October 24, 2013October 2, 2019 Mago Work Admin

(Art) Itzpapalotl by Lydia Ruyle

Itzpapalotl is a fearsome skeletal being with jaguar talons and obsidian tipped wings. In addition to Mexico, black obsidian glass is the gift of other volcano goddesses at Catalhuyuk in Anatolia and Pele in Hawaii. Itzpapalotl is the patroness of women who died in childbirth and goddess of the realm of paradise, Tamoanchan. She is a tzitzimime ancestor spirit.

Source: Codex Borgia

Read Meet Mago Contributor, Lydia Ruyle and her other posts here.

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(Art) Setting the Stories Free, an INTUIT Card collage meditation by Cynthia Tom

Art by Cynthia Tom In case of chronic heartache: Rx – sit quietly and ask who wants your attention. Your little self will metaphorically tap you on the shoulder. Let him/her/they spend time with you to gather a hug and reassurance that you are there for you. Self-sooth your little self to heal into and celebrate who you have become. https://www.magoism.net/2021/07/meet-mago-contributor-cynthia-tom/
(Prose Part 2) Spiral Movements by Nané Jordan

Women’s spirituality spiral: Further reading and experience led me to pursue a Master of Arts degree in Women’s Spirituality in San Francisco, California. At the time, these unorthodox women- and Goddess- centred studies felt beyond me. I had young children and a low income. But, I was internally very pulled to go. Such intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually compelling studies answered a deep yearning within me. In San Francisco, goddess feminism, activism, and spirituality flowered and bloomed. This grew from a commitment to social gender justice and activism in the American women’s movement, transforming society through women’s spiritual leadership. Thus, I studied with “bona fide” foremothers of women’s and goddess spirituality. In this powerful women-centred curriculum, we read feminist scholarship as much as created rituals and art, all while conducting our own research. The scholars and activists included Vicki Noble, Chief Luisah Teish, Z. Budapest, Judy Grahn, Dianne Jenett, Elinor Gadon, and others. I needed and valued their wise mentorship, as they became my elders. And I met friends and colleagues who nourish me to this day. Studying in San Francisco became a touchstone for me. I began to write about birth politics and midwifery, finding my voice and continuing my art. I pursued my devotional leanings towards Goddess figures such as Mary, Tara, and Devi. I learned from all the threads of my sister scholars in their research, such as: Goddess Durga, Indigenous knowledge and cosmology, artivism, menstrual reclamation and ritual celebration, Yoruban traditions, and so much more—this was and is the juiciest scholarship and way of life I know! I now trust more in my sense of reaching out to feel held by strong female divine energies, symbols, and visions. I honour my female body in its knowing-ness and as a source of blessing. I especially honour my primary matrix as Mother Earth. Born in Canada, I always loved to be in wilderness and in nature. As a young adult, I was a tree-planter in the summers, working for my university studies. I cultivated my animist tendencies, feeling the sentience and sacredness of other beings through connection to the Earth through outdoor work, hiking, and wilderness camping. This is “biophilia,” being in-love with Earthy-life, in regenerative relationship with trees, plants, animals, rocks, and waterways of the land. I later pursued a PhD in Education at The University of British Columbia in Vancouver. I wrote my dissertation on the Women’s Spirituality, Goddess-centred Master’s degree that I had earned in San Francisco. Through faculty and alumni stories and practices of such, I documented that program as an innovative and transformative field of education that empowers women’s lives and contributes to social justice (https://circle.ubc.ca/handle/2429/39810). The effect is especially one of authorization, or self-authorization, as women become the centre of their own lives, learning to navigate from an inner compass, claiming their voice and direction amongst challenges and injustice, while creating with others what we want to see and how we want to be in the world. Goddess as verb spiral: “Goddess” is more of a verb then a noun for me. The companionship of women, being in women’s space, sitting in rituals, classes or workshops, sharing in life, has given me the perspective and energy I have needed for life as lived in-love-with-life. Such companionship, in sisterhood and in mentoring and being mentored by other women, is vital to my experience of feeling whole and grounded on Earth and in life. Women’s circles are probably part of my DNA, meaning there is an ancestral and evolutionary aspect to gathering and taking care together. Vicki Noble frames this in terms of the love hormone “oxytocin,” the “tend and befriend” impulse that organizes such groups of women. Recently, I have felt called towards more focused devotional and contemplative work, through an almost “nun”-like order of spiritual women. I envision a kind of Hildegard von Bingen order of contemplative, creative women, living in the forest or on the mountain, but in a post-patriarchal, Goddess-centred way. Hildegard was a 12th century, German mystic and Abbess. I appreciate Hildegard for her prophetic voice and her visionary experience as much as for her brilliant music and herbalism. We can do more of this in Goddess feminism: bring forth the creative visions we need to do and be in these times. It can take a whole community to hold and develop the larger visions, and to put them into action. Art-making spiral: Art-making can be a sacred and spiritual practice, drawing from creative wells of wisdom. Through art-making, the body, psyche, and intuitive sensing all become sources for knowing and being in the world. As we creatively work with our hands, hearts, minds, and the wonderful materials of the Earth, we can make useful, beautiful objects, and express conceptual ideas. We also experience the inherently transformative process of art-making itself. We can gain insight into ourselves, others, and the world in which we live. Art-making is a fantastic, awe-some, use-full modality for expressing, healing, and liberating human life. My own art practice is based in photography, textile art, and performance creation. I document my family life through biographic photography. As an aesthetic-activist, I have drawn from my midwifery and women-centred birth work and research to create a textile installation series called “The Placenta Project” (http://galleries.lakeheadu.ca/featured-artist-researchers.html). I also especially live Goddess feminism through art-making with my women’s art collective, Gestare. The word “gestare” comes from the root word for “gestation,” and it means, “to carry in the womb” (http://www.gestareartcollective.com/). We are currently a group of five women who function a little bit like the “spiritual order of women” I just described. With Gestare, my art practice expands to include others through co-creative, process-based art methods. We meet in circle formats and share life stories. We live at long distances from each other, working online and in-person when we can. We decide upon a yearly cycle of artwork, rooted in Earth-consciousness and female-centred spirituality. We synchronize ourselves around a cosmic time frame like the full moon, or the equinoxes and solstices. …
(Essay) When the Drummers Were Birds by Hearth Moon Rising

