March 16, 2025March 18, 2025 Mago WorkLeave a comment

(Meet Mago Contributor) Tamara Wyndham

I have been making art all my life; encouraged by my mother, an artist. My mother died of cancer when I was almost 9 years old: the trauma catalyzed my Read More …

March 14, 2025February 24, 2025 Susun WeedLeave a comment

Betsy’s Garden #1 by Susun Weed

My friend Betsy lives in the Sonoran desert. Her garden is mostly native plants. Xeriscaping. With some roses, rosemary bushes, and heat-tolerant flowers. Here they are. Can you feel the Read More …

March 13, 2025March 13, 2025 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(She Summons Excerpt) It Matters What Stories Tell Stories by Annukina Warda

[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).] It matters what Read More …

March 12, 2025March 12, 2025 ANewvineLeave a comment

Spirit Salve for Stormy Times – Eris by Alison Newvine

Eris, Merciful One Eris has awakenedShe’ll not go back to sleepthe charcoal chaos of this precipicehas roused HerNo longer just sleep waking amongst the giantsShe is Fully Awakeand Her consciousness Read More …

March 10, 2025February 19, 2025 Mago WorkLeave a comment

(Poem & Story) Changing Women’s Light by Sara Wright

Born of Stone and Trees Birthing a People from a Mountain of Light I hold slivers of her body touch numinous fragments worked by Peoples who honor and live the Read More …

March 7, 2025March 7, 2025 Mago WorkLeave a comment

(Poem) Lost texts by Susan Hawthorne

This poem is one of a series of poems from my book Lupa and Lamb. They are poems invented on the basis of language research, and they tell the history Read More …

March 6, 2025January 10, 2025 Mago WorkLeave a comment

(Art Essay 2) We Need to Talk: Patriarchal Language V Our Mother’s Tongue by Claire Dorey

The threat of rape is part of patriarchal language. Renaissance revival art immortalizing and normalizing Greco-Roman rape culture wraps rape in a cloak of silence: Images of rape are there Read More …

March 5, 2025January 10, 2025 Mago Work2 Comments

(Art Essay 1) We Need to Talk: Patriarchal Language V Our Mother’s Tongue by Claire Dorey

“Take the chain off your brain” – You Gotta Believe, Rose Royce. Throw open the windows. Let the wind shred the curtains. Let the wind tear this house off her Read More …

March 4, 2025February 21, 2025 Mago WorkLeave a comment

(Poem) Peace Prayer by Mary Saracino

[Author’s Note: Previously published at www.newversenews.com, April 22, 2007.] Peace to children around the worldof every hue and nation;peace to mothers who bring forth lifeand nurture us through sorrow;peace to Read More …

March 3, 2025October 30, 2024 RTMeditorsKGLeave a comment

(Video) Embodiment of Mother-Creator Quality of Goddess/Dea by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This contemplation was originally part of a Re-Storying Goddess class series that I facilitated throughout the 1990’s, and then some until 2011. These classes were originally offered over 6 weeks, Read More …

February 28, 2025February 21, 2025 Mago WorkLeave a comment

(Poem) The Crone of Gethsemane by Stephanie Mines, Ph.D.

She is made from countless years of defying patriarchy, Strengthened by grief, Made wiser by betrayal. Injustice, bullying, rape, plunder, gaslighting, lying, manipulation of truth. These are tools of colonialists, Read More …

February 27, 2025January 15, 2025 Mago WorkLeave a comment

(S/HE V3 N2 Book Review) Philip C. Almond’s Mary Magdalene: A Cultural History by Mary Ann Beavis

[Editor’s Note: This poem was included in the journal, S/HE: An International Journal of Goddess Studies (Vol 3 No 2, 2024).] The cover description of this book describes it as “the first Read More …

February 26, 2025February 26, 2025 Mago WorkLeave a comment

Ice Above and Below and the Coming of the Light by Sara Wright

January’s twilight hours draw me into her pale embrace stalactites and frozen streams whisper that winter’s skin is thin even with months to go flowing water is muted under seeded Read More …

(Prose) Personal Power and Aging by Deanne Quarrie

It is a sad fact that we live in a society that no longer honors its elders. It is rare to see a young person stand when an elder walks into the room, let alone offer a chair. We have all heard about becoming invisible when our hair turns gray. That one used to be a puzzle until it happened to me and I learned that it is true. When I was growing up, we never addressed adults by their first names – even when they were relatives. We always used terms to honor their role in our lives such as Aunt this or Uncle that. It just wasn’t done. In the South a first name preceded by Miss, i.e. Miss Deanne. I am sure this must sound silly in this day and age. It was about honor and respect – every day reminders that when we were in the company of someone older and more experienced than us, a certain amount of honor and respect was due.
Women, Birds, and Feminism by Sara Wright

