2013October 2, 2019 Mago Work Admin2 Comments

(Essay) Failing Girls by Trista Hendren

Women’s Studies Must Start Earlier. Imagine for a moment a picture of your greatest hero. Who is it? Why is this person your hero? How does their life relate to Read More …

December 23, 2013October 2, 2019 Mago Work Admin3 Comments

(Budoji Essay 1) The Magoist Cosmogony by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

“The Great Goddess Myth is the first and last revelation to humankind. Where the Primordial Mother is, there is Home!” Part 1 Introduction When I first read the Budoji (Epic of Read More …

September 20, 2013October 2, 2019 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Italian language essay) Corea: la Musica cosmica di Mago by Luciana Percovich

[Author’s note: From Colei che dà la vita. Colei che dà la forma. Miti di creazione femminili, Venexia, Roma, Italia, 2009] Capitolo 3 Corea: la Musica cosmica di Mago Mago Nell’Età Read More …

September 2, 2013May 1, 2026 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Art Essay) Brigid, Goddess of Healing, Poetry, and Smithcraft by Judith Shaw

Brigid, the Celtic Goddess of Healing, Poetry, and Smithcraft, begins her reign on Imbolic, February 2, the midpoint between winter solstice and spring equinox. On this day the ancient Celts held their Read More …

August 20, 2013February 1, 2022 Mago Work Admin1 Comment

(Meet Mago Contributor) Carol P. Christ (1945-2021)

[Editor’s Note: We are informed this morning that “our beloved Carol passed peacefully in her sleep last night, at 12.11 am on July 14th” by Laura Shannon.] Carol P. Christ Read More …

August 2, 2013October 2, 2019 Mago Work Admin2 Comments

(Essay 2) The Midsummer Dancers by Max Dashú

Priestly accounts accuse the entranced dancers of being possessed and questioned whether they were christians. An old Belgian chronicle described them with the verse Gens impacata cadit / Dudum cruciata Read More …

July 16, 2013December 3, 2021 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Meet Mago Contributor) Elaine Drew

Elaine Drew has worked as a writer, designer and illustrator for longer than she cares to admit. She recently published Nun Too Clever, a mystery centred on the unexpected death Read More …

October 22, 2012November 15, 2019 Mago WorkLeave a comment

‘En-trancing Gaia’s Womb through Seasonal Ceremony: Re-creating Her Sacred Site’ by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

In the earliest of Her stories, Gaia – also known as “Ge”, meaning Earth – was the possessor of the oracle in Delphi, the place at the foot of Mount Read More …

September 24, 2012October 2, 2019 Mago Work4 Comments

‘Logbook of a Mother Who Strives for the Mother Earth Sanctuary’ by Wennifer A. Lin

For the past 20 years, I’ve been rather obsessed with the vision of creating a sustainable, matristic eco-sanctuary for birthing consciously, balancing body/mind/spirit wholistically, growing food biodynamically, and living communally. Read More …

(Special Post Mother Teresa 3) A Role Model for Women? by Mago Circle Members

Part III: The Debate, What Went Right/Wrong with Mother Teresa? [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.] [C]: Unfortunately, Mother Theresa is not understood here in some of these comments: To be in any way critical of Mother Theresa using what was the state of the world in her time & the poor & dying as tools of compassion, even more so when left to die visibly barely cared for, as a teaching method must not be looked at as unfeeling on her part as it was her greatest sorrow to use them so horribly as means to an end, but they were what she had at hand. Was never her intention to use any money to save them, would negate their very suffering purpose as well. She did not believe we all had learned the lesson yet in her time so she had to pretend to be solving the problem while continuing the problem. You see, the money was a byproduct of no importance to her, used just to get the peoples’ attention by using what they valued, let the Church have it for other things for it had served it’s purpose by bringing her sought after awareness of the poor & dying into view. In pretending to like & accept attention to herself, honors, & even challenges to these choices, all for one purpose to fool, to get the poor & dying attention, is why she was so distressed near the end by the means she had to use to reach that end! And perhaps her sheer loss of hope at having to stoop to such measures which reflects on the sad state of the rest of us. Wondering here where the money went doesn’t understand anything of what she was trying to do. [C]: Thank You Naa Ayele Kumari for plowing through my thoughts enough to ‘like’ even! Could I be understood that Mother Theresa’s intentions were ‘higher’ than just taking care of the poor & dying in institutions, but to have the people understand there should be ‘feelings’ for them so they would never ever even have to be cared for in such ‘style’? She sacrificed these many nonpeaceful deaths to display, to show, to the whole world the direction it was heading, for the saving of the future multitudes of suffering & deaths if no one understood & cared soon. She dreamed these future lives would be right & good & their deaths would be the same attended by loved ones of their own, no need for group interference. She did not wish to just contain such tragedy, but to eliminate it from the whole earth forever. In the smaller scale view of some today the institutions are a necessary step, however Mother Theresa thought this a false step on a horrible path in the wrong direction, & she knew this, & dreamed beyond! To send away, to cage, the suffering, old, & sick in any society is a crime against Mother Nature no matter what the excuses or how pretty the packaged institution is presented! [Z] Did not foresee the discussion would provoke such indepth and rich responses. It feels that we are getting close to the bottom of the matter that has not been brought up for so long, not in my life time. Profound interactions that make us aware of the aspects of how our thinking and living can be based on the kind of values we hold. I treat each and all of you in the hand of our goddesses. Anne Wilkerson Allen: I think the Mother always moves us back toward compassion. Whether we have a sense of deity or not, we can all understand contextually how she was used and that her “beliefs” left her with such poverty of spirit that her entire life is under the microscope. I wonder, will the media ask what the Church has done with all their Billions or simply focus on a dead nun indoctrinated by the system? Diane Horton: No, I am sorry. [C], that is an incredible rationalization of Mother Teresa’s actions. Unbelievable actually. For you to justify her not using the extraordinary amount of money sent to her by saying that she chose to use these horrible deaths to bring attention to the sick and the dying and evoke compassion in people – that is the most megalomaniac position possible! Did she assume the role of God then?? That is outrageous! To think that she had the means to relieve these poor people’s sufferings and chose not to in order to USE them is even more heinous to me! I cannot wrap my head around how you think that is a good thing. She already HAD evoked compassion for these people. That’s why the money poured in! And all the “pretending” and lying you said she did for the greater good? NO. Compassion and empathy are a basic human response to suffering. “She sacrificed these nonpeaceful deaths” REALLY?! She had no right. And she was wrong. I can see no lofty ideal she was displaying there. Diane Horton: Forgive, me. I could not let what was said there lie. I won’t say anymore. Everyone has their own perspective. And each perspective together makes the whole. Blessed Be. [C]: On this …
(Poem) The Listener by Phibby Venable

