May 24, 2016October 2, 2019 RTM EditorsLeave a comment

(Prose Part 2) The Bear Goddess in Europe by Sara Wright

The Greek Artemis was the goddess associated with Wilderness and “wild places” once included all animals, birds, and their habitat. Artemis also reigned over childbirth, and was seen to be Read More …

May 22, 2016October 2, 2019 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Meet Mago Contributor) Sudie Rakusin

Sudie Rakusin is an American visual artist, sculptor, author, illustrator and publisher. She was born and raised in Washington, DC, and currently resides in Hillsborough, NC. Sudie received her BFA Read More …

May 21, 2016April 16, 2020 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Meet Mago Contributor) Morgaine Swann

Morgaine Swann defines herself as “a Witch, with a capital W,” a Priestess of a monoTHEAistic, science-friendly, religion she calls Dianic Wicce. A graduate of Wayne State University with a Read More …

May 20, 2016October 2, 2019 RTM EditorLeave a comment

(Photo Essay 4) Goddess Pilgrimage – Sicily by Kaalii Cargill

I was lured to Sicily by my southern Italian heritage and photos of the Valley of the Temples, an archaeological site on the southern coast outside the town of Agrigento. Read More …

May 18, 2016November 15, 2019 RTM EditorLeave a comment

(Book excerpt) My Name is Medusa by Glenys Livingstone and Arna Baartz

The dark has its own way of caring, and coming up with something new. excerpt from the children’s book My Name is Medusa by Glenys Livingstone Illustrated by Arna Baartz Read More …

May 17, 2016October 2, 2019 RTM EditorsLeave a comment

(Prose Part 1) The Bear Goddess in Europe by Sara Wright

“It is very peaceful with the bears; the people say that’s the reason human beings seldom return.” Leslie Marmon Silko The mythology of the Bear Goddess has its roots in Read More …

May 16, 2016October 2, 2019 RTM EditorsLeave a comment

(Prose Part 2) Persephone Rises by Sara Wright

For those folks in the southern hemisphere who are entering fall as we in the northern climates enter spring, I offer this next personal narrative. Every autumn, I buy a Read More …

May 14, 2016October 2, 2019 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Meet Mago Contributor) Nicole Shaw

Among other things, Nicole Shaw is a farmer, feminist, artist, founder of a women’s time barter group, Past President of the Nanaimo Women’s Resources Society which operates a women’s centre, President Read More …

May 13, 2016November 15, 2019 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Video 4) "Seeking Inner Voices of S/HE (Meditation Guides)" by Marie de Kock

[Editor’s Note: This video meeting was created and produced as part of 2015 Nine Day Solstice Celebration, organized by Mago Academy.] Please join us in celebrating the 2015 Nine-Day Solstice Read More …

May 12, 2016October 2, 2019 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

How do you say what The Mago Work is? by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang & Mago Circle Members

It took many years for me to pronounce the communal nature of the Mago Work. Defining the Mago Work necessarily endows us with the bird’s eye view of the Great Read More …

May 10, 2016October 2, 2019 RTM EditorsLeave a comment

(Art) Tree Goddesses by Janie Rezner

Sculpture by Janie Rezner Read Meet Mago Contributor Janie Rezner.

May 9, 2016October 2, 2019 RTM EditorsLeave a comment

(Prose Part 1) Persephone Rises by Sara Wright

While researching Minoan Crete, I learned that each autumn young girls once gathered blue violet saffron crocus to leave as an offering for the Wild Crocus Goddess as they prepared Read More …

May 6, 2016October 2, 2019 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Video 3) "Seeking Inner Voices of S/HE (Meditation Guides)" by Marie de Kock

(Meet Mago Contributor) Sanna Pöyhönen

I’m an artist, mathematician, ceramicist, artificial intelligence specialist, doctor of science, researcher, fungi enthusiast, traveller, teacher, small entrepreneur – so many tags on me that I don’t even like to use them anymore. Most of all I am a seeker of Truth. The world and understanding my place there is a fantastic mystery to me. Even as a child, I spent a lot of time in nature, wrote stories and compiled reports about my observations. I am attracted to both science and art. I want to see the world and make love with Her in all possible ways. Starting university was a difficult time for me. I found it distressing that I had to narrow myself and my interests to just one field. After much consideration, I abandoned a dream of studying art and enrolled in the University of Technology in Helsinki. It started a frantic work pace that continued for about twenty years. My doctoral dissertation and the international career related to artificial intelligence progressed fast – as if I was performing my life to get the best grade. Later I moved from Finland to the Netherlands, where I still live. At the age of 45, five years ago, I burned out for the second time. This triggered a transformation that led me to become an artist, ceramics teacher and eventually opened my heart for the Creatrix. I believe that art still has potential to solve the global crisis humanity experiences at the moment, while science has failed. Major changes should happen on people’s emotional level where rational advice cannot reach. With my art I explore and challenge my personal taboos like in the series of Great Ladies and BondageBunny. I also get inspiration from ancient myths, fairytales and the connection of nature and humans like with the Creatures of Power collective – a joint work of four women who all share passion over the ancient Finnish goddesses and nature spirits. Lately I’ve had an urge to start writing the stories behind my visual art, and with them I hope to engage with all the beautiful RTM readers! My links: www.sannapoyhonen.com Instagram: @sannapoyhonen_art @bondagebunnyamsterdam @creatures.of.power Facebook: @sanna.poyhonen LinkedIn: @sannapoyhonen
Meet Mago Contributor, Judith Laura

Judith Laura is the award-winning author of two novels and three Goddess books, the most recent of which is Goddess Matters: the Mystical, Practical, and Controversial. You can find out more about her books on judithlaura.com/books.html. She blogs as Medusa on medusacoils.blogspot.com.
(She Summons Excerpt) The Expressive Dark Arts by Michele J. Celello

