(Mago Stronghold Essay 2) The Forgotten Primordial Paradise by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.

Part 2: Mago, Mago Clan, and Old Korea

“Mago Stronghold” is a magical (read gynocentric) word that engenders the power of the Great Goddess. Survived in written and oral texts as well as geographies, it, while disclosing the plot of magna-matricide[1] (killing of the Great Mother) in patriarchal mytho-historiographies, re-enthrones the Great Goddess. The Mago Stronghold talk is an outcome of a deep listening to the Story of Mago, the Mago Clan, and Old Korea. Referring to the Primordial Land of the Great Goddess, Mago Stronghold stands as a time-proven locus wherein the cosmogonic myth of the Great Goddess is spun to the history of HER descendants. It is meant to answer our ultimate questions, who I am and why we are here. It summons the S/HE reality in which all is found.

“Mago” is the East Asian word for the Great Goddess and HER Clan. Mago was brought into existence through the work of cosmic music, Palryeo (Eight Tones).[2] S/HE is the Creatrix and the Primordial Mother. S/HE is the Cause of Life. As the head of Nine Magos (the Mago Triad and their eight daughters), the pantheon of the Primordial Divine, S/HE has laid the foundation of the solar system and has HER descendants cultivate Earth (Mago Stronghold). S/HE, the First Being, bore two daughters parthenogenetically. HER two daughters gave birth to eight daughters in all parthenogenetically. Thus comes the name, the Triad Deity (Samsin), referring to Mago and HER two daughters, Gunghui and Sohui. S/HE (and HER two daughters) is the First Sex, prior to the diversification of sexes.

The Mago Triad and their eight daughters comprise the Nine Magos (Gurang), the Primordial Divine. Nine Magos are distinguished from HER forthcoming descendants (demi-gods and humans) in the sense that they are the Cosmic Goddesses prior to the establishment of the Earth. Mago sends HER eight daughters to other planets in the solar system to oversee the cosmic music. Eight Magos gave birth to twenty-four Goddesses and Gods in all, demi-gods or human ancestors. The male enters the Scene. Mago assigns demi-gods and humans to the task of generating acoustic resonance of the Earth in harmony with the cosmic music.

The Great Goddess is at the center of the Magoist cosmology. S/HE is the marker of the three cosmic periods, Former Heaven, Mago’s World, and Latter Heaven. S/HE was born in Former Heaven and established the primordial pantheon of Nine Magos in the cosmic period of Mago’s World, which is the realm of the Mago Divine. S/HE reads the movement of cosmic music and initiates HER cosmogonic work accordingly, which opens the cosmic period of Latter Heaven.

Latter Heaven marks the time for the self-evolution of the Earth (Mago Stronghold). Mago pulls one of the two moons into the region of Heavenly Water, which causes land and water to intermingle and establish a balance between them. That is how lands and seas are created. As the movement of the Earth is stabilized, the auto-genesis of animals, plants and all beings takes place. There is much to be attended to on Earth. Mago commends HER eight (grand)daughters to reproduce progeny and delegates them to oversee the terrestrial sonic resonance in accordance with the cosmic music. And the Mago Clan makes Mago Stronghold the paradise of the Great Goddess. Living on earth-milk, they live without end. Physical death does not demarcate the end of living. They are the ancestor of Sinseons (the Paradisiacal Magoists).

In time, the paradisiacal land of the Great Goddess came under threat caused by a group of members who ate grapes first and took living beings for food. People changed not only in their physical condition but also in their composition. Those who took living beings for food became turbid in their body and mind, which abolished the condition of eternal living. Lifespan was cut short by death. Consequently, the clan community issued the law that averted the innate power of self-prohibition. The Original Mind/Body was lost. Mago closed the gate of Mago Stronghold and took away the energy that surrounded the land. That is called the first archetypal catastrophe that caused an irreversible change in the evolution of humanity.[3] People who were incapable of restoring the Original Mind/Body in them grew violent. Tragedies and miseries were introduced on the Earth for the first time.

In an effort to save the endangered Mago Stronghold from destruction, the elders of the four primordial clan communities decided to live in Diaspora and left the primordial home of the Great Goddess for the four corners of the world. Hwanggung (Yellow Gung), the eldest of the Mago Clan, made an oath to the Great Goddess to restore the Origin Story of the Great Goddess in all people in Diaspora. The Magoist mandate, to return to the Origin of the Great Goddess (麻姑複本, Mago bokbon), was at the foundation of the forthcoming Magoist customs, polities, and religions, known as the tradition of Eastern Sinseons or Korean Daoism.

The Magoist Cosmogony is indispensable in understanding the forthcoming human history. From the Magoist Cosmogony was issued the history of Magoist Koreans. And the latter was to revive the former. In this way, the origin story of the Great Goddess, being at the center of the forthcoming history, spirals the cyclic time and unfolds future. The mytho-history of Old Magoist Korea follows the lineage of Hwanggung, the first shaman queen leader. Hwangung’s leadership was passed down to Yuin. Then, Hanguk, the oldest polity as twelve-state confederacy was established. Hanguk was succeeded by Danguk, nine-state confederacy founded by Goddess Goma (Bear/Sovereign Queen), which was succeeded by the first Joseon, three-state confederacy. The three founders of Hanguk, Danguk, and Joseon are called the Three Sages (Samseong). The decline of Joseon whose civilization is known as Budo (Emblem City) meant the demise of Old Magoism, the gynocratic rule represented by Magoist shaman queens. Without the central governing state, post-Budo states of ancient Korea were left vulnerable in their effort to defend the Magoist legacy of forming confederacy in the time of (proto-)patriarchal times.

The mytho-history of Magoist Korea stands as the grand epic of ancient Magoists and their descendants.[4] Written out of patriarchal mytho-historiography, it tells the story of pride, resistance, and endurance by the People of the Great Goddess. The following is the chronological chart of the mytho-history of Magoism that I have constructed based upon the Magoist data that I have documented.

(Read Part 1 here. To be continued)

See Meet Mago Contributor Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.

[1] The neologism, magna-matricide, owes to Patricia ‘Iolana from conversation in The Mago Circle, Facebook group, July 25, 2016.

[2] Primordial matters including Mago, Mago Stronghold, and two moons within the solar system are self-emerged through the work of Eight Pitches, according to the Magoist Cosmogony. For more details, see Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ibid., 127-136.

[3] The mytho-history of Magoism demonstrates the degenerative nature of human history. The first archetypal catastrophe fallen upon the Mago Clan is distinguished from the second one in the sense that the former is sex-unspecific, applied to all people, women and men. Although the two are not unrelated, the latter is caused by the rise of the patriarchal rule, a male revolt. For more details, see Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ibid., 110-112.

[4] For more on each period, see Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ibid., 68-83.