I would never steal the words out of your mouth, but I am a deceptive listener I notice the laws of gravity when your words drop at the end, swoop around you where your shoulders sag with brave intentions Last week I took the finch that sang a broken song, and today the wildflower seeds struggling in the dirt of poverty Some days I try to nudge a herd of windblown horses into hard plowed pastures I see them kicking rows that have hardened to ruts, until it is all soft earth Some days I take your breaking voice and layer it with feathers I am stealing with the gift of re-giving, again and again https://www.magoism.net/2015/01/meet-mago-contributor-phibby-venable/
(Music) We Are the Women Who… by Alison Newvine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozrupNDrbS0 “We Are” is a tribute to the healers, midwives and other women who were persecuted and killed during the centuries of European witch hunts. This piece honors the sacred wisdom held by women that patriarchal religious forces were determined to destroy. This sacred season of the witch is also a season of reclamation. We are reclaiming our wisdom, our power, our sacred worth, our interconnectedness. We are reclaiming our darkness and our light. Spiral Muse creates music exploring the exquisite pain and beauty of the human experience. We are guided by Spirit and the awe inspiring power of the Sacred Mother on our quest for healing. We write and produce songs of praise, protest and healing, centering around Goddess and women’s lived experiences. This song appears on our most recent album Fire of Hope. Our song writing process is highly collaborative. The lyrics for “We Are” were written by Lana Dalberg, published author and the band’s violinist. The melody was written by myself and the choral arrangement by Kathleen Neville-Shinn, founder of Brigid’s Flame, a center for Goddess-centered healing services. The piece weaves together three voices and the violin to create a haunting four-part harmony. This song is an early release from our upcoming album, “Fire of Hope,” coming out this winter. All of our music is available on Spotify, iTunes, Amazon Music, Apple Music, Youtube and other electronic music platforms. Lyrics We are the women who mixed the herbs Our wisdom Earth, our knowledge it’s plants We are the midwives who shepherded life We moved in darkness to bring forth the light We are the ones with hearts on fire Burned at the stake, our wisdom seemed lost We are the ones who grow from ashes And now, anew, our wisdom arises https://www.magoism.net/2023/10/meet-mago-contributor-alison-newvine/
(Poem) A Rose with Thorns is still a Rose by Sara Wright

A rose with thorns is still a rose. A wild rose. I gave up my rose, She was not good enough, pure enough, loving enough… Never Enough. A rose with thorns gets angry, strikes out (sometimes unfairly) gets caught by extremes, forgives, has to find her way back to some place in the middle. A rose with thorns loves fiercely and deeply. Familiars twist her love until it becomes a weapon. Scorn is the sword that pierces her heart. The rose with thorns finds dignity in endurance. Bones hollow out, muscles tighten— spirit and soul flee a tormented body. Joy becomes memory. Survival becomes all. Winged Spirit hovers. Earth Soul mourns. Innocence is dead. Thorns become spears, forked tongues, the fiery Serpent rises… A rose with thorns is still a rose, (a flaming rose)… After all. (3/5/2016) Author’s Note: The Rose with Thorns I have always loved wild Rugosa roses more than any other, and each spring I gather the fragrant blossoms to put in small vases and I often dry some petals for sachets. I have used rose hips to make jam and I have dried the orange hips for tea. These wild roses have one characteristic that makes them hard to pick. They have very thorny stems. Recently, I was writing about the fairy tale “Rose Red and Rose White” who live with their mother in the forest. Rose White was very sweet and pure and helped her mother around the house. Rose Red loved the wild places and spent all her time outdoors. There is no masculine force in the story until a big bear comes to spend the winter with the little family. The mother is wise enough to know what her daughters are missing… positive instinctual masculine energy that needs to be integrated into the female psyche. She allows the bear to spend nights lying on the hearth, and, naturally, the bear transforms into a prince and eventually marries Rose White. His brother (another prince) marries Rose Red. A marriage of the masculine to the feminine forces in the psyche allows a woman to become whole. Unfortunately the culture continues to tell the story as if it is a tale of literal marriage. This is especially damaging to young girls who are still learning to give away their personal power, as I once did to meet cultural expectations. As a child/adolescent/young adult I aspired to be pure and good like Rose White in order to please my mother. Unfortunately, I had the wrong temperament. I also aspired to be some kind of unearthly Madonna. (As a small child I was inexorably drawn to Mary, although I was not a Catholic and knew nothing about her. What I see now is that Mary was the first goddess to “live” through me.) In reality, I was birthed into fire, feared it, and was consumed by it. Fire pulled me out of a body that I was ashamed to be born into. I learned too late that the legacy of fear of abandonment and inherited sexual shame is to abandon one’s body. Abandonment came to the surface to be dealt with, the deep dark root of shame stayed hidden. Untouched, the root grew. At 70, the dark man still waits on the threshold of night to strike through my dreams. On the outside, neighboring bullies and cowards hide in the shadows, tell lies, and use mechanical eyes to spy on me. I have had these bullies as neighbors for 12 years and they never give up their harassment tactics. The other day, a friend of mine asked me why these people would care about what I do; that’s a good question that I cannot answer beyond saying that these people are predators that have no lives of their own. If I liked them at all, I would pity them. Accepting that “I am a rose with thorns” has been a life-long process, and now being one feels just right! It’s good to have thorns. In fact it is great to have thorns! How can I use my thorns to protect myself from bullying and harassment? This is the question I posed to myself as I wrote the poem. The poem gave me the answer I needed: I allow my instincts to lead (someone in me knows just what to do) as the Serpent of Wisdom rises in all her fiery power. I thought of the myth of Demeter and Persephone, a myth that has been so important to me, one that has helped me accept who I am on a soul level. Persephone is considered to be a Serpent Goddess in some Greek mythology, and the Serpent Goddess of Crete is also seen as a symbol of female power. Even the Catholic Virgin Mary has serpents at her feet! Serpents represent the life force of Nature. I wed Her in myself at 39 by acquiring and wearing a golden serpent ring while making a commitment to stay with and honor my own process. At 70, I still wear this ring and I continue to make this promise… Yesterday “Spirit” arrived as three female cardinals who came at dusk. “She” was with me. See Meet Mago Contributor Sara Wright.
(Poem) Command, O Mistress! by Jillian Parker aka Flame in the Snow

Swift her strokes in dizzy rumble ramble burning scarlet gulps she glides crimson Flicker-Tail no net has gained a purchase no wall could bar her from her destination no words have ever marred her murmurs to the moon like red hair that skips a generation like a royal-blue poppy sprouting along the highway like long-lost notes to a Requiem she waits flip-flopping alone in a shallow canal, she’s spent her seed till nothing’s left but a throbbing center those lazy breadcrumb-munching mallards don’t care, they’re watching a grey gull preen himself then, trembling-frail, perched on a rusting shopping cart, Salmon Woman nods and the spindle-legged white crane turns step-dancing, bends and tears out her heart and together they ascend a single silhouette into a smog-scented sunrise. (Meet Mago Contributor) Jillian Parker.
(Nine Poets Speak) The Littlest Balsam by Sara Wright