[Editor’s Note: This essay was included in She Summons: Why Goddess Feminist Activist Spirituality? Volume 1, coedited by Kaalii Cargill and Helen Hye-Sook Hwang (Mago Books, 2021).] The Expressive Dark Arts: Writing, Painting, and Dancing in the Dark with Kali As a scholar of philosophy and religion, I have a strong background in the practice and study of world religions. It was not until I began a master’s degree in women’s spirituality that I grasped the enormous role the arts can play in spiritual practice. The arts that have been prevalent in my life are writing poetry, painting images of the divine feminine, and belly dancing. Taking on dark themes was new for me, in other words, focusing on fear or painful emotions while creating art. The Goddess Kali’s image was essential to accessing my darkest emotions. Kali is both a nurturing mother and a ferocious Goddess who destroys demons in the Hindu pantheon. The demons she fights are representative of the demons in our own minds. She is often depicted as a dark skinned and wild enraged woman wearing skulls around her neck and severed arms for a skirt. In this representation she is stepping on the God Shiva, which symbolizes the union we achieve with God once our personal ego is transformed. I had always written poetry, but never on the dark side until my master’s studies began. I began writing poetry on the darkest emotions I found within myself. My personal story is one of verbal abuse and fear so intense that I have had nightmares of a man chasing me and trying to kill me all my life. Although my stepfather Tony has passed away, the fear of him was still very real for me and was not only manifesting in my dreams, it had permeated my waking consciousness as a phobia. Writing poetry to Kali has helped me conquer my phobia, and the process continues today. In 2005 I began painting for the first time since childhood. I never thought of myself as an artist, but I started painting in a class for New College of California called Art as Sacred Practice. I have been painting regularly since then, creating many images of Goddesses, Black Madonnas, shamans, queens, and priestesses. What happens when one creates sacred art? This is the research question which arose out of my experiences as I began my own practice of sacred art by painting female icons from around the world. I started seeing magical manifestations and synchronicities happen right away. As I looked deeply into my own art work I found great healing and transformation especially with dark images, such as Kali’s fierce face. My transformational journey begins with dark poetry. When Samhain or Halloween approaches, I think of necromancy, speaking with my ancestors, or speaking to the dark aspects of myself. On one hollow’s eve I wrote a poem to express the darkness within myself – fear and rage. My story is personal and somewhat embarrassing, but I release my shame and hope it helps guide many of you through your own darkness. Over the past few years I developed a driving phobia. I would have panic attacks while driving and have to pull off the highway. For many, this type of phobia is caused by an initial car accident, for me that was not the case, it may have been the ominous New England weather. Its source turned out to be much deeper. At first I only had about four panic attacks per year, so it was annoying, but not overwhelming. One year the attacks became so frequent that I gave up driving on the highway altogether. At first I found a carpool to help me get to work and then I hired a friend, who was out of work, to drive me. None of my medical treatments were working, not counseling, not even medicine. I decided to turn to the arts to heal myself and this is my story. I wrote about a nightmare I had several years ago that described the unresolved fear of my stepfather, from my teen years. In the dream, I am hiding under a desk in my house. I fear that someone is following me. I run outside and down the street; someone is chasing me. I run into a large puddle of water, slowing down my escape. I turn and find a man standing in front of me, and I stab him in the throat with a knife. I am so full of fear that I cannot pull out the knife; I fear that if I pull out the knife he might still be alive and kill me, just like in the movies. I awaken in enormous fear, thinking the knife is still in his throat. There is no feeling of guilt, only fear. I interpret the dream immediately upon waking as a representation of the fear I still have of my stepfather, Tony. I believe my subconscious still worries that Tony is alive and can kill me. Tony had died about ten years ago! I also knew that the knife in Tony’s throat was also in my throat, for I was never able to verbalize my anger toward Tony. I knew if I engaged in an argument with him that his anger would only increase, so I remained silent. He not only verbally abused me and my brothers, but I found out on my mother’s death bed that he had beaten my mother. My mother and Tony had kept this information from me my whole life. The beatings must have happened at night or when I was in college. I was told by a close friend of my mother’s. I knew it was true, and I remembered seeing bruises on my mother’s legs when I was a teenager. I was overflowing with anger, yet I could not speak about it. My mother was too sick to communicate, and Tony was already dead. I remember telling my brother it was …
(Poem & Photography) Dove Song by Sara Wright

Photography by Sara Wright I heard soft cooing not long after dawn. Spring calls to a sun burst. Cracked ice melts, freezes at night. Even white moon opens her sky door to listen. Earth’s wilderness symphony is a gift. Pink and gray doves chant mourning songs to luminous light.(Meet Mago Contributor) Sara Wright https://www.magoism.net/2014/12/meet-mago-contributor-sara-wright/
(Essay) Mental and Emotional Abuse: Surviving Patriarchy and Finding Healing Through the Goddess by Sharon Smith

Public domain image Twenty-eight years of my life. That’s how long I endured mental and emotional abuse and neglect from my first husband. That may seem crazy: I mean, why would anyone want to stay in an abusive relationship for so long? The answer is both simple and complicated. As is the case with so many women living in patriarchal cultures, the reason is twofold: 1) I had two children to care for; and 2) I didn’t think I could make it on my own.Patriarchy cripples women by making them dependent upon men for their existence. I was one of the crippled ones—a bird, whose wings had been clipped and whose body had been shoved into a cage called “Home”. I married right out of high school and had no work experience. So I literally depended upon my ex for everything.My ex, who had treated me like a queen before we were married, was “Mr. Happy Man” to the outside world. Everybody in our rural, upstate New York community loved him. He seemed jovial, always laughing and making corny jokes. But, after the ring was on my finger, when the door was shut to the outside world and we were alone in our home, the mask came off. He was not a “happy man”.Like many men raised in a home with a strict patriarchal father, my ex, who was not by nature a “macho” kind of guy, grew up lacking self confidence. So in order to feel “big” and “in charge” he found the perfect “punching bag” in me—not physically (he never laid a hand on me) but verbally, emotionally and mentally. He fine-honed his skill, over the years of our marriage, of slicing and dicing me verbally and neglecting me to the point that, as my second husband, Jerry, once noted:“Honey, he made you feel lower than whale shit at the bottom of the ocean!”Yeah…That’s pretty accurate! My self-esteem, what little I had of it going into the marriage, was stripped away, bit by bit—kind of like having your nails ripped off, one by one.Physical abuse is terrible. I don’t want to minimize the horrors, or the pain, of being beaten and bloodied. But sometimes we forget how damaging mental and emotional abuse and neglect can be, and how difficult it is to heal from it. The problem is this: With physical abuse, there are “tells”: The black eyes, bloodied lips, the cuts, bruises, broken noses, arms, legs, ribs, etc. The damage can be seen. Not so with mental/emotional abuse and neglect. That kind of damage is done through words—hurtful name-calling, accusations, mockery, mean and spiteful teasing, the “shame-and-blame” game. It’s also done through neglect: in my case, my ex never bought me a birthday gift—or even a card; he didn’t acknowledge me on any holiday—not Valentine’s day, Mother’s Day, not even Christmas. No cards, no gifts, nothing. And what did I do? I shoved it all down, put on a smile, and pretended everything was okay.Mental and emotional abuse and neglect is the silent, unseen killer of self-worth. Your best friend may be suffering from it, and you might not even notice. Chances are, you won’t.As I mentioned earlier, I stayed in that toxic relationship because I had no college education and no work experience, outside of the home.. Another factor was my small-town upbringing. I was raised to believe that you don’t just throw away your marriage: You worked through the hard times. You persevered. Also, as I was in the Christian religion at the time, I believed it was my job to submit to my husband, as long as he wasn’t physically threatening my life. He was, after all, God’s appointed “Head” (authority) over me, and who was I to question God?This is Patriarchy’s subtle brainwashing of Womanity: make us believe we MUST have a man to guard, guide and decide for us. Because Eve screwed up the world, right?Eventually, my ex decided a wife wasn’t enough. He needed a girlfriend on the side. And when I discovered his infidelity, I knew I couldn’t stay with him any longer. Although I was terrified of being on my own, I knew I couldn’t subject myself, or my daughters, to his abusive, neglectful ways any longer. I thought I had finally secured a “just way” (according to the Bible) to leave my marriage. I went to the Elder Women of my church and told them what was going on and looked to them for help: Surely they would counsel me to leave him. How shocked I was to hear them say, “You can’t leave your husband! God hates divorce. You need to go home and try harder to be a better and more submissive wife, so your husband doesn’t feel the need for comfort from another woman!”BAM! The weight of those words fell on me, hard! The burden and responsibility for the success or failure of my marriage landed squarely on me, not my roving, abusive, neglectful husband. I had to try harder. Not him. I went home that afternoon dispirited, disillusioned…Later, as I stood at the kitchen sink, washing the supper dishes, I picked up a carving knife and, in a moment of hopelessness, thought how easy it would be to slit my wrist and free myself from the pain of that abusive marriage. What saved me was the fact that my daughters needed me (their father was harsh with them and neglected them, too) and I could not, I would not, leave them with HIM.But that night I prayed for iron to enter my soul. But I did not call out to the patriarchal Father God of Christianity. I prayed to someone, somewhere, who would truly understand my plight; someone who would hear me and help me and my children to be free. The next morning, I experienced what is called a ”lightbulb moment”: I finally understood that my ex’s abusive treatment was not my fault. I didn’t need to feel guilty about a damned …
(Essay 3) Magoist Cetaceanism and the Myth of the Pacifying Flute (Manpasikjeok) by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.