“I had an idea that I was going into this remote place for visioning, but I ended up ‘auditorying’ instead, entranced by the sounds around me.” The late Layne Redmond http://www.layneredmond.com/Home.html taught women about our ancient drumming heritage through videos, classes and the (out-of-print) book, When the Drummers Were Women. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/910443.When_the_Drummers_Were_Women?from_search=true In this essay I would like to look back even further, back to the earliest glimmers of civilization, when the drummers were birds. I believe that the most important tools of civilization were given to us by birds. Our auditory centers were developed by listening to the calls of birds, calls that are more rich and complex than people who have never studied birds in the field may realize. To this day, being able to interpret the sounds of birds is an important survival strategy for most animals, particularly in forested areas where the visual field is restricted. Birds provide information through a wide repertoire of sounds. There are the songs, of course, which range from simple to intricate, repetitive to highly varied. Then there are the calls which are less melodic and more challenging to distinguish. Birds also provide information from the sounds of their flight, their wings beating against the air, the tree branches, or the water. And some birds announce their presence not by their voice or their movements but by consciously striking other objects. They drum.
(Goddess Writing 5) Notes by Kaalii Cargill

Life size image of Lilith by Kaalii Cargill, 1992. Acrylic and pencil. Author’s note: We can question the validity of differentiating between masculine and feminine principles or, indeed, the validity of perpetuating any dualisms. However, back in 1999 when I was writing my doctoral thesis, I found the following useful in sorting my understanding of the forces at work within myself and in the World. Edited excerpt from Don’t Take It Lying Down: Life According to the Goddess – Just as the elements of the feminine principle emerge from archetypal reality, so do the elements of the masculine principle. We can see this in the patriarchal myths that still underlie the modern worldview. These myths have, however, become unconsciously accepted as absolute truth, determining beliefs, social values, and the current religious attitude to science.[i] The basic character of the archetypal masculine has been described as rationalising, abstracting, and controlling, as in the myths of one supreme male God: the Judeo-Christian Jehovah, Allah in the Islamic world, and Zeus in ancient Greece, a king-like energy also personified in ancient and modern heroes. Psychologically, the masculine principle represents an emphasis on individual focus, rational intentionality and personal will; a sense of personal identity that rests in a separate self answerable to the law of the Father as God or King. The archetypal masculine has been described as focused, divisive, and assertive, while the archetypal feminine has been described as diffuse, connective, and receptive. Obviously both men and women can embody these qualities. Understanding and experiencing the differences can allow us to develop choice about which principle we call on in our lives. Since the advent of Sky God religions, patriarchal consciousness is in the territory of eternal spirit, that which always was and always will be, a position fundamentally opposed to the genetic principle, the principle of creativity and generativity that underlies aspects of feminine consciousness.[ii] This reflects the philosophical stance of Socrates, Plato and Descartes in which all that is pure and constant is incorporeal, not of the body, with little place for subjective embodied experience. I have often wondered if the strong attraction to Eastern spirituality arises in part from this philosophical idea of eternal spirit. It is as if two generations of disillusioned Westerners have turned to Eastern spirituality without fully realising that they may still caught within a transcendent philosophy. It is, however, a confusing task to sort this particular pile of beans and seeds. There is a fundamental paradox in patriarchal consciousness – it cannot avoid the use of nature symbols except in abstract conceptualisations such as mathematics.