May 18, 2023April 20, 2023 Mago WorkLeave a comment

(Essay 6) The Myriad Faces, Marvelous Powers, and Thealogy of Greek Goddesses by Mara Lynn Keller, Ph.D.

[Editor’s Note: This and the forthcoming sequels are originally published in Goddesses in Myth, History and Culture (2018 Mago Books). Part 6 discusses nine beliefs and the importance of the Read More …

October 1, 2020October 1, 2020 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Special Post 4) Multi-Linguistic Resemblances of “Mago” by Mago Circle Members

[This is a summary of discussion that took place around 2014 in The Mago Circle, Facebook group.] Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: I am writing an entry on “Mago” for the Glossary Read More …

May 28, 2020November 30, 2020 Mago Work Admin1 Comment

(Special Post 8) Nine-Headed Snake Dragon by Patriarchal Heroes: A Cross-cultural Discussion by Mago Circle Members

[Editor’s Note: This and the ensuing sequels are a revised version of the discussion that has taken place in The Mago Circle, Facebook group, since September 24, 2017 to the present. Read More …

October 10, 2019September 30, 2020 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Special Post 1) Multi-linguistic Resemblances of “Mago” by Mago Circle Members

“Ma” in “Mago” and “Ma-Gaia” [Conversation between Carol P. Christ, Ph.D. and Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.] Carol P. Christ (CPC): Below is culled from “Gaia” in Wikipedia: The Greek word γαῖα (transliterated Read More …

June 25, 2019November 30, 2020 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Special Post 4) Nine-Headed Dragon Slain by Patriarchal Heroes: A Cross-cultural Discussion by Mago Circle Members

[Editor’s Note: This and the ensuing eight sequels (all nine parts) are a revised version of the discussion that has taken place in The Mago Circle, Facebook group, since September 24, Read More …

May 2, 2019November 30, 2020 Mago Work Admin1 Comment

(Special Post 2) Nine-Headed Dragon Slain by Patriarchal Heroes: A Cross-cultural Discussion by Mago Circle Members

[Editor’s Note: This and the ensuing sequels are a revised version of the discussion that has taken place in The Mago Circle, Facebook group, since September 24, 2017 to the Read More …

August 18, 2016October 2, 2019 Mago Work Admin1 Comment

(Special Post 2) "The Oldest Cilivization" 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 Read More …

The Sacred Yoni, a Ritual for Women by Deanne Quarrie, D.Min.

The word Yoni is a Sanskrit word. Translated, it means womb, origin, source, and vulva. It is also known as the divine passage or sacred temple. The Yoni consists of the entire female genital system. Many of us have chosen to use the word Yoni as a preference as it offers us the opportunity to reclaim the sacredness and power of our sexuality as women, as goddesses. The Yoni is where we find Shakti, the universal creative energy. A woman’s yoni has been worshipped all over the world. In India the yoni is worshipped as the sacred symbol of the Divine Feminine, referred to as the Devi, the Great Goddess, the source of life, the Universal Womb. Since the beginning of time, we have created artistic expression for the forces of creation. We see yoni symbolism as a part of spiritual traditions all over the world. We see the yoni in naturally occurring rock formations, in Hindu temples, in early Celtic sheela-na-gig carvings as well as images in Japanese ritual. We see it in folk tales, in alchemy, Tantric practices and in contemporary art. For those of us who practice pagan traditions we are entering the season of Beltane, the season of the blossoming Earth. Festivals and traditions focus on fertility, creativity and sexuality. Within Goddess Traditions this season the perfect time for honoring our sexuality as women. I recently attended a small women’s festival here in Austin and presented a ritual in the temple as our theme for the weekend was honoring our women’s bodies. Much of it consists of sacred texts from eastern traditions. I offer it to you here, for it is something you may do for yourself if you wish. We begin by inviting Kameshvaari. Kameshvari, renowned Goddess of Desire, we welcome you to this sacred space. As the Yoni of Mahadevi, You are recognized as not only the form of desire but also as the very source of our desires. You are also the One who grants our desires. You are desire itself, as well as its fulfillment. “Woman is the creator of the universe, the universe is her form;woman is the foundation of the world,she is the true form of the body.Whatever form she takes,whether the form of a woman or man,In woman is the form of all things,of all that lives and moves in the world.There is no jewel rarer that woman,no condition superior to that of a woman.There is not, nor has been, nor will beany destiny to equal that of a woman.there is not, nor has been, nor will beany holy place like unto a woman.There is no prayer to equal a woman.There are not, nor has been, nor will be any riches more valuable than woman.” Saktisangama Tantra (edited) “The desire aroused by seeing the Yoni never dies.The Yoni is named the mysterious female,and the doorway of the mysterious femaleis the base from which heaven and earth sprang,It is there with us all the while.Draw upon it as you will, it never runs dry.” Ma-wang Tui texts of the I-Ching edited “Her lap is the holy altar, her hair, the sacred grass; the lips of her Yoni are the fire in the middle.” From Brhad Aranyika Upanishad “Imagine that your body is in the form of the Wisdom Goddess, naked, and with hair flowing. Imagine yourself as her, in the center of an emergence of light, holding an elixir bowl close to her heart with garlands of red flowers. Think to yourself that the Goddess enters you through your open Yoni and resides in your heart. Then imagine the Wisdom Goddess above the crown of your head, having just shared in the act of love. She is naked, with disheveled hair, and her Yoni is moist and overflowing with sexual secretions. Her eyes are filled with erotic emotion and look toward the vast expanse of sky, which as she begins to dance, becomes filled with similar forms of herself.” Black Hat sect, a branch of the Karma Kagyu edited She hands you a small symbol (a cowry shell). She places it in your hand. It is lovely. You look closely and behold a symbol of your sacred Yoni – the divine symbol of woman – the Holy Altar of Life. This symbol is your gift – may it always remind you of your power as woman. May it always be for you, a symbol of the sacredness of life. Now bless and consecrate your symbol of divine love. Take your Yoni symbol in your hand, touch it to your third eye and say these words… I bless and consecrate this Yoni symbol with the gift of my all seeing eye – with my wisdom vision that I may see clearly and share myself fully when I chose. Now, place the Yoni symbol close to your heart and say these words … I bless this Yoni symbol with the gift of my love, may I be open to love in all my life. Now place the Yoni symbol at the solar plexus and say these words. I share the power of my will so that I may be empowered with strength of purpose. May I trust my instincts and strong in my resolve. Finally, place the Yoni symbol close to your own Yoni, your own sacred Altar and say these words … This is my powerful center of creation, my own life giving force. This is my Holy Sacred Altar! When I choose to share of this energy, it is a gift given freely – never taken – but given in love. May the power of creation bless and consecrate this symbol for holy use, as I freely choose. So Mote It Be! Kameshvari, renowned Goddess of Desire, we thank you for being with us this day. May we bless and sanctify your gift of desire in our lives each day. May we always honor you at our own holy altar. Blessed Be (Meet Mago Contributor) Deanne Quarrie.
Vision at Dawn: A Reflection on Time by Sara Wright

Photo by Sara Wright Brigid, goddess of Fire and Light has another aspect – that of water. One legend has it that a crystal drop from Brigid’s mantle touched the earth and became a deep clear lake. I love this image. I think of Brigid’s blue lake as a kind of mysterious bowl that holds different ways of experiencing time. If I throw in a hook I might catch time in the round as I experience it as seasonal cycles. Ah, I have caught a January feeling through a partridge. One more hook brings up a childhood loss – memory of a loved one that has become a beloved forest bathed in peace. Am I reeling in a future that releases me from a haunted house? A beloved cousin has suddenly surfaced from the deep. In Brigid’s Lake time does not flow like a river even when I experience it that way – Time is simply there as unexplored potential waiting to be lived. The following poem was written just after I had an experience with Turkeys that pulled me out of my mind – totally embodied – I lost all sense of Time and differences. The Present and Oneness was all there was. Vision at Dawn In the gray Dawning, emptied and forlorn, she spies First Turkey strutting by the window – beaded ebony eyes, a flash of crimson. Six more follow, heads held high, serpentine necks, feathered chests, bobbing bodies, talons spread to break a fall. Gathering at the feeder she joins the group. Only this Vision Matters – Mind is still. Body sings. Transformed, mighty wings appear. Turkeys chortle, welcoming her home. Yesterday at dusk the deer appear at the edge of a frozen brook; they find a crack in the ice – a pool of open water. This morning a thaw, temporary respite. Ashes melt old ice. No wind. The moment I see the first turkey I become one, casting off my bone weary winter self. A miracle of sorts, that one can shed mind’s conditioning even for a moment, to join these gentle birds.
(Essay 2) How Mother Nature Died: The bio-cosmic rupture of European Renaissance by Luciana Percovich