Reversing the Reversed of the Buddhist Textual Erasure (Part 2) Single-horned Jicheongsu (Acoustic animal of the Earth)http://www.whim.tw/gate?mod=article&id=20100826134013 Sillan Magoists saw that whales governed the whole world by their sonic capacities, which conditioned the aquatic environment of the Earth. Note that the expression of “the whole world” refers to no romantic abstract. Led by whales, Sillan rulers saw themselves as a governing delegate of the Whole World, which is the Reign of Mago, the Creatrix. They were consciously going against an ethnocentric or imperialist perspective. A supra-nationalist perspective constituted the very vision of Sillan Magoist Cetanceanism. Precisely, Sillan rulers acted upon no other goal than restoring the original meaning of the State of Old Magoist Koreans, known as the Confederacy of Nine Hans (Danguk) or the Confederacy of Three Hans (Budo Joseon), who represented the One People of the Mago Decent. Silla was no patriarchal or ethnocentric state. She was the light of ancient Magoist Cetaceanism for the whole world in the post-Budo period. Note the brief mytho-history of Magoism in six periods:[1] The Mythic Period: The Beiginning of Mago Stronghold, the Primoridal Paradise, and Mu (Shaman) Elders The Golden Period: Pre-Chinese (read pre-patriarchal) Old Magoist confederacies (Hanguk and Danguk) The Budo Period: Budo Joseon, the proto-Chinese confederacy of Three Hans The Post-Budo Period: Ancient Korean States (Buyeo, Silla, Goguryeo, Baekje, Gaya, Balhae) and Goryeo and Early Joseon The Dark Period: After 1592 Japanese Invasion in Joseon and modern Koreas The Revival Period: After 1980s when the Budoji was reappeared in public The story delineates the event that the protagonist, King Sinmun, is initiated to Magoism Cetaceanism, as he succeeds the throne of his deceased father, King Munmu, an ardent devotee of Magoist Cetaceanism, in leading the state, Silla (57 BCE-935 BCE). The fact that the story of the pacifying flute involves the three generations of Sillan rulers, King Munmu, King Sinmun, and King Hyoso (son of King Sinmun), indicates a state-sponsored revival of Magoist Cetaceanism. And that they mark the first three rulers of United Silla (668-935 CE) is no coincidence. Shouldered with the task of opening and laying the foundation for the new era, United Silla, these Sillan rulers aimed at the flowering of Magoist Cetaceanism. Sillans brought to fruition the collective aspiration of ancient Koreans shared with their sisterly states of Gaya, Baekje, Goguryeo, and beyond in the Post-Budo Period. They established a magocratic confederacy of nine states once again under the banner of Magoist Cetaceanism. Here the nine states refer to the nine neighboring peoples of Silla. Broadly, “the nine states” means the peoples of the whole world. In the context of Magoism, the number nine refers to the perfected, all entities of the kind. And the governance of these Sillan rulers was in the continuum of their predecessors and successors. The very purpose of Sillan foundation and early Sillan politics aimed to actualize the legacy of the Magoist Mandate, the self-defining ethos of Koreans. Early Sillans called themselves the People of Little Budo after Budo Joseon (2333 BCE-232 BCE), the third and last three-state confederacy of Old Magoist Korea, better known as Old Joseon. The political achievement of United Silla in seventh century as a whole meant a flowering of Old Korean Magoist Cetaceanism. Magoist Cetaceanism demarcates ancient Koreans from the Chinese in the Post-Budo Period, that is, in the wake of Budo Joseon’s decline in 233 BCE. Amidst the complex political situation of East Asia wherein the newly established dynasties of Imperial China rose to threaten the neighboring peoples, Sillan rulers resorted to Magoist Cetaceanism not only for the self-protection of the Sillan State but also for the self-realization of a magocratic confederacy. Evidence shows that Sillan rulers espoused the domain of patriarchal religions, Buddhism in particular, from the privileged perspective of Magoist Cetaceanism. Sillan Esoteric Buddhism was a brainchild of Sillan Magoist Cetacean rulers. Born with the teaching of Magoist Cetaceanism at the core, Sillan Esoteric Buddhism, much misconstrued and misrepresented today, was no local practice. Nor did it reflect a low-level consciousness that is discriminative in nature. Seen in the cetacean code of the Sillan temple bell, early Sillan Buddhism was autochthonous and prompted the arrival of innovative Buddhist schools of East Asia and beyond. The Chinese admiration of Sillan Buddhism in the seventh century is well addressed in the account of Mangulsan (Mountain of Ten Thousands Buddhas), a situational religious art engineered by King Gyeongdeok the Great of Silla, to be discussed in a later section. In the course of time, Sillan rulers migrated from the office of Mu (Shamans or Officiated Magoists) but held onto the role of Seon (Lay Magoists). This Sillan legacy, although unadmitted publicly, ran deep in the royal houses of Korean states throughout the forthcoming history. (Ruler Bodhisattva Jijang Rides the Auspicious Jicheong) 地藏王菩薩騎瑞獸地聽http://www.foshanshuan.com.tw/design_130.html#.Xh0-y1NKjSY In traditional East Asia, the narwhal is not utterly unknown. In fact, the following anecdote of Gim Gyogak, a mid-seventh century Sillan royalty and a Buddhist monk, insinuates that Sillan Magoist Cetaceanism was spread to China under the patronage of Buddhism. Put differently, Sillan Buddhism took the form of a syncretic religion amalgamated with Magoist Cetacenism. While Silan rulers actively pursued the policies that support Magoist Cetaceanism, some Buddhist monks were known for their esoteric practices. To be mentioned later, Monk Myeongrang was widely noted for his esoteric practices related with the Ruler of Dragons. Gim Gyogak was another one. Venerated as a reincarnated Bodhisattva Jijang (地藏 Ksitigarbha), Gim Gyogak is told to have crossed the West Sea of the Korean Peninsula to Tang China (618-907) by riding the back of a mythical animal, Jicheongsu or (地聽獸 the terrestrial animal who hears or an acoustic animal of the Earth). White in color, Jicheongsu is told to have had one horn. In iconography, Jicheongsu is depicted as a single-horned dragon-like beast (see the image). The one-horned leviathan who carried Gim Gyogak over to mainland China is evocative of a narwhal with a tusk. Its name, Jicheongsu, which literally means “The terrestrial animal who …
(Meet Mago Contributor) Barbara Anna Gaiardoni