Photography by Sara Wright When I was about forty years old I discovered a clay deposit on a beach that I visited frequently. Intrigued, I sat down and began working with the river’s gift. I remember my astonishment when a beaked bird – woman emerged out of the clump of damp earth. I could feel a surge of fire pulsing through my body so I took the figure home and placed it on my bedside table, hoping to discern its message. Shortly thereafter I discovered the work of Marija Gimbutas in the book The Language of the Goddess. There were a number of beaked goddesses pictured in this volume, some uncannily similar to mine. Had I tapped into the world of the ancient bird goddesses? I believed so. Although I had no idea what this might mean these images of Marija’s captured my imagination and kept me questioning. It wasn’t long before I also dreamed other bird goddess images and rendered each of them in clay… Some of my earliest memories were tied up with birds because my grandmother loved them, and watching birds was something we did together. To this day I can recognize a bird I haven’t seen since I was a child; all birds are treasured by me. During my mothering years when I was so distracted, I still fed whole flocks of Mourning doves outside my door every morning. Later, after my children were grown and I moved to the mountains, I acquired Lily b, my free flying African Ring Necked dove. Each dawn when writing in my journal, Lily b would reinforce any important insight I had with a certain call. Within six months I was forced to acknowledge that Lily b read my mind. When I learned that scientist Rupert Sheldrake was doing research on animal telepathy I began to correspond with him, and my experiences with Lily b became part of his data bank. This communication between Rupert and I reinforced my belief that Lily b and I had an unusual relationship. My powerful patriarchal conditioning was still insisting that birds don’t read human minds. I loved birds, animals, and plants – fiercely – after all, I was a naturalist. Now that my children were grown I was advocating for all non – human lives through teaching and writing. Yet that internal voice continued to try to dismiss my experiences with Lily, as well as other unusual encounters I had with animals. For the longest time I believed that my relationship with Lily b was an anomaly. In retrospect it is clear that Lily b opened a psychic door that allowed me to cross a threshold into the world of birds, animals and plants on a deeper and more intimate level than I had ever experienced before. When I moved into my log cabin a few years later a glorious crimson Cardinal began coming to my feeder. Oh, I was transfixed, experiencing the same kind of fire that I had when I sculpted my first bird goddess. Soon I had a family of Cardinals who fed their two fluttering nestlings each summer. In the winter I would stand at the door and watch for the pair to come in to feed when it was almost dark, and if they didn’t appear during inclement weather I experienced inexplicable grief and longing. My love for these particular birds rivaled my love for Lily B. One summer tragedy struck. One of the male nestlings was mauled by a cat. Although I attempted to save the bird’s life he died three days later. When the parents disappeared, I was beyond bereft. For two years I heard Cardinal songs up the road but my beloved birds did not return. Every Cardinal song broke my heart. Early in September of the third year a female Cardinal materialized ‘clicking’ outside my open window. I begged her to stay, telling her how lonely I had been for her company. She regarded me solemnly with one beady eye as she listened to my plea. The next morning she appeared again, and afterwards the female began to visit me every day at which time I would race out the door with special food just for her. Six months later she arrived at dawn with a male cardinal who immediately began to sing his ethereal mating song. I was overjoyed. That summer the pair raised a brood that didn’t disperse in the fall. The following winter I had four. I don’t know why it took me so long to begin to converse with Cardinals in an ordinary voice since Lily b and I bid each other good morning every day; he coos and I return his greeting in English. We also coo back and forth because he likes it when I mimic his voice. Once I began communicating out loud with the Cardinals they always responded; they also initiated contact like the day the male warned me NOT to go witness the slaughtered trees at the spring. The females simply click, but the males start singing, pause, wait for me to tell them they are beautiful (!) and then reply, accentuating certain notes each time. The other night one of these exchanges lasted for about 20 minutes. It is normal for me to be awakened by one of the male cardinals every morning at 4:15 AM because it’s summer, and they are early risers ( I have to bring in the feeder every night at dark or raccoons will raid it). If they come during the day when I have temporarily removed the feeder because of squirrel predation, both males and females call out with short irritated chirps and clicks arriving at whatever window is closest to where I am in the house until I return their feeder! It is uncanny how they know which room I am in. I also note that is the male that teaches the youngsters how to get my attention, so the routine is passed on intergenerationally. Although …
(Poem) Subterranean Rage by Mary Saracino

Deeper than bone deeper than muscle or sinew or tenacious tendon this howl of ages rivers through bloodlines, ancient as oceans salty as the primeval seas this is what happens to women who out-step their bounds dare to be bold, brazen speak up, name the subterfuge women who grit their warriors’ teeth fight on, for their children their lovers, their nation their homes, their hearts’ desires branded as heretics: witch, bitch, cunt, whore they race through forests and fields trying to outrun the acrid scent of their own sweat running from the hellish hounds the priestly proclamations the wrenching bite of the strappado* running for their lives caught between sinner or saint rarely allowed sovereignty over Self over mind & womb, over laws meant to undo them Thousands of strangled cats launched the Plague tender necks swinging from tree limbs flaccid, cold paws an omen: the rats will have their day Crucibles of change, cauldrons of sorrow, voices stymied for eons by the threat of extinction womb-wisdom silenced by public outcry burned at the stake of cultural conditioning the subterranean outrage seeps out, sharp as knives sharp as memory sharp as justice denied sharp as the bloodied knives eviscerating their midnight powers Deep is this grief Deep this anger A dirge of rage lost to the winds of time The weeping memory wails, still. Hear it the moonless night sky, touch it in the hot light of noon smell it in the poisoned soil taste it on your remembering tongue see it in the burning irises that bear witness to this unyielding genocide. * Strappado is a form of torture, employed by the Inquisitional tribunals against women accused of witchcraft. Victims were suspended in the air by means of a rope attached to their hands which were tied behind their backs, causing their arms to be dislocated. “Subterranean Rage” was originally published in The New Verse News on May 23, 2008 at http://newversenews.blogspot.com/2008/05/subterranean-rage.html Read Meet Mago Contributor, Mary Saracino.
(Essay) My Mother Is: The Stories We Tell Ourselves and the Divine Dreams that Change Them by Trista Hendren

