February 22, 2019October 2, 2019 Mago Work Admin

(Poetry) package of bones by Maya Daniel

this poor community has a nightmare
from the sounds of guns and dying voice in pain,
right the corners of defenseless homes,
squatters areas, they call, with watery alleys
towards a dead end, so dark with no
Batman hero is coming over to protect;

the killers are in new wave of hunting spree
weapons reloaded, commands afresh, hence
“the war against drug is far from over”
the assault isn’t on Customs, or the Davao
Connection. Paulo et al, are but bedtime stories
and the haul of worth billions of addictive drugs
are just like ordinary Christmas packages
running early through different agencies
where an ala-Mafia arrangement, the King
is now the supreme lord and protector,
media people knew these dirty stories
but just can’t tell;

this poor community has a nightmare
of sudden deaths, and packages of bones
and no Avengers are coming in to rescue
people has to struggle and resist!

Meet Mago Contributor, Maya Daniel

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(Poem) What if by Mary Saracino

Garden nearby where I live, New Mexico. Photo by Mary Saracino What if it’s not about who you know or don’t know what you know, or don’t know how much money you have or don’t have if you believe in god or not what if it’s about singing with the birds listening to the trees blessing the plants and all creatures great and small daydreaming with the clouds gazing at the stars dancing under the moon what if it’s about kindness, compassion, mercy what, if in the end, it’s all just about love https://www.magoism.net/2013/05/meet-mago-contributor-mary-saracino/
(In Memoriam) Carol Christ’s Foreword to my book, The Mago Way by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

[Late Carol P. Christ (1945-2021) accepted my invitation to write a foreword to my book, The Mago Way: Re-discovering Mago, the Great Goddess from East Asia, prior to 2015. This essay is her Foreword. I met Carol P. Christ in person on several occasions. As she mentions in her Foreword, Carol was invited to become the fifth scholar on my dissertation committee around 2003, a team of five faculty members from Claremont Graduate University, Claremont School of Theology, and Claremont Colleges. My first meeting with Dr. Christ was a tough one but our paths continued crossing thereafter. One semester, she taught a course (on the Goddess topic in relation to Process Theology) at Claremont School of Theology during which time we had some close interactions. I did not take her class but we may have run into each other in other events. She and I went out to a Chinese restaurant and had friendly conversations over lunch. At one point, we emailed each other frequently. And I remember myself making a phone call to her in Lesbos Island, Greece and we spoke. I had a first person narrative that Carol loved gardening and was later getting involved in political activism in her town. One day, Mary Daly called me to ask for the contact information of Carol Christ (Mary knew that I was in touch with Carol Christ). I had been in close contact with Mary Daly since 1994 (see my essay series of Commemorating Mary Daly). I must have mentioned to Mary that Carol published her book, She Who Changes, by Palgrave Macmillan. Daly was searching for a publisher for her latest book, Amazon Grace. So I bridged the two to speak to each other by phone. Indeed, Daly’s Amazon Grace was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2006. In my memory of Carol P. Christ, I thank you, Carol, for the gift of your life and work. Rest in peace.] Foreword by Carol P. Christ, Ph.D. (Excerpt from The Mago Way by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang). With her dissertation and her on-going work Helen Hye-Sook Hwang has opened up a new way of thinking about East Asian Goddesses that decenters the Goddesses of particular national or religious traditions—such as Chinese Goddesses or Buddhist Goddesses. Her ground-breaking work suggests that seemingly independent Goddess traditions are rooted in a common East Asian prehistoric tradition which she names Magoism. Hwang shows that prehistoric Goddess traditions predate Buddhism, Confucianism, Shintoism, and other Eastern traditions, including Korean shamanism. Her work also reveals commonalities between prehistoric Goddess traditions in East and West, making it clear the “rebirth of the Goddess” is not an exclusively Western phenomenon. I first met Helen Hye-Sook Hwang when I was asked to become a late addition to her dissertation committee at Claremont Graduate University. Because of their lack of familiarity with her subject matter and radical approach to it, Hwang’s committee was mystified by her topic, “Seeking Mago, the Great Goddess.” I was asked to step in due to my knowledge of the work of Marija Gimbutas on the prehistoric Goddess of Neolithic Old Europe. Though I had not studied East Asian Goddesses in depth, my intuition, based on the history of European Goddesses, was that East Asian Goddesses had their roots in prehistory. Traditional scholarship, whether focused on Eastern or Western traditions, assumes that “history” begins with written records dated around 3000 BCE or later. Almost all written records, East and West, stem from patriarchal societies ruled by warrior kings. Written law codes reflect the subordination of women in patriarchal societies. However, comparison of early and later law codes indicates that in many cases women had legal and economic powers that were gradually eroded. Mythological texts also imply that women and Goddesses once held power that was later taken from them. The notion that history is defined by written records limits history to that last 5000 years, leaving the first 100,000 years of human history out of the picture. So-called “prehistory” includes the many long years when human beings survived by gathering and hunting in the Paleolithic era (Old Stone Age), as well as the early years of agriculture in the Neolithic era (New Stone Age), which began about 10,000 years ago in different areas of the world. Some would argue that the first 100,000 years of human history were pre-patriarchal and that patriarchy became normative at different times in different places, especially if patriarchy is defined by the control of female sexuality, private property, and war.[i] According to Marija Gimbutas, Neolithic Old Europe (c. 6500-3500 BCE) was peaceful, sedentary, highly artistic, egalitarian, matrilineal and probably matrilocal, and revered the Goddess as the power of birth, death, and regeneration in all of life. The peaceful cultures of Old Europe were overthrown by nomadic warriors who entered Europe from the Russian steppes north and east of the Black Sea. Their culture was horse-riding, patriarchal, patrilineal, warlike, not highly artistic, and they worshipped male Gods identified with the shining powers of the sun and the shining bronze of their weapons. As the power of the patriarchal warriors grew, the Goddesses of Old Europe were subordinated to male Gods. Thus were developed the familiar Goddesses of Greek mythology: Athena who sprung fully armed from the head of Zeus, Hera, the betrayed wife, and Aphrodite the Goddess of sexual pleasure. Gimbutas taught us that these all-too-human Goddesses were cut off from their primordial roots in the powers of birth, death, and regeneration.[ii] Hwang’s work promises a similar revolutionary rewriting of cultural and religious history in “Old East Asia.” In addition to revealing a Goddess tradition at the root of later patriarchal traditions in East Asia, Hwang’s work raises the question of how and when East Asian traditions became patriarchal. It answers the question of where the later Goddesses came from, and why they were added to or became prominent in largely patriarchal traditions. As Hwang shows, the Goddess was already there and could not be fully suppressed or completely ignored. The origin of …
(Poem 1) Cycle of civilizations by Janine Canan