Barbara Anna Gaiardoni alias @bag is winner of the First Prize 2023 “Zheng Nian Cup” National Literature Price and of the Edinburgh “Writings Leith” contest. She received two nominations for the Touchstone Award 2023 and recognized on the Haiku Euro Top 100 list for 2023 . Her Japanese-style poems has been published in The Mainichi, Asahi Haikuist Network, The Japan Society UK and in one hundred and twenty other international journals. They are been translated on Japanese, Romanian, Arabic, Malayalam, Hindi, French, Chinese and in Spanish languages. Drawing, swimmer and walking in nature are her passions. “I can, I must, I will do it” her motto. http://barbaragaiardoni.altervista.org/blog/haikuco-2/ https://www.facebook.com/barbara.gaiardoni/ https ://twitter.com/BGaiardoni
(Photo Essay 2) 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 . . .] The Met, New York The Metropolitan Museum of Art began to acquire ancient art and artifacts from the Near East in the late 19th Century. The current collection includes more than 7,000 pieces from the Neolithic Period to the end of Late Antiquity, with works from the Sumerian, Hittite, Sasanian, Assyrian, Babylonian, and Elamite cultures, as well as an extensive collection of unique Bronze Age objects. Visiting with the Grandmothers here takes at least a whole day of clock time. It also takes us between the Worlds, beyond the bounds of Time . . . Meet Mago Contributor, Kaalii Cargill.
(Art Essay) Leo in August: Roaring for The Solar Flame by Claire Dorey

Solar Goddess, art by Claire Dorey Season of lions and lazing; books and hammocks; long, golden days of cicadas and apples, I speak of August with words between joy and mourning. Motionless and hot, strangely silent, August is a month of endings and waiting. “The world does not move through time as if it were a straight line, proceeding from the past to the future. Instead time moves through and within us, in endless spirals.” – Elif Shafak, The Forty Rules of Love. [1] As blazing, sun-sign Leo roars into the limelight, let’s embrace our inner feline power and the majesty and radiance of the Bronze Age, solar Goddess, who disappeared into the shadows. Fanning her embers raises questions: Why did female and male energy become so polarized? Why do we accept male energy as “directed and solar” and female energy as mostly menstrual, moonlit, watery, mysterious and veiled? “…its become increasingly obvious [ ] that these were [ ] NOT solar gods, and that the solar deity in the Celtic (and indeed, broader European landscape) was in fact feminine (Monaghan 2008, Snow 2002). [ ]…the Vasconic peoples, [ ] also see the sun as feminine (Trask 1997, Lurker 2015)”. – Albuquerque, Carlos. On the Lusitanian Pantheon. [2] Mother brightness, ray of light, awakening consciousness, waking dawn: Perhaps the sun Goddess fell into darkness because of a fundamental misunderstanding of how energy works. Perhaps we eclipse the Sun Mother from our imagination because monotheistic, sky god religions did not want women finding strength in the Sun. Or perhaps, under the aegis of poets and myth makers, the underworld aspect of the sun Goddess eclipsed her solar divinity. “I provide here a new explanation of Hesiod’s prayer, connecting it to Hecate’s origin as an Anatolian sun-goddess of the underworld who mediated interactions between the upper and lower worlds.” Bachvarova, Mary. Hecate: An Anatolian Sun-Goddess of the Underworld. [3] I’ve sourced over eighty fire, fire-related and solar Goddesses, from world mythology: A-ta-no-dju-wa-ja, Áine, Alectrona, Amaterasu, Allatu, Arinniti, Arinna, Akycha, Ayida, Āgneya, Alpan, Aya, Al-Lat, Brigid, Bila, Binah, Bastet, Beaivi, Chuvash, Chantico, Étaín, Eos, Eluma, Forna, Gaia Caecilia, Gnowee, Glöð, Gun Ana, Gabija, Grian, Hausos, Hemera, Hepatu, Hebat, Hipta, Hathor, Hestia, Hine-i-Tapeka, Ishtar, Ishat, Iansã, Jowangsin, Launsina, Ma, Malina, Magec, Mawu, Marici, Mahuea, Mahuika, Macha; Nuha, Nantosuelta, Nut, Olwen, Od Ana, Ognyena Maria, Päivätär, Pele, Praurimė, Raet-Tawy, Sekhmet, Shams, Sherida, Shapshu, Saulė, Sulis, Sól, Sanjna, Theia, Taknaš, Tokapcup-kamuy, Tapati, Tabiti, Tefnut, Turgmam, Tushpuea, Umai, Ut, Ushas, Vesta, Walu, Wuriupranili, Wadjet, Xihe, Yhi. There will be more: Some will be lost to time; hidden within undeciphered symbols; exist as icons, whose form and messaging await understanding. World mythology shows that the sun was often a Goddess. In Norse mythology Sunna is the solar Goddess and Mani is the moon god. Other male lunar deities include: Chandra, Kašku, Khonsu, Thoth, Tēcciztēcatl, Alignak… and many more. Both the sun and the lion were symbols of sovereignty. It seems when it comes to Leo all roads lead to Babylon, attributed as inventors of the Zodiac, a means of astrological divination. It is here we find lions. Associated with the Goddess Ishtar, who rode a lion, the lion’s roar expressing her thunderous aspect, these dazzling creatures lined the Processional Way passing through the Ishtar gate into the city [5]. Although Ishtar/Inanna, Queen of Heaven, wasn’t a solar deity her sister Ereshkigal, Queen of the Underworld, was an underworld sun Goddess. Goddess Durga rides a big cat, metaphor for mastering the qualities the lion represents: Will, determination, power to destroy evil and Amanirenas, queen of Kush, kept pet lions. Winding back time to the cosmic Age of Leo, approx 10000 to 8000 BCE, to Göbekli Tepe [Neolithic Anatolia] and an image, carved in stone, of a woman with a mushroom shaped head giving birth. Does this ‘crescent head’ represent hair; ecstatic birth; or a trance like state induced by magic mushrooms? Maybe! However I am struck by the similarity in shape to this pre-Hittite/Hattian Sun Course symbol [bottom left] and this Bronze Age, Anatolian silver Goddess icon. It is possible this is an image of the Sun Mother Creatrix, birthing generations, her head swelling into the shape of the over-arching Sun Course Crescent, celestial bodies being a source of power. [The sun rises in the East, sets in the West, and moves across the sky in an arc.] Ancient artists were recording life AND drawing their belief systems, which became stylized and encoded as symbol. Sun Goddess Amaterasu births the emperor. Goddess Nut births the sun. Wind time forward to Çatalhöyük, 8000 years ago, to see the Mother Goddess, giving birth, while seated on her throne, flanked by lion-like creatures. Continue winding time forward to see the Phrygian Mother Goddess Cybele, seated upon her throne between two lions. Even in Victorian England the lion was a Goddess power animal. Link to Britannia [with lion], the female personification of the British Isles. When the Romans defeated Britannia [the name they gave England] it represented a Goddess in submission. Of course these Goddesses associated with the lion, I mention above, weren’t necessarily sun or fire Goddesses and not all sun Goddesses were associated with lions, however the lioness and the solar Goddess did merge in ancient Egypt: Feline Hathor, Sekhmet, Bastet and Tefnut wore the solar disc. The Nubian lion Goddess Menhit was also a sun Goddess. “Every gesture was one of disorder and violence, as if a lioness had come into the room.” – Anaïs Nin, Little Birds. [6] Unblinking, all-seeing, solar-Eye Goddess, Hathor shape-shifted from cow to lioness, from nurturing to ferocious. When angered, lion-headed Sekhmet rampaged as the flaming, solar-Eye. Solar energy, is both life giving and destructive, too brilliant, it will scorch, without it we die. Bastet, once a powerful sun warrior, became a much gentler and healing cat Goddess. Tefnut, a serpent with the head of a lioness, was a solar Goddess of moisture, representing fertility (sun + water = flourishing crops). Knowing solar energy, fiery, bared-faced, out …