[iii] As symbols of the feminine principle, life-giving nature symbols do not belong in patriarchal consciousness. Even while it attempts to distort and degrade the nature symbols, patriarchal consciousness wants to take over the creativity of the life-giving power of the feminine. This can be seen in ordinary English language. The following sentences show words relating to the life-giving aspect of the feminine being applied to activities or projects of ‘masculine” creation; Our nation was born out of a desire for freedom. His writings are products of his fertile imagination. His experiments spawned a host of new theories. Your actions will only breed violence. He hatched a clever scheme. He conceived a brilliant theory of molecular motion. Universities are incubators for new ideas. The theory of relativity first saw the light of day in 1905. The University of Chicago was the birthplace of the nuclear bomb.[iv] A more recent addition might be: I create my own reality. The root metaphor for creativity in the English-speaking world is procreation, predominantly the function of women. What patriarchal consciousness does, however, is translate the feminine function of creativity into activities and projects characterised by masculine principles, leaving the feminine principle without the pride of creation. And leaving many of us confused about the philosophies and spiritual paths we adopt. One of the strongest links we still have to Goddess is through the life-giving power of the feminine. Women still give life through their bodies. This is so obvious that we forget the magic of it. Life does not come through men’s bodies, test tubes, or incubators; life still comes into being through women’s bodies. Despite contraceptive chemicals and more than two thousand years of negative conditioning, women’s bodies continue to respond to the cycles of the moon, to the rhythms of Nature. The ancient magic of the life-giving power of women is still with us. Take a moment to consider the extraordinary fact that women have always been able to do something that men cannot do: grow and bring forth new life from their bodies. That we take this for granted (and even see it as a burden women must bear) represents a terrible loss of power. Women are the life-givers, and this is a sacred task. Today we are on the threshold of losing this completely. To science and technology. To the misinformation of a patriarchal culture that denigrates Nature. (Meet Mago Contributor) Kaalii Cargill. [i] EC Whitmont, 1982, Return of the Goddess, Guernsey, Great Britain, The Guernsey Press, p 78. [ii] E Neumann, 1991, The Great Mother, Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press., p. 58. [iii] ibid. p. 50. [iv] G Lakoff & M Johnson, 1981, The metaphorical structure of the human conceptual system, in DA Norman, ed., Perspectives on Cognitive Science. First Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Logola, CA, Ablex Publishing Corp., pp. 74-75.
(Essay) The Messages of Birds by Hearth Moon Rising

Long before tarot, runes, I Ching, or throwing the bones, divination was applied through signs in nature. A sophisticated system of reading these signs was known as augury during the Roman empire, and it focused entirely on birds – their flight, how they perched, the way they ate or drank, the type of bird, the entrails of the bird when gutted, etc. A form of augury is still practiced in some cultures, and its origin likely goes back far into prehistory. Roman augury was a male priesthood, but I cannot find information on whether this was the case elsewhere. My guess is that augury was a non-gender specific skill, taught to everyone like reading and writing today. Stone Age people would have closely observed bird behavior along waterways in the course of their daily activities. Even before permanent settlements humans camped along rivers or, in arid regions, moved between waterholes. Like humans, many species of birds prefer to congregate around water. Long legged fish-eating birds like herons hunt in shallow water. Webbed foot geese dive for tubers along the banks of ponds and slow moving rivers. Pelicans eat baby ducks as well as fish. Loons travel significant distance underwater as they hunt. In the tall trees eagles and osprey nest, swooping to catch small fish in their talons.
(Essay 10) The Norse Goddesses behind the Asir Veil: The Vanir Mothers in Continental Scandinavia by Kirsten Brunsgaard Clausen

