Contributors

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Ongoing Contributors include:

Jack Dempsey, Ph.D.

Maya Daniel, Poet

Lila Moore, Ph.D.

Krista Rodin, Ph.D.

Carolyn Lee Byod

Janie Rezner, Advocate

Kaalii Cargill, Ph.D.

Trista Hendren, Advocate

Luciana Percovich, Ph.D.

Deborah J Milton

Jude Lally

Sudie Rakusin, Artist

Liz Darling, Artist

Lucy Pierce, Artist

Arlene Bailey

Janine Canan

Deanne Quarrie, D.Min.

Glen Rogers

Susan Hawthorne, Ph.D.

Nane Jordan

Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.

Swami Pujananda Saraswati

Mary Saracino, Writer

Hearth Moon Rising, Writer

Louisa Calio, Poet

Harriet Ann Ellenberger, Poet

Sara Wright

Glenys Livingstone, Ph.D.

Alex Purbrick

Harita Meenee, Writer

Kirsten Brunsgaard Clausen

Anne Baring, Ph.D.

Alaya Dannu

Yia Alias, Advocate

Danica Anderson, Ph.D.

Genevieve Vaughan, Advocate

Amina Rodriguez, Poet

Susan Abbott (USA)

Danica Borkovich Anderson (USA)

Yia Alias (Sydney, Australia)

Anne Baring, Ph.D.

Mary Ann Beavis, Ph.D. (Canada)

Carolyn Lee Boyd (U.S.A.)

Noris Binet

Jhilmil Breckenridge (Delhi India)

Janine Canan (CA, USA)

Kaalii Cargill (Australia)

Louisa Calio (USA)

Susan Clare

Kirsten Brunsgaard Clausen (Sweden, Denmark)

Maya Daniel (Philippines)

Alaya Dannu (U.S.A)

Liz Darling (Kansas, U.S.A.)

Jack Dempsey, Ph.D.

Harriet Ann Ellenberger (Canada, U.S.A.)

Pegi Eyers (Peterborough, Canada)

Ani Finch (USA)

Frances Guerin (Victoria, Australia)

Trista Hendren (Portland, U.S.A.)

Louise M. Hewett

Susan Hawthorne, Ph.D. (Australia)

Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D. (California, USA, Korea)

Nané Ariadne Jordan, Ph.D. (Vancouver, BC, Canada)

Joanna Kujawa (Australia)

Jude Lally (Scotland, USA)

Glenys Livingstone, Ph.D. (Australia)

Harita Meenee (Greece and Egypt)

Deborah Jane Milton, Ph.D.(USA)

Lila Moore, Ph.D. (UK)

Nuit Moore (USA)

J.A.A. Narayan

Jillian Parker (Alaska, U.S.A.)

Luciana Percovich (Italy)

Lucy Pierce (Melbourne, Australia)

Deanne Quarrie, D. Min (USA)

Shireen Qudosi

Janie “Oquawka” Rezner, MA (USA)

Sudie Rakusin (USA)

Hearth Moon Rising (New York, U.S.A.)

Krista Rodin, Ph.D. (Austria, USA)

Amina Rodriguez (USA)

Angelika Heike Rüdiger (Germany and Wales, United Kingdom)

Swami Pujananda Saraswati

Alex Purbrick (Shetland Islands)

Glen Rogers

Mary Saracino (USA)

Nicole Shaw (Canada)

Deepak Shimkhada, Ph.D.

Francesca Tronetti, Ph.D.

Anna Tzanova (Bulgaria, Canada, USA)

Genevieve Vaughan (Italy and USA)

Phibby Venable (USA)

Jassy Watson (Australia)

Shekhina Weaver (Denmark)

Sara Wright (Maine, USA)

Guest Contributors

Yuna Angell (Singapore)

Melissa Austin (Texas, USA)

Arna Baartz (Northern Rivers, NSW Australia)

Lena Bartula

Marya Berry (France, USA)

Lizzy Bluebell

Leslie Carol Botha (USA)

Michael Brautigan (USA)

Carly Bryson (Texas, U.S.A.)

Tim Buck (USA)

Luke Buckham (MA, USA)

Xánath Caraza (Mexico and U.S.A.)

Matthew Chabin

Ruma Chakravarti (Australia)

Yuan Changming

Virginie Colline (Paris, France)

MaryAnn Columbia (U.S.A.)

Kerryn Coombs-Valeontis

Dr. Adrian Cooper

Laurie Corzett

Sandra Curtis (Australia)

Amy D’Amico (USA)

Barbara C. Daughter (USA)

Jayne Marie DeMente (U.S.A.)

Camelia Elias

Bart Everson

Elizabeth Chloe Erdman

Judy Foster (Melbourne, Australia)

Heide Goettner-Abendroth, Ph.D. (Germany)

Adriana Manuela Ruiz Gómez (Mexico, Spain)

Diane Goldie (U.K.)

Starr Goode (USA)

Andrew Gurevich (Oregon, USA)

Eileen Haley (Australia)

Rev Dr Patricia ‘Iolana (USA)

Victor Hernández (USA)

Rena Hoffman (Australia)

Stacey Hughes (Australia)

Vana Kim (Hansen) Ed.D. (Korea, USA, Canada)

Samantha Ledger (Lightwater, England)

Paula Lietz (Canada)

Wennifer (Wei-Ni) Lin, Ph.D. (U.S.A., Taiwan)

Vajra Ma (Oregon, USA)

Gloria Manthos (USA)

Kathy Martone (USA)

Susan Morgaine (RI and MA, USA)

Virginia Masson

Anna McBain (New York, U.S.A.)

Aisha Monks-Husain

Rosie Aiello Morales (Florida, USA)

Mary Beth Moser, Ph.D. (USA)

Laura Newberry-Yokley (USA)

Andrea Nicki (Canada)

Malgorzata Oleszkiewicz-peralba, Ph.D.

Kushal Paddor (India)

Maria Palacios (Texas, U.S.A.)

Lucy H. Pearce (Ireland)

Mary Petiet (USA)

Pina Piccolo

Joan Powell (Australia)

Jennifer Powell

Shireen Qudosi (USA)

Christina Quinn (USA)

Bridget Robertson (Texas, U.S.A.)

Julie Stewart Rose (Melbourne, Australia)

Liona Rowan (USA)

Rhyannan

Nicole Schwab

Robin Scofield (Texas, U.S.A.)

Taffy (Robert) Seaborne (Australia)

Moses Seenarine, Ph.D.

Judith Shaw (USA)

Elisabeth Slettnes (Lillehammer, Norway)

Amy Barron Smolinski (USA, Germany)

Donna Snyder (Texas, U.S.A.)

Annabelle Solomon (Australia)

Shiloh Sophia

Robin Stimpson (Winnipeg, Canada)

Jeri Studebaker (USA)

Paola Suarez (USA)

Belinda Subraman

Morgaine Swann (USA)

Karen Tintori (USA)

Sandra Torrez (Texas, USA)

Tabitha Tucker (USA)

Barbara Truncellito (New York, USA)

Meghanaiyegee Venketasamy (Megha)

Kathleen McKern Verigin

Majidi Warda (Australia)

Dale Winslow (British Columbia, Canada)

Peter Wilkes (USA)

Simply Sumaiyah Yates (USA)

Hannah Baek Wha

Special Guest Contributors

Xochitl Alvizo (USA)

Maria Ariaz (USA)

Jennifer Berezan (Canada and USA)

Lucia Chiavola Birnbaum (CA, USA)

Carol P. Christ, Ph.D. (Greece, U.S.A.)