(Special Post Mother Teresa 4) A Role Model for Women? by Mago Circle Members

Part IV: Illumination and Consensus Reached [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.] Diane Horton: [C], how is it that you do not see that MT had no right to sacrifice other people for any purpose whatsoever? None of us have the right or the place to “sacrifice those we care about” for anything. She was not “above them”. And she had abundant means to do far more for them, to cure and comfort them. If indeed she imagined she had some lofty motivation as you so fervently believe, to use the power she had to withhold medical care from the poverty stricken sick and dying in some misguided and ultimately cruel attempt to bring the world’s attention to their suffering and produce compassion within those who would not otherwise feel it is the most monstrous miscarriage of any expression of what you might refer to as “love” that I have heard of outside of Jim Jones killing all of his followers in Ghana. That’s not Love. That’s not Compassion. That is Manipulation, and manipulation is ego-based. Anne Wilkerson Allen: Yes. It is an indoctrination so deep and so prolonged that it takes a lifetime to overcome…and we rely on the love and compassion of others to help bring us to this understanding….thanks, Diane. Diane Horton: Love you, Anne. [C]: Is thinking that any human being sacrificing inside their very soul, their morals, & all that entails, is actually of lesser value than outside human pain, suffering, even death itself, right? Diane Horton: I’m not sure I understand the question really, but I’ll try a response: one’s inner and outer life are of equal importance because they are all the whole person.
(Special Post 1) 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.] Introduction by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang and Wennifer Lin-Haver Helen Hye-Sook Hwang I am asking each of us to consider writing a sentence or paragraph on “Why Goddess Feminism, Activism, or Spirituality?” This idea is prompted by Wennifer Lin-Haver, Founder of Mother Tree Sanctuary, and I agree that we need to and can create a sort of collective writing on the topic. What we write below will be included and published in The Girl God, Mother Tree Sanctuary, and Return to Mago. As a subaltern minority as we seem at the current point of time, Goddessians/Magoists [the term Mago means the Great Goddess] need to make extra efforts to make our voices and presences exposed to the public and inner circles. Length and style are open. Please also include your name, region/state/country, title, and/or website URL. We strongly encourage you if you are located in a place where Goddessians are rarely around. We intend to make a collective testimonial tapestry of WE as Goddessians/Magoists! Please keep this in your mind and join us in this collective effort. Thank you in advance. March 6, 2014 AF (Archaic Future)! Wennifer Lin-Haver Our “call” started as a conversation between Helen and me where I was expressing to her the real need for Mother Tree Sanctuary to be more articulate with exploring the significance and importance of Goddess in our lives. I was prompted to give such a response, when asked “why” we had to differentiate God and Goddess. “Isn’t everything God?” She asked. And “Isn’t Goddess also God?” “Isn’t it all the same as long was we’re all coming from our ‘higher’ self?” she asked. So I saw this warranted a longer and much deeper discussion. I initially thought I should formulate a response and post it as a Page or Tab in our website, but after some reflection with Helen, I saw how much better it would be if we replied to this question as a diverse and creative collective. I surely do not have all the answers as an individual but perhaps together, we can come up with something more whole, colorful and satisfying. I do hope you will contribute a little something! We are always grateful for all that you have to share.
(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 […]

Lammas – the Sacred Consuming by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

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

This essay is an edited excerpt from Chapter 8 of the author’s new book A Poiesis of the Creative Cosmos: Celebrating Her within PaGaian Sacred Ceremony. Traditionally the dates for Beltaine/High Spring are: Southern Hemisphere – October 31st or 1st November Northern Hemisphere – April 30th (May Eve) or 1st May though the actual astronomical date varies. It is the meridian point or cross-quarter day between Spring Equinox and Summer Solstice, thus actually a little later in early November for S.H., and early May for N.H., respectively. The twin fires lit in older times on hilltops in Ireland for Beltaine likely represented the two eyes of night and day.[i] With this vision, Goddess as Sun and Moon sees Her Land, and with the power of Her eyes (Sun and Moon) brings forth life and beauty. With the fire eyes, Goddess“reoccupied and saw her whole land…”[ii] The twin fires later came to be used to run cattle between as they headed out to Summer pasture, for the purpose of burning off the bugs and ticks of Winter; the fires may thus be understood to serve a cleansing effect and likely the origins of the tradition of the ceremonial leaping of flames by participants in Beltaine festivities. In PaGaian Cosmology this is poetically expressed as the Flame of Love that burns away the psyche’s “bugs and ticks,” and sees the Beauty present, and calls it forth. The Beltaine flames may be a celebration of Sun entering into the eye, into the whole bodymind: a powerful creative evocation upon which the Dance of Life depends, and as the cleansing power of love and pleasure. PaGaian focus for Beltaine is on the Holy Desire/Passion for life, and it may be accounted for on as many levels as possible … the complete holarchy/dimensions of the erotic power. On an elemental level, there is our desire for Air, Water, the warmth of Fire, and to be of use/service to Earth. There is an essential longing, sometimes nameless, sometimes constellated, experienced physically, that may be recognized as the Desire of the Universe Herself – desiring in us.[iii] We may remember that we are united in this desire with each other, with all who have gone before us, and with all who come after us – all who dance the Dance of Life. Beltaine is a time for dancing and weaving into our lives, our heart’s desires; traditionally the dance is done with participants holding ribbons attached to a pole or tree (a Maypole in the Northern Hemisphere, which may be renamed as a “Novapole” in the Southern Hemisphere), wrapping the pole with the ribbons. This is not simply the heterosexual metaphor as is thought in modern times (thanks largely to Freudian thinking) – it is deeper than that. As Caitlin and John Matthews point out: it is symbolic of a far greater exchange than that between men and women – in fact between the elements themselves. … the maypole, a comparatively recent manifestation in the history of mystery celebrations, can be seen as the linking of heaven and earth, binding those who dance around it … into a pattern of birth, life and death which lay at the heart of the maze of earth mysteries.[iv] Beltaine is a celebration of Desire on all levels – microcosm and on the macrocosm, the exoteric and the esoteric.[v] It brought you forth physically, and it brings forth all that you produce in your life, and it keeps the Cosmos spinning. It is felt in you as Desire, it urges you on. It is the deep awesome dynamic that pervades the Cosmos and brings forth all things – babies, meals, gardens, careers, books and solar systems. We have often been taught, certainly by religious traditions, to pay it as little attention as possible; whereas it should be the cause of much more meditation/attention, tracing it to its deepest place in us. What are our deepest desires beneath our surface desires. What if we enter more deeply into this feeling, this power? It may be a place where the Universe is a deep reciprocity – a receiving and giving that is One. Brian Swimme says, in a whole chapter on “Allurement”: You can examine your own self and your own life with this question: Do I desire to have this pleasure? Or rather, do I desire to become pleasure? The demand to ‘have,’ to possess, always reveals an element of immaturity. To keep, to hold, to control, to own; all of this is fundamentally a delusion, for our own truest desire is to be and to live. We have ripened and matured when we realize that our own deepest desire in erotic attractions is to become pleasure … to enter ecstatically into pleasure so that giving and receiving pleasure become one simple activity. Our most mature hope is to become pleasure’s source and pleasure’s home simultaneously. So it is with the allurements of life: we become beauty to ignite the beauty of others.[vi] Beltaine is a good time to contemplate this animal bodymind that you are: how it seeks real pleasure. What is your real pleasure? Be gracious with this bodymind and in awe of this form, this wonder. Beltaine is also a good time to contemplate light, and its affects on our bodyminds as it enters into us; how our animal bodyminds respond directly to the Sun’s light, which apparently may awaken physical desires. Light vibrates into us – different wavelengths as different colours – and shifts to pulse. It is felt most fully in Springtime (“spring fever”), as light courses down a direct neural line from retina to pineal gland. When the pineal gland receives the light pulse it releases “a cascade of hormones, drenching the body in hunger, thirst, or great desire.”[vii] We respond directly to Sun as an organism: it is primal. NOTES: [i] Michael Dames, Ireland, 195-199. [ii] Ibid., 196. [iii] I have been inspired and informed by Swimme’s articulations about desire, particularly in Canticle to the Cosmos, video 2 “The Primeval Fireball,” video 5 “Destruction and Loss,” and video 10 “The Timing of Creativity.” [iv] Matthews, The Western Way, 54. And for more, see “Creativity …
(Essay and Video) Cosmogenesis Dance: Celebrating Her Unfolding by Glenys Livingstone

