February 4, 2022February 4, 2022 Mago Work Admin

(Poem) Tarantella by Susan Hawthorne

Livia’s outdone herself
the room is alive
leaves shimmer in light
birds all a-twitter
luscious balls of fruit hanging

our favourite goddesses
appear as plants
quince brings luck in love
pomegranate binds love and death
poppy a favourite from Eleusis

Diana Venus and Ceres are dancing
in a circle with
Hecate Aphrodite and Demeter
the first triad from Roma
the second from Greek Sicilia

Cybele appears
wild iris entwined
in a pine branch procession
some women need pageantry
una processione femminile

Diana why the ilex
is there something we should know?
others enter bearing

a veritable pharmacopœia

from shrubs and herbs

the nieces of Sicilian Medusa
and a group of Maori girls
are trading tongue gestures
for now it is playful
but each knows how fear can kill

Olympias and Agave arm in arm
snake-braceleted mænads twirl dust storms
the world is awhirl Psappha shouts
we are the ones I wrote about
someone in some future time will remember me

una processione femminile: Italian: a procession of women

Cover art by Suzanne Bellamy, ‘Starship’, porcelain, 1989.

Notes

The tarantella is an ancient Italian dance possibly connected to Dianic rituals. I first heard about the tarantella when Australian author, Finola Moorhead, was writing her feminist novel Remember the Tarantella in the late 1970s. The novel ends with a dance that takes place in 4553 BC. Fifty women gather under a full moon between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The women dance and at the end of the dance “each woman releases her menstrual flow into the pit of smouldering wheat.” (p. 306).

My poem ‘tarantella’ is a memory of a party held by Empress Livia of Rome. The party includes women from many eras, from the Mediterranean to the Pacific Ocean. At this imagined party women share and celebrate their understanding of the universe, of plants and birds and most of all, of women’s history. It is from my collection Lupa and Lamb which was written when I was a Literature Resident in Rome for six months.

Meet Mago Contributor, Susan Hawthorne

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(Prose) It is a Matter of Focus by Deanne Quarrie

Many of the young women I meet tell me that they think feminism is not what they are about, that they prefer to work for the good of all. I understand that and certainly we can all choose where we wish to place our focus. However, it does make me wonder how effective we can be with our focus placed on so broad a scope. Certainly, we want equal rights for all and some call that feminism these days but is it? In my 75 years, I have lived through quite a few years of women working for equal rights. I have seen many successes as well as the failures. I am incredibly proud of those successes. When I was in the early stages of my career and had just entered management, I was able to implement leadership methods, which now have become models for employers. They are team building and servant leadership. Then however, there were no names for them. I led my teams based simply on how I wished my employers to treat me.
(Essay) Dionysus, the Bearded Goddess, and the Pride Festival by Harita Meenee

The movement that challenges the dominant models of sexuality and relationships demanding the rights of LGBTQI* people has become a truly hot topic. The bearded face of Conchita Wurst, the transgender woman who won the Eurovision singing contest, still haunts the mind of people around Europe. The request for the acceptance of same-sex marriages is heard again and again in Greece, as well as in other countries. Moreover, we recently witnessed three massive Pride Festivals. On the island of Cyprus, where this event was organized for the very first time, there was a surprising turnout of 4,000-5,000 people. The city of Thessaloniki in Northern Greece, holding its own festival on the day of the Summer Solstice, followed suit. Athens Pride celebrated its tenth birthday with an estimated 20,000 participants—quite an impressive number. As a human rights activist, I wouldn’t miss this festival for anything in the world. It presented a wonderful opportunity to speak out against sexism and sexual oppression of any kind. This is something we particularly need in a country dominated by the Church and struggling with the dangerous rise of the Neo-Nazis, who already have blood on their hands. The Pride Festival is certainly a modern invention, yet it evokes ancient memories. Walking in the streets of Athens among with the colorful crowd that danced, waved flags, and chanted slogans, I felt a palpable Dionysian energy in the air. Yes, the spirit of Bacchus and the Maenads was there with us, demonstrating its power to break taboos. It can pull us out from the shackles of everyday life and lead us to a newfound, ecstatic sense of freedom. It is no coincidence that Dionysus was also calledEleuthereus in Greek and Liber in Latin, meaning “Liberator.” A deeply erotic god, he appears both in a masculine and an effeminate form. He is often depicted as a mature, bearded man and is associated with the phallus. Yet, he also frequently appears as a beardless youth with rather feminine features. Roman-era authors, such as Seneca, Nonnus and Pseudo-Apollodorus, narrate that Bacchus grew up disguised as a girl to escape the wrath of Hera. The Suda Lexicon ascribes to him the titles Androgynous, Unmanly (Anandros in Greek) and Hermaphrodite. Yet, Dionysus was not the only deity that had features of both sexes. The motif of androgyny**, or gynandry as I prefer to call it to emphasize the feminine, appears again and again in Hellenic mythology, as well as in different traditions around the world. Its origins are lost in the mists of time. The Neolithic inhabitants of Greece, for example, created a host of female figurines whose necks and heads take a phallic form. Sometimes the combination of genders becomes blatantly obvious. The Vinča culture, developed in Southeastern Europe along the Danube River from the 6th to the 3rd millennium BCE, created figurines that have male genitals and female breasts, also possessing beaks and protruding buttocks. Furthermore, two female statuettes with male members have been found in the Neolithic settlement of Makri in Thrace, in Northern Greece. We often come across similar figures on the island of Cyprus too. Although there is no consensus about the meaning of these images, it makes sense to interpret them as goddesses—perhaps as the Great Goddess of Nature, the one addressed as “father and mother of all” in the much later Orphic Hymn in her honor. Yet, today such depictions seem shocking. It is ironic that our society claims to be liberated and yet tries to stereotype gender in a million ways, imposing all sorts of rules on what is acceptable or not. Thus, the “correct” types of appearance, behavior and sexuality are determined based on socially defined standards. Violators are often punished. For example, an effeminate man or a masculine woman can easily be derided, discriminated against, and even attacked. Transgender people face rejection, marginalization, and not infrequently violence. In addition, intersex children, born with genitals of both sexes, are usually subjected to painful surgeries without even being given the chance to decide about their own bodies. However, in times past, it was considered a sign of strength to have traits of both sexes, at least on a mythological level. According to the Orphic Hymns, Athena is “masculine and feminine,” Artemis is “male-like,” and Adonis is at once “girl and boy.” In Cyprus, in the city of Amathous, an unusual figure was honored: a statue of the Bearded Aphrodite (Venus Barbata in Latin), who was also named Aphroditos, the masculine form of her name. This worship came to Athens too, where both women and men celebrated by cross-dressing. Let’s not forget that myths speak the language of the soul as they carry us to the archetypal realm of our collective unconscious. According to Carl Jung, the “masculine” and the “feminine” co-exist in each person, taking the form of the animus and anima. One could easily argue, of course, that Jung’s theories belong to an older era and have rightly been criticized for their sometimes sexist overtones. Yet many people feel empowered when they realize that they are able to combine elements of both sexes. Perhaps the LGBTQI movement and its unconventional approaches to gender can help us bring to light hidden sides of ourselves. It may encourage us to discover exactly what we need: our own special nature, which can never really fit in the oppressive standards that society is trying to force on us. Wouldn’t that be a true blessing? This essay was first posted in a slightly different form on PaganSquare. See http://witchesandpagans.com/pagan-culture-blogs/mythic-wisdom/dionysus-the-bearded-goddess-and-the-pride-festival.html. Read more: “Dionysos, God of Homosexuality and Effeminacy”, Theoi Project,http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/DionysosGod.html#Homosexuality. Gimbutas, Marija. The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe. London: Thames & Hudson, 1982. Meenee, Harita. “Orphic Mysteries and Goddess(es) of Nature: Greek Hymns Honoring the Divine Feminine,” Return to Mago E-Magazine: Magoism, the Way of S/HE, http://magoism.net/2013/04/08/essay-orphic-mysteries-and-goddesses-of-nature-greek-hymns-honoring-the-divine-feminine-by-harita-meenee/. Winbladh, Marie-Louise. The Bearded Goddess: Androgynes, Goddesses and Monsters in Ancient Cyprus. Cypern (Cyprus): Armida, 2012. *LGBTQI: Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer Intersex **The term androgyny is of Greek origin. …
(Photo Essay 4) Pilgrimage in a Time of Plague by Kaalii Cargill