[This part and the forthcoming sequels are an elaborated version of the original article entitled “The Norse Goddesses behind the Asir Veil: The Vanir Mothers in Continental Scandinavia—a late Shamanistic Branch of the Old European Civilization?” by Märta-Lena Bergstedt & Kirsten Brunsgaard Clausen, included in Goddesses in Myth, History and Culture (Mago Books, 2018) Edited by Mary Ann Beavis and Helen Hye-Sook Hwang.] Fröja – the Shaman and High-Völva of Sejd Regardless all changes made to her in Asgård, Fröja upheld her specific title, Vanamö (Vanir Maiden) or Vanadis (Vanir Disir).[1] She kept her identity as High Völva or Vala (shaman), patroness of the sejd, the genuine Norse shamanism. Sejd was a specific Vanir feature. The indigenous, animistic and shamanistic cultures have professional s, the shamans, but everyone is familiar with shamanism for private and everyday use,[2] as discussed for the Sami people above. Also the indigenous Germanics had professional sejders, the völvas/valas, and shamanism was to what it seems, primarily on female hands. To the Asir gods the skill of sejd was originally unknown – and abhorrent. Odin, eventually practicing the sejd, after for a long time having pestered Fröja to give it to him, was never able to take control over Fröja, nor was Iron Age society fully able to control the human völvas, until their extinction. The sejd belonged to and was deeply rooted in the Vanir world, in which the meaning of its symbolism was fully familiar. In indigenous cultures, the task of traditional shamans was to work for the best of society, keeping up harmonious relations between nature and humans, and to travel into the spiritual world to find answers to urgent questions. This was also true for the Scandinavian Vanir vala/völva. The Nordic sejd is considered to have reached a particularly high and advanced level.[3] Sharing the basic principles of world-wide shamanism, the Norse sejd also had a unique character of its own. First, Norse sejd seems to have been a female and collective phenomenon. Second, instead of using shamanic drums, women would stand in a ring around the völva and sing sejd-songs, galders or varðlokkur (circle-sejd-songs).[4] These galders were rhythmic runic songs that helped the völva, when traveling in the spiritual realms. Third, whereas shamans generally perform physical movements on the ground, the völva would sit quietly aloft at her hjäll, a wooden High-Chair, probably once stationary,[5] but later built for each new Sejd-session (not to be confused by the High-Seat of the chieftain at the end of the table). She would hold unto her upright staff, her eyes covered to be able to see clearly in the spiritual world. In the Saga of Red Eric in Greenland, details from a Viking Age sejd-session around 1000CE are depicted.[6] Miniatures and pendants in silver of the vala´s wooden High-Chair (hjäll), snake symbols, and staffs are features, all found in many late (Iron Age), and most often very rich völva-graves. The word völva is agreed to derive from the ON volr, meaning staff. The Völva was the staff-holder.[7] Another epithet referring to her staff-holding is Gand-bera.[8] At least in Viking Age, the late Asir-believers treated the völvas with a combination of both fear and disrespect. They called her names and saw her as witch and evil. Even Fröja was shouted at and treated this way in Lokesenna 32. “Be silent, Freyja! thou foulest witch, And steeped full sore in evil.” Examples are many, and we have come to conclude and agree with Scholar in Mythology and Folklore, Lotta Motz that it is fully possible that the epithet völva is not the original old name for a Vanir shaman. Instead the word völva, meaning stick- or stake-holder, could well be a late derogatory name given to her with salient allusions to the male organ (at least of horses), the völ-sa (perhaps even vulva?). And further, female shaman-graves with divination tools and shamanic tokens stretch back throughout Bronze Age, but the old graves all lack staffs! Graves containing the typical sejd-staffs is an Iron Age phenomenon. The reason could be that not until after their institution had been brought to collapse, did the völvas start to walk about. For her title, if not völva, what then was her title? Vala is another well-established epithet, deriving from falling (into trance), and by W.B. Hjort translated as natural consciousness of the divine.[9] In original Old Norse language and texts Vala is the epithet used, and it is preferred and preserved in all Swedish translations. Only Danish and Norwegian translations have by tradition favored the word völva/volva. Vala is found though, in combination with Edda places´, a fact that would warrant an original and enduring use. An example is Odin´s settlement, called the Vala-skjálf (meaning settlemet of the Vala (“shelf” or ledge on the mountain)), which he took from the high-völva. From there he could overlook all worlds. Therefore, we are inclined to give preference to the word, vala as the original title of the Vanir shaman.[10] Fröja’s fivefold staff became her her token of dignity when wandering. It may signify the World Tree that connects the three shamanic worlds; underworld, midworld and overworld. It is said to have been made from the hollow elder tree, commonly known also asFröja’s Tree, as it grows rapidly and easy; its berries endowing us with Fröja-power all winter long.[11] In Iron Age (Viking Age) onwards, wen no longer stationary but walking about, the staff was indeed carried by Fröja´s human representatives, the völvas/valas. It was so significant that it is suggested to have had its own name,[12] and it followed the human völvas into their graves, at least in the late centuries of the völvas´ existence. Archeologically, female graves with staffs – and other specific items as leather-bags with divination tools, certain brooches and jewelry, like the small silver chair pendants, and the oval brooches with bead-sets, fire-steels pendants, snake-images, etc. (see fig. 27-30), have been found in various places in Scandinavia (one third of these are from Birka (Sw), Fyrkat (Dk), Hedeby (Dk).[13] …
(Book Excerpt 3) How to Live Well Despite Capitalist Patriarchy by Trista Hendren