[This essay was presented at Roma Goddess Conference, May 22-23, 2021, under the theme of “Goddess & Environment – Save Mother Earth.”] The Lady with the Horn It is worthwhile to dwell on one bas-relief in particular, the Lady of the Horn of Laussel. We can consider this bas-relief coming from France and dated around 25,000 BCE as an exemplary summa of Paleolithic wisdom. The representation of a mature female body reflects and guarantees the generating and ordering intelligence present in nature and in the cosmos. Her right arm holds high a horn with thirteen notches: thirteen are the lunar cycles or months necessary to return to the conditions of the first observation. This horn can therefore be considered the first example of a lunar calendar, the lunar year made up of 13 moons (historically the lunar calendar precedes the later invention of the solar calendar). Her left hand is resting on her belly, indicating “as high as below”, that is “menstruation” is attuned with the lunar “month” of about 28 days. The Lady of Laussel, carved on the vault leading to the sanctuary cave whose walls are carved with other symbolic representations, shows a completely abstract form of thinking, which is contemporarily “scientific” knowledge, a piece of “art” and a sacred image. Standing on the edge of worlds, on the threshold of a cave/womb, her figure suggests a ceremonial place connected with life and death: coming to the light/returning to the darkness of Mother Earth. A Guardian of the Threshold, in all the numinous sacredness of an aged female body. An all-encompassing Mother/Crone who will be called for millennia Mother Nature, surrounded by an aura that welcomes, nourishes, and guarantees the return of light/life. From Paleolithic to Neolithic and Historical ages The transition between Paleolithic and Neolithic times occurred without major breaks in the bio-cosmic vision of our Ancestors, and with progressive adjustments in the symbolic representations mainly induced by the domestication of plants and animals. The most relevant consequences were the transition to an increasingly widespread sedentary lifestyle, the development of technologies related to plant growth and animal breeding, weaving, and the application of fire to a new technology that from cooking foods extends to the invention of terracotta, “from the Raw to the Cooked”. The lunar year was now clearly marked by the “seasonal rhythm” of life whose continuation, material and abstract, was synthetized in historical times as the Seed. The following three images come from the city of Catal Huyuk (Anatolia), which is the most documented center of a flowering Neolithic civilization that took shape over almost 5000 years of successive stratifications. They represent the Fisherwomen, Symbols of Life and Death, the Seasons. In the protohistoric and historical ages, the evolution of the image linking the female body with Nature or natural elements takes many forms: one of the most known is Lilith / Inanna / Ereshkigal in Sumer/Babylon (2000 – 1800 BCE) still representing contiguity / fluidity of realms, and the many forms of the Potnia Theron/Lady of the Beasts and/or Plants in the Mediterranean Basin. In Egypt and Crete, the vegetal world is richly depicted. First Ruptures The shift that happened in Classical Greek culture is crucial and can be represented through the distance of two icons measuring the gap between old and new cosmo-visions. The first, a historiated pebble (dated at the end of Paleolithic era between 14000 and 10000), proposing the fluidity of the borders between human and natural in the figure of the animal-headed Shaman of Tolentino (Marche, Italy). The second, a painting on a Greek vase of the Classical Period, sanctioning the forced end of a long phase in the history of humankind through Zeus, a male king god who – from then on – freezes and blocks with his lightning bolt of celestial fire the “hybrid” male-animal manifestation. The centrality of the multiform vitality of zoé is banished: either man or beast. The binary oppositional thinking that supports the patriarchal vision takes shape. The Olympic culture, the Greek philosophy inaugurate the clear separation of “Civilization” from Female Nature. The Goddess will continue to be represented and invoked, but takes the form of a Roman matron, a mother in a domesticated nature, who for a while will share her benign but limited power by sitting on the throne with her consort or children. (To be continued) https://www.magoism.net/2013/10/meet-mago-contributor-luciana-percovich/
(Book Summary) codex sapphistra from Dark Matters by Susan Hawthorne

In my novel, Dark Matters, Desi niece of the main character Kate, is trying to work her way through her aunt’s papers. She keeps coming across fragments, poems and writing about her life and family. Kate is entranced by the Greek mythic history which connects to her family ancestry. But she is also attempting to Foreground, in the Mary Daly sense, the history of lesbians and constantly trying to find ways of putting that at the centre. The following extract includes Desi’s ruminations on the bequest left to her by Kate as she is figuring it out within her own framework. I have been reading Sappho for decades. I read Mary Barnard’s Sappho: A New Translation (1958) around 1976 and remember being totally bowled over. Not until Canadian Classicist Anne Carson’s If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho (2003) came out did I think anyone had captured the spirit of Sappho. A lesbian history cannot ignore Sappho and in the novel, Kate is reclaiming her in her way. Desi Among her papers are scraps of undated writing. At least she arranged most things into boxes with dates, though some seem out of place. It’s the scraps that have me intrigued. Codex psapphistra What could it mean? A kind of imaginary encyclopedia about lesbians. She contemplates writing in Nüshu. She describes a range of animals from a lesbian-centric point of view. She is creating a universe in which lesbian symbols lie at the centre. a nonsense idea non sense only maniacs would dream such things a pillow book of nonsense dreams a papyrus of unwritten words a shard fallen from space like a meteoroid bringing life making passage through the double disk dark matter zone dingoes will talk trees will walk seas will dry just as likely imagine that’s what she said imagine a different world not the one outside your door not the one at the top of your brain turn everything over create an imaginary world with imaginary animals and words create a time when the impossible becomes possible If you are interested in variations and translations I have made of Sappho, you’ll find some of them on this blog which I posted in 2014. http://susanslambdawolfblog.blogspot.com.au/2014/02/sappho-translations.html You can find out more about my novel, Dark Matters here: http://www.spinifexpress.com.au/Bookstore/book/id=297/ (Meet Mago Contributor) Susan Hawthrone.
(Poem) Ants by Eileen Haley

ANTSHotel ArtemisSelçuk, Turkey Ants smell my green plumsand come to get themtoiling along who knows how long a routefrom their dark homewith its carved-out tunnels and shaftsits egg-festooned chambers and passagewaysits subterranean granariesits recycling plants where death and decayare turned once more to life
(Poem) Supernatural by Robin Scofield

Isis grows tomatoes in the sugar skull of the Beloved who hangs onto a vine that climbs the gravestone where he delivers the quick and the dead, chivalrous, blessing every session with the wick and the creed, bread and hunger both used to induce visions that applaud the Goddess of all that is and was, and he, missing his one member the fish ate, not out of hate but instinct that ruins all the soldiers who need closure after they come back from war. Tell them every lesion ends in its season.
(Poem) Birth of Aphrodite #1 by Donna Snyder

she stands emptied her pallor bare to the world speckled and blemished and seemingly open the other half gone to the bottom of the sea its energy subsumed within her opalescent belly the soft flesh the muscular foot the valve opening only to close the world has left its grime on her fleshiness hematomas well up beneath her pellucid skin greens and blues and then magentas swell all the colors of sea foam wreathe her breasts somewhere long away from time’s wrath like Aphrodite absconded from the world she flees the bite of sun and harm of wind she averts her gaze and leaves nothing behind just a single shell to mark her own virgin birth modest she looks quietly at what creation offers and arranges its abundant gifts about her beauty soft flesh a muscular foot a valve opening only to close
(Music) We Are by Alison Newvine

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

We are in what are called the “dog days” of summer. Imagine that the ancients thought that Sirius (one of the dog constellations) was the cause of the extra hot and sultry days of summer because that star rose with the sun each day during this time and they actually thought we received heat from it. But no, there is no heat from Sirius, only the tilt of the earth, giving us more heat. We have come to equate these dog days of summer with high running emotions – especially frustration and anger. Let’s face it, when we are hot and uncomfortable, our patience does run a bit thin! There are many aspects of our lives that warrant extra care during the dog days. When traveling with a pet, extra precautions need to be taken to keep your pet safe. During all the fun and frolic of outdoor bar-b-ques and picnics, steps need to be taken to assure that food is kept cold, as it will spoil much quicker in the heat. In my spiritual tradition we celebrate the Holly tree, the starling, as well as swords and spears at this time. The leaves of the holly are barbed and sharp which, symbolically, give it protective qualities. The starling is offered to us to study because the starling is a bird that bands together with their own kind, having lookout scouts and coming together in defensive action. The sword and spear are clearly weapons and two of the four treasures fought for and won at this time of year. Even our goddesses are warrior goddesses. For goddess women, this moon can be uncomfortable with all the aspects of aggression. This holly moon was preceded by the oak moon and these two trees are seen as twins. It is thought that the holly was originally the holly oak. They sit side-by- side in the year and at a time when the seasons change from light to dark. The oak first teaches us to be well grounded if we are to seek the lightning bolt. When something like these symbols make me uncomfortable, i.e. warlike aggression, I try to see a meaning for them in today’s time and as I would like for them to be – peaceful, at least not blood-letting! When I first came to this path, I was given a vision. It came spontaneously and so I knew it carried a very important message for me. In this vision I was presented with a sword. It was in the hands of another placed horizontally into my hands. Balanced quite carefully on the edge of this sharp sword was a pearl, a beautiful and lustrous pearl. I am not sure how I knew but I knew that the sword was my voice and the pearl was “balanced wisdom.” I am a very direct and out-spoken woman. My directness quite often gets me in trouble because sometimes the truth is not always welcomed. It serves as a mirror at times for others to see themselves. This can be very uncomfortable and is not always received well. I grew up under circumstances that were at times very educational but at the same time emotionally challenging. I was an army brat. I moved constantly, never living in any one place long enough to establish roots. This generated a great deal of self-reliance on my part but also put me in a place of always being the new kid in town and subject to the accompanying bullying, especially once I started high school. Boys are always very interested in a pretty new face and the girls, jealous. This was very hard for an introverted teenager. Thank goodness I was also blessed with that self-reliance and parents who always encouraged me to use my voice. Because of this background, I seem to have become the voice who defends the bullied, the voice who stands up to unfair treatment, the voice who serves as an advocate for those who cannot otherwise speak for themselves. I have come to see the sword and spear of this season, the holly moon and the “dog days” of summer to represent words of action, speaking one’s truth and the exercise of one’s voice. I wrote this about myself one year… Holly trees are rarely allowed to grow to their full height of sixty-five feet and are instead trimmed down as hedges or ornamental bushes. I am a Holly Tree. Many of us are Holly Trees. As strong women, women whose voices want to shout out to the world, women who have a really hard time being silent in the face of injustice, women who rebel at being the fairer sex and those who rebel at being trimmed down or at being ornamental bushes! Early in life the process of being “trimmed down” begins. We are silenced, shushed and trained to be “good little girls” and not assertive, bold or daring! I am a Holly Tree who has not been trimmed – a Holly Tree who has grown to her full height – a Holly Tree with full spiky leaves – sharp barbs – rich color – full and robust berries – a battle waging spear – who will not – cannot – be silent in the face of injustice. A Holly Tree – strong and tall in service to Goddess! Images of holly trees by Deanne Quarrie. All others, Wiki Commons This essay is also included in Celebrating Seasons of the Goddess (2017, Mago Books). (Meet Mago Contributor) Deanne Quarrie. D. Min.
(In Memoriam & Art) Weaving Communities of Land, Sea, and Sky: Lynne Sinclair-Wood (29/11/1950 – 12/1/2011) by Louise M Hewett