The dance begins with two concentric circles, which will flow in and out of each other throughout the dance, resulting thus in a third concentric circle that comes and goes. The three circles/layers are understood to represent the three aspects of Goddess, the Creative Triple Dynamic that many ancients were apparently aware of, and imagined in so many different ways across the globe. In Her representation in Ireland as the Triple Spiral motif, which is inscribed on the inner chamber wall at Bru-na-Boinne (known as Newgrange)[1], She seems to be understood as a dynamic essential to on-going Cosmic Creativity, as this ancient motif is dramatically lit up by the Winter Solstice dawn. It seems that this was important to the Indigenous people of this place at the time of Winter Solstice, which celebrates Origins, the continuing birth of all. Thus I like to do this Cosmogenesis Dance, as I have named it[2], at the Winter Solstice in particular. The three aspects that the dance may embody, and are poetically understood as Goddess, celebrate (i) Virgin/Young One – Urge to Be as I have named this quality – the ever new differentiated being (also known as Fodla in the region of the Triple Spiral)[3]. This is the outer circle of individuals. (ii) Mother – the deeply related interwoven web – Dynamic Place of Being as I have named this quality – the communion that our habitat is (also known as Eriu in the region of the Triple Spiral)[4]. This is the woven middle circle where all are linked and swaying in rhythm. (iii) Crone/Old One – the eternal creative return to All-That-Is – She who Creates the Space to Be as I have named this quality (also known as Banba in the region of the Triple Spiral)[5]. This is the inner circle where linked hands are raised and stillness is held. The three concentric layers of the dance may be understood to embody these. The Cosmogenesis Dance represents the flow and balance of these three – a flow and balance of Self, Other and All-That-Is. It may be experienced like a breath, that we breathe together – as we do co-create the Cosmos. Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme have named the three qualities of Cosmogenesis in the following way: – differentiation … to be is to be unique – communion … to be is to be related – autopoiesis/subjectivity … to be is to be a centre of creativity.[6] The three layers of the dance may be felt to celebrate each unique being, in deep relationship with other, directly participating in the sentient Cosmos, the Well of Creativity. The Cosmogenesis Dance as it is done within PaGaian Winter Solstice ceremony expresses the whole Creative Process we are immersed in. It is a process of complete reciprocity, a flow of Creator and Created, like a breath. There is dynamic exchange in every moment: that is the nature of the Place we inhabit. The dance may help awaken us to it, and to invoke it. The Cosmogenesis Dance on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dR73MDMM9Fk For more story: Cosmogenesis Dance for Winter Ritual For Dance Instructions: PaGaian Cosmology Appendix I Meet Mago Contributor Glenys Livingstone NOTES: [1] The Triple Spiral engraving is dated at 2,400 B.C.E. [2] This dance is originally named as “The Stillpoint Dance”, or sometimes “Adoramus Te Domine” which is the name of the music used for it. I learned it from Dr. Jean Houston in 1990 at a workshop of hers in Sydney, Australia. I began to use the dance for Winter Solstice ceremony in 1997, and it was only in the second year of doing so that I realised its three layers were resonant with the three traditional qualities of the Female Metaphor/Goddess, and also the three faces of Cosmogenesis. I thereafter re-named and storied the dance that way in the ceremonial preparation and teaching for Winter Solstice. See Glenys Livingstone, PaGaian Cosmology: pp. 280-281 and 311. [3] Michael Dames, Ireland: a Sacred Journey, p.192. [4] Michael Dames, Ireland: a Sacred Journey, p. 192. [5] Michael Dames, Ireland: a Sacred Journey, p. 192. [6] Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry, The Universe Story, p. 71-79. I have identified these qualities with the Triple Goddess, and the Triple Spiral in the synthesis of PaGaian Cosmology: see Glenys Livingstone, PaGaian Cosmology, particularly Chapter 4: https://pagaian.org/book/chapter-4/ References: Dames, Michael. Ireland: a Sacred Journey, Element Books, 2000. Livingstone, Glenys. PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. Lincoln NE: iUniverse, 2005. Swimme, Brian and Berry, Thomas. The Universe Story: From the Primordial Flaring Forth to the Ecozoic Era. NY: HarperCollins, 1992.
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 Almanac Excerpt 3) Introducing the Magoist Calendar by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

