November 13, 2014October 2, 2019 Mago Work Admin

(Meet Mago Contributor) Victor Hernández

Victor Hernández is an artist from Socorro, Texas who recently returned to la frontera after spending several years in Austin and Houston working as a commercial artist. His painting, “Angel in Decline,” is the cover art for the poetry collection Poemas ante el Catafalco: Grief and Renewal, written by Donna Snyder. Victor’s work includes sculpture, portraits, video, collage, textile, multi-media, and other art forms. He has had solo shows at contemporary art venues such as the Super Happy Fun Place in Houston, and has also been a part of various group exhibitions, including with the JUNTOS Art Association in Houston. For the band Organ Failure, Victor created album cover art and a claymation music video which can be seen on various video and political action websites. He has presented creative writing workshops with the Tumblewords Project, a grassroots literary project that has presented workshops and performances in the border region since 1995.

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(Poetry) Sita by Susan Hawthorne

After the recent TRA (Trans Rights Activists) attacks on Nina Paley, a very talented film maker, I decided that I would post my poem ‘what Queenie says about Sita’. I wrote this after seeing Nina Paley’s film Sita Sings the Blues in 2010 when I was studying Sanskrit at ANU. The poem is from my book Cow (2011) and Queenie is an intergalactic cow with a deep knowledge of philosophy (she has been around for many millennia and seen it all); she knows every famous cow who has ever been; and is quite keen on any religion in which cows play an important part (and there are many of them). Cow is a book full of mythic stories and my retelling of Sita is just one among many. what Queenie says about Sita Sita was no slouch just a woman in the tumult of emotion she tried to help her man get a life get out and about she said why not follow that deer dear she needed time alone but it’s always been hard for women to find solitude Sita was no different soon the rival king was coming round asking for samosas with pickles and chutney and before she knew it he had her tucked up in his flying chariot heading south she flew with him to see a bit of the country from the air but Raavana had other ideas he tried to woo her but that wasn’t why she consorted a mountain from a molehill before she knew it the scouts were arriving on her doorstep begging her to turn back why couldn’t Rama come and ask her himself? if she wasn’t important enough for a visit why bother? so she stayed on at the mountain resort with its beach views elephants peacocks temples evening dancing and good intelligent conversation Raavana too didn’t get it what was it with these men? can’t they tell the difference between great conversation and no desire for sex? (in the case of Raavana) or great love lust and passion but no wish to give up on intellectual pursuits for housework sitting pretty and emotional deserts? (in the case of Rama) all Sita wanted was a balanced and fulfilling lifestyle was it really that hard? she contemplated suicide this woman who knew her mind she could not understand why Rama ten months after her capture had not come to fight for her but suicide is hard without implements and then came the war unwarranted just as for Helen across the desert lands there seemed no end to the bloodshed the fear the escalating madness of war hatred destruction once started she was no longer relevant to the discussion she tried negotiating nothing happening tried the cold shoulder only to inflame the passions of Raavana she retreated kept out of sight one day a great conflagration arose a river of blood the palace burnt to the ground Raavana lost his head there was Rama standing before her his eyes cold his heart stone but there was nothing else for it but to turn homeward it hadn’t changed a bit still irrelevant in Rama’s list of duties she sat alone like Penelope waiting for the man she thought she knew to return before long she noticed the early signs she conceived what was to come well before her belly swelled this time he evicted her sent her into exile she was not much more alone and here she could get her life back together stop waiting for someone to notice her she started a school for the study of language people came from the lands all around they told stories recited day-long epic poems played music danced and painted finally life was good she became revered among the people for her intelligence her wit her sense of justice and fun they also thought her beautiful one among many fine attributes Sita stayed in her own country her children flourished knowing only a little of their mother’s trials (of their father they knew only that he had been most interested in his reputation among men) Notes on the poem Sita: a foundling, regarded as the daughter of Bhudevi, the earth gooddess. Sita’s name means furrow, the line of a ploughshare; she was discovered in a furrow of a ploughed field. She is a principle player in the epic Ramayana and married to Rama. Raavana: the demon king of Lanka. Rama the exiled king of Ayodhya. You can watch Nina Paley’s animated movie Sita Sings the Blues here; https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=RzTg7YXuy34 It has had almost a million viewers. Nina Paley on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nina_Paley For an image, I like this one: http://www.sitasingstheblues.com/watch.html The film is produced under a copyleft licence. So images can be shared. You can find out more about my book Cow here: http://www.spinifexpress.com.au/Bookstore/book/id=215/ Meet Mago Contributor, Susan Hawthorne
(Prose) The Story of Changing Woman: Myth and Commentary by Sara Wright

