December 21, 2013November 15, 2019 Mago Work Admin

(Solstice Poem) O Mother Sun by Glenys Livingstone

Summer Solstice Dawn 2009 over the Summer Solstice window of MoonCourt, Blue Mountains Australia – but it could also be representative of Winter Solstice Moment as Mother Sun emerges out of the dark.

O Mother Sun

who is with me

wherever I am.

May I always remember

your presence

surging through my nerve fibres

breathing in my body.

Present in the forms all around me.

May I remember to be gracious

For Thine is the planet.

O Mother Sun

You are Daughter too

– Child of Something Bigger.

Given life by the primordial cosmic dynamics.

We share the same Great Source

from whence all Form comes.

We … are Awesome.

All praise be.

1998 C.E.

Read Meet Mago Contributor, Glenys Livingstone.

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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 …
(Review) Women and Spirituality: the Goddess Trilogy by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

A three part DVD series by Donna Read This three part series – Goddess Remembered, The Burning Times, and Full Circle, by Donna Read, released in 2007 as “Women and Spirituality: the Goddess Trilogy”, by Alive Mind Cinema, was first released on video over two decades ago. Although it was shown on some television networks, and received awards, the content seemed destined to remain alive only in the hearts and minds of a select group, largely women, who perceived here a documentation of their spiritual heritage. However, its release as DVD has allowed a reception by a much larger audience: and there is now greater readiness for it. The designation of this material as “women’s spirituality” is grounded in the fact that it originates in female experience of regeneration of life, and probably in the fact that it is mainly women who have practised it. I offer that although this may be so, the material is relevant to any and all beings concerned with the regeneration of life. The male and all genders, in the oldest of human cultural traditions, were included amongst such aspirants: all had a role in the support and nurturance of the female regenerative capacities . This role need not be a subordinate role as is feared in a patriarchal context, and it does not succeed when it becomes a dominating possessive role, as it has on a planetary scale. Regeneration seems in fact the central plot of Earth and the Cosmos: thus the essential supportive task of all. Women are half or more of the human race, and play a central part in the web of life: the fact that material such as this needs to be classified as “women’s spirituality” and often marginalised, is perhaps an indictment of current religious thinking on the planet. As the first film in the series – Goddess Remembered – points out, we have lived for the last 6000 years in a context that increasingly celebrated the “hero”/ conqueror more than it did the role of nurturer. This is obvious in the prevalence of “war” metaphor in everyday language, in the telling of history as a series of conquests, and in the fact that last century was the bloodiest one hundred years on record. Our times seem to require some focussed attention on what real power might be, and how it might be exercised and supported. Goddess Remembered offers a vision of a way of being – a way of relationship – with other and place, that honours the miracle of life and its organic power. It is based in very recent evidence – from just last century – of civilisations that existed for millennia without chronic war, and of social and religious paradigms wherein women’s roles were central and respected. Whilst many argue about aspects of this evidence, it is also apparent that current paradigms wherein female imagery is backgrounded and nature is seen as a resource to be exploited, are not ethical or functional.
(Book Review) Kaarina Kailo. Finnish Goddess Mythology, the Golden Woman and Traditional Ecological Knowledge from Climate Change to Indigenous Earth Democracy and the Gift. Reviewed by Krista Rodin

[Editor’s Note: This book review was first published in S/HE: An international Journal of Goddess Studies Vol 1 No 2, 2022.] Dr. Kailo’s recently reprinted her 2018 work. Finnish Goddess Mythology is a detailed analysis of how indigenous Finnish and Ugric female spiritual figures fit within the broader context of pre-Christian societies’ approach to the natural world. Pre-Christian sacred female figures are not widely portrayed in many accounts of Finnish history. Even the main National Museum in Helsinki lacks substantial references to the indigenous goddesses of the region, and starts their history section with the country’s Swedish heritage. Dr. Kailo’s work, however, fills this gap by structuring her book into five main themes that lead into her presentation of the regional goddesses and feminine figures. She starts with a brief introduction of Modern Matriarchal structures as understood by people she has worked closely with including American Peggy Reeves Sanday, Ohio Bear Clan Seneca Barbara Alice Mann and German Heide Goettner-Abendroth. This cross-continent approach highlights these three authors agreement that matriarchy is not the direct opposite of patriarchy, but rather a different form altogether; one that stresses the equitable role distribution and respect for both, and all, genders. This leads into the second chapter, which is an examination of how the equitable distribution is based not on an exchange economy, but rather on a gift economy as framed by Genevieve Vaughan and her International Network of Feminists for a Gift Economy. Kailo goes a bit further to coin the term Gift Imaginary to describe “indigenous matriarchies that offer more mother-woman, and nature friendly attitudes than the hegemonic ones” (11). Her premise with the second chapter is that the exchange economy of patriarchy has led to the current climate crisis and depletion of natural resources and that a return to a gift economy, based on giving and giving back rather than on taking and depleting would create a more balanced approach thereby helping the planet and all those who live on it heal. She stresses a Traditional Ecological Knowledge system (TEK) throughout the chapter. The third chapter is on Indigenous Knowledge and Earth-Based Feminism. Here she discusses the work of primarily North American indigenous wisdom keepers including Lakota Vine Deloria, Jr. and Seneca Chief Oren Lyons. After introducing their ideas, as well as those of many other authors, she places them a local Finnish geographical context of a place she visited every summer as a child. These three introductory chapters form the general, yet highly personalized and therefore detailed, background investigation into Finnish herstory as regards a Finnish relationship with the land. She recognizes that not a few authors have mentioned that the Finns hate and fear their woods, but she clearly demonstrates that this attitude is neither ubiquitous nor, in most cases, accurate. These three chapters also set the stage for new perspectives on the female figures in the Finnish national epic, The Kalevala, which is the subject of chapter four, The Golden Women – Earthbody Warnings from Prehistory. The Kalevala is a mid-19th century epic poem by Elias Lönnrot that consists of compilation of Finnish oral folktales and myths. It starts with the story of the Creation of the Earth and then goes into the battles between the peoples of Kalevala and the “realm of women” Pohjola that include the fight for Sampo, a mythical machine that brought ‘good luck’ to its owner. How this ‘good luck’ brought through a blacksmith’s tool is defined is one of the many alter-native (this is the way she writes the term) perspectives Kailo raises in her interpretation of the work. She also reinterprets the realm of women, Pohjola, as follows: “Pohjola for its part refers to the vast cross-cultural areas of history when different ethnic and language groups shared mentifacts and artifacts, i.e. ideas, concepts, beliefs, values, and the diverse artifacts that expressed these worldviews (bronze casts, jewellery, rock art, etcetera)” (16). This interpretation is in line with a aforementioned gift economy. Throughout the first three chapters and now more focused in the fourth, she mentions “Terra Feminarum,” a mythical place in Antiquity that was supposedly run by women. Tacitus, among others, mentioned it. As to date, no archeological evidence of its existence has been found. It is generally considered to be fable-based. Kailo, on the other hand, believes that it really existed somewhere between current day Estonia and Finland. She plans an upcoming book on the topic, but uses chapter four to introduce her findings and explain how the oral transmissions mutated over time, especially since the Middle Ages when Christianity either coopted or demonized indigenous female figures. Her work on “Terra Feminarum and the Golden Woman” is a key element to the reconceptualization of the figures in The Kalevala. The final chapter introduces and analyses Finnish Goddesses and Great Mothers, based on Kailo’s proposed Finnish Traditional Ecological Knowledge system. She includes figures from the Kalevala including the Creators, Ilmatar and Veen emo, the Three Sisters, Helka, Pälvätär and Kuutar, the Sun and Moon goddesses, Hongatar, the Bear Mother, Louhi and others. She goes into detail about the connection between sacred female figures and bears as an example of the close interspecies connections that are part of TEK. Kailo has also written extensively elsewhere on this topic. This book concludes with a list of Finnish Guardian Spirits, Haltijas, and Goddesses to show the transition from one way of understanding to another. In her words: I emphasize that Totemistic Animal Mothers, Mother Goddesses, Spirit Guardians and Great Mothers are historically and geographically contingent references to the primordial feminine life force which has shifted from being expressed with animal metaphors to supernatural Spirits, and then the more anthropocentric concepts of human deities. (16) Finnish Goddess Mythology and the Golden Woman is not the usual compendium of goddesses that the title might presuppose, but rather an introspective introductory inquiry into the pre-Christian ecological and spiritual knowledge of the Finns, in other words, a Finnish Traditional Ecological Knowledge system, that Kailo intends to build upon in …
(Essay) Gayatri Initiation by MaryAnn Columbia