Max Dashu (U.S.A.)

Leslene della-Madre (U.S.A.)

Elaine Drew (San Francisco Bay Area, U.S.A.)

Dr. Mary Ann Ghaffurian (Australia, New Zealand)

Marie de Kock (Chile)

Ayele Kumari, Ph.D. (USA) x

Judith Laura (U.S.A.)

Yvonne M. Lucia (New York, USA)

Sabrina Montanaro (Italy)

Marla J. Selvidge, Ph.D. (Missouri, USA)

Ancestor Contributors

Ingrid Andrew (London, England)

Mario Colín (U.S.A.)

Clair French, Ph.D.

Kelly Allee Greer (U.S.A.)

Carol Hiltner (USA)

Barbara Mor (U.S.A.)

Lydia Ruyle (Colorado, U.S.A.)

4 thoughts on “Contributors”

Pingback: Melanie Glastrong
Mariana says:

September 22, 2013 at 4:36 PM

I second Kaycers…so much richness and wisdom of our sister contributors!

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magoeditors says:

September 14, 2013 at 6:36 PM

Thanks so much for your comments! Blessings and hope to see you around!

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kaycers says:

June 5, 2013 at 2:50 PM

What an amazing ensemble of talented people! So glad I found this site!

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(Poem) War in the Ukraine by Sara Wright

Photo by Sara Wright White Winds Chaotic stirrings. Frigid waters churning a season of ice. Is there no end to the differences that separate us – War? Military violence – murder and rape displacing us all from land we belong to – exiled from Earth, self, and those we love. https://www.magoism.net/2014/12/meet-mago-contributor-sara-wright/
(Essay 1) Circe the Island Witch by Hearth Moon Rising

Circe painting by Beatrice Offer, 1911 The demigoddess Circe is a recurrent character in Greek mythology. She is portrayed as a strong and independent woman with powerful magic, and she remains a favorite subject in art and literature. In this series of articles I will explore Circe as she appears in Greek mythology, trace her origins as a nature goddess, and discuss a real woman of the Circe archetype in later history. Circe (pronounced SIR-see in English, probably KER-key in ancient Greek) begins life as the daughter of the solar deity Helios and the Cretan Queen Pasiphae. Helios is not the sun, exactly, but the conductor of the chariot that pulls the sun across the sky. Pasiphae is the Minoan queen who births the Minotaur, half-man and half-bull. In some accounts Pasiphae is Circe’s sister while her mother is Perseis, a minor sea goddess. Circe marries a prince of Colchis, a city-state on the Black Sea in present-day Georgia. She kills her husband so she can rule alone, but is run off for her crime. A special cemetary is named for her, where the corpses of male heros are placed in willow trees to be picked by scavenger-birds. After fleeing from accountability for her crime, Circe takes refuge on the island of Aeaea, which Robert Graves places in the Adriatic Sea near Croatia. According to Graves, Aeaea means “wailing.” The island is surrounded by Alder trees, associated with healing, divination, and the death realm, since the tree “bleeds” bright red when cut. Circe’s knowledge of herbal potions is unparalleled, and she gives a root decoction to the maiden Procris to prevent King Minos of Crete from “filling her with reptiles and insects.” Circe teaches her magical arts to her neice Medea, who becomes another powerful witch. She (reluctantly) uses her magic to purify Medea, Jason, and the other Argonauts after their exploits in pursuit of the Golden Fleece. Circe poisoning Scylla. 1892 painting by John Waterhouse. Circe is known as much for her lust as for her magical acumen. Refusing her love carries a price. She turns the Latin king Picus into a woodpecker for spurning her. Turning men into animals is a favorite pastime of Circe – more on that later. The merman Glaucus approaches Circe for a potion that will make the beautiful sea-nymph Scylla love him. Glaucus became a merman through his own proficiency with herbal magic. He discovered a plant that would heal fish, and Poseidon made him half-fish so he could persue a career underwater as a fish doctor. Unfortunately for Glaucus and for Scylla, Circe decides she wants Glaucus for herself. She pours poison herbs in the tidal pool where Scylla swims, turning Scylla into a horrible monster. Scylla remains lovely from the waist up, but her lower half contains multiple heads of dogs and horses. Filled with self-loathing for her physical appearance, and unable to escape the tidal pool, Scylla begins eating sailors. In this way Circe neutralizes a rival, but she does not succeed in winning the love of Glaucus. Who could have predicted… Despite failing to foresee how that episode would play out, Circe is a talented soothsayer. Odysseus survives his voyage only because of a fortuitous encounter with this powerful witch. This is the most famous and detailed myth involving Circe, and deserves an article of its own. To be continued… Circe, 5th century BCE, Greek Pottery by Marsyas https://www.magoism.net/2013/04/meet-mago-contributor-hearth-moon-rising/
(Art) Volunteer Lifesavers (with Annette Kellermann) by Eileen Haley

Women lifesavers (including one in a burqini) dance on a beach. Mermaids populate the ocean behind the figures.
(Prose) The Scarlet Runner Outside My Window by Sara Wright

Photo by Sara Wright I have grown scarlet runner beans ever since I can remember. I have heirloom seeds that I collect every fall to dry and store for the winter. During the last few years as the weather began to shift planting became tricky. The deer were also decimating my plants before they could produce seeds pods so eventually after sharing seeds with others, I gave up growing my own… Last winter I had an opportunity to look at lichens, molds, and stones under a powerful microscope at the Mineral and Gem Museum (MGM) and since I had one old seed from many years past, I took it in along with some slime molds because I wanted to see the colors. To my utter shock when I opened the damp packet the seed had produced a big fat white root. Although it was only the first of March, I brought home my treasure and planted it in a pot. Any seed that wanted to grow that much had to be given a chance to live. Within a month I had this huge vine climbing up my window. Every day, after apologizing profusely and telling the vine how much I loved her, I wound her tendrils back on each other. May came with a hard killing freeze and then the rains began. The flooding lasted all summer along with the worst air quality we have ever had here in Maine (nano particles are not measured, the worst air pollution of all). Our beloved Northern Forests are still on fire. In desperation I planted my vine just outside my window to avoid deer predation, where it immediately died. Imagine my astonishment when a tiny leaf appeared about two weeks later in the rain. It was now almost July. The scarlet runner sent out more shoots and by mid – August tiny scarlet flowers appeared. Hummingbirds flocked to the blossoms. Bees too. I waited, and lo, a few pods finally appeared in September. A terrifying accident prevented me from seeing my beans again… Just two days ago my dear friend James, the Bird Man, collected the few pods for me. Most were unripe but when I shelled the beans this morning I had three good seeds, and some unripe ones that looked like jewels . I will dry all of them for about a week and then store the three viable seeds in a cool place for the winter… Maybe my heirloom seeds will produce another magic vine or two next year. I know that I will never forget this old, abandoned bean seed that simply refused to give up. I am awed by the Powers of Nature. S/he will endure. Perhaps before too long theses beans will be gone forever, but for now, I may see another scarlet runner vine bear flowers and seed pods next year. Our only hope lies with the Powers of Nature. No matter what humans continue to do to destroy this beautiful blue green planet – one day S/he will begin again. https://www.magoism.net/2014/12/meet-mago-contributor-sara-wright/
(Essay) The Triple Goddess and Whitehead’s “Threefold Creative Composition” by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D

