November 5, 2025September 8, 2025 Mago WorkLeave a comment

(Art Essay) Blood and Fibre – Weaving Resistance by Claire Dorey

Weaving was both an Original Act and an Act of Resistance. In ancient Goddess belief systems, the weaver Goddess created the universe. In contemporary art, Fibre Artists set out to Read More …

November 4, 2025November 5, 2025 Mago Work1 Comment

(Art Essay) Season’s Greetings for the Childless by Sanna Pöyhönen

Samhain for Celts, Kekri for Finns, El Dia de Muertos for Mexicans, All Saints Day for Christians… Names of the celebration change but they all refer to this time of Read More …

November 3, 2025November 4, 2025 RTMeditorsKG5 Comments

Packing It Up After Beltaine – an Ending Of An Era by Glenys Livingstone

As I clear and put away the decorations after Beltaine this year (November in the Southern Hemisphere), I know it as the ending of over three decades of the Beltaine Read More …

October 31, 2025October 14, 2025 Mago WorkLeave a comment

(Poem) My Imaginary Cat by Harriet Ann Ellenberger

[Editors’ Note: Learn about how the “Nine Poets Speak” series came to be in place here.] Photo by Matthew Larkin, on Unsplash Living alone and feeling lonely,I was looking for comfort,but Read More …

October 30, 2025December 6, 2025 RTM Co-Editor M Saracino1 Comment

(Nine Poets Speak) The Spiral’s at Hand by Annie Finch

[Editors’ Note: Learn about how the “Nine Poets Speak” series came to be in place here.] My sisters, we’re burning —but not in that fire! The spiral’s at handwhere we love, Read More …

October 29, 2025October 8, 2025 Mago Work1 Comment

(Art Essay) The Lover by Sanna Pöyhönen

The concept of Lover was triggered by a dilemma women face in the modern work environment. Everyone knows the slogan ‘Nice girls don’t get the corner office’ but women also Read More …

October 28, 2025December 6, 2025 RTM Co-Editor M Saracino1 Comment

(Nine Poets Speak) Place of the Next Light by Arlene Bailey

[Editors’ Note: Learn about how the “Nine Poets Speak” series came to be in place here.] Art, Meraylah Allwood, InANutshellArt, https://www.etsy.com/shop/InANutshellArt I’ve held it all in,all the hopes and dreams,the cries Read More …

October 27, 2025September 17, 2025 RTM Co-Editor M Saracino2 Comments

(Poem) Each Day, I Howl by Mary Saracino

Photo by Mary Saracino My heart is heavy sorrow is rooted in my cells I weep, remembering what they did to my great, great, great grandmothers burned them at the Read More …

October 24, 2025September 29, 2025 Mago Work1 Comment

(Art Essay) The Leader: Taming the Wolf Power with Art by Sanna Pöyhönen

The Wolf Lady / the Leader was born during the first days of the war of Ukraine in 2022. The Leader gathers a pack together, and empowers it to accomplish Read More …

October 23, 2025December 6, 2025 RTM Co-Editor M Saracino3 Comments

(Nine Poets Speak) The Trees by Maria Fama

[Editors’ Note: Learn about how the “Nine Poets Speak” series came to be in place here.] Trees on Juniper Street, Philadelphia, PA photo by Maria Fama I place my hand on Read More …

October 22, 2025October 20, 2025 Mago Work2 Comments

Motherline by Susun Weed

We each have a Motherline. The Motherline is held by the mitochondria. Our mitochondria come only from our mother. Mitochondria are small: there are many of them in Read More …

October 21, 2025January 21, 2026 RTMeditorsKG2 Comments

(Nine Sister Networks E-interview) Trista Hendren’s Girl God Books by Glenys Livingstone

[Editor’s Note: Return to Mago E-Magazine (RTME) introduces Sister Organizations under the banner of the Nine Sister Networks as a way of consolidating Matriversal Feminism previously known as Goddess Feminist Activist Spirituality. Read More …

October 20, 2025October 20, 2025 Mago Work4 Comments

(Book Excerpt 2) Asherah: Roots of the Mother Tree ed. by Trista Hendren Et Al

[Editor’s Note: This excerpt series is from Asherah: Roots of the Mother Tree ed by Claire Dorey, Janet Rudolph, Pat Daly, and Trista Hendren (Girl God Books, 2025).] About this Read More …

(Poem) Defiance by Mary Saracino

I was bred to appease, close the gaping mouth of desire, a child speaking in the foreign tongue of docility relying on conforming consonants, denying voracious vowels their due, jailing truth behind clenched teeth, taut lips, a shaking, frightened heart.
(Poetry and Photography) Midsummer Eve by Sara Wright

It sounds so appealing a time of revelry, crackling bonfires, staying up all night to witness the dawn. Why do we celebrate this longest day of the year as if endless hours of daylight and a scorching sun star encompass a gift of unparalleled grace? I miss the shadows that define sharp edges, reveal form and depth, of flat mesas, mountains deep blue sky, clouds that hold promise of muted gray and soaking rains. Too much light bleaches the earth of her vibrancy, washing out sage and emerald green. Red dirt turns dull brown as wildflowers wither. Streams and rivers surrender their souls as precious moisture rises. Wily lizards scurry for cover under the fierce heat of this unrelenting white star. The birds stop singing by noon. Too much light ushers in self and other destruction encouraging frantic action – noise that shatters. Unhinging “being” from doing, destroying quiet moments for thoughtful reflection. The summer solstice sun is a delusional veil that separates us from ourselves. I look forward to the day after this turning with profound relief, because even though summer’s harsh light will linger well into August and the heat will drone on the sun is slowly losing his fearsome power creating space for turquoise and golden skies. In the shelter of longer shadows, illuminated by reflective Light, She Rises with the Moon. (Meet Mago Contributor) Sara Wright.
(Multi-Genre) Brighid’s Folk Magic – The Power of the Charm by Jude Lally