I offer these images in gratitude for the journeys I have taken and in the hope that the ways stay open for those of us who are called to visit ancestral places where Goddess was honoured . . . Temple walls of the Ba’alat Gebal sanctuary, Byblos, Lebanon, c2800 BCE. Ba’alat Gebal, Goddess of Byblos, was later known to the Greeks as Atargatis. There is still a sense of sanctuary here. Megalithic doorways, Tyre, Lebanon. c2700 BCE. There are layers of building at Tyre and other sites in Lebanon – these 7 megalithic doorways seem to be an earlier construction than the Roman era parts of the site. I was reminded of Inanna’s descent to the Underworld through the 7 gates. Figure from Tyre, c1200 BCE. Mother and baby. Afqa Grotto, Mount Lebanon. Sacred to Astarte/Ishtar, Afqa is aligned centrally between the ancient cities of Baalbek and Byblos, pointing to the summer sunset sunset over the Mediterranean. Women have visited this site for thousands of years. Last century it was still a pilgrimage site for Shi’ia Muslim and Christians, attributing healing and fertile powers to the Sayyidat al-Kabirah, “the Great Lady”. Goddess Hathor, Elephantine Island, Aswan, Egypt. c 500 BCE. 2000-1600 BCE, Aswan Museum, Elephantine Island, Aswan. Many forms of Goddess Isis, Temple of Isis, Philae, Egypt. 380-362 BCE. Now on Agilkia Island. Temple of Hathor, Dendera, Egypt. 54-20 BCE.The sky-goddess Nut showing the birth cycle of the sun whose rays are shining down on Hathor. Göbekli Tepe, Anatolia. c9000 BCE. Engraving of birthing or menstruating woman, Göbekli Tepe, Anatolia. c9000 – 7000 BCE. Şanlıurfa Archaeology Museum. Meet Mago Contributor Kaalii Cargill
(Book Review) Myths Shattered and Restored, editors Marion Dumont & Gayatri Devi, by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