This essay is an edited excerpt from Chapter 4 of the author’s book PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. Triple Hecate, Rome 1st century C.E., holding a sword, an ear of corn, and a serpent – Her jurisdictions of sky, earth and underworld. Lawrence Durdin-Robertson, The Year of the Goddess, Figure 15. Process philosopher, Alfred North Whitehead perceived the Universe as including a composition of a “threefold creative act”. He describes these three as (i) the one infinite conceptual realization, (ii) the multiple solidarity of free physical realizations in the temporal world, (iii) the ultimate unity of the multiplicity of actual fact with the primordial conceptual fact[1]. I note some congruencies of this threefold composition with the Female Metaphor/Triple Goddess, as well as some points of departure. Whitehead conceives his first and the third aspects as having a unity, which is also true of the Virgin/Urge to Be and Crone/Space to Be qualities of the Female Metaphor/Triple Goddess wherein the beginning and the end are barely distinguishable in their felt proximity to Source: that is, the continuity of the “Urge to Return” and the “Urge to Be” with Source of Being may be more obvious than the continuity of “Place of Being”/Mother quality with Source of Being. We are always returning to the unity – it is integral with life; and we are always being regenerated – reconceived: our bodyminds are in a constant state of dissolution and renewal, expressed in both the Virgin and Crone qualities. We are part of a great cycle of returning and renewal; and the manifest reality, the web of life – the Mother, the “physical realization” as Whitehead describes his second aspect, is the place of communion. However Whitehead puts the first and third aspects “over against” the second aspect. He admits the power of the second aspect, as he describes that the “sheer force of things lies in the intermediate physical process: this is the energy of physical production”[2], but his “God” is merely “patient” with it. Whitehead says that “God’s role … lies in the patient operation of the overpowering rationality of his conceptual harmonization[3]”. Whitehead’s point was that “God” did not create the world, that “he” was the poet of the world – leading it with “tender patience”, but the language that he uses invokes and indicates more dualistic thinking, as does his splitting of the “three-fold creative act” into this oppositional situation. The cosmology of the Female Metaphor/Triple Goddess has resonances with Whitehead’s philosophy, however he still speaks of a Deity/“God” as an entity as if external to creation, albeit at times also Creature and of “consequent nature” – that is, partly created by the world[4]. Theologian Nancy Howell notes that Whitehead’s “philosophy of organism”, as she describes it, does provide a cosmology that radically differs from “dominant mechanistic and patriarchal worldviews”, thus providing support for the constructing of a promising feminist theory of relations, a feminist ecological cosmology[5]. She describes how Whitehead’s process philosophy has provided a “helpful conceptual framework” for the interpretation of women’s experiences based as it is in relational, organic thinking that is systemically inclusive of an infinite range of experience, and promotes a continuity of the human with the cosmos/nature. Howell notes that Whitehead’s philosophy promotes and reflects change, and enables the reinterpretation of many dualisms – subject/object, body/mind, reason/emotion, God/world[6]. Feminist theologians, for whom in general “God” remains an indelible metaphor, find the reinterpretation of the last mentioned dualism particularly hopeful. Howell describes that “the genius of Whitehead’s metaphysics” is that “God and the world” truly affect each other, create each other, receive from each other – are “truly in relation”[7]: Howell is thus confident that this metaphysics feeds “a feminist vision of mutuality”. The Power of Three, Neolithic,Thessaly. Marija Gimbutas, The Language of the Goddess, p.91 This helps me clarify then that the cosmology I am describing in PaGaian Cosmology goes further than a “feminist vision of mutuality”. Howell still speaks of this “God” as a separate entity: to my mind this is still a “meta”-physics, not the “intra”-physics of the cosmogenetic dynamics of which I speak, and which is a gynocentric cosmology. Howell comes closest in her language to this “intra”-physics where she notes Rita Nakashima Brock’s metaphor of “God/dess as Heart, the present divine erotic power”[8]. Brock appears to have made the connection, the transition to an integral cosmology, where Whitehead’s metaphysics comes up short. As mythologist Joseph Campbell points out, “ ‘God’ is an ambiguous word in our language because it appears to refer to something that is known”; elaborating that “in religions where the god or creator is the mother, the whole world is her body. There is nowhere else[9]”. NOTES: [1] Alfred North Whitehead, “God and the World”, in Ewert H. Cousins (ed), Process Theology, p.91. [2] Alfred North Whitehead, “God and the World”, in Ewert H. Cousins (ed), Process Theology, p.91. [3] Alfred North Whitehead, “God and the World”, in Ewert H. Cousins (ed), Process Theology, p.91. [4] Charles Hartshorne, “The Development of Process Philosophy”, in Ewert H. Cousins (ed), Process Theology, p.53. [5] Nancy R. Howell, A Feminist Cosmology: Ecology, Solidarity, and Metaphysics, p. 13-14. [6] Nancy R. Howell, A Feminist Cosmology: Ecology, Solidarity, and Metaphysics, p. 22. [7] Nancy R. Howell, A Feminist Cosmology: Ecology, Solidarity, and Metaphysics, p. 31. [8] Nancy R. Howell, A Feminist Cosmology: Ecology, Solidarity, and Metaphysics, p. 32, quoting Rita Brock, Journeys by Heart: A Christology of Erotic Power, p.46. [9] Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth, p.48-49. REFERENCES: Campbell, Joseph. The Power of Myth with Bill Moyers. NY: Doubleday, 1988. Cousins, Ewert H. (ed). Process Theology. NY: Newman Press, 1971. Durdin-Robertson, Lawrence. The Year of the Goddess. Wellingborough: Aquarian Press, 1990. Gimbutas, Marija. The Language of the Goddess. NY: HarperCollins, 1991. Howell, Nancy R. A Feminist Cosmology: Ecology, Solidarity, and Metaphysics. New Jersey: Humanities Press, 2000. Livingstone, Glenys. PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. NE: iUniverse, 2005.
(Poem in English and Italian) No Country for Old Women by Mary Saracino