Gayatri meditation is the highest form of meditation known in the Vedas. Sage Vishwamitra is the seer of the Gayatri Mantra, which first appears in the Rig Veda (III, 62, 10). Gayatri is called the essence of all mantras. She is the source of divine wisdom and is the Mother of the Vedas. Gayatri is also called Savitri, which is the name of the solar deity. It is meditation on spiritual light (and is practiced by Hindus and Buddhists). She is the light that grows the seed. I have had two Gayatri initiations thus far. The first took place in the Himalayas following a Gayatri fire ceremony toward the end of an Ashta Vinayaka (Eight Ganesha) Temple Tour in India in 2007. Ganesha is the elephant-headed deity in Hinduism who is invoked at the beginning of all pursuits. I was initiated into the long form of the Gayatri Mantra by Namadeva Acharya (Thomas Ashley-Farrand), my mantra teacher. It is a memorable spiritual experience that cannot be described in words. I did 1000 bows to the Chun Bu Kyung through the night before this Gayatri initiation. Our journey culminated with six fire ceremonies at a campsite high in the Himalayas in a place called Auli. The Long Gayatri Mantra: Om Bhur Om Bhuvaha Om Swaha Om Maha Om Janaha Om Tapaha Om Satyam Om Tat Savitur Varenyam Bhargo Devasya Dhimahi Dhiyo Yonaha Prachodayat Rough translation: “O self-effulgent light that has given birth to all the lokas (spheres of consciousness) who is worthy of worship and appears through the orbit of the Sun, illumine our intellect. Representation: Om Bhu(r) – Earth plane (1st chakra) Om Bhuvaha – Atmospheric plane (2nd chakra) Om Swaha – Solar region (3rd chakra) Om Maha – First Spiritual region beyond the Sun (4th chakra) Om Janaha – Second Spiritual region beyond the Sun (5th chakra) Om Tapaha – Third Spiritual region beyond the Sun (6th chakra) Om Satyam – Abode of Supreme Truth Om Tat Savitur Varenyam – That realm which is beyond human comprehension Bhargo Devasya Dhimahi – In that place where all the celestials of all the spheres have received enlightenment Dhiyo Yonaha Prachodayat – Kindly enlighten our intellect I practice a long and beautiful daily sadhana that includes: – 13 Sun Mantras – Pranayama (scientific breathing) – Gayatri Hridaya – Gayatri Nyasa – Agna Nyasa – Gayatri Kriya – Main Mantra discipline – Gayatri Tarpana – Gayatri Prathaspana The sadhana has to be experienced first-hand to understand and appreciate its beauty and value. I was initiated into the short form of the Gayatri Mantra by Satguru Rama Mata, the wife and lineage holder of Sadguru Sant Keshavadas who founded the Vishwa Shanti Ashram in Bangalore, India. Rama Mata and Sant Keshavadas were the gurus of Namadeva Acharya who passed into Mahasamadhi 10/1/2010. Namadeva’s teachings and lineage are now being carried out by his wife Satyabhama (Margalo Ashley-Farrand) with Satguru Rama Mata presiding as her guru. With my short Gayatri initiation, I was blessed to receive the sacred Gayatri thread called Yajnopavitam. Yajnopavitam consists of three strands, which represent: – Goddess Gayatri (Goddess of mind) – Goddess Saraswati (Goddess of word) – Goddess Savitri (Goddess of deed) In India, Brahmin and Kshatriya men are called dvija, meaning “twice born.” A man of these castes is born once in the womb of his mother and again during the Upanayana when he learns the Gayatri Mantra. The Upnayam (Upanayana) is practiced by the three higher castes in India. The main point of the Upanayana ceremony is the wearing of the Yajnopavitam thread on the body. It is my understanding that women were not taught the Gayatri Mantra and it was taught by a father to his son at the time of the sacred thread ceremony. Fortunately for me, I have encountered teachers who teach the Gayatri Mantra to everyone! I have been abundantly blessed by my initiations to this very powerful devotional practice. The Short Gayatri Mantra: Om Bhur Bhuvaha swaha Om Tat Savitur Varenyam Bhargo Devasya Dhimahi Dhiyo Yonaha Prachodayat Individual Words: Om – Divinity Bhur – Vital energy on the Earth plane Bhuvaha – Destroyer of suffering Swaha – Embodying happiness Tat – That – meaning God or Divinity, bringing success Savitur – Bright and luminous, like the sun, producing bravery and perseverance Varenyam – Best or supreme Bhargo – Destroyer of sins Devasya – Divine, or realms of the Devas Dhimahi – May receive Dhiyo – Intellect Yo – Who Naha – Us Prachodayat – May inspire Deva Premal does a very famous and beautiful version of the Gayatri Mantra (short form) on her CD “Essence.” Here is a link to a more scientific explanation of the Gayatri mantra: http://sz0016.wc.mail.comcast.net/zimbra/h/printmessage?id=237564&xim=1
(Essay 4) The Two Marys of Chartres by Anne Baring