I first met Lynne Sinclair-Wood in a small Adelaide Hills community of Pagans coming together to celebrate a full moon. From that day our friendship developed along a path woven of similar interests in feminist and Goddess art, writing, and relational earth-centric spiritual consciousness with a strong ancestral element. We often spoke of the challenges of weaving ancestral ways into our present bioregional experiences, and I was influenced by her thoughts and wisdom in the gestation of my own creative process during the fifteen years of our friendship, and in many ways as profoundly since her passing. Lynne was an artist and writer, a teacher, facilitator, and Druid. Influenced by, and friends with feminist Goddess artists such as Monica Sjöö and Jill Smith, Lynne’s expressions sought connection and harmony between all aspects of life, especially between her body and the land. While she journeyed through academia – she had a Master of Arts from the University of Adelaide, a Fine Arts degree from the University of South Australia, and a Diploma of Art Education from the National Art School, Newcastle – it was in the school of life that her passions were nourished and took root. While working at the UNESCO World Rock Art Centre in Valcamonica in 1983,[1] Lynne collated a “Who’s Who of World Rock Art,” and was able to meet many of those attending a conference held at that time for those people studying ancient rock art throughout the world. During this period of her life, her interests in the connections between Indigenous peoples and Europeans expressed through symbolism, art, and story, were enriched in concert with her experiences in Scotland and Wales, and later, in the Central Desert of Australia. Ancient people recognised the importance of aligning the physical and spiritual energy of humanity with these cosmic forces which influenced the seasons, the weather, and the human psyche. The symbols used to reflect this interdependence between humanity, the earth, and cosmic forces was ‘The Great Mother.’ The maternal metaphor describes the nurturing aspect of the life force and the importance of inter-relationship between all life forms a relationship which continually regenerates with the cycles of nature. Special places on the earth became sacred because of the flow of energy which could take place at certain times between people, the earth, and cosmic forces, just as the blood or the breast milk of the mother passes to her child.[2] The growing sense of being part of my own ancestral sacred landscape made me consider more deeply the indigenous cultures of Australia. I began to consider how alienated so many European Australians like me are from awareness of the relationship between people and the sacred land. This awareness had been lost by those who colonised other countries so far from their ancestral roots. My work began to explore this duality between ‘being’ Celtic, feeling at one with my ancestral place and culture in Britain, and my present life as a third generation Australian born into landscape that is sacred to another culture.[3] Lynne’s core need to find peace in place whilst bridging cultures and working towards personal and collective healing was affirmed as a life path, and an ardent adventure at that. This seeking, on personal, political and cosmic levels, was the essence of the weave of our friendship and the unofficial mentoring she gifted me despite our very different life experiences. The following essay regarding a coming-together of people in honour of the Whale,[4] an example of Lynne’s intuition and life calling through an intercultural and interspecies experience, was originally printed in the first edition of the Pagan Alliance of South Australia Newsletter, ‘Silver Wheel’, Summer (November) 1998, when I began as editor using the nom de plume of Blackthorn. Sighting logs record Southern Right Whales (7 adults and 7 calves) on 29 August, 1998 on the South Coast (South Australia). In addition to the Southern Right, other whales are also seen in this area, including Humpbacks and Pygmy Sperm whales. These logs can be viewed at http://sawhalecentre.com.au/old/sightings/logs/Cetacean_Sighting_Log_1998.pdf Blessing of Sun Radiant Bhrìde, Blessing of An Cailleach Louise M Hewett, April 2020 From about 1990 I have taught myth, culture and spirituality in Adult Education through courses and workshops. I wrote a book on Women in Celtic culture and completed a Master’s degree at University of Adelaide. Over the years, within both the more academic research and personal spiritual practice within my own ancestral tradition, I have tried to accommodate the fact that I am 3rd generation Australian and have some connection to the sacred nature of the environment as well. In fact, my Druid path has made it clear that living as a bridge between the two cultural environments is part of my path and I have been forced to accept that even though I can return to Britain and Ireland to visit every few years, Australia is where I must help find a new form for the ancient wisdom. Since 1997 I have been working with elders of local Aboriginal communities here in Adelaide, looking at ways in which Celtic and Aboriginal spirituality overlay, as part of the reconciliation process. We have looked at ways of expressing our common spirituality in more practical ways as well as developing ceremony that encapsulates the essence of the land itself, in forms that are both respectful of Aboriginal Australian traditions and the ancestral traditions of Anglo-Celtic European Australians. In 1998 I was offered some work in the office at Buddha House, an education centre here in Adelaide, which offers teachings in Tibetan Buddhism. While attending teachings at Buddha House by the resident Lama, Khensur Rinpoche, it began to occur to me that a meeting between the Rinpoche and some of the Aboriginal elders would be an interesting experience. A perfect opportunity presented itself in August/September when a large number of whales, nursing their newborn young, appeared off the coast of South Australia at Middleton. This was seen as a powerful omen to Aboriginal Elders of the People …
(Budoji Essay 1) The Magoist Cosmogony by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

“The Great Goddess Myth is the first and last revelation to humankind. Where the Primordial Mother is, there is Home!” Part 1 Introduction When I first read the Budoji (Epic of the Emblem City), the principal text of Magoism, my life journey took an unexpected turn. The power of the Magoist cosmogony began to work on me, and suddenly I was returning Home with/to/in Mago, the Great Goddess! Before, “Home” had seemed an unreal destination, a mirage that lured voyagers to its abyss of nowhere. I had been stripped of “Home.” The Magoist cosmogony gifted me with a vision of what I had been seeking as a feminist voyager. I meant to return Home. In Mago, I felt no longer free-floating, but this was not without its price. My radical feminist searches brought me no material benefits; rather, to become Myself was the reward. Layer after layer of patriarchal deception had to be peeled off. And for women who, like me, came from the non-Western, formerly colonized world, reversing the reversals required a deeper analysis of racism, ethnocentrism, and colonialism. I underwent the process of becoming Me, a process which also led me to WE. Personally, Homecoming means an integration of myself within the mytho-historical-cultural context of Magoism. However, Homecoming in the Great Goddess can never be an isolated individual act. Magoism unfolds the Primordial Home wherein all beings are kindred. The Primordial Home is for everyone. Everyone is destined to return Home in the Great Goddess because She is Here for us all. She will be Here for as long as humanity survives. Homecoming is a harbinger; it signals the arrival of WE, a very old concept that was misconstrued if not tabooed in patriarchy. The nature of my life has changed. “I” is no longer in the way of “WE.” “I” and “WE” do not stand against each other. Furthermore, “I” is transformed by “WE,” just as are all things in the universe. Scalar turns to vector. Chaos yields to order. The labyrinth leads to the Source. My feminism is rewarded with gynocentrism, the Goddess Matrix in which the female principle by far surpasses patriarchy. As many admit, Myth, the story of the divine, is etiological, meaning it explains the origin of things. I hold that only the gynocentric cosmogonic myth can be fully etiological, shedding light on the primal beginning. Myth is inherently gynocentric, for it is derived from the perception of the Primordial Mother, the oldest divine in human history. Put differently, Myth tells us that the Divine is She, that Female is the original divine. Myth is ultimately inseparable from the Great Goddess. The Primordial Mother is the macrocosmic translation of a mother. She is the Metaphor for life-giver and life-raiser. Divinity issues from Her. In Her, everything, including the God, is endowed with divinity. The etiological and metaphoric nature of Myth is fully illumined only in the story of the female beginning. The Goddess Myth told to/by us testifies to what patriarchy can’t or doesn’t tell. It is a language distinguished from that of patriarchy, dominating if not violent. The nature of Its language is persuasive and pacific. The truth It tells awakens one to Home. It is intrinsically soteriological, and herein lies the urgency of Myth: It shows the Way that humanity needs to know and follow in order to survive and flourish. The Great Goddess Myth is the first and last revelation to humankind. Where the Primordial Mother is, there is Home! Mago is not necessarily the “creator” of things. In the Magoist cosmogony, there is no one who created or creates anything alone. (I have used the term “cosmogony” in place of “creation” to avoid the conflation of Magoist thought with the origin-stories of patriarchal religions.) Instead, all things are interdependent and the power of auto-genesis is embedded within the universe itself. In explaining that, the Magoist cosmogony does not employ a magical or a logical jump. In the time of beginning, cosmic rays dance in accordance with the law of nature. Mago and primordial matter are self-born through the movement of cosmic music. Mago is, above all, the Cause of human existence. All things on Earth are indebted to Mago for She initiated the process auto-genesis of the Earth itself. In short, She is the Source of Life on Earth. Without Her, nothing is possible for us.
(Prose) The Navajo Mountain Chant: A Feminist Perspective by Sara Wright