The daily life of the Gael was full of blessings, prayers and charms. There are many charms, some to get rid of a particular ailment, others used preventively from helping cure illnesses or childlessness, toothache or swellings, to repelling the evil eye. The local Wise Woman was a woman skilled in the ways of healing, different women worked in their different modalities. Scholar Gearoid O Crualaoich explains the role of the Wise Woman as the following: Locating stolen and lost animalsMakes diagnoses and prescribes for physical ailmentsDiagnoses otherworld ailments and prescribes their cureDiagnoses otherworld injuries and prescribes cure (while claiming to have prevented far more serious harm)Foretells of death and diagnoses an otherworld ailment which results in deathDiagnoses otherworld abduction of adults, explains and describes the procedures by which the abduction can be reversed (such as a person being taken by the fairies) This is St Bride’s Charm taken from the Carmina Gadelica invoking Brighid’s protection on herds of goats, sheep, cows, and horses against predators. Invoking Brighid The wise woman invoked a higher power while she worked, invoking the wisdom and power of Brighid and Mary. In this aspect, she could be viewed as a practitioner reaching out to the otherworld as she brought divine inspiration and insight into her work, which she carried out for the good of her community. The Wise Woman was consulted for everyday scrapes and sprains. Following is a charm to heal a sprain invoking Brighid in its healing, I like to imagine saying this charm while putting a bandage on my leg, even if it is just muscle sprain. Brigid went out In the dawn of day With a pair of horses And one broke a leg. That was trouble and fuss, that Was tearing and loss but She put bone to bone, She put flesh to flesh, She put sinew to sinew, She put vein to vein. As she healed that, Let me heal this. Charm of the Sprain, Carmina Gadelica Hymn/Incantation #13 At the edge of the Burren, Ireland looking out to Galway Bay. There is powerful poetry and imagery in the Charm of the sprain, invoking ancient magic, something sacred we can’t quite understand but recognize as divine. It also invokes generations and generations of women past who worked with this energy, who delivered babies, help set bones, applied cooling poultices. These were the women who knew the right vegetables and herbs to make ointments to draw out and heal an infection. They were also the women who brought babies into this world and midwifed souls on their journey out of this world and onto the next world. They were also the communicators with the otherworlds, the ones who knew when there was faery magic afoot and could devise the ceremonies that had to be undertaken in order to set things right again. There is powerful poetry and imagery in Charms that evoke ancient magic, something we might not fully ‘get’ yet recognize as sacred. It also invokes generations of women who worked with this energy, who delivered babies, help set bones, applied cooling poultices. These were the women who knew the right vegetables and herbs to make ointments to draw out and heal an infection. They were also the women who brought babies into this world and midwifed souls on their journey out of this world and onto the next world. They were also the communicators with the otherworlds, the ones who knew when there was faery magic afoot and could devise the ceremonies that had to be undertaken in order to set things right again. Writing Your Own Charm The power lies in feeling our connection to these women, women who also lived a relationship with Brighid, women who wove Brighid into their lives through prayers and charms as they asked for protection and used them to honor and in giving thanks. An Element of Balance There are some wonderfully descriptive charms in the Carmina Gadellica, such as the charm below for a chest seizure. In those days people were completely sustainable, they fished from the sea and grew their own food and so charms were used to bring balance back where there was an imbalance. The following charm is doing is recreating a balance in the natural world so that might bring a balance within the body and repair the damage. Charm for chest seizure Power of moon have I over thee, Power of sun I have over thee, Power of rain I have over thee, Power of dew I have over thee, Power of sea I have over thee, Power over land I have over thee, Power of stars I have over thee, Power of the planets I have over thee, Power of the universe I have over thee, Power over skies I have over thee, Power of saints I have over thee, Power over heaven I have over thee, Power of heaven and power of God have I over thee, Power of heaven and power of god over thee. A part of thee on the grey stones, A part of thee on the steep mountains, A part of thee on the swift cascades, A part of thee on the gleaming clouds, A part of thee on the ocean – whales, A part of thee on the meadow-beasts, A part of thee on the fenny swamps, A part of thee on the cotton-grass moors, A part of thee on the great surging sea – She herself has best means to carry, The great surging sea, She herself has best means to carry. Charm for Chest Seizure, Charms for Healing, Carmina Gadelica #448 A charm is particularly useful regarding something that you experience regularly. Something niggling that keeps coming around, wither physical or mental. I find it particularly useful in recognizing those days and acknowledging you need extra help. The following charm is one I have written for help on those days. Days when I’m just feeling down, part of its power lies in the images it …
(Book Announcement 1) Celebrating Seasons of the Goddess by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D. & Mary Ann Beavis, Ph.D.

Forthcoming 2017 by Mago Books. Editors: Helen Hye-Sook Hwang and Mary Ann Beavis Celebrating Seasons of the Goddess restores the original vision of celebrating cultural and natural landmarks from the perspective of Goddess feminist activism. By taking such categories as time, seasons, nature and the female divine as a point of departure, this book brings modern minds out of patriarchal holiday conventions and invites the reader to join the sobering chorus, led by our 35 authors—writers, researchers, poets, artists, ritualists, photographers and activists from around the world. At an individual level, this book presents a wide range of thealogical expressions in 88 chapters that are self-transcending and metamorphic. Its Goddess Spirituality, which may
(Performance Poem) Eye of a Needle by Susan Hawthorne

Mid-twentieth century They said I shouldn’t live You see, I’m a girl My sister was not so lucky, she died of preventable diarrhoea My sisters are many but the living not so numerous as the dead * The school said there weren’t enough desks even for the boys so I stayed home two more years My mother taught me to sing with the birds * At school no one noticed us much until the day of the long black car They took us to a place of white floors white people white ceilings I longed for red earth black people blue skies 1970s The war comes I escape run the border cross over out of hell into abandonment I am nameless My language in exile * There is no one to love 1980s In the camp I live under plastic between lines of trauma the mud fills my lungs grief corrodes my heart One day he stalks me hunts me like an animal takes me in a place where only the birds can hear me scream Day after day the birds wait and listen for my cries 1990s These are days of hope and despair I am filling my mouth with new words Words like “visa” like “protection” like “temporary” Words shaped to fill other mouths * We women, our lives like vines threading The eye of a needle takes more than a camel Twenty-first century There is no time for love I learn the system I know these walls for I have dug in the rubble and scaled them before * It is only then I find love in unexpected places She came into the centre We were careful It was slow but true Daily we experiment with trust * Once long ago they said I was a criminal for speaking my own language Then I was a criminal because he raped me They said I was a criminal because I fled their war into exile In most parts of the world my love is criminal And now that I am learning the methods and medicines of my foremothers without a licence to practise my traditions I am a criminal I do not need a licence to speak I do not need a licence to love I do not need a licence to heal I do not need a licence to live * I still talk to the birds I say, one day I will join you One day it will be your turn to cry for me On that day I want a sky burial From The Butterfly Effect by Susan Hawthorne, North Melbourne: Spinifex Press, 2005. Eye of a Needle was commissioned by the 10th International Women’s Health Meeting held in New Delhi, India in September 2005. The performance is intended to highlight women’s health issues in an international context. It is deliberately broad, moving through time and across space. It is an aerials performance with poetic text. The following issues played into my development of the text and performance. Beginning in the Mid-twentieth Century the health of girls and the way in which education is structured is the focus here. I allude to the fact that although many girls miss out on mainstream education, they do continue to be educated in the ways of their mothers and grandmothers. This can have very positive outcomes in terms of understanding cultural traditions. But many girls are “taken away” whether it is the Stolen Generation in Australia or whether it is for trafficking into prostitution or domestic work in countries around the world (including in Australia). The 1970s saw many wars of independence — and just as now — the effect on women has often been catastrophic. Escape from war torn regions can mean isolation, fragility, and a great sense of loss. In such situations how do women survive in a foreign country, speaking a foreign language? Refugees and camps have been a feature of the lives of women throughout the twentieth century, and even when women manage to escape there remain perils in the places that should be safe. Women are abused and violated because they need food, medicines, firewood and shelter for their children. Who is listening to the cries of these women? Detention camps, names like “the illegals” have become almost ordinary in the currency of the media. What could governments possibly mean by “temporary protection visa”? Whose protection are they seeking? Under such circumstances women achieve the impossible daily. The system is a giant wall with the bodies of many women at its base. Few manage to scale such bureaucracies. When they do it is an extraordinary feat. And so is love, whoever is the beloved. Many women find love, trust and friendship with other women. Some are lesbians. Mass criminalisation is occurring around the world. Among them are women whose traditional health practices threaten the newly won patents of the multinational pharmaceutical industry. I am calling for resistance to the criminalisation of women healers. This has happened before in Europe and the USA. Let’s not see another “witchcraze”. I call for dignity for all women: for sisters and aunts, mothers and lovers, friends and daughters. Meet Mago Contributor Susan Hawthorne.
(Essay 2) Through a Darkened Door—Light by Mary Ann Ghaffurian PhD