My Mother is: The Stories We Tell Ourselves and the Divine Dreams that Change Them “My grandfather used to tell me that life was a dream. He also said that when people finally realized this, the dream could be changed, and then humanity would change.” ~ Don Miguel Ruiz My mom left me when I was four. At least that’s the story I told myself most of my life. It was the story that I had been told and it was the story I identified with, whether it was true or not. The last memories I have of being close to my mom are from when I was four. And those are the pictures of us together, before the rift that I have cherished. It’s not that I did not love my mom after that. Quite the opposite. I remember clearly lying in my bed alone at night, crying my eyes out when my dad and stepmom thought I was asleep. I was crying for my mother. All I wanted was my mom. In those moments of feeling sorry for myself, I told myself she did not love me enough to take me with her, or at the very least, that she had chosen someone else. I felt invisible around my dad. In fact I still do. I know he loves me, deeply. But I don’t feel like he has ever really seen me. He doesn’t know me. I was his loyal little girl for most of my life, well into adulthood. I wanted to please him, and oftentimes, I felt like pleasing my dad included showing disapproval towards my mom. Not that he ever said that, per se. Quite the opposite. I have never heard my dad badmouth anyone. I literally had the wicked stepmother. It took a long time for me to finally say that. For most of my life, I have tried to frame everything positively, even when it was not. My sister got most of her wrath because she was spunkier than me. I kept everything inside. I was easier to control. There are not a lot of moments that stand out to me from my childhood. But I do remember one day in particular with my stepmom when I was 12. We were in the supermarket. I had been going on and on about my real mom until her annoyance-level became unbearable. She turned to me and stopped me mid-sentence, stating with venom: “Your mother is a whore.” I cried my eyes out. I remember sitting in the car with her afterwards, unable to calm down and stop the heaving tears. That statement stung more than any words I had ever heard in my life. To this day, they still cut deep into my heart. My mother married when she was barely out of high school. To be brief, she ended up having an affair after years of living with my emotionally unavailable father. When he found out, it was painful and dramatic. He never showed her his love, but I remember walking in on him several times as he was crying over my mother. He wrote it all out in music that she never heard until years later. Those images stayed in my mind whenever I dared to side with my mother. Last month, I was supposed to go to my father’s birthday party. I got a migraine that morning, as I often do when I am avoiding something. And I decided for one of the first times in my life that I would not go to his party. Soon after that, I rallied. Since I rarely have a night without children, I decided to go out with my mother instead. My mom has been my only babysitter all these years, so this was the first time we had ever done this. We had a blast. We ate dinner at a local pub, went to see a funny movie, and were headed home when I said, “Mom, how often do we have a chance like this? Let’s go do Karaoke!” My mother, who rarely drinks, had a few cocktails with me and we sang our hearts out. We even danced. I can never remember dancing with my mother — ever. It’s a night I will always cherish. It got me thinking: we all ought to have an opportunity to dance with our mothers – at least once – if not often – before we die. On the way home, we talked. We rarely really talk. We talk about the kids, and we talk about work, but we rarely talk about what is really going on for both of us. She mentioned that she was sorry for being a supermom and trying to do it all. And I told her that was never a problem for me. For me it was something else. And I started thinking about the difficulties of mothers and daughters. Longing to be close, but remaining distant for whatever reason. Feeling sorry for things that never bothered the other person at all, and not realizing the things we had both done to hurt each other. We have a long history in our family of difficult mother-daughter relations, going back at least as far as my great grandmother. There is some sort of legacy there. It is time to break traditions of hurt and heal together. I recently submitted an article to be published anonymously that I had written years ago. And in that article I had written that I did not have the close relationship with my mother that I yearned for. I realized, gratefully, during our talk that that was no longer the case. It was first time I told my mom she was a great mother, and I meant it. Just before my daughter was born, over 6 years ago, I had a freak out moment with my mom. My first pregnancy was with a son, which jolted me into action – and therapy. I knew I had …
(Pandemic Poem 12) What We Can Do by Jyoti Wind

Drum rattle. Photo by Jyoti Wind We clear our hearts of the worry the news the fear. We untie the stories that bind us to pain and suffering and we offer to the world what we have, a compassionate heart. We pray for all those who are suffering including ourselves. We pray for those passing on, for those in fear. We offer our heart’s love to the world. That’s what we can do. https://www.magoism.net/2020/08/meet-mago-contributor-jyoti-wind/
(Essay) “The Language of the Goddess” In Minoan Crete by Carol P. Christ

While the “war against Marija Gimbutas,” rooted in what my friend Mara Keller calls “theaphobia,” is being waged in the academy, her theories continue to unlock the meaning of hundreds of thousands of artifacts from the culture she named “Old Europe.” According to Gimbutas, the Neolithic and Chalcolithic cultures of Old Europe c. 6500-3500 BCE were peaceful, sedentary, agricultural, matrifocal and probably matrilineal, egalitarian, and worshipped the Goddess as the power of birth, death, and regeneration in human and all forms of life. The cultures of the Old Europe contrasted with the Bronze Age cultures of the Indo-Europeans who brought the Indo-European languages and value systems to Europe and India and to all of the European colonies. The Indo-European cultures were patriarchal, patrilineal, nomadic, horse-riding, and warlike, and worshipped the shining Gods of the sky. “The language of the Goddess” includes a series of signs and symbols that the people of Old Europe could “read” as surely as you and I know that a cross on top of a building marks it as Christian or that a woman wearing a star of David pendant is Jewish. Gimbutas identified the meaning of these symbols through a painstaking process that involved comparison of artifacts, attention to where they were found, and clues from the recurrence of similar symbols in later cultures. In twenty years of leading Goddess Pilgrimages to Crete, I have found Gimbutas’ theories an indispensible “hermeneutical principle” which unlocks the meanings of the artifacts we encounter. (Read the remainder of the essay in Feminism and Religion.)
(Prose) The Mago Work and Magoist Cetaceanism in the time of the Covid19 by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.