I always felt like a shoot on a branch of a long tradition, a legacy continuing from the Paleolithic and beyond— that rose out of Mother Africa hundreds of thousands of years ago, to people the Earth in successive waves, that spread over Arabia, edged around India through Sri Lanka, Indonesia, to aboriginal Australia; tens of thousands of years later migrating north, a few, from Ethiopia to the Caucasus, later on forking eastward over Asia and Beringia to America, south to Tierra del Fuego, and simultaneously westward through Europe— always leaving their life-prints, thoughts, and visions, etched and painted in rocks, leaves, ice and wood, then printed books, read on electronic computers. But now it seems that soon computer, book, paper, wood, leaf and stone will all be littering the vast deserts and rocky mountains baking to finer and finer dust in the naked blaze of the Sun, and carpeting the great oceans covering most of the planet. And who among the remaining will remember any of the languages so long and painstakingly preserved? Who will even know how to find the wild edibles and unsalted waters— will anyone know how to grind the grasses into nourishing grain? At night under the dazzling sky, will nomads seated round a fire tell stories they scarcely recall? Will they sing, dance, and pray to the Moon and myriad stars, and wake in the early dawn to go hunting for berries, fruits, roots and nuts, mushrooms, greens, fish, and water— marking the rocks with their signs as they pass? This has happened before. Will the great stream of Culture—of poets and storytellers, scientists, doctors and sages—that gloriously gushed through books—run dry and narrow as the mighty rampant Saraswati that today yields only a few drops…. (Meet Mago Contributor) Janine Canan Poet and psychiatrist JANINE CANAN MD, who lives in California, is the author of over 20 books, most recently Mystic Bliss: Poems and My Millennium: Culture: Spirituality & the Divine Feminine, and Garland of Love: 108 Sayings by Amma. She received the 1990 Koppelman Award for She Rises like the Sun: Invocations of the Goddess by Contemporary American Women Poets. Visit JanineCanan.com and Facebook. BARBARA ROSE BROOKER MA, founded the world’s first Age March, and writes “Boomer In The City” for The Huffington Post. Her novels include Should I Sleep in His Dead Wife’s Bed, The Viagra Diaries, and God Doesn’t Make Trash. She teaches writing at San Francisco State University and The Shanti Project. Her paintings are exhibited in Los Angeles galleries. Visit Barbararosebrooker.com and Facebook.
(Poem) Bella Madre, Stella Madre by Mary Beth Moser

The other night with the Moon’s light veiled in her dark monthly seclusion The wilderness Sky revealed A dome of dazzling stars So vast I gasped with delight A familiar memory Of kinship Around the rim where sky touches earth, In every direction, Lightning danced in soft spreads of light Messengers of potent possibility With her dark spaciousness This Star Mother tells me that She will hold my troubles “Offer it up,” She says, just as my birth/earth Mother used to say when my childhood sorrows felt too much to bear. “Offer it up!” Mary Beth Moser, Full Moon, September 19, 2013. Dedicated to my Bella Madre, Lena Pearl Moser, who returned to the open arms of the Stella Madre, the Cosmic Mother of Us All, on the nearly Dark Moon, March 26, 2014. Meet Mago Contributor, Mary Beth Moser.
(Essay 2) What It’s Like to Live on Wimmin’s Land by Hearth Moon Rising

Cholla drawing by Mary Emily Eaton Part 1 is here I loved living on wimmin’s land. And I hated it. The thing I hated most about living on the land was the fighting. Well, that and the chollas. Those prickly cactus prongs hurt worse on the way out than when they get stuck in you. I’m talking here not about harassment by neighbors and law enforcement, but infighting amongst women. Some of the blowups could be doozies, getting so out of hand there was no way to be neutral. You might think it obvious, with women coming together from vastly different walks of life, many of whom had never met before coming to the land, that there would be disagreements stemming from class, race, religion, sexual orientation, and disability. Sometimes the fights were about these issues (or, more commonly, devolved into these issues), but most of the fights were just…stupid. Dog poop was a perennial issue, and I probably only remember this one because it was a pet peeve of mine. Irresponsible compost practices was another bone of contention. Workers versus shirkers, messes in common areas, ecological considerations, decisions about repairs – I could go on, but you get the idea. The mundane nature of the issues should not suggest that the disagreements they sparked were minor. Tempers flared and fights could go on for days if not weeks. Photo: Katja Schulz Less explosive, but no less disturbing, were disagreements about personal choices perceived as harmful to the individual woman, if not the community. Alcohol abuse, management of medical and mental health issues, dysfunctional relationships, childrearing practices, unsafe sex, decisions to leave the land, decisions to stay on the land – these types of issues cannot remain private and “none of your business” in a women’s community. Some behaviors were automatic deal-breakers and would get a woman expelled quickly, albeit sometimes only temporarily. Bringing guns onto the land (can you imagine what would have happened if we’d been armed?) and abusive sexual relationships are two that I remember, but there were others. Stealing within the community didn’t happen much, mostly because none of us had anything worth stealing, but I doubt anyone would have been kicked out for that. Some of the women stole or scammed the outside systems, but that was tolerated. Illicit drug use was tolerated – actually a lot of things were tolerated that probably shouldn’t have been, but that was partly reflective of the times. Wimmin’s communities invariably fell short of ideals and could certainly be criticized for some things, but those leaving as a result of their own egregious behaviors were the most likely to gossip and try to stir up bad blood against the community. It was almost like some women could not leave the fighting behind. In Finding A Woman’s Place, Lorraine Duvall describes (among other things) infighting in a women’s community in upstate New York that stemmed from more substantive issues. A Woman’s Place struggled under financial pressures and an ambitious mission. The women were trying to run their land as a formal retreat, with workshops and programs, with few resources of their own or from the demographic they served. The location of A Woman’s Place meant better access to fundraising, but the harsh winter environment required ongoing financial investment, as did running what was essentially a business. At Adobeland we were in a better situation. The woman who generously opened the land as an intentional community, Joan “Adobe” Pepper, asked residents and visitors for a relatively small amount of money for modest living expenses and property taxes. There was no land mortgage to meet, property taxes in Arizona were low, and the climate did not require upkeep on modern structures. We welcomed women for a day or a weekend or a few months, but we didn’t advertise, and women dropped in, paid what they could afford, and moved on. We did a lot of alternative healing, and there were workshops arranged by residents or visitors, but no conscious attempt to create structure. Organically, we achieved some of what A Woman’s Place was trying to do, probably because we had fewer financial worries. Photo: Sue in az One disagreement on Adobeland was substantive and ongoing. Many women believed that Adobe held too much power in the community, that it wasn’t really wimmin’s land because it was not held in trust. Theoretically, Adobe could ask anyone to leave for any reason, although in practice she seldom asked anyone to leave even when there were good reasons. The future of the land was a contentious issue with no foreseeable path forward. Residents didn’t have the money to buy the land from Adobe, and she refused to make arrangements for the land to continue after her death. To most women, it seemed a no-brainer at the time to will the land to a trust so Adobeland could continue serving women for the next few hundred years. In retrospect that level of faith seems quaint, given the social changes that would make wimmin’s land everywhere more difficult to sustain. One thing we did not fight about on wimmin’s land was men, and this is the significant takeaway. As women in a patriarchal society, we aren’t taught how to negotiate conflict with other women. Most of the time, women are competing with women in structures men create for the crumbs that men allow us, or we are conspiring to protect women from males in male-led systems. When men are banished from the equation, what do we have? Of course we bring baggage from patriarchy, but what we don’t bring is experience resolving conflict. We’re taught to avoid conflict. It makes men uncomfortable, and when men are uncomfortable they hurt us. Though I hated the fighting at the time (even when I participated in it), I realized in retrospect that it was important. Maybe not as important as the loving, but one of the things we were ultimately there for. Living for long periods with only women …
(Photo Essay 1) Goddess Pilgrimage 2018 by Kaalii Cargill