Between the beginning-story and now, at different times, a great numinous proximity welled. It was then that I knew I was onto one or other of the great vital puzzle pieces that could help put all the ghosts to rest. It was all the more shocking to realise because it took almost mental, spiritual and soul cataclysm to bring it on — so successfully had the pathways been deliberately effaced or rubbed out. Dr MAG When the seeker of truth or pilgrim sets out on a journey, he or she is on an open-ended path of self-discovery. There is a degree of submission to the path, and alertness to new intimations of “the whole”. Echoing the Tao: “She is modest, like one who is a guest, She is yielding, like ice that is going to melt, She is simple, like wood that is unplaned,” [i] yet, equally: “Chaos must be faced.”[ii] Early on I began to use maps for human consciousness interpretation, and as a way to press forward.[iii] Maps are image, direction and “whole picture” suggestions, depicting the imaginative struggle of individual or culture to pin to the known what is actually unknown, or the so-far indecipherable, as well as that which has been partially discovered. All knowledge proceeds this way, via maps, regardless of whether information is computational, intellectual, scientific, anecdotal or visceral. Maps, no matter how sketchy, unfilled-in or inaccurate, are created in people’s heads as they proceed through life. It is also true of the great discoveries of human inner life. We map our experiences as we make sense of how to go forward in a world where there is a growing sense of incomprehension and dismay as to what has been received knowledge — that things are not what they seem, and therefore the maps might be wrong, including our internal ones. If we view an imaginative map of the entire knowledge-world, the dominant received information of the education system has a North-Atlantic, US-European slant, even if that information and “knowledge” is received via many media: books, TV, films, magazines, other people and the internet. The “Inanna Moment” This is possibly an “Inanna-moment” for many, where one has to be confident Ereshkigal is not waiting at the end of the journey to leave one naked and cold on a meat-hook to dry out deep in the earth. One has to be poised, to stand at the door to the unknown, and knock. A moment of trust. When soul and psyche begin to wrest free, they leave much behind in the process, clearing body and soul of the hampering past, burning dross on pyres, unwinding metaphorical shrouds, emptying mildewy capes: at the same time learning new ways of the ancient, forever new, assisting us in our reconnection to Origin. Were she already among the immortals – were she already there at the goal to which this difficult path seems to be taking her – with what amazement she would look back over all this coming and going, all the indecision and wild zig-zagging of her tracks. With what a mixture of encouragement and blame, pity and joy…[iv] A “Mago Moment”… Feminism is now an established scholarly tradition, so as we step into the deeper as well as broader context of “women’s knowing”, we are drawn also into unlayering the past or what has been forgotten, in order to gain the bigger picture. Will what we call “Feminism” go through another round of transformation (as it could if it is in the unwinding, energetic phase, and not fixed), to become, what? Whatever that is, the direction has to give ultimate dignity to the woman, to the feminine, to the initiation of women, to sexual innateness, to mothering and motherhood, to birthing, and to the phases of women’s bodies, hearts, souls, minds and psyches, as women go through rebirthing via education, knowledge, initiation, awakening and regeneration. The Mago Circle opened as a new door for Western women and for Korean and south-east Asian traditional culture, ancient and modern, to be brought together. In the Mago Circle space, a heart-felt, explorative environment has become manifest in Social Media, where women (and men) can allow themselves to “come forth”, out of the closet of deeply held fear, apprehensions, even closely guarded secrets about their inner journey, to embrace spiritual certitude, as they embrace the renewal of the sacred Goddess and Mother connection, her forms, powers and entrustments from traditions both inside and outside traditional Western systemic, patrilineal lines, and from the sacred traditions of the East. So, it is exciting to have another door opening on to formerly darkened areas of knowledge and know-how, with opportunities to expand mental and mythical reach, and to deepen perception of the inner as well as the outer world geographical map. “Mago” Tradition Magoism is a new word to the modern Western vocabulary, yet it has its linguistic roots in many parts of the globe and in an ancient knowledge and know-how almost lost. Dr Helen Hwang determinedly and methodically is excavating the little-understood historical Mother-Goddess knowledge of Korea, and its traditions, the Mago, and Magoism, and in doing so is unlocking another previously invisible door, and replacing another ripped-off corner of the global map of significant, almost-lost tradition and forgotten knowledge. This is a most welcomed prospect. The newness of this discovery for those who learn of it fills them with excitement because every step to remember the ancient ways, particularly the lost Goddess ways, and those ways that hint of Source, are crucial to humanity remembering itself. Moderns have become accustomed to modes of mind that strip the soul and psyche of finer attunement to earth, sea, stars and each other. This renders most adrift on a sea of seeming limitless freedoms, to be picked up by any technological hook that would substitute for inner knowing. The map becomes the new computer wiring, insurance policy or bank regulation to follow. But once we scrape from our psyches the encrustation of mind …
(Video) ‘A Journey to the Heart of Things’ by Janie Rezner

A Journey to the Heart of Things https://vimeo.com/47905631 The video is my 20 minute performance at the Matriarchal Studies Conference held at San Francisco’s Fishermans Wharf on May 10, 2012. I am singing, accompanying myself on synthesizer, and also playing my ocarina.
(Poem) The Pythian Oracle and Epilepsy by Susan Hawthorne

The language in my tongue My tongue has blossomed in my mouth It is filled with language It spreads like a big red balloon With language caught inside A language that can’t distinguish one thing from another A language that does not care for past or future A language tense with the present
(Essay 1) Mago Halmi (Great Mother) Shapes Topographies with Her Skirt: An Introductory Discussion by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