Oceanic Pumping by Whales. Wikimedia Commons. If we can make the pandemic a time of opportunity to nail patriarchy in the head once and for all, we may be able to say that the Covid19 is worthy of it in the end. The Covid19 can’t stop what we are meant to do! And we are ever freshly charged to undertake the task of helping Life right HERE/NOW! That is the driving force under the Mago Work’s ongoing and new ventures. Lately, we have launched a new project, S/HE: An International Journal of Goddess Studies, an academic peer reviewed journal on Goddess-related topics. All beings including non-human species, if we can survive, endure this time of the pandemic ordeal. And we are unsure what is coming at the end of this tunnel. Nonetheless, I am thankful for what we still have and can do. We are flexible, open-minded, and creative. We grin in tears longing for love and connection. And we have the spirit of making an ever new start. That is our power, we live fully. In fact, the Mago Work founded in 2012 was designed in order to survive and thrive during the time of crises on all levels. On one level, schools and educational institutes now go by online, which puts Mago Academy one of them, a pioneering survivor! That said, is it possible to confront patriarchy at the dead-end? How do we do that? I suggest that we restore Magoist Cetaceanism today among us. Magoist Cetaceanism is about the bond between Magoists (followers of the Great Mother) and the natural world administered by whales. Why whales? Why not just women or mothers? To expose the bare face of patriarchy, we need to unveil the hidden/suppressed dimension of the cetacean divine, Whale Ruler the Great (Daewang Gorae), emulated by Magoist “Rulers” (Mother Queens and their descendant kings). How relevant are whales in our assessment of the Mother World? While whales manifest most unexpectedly in cultural and thematic expressions across time and space, it is rarely known that dragons are the cetacean symbolism. Traditional Korea is imbued with the cetacean totemism, a topic that requires a book to write about. I have noticed that dragons (the personification of the cetacean divine) are associated with ancient Goddesses including the Inanna group of Goddesses, far more vividly than we would expect.As I am preparing for the upcoming Magoist Studies Salon on whales (for the rest four months of 2020), these thoughts are on my mind. Patriarchy must have hated the natural world represented by whales more than women/mothers. One may question if hate has a degree. It does! The natural world has been deprived of its existential status wholesale in patriarchy. Animals, birds, trees and plants are allowed no right of existence on their own. The following is the topic statement on Magoist Cetaceanism for the Salon: The bond between Magoists and whales is made invisible in patriarchy. Both the female principle and the cetacean totemism remain esoteric at best. In Magoism, whales are venerated as the paragon of Magoist Queen Mothers who administer the human world on behalf of Mago, the Great Mother. Magoist Cetaceanism, restored, tells us that Magoism, the Way of the Great Mother, has been subjected to the process of matricide, mystification, and oblivion in the course of history due not only to its uncompromising female principle but also to its espousal with the cetacean totemism. Truth is that the cetacean totemism held by ancient Magoists is antithetical to patriarchal premises. Put differently, Magoist Cetaceanism cannot be admitted in patriarchy. For the seamless unity of humans and the natural world represented by whales undermines the very proposition of patriarchy. Pre-patriarchal sons may have come to set themselves against whales (dragons) out of jealousy, as the latter were worshipped as the terrestrial divine by their Shaman Queen mothers. Our message is that we humans are here to know the nurturing power of whales and collaborate with them. In fact, I hold that whales comprise one of the three divine realms, the terrestrial divine (Nine Dragons) together with the heavenly divine (Nine Magos) and the human divine (Nine Gomas). In the three-fold reality of WE/HERE/NOW, better known as the thought of Heaven-Earth-Human, cetaceans come as the second agent who represents the earthly realm. We will discuss whales as the terrestrial divine in light of the Magoist Cosmogony and Magoist Shaman Queens. The very establishment of Magoism, the teaching of the Great Mother, Mago, may have been possible due to a consummate degree of progress or revelation on maternal cetology (study of whales by Magoist Mothers) circa 3898 BCE by Goma, the Magoist Shaman Queen founder of the nine-state Danguk confederacy. Put differently, the discourse of the mother divine (Nine Magos) has to do with the cetacean worship. At this point of a pre-patriarchal time, human mothers came to perceive the universe in the language of Sonic Numerology. The conscious promotion of Goddesses (the Great Mother and HER human daughters known as Heavenly Queen or Heavenly Mother) rose (that was still in pre-patriarchal times) and because of that, we today get to know them. This is all thanks to whales! In a pre-patriarchal world, the concern of Magoists was to overcome the problem of eating living beings for food. This is not a small issue. In fact, the Budoji calls it the first catastrophe (Christians call it the first disobedience, according to John Milton in Paradise Lost). Pre-patriarchal mothers faced to overcome the problem of food, which resulted in the change of human biology/psychology/consciousness once and for all. Magoists in the cradle of Mago Stronghold drank “the terrestrial milk” springing from the ground, the mineral water. And later, they ventured out to take arrow roots, pine needles, pine nuts, and the like for food. Later, they were likely to eat a dead whale, washed ashore. I am reaching the thought that humans can take organic materials that are freely given by the natural world/lifeforms not by killing them. Nobody wants to share? …
(Essay 1) Goddesses in Hinduism: “All the Mothers are One” by Mary Ann Beavis, Ph.D.