Mago Almanac: 13 Month 28 Day Calendar (Book A) Free PDF available at Mago Bookstore. MAPPING THE MAGOIST CALENDAR According to the Budoji, the Magoist Calendar was fully implemented and advocated during the period of Old Joseon (ca. 2333 BCE-ca. 232 BCE) whose civilization is known as Budo (Emblem City). Indeed, the Magoist Calendar is referred to as the Budo Calendar in the Budoji. Budo was founded to succeed Sinsi and reignited Sinsi’s innovations including the numerological and musicological thealogy of the Nine Mago Creatrix. The Budoji expounds on the Magoist Calendar as follows: The Way of Heaven circles to generate Jongsi (a cyclic period, an ending and a beginning). Jongsi circles to generate another Jongsi of four Jongsi. One cycle of jongsi is called Soryeok (Little Calendar). Jongsi of Jongsi is called Jungryeok (Medium Calendar). Jongsi of four Jongsis is called Daeryeok (Large Calendar). A cycle of Little Calendar is called Sa (year). One Sa has thirteen Gi (months). One Gi has twenty-eight Il (days). Twenty-eight Il are divided by four Yo (weeks). One Yo has seven Il. A cycle of one Yo is called Bok (completion of a week). One Sa (year) has fifty-two Yobok. That makes 364 Il. This is of Seongsu (Natural Number) 1, 4, 7. Each Sa includes a Dan of the big Sa. A Dan is equal to one day. That adds up to 365 days. At the half point after the third Sa, there is a Pan of the big Sak (the year of the great dark moon). A pan comes at a half point of Sa. This is of Beopsu (Lawful Number) 2, 5, 8. A Pan is equal to a day. Therefore, the fourth Sa has 366 days. At the half point after the tenth Sa, there is a 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.[12] KEY TERMS Calendric Cycles Jongsi (終是 Ending and Beginning): Cyclic periods Soryeok (小曆 Little Calendar): One year Jungryeok (中曆 Medium Calendar): Two years Daeryeok (大曆 Large Calendar): Four years Names of Year, Month, Day, Week Sa (祀 Rituals, year): One year refers to the time that takes to complete the cycle of rituals. Gi (期 Periods, month): One month refers to the period of the moon and menstruation cycle. Il (日Sun, day): One day refers to the sun’s movement due to Earth’s rotation. Yo (曜 Resplendence of seven celestial bodies, Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, week): Each weekday is dedicated to seven celestial bodies. Bok or Yobok (曜服 Duties of the Celestial Bodies, completion of a week): One week refers to the veneration of the seven celestial bodies. Names of Monthly Transition Days Hoe (晦 Eve of the first day of the month, 28th) Sak (朔 First day of the month, 1st, the dark moon) Names of Intercalation Days Dan (旦 Morning): Leap day for New Year Pan (昄 Big): Leap day for every fourth year Names of Time Units Gu (晷 sun’s shadow): Time measure, 1/300 Myo Myo (眇 minuscule): Time measure, a total of 300 Gu Myo-Gak-Bun-Si (眇刻分時 minuscule, possibly 15-minutes, minute, hour): Time measure, 9,633 Myo-Gak-Bun-Si is equal to a day Names of Three Types of Numbers in Nine Numerology Seongsu (性數Natural Number): 1, 4, 7 in the digital root Beopsu (法數 Lawful Number): 2, 5, 8 in the digital root Chesu (體數 Physical Number): 3, 6, 9 in the digital root THREE SUB-CALENDARS The Way of Heaven circles to generate Jongsi (a period, an ending and a beginning). Jongsi circles to generate another Jongsi of four Jongsi. One cycle of jongsi is called Soryeok (Little Calendar). Jongsi of Jongsi is called Jungryeok (Medium Calendar). Jongsi of four Jongsis is called Daeryeok (Large Calendar). The universe is infinite without beginning and ending. Everything runs the course of self-equilibration in relation to everything else. The Way of Heaven or the Way of the Creatrix circles and makes possible the infinite time/space to be measured and calculated. As the Way of Heaven circles, we are able to perceive Our Universe in finite measures of time/space. Time becomes measurable, as space is stabilized. Seasons and days-nights are demarcated in cyclic patterns, as the Earth makes the three cyclic movements of rotation, revolution, and precession. Calendar, born out of the inter-cosmic time, synchronizes human culture with the song/dance of the universe. The term Jongsi, which means an ending and a beginning, is equivalent to “a cyclic period” that is marked by the beginning and the end. Time (a day, a month, and a year) circles, as space (the Earth, the Moon, and the Sun) spirals. The Magoist Calendar has three sub-calendars: The period of one yearly cycle is called Little Calendar, whereas the period of two yearly cycles is called Medium Calendar and the period of four yearly cycles, Large Calendar. To be continued. (Meet Mago Contributor, Helen Hye-Sook Hwang) Notes [12] Budoji, Chapter 23. See Bak Jesang, the Budoji, Bak Geum scrib., Eunsu Kim, trans. (Seoul: Gana Chulpansa, 1986).
(Essay) The Emergence celebrated at Spring Equinox by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

The Spring Equinox Moment occurs September 21-23 Southern Hemisphere, March 21-23 Northern Hemisphere. The full story of Spring Equinox is expressed in the full flower connected to the seed fresh from the earth; that is, it is a story of emergence from the dark, from a journey, perhaps long, perhaps short, through challenging places. The joy of the blossoming is rooted in the journey through the dark, and an acknowledgement of the dark’s fertile gift, as well as of great achievement in having made it, of having returned. Both Equinoxes, Spring and Autumn, celebrate this sacred balance of grief and joy, light and dark, and they are both celebrations of the mystery of the seed. The seed is essentially the deep Creativity within – that manifests in the Spring as flower, or green emerged One. the full story: the root and the flower As the new young light continues to grow at this time of Spring, it comes into balance with the dark at Spring Equinox, or ‘Eostar’ as it may be named; about to tip further into light when light will dominate the day. The trend at this Equinox is toward increasing hours of light: and thus it is about the power of being – life is stepping into it. Earth in this region is tilting further toward the Sun. Traditionally it may be storied as the joyful celebration of a Lost Beloved One, who may be represented by the Persephone story: She is a shamanic figure who is known for Her journey to the Underworld, and who at this time of Spring Equinox returns. Her Mother Demeter who has waited and longed for Her in deep grief, rejoices and so do all: warmth and growth return to the land. Persephone, the Beloved Daughter, the Seed, has navigated the darkness successfully, has enriched it with Her presence and also gained its riches. Eostar/Spring Equinox is the magic of the unexpected, yet long awaited, green emergence from under the ground, and then the flower: this emergence is especially profound as it is from a seed that has lain dormant for months or longer – much like the magic of desert blooms after long periods of drought. The name of “Eostar” comes from the Saxon Goddess Eostre/Ostara, the northern form of the Sumerian Astarte[i]. The Christian festival in the Spring, was named “Easter” as of the Middle Ages, appropriating Goddess/Earth tradition. The date of Easter, which is set for Northern Hemispheric seasons, is still based on the lunar/menstrual calendar; that is, the 1st Sunday after the first full Moon after Spring Equinox. In Australia where I am, “Easter” is celebrated in Autumn (!) by mainstream culture, so we have the spectacle of fluffy chickens, chocolate eggs and rabbits in the shops at that time. There are other names for “Eostar” in other places …the Welsh name for the Spring Equinox celebration is Eilir, meaning ‘regeneration’ or ‘spring’ – or ‘earth’[ii]. In my own PaGaian tradition, the Spring Equinox celebration is based on the Demeter and Persephone story, the version that is understand as pre-patriarchal, from Old Europe. In the oldest stories, Persephone has agency in Her descent: She descends to the underworld voluntarily as a courageous seeker of wisdom, and a compassionate receiver of the dead. She represents, and IS, the Seed of Life that never fades away. Spring Equinox is a celebration of Her return, Life’s continual return, and thus also our personal and collective emergences/returns.We may contemplate the collective emergence/returns especially in our times. I describe Persephone as a “hera”, which of old was a term for any courageous One. “Hera” was a pre-Hellenic name for the Goddess in general[iii]. “Hera” was the indigenous Queen Goddess of pre-Olympic Greece, before She was married off to Zeus. “Hero” was a term for the brave male Heracles who carried out tasks for his Goddess Hera: “The derivative form ‘heroine’ is therefore completely unnecessary”[iv]. “Hera” may be used as a term for any courageous individual: and participants in PaGaian Spring Equinox ceremony have named themselves this way. The pre-“Olympic” games of Greece were Hera’s games, held at Her Heraion/temple[v]. The winners were “heras” – gaining the status of being like Her[vi]. At the time of Spring Equinox, we may celebrate the Persephone, the Hera, the Courageous One, who steps with new wisdom, into power of being: the organic power that all beings must have, Gaian power, the power of the Cosmos. This Seasonal ceremony may be a rejoicing in how we have made it through great challenges and loss, faced our fears and our demise (in its various forms), had ‘close shaves’ – perhaps physically as well as psychicly and emotionally. It is a time to welcome back that which was lost, and step into the strength of being. Spring Equinox/Eostar is the time for enjoying the fruits of the descent, of the journey taken into the darkness: return is now certain, not tentative as it was in the Early Spring/Imbolc. Demeter, the Mother, receives the Persephones, Lost Beloved Ones, joyously. This may be understood as an individual experience, but also as a collective experience – as we emerge into a new Era as a species. Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme speak of the ending of the sixty-five million year geological Era – the Cenozoic Era – in our times, and our possible emergence into an Ecozoic Era. They describe the Ecozoic Era as a time when “the curvature of the universe, the curvature of the earth, and the curvature of the human are once more in their proper relation”[vii]. Joanna Macy speaks of the “Great Turning” of our times[viii]. Collectively we have been away from the Mother for some time and there is a lot of pain. At this time we may contemplate not only our own individual lost wanderings, but also that of the human species. We are part of a much bigger Return that is happening. The Beloved One may be understood as returning on a collective level: …