[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”.] GREECE Ancient Greece is even more ancient than many people realise – prehistory settlements date from the 7th Millennium BCE. The Minoan people (2700 – 1420 BCE) created art, music, symbolic images and, most significantly for the current era, lived without signs of warfare. Many of the symbolic images continued into the Mycenaean era (1600 – 1100 BCE), with Mother Goddess represented using the same symbols as found in Anatolian settlements such as Çatalhöyük (7500-5700 BCE). The iconic image from Crete and Mycenae of of a standing figure with raised arms is strikingly similar to a figure found in a cave at Geissenklösterle, Germany, dating to 35,000-32,000 BCE. Meet Mago Contributor Kaalii Cargill
(S/HE V2 N1 Book Review) Max Dashu’s Witches and Pagans Reviewed by Carolyn Lee Boyd

[This content is from S/HE: An International Journal of Goddess Studies (V2 N1, 2023) Its online edition and paperback are available at Mago Bookstore.] Well into medieval times, women wielded spiritual power and authority across Europe as witches, diviners, healers, prophetesses, counselors, seeresses; and more. Everyday people prayed to and revered goddesses, while intertwining their lives with the faeries and other female spirits by propitiating them with gifts, asking for their blessings, and more. Over time, secular authorities aided by the church tried to destroy or assimilate the imagery, stories, beliefs, practices, and sacred places of holy women and goddesses, harshly punishing or killing women practitioners and their followers. Now, a millennium later, Max Dashu gathers up and reweaves the scattered and fragmented threads of women’s spiritual culture found primarily in the beliefs and traditions of the “folk,” past and present. These mostly rural people blended in their beliefs and practices the old religion and the new, reflecting, if sometimes imperfectly, the complexity and vibrancy of what had once been Europe’s dominant faith. In Witches and Pagans: Women in European Folk Religion, 700 to 1100, Dashu uses deep dives into the etymology of words associated with female spiritual power; myths, written history, literature, and court and church documents; archeological finds in graves, buildings, and elsewhere; and more to give back to us our lost history. The book is well-illustrated by the author’s many drawings. As Dashu writes, “casting a wide net is the only way to get at the texture of culture, the weave of concepts people lived in, and their social realities” (iii). She offers us information previously available only to scholars and carefully explains not only what is known, but also what is unclear and debated among the experts, so readers can make up their own minds or at least know what is certain and what is still to be determined. All the voluminous information is carefully and comprehensively documented. Once readers have read through the book as a whole to gain an understanding of the breadth of women’s spiritual culture in Europe during this time, they will find the book an invaluable sourcebook to go back to time and time again for its detailed descriptions and analysis. While this review can only touch on a fraction of the fascinating information contained in Witches and Pagans, a survey of the major themes can offer a taste of the book’s contents and importance. First, Dashu demonstrates both the ubiquity and interconnectedness of women’s spiritual authority in the Early Medieval period by exploring the web of words and meanings associated with the proto-Indo-European root “Wert.” “Wert” denotes a circular motion, which led to the idea of “being and becoming.” This, in turn, metamorphosed into a symphony of words in various Indo-European languages, like the English words “wyrd” or “weird,” “worthy,” and “worship.” Deeply connected to “Wert” and its descendants is the original concept of female divinity as a force of “being and becoming,” that often manifested in trinities of goddesses, such as the fate goddesses found throughout Europe, Central Asia, and Eurasia. The concept of fate eventually evolved into “fae” and similar words associated with enchantment, the supernatural, and “faery.” The exact Indo-European etymology of the words “wicce” and “witch” is unclear, but they may have come from and been related to words denoting “give rise to,” prophecy, divination, magic wands, movement and vitality, and spinning and weaving. Etymologies related to words for witches, goddesses, and female spirit beings show the many layers and shades of meaning describing the realm of Medieval female spiritual authority. Dashu lists over 200 words from 43 languages ranging from Norse to Croatian to Welsh, Irish, and Scottish to Latin to Anglo-Saxon to Catalan and many more. These words reflect spheres of influence that include knower, wisewoman, prophetess, diviner, enchantress, healer, old woman, doer/maker, shapeshifter, fateful women, spirits or ancestors, and various others. Dashu has made the “Names of the Witch” chapter open access,[1] where anyone may read the chapter in its entirety. Having spread her linguistic net over all of Europe, Dashu then turns to individual regions where traces of the deepest roots can still be found in historical documents, myths, archeology and other sources. First are the Norse völur (singular is völva), “the best-documented tradition of female spiritual leadership in medieval Europe” (99). These prestigious and powerful women traveled to homes with an entourage of singers prophesying in ecstatic ceremonies known as seidr, provided food in famines, practiced weather magic, and shape-shifted, among other practices. Other Norse women were priestesses who oversaw sacrifices. Yet, even in these explorations of specific areas, we find themes that wind their way throughout Europe. The völur and Norse goddesses like the Norns illustrate the cross-cultural importance of spinning and weaving to women’s spiritual culture. “Weaving was associated with wisdom, prophecy, poetry, and blessing in Indo-European cultures” (36) from Ireland to India and elsewhere. It was especially connected with both foreseeing and shaping fate and destiny. Distaffs, staffs used in spinning, became the staffs of power that accompanied these goddesses and have been found in the graves of numerous völur and other women with spiritual prestige and power. Closely associated with fate and destiny were the divination practices found throughout the continent accomplished through interpretation of movement, direction, synchronicity, crystal balls, amulets, and the like. Runes were an alphabet that both spelled out and shaped fate as well as being associated with ancestors and ceremonies for the dead. They were also largely in the realm of female spiritual power across northern Europe. The underworld domain of the dead was also the home of faeries, elves and witches, all of which were sometimes interchangeable. Dashu then moves to primordial goddesses, ancestral deities associated with the Earth and nature as well as the spirit realms. We begin in the northwest rim of Europe — Ireland and Scotland, especially — where the late arrival of romanization and christianization ensured that the traditions …
(Budoji Essay 4) The Magoist Cosmogony by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