[Editors’ Note: Learn about how the “Nine Poets Speak” series came to be in place here.] Photo by Sara Wright Five years agoI dug a seedlingin protestki’s deep greenneedlesslender trunkand rootsyieldedto sweetspring earthwith prayers.I believed.One winter nightI will celebrateyour lifethe lives ofthousandswith acandlelitspiralof tiny white lights.Tonightwhite flames adorn youold longingsand heartbreakwe share the samerootstilled bysimple beautya singlereflectionof Love.Throughyou I honor all the restGreening all yearlong.I mournthe multitudesbalsams standinglike footless soldierscut away from earthdyingto celebratea holidaypoisonedby disbeliefconsumptionand doingseculardelusion.When Iwrapped youin white starsI couldhardly waituntilduskturnedmidnight blueshroudedroundmooncottony cloudsscudding acrossthe skiesGreat Bearhungover your headsky jewelsand storiescelebratingyour comingof ageOh fragrantbalsamthroughyou I honorAll Evergreensfor thosewho can’t feelMay beneficentwinds and powderywinter snowswrap your needlesand branchesgently, securely root tips sparklingSleep soundlyIn Peace.Ancient MotherFather ofAll BreathGifter of Lifebe with uslet your scentssurround usyour rootssustain us…I beg youin your Great Mercyand everlasting patiencebathe usin acceptance,andNatural Grace.Author’s Note: This year I have been living in a very dark place. As usual I am protesting what is happening with the holidays that begin with Thanksgiving turkeys and the mindless murder of more trees. This holiday extends until after the first of the year when the consumer obsession that dominates our culture finally flattens out. That great maw feels like it’s swallowing me whole despite my attempts to remind myself that I was once part of this story having been brought up as a westerner.I make it a yearly practice not to buy anything during a season that is dominated by collective greed and lack of awareness when people and animals and trees and fungi are suffering throughout the world. Instead, I choose to offer others my experiences…But at the same time, I am exhausted. Tired of political murders and ecocide. Tired of feeling that protesting anything doesn’t matter, though I am compelled to continue on. Tired of reminding myself that I need to be grateful.Unlike millions of others, I have enough heat, some water, food, a most loving canine companion, and a warm cabin to live in at the edge of a frozen stream and small forest fragment. I know I need to be grateful, but I have not been able to FEEL it, and this lack of feeling upsets me most of all.On Thanksgiving I fed all my wild turkeys, taking great pleasure from their deep appreciation which they expressed through continuous twittering.For the first time, I also decorated and lit a small balsam tree that I had planted outside my east window under a glorious white moon that slipped in and out of the trees. After thawing frozen fingers and sitting by the fire I gazed out at the little tree and felt a spark of joy enter me. I remember imagining this little balsam being lit to celebrate all living trees…What happened? Whenever I am trying to untangle a mystery, I turn to words. The poem that emerged helped me remember who I am—a person who feels deeply—a person who finds herself living in a culture that is beyond her comprehension—a person who understands that it is up to me to create meaning despite what is happening , meaning that includes myself and extends to the rest of nature.I celebrate the Great Round, and my ceremonies mark these transitions, but this year I have been too depressed to engage. When this happens, I pray a lot to the trees as I walk expressing my hopelessness and begging for reprieve. Two months of silence.When I lit that tree a spark flew through the window—a mystical bird reconnecting me on a feeling level to what this tree lighting means to me. I am celebrating the Tree of Life as she manifests as an evergreen, and by extension my return to the roots that have sustained me throughout my life. This morning I wept as I peered out the window onto monochromatic grays, and a half frozen brook, trees burdened by heavy snow (once considered too early in the season) by extending my love to all trees. Relief was palpable. That’s when I understood that my simple gesture of planting and tending to one small balsam for five years and then lighting her helped restore my broken relationship to all trees.To be in touch with any feeling besides rage and hopelessness is to experience profound relief.Now perhaps I can light my indoor Norfolk pine, create my solstice wreath, celebrate the solstice fire, give thanks, and enter Winter Light. (Meet Mago Contributor) Sara Wright – Return to Mago E*Magazine
(Book Review) Myths Shattered and Restored, editors Marion Dumont & Gayatri Devi, by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

What a pleasure to read this collection of diverse scholarly voices who speak of global mythological/spiritual traditions from within a Goddess frame: that is, from within a frame where She is understood as primal in an organic way, and without any apology. This is Volume 1 of proceedings from an annual conference of the Association for the Study of Women and Mythology. It is a documentation of the papers from the 2014 gathering that many (who read this blog) would love to have been able to be present to: this book makes all this research and thoughtful presentation accessible, and expands the conversation that so many of us thirst for. On page 1 the editors describe: Mythology is the branch of knowledge or field of study of the important stories we tell ourselves that enable us to gather meaning in our daily lives … myths are cultural and spiritual stories that arise out of humanity’s experience of life on earth. Myths speak to a deep and real desire in us to understand our context here on earth while yearning to comprehend our connection to our ancestors and our roots, to share experiences that transcend binaries and boundaries, and to envision the future from a liminal present. Myths allow us to see ourselves as both timeless and historical beings. Through awakening belief, mythic stories afford us an opportunity to participate in a non-material realm, a realm of sacred, creative power, whose intimations we experience in our encounters with ourselves and with the world around us through a multitude of modalities, such as ritual, art, storytelling and dance. They are the threads that link our present with our past and serve to shape our future. As I began reading, I kept thinking of women who would like to read the specific essays, and of my own hunger for the integrity and wholeness of the female (my self and my kind) that set me on the Goddess path almost four decades ago, of my passion to know Her and express Her – in a world/context where She was silenced, always seen as a problem. Though I have done much research and practice in these past decades, I found that this volume fed and fired my ongoing hunger to know more of Her. In the first essay by Mara Lynn Keller, there is a very useful and succinct analysis of the unique contribution and significance of the work of Marija Gimbutas, to the fields of knowledge. A little further along Mara offers a wonderful explanation of the use of the term “Goddess”, quoting Charlene Spretnak; an explanation that is so much richer and Earth-based than much of current superficial use of the term. This essay offers a quote from Marija Gimbutas of the true nature of “civilization”, what it is not, and what it is; and discusses some of the resistance to the metanarrative of “a goddess-revering civilization at the root of European culture”[1]. The next essay by Joan M. Cichon[2]begins with a succinct appraisal of archaeomythology, which is Marija Gimbutas’s method, and the precise nature of the worldview developed by this methodology. This essay begins with the question of whether “a Goddess was worshipped in ancient Malta”, and in the answering of that question and a few related others, develops a useful comparison of previous archaeologists’ worldviews and theories with that of Marija Gimbutas: thus offering clarity about what that difference is. She also describes how unfamiliar the language of the Goddess has been to many archaeologists, how interpretations have been made from minds committed to defence and authority as essential to social structure, rather than ceremony and celebration of life cycles and being. In the process Joan Cichon refers to texts that would provide a rich resource for further independent study, if desired. She also uses Marija Gimbutas’s method to analyse the icon and worship of the Black Madonna of Czestochowa in Poland, and Her link “to Old Europe, to Isis, and to the ancient Great Mother Goddess”[3]. In “Honoring the Web: Indigenous Wisdom and the Power of Place”, which was the keynote address and dedicated to co-founder of ASWM Patricia Monaghan, Arieahn Matamonasa-Bennett discusses and expands the definition, use and implications of the term indigenous. She speaks of the “collective grief of humanity”[4], the legacy of colonization and that “all of our ancestors were from earth-based cultures”[5]. She refers to the importance of understanding our oldest mind, the “metaphoric mind”[6], and refers also to the work of Thomas Berry, Joanna Macy, Brian Swimme and other significant scientists and ecologists who contribute to the “understanding of life as a web of interconnected, interdependent relationships”[7]. Arieahn speaks of the shared values of indigenous peoples around the world, and a primary one being the preserving of their stories, languages, customs, songs and philosophies: she expands the concept of activism to include the remembering of the sacred, to using your breath to speak and educate, using your particular gifts as medicine for the world. “Ariadne, Mistress of the Labyrinth: Reclaiming Ariadnian Crete” by Alexandra K. Cichon was a wonderful read, of re-storying Ariadne’s “imperishable thread” and her labyrinth; experienced as uniting the visible and invisible worlds, embodying the goddess’s “vision of life as a living unity”[8]. I loved Mary Beth Moser’s “Wild Women of the Waters: Remembering the Anguane of the Italian Alps”; impressed yet again to see such scholarship dedicated to the female point of view, the studious regard for matrifocal priorities. We (globally) hardly have a language to speak of such priorities, because our minds in general have been formed by patrifocal and industrialised, mechanistic frames. This essay is such a beautiful placement of the female as agent, grounded in the traditions and folk stories of Mary Beth’s ancestral place of the Italian Alps. It deserves much contemplation, to re-invoke this authentic magic, manifest in the cycles of life, represented in the hag/witch; a wisdom that had almost disappeared over time largely due to christianisation. Reading the essay on “Artemis as Protectress of Female …
(Poem) Sister Thorn by Louise M Hewett