[Author’s Note: This essay was included in the journal, S/HE: An International Journal of Goddess Studies (Vol 3 No 1, 2024). Footnotes numbers here differ from those of the original article.] Namu Wiki image Abstract This essay examines the skirt-motif Mago Halmi (Great Mother) cosmogonic folktales from Korea. Out of several hundred tales, I have sought 93 tales, which reference the skirt-motif. In the 93 skirt-motif tales, which come with placenames, Mago Halmi is said to have moved rocks and mountains in her skirt across lands and seas and shaped local topographies located in the current places wherein the stories are told. Given the immensity of data, I have chosen 21 sample stories and translated them for the investigation. In these stories, Mago Halmi is depicted as a giant and strong crone figure who shapes local strongholds, cairns, and megalithic structures apart from the natural constructs of mountains and rocks. The stylized narrative structure, which recurs throughout the Korean peninsula, bespeaks the glorious history of Magoism, the matriversal tradition of Old Korea, during which women held the socio-political-cultural leadership. On the one hand, the skirt is a metaphor for the cosmic womb, which underscores the female identity of the Creatrix. On the other hand, it is a modal prop to convey the principle of causal becoming; ALL is affected by all else and is in the process of becoming. Mago Halmi who carries landmasses in her skirt is susceptible to open possibilities. Sometimes rocks and lumps of soil leak from the cracks of her skirt to form the current topographies, for example. When all are co-related and caused by all else, we are revealed to the matriversal (of the maternally perceived universe) reality of WE/HERE/NOW. Beginnings as well as endings are taking place HERE and NOW in WE. By focusing on the cyclic origin of local landscapes, Mago Halmi folktales instill in their storytellers and listeners a particular type of consciousness that recognizes the consanguineous origin of ALL from the Creatrix – the Magoist Cosmogony. The folk persona of Mago Halmi, sometimes replaced with a historical or mythological female deity or a woman (a mother, a sister, a virgin, a sole-mother, and a widow), refers to the Magoma Divine (a merged divine character of Mago, the Creatrix, and Goma, the Heavenly Shaman Queen Mother). Importantly, the broad and rich information released by Mago Halmi folktales unearth the submerged layer of the Goma faith. With Goma exposed, the oral text of Mago Halmi cosmogonic folktales stands as a folk interpretation of the Magoist Cosmogony, the written account of the ever-present beginning in the Budoji (Epic of the Emblem Capital City). In short, Mago Halmi folklore and toponymy release the deepest layer of Magoist Cetaceanism (the Magoist veneration of Cetaceans), which underpins the Magoist Cosmogony. Aquatic-draconian-numerological-auditory themes show how pervasively Magoist Cetaceanism is permeated in Korean traditional folk culture. Keywords Mago Halmi, folklore, toponymy, skirt, Goma, Magoist Cosmogony, Magoist Cetaceanism, Magoist thealogy, nine-numerology, dragon, whale, Cosmic Music, Sonic Numerology Introduction This essay examines overall characteristics of 93 Korean Mago Halmi (Great Mother) folktales concerning the skirt motif and introduces 21 sample tales. 21 stories are chosen because 93 folktales drawn from all provinces of South Korea (except for one tale from North Korea) are too many and too complex to discuss in an essay. Mago Halmi is told to have moved rocks and mountains in her skirt across lands and seas and shaped local topographies located in the current places wherein the stories are told. Intriguingly, these stories and placenames offer rich information not only about Mago Halmi (Magoist Cosmogony, Magoma Divine, and Magoist Cetaceanism) but also about socio-historical-cultural-geographical backgrounds. They offer raw data, which stand as the oral version of a Magoist thealogical encyclopedia. Given the immensity of data, I have chosen 21 sample stories and translated them for the discussion. In these stories, Mago Halmi is depicted as a giant and strong crone character who shapes strongholds, cairns, and megalithic structures as well as mountains and rocks. Mago Halmi is sometimes replaced with a historical or mythological woman (a mother, a sister, a girl, a virgin, a sole-mother, and a widow). The skirt motif is a metaphoric device for the female identity of the Cosmogonist or the Cosmic Womb. Mago Halmi, the Cosmic Mother, is the Cause for ALL, her progeny. S/HE endorses the specificities of natural and cultural topographies. There is a deeper thealogical meaning. The skirt is a modal apparatus to convey the Magoist worldview that ALL is becoming in the ever-present timespace. ALL are not fixated in their past or present conditions. Future is open. Mago Halmi is not an exception. S/HE is susceptible to unfolding possibilities. Mago Halmi is attributed to the cosmic architect who has arranged natural and cultural topographies for the lives of humans. As an architect considers all possibilities in the process of building, Mago Halmi takes into consideration unfolding possibilities. Sometimes, she modifies her action upon hearing the construction of the original project is completed. Other times, rocks and lumps of soil are leaked from the cracks of her skirt to form the current topographies. And she gets distracted, gets upset, and gets tired out of which she modifies the course of her construction plan. These narrative apparatuses indicate an open-ended process of creation that takes place ever-presently according to the principle of causal becoming. “Mago 麻姑” is not a name of a particular female deity from Korea or Daoist China. It is an Old Korean word for the Cosmic Mother or the Creatrix. “Halmi” is an intentionally crafted homonym to mean Great Mother, Grandmother, and Crone. S/HE is the Source and the Cause of ALL in the Matriverse (maternally perceived universe). In folktales, Mago is addressed as Mago Halmi, a collective utterance for the Magoma Divine, referring to the merged persona (Mago, the Creatrix, and Goma, the Heavenly Mudang Queen Mother or the Heavenly Hera). Put differently, “Mago Halmi” manifests as a multifold persona, featuring the Cosmogonist, the Cetacean Goddess, …

(Special Post 7) Why Goddess Feminism, Activism, and Spirituality?