What a pleasure to read this collection of diverse scholarly voices who speak of global mythological/spiritual traditions from within a Goddess frame: that is, from within a frame where She is understood as primal in an organic way, and without any apology. This is Volume 1 of proceedings from an annual conference of the Association for the Study of Women and Mythology. It is a documentation of the papers from the 2014 gathering that many (who read this blog) would love to have been able to be present to: this book makes all this research and thoughtful presentation accessible, and expands the conversation that so many of us thirst for. On page 1 the editors describe: Mythology is the branch of knowledge or field of study of the important stories we tell ourselves that enable us to gather meaning in our daily lives … myths are cultural and spiritual stories that arise out of humanity’s experience of life on earth. Myths speak to a deep and real desire in us to understand our context here on earth while yearning to comprehend our connection to our ancestors and our roots, to share experiences that transcend binaries and boundaries, and to envision the future from a liminal present. Myths allow us to see ourselves as both timeless and historical beings. Through awakening belief, mythic stories afford us an opportunity to participate in a non-material realm, a realm of sacred, creative power, whose intimations we experience in our encounters with ourselves and with the world around us through a multitude of modalities, such as ritual, art, storytelling and dance. They are the threads that link our present with our past and serve to shape our future. As I began reading, I kept thinking of women who would like to read the specific essays, and of my own hunger for the integrity and wholeness of the female (my self and my kind) that set me on the Goddess path almost four decades ago, of my passion to know Her and express Her – in a world/context where She was silenced, always seen as a problem. Though I have done much research and practice in these past decades, I found that this volume fed and fired my ongoing hunger to know more of Her. In the first essay by Mara Lynn Keller, there is a very useful and succinct analysis of the unique contribution and significance of the work of Marija Gimbutas, to the fields of knowledge. A little further along Mara offers a wonderful explanation of the use of the term “Goddess”, quoting Charlene Spretnak; an explanation that is so much richer and Earth-based than much of current superficial use of the term. This essay offers a quote from Marija Gimbutas of the true nature of “civilization”, what it is not, and what it is; and discusses some of the resistance to the metanarrative of “a goddess-revering civilization at the root of European culture”[1]. The next essay by Joan M. Cichon[2]begins with a succinct appraisal of archaeomythology, which is Marija Gimbutas’s method, and the precise nature of the worldview developed by this methodology. This essay begins with the question of whether “a Goddess was worshipped in ancient Malta”, and in the answering of that question and a few related others, develops a useful comparison of previous archaeologists’ worldviews and theories with that of Marija Gimbutas: thus offering clarity about what that difference is. She also describes how unfamiliar the language of the Goddess has been to many archaeologists, how interpretations have been made from minds committed to defence and authority as essential to social structure, rather than ceremony and celebration of life cycles and being. In the process Joan Cichon refers to texts that would provide a rich resource for further independent study, if desired. She also uses Marija Gimbutas’s method to analyse the icon and worship of the Black Madonna of Czestochowa in Poland, and Her link “to Old Europe, to Isis, and to the ancient Great Mother Goddess”[3]. In “Honoring the Web: Indigenous Wisdom and the Power of Place”, which was the keynote address and dedicated to co-founder of ASWM Patricia Monaghan, Arieahn Matamonasa-Bennett discusses and expands the definition, use and implications of the term indigenous. She speaks of the “collective grief of humanity”[4], the legacy of colonization and that “all of our ancestors were from earth-based cultures”[5]. She refers to the importance of understanding our oldest mind, the “metaphoric mind”[6], and refers also to the work of Thomas Berry, Joanna Macy, Brian Swimme and other significant scientists and ecologists who contribute to the “understanding of life as a web of interconnected, interdependent relationships”[7]. Arieahn speaks of the shared values of indigenous peoples around the world, and a primary one being the preserving of their stories, languages, customs, songs and philosophies: she expands the concept of activism to include the remembering of the sacred, to using your breath to speak and educate, using your particular gifts as medicine for the world. “Ariadne, Mistress of the Labyrinth: Reclaiming Ariadnian Crete” by Alexandra K. Cichon was a wonderful read, of re-storying Ariadne’s “imperishable thread” and her labyrinth; experienced as uniting the visible and invisible worlds, embodying the goddess’s “vision of life as a living unity”[8]. I loved Mary Beth Moser’s “Wild Women of the Waters: Remembering the Anguane of the Italian Alps”; impressed yet again to see such scholarship dedicated to the female point of view, the studious regard for matrifocal priorities. We (globally) hardly have a language to speak of such priorities, because our minds in general have been formed by patrifocal and industrialised, mechanistic frames. This essay is such a beautiful placement of the female as agent, grounded in the traditions and folk stories of Mary Beth’s ancestral place of the Italian Alps. It deserves much contemplation, to re-invoke this authentic magic, manifest in the cycles of life, represented in the hag/witch; a wisdom that had almost disappeared over time largely due to christianisation. Reading the essay on “Artemis as Protectress of Female …
(Meet Mago Contributor) Elaine Drew

Elaine Drew has worked as a writer, designer and illustrator for longer than she cares to admit. She recently published Nun Too Clever, a mystery centred on the unexpected death of a nun. If you’ve read any fairytales you may have asked yourself what life would be like—ten years on—for the lucky maiden who marries the prince. Nun Too Clever attempts to answer that question. A nun is dead, and no one knows why. A precious relic is stolen, and a village girl goes missing. The queen wants to sort it all out before her bossy husband returns from the battlefront and gets all the credit. Elaine Drew became fascinated with early medieval life while living in England for four years. “My children went to the local village school, and when Saxon remains were found on the playground, I wondered what might lie beneath the soil in our garden. I knew that the nearby town of Winchester had been home to 9th century kings. Living in the area gave me the opportunity to research that time and place. I visited sites, attended archeology classes at Southampton University and studied Old English.” Her first book, Courting Trouble, is a romantic comedy that turns the Cinderella tale on its head. Far from being picked on, this Cinderella is a sassy and rebellious teenager who hatches a scheme to infiltrate the palace and learns more about a royal court than she expected. Elaine Drew illustrated Tales in the Night Sky, a mythical introduction to star gazing. Her work is included in the college level textbook The Adobe Illustrator CS6 Wow! Book, and she wrote and illustrated the critically acclaimed blog The Daily Dreamer under the pseudonym Carla Young. Her egg tempera and gold leaf paintings explore mythical and dream material. Drew wrote corporate publications for General Electric and manuals for computer companies, including IBM. She has had short humorous pieces and poetry published in England. She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and on the Board of Tri-Valley Writers. Learn more about Elaine Drew at ElaineDrew.com.
(Essay 3) From Heaven to Hell, Virgin Mother to Witch: The Evolution of the Great Goddess of Egypt by Krista Rodin