[Author’s Note: This essay in four parts is my webinar talk given to the Ubiquity University online Chartres Community Meeting ‘Madonna Rising’ August 14th, 2020] Mary Magdalene or Mary of Bethany Part 4 Mary Magdalene’ Journey to France by Giotto Eleven years after this, Mary had to leave Palestine suddenly because of the assassination of King Herod-Agrippa, the ruler of Judaea in 44 CE, for which the Nazarenes or followers of Jesus were blamed. It is highly likely that when she embarked for France, she took with her precious texts relating to the teachings that she and Jesus had shared with a close group of disciples, possibly even the text of The Gospel of the Beloved Companion, a Gospel that has only recently come to light. Mary Magdalene travelled to France with her sister Martha, her brother Lazarus and Mary Salome, Jesus’ sister, who was married to Lazarus. Mary travelled widely in Provence and the Languedoc and taught there for nearly 20 years until her death in 63 CE. Legends about her abound in this region of France and there is a village called Les Labadous near Rennes-le-Chateau in the Languedoc where she is said to have lived. She is also said to have lived for some years in a cave on the Sainte Baume mountain, named after the precious oil she used to anoint Jesus. Her brother Lazarus buried her in a small church called Saint Maximin-La-Sainte-Baume and to this day the Basilica of that name holds her relics, including her skull. These were guarded for many centuries by Cassianite monks who were devoted to her memory. The troubadours who carried this hidden tradition all over Europe under the cover of the Quest for the Holy Grail, called Mary Magdalene ‘Notre Dame’ and ‘The Grail of the World’. The Knights Templar held Mary Magdalene in the highest honor as the patron of their Order. Until their Order was disbanded in 1314 CE, they secretly guarded the heretical knowledge that she was the consort of Jesus and the mother of his children. They called her ‘Our Lady of Light’ because they saw her as the embodiment of Sophia or the Holy Spirit. In 2010 The Gospel of the Beloved Companion: The Complete Gospel of Mary Magdalene, was published in France.[1] It has been translated by Jehanne de Quillan from the original Alexandrian Greek into English with a commentary by her. This Gospel is believed to have been brought from Alexandria to the Languedoc in the early to middle part of the first century when Mary herself was in France, possibly by her. It was translated from Greek into Occitan, the language of the Languedoc, in the early part of the twelfth century. Since then it has been passed in a closed community from generation to generation, until the present time. It fills in the vital sections of text that are missing from the version of the Gospel of Mary that is already known to us and that is also in the Nag Hammadi Library. It truly is a momentous document for anyone interested in the teaching of Jesus or Yeshua as he is called in this Gospel, and the relationship between him and the Beloved Companion whom he calls Miryam. He also calls her the Migdalah or the Tower, saying that her tower will stand by his in time to come. It was astonishing for me to find, following everything I have written about the Shekinah and the feminine gender of the Holy Spirit, these words of Yeshua’s: ‘My words are the Way, the Truth and the Life. For my words are given of the Spirit, and no one comes to the Kingdom except through Her Teachings.’ (35:12) In this Gospel that has been so unexpectedly restored to us, we can at last hear the missing words that Mary spoke to the disciples when they had gathered in her house at Bethany a week after the crucifixion — words that conclude with this vision: “I felt my soul and all that I could see dissolve and vanish in a brilliant light, in a likeness unto the sun, and in the Light, I beheld a woman of extraordinary beauty, clothed in garments of brilliant white. The figure extended its arms, and I felt my soul drawn into its embrace, and in that moment, I was freed from the world and I realized that the fetter of forgetfulness was temporary. From now on I shall rest through the course of the time of the age in silence. And then, as from a great distance, I heard the voice of my Master tell me, ‘Miryam, whom I have called the Migdala, now you have seen the All, and have known the truth of your self; the truth that is I Am. Now you have become the Completion of Completions. (42:13) When Mary had told them what Jesus had said to her, Peter said: ‘Did he really speak privately with this woman and not openly to us? Are we to turn about and listen to her? Did he prefer her to us?’ (43:3) It is evident that the disciples listening to her revelation had no idea of what she was talking about or what her vision meant. Peter and Andrew said they did not believe what she said and their words made her cry. Levi, another disciple, defended her, saying that surely Jesus knew her better than all the others. ‘That is why he loved her more than us.’ And so, baffled and uncomprehending, the men went their separate ways. I have no doubt, on reading this Gospel, that Mary Magdalene or Miryam, as he called her, was the beloved companion and consort of Yeshua and possibly the only one of the Apostles who truly understood and transmitted his teaching. Think what it would have meant for the development of western civilization if the union of Jesus and Mary Magdalene had been celebrated by the Church founded in his name. Had their union been …
(Essay 1) Gift Giving and the Goddess, A philosophy for Social Change by Genevieve Vaughan

The society in which we are living, let’s call it ‘capitalist patriarchy’ for lack of a better term, creates a perspective, a pair of eyeglasses given to us in childhood, through which we learn to look at and interpret the world. These glasses create a selective vision, foregrounding some kinds of things and backgrounding others. Some kinds of things become invisible altogether. It is the privilege and the responsibility of all those who believe in the Godess(es), in magic, and in the immanence of a better world, to take those glasses off and re focus. There is another point of view that we already engage in even without knowing it because we are trained to discount it or to interpret its messages as something else. That is the point of view of the gift paradigm. In the early sixties I married an Italian philosophy professor and moved to Italy from Texas. Because he had studied the philosophy of language at Oxford my husband was asked to collaborate with a group of Italian professors who were starting a journal based on applying Marx’s analysis of the commodity and money to language. I went with him to the meetings. I was in my early twenties at the time and was completely bowled over by the ideas the group was discussing. I had one of those moments of enlightenment in which it seems you can understand everything. I also thought: If this means so much to me, a fairly normal girl from Texas, other people would probably have a similar reaction. Well, the years passed. The journal did not happen after all though my husband did write books dealing with the subject during the several years we were married. His approach was to look at language as exchange. Somehow that did not totally convince me. It did not accord with my original vision. Besides I was deep in mothering our three daughters and I felt that exchange was a very minimal part of that experience. In fact exchange is giving-in-order-to-receive. You have to satisfy little childrens’ needs unilaterally. They cannot exchange with you. As they get older you can of course engage in manipulation but that usually ends up hurting both the children and yourself. I knew that language was older than exchange, certainly older than exchange for money. Children also learned language before they learned exchange.
When Betrayal Makes Sense by Sara Wright