Sand Painting, Wikimedia Commons I want to begin by recounting the story of how Changing Woman came to be and why she was so important to Navajo mythology. In these dark and tumultuous times I think Changing Woman’s story has a deep resonance for all of humanity. We seem to have forgotten who we are and are in desperate need of guidance that will help shift the present paradigm. The Navajo word Diné means the People (every Indigenous group defines its inhabitants by using the same word in their own language). Navajo mythology begins with the creation of the First World. The Insect People moved through the four lower worlds to the fifth world the place where the Navajo live today. In the first world there was no sun, moon or stars, only the oceans stretched out in 4 directions. A flood came and the Insect people moved to higher ground, the second world. The third world was inhabited by grasshoppers so the Insect people moved again, this time to a fourth world with snow covered mountains and Pueblo people. In the Fourth World the Holy People laid two ears of white corn and two ears of yellow corn on the ground and covered them with buckskin creating First Man and First Woman. Frightened by a flash flood, First Man and First Woman rose up from below from the center of a lake to reach the Fifth World and the place where the Four Sacred Mountains are found today. (One of these sacred mountains may lie to the west of the village of Abiquiu, New Mexico where I presently live. It is said that Changing Woman was found on a flat – topped mesa wrapped in many colors of light. Anyone who has been to the Pedernal can find pieces of rock called chert/flint cast in every color of the rainbow). On a level place below the summit First Man and First Woman laid a turquoise figure on two pieces of buckskin that were spread on the stone from east to west in the sun. Wind and Water Sprinkler were there. When the Holy People began to sing the song the wind flowed under the blankets and a child appeared. The Holy People told the couple her name was Changing Woman and instructed them to take her and raise her as their daughter. By the thirteenth day, Changing Woman had become a young woman, and on that day there was a celebration and the Navajo Night Chant was sung. * Soon after Changing Woman birthed the hero twins. In four days the twins had grown into boys. Talking God and Water Sprinkler tested their strength four times and were pleased. The twins asked Changing Woman who their father was and when they were told they had no father the twins refused to believe her. “We must have a father and we need to know who he is” they responded. Changing Woman was irritated and said “your father is a round cactus then. Be still.” (!) The twins went south to hunt and saw four birds – a woodpecker, vulture, raven and magpie – and when Changing Woman heard their stories she said they must flee because the birds carried a warning: monsters would kill them. Before dawn the twins ran to the West and met an old woman who lived in an underground chamber who told them that she could help them find their father who was the Sun. Because the way was fraught with danger Spider Grandmother gave them a talisman to protect them and a special song that ended in “Walk in Beauty.” The twins continued West on the rainbow bridge overcoming four monsters that threatened to kill them. Eventually they reached the House of the Sun where they overcame two more tests to prove to the Sun that they were his children. Then they told their father that monsters were killing the People and their father replied that could make the passage from boyhood to manhood and save the Navajo people in the process, which they did. After a time, Changing Woman became lonely and went to one of the sacred mountains to sit in the sun. The Sun appeared and tried to embrace her but she refused. He wanted her to come live with him. She said no until the Sun promised to give her a house that shimmered on the water and animals and plants for company while the Sun was away on his daily journey across the sky. Then Changing Woman said: “You are male and I am female. You are of the sky and I am of the earth. You are constant in your brightness, but I must change with the seasons. Remember that I willingly let you enter me and I gave birth to your sons. As different as we are, we are of one spirit. As dissimilar as we are, you and I, we are of equal worth. As different as we are, there must be solidarity between us. There can be no harmony in the universe unless there is harmony between us. If there is to be harmony, my request must matter to you. There is to be no more coming from me to you than there is from you to me.” The Sun balked at first but finally agreed that she was right and granted her requests for a House in the West that shimmered in the golden light that stretched over the waters at sunset when the Sun returned from his journey across the sky. In this place they came to dwell in Harmony… In the myth Changing Woman never dies; she grows old and young again with the seasons. In the East she is Earth Woman, in the South Mountain Woman, in the West she is Water Woman and in the North she is Corn Woman. Changing Woman embodies Nature’s seasons and cycles as a whole and since the Navajo trace their lineage through a matrilineal …
(Essay 1) Open, Please!: Persian & Islamic Tales of Women Rescued by Mountains by Krista Rodin, Ph.D.