[Editor’s Note: This was first proposed in The Mago Circle, Facebook Group, on March 6, 2014. We have our voices together below and publish them in sequels. Special thanks to Trista Hendren, founder and author of The Girl God, who passionately and painstakingly promotes the message of each contributor via Facebook’s memes. Without Trista’s devotion to the advocacy, this collective effort would not have continued. It is an ongoing project and we encourage our reader to join us! Submit yours today to Helen Hwang (magoism@gmail.com). Or visit and contact someone in Return to Mago’s Partner Organizations.] Kaalii Cargill: Life emerges from the Feminine: Woman, Nature, Goddess. When we value the life-giving power of the Feminine we are less likely to kill other human beings who have been held in a mother’s arms.
(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, 2017 to the present. Themes are introduced and interwoven in a somewhat random manner, as different discussants lead the discussion. The topic of the number nine is key to Magoism, primarily manifested as Nine Magos or the Nine Mago Creatrix. Mago Academy hosts a virtual and actual event, Nine Day Mago Celebration, annually.] Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: Here is how Goma is known among the ancient Chinese. She is called The Mysterious Woman of the Nine Heavens (Jiutian xuannu). Nine Heavens refer to the confederacy of nine states, Danguk or Nine Hans. Statue of Jiutian Xuannü, Wikimedia Commons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiutian_Xuann%C3%BC Another icon of Jiutian Xuannu below. https://www.tinyatdragon.com/blogs/spiritual/jiu-tian-xuan-nu-mysterious-lady-of-the-nine-heavens?fbclid=IwAR0n1Ld6tmxqTec23Pzg3DxRjEQ-DbjdGF1DU_Jjlt4eMbHdTOO9Jd7ePnc Lizzy Bluebell: Oh – now I see what the Buddha riding the deer was carrying; her Gourd. A very interesting link, thanks.”…these statues in Taoism are not for worshipping or praying. They are like a container, a magic tool, which is used to program the energies into profiles and be used for different things in Taoist magic. The outsiders cannot understand too much, and so these “Taoist secrets” are often hidden from the public in the old days or even today.” Lizzy Bluebell: Very informative passage on the power of the NINE:”Nine is the pattern of giving off power, or using up the energies of things to give off powers, just like a flashlight burning it’s battery up for the light. Sky is the pattern that relates to any pool of resources or elements that are considered the proactive party that is “starting” something or the giving side of a situation.Remember that we talk about patterns in Taoism, and it applies to everything including our FU talismans words and these special terms like Jiu Tian / Gau Tin.A practical example for this term can be used as in if you are trying to go to the kitchen and cook something for lunch. Your “sky” here is all the things in the kitchen, and ground is the kitchen itself where you put the food into “process” them. So the 9-sky stage is to have picked out the food you like and let them show themselves to let you know which one is the best to use, maybe some just smell better or some look fresher to you. Nothing has been done yet, but you are now able to “start” something because you can at least feel and sense the food’s potentials and power.” Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: Lizzy Bluebell, Oh it is gourd. Yes, I forgot about the gourd symbol for Mago/Magu. It is a container for the elixir from which one drinks. It is a common pictographic/literary theme and I have images of Magu with the gourd. Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: Lizzy Bluebell, this is one heuristic analogy. Ancient Magoists depicted/perceived the universe as Nine Heavens, an equivalent to Nine States on earth for it is the lens of Nine Numerology through which they saw everything. Because ancient China removed the history of Goma, they spiritualized/philosophized the teaching of Nine Numerology. If we have Goma’s history (and the mytho-history of Old Magoism), we can perceive the meaning of Nine Heavenly directly (not through theories or analogies). Wherever and whenever the consciousness of Nine Numerology surfaces is a manifestation of Goma’s rule/civilization/religion. This will remain forever insofar as humanity continues because Nine Numerology is the principle of nature including humans. I would say that the teaching/principle of Nine Numerology is Goma’s self-redemptive soteriological gift. Insofar as we understand and honor the Nine Mago Creatrix/Nine Numerology (the female divine in general), we are endowed with the power of self-redemption. Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: Lizzy Bluebell, the character “Xuan or Hyeon 玄” refers to the quality of gynocentric spirituality, which has been made esoteric or mystic. It refers to the spirituality of the Great Goddess (Magoist spirituality). Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: Nine Hans or Nine Heavens manifests in such place-names as Kyūkoku (九国, Nine States). Kyushu (Nine Provinces) Island, Japan, seemingly a replica of Danguk (confederacy of nine states) representing the Nine Mago Creatrix, reflects the ancient glory of the Goma’s gynocentric rule. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyushu Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: Doumu (Mother of the Northern Dipper) also comes in the icon of eight arms. Doumu, Song Dynasty, Wikimedia Commons Domu, Wikimedia Commons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doumu Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: She is often conflated with Marici seated on a boar in her iconography (affine to Gemu of the Mosuo and Durga on a tiger/lion). Here Marici is depicted as four-headed and eight-armed. Marici, Wikimedia Commons Marici (Buddhism) – Wikipedia Judy E Foster: So similar to the Indian Goddess… Helen Hye-Sook Hwang Indeed! I am afraid that we may not be able to feature some of the nine forms of Durga from “Hinduism”. Helen Hye-Sook Hwang There is more, Marici. Marici, Wikimedia Commons File:Marichi, Buddhist Goddess of Dawn, China, Qing dynasty, 18th… Marichi, Source below. Marichi (Buddhist Deity) – Kalpoktam (3 faces, 8 hands)… Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: This is new info. on the nine tripod caldrons of ancient China. “The Nine Tripod Cauldrons (Chinese: 九鼎; pinyin: Jiǔ Dǐng) were ancient Chinese ritual cauldrons. They were ascribed to the foundation of the Xia (c. 2200 bce) by Yu the Great, using tribute metal presented by the governors of the Nine Provinces of ancient China.[1] At the time of the Shang Dynasty during the 2nd millennium bce, the tripod cauldrons came to symbolize the power and authority of the ruling dynasty with strict regulations imposed as to their use. Members of the scholarly gentry class were permitted to use one or three cauldrons; the ministers of state (大夫, dàfū) five; the vassal lords seven; and only the sovereign Son of Heaven was entitled to use nine.[2] The use of the nine tripod cauldrons to offer ritual sacrifices to the ancestors from heaven and earth was a major ceremonial occasion so that by natural progression the ding came to symbolize national political power[3] and later to be regarded as a National Treasure. Sources state that two years after the […]
(Special post) Interweaving Mago Threads by Mago Circle Members

