November 9, 2020October 23, 2020 Mago Work Admin

(Poem) Two Rabbits and the Moon by Sara Wright

The Cottontail

watched me

climb

a steep hill

to meet her

at the Cross –

road.

She split the stone.

Datura delusions emerge

from this bloodline.

I stumble

down down down…

Her feet beat

a mourning drum

I’m in free fall.

Tropical mist

chokes mountain air.

What force

can annihilate

this hopeless story?

Both Hares

dead – one murdered,

the other abandoned

by the Moon.

(Meet Mago Contributor) Sara Wright

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(Essay) Women and Religion – What’s Happening by Glenys Livingstone (1980)

This is the third in a three part series of old articles and papers by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D. that were written in the 1980’s and 1990’s, two of which were published at that time. The first in the series was “Notes on Leaving Christianity”, and the second was “Exodus 1980 Revisited”. This essay presented at the Women and Labour Conference in Melbourne Australia 1980, was not published in conference proceedings due largely to feminist prejudice at the time about women in religion, but it received media attention, being publicised on p.3 of The Age, p.17 of the Sydney Morning Herald, and full page in a regional newspaper with follow up letters to the editor. Feminist analysis that stops short of religion, stops prematurely. It is in religion that we find the central office – the sacred male precincts that have given that final touch of authority to the oppression of women. In this paper, I will largely be talking of women from the christian traditions, since this is the one I know – however I do know that the experience of these women resonates with women of other religious traditions. Patriarchy has been widespread, one might say! though of course each tradition is particular, in that women have either been allowed or not allowed more freedoms and “rights”, or shall I say more qualifications of the human person.
(S/HE Article Excerpt) Holy Spirit Mother and Intersex Jesus: Turning Point Nicene Creed by Ally Kateusz

Available in S/HE V1 N1 [Editor’s Note: This article was previously published and is now available for a free download in S/HE: An International Journal of Goddess Studies in Volume 1 Number 1. Do not cite this article in its present form. Citation must come from the published version in S/HE: An International Journal of Goddess Studies (https://sheijgs.space/).”] Holy Spirit as female and Mother In Hebrew, the Spirit of God was feminine gendered, just like women were feminine gendered, and this was not mere grammatical serendipity. A study of the Hebrew language in the Dead Sea Scrolls demonstrates that in Hebrew, the grammatical gendering of “spirit”—ruah—and the gender of any associated adjective and verb, depended upon context. Thus, when “spirit”referred to the spirit of Belial, a demon, it was usually masculine gendered. When it meant, literally, “breath,” it was sometimes masculine and sometimes feminine. When it referred to the Spirit of God or to the Spirit of the people, however, itwas almost always feminine gendered.[1] The feminine gender of the Spirit of God may have been related to an understanding of the femaleness of the Spirit of God within Hebrew culture, perhaps an understanding related to the creation story, which describes elohim creating adam in the divine image, both male and female (Gen 1:27). The Hebrew word elohim itself suggests a male-female creator, because while el means god in Hebrew, the feminine oh makes eloh, which means goddess, and the im plural ending means two, as in a yoked pair of oxen. Thus the Spirit of God, seen hovering above the waters at the beginning of creation, may have been specifically feminine gendered in Hebrew because originally, she was remembered as eloh, the divine female, she of many names, the ancient Hebrew goddess of Israel and Judah about whom much has been written.[2] In any case, Holy Spirit as Mother, not just feminine gendered, but also female like a mother, is consistent with the Hebrew gendering of the Spirit of God. It is therefore not surprising that a Hebrew gospel used around Jerusalem provides some of the very oldest evidence of Holy Spirit described as Mother. The theologian Origen (c. 184–253), working in Caesarea, twice wrote that this Hebrew gospel had a saying in which Jesus spoke of “My Mother, the Holy Spirit.”[3] According to Papias of Hierapolis (c. 60–135) this gospel, usually called the Gospel according to the Hebrews, had been written by Matthew in his native tongue.[4] Whether actually penned by Matthew or not, one of its sayings referenced Jesus’s baptism, when the Holy Spirit descended like a dove and lighted upon Jesus emerging from the water.[5] This saying read, “The Savior says: ‘My Mother, the Holy Spirit, carried me away.’”[6] The early Christian image of Holy Spirit as Mother, however, is not found solely in semitic languages, such as Hebrew, Aramaic, or Syriac, where “Holy Spirit” was feminine gendered. It is also found in Greek, Latin, and Coptic around the Mediterranean. For example, Irenaeus of Lyon (c. 155–205), who was from Smyrna in Ancient Greece, wrote in Greek that some congregations of Jesus followers—not his church, but churches in competition with his—called their Mother “Holy Spirit,” as well as by other names, including Sophia and Jerusalem.[7] An early narrative that preserves the tradition of Holy Spirit as Mother in Greek was the Greek Acts of Thomas, which had been translated from Syriac. The Acts of Thomas was condemned to the fires in the so-called Gelasian Decree,[8] but despite being “corrected” by Archbishop Nicetas of Thessaloniki, who did “a complete orthodox rewriting,”[9] the literary tradition of Holy Spirit as Mother survived in a few medieval Greek manuscripts. According to its text, after baptizing people, Thomas twice uttered prayers in which he identified Holy Spirit as Mother, such as:[10] Come, compassionate Mother, Come, fellowship of the male; Com, thou (fem.) that dost reveal the hidden mysteries; Come Mother . . . Come, Holy Spirit, and purify their reins and their heart.[11] The Acts of Philip also was condemned in the Gelasian Decree, but a handful of medieval Greek manuscripts preserve some of its chapters, which describe Mariamne, herself twice called an “apostle,” evangelizing with the apostle Philip.[12] According to the martyrdom attached to the end of these Acts, when Mariamne preached, she paired Mother and Father: You are guilty of having forgotten your origins, your Father in heaven, and your spiritual Mother. If you wake up, however, you will receive illumination.[13] The femaleness of Holy Spirit was apparently so important to some pre-Constantinian Latin speaking Christians that they changed the normal masculine gender of “spirit” in Latin—spiritus—to the feminine gendered spirita.[14] Instead of the grammatically correct spiritus sanctus on their stone epitaphs, we find plaques carved with SPIRITA SANCTA from the Christian catacombs of Rome.[15] See two in Figure 1, although note that the fragment on the right is missing the beginning “S.” Fig. 1. Pre-Constantinian stone plaques inscribed with SPIRITA SANCTA.Vatican Museum, Rome.Photo: Marrucci, Monumenti (1910), plate 52, nos. 32 and 33. Some Coptic codices of the Nag Hammadi Library also preserve descriptions of Holy Spirit as mother. Key passages are Gospel of Thomas 101, Gospel of Philip 55.24-26, and Apocryphon of John 10.17-19. In addition, several passages in the Gospel of the Egyptians (III 41.7-9, 42.4, 56.24, 58.3-4, 59.13-14) describe a heavenly triad of Father, Mother, and Son/Child.[16] The thirteen Nag Hammadi codices witness how deeply some early Christians appear to have valued a divine feminine principle, because almost all contain one or more texts that speak of a Mother or other divine female by various names, such as Sophia.[17] The Nag Hammadi Coptic passage Gospel of Philip 55.24-26 is of particular interest because it may preserve a link that helps explain why some Jesus followers understood Jesus as intersex. They appear to have believed that Jesus had two mothers. While some Christians (including the scribe of the Gospel of Philip) disagreed that Holy Spirit was female, this passage nonetheless records that other Christians argued that she …
(Meet Mago Contributor) Hannah Baek Wha