[Author’s Note: This series based on a chapter in Goddesses in Culture, History and Myth seeks to demonstrate how many of the ideas behind the Ancient Egyptian goddesses and their images, though changing over time and culture, remain relevant today.] Early Egyptian Mother Goddesses Isis, as the heavenly mother of the Lord of the Land, had predecessors in pre-dynastic local mother goddesses. Pottery chards of mother goddess figurines have been found throughout Egypt and date back to 4,000 BCE. Among the early local goddesses, in addition to Isis, and Buto from the North, was Hathor. Hathor was perhaps the first Mother Goddess who was popular across large swaths of the Nile region. Hathor, like Nut, took the form of a cow, and it is unclear whether or not she was the earthly representation of the sky goddess as both provide the milk of life. In Nut’s case, milk is the cycle of time, whereas in Hathor’s milk, the nutrition of life, is joy, dance and music, i.e., the vibrations, rhythms, and sound waves of the world. She represents the celestial waves that sustain the cycles of life. Depending on era and locality Hathor is either the mother of Horus, or his wife. When the latter, then Horus the Elder is meant, who preceded the four siblings as a form of Atum-Re/Atum-Ra. The figure of Horus takes on a number of forms. Four of his most common are: Harakhte, or Horus of the Horizon, Horus of the Gods, Horus of the East, or Horus shesemti. These four sit as youths in the eastern sky.[1] Hathor is associated with all of Horus’ incarnations and forms as her hieroglyph is that of ‘the House of Horus.’ She is intimately tied to him as both his mother and his wife. In his earthly incarnation, Horus as pharaoh, was often depicted on the sides of temples as suckling from the bovine goddess, thereby drinking immortality and the wisdom of the gods. [Figure 2] Hathor suckling Pharaoh/Queen Hatshepsut, South Wall, Deir el-Bahri. Photo, K. Rodin The image of suckling from the sky goddess was not just with Hathor, however, as James Breasted in his classic work, Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt writes that Pyramid text 910-913 on the sides of the Pyramid of Pharaoh Pepi I, the founder of 6th Dynasty (ca. 2323-2180 BCE) reads: ‘the two vultures with long hair and hanging breasts; … they draw their breasts over the mouth of king Pepi, but they do not wean him forever’; or we find them as the two crowns of the two kingdoms personified as goddesses. This king Pepi knows his mother, he forgets not his mother: ‘(even) the White Crown shining and broad that dwells in Nekheb, mistress of the southern palace… and the bright Red Crown, mistress of the regions of Buto. O mother of this king Pepi … give thy breast to this king Pepi, suckle this king Pepi therewith.’ To this the goddess responds: ‘O my son Pepi, my king, my breast is extended to thee, that thou mayest suck it, my king, and live, my king, as long as thou art little.’ [2] Nekheb was a capital in Upper Egypt where the vulture goddess Nekhbet was worshipped. She became a national goddess after the merging of the Two Lands, Upper and Lower Egypt under King Menes, the first king/pharaoh, about 2950 BCE. Buto, the ancient goddess of the North, who was later replaced by Wadjet, was the snake goddess who represented Lower Egypt. The White and Red Crowns were indicative of the joining of both regions. The uraei images of the vulture and the snake on the crowns were the symbols of the lands, which occasionally morphed into one another. “The two uraei surrounding the solar disc were often interpreted as being Nekhbet and Wadjet. The two protective goddesses could appear as the mythical mothers of the king to whom they offered their breasts. Nekhbet was worshipped as goddess of childbirth in the popular religion of the New Kingdom and Late Period.”[3] By so doing, the king was nurtured by the sky goddess, as seen in Nekhbet, and by the earth, as seen in Wadjet. It was his duty, as the living Horus, to protect the people and preserve the kingdom, ensuring that all life consistently flowed in accordance with the cycles of the Nile and the laws of Ma’at. Ma’at was the principle of connectivity leading everything to function harmoniously together. Her order had three facets: that of action/behavior, truth speaking, and organized structures through which she was materialized so that chaos and lies were deterred.[4] Ma’at was not fixed in the cosmos, she needed to be constantly created/developed to be realized and implemented. She was not part of the material world, but rather a concept as Lurker suggested. (To be continued) Read Essay 2 here.Meet Mago Contributor, Krista Rodin. [1] Breasted, Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt, 27-28. [2] Ibid., 130-131. [3] R.H. Wilkinson, The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt (London: Thames & Hudson, 2003), 170-171. [4] Jan Assmann, Ma’at, Konfuzius, Goethe: Drei Lehren für das richtige Leben (Frankfurt: Insel Verlag, 2006), 103.
(Book Excerpt 2) Finnish Goddess Mythology and the Golden Woman: Climate Change, Earth-based Indigenous knowledge and the Gift By Kaarina Kailo