Throughout Central Asia there are many legends of women who refused to convert to a new religion or way of life in order to maintain their purity. In some of these stories the woman fled into the barren desert mountains and prayed for refuge within. The mountains opened up, water flowed, and the woman was able to find shelter. The reason for the flight was to avoid persecution and to maintain a traditional religion, though it was also often framed as escaping men in order to remain physically and spiritually pure. While the stories are patterned in the same manner, the religion they wished to protect was different in three of these stories giving rise to an understanding of the perpetual nature of doctrine induced geo-political change in this region and some of the ancient animosities. Today, the locations of these mountain sanctuaries, three in Iran and two near the Iranian border in Turkmenistan, are pilgrimage sites for the sacred traditions they were intended to protect. All of these sites have a Persian heritage and as Herodutus in his Histories pointed out in the 5th C BCE, “It is not their (Persian) custom to make and set up statues and temples and altars but they offer sacrifices on the highest peaks of the mountains.” Each of these sites also has a water source near the sacred cave, which harkens back to the early Persian goddess of fertility and water, Anahita. The generic pattern of the legend gives rise to the merging of boundaries, physical and spiritual, as well as a reversal of traditional hierarchical conquest and gender roles. Nokhur, Turkmenistan It is impossible to put a chronology to the sites as they may have been used for worship since well before Herodotus’ writings. Perhaps, though, the site preserving the oldest tradition is the one found in Nokhur, Turkmenistan. The small village of Nohkur lies about 1,100 m above the Karakum Desert not far from the Iranian border and wandering amid the bare hillsides it is easy to get lost. There are no border markings here, just a sea of tall crusty brown waves of mountain ridges that have been witness to caravan trading since the beginning of human migration and commerce. Time seems to stand still in this tiny hamlet where there is a hallow 2000 year old sacred sycamore tree, 100 year old mud brick and rock houses that are held up with rotting wood posts, and a millennia old cemetery where the graves are marked with posts etched with stair like designs and Urial mountain sheep horns as capitals to protect the dead and ward off evil. The villagers earn their living through sheep herding, agriculture and silk production as they have for centuries. Nokhur Ancient Cemetery The people of this small region of the Kopat Dagh mountains are said to be descendants of Alexander’s army. Their language and traditions are distinct from the rest of Turkmenistan, as they also are with their more closely aligned Iranian neighbors. While they are active practicing Muslims, their traditions remain laced with remnants of ancient animism as seen in the cemetery and the legend of the cave. The greatest additional source of income comes from the tourists who visit the Bibi Qyz Cave. The story of Bibi Qyz is quite similar to that of her neighbor about 80 miles to the north along the main road, Bibi Parau, whose shrine is distinctly Islamic and whose site is the second most famous pilgrimage site in Turkmenistan. The term ‘Bibi’ is used as an honorific title for a woman, similar to ‘Lady’. One of the main differences between the two is the sacred background to the legend. Bibi Parau’s story distinctly Muslim and the ca. 11th C site has a mausoleum. The origin of Bibi Qyz, on the other hand, is lost in time and rather than man-made structures, the site has a sacred tree. The first is officially sponsored and promoted by the governmental tourist association; the second is merely acknowledged. According to the legend recounted at the site, Bibi Qyz was a young girl who wanted to dedicate herself to a solitary spiritual life. Her father, however, insisted she marry. Much like the Tibetan legend of Yeshe Tsogyal or the Catholic St. Barbara, she ran away to the mountains to avoid soiling herself with the physical and mental impurities of marital and everyday life. As her intended husband, accompanied by father, came closer and closer, she prayed to the rock face to bear witness to her pure desires and to open up and give her protection. A small cave opening appeared through which she immediately crawled in and was saved. She remains the woman of the mountain granting to those who seek her wishes that are pure of heart. She is especially called upon by women who have been unable to bear children. They come to ask her to bless them with offspring, and to tie their wishes written on cloth strips onto a special wishing tree that is about 40 feet below the cave. The cave is currently overseen by a caretaker family consisting of the family patriarch, and four women, two of whom are his sisters and two his wives. The oldest woman is also the leading fortune-teller and medium. She offers Bibi Qyz’s blessings on the basis of a balancing stone held on top of the index and middle finger of the right hand. Once the stone is balanced and it turns to the left on its own accord three times, then the blessing has occurred. After the blessing, the seeker is supposed to build a small rock pile to send wishes to Allah along with Bibi Qyz’s blessings. Bibi Oyz’s Cave, Nokhur, Turkmenistan Similar to Bibi Qyz, Bibi Parau (Bibi Paraw) escaped into a small cave in the Kopat Dagh mountains, but her story is a bit more elaborate. According to her legend, she was a very beautiful and virtuous young girl. Other women and girls in the village were jealous of her so when an invading army of infidels came one of the women decided to offer Bibi Parau in exchange for the warriors not attacking the village. Bibi Parau cursed the woman who was subsequently turned into a black stone. As the enemy troops approached, Bibi Parau asked the mountain to protect her and her virtue; the cave appeared and she was …
(Photo Essay 9) Goddess Pilgrimage 2018

[Author’s Note: In May 2018, I set out on a 3 month pilgrimage to Greece, Turkey and the prehistory sites of “Old Europe”. Once again my main focus was “visiting with the Grandmothers”.] I went to Vienna to see the “Venus of Willendorf”, the iconic figure of Great Mother found in 1908 at a Paleolithic site in Lower Austria. She is carved from oolithic limestone tinted with red ochre, and is 11.1 centimetres tall (4.4 inches). Estimated to be about 30,000 years old, the sculpture is displayed in the Naturalhistoriches Museum in Vienna in a small, dark room much like a shrine. The terminology “Venus” would be laughable if it didn’t also reflect patriarchal assumptions about women, power, and so-called “primitive” people. I prefer to call her “Grandmother” as a term of respect. This beautiful sculpture is one of many figurines from Paleolithic Europe. In the Museum, the sculpture stands out against a black background, as if She is looking at us from 30,000 years ago. The prehistory section of the Naturalhistoriches Museum also displays bone beads and shell pendants from 30,000 years ago. Imagine people shaping, drilling, and wearing these . . . Meet Mago Contributor KAALII CARGILL
(Prose) Mary’s Return by Sara Wright