3 Options If you don’t like something about yourself, you generally have 3 options—you can continue to despise that part of yourself, you can change it, or you can accept it. I recently read a book—that I wouldn’t really recommend as feminist, but I enjoyed nonetheless—called UnFu*k Yourself.15 I have always adored blunt people, and this Scottish dude really nailed some things on the head for me. He gave an analogy about someone who was struggling with their weight—and that alone was playing all sorts of mind games with their self-worth. The simple strategy of just accepting the fact that they did not want to stop eating junk food or to do the exercise required to maintain the weight they easily maintained when they were younger was all that it took for this person to get ‘unfu*ked.’ That struck a chord with me—even though the male version of this is likely more simplified than it is for us as females. I don’t eat much junk food, and I have never been on a diet or struggled significantly with my weight. However, after my surgery, my stomach is less than my favorite part of my body—complete with a long scar running the length of my belly, stretch marks from 2 births and the extra bit of padding I have put on after 40. After absorbing the author’s bluntness, I was like, OK, he is right. I have no intention of going on a diet—not now or ever—and I am not likely to start running marathons or to take up weight lifting. There is also no way I am doing any sort of cosmetic surgery to change how my stomach looks or to lessen the severity of the scar. Am I really going to spend the rest of my life being upset by a stomach that the majority of women on our planet also share to some degree? This is where awesome art by women comes in—and why I have paintings by Elisabeth Slettnes, Arna Baartz, Jakki Moore and others hung throughout my home. In a photo-shopped world, women need regular reminders of what most of us actually look like!16 In any case, my stomach is under acceptance and I am doing a better job of dressing myself so that I feel happy with it—i.e., anything tight is going in the Goodwill box and I am going to stop wearing black every day to mask my body. My colorful friend Vigdis even sent me a fun catalog from Gudrun Sjödén to inspire me to get started. The fact is that even when I was younger, I never thought my stomach was good enough, flat enough, or fit enough—and I had a big mole on it to boot! How many women feel bad about this? As Anita A. Johnston wrote, “Why has a naturally masculine shape (broad shoulders, no waist, narrow hips, flat belly) become the ideal for the female body? Why is it that those aspects of a woman’s body that are most closely related to her innate female power, the capacity of her belly, hips, and thighs to carry and sustain life, are diminished in our society’s version of a beautiful woman?”17 Back to your 3 options… they apply to more than just your stomach. These options apply to all of your life. Don’t waste a moment hating something about yourself—especially if you are measuring by the standards of Capitalist Patriarchy. Define your own standards and edit your life accordingly. Find more info on this book here.(Meet Mago Contributor) Trista Hendren. [i] Suggestions on this in the Single Mothers Speak on Patriarchy anthology.
(Video) Journey Within by Jassy Watson

You are invited to join Visionary Artist and Intentional Creativity Coach, Jassy Watson in Goddesses Garden Studio to discover what she has planned for the core 2016 Journey Within sacred painting program. From her studio space situated in Innes Park Queensland Australia, Jassy teaches regular painting classes for girls and women that are designed to inspire earth connection and creative expression. Her works are a powerful tribute to the earth and to the feminine form. Jassy believes that cultivating creativity is taking powerful action towards living an enriched life where transformation and healing is possible.
RTM Newsletter January 2017 #4

Editorial Update: Namarita Kathait resumes her duty as Admin Editor. Meet our RTM Editorial Circle here! Focus: Meet new contributors in January, 2017! Starr Goode (Continue Reading)