Finnish Goddess Mythology and the Golden Woman: Climate Change, Earth-based Indigenous knowledge and the Gift Kaarina Kailo 2018 Introduction (Continued) I will explore the little-known Finno-Ugric Gift ecologies and lifeways as carriers of this knowledge—something to which we are waking up slowly. We are beginning to value the rich resources of berries and mushrooms in the woods, and to collect fishermen’s, woodworkers’, handicraft peoples’ and tradition keepers’ lore (Mustonen 2009). I founded with Sari Koopman the tradition-gathering association of Lore&Loom with this in mind. Through the remnants of prehistoric cultures reflected in Finno-Ugric stories, Norse sagas and Russian legends,[6] we can gain knowledge of the ancient worldview and replant the seeds of lost best practices. Stories are not just stories. They have the power to change paradigms, the models by which we live and to trigger interest in us for deeper ecovisions than what patriarchal master narratives allow for. Ancient legends and narratives are indeed an inspiring window for peeking into past wisdom although many of them are just plain entertainment, humor or even silly tales. What is more, the myths and legends that have been written down between the l2th and the l9th centuries in Scandinavia and the present-day Finland bear the distorting marks of Christian and patriarchal societies. However, thanks to modern matriarchal and gender studies, as well as archeomythology (among many other new fields), we now have methods for recovering at least some of the reality behind the intentional distortions of the primary materials. ……..My own theoretical stance combines the best insights of ecofeminists (for all their variety), and the theories produced at the interface of these schools of thought by our network, Feminists for a Gift Economy (www.gift-economy.com). The mind-shifting new theories that have led me to write this and other books combine the findings of modern matriarchal studies and the theories of the Gift or Gifting by Indigenous and non-indigenous women in our network. Genevieve Vaughan, whose theories of the Gift and of the maternal epistemology are among my major influences, started as a critic of Marxist theories and semiotics…. I believe we would all agree, in our research network, that the study of representations and myths by which we live, is as important as the macrolevel analysis of the means of production and the politics of self and other in neoliberal capitalist modernism. The stories we are brought up with are not just entertainment or edutainment. We think through the core stories and myths that help naturalize our notions about how the genders (perceived as male and female) should live and behave, and about what is desirable or undesirable in human lifeways…… Having written books and articles dealing with neoliberal politics, with monoacculturation, monoculture and the patriarchal worldview from a Marxist-ecofeminist perspective, I do not belittle the role of the more recognizably “political” stance (Kailo 2018c, 2010, 2007a). Because the label of “essentialism” is often used to discredit alternative feminist methods that value the “feminine” or the “maternal”, I emphasize that the focus here is not on biology but on gendered worldviews and metaphors adopted to guide our thinking. The maternal order of matriarchal societies is based on maternal values, and men, too, identify with the human norm of homo donans (giving human), not the homo economicus (economically oriented human) that represents the current masculated norm of the human. Homogenizing global culture with its obsessive materialism must be replaced by a return to local culture, local food production, local currency, local democracy, and local wisdom of living in harmony with nature instead of with the abuses of agro-business. Multidimensional diversity should replace the monocultures of the mind that are also reflected in the hierarchical dualisms also of monotheistic religions of the One and Only True (Male) God (Mies & Shiva l993; Goettner-Abendroth (l995 [1980]—– Many feminist scholars share my concern about the impact of stories as the mythic underpinnings of patriarchal thought policing and mind colonization. For example, they approach myths as reflection pools of social and gender relations. There are many political reasons for studing women’s myths and mythic history. It is a pursuit in its own right, as women have the right to know of alternatives to the patriarchal master narratives that offer a slanted, perverted, distorting lens regarding past woman-friendly societies. However, women’s mythologies also provide information that together with other multidisciplinary methods help revisit past societies with their alter-native social arrangements, gender relations, and attitudes towards the environment. In this book I present Finnish origin myths, believing as do Native people, that they often contain the original instructions of a culture, or reflect the primal gender of the divinities. They also reveal our affinities with the ecocosmology of other Northern, neighboring people. …. For theorists of patriarchy, the heroism-oriented patriarchal mythic narratives form a small but all-the-more influential period in the overall history of humanity. As Gimbutas (l991) and Von Werlhof (2011) among others have proven, the patriarchal Kurgan invasion from the East gradually led to the erosion and overthrow of the more peaceful, matriarchal cultures in Europe.[7] This book seeks to transmit the view that we need to foster and promote Earth democracy as a radical form of openness, using the best practices and knowledge systems that the world has today. These go beyond the Eurocentric corporate monocultural view of only one truth. We need to become aware of the limitations and biases of the dominant scientific model as well as of all types of master narratives. To mend the broken webs of the planet requires undoing the master identity, the short-sighted human norm based on homo economicus. … Pohjola is my term with Terra Feminarum for the mysterious area of Northern Europe and its neighboring Finno-Ugric and Uralic peoples, that no doubt shared influences across Paleolithic-Neolithic times, and even beyond. Trying to locate and situate this mystical Land in a geographically and temporally indisputable manner would be hubris. Science is at best educated guesswork and creative speculation based on the selection and combination of facts and theories. Men have …
Kaalii Cargill

Read all posts by Kaalii Cargill. Kaalii Cargill, author of DON’T TAKE IT LYING DOWN: LIFE ACCORDING TO THE GODDESS, lives and works in Melbourne, Australia. She has been involved in women’s consciousness raising groups, home birth, attachment parenting, home and parent-run schooling, and she co-developed Soul Centred Psychotherapy, a therapeutic modality based on the feminine principle. Kaalii has worked extensively in sacred ritual space and currently runs ongoing dream groups. Kaalii inherits a sense of mystery from Calabrese, ‘strega’ grandmothers and a healthy resistance to enculturation from her Romany ancestors. Kaalii’s latest novel,
(Poem & Art) The Woman Who Wears Antlers by Arlene Bailey

The Memory Keeper by Arlene Bailey, ©2020 Antlers held high she steps over the stones,moving through bracken as she hears Her calling.The Old One.Cailleach.Old Antlered One.She who is older than all names.Catching a glimpse in the pool she stops to listen.Guardians of the waters moved by the winds coming in from the shore.The woman offers a prayer and leaves a token as if to say,I remember.Climbing higher into the hills the wind howls, the voice she hears calling her riding the wind.Sure-footed though she moves, for shehas walked this path many times, both inthis lifetime and many that came before.Finally she sees the old shrine and the cave holding the bones of all the women who’ve come before.At the entrance she bows and makes an offeringto the old ones, the Memory Keepers.Then calling forth her own ancestral memoriesand strength for these days,with tears in her eyes for the sacredness of it all,The Woman Who Wears Antlersbows to the call. [Author’s Note: Once upon a time we knew the old stories, the rituals, those special places within the land. We honored Mother Earth, Gaia, Pacha Mama and more namings through our attentions, our prayers, and the roots we planted within future generations. We walked in silent reverence upon her body honoring her cycles as our cycles, her myths as wisdom for living. We poured out libations and left food, for humans knew they were only part of the whole, part of the All. Once upon a time. I’m sharing a poem and a painting that came through me many moons ago, but feel even more relevant today as we seek to honor and protect our Mother, as we strive to find our place as humans in the great order.] https://www.magoism.net/2020/04/meet-mago-contributor-arlene-bailey/ (Meet Mago Contributor) Arlene Bailey_____________________________________________________Poem – The Woman Who Wears Antlers by Arlene Bailey ©2020