Part 4: Magoist Origin of Immortals “I maintain that Immortals originally refers to Mago’s descendants in Mago Castle, the Primordial Paradise. They are the primordial clan community of the Mago Species, comprised of the divine, demigods, and humans.” [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 Origin of Immortals: All in the Mago Species are given the original nature of immortality or transcendence. Readers are advised to set aside the literal meaning in the English language of the words immortals or transcendents. Immortals is a translation of the East Asian term seon (仙, xian in Chinese). I choose the translation immortals over transcendents not because it is a better translation but because it is the most commonly used term by Western Daoist translators.[i] Although it is known as a Daoist term, I hold that it is pre-Daoist, namely Magoist, in origin. Primarily, it refers to the Mago Species (Mago and Her descendants) who dwelt in Mago Castle, the primordial home, to be discussed in detail in later chapters. Likewise, historical figures known as Immortals are Magoist rather than Daoist.
(Poem) Bones of a Generous Woman by Phibby Venable

Open this woman and she pours a torrent of sweet butter Tender shoots stretch her arms Her hands are a gentle torment washing away the grit of damaged lovers Dazzling hip bones swing She is a broken bone of bird song wrens, robins, and orioles perch on her cracked knuckles The bones in her face laugh with the warm scent of night She is a bending, stretching pirouette of amazing grace

(Special Post 4) 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.] Yvonne Lucia: “Feminism is the radical notion that women are people.” -British suffragist and journalist Rebecca West “When the God is male, the male is God.” -Mary Daly Yvonne Lucia sacredartportal.com Lila Moore: My first piece of performance art was a ritual inspired by Isis. However, as a young artist, my interest in combining art and ritual was devalued by my teachers and critics alike. I felt isolated and persecuted. Only after relocating to London was I able to gradually understand that my personal and creative aspiration was integral part of a collective and global feminine and feminist awakening. I realised that personal experiences of women have political perspectives, and that being a contemporary woman artist positions me in the midst of historical and cultural enterprise. As an artist-film-maker and scholar, I have regarded my work as a spiritual quest, exploring through dance-ritual and art films the interaction of the body and psyche with the natural environment and technology. In the 21st century, my interest in the healing and transforming aspects of images on screen has been combined with a growing sense of activism. It seems inconceivable to take images of nature out of context by ignoring the ecological holocaust which is evident everywhere. I have felt compelled to ask whether the needs of the body and mind can be separated from the needs of the Earth?
(Special Post Mother Teresa 2) A Role Model for Women? by Mago Circle Members

[Editorial Note: The following is an edited version of the discussion that took place spontaneously on Mago Circle from March 1, 2013 for about two weeks. It was an extensive, heated, yet reflective discussion, now broken into four parts to fit the format of the blog. We thank each and all of the participants for your openness, generosity, and courage to stand up for what you believe and think! Some are marked as anonymous. As someone stated, something may have been “written in the heat of the moment” and some might like to change it at a later time. So we inform our readers that nothing is written in stone. As a matter of fact, the discussion is ongoing, now with Magoism Blog readers. Please comment and respond as you wish.] Part II: We Disagree! Stand up for what you believe but be open-minded! Naa Ayele Kumari: I am going to step away from the common responses and say this… Binary is only no in betweens if you choose sides and can’t see the whole. I have been a part of black consciousness movements and women’s movements and both have the capacity for progress as well as extreme viewpoints. Both have the capacity to become so hypercritical that the movement itself transcends common human compassion and understanding. Mother Teresa was a human being with flaws and goodness. She had a public image and private fears and insecurities.. l like all of us. She lived her life the best way she knew how.. Like all of us. She made mistakes.. misjudgments.. Like all of us. But she also DID help and inspire others to help too. It is this dualistic thinking that forces people to feel like they have to assign the label of good or bad and no in between. None of us are all good or all bad.. so it seems to me that to label her has an evil traitor who let people die is no better than labeling her an Angel of god who did no wrong. She was a woman who lived her life and managed to come to worldwide fame and inspire others to love at a time and in an institution that was highly patriarchal and women were not raised up at all. Mother Goddesses in Africa were known for great nurturing and care symbolized by carrying a baby and also carried a machete on the other side for justice. This was the fine balance of wholeness…she was the gentle rain and the storm.. This was binary, but not one or the other but both.. Opposite ends of the same pole. [H]: I’m having a powerful visceral effect from this conversation. I feel as if I’m going to vomit violently. Mother Teresa comes to me in dreams and meditations. Makes me wonder what kind of person I’m seen as if I attract her energy. I have always felt so much love for her. Naa Ayele Kumari: If she comes in your dreams and it has been healing for you… Allow it/ her to continue to be healing for you. Its all about love and anything that is not love… Leave it be.. Vomiting is rejecting something that doesn’t belong with you. Embrace love my sister. Antonia McGuire: I think we may all agree that all belief systems initially began to promote a sense of goodness or fairness to some degree, but over time they are corrupted and produce both advantages and disadvantages. Donna Snyder: Yes, Gandhi, too. Back in the 90’s when I was in a band/performance art troupe called Central Nervous System, I shocked all the guys in the band coming out with an improv in response to a melody played on a banjo tuned like a sitar, called exactly that-Yes, Gandhi. Now make no mistake, he is one of my heroes, devoid of the falsified sentimentality that clings to MT. Gandhi’s work was for the world, for the masses, not for the appropriately humbled. Yet I spoke out about his sexual practices, his use of female bodies. Telling the truth about a hero requires courage. Retreating into a blind defense of a myth is a form of ethical cowardice. Anne Wilkerson Allen: Strangely I had a discussion with someone about the “hero’s journey” moving from metaphorical to physical being part of the problem…..when the “demons” are human instead of our own flaws, there seems to be a tendency to point the finger (and gun barrel) elsewhere. [B]: Fascinating & thought-provoking conversation, all. I think the biggest stumbling block I have with MT is how her acceptance of the dogma of the Catholic church blinded her to seeing and then being moved by the suffering of others enough to do something to alleviate & not vicariously celebrate it. No wonder she “suffered a lack of connection with the Divine”. This crisis with her spirituality seems to have been divorced from her and others’ body wisdom. Self-abnegation (perhaps not the same as “sacrifice”) ultimately backfires because some small part of us insists, “I am worthy!” To which I say, “We are all worthy!” [H]: I do not see or feel that she vicariously celebrated the suffering of others. I feel that she devoted her life to deeply loving and serving the poorest of the poor. I have not been to Calcutta and I have also seen some unimaginable poverty in India that is not like anything that I’ve been exposed to before. I truly believe that she had a very deep way of working with suffering that is not necessarily visible to those more accustomed to modern medical intervention and the resources available for such. I have participated in a very small amount of poverty medicine and the resources that we take for granted are just not readily available to MANY. I learned very powerfully from my experience how blessed and fortunate and often very careless we really are with our precious resources. This discussion has been a learning experience for me. I am trying to not take the critical comments […]
(Special Post) Discussion on Mother-Daughter Wound by Mago Circle Members