Photo by Sara Wright When I was a young woman, a divorced mother of two, working as a waitress I became obsessed by a window hanging in a local store. This cluster of grapes was fashioned out of thick, uneven hunks of stained glass that the artist had retrieved from bombed cathedrals in Europe. The grapes shimmered – ecclesiastical purple with limed green leaves. Although I could hardly afford to, I paid an outrageous $50.00 for this piece and hung it above my bedroom window. I never regretted the choice. Whenever I looked at the stained glass, I had the strange sense that there was a message hidden there. I ignored it. After my brother’s death two years later (my youngest son was two) I lost most of myself, but held on to my love for plants tending to them with deep affection and attention. My first word was ‘fower’ for flower so my relationship with plants stretched back to babyhood. I believed the flowers plants and trees that lived around my grandmother’s house were my close friends. I began to wonder – were those grapes an image for my love of all plants? Although I was socialized into Christianity I lost my tenuous connection to that religion in my twenties because it discounted nature as divinity, and it was in nature that I felt closest to Something I couldn’t define. I reconnected briefly at mid life when my children left home. During this second time around with Christianity I became friends with an Episcopalian priest who was a nature mystic. He sent me on my way, when he too, chose nature and left the church assuring me that I was in good hands…When he died, John became a bear. I was left in liminal space. Now when I looked at the grapes that still hung in my window I thought about Jesus. I remembered words about his being the vine, and something about fruit. Christianity might be dead, but Jesus seemed to live on in me in some peculiar way. Long ago I had acknowledged this figure as radical teacher who loved women and nature. He was a man betrayed by men who died a horrible death. When I read Elaine Pagel’s, the Gospel of Thomas the words of Jesus came to life with an authenticity that seemed to be missing in the Bible. “He who is close to me is close to the fire”. I was finally convinced. This piece of stained – glass was a vegetative aspect of Jesus. Soon after I moved to the mountains. Forests of fragrant evergreens embraced me. I wandered through tall pines spruce and fir feeling a sense of deep peace. I befriended all trees, and every animal that chose me. First it was the chickadees who lived in the pines…then doves and cardinals. I raised frogs each spring. I hadn’t been this happy since before my brother died… Deer, fox, coyote, porcupines, rabbits and bears were always around; the naturalist blossomed. I was becoming who I was meant to be. I forgot about Jesus. The trees became my Cathedral. When the logging machine began to strip the mountains of trees I was devastated. A year or two after moving I had a strange dream. In it I was a trailing emerald green vine that snaked along the ground. In addition to the green I was also deep purple. The startling sense of being that vine stayed with me. The luminescent colors reminded me of my grapes. When I met my first passionflower I was stunned by the astonishing deep violet blue crowns, the fragrance of these flowers, their deep green leaves. I began to root cuttings for myself and others. When I learned that this flower was associated with the crucifixion of Jesus, I felt uneasy, almost revolted. (I most definitely did not want to be identified with betrayal and crucifixion). I was not yet conscious of the extent of betrayal that had permeated my life. Instead, I blamed myself. I also started to hate Jesus believing that somehow I had gotten stuck to him and his crucifixion. I began to dread spring because the six – week period that led up to Jesus’s final betrayals and death was a time when personal betrayals occurred for me with frightening cyclic regularity. Twenty plus years passed before I finally wove my love and relationship to plants, the stained glass grapes, the vine that was me, trees, and the passionflowers into one cogent picture. Each of these images was showing me something I did not want to see. The plants spoke, not once, but again and again until I finally got the message… The same pattern of betrayal that dominated Jesus’s life also ruled mine. The grief and compassion I once felt over Jesus’s life and death returned, but this time I grieved primarily for me. The plants had led me home. Postscript: Both mythic and intergenerational family patterns live us whether we choose them or not. What’s important is to uncover the stories being told and come to terms with them even when they hurt. It’s probably not surprising to the reader that plants do speak to me on a regular basis – not through words, but through the truth of my body. https://www.magoism.net/2014/12/meet-mago-contributor-sara-wright/
(Music) ‘Eagle Song’ by Sabrina Montanaro

Sabrina Montanaro (Click above to listen to the music.) I was born and brought up in London in an Italo-Swedish Family. I trained as a vocal-composer in Florence with Gabriella Bartolomei. I’m now resident in Roma. Once upon a time I sat over a valley of Temples and asked God for a sign… after a long silence… a bee hit my drum and flew off. This was the sign. I discovered that the bee was a messenger of all the Goddesses that had been silenced on the planet; and that the drum was the primordial heart-beat, the Law and pulse of ecstasy, of fusing the mystical and physical in creation. I became a-kin to the bee in my musical and spiritual research collecting nectar in India, Afro-Colombia and Indigenous Colombia and Ireland . When the time was ripe the Universe gave me a twin-soul to give birth musically with: Eugenio Chabaneau from Argentina, composer, poet and Master-guitarist… and a bee hit the drum ! was born. Now working on 2nd CD all instrumental a bit ‘ Andino ‘ dedicated to ‘Angels in time of war’.
(Book Excerpt) Lessons from the Legends of the Salzkammergut: The Divine Feminine in Place and Time by Krista Rodin, Ph.D.