Pixabay, copyright free. Thorn, that’s me. I am a boundary, an island. Aye, an island. You’ve become so entranced with this island of late. Do you see these colours I weave for you? Sun in the sea, but only at certain times of day; the purple heather, rust earth, red hills. Lichen softens the sharp edges of tools long abandoned. Here, try this one: orchil. Steep harvest with waste and see what comes. I am your sister, Thorn, I am weaver of islands, of ways between, of journeys that have been made and have yet to be made. I roam field and glen, gather what is needful, use the spindle whorl, one step on the journey; fingers pinched feed the rhythm just so. Fleece fills the spindle and then I twist, spin, become something new. My shuttle flies. The pouch I have made holds treasures, ho ro, can you guess? Can you story them? Here, take my shawl and wrap yourself. Look out across the land. Warp and weft, boundaries held. All colours are needed. All forms are valued. Come now, wrap yourself in this wisdom, we will weave together, aye: fleece, ways, words, stories, a shell, and a gull’s feather here and there to remind us of the sea-birds wheeling over the indigo sea when seas are rough. Sister Thorn, that’s me. Here I am, with you. Louise M Hewett (2020) https://www.magoism.net/2019/03/meet-mago-contributor-louise-m-hewett/
(Mago Almanac Excerpt 1) Introducing the Magoist Calendar by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

Mago Almanac: 13 Month 28 Day Calendar (Book A) Free PDF available at Mago Bookstore. INTRODUCING MAGOIST CALENDAR: ORIGINAL BLESSING OF THE WOMB TIME[1] “Thirteen Spells Doom to the would-be doomers. It signals the release of the Doomsday Wolf that Fates/Norns had hitherto restrained. It spells awakening of Memory, of Metamemory, the Self-unveiling of Metamysterious Crones, whose Eye-Bites snap the chains of fettered Time.” Mary Daly, from Websters’ First New Intergalactic Wickedary of the English Language Unlike the patriarchal calendar that marks a linearly-structured dismembered time, the Magoist Calendar or Mgoist Dalryeok[2] captures the conjunction of spiraling times that visualizes the interconnection of all beings. The Magoist Calendar restores the original meaning of the calendar: The calendar is the TEXT given by the Creatrix, Mago, which encrypts the cosmogonic rhythms of nature and maps out the way of human/woman beings together with all in their surroundings. In a narrow sense, it refers a chart that schematizes the TEXT of the Creatrix into interconnected cyclic and rhythmic time units. The calendar is ultimately not only salvific but also the very emblem of salvation. It is revelatory and sacred by definition. The very formation of the Magoist Calendar presupposes the following: (1) All (including humans) in the universe is in order and harmony, an embodiment of sonic numerology. (2) Time is cyclic and rhythmic caused by the songs/dances of celestial bodies including the earth, the moon, and the sun. And (3) All beings are found kindred in the Mago Time of NOW. The Magoist Calendar is time-proven, marking the very onset of human/woman intelligence for its origin. Charting the times and seasons of NOW (the Mago Time) relative to the far distant stars (the sidereal time), the Magoist Calendar encodes the ecstatic nature of WE/HERE/NOW, the Reality of the Creatrix. As a luni-gyno-solar calendar, it unfolds the intergalactic standard time of NOW for WE in HERE, in which all beings are born and partake. By “luni-gyno-solar” I mean “of the 28 days, the synchronous cycle of the moon and women that determines 13 months of a year and 7 days of a week.” It refers to the gynocentric calendar in which the lunar cycle synchronizes with the menstrual cycle. Unlike the patriarchal lunisolar calendar, the lunar 29.5 day synodic cycle, which determines the annual 12 months, the Magoist Calendar takes on the 28 day lunar sidereal cycle synchronized with women’s menstruation (luni-gyno), which determines the annual 13 months (solar). The 28 day, 13 month, 7 day interplay orchestrated by Nine Numerology stands as a building block of the inter-cosmic time. The most prominent feature of the Magoist Calendar lies in its regularity and cyclicity embedded in the 28-day, 13-month scheme. One year comprises 13 months (364 days) with one intercalary day annually (365 days) and another one day in every fourth year (366 days). One month comprises 28 days, which is dovetailed with four weeks of seven days. Issued from the spiraling motion of the celestial bodies (HERE), the Mago Time (NOW) is structured as the spiral of multi-layered sub-spirals, centrifugally and centripetally. In short, it is an embodiment of nine numerology, systemic and balanced. For example, one year is made of 13 monthly spirals or 52 weekly spirals. Each of its 13 monthly spirals is made of 4 spirals of 7 days (28 days). Each of its 4 weekly spirals is made of 7 spirals of one day (7 days). Centrifugally, the Little calendar comprises a one year cycle, whereas the Medium Calendar is a two year cycle and the Large Calendar is a four year cycle. Four hundred Large Calendars make 1,600 years (4 x 400). Regularity is the key to the gynocentric inter-cosmic calendar. Calendric regularity or rhythm is derived from the regular motion of celestial bodies. The very formation of the standard intergalactic time (sidereal time) presupposes the regularity of the celestial bodies in their cyclic motions. Patriarchal calendars, which were invented to abolish the 28-13 interplay, fail the regularity test. They are characterized by an irregular number of monthly days in annual 12 months, which results in an inefficient way of adding extra days for intercalation. For example, the Sinocentric lunisolar calendar has 29 or 30 days in a month and needs 11 extra days in a year. The Gregorian Calendar, although it minimizes intercalation into one extra day in every four years, is based on the intermittent length of the month (28, 29, 30, or 31 days). The irregularity of a month implies the irregular motion of the celestial bodies, which proves the 12 months calendar to be numerologically unfit. The 12 months calendar self-contracts to the very definition of calendar; the calendar presupposes that the universe is in order and harmony. On the contrary, the Magoist Calendar is built on the regularity of a monthly 28 days and an annual 13 months. Consequently, the 7 day week scheme runs 4 regular cycles in a month. Thus, each day of a week is matched with a certain weekday within a week and throughout the four weeks of a month. For example, the first is always Sunday and the second is always Monday. That is how we arrive at the 13th Friday. And the Magoist Calendar requires, for intercalation, one intercalary day annually (365 days) and another one intercalary day every four years (366 days), which are considered outside the 28-13 cogwheel of a yearly time. It is a mistake to think that the patriarchal calendar is as symmetrical as the gynocentric calendar. Patriarchal calendars deviates from the 28 day and 13 month system to an irregular number of days (28, 29, 30, or 31) and 12 months. However, they can’t completely evade the gynocentric calendar. In order to self-impose as calendar, a patriarchal calendar employs an illusion of regularity. With the irregular number of monthly days throughout the year, a patriarchal calendar fakes its regularity by borrowing the weekly cycle of 7 days from the 28-13-7 scheme of the gynocentric calendar. Its regularity …