[Mago Circle members discussed and answered the question, “What do you think of this (the topic article below)? If you are a feminist, it is something that you would promote? If so, why? If not, why not?” The discussion took place on May 15, 2017 and shortly thereafter in The Mago Circle.] Topic Article: “For The Daughters Who Don’t Love Their Mothers – Screw Mother’s Day” by Sade Andria Zabala Everyone talks about a mother’s unconditional love. But what if it doesn’t exist? Daughters are socially expected to be close with their mothers. But are you one of the women who aren’t? Mother’s Day isn’t just for celebrating moms. It’s a day some of us dread because we are reminded we grew up (or are still) unloved, not good enough. (Read the whole article here.)

Samhain/Deep Autumn within the Creative Cosmos by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This essay is an edited excerpt from Chapter 4 of the author’s new book A Poiesis of the Creative Cosmos: Celebrating Her within PaGaian Sacred Ceremony. Traditionally the dates for Samhain/Deep Autumn are: Northern Hemisphere – October 31st/November 1st Southern Hemisphere – April 30th/May 1st though the actual astronomical date varies. It is the meridian point or cross-quarter day between Autumn Equinox and Winter Solstice, thus actually a little later in early May for S.H., and early November for N.H., respectively. A Samhain/Deep Autumn Ceremonial Altar In this cosmology, Deep Autumn/Samhain is a celebration of She Who creates the Space to Be par excellence. This aspect of the Creative Triplicity is associated with the autopoietic quality of Cosmogenesis[i] and with the Crone/Old One of the Triple Goddess, who is essentially creative in Her process. This Seasonal Moment celebrates the process of the Crone, the Ancient One … how we are formed by Her process, and in that sense conceived by Her: it is an ‘imaginal fertility,’ a fertility of the dark space, the sentient Cosmos. It mirrors the fertility and conception of Beltaine (which is happening in the opposite Hemisphere at the same time). Some Samhain/Deep Autumn Story This celebration of Deep Autumn has been known in Christian times as “Halloween,” since the church in the Northern Hemisphere adopted it as “All Hallow’s eve” (31st October) or “All Saint’s Day” (1st November). This “Deep Autumn” festival as it may be named in our times, was known in old Celtic times as Samhain (pronounced “sow-een), which is an Irish Gaelic word, with a likely meaning of “Summer’s end,” since it is the time of the ending of the Spring-Summer growth. Many leaves of last Summer are turning and falling at this time: it was thus felt as the end of the year, and hence the New Year. It was and is noted as the beginning of Winter. It was the traditional Season for bringing in the animals from the outdoor pastures in pastoral economies, and when many of them were slaughtered. Earth’s tilt is continuing to move the region away from the Sun at this time of year. This Seasonal Moment is the meridian point of the darkest quarter of the year, between Autumn Equinox and Winter Solstice; the dark part of the day is longer than the light part of the day and is still on the increase. It is thus the dark space of the annual cycle wherein conception and dreaming up the new may occur. As with any New Year, between the old and the new, in that moment, all is possible. We may choose in that moment what to pass to the future, and what to relegate to compost. Samhain may be understood as the Space between the breaths. It is a generative Space – the Source of all. There is particular magic in being with this Dark Space. This Dark Space which is ever present, may be named as the “All-Nourishing Abyss,”[ii] the “Ever-Present Origin.”[iii] It is a generative Place, and we may feel it particularly at this time of year, and call it to consciousness in ceremony. Some Samhain/Deep Autumn Motifs The fermentation of all that has passed begins. This moment may mark the Transformation of Death – the breakdown of old forms, the ferment and rot of the compost, and thus the possibility of renewal.[iv] It is actually a movement towards form and ‘re-solution’ (as Beltaine – its opposite – begins a movement towards entropy and dissolution). With practice we begin to develop this vision: of the rot, the ferment, being a movement towards the renewal, to see the gold. And just so, does one begin to know the movement at Beltaine, towards expansion and thus falling apart, dissolution. In Triple Goddess poetics it may be expressed that the Crone’s face here at Samhain begins to change to the Mother – as at Beltaine the Virgin’s face begins to change to the Mother: the aspects are never alone and kaleidoscope into the other … it is an alive dynamic process, never static. The whole Wheel is a Creation story, and Samhain is the place of the conceiving of this Creativity, and it may be in the Spelling of it – saying what we will; and thus, beginning the Journey through the Wheel. Conception could be described as a “female-referring transformatory power” – a term used by Melissa Raphael in Thealogy and Embodiment:[v] conception happens in a female body, yet it is a multivalent cosmic dynamic, that is, it happens in all being in a variety of forms. It is not bound to the female body, yet it occurs there in a particular and obvious way. Androcentric ideologies, philosophies and theologies have devalued the event and occurrence of conception in the female body: whereas PaGaian Cosmology is a conscious affirmation, invocation and celebration of “female sacrality”[vi] as part of all sacrality. It does thus affirm the female as a place; as well as a place.[vii] ‘Conception’ is identified as a Cosmic Dynamic essential to all being – not exclusive to the female, yet it is a female-based metaphor, one that patriarchal-based religions have either co-opted and attributed to a father-god (Zeus, Yahweh, Chenrezig – have all taken on being the ‘mother’), or it has been left out of the equation altogether. Womb is the place of Creation – not some God’s index finger as is imagined in Michelangelo’s famous painting. Melissa Raphael speaks of a “menstrual cosmology”. It is an “ancient cosmology in which chaos and harmony belong together in a creation where perfection is both impossible and meaningless;”[viii] yet it is recently affirmed in Western scientific understanding of chaos, as essential to order and spontaneous emergence. Samhain is an opportunity for immersion in a deeper reality which the usual cultural trance denies. It may celebrate immersion in what is usually ‘background’ – the real world beyond and within time and space: which is actually the major portion of the Cosmos we live in.[ix] Samhain is about understanding that the Dark is a fertile place: in its decay and rot it seethes with infinite unseen complex golden threads connected to the wealth of Creativity of all that has gone before – like any …
(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
(Essay) Winter Solstice/Yule within the Creative Cosmos by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This essay is an edited excerpt from Chapter 5 of the author’s book A Poiesis of the Creative Cosmos: Celebrating Her within PaGaian Sacred Ceremony. Dates for Winter Solstice/Yule Southern Hemisphere – June 20 – 23. Northern Hemisphere – December 20 – 23 This Seasonal Moment is the ripe fullness of the Dark Womb and it is a gateway between dark and light. It is a Birthing Place – into differentiated being. Whereas Samhain/Deep Autumn is a dark conceiving Space, it flows into the Winter Solstice dark birthing Place – a dynamic Place of Being, a Sacred Interchange. This Seasonal Moment of Winter Solstice is the peaking of the dark space – the fullness of the dark, within which being and action arise. It is the peaking of emptiness, which is a fullness. As cosmologist Brian Swimme describes: the empty “ground of being … retains no thing.” It is “Ultimate Generosity.”[i] In Vajrayana Buddhism, Space is associated with Prajna/wisdom – out of which Upaya/compassionate action arises. Space is highly positive – something to be developed, so appropriate action may develop spontaneously and blissfully.[ii] In Old European Indigenous understandings, the dark and the night were valued at least as much as light, if not more so: time was counted by the number of nights, as in ‘fortnights,’ and a ‘day’ included both dark and light parts … it was ‘di-urnal’. I have been careful with my language about that inclusion in the ceremonial ‘Statement of Purpose’ for each Seasonal Moment. This awareness is resonant with modern Western scientific perceptions about the nature of the Universe: that it is seventy-three percent “dark energy,” twenty-three precent “dark matter,” four percent “ordinary matter.”[iii] The truth is that we live within this darkness: it is the Ground of all Being. In Pagan traditions since Celtic times, and in many other cultural traditions, Winter Solstice has been celebrated as the birth of the God; and in Christian tradition since about the fourth century C.E., as the birth of the saviour. But there are deeper ways of understanding what is being born: that is, who or what the “saviour” is. In the Gospel of Thomas, which was not selected for biblical canon, it says: “If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you.”[iv] This then may be the Divine Child, the “Saviour”: it may be expressed as the new Being forming in the Cosmogonic Womb,[v] who will be born. We may celebrate the birth of the new Being, which /who is always beyond us, beyond our knowing … yet is within us, burgeoning within us – and within Gaia. What will save us is already present within – forming within us. The Winter Solstice story may emphasize that what is born, is within each one – the “Divine” is not “out there”: it may be said, and expressed ceremoniously, that we are each Creator and Created. We may imagine ourselves as the in-utero foetus – an image we might have access to these days from a sonar-scan during pregnancy. This image presents a truth about Being: we are this, and it is within us, within this moment. Every moment is pregnant with the new. It will be birthed when holy darkness is full. Part of what is required is having the eyes to see the “new bone forming in flesh,” scraping our eyes “clear of learned cataracts,”[vi] seeing with fresh eyes. That is what the fullness of the Dark offers – a freshening of our eyes to see the new. And the process of Creation is always reciprocal: we are Creator and Created simultaneously, in a “ngapartji-ngapartji”[vii] way. We are in-formed by that which we form. In Earth-based religious practice, the ubiquitous icon of Mother and Child – Creator and Created – expresses something essential about the Universe itself … the “motherhood” we are all born within. It expresses the essential communion experience that this Cosmos is, the innate and holy Care that it takes, and the reciprocal nature of it. We cannot touch without being touched at the same time.[viii] We may realize that Cosmogenesis – the entire Unfolding of the Cosmos – is essentially relational: our experience tells us this is so. The image of The Birth of the Goddess on the front cover of my book PaGaian Cosmology expresses that reciprocity for me, how we may birth each other and the healing/wholing in that exchange. It is a Sacred Interchange. And it is what this Event of existence seems to be about – deep communion, which both Solstices express. Babylonian Goddess, Ur 4000-3500 BCE. Adele Getty, Goddess, 33. Birthing is not often an easy process – for the birthgiver nor for the birthed one: it is a shamanic act requiring strength of bodymind, attention, courage, and focus of the mother, and resilience and courage to be of the new young one. Birthgiving is the original place of ‘heroics,’ which many cultures of the world have never forgotten, perhaps therefore better termed as “heraics.” Patriarchal adaptations of the story of this Seasonal Moment usually miss the Creative Act of birthgiving completely, usually being pre-occupied with the “virgin” nature of the Mother which is interpreted as having an “intact hymen.” The focus of the patriarchal adaptation of the Winter Solstice story is the Child as “saviour”: even the Mother gazes at the Child in most Christian icons, while in more ancient images Her eyes are direct and expressive of Her integrity as Creator. NOTES: [i] Swimme, The Universe is a Green Dragon, 146. [ii] See Rita Gross, “The Feminine Principle in Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism.” The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology 179-192. [iii] These figures as told by cosmologist Paul Davies with Macquarie University’s Centre for Astrobiology, Australia. [iv] Elaine Pagels, Beyond Belief: the Secret Gospel of Thomas, saying number 70. See https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/story/thomas.html . [v] Melissa Raphael’s term, Thealogy and Embodiment, 262. [vi] The quotes come from a poem by Cynthia Cook, “Refractions,” Womanspirit (Oregan USA, issue 23, March 1980), 59. [vii] This is an Indigenous Australian term for reciprocity – giving and receiving at the same time. I explain it a bit further in PaGaian Cosmology, 256-257. [viii] An expression from Abram, The Spell of the Sensuous, 68. REFERENCES: Abram, David. The Spell of the Sensuous. New York: Vintage Books, 1997. Getty, Adele. Goddess: Mother of Living …
(Video) Winter Solstice Breath Meditation by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