(Special Post) To Contributors: Strengthening Our Roots by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

Dear Contributors, Do you know that Return to Mago (RTM) E*Magazine is entering its fifth year this fall? And, thanks to our collective effort, we are still growing! As of today, our contributors have grown to more than 130 in number and our readership is from about 140 countries around the world. We have some hundred email followers as well as Wordpress blog followers. We draw 3000-4000 clicks per month on average; that is no small accomplishment for a Goddess blog that is named after a yet-to-be heard word, Mago (the Great Goddess), and that began from scratch.
(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) Why I choose to be an RTM contributor by Glenys Livingstone

The contribution of my writing to Return to Mago E-Magazine has evolved since it began four years ago, into a deeply mutually enhancing relationship. The time and effort taken to write carefully and in alignment with my heartfelt passions and insights, and then to be able to publish to a receptive audience, has always been rewarding – for me personally and apparently for many who received it.

(Prose & Photography) Equinox Reflection by Sara Wright

Photography by Sara Wright I gaze out my bedroom window and hear yet another golden apple hit the ground. The vines that hug the cabin and climb up the screens are heavy with unripe grapes and the light that is filtered through the trees in front of the brook is luminous – lime green tipped in gold – My too sensitive eyes are blessedly well protected by this canopy of late summer leaves. The maples on the hill are losing chlorophyll and are painting the hollow with splashes of bittersweet orange and red. The dead spruces by the brook will probably collapse this winter providing Black bears with even more precious ants and larvae to eat in early spring. I only hope that some bears will survive the fall slaughter to return to this black bear sanctuary; in particular two beloved young ones… Mushrooms abound, amanitas, boletes morels, puff balls, the latter two finding their way into my salads. The forest around my house is in an active state of becoming with downed limbs and sprouting fungi becoming next year’s soil. The forest floor smells so sweet that all I can imagine is laying myself down on a bed of mosses to sleep and dream. The garden looks as tired as I am; lily fronds droop, yellowing leaves betraying the season at hand. Bright green pods provide a startling contrast to fading scarlet bee balm. Wild asters are abundant and goldenrod covers the fields with a bright yellow garment. Every wild bush has sprays of berries. My crabapple trees are bowed, each twig heavy with winter fruit. Most of the birds have absconded to the fields that are ripe with the seeds of wild grasses. The mourning doves are an exception – they gather together each dawn waiting patiently for me to fill the feeder. In the evening I am serenaded by soft cooing. One chicken hawk hides in the pine, lying in wait for the unwary…Just a few hummingbirds remain…whirring wings and twittering alert me to continued presence as they settle into the cherry tree to sleep, slipping into a light torpor with these cool September nights… Spiders are spinning their egg cases, even as they prepare to die. I can still find toads hopping around the house during the warmest hours of the day. Although the grass is long I will not mow it for fear of killing these most precious and threatened of species. I am heavily invested in seeing these toads burrow in to see another spring. My little frogs sit on their lily pads seeking the warmth of a dimming afternoon sun. Soon they too will slumber below fallen leaves or mud. I am surrounded by such beauty, and so much harvest bounty that even though I am exhausted I take deep pleasure out of each passing day of this glorious month of September, the month of my birth. Unlike many folks, for me, moving into the dark of the year feels like a blessing. Another leave -taking is almost upon me, and I am having trouble letting go of this small oasis that I have tended with such care for more than thirty years… I don’t know what this winter will bring to my modest cabin whose foundation is crumbling under too much moisture and too many years of heavy snow. In the spring extensive excavation will begin. A new foundation must be poured and this work will destroy the gardens I have loved, the mossy grounds around the south end of the house that I have nurtured for so long. In this season of letting go I must find a way to lay down my fears, and release that which I am powerless to change. Somehow… I have no idea what I will return to except that I have made it clear that none of my beloved trees be harmed. I am grateful that Nature is mirroring back to me so poignantly that letting go is the way through: That this dying can provide a bedrock foundation for another spring birth. As a Daughter of the Earth I lean into ancient wisdom, praying that this exhausted mind and body will be able to follow suit. (Meet Mago Contributor) Sara Wright.
(Essay) Contemplating How Her Creativity Proceeds by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This essay is an edited excerpt from the conclusion of chapter 5 of the author’s book, PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. It is a chapter on the process of the Wheel of the Year. for the Northern Hemisphere version: https://pagaian.org/pagaian-wheel-of-the-year/ It seems to me that the main agenda of the Cosmos is ongoing Creativity, “never-ending renewal” it may be termed, and that this is expressed in Earth’s Seasonal Wheel through the transitions of Autumn,Winter, Spring, Summer; and in the ubiquitous process of a Cosmic Triplicity of Space to Be, Urge to Be and this Place of Being, a dynamic that has often been imagined as the Triple Goddess. In the flow of the PaGaian Wheel of the Year, the Seasonal transitions of the Wheel and the Triplicity of the Cosmos come together. There are two celebrations of the Old One/Crone or the Cosmogenetic quality of autopoiesis creating the Space to Be; and they are Lammas/Late Summer and Samhain/Deep Autumn, which are the meridian points of the two quarters of the waxing dark phase. At Lammas, the first in the dark phase, we may identify with the dark and ancient Wise One – dissolve into Her; at Samhain, we may consciously participate in Her process of the transformation of death/the passing of all. The whole dark part of the cycle is about dissolving/dying/letting go of being – becoming – nurturing it (the midwifing of Lammas/Late Summer), stepping into the power of it (the certain departure of Autumn Equinox/Mabon), the fertility (of Samhain/Deep Autumn), the peaking of it (at Winter Solstice). The meridian points of the two quarters of the waxing light phase then are celebrations of the Young One/Virgin or the Cosmogenetic quality of differentiation, the new continually emerging, the Urge to Be; and they are Imbolc/Early Spring and Beltaine/High Spring. At Imbolc, the first in the light phase, we may identify with She who is shining and new – as we take her form; at Beltaine, we may consciously participate in Her process of the dance of life. The whole light part of the cycle is about coming into being: nurturing it (the midwifing of Imbolc/Early Spring), stepping into the power of it (the certain return of Spring Equinox/Eostar), the fertility (of Beltaine/High Spring), the peaking of it (at Summer Solstice). In the PaGaian wheel of ceremony there are two particular celebrations of the Mother, the Cosmogenetic quality of communion; and they are the Solstices. If one imagines the light part of the cycle as a celebration of the ‘Productions of Time’, and the dark part of the cycle as a celebration of ‘Eternity’, the Solstices then are meeting points, points of interchange, and are celebrations of the communion/relational field of Eternity with the Productions of Time. This is a relationship which does happen in this Place, in this Web. This Place of Being, this Web, is a Communion – it is the Mother; the Solstices mark Her birthings, Her gateways. The Equinoxes then – both Spring and Autumn – are two celebrations wherein the balance of all three Faces/Creative qualities is particularly present: in the PaGaian wheel, the Equinoxes have been special celebrations of Demeter and Persephone – echoing the ancient tradition of Mother-Daughter Mysteries that celebrate the awesomeness of the continuity of life, its creative tension/balance. Both Equinoxes then are celebrations and contemplations of empowerment through deep Wisdom – one contemplation during the dark phase and one during the light phase. The