Photo by Sara Wright Yesterday I learned (NPR) that a third of the oak trees in this country will be dead within 50 years; I also read that our sugary harbingers of spring, the Maples, are dying confirming my own observations. I try to imagine what fall will be like without fire on the mountain. When I heard that pink dolphins, those denizens of the fresh waters of the Amazon are going extinct, I remembered their gift to me, grateful that I had been present as a receiver. On the last day of a three – year research journey (early 90’s) I was with my guide returning to a place on the river that I loved. It was absolutely calm; my guide and I drifted along a serpentine tributary curtained and dripping with scarlet passion flowers, when a circle of pink dolphins surrounded the dugout. “I love you,” I repeated the words over and over in a trance-like state glued to the rippling brown water. Round and round they came surfacing inches away from the side of the boat. Flippers splashing shades of pink and gray. The Circle of Life was being inscribed in the water. Now, many years later I am saying goodbye to an enduring friendship with a species I adored… Around the world, and especially here in the ‘United’ (?) States the virus continues to spike and another strain has been identified, more contagious than the first. Two million people are dead… So many in this country have chosen individualism, bullying and brutality over caring for others. This attitude of entitlement/cruelty has split our country in two. Surrendering ego opens the door to relationship with others who are different than we are creating genuine community, but creating this bridge cannot happen unless we have the desire to care for and be with one another – regardless of difference. Bullies hide behind bluffing and guns – cowards at heart – they lie, live in fear, and do not compromise. Meeting in the middle in a respectful way seems to be an anathema to many. I confess that I do not know how to wrap my mind around the culture we have created or how to start a genuine conversation with people who despise me for who I am. That my grief overflows is reality. And yet…Perhaps the waxing winter Snow Moon is pulling me with her tides into a blue -green alignment…. because with all this horrific news and corresponding grief on so many levels, I continue to renew my commitment to the Earth, my home, and to the Circle of Life. Living with ‘what is’ (for me) involves coming to terms with the loss of non – human species, our own, and learning to live with uncertainty without too much anxiety or fear. I enter this state every day when I breathe deeply into my belly, and focus on a precious moment in time like the one last night… It is Christmas Eve and I open the door to two masked loved ones that enter my fragrant candle lit living room. We share laughter, words, and stories and my dearest young friend offers me a gift. When I open the box a hand carved Standing Bear looks up at me. “Oh, he’s a male Brown Bear” the child cries out in excitement. Bears are some of her very best friends. The adult is astonished at the depth and skill of the carving; it’s as if the bear has come to life. I light the candle in the center of the wreath as I welcome my new friend into our home… Later, after the two have gone, I reflect upon my joy. “This is the best Christmas ever”, I hear myself say. I have been given precious gifts – people to love and be loved by, the Brown Bear as talisman. I am aware that it is my natural leaning and genuine need, as well as my responsibility, to reciprocate. And I do, by offering my deepest gratitude to my friends, the tender night, and Mary who has joined me in the room. She, who taught me how to be a receiver a long time ago, and then allowed me to move on… Photo by Sara Wright Working notes regarding Mary as Goddess Mary was my first love. I adored this blue robed Madonna with her cloak of moon and stars when I visited her in secret at the monastery on my way home from school. It wasn’t until I reached adolescence that I feared that She would reject me. After all, she was virgin – pure and I was made of fire. At that point Mary Magdalene entered my life. For a few years I carried the split Mary’s within. With my brother’s suicide I gave up religion. When I began to deal with my grief, Mary re-entered my life as the Mater Dolorosa. After my children left home I discovered feminism, learned of the Black Madonna, Tara and many other female deities. Once again, Mary faded into the background. As my relationships with my adult children began to disintegrate I turned more and more towards Nature for sustenance. The non-human world seemed to help diffuse pain that just wouldn’t quit. When my youngest son turned his back on me for reasons I cannot explain I became suicidal, while desperately attempting to create a bridge to an adult who now treated me as badly as my mother once did. I endured and eventually became sick with a debilitating stomach disorder and then emphysema. I learned that toxic relationships can make a person ill. I tried physical distance; it didn’t help. Eventually the North Country Woman called me home. How would I manage the winters? One day last spring a boy came into my life, a boy that talked to trees, a young man who was barely 21 years old… We had so much in common we couldn’t stop conversing even as we explored the woods, …
(Prose) Spiral Bracelets and Snakes by Susan Hawthorne

