October 6, 2022October 7, 2022 Mago Work

(Art Essay 2) The Essence of Round by Lena Bartula

To continue further, the following examples show up in my huipils, as faces, bottle caps, textiles, and neck openings.

We’re all longing for something to quench our thirst or hunger.

What is it you thirst for and how do you go about finding it?

Chicomecoatl, Corn Mother, with corn husks, iron, mazorcas.

Ceremonia de Té, tea packets and tea bags, 2016

Circles and round things show up in my photographs of places and things:

Hats on a wall at Sergio Castro’s Museo, San Cristobal de Las Casas

Circles and stars or butterflies adorn the front door of the church in Chamula, Chiapas.

Cans of spray paint on the sidewalk during the Fesitval de Arte Urbano, San Miguel de Allende.

Life Cycle of Corn in a shrine by Maria Godoy. Exhibition “Milpa” at Museo de los Artes Populares, Coyoacan, Mx.

“Wherever you go for the rest of your life, you’re always in the middle of the universe and the circle is always around you. Everyone who walks up to you has entered that sacred space, and it’s not an accident. Whatever comes into the space is there to teach you.” ― Pema Chödrön, The Wisdom of No Escape: How to Love Yourself and Your World

(End of the art essay)

(Meet Mago Contributor) Lena Bartula

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(Pilgrimage 2) Eight Devi Temples in Kumaon, Uttarakhand, India by Krista Rodin

[Editor’s Note: This and forthcoming parts are the report of pilgrimage visits made during October 2022.] Naini Devi I arrived on the 8th day of Navratri, a festival worshipping the nine forms of Shakti/Devi – the Divine Feminine. The streets in Nainital were full of cars and people; it was mass tourism at its height – all with domestic tourists as Nainital is home to the renown Naini Devi temple. Naini Devi is associated with Nanda Devi, who takes her name from the mountain (or vice versa), and also with Durga. Nainital is also a Shaktipeeth site. According to legend, Shiva’s first wife, alternately called Umma, Sati, or Parvati, (depending on legend/purana) was the daughter of the King of the Himalayas and her father was upset that she married someone who he didn’t find suitable for his daughter. She married him anyway, but when a major festival came around and all the relatives were supposed to be present, Shiva wasn’t invited. This upset his wife so much that she threw herself in the fire. Shiva was devastated and went into a rage, which allowed the demon Taraka to cause havoc in the world. Vishnu, the one responsible for maintaining proper working order in the cosmos, took it upon himself to jolt Shiva out of his psychosis and cut up the deceased’s body spreading the parts all over the Indian subcontinent, so that Shiva would once again fulfill his mission of creating constant change. Sati’s eyes landed in Nainital, so a temple was built to honor the Goddess. There are differing accounts of how many Shaktipeeths there are, some say 51, others 54, yet others over 70, and a few say 108. I have found that there are local Shaktipeeths that are not recognized as official sites but are considered to be the place where part of Sati’s body fell by the local populace. This is especially true in Nepal. Nothing in Hindu legends is simple, and I’ve had to learn that my Western way of wanting a succinct logical response to questions in regard to Indian mythology or history is an exercise in futility. There are multiple truths as there are multiple gods as there are multiple ways of approaching and responding to situations. The Naini Devi Temple lies directly on the shore of the lake, with the Goddess watching over the waters and surrounding hills. Upon entering the site there is a large orange sculpture of Hanuman, which I found particularly odd as Nanda Devi kicked him off her mountain. When I asked whether I had mistaken the figure for someone or something else, I was assured that it was in fact Hanuman and that people in the region are partial to his worship, so he has his own temple at the entrance to the site. When one goes down a few steps to the temple grounds, Hanuman is directly in front to the right, the place to put one’s shoes to the left (shoes are not to be worn in any of the temples), and the lake lined with priests offering tikas (the red and yellow paste on the third eye) and blessings in front. There is an arch with bells hanging down. One is supposed to ring the bell to alert the deity of one’s presence, a temple form of knocking. Off to the left, is the main single temple for Naini/Nanda Devi, and then at the end the major temple with five Goddesses, with Durga in the middle and Sakand, Kusahmanda, Selputri and Parvati on the either side. While I was there, the priest was performing a fire purification puja which was wonderful to watch. At the end of the hall with the five deities and up a few steps are four rooms with idols. There were three rooms that were dedicated to Krishna and Radha and one to nine deities, including Lord Golu, a local demigod. I was fortunate to be able to take pictures and videos of the puja and site, except for inside the Naini Devi Temple. She is not to be photographed. Photo by Krista Rodin Nanda Devi The last time I saw Nanda Devi in her mountain visage, she repeatedly played peekaboo in the clouds, but even then, I did get lucky and was able to get a good photo of her. She is a very impressive mountain. The story goes that Nanda was a beautiful princess of the early Chand Dynasty who ran away to escape a Rohilla prince who desperately wanted to marry her. Her father refused to accept him as his son-in-law, so Rohilla started a war and won. To save herself, Nanda climbed up the sacred mountain. The mountain became known by her name as she became one with it.[1] She is the patron goddess of the mountain and region and is recognized as a destroyer of evil. The mountain has two peaks along a ridgeline, the one that is higher is Nanda, and the lower eastern summit, not quite visible from Garhwal, is Sunanda, her sister. Nanda Devi is an angry goddess, which is understandable given her history, and is said to be an avatar of the Goddess Durga. There are no shrines to Hanuman on the mountain because when he was looking for herbs, he came across one in the Dunagiri Mountains that he couldn’t identify. He then broke off a piece of the mountain and carried it off with the herb to Sri Lanka without receiving permission from the Goddess. She took affront at his disrespect and announced that anyone uttering Hanuman’s name in her region would be punished. This story is the reason for my confusion in the Naini Devi Temple in Nainital. To get to the Nanda Devi temple in Almora one needs to wiggle through the motorized traffic on the Mall Road and then head to a pedestrian zone up a small hill that leads to the temple. The temple is on a platform high enough that one can see …
(Essay 2) The Kiss of Nong Toom: High Stakes in the Semiotic Arena by Matthew Chabin