[Editor’s Note: This essay is from the same title, “Goddesses in Hinduism: “All the Mothers are One”‘ by Mary Ann Beavis with Scott Daniel Dunbar included in Goddesses in Myth, History and Culture (Mago Books, 2018).] Among the world religions, Hinduism is one where Goddesses have been worshipped continuously for thousands of years and continue to be part—and sometimes the most important part—of Hindu spirituality. Indeed, many Hindus consider the very land of India to be a Goddess, depicted, accordingly, in popular iconography, and reverentially call her “Mother India” (see Figure 1). At a macro level, the entire Earth itself is honoured and recognized as a Mother Goddess (known as Bhūmi or Bhūmī-Devī) who gives birth to a dizzying and colourful variety of life forms that are celebrated in Hindu mythology, symbolism, and devotion. The subtitle “All the Mothers Are One” is from a book by the same title by Stanley Kurtz, who studied the emergence of the Goddess Santoshi Ma in India;[1] her worship has only emerged in the last generation or two and become very popular. Early on in his research, Kurz became frustrated by his inability to discover the Goddess’s “uniqueness.” He says that her worshippers often told him the parable of a farmer who kept begging a priest to give him an image of a deity to worship. Finally, in frustration, the priest gave him a rock to get rid of him. The farmer worshipped the rock without results, until he grew so depressed that he was ready to commit suicide. At the last minute, the deity finally emerged from the rock to save him.[2] The moral of the story is that the divine is everywhere and cannot be fully captured by any one image or object or deity. In its neo-Vedantic Hindu religious context, the point is theological: the divine is one, and all the deities are expressions of the One. Santoshi Ma (“Mother of Satisfaction”) is a manifestation of the divine in all things, the Universal Mother. Kurtz’s interpretation of that insight is psychological, and framed within the Hindu family system, in which children are traditionally reared by more than one “mother figure” (aunts, sisters, grandmothers, nursemaids, etc.).[3] There is an immense number of Hindu Goddesses (or female manifestations/expressions of the divine) of different kinds. This chapter will present a typology of Hindu Goddesses from archaic times to the present. However, it should be noted that this presentation of “types” of Hindu Goddesses is not exhaustive, but introductory and highly selective. Archaic Goddesses As with every major religion, what is called “Hinduism” has grown, developed and changed throughout its long history. The indigenous people of ancient India, the Dravidians (2500-1500 BCE), built a highly developed civilization in the Indus Valley, and may have worshipped a deity that shared the characteristics of the later Hindu God Shiva, symbolized by a lingam (erect phallus), symbolizing life-giving power.[4] However, as Mary Pat Fisher observes: Even more prominent among the artefacts are terracotta figurines that seem to honor a great goddess. Sacred pots, like those still used in South Indian village ceremonies honoring the goddess, may have been associated then, as now, with the feminine as the receptacle of the stuff of life. There is also considerable evidence of worship of local deities by stone altars placed beneath sacred trees. Each tree is still popularly believed to be the home of a tree spirit, and many are honored with offerings.[5] The foundational scriptures of Hinduism, the Vedas, are associated with the Aryans, Indo-European tribes that displaced the earlier Dravidian culture.[6] The Vedas are held to have the status of eternal revelation (shruti). Goddesses are not central to these texts, but some scholars have argued that the great Goddesses of later tradition are Vedic Goddesses under different names (or in one case, the same name).[7] The Rig Veda, the oldest and most famous of these scriptures (pre-1500 B.C.E.), contains hymns (mantras) of praise celebrating deities, divine presences and powers. The most important and powerful gods in the ancient Vedic religion are male, e.g., Agni, a fire god, sometimes identified as the highest of the gods; Soma, the god of inspiration and speech; Indra, the popular and powerful lord of the heavens; Varuna, a war lord, ruler of the worlds, enforcer of laws. Of the Goddesses in the Vedic pantheon,[8] the only one on a par with the male deities, Usas, is usually depicted as a beautiful young maiden, a Goddess of the dawn who drives away darkness and demons and brings light to the world.[9] She is the force that impels life, and the breath that enlivens all living creatures. As the recurring dawn, she is associated with cosmic, moral and social order, and opposed to forces that threaten the world. She is an auspicious Goddess, associated with wealth, often likened to a cow, who bares her breast to shine forth light on humankind. She is also a Goddess of the hearth and the eye of the gods. She was invoked to drive away or punish enemies, and to grant long life, since as a marker of time, she is a constant reminder of people’s limited time on earth. Prthivi is an earth Goddess whose name is usually found in compound form with the name of her male counterpart, Dyaus (Latin: deus, Greek: theos) god of the sky—Dyavaprthivi (bisexual deity).[10] The male and female deities are said to sanctify each other in their complementary relationship and are said to be the universal parents who created the world and the gods. Prthivi is often called mother, and her consort, father. They come together when her consort fertilizes Prthivi with rain. She is praised for her maternal, productive characteristics, as well as for her nurturing, supportive aspects. In later Vedic literature, she is uncoupled from the androgynous sky-god and emerges as a separate Goddess. Sarasvati is a Vedic deity who becomes a prominent Goddess in later Hindu religion.[11] In the Rig Veda, she is associated with a mighty and powerful …
(Meet Mago Contributor) Victor Hernández

Victor Hernández is an artist from Socorro, Texas who recently returned to la frontera after spending several years in Austin and Houston working as a commercial artist. His painting, “Angel in Decline,” is the cover art for the poetry collection Poemas ante el Catafalco: Grief and Renewal, written by Donna Snyder. Victor’s work includes sculpture, portraits, video, collage, textile, multi-media, and other art forms. He has had solo shows at contemporary art venues such as the Super Happy Fun Place in Houston, and has also been a part of various group exhibitions, including with the JUNTOS Art Association in Houston. For the band Organ Failure, Victor created album cover art and a claymation music video which can be seen on various video and political action websites. He has presented creative writing workshops with the Tumblewords Project, a grassroots literary project that has presented workshops and performances in the border region since 1995.

(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 1) "The Oldest Civilization" and its Agendas by Mago Circle Members

[Editor’s Note: The following discussion took place in response to an article listed blow by the members of The Mago Cirlce, Facebook group of Goddessians/Magoists from May 6 to May 10, 2016. Readers are recommended to read the original article linked below that has invoked the converation.] “The Danube Civilization: Oldest in the World” in The Ancient Ones upon the ruins of our ancestors, published April 3, 2016.
(Special Post 2) Multi-linguistic Resemblances of “Mago” by Mago Circle Members