The Snake Goddess, from the Temple Repositories at Knossos, 1650-1550 BC. Archaeological Museum of Heraklion. From Wikimedia Commons “The spiral bracelets move. They creep down my shoulders and neck. The sun blazes orange and red on the horizon. I feel a tickling in my ears. I hear a faint whispering. Their tongues are licking the skin, the wax of my outer ears.”[1] Notes This short extract comes from towards the end of my novel The Falling Woman. I was writing this book between 1982 and 1992. At the time, I was thinking of the Cretan snake bracelets which I had seen in the Heraklion Archaeological Museum in the late 1970s and mid 1980s. The extract is about a woman sitting inside a rock hollow in the Australian desert. It’s a story of two women who venture into the desert for a holiday, but it is also about how one of these women named Stella/Estella/Estelle is trying to figure out her own way of being in the world. They face the usual complications of travel to remote areas – punctured tyres, engine troubles, getting bogged in sand – but Stella also has to face her own mortality and the vagaries of epilepsy. The Trojan princess, Cassandra makes an appearance in the reference to the licking of the ears by snakes. Contemporary women face the same obstacle as Cassandra did. She was raped by Ajax and dragged away from the altar of Athena. For resisting rape, Cassandra was punished by the god Apollo. Previously, she was able to prophesy the future, but after this she was condemned to be disbelieved. Just as women these days are still disbelieved when they report rape. I have recently been rereading Whence the Goddess: A Source Book by Miriam Robbins Dexter. It is a treasure trove of information about the mythic history of goddesses from many parts of the northern hemisphere. She points out that although Athena is often regarded as the ally of patriarchy, in earlier times the snake is her companion.[2] And in her discussion of snake predecessors Miriam translates from the Aeneid[3] the description of Allecto, one of The Furies, that her, heart [loves] sad wars, rages, plots, and noxious crimes … she changes herself into so many forms, such fierce shapes, so many black serpents sprout up These are the serpents of resistance to the impositions of patriarchy. The Furies rail against the killing of women, the invasion of women’s scared spaces and of women’s ability to give birth, spill her own blood and thrive. As Marija Gimbutas showed in her book, The Language of the Goddess,[4] the snake is a symbol of women from the earliest periods of prehistory that predated the arrival of Indo-European societies and as Judy Foster also shows in her book Invisible Women of Prehistory,[5] the snake not only appears in Minoan and Indo-European derived societies but also in many parts of Africa and Australia. In this time of war and conflagration, we need more than ever a movement toward a society which respects the power of women and forsakes the violence of patriarchy. © Susan Hawthorne, 2023 [1] Hawthorne, Susan. 1992. The Falling Woman. Melbourne: Spinifex Press, p. 255. [2] Robbins Dexter, Miriam. 1990. Whence the Goddess: A Source Book. New York: Pergamon Press. p. 119. [3] Vergil. Aeneid, Book VII, lines 324-329. Cited in Robbins Dexter, p. 180. [4] Gimbutas, Marija, 1989. The Language of the Goddess. New York: Harper & Row. [5] Foster, Judy with Marlene Derlet. 2013. Invisible Women of Prehistory: three million years of peace, six thousand years of war. Melbourne: Spinifex Press. https://www.magoism.net/2013/12/meet-mago-contributor-susan-hawthone/
(Candlemas essay) Groundhog Medicine by Hearth Moon Rising

Outside the deep recesses of my trance, the voice summoned the animal to me. This was an important day. Though a novice in the Craft, I knew power animals were fundamental to any shamanic tradition. Like a princess dreaming of her prince, I had often wondered what my animal would be. A jaguar or a cougar? I loved cats. A raven or an owl? I courted wisdom and prophesy. A horse or a hawk? I was willing to take risks. What about a bear or an eagle? Majesty, power, yeah! “Your spirit animal is here now,” the voice intoned. “Look to your left. Look!” My mind cleared and in the space ahead I saw….
(Meet Mago Contributor) Louise M Hewett

Louise M Hewett is a writer, artist, carer, and Goddess feminist. When the initiations of motherhood arrived in 1993 she began the journey of a transformative spiritual crisis, enriching her long held interests in Paganism and Goddess Feminism. She is currently working on the Pictish Spirit series of novels, including a companion book, Nine Drums, which explores the Pictish Spirit path central to the story. She also facilitates sacred space, the Hearth of the Antlered Mother, in her desire to support others, particularly women, in a mutual process of learning and healing.
(Prose) Personal Power and Aging by Deanne Quarrie

It is a sad fact that we live in a society that no longer honors its elders. It is rare to see a young person stand when an elder walks into the room, let alone offer a chair. We have all heard about becoming invisible when our hair turns gray. That one used to be a puzzle until it happened to me and I learned that it is true. When I was growing up, we never addressed adults by their first names – even when they were relatives. We always used terms to honor their role in our lives such as Aunt this or Uncle that. It just wasn’t done. In the South a first name preceded by Miss, i.e. Miss Deanne. I am sure this must sound silly in this day and age. It was about honor and respect – every day reminders that when we were in the company of someone older and more experienced than us, a certain amount of honor and respect was due.

(Special Post 5) Nine-Headed Dragon Slain by Patriarchal Heroes: A Cross-cultural Discussion by Mago Circle Members