Howling from the mountaintops wailing from the riverbanks scooping the moon into their waning wombs the old women know that lies kill, distortions maim, hope isn’t enough to feed starving babies, school the ignorant, put an end to war. Like Furies, the old ones rise, clench their furious fists against the blazing sun; like Harpies they roar, casting dire warnings upon the winds of change; soothsaying Sibyls decipher omens, portend the future, speak in baffling koans. With dakini wisdom they cut through illusion, vote in primaries, attend caucuses, raise their voices against power, shatter the corrupted ceilings that chafe the crowns of their wizened heads. The wandering Maenads cry: “This is no country for old women.” Medea calls down her midnight powers, prays for revolution, strengthens the tired tongues of memory. Eloquence isn’t enough to heal a wounded country; sequined celebrities can’t mend a nation’s odiferous past. Kali avenges her sisters, the long-patient Queens & Crones, Maidens & Mothers. The forgotten ones wait and watch and warn: “Beware the hubris of ages. Beware the greedy hand that grabs the golden fleece.” Urlano dalla cima delle montagne piangono dalle sponde raccolgono la luna nei grembi calanti le vecchie sanno che le menzogne uccidono gli stravolgimenti mutilano, la speranza non basta a nutrire infanti che muoiono di fame, a istruire gli ignoranti, a porre fine alla guerra. Come Furie si levano le vecchie, agitando pugni furiosi contro il sole cocente; come Arpie ruggiscono, si fanno profete di sciagura sui venti di mutamento; Sibille vaticinanti che decifrano presagi, leggono il futuro, parlano in koan sconcertanti Con la saggezza delle dakini disperdono le illusioni, votano nelle primarie, partecipano a riunioni, levano le voci contro il potere, spezzano quei corrotti soffitti di vetro che irritano le teste canute Queste Menadi erranti gridano: “Questo non è un paese per vecchie.” Medea si appella ai suoi poteri notturni invoca la rivoluzione, rafforza lingue stanche di memorie. L’eloquenza non basta a guarire un paese ferito, le paillettes luccicanti delle celebrities non ripara il fetore del passato della nazione. Kali vendica le sue sorelle, la lunga pazienza delle Regine & delle Vecchie, delle Fanciulle & delle Madri. Obliate esse aspettano e osservano e avvertono: “Attente all’hybris delle epoche. Non fidatevi dell’avida mano che afferra il vello d’oro.” Pina Piccolo is an Italian-American cultural activist who writes poetry and short essays. She is currently the coordinator for 100Thousand Poets for Change-Bologna. Her interests gravitate towards immigrant rights, social justice and movements for change. “No Country for Old Women” was originally published at www.newversenews.com on April 5, 2008. Mary Saracino is a novelist, poet and memoir-writer who lives in Denver, CO. She Is Everywhere! Volume 3, the anthology she co-edited with Mary Beth Moser, was awarded the 2013 Enheduanna Award for Excellence in Women-Centered Literature from Sofia University, Palo Alto, CA. Mary’s novel, The Singing of Swans (Pearlsong Press 2006) was a 2007 Lambda Literary Awards Finalist. Her short story, “Vicky’s Secret” earned the 2007 Glass Woman Prize. Her newest novel, Heretics: A Love Story, is forthcoming from Pearlsong Press in 2014. Read Meet Mago Contributor Mary Saracino.
(Art) Gaia by Julie Stewart Rose

The role of the mother is very evident as a pregnant Gaia. In Gaia there is a twofold symbolism, the power of the creator of worlds, but also that of carrying the weight of the world, that of taking on the role of motherhood – the responsibility of life and how women can carry not just a baby but also the care of others in their world, their family. In this painting, Julie chose to use Pointillism as a visual representation of a 3D style Earth quality.
(Book Excerpt 2) She who gives life, She who gives form: Female Cosmogonies (English Edition) by Luciana Percovich

[Author’s Note: She who gives life, She who gives form: Female Cosmogonies is an English translation of the original Italian book, Colei che dà la Vita Colei che dà la Forma. Below is from the back cover: How the creation of the universe was imagined and transmitted for millennia in different places on Earth long before the myth of Adam and Eve, and how it still speaks to our present. A collection of extraordinary creation lore stretching from Asia to Oceania, from Africa to America, from the Mediterranean to India, where the origin of the cosmos is referred as female. The Mother/Goddess was She who gave Life and Form, that is the Rules and Teachings necessary to the never-ending renewing of Creation. Before the rise of patriarchy, in the golden Ages of earthly Paradises, the daughters and sons of the Mother lived following the Path of Balance and Harmony between nature and human societies.] Introduction During the long first period of the history of humankind, female energy – a bridge between what is not yet manifested and what is manifested – and women, whose bodies are the channels that bring us to life, have been observed, portrayed and represented as the expression of creative energy. This is narrated through thousands of tales of creation in the mythologies of all traditions and attested to by the female figurines that have emerged from the deep past, especially during the last century. This book explores these primal ways of imagining creation and the first transformations they underwent. The theme is as old as human thought itself. Women and men have ever been pondering the irremediable asymmetry between the sexes (women and men are of woman born), the laws governing the flow of time, the transformations to which all forms of life are subjected, and the rules of harmony and change that divide and reconcile the opposing polarities on which creation thrives. For ages, women and their bodies provided powerful metaphors for the energies perceived as primary agents of movement and transformation, and as the source of wisdom necessary to preserve life. Cosmogonies and myths depicted them as Divine or Great Mothers giving form to the cosmos and to all its creatures, animate or not, visible or invisible, Mothers sometimes merging with the primal Ancestress of tribes or populations. In the following pages you’ll find just some of the thousands of numberless variations of myths rooted in the beginnings of human consciousnesses and still remembered: myths inspired by the sense of awe generated in the hearts and minds of our ancestresses and ancestors by the pure awareness of being alive, longing for containment to the riddles of existence, drawing from the limbo of cosmic memory where all the forms of life on earth settle and deposit. The resulting collection of tales of creation and/or cultural foundation might be likened to the geological samples retrieved from delving into the deepest layers of earth. Even if there can be little or no certainty as to their original form, the act of telling them anew is like scattering a handful of precious seeds. For the wisdom they contain is bountiful, not erased by their long sleeping in the dark for ages. While reading them, we have just to let them leaven onto our memories and hearts, and weave them into our awareness, thus deepening and spreading the roots with which we hold on the world. There are some experiences that reverberate through many different levels of our being and speak in such complex interconnected ways that we cannot but attribute them to realms of intuition or of the sacred. They give form to a fictional world unveiling all the concerns, desires and turmoil spiraling within when events perceived as distinct from ordinary time hit our sensibility; they are ways to come to terms with the mighty emotions which arise in us while we don’t find other words to account for them. From similar states of mind and moments of being myths were born: cosmogonies questioning the origins of life and providing the rules necessary to preserve it; narrations that are both fanciful and concrete, rendered through the timeless language of symbols untouched by whatever change deposited layer upon layer on their original source, and propelling unchanged and still radiating energy from the darkness of oblivion. “Religion, science and the measuring of time were not separated from the body and from the mystery of the biological rhythms of sexuality and fertility; they formed a single body of awareness. We have been projected away from this ancient holistic horizon, which we have just begun to rediscover.” Vicki Noble, commenting on the great art of the Paleolithic, leads us out of the realm of the central dogma of the last centuries. It is exactly from the viewpoint of such a “holistic horizon” that ancient cosmogonies speak, revealing complexities of vision and awareness that only the very latest scientific and philosophical developments have been regaining in western culture. The main impulse that has been guiding the evolutionary historical and productive development throughout the last 5000 years has been divergent from that horizon. It has been characterized by differentiation, by separation, and by fragmentation. To a certain extent, we may all have profited from this process, but at the same time it has enhanced a centrifugal tendency towards the individualistic and reckless shortsightedness that has brought about the great dismay we experience today. Within this horizon, far more ancient than that which is often recorded, cosmogonic myths and tales about the origins of the peoples inhabiting the continents speak of a feminine principle. Far from glorifying mother-roles in the manner proper to patriarchal cultures, which reduces women to mere means of reproducing physical life, such myths invest mothering with a manifest power to balance both cosmic and human concerns, to found and hold social groups together, to invent tools, manual skills and sacred rituals. These great Mothers and mythical Ancestresses were at the beginning, carefully …
(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 …