(Special Post 1) 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 Hwang: I am thinking of the Nine Goddess/Mago Symbolism or Nine Numerology. Insights connect the data that I have collected, otherwise seemingly unrelated across cultures and periods. We have reasons to celebrate the nine symbolism among us. As seen in this discussion below, Hercules is most aptly equated with Huangdi (Yellow Emperor, 2698–2598 BCE), one of the forebear emperors of ancient China, who is alleged to have defeated Chiu (successor of Goma), the representative of Danguk’s Nine Giants (nine sub-states). The Magoist history writes the other way around. Chiu won the war, the archetypal international/global war waged over the defense/overthrow of the Magoist throne. Old Magoists (Danguk founded by Goma) of Nine Queen-led States defended the rebellion of the patrilocal force, represented by the Huangdi. With this victory, Old Magoist Confederacy of nine sub-states was able to maintain gynocentric peace of the ancient world for about five centuries longer until a man, Yao, rose to give a way for the establishment of the first patriarchal rule, ancient China of the Xia Dynasty (c. 2070 BCE – c. 1600 BCE). Nonetheless, patriarchal ethnocentric Sinocentric historiography has proliferated to this day. Yu, the founder of the Xia dynasty, is depicted as the hero who slains the nine-headed snake. What I am saying is here that the Nine Goddess/Symbolism is pre-patriarchal in origin and possibly speaks of the same event across cultures! The slain of nine-headed snakes or dragons indicates the usurpation of gynocentric rule by a patriarchal hero across cultures. Let me show you some available information and images to open the discussion. Lernaean Hydra 1 oz Copper | The 12 Labors of Hercules “Hercules was sent to slay the Lernaean Hyrda for his second Labor. The multi-headed, snake-like monster was defeated by Hercules after he sliced its one mortal head. The last day to purchase the 1 oz Copper Lernaean Hyrda was the November 12, 2014. There is, however, time to order the 5 oz Copper Hercules Round, and 5 oz Silver Hercules Round. To read about Hercules and his 12 Labors, check out our blog for more information. If you enjoy the 12 Labors of Hercules coin series, take a look at more Silver and Copper coin collections offered by Provident Metals. After defeating the Nemean Lion, Hercules was sent to slay the Lernaean Hydra for his second labor. The Hydra, a snake-like beast with multiple heads, was raised by Hera to destroy Hercules — making this an inevitable match up. In the face-off between Hercules and Hydra, the son of Zeus used a sword to slice off each of the creature’s necks, according to one popular tale. When the heads grew back, Hercules enlisted his nephew to burn each of the necks to halt regrowth. The Hydra had one mortal head, however; so Hercules used his golden sword to slay the mutant and complete his second labor. The beast is displayed on the Second Labor coin, to be released in the 12 Labors of Hercules Series. The reverse features the multi-headed Hydra in a striking position, displaying the daunting task Hercules faced. LERNAEAN HYDRA and II are inscribed. The familiar obverse portraying Hercules with the Nemean Lion draped over his head as armor is shown on this round, as it will be on each round in the powerful series. “1 oz CMXCIX (999 in Roman numerals) FINE COPPER” is also displayed. The 1 oz. Copper Lernaean Hydra rounds will only be available for one month from Oct. 12 through Nov. 12. Make sure to keep your 12 Labors of Hercules Series collection current before time runs out! 12 Labors of Hercules Driven crazy by Hera, Hercules slew his family — only regretful after recovering his sanity. King Thespius purified the son of Zeus, but to atone for his crimes, he was sent to serve King Eurystheus. Eurystheus ordered Hercules to execute 10 Labors, which were a series of tasks carried out as penance for his actions. Hercules successfully completed all 10, but because his nephew helped with one and he planned to accept payment for another, Eurystheus forced Hercules to finish two more Labors alone. Hercules’ Labors adhere to the traditional order of the Bibliotheca: Nemean Lion – Sept. 12, 2014 Lernaean Hydra – Oct. 12, 2014 Ceryneian Hind – Nov. 12, 2014 Erymanthian Boar – Dec. 12, 2014 Augean Stables – Jan. 12, 2015 Stymphalian Birds – Feb. 12, 2015 Cretan Bull – March 12, 2015 Mares of Diomedes – April 12, 2015 Girdle of Hippolyta – May 12, 2015 Cattle of Geryon – June 12, 2015 Apples of Hesperides – July 12, 2015 Cerberus – Aug. 12, 2015 Commemorate the historic battle between Hercules and the Lernaean Hydra with this 1 oz copper round from Provident Metals.” https://www.providentmetals.com/1-oz-copper-lernaean-hydra-the-12-labors-of-hercules.html Helen Hwang: I looked for the answer to this question: How many heads did the Hydra originally have? It is nine, which accords with its icons to be shared shortly. Helen Hwang: Check out Nine-fold or Nine-Headed Phoenix. Not all iconographies of pre-modern China vilify the nine symbolism, which indicates the influence/presence/revival of Magoism. This image is much reminiscent of the blue crane with nine feathers, a Magoist symbol that we have seen in Mago Stronghold, Mt. Jiri during Mago Pilgrimage (to be discussed in another space). “This Qing-dynasty (1644-1911) print shows the nine-headed phoenix, a being from Chinese mythology with a bird’s body and nine heads with human faces. It is one of several hybrid creatures mentioned in the Classic of Mountains and Seas (Shanhai jing), where it is […]
(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 2) "The Oldest Cilivization" and its Agendas by Mago Circle Members