(Special Post 3) Nine-Headed Dragon Slain by Patriarchal Heroes: A Cross-cultural Discussion by Mago Circle Members

[Editor’s Note: This and the ensuing sequels are a revised version of the discussion that has taken place in The Mago Circle, Facebook group, since September 24, 2017 to the present. Themes are introduced and interwoven in a somewhat random manner, as different discussants lead the discussion. The topic of the number nine is key to Magoism, primarily manifested as Nine Magos or the Nine Mago Creatrix. Mago Academy hosts a virtual and actual event, Nine Day Mago Celebration, annually.] Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: Xiang Yao or Xiangliu is the Chinese equivalent to Hydra in Greek mythology. And Hercules is to Yu, the Great, founder of the Xia dynasty. We will see in the course of this discussion that the myth of Yu, the founding ruler of Xia, the oldest dynasty of China, who slains the nine-headed snake, is only a variation of its older prototype, the myth of Huangdi who fought Chiu, the alliance of the Nine Han Giants (East Asian/Korean Magoists). “According to the Classic of Mountains and Seas, Xiangliu was a minister of the snake-like water deity Gonggong. Xiangliu devastated the ecology everywhere he went, leaving nothing but gullies and marshes devoid of animal life. Eventually, Xiangliu was killed by Yu the Great, whose other labors included ending the Great Flood of China. In other versions of the story, Xiangliu was killed by Nüwa, after being defeated by Zhurong, but his blood was so virulently poisonous that the soil which it soaked could no longer grow grain.[1] An oral version of the Xiangliu myth was collected as late from Sichuan as 1983, in which Xiangliu is depicted as a nine-headed dragon, responsible for floods and other harm.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiangliu Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: Ancient China had to demonize the pre-Han myth of the nona Mago because it bespeaks the matriarchal/gynocentric history that it overthrew… the past that had to be severed in order to fake patriarchal originality. With this in mind, we have a better look on patriarchal mythopoeia, which appears to be complex but, nonetheless, transparent in its motive to hide/hijack pre-patriarchal gynocentric histories. “One of the most harrowing myths from ancient China is the story of Gonggong’s rebellion. You can revisit the whole story here, but the quick version is that the evil water god Gonggong attempted to drown the world and was only prevented from doing so by the heroic last resort actions of the beneficent creator goddess Nüwa, who cut the legs off the cosmic turtle in order to set things to rights. In the chaos of the climactic battle, however Gongong’s chief minister and partner in crime Xiangliu the nine-headed snake monster completely escaped. Filled with bitterness about Gonggong’s failure, Xiangliu crawled away across the soggy lands of Szechuan (which were water-logged after the nearly world-ending floods). Wherever he went, the snake monster left permanent fens and swamps which were toxic to life. His very being had become steeped in poison, and his progress through the damp and moldy world had to be stopped. Yu the hero, the third of the three sage kings, finally caught up with the nine-headed monster and killed him in a pitched battle. Yet still there was a problem: Xiangliu’s pestiferous blood has poisoned the whole region, which now stank of rot. Crops would not grow and civilization began to falter. Yu dug up the blood soaked soil again and again, but the corrupted blood of the monster just sank deeper into the ground. Finally, Yu excavated a deep valley by Kunlun mountain and rid the world of Xiangliu’s toxins. With all of the land he had excavated he built a great terraced mountain for the gods. Yu then went forth to found the kingdom of Xia, the first civilized state in Chinese history. Of course some people say that Yu did none of this, that, it was the goddess Nüwa who once again came forth to battle the monster and undo the damage he had caused. Then, with accustomed modesty she let Yu take the credit and begin his kingdom (for Nüwa cared not for empty praise and hollow glory but only for the well-being of her children).” https://ferrebeekeeper.wordpress.com/2013/09/24/xiangliu-the-nine-headed-snake/ Max Dashu: These patriarchal heroes! Nova Scheller: What a fascinating thread…that the nine headed hydra correlates to the nine headed dragon as a linkage to patriarchy or gynocentric/ matriarchal beginnings…the root being in Korea! Dropping into your work of so many years…a privilege as well as informing some of my personal awareness. Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: Nova Scheller, indeed! The myth of slaining the nine-headed snake/dragon across cultures shows; (1) The onset of patriarchy did not come naturally but forcefully, which proves that patriarchy is not original. It was a reaction to what had been before, its matrix. Patriarchy faked its originality by inventing the myth of demonizing and killing the female principle. (2) Patriarchal rules established across cultures adopted the mythic motif of slaining the nine-headed snake or dragon, which appears to be of Chinese origin. (3) The Nine Mago mythic system preserved in Korean Magoism testifies to gynocentric/matriarchal beginnings, which were remembered by peoples of the ancient world. (4) Furthermore, Korean Magoist mythology explains the origin/meaning of the nona Goddess symbol. Let’s explore how the Nine Mago pantheon was remembered in East Asian myths and religions. For this, we need to unravel the patriarchal mythopoeia of Goma, the Shaman ruler of Old Magoist East Asia/Korea. Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: In principle, we can tell if an ancient rule/culture was patriarchal or gynocentric by the myth of the nine-headed snake/dragon. In the case of ancient China whose heroes are told to have killed the opponent, the nine-headed snake. Nonetheless, the people’s memory of pre-patriarchal gynocentric history never dies. The nine symbolism is still described as auspicious. It revives time and time again throughout history. In other words, ancient China was a small regional power, only modern scholarship seals it all mighty China. Find out what other ancient myths concern about the nine female symbolism. (To be continued) Join us in The Mago Circle https://www.facebook.com/groups/magoism/.
(Special Post) To Contributors: Strengthening Our Roots by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