(Special Post 2) Why Goddess Feminism, Activism, or Spirituality? A Collective Writing

[Editor’s Note: This was first proposed in The Mago Circle, Facebook Group, on March 6, 2014. We have our voices together below and publish them in sequels. It is an ongoing project and we encourage our reader to join us! Submit yours today to Helen Hwang (magoism@gmail.com). Or visit and contact someone in Return to Mago’s Partner Organizations.] Harriet Ann Ellenberger I got involved with women’s liberation in the early 1970s, so involved that it became my life for many years. During those beginnings of what is now called “the second wave of feminism,” everything was new to us and everything was mushed together — the political, the economic, the intellectual, the emotional, the spiritual. I liked that a lot; it felt as if all the parts of myself were coming together. During that time, I learned something crucial the imagery and concepts of patriarchal religion justify and are embedded in the material structures of oppression. I don’t know which came first, institutionalized oppression (of everyone; I’m not speaking here only of women) or the religious expression of that oppression. All I’m certain of is that patriarchal religion permeates, for example, the Oxford English Dictionary, which I use all the time, in conjunction with Websters’ First New Intergalactic Wickedary of the English Language, conjured by Mary Daly in cahoots with Jane Caputi.
(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 1) Why Goddess Feminism, Activism, or Spirituality? A Collective Writing

[Editor’s Note: This was first proposed in The Mago Circle, Facebook Group, on March 6, 2014. We have our voices together below and publish them in sequels. It is an ongoing project and we encourage our reader to join us! Submit yours today to Helen Hwang (magoism@gmail.com). Or visit and contact someone in Return to Mago’s Partner Organizations.] Introduction by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang and Wennifer Lin-Haver Helen Hye-Sook Hwang I am asking each of us to consider writing a sentence or paragraph on “Why Goddess Feminism, Activism, or Spirituality?” This idea is prompted by Wennifer Lin-Haver, Founder of Mother Tree Sanctuary, and I agree that we need to and can create a sort of collective writing on the topic. What we write below will be included and published in The Girl God, Mother Tree Sanctuary, and Return to Mago. As a subaltern minority as we seem at the current point of time, Goddessians/Magoists [the term Mago means the Great Goddess] need to make extra efforts to make our voices and presences exposed to the public and inner circles. Length and style are open. Please also include your name, region/state/country, title, and/or website URL. We strongly encourage you if you are located in a place where Goddessians are rarely around. We intend to make a collective testimonial tapestry of WE as Goddessians/Magoists! Please keep this in your mind and join us in this collective effort. Thank you in advance. March 6, 2014 AF (Archaic Future)! Wennifer Lin-Haver Our “call” started as a conversation between Helen and me where I was expressing to her the real need for Mother Tree Sanctuary to be more articulate with exploring the significance and importance of Goddess in our lives. I was prompted to give such a response, when asked “why” we had to differentiate God and Goddess. “Isn’t everything God?” She asked. And “Isn’t Goddess also God?” “Isn’t it all the same as long was we’re all coming from our ‘higher’ self?” she asked. So I saw this warranted a longer and much deeper discussion. I initially thought I should formulate a response and post it as a Page or Tab in our website, but after some reflection with Helen, I saw how much better it would be if we replied to this question as a diverse and creative collective. I surely do not have all the answers as an individual but perhaps together, we can come up with something more whole, colorful and satisfying. I do hope you will contribute a little something! We are always grateful for all that you have to share.

(Essay) Conceiving, Imagining the New at Samhain by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