Frighten Him On It – Sand painting used in the Mountain Chant, circa 1907″ by E.S. Curtis Like the Navajo Night Chant celebrated at winter solstice the Navajo Mountain Chant is the last important winter ceremony, one that marks the shift in seasons and the return of the light. The Mountain Chant was once nine days in duration; today it has apparently been shortened to a four – day ceremony. It is celebrated in early February and each night different holy songs are sung. The Mountain Chant is also a very complex healing series of ceremonies. Elaborate sand paintings are created and then destroyed after each healing. Disease may be diagnosed by either a woman or a man, but a Medicine man always leads the ceremonies. The intention is to cure a person of the disharmony that is creating the illness. The ceremonies are also enacted to pray to the holy people (Yei) for rain, and to receive assistance with the crops, and most importantly they are done to restore balance and harmony between the People and nature. A cultural myth is re-enacted and many songs also celebrate different aspects of nature. The colors blue and black represent the dark powers that need to be overcome in order to bring in the light. On the last night a large circle is constructed from evergreens. It opens to the east and surrounds a huge bonfire that is lit at dawn on the last morning of the chant. According to the Navajo, Fire is sacred and burns away evil. Fire and Water are the two elements that are invoked. The current Navajo story centers around a wandering Navajo youth who has many adventures, discovers magic, finds water and learns how to handle fire without getting burned. The young man returns from his journey to find that his people have become a whole tribe and the Mountainway Chant revolves around his extraordinary adventures, and the beauty of different aspects of nature. No women are involved at all. However, Washington Matthews, a surgeon who lived in the 1800’s studied the Navajo extensively and recorded the oral songs of the nine-day ceremony that include both men and women although the youth’s story is still somewhat central (Gutenberg.org). These translations demonstrate that at one time women played a more equal role in these ceremonies than they do today. The original ceremonies are thousands of years old and there are a multitude of songs that go with them. In Matthew’s translation the young maiden seems to be the one who overcomes winter’s darkness by walking through it (walking over the blue and black mountains). She lights the fires that burn on the mountains, finds and converses with the spirits of the sky world (the Yei). The Maiden Who Becomes a Bear is the only participant in the Bear Ceremony. We know from other sources that the Bear ceremony was considered the most important healing ritual of them all, (not only in Navajo Ceremony but in other Indigenous ceremonies like those of the Lakota Sioux). There is no male correlate. The maiden has a shape – shifting ability, suggesting that she has unusual powers. What follows are some of the words of the songs that were recorded during the Bear ceremony.“The maiden Who Becomes a Bear walks far around on the black mountains. She walks far around. Far spreads the land. It seems not far to her. The Holy Young Woman walks far around on the blue mountains, she walks far around. Far spreads the land. It seems not far to her. Far spreads the land. It seems not far. It is not dim to her…” It seems to me that the bear woman walks through the darkness with confidence and is able to see beyond into the light, and perhaps into the future. “( The) Young woman who Becomes a Bear sets fire in the mountains. In many places she journeys on. There is line of burning mountains…” That she lights the fires on the mountains suggests that she is able to work with fire in the holy places to banish evil, helping to bring in the light. “Young Maid who Becomes a Bear sought the gods and found them; on the high mountain peaks she sought the gods (Yei) and found them. On the summits of the clouds she sought the gods and found them. Somebody doubts it; so I have heard.” Here we see that the shape shifting Woman-Bear is able to access the mountain spirits, the sky world, and to communicate with both. Is it possible that the shape shifting ability of the Woman – Bear is equal to the medicine man’s powers, or perhaps surpasses them in some ways? I would argue, yes. The Maiden/Bear has access to enough spiritual power to be the central figure in the most potent of all the healing ceremonies of the Mountain Chant. It is interesting to note that for many Indigenous peoples, including the Navajo, the bear as an animal is revered as perhaps the most powerful protector and root healer. There are also many Native myths about a woman who becomes a bear or marries one The most intriguing lines are the last ones. Who or what is the “somebody” who doubts? There are other holy songs that involve the maiden and the youth in Matthew’s recordings of the Mountain Chant, however the songs about the youth’s adventures are more prevalent. Although the maiden does not appear in all the chants, when she does appear it seems as if her presence carries special significance. Carol Christ has already posted a video that discusses how Patriarchy has infiltrated Navajo mythology and way of life. When I was first researching Navajo mythology it struck me as very strange that women were not allowed to participate in ceremony when the tenets of the people focused on equality, balance and harmony. It is probable that Patriarchy may have already may have infiltrated the Navajo by the time Matthews …
(Tribute 6) Barbara Mor, “Relentless Love”: Letters 1988-2002 from a Writer’s Best Friend by Jack Dempsey

And now, in grief approaching the end of my surviving collection of Barbara’s letters, I come to a gap of almost five years between 1997 above and the next below dated January 5th, 2002. What happened, and why does this collection end (March 2002) long before Barbara’s end? I know she and I were still in contact through that time, and I remember more exchanges after it—right through her last years’ works (copies of which she always shared) including Rad Victorian Radio (2000), Rapture and Sea of Hunger (written in 2001), Suicidal Girls (2002), Text/Context (2004), Oasis 1, 2 and 3 (2005, 2008, 2009), Hypatia (2007), The Blue Rental (first appearing in 2010), The Inquisitor, Theater of Cruelty, the works on her Blogspot web-page, About Writing About (2012), and her final The Victory of Sex and Metal (2014). This was more than what Barbara had called, above, people’s being something like “bumper cars” colliding and falling out of touch. In a sentence, we’d begun to go our separate but connected/parallel ways as serious writers. I want to show what happened to each and both of us. Most of all, I say first, in plain shame, that I now consider the intolerance, impatience, career-frustration and thoughtless haste by which I must have discarded Barbara’s late letters an inexcusable failure and a genuine crime against Letters and civilization. Period. Barbara never stopped evolving in the struggle to face, manifest and master what she’d called (above) the utter meltdown of language; striving to fulfill what her favorite editor Clayton Eshleman (in his Intro to the last edition of Sulfur) said what poetry “is really about: the extending of human consciousness, making conscious the unconscious, creating a symbolic consciousness that in its finest moments overcomes the dualities in which the human world is cruelly and eternally, it seems, enmeshed.” Drawing here upon Barbara’s own phrases above, her “genre” of “FemPolemoPoeticks,” as she kept evolving it, was “not supposed to be pretty.” But it was leading her down a path toward becoming in her own words “indigestible,” “unreadable.” In the face of her daily realities, she had decided that those were the convictions worth her courage, arriving at a place where (March 13th, 2002 below) “only males, generally Brits, or total anarchists…print me”—yet, half-believing that “one hundred years from now, that will be considered a compliment (?).” “I have the impression there is not much hope in my writing, except that Wit is a gesture of belief in something…whatever that might be.” And look, in Suicidal Girls (2002), at these hints of Barbara’s conditions through her last 15 years. After all, when artistic dedication consigns you to living hand-to-mouth, you find yourself trying to survive one brain-searing shit-hole after another, in this Wreck-of-the-Hesperus asylum-on-fire called the present American landscape, teeming with self-destructive faux-rebels dying of ignorance: scream in my walls 4sex in a 4plex their boys are crazy nightspliced wires dance&fightdance&fight bellybutton pliers glow in the dark live here numb in rental skull bang bang bang they move in redone stucco studio used to be a garage cars lived there leaked oil on the rug wall to wall rust atmosphere end of the world plus heat theyre not neat decorate w/fists purplebluegreenpink hair tattoos noserings amplifers huge ashtrays of noise on bad days it costs too much to live here we’re on a one way street wheels roll west 24/7 nothing stops no rest don’t mess w/our trucks… white&black scared persian kitty hides under porch as party rages at dawn new strange girl passed out on asphalt… 400 years but nothing changes a continent they came to pillage&pray… how did they cross the ocean how do i cross the street daily life… …who cooks anyway it takes too long i like things in cans and plastic packets… …they don’t eat they die in the street in fever chewing grass delirious like the Irish history repeats if you let it or forget humans not doomed by Nature but by DumbIdeas im starting to like these loud girls when they scream in the daytime it must be serious Barbara had counseled me to “get your valuable material across the river of ebullient words,” for “you are also writing to now, and that too is an obligation.” Hence, I had made one choice about our “obligations” and “writing to now,” and Barbara made another. While Barbara looked unblinking and “estranged” her own language in the face of what Acker called “the HORROR experienced in daily life,” I had angered Barbara in telling her that I’d walked out of a live Acker reading at Brown. For it seemed to me that Acker—too brilliant not to know—was working her pain and, while replicating (for example) the experience of rape for her enthralled Po-Mo-Privileged-hip Brown audience, in the end was inflicting yet more of its benumbed aftermath upon them—while Barbara, at times (for example in Hypatia, quoted below) could still also see and register not a “redeeming,” but at least a balancing, whole and still-enabling sense of life’s surviving and worthwhile—yes—beauty. This you can see even in those “loud girls” she smiled upon above; but as I saw it (incompletely) years ago, it seemed her style had turned its back on hope of reaching her world’s larger, soul-imprisoned audience of “now.” Disgusted with my own fortunes, I turned away from examples that promised more of same. Today, I think Barbara’s choice was her wisest gesture of hope—the hope that her uncompromising life’s and art’s examples against “DumbIdeas” might invite that audience to spit them out also, to rise back toward true living and true culture. Look for example into Hypatia (2007). Multi-dimensions of being interweave, speak and generate revelation, as a contemporary woman remembers earlier lives (Barbara’s life-project)—filled with horrors, and then suddenly becoming a vision of Life in the purest sense. I am convinced that this passage draws on one of young Barbara’s most ecstatic life-epiphanies. Too dense, too “difficult”? Just read this slowly out loud, and see where Barbara takes you: mid20th c. we went surf-fishing below Pt Dume Malibu not yet Dawn we drank red wine as dark erased,erase March fog,chill i caught the first fish,another then as light,warmth came i went to climb …