Hannah creates expression through a variety of mediums, most currently in the roles of visual artist, craftswoman, storyteller, writer and poet. Her personal practices include an evolving blend of Medicine Drumming, Song Awakening, Tea ritual and healing ceremony. A bodywork practitioner for over six years, she has completed and explored studies in Thai Yoga Massage, Zen Shiatsu, Remedial, Tantric Chakra Meditation and Japanese Reiki, as well as Shamanic studies in Vehicles of Consciousness, Crystal Dreaming, Transformation, Feminine Breath and Song, and Japanese Tea Ceremony. Born in South Korea and adopted from a young age, she discovered her “spiritual DNA” through teachers of The Red Road, most significantly that of the Lakota. In 2018 she was adopted as the spiritual daughter of a Lakota elder, as well as receiving the ceremony to practice Tibetan Buddhism. As a beginner student on both these paths she is thankful and slowly learning. Through seeking deeper connection to her Korean roots, Hannah discovered the Mago work of Helen Hye-Sook Hwang through her spiritual sister Narayani. Hannah is slowly tending and creating a collection of visual art inspired by shamanic bird guides, as well as more Spirit Dolls.
An Alchemical Evolution: The S/HE Conference and the Mago Community by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

Here is what I wrote about this inaugural conference in preparation for my conversation during the plenary roundtable conversation which opens the conference: The S/HE Divine Studies Online Conference, a younger sister born with the anticipation to aid the S/HE journal, takes the form of an academic conference. Researchers, scholars, and scholars-to-be are welcome and encouraged to present their research results. The S/HE Conference is here to animate our intellectual capacity. We intend to cultivate our collective intellectuality beyond the arena of academia. We have workshops and other sessions to teach participants in a non-academic method, which is equally important and effective. Without an intellectual cultivation, one’s spirituality falls to the practice of “belief,” which is a second-handed knowing. We are summoned here to think, feel, and change collectively for the better. Without self-motivated learning, one can repeat what she is told to do or to say. Our lives on the planet Earth are taking place within the complex but orderly web of the Matriverse. There is so much to learn and ponder about the matter of living as a human being. That said, one may ask what “S/HE” means. “S/HE” is a pronoun coined to address the bio-ontological-epistemological root of ALL, the Cosmic Mother. Precisely, S/HE refers to Mago, the East Asian name for the Creatrix. Mago is the Matriversal Home for ALL, organic and inorganic entities in the matriverse (maternally perceived universe). I hold that Goma’s Magoist Cetaceanism (the matriversal consciousness of Mago, the Creatrix, founded on the veneration of Whales as the exemplar of the planetary leader for pre- and proto-patriarchal Shaman Queen Mothers) is the soteriological legacy for all people from the pre-patriarchal Mother World. Discourse of Mago restores the lost tongue of the Great Mother. Let us allow the language of Great Unity to speak through us! Let us open our eyes to see the Matriversal Reality wherein new beings are born, grow, and transform ever-presently by way of the Cosmic Music! The S/HE Divine Studies Online Conference marks a new beginning for us all in the Reality of WE/HERE/NOW, the Mago Community. If you have been with the Mago Community for the last few years or months, you may have seen that the Mago Work has evolved by leaps and bounds. The Mago Work has steadily and fast evolved for the last 13 years. You may be curious what propels me to move ceaselessly forward with the Mago Work. The power of my research on Magoism or Magoist Cetaceanism (the latest form of my research) has taken me to this far and still leads me to somewhere. My consciousness of Mago, the Creatrix, unfolded through my research, has been the driving force of my life. I am grateful for you who have come near me and shared your gifts with me. Some of you have shown me bountiful support and deep sisterly love, which is beautiful. I dare to state my life’s call for myself and for ALL: I am here to show how matriversal soteriology works for ALL in and through the Mago Community. Rooted in the intercosmic kinship of ALL, our voyage charts out into the Archaic Future, ever luring but unknown for moderns. When we are awakened to the interdependent and complex system of LIFE in ALL (organic and inorganic entities), we have a glimpse of the Reality of WE/HERE/NOW. I did not know how my life’s call was realized. And I still do not know how it will be realized. While the S/HE Conference is the latest development of The Mago Work, there are two special aspects of it I want to underscore: First, I envision the S/HE Conference as a meeting place for Mago Community Members (Mago Work volunteers, readers, authors, and supporters). The S/HE Conference is designed to serve as the venue for us to meet and interact with each other, while sharing our thoughts, emotions, and visions. In truth, the S/HE Conference is a revival of the historical conference of Magoist Luminaries, originating from the third millennium BCE. By doing the S/HE Conference annually, we intend to isolate the patriarchal compartmentalized state of living from us and ALL. Second, the Conference inaugurates Mago Community by way of fundraising through the volunteer fundraisers who seek donations for the S/HE Conference. That is, the S/HE Conference has become a locus for the Mago Community to take root on a solid ground in the long run. These volunteer fundraisers invite every Mago Community member to join them as members who also give financially in the measure of their means to the Community. This is something new in the 13-year history of The Mago Work. Through just the short period of the current crowdfunding campaign, I have begun to realize that the practice of fundraising can strengthen the Mago Community to become self-sufficient through its members. I appreciate Beth Raps who courageously and generously volunteered to undertake the crowdfunding campaign as a way to help out the S/HE Conference. She put out a call that Rebecca Whenham has answered as our deeply appreciated (volunteer) Fundraising Apprentice. I invite you to this alchemical evolution: You can register for the S/HE Conference and/or donate to the crowdfunding campaign. https://www.magoism.net/2013/07/meet-mago-contributor-helen-hwang
(Art) Alchemist: Soulfire by Virginia Masson