It is the Season of Samhain/Deep Autumn in the Southern Hemisphere at this time. In the PaGaian version of Samhain/Deep Autumn ceremony participants journey to the “Luminous World Egg” … a term taken from Starhawk in her book The Spiral Dance[i], where she also names that place as the “Shining Isle”, which is of course, the Seed of conception, a metaphor for the origins of all and/or the female egg: it is the place for rebirth. Artist: Bundeluk, Blue Mountains, Australia. The “luminous world egg” is a numinous place within, the MotherStar of conception: that is, a place of unfolding/becoming. The journey to this numinous place within requires first a journey back, through some of each one’s transformations, however each may wish to name those transformations at this time. The transformations for each and every being are infinite in their number, for there is “nothing we have not been” as has been told by Celts and others of Old, and also by Western science in the evolutionary story (a story told so well by evolutionary biologist Elisabet Sahtouris, particularly in her video Journey of a Silica Atom.) Ceremonial participants may choose selves from biological, present historical self, or may choose selves from the mythic with whom they feel connection; from any lineage – biological or otherwise. Selves may also be chosen from Gaia’s evolutionary story – earlier creatures, winged or scaled ones … with whom one wishes to identify at this time. Each participant is praised for their “becoming” for each self they share. When all have completed these journeys/stories of transformation, the circle is lauded dramatically by the celebrant for their courage to transform; and she likens them all to Gaia Herself who has made such transitions for eons. The celebrant awards each with a gingerbread snake, “Gaian totems of life renewed”[ii]. gingerbread snakes Participants sit and consume these gingerbread snakes in three parts: (i) as all the “old shapes” of self that were named; and (ii) remembering the ancestors, those whose lives have been harvested, whose lives have fed our own, remembering that we too are the ancestors, that we will be consumed; and (iii) remembering and consuming the stories of our world that they desire to change, the stories that fire their wrath or sympathy: in the consuming, absorbing them (as we do), each may transform them by thoughts and actions – “in our own bodyminds”. When all that is consumed “wasting no part”, it is said that “we are then free to radiate whatever we conceive”, to “exclaim the strongest natural fibre known” – our creative selves, “into such art, such architecture, as can house a world made sacred” by our building[iii]. This “natural fibre” is a reference to the spider’s thread from within her own body, with which she weaves her web, her home; and Spider has frequently been felt in indigenous cultures around the globe as Weaver and Creator of the Cosmos. Spider the Creatrix, North America, C. 1300 C.E., Hallie Iglehart Austen, The Heart of the Goddess, p.13 In the ceremony, participants linked with a thread that they weave around the circle, may sail together for a new world “across the vast sunless sea between endings and beginnings, across the Womb of magic and transformation, to the “Not-Yet” who beckons”[iv]: to the Luminous World Egg whereupon the new may be conceived and dreamed up. Samhain/Deep Autumn ceremony is an excellent place for co-creating ourselves, for imaginingthe More that we may become, and wish to become. This is where creation and co-creation happens … in the Womb of Space[v], in which we are immersed – at all times: and Samhain is a good season for feeling it. References: Livingstone, Glenys. PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. NE: iUniverse, 2005 Sahtouris, Elisabet. Earthdance: Living Systems in Evolution. Lincoln NE:iUniversity Press, 2000. Starhawk, The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess. NY: Harper and Row, 1999. Swimme, Brian. The Earth’s Imagination.DVD series 1998. NOTES: [i]p.210 [ii]a version of this Samhain script is offered in Chapter 7 PaGaian Cosmology [iii]These quoted phrases are from Robin Morgan, “The Network of the Imaginary Mother”, in Lady of the Beasts, p.84. This poem is a core inspiration of the ceremony. [iv]“Not-Yet” is a term used by Brian Swimme, The Earth’s Imagination, video 8 “The Surprise of Cosmogenesis”. [v]note that creation does not happen at the point of some god’s index finger, as imagined in the Sistine Chapel – what a takeover that is!
The Ceremonial Creative Cosmos by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This essay is an excerpt from Chapter 3 of the author’s new book A Poiesis of the Creative Cosmos: Celebrating Her within PaGaian Sacred Ceremony. The Cosmos is a ceremony, a ritual. Dawn and dusk, seasons, supernovas – it is an ongoing Event of coming into being and passing away. The Cosmos is always in flux, and we exist as participants in this great ritual event, this “cosmic ceremony of seasonal and diurnal rhythms” which frame “epochal dramas of becoming,” as Charlene Spretnak describes it.[i] Swimme and Berry describe the universe as a dramatic reality, a Great Conversation of announcement and response.[ii]Ritual/ceremony[iii] may be the human conscious response to the announcements of the Universe – an act of conscious participation. Ceremony then may be understood as a microcosmos[iv] – a human-sized replication of the Drama, the Dynamic we find ourselves in. Swimme and Berry describe ritual as an ancient response humans have to the awesome experience of witnessing the coming to be and the passing away of things; they say that a “ritual mode of expression” is from its beginning “the manner in which humans respond to the universe, just as birds respond by flying or as fish respond by swimming.”[v] It is the way in which we as humans, as a species, may respond to this awesome experience of being and becoming, how we may hold the beauty and the terror. Humans have exhibited this tendency to ritualize since the earliest times of our unfolding: evidence so far reveals burial sites dating back one hundred thousand years, as mentioned in the previous chapter. We often went to huge effort in these matters, that is almost incomprehensible to the modern industrialised econocentric mind: the precise placing of huge stones in circles such as found at Stonehenge and the creation of complex sites such as Silbury Hill may be expressions of some priority, indicating that econocentric thinking – such as tool making, finding shelter and food, was not enough or not separate from the participation in Cosmic events. Ritual seems to have expressed, and still does actively express for some peoples, something essential to the human – a way of being integral with our Cosmic Place, which was not perceived as separate from material sustenance, the Source of existence: thus it was a way perhaps of sensing “meaning” as it might be termed these days – or “relationship.” Swimme and Berry note that the order of the Universe has been experienced especially in the seasonal sequence of dissolution and renewal; this most basic pattern has been an ultimate referent for existence.[vi] The seasonal pattern contains within it the most basic dynamics of the Cosmos – desire, fullfilment, loss, transformation, creation, growth, and more. The annual ceremonial celebration of the seasonal wheel – the Earth-Sun sacred site within which we tour – can be a pathway to the Centre of these dynamics, a way of making sense of the pattern, a way of sensing it. One enters the Universe’s story. The Seasonal Moments when marked and celebrated in the art form of ceremony may be sens-ible ‘gateways’ through the flesh of the world[vii] to the Centre – which is omnipresent Creativity. Humans do ritual everyday – we really can’t help ourselves. It is simply a question of what rituals we do, what story we are telling ourselves, what we are “spelling”[viii] ourselves with – individually and collectively. Ceremony is actually ‘doing,’ not just theorizing. We can talk about our personal and cultural disconnection endlessly, but we need to actually change our minds. Ceremony can be an enabling practice – a catalyst/practice for personal and cultural change. It is not just talking about eating the pear, it is eating the pear; it is not just talking about sitting on the cushion (meditating), it is sittingon the cushion. It is a cultural practice wherein we tell a story/stories about what we believe to be so most deeply, about who and what we are. Ceremony can be a place for practicing a new language, a new way of speaking, or spelling – a place for practicing “matristic storytelling”[ix] if you like: that is, for telling stories of the Mother, of Earth and Cosmos as if She were alive and sentient. We can “play like we know it,” so that we may come to know it.[x] Ceremony then is a form of social action. NOTES: [i] Spretnak, States of Grace, 145. [ii] Swimme and Berry, The Universe Story, 153. [iii] I will use either or both of these terms at different times: I generally prefer “ceremony” as Kathy Jones defines it in Priestess of Avalon, Priestess of the Goddess, 319. She says that ritual involves a repeated set of actions which may contain spiritual or “mundane” elements (such as a daily ritual of brushing one’s teeth), “whereas ceremony is always a spiritual practice and may or may not include ritual elements.” The PaGaian seasonal celebrations/events are thus most kin to “ceremony,” although I do not perceive any action as “mundane.” However, “ritual” is more commonly used to speak of how humans have conversed with cosmos/Earth. [iv] Spretnak, States of Grace, 145. [v] Swimme and Berry, The Universe Story, 152-153. [vi] Ibid. [vii] Abram speaks of “matter as flesh” in The Spell of the Sensuous, 66, citing Maurice Merleau-Ponty, The Invisible and the Invisible (Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 1968). [viii] Starhawk used this term on her email list in 2004 to describe the story-telling we might do to bring forth the changes we desire. [ix] A term used by Gloria Feman Orenstein in The Reflowering of the Goddess (New York: Pergamon Press, 1990), 147. [x] As my doctoral thesis supervisor Dr. Susan Murphy once described it to me in conversation REFERENCES: Abram, David. The Spell of the Sensuous. New York: Vintage Books, 1997. Jones, Kathy. Priestess of Avalon, Priestess of the Goddess. Glastonbury: Ariadne Publications, 2006. Orenstein, Gloria Feman. The Reflowering of the Goddess. New York: Pergamon Press, 1990. Spretnak, Charlene. States of Grace: The Recovery of Meaning in the Postmodern Age. San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1993. Swimme, Brian and Berry, Thomas. The Universe Story: From the Primordial Flaring Forth to the Ecozoic Era. New York: HarperCollins, 1992.
(Video) An Autumn Equinox Ceremony by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

Autumn Equinox/Mabon Northern Hemisphere – September 21-23 Southern Hemisphere – March 21-23 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRJNY1LSvIs&t=1175s …oOo… The purpose of this 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. The script for this Autumn Equinox/Mabon ceremony is offered in Chapter 11 of my book A Poiesis of the Creative Cosmos: Celebrating Her within PaGaian Sacred Ceremony, with all acknowledgements and references there. In particular I mention here, credit for the story of Demeter and Persephone as told by Charlene Spretnak in her book Lost Goddesses of Early Greece. For more full participation in the ceremony, you could have one or more stalks of wheat or native grain tied with a red thread/ribbon, a garden pot with soil, a small garden trowel, a flower bulb (daffodil type), food and drink, that may represent your “harvest” – ready for eating and drinking. 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). The images used are a collage of footage and photos from the 2024 Autumn Equinox ceremony at my place in Wakka Wakka country, South East Queensland Australia, and from previous Autumn Equinox ceremonies I facilitated over the decades in MoonCourt, Goddess ceremonial space in NSW Australia, Darug and Gundungurra country. My partner Robert (Taffy) Seaborne who has participated in all the Seasonal ceremonies since Samhain 2000, adds his voice to this video. Image credits: Demeter and Persephone (500 B.C.E. Greece). Hallie Iglehart Austen, The Heart of the Goddess, p.72. Art of Demeter and Persephone on MoonCourt wall: Cernak Herself Music credit: “Gentle Sorrow” by Sky: which he has previously allowed me to use in my work. This piece of music is also used in the Autumn Equinox meditation on my PaGaian Cosmology Meditations published 2015.
(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.
(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
Beltaine/High Spring within the Creative Cosmos by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

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

(Book Excerpt 2) Mago Almanac Planner by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.