[Editor’s Note: This and the ensuing sequels are a revised version of the discussion that has taken place in The Mago Circle, Facebook group, since September 24, 2017 to the present. Themes are introduced and interwoven in a somewhat random manner, as different discussants lead the discussion. The topic of the number nine is key to Magoism, primarily manifested as Nine Magos or the Nine Mago Creatrix. Mago Academy hosts a virtual and actual event, Nine Day Mago Celebration, annually.] Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: I have come across the origin of the Dokkaebi (image, Heavenly Ruler Chiu, 14th Hanung of Danguk. Chiu represented the Magoist rule aided by her 81 giant sister clan allies (nine groups of Nine Hans) fought Huangdi (Yellow Emperor), one of the ancient rulers of pre-historic China. Chiu is known as the empeor of Guri-guk or Guryeo-guk (Nine Ri State or Nine Ryeo State), which is alternatiely referred to as Goryeo-guk and Goguryeo-guk by East Asians. She was worshipped as the deity of war and remembered/depicted for her helmet made of copper and iron. Records about her war against Hungdi inundates ancient Korean and Chinese texts and myths. About Chiu or Chiyou, it is too complex to discuss here. It is a topic to be treated in its own right. Suffice to say that even some of basic information from Wikipedia is illuminating. “Chiyou (蚩尤) was a tribal leader of the Nine Li tribe (九黎) in ancient China. He is best known as a king who lost against the future Yellow Emperor during the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors era in Chinese mythology. For the Hmong people, Chiyou was a sagacious mythical king. He has a particularly complex and controversial ancestry, as he may fall under Dongyi, Miao or even Man, depending on the source and view. Today, Chiyou is honored and worshipped as the God of War and one of the three legendary founding fathers of China.” “According to the Song dynasty history book Lushi, Chiyou’s surname was Jiang (姜), and he was a descendant of Yandi. According to legend, Chiyou had a bronze head with a metal forehead. He had 4 eyes and 6 arms, wielding terrible sharp weapons in every hand. In some sources, Chiyou had certain features associated with various mythological bovines: his head was that of a bull with two horns, although the body was that of a human. He is said to have been unbelievably fierce, and to have had 81 brothers. Historical sources often described him as ‘cruel and greedy’, as well as ‘tyrannical’. Some sources have asserted that the figure 81 should rather be associated with 81 clans in his kingdom. Chiyou knows the constellations and the ancients spells for calling upon the weather. For example, he called upon a fog to surround Huangdi and his soldiers during the Battle of Zhuolu.” “Chiyou is regarded as a leader of the Nine Li tribe (九黎, RPA White Hmong: Cuaj Li Ntuj) by nearly all sources. However, his exact ethnic affiliations are quite complex, with multiple sources reporting him as belonging to various tribes, in addition to a number of diverse peoples supposed to have directly descended from him. Some sources from later dynasties, such as the Guoyu book, considered Chiyou’s Li tribe to be related to the ancient San miao tribe (三苗). In the ancient Zhuolu Town is a statue of Chiyou commemorating him as the original ancestor of the Hmong people. The place is regarded as the birthplace of the San miao / Miao people, the Hmong being a subgroup of the Miao. In sources following the Hmong view, the “nine Li” tribe is called the “Jiuli” kingdom, Jiuli meaning “nine Li”. Modern Han Chinese scholar Weng Dujian considers Jiuli and San Miao to be Man southerners. Chiyou has also been counted as part of the Dongyi.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiyou Above all, her depiction by ancient China is of a pejorative one. As we will see in the next part, she is contrasted with her opponent Huangdi (Yellow Emperor), a triumphantly depicted ancient hero of ancient China. Above Wikipedia. See her images created by ancient Koreans, the middle one in the three figures, depicted as a woman with female breasts, one of Dokkaebi images. There are other records that describe one of her allies. as one adorned with snakes in the head, which reminds me of Medusa. Silla (left), Baekje (Center), Goguryeo (right) http://lasvegaskim.com/Etc_Poem_55.htm Max Dashu: Oe-ri, Buyeo, in the Baekje period. Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: That is where the rooftile at the center is excavated. That is the original image of Dokkaebi that Lydia Ruyle chose and depicted in her banner work. I could not connect this image with Chiu until now. We have the female ruler who subdued the patrilocal force of Yellow Emperor, the forebear of ancientChinese emperors. There are lots of myths and data that I have found on them. Chiu is also numerously depicted as Dokkaebi faces, which makes me think of its connection to the iconography of Medusa and Gorgon (who comes as Three Sisters). Eight-snake-headed Medusahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medusa Gorgon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorgon https://www.magoism.net/2013/06/art-dokkaebi-by-lydia-ruyle/ Lizzy Bluebell: ‘Gonggong’ is not a far stretch phonetically from ‘Gorgon’ – I note. Briefly here – because it is a complex explanation – much more can be said about the etymology. For example, “gorge” relates to deep mountain passes with water flowing through them as well as the human throat or gullet, (relating the word to both speech and eating) and mountains are/were Goddess terrain, later usurped by MON-A-Ster-ies. The masculine name Ge-Orge is code which relates to GE/Gaia/Gay as well as to ‘orgy’. Sanskrit “garg” begets English ‘gargle’, and a guttural (gut-her-all) sound. I’ve always seen the archetypal Medusa/Gorgon’s ‘snaking curls’ as the energy emmitted from her head by her Wild I-Deas, which returns us to the theme of the Pythia/Oracle/Snake connections too. “In Greek mythology, a Gorgon (/ˈɡɔːrɡən/; plural: Gorgons, Ancient Greek: Γοργών/Γοργώ Gorgon/Gorgo) is a female creature. The name derives from the ancient Greek word gorgós, which means “dreadful”, and appears to come from the same root as the Sanskrit word “garğ” (Sanskrit: गर्जन, garjana) which is defined as a guttural sound, similar to the growling of a beast,[1] thus possibly originating as an onomatopoeia. While descriptions of Gorgons vary across Greek literature and occur in the earliest examples of Greek literature, the term commonly refers to any of three sisters […]
(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 8) 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.] Marija Krstic-Chin To remember who we really are (nature, cycles, network, creative force, one, infinite…) for the benefit of all of humanity and all living things; and to unite and unify as we broadcast, hand down, protect and defend this truth and each other against the oppressive intentions and actions of patriarchal perpetrators, puppets, and pawns who seek to enslave us by various old and new divide-and-conquer strategies.