Burning in our souls when we arrive on the planet are our deepest longings. The Alchemist archetype helps to bring them to the light and put them into play in the world. (Meet Mago Contributor) Virginia Masson
(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/
(Prose Part 1) The Bear Goddess in Europe by Sara Wright

“It is very peaceful with the bears; the people say that’s the reason human beings seldom return.” Leslie Marmon Silko The mythology of the Bear Goddess has its roots in all continents and appears in all circumpolar cultures. The giant carnivorous nine-foot cave bear was antecedent to all. The themes of the bear first as an image of the Bear Goddess as Great Mother, guardian, celestial guide, shapeshifter, marriage partner, soul bridge, healer, and agent of renewal are present in all these cultures. In this essay we will seek out the Bear Goddess as she manifests in these guises in Europe.
Search for Mago Volunteers: Co-editors, Bloggers, and Promoters

We are very grateful that Return to Mago (RTM) E-Magazine (http://magoism.net) has grown to fruition for the last four years. We have now more than 110 contributors and world-wide readers from 160 countries. Meet who we are here. RTM is operated by the hand of volunteer co-editors and bloggers including Mary Saracino as Editor-in-Chief, Rosemary Mattingley as Co-editor, and Helen Hwang as Founding Director and Co-editor as well as present blogging volunteers, Spider Redgold and Alaya Dannu. As Rosemary Mattingley, currently Admin Editor, steps down from the task of Admin Editor as of July 15, 2016, we are seeking the following volunteer positions.
‘En-trancing Gaia’s Womb through Seasonal Ceremony: Re-creating Her Sacred Site’ by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

In the earliest of Her stories, Gaia – also known as “Ge”, meaning Earth – was the possessor of the oracle in Delphi, the place at the foot of Mount Parnassus in Greece, that was said to be the font of sacred knowledge, the navel of the world – the Omphalos of Greek tradition. It was Gaia’s Wisdom that was being listened for, and continued to be, even though the names of its ruling deities changed. Earth – Ge, Gaia – was understood as the “primeval prophetess.”[1] To listen to Her one could sleep “in a holy shrine” with an ear upon the ground [2] (and it is interesting how that expression “keep your ear to the ground” survives, to speak of how one might really know). Her priestesses often sat on a tripod over vapours arising from a crevice: a tripod perhaps because of the holy Three being significant, and also perhaps practical, so the priestess could sit with her legs astride opening her bodymind. It is now thought that the site of this oracle was originally located high up on the shoulder of Mount Parnassus in “a mystery centre” called the Corycian Cave, and that it was presided over by Three Sisters – a triad of Goddesses called the Thriae.[3] The Thriae are said to have invented the art of prophecy – their name means “little stones”, which story tells, they threw into an urn of water and watched how they danced. These Three Sisters taught the later gods the art of “divination”, which I translate to “knowing the mind of the divine”, though they themselves often came to be referred to merely as “nymphs” which in patriarchal times enabled a lowering of their status. There has also been much note in various texts, of another Three who were “bee-maidens”, with a very similar name – the Thriai – also said to be the teachers of divination at Delphi. Some researchers address them as the same entity – as “the Triple Muse of Divination at Delphi”[4]. By whatever name, it was They who spoke Gaia’s portents/potentialities to those who wished to listen. We may glean from these fragments of story found scattered in many texts – these shattered pieces of ancient vessel that once held a matrifocal culture – that it was from within the Corycian Cave that Gaia spoke to Her people, Her very offspring … in the earliest of stories of this tradition. Later, some time in the eighth century B.C.E., the Cave was abandoned for the present location and later re-dedicated to Apollo. This Cave, and the earliest times at Delphi, may be thought of as Gaia’s Womb, which in our time is no longer simply located on this mountain in Greece: many now globally name our whole Planet as Gaia. And Her Womb, the sacred Navel of the World, may be understood to be located in any number of places – wherever one chooses to sit (or dance or play or lie down) and open to receive Her teachings. Such a site then becomes the primary Temple – the “holy shrine”: that is, the Place that houses the sense/sensation of the real Space and Time in which we most truly live, the Centre/Mother who holds us at all times … of whom we may become conscious. Such consciousness – “sacred awareness” – may be named and experienced as “trance” … and indeed such awareness is “en-trancing”: we may en-trance Her sacred place/site. One’s mind will be changed. Shift will happen. Gaia’s Cave is within as much as anywhere – in the dark sentient space that each being mostly consists of: there is no need to go anywhere. The Sacred Space may be called forth to consciousness, from the Womb in which we are immersed. Sacred Space – an Omphalos – may be re-created, for Her to rise up from the depths within and speak. She has done so under the guise of many names and places in different sacred traditions of the globe … Earth Mother, known as Gaia in Western philosophical/religious texts, and now named as an entity in scientific texts, has been recognised as the Ground of lore/law by which to live and act. In Australia this Law has been called “Tjukurpa”[5], by Indigenous people. The ritual celebration of Her Creativity expressed in the flow of the Seasonal Moments may be an entrance to Gaia’s “cave”, a womblike Place where one can be held: a method of becoming intimate with Her[6]. The circle of the year that is paced with the consistent year-long practice of seasonal ritual, may be a refuge, a safe place that can be trusted – it becomes a Place, a sacred site. Earth’s journey around Sun is a sacred site, and joining one’s consciousness to that journey – which we all make every day, whether conscious or not – makes sacred one’s journey. One’s ear will be to the Ground. The sacred space that is created by such practice of Her whole annual wheel of seasonal transitions, is a Womb that holds one … one may come to feel held in Her Dynamic of Creativity, where She speaks. It may be considered a task for those who desire Her and know Her: to bring Her forth in this way. I do suggest a small tangible and portable wheel of stones that represents the Seasonal Moments of Earth’s journey … and hence one’s own journey of practice of these ritual celebrations. Such a modest construction re-assembles Her Womb for one’s bodymind, within which one may sit. And the “tripod” upon which one is sitting will be the Triple Muse – the triple-faced Dynamic of never-ending renewal that is celebrated in this complete cycle/circle. Such an assembly is a medicine wheel, for it locates one in the Present. The whole annual wheel of Seasonal Moments/transitions holds within it awareness of the dark depths upon which the present is built – the past: and all that is gestating within these depths …

