[Author’s Note: My personal encounter with Mary Daly, a U.S. post-Christian feminist thinker, goes back to 1994. I stayed in Korea from 1994-1997 during which I translated two of Mary Daly’s early books, Beyond God the Father: Toward a Philosophy of Women’s Liberation 하나님 아버지를 넘어서 (Seoul: Ewha Women’s University Press, 1996) and Church and the Second Sex 교회와 제 2의 성 (Seoul: Women’s News Press, 1997) in Korean. I carried with me to the U.S. A. our correspondences in the form of letters and documents mostly faxed to each other for the period of more than two decades. Later at one point I digitized them in images. Through these memoir series, I share some highlights of my memories with Mary Daly, her influence on my feminist thinking, and my own radical feminist journey to Magoist Cetaceanism.]
I
The new year Year 5 in the Magoist Calendar (2022 in the Gregorian Calendar) prompts me to revisit my encounter with Mary Daly. When something is in your mind consistently for a long time but you don’t take action to follow it up, you are carrying a mental baggage within you. I have carried Mary Daly in me for a long time. Time was not ripe until now. Even after she transitioned in 2010, I wasn’t ready. It feels timely now that I finally let the weight on my shoulders down.
Why now? Because I was biding my time. I could not name what she was to me until now. To know what she is to me, I need to know what I am. And it is only now I feel I know what I am. Mary was an intellectual foremother to me. Don’t be mistaken, Mary did not act like my intellectual mother. She was like my big sister who had trust in me. Mary was not a caregiver to me or anyone. She cared but was not a caregiver. Mary treated me as her young colleague and an intellectual companion. I desperately needed my intellectual foremother and Mary was there for me.
It’s been a long and arduous journey for me to see what I am. Unbelievably, I am entering the cronehood of age 60 in the New Year of 5919 Magoma Era (since the time of Goma in 3898 BCE). I have understood and accepted my own life’s mission and the way it has been achieved. I feel that my life has found its own roots. Things are falling into right places, I feel. This is the fifth year of the Magoist Calendar. I have restored for the world the luni-menstrual-soar 13 months 28 days calendar of ancient Magoist Koreans/Mother Peoples. Last week on December 17th, 2021, we, Mago Sisters and Associates, celebrated the whale bell ringing ceremony for the coming of the New Year. Whale bell ringing ceremony was not new this year. But this year’s one marked a leap. For the first time, I was able to hold it in the Moonlit Rock Garden of the Mago Academy Center where I currently reside for a small group of participants from around the world. We expressed gratitude for our lives and I called out the names of Mago Volunteers, Mago Sisters/Associates, and Mago Supporters. Living in the semi-wild place surrounded by mountains and hills that have streams of water running around the house for the last three and half years, I have found myself home. I have returned HOME! Year 4 or 2021 brought amazing encounters, events, and accomplishments. Among them are Virtual Mago Whale Pilgrimages (three tours throughout the year, each tour takes place daily for 6 days), which I conducted for the first time. Foremost, the fact that the Mago Work was able to continue to this day is a miracle. The Mago Work, self-established outside the patriarchal grid, has survived the harsh years of the rooting time. Personal is political and cosmic. Mago Academy Center is about to take off by receiving visitors. Despite the Covid19 pandemic or through the pandemic, the Mago Work has grown stronger. Last but not least, it is no coincidence that Jen Taylor and I undertook a new but belated project Commemorating Feminist Ancestors for Return to Mago (RTM) E-Magazine, announced in November, 2021. When I proposed this project to Jen Taylor, co-editor of RTM, who supported it open-mindedly and wholeheartedly, my memories of Mary Daly roared in the back of my mind. By all means, this essay commemorating Mary Daly is prompted by this call. And vice versa. My memories of Mary Daly urge me to march forward.
(Call for Contributions) Commemorating our ancestor feminists: Matilda Joslyn Gage (1826-1898), Marija Gimbutas (1921-1994), Mary Daly (1928-2010), Audre Lorde (1934-1992), Paula Gunn Allen (1939-2008), Gloria Anzaldua (1942-2004), and Your Hera
Flashbacks: I met Mary in person four times over the period of 28 years from the time I contacted her in person until she died (1994-2010). We stayed in touch for these years by speaking to each other over phone lines at an interval of monthly at the least. Apart from phone conversations, we faxed, mailed, and emailed our letters and documents.
I had met Mary in person in April of 1999 for the first time. She had completed her book, Quintessence, in 1998 and visited Claremont Colleges in California the following year to promote her book. I will return to this event at a later time. I had written two pieces for an online magazine, Feminism and Religion, on my encounters with Mary Daly upon the invitation by Xochitl Alvizo.
A Cross-Cultural Feminist Alchemy: Studying Mago, Pan-East Asian Great Goddess, Using Mary Daly’s Radical Feminism as Springboard by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang
The Mago Hedge School: Why Remember Mary Daly? By Helen Hye Sook Hwang
II
My personal encounter with Mary Daly goes back to 28 years ago. In retrospect, Mary may have wished that I came strongly to support her when she needed during these years but she never demanded me to do so. I wanted to support her in a tangible way beyond my Korean translation of her books but could not do so for various reasons. We met in our depths but our time did not permit us to implement our visions together. There was a difference of 34 years in age between us, let alone the differences of ethnicity, culture, and language.