Autumn Equinox is a descent to Wisdom, the Spring Equinox is an emergence with Wisdom gained. I like to think of the Equinoxes, and of the ancient icons of Demeter and Persephone, as celebrations of the delicate ‘curvature of space-time’, the fertile balance of tensions which enables it all. Her Creative Place The Mother aspect then may be understood to be particularly present at four of the Seasonal Moments, which are also regarded traditionally as the Solar festivals; and in this cosmology Sun is felt as Mother. I recognize these four as points of interchange: at Autumn Equinox, Mother is present primarily as Giver – She is letting Persephone go, at Spring Equinox, She is present primarily as Receiver – welcoming the Daughter back, at Winter Solstice the Mother gives birth, creates form, at Summer Solstice, She opens again full of radiance, and disperses form. The Mother is Agent/Actor at the Solstices. She is Participant/Witness at the Equinoxes, where it is then really Persephone who is Agent/Actor, embodying an inseparable Young One and Old One. The Old One is often named as Hecate, who completes the Trio – all seamlessly within each other. Another possible way to visual it, or to tell the story, is this: The Mother – Demeter – is always there, at the Centre if you like. Persephone cycles around. She is the Daughter who returns in the Spring as flower, who will become fruit/grain of the Summer, who at Lammas assents to the dissolution – the consumption. At Autumn Equinox She returns to the underworld as seed – Her harvest is rejoiced in, Her loss is grieved, as She becomes Sovereign of the Underworld – Her face changes to the Dark One, Crone (Hecate). As the wheel turns into the light part of the cycle She becomes Young One/Virgin again. Persephone (as Seed) is that part of Demeter that can be all three aspects – can move through the complete cycle. The Mother and Daughter are really One, and embody the immortal process of creation and destruction. Demeter hands Persephone the wheat, the Mystery, and the thread of life is unbroken – it goes on forever. It is immortal, it is eternal. Even though it is true that all will be lost, and all is lost – Being always arises again: within this field of time there is never-ending renewal, eternity. This is what is revealed in the ubiquitous three faces of the Creative Dynamic/ She of Old, the Triplicity that runs through the Cosmos. The Seed of Life never …
A Southern Hemisphere Perspective on Place by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This essay is an edited excerpt from the Introduction to the author’s book PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion, which was an outcome of her doctoral research/thesis entitled The Female Metaphor – Virgin, Mother, Crone – of the Dynamic Cosmological Unfolding: Her Embodiment in Seasonal Ritual as Catalyst for Personal and Cultural Change. This doctoral work was in turn a documentation and deeper research of the Seasonal ceremonial celebrations that the author was already engaged in for over a decade. The whole of the process is here named as her “Search”. photo credit: David Widdowson, Astrovisuals. The site of seasonal ceremonial celebrations will always be significant. In my case, the place in which I have created them has been notably in the Southern Hemisphere of out Planet Earth. The fact of my context being thus – the Southern Hemisphere – had contributed in the past to my deep internalized sense of being “other”, and dissociated from my senses, since almost all stories told were based in Northern Hemisphere perspective. Yet at the same time this context of inhabiting the Southern Hemisphere contributed to my deep awareness of Gaia’s Northern Hemisphere and Her reciprocal Seasonal Moment: thus, awareness of the whole Planet. My initial confusion about the sensed Cosmos – as a Place, became a clarity about the actual Cosmos – which remained inclusive of my sensed Cosmos. PaGaian reality – the reality of our Gaian “country” – is that the whole Creative Dynamic happens all the time, all at once. The “other”, the opposite, is always present – underneath and within the Moment. This has affected my comprehension of each Sabbat/Seasonal Moment, its particular beauty but also a fullness of its transitory nature. Many in the Northern Hemisphere – even today – have no idea that the Southern Hemisphere has a ‘different’ lunar, diurnal, seasonal perspective; and because of this there often is a rigidity of frame of reference for place, language, metaphor and hence cosmology[i]. Indeed over the years of industrialized culture it has appeared to matter less to many of both hemispheres, including the ‘author-ities’, the writers of culture and cosmos. And such ‘author-ity’ and northern-hemispheric rigidity is also assumed by many more Earth-oriented writers as well[ii]. There has been consistent failure to take into account a whole Earth perspective: for example, the North Star does not need to be the point of sacred reference – there is great Poetry to be made of the void of the South Celestial Pole. Nor need the North be rigidly associated with the Earth element and darkness, nor is there really an “up” and a “down” cosmologically speaking. A sense and accountof the Southern Hemisphere perspective with all that that implies metaphorically as well as sens-ibly, seems vitally important to comprehending and sensing a whole perspective and globe – a flexibility of mind, and coming to inhabit the real Cosmos, hence enabling what I have named as a ‘PaGaian’ cosmological perspective, a whole Earth perspective. It has also been of particular significance that my Search has been birthed in the ancient continent of Australia. It is the age of the exposed rock in this Land, present to her inhabitants in an untarnished, primal mode that is significant. This Land Herself has for millennia been largely untouched by human war, conquest and concentrated human agriculture and disturbance. The inhabitants of this Land dwelt here in a manner that was largely peaceful and harmonious, for tens of thousands of years. Therefore the Land Herself may speak more clearly I feel; one may be the recipient of direct transmission of Earth in one of her most primordial modes. Her knowledge may be felt more clearly – one may be taught by Her. I think that the purity of this transmission is a significant factor in the development of the formal research I undertook – in my chosen methodology and in what I perceived in the process, and documented; from my beginnings as a country girl, albeit below my conscious mind in the subtle realms of which I knew little, to the more conscious times of entering into the process of the Search. In this Land that birthed me, ‘spirit’ is not remote and abstract, it is felt in Her red earth[iii]. Aboriginal elder David Mowaljarlai described, “This is a spirit country”[iv], and all of Her inhabitants, including non-Indigenous, may be affected by the strength of Her organic communication. It took me until the later stages of my research to realize the need to state the importance of this particular place for the advent of the research: the significance of both the land of Australia, and the specific region of the Blue Mountains in which I was now dwelling, as well as the community of this particular region, which all lent itself to the whole process. The lateness of this perception on my part, has to do with the extent of my previous alienation; but the fact that it did occur, is perhaps at least in part attributable to the unfolding awakening to my habitat that was part of the project/process. The specific region of the “Blue Mountains” – as Europeans have named them – is significant in that I don’t think that this project/process could have happened as it did in just any region. David Abram says, “The singular magic of a place is evident from what happens there, from what befalls oneself or others when in its vicinity. To tell of such events is implicitly to tell of the particular power of that site, and indeed to participate in its expressive potency[v]”. Blue Mountains, Australia: Dharug and Gundungurra Country The Blue Mountains are impressive ancient rock formations, an uplifted ancient seabed, whose “range of rock types and topographical situations has given rise to distinct plant communities”[vi]; and the presence of this great variation of plant communities, “especially the swamps, offer an abundance and variety of food sources, as well as habitats for varied fauna”[vii]. I feel that this is the case for …
(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) 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 …
Lammas – the Sacred Consuming by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