(Special Post 7) Why Goddess Feminism, Activism, and Spirituality?

[Editor’s Note: This was first proposed in The Mago Circle, Facebook Group, on March 6, 2014. We have our voices together below and publish them in sequels. Special thanks to Trista Hendren, founder and author of The Girl God, who passionately and painstakingly promotes the message of each contributor via Facebook’s memes. Without Trista’s devotion to the advocacy, this collective effort would not have continued. It is an ongoing project and we encourage our reader to join us! Submit yours today to Helen Hwang (magoism@gmail.com). Or visit and contact someone in Return to Mago’s Partner Organizations.] Kaalii Cargill: Life emerges from the Feminine: Woman, Nature, Goddess. When we value the life-giving power of the Feminine we are less likely to kill other human beings who have been held in a mother’s arms.
(Special Post 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 4) Nine-Headed Dragon Slain by Patriarchal Heroes: A Cross-cultural Discussion by Mago Circle Members

[Editor’s Note: This and the ensuing eight sequels (all nine parts) are a revised version of the discussion that has taken place in The Mago Circle, Facebook group, since September 24, 2017 to the present. Themes are introduced and interwoven in a somewhat random manner, as different discussants lead the discussion. The topic of the number nine is key to Magoism, primarily manifested as Nine Magos or the Nine Mago Creatrix. Mago Academy hosts a virtual and actual event, Nine Day Mago Celebration, annually.] Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: Here is how Goma is known among the ancient Chinese. She is called The Mysterious Woman of the Nine Heavens (Jiutian xuannu). Nine Heavens refer to the confederacy of nine states, Danguk or Nine Hans. Statue of Jiutian Xuannü, Wikimedia Commons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiutian_Xuann%C3%BC Another icon of Jiutian Xuannu below. https://www.tinyatdragon.com/blogs/spiritual/jiu-tian-xuan-nu-mysterious-lady-of-the-nine-heavens?fbclid=IwAR0n1Ld6tmxqTec23Pzg3DxRjEQ-DbjdGF1DU_Jjlt4eMbHdTOO9Jd7ePnc Lizzy Bluebell: Oh – now I see what the Buddha riding the deer was carrying; her Gourd. A very interesting link, thanks.”…these statues in Taoism are not for worshipping or praying. They are like a container, a magic tool, which is used to program the energies into profiles and be used for different things in Taoist magic. The outsiders cannot understand too much, and so these “Taoist secrets” are often hidden from the public in the old days or even today.” Lizzy Bluebell: Very informative passage on the power of the NINE:”Nine is the pattern of giving off power, or using up the energies of things to give off powers, just like a flashlight burning it’s battery up for the light. Sky is the pattern that relates to any pool of resources or elements that are considered the proactive party that is “starting” something or the giving side of a situation.Remember that we talk about patterns in Taoism, and it applies to everything including our FU talismans words and these special terms like Jiu Tian / Gau Tin.A practical example for this term can be used as in if you are trying to go to the kitchen and cook something for lunch. Your “sky” here is all the things in the kitchen, and ground is the kitchen itself where you put the food into “process” them. So the 9-sky stage is to have picked out the food you like and let them show themselves to let you know which one is the best to use, maybe some just smell better or some look fresher to you. Nothing has been done yet, but you are now able to “start” something because you can at least feel and sense the food’s potentials and power.” Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: Lizzy Bluebell, Oh it is gourd. Yes, I forgot about the gourd symbol for Mago/Magu. It is a container for the elixir from which one drinks. It is a common pictographic/literary theme and I have images of Magu with the gourd. Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: Lizzy Bluebell, this is one heuristic analogy. Ancient Magoists depicted/perceived the universe as Nine Heavens, an equivalent to Nine States on earth for it is the lens of Nine Numerology through which they saw everything. Because ancient China removed the history of Goma, they spiritualized/philosophized the teaching of Nine Numerology. If we have Goma’s history (and the mytho-history of Old Magoism), we can perceive the meaning of Nine Heavenly directly (not through theories or analogies). Wherever and whenever the consciousness of Nine Numerology surfaces is a manifestation of Goma’s rule/civilization/religion. This will remain forever insofar as humanity continues because Nine Numerology is the principle of nature including humans. I would say that the teaching/principle of Nine Numerology is Goma’s self-redemptive soteriological gift. Insofar as we understand and honor the Nine Mago Creatrix/Nine Numerology (the female divine in general), we are endowed with the power of self-redemption. Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: Lizzy Bluebell, the character “Xuan or Hyeon 玄” refers to the quality of gynocentric spirituality, which has been made esoteric or mystic. It refers to the spirituality of the Great Goddess (Magoist spirituality). Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: Nine Hans or Nine Heavens manifests in such place-names as Kyūkoku (九国, Nine States). Kyushu (Nine Provinces) Island, Japan, seemingly a replica of Danguk (confederacy of nine states) representing the Nine Mago Creatrix, reflects the ancient glory of the Goma’s gynocentric rule. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyushu Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: Doumu (Mother of the Northern Dipper) also comes in the icon of eight arms. Doumu, Song Dynasty, Wikimedia Commons Domu, Wikimedia Commons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doumu Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: She is often conflated with Marici seated on a boar in her iconography (affine to Gemu of the Mosuo and Durga on a tiger/lion). Here Marici is depicted as four-headed and eight-armed. Marici, Wikimedia Commons Marici (Buddhism) – Wikipedia Judy E Foster: So similar to the Indian Goddess… Helen Hye-Sook Hwang Indeed! I am afraid that we may not be able to feature some of the nine forms of Durga from “Hinduism”. Helen Hye-Sook Hwang There is more, Marici. Marici, Wikimedia Commons File:Marichi, Buddhist Goddess of Dawn, China, Qing dynasty, 18th… Marichi, Source below. Marichi (Buddhist Deity) – Kalpoktam (3 faces, 8 hands)… Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: This is new info. on the nine tripod caldrons of ancient China. “The Nine Tripod Cauldrons (Chinese: 九鼎; pinyin: Jiǔ Dǐng) were ancient Chinese ritual cauldrons. They were ascribed to the foundation of the Xia (c. 2200 bce) by Yu the Great, using tribute metal presented by the governors of the Nine Provinces of ancient China.[1] At the time of the Shang Dynasty during the 2nd millennium bce, the tripod cauldrons came to symbolize the power and authority of the ruling dynasty with strict regulations imposed as to their use. Members of the scholarly gentry class were permitted to use one or three cauldrons; the ministers of state (大夫, dàfū) five; the vassal lords seven; and only the sovereign Son of Heaven was entitled to use nine.[2] The use of the nine tripod cauldrons to offer ritual sacrifices to the ancestors from heaven and earth was a major ceremonial occasion so that by natural progression the ding came to symbolize national political power[3] and later to be regarded as a National Treasure. Sources state that two years after the […]