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

A PaGaian Wheel of the Year and Her Creativity by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This essay is an excerpt from Chapter 2 of the author’s new book A Poiesis of the Creative Cosmos: Celebrating Her within PaGaian Sacred Ceremony. for larger image see: https://pagaian.org/pagaian-wheel-of-the-year/ Essentially a PaGaian Wheel of the Year celebrates Cosmogenesis – the unfolding of the Cosmos, none of which is separate from the unfolding of each unique place/region, and each unique being. This creativity of Cosmogenesis is celebrated through Earth-Sun relationship as it may be expressed and experienced within any region of our Planet. PaGaian ceremony expresses this with Triple Goddess Poetry understood to be metaphor for the creative dynamics unfolding the Cosmos. At the heart of the Earth-Sun relationship is the dance of light and dark, the waxing and waning of both these qualities, as Earth orbits around our Mother Sun. This dance, which results in the manifestation of form and its dissolution (as expressed in the seasons), happens because of Earth’s tilt in relationship with Sun: because this effects the intensity of regional receptivity to Sun’s energy over the period of the yearly orbit. This tilt was something that happened in the evolution of our planet in its earliest of days – some four and a half billion years ago,[i] and then stabilised over time: and the climatic zones were further formed when Antarctica separated from Australia and South America, giving birth to the Antarctica Circumpolar Current, changing the circulation of water around all the continents … just some thirty million years ago.[ii] Within the period since then, which also saw the advent of the earliest humans, Earth has gone through many climatic changes. It is likely that throughout those changes, the dance of light and dark in both hemispheres of the planet … one always the opposite of the other – has been fairly stable and predictable. The resultant effect on flora and fauna regionally however has varied enormously depending on many other factors of Earth’s ever-changing ecology: She is an alive Planet who continues to move and re-shape Herself. She is Herself subject to the cosmic dynamics of creativity – the forming and the dissolving and the re-emerging. The earliest of humans must have received all this, ‘observed’ it in a very participatory way: that is, not as a Western industrialized or dualistic mind would think of ‘observation’ today, but as kin with the events – identifying with their own experience of coming into being and passing away. There is evidence (as of this writing) to suggest that humans have expressed awareness of, and response to, the phenomenon of coming into being and passing away, as early as one hundred thousand years ago: ritual burial sites of that age have been found,[iii] and more recently a site of ongoing ritual activity as old as seventy thousand years has been found.[iv] The ceremonial celebration of the phenomenon of seasons probably came much later, particularly perhaps when humans began to settle down. These ceremonial celebrations of seasons apparently continued to reflect the awesomeness of existence as well as the marking of transitions of Sun back and forth across the horizon, which became an important method of telling the time for planting and harvesting and the movement of pastoral animals. It seems that the resultant effect of the dance of light and dark on regional flora and fauna, has been fairly stable in recent millennia, the period during which many current Earth-based religious practices and expression arose. In our times, that is changing again. Humans have been, and are, a major part of bringing that change about. Ever since we migrated around the planet, humans have brought change, as any creature would: but humans have gained advantage and distinguished themselves by toolmaking, and increasingly domesticating/harnessing more of Earth’s powers – fire being perhaps the first, and this also aided our migration. In recent times this harnessing/appropriating of Earth’s powers became more intense and at the same time our numbers dramatically increased: and many of us filled with hubris, acting without consciousness or care of our relational context. We are currently living in times when our planet is tangibly and visibly transforming: the seasons themselves as we have known them for millennia – as anyone’s ancestors knew them – appear to be changing in most if not all regions of our Planet. Much predictable Poetry – sacred language – for expressing the quality of the Seasonal Moments will change, as regional flora changes, as the movement of animals and birds and sea creatures changes, as economies change.[v]In Earth’s long story regional seasonal manifestation has changed before, but not so dramatically since the advent of much current Poetic expression for these transitions, as mixed as they are with layers of metaphor: that is, with layers of mythic eras, cultures and economies. We may learn and understand the traditional significance of much of the Poetry, the ceremony and symbol – the art – through which we could relate and converse with our place, as our ancestors may have done, but it will continue to evolve as all language must. In PaGaian Cosmology I have adapted the Wheel as a way of celebrating the Female Metaphor and also as a way of celebrating Cosmogenesis, the Creativity that is present really/actually in every moment, but for which the Seasonal Moments provide a pattern/Poetry over the period of a year – in time and place. The pattern that I unfold is a way in which the three different phases/characteristics interplay. In fact, the way in which they interplay seems infinite, the way they inter-relate is deeply complex. I think it is possible to find many ways to celebrate them. There is nothing concrete about the chosen story/Poetry, nor about each of the scripts presented here, just as there is nothing concrete about the Place of Being – it (She) is always relational, a Dynamic Interchange. Whilst being grounded in the “Real,” the Poetry chosen for expression is therefore at the same time, a potentially infinite expression, according to the heart and mind of the storyteller. NOTES: [i] See Appendix C, *(6), Glenys Livingstone, A Poiesis of the Creative …
(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 …
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 …
(Art & Poem) Spring Equinox by Sudie Rakusin & Annie Finch

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

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

(Art) Mago by Lydia Ruyle

Mago of old Korea and East Asia, also known as Magu, Mako, Samsin Halmeoni (Triad Grandmother Goddess) and Cheonsin (Heavenly Deity), is the Great Goddess. Mago is the progenitor, creatrix, and ultimate sovereign. Early gynocentric cultures venerated Her in many forms. Her multivalent identities include an immortal, mendicant, crone, shaman, and/or nature-shaper of mountains, rocks, caves and seas. In art, Mago often carries a basket of lingzi mushrooms, medicinal herbs and flowers–all symbols of immortality. Source: Painting c. 1400 CE by Seokgyeong. Joseon Dynasty. Korea Meet Mago Contributor, Lydia Ruyle.
(Book Announcement 4) Introduction (part 2) by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