Winter Solstice/Yule Southern Hemisphere – June 20 – 23. Northern Hemisphere – December 20 – 23 Winter Solstice is a celebration of the Mother/Creator aspect of the Triple Goddess in particular – as both Solstices may be, as dark or light come to fullness. Winter Solstice Moment celebrates the ripe fullness of the Dark Womb, and the gateway from that fullness back into new growing light. It is a Birthing Place – into differentiated being, and Her birthing happens in every moment in the breath, and is seamlessly connected with all layers of being – of self, Earth and Cosmos. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDsVZzXtoyM The Text in the Meditation[i] Take a deep breath and let it go. Notice the Void at the bottom of emptying your breath … feeling it, and feeling the Urge to breathe as it arises. And again … feeling it over and over – this breath that arises out of the full emptiness in every moment, birthing you in every moment. – Recall some of the birthings in your life, your actual birth – see it there in your mind’s eye … you coming into being – your Nativity, your Nativity. Recall projects you have brought into being, new beings within yourself, perhaps children, new beings in others, how you have been Creator and Created – even at the same time … who was birthing who? Staying for a while with the many, many birthings in your life. – recalling now Earth-Gaia’s many birthings out of the Dark everyday … the dawn is constant as She turns. See Her in your mind’s eye – the constant dawning around the globe, the constant birthing. Recall Earth’s many births right now of all beings – as day breaks around the globe – the physical, emotional, spiritual births. Her many, many birthings everyday, and throughout the eons. recalling now Universe-Gaia’s many birthings – happening in every moment – right now in real time and space … supernovas right now, stars and planets being born right now. Her many, many birthings in every moment and throughout the eons. – recalling now Universe-Gaia’s many birthings – happening in every moment – right now in real time and space … supernovas right now, stars and planets being born right now. Her many, many birthings in every moment and throughout the eons. Come back to your breath – this wonder – none of it separate … the Origin Ever-Present, birthing you in every moment – out of Her Fertile Dark, in real time and space. Feeling this breath, Her breath. NOTES: [i] Glenys Livingstone, PaGaian Cosmology, Winter Solstice ceremonial script, p. 195-196. Reference: Glenys Livingstone, PaGaian Cosmology. Music: Fish Nite Moon by Tim Wheater, permission generously given Images: – Birth of the Goddess, Erich Neumann, The Great Mother, pl. 155. See https://pagaian.org/book/cover-goddess-image/ – Winter Solstice window, MoonCourt Australia 2016 – some sources unknown
(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.
(Essay) The Emergence celebrated at Spring Equinox by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