(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.
Imbolc/Early Spring – a Season of Uncertainty by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

Traditionally the Seasonal transition of Imbolc/Early Spring, celebrated in early February in the Northern Hemisphere, and in early August in the Southern Hemisphere, has been a time of nurturing the new life that is beginning to show itself, around us and within. It is a time of committing one’s self to the new life and inspiration – in the garden, in the soul, and in the Cosmos. We may include in our celebrations and contemplations of this Season the beginnings of the new young Cosmos as She was, that time in our cosmic story when She was only a billion years old and galaxies were forming; and also the new which has continually emerged throughout the eons, and is ever coming forth. The flame of being, as it has been imagined by many cultures, within and around, is to be protected and nurtured: the new being requires dedication and attention. In the early stages of its advent, there is nothing certain about its staying power and growth: it may flicker and be vulnerable. There may be uncertainties of various kinds. There is risk and resistance to coming into being. The Universe itself knew resistance to its expansion when it encountered gravitation in our very beginnings, in the primordial Flaring Forth[i]. The unfolding of the Universe was never without creative tension. The Universe knows it daily, in every moment: and we participate in this creative tension of our place of being. Urge to Be budding forth Imbolc/Early Spring can be a time of remembering personal vulnerabilities, feeling them and accepting them, but remaining resolute in birthing and tending of the new, listening for and responding to the Urge to Be[ii]of the Creative Universe within. Brian Swimme has said (quoting cultural anthropologist A.L. Kroeber) that the destiny of the human is not “bovine placidity” but the highest degree of tension that can be creatively born[iii]. many flames of being, strengthening each other These times are filled with creative tension, collectively and for most, personally as well; there is much resistance, yet there is promise of so much good energy arising. We may be witness to both. This Season of Imbolc/Early Spring may encourage attention, intention and dedication to strengthening well-being: in self, and in the relational communal context, and opening to our direct immersion in the Well of Creativity. We may be strengthened with the joining of hands, as well as the listening within to the sacred depths, in ceremonial circle at this time. NOTES: [i]As our origins (popularly named as “the Big Bang”) are named by Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme in The Universe Story. [ii]As I name this determined Virgin quality in PaGaian Cosmology. [iii]The Canticle to the Cosmos, DVD #8, “The Nature of the Human”. References: Livingstone, Glenys. PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. NE: iUniverse, 2005. Swimme, Brian and Berry, Thomas. The Universe Story: From the Primordial Flaring Forth to the Ecozoic Era. New York: HarperCollins, 1992. Swimme, Brian. Canticle to the Cosmos. DVD series, 1990.
Lammas/Late Summer in PaGaian tradition By Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This essay is an edited excerpt from Chapter 5 of the author’s book PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. Traditionally the dates for this Seasonal Moment are: Southern Hemisphere – Feb. 1st/2nd Northern Hemisphere – August 1st/2nd however the actual astronomical date varies. See archaeoastronomy.com for the actual moment. Lammas table/altar Lammas, as it is often called[1], is the meridian point of the first dark quarter of the year, between Summer Solstice and Autumn Equinox; it is after the light phase has peaked and is complete, and as such, I choose it as a special celebration of the Crone/Old One. Within the Celtic tradition, it is the wake of Lugh, the Sun King, and it is the Crone that reaps him. But within earlier Goddess traditions, all the transformations were Hers[2]; and the community reflected on the reality that the Mother aspect of the Goddess, having come to fruition, from Lammas on would enter the Earth and slowly become transformed into the Old Woman-Hecate-Cailleach aspect …[3] I dedicate Lammas to the face of the Old One, just as Imbolc, its polar opposite on the Wheel in Old European tradition, is dedicated to the Virgin/Maiden face. The Old One, the Dark and Shining One, has been much maligned, so to celebrate Her can be more of a challenge in our present cultural context. Lammas may be an opportunity to re-aquaint ourselves with the Crone in her purity, to fall in love with Her again. I state the purpose of the seasonal gathering thus: This is the season of the waxing dark. The seed of darkness born at the Summer Solstice now grows … the dark part of the days grows visibly longer. Earth’s tilt is taking us back away from the Sun. This is the time when we celebrate dissolution; each unique self lets go, to the Darkness. It is the time of ending, when the grain, the fruit, is harvested. We meet to remember the Dark Sentience, the All-Nourishing Abyss, She from whom we arise, in whom we are immersed, and to whom we return. This is the time of the Crone, the Wise Dark One, who accepts and receives our harvest, who grinds the grain, who dismantles what has gone before. She is Hecate, Lillith, Medusa, Kali, Erishkagel,Chamunda, Coatlique – Divine Compassionate One, She Who Creates the Space to Be. We meet to accept Her transformative embrace, trusting Her knowing, which is beyond all knowledge. Lammas is the seasonal moment for recognizing that we dissolve into the “night” of the Larger Organism of whom we are part – Gaia. It is She who is immortal, from whom we arise, and into whom we dissolve. This celebration is a development of what was born in the transition of Summer Solstice; the dark sentient Source of Creativity is honoured. The autopoietic space in us recognizes Her, is comforted by Her, desires Her self-transcendence and self-dissolution; Lammas is an opportunity to be with our organism’s love of Larger Self – this Native Place. We have been taught to fear Her, but at this Seasonal Moment we may remember that She is the compassionate One, deeply committed to transformation, which is actually innate to us. Whereas at Imbolc/Early Spring, we shone forth as individual, multiforms of Her; at Lammas, we small individual selves remember that we are She and dissolve back into Her. We are the Promise of Lifeas was affirmed at Imbolc, but we are the Promise of Her- it is not ours to hold. We identify as the sacred Harvest at Lammas; our individual harvest isHer Harvest. We are the process itself – we are Gaia’s Process. Wedo not breathe (though of course we do), we borrow the breath, for a while. It is like a relay: we pick the breath up, create what we do during our time with it, and pass it on. The harvest we reap in our individual lives is important, andit is for us only short term; it belongs to the Cosmos in the long term. Lammas is a time for “making sacred” – as “sacrifice” may be understood; we may “make sacred” ourselves. As Imbolc was a time for dedication, so is Lammas. This is the wisdom of the phase of the Old One. She is the aspect that finds the “yes” to letting go, to loving the Larger Self, beyond all knowledge, and steps into the power of the Abyss; encouraged and nourished by the harvest, She will gradually move into the balance of Autumn Equinox/Mabon, the next Sesaonal Moment on the year’s cycle. References: Durdin-Robertson, Lawrence. The Year