Dear Contributors, Do you know that Return to Mago (RTM) E*Magazine is entering its fifth year this fall? And, thanks to our collective effort, we are still growing! As of today, our contributors have grown to more than 130 in number and our readership is from about 140 countries around the world. We have some hundred email followers as well as Wordpress blog followers. We draw 3000-4000 clicks per month on average; that is no small accomplishment for a Goddess blog that is named after a yet-to-be heard word, Mago (the Great Goddess), and that began from scratch.
(Special Post) Why I choose to be an RTM contributor by Glenys Livingstone

The contribution of my writing to Return to Mago E-Magazine has evolved since it began four years ago, into a deeply mutually enhancing relationship. The time and effort taken to write carefully and in alignment with my heartfelt passions and insights, and then to be able to publish to a receptive audience, has always been rewarding – for me personally and apparently for many who received it.

Summer Solstice Poiesis by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

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

This essay is an edited excerpt from Chapter 9 of the author’s book A Poiesis of the Creative Cosmos: Celebrating Her within PaGaian Sacred Ceremony. The dates for Summer Solstice/Litha are: Southern Hemisphere – December 20-23 Northern Hemisphere – June 20-23 A Summer Solstice altar The ‘moment of grace’[i] that is Summer Solstice, marks the stillpoint in the height of Summer, when Earth’s tilt causes the Sun to begin its ‘decline’: that is, its movement back to the North in the Southern Hemisphere, and back to the South in the Northern Hemisphere. This Seasonal Moment is polar opposite Winter Solstice when it is light that is “born,” as it may be expressed. At the peak of Summer, in the bliss of expansion, it is the dark that is “born.” Insofar as Winter Solstice is about birth, then Summer Solstice is about death. It is a celebration of profound mystical significance, that may be confronting in a culture where the dark is not valued for its creative telios. Summer Solstice is a time for celebrating our realized Creativity, whose birth we celebrated at Winter Solstice, whose tenderness we dedicated ourselves to at Imbolc/Early Spring, whose certain presence and power we rejoiced in at Spring Equinox, whose fertile passion we danced for at Beltaine/High Spring. Now, at this seasonal point, as we celebrate light’s fullness, we celebrate our own ripening – like that of the wheat, and the fruit. And like the wheat and the fruit, it is the Sun that is in us, that has ripened: the Sun is the Source of our every thought and action. The analogy is complete in that our everyday creativity – our everyday actions, and we, ultimately, are also “Food for the Universe”[ii] … it is all how we feed the Universe. flowers to flames – everyday creativity consumed Like the Sun and the wheat and the fruit, we find the purpose of our Creativity in the releasing of it; just as our breath must be released for its purpose of life. The symbolism used to express this in ceremony has been the giving of a full rose/flower to the flames.[iii] We, and our everyday creativity, are the “Bread of Life,” as it may be expressed; just as many other indigenous traditions recognize everyday acts as evoking “the ongoing creation of the cosmos,”[iv] so in this tradition, Summer is the time for particularly celebrating that. Our everyday lives, moment to moment, are built on the fabric of the work/creativity of the ancestors and ancient creatures that went before us; and so the future is built on ours. We are constantly consuming the work and creativity of others and we are constantly being consumed. The question may be asked: “Who are you feeding?,”[v] and consideration given to whether you are happy with the answer. It is the Sun that is in you. See how you shine. Summer Solstice is a celebration of the Fullness of the Mother – in ourselves, in Earth, in the Cosmos. We are the Sun, coming to fullness in its creative engagement with Earth. We affirm this in ceremony with: “It is the Sun that is in you, see how you shine.” It is the ripening of Her manifestation, which fulfills itself in the awesome act of dissolution. This is the mystery of the Moment. Brian Swimme has described this mystery of radiance as a Power of the Universe, as Radiance: the shining forth of the self is at the same time a give-away, a decline of the self – just as the Sun is constantly giving itself away. This Solstice Moment of Summer is a celebration of communion, the feast of life – which is for the enjoying, not for the holding onto. Summer and Winter Solstices are Gateways – between the manifest and the manifesting, and Summer Solstice is a Union/Re-Union of these, a kind of meeting with the deeper self. Winter Solstice may be more of a separation, though it is usually experienced as joyful, because it is also a meeting, as the new is being brought forth. The interchange of Summer Solstice may be experienced as an entry into loss – the Cosmological Dynamic of Loss, as manifestation passes. Beltaine, Summer Solstice and Lammas – the next Seasonal Moment, may be felt as the three faces of Cosmogenesis in the movement towards entropy.[vi] The light part of the annual cycle of Earth around Sun is a celebration of the Young One/Virgin quality of Cosmogenesis, with Her face gradually changing to the Mother/Communion quality; and through the Autumn, the dark part of the annual cycle, it is a celebration of the Old One/Crone quality, whose face will gradually change also, back to the Mother/Communion. They are never separate.In this cosmology, desire for full creativity has been celebrated as the allurement of the Cosmos, and being experienced as gravity, as relationship with Earth, our place of being, how She holds us. At both Solstices there is celebration of deep engagement, communion. REFERENCES: Livingstone, Glenys. A Poiesis of the Creative Cosmos: Celebrating Her within PaGaian Sacred Ceremony. Girl God Books: Bergen, Norway, 2023. Spretnak, Charlene. States of Grace: The Recovery of Meaning in the Postmodern Age. San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1993. Starhawk. The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess. New York: Harper and Row, 1999. Swimme, Brian. Canticle to the Cosmos. DVD series. CA: Tides Foundation, 1990. NOTES: [i] As Thomas Berry named the Seasonal transitions. [ii] Swimme uses this expression in Canticle to the Cosmos, video 5 “Destruction and Loss.” [iii] This is based on the traditional Litha (Summer Solstice) rite described by Starhawk, The Spiral Dance, 206. [iv] Spretnak, States of Grace, 95. [v] As Swimme asks in Canticle to the Cosmos, video 5 “Destruction and Loss.” [vi] Just as Samhain, Winter Solstice and Imbolc may be felt as the three faces of Cosmogenesis in the movement towards toward form – syntropy.