[This book was publish by Mago Books (April 1, 2022). Details and purchase info is available here (Mago Bookstore).]INTRODUCTION The Salzkammergut is one of the most beautiful places on earth. Mountains stretch to the sky, some even remain snow-covered throughout the year, while others are colored with deep woods, bright meadows, and green pastures. Water is abundant in rivers, streams, and lakes. This lush fertile area has been inhabited for millennia, yet it remains filled with mystery and wonder. The uniqueness of the region has been recognized for centuries by the people living here as well as the workers who came from Germany to work the salt mines, the pilgrims who made their way to St. Wolfgang’s church, those seeking good health in the spas in Goisern and Ischl, and the Viennese court when they summered with Emperor Franz Josef and his wife Elisabeth, Sissi, in Ischl. The most recent international recognition came with the announcement that Bad Ischl and the Salzkammergut have been selected as one of the three European Capitals of Culture for 2024 along with Bodø in Norway and Tartu in Estonia. Different from the other capitals, the Salzkammergut is a region, not a city. Bad Ischl is the historical home of the Medieval Salzkammergut, but it is only one of the ten mini-regions that comprise today’s Salzkammergut, which crosses the borders of three Austrian provinces: Salzburg, Upper Austria and Styria. There are a number of books on the legends and customs of the Salzkammergut available to those who read German. There is, however, nothing that is in English for those who do not speak the local language, but still would like to know more about the magic and history of the area. Additionally, there is nothing in either English or German that places the legends in a culturally relevant context focusing on the impact of Divine Feminine figures on the region. This book hopes to fill that void as it offers insights into how the local legends and customs contain universal lessons while being embedded in the region’s distinct history and geography. The text starts with a brief historical overview of the peoples and events that shaped the legends; this is followed by an introduction to the various Alpine spirits that are touched on in the legends and annual celebrations. The divine feminine figures mentioned include the Neolithic Kienbach Gorge goddess, the Celtic Bethen, their Christian counterparts: Katherine, Margarethe and Barbara, and the Alpine Frau Holle, Frau Percht and Witch Kranabetha. The Virgin Mother Mary appears in various contexts throughout the book. The legends are organized into five general moral codes that shape the region’s communities and are based in specific places and landscapes around Land Salzburg and the Salzkammergut. The next section deals with the relation of the Alpine spirits to the organization of time through the changing of the seasons as seen through local customs and celebrations. The last section ties the themes from the legends and annual celebrations back to the role of the divine feminine in the daily life of the people of the Salzkammergut. A word on the translations and terms: all translations are that of the author as are all the photographs. Translations of the legends are often not literal, but have been adapted for readability and comprehension in English and for a non-local audience. Three legends from neighboring areas in the provinces of Salzburg and Styria have been included as they could easily have been from places within the Salzkammergut, but those from around the city of Salzburg and the Untersberg Mountain are available in other media. Terms like “Raunächte” and “Hollerbush” have been left in German as English translations do not connote the mystery and magic of the German words. The province of Salzburg is called by its German name, Land Salzburg, to differentiate it from its capital city. Regional lakes are also called simply by their German names, e.g., the Wolfgangsee rather than Lake Wolfgang. Frau Percht and Frau Holle are known by a number of different spellings in German legends, e.g., Frau Perchta, or Frau Hold; for simplicity, only the former spelling is used here. The same is true for Witch Kranabetha, who is often spelled Kranawitha or Kranawett; they are the same legendary figure. Additionally, explanatory English or German names and terms are occasionally placed in parenthesis for greater comprehension. The section on traditional annual events relies heavily on Sandra Galatz’ Bräuche im Salzkammergut: Gelebte Tradition im Jahreskreis and some of her entries have simply been translated. The footnotes reference the works the translations stem from, as well as those that provide support for the various topics and ideas presented in the text. Winter mist near Schwarzensee https://www.magoism.net/2018/09/meet-mago-contributor-krista-rodin-ph-d/

(Special Post) To Contributors: Strengthening Our Roots by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

Dear Contributors, Do you know that Return to Mago (RTM) E*Magazine is entering its fifth year this fall? And, thanks to our collective effort, we are still growing! As of today, our contributors have grown to more than 130 in number and our readership is from about 140 countries around the world. We have some hundred email followers as well as Wordpress blog followers. We draw 3000-4000 clicks per month on average; that is no small accomplishment for a Goddess blog that is named after a yet-to-be heard word, Mago (the Great Goddess), and that began from scratch.
(Special Post 6) 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.] Esther Essinger “Why Goddess, when “GD” is perpetrating so much grief? 1) First, it’s vital to know that Goddess is NOT “GD” in a skirt. It is demanded of NO one that they “believe” or “have faith”, so there can be no guilt (and no punishment! (No Hell below us, thank you John) in NOT choosing to interest oneself in these particular Stories, myths, legends and tales which center the Cosmic Female, the Universal Mother, Mother Earth /Mother Nature at their core. No evangelism happening here!
(Special post) Laurie Baymarrwangga, Senior Australian of the Year 2012

Posted with permission in Return to Mago on ‘Australia Day’, 26 January 2014 (Australian time), in recognition of the ill-treatment and misunderstanding of Aboriginal people that was set in train when, in 1788, white people first settled in the land now known as Australia.