of the Goddess.Wellingborough: Aquarian Press, 1990. Gray, Susan. The Woman’s Book of Runes.New York: Barnes and Noble, 1999. Livingstone, Glenys. PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. NE: iUniverse, 2005. McLean, Adam. The Four Fire Festivals. Edinburgh: Megalithic Research Publications, 1979. Notes: [1]See note 3. [2]Susan Gray, The Woman’s Book of Runes,p. 18. This is also to say that the transformations are within each being, not elsewhere, that is the “sacrifice” is not carried out by another external to the self, as could be and have been interpreted from stories of Lugh or Jesus. [3]Lawrence Durdin-Robertson, The Year of the Goddess, p.143, quoting Adam McLean, Fire Festivals,p.20-22. Another indication of the earlier tradition beneath “Lughnasad” is the other name for it in Ireland of “Tailltean Games”. Taillte was said to be Lugh’s foster-mother, and it was her death that was being commemmorated (Mike Nichols, “The First Harvest”, Pagan Alliance Newsletter NSW Australia). The name “Tailtunasad” has been suggested for this Seasonal Moment, by Cheryl Straffon editor of Goddess Alive! I prefer the name of Lammas, although some think it is a Christian term: however some sources say that Lammas means “feast of the bread” which is how I have understood it, and surely such a feast pre-dates Christianity. It is my opinion that the incoming Christians preferred “Lammas” to “Lughnasad”: the term itself is not Christian in origin. The evolution of all these things is complex, and we may evolve them further with our careful thoughts and experience.
(Book Excerpt) Held in the Womb of the Wheel of the Year by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This essay is an excerpt from the Introduction of the author’s new book A Poiesis of the Creative Cosmos: Celebrating Her within PaGaian Sacred Ceremony. Meditation cushion in circle of decorated stones My ancestors built great circles of stones that represented their perception of real time and space, and enabled them to tell time: the stone circles were cosmic calendars.[i] They went to great lengths and detail to get it right. It was obviously very important to them to have the stones of a particular kind, in the right positions according to position of the Sun at different times of the year, and then to celebrate ceremony within it. I have for decades had a much smaller circle of stones assembled. I have regarded this small circle of stones as a medicine wheel. It is a portable collection, that I can spread out in my living space, or let sit in a small circle on an altar, with a candle/candles in the middle. Each stone (or objects, as some are) represents a particular Seasonal Moment/transition and is placed in the corresponding direction. The small circle of eight stones represents the flow of the Solstices and Equinoxes and the cross-quarter Moments in between: that is, it represents the “Wheel of the Year” as it is commonly known in Pagan traditions. I have found this assembled circle to have been an important presence. It makes the year, my everyday sacred journey of Earth around Sun, tangible and visible as a circle, and has been a method of changing my mind, as I am placed in real space and time. My stone wheel has been a method of bringing me home to my indigenous sense of being. Each stone/object of my small wheel may be understood to represent a “moment of grace,” as Thomas Berry named the seasonal transitions – each is a threshold to the Centre, wherein I may now sit: I sense it as a powerful point. As I sit on the floor in the centre of my small circle of stones, I reflect on its significance as I have come to know the Seasonal transitions that it marks, over decades of celebrating them. I sense the aesthetics and poetry of each. I facilitated and was part of the celebration and contemplation of these Moments in my region for decades. It was always an open group that gathered, and so its participants changed over the years but it remained in form, like a live body which it was: a ceremonial body that conversed with the sacred Cosmos in my place. We spoke a year-long story and poetry of never-ending renewal – of the unfolding self, Earth and Cosmos. We danced and chanted our relationship with the Mother, opened ourselves to Her Creativity, and conversed with Her by this method. All participants in their own way within these ceremonies made meaning of their lives – which is what I understand relationship to be, in this context of Earth and Sun, our Place and Home in the Cosmos: that is, existence is innately meaningful when a being knows Who one is and Where one is. Barbara Walker notes that religions based on the Mother are free of the “neurotic” quest for indefinable meaning in life as such religions “never assumed that life would be required to justify itself.”[ii] I face the North stone, which in my hemisphere is where I place the Summer Solstice. From behind me and to my right is the light part of the cycle – representing manifest form, all that we see and touch. From behind me and to my left is the dark part of the cycle – representing the manifesting, the reality beneath the visible, which includes the non-visible. The Centre wherein I sit, represents the present. The wheel of stones has offered to me a way of experiencing the present as “presence,” as it recalls in an instant that, That which has been and that which is to come are not elsewhere – they are not autonomous dimensions independent of the encompassing present in which we dwell. They are, rather, the very depths of this living place – the hidden depth of its distances and the concealed depth on which we stand.[iii] This wheel of stones, which captures the Wheel of the Year in essence, locates me in the deep present, wherein the past and the future are contained – both always gestating in the dark, through the gateways. And all this has been continually enacted and expressed in the ceremonies of the Wheel of the Year, as the open, yet formal group has done them, mostly in the place of Blue Mountains, Australia. PaGaian Cosmology altar/mandala: a “Womb of Gaia” map Over the years of practice of ritually celebrating these eight Seasonal Moments – Earth’s whole annual journey around Sun, I have been held in this creative story, this Story of Creativity as it may be written – it is a sacred story. Her pattern of Creativity can be identified at all levels of reality – manifesting in seasonal cycles, moon cycles, body cycles – and to be aligned with it aligns a person’s core with the Creative Mother Universe. I have identified the placing of one’s self within this wheel through ceremonial practice of the whole year of creativity, as the placing of one’s self in Her Womb – Gaia’s Womb, a Place of Creativity. All that is necessary for Creativity is present in this Place. All may come forth from here/Here – and so it does, and so it has, and so it will. NOTES: [i] See Martin Brennan, The Stones of Time: Calendars, Sundials, and Stone Chambers of Ancient Ireland (Rochester Vermont, Inner Traditions, 1994). [ii] Barbara Walker, The Woman’s Encyclopaedia of Myths and Secrets (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1983), 693. [iii] David Abram, The Spell of the Sensuous (New York: Vintage Books, 1997), 216. REFERENCES: Abram, David. The Spell of the Sensuous. New York: Vintage Books, 1997. Brennan, Martin. The Stones of Time: Calendars, Sundials, and Stone Chambers of Ancient Ireland.Rochester Vermont: Inner Traditions, 1994. Walker, Barbara. The Woman’s Encyclopaedia of Myths and Secrets. San Francisco: …
(Mago Almanac Excerpt 7) Introducing the Magoist Calendar by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