A PaGaian Wheel of the Year and Her Creativity by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This essay is an excerpt from Chapter 2 of the author’s new book A Poiesis of the Creative Cosmos: Celebrating Her within PaGaian Sacred Ceremony. for larger image see: https://pagaian.org/pagaian-wheel-of-the-year/ Essentially a PaGaian Wheel of the Year celebrates Cosmogenesis – the unfolding of the Cosmos, none of which is separate from the unfolding of each unique place/region, and each unique being. This creativity of Cosmogenesis is celebrated through Earth-Sun relationship as it may be expressed and experienced within any region of our Planet. PaGaian ceremony expresses this with Triple Goddess Poetry understood to be metaphor for the creative dynamics unfolding the Cosmos. At the heart of the Earth-Sun relationship is the dance of light and dark, the waxing and waning of both these qualities, as Earth orbits around our Mother Sun. This dance, which results in the manifestation of form and its dissolution (as expressed in the seasons), happens because of Earth’s tilt in relationship with Sun: because this effects the intensity of regional receptivity to Sun’s energy over the period of the yearly orbit. This tilt was something that happened in the evolution of our planet in its earliest of days – some four and a half billion years ago,[i] and then stabilised over time: and the climatic zones were further formed when Antarctica separated from Australia and South America, giving birth to the Antarctica Circumpolar Current, changing the circulation of water around all the continents … just some thirty million years ago.[ii] Within the period since then, which also saw the advent of the earliest humans, Earth has gone through many climatic changes. It is likely that throughout those changes, the dance of light and dark in both hemispheres of the planet … one always the opposite of the other – has been fairly stable and predictable. The resultant effect on flora and fauna regionally however has varied enormously depending on many other factors of Earth’s ever-changing ecology: She is an alive Planet who continues to move and re-shape Herself. She is Herself subject to the cosmic dynamics of creativity – the forming and the dissolving and the re-emerging. The earliest of humans must have received all this, ‘observed’ it in a very participatory way: that is, not as a Western industrialized or dualistic mind would think of ‘observation’ today, but as kin with the events – identifying with their own experience of coming into being and passing away. There is evidence (as of this writing) to suggest that humans have expressed awareness of, and response to, the phenomenon of coming into being and passing away, as early as one hundred thousand years ago: ritual burial sites of that age have been found,[iii] and more recently a site of ongoing ritual activity as old as seventy thousand years has been found.[iv] The ceremonial celebration of the phenomenon of seasons probably came much later, particularly perhaps when humans began to settle down. These ceremonial celebrations of seasons apparently continued to reflect the awesomeness of existence as well as the marking of transitions of Sun back and forth across the horizon, which became an important method of telling the time for planting and harvesting and the movement of pastoral animals. It seems that the resultant effect of the dance of light and dark on regional flora and fauna, has been fairly stable in recent millennia, the period during which many current Earth-based religious practices and expression arose. In our times, that is changing again. Humans have been, and are, a major part of bringing that change about. Ever since we migrated around the planet, humans have brought change, as any creature would: but humans have gained advantage and distinguished themselves by toolmaking, and increasingly domesticating/harnessing more of Earth’s powers – fire being perhaps the first, and this also aided our migration. In recent times this harnessing/appropriating of Earth’s powers became more intense and at the same time our numbers dramatically increased: and many of us filled with hubris, acting without consciousness or care of our relational context. We are currently living in times when our planet is tangibly and visibly transforming: the seasons themselves as we have known them for millennia – as anyone’s ancestors knew them – appear to be changing in most if not all regions of our Planet. Much predictable Poetry – sacred language – for expressing the quality of the Seasonal Moments will change, as regional flora changes, as the movement of animals and birds and sea creatures changes, as economies change.[v]In Earth’s long story regional seasonal manifestation has changed before, but not so dramatically since the advent of much current Poetic expression for these transitions, as mixed as they are with layers of metaphor: that is, with layers of mythic eras, cultures and economies. We may learn and understand the traditional significance of much of the Poetry, the ceremony and symbol – the art – through which we could relate and converse with our place, as our ancestors may have done, but it will continue to evolve as all language must. In PaGaian Cosmology I have adapted the Wheel as a way of celebrating the Female Metaphor and also as a way of celebrating Cosmogenesis, the Creativity that is present really/actually in every moment, but for which the Seasonal Moments provide a pattern/Poetry over the period of a year – in time and place. The pattern that I unfold is a way in which the three different phases/characteristics interplay. In fact, the way in which they interplay seems infinite, the way they inter-relate is deeply complex. I think it is possible to find many ways to celebrate them. There is nothing concrete about the chosen story/Poetry, nor about each of the scripts presented here, just as there is nothing concrete about the Place of Being – it (She) is always relational, a Dynamic Interchange. Whilst being grounded in the “Real,” the Poetry chosen for expression is therefore at the same time, a potentially infinite expression, according to the heart and mind of the storyteller. NOTES: [i] See Appendix C, *(6), Glenys Livingstone, A Poiesis of the Creative …
(Music) Songs for Samhain by Alison Newvine