(Music) Songs for Samhain by Alison Newvine

The season of Samhain is upon us. This playlist is an offering for this descent into the sacred darkness, and a companion for the journey into the underworld. Invocation of Witches features music by Loreena McKennitt, Marya Stark, Inkubus Sukubus, Wendy Rule, my band Spiral Muse, and many others. It is a soundtrack for ceremony and each song expresses a different face of the spirit of the witch. May this Samhain season guide you gently into the dissolution of what no longer serves, the honoring of what is complete and the cultivation of the inner space that will gestate what is yet to come. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2CFNoH9exhloz3w95P3Rlb?si=270cf01fabb8421c https://www.magoism.net/2023/10/meet-mago-contributor-alison-newvine/
Artful Ceremonial Expression by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This article is an edited excerpt from Chapter 7 of the author’s book PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. I always wore a special headpiece for the Seasonal ceremonies when I facilitated them over the years, and I feel that any participant may do so, not just the main celebrant. My ceremonial headpiece with its changing and continuous Seasonal decoration took on increasing significance over the years; it became a personal central representation of the year-long ceremonial art process of creating, destroying and re-creating. For the research period of my doctoral studies particularly, when I was documenting the process, I realised that this headpiece came to represent for me the essence of “She” – as Changing One, yet ever as Presence – as I was coming to know Her. In my journal for the Mabon/Autumn Equinox process notes one year I wrote: As I pace the circle with the Mabon headpiece in the centre, I see “Her” as She has been through the Seasons … the black and gold of Samhain, the deep red, white and evergreen of Winter, the white and blue of Imbolc, the flowers of Eostar, the rainbow ribbons of Beltane, the roses of Summer, the seed pods and wheat of Lammas, and now the Autumn leaves. I see in my mind’s eye, and feel, Her changes. I am learning … The Mother knowledge grows within me. The headpiece, the wreath, the altar, the house decorations, all participate in the ceremony: they are part of the learning, the method, the relationship – similar to how one might bring flowers and gifts of significance to a loved one at special moments. Then further, the removal and re-creation of the decorations are part of the learning – an active witness to transformation through time.
Samhain: Stepping Wisely through the Open Door by Carolyn Lee Boyd

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

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

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

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

(Book Excerpt 1) Mago Almanac Planner for Personal Journey by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.