The Spring Equinox Moment occurs September 21-23 Southern Hemisphere, March 21-23 Northern Hemisphere. The full story of Spring Equinox is expressed in the full flower connected to the seed fresh from the earth; that is, it is a story of emergence from the dark, from a journey, perhaps long, perhaps short, through challenging places. The joy of the blossoming is rooted in the journey through the dark, and an acknowledgement of the dark’s fertile gift, as well as of great achievement in having made it, of having returned. Both Equinoxes, Spring and Autumn, celebrate this sacred balance of grief and joy, light and dark, and they are both celebrations of the mystery of the seed. The seed is essentially the deep Creativity within – that manifests in the Spring as flower, or green emerged One. the full story: the root and the flower As the new young light continues to grow at this time of Spring, it comes into balance with the dark at Spring Equinox, or ‘Eostar’ as it may be named; about to tip further into light when light will dominate the day. The trend at this Equinox is toward increasing hours of light: and thus it is about the power of being – life is stepping into it. Earth in this region is tilting further toward the Sun. Traditionally it may be storied as the joyful celebration of a Lost Beloved One, who may be represented by the Persephone story: She is a shamanic figure who is known for Her journey to the Underworld, and who at this time of Spring Equinox returns. Her Mother Demeter who has waited and longed for Her in deep grief, rejoices and so do all: warmth and growth return to the land. Persephone, the Beloved Daughter, the Seed, has navigated the darkness successfully, has enriched it with Her presence and also gained its riches. Eostar/Spring Equinox is the magic of the unexpected, yet long awaited, green emergence from under the ground, and then the flower: this emergence is especially profound as it is from a seed that has lain dormant for months or longer – much like the magic of desert blooms after long periods of drought. The name of “Eostar” comes from the Saxon Goddess Eostre/Ostara, the northern form of the Sumerian Astarte[i]. The Christian festival in the Spring, was named “Easter” as of the Middle Ages, appropriating Goddess/Earth tradition. The date of Easter, which is set for Northern Hemispheric seasons, is still based on the lunar/menstrual calendar; that is, the 1st Sunday after the first full Moon after Spring Equinox. In Australia where I am, “Easter” is celebrated in Autumn (!) by mainstream culture, so we have the spectacle of fluffy chickens, chocolate eggs and rabbits in the shops at that time. There are other names for “Eostar” in other places …the Welsh name for the Spring Equinox celebration is Eilir, meaning ‘regeneration’ or ‘spring’ – or ‘earth’[ii]. In my own PaGaian tradition, the Spring Equinox celebration is based on the Demeter and Persephone story, the version that is understand as pre-patriarchal, from Old Europe. In the oldest stories, Persephone has agency in Her descent: She descends to the underworld voluntarily as a courageous seeker of wisdom, and a compassionate receiver of the dead. She represents, and IS, the Seed of Life that never fades away. Spring Equinox is a celebration of Her return, Life’s continual return, and thus also our personal and collective emergences/returns.We may contemplate the collective emergence/returns especially in our times. I describe Persephone as a “hera”, which of old was a term for any courageous One. “Hera” was a pre-Hellenic name for the Goddess in general[iii]. “Hera” was the indigenous Queen Goddess of pre-Olympic Greece, before She was married off to Zeus. “Hero” was a term for the brave male Heracles who carried out tasks for his Goddess Hera: “The derivative form ‘heroine’ is therefore completely unnecessary”[iv]. “Hera” may be used as a term for any courageous individual: and participants in PaGaian Spring Equinox ceremony have named themselves this way. The pre-“Olympic” games of Greece were Hera’s games, held at Her Heraion/temple[v]. The winners were “heras” – gaining the status of being like Her[vi]. At the time of Spring Equinox, we may celebrate the Persephone, the Hera, the Courageous One, who steps with new wisdom, into power of being: the organic power that all beings must have, Gaian power, the power of the Cosmos. This Seasonal ceremony may be a rejoicing in how we have made it through great challenges and loss, faced our fears and our demise (in its various forms), had ‘close shaves’ – perhaps physically as well as psychicly and emotionally. It is a time to welcome back that which was lost, and step into the strength of being. Spring Equinox/Eostar is the time for enjoying the fruits of the descent, of the journey taken into the darkness: return is now certain, not tentative as it was in the Early Spring/Imbolc. Demeter, the Mother, receives the Persephones, Lost Beloved Ones, joyously. This may be understood as an individual experience, but also as a collective experience – as we emerge into a new Era as a species. Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme speak of the ending of the sixty-five million year geological Era – the Cenozoic Era – in our times, and our possible emergence into an Ecozoic Era. They describe the Ecozoic Era as a time when “the curvature of the universe, the curvature of the earth, and the curvature of the human are once more in their proper relation”[vii]. Joanna Macy speaks of the “Great Turning” of our times[viii]. Collectively we have been away from the Mother for some time and there is a lot of pain. At this time we may contemplate not only our own individual lost wanderings, but also that of the human species. We are part of a much bigger Return that is happening. The Beloved One may be understood as returning on a collective level: …

(Mago Almanac Planner Year 5 Excerpt 1) 13 Month 28 Day Magoist Calendar by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