Lammas/Late Summer within the Creative Cosmos by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This essay is an edited excerpt from Chapter 10 of the author’s new book A Poiesis of the Creative Cosmos: Celebrating Her within PaGaian Sacred Ceremony. Southern Hemisphere – Feb. 1st/2nd, Northern Hemisphere – August 1st/2nd These dates are traditional, though the actual astronomical date varies. It is the meridian point or cross-quarter day between Summer Solstice and Autumn Equinox, thus actually a little later in early February for S.H., and early August for N.H., respectively. a Lammas/Late Summer table The Old One, the Dark and Shining One, has been much maligned, so to celebrate Her can be more of a challenge in our present cultural context. Lammas may be an opportunity to re-aquaint ourselves with the Crone in her purity, to fall in love with Her again, to celebrate She Who creates the Space to Be. Lammas is a welcoming of the Dark in all its complexity: and as with any funerary moment, there is celebration of the life lived (enjoyment of the harvest) – a “wake,” and there is grieving for the loss. One may fear it, which is good reason to make ceremony, to go deeper, to commit to the Mother, who is the Deep; to “make sacred” this emotion, as much as one may celebrate the hope and wonder of Spring, its opposite. If Imbolc/Early Spring is a nurturing of new young life, Lammas may be a nurturing/midwifing of death or dying to small self, the assent to larger self, an expansion or dissipation – further to the radiance of Summer Solstice. Whereas Imbolc is a Bridal commitment to being and form, where we are the Promise of Life; Lammas may be felt as a commitment marriage to the Dark within, as we accept the Harvest of that Promise, the cutting of it. We remember that the Promise is returned to Source. “The forces which began to rise out of the Earth at the festival of Bride now return at Lammas.”[i] Creativity is called forth when an end (or impasse) is reached: we can no longer rely on our small self to carry it off. We may call Her forth, this Creative Wise Dark One – of the Ages, when our ways no longer work. We are not individuals, though we often think we are. We are Larger Self, subjects within theSubject.[ii] And this is a joyful thing. We do experience ourselves as individuals and we celebrate that creativity at Imbolc. Lammas is the time for celebrating the fact that we are part of, in the context of, a Larger Organism, and expanding into that. Death will teach us that, but we don’t have to wait – it is happening around us all the time, we are constantly immersed in the process, and everyday creativity is sourced in this subjectivity. As it is said, She is “that which is attained at the end of Desire:”[iii] the same Desire we celebrated at Beltaine, has peaked at Summer and is now dissolving form, returning to Source to nourish the Plenum, the manifesting – as all form does. This Seasonal Moment of Lammas/Late Summer celebrates the beginning of dismantling, de-structuring. Gaia-Universe has done a lot of this de-structuring – it is in Her nature to return all to the “Sentient Soup” … nothing is wasted. We recall the Dark Sentience, the “All-Nourishing Abyss”[iv] at the base of being, as we enter this dark part of the cycle of the year. This Dark/Deep at the base of being, to whom we are returned, may be understood as the Sentience within all – within the entire Universe. The dictionary definition of sentience is: “intelligence,” “feeling,” “the readiness to receive sensation, idea or image; unstructured available consciousness,” “a state of elementary or undifferentiated consciousness.”[v] The Old Wise One is the aspect of the Cosmic Triplicity/Triple Goddess that returns us to this sentience, the Great Subject out of whom we arise. We are subjects within the Great Subject – the sentient Universe; we are not a collection of objects, as Thomas Berry has said.[vi] This sentience within, this “readiness-to-receive,” is a dark space, as all places of ending and beginning are. Mystics of all religious traditions have understood the quintessential darkness of the Divinity, known often as the Abyss. Goddesses such as Nammu and Tiamat, Aditi and Kali, are the anthropomorphic forms of this Abyss/Sea of Darkness that existed before creation. She is really the Matrix of the Universe. This sentience is ever present and dynamic. It could be understood as the dark matter that is now recognized to form most of the Universe. This may be recognized as Her “Cauldron of Creativity” and celebrated at this Lammas Moment. Her Cauldron of Creativity is the constant flux of all form in the Universe – all matter is constantly transforming. We are constantly transforming on every level. a Lammas/Late Summer altar These times that we find ourselves in have been storied as the Age of Kali, the Age of Caillaech – the Age of the Crone. There is much that is being turned over, much that will be dismantled. We are in the midst of the revealing of compost, and transformation – social, cultural, and geophysical. Kali is not a pretty one – but we trust She is transformer, and creative in the long term. She has a good track record. Our main problem is that we tend to take it personally. The Crone – the Old Phase of the cycle, creates the Space to Be. Lammas is the particular celebration of the beauty of this awesome One. She is symbolized and expressed in the image of the waning moon, which is filling with darkness. She is the nurturant darkness that may fill your being, comfort the sentience in you, that will eventually allow new constellations to gestate in you, renew you. So the focus in ceremony may be to contemplate opening to Her, noticing our fears and our hopes involved in that. She is the Great Receiver – receives all, and as such She is the Great Compassionate One. Her Darkness may be understood as a Depth of Love. And She is Compassionate because of …
(Prose & Photography) Equinox Reflection by Sara Wright

Photography by Sara Wright I gaze out my bedroom window and hear yet another golden apple hit the ground. The vines that hug the cabin and climb up the screens are heavy with unripe grapes and the light that is filtered through the trees in front of the brook is luminous – lime green tipped in gold – My too sensitive eyes are blessedly well protected by this canopy of late summer leaves. The maples on the hill are losing chlorophyll and are painting the hollow with splashes of bittersweet orange and red. The dead spruces by the brook will probably collapse this winter providing Black bears with even more precious ants and larvae to eat in early spring. I only hope that some bears will survive the fall slaughter to return to this black bear sanctuary; in particular two beloved young ones… Mushrooms abound, amanitas, boletes morels, puff balls, the latter two finding their way into my salads. The forest around my house is in an active state of becoming with downed limbs and sprouting fungi becoming next year’s soil. The forest floor smells so sweet that all I can imagine is laying myself down on a bed of mosses to sleep and dream. The garden looks as tired as I am; lily fronds droop, yellowing leaves betraying the season at hand. Bright green pods provide a startling contrast to fading scarlet bee balm. Wild asters are abundant and goldenrod covers the fields with a bright yellow garment. Every wild bush has sprays of berries. My crabapple trees are bowed, each twig heavy with winter fruit. Most of the birds have absconded to the fields that are ripe with the seeds of wild grasses. The mourning doves are an exception – they gather together each dawn waiting patiently for me to fill the feeder. In the evening I am serenaded by soft cooing. One chicken hawk hides in the pine, lying in wait for the unwary…Just a few hummingbirds remain…whirring wings and twittering alert me to continued presence as they settle into the cherry tree to sleep, slipping into a light torpor with these cool September nights… Spiders are spinning their egg cases, even as they prepare to die. I can still find toads hopping around the house during the warmest hours of the day. Although the grass is long I will not mow it for fear of killing these most precious and threatened of species. I am heavily invested in seeing these toads burrow in to see another spring. My little frogs sit on their lily pads seeking the warmth of a dimming afternoon sun. Soon they too will slumber below fallen leaves or mud. I am surrounded by such beauty, and so much harvest bounty that even though I am exhausted I take deep pleasure out of each passing day of this glorious month of September, the month of my birth. Unlike many folks, for me, moving into the dark of the year feels like a blessing. Another leave -taking is almost upon me, and I am having trouble letting go of this small oasis that I have tended with such care for more than thirty years… I don’t know what this winter will bring to my modest cabin whose foundation is crumbling under too much moisture and too many years of heavy snow. In the spring extensive excavation will begin. A new foundation must be poured and this work will destroy the gardens I have loved, the mossy grounds around the south end of the house that I have nurtured for so long. In this season of letting go I must find a way to lay down my fears, and release that which I am powerless to change. Somehow… I have no idea what I will return to except that I have made it clear that none of my beloved trees be harmed. I am grateful that Nature is mirroring back to me so poignantly that letting go is the way through: That this dying can provide a bedrock foundation for another spring birth. As a Daughter of the Earth I lean into ancient wisdom, praying that this exhausted mind and body will be able to follow suit. (Meet Mago Contributor) Sara Wright.
(Essay and Video) Cosmogenesis Dance: Celebrating Her Unfolding by Glenys Livingstone