(Special Post 5) Why Goddess Feminism, Activism, or Spirituality? A Collective Writing

[Editor’s Note: This was first proposed in The Mago Circle, Facebook Group, on March 6, 2014. […]
(Special Post) Why I choose to be an RTM contributor by Glenys Livingstone

The contribution of my writing to Return to Mago E-Magazine has evolved since it began […]
(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 […]
(Special Post Isis 2) Why the Color of Isis Matters by Mago Circle Members

[Editor’s note: The discussion took place in Mago Circle during the month of July, 2013. […]
(Special Post 4) Nine-Headed Dragon Slain by Patriarchal Heroes: A Cross-cultural Discussion by Mago Circle Members

[Editor’s Note: This and the ensuing eight sequels (all nine parts) are a revised version […]
(Special Post 5) Nine-Headed Dragon Slain by Patriarchal Heroes: A Cross-cultural Discussion by Mago Circle Members

[Editor’s Note: This and the ensuing sequels are a revised version of the discussion that […]

Imbolc/Early Spring – a Season of Uncertainty by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

Traditionally the Seasonal transition of Imbolc/Early Spring, celebrated in early February in the Northern Hemisphere, and in early August in the Southern Hemisphere, has been a time of nurturing the new life that is beginning to show itself, around us and within. It is a time of committing one’s self to the new life and inspiration – in the garden, in the soul, and in the Cosmos. We may include in our celebrations and contemplations of this Season the beginnings of the new young Cosmos as She was, that time in our cosmic story when She was only a billion years old and galaxies were forming; and also the new which has continually emerged throughout the eons, and is ever coming forth. The flame of being, as it has been imagined by many cultures, within and around, is to be protected and nurtured: the new being requires dedication and attention. In the early stages of its advent, there is nothing certain about its staying power and growth: it may flicker and be vulnerable. There may be uncertainties of various kinds. There is risk and resistance to coming into being. The Universe itself knew resistance to its expansion when it encountered gravitation in our very beginnings, in the primordial Flaring Forth[i]. The unfolding of the Universe was never without creative tension. The Universe knows it daily, in every moment: and we participate in this creative tension of our place of being. Urge to Be budding forth Imbolc/Early Spring can be a time of remembering personal vulnerabilities, feeling them and accepting them, but remaining resolute in birthing and tending of the new, listening for and responding to the Urge to Be[ii]of the Creative Universe within. Brian Swimme has said (quoting cultural anthropologist A.L. Kroeber) that the destiny of the human is not “bovine placidity” but the highest degree of tension that can be creatively born[iii]. many flames of being, strengthening each other These times are filled with creative tension, collectively and for most, personally as well; there is much resistance, yet there is promise of so much good energy arising. We may be witness to both. This Season of Imbolc/Early Spring may encourage attention, intention and dedication to strengthening well-being: in self, and in the relational communal context, and opening to our direct immersion in the Well of Creativity. We may be strengthened with the joining of hands, as well as the listening within to the sacred depths, in ceremonial circle at this time. NOTES: [i]As our origins (popularly named as “the Big Bang”) are named by Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme in The Universe Story. [ii]As I name this determined Virgin quality in PaGaian Cosmology. [iii]The Canticle to the Cosmos, DVD #8, “The Nature of the Human”. References: Livingstone, Glenys. PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. NE: iUniverse, 2005. Swimme, Brian and Berry, Thomas. The Universe Story: From the Primordial Flaring Forth to the Ecozoic Era. New York: HarperCollins, 1992. Swimme, Brian. Canticle to the Cosmos. DVD series, 1990.
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.
(Art & Poem) Candelmas/Imbolc by Sudie Rakusin & Annie Finch

IMBOLC DANCE From the east she has gathered like wishes. She has woven a night into dawn. We are quickening ivy. We grow where her warmth melts out over the ice. Now spiral south bends into flame to push the morning over doors. The light swings wide, green with the pulse of seasons, and we let her in We are quickening ivy. We grow The light swings wide, green with the pulse till the west is rocked by darkness pulled from where the fire rises. Shortened time’s reflecting water rakes her through the thickened cold. Hands cover north smooth with emptiness, stinging the mill of night’s hours. Wait with me. See, she comes circling over the listening snow to us. Shortened time’s reflecting water Wait with me. See, she comes circling From Calendars (Tupelo Press, 2003) Art is included in Celebrating Seasons of the Goddess (Mago Books, 2017). (Meet Mago Contributor) Sudie Rakusin (Meet Mago Contributor) Annie Finch
(Mago Almanac Excerpt 7) Introducing the Magoist Calendar by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

Mago Almanac: 13 Month 28 Day Calendar (Book A) at Mago Bookstore. YEARLY LEAP DAY AND EVERY FOURTH YEAR LEAP DAY Each Sa includes a Dan of the big Sa. A Dan is equal to one day. That adds to 365 days. At the half point of 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. Each year has a leap day (Dan), which makes a total of 365 days. Every fourth year is a leap year that has a leap day (Pan), which makes a total of 366 days. The Dan day comes before the New Year in the winter solstice month. And the Pan day comes before the first day of the summer solstice month in the fourth year. The above, however, does not indicate when the New Year comes. Logographic characters of Dan and Pan each suggest their meanings. While each year includes the Dan day (the morning), every fourth year has the Pan day. A unit of four years makes the Big Calendar. Dan (旦 Morning) Leap day for every first three years Pan (昄 Big) Leap day for every fourth year I have postulated that the year begins on the Dan day (one leap day), a day before New Year that comes in the month of Winter Solstice in the Norther Hemisphere. And the Pan day comes on the day before the first day of the 7th month that has Summer Solstice in the fourth year in the Norther Hemisphere. Years Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Months Dan Dan Dan Dan 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 5 5 5 5 6 6 6 6 Pan 7 7 7 7 8 8 8 8 9 9 9 9 10 10 10 10 11 11 11 11 12 12 12 12 13 13 13 13 Days 365 365 365 366 The Magoist Calendar’s intercalation involves one leap day every year and one leap day every four years. That is, each year has one extra day to make it 365 days. Every fourth year has an extra day to make it 366 days. Four years has a total of 1461 days (365×3+366), which makes the mean of 365.25 days. Considering that the month is following the sidereal period rather than the synodic period, it is inferred that the year also follows the sidereal year rather than the solar year. In fact, Magoist Calendar’s one year is very close to today’s 365.25636 days of the sidereal year compared to 365.24217 days of the solar year or the tropical year. Given that, as seen below, the Budoji mentions the tiniest discrepancy of one leap day for 31,788,900 years, the discrepancy between 365.25 and 365.25636 (0.00636 day) can be explained that the year was actually 365.25 days at the time of Budo circa 2333 BCE, 4440 years ago. In other words, there is a discrepancy of 0.12375936 seconds between 2017 CE and 2333 BCE. Regarding Lawful Numbers 2, 5, 8, it is involved as follows: 365 days (3+6+5=14, 1+4=5) Lawful Numbers 2, 5, 8 refers the unit of 365 days (364 days with one intercalary day). Further dynamics are unknown. The sidereal year refers to the time taken by the Earth to orbit the sun once with respect to the distant stars. In contrast, the solar or tropical year means the time taken by the Earth to orbit the sun once with respect to the sun. The sidereal year, 365.25636 days, is about 20 minutes and 24 seconds longer than the mean tropical year (365.24217 days) and about 19 minutes and 57 seconds longer than the average Gregorian year of 365.2425 days. The difference occurs primarily because the solar system spins on its own axis and around the Milky Way galactic center making the solar year’s observed position relative. Time is no independent concept apart from space and the agent. The very concept of time is preceded by the agent bound in a space. It is always contextualized. In Magoism, both calendar and time are born out of the cosmogonic universe, the universe that is in self-creation. Like calendar, time is to be discovered or measured. It is a numinous concept. The very concept of time testifies to the reality of the Creatrix. Time proves the orderly movement of the universe into which we are born. Calendar patterns time, whereas time undergirds calendar. How can we measure time? We are given the time of the Earth that comes from its rotation, revolution, and precession in sync with the moon and the sun (and its planets). One type of time is the solar time. The solar time is a calculation of time based on the position of the sun. Traditionally, the solar time is measured by the sundial. The solar time is, however, specific to the Earth only. It is valid only for the-same-observed-location. It is not made to be used for the time of another celestial body. For example, Mars’ solar time has to be measured independently based on its own rotation and revolution rates. The solar time is an isolated time. It is static and exclusive, not made for the time of other celestial bodies. By nature, it is unfit for connection and communication across celestial bodies. The second type is the sidereal time. The sidereal time is a time scale based on the rate of Earth’s rotations measured relative to the distant stars.[29] Because the observed position is in the far distant stars beyond the solar system, the sidereal time may as well be called an extrasolar stellar time. We can think of the observer’s position of an imaginary cosmic bird far out there, infinitely far beyond not only the solar system and …
(Poetry & Photo Essay) Pongal by Susan Hawthorne