Artwork, “The-great-mother” by Julie Stewart Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: On the word, Magi/Magus, from Magi – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Magi (/ˈmeɪdʒaɪ/; singular magus /ˈmeɪɡəs/; from Latin magus) were priests in Zoroastrianism and the earlier religions of the western Iranians. The earliest known use of the word magi is in the trilingual inscription written by Darius the Great, known as the Behistun Inscription. Old Persian texts, predating the Hellenistic period, refer to a magus as a Zurvanic, and presumably Zoroastrian, priest. Pervasive throughout the Eastern Mediterranean and Western Asia until late antiquity and beyond, mágos was influenced by (and eventually displaced) Greek goēs (γόης), the older word for a practitioner of magic, to include astronomy/astrology, alchemy and other forms of esoteric knowledge. This association was in turn the product of the Hellenistic fascination for (Pseudo‑)Zoroaster, who was perceived by the Greeks to be the Chaldean founder of the Magi and inventor of both astrology and magic, a meaning that still survives in the modern-day words “magic” and “magician”. In the Gospel of Matthew, “μάγοι” (magoi) from the east do homage to the newborn Jesus, and the transliterated plural “magi” entered English from Latin in this context around 1200 (this particular use is also commonly rendered in English as “kings” and more often in recent times as “wise men”).[1] The singular “magus” appears considerably later, when it was borrowed from Old French in the late 14th century with the meaning magician. … An unrelated term, but previously assumed to be related, appears in the older Gathic Avestan language texts. This word, adjectival magavan meaning “possessing maga-“, was once the premise that Avestan maga- and Median (i.e. Old Persian) magu- were co-eval (and also that both these were cognates of Vedic Sanskrit magha-). While “in the Gathas the word seems to mean both the teaching of Zoroaster and the community that accepted that teaching”, and it seems that Avestan maga- is related to Sanskrit magha-, “there is no reason to suppose that the western Iranian form magu (Magus) has exactly the same meaning”[4] as well. But it “may be, however”, that Avestan moghu (which is not the same as Avestan maga-) “and Medean magu were the same word in origin, a common Iranian term for ‘member of the tribe’ having developed among the Medes the special sense of ‘member of the (priestly) tribe’, hence a priest.”[2]cf[3] Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: On the word, Gaia, from Gaia (mythology) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia In Greek mythology, Gaia (/ˈɡaɪə, ˈɡeɪə/ GHY-ə, GAY-ə;[1] from Ancient Greek Γαῖα, a poetical form of Γῆ Gē, “land” or “earth”),[2] also spelled Gaea (/ˈdʒiːə/ JEE-ə),[1] is the personification of the Earth[3] and one of the Greek primordial deities. Gaia is the ancestral mother of all life: the primal Mother Earth goddess. She is the mother of Uranus (the sky), from whose sexual union she bore the Titans (themselves parents of many of the Olympian gods) and the Giants, and of Pontus (the sea), from whose union she bore the primordial sea gods. Her equivalent in the Roman pantheon was Terra.[4] … The Greek name Γαῖα (Gaĩa)[5] is a mostly epic, collateral form of Attic Γῆ[6] (Gê), Doric Γᾶ (Gã, perhaps identical to Δᾶ Dã)[7] meaning “Earth”, a word of uncertain origin.[8] Robert S. P. Beekes has suggested a Pre-Greek origin.[9] In Mycenean Greek Ma-ka (transliterated as Ma-ga, “Mother Gaia”) also contains the root ga-.[9][10] Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: Greek mythology of Gaia’s family tree is remotely evocative of the Magoist genealogy written in the Budoji (Epic of the Emblem City), the principale text of Magoism. In Korean, “Mama” is also an honorary title referring to the royal family including ruler, ruler’s mother, father, grandmother and so on. This suggests that “ma” means “mother,” “ruler,” and “Goddess” all at once in gynocentric/gynocratic (Magoist/Magocratic) societies, pre-patriarchal in origin. Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: I came to search the etymology of “montgomery” in relation to Mt. Mago or Mt. Goya and am led to such related terms as Gomer, Gog, Magog. Montgomery (name) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Montgomery or Montgomerie is a surname from a place name in Normandy.[1] Although there are many stories of its origin,[2][3][4][5] An old theory explains that the name is a corruption of “Gomer’s Mount” or “Gomer’s Hill” (Latin: Mons Gomeris), any of a number of hills in Europe named in attribution to the biblical patriarch Gomer,[2] but it does not explain the final -y or -ie (the phonetical evolution would have been *Montgomers) and it does not correspond to the old mentions of the place name Montgommery in Normandie : Monte Gomeri in 1032 – 1035, de Monte Gomerico in 1040 and de Monte Gumbri in 1046 – 1048.[6] More relevant is the explanation by the Germanic first name Gumarik,[7] a compound of guma “man” (see bridegroom) and rik “powerful”, that regularly gives the final -ry (-ri) in the French first names and surnames (Thierry, Amaury, Henry, etc.). Moreover, the name is still used as a surname in France as Gommery,[8] from the older first name Gomeri.[9] Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: On the word, Gomer below from Wikipedia. Gomer (גֹּמֶר, Standard Hebrew Gómer, Tiberian Hebrew Gōmer, pronounced [ɡoˈmeʁ]) was the eldest son of Japheth (and of the Japhetic line), and father of Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah, according to the “Table of Nations” in the Hebrew Bible, (Genesis 10). The eponymous Gomer, “standing for the whole family,” as the compilers of the Jewish Encyclopedia expressed it,[1] is also mentioned in Book of Ezekiel 38:6 as the ally of Gog, the chief of the land of Magog. Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: On the word, Gog and Magog from Wikipedia. Gog and Magog: They are depicted as monsters and barbarians from the East/Eurasia. Gog and Magog (/ɡɒɡ/; /ˈmeɪɡɒɡ/; Hebrew: גּוֹג וּמָגוֹג Gog u-Magog; Arabic: يَأْجُوج وَمَأْجُوج Yaʾjūj wa-Maʾjūj) are names that appear in the Hebrew bible (Old Testament), the Book of Revelation and the Qur’an, sometimes indicating individuals and sometimes lands and peoples. Sometimes, but not always, they are connected with the “end times”, and the passages from the book of Ezekiel and Revelation in particular have attracted attention for this reason. From ancient times to the late Middle Ages Gog and Magog were identified with Eurasian nomads such as the Khazars, Huns and Mongols (this was true also for Islam, where they were identified first with Turkic tribes of Central Asia and later with the Mongols). Throughout this period they were conflated with various other legends, notably those concerning Alexander the Great, the Amazons, Red Jews, and the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, and became the subject of much fanciful literature. In modern times they remain associated with apocalyptic thinking, especially in the United States and the Muslim world. Helen […]

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 …
The Passing of Last Summer’s Growth by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

The ‘passing of last Summer’s growth’ as is experienced and contemplated in the Season of Deep Autumn/Samhain, may be a metaphor for the passing of all/any that has come to fullness of being, or that has had a fullness, a blossoming of some kind, and borne fruit; and in the passing it has been received, and thus transforms. The ‘passing of last Summer’s growth’ may be in hearts and minds, an event or events, a period of time, or an era, that was a deep communion, now passed and dissolved into receptive hearts and minds, where it/they reside for reconstitution, within each unique being. Samhain is traditionally understood as ‘Summer’s end’: indeed that is what the word ‘Samhain’ means. In terms of the seasonal transitions in indigenous Old European traditions, Summer is understood as over when the Seasonal Moment of Lammas/Lughnasad comes around; it is the first marked transition after the fullness of Summer Solstice. The passing and losses may have been grieved, the bounty received, thanksgiving felt and expressed, perhaps ceremonially at Autumn Equinox/Mabon; yet now in this Season of Samhain/Deep Autumn it composts, clearly falls, as darkness and cooler/cold weather sets in, change is clearer. In the places where this Earth-based tradition arose, Winter could be sensed setting in at this time, and changes to everyday activity had to be made. In our times and in our personal lives, we may sense this kind of ending, when change becomes necessary, no longer arbitrary: and the Seasonal Moment of Samhain may be an excellent moment for expressing these deep truths, telling the deep story, and making meaning of the ending, as we witness such passing. What new shapes will emerge from the infinite well of creativity? And we may wonder what will return from the dissolution? What re-solution will be found? We may wonder what new shapes will emerge. In the compost of what has been, what new syntheses, new synergies, may come forth? Now is the time for dreaming, for drawing on the richness within, trusting the sentience, within which we are immersed, and which we are: and then awaiting the arrival, being patient with the fermentation and gestation. Seize the moment, this Moment – and converse with the depths within your own bodymind, wherein She is. Make space for the sacred conversation, the Conversing with your root and source of being, and take comfort in this presence. We may ponder what yet unkown beauty and wellness may emerge from this infinite well of creativity. The Samhain Moment in the Northern Hemisphere is 17:14 UT 7thNovember this year. Wishing you a sense of the deep communion present in the sacred space you make for this holy transition.
(Essay) Contemplating How Her Creativity Proceeds by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This essay is an edited excerpt from the conclusion of chapter 5 of the author’s book, PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. It is a chapter on the process of the Wheel of the Year. for the Northern Hemisphere version: https://pagaian.org/pagaian-wheel-of-the-year/ It seems to me that the main agenda of the Cosmos is ongoing Creativity, “never-ending renewal” it may be termed, and that this is expressed in Earth’s Seasonal Wheel through the transitions of Autumn,Winter, Spring, Summer; and in the ubiquitous process of a Cosmic Triplicity of Space to Be, Urge to Be and this Place of Being, a dynamic that has often been imagined as the Triple Goddess. In the flow of the PaGaian Wheel of the Year, the Seasonal transitions of the Wheel and the Triplicity of the Cosmos come together. There are two celebrations of the Old One/Crone or the Cosmogenetic quality of autopoiesis creating the Space to Be; and they are Lammas/Late Summer and Samhain/Deep Autumn, which are the meridian points of the two quarters of the waxing dark phase. At Lammas, the first in the dark phase, we may identify with the dark and ancient Wise One – dissolve into Her; at Samhain, we may consciously participate in Her process of the transformation of death/the passing of all. The whole dark part of the cycle is about dissolving/dying/letting go of being – becoming – nurturing it (the midwifing of Lammas/Late Summer), stepping into the power of it (the certain departure of Autumn Equinox/Mabon), the fertility (of Samhain/Deep Autumn), the peaking of it (at Winter Solstice). The meridian points of the two quarters of the waxing light phase then are celebrations of the Young One/Virgin or the Cosmogenetic quality of differentiation, the new continually emerging, the Urge to Be; and they are Imbolc/Early Spring and Beltaine/High Spring. At Imbolc, the first in the light phase, we may identify with She who is shining and new – as we take her form; at Beltaine, we may consciously participate in Her process of the dance of life. The whole light part of the cycle is about coming into being: nurturing it (the midwifing of Imbolc/Early Spring), stepping into the power of it (the certain return of Spring Equinox/Eostar), the fertility (of Beltaine/High Spring), the peaking of it (at Summer Solstice). In the PaGaian wheel of ceremony there are two particular celebrations of the Mother, the Cosmogenetic quality of communion; and they are the Solstices. If one imagines the light part of the cycle as a celebration of the ‘Productions of Time’, and the dark part of the cycle as a celebration of ‘Eternity’, the Solstices then are meeting points, points of interchange, and are celebrations of the communion/relational field of Eternity with the Productions of Time. This is a relationship which does happen in this Place, in this Web. This Place of Being, this Web, is a Communion – it is the Mother; the Solstices mark Her birthings, Her gateways. The Equinoxes then – both Spring and Autumn – are two celebrations wherein the balance of all three Faces/Creative qualities is particularly present: in the PaGaian wheel, the Equinoxes have been special celebrations of Demeter and Persephone – echoing the ancient tradition of Mother-Daughter Mysteries that celebrate the awesomeness of the continuity of life, its creative tension/balance. Both Equinoxes then are celebrations and contemplations of empowerment through deep Wisdom – one contemplation during the dark phase and one during the light phase. The Autumn Equinox is a descent to Wisdom, the Spring Equinox is an emergence with Wisdom gained. I like to think of the Equinoxes, and of the ancient icons of Demeter and Persephone, as celebrations of the delicate ‘curvature of space-time’, the fertile balance of tensions which enables it all. Her Creative Place The Mother aspect then may be understood to be particularly present at four of the Seasonal Moments, which are also regarded traditionally as the Solar festivals; and in this cosmology Sun is felt as Mother. I recognize these four as points of interchange: at Autumn Equinox, Mother is present primarily as Giver – She is letting Persephone go, at Spring Equinox, She is present primarily as Receiver – welcoming the Daughter back, at Winter Solstice the Mother gives birth, creates form, at Summer Solstice, She opens again full of radiance, and disperses form. The Mother is Agent/Actor at the Solstices. She is Participant/Witness at the Equinoxes, where it is then really Persephone who is Agent/Actor, embodying an inseparable Young One and Old One. The Old One is often named as Hecate, who completes the Trio – all seamlessly within each other. Another possible way to visual it, or to tell the story, is this: The Mother – Demeter – is always there, at the Centre if you like. Persephone cycles around. She is the Daughter who returns in the Spring as flower, who will become fruit/grain of the Summer, who at Lammas assents to the dissolution – the consumption. At Autumn Equinox She returns to the underworld as seed – Her harvest is rejoiced in, Her loss is grieved, as She becomes Sovereign of the Underworld – Her face changes to the Dark One, Crone (Hecate). As the wheel turns into the light part of the cycle She becomes Young One/Virgin again. Persephone (as Seed) is that part of Demeter that can be all three aspects – can move through the complete cycle. The Mother and Daughter are really One, and embody the immortal process of creation and destruction. Demeter hands Persephone the wheat, the Mystery, and the thread of life is unbroken – it goes on forever. It is immortal, it is eternal. Even though it is true that all will be lost, and all is lost – Being always arises again: within this field of time there is never-ending renewal, eternity. This is what is revealed in the ubiquitous three faces of the Creative Dynamic/ She of Old, the Triplicity that runs through the Cosmos. The Seed of Life never …
(Prose) Desire: the Wheel of Her Creativity by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

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

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

(Essay 1) The Magoist Calendar: Mago Time inscribed in Sonic Numerology by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

[Author’s Note: This is my latest research that has led me to restore the 13-month, 28-day Mago Calendar, which will be included at the end of its sequels. See Mago Almanac: 13 Month 28 Day Calendar (Book A), published in 2017.] Magoist Calendar is the inter-cosmic genealogical chart of the Creatrix in which all is found kindred. It unfolds the one standard unified time, which I call the Cosmic Mother’s Time or the Mago Time, wherein all beings in Our Universe from microcosmic quarts to macrocosmic celestial bodies are perceived in continuum. The Cosmic Mother’s Time is an inclusive time in which everyone is re-membered and celebrated. It is revelatory for its numinous nature, which some may call a mystery. The Mago Time is happening
(Essay 2 Part 2) Why Do I Love Korean Historical Dramas? by Anna Tzanova, M.A.

Part 2 ENGAGING THE MIND It makes me cringe every time someone calls Korean drama, especially the historical genre, a soap opera. The fact that they are TV series doesn’t necessarily make them foamy. Quite the contrary, they are full of substance. They don’t go on and on for years, season after season. On average, most of them are 24 to 60, one-hour-long episodes. Some have fewer episodes, some have more episodes, but after they are done—we move on. It’s a good way to learn non-attachment. Korean historical drama is thought provoking. It is multidimensional in the way it presents characters and stories. Plots are well developed, intelligent, intriguing, and entertaining. Yes, there are some predictable outcomes, but there is also a lot of substance and artistic craftiness, as well as clever twists and fascinating surprises. Sageuk (Korean Historical Drama) can teach about history and culture, and also about mythology, philosophy, and spirituality. It reminds us of the values that are fading or have vanished in Western culture in the 21st century. The importance of subtleties in life is shown through plot development, rhythm, and acting. Reoccurring themes convey lessons like patience, acceptance, forgiveness, trust, integrity, perseverance, and courage… That is, the true meaning and practice of those. There is depth in the understanding of the writers, as well as in the corresponding depiction by actors. There is profundity, which evokes a reciprocal reaction in the viewers’ mind. The characters are likable—and their outlook on life and their behavior are admirable. They evolve and influence each other and their environment. There is this definitive sophistication in expression of emotion. Something akin to meditation. In Sageuk, “silence speaks”. Thus, the experience is not only pleasant, relaxing and/or exciting, but many times healing and enlightening. Confucian ideas mixed with Buddhist and Daoist ideals motivate the protagonists’ kind and considerate actions. A particularly valued quality in Korea is “착하다/착한 [chakhada/chakhan]”. I first heard it mentioned in an interview[i]/book[ii] presentation of Euny Hong. The translation in the dictionary reads, “good, nice, good-natured, kind-hearted, meek, obedient, docile, gentle, quiet.” Actually, it is all this and much more. It is a trait that when faced with, being cynical—as we often are in the 21st century—we can easily dismiss as being naive, gullible, submissive, and even foolish. However, in the words of Rumi, “Before you speak, let your words pass through three gates: at the first, you ask yourself, ‘Is it true?’ At the second gate ask, ‘Is it necessary?’ At the third gate ask, ‘Is it kind?’”. The heroines and heroes in Korean historical drama follow this teaching in words and action. Most epitomize pure heartedness. There is a child-like sweetness about many of them—come to think of it, by losing innocence, has humanity really gained wisdom? In the online edition of Entertainment Weekly, I encountered a quote by Jacqueline Sia, Director of Video Operations of New York based DramaFever—one of the largest databases of subtitled Asian films and TV programs. In speaking about Korean drama she states: “Portrayal of love is a little more PG,”[iii] an observation that strikes any novice in the genre. We have become used to quick climaxes, crash-and-burn liaisons, as well as media glorified dysfunctional relationships. The predominant understanding of sex (and certainly the one staring at us from the TV and cinema screens) is hurried, flat, and linear. There is a disconnect between sex and love. Profanity and violence pour daily from everywhere. Exhibiting symptoms of an empath can easily be diagnosed as a psychiatric condition, and yet we are conditioned to be less and less sensitive. In this background, complex and refined emotional states, longing, embodied sacredness, and the act of leaving much to the viewers’ imagination, seem to be suitable only for children. Are we awake and mature enough to realize that all the psychological and social implications of the well-manipulated programming we are subjugated to is already bearing fruit in ‘real life’? (Read Essay 2 Part 1. To be continued in Essay 2 Part 3.) Notes: [i] The Korean Society, “Euny Hong discusses with WSJ columnist Jeffrey Yang her first nonfictional book,” YouTube (November 6, 2014). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxHv2gT539o [ii] Euny Hong, “The Birth of Korean Cool: How One Nation Is Conquering the World Through Pop Culture,” Simon and Shuster (2014). [iii] Hillary Busis, “Korean Dramas: A Beginner’s Guide,” Entertainment Weekly (April 11, 2014). Description of Korean Historical Dramas: This course offers a series of Korean Historical TV-dramas or Sageug (사극) and discusses the traits of female characters as well as general features of Korean history, culture, art, aesthetics, thought, customs, and people. What makes Korean drama so unique? What is the “secret recipe” that makes it so popular internationally? Why is it that, after a few episodes, one can‘t wait to see the next one or the next new drama? Those questions have made many wonder, from audiences to journalists and critics. Participants are invited to explore answers to these questions and more. Our emphasis is on woman’s place in history, as well as her role as creator, healer and leader; her strife to discover and reinvent herself, her inherent wisdom, her abilities to surrender, without giving up, and her potential to adapt, thrive, and ultimately transform the world she is in. Our selection of dramas qualifies high criteria in story content, character development, actor portrayal, multiplicity of ideas and values, and abilities to educate, while engaging and entertaining the viewer. Facilitators (Dr. Helen Hye-Sook Hwang and Ms. Anna Tzanova) will provide articles and audio-video materials concerning salient themes. (For more, see here) Info on online class, Korean Historical Dramas. See Meet Mago Contributor Anna Tzanova.
(Essay 2 Part 1) Why Do I Love Korean Historical Dramas? by Anna Tzanova

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

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