The dance begins with two concentric circles, which will flow in and out of each other throughout the dance, resulting thus in a third concentric circle that comes and goes. The three circles/layers are understood to represent the three aspects of Goddess, the Creative Triple Dynamic that many ancients were apparently aware of, and imagined in so many different ways across the globe. In Her representation in Ireland as the Triple Spiral motif, which is inscribed on the inner chamber wall at Bru-na-Boinne (known as Newgrange)[1], She seems to be understood as a dynamic essential to on-going Cosmic Creativity, as this ancient motif is dramatically lit up by the Winter Solstice dawn. It seems that this was important to the Indigenous people of this place at the time of Winter Solstice, which celebrates Origins, the continuing birth of all. Thus I like to do this Cosmogenesis Dance, as I have named it[2], at the Winter Solstice in particular. The three aspects that the dance may embody, and are poetically understood as Goddess, celebrate (i) Virgin/Young One – Urge to Be as I have named this quality – the ever new differentiated being (also known as Fodla in the region of the Triple Spiral)[3]. This is the outer circle of individuals. (ii) Mother – the deeply related interwoven web – Dynamic Place of Being as I have named this quality – the communion that our habitat is (also known as Eriu in the region of the Triple Spiral)[4]. This is the woven middle circle where all are linked and swaying in rhythm. (iii) Crone/Old One – the eternal creative return to All-That-Is – She who Creates the Space to Be as I have named this quality (also known as Banba in the region of the Triple Spiral)[5]. This is the inner circle where linked hands are raised and stillness is held. The three concentric layers of the dance may be understood to embody these. The Cosmogenesis Dance represents the flow and balance of these three – a flow and balance of Self, Other and All-That-Is. It may be experienced like a breath, that we breathe together – as we do co-create the Cosmos. Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme have named the three qualities of Cosmogenesis in the following way: – differentiation … to be is to be unique – communion … to be is to be related – autopoiesis/subjectivity … to be is to be a centre of creativity.[6] The three layers of the dance may be felt to celebrate each unique being, in deep relationship with other, directly participating in the sentient Cosmos, the Well of Creativity. The Cosmogenesis Dance as it is done within PaGaian Winter Solstice ceremony expresses the whole Creative Process we are immersed in. It is a process of complete reciprocity, a flow of Creator and Created, like a breath. There is dynamic exchange in every moment: that is the nature of the Place we inhabit. The dance may help awaken us to it, and to invoke it. The Cosmogenesis Dance on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dR73MDMM9Fk For more story: Cosmogenesis Dance for Winter Ritual For Dance Instructions: PaGaian Cosmology Appendix I Meet Mago Contributor Glenys Livingstone NOTES: [1] The Triple Spiral engraving is dated at 2,400 B.C.E. [2] This dance is originally named as “The Stillpoint Dance”, or sometimes “Adoramus Te Domine” which is the name of the music used for it. I learned it from Dr. Jean Houston in 1990 at a workshop of hers in Sydney, Australia. I began to use the dance for Winter Solstice ceremony in 1997, and it was only in the second year of doing so that I realised its three layers were resonant with the three traditional qualities of the Female Metaphor/Goddess, and also the three faces of Cosmogenesis. I thereafter re-named and storied the dance that way in the ceremonial preparation and teaching for Winter Solstice. See Glenys Livingstone, PaGaian Cosmology: pp. 280-281 and 311. [3] Michael Dames, Ireland: a Sacred Journey, p.192. [4] Michael Dames, Ireland: a Sacred Journey, p. 192. [5] Michael Dames, Ireland: a Sacred Journey, p. 192. [6] Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry, The Universe Story, p. 71-79. I have identified these qualities with the Triple Goddess, and the Triple Spiral in the synthesis of PaGaian Cosmology: see Glenys Livingstone, PaGaian Cosmology, particularly Chapter 4: https://pagaian.org/book/chapter-4/ References: Dames, Michael. Ireland: a Sacred Journey, Element Books, 2000. Livingstone, Glenys. PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. Lincoln NE: iUniverse, 2005. Swimme, Brian and Berry, Thomas. The Universe Story: From the Primordial Flaring Forth to the Ecozoic Era. NY: HarperCollins, 1992.
(Video) Autumn Equinox/Mabon Poetry by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

The Autumnal Equinox occurs each year in the range of March 20-23 in the Southern Hemisphere, and in the range of September 20 -23 in the Northern Hemisphere. Autumn Equinox is a point of sacred balance: it is the point of balance in the dark part of Earth’s annual cycle. Sun is equidistant between North and South as it was/is at Spring Equinox, but in this dark phase of the cycle, the trend is toward increasing dark. Henceforth the dark part of the day will exceed the light part: thus it is a Moment of certain descent … and a sacred Moment for feeling and contemplating the grief and power of loss, for ceremoniously joining personal and collective grief and loss with the larger Self in whom we are. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcZflKLkvP8 Below is the text of the video. It is based on the traditional poetry for PaGaian Autumn Equinox/Mabon ceremony[i]. This is the Moment of the Autumnal Equinox in our Hemisphere – the moment of balance of light and dark in the dark part of the cycle. The light and dark parts of the day in the South and in the North of our planet, are of equal length at this time. We feel for the balance in this moment – Earth as She is poised in relationship with the Sun … breathing in the light, swelling with it, letting our breath go to the dark, staying with it. In our part of Earth, the balance is tipping into the dark. We remember the coolness of it. This is the time when we give thanks for our harvests – all that we have gained. And we remember too the sorrows, losses involved. The story of Old tells us that Persephone, Beloved Daughter, is given the wheat from Her Mother – the Mystery, knowledge of life and death. She receives it graciously. But she sets forth into the darkness – both Mother and Daughter grieve that it is so. Demeter, the Mother, says: “You are offered the wheat in every moment … I let you go as Child, most loved of Mine: you descend to Wisdom, to Sovereignty. You will return as Mother, co-Creator with me. You are the Seed in the Fruit, becoming the Fruit in the Seed. Inner Wisdom guides your path.” We give thanks for our harvests – our lives they are blessed. We are Daughters and Sons of the Mother. Yet we take our Wisdom and all that we have gained, and remember the sorrows – the losses involved. We remember the grief of the Mother, of mothers and lovers everywhere, our grief. Persephone descends. The Beloved One is lost. Persephone goes forth into the darkness to become Queen of that world. She tends the sorrows. The Seed represents our Persephones, who tends the sorrows – we are the Persephones, who may tend the sorrows. We go out into the night with Her and plant our seeds. Persephone blesses us with her fertile promise: “You have waxed into the fullness of life, And waned into darkness; May you be renewed in tranquility and wisdom[ii].” These represent our hope. The Seed of life never fades away. She is always present. Blessed be the Mother of all life. Blessed be the life that comes from Her and returns to Her. We tie red threads on each other: we participate in the Vision of the Seed – of the continuity of Life, that continues beneath the visible. The Mother knowledge grows within us. Our hope is in the Sacred Balance of the Cosmos – the Thread of Life, the Seed that never fades away: it is the Balance of Grief and Joy, the Care that we may feel in our Hearts. NOTES: [i] Glenys Livingstone, PaGaian Cosmology, p. 239-247. [ii] Charlene Spretrnak, Lost Goddesses of Early Greece, p. 116. REFERENCES: Livingstone, Glenys. PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. NE: iUniverse, 2005. Spretnak, Charlene. Lost Goddesses of Early Greece: a Collection of Pre-Hellenic Myths. Boston: Beacon Press, 1992/1978.
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) Held in the Womb of the Wheel of the Year by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