I am a secularist rather than a ritualist, but I can’t help but be drawn into the celebrations that people make when they honour the passing of the seasons. Even as a child I felt the disconnect between Christmas and the hot dusty days of summer. When Christians invaded and colonised Australia they brought their holidays but did not consider changing the dates to match the seasons. I was in India recently, invited as a speaker at the Hindu Lit For Life Festival in Chennai where I had lived ten years ago. The last day of the festival was the first day of Pongal. A friend, feminist economist Devaki Jain, who had grown up in Chennai eighty years earlier invited me to join her in a car ride to see Pongal celebrations in the streets. This is a Tamil festival dating back at least a thousand years, a sun festival, welcoming the next six months of the sun’s journey, also a harvest festival. During this time many women produce beautiful drawings, known as kolam. In my book Cow I wrote a poem about kolam which I think says more than I can explain here. what she says about kolam where they are drawn and when is all important early morning is auspicious it sets the shape of the day the hard ground is cleaned points of white grain sprinkled she works quickly she knows her design for the day runs the powdered grain from point to point it is a mandala a yantra a sign so the forces of the universe align themselves with her intentions Back to Pongal. The festival goes for four days. On the first day, which is called Bhogi, people are on the streets with the fruits of harvest, piles of tumeric and stacks of sugar cane tied in bunches. My friend, Devaki, bought flowers to take back to her room in the hotel. The second day, called Thai Pongal, I was invited to a harvest lunch at the house of my friend Mangai who is a playwright, theatre director and human rights activist. The word ‘pongal’ means ‘boiling over’ or’ overflow’ and I saw this in the cooking of the sweetened rice dish into which each of the twelve people present poured some water and milk as it almost overflowed the pot. This sweet rice dish was added to the collection of other dishes on the table. I cannot tell you what they were, but the meal was delicious. After lunch everyone relaxed, someone sang, we talked and caught up on news. The third day, is called Maatu Pongal, and cattle are at the centre of celebrations on that day. I don’t know if this line up of cattle had anything to do with the day’s celebration but there they were tied up alongside a very busy main road. These were not cows and I did not see any cows with decorated horns and flowers on their heads. on that day as I have on other occasions. On the fourth day, Kaanum Pongal, things begin to wind down. One of my co-speakers at the festival said she would be visiting family members on that day. The kolams are drawn again, sugar cane is consumed and people go back to their daily lives. What I liked about being in Tamil Nadu during the Pongal festival is that it felt absolutely right. The time of the year, the connection with harvest, so I did not feel the discomfort I so often feel in the midst of the out-of-season commercialised holidays as they are celebrated in Australia. Susan Hawthorne’s book Cow is available worldwide from distributors in USA, Canada, UK, from all the usual online retailers or from Spinifex Press. http://www.spinifexpress.com.au/Bookstore/book/id=215/ © Susan Hawthorne, 2019 (Meet Mago Contributor) Susan Hawthorne.
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.
(Video) Winter Solstice Breath Meditation by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

Winter Solstice/Yule Southern Hemisphere – June 20 – 23. Northern Hemisphere – December 20 – 23 Winter Solstice is a celebration of the Mother/Creator aspect of the Triple Goddess in particular – as both Solstices may be, as dark or light come to fullness. Winter Solstice Moment celebrates the ripe fullness of the Dark Womb, and the gateway from that fullness back into new growing light. It is a Birthing Place – into differentiated being, and Her birthing happens in every moment in the breath, and is seamlessly connected with all layers of being – of self, Earth and Cosmos. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDsVZzXtoyM The Text in the Meditation[i] Take a deep breath and let it go. Notice the Void at the bottom of emptying your breath … feeling it, and feeling the Urge to breathe as it arises. And again … feeling it over and over – this breath that arises out of the full emptiness in every moment, birthing you in every moment. – Recall some of the birthings in your life, your actual birth – see it there in your mind’s eye … you coming into being – your Nativity, your Nativity. Recall projects you have brought into being, new beings within yourself, perhaps children, new beings in others, how you have been Creator and Created – even at the same time … who was birthing who? Staying for a while with the many, many birthings in your life. – recalling now Earth-Gaia’s many birthings out of the Dark everyday … the dawn is constant as She turns. See Her in your mind’s eye – the constant dawning around the globe, the constant birthing. Recall Earth’s many births right now of all beings – as day breaks around the globe – the physical, emotional, spiritual births. Her many, many birthings everyday, and throughout the eons. recalling now Universe-Gaia’s many birthings – happening in every moment – right now in real time and space … supernovas right now, stars and planets being born right now. Her many, many birthings in every moment and throughout the eons. – recalling now Universe-Gaia’s many birthings – happening in every moment – right now in real time and space … supernovas right now, stars and planets being born right now. Her many, many birthings in every moment and throughout the eons. Come back to your breath – this wonder – none of it separate … the Origin Ever-Present, birthing you in every moment – out of Her Fertile Dark, in real time and space. Feeling this breath, Her breath. NOTES: [i] Glenys Livingstone, PaGaian Cosmology, Winter Solstice ceremonial script, p. 195-196. Reference: Glenys Livingstone, PaGaian Cosmology. Music: Fish Nite Moon by Tim Wheater, permission generously given Images: – Birth of the Goddess, Erich Neumann, The Great Mother, pl. 155. See https://pagaian.org/book/cover-goddess-image/ – Winter Solstice window, MoonCourt Australia 2016 – some sources unknown
(Art & Poem) Spring Equinox by Sudie Rakusin & Annie Finch