(PART II) In her exemplary work Erotic Beasts and Social Monsters: Shakespeare, Johnson and Comic Androgyny, Grace Tiffany outlines two traditional representations of the androgyne/ hermaphrodite figure: the sacred vs. the satirical. Wikipedia commons The sacred androgyne is rooted in myths, particularly origin myths of primal unity, and is a positive, salutary, even salvific figure. As she explains: “Classical myths concerning the androgyne, like those found in numerous other cultures, used him/her to demonstrate a principle of relatedness: of potent human connectedness and progress, or what the Greeks called ‘eros.’ Eros, according to the androgynous principle, is far more than sexual libido. It is a metamorphic power that compels human creativity, procreation, and personal and social growth through intimate connectedness…. [quoting Laurens van der Post], ‘The spirit of Eros’ is ‘a process of metamorphosis,’ of which ‘all of us…are not only capable…but driven…by the collective unconscious’ that ‘unites all humankind.’” It is important to remember that this sacred androgyne is in no way deprived of positive masculine traits (Tiffany associates it with such virile figures as Hercules, Odysseus, Dionysus and Shiva), but is rather the fruition of both gender potentials in tandem, true man and true woman, (M/F). Tiffany traces its genealogy through a number of culture zones and literatures, finding it especially well represented in the work of William Shakespeare—his cross-dressing, shape-shifting champions of Eros vs. his tragic/villainous rejecters and saboteurs of same. On the other side of the coin we find what Tiffany dubs the satiric androgyne, which she links to “a misogynistic classical ethic that, as early as the seventh century B.C, confronted and warred with the older myth of the sacred androgyne.” This rival androgyne is typically vulgar, immodest, hypersexual (yet impotent/barren), lacking both the grace and generative power of the feminine and the virility and agency of the masculine. It is grounded in a dispassionate, separatist, intellectual critique (as opposed to the passionate involvement of erotic experience), and is characterized by “distrust in personal and social relationships, particularly in relationships