[Author’s Note: This and its sequences are a newly added portion in the Mago Almanac Planner Year 5, equivalent to the Gregorian Year 2022. Because the Budoji did not explain further about time units smaller than 1 day, I did not follow through some possible implications in previous Mago Almanac volumes. Next year’s Mago Almanac Planner for Personal Journey: 13 Month 28 Day Calendar Year 5 or 5919 MAGOMA ERA is forthcoming in Mago Bookstore (October 25, 2021). PDF version is available for purchase.] Angbuilgu (仰釜日晷 Concave Sundial) dated in 1434 of Joseon Dynasty Korea (13 horizontal lines are engraved, indicating 24 seasons and 7 vertical lines indicating times of a day) UNITS OF TIME MEASURE At the half point of the eleventh Sa, there is one Gu of the big Hoe (Eve of the first day of the month). Gu is the root of time. Three hundred Gu makes one Myo. With Myo, we can sense Gu. A lapse of 9,633 Myo-Gak-Bun-Si makes one day. This is of Chesu (Physical Number), 3, 6, 9. By and by, the encircling time charts Medium Calendar and Large Calendar to evince the principle of numerology. 1 Gu (approx. 3.71 miliseconds) refers an infinitesimal discrepancy that occurs every eleven years or every ten and a half years precisely. Because Gu (a noncognitive time unit) is a time too small to count, Gu can only be treated as 1 Myo, equivalent to 300 Gu. As shown in the below table, Myo is still a tiny unit of time. 9,633 Myo equals 1 day, which is 288,990 Gu (300×9633=288,990). Because of this, there will be one extra day (9,633 Myo) every 31,788,900 years. This means, the Magoist Calendar has another (the third) leap day every 31,788,900 years (11 x 300 x 9,633). 31,788,900 years is a long time, which we will presumably not take into consideration for the Magoist Calendar dating 3898 BCE (the beginning year of Goma’s Danguk confederacy) that we are under. Because the units of Gak, Bun, and Si are not further explained in the Budoji,[1] it is difficult to designate what they indicate. Although the terms of Gak, Bun, and Si are familiar to moderns as time indicators, what each unit indicates is unknown. Given that 9,633 Myo (Gak-Bun-Si) equals 1 day (1 Il 日 일), it is conjectured that Gak-Bun-Si refers to time segments equivalent to hours, minutes, and seconds in today’s 24 hour a day scheme. 1 Myo is approximately 1.115 seconds, as 9,633 Myo is approximately 8,640 seconds. If we project the time of 1 day into a circle, the whole circle indicates 1 day. Doing this implies that time/space is inseparable in a circular notion of timespace. To specify a size of time smaller than 1 day, we can first divide the circle into two halves. Let’s call the half circle or a half day A. A (equivalent to 12 hours) equals 4,816.5 Myo or 1,444,950 Gu. Then, we divide the half circle into two halves. And let’s call it B. B refers to a quarter of 1 day or B (equivalent to 6 hours), which equals 2,408.25 Myo or 722,475 Gu. Likewise, C refers to one eighth of 1 day, equivalent to 3 hours), which equals 1,204.125 Myo or 361,237.5 Gu. A subsequent division by 2 aligns with the Physical Numbers, 3, 6, 9 in the digital root.[2] Given one sidereal day to be 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4.0916 seconds or 23.9344696 hours, 1 A would be 11 hours, 58 minutes, and 2.0458 seconds. 1 B would be 5 hours, 59 minutes, and 1.0229 seconds. 1 C would be 2 hours, 59.5 minutes, and 0.51145 seconds. The circle represents the sidereal day of 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4.0916 seconds. Note that the time divisions of 1 day (A, B, and C) follow the order of 1, 2, 4, and 8. Precisely, this is what the Magoist Genealogy of the first three generations that I illustrated above and elsewhere: The Magoist Cosmogony recounts that from one (Mago, the Great Mother) born are the two daughters (Gunghui and Sohui), which makes the triad. From the two daughters born are the four twins, which makes eight. This is observed in meiosis (cell division for sexually reproducing organisms) from one to two and to four and to eight and so forth. The Mago triad and the eight granddaughters are called Nine Magos.[3] The calendar is not just an indication of times or seasons. It is an indication of the life-organizing principle. The Magoist Calendar is a summary of cosmic and planetary life systems. From a microcosmic entity to a macrocosmic universe, all runs by the same force of Sonic Numerology, the metamorphic reality of WE/HERE/NOW. Beings, time, and space are the three inseparable aspects of one reality.(To be continued) [1] It is indeed regretful that the sequence book of the Budoji, Yeoksiji (Book of Calendar and Time), that treats calendar and time has been lost. We have only the Budoji available, the first book of 15 books of the Jingsimnok (Record of Cleansing Mind/Heart), a compendium of 3 volumes that have 5 books in each. Doubtless that the Yeoksiji (Book of Calendar and Time), the third book of Volume 1, would detail the rest of time measures and sub-calendars. [2] D would refer to one sixteenth of 1 day, equivalent to 1.5 hours, which equals 602.0625 Myo (3 in the Digital Root) or 180,618.75 (9 in the Digital Root). If we divide one eighth of 1 day by 3, it is one twenty-fourth of 1 day or E (equivalent to 1 hour). A total of 24 segments. E equals 401.375 Myo or 120,412.5 Gu. These numbers do not follow the suit of 3, 6, and 9, Chesu or Physical Numbers. 401.375 is 2 in the Digital Root and 120,412.5 is 6 in the Digital Root. [3] See this book, 112. https://www.magoism.net/2013/07/meet-mago-contributor-helen-hwang/
(Essay 3) The Magoist Calendar: Mago Time inscribed in Sonic Numerology by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

[Author’s Note: This is my latest research that has led me to restore the 13-month, 28-day Mago Calendar, which will be included at the end of its sequels. See Mago Almanac: 13 Month 28 Day Calendar (Book A), published in 2017.] THE SECOND CALENDAR Then, the Earth had increasingly so much work in all regions. Biodiversity went overboard. The terrestrial song became uncontrollable. The initial calendar became defunct. Lifeforms were left uncoordinated. The Earth fell into disorder, as she had no one to tune the song of earthlings in harmony with the cosmic music of creativity. The Earth was in need of sentient beings who could undertake the task. Mago’s descendants were to be born. Humans were entrusted to cultivate the earthly sound property by the Nine Mago Creatrix. The Budoji writes:
(Book Excerpt 5) The Mago Way by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.

[Author’s Note] The following is from Chapter One, “What Is Mago and Magoism and How Did I Study HER?” from The Mago Way: Re-discovering Mago, the Great Goddess from East Asia, Volume 1. Footnotes below would be different from the monograph version. PDF book of The Mago Way Volume 1 download is available for free here.] How My Education and Experience Helped Me Study Mago The topic of Mago came to me in time for writing my doctoral dissertation for the Women’s Studies in Religion program that I was enrolled in at Claremont Graduate University. My graduate education, which I crafted to be a feminist cross-cultural alchemical process of de-educating myself from the patriarchal mode of knowledge-making, led me to encounter the hitherto unheard-of Goddess of East Asia, Mago. I came to read the Budoji, the principal text of Magoism, in 2000 and did some basic research to find out that Mago was known among people in Korea and that S/HE was also found in Chinese and Japanese sources.