“Mago” tradition Magoism is a new word to the modern Western vocabulary, yet it has its linguistic roots in many parts of the globe and in an ancient knowledge and know-how almost lost. Dr Helen Hwang determinedly and methodically is excavating the little-understood historical Mother-Goddess knowledge of Korea, and its traditions, the Mago, and Magoism, and in doing so is unlocking another previously invisible door, and replacing another ripped-off corner of the global map of significant, almost-lost tradition and forgotten knowledge. This is a most welcomed prospect. The newness of this discovery for those who learn of it fills them with excitement because every step to remember the ancient ways, particularly the lost Goddess ways, and those ways that hint of Source, are crucial to humanity remembering itself. Moderns have become accustomed to modes of mind that strip the soul and psyche of finer attunement to earth, sea, stars and each other. This renders most adrift on a sea of seeming limitless freedoms, to be picked up by any technological hook that would substitute for inner knowing. The map becomes the new computer wiring, insurance policy or bank regulation to follow. But once we scrape from our psyches the encrustation of mind most moderns have settled with (which calcifies the innate senses and finer antennae of knowing, emboldening technologically driven modes of mind and being to take their place), then we are on our way to a vivifying recollection. Here is an earlier presentation of the “mago” root word in “imago” or image. Not coincidentally, perhaps, it is connected to maps. (Mary Ann Ghaffurian, culled from Through a Darkened Door—Light, Part 2 by Mary Ann Ghaffurian PhD [http://magoism.wordpress.com/2012/11/26/through-a-darkened-door-light-part-2-by-mary-ann-ghaffurian-phd/]) A very special online, global group Dearest X, …Which brings to mind the “other” reason why I wanted to write to you … Other than just saying “hello” and letting you know that you are very much missed, I also wanted to share with you about a very special online, global group that I have had the honor of being a part of. This group is called Mago Circle and it was founded by my dear friend, “sister” and colleague, Helen Hwang. Helen’s work and commitment to restoring Mago, Ancestral Mother Goddess, to her rightful place as progenitor and creatrix of the Korean people, has not only been admirable but truly critical during a time when we are in real need for inspiration from thought leaders and scholars with a solid foundation in the arts and research of the sacred feminine. As you know, with the roots of Korean shamanism in the realm of women, it makes perfect sense that Korean spirituality must also have sprung within the womb of Woman … the great cosmic goddess, Mago. While Helen’s work is very much grounded in meticulous research — showcasing Korea to the rest of the world in all of Her depth, herstory, and vibrance — it is more importantly, founded in genuine intentions of love, transparency, and humility. I know that Helen can explain the depth, breadth, and height of her work much better than me so I think it will be better to have her directly share more of herself with you; what I simply hope to do through this letter is perhaps help serve as a familiar hand …. reaching out to you and letting you know that your presence and blessings as a well-regarded and much-admired Korean female shaman and scholar would be much appreciated in Mago Circle. Do you remember, X, … you once told me … about 20 years ago: “Sanity is insanity with a focus.” These words I still remember and hold true … they have helped me through times that were truly dismal and chaotic in my life, and with this reassuring and transformational way of looking at myself, looking at my life, looking at the world, I have made it through. My life continues to have its share of insanity, but I know that with focus, all sanity is restored. I know that my letter to you today may feel unexpected and random (especially after not having seen each other for so, so long), but as you know, somehow, life brings us through twists and turns that may seem awkward and strange at first, but upon retrospect, all makes complete sense. In closing, may I have the honor and pleasure of introducing Helen Hwang and the Mago Circle to you … I realize that you must be very busy, but it is my sincere hope that you will find a little time to acquaint yourself with Helen and this wonderful group of women (and men) who are very much dedicated to restoring the balance and peace of Korea and the world via Mago and her goddess sisters of many names… (Wennifer Lin, culled from her letter to her old friend) I share your call for staying connected with each other at a time of cultural and religious tensions. I too believe that all tensions arise from a patriarchal system of hegemony or domination. In the absence of patriarchal hegemony, there would be little or no tension among human beings. The belief in the Mother Goddess would remove the necessity for aggression and hence domination of other human beings or animals. In the eyes of the Mother, every living being is her creature. Hence love, kindness, nurturing and all that is beautiful would prevail everywhere. Am I sounding too idealistic or am I pining for a utopian society that is just not possible? But in theory, it is possible to return to the spirit of Mother, manifest in everything in nature and in our thoughts and actions. With admiration and preservation of Mother we can change the world for a better place. So with this in mind, I submit to all women (who are the living image of the Great Mother Goddess) and goddess lovers in the world to unite in our efforts to bring back the ideals of the Great Goddess. As an academic, I […]

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

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

Photo by Carolyn Lee Boyd In times past, Creation’s Winter cupped me in her icy hand of sanctuary Gathered in, I sucked dormant life, and slumbered Till Earth’s rebirthing groans awakened my new body Now, older and full of life’s weeping and wondering awe At all that has happened in my decades on Earth I must shake myself into consciousness My seed’s opaque, blinding hull disintegrates and Bodyless, at last I can see through Goddess eyes I ache as my blood paints each flower petal I spin the whirlwind that cannot stop creating abundance I push the seasons through the year that mortals believe revolve of their own accord. Through Goddess eyes I can see me, I inhabit Winter’s hand as my own. I make the cold to slow creation of outside of me To gather the seed into fertile stillness within. That burgeons in my own time. https://www.magoism.net/2016/08/meet-mago-contributor-carolyn-lee-boyd/
(Slideshow) Beltaine Goddess by Glenys Livingstone, Ph.D.