Mago Almanac: 13 Month 28 Day Calendar (Book A) at Mago Bookstore. YEARLY LEAP DAY AND EVERY FOURTH YEAR LEAP DAY Each Sa includes a Dan of the big Sa. A Dan is equal to one day. That adds to 365 days. At the half point of the third Sa, there is a Pan of the big Sak (the year of the great dark moon). A Pan comes at a half point of Sa. This is of Beopsu (Lawful Number) 2, 5, 8. A Pan is equal to a day. Therefore, the fourth Sa has 366 days. Each year has a leap day (Dan), which makes a total of 365 days. Every fourth year is a leap year that has a leap day (Pan), which makes a total of 366 days. The Dan day comes before the New Year in the winter solstice month. And the Pan day comes before the first day of the summer solstice month in the fourth year. The above, however, does not indicate when the New Year comes. Logographic characters of Dan and Pan each suggest their meanings. While each year includes the Dan day (the morning), every fourth year has the Pan day. A unit of four years makes the Big Calendar. Dan (旦 Morning) Leap day for every first three years Pan (昄 Big) Leap day for every fourth year I have postulated that the year begins on the Dan day (one leap day), a day before New Year that comes in the month of Winter Solstice in the Norther Hemisphere. And the Pan day comes on the day before the first day of the 7th month that has Summer Solstice in the fourth year in the Norther Hemisphere. Years Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Months Dan Dan Dan Dan 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 5 5 5 5 6 6 6 6 Pan 7 7 7 7 8 8 8 8 9 9 9 9 10 10 10 10 11 11 11 11 12 12 12 12 13 13 13 13 Days 365 365 365 366 The Magoist Calendar’s intercalation involves one leap day every year and one leap day every four years. That is, each year has one extra day to make it 365 days. Every fourth year has an extra day to make it 366 days. Four years has a total of 1461 days (365×3+366), which makes the mean of 365.25 days. Considering that the month is following the sidereal period rather than the synodic period, it is inferred that the year also follows the sidereal year rather than the solar year. In fact, Magoist Calendar’s one year is very close to today’s 365.25636 days of the sidereal year compared to 365.24217 days of the solar year or the tropical year. Given that, as seen below, the Budoji mentions the tiniest discrepancy of one leap day for 31,788,900 years, the discrepancy between 365.25 and 365.25636 (0.00636 day) can be explained that the year was actually 365.25 days at the time of Budo circa 2333 BCE, 4440 years ago. In other words, there is a discrepancy of 0.12375936 seconds between 2017 CE and 2333 BCE. Regarding Lawful Numbers 2, 5, 8, it is involved as follows: 365 days (3+6+5=14, 1+4=5) Lawful Numbers 2, 5, 8 refers the unit of 365 days (364 days with one intercalary day). Further dynamics are unknown. The sidereal year refers to the time taken by the Earth to orbit the sun once with respect to the distant stars. In contrast, the solar or tropical year means the time taken by the Earth to orbit the sun once with respect to the sun. The sidereal year, 365.25636 days, is about 20 minutes and 24 seconds longer than the mean tropical year (365.24217 days) and about 19 minutes and 57 seconds longer than the average Gregorian year of 365.2425 days. The difference occurs primarily because the solar system spins on its own axis and around the Milky Way galactic center making the solar year’s observed position relative. Time is no independent concept apart from space and the agent. The very concept of time is preceded by the agent bound in a space. It is always contextualized. In Magoism, both calendar and time are born out of the cosmogonic universe, the universe that is in self-creation. Like calendar, time is to be discovered or measured. It is a numinous concept. The very concept of time testifies to the reality of the Creatrix. Time proves the orderly movement of the universe into which we are born. Calendar patterns time, whereas time undergirds calendar. How can we measure time? We are given the time of the Earth that comes from its rotation, revolution, and precession in sync with the moon and the sun (and its planets). One type of time is the solar time. The solar time is a calculation of time based on the position of the sun. Traditionally, the solar time is measured by the sundial. The solar time is, however, specific to the Earth only. It is valid only for the-same-observed-location. It is not made to be used for the time of another celestial body. For example, Mars’ solar time has to be measured independently based on its own rotation and revolution rates. The solar time is an isolated time. It is static and exclusive, not made for the time of other celestial bodies. By nature, it is unfit for connection and communication across celestial bodies. The second type is the sidereal time. The sidereal time is a time scale based on the rate of Earth’s rotations measured relative to the distant stars.[29] Because the observed position is in the far distant stars beyond the solar system, the sidereal time may as well be called an extrasolar stellar time. We can think of the observer’s position of an imaginary cosmic bird far out there, infinitely far beyond not only the solar system and …
(Photography & Poetry) Thoughts of Spring by Deanne Quarrie