(Essay 2) Why Reenact the Nine-Mago Movement? by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

[Author’s Note: The sequel of this essay is released in preparation for 2015 Nine-Day Solstice Celebration Project.] Part 2 Goddess Goma, the Magoist Shaman Ruler, and Her Nona-Mago Tradition Not until the autumn of 2012 did the pervasive manifestation of the number nine symbolism in Magoism surface in my consciousness. The information that the shrine of Gaeyang Halmi (Gaeyang Grandmother/Goddess), the Sea Goddess of Korea, was once called the Temple of Gurang (Nine Goddesses 九嫏祠) awakened a deep memory in me. It was a revelation to me and I began to connect the dots! That summer, I had joined the field research team of Konkuk University’s Korean Oral Literature graduate program. With them I visited the Shrine of the Sea Saint (Suseong-dang 水聖堂) in Buan, North Jeolla, S. Korea to collect folklore from the locals. Only when I was processing the data that the team gathered to write a report, did I come across the original name of the shrine, the Temple of the Nine Goddesses. And the Nine Goddesses refer to Gaeyang Halmi and her eight daughters. It is unknown how and when it was replaced by the current name, the Shrine of the Sea Saint. It is evident, however, that a linguistic femicide took place; the female-connoted term, the Nine Goddesses, was replaced by the sex/gender neutral term, the Sea Saint.
(Essay 1) Magos, Muses, and Matrikas: The Magoist Cosmogony and Gynocentric Unity by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.

[Author’s note: This paper is published in the journal, the Gukhak yeonguronchong 국학연구론총 (Issue 14, December 2014). Here it will appear in five sequels including the response by Dr. Glenys Livingstone.] Magos, Muses, and Matrikas: The Magoist Cosmogony and Gynocentric Unity[1] Abstract: This paper discusses the gynocentric principle in the Magoist cosmogony embodied in Cosmic Music and compares it with the traditions of Muses in ancient Greco-Roman culture and Matrikas in Hindu cultures. Methodologically, being the first research of its own kind, my study of Magoism takes a path led by the peculiarities of primary sources from Korea, China, and Japan. As a result, a feminist, transnational, multi-disciplinary, and comparative approach is employed to dis-cover otherwise irrelevant or isolated materials that include written texts, folktales, art, literary and place-names. The Magoist cosmogony characterized by Cosmic Music as ultimate creativity and Mago lineage of the first three generations known as Gurang (Nine Goddesses), the Mago Triad (Mgo and Her two daughters) and eight granddaughters strikes a strong resonance in Muses and Matrikas. In the latter two traditions, not only linguistic and numerical evidence but also the gynocentric (read female-centered) principle represented by parthenogenesis, matri-lineage, and cultural manifestations appear akin to the Magoist cosmogony. From the perspective of Magoism, such multifaceted unity is not surprising. Precisely, traditional Magoists self-proclaim as the memory-bearer of the original narrative of the Primordial Mother. Keywords: Mago, Mago Stronghold, Budoji, Parthenogenesis, Muse, Matrika, Goddess, Cosmic Music, Music of the Universe, Nine Goddesses, Triad, Matrilineal, Korean Goddess, Mago lineage, Greek Goddess, Indian Goddess, Hinduism
(Essay) Reviving and Celebrating the Nine-Goddess Symbolism by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

In my ongoing research on the Great Goddess known as Mago, I have discovered the number nine gynocentric symbolism as the most prominent current that constitutes Magoism and named it the Nona (Number Nine) Mago religion/civilization/mythology. Like other civilizational inventions such as the calendar and musicology, numerology is an intellectual system of knowing the Way of Nature/Universe/Creatrix. And the number nine is no arbitrary number but is the numeric code of the Creatrix or the Primordial Mother. It codifies the cosmogonic beginning of the Primordial Mother, that is, the Primordial Mago Household. It refers to the primordial principle of the solar/terrestrial beginning.

Category: Goddess

(Prose Part 2) The Bear Goddess in Europe by Sara Wright

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(Meet Mago Contributor) Sudie Rakusin

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(Meet Mago Contributor) Morgaine Swann

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(Photo Essay 4) Goddess Pilgrimage – Sicily by Kaalii Cargill

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(Book excerpt) My Name is Medusa by Glenys Livingstone and Arna Baartz

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(Prose Part 1) The Bear Goddess in Europe by Sara Wright

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(Prose Part 2) Persephone Rises by Sara Wright

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(Meet Mago Contributor) Nicole Shaw

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(Video 4) "Seeking Inner Voices of S/HE (Meditation Guides)" by Marie de Kock

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How do you say what The Mago Work is? by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang & Mago Circle Members

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(Art) Tree Goddesses by Janie Rezner

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(Prose Part 1) Persephone Rises by Sara Wright

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(Video 3) "Seeking Inner Voices of S/HE (Meditation Guides)" by Marie de Kock

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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)

(Invitation) Organizers and/or Presenters for the S/HE Forum

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