Since her death in 2010, it has been more than 11 years. A few days ago, I finally opened a folder named “Mary Daly” saved in my computer memory device and began to explore what I archived for the past two decades. In it, I found more than 40 Word files and image files. There was a sub-folder containing digital images of letters and envelopes. I had digitized them some years ago. Among them are my letters to her, her letters to me, official and private documents, my essays and lecture plans on Mary Daly. It felt like they were my roots as a feminist intellectual.
These three came to my attention at random, as I opened the box of my memories: (A) A USPS envelope mailed by her in 1996, concerning my translation of her book, Beyond God the Father. (B) her recommendation letter written as part of my job application for a university professor position in 2007. And (C) my own workshop outline offered for a Catholic religious organization in 2011. These three documents are not directly related. Some personal information is removed in protection.
(A) A USPS envelope mailed by her in 1996, concerning my translation of her book, Beyond God the Father.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
B. Mary Daly’s recommendation letter to support my university teaching job application in 2007
Mary Daly
55 A Norwood Ave
Newton Centre, MA 02459
Dear Members of the Search Committee,
I am writing this letter to support Dr. Helen Hye-Sook Hwang in her application for a full time position in director and instructor of Women’s Program’s/Women’s Studies and Re-entry and Multicultural Resource Center. I am confident in recommending her as a strong candidate for this position that you are seeking. Dr. Hwang is a motivated feminist educator whose vision is to serve a larger cause of women across differences including culture, class, ethnicity, race, and nationality. I have known her on a personal level also as a junior colleague since 1994, when she first contacted me for her Korean translation and publication of my earlier books.
I understand that Dr. Hwang has made courageous life decisions, which I admire. When she contacted me for the first time, she had already a rich experience of living and working with people from around the world. Her determination to seek her life’s purpose led her to pursue higher education in feminism and religion in southern California. However, her intellectual quest is not limited to these fields or even academia. She has been writing and speaking on diverse issues including her own cultural heritages for a broad audience.
Her unfailing commitment to realize her own course of becoming herself and the feminist cause is indeed an inspiring one. For over a decade, I have had opportunities to see her progress in feminist consciousness and commitment. When I invited her to take part in my lectures and events, she was not reluctant in showing her support as well as her creative ideas. Her East Asian identity as well as her trans-cultural experience has helped her to develop a distinctive perspective, which she names Magoism. I am pleased that she will be featuring on the event of Feminist Hullaballoo together with other feminist advocates including myself (See http://feministhullaballoo.com/ [Author’s Note: This link is no longer available]).
Last but not least, I want to say that she is a brilliant writer. I find her research topic on Magoism potentially shape-shifting. I have invited her to co-author a book, which is in preparation now. We have tentatively agreed the topic as comparative feminism between the West and the East.
For these reason, I highly recommend Dr. Hwang as a candidate for your open position.
Sincerely,
Mary Daly
~~~~~~~~~~~
C. My own workshop layout on Mary Daly’s post-Christian thought offered to a Catholic religious organization in 2011
Mary Daly, Christianity, and Radical Feminist Thought
January 15, 2011
Workshop led by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.
9:00-10:00 Introduction & Lecture
10:00-10:30 Group Discussion
10:30-10:45 Break
10:45-11:30 Group Report, Open Questions and Discussions
Group Discussion Topics:
Thought on Christianity
Patriarchy, religion, spirituality
Women’s liberation and the liberation of language
Radical feminism and women bonding
Vision of Archaic Future and/or More
In Memory of Mary Daly (October 16, 1928 – January 3, 2010)
~ “If God is male, then male is God.”
~ All world religions are infrastructures of patriarchy.
~ Patriarchy is necrophilic: it is pitted not just against women but also life itself.
~ Patriarchy is the original sin from which all other sins (racism, ethnocentrism, etc) stem.
~ I am concerned with women’s capacities, which have been infinitely diminished under patriarchy.
~ “Women have had the power of naming stolen from us. We have not been free to use our own power to name ourselves, the world, or God.”
~ “Why indeed must ”God” be a noun? Why not a verb – the most active and dynamic of all.”
~ It is the creative potential itself in human beings that is the image of God.
~ Courage is like — it’s a habitus, a habit, a virtue: you get it by courageous acts. It’s like you learn to swim by swimming. You learn courage by couraging.
~ Courage to be is the key to revolutionary power of the feminist revolution.
(To be continued)
Helen, thank you always for reminding us of Mary Daly’s courage, research, support AND of her part in your journey! Warm Wishes for all on our path this year. JAYNE, FOI Priestess and WHP founder/director.
Beautiful Helen. Thank you.
Helen’s memoir writing about Mary Daly: Wonderful Helen, thank you for sharing your personal story! So many of us have been influenced by Mary daly’s work – for me it was Beyond God the Father….