Spring At the highest point on the tree, you stretch, reaching for the sun. Your pink petals elegant in their grace, you stand alone. Bravest of all, for leaves have yet to come to offer shade Branches bare except for furry buds that will soon follow in imitation of your daring first move. Intrepid flower of Spring, I feel like you in my yearning for the Sun!

(Poem) Knowing Mago Calendar by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

[Author’s Note: This poem was an offshoot of an essay on Magoist Calendar and Nine Numerology, to be included in the forthcoming anthology, Celebrating Seasons of the Goddess (Mago Books, 2017). I thank Genevieve Vaughan, Danica Anderson, and Harriet Ann Ellenbeger who have given me feedback to the article and inspiration to this poem.] Mago Calendar is the umbilical cord of the Great Goddess, the umbilical cord that re-members the Beginning Story of us all terrestrial beings, that enables the one and many songs/dances of the Earth, and that nourishes the human world to sing the chorus to the cosmic lullaby. Mago Calendar is the grand wheel of the Great Mother, the grand wheel that spirals the inter-cosmic orbit of truth, goodness, and beauty, that carries all earthlings to the fullest becoming, and that builds bridges into the inter-protonic galaxies. Mago Calendar is the everlasting blessing of the Nine Mago Creatrix, the everlasting blessing that scripts the ecstasy of Heavenly Numerology, that charts the Earth’s metamorphosis from the infinite to the physical, and that unfolds the Reality of the Mago Time, WE/HERE/NOW. (Meet Mago Contributor) Helen Hye-Sook 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:
(Photo Essay 3) ‘Gaeyang Halmi, the Sea Goddess of Korea’ by Helen Hwang

Part III: Archaeology Bespeaks What Ideological Hetero-sexuality Can’t Do Our story-tellers informed us that Gaeyang Halmi is venerated and celebrated on January 14th annually on the lunar calendar. There are two separate rituals performed on that day. Villagers, both men and women, offer their ritual ceremony in the morning in Confucian style. The officiant must preserve the purification ritual, confining oneself to home to avoid ominous affairs for a week prior to the ceremony. After the ceremony of the villagers, Mudang groups come from outside the town and offer their Shaman rituals. A cleavage between two groups is still freshly detected in their narratives. While villagers conform to the Confucian style rituals with a despising but curious eye for the female-centered Shaman rituals, Mudangs are much more powerful in their capacities to command people, spirits, and materials. The Shamanic ritual celebration is fairly well-known domestically as well as overseas to the Chinese and the Japanese, according to our lore transmitters. People from China and Japan come to join the Mudang rituals, a vestige of the intercultural celebration that may have originated in ancient times, a point to be elaborated later. What caught my attention was the fact that the ritual celebration is known as the Ritual of Yongwang (the Dragon King) not the Ritual of Gaeyang Halmi. Our two narrators, Mr. Jeong Dong-Uk and Ms. Jeong Si-Geum, brother and sister, testified contradictorily vis-à-vis the Dragon King. Mr. Jeong mentioned that Gaeyang Halmi is the wife of Dragon King,[i] whereas Ms. Jeong spoke of Gaeyang Halmi as a solo deity without spouse. Ms. Jeong sternly said, “She was alone [without spouse]. She had eight daughters.” “It is said that there used to be a house wherein Gaeyang Halmi and her eight daughters lived together. I saw the cooking pots and household things in the ruin,” added Ms. Jeong. [Interestingly, the motif that she saw the cooking pots and other kitchen items in the ruin reminded me of other Mago folk stories from other regions. People seem to take such artifacts as pots and household things discovered in the ruin as an indication that the myth of Mago Halmi who is told to have lived in the place is plausible.] The topos of “the dragon king” was likely added later on to comply with Confucian ideology. In fact, none of our narrators mentioned the dragon king as the main deity of the Suseong Shrine. The fact that it is called the ritual of the dragon king suggests another layer of erosion/castration/dethronement done to the supreme divinity of Gaeyang Halmi.