[Author’s Note: Year 4’s Mago Almanac celebrates the birth of Mago Almanac Planner for Personal Journey. The Magoist 13 month 28 day calendric movement has grown steadily and we welcome the public as well!] PREFACE: What Mago Almanac Planner Offers The Mago Almanac Planner for Personal Journey enchants people and our societies to live with a sense of the natural timespace patterned by the luni-menstrual rhythm in company with the earth’s song and dance. This is not a statement of poetic fancy unsupported by science or mathematics. We are invited to walk through the matrix of Sonic Numerology, the organizing force of Life. The 13 month 28 day Magoist Calendar returns calendric regularity to us. Calendric regularity is the very vision that unfolds the metamorphic reality of WE/HERE/NOW. Unlike the 12 month irregular day calendar that modifies the natural rhythm to serve the purpose of controlling people, the Magoist Calendar guides human activities within the natural rhythm to harmonize the human world with the natural world. The Mago Almanac Planner is built to provide flesh to the bones of the Mago Almanac. Taking the latter as foundation, Mago Almanac Planner partitions a year into the units of weeks and days. The regularity of 28 days makes it possible to lay out 52 weeks and 364 days with one or two extra days seamlessly. The rhythm of nine numbers becomes transparent. Each day of a year is named accumulatively in order i.e. the first to 364th. Likewise, each week of a year is named accumulatively in order i.e. Week 1 to Week 52. Each day is given the daily number, the moon phase, and/or 24 Seasonal Marks. Special days include such double dates as New Year (1st Moon 1st Day), double second (2nd Moon 2nd Day), double third (3rd Moon 3rd Day), and so forth. By writing the Mago Almanac Planner, I have observed that Double Ninth (9th Moon 9th day) overlaps with the 16th mark of 24 Seasonal Marks, Ipchu (立秋 Entering Fall) or Lammas in the Northern Hemisphere. The day of Double Ninth is indeed the center point of a year! Also the interval of 24 Seasonal Marks is about every 15 days, whereas that of 8 Seasonal Marks is about every 45 days. In three Appendixes, I have provided a traditional style of one year calendar, Year 4’s 364 Days (52 Weeks) with 2 Extra Days and their Gregorian Dates or the conversion chart, Large Calendar 1 (Years 1-4) marked in Gregorian C. Dates, and Year 4 Lunar-Menstrual Chart in which one can add their menstrual dates in relation to the moon phases and seasonal marks. As a whole, the Mago Almanac Planner is designed to personalize one’s own celebratory or commemorative days in tune with nature’s rhythm. This Planner marks the 4th year (Volume 4) of the revived Magoist Calendar, Mago Almanac: 13 Month 28 Day Calendar. We are about to complete the first Large Calendar, which refers to the first four years (Years 1-4). We set the new moon date (December 18) before Winter Solstice in 2018 in the Northern Hemisphere as the first lunation of the revived Magoist Calendar. If we count the year from the onset of the nine-state Danguk confederacy (3898 BCE-2333 BCE) founded by Goma, Magoist Shaman Queen Mother, our Year 1 would be 5916 ME (Magoma Era). Technically speaking, the Magoist Calendar formed at the time of our beginning came to be reincarnated on December 18, 2018 in the Northern Hemisphere (hereafter it implies the Northern Hemisphere otherwise indicated.) The year 2018 for the rebirth of the revived Magoist Calendar was arbitrary in that it could have been in 2017 or 2019. In retrospect, I must say that we are lucky to set the time of our first lunation on December 18 2018 because it makes the calendric migration process the smoothest. This means that our Magoist Calendar runs as less as 13 days behind the Gregorian Calendar. If we had begun in 2017, our New Year would have been December 17. Only one day difference. However, if we had begun in 2016, our New Year would have been on November 29. Likewise, if we had begun in 2019, our New Year would have been on November 26. These dates are the new moon date before Winter Solstice, the New Year day. The Magoist Calendar charts the human world into the Reality of WE/HERE/NOW. The Magoist Calendar needs to be in use today, which means that it has to be translated into the language of the Gregorian Calendar. For we have lost the actual counting of the Magoist Calendar into our days in the course of patriarchal history. Mago Almanac serves the purpose of making our calendric migration possible from the 12 month Gregorian Calendar to the 13 month Magoist Calendar. It guides our collective journey in the Mother TimeSpace interwoven by the cosmogonic force of Sonic Numerology, the musical interplay of nine numbers, which gives birth, nurtures, and transforms all beings in the cosmos. Intriguingly, I have realized only last year that the Magoist Calendar is identical with “the 13 Moon Turtle Calendar,” the calendar of North American indigenous peoples, which adopts the turtle shell that has 13 inner sections and 28 outer sections for the calendar of 13 moons and 28 days (see figure). This speaks volumes that the 13 month 28 day calendar was once widely known among peoples of the ancient world. The Magoist Calendar restores the link between lunation and menstruation as a 28 day monthly cycle, a topic that I have discussed in my essay, “Introducing the Magoist Calendar: Original Blessing of the Womb Time,” included in this planner. Why do we need to reinstate the calendar that is based on the luni-menstruation rhythm? That is because the Magoist Calendar is in accordance with Sonic Numerology. Put differently, the moon-women duet inscribed in the 13 month 28 day calendar is given by the Natural World. In fact, the Magoist Calendar is the first and …
(Budoji Essay 5) The Magoist Cosmogony by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

Part 5: Magoist Cosmology “The primary aim of Magoist cosmology lies in lifting up the conceptual veil in people’s mind so that they can see what is given at birth.” [This is a translation and interpretation of the Budoji (Epic of the Emblem City), principal text of Magoism. Read the translation of Chapter 1 of the Budoji.] Magoist cosmology: Magoist cosmology, knowing of the female principle of Magoist cosmogony (story of the Female Beginning), reconstitutes, heals, and maintains the original vision of gynocentric soteriology. Its primary function is to guide humanity according to the law of nature whereby all things are born and evolve into their greatest potential. In short, Magoist cosmology is a gynocentric mode of thinking that shows the Way of all beings. By extension, it is an inherent principle of nature- and women-honoring civilizations. I suggest Magoist cosmology, underpinning of the Magoist cosmogony, as an antidote to the detriments of patriarchal consciousness. Its female principle restores the original unity among all entities, which has been thwarted by patriarchal cosmologies. Comprising the most foundational program of human consciousness, so constitutive that no one is born without it, Magoist cosmology is ever active and accessible to people. Nonetheless, it is made dormant in the conscious mind of people under patriarchal cultures. Thus, the primary aim of Magoist cosmology lies in lifting up the conceptual veil in people’s mind so that they can see what is given at birth.
(Essay) Reviving and Celebrating the Nine-Goddess Symbolism by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

In my ongoing research on the Great Goddess known as Mago, I have discovered the number nine gynocentric symbolism as the most prominent current that constitutes Magoism and named it the Nona (Number Nine) Mago religion/civilization/mythology. Like other civilizational inventions such as the calendar and musicology, numerology is an intellectual system of knowing the Way of Nature/Universe/Creatrix. And the number nine is no arbitrary number but is the numeric code of the Creatrix or the Primordial Mother. It codifies the cosmogonic beginning of the Primordial Mother, that is, the Primordial Mago Household. It refers to the primordial principle of the solar/terrestrial beginning.