[Editor’s Note: This Introduction is from She Rises: How Goddess Feminism, Activism, and Spirituality? Volume 2.] Pre-order available now! The Text of the Primordial Mother/the Creatrix/Mago She Rises Volume 2, like her predecessor, is born out of the Magoist vision.[i] It intends to raise the collective consciousness of WE, a cognitive symbolic system derived from the knowing of the Primordial Mother or the Creatrix. One may call it an embodied knowing or gynocentric epistemology. Our stories shed light on the holistic view in which all parts are revered as a microcosm of the Creatrix. The She Rises book is an emblem of gynocentric cosmology: All contributions are interconnected and the book is enriched by each and all contributions. This book is NOT just about what we have discovered and what we have experienced about Goddess feminism, activism, and spirituality but what and how we do with our discoveries and experiences. Where are we heading to with our knowing of S/HE? The collective consciousness of WE summons a gynocentric reality. This book is designed to show our togetherness in our uniqueness. It stands for unity that is enhanced by the diversity of individuals. The key phrase in the subtitle, “Goddess feminism, activism, and spirituality,” is a reminder of the all-embracing gynocentric way of our becoming. We ARE committed to the making of the book to reflect the gynocentric principle of unity in diversity. We allow our differences to lead us to a new (read gynocentric) territory without making ourselves fall into factionalism. Competition in a constructive manner helps us grow. But factionalism destroys us. We speak our truths not to argue or win. We speak our truths because they are true to us. Truth speaks, even when we can’t hear. And we trust ourselves to speak our truths in HER. And S/HE shall bring us together in WE. To trust in our contributors is the map that we editors have followed in She Rises collective books. In the process, we have learned that what we really need to be careful of, not the other camp of Goddessians, but what really divides us among Goddessians/Magoists. In my Introduction to She Rises Volume 1, I drew attention to the word “Goddess,” concerning our need to reclaim it despite its linguistic drawback. Summarily, we strategically adopt the word, “Goddess,” knowing its derivative and subsequently dualistic nature from the word “God” in the English language.[ii] We are aware of the functional nature of language, a means for the meaning that we intend to convey. We choose one word over another for our political and utilitarian reasons. Our use of the word “Goddess” has given us a common ground to come together and interweave the She Rises books. The Magoist vision of the book merits the stance that the Goddess is not just the female divine or a sum of female deities but the Great Goddess, the Primordial Mother. It is S/HE who allows us the holistic view of WE/HERE/NOW, the ultimate reality. We who are awakened in S/HE know that we ARE this S/HE reality. In writing my Introduction to the second book, another term has come to my attention, “feminine.” As seen in this book, some of our authors have favorably chosen the word, “feminine” in support of Goddess feminism, activism, and spirituality for reliable reasons. The context wherein the term is used is complex and highly suggestive of the female divine power. In their uses, some make it clear that the feminine refers to the female divine nature/power of women. Others use it in redefining and deconstructing patriarchal definitions of “the feminine.” It is true that “the divine feminine” or “the sacred feminine” has taken on popularity so much so that it appears almost indispensable in the Goddess Talk. Nonetheless, I hold that there is a point that we need to think and explore together the meaning of “feminine.” Linguistically speaking, referring to the gender quality of women, the meaning of “feminine” fluctuates. I find it worth broaching these questions to us: Is the term “feminine” empowering Goddess feminism? Why yes? Why no? These questions can only be answered by our authors and readers. We editors by no means advocate the purge of the term, feminine, from this book. Forcing unity is not gynocentric. We propose the question as an ongoing conversation among Goddessians. Here is my stance to the question, which is yes and no. When the context indicates an ancient (read gynocentric) or feminist meaning, the word “feminine” certainly empowers women. When “the divine feminine” indicates the Primordial Mother within an environment like this book, the word is empowering. Put differently, the meaning of “feminine” can be conveyed as gynocentric, that is, women-empowering, when “the divine feminine” refers to the Creatrix, the Great Goddess. In this case, the gender quality of “feminine” is coherent with the biological quality of “female.” The meaning of “feminine” in such context does NOT reflect the patriarchally-imposed qualities of women; the feminine is gynocentric and sacred. However, when the word “feminine” is used outside the gynocentric context, it becomes dubious in meaning, if not self-defeating, obstructing the impetus of women’s empowerment. Referring to the gender quality (read a social/patriarchal construct), of women, the meaning of “feminine” changes in different times and cultures. It is not free from socio-cultural settings. Being feminine today in the U.S. would be very different from being feminine two centuries ago. Also, being feminine today in one country would be very different from being feminine today in another country. On the other hand, the word, “female,” conveying the biological and biologically-derived quality of women, remains coherent in meaning across times and cultures. “Female” offers us a solid ground to build our feminist activism and feminist spirituality. Thus far, we women still hold the power of female biological and biologically-derived traits. The word, “feminine” alone risks a powerful conceptual ground for Goddess feminism. Precisely, it falls short in capturing the divine power of the Primordial Mother, the Creatrix. For example, I …
(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 …