Tara, Hallie Iglehart Austen, p.122 On November 7th at 22:56 UTC EarthGaia crosses the midpoint in Her orbit between Equinox and Solstice. In the Southern Hemisphere it is the Season of Beltaine – a maturing of the Light, post-Spring Equinox. Beltaine and all of the light part of the cycle, is particularly associated with the Young One/Virgin aspect of Goddess, even as She comes into relationship with Other: She remains Her own agent. Beltaine may be understood as the quintessential annual celebration of Light as it continues to wax towards fullness. It is understood to be the beginning of Summer. Here is some Poetry of the Season: Earth tilts us further towards Mother Sun, the Source of Her pleasure, life and ecstasy You are invited to celebrate BELTAINE the time when sweet Desire For Life is met – when the fruiting begins: the Promise of early Spring exalts in Passion. This is the celebration of Holy Lust, Allurement, Aphrodite … Who holds all things in form, Who unites the cosmos, Who brings forth all things, Who is the Essence of the Dance of Life. Glenys Livingstone, 2005 The choice of images for the Season is arbitrary; there are so many more that may express this quality of Hers. And also for consideration, is the fact that most ancient images of Goddess are multivalent – She was/is One: that is, all Her aspects are not separate from each other. These selected images tell a story of certain qualities that may be contemplated at the Seasonal Moment of Beltaine. As you receive the images, remember that image communicates the unspeakable – that which can only be known in body – below rational mind. So you may open yourself to a transmission of Her, that will be particular to you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKGRoVjQQHY Aphrodite 300 B.C.E. (Hallie Iglehart Austen, The Heart of the Goddess). This Greek Goddess is commonly associated with sexuality in a trivial kind of way, but She was said to be older than Time (Barbara Walker p.44). Aphrodite as humans once knew Her, was no mere sex goddess: Aphrodite was once a Virgin-Mother-Crone trinity – the Creative Force itself. The Love that She embodied was a Love deep down in things, an allurement intrinsic to the nature of the Universe. Praised by the Orphics thus: For all things are from You Who unites the cosmos. You will the three-fold fates You bring forth all things Whatever is in the heavens And in the much fruitful earth And in the deep sea. Vajravarahi 1600C.E. Tibetan Tantric Buddhism (Hallie Iglehart Austen, The Heart of the Goddess). A Dakini dancing with life energy – a unity of power, beauty, compassion and eroticism. Praised as Mistress of love and of knowledge at the same time. Tara Contemporary – Green Gulch California ,Tibetan Buddhist. (Hallie Iglehart Austen, The Heart of the Goddess). “Her eroticism is an important part of her bodhisattvahood: the sweetpea represents the yoni, and she is surrounded by the sensual abundance of Nature. One of Tara’s human incarnations was as the Tibetan mystic Yeshe Tsogyal, “who helped many people to enlightenment through sacred sexual union with her”. – Ishtar 1000 B.C.E. Babylon (Hallie Iglehart Austen, The Heart of the Goddess). Associated with passionate sexuality (and with Roman Goddess Venus) – which was not perceived as separate from integrity and intelligence … praised for Her beauty and brains! Her lips are sweet, Life is in Her mouth. When She appears, we are filled with rejoicing. She is glorious beneath Her robes. Her body is complete beauty. Her eyes are total brilliance. Who could be equal to Her greatness, for Her decrees are strong, exalted, perfect. MESOPOTAMIAN TEXT 1600 B.C.E. Artemis 4th Cent.B.C.E. Greece. (Hallie Iglehart Austen, The Heart of the Goddess) – classic “Virgin” image – wild and free, “Lady of the Beasts”, Goddess of untamed nature. As such, in the patriarchal stories She is often associated with harshness, orgiastic rituals but we may re-story “wildness” in our times as something “innocent” – in direct relationship with the Mother. She is a hunter/archer, protector, midwife, nurturing the new and pure essence (the “wild”) – in earlier times these things were not contradictory. The hunter had an intimate relationship with the hunted. Visvatara and Vajrasattva 1800C.E. Tibetan Goddess and God in Union: it could be any Lover and Beloved, of same sex. Image from Mann and Lyle, “Sacred Sexuality” p.74. Sacred Couple –Mesopotamia 2000-1600 BCE “Lovers Embracing on Bed”, Inanna Queen of Heaven and Earth, Diane Wolkstein and Samuael Noah Kramer. Represents the sacred marriage mythic cycle – late 3rd and into 4th millennium B.C.E. (See Starhawk, Truth or Dare). This period is the time of Enheduanna – great poet and priestess of Inanna. Xochiquetzal 8th century C.E. Mayan (Hallie Iglehart Austen, The Heart of the Goddess). Her name means “precious flower” – She is Goddess of pleasure, sexuality beauty and flowers. Sometimes represented by a butterfly who sips the nectar of the flower. “In ancient rituals honouring her, young people made a bower of roses, and, dressed as hummingbirds and butterflies they danced an image of the Goddess of flowers and love.” Her priestesses are depicted with ecstatic faces. (called “laughing Goddesses” !!) She and Her priestesses unashamedly celebrated joyful female sexuality – there is story of decorating pubic hairs to outshine the Goddess’ yoni. https://www.magoism.net/2013/06/meet-mago-contributor-glenys-livingstone/ REFERENCES: Iglehart Austen, Hallie. The Heart of the Goddess. Berkeley: Wingbow, 1990. Mann A.T. and Lyle, Jane. Sacred Sexuality. ELEMENT BOOKS LTD, 1995. Starhawk. Truth or Dare. San Fransisco:Harper and Row, 1990. Walker, Barbara. The Woman’s Encyclopaedia of Myths and Secrets. San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1983. Wolkstein,Diane and Kramer, Samuel Noah. Inanna Queen of Heaven and Earth. NY: Harper and Rowe, 1983. The music for the slideshow is “”Coral Sea Dreaming” by Tania Rose.
A Southern Hemisphere Perspective on Place by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This essay is an edited excerpt from the Introduction to the author’s book PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion, which was an outcome of her doctoral research/thesis entitled The Female Metaphor – Virgin, Mother, Crone – of the Dynamic Cosmological Unfolding: Her Embodiment in Seasonal Ritual as Catalyst for Personal and Cultural Change. This doctoral work was in turn a documentation and deeper research of the Seasonal ceremonial celebrations that the author was already engaged in for over a decade. The whole of the process is here named as her “Search”. photo credit: David Widdowson, Astrovisuals. The site of seasonal ceremonial celebrations will always be significant. In my case, the place in which I have created them has been notably in the Southern Hemisphere of out Planet Earth. The fact of my context being thus – the Southern Hemisphere – had contributed in the past to my deep internalized sense of being “other”, and dissociated from my senses, since almost all stories told were based in Northern Hemisphere perspective. Yet at the same time this context of inhabiting the Southern Hemisphere contributed to my deep awareness of Gaia’s Northern Hemisphere and Her reciprocal Seasonal Moment: thus, awareness of the whole Planet. My initial confusion about the sensed Cosmos – as a Place, became a clarity about the actual Cosmos – which remained inclusive of my sensed Cosmos. PaGaian reality – the reality of our Gaian “country” – is that the whole Creative Dynamic happens all the time, all at once. The “other”, the opposite, is always present – underneath and within the Moment. This has affected my comprehension of each Sabbat/Seasonal Moment, its particular beauty but also a fullness of its transitory nature. Many in the Northern Hemisphere – even today – have no idea that the Southern Hemisphere has a ‘different’ lunar, diurnal, seasonal perspective; and because of this there often is a rigidity of frame of reference for place, language, metaphor and hence cosmology[i]. Indeed over the years of industrialized culture it has appeared to matter less to many of both hemispheres, including the ‘author-ities’, the writers of culture and cosmos. And such ‘author-ity’ and northern-hemispheric rigidity is also assumed by many more Earth-oriented writers as well[ii]. There has been consistent failure to take into account a whole Earth perspective: for example, the North Star does not need to be the point of sacred reference – there is great Poetry to be made of the void of the South Celestial Pole. Nor need the North be rigidly associated with the Earth element and darkness, nor is there really an “up” and a “down” cosmologically speaking. A sense and accountof the Southern Hemisphere perspective with all that that implies metaphorically as well as sens-ibly, seems vitally important to comprehending and sensing a whole perspective and globe – a flexibility of mind, and coming to inhabit the real Cosmos, hence enabling what I have named as a ‘PaGaian’ cosmological perspective, a whole Earth perspective. It has also been of particular significance that my Search has been birthed in the ancient continent of Australia. It is the age of the exposed rock in this Land, present to her inhabitants in an untarnished, primal mode that is significant. This Land Herself has for millennia been largely untouched by human war, conquest and concentrated human agriculture and disturbance. The inhabitants of this Land dwelt here in a manner that was largely peaceful and harmonious, for tens of thousands of years. Therefore the Land Herself may speak more clearly I feel; one may be the recipient of direct transmission of Earth in one of her most primordial modes. Her knowledge may be felt more clearly – one may be taught by Her. I think that the purity of this transmission is a significant factor in the development of the formal research I undertook – in my chosen methodology and in what I perceived in the process, and documented; from my beginnings as a country girl, albeit below my conscious mind in the subtle realms of which I knew little, to the more conscious times of entering into the process of the Search. In this Land that birthed me, ‘spirit’ is not remote and abstract, it is felt in Her red earth[iii]. Aboriginal elder David Mowaljarlai described, “This is a spirit country”[iv], and all of Her inhabitants, including non-Indigenous, may be affected by the strength of Her organic communication. It took me until the later stages of my research to realize the need to state the importance of this particular place for the advent of the research: the significance of both the land of Australia, and the specific region of the Blue Mountains in which I was now dwelling, as well as the community of this particular region, which all lent itself to the whole process. The lateness of this perception on my part, has to do with the extent of my previous alienation; but the fact that it did occur, is perhaps at least in part attributable to the unfolding awakening to my habitat that was part of the project/process. The specific region of the “Blue Mountains” – as Europeans have named them – is significant in that I don’t think that this project/process could have happened as it did in just any region. David Abram says, “The singular magic of a place is evident from what happens there, from what befalls oneself or others when in its vicinity. To tell of such events is implicitly to tell of the particular power of that site, and indeed to participate in its expressive potency[v]”. Blue Mountains, Australia: Dharug and Gundungurra Country The Blue Mountains are impressive ancient rock formations, an uplifted ancient seabed, whose “range of rock types and topographical situations has given rise to distinct plant communities”[vi]; and the presence of this great variation of plant communities, “especially the swamps, offer an abundance and variety of food sources, as well as habitats for varied fauna”[vii]. I feel that this is the case for …
(Video) A Samhain Ceremony by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