Lammas, the first seasonal transition after Summer Solstice, may be summarised as the Season that marks and celebrates the Sacred Consuming, the Harvest of Life. Many indigenous cultures recognised the grain itself as Mother … Corn Mother being one of those images – She who feeds the community, the world, with Her own body: the Corn, the grain, the food, the bread, is Her body. She the Corn Mother, or any other grain Mother, was/is the original sacrifice … no need for extraordinary heroics: it is the nature of Her being. She is sacrificed, consumed, to make the people whole with Her body (as the word “sacrifice” means “to make whole”). She gives Herself in Her fullness to feed the people …. the original Communion. In cultures that preceded agriculture or were perhaps pastoral – hunted or bred animals for food – this cross-quarter day may not have been celebrated, or perhaps it may have been marked in some other way. Yet even in our times when many are not in relationship with the harvest of food directly, we may still be in relationship with our place: Sun and Earth and Moon still do their dance wherever you are, and are indeed the Ground of one’s being here … a good reason to pay attention and homage, and maybe as a result, and in the process, get the essence of one’s life in order. One does not need to go anywhere to make this pilgrimage … simply Place one’s self. The seasonal transition of Lammas may offer that in particular, being a “moment of grace” – as Thomas Berry has named the seasonal transitions, when the dark part of the day begins to grow longer, as the cloak of darkness slowly envelopes the days again: it is timely to reflect on the Dark Cosmos in Whom we are, from Whom we arise and to Whom we return – and upon that moment when like Corn Mother we give ourselves over. This reflection is good, will serve a person and all – to live fully, as well as simply to be who we are: this dark realm of manifesting is the core of who we are. And what difference might such reflection make to our world – personal and collective – to live in this relationship with where we are, and thus who we are. We all are the grain that is harvested and all are Her harvest … perhaps one may use a different metaphor: the truth that may be reflected upon at this seasonal moment after the peaking of Sun’s light at Summer Solstice and the wind down into Autumn, is that everything passes, all fades away … even our Sun shall pass. All is consumed. So What are we part of? (I write it with a capital because surely it is a sacred entity) And how might we participate creatively? We are Food – whether we like it or not … Lammas is a good time to get with the Creative plot, though many find it the most difficult, or focus on more exoteric celebration. May we be interesting food[i]. We are holy Communion, like Corn Mother. Meet Mago Contributor Glenys Livingstone NOTES: [i] This is an expression of cosmologist Brian Swimme in Canticle to the Cosmos DVD series.

(Essay 1) 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.] Magoist Calendar is the inter-cosmic genealogical chart of the Creatrix in which all is found kindred. It unfolds the one standard unified time, which I call the Cosmic Mother’s Time or the Mago Time, wherein all beings in Our Universe from microcosmic quarts to macrocosmic celestial bodies are perceived in continuum. The Cosmic Mother’s Time is an inclusive time in which everyone is re-membered and celebrated. It is revelatory for its numinous nature, which some may call a mystery. The Mago Time is happening
(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) Reviving and Celebrating the Nine-Goddess Symbolism by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

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