Details for Mago Almanac Planner are available here. [Author’s Note: This is Part 2 of the Preface. Read Part 1 of the Preface here.] PREFACE What Mago Almanac Planner Offers There is nothing more plainly indicative of the fallacy of patriarchal thinking, that is, the perspective of male-supremacy than the 12 month calendar. Considering that the calendar is the basic foundation for human activities, the standard 12 month calendar that the modern world is adapting functions to maintain patriarchy. According to the Budoji (Epic of the Emblem Capital City), the principal text of Magoism, the 12 month calendar was first invented and introduced by Yao (ca. 2356-2255 BCE), the pre-dynastic ruler of ancient China to replace the 13 month Magoist Calendar. The newly risen patriarchal rule needed to amend the female-centered 13 month calendar, which would make the Mother-Nature bond invisible. First of all, the 12 month calendar has an irregular number of days (28, 29, 30, or 31). The inconsistent number of days is an indication that the 12 month calendar is out of tune with Nature’s rhythm, ultimately Sonic Numerology. Reality is distorted. Fundamentally based on the imposed or presumed balance within the scheme of dyads (the male and the female), the 12 month calendar propagates a hierarchical dualism. In the dyad, the two are viewed as independent single entities disconnected from each other so that it allows one to be superior to the other (A>B). The worldview it represents is reductionist; the evolutionary process of life is predetermined. On the other hand, the 13 month calendar has 28 days in a month. It is regular and rhythmic, a sign of a healthy living entity. In tune with Nature’s rhythm, the 13 month calendar guides us into an infinitely creative and open-ended worldview based on Sonic Numerology (musical interplay of nine numbers), the cosmogonic force of WE/HERE/NOW. Numerologically aligned, the 13 month 28 day calendar leads us to an ever-unfolding reality. The triadic principle, an epitome of Nine Numerology, stands for the web of spiral interconnection. One divided by three leads to the realm that never ends as it goes 0.3333… for example. That said, what is the better way to restore the lunar-female song and dance than women themselves by charting out the menstrual cycle in the 13 moon calendar? Mago Almanac Planner provides tools for menstruators to mark menstrual dates side by side with lunation dates. We want our modern-day maidens and mothers to see how their own menstrual cycles run in harmony with all other beings in the Natural World! Menstruation is a calendric indicator designed to guide human societies. Biology is not only social but also cosmic. Menstruation is never a separate biological phenomenon. For non-menstruators, Mago Almanac Planner opens the door to each day, week, and month of the cosmic song and dance. We are about to move the axis of our consciousness in tune with all else in the universe!Book information on Magoist Calendar Year 4 and Magoist Calendar Planner Year 4 here. (To be continued) https://www.magoism.net/2013/07/meet-mago-contributor-helen-hwang/ [1] This is a topic that will be treated in detail in my forthcoming book, The Magoist Calendar: Mago Time Inscribed in Sonic Numerology.
(Essay 2 Part 3) Why Do I Love Korean Historical Dramas? by Anna Tzanova

Part 3 UNIVERSAL APPEAL The worldwide success of Korean historical drama began in 2004, when Dae Jang Geum (대장금), “The Great Jang Geum”, or “Jewel in the Palace”—a Sageuk relating a compelling story about the life of the legendary first woman who became a supreme royal physician in 16th century Joseon—was aired in over 60 countries around the world. Since then, the number is much higher, not taking into consideration DVD sales, pirated DVDs, plus the millions who have seen the drama globally via the Internet. In Iran, Dae Jang Geum was so popular that reports claim Iranians began organizing their mealtimes so as not to interfere with the show’s broadcast. In India, after seeing the series one prisoner wrote an open letter to the broadcast company in Korea saying, “This serial has been of great influence in my personal life, as well adding a lot to my positive approach towards life. I dare say it is not a motivation for only people like me, but for everyone.”[i] In Zimbabwe, the audience protested to a TV station and requested the airing of Dae Jang Geum instead of the Olympic Games when the two timetables clashed.[ii] To me, “Jewel in the Palace” is not just a very beautiful and inspirational piece of art. Seeing it from a personal angle, it is a great reminder of all that is wrong with our medical science, health care, and industrialized food production. How science needs to be as much cerebral as cordis. All the good that can come of turning our eyes and respect back to Mother Earth and all her sentient beings. The importance of not only quality food, but also the way the ingredients are grown, nurtured, collected and stored; the way food is prepared; the thoughts and feelings food is infused with, and how it affects not only the taste, but also the health of those who would consume it. The true holistic approach to health and well-being, as well as how titles and following institutional protocols, doesn’t secure quality of care. The natural curve in the onset and development of every disease, and how its abrupt interruption leads to dire consequences in the long run. The compassion and inner qualities of character a true healer should pursue and cultivate. Korean historical drama offers layers of meaning and understanding. The viewers are not only gently guided to open their hearts and feel, but also to think. Stories are not only well told; internalization by the audience is encouraged. Thus, the experience becomes very personal, and a deep connection between the creators and the spectators is established. Hwang Seongbin quotes a science and technology researcher who shared his opinion on Korean period drama when they met at an international conference reception: “I like Korean historical drama, because the story is told from the perspective of the people, rather than from that of those in power.”[iii] The transnational issues we all face, such as greed, corruption, deceit, conspiracies, abuse, and war, are depicted in their cruelty as shared experiences. Through that and the exploration of universal themes like love, kindness, loss, yearning, overcoming adversities, following one’s passion, achieving one’s dream, and many more, our global communality is fortified. Another trait worth noting is the depiction of traditionally oppressed women. It is a growing tendency in Sageuk to give center stage to heroines. Even when they are not the protagonist, they play significant roles supporting or guiding the protagonist’s efforts: creating nurturing environments, serving as examples of right action, and assisting the protagonist in his growth. There is a fascination, respect, honor, and affection that female leads are surrounded by or treated by the hero. Women in Korean historical drama are strong in a graceful way, using skill and genuine power as opposed to aggression and brutal force. They are persistent in their efforts and courageous in their actions. Despite being sidetracked by hindrances, they never lose focus on their goals. Ultimately, they are never deterred from accomplishing their dreams, transforming or inspiring everyone else in the process. In that regards, women in Sageuk serve as great initiators of change. They embody the most pliable element of all—water—nourishing, never stagnant, unstoppable, constantly adaptable, following its course through and around obstacles, cleansing, reshaping, and renewing. In the words of Clair Webber: “Undoubtedly, there is something inexplicable about K-pop and K-dramas. Whether it is the courage of civil disobedience in North Korea, peace in the Middle East, or female empowerment in Pakistan—South Korean cultural imports have the uncanny ability to foster hope in some of the most seemingly hopeless situations.”[iv] This is what “soft power”, a term coined in 1990 by Harvard political scientist Joseph Nye[v], truly is. “They fight with arms, but we—with our hearts,” states Empress Ki in the Sageuk with the same name. I’d love for humanity to hear this message and finally learn how to avoid or deal with conflicts. I am not going to quote or start analyzing different dramas one-by-one. I will leave you to find your own point of view and preferences. Signing up for Mago Academy’s Korean Historical Drama course would be a good place to start. I hope you will consider joining and experiencing first-hand everything I mentioned above, and much more. Korean culture has a specific flavor that distinguishes it from other Asian cultures. It is humble, but resilient. It is charming, heart-centered, perceptive, thoughtful, and caring. It has a lot to offer. Give it a try. But I have to warn you, it might be addicting. (Read Essay 1, Essay 2 Part 1, Essay 2 Part 2) Notes: [i] Busis, Hillary, Korean Dramas: A Beginner’s Guide, Entertainment Weekly, (April 11, 2014) [ii] Gowman, Philip, The Redemptive Power of Lee Young-ae, London Korean Links, (January 13, 2008) [iii] Voluntary Agency Network of Korea blog, Hallyu Report III – Korean Drama, Friendly Korea, My Friend’s Country, (01/09/2013) http://korea.prkorea.com/wordpress/english/2013/01/09/hallyu-report-ii-korean-drama/ [iv] Weber, Clair, K-Pop, K-Dramas, Hallyu – South Korean Culture Around the Globe, About Education, (2015) [v] …
(Bell Essay 1) Ancient Korean Bells and Magoism by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