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

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

It took many years for me to pronounce the communal nature of the Mago Work. Defining the Mago Work necessarily endows us with the bird’s eye view of the Great Goddess, the primordial consciousness of WE in S/HE. Early this year, I asked people to define the Mago Work and their definitions are illuminating about what this book ultimately seeks to achieve.[1]
(Mago Stronghold Essay 1) The Forgotten Primordial Paradise by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.

Part I Multivalent Meaning of Mago Stronghold Mago Stronghold (麻姑城, Mago-seong) refers to the center of the world (axis mundi) in the Magoist Cosmogony. It is a metaphor for the Source/Origin/Womb of Life for terrestrial beings. Mago Stronghold represents the forgotten paradise of the Great Goddess in patriarchy. In patriarchal times, it has become a code to unlock the hidden S/HE Reality. As one’s life in the body and mind is the very proof for the first mother, “Mago,” from whom one comes, the existence of Mago Stronghold in toponym and meaning is the very token to prove vital for the primordial home of terrestrial beings, also called the Earth. The Mago Stronghold talk, upon being fully deciphered, merits the bird’s eye view of human history from the cosmogonic beginning of the Great Goddess to this day. Its message is, among others, we are NOT locked out from the blissful time of S/HE beginning. We are NOT disconnected from our ancestors and deities. And we are NOT substantively different from our non-human sojourns. All in WE are found in Mago Stronghold. I present my investigation of Mago Stronghold, rather than a new theory, as an alternative mode of perceiving reality. The Mago Stronghold talk answers the ultimate question of “who I am” as a person and why we are here in our life journey. It is meant to engender metamorphosis, the process of awakening and navigating in S/HE Reality, for both an individual and the collective. We realize that no one is bound to patriarchal reality except those who create it. WE are HERE/NOW. However, the full-fledged implication of Mago Stronghold can’t be unveiled without naming the systemic working of mental blocks and lifting the limit. Official (read patriarchal) historiography is not the place where we nest our conversation. Linear thinking can’t help us arrive at the Scene. Thinking within ethnocentric and nationalist grids is among the mental blocks. We are invited to explore a whole new/old/original way of seeing and knowing matters. You and I across cultures, nationalities, and geographies have a lot in common to talk and think about. Precisely, the Mago Stronghold talk bridges the gap among moderns. Its implication is NOT confined to Korea or East Asia. One may wonder how it is so? The concept of Mago Stronghold, remembered by East Asian Magoists, concerns the common origin of all beings on Earth. Discourse on the Great Goddess/Primordial Mother/Creatrix can’t be parochial by nature. It maps out the gynocentric consciousness of WE, which redefines national/cultural identities as consanguineous. The Mago Stronghold talk works at multi-dimensions crisscrossing and connecting the personal and the collective, the local and the universal, and the physical and the symbolic. Mago Stronghold found across Korea and China is no ordinary cultural or historical landmark. It is also equated with Mago Mountain or Triad Mountain. The extant toponym of Mago Stronghold is a door to the Other Realm of the Great Goddess. Precisely, it signifies the Primordial/Perennial Home for not only the Mago Clan (Mago and HER divine and human descendants) but also all terrestrial beings, according to the Magoist Cosmogony. “Mago Stronghold” is an eponym for such socio-natural-architectural variations as castles, citadels, mountain villages, fortresses, stone walls, earthen walls, and ultimately the Earth. It is etiological, explaining the gynocentric origin of the axis mundi and the sacred mountain reverence known in many ancient worlds. Macrocosmically, Mago Stronghold refers to the Earth, the Splendid Land of the Primordial Mother. Residing in the Big Dipper (Seven Stars),[1] Mago governs the solar system and chooses the Earth as HER Garden.[2] S/HE delegates HER divine and human offspring to cultivate sonic resonance in harmony with cosmic music. In that sense, Earth IS HER Civilization. Its literal meaning, the Stronghold of the Great Goddess, conveys that all Earth’s civilizations are born of the Great Goddess. The Mago Civilization of Earth is aligned with the Law of Nature established by the marvelous working of the Great Goddess. Nature reflects HER Majestic Work. When the Creatrix (Cosmogonic Matrix) is made unthinkable, if not erased, in the course of patriarchal mytho-history, Mago Stronghold stands as an enigmatic cultural icon. It comes to us as a code to decipher. Much is to be unveiled for HER Paradise to be reinstated in the collective mind of humanity. Euphemisms that are severed from the Magoist implication in the course of history are linked back to the original Magoist words. The Mago Stronghold Code enchants us to the holistic view of the Great Goddess, the WE consciousness in S/HE, that is tabooed in patriarchy. Reminding people of the common origin from the Primordial Mother, Mago Stronghold opens a new horizon of the gynocentric reality, WE/HERE/NOW. We have been part of the Grand Plan of the Great Goddess. When it comes to the female, official historiography, which is after all a product of the patriarchal dominant group, offers little to, if not obstructs, the researcher. The history it calls is nothing other than a self-aggrandizing distorted view of the past events, or rather an imposed false view of the past by patriarchal colonizers. Patriarchal history should be called pseudo-history. It concerns not truth but domination and self-expansion. The history of self-sharers/altruists/Magoists never dies for it is about re-membering of all in WE. What happened is never left unanimated, according to the Law of Nature. It can’t be erased, for truth is the language of Life. As such, the collective memory that ancient (read pre-patriarchal) Magoists were the bearers of the Magoist royal lineage has survived official East Asian (read Sinocentric) historiography. It is imbued in such socio-cultural data as lore, literature, art, and place-names, as well as the so-called apocryphal texts. My task here is to decode the meaning of Mago Stronghold, unearthing non-official data and reading them between the lines of written records. (To be continued) See Meet Mago Contributor Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D. [1] The Big Dipper (Seven Stars) is favored by Koreans. Triad Deity (Samsin), another name for Mago, is …
(Video) The Mago Work by Mago Sisters by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL-hbgxa5v1IfUM6h6PvOTpLe8fLv5ExRG&v=HUM6EQ7sEaQ

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