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

(Essay 2) Returning Home with Mago, the Great Goddess, from East Asia by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

[Author’s Note: This essay was first published in Trivia, Voices of Feminism, Issue 6, September 2007. Also to be included in the forthcoming anthology She Rises: Why Goddess Feminism, Activism, and Spirituality?] An Introduction to Magoism Mago is the Great Goddess of East Asia. Nonetheless, she remains barely known to the world. Her equals, Xiwangmu (the Supreme Goddess of Daoism) and Amaterasu (the Sun Goddess of the Japanese imperial family), are said to comprise the pantheon of East Asian cosmic goddesses. Considering that these goddesses are often aligned with the ancient culture of China or Japan, one notices that the pantheon of East Asian Great Goddesses thus omits both Mago and “Korean culture.”
(2018 Mago Pilgrimage) Peak of Nine Wells in Yeongam (Spiritual Rock), South Jeolla by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.

[Author’s Note: This essay comprises a summary report and its unfolding awakenings to be unraveled in sequences. I dedicate this essay to my 2018 Mago Pilgrimage companions, Narayani Ankh, Kate Besleme, Hyunsuk Jee, and Julie Jang. Learn more about Mago Pilgrimage.] Hike Report The town, Yeong-am (Spirit Rock), emanates an aura from its Magoist natural, historical, and cultural legacies. Among them, what grabbed my attention include Wolchul-san (月出山 Moon Rising Mountain), Dogap-sa (Dogap Temple), and Gurim Village, known for the birth place of Doseon Guksa (State Master Doseon), a prominent Buddhist monk, the 9th century of Silla (827-898). I was most attracted to the Peak of Nine Wells (九井峰 Gujeong-bong) as well as the Loom Cave shaped in the form of a vulva, part of the Moon Rising Mountain ranges. Our goal was to hike the Peak of Nine Wells (hereafter Gujeong-bong). We took the seemingly shortest trail, through Cheonwang-bong (Peak of Heavenly Ruler), the highest peak of Moon Rising Mountain, 809 km above sea level. It took about 8 hours for the entire hike took about 8 hours and it was one of the two most strenuous and significant ones that I have taken. About 30 years ago, I climbed Mt. Halla in Jeju Island and had received the vision of my life. No longer a youth, I had a much clearer vision about my life and the act of high altitude hiking this time. With my two companions, Narayani Ankh and Kate Besleme, who showed no sign of hesitation or tiredness in the beginning and throughout the course, I embarked my day’s journey. With occasional breaks, we were able gain distance and progress. Beautiful streams adorned the valley. Rocks were emitting the oldest song of the earth. Our talks continued and deepened, when we had breath to spare. It was such a blessing that I had these two co-hikers from elsewhere! My mind zoomed in and worked in detail. All thinking and feeling became registered. Impromptu, I began to count my steps up on stiff wooden stairways. My counting one, two, three… and thirteen carried me to the top of the stairs. The 13 counting chant worked; There was no medium between me and WE/HERE/NOW. We were gifted a 360-degree bird’s eye view on Cheongwang-bong. Several ridges with the depth of Magoist history came within a vision. We took a small lunch break. On a high mountain top wherein all remains visibly related, everyone becomes kin. On Cheongwang-gong, we were instructed by the rangers we met along the journey about the ridge path to Gujeong-bong. Gujeong-bong would be about another one and half hour hike away from us. We passed by a few masses of gigantic boulder formations for which Wolchul-san is known for. Among them was the standing stone called the Phallic Rock, a name that I suspected to be original. For standing stones are called the Rock of Mago Halmi in other regions of Korea. In any case, the very existence of the Phallic Rock (남근바위 Namgeun Bawi) heralded the appearance of the Loom Cave, a misnomer for the Yoni Cave (여근바위 Yeogeun Bawi). Heart beatings escalated as we approached our destination. We finally reached the Loom Cave, which closely resembled the vulva. The cave was made of a huge boulder, three times taller than an average person in size. A small pond sat inside the entrance made the cave a real yoni of nature. I was pulled into the state of trance, as we made a final climb up the stairs around the left side of the Loom Cave. I was able to see that the Peak of Nine Wells is located on the top plain of the Loom Cave. It is part of the yoni cave! I saw a number of wells pocketed in various sizes of ponds. They numbered more than nine, about 13, variable in number in that a couple of them were made in between adjacent boulders. The biggest well was larger than one meter (3.3 feet) in diameter. Moderns do their typical things in a time like this, indeed odd out of other options or necessity to share with others: I took photos of the wells and my companions, which were absolutely beautiful as they were. However, mental imprints were not able to be contained then and in nature. WE/HERE/NOW embraced all on the spot, perhaps like a black hole. Casual conversations wouldn’t continue. The silence and the oneness fast permeated our time/space. Our minds worked on layers. The deepest mind was stored in the reservoir of the unspoken. Descending is good as a time/space of tuning/balancing oneself to the power of WE/HERE/NOW. There wasn’t much time left for us to return, while the sun was still out. We hurriedly descended a different tail. I was no longer the same person I was prior to the experience of hiking Gujeong-bong. No need to dig up and count the number of branches in one’s root. To live means to grow and evolve, as we are meant to be. To be continued. (Meet Mago Contributor) Helen Hye-Sook Hwang.
(Essay 2 Part 2) Why Do I Love Korean Historical Dramas? by Anna Tzanova, M.A.

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