The season of Samhain is upon us. This playlist is an offering for this descent into the sacred darkness, and a companion for the journey into the underworld. Invocation of Witches features music by Loreena McKennitt, Marya Stark, Inkubus Sukubus, Wendy Rule, my band Spiral Muse, and many others. It is a soundtrack for ceremony and each song expresses a different face of the spirit of the witch. May this Samhain season guide you gently into the dissolution of what no longer serves, the honoring of what is complete and the cultivation of the inner space that will gestate what is yet to come. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2CFNoH9exhloz3w95P3Rlb?si=270cf01fabb8421c https://www.magoism.net/2023/10/meet-mago-contributor-alison-newvine/
(Art & Poem) 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
Happy New Year, Year 2/5916 Magoma Era! by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

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

(Mago Essay 1) Toward the Primordial Knowing of Mago, the Great Goddess by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

Introduction: Why Inaugurate the Great Goddess Consciousness? The Great Goddess is known by many names around the world. “Mago” is one known by East Asians from time immemorial. As such, the term “Mago” is a common noun referring to the Great Goddess rather than the name of a particular goddess. According to my assessment of a large volume of primary sources that I have documented, Mago’s divine nature is characterized as the progenitor, creator, and ultimate sovereign. In short, Mago is supreme as the Creatrix. That does not mean that there is nothing before or even after Her. In fact, according to the Budoji (Epic of the Emblem City), principal text of Magoism, Mago was born into the cosmic era prior to our cosmic era by the music/vibration/movement of the universe. Being the Creatrix, She is the beginning and the end. She is the Origin of humankind. She will be with us insofar as humanity continues to exist on its cosmic journey. She is the Great Ancestor of all humans as well as goddesses and gods. Furthermore, She is “the Cosmic Great Mother” from whom everything is derived. “Mago” is eponymous of human civilization. With regard to the world, She is immanent and transcendent at once. Standing at the threshold of the world, She embodies the world. She is the Channel that connects humanity with nature and the universe. She is the Lens through which we humans perceive Ultimate Reality. To be precise, She is the Cause for human consciousness. Through Her, we enter the world. She is self-sustained, as symbolized in the ouroboros. The beginning and the end for the world relies on Her. While holding the key to eternity, She shares the rise and fall with humankind. Here is Her intimacy with humanity: We are part of Her and She is in our DNA. My reconstruction of Mago and Magoism did not begin with a teleological scheme. No pre-measured outcome was there to motivate my undertaking of the research project. On the contrary, the topic was a serendipitous yet timely encounter, which I had never consciously expected. Nonetheless, I was not in a vacuum. As a self-identified radical feminist, I sought a new mode of knowing within my own cultural roots that can remedy Eurocentric, nationalist, colonialist, racist, and ethnocentric knowledge. The years of my graduate studies were spent in exploring such possibilities. Only after furthering my research of Mago and Magoism for over a decade, I began to grasp something at which my intellectual/spiritual voyage is destined to arrive. It was this phrase, in fact a very old mandate that ancient Magoists self-identified with, “Return to the Origin of Mago (Mago Bokbon, 麻姑複本),” that surfaced over the horizon with clarity. How do we return to Mago’s Origin? Do we return to Her Realm or invoke Her Reality to our time? Time is one seamless measurement. No need to go there or bring it here. The fact that “Mago” refers to the Great Goddess rather than an individual goddess intimates an implication at the level of consciousness. Talk of Mago invokes the Great Goddess consciousness, primordial unity/oneness. A “new” mode of knowing is re-birthed once and time and time again. Individuals are placed in unity with the whole. Each shares with the subject position, WE. After all, everyone is progeny of the Great Goddess! We are re-stored within the scheme of old knowing that the whole (universality) comprises parts (particularities) and that they are organically interconnected. Complexity and precision of the way microcosmic entities work in harmony with the cosmos are beyond the human grasp. However, we know that an assault on a part affects the whole. And vice versa. This is why I study Mago and Magoism: Reenacting the Great Goddess consciousness is the ultimate antidote to the patriarchal consciousness. WE learn how to see things beyond the isolated position of an “I,” the notion of the self molded to stand against its environments (the other) by the patriarchal mastermind. The separated “I,” implanted in one’s psyche from birth through patriarchal institutions such as the state, religion, family, and heterosexuality, conjoins the new awareness of WE. The Mago consciousness is the original, pristine perspective prior to the split of the patriarchal consciousness. It is an undifferentiated state of mind that underlies patriarchal socialization. Ancient cultures had an understanding of the mysterious working of Mago. With Mago, WE Re-Turn to the Origin! The Female is epistemically invincible, nullifying the assaults of the patriarchal “I.” The power of the Mago consciousness is well depicted in the icon of Durga defeating the patriarchal demon. One should not be mistaken that the Mago consciousness is just another form of patriarchal thinking with reversed gender. It fundamentally differs in nature from the latter. Suffice it to say that “the Almighty God,” unlike the Great Goddess, does not share the same DNA with humans. In fact, He has no DNA! The monotheistic god rules over and against the world in protection of himself. He is needy. He isn’t even transcendent but disconnected from primordial unity. He can’t be “He” but only he of She. He can’t be the representative of the world because he is biased against the female principle. Ultimately, he is incapable of embracing everyone, unlike the Great Goddess. To hide the fact that the monotheistic god leads only to the abyss of self-destruction, patriarchal religions have created dogmas to indoctrinate people. The Great Goddess consciousness exposes the patriarchal deception. As patriarchy developed over the course of history, Mago was made unintelligible. People lost the Original Knowing! The Paradise was gone not only in a physical manner but also epistemically! That may as well be a corollary in that patriarchy precludes the concept of the Great Goddess by definition. It is not patriarchy if a society upholds the female as supreme. Nonetheless, patriarchy could not get rid of the manifestation of Mago in history, culture, and the collective consciousness of people. In fact, the ancient cultures, histories, myths, topographies, religions, and memories …
(Pilgrimage Essay 2) Report of First Mago Pilgrimage to Korea by Helen Hwang

[Author’s note: The first Mago Pilgrimage to Korea took place June 6-19, 2013. We visited Ganghwa Island, Seoul, Wonju, Mt. Jiri, Yeong Island (Busan), and Jeju Island.] Part 2 Traditional Korea and the Primordial Home of Magoism It was the time for the sacred, ancient mystery of Magoism to be reenacted once again for the Race of WE! Mago Pilgrimage was an open invitation to the deep knowing that Korean Magoism unfolds beneath the surface of patriarchal consciousness. It was a call from the Background [to borrow Mary Daly’s term, which, I explicate, refers to the biophilic reality wherein the deep memories of Goddess are alive, unfettering from the foreground, patriarch reality] to be present with Mago, the Great Goddess, Here and Now! Third eyes flashed, while open hearts unlocked the doors to the path. We heard the whisper, the chorus of the natural, cultural, and historical landscapes of Korea, the arcane music of the Female Beginning. The magic worked its own feats. As could be expected, undertaking the Mago pilgrimage entailed daunting tasks for me. Nonetheless, it was proven to me time and again that the purpose creates the means. The Korean saying, “Where there is a will, there is a way,” spoke to it well. We, the intercontinental pilgrims, were made welcome by supporters, organizers, and volunteers from the locale. We attracted fabulous scholars, teachers, artists, administrators, and activists along our paths. It was the first cross-cultural and cross-gender goddess event to be held in Korea in modern times! Excitement and anticipation were high. As a researcher of Mago and Magoism, I knew the Mago pilgrimage was the right thing to do. In fact, I had been faithfully following the direction that my heart beckoned to throughout my life. The consequences were the actions that I took. This time, however, I was rewarded with the fate-ful encounter; the very research of Mago came as a revelation to me. The topic of Mago emerged from nowhere at the juncture of my labyrinthine journey to non-patriarchal [gynocentric] consciousness. I was a student of feminist studies in religions. Without knowing what was in store for me, I knew that I was not content with the feminist theology of patriarchal religions of the West and the East. If any theme of these religions had appealed to me — I wished at times, to confess to my readers — during those years, my path would not have crossed with Magoism. My radical feminist quest was the cause for encountering Mago.
(Tribute) In Loving Memory of Lydia Ruyle (1935-2016) by Mago Circle Members

We posthumously honor Lydia Ruyle (August 5, 1935-March 26, 2016) as Patron of Goddess Feminism, Activism, and Spirituality. Mago Circle Members on June 11, 2016. Glenys Livingstone I feel blessed to have known Lydia and to have been in occasional personal communication with her for several years … initially via the Goddess Scholars list. Lydia sent me great information of some of her journeys, was always encouraging and generously supported my CD crowdfunding project in 2015. I feel honoured to have carried her Goddess banners to Australia in 2014.

Category: Goddess feminist activism

(Essay) Saving Mother Earth—and Ourselves by Trista Hendren

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(Essay) Failing Girls by Trista Hendren

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(Budoji Essay 1) The Magoist Cosmogony by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

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(Italian language essay) Corea: la Musica cosmica di Mago by Luciana Percovich

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(Art Essay) Brigid, Goddess of Healing, Poetry, and Smithcraft by Judith Shaw

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(Meet Mago Contributor) Carol P. Christ (1945-2021)

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(Essay 2) The Midsummer Dancers by Max Dashú

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(Meet Mago Contributor) Elaine Drew

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‘En-trancing Gaia’s Womb through Seasonal Ceremony: Re-creating Her Sacred Site’ by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

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‘Logbook of a Mother Who Strives for the Mother Earth Sanctuary’ by Wennifer A. Lin

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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)

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

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