Part I The bell as both a percussion instrument and an idiophone is one of the most pacific, sublime, and ingenious human inventions. It appears cross-culturally from the remote past. Its artistic and ritualistic aspects are fairly well recognized by many. However, many overlook that the bell is a female icon with functionality. Put differently, the bell symbolizes the Goddess, the female who has the purpose. This essay, to be written in parts hereafter, will examine the symbology of ancient Korean bells and explore its implications with regard to Magoist history, cosmogony, and soteriology. At the outset, I posit that ancient Korean bells cast in the form of a woman’s body are there to awaken humanity to the arcane reality of the Female, that is Mago. In East Asia, bell connotes two distinct types, the open ended and the enclosed. In Korean, the open ended bell is called jong (鐘, Chinese zhong), whereas the enclosed one is called bang-ul or ryeong (鈴, Chinese ling). Jong and bang-ul are also distinguished by size. While the former tends to be larger, the latter are commonly used by a shaman or diviner to hold and shake (a group of bang-uls) to invoke the spirit. However, these differences are not unbridgeable. Some bang-uls are open-ended, like jong. By definition, jong is a bell made of metal not stone. (The character jong 鐘 has the radical (basic element) of geum 金, metal or gold. The stone bell is called gyeong.) When jong is used in music, in particular as a musical instrument consisting of a set of bronze bells, it is called pyeon-jong (編鍾, Chinese bianzhong). Perhaps the invention of pyeon-jong follows pyeon-gyeong (編磬, Chinese bianqing), a stone musical instrument consisting of a set of L-shaped stone chimes. Discussing the differences between the two instruments goes beyond the purpose of this essay. Suffice it to say that jong was likely a metallic replica of gyeong presumably first introduced in the Bronze Age. (See the images below for comparison.) My primary focus in this essay is on jong, in particular the Korean bells cast in the 8th century CE and thereafter. The beauty and significance of ancient Korean bells shed a new light on ancient Korea to be re-dis-covered in relation to Magoism. Both scholars and the public appear to be unaware that the ancient bells of Korea symbolize the female principle as well as woman’s body. It is my hope that this essay allows the ancient bells of Korea to reverberate through time and call people to return to the female origin. Ancient Greek Bells as Woman’s Body A variety of jong from the ancient world appears across cultures. The most explicitly rendered bells which mirror the female form are the terracotta bell figurines of Greece (Thebes) dated circa the 8th century BCE. Both are housed in the Louvre Museum, Paris. Protruded breasts are placed on the upper part of the bell. The body of the bell is sculpted to resemble the skirt that she is wearing. Two arms annexed from her shoulders appear to be aesthetic rather than functional. The elongated neck is made as a handle to be held. Her neck is adorned with elaborate necklaces. Geometrical designs and swastikas are compelling in both figurines — rife with arcane meanings. The legs are made as mallets. Imagine, then, where the sound comes from upon being shaken! It is her belly, more precisely the vulva from which the sound originates. In the first, above, icon of the Greek bell, women are drawn on the bell’s body in a simplified and exaggerated manner. They are connected with each other hand in hand forming a circle, perhaps dancing a circle dance. As a whole, the bell depicts a dancing woman with her arms raised, standing on her toes. The women painting befits the spirited nature of the bell. In the second, above, icon of the Greek bell, 39.5 cm in height, her breasts are highlighted, encircled by the drawing of two circles. Thus, they appear to be more nipples than breasts. Her arms are laid downward as if pointing to the birds standing below on each side. Each bird is holding an elongated earthworm-like swirling thing at the tip of its beak. Geometric designs in the center of her body are catchily inviting to interpretations. The symmetrical balance is heightened. She appears to stand firmly or be ready to walk. As shown below, one leg when placed out to the side conveys to its viewer that the legs are mallets and at once creates a look that she is real, in motion. In my documentation, the Greek bell idols and ancient Korean bells are the only two groups that are explicitly made in the shape of a woman’s body. Yet, as to be shown shortly, these Greek bell idols, far smaller in size, date about a thousand years earlier than the ancient Korean bells. Furthermore, there is a vast geographical distance between the two bell icons. In comparing them, however, I have no intention to assume that the ancient Greek bell figurines are the earliest of their kind. (It is difficult to discuss the origin of bell as a woman’s body due to the nature of the task, too complex and daunting. It suffices to say that the Chinese bells, dated older than the Thebes bell figurines, have relevance to ancient Korean bells, a point to be discussed at a later part.) Ancient worlds appear not too heterogeneous to say the least, as moderns tend to think. Sillan Bells Let me begin with introducing some ancient Korean bells from the Silla period (57 BCE-935 CE) and their major features that are also uniquely ancient Korean (read Magoist). They sound beautifully and deeply when struck. Sounding waves are calculated in the structure of the bell upon being cast. It is known that there are eleven jongs extant from the United Silla period. Only five of them are currently located in Korea, whereas the rest are in Japan. These bells are known as beomjong, a term referring to a bell in Buddhist temples used for Buddhist …