A SEED FOR SPRING EQUINOX . . . till I feel the earth around the place my head has lain under winter’s touch, and it crumbles. Slanted weight of clouds. Reaching with my head and shoulders past the open crust dried by spring wind. Sun. Tucking through the ground that has planted cold inside me, made its waiting be my food. Now I watch the watching dark my light’s long-grown dark makes known. Art and poem are included in Celebrating Seasons of the Goddess (Mago Books, 2017). (Meet Mago Contributor) Sudie Rakusin (Meet Mago Contributor) Annie Finch
(Book Excerpt) Held in the Womb of the Wheel of the Year by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This essay is an excerpt from the Introduction of the author’s new book A Poiesis of the Creative Cosmos: Celebrating Her within PaGaian Sacred Ceremony. Meditation cushion in circle of decorated stones My ancestors built great circles of stones that represented their perception of real time and space, and enabled them to tell time: the stone circles were cosmic calendars.[i] They went to great lengths and detail to get it right. It was obviously very important to them to have the stones of a particular kind, in the right positions according to position of the Sun at different times of the year, and then to celebrate ceremony within it. I have for decades had a much smaller circle of stones assembled. I have regarded this small circle of stones as a medicine wheel. It is a portable collection, that I can spread out in my living space, or let sit in a small circle on an altar, with a candle/candles in the middle. Each stone (or objects, as some are) represents a particular Seasonal Moment/transition and is placed in the corresponding direction. The small circle of eight stones represents the flow of the Solstices and Equinoxes and the cross-quarter Moments in between: that is, it represents the “Wheel of the Year” as it is commonly known in Pagan traditions. I have found this assembled circle to have been an important presence. It makes the year, my everyday sacred journey of Earth around Sun, tangible and visible as a circle, and has been a method of changing my mind, as I am placed in real space and time. My stone wheel has been a method of bringing me home to my indigenous sense of being. Each stone/object of my small wheel may be understood to represent a “moment of grace,” as Thomas Berry named the seasonal transitions – each is a threshold to the Centre, wherein I may now sit: I sense it as a powerful point. As I sit on the floor in the centre of my small circle of stones, I reflect on its significance as I have come to know the Seasonal transitions that it marks, over decades of celebrating them. I sense the aesthetics and poetry of each. I facilitated and was part of the celebration and contemplation of these Moments in my region for decades. It was always an open group that gathered, and so its participants changed over the years but it remained in form, like a live body which it was: a ceremonial body that conversed with the sacred Cosmos in my place. We spoke a year-long story and poetry of never-ending renewal – of the unfolding self, Earth and Cosmos. We danced and chanted our relationship with the Mother, opened ourselves to Her Creativity, and conversed with Her by this method. All participants in their own way within these ceremonies made meaning of their lives – which is what I understand relationship to be, in this context of Earth and Sun, our Place and Home in the Cosmos: that is, existence is innately meaningful when a being knows Who one is and Where one is. Barbara Walker notes that religions based on the Mother are free of the “neurotic” quest for indefinable meaning in life as such religions “never assumed that life would be required to justify itself.”[ii] I face the North stone, which in my hemisphere is where I place the Summer Solstice. From behind me and to my right is the light part of the cycle – representing manifest form, all that we see and touch. From behind me and to my left is the dark part of the cycle – representing the manifesting, the reality beneath the visible, which includes the non-visible. The Centre wherein I sit, represents the present. The wheel of stones has offered to me a way of experiencing the present as “presence,” as it recalls in an instant that, That which has been and that which is to come are not elsewhere – they are not autonomous dimensions independent of the encompassing present in which we dwell. They are, rather, the very depths of this living place – the hidden depth of its distances and the concealed depth on which we stand.[iii] This wheel of stones, which captures the Wheel of the Year in essence, locates me in the deep present, wherein the past and the future are contained – both always gestating in the dark, through the gateways. And all this has been continually enacted and expressed in the ceremonies of the Wheel of the Year, as the open, yet formal group has done them, mostly in the place of Blue Mountains, Australia. PaGaian Cosmology altar/mandala: a “Womb of Gaia” map Over the years of practice of ritually celebrating these eight Seasonal Moments – Earth’s whole annual journey around Sun, I have been held in this creative story, this Story of Creativity as it may be written – it is a sacred story. Her pattern of Creativity can be identified at all levels of reality – manifesting in seasonal cycles, moon cycles, body cycles – and to be aligned with it aligns a person’s core with the Creative Mother Universe. I have identified the placing of one’s self within this wheel through ceremonial practice of the whole year of creativity, as the placing of one’s self in Her Womb – Gaia’s Womb, a Place of Creativity. All that is necessary for Creativity is present in this Place. All may come forth from here/Here – and so it does, and so it has, and so it will. NOTES: [i] See Martin Brennan, The Stones of Time: Calendars, Sundials, and Stone Chambers of Ancient Ireland (Rochester Vermont, Inner Traditions, 1994). [ii] Barbara Walker, The Woman’s Encyclopaedia of Myths and Secrets (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1983), 693. [iii] David Abram, The Spell of the Sensuous (New York: Vintage Books, 1997), 216. REFERENCES: Abram, David. The Spell of the Sensuous. New York: Vintage Books, 1997. Brennan, Martin. The Stones of Time: Calendars, Sundials, and Stone Chambers of Ancient Ireland.Rochester Vermont: Inner Traditions, 1994. Walker, Barbara. The Woman’s Encyclopaedia of Myths and Secrets. San Francisco: …
(Prose) Halcyon for the Season by Deanne Quarrie

A bird for this season is the Kingfisher, also known as the Halcyon. The Kingfisher is associated in Greek myth with the Winter Solstice. There were fourteen “halcyon days” in every year, seven of which fell before the winter solstice, seven after; peaceful days when the sea was smooth as a pond and the hen-halcyon built a floating nest and hatched out her young. She also had another habit, that of carrying her dead mate on her back over the sea and mourning him with a plaintive cry. Pliny reported that the halcyon was rarely seen and then only at the winter and summer solstices and at the setting of the Pleiades. She was therefore, a manifestation of the Moon-Goddess who was worshiped at the two solstices as the Goddess of Life in Death and Death in Life and, when the Pleiades set, she sent the sacred king his summons for death. Kingfishers are typically stocky, short-legged birds with large heads and large, heron-like beaks. They feed primarily on fish, hovering over the water or watching intently from perches and they plunge headlong into the water to catch their prey. Their name, Alcedinidae, stems from classical Greek mythology. Alcyone, Daughter of the Wind, was so distraught when her husband perished in a shipwreck that she threw herself into the sea. Both were then transformed into kingfishers and roamed the waves together. When they nested on the open sea, the winds remained calm and the weather balmy. Still another Alcyone, Queen of Sailing, was the mystical leader of the seven Pleiades. The heliacal rising of the Pleiades in May marked the beginning of the navigational year and their setting marked the end. Alcyone, as Sea Goddess protected sailors from rocks and rough weather. The bird, halcyon continued for centuries to be credited with the magical power of allaying storms. Shakespeare refers to this legend in this passage from Hamlet: Some say that ever ‘gainst that season comes Wherein our Saviour’s birth is celebrated, The bird of dawning singeth all night long; And then, they say, no spirit can walk abroad; The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike, No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm, So hallow’d and so gracious is the time. Hamlet, I, i 157 When I was a young mother, and my children were little, we lived in a house that had a creek in the back yard. There were small trees along the far bank of this creek and every day, a kingfisher would sit in the branches overlooking the creek. Sometimes he sat there very quietly for a very long time. Suddenly he would dive from his perch straight into the creek. Every time he did he came out and up into the air with a fish. It gave me great pleasure to watch him from my kitchen window. I love birds. I love learning about their habits because it teaches me ways of being that are closer to nature. I love drawing birds as well. When I was a young and more able, I was an avid bird watcher, out with my friends hoping for a sight never seen before. I love the story of the kingfisher and her connection to the Halcyon Days of the Winter Solstice. It is for most of us the busiest time of year. Whether it is for the Solstice or Christmas (often both) we are in a frenzy to get things done, making sure everything is just right and perfect. I celebrate the Winter Solstice. As a priestess, my days right now are very busy creating ritual. It is at the Solstice that many passage rites are happening with the women I work with. And of course, I celebrate with my family with our magical Yule Log each year. But I try to honor those seven days before and the seven days after by trying to have the frantic moments before the Halcyon Days begin and then even when busy, hold the peace and calm of that beautiful smooth sea in my mind. Peace and love and joy surrounding the Winter Solstice make it perfect. May the Peace of a Halcyon Sea be yours in this Solstice Season. Do hold the image of that little kingfisher in mind! Meet Mago Contributor, Deanne Quarrie
Samhain: Stepping Wisely through the Open Door by Carolyn Lee Boyd

Day of the Dead altar, via Wikimedia Commons According to Celtic tradition, on Samhain (October 31 for those in the north and April 30 for those in the south) the doors between the human and spirit worlds open. Faeries, demons, and spirits of the dead pour out of the Otherworld to walk the Earth. In the past, some would try to hurry ghosts past their houses or ward off evil spirits by setting jack o’lanterns in their windows. They avoided going outside, especially past cemeteries, lest they be snatched away to the Otherworld. In ancient times, some offered sacrifices to propitiate deities. However, others have invited in the souls of friends and family who have passed away. In Brittany, according to W.Y. Evans-Wentz’s Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries, people would provide “a feast and entertainment for them of curded-milk, hot pancakes, and cider, served on the family table covered with a fresh white tablecloth, and to supply music” which “the dead come to enjoy with their friends” (p. 218). Other cultures also have such welcoming traditions. In Korea, as so beautifully described by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang in her posts about her family’s mourning for her father (Part I and Part II), in Mexico on the Day of the Dead, and elsewhere, food and flowers are brought to cemeteries to honor those no longer in the realm of the living. Many of us live in a society where death is pushed out of sight and Samhain’s sacred traditions have devolved into Halloween, a commercialized children’s holiday. Still, it seems to me that the pandemic, climate catastrophes, and war have made death much more present in our everyday thoughts over the past couple of years than before, so perhaps this year’s Samhain offers us the opportunity to re-examine Celtic and other practices of the past and present to see what insights and meaning they may have for us. Jack o lanterns: By Mihaela Bodlovic, via Wikimedia Commons All these ancient practices respect the spirit world and its power. Whether you believe that the Otherworld can wreak havoc on us at Samhain or not, the realm where spirits dwell clearly has power. Its allure can take us away from focusing on mundane, daily challenges or, more positively, open our eyes to the value of relating to forces that can give richness and meaning to our lives. At the same time, we must remember that each domain has its own power. We can use our physical bodies in beneficial ways that those in the Otherworld cannot. We must respect the power of the Otherworld as well as our own. Some kinds of healing are only possible when we welcome those from the Otherworld into our lives in a healthy way, whether through holiday visits or every day through remembrance, meditation, prayer, or other means. I’m of an age when many of my beloveds are in the Otherworld and so I am beginning to find that the idea of being able to sit with someone I have lost is cause not for fear, but rather joy and comfort. Perhaps those who have longstanding wounds from the past can heal by remembering those we have lost at Samhain and forgiving them or ourselves or realizing that we are no longer bound to those who have hurt us and are now gone. Samhain can also reassure us of the truth of our intuitive sense that our beloveds who we grieve are with us still, in some way, on this night and throughout the year. When we participate in the celebration of Samhain’s opening of doors to the Otherworld, if only for a day, we are honoring our own participation into the great cycle of life, death, and rebirth. We are expanding our vision of ourselves to be more than our bodies on the Earth and experiencing ourselves as connected to many realms, seen and unseen, spirit and human. We are accepting that at some time we will also become ancestors, with all the responsibility that entails and the fulfillment of taking our place in the complex matrix of being that is our universe. When we interact with the souls of those we have lost in ways that are healthy for us, however we may choose and believe that happens, we can also better celebrate the realm of the living. Just as we may listen in various ways for positive messages from those whom we have lost, we can ensure that we are expressing important guidance to those who will come after us by who we are and how we live our lives. We can express that life is worth living, even with all its traumas, and that we respect both the boundaries and the doors between the worlds so that we may continue living fully in our physical bodies on our beautiful, awe-inspiring Earth. I hope my message to my descendants will be: Love your lives. Build on what we have done and do better. Leave behind what we left you that no longer serves. If you feel alone, remember that you have thousands of generations of mothers sending you unconditional love and also generations of women coming after you eager to pick up where you left off. According to Mary Condren in The Serpent and the Goddess, in the most ancient times, “Samhain had been primarily a harvest feast celebrating the successful growth and gathering of the fruits of the past year” (p. 36). While we in the north are coming into the season of death, those in the south are experiencing Beltane, the first moments of spring when the doors between the worlds are also open. The eternal cycle of life, death, and regeneration turns again. Whether you are celebrating Samhain or Beltane, know that this holy time offers us all a chance to enter into the task of maintaining harmony with those we have loved before and for bringing balance between life and death, winter and summer, and the realm of the living and …

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

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

Making the Gynocentric Case: Mago, the Great Goddess of East Asia, and her Tradition Magoism[i] This study documents and interprets a substantial body of primary sources concerning Mago [麻姑, also known as Magu or Mako] from Korea, China, and Japan. Much of this material has never been brought to light as a whole. In working with these various and sundry data including folklore, paintings, arts, literature, poetry, toponyms, rituals, historical and religious records, and apocryphal texts, I encountered an organic structure that relates these seemingly unrelated materials and named it Magoism. Magoism refers to an anciently originated gynocentric cultural and historical context of East Asia, which venerates Mago as supreme divine. Although “Magoism” is my coinage, its concept is not new. Magoism is referred to as the Way of Mago, the Origin of Mago, the Event of Mago, Reign of Mago, Heavenly Principle, or simply Mago in historical sources. In the West, its partial manifestation is known as the cult of Magu within the context of Daoism. One of the earliest verified records, the Biography of Magu (Magu zhuan) written by Ge Hong (284-364) dates back to proto-Daoist times.[ii] Nonetheless, “Mago” remains largely forgotten and misrepresented to the world especially in modern times. More incisively, her sublime divinity is made invisible despite strong evidence. No scholarship in the West has treated Mago as a topic in her own right. Mago’s multiple identities ranging from the cosmogonist to a grandmother, from the progenitress to the Daoist goddess, from the sovereign to a shaman/priestess in Korea, China, and Japan remain unregistered in modern scholarship. When mentioned, her transnational manifestation is not recognized cogently. She is often lumped together with other parochial goddesses from China. Other times, she is fetishized as a Daoist goddess of immortality. She is also known, among other representations, as the giant grandmother (goddess) who shaped the natural landscape in the beginning of time among Koreans. In any case, Mago is not deemed on a par or in relation with Xiwangmu (the Queen Mother of the West in Chinese Daoism) and Amaterasu, (the Sun Goddess of the Japanese imperial family), both of who represent the East Asian pantheon of supreme goddesses to the West. I hold that the paramount significance of Magoism lies in the fact that it redefines the female principle and proffers a gynocentric utopian vision to the modern audience. Its utopian cosmology is no free-floating abstract idea but imbedded in the mytho-historical-cultural reality of East Asia. I suggest Magoism as the original vision of East Asian thought. Put differently, Magoism is an East Asian gynocentric testimony to the forgotten utopian reality. In the sense that Magoism presents an East Asian gynocentric symbolic system, this study is distinguished from Western and androcentric discourse. In other words, its gynocentric universalism should not be subsumed under the discourse of Western or patriarchal universalism. Magoism prompts an alternative paradigm of ancient gynocentrism that redefine major notions of the divine, human, and nature in continuum. Mago, the great goddess, is the unifying and at the same time individualizing force in this system. Magoism enables a macrocosmic view in which all individualized parts are organically co-related and co-operating. As a religious system, it is at once monotheistic and polytheistic. That is, Mago is the great goddess in her multiple manifestations. Underlying the patriarchal edifices, the Magoist principle is the Source from which the latter is derived.
(Tribute) In Loving Memory of Lydia Ruyle (1935-2016) by Mago Circle Members

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

Part 5: Gaeyang Halmi, How Does She Relate with Mago? The field research concerning Gaeyang Halmi was undertaken with the thought that Gaeyang Halmi is related to Mago in some way. Such assumption is on the grounds that the folktales of Gaeyang Halmi and Mago Halmi substantively share the same motifs. In fact, I had thought Gaeyang Halmi is another name of Mago Halmi. A scrutiny has proven that the picture of their correlation is far more complex than I first envisaged, exposing the hidden nexuses of Old Magoism. This last part aims at disentangling the grips. It is indispensable for me to invite my readers to the task of reconstructing ancient East Asian mytho-history. Gaeyang Halmi embodies a partial manifestation of Mago as the Sea Goddess. Nonetheless, such a statement lacks complex subtexts that this topic involves. The Gurang (Nine Maidens) mytheme of Gaeyang Halmi sheds light on the mytho-history of Old Magoism (read Magoism in pre- and proto-Chinese times characterized by shaman rulers). To be specific, Gaeyang Halmi in the gurang pantheon suggests a yet-to-be-known shaman ruler, “Ungnyeo” (Bear/Sovereign Woman), founder of the confederacy of the nine states, which I call Danguk (ca. 3898 BCE-2333 BCE). The gurang represented by Gaeyang Halmi is no small clue to the pervasive yet misunderstood civilization of Ungnyeo. “Ungnyeo” is eponymous of the female symbolism of nine, such as the nine-tailed fox in East Asia and the nine muses and the nine forms of Durga beyond East Asia mentioned in Part IV. In short, Gaeyang Halmi oscillating between “Mago” and “Ungnyeo” in Her identity testifies to the suppressed history of Old Magoism. Methodically, I have two types of mythological texts to decipher the overtones of Gaeyang Halmi’s mytheme: folklore (oral narratives) and the written myth. Goddess mythemes, malleable yet immortal, constitute the grammar blocks of the gynocentric language that often appears “awkward” if not “ridiculous” to moderns. They need to be analyzed and interpreted. Feminist techniques are apt to sort out the sediments and decipher the diastrophic disturbances caused by patriarchal advances in the course of time. Some parallels between Gaeyang Halmi and Mago Halmi folk stories are overt. Their stories are so similar that they appear to be an identical goddess: A: The motif that Gaeyang Halmi walks on the sea, often described as wearing namak-sin (wooden shoes) or only beoseon (Korean traditional socks), is also commonly told in Mago stories especially from Jeju Island[i] and other coastal regions. B: That Gaeyang Halmi walks around in the sea to measure its depth is also told in the stories of Mago from other coastal regions. C: The mytheme that Gaeyang Halmi had eight daughters recurs in the stories of Mago, especially from the region of Mt. Jiri. Mago is said to have had eight daughters and sent them to eight provinces. Given the above, it is evident that Gaeyang Halmi lore resembles that of Mago. Were the populace confused about these two goddesses? I hold that the confusion was not a mistake but a way to convey that Gaeyang Halmi is related to Magoism rather than Mago Herself. In folklore, “why” and “how”are the questions to be interpreted, not to be read.
(Mago Almanac Planner Year 5 Excerpt 1) 13 Month 28 Day Magoist Calendar by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

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

[Author’s Note: This essay was first published in Trivia, Voices of Feminism, Issue 6, September 2007.] I come from Korea. When I say I came from Korea, I do not mean “Korea” in a nationalistic sense. Nationalism, reinforced by international politics as a cardinal rule of the global community, precludes the agency of women; it is a game of the patriarchal controllers. When I say I am Korean, I mean I am a Magoist Korean, a gynocentric Korean. My Korean identity refers to my cultural and historical root. Fortunately, I have found my Korean gynocentric root in the tradition of Mago, the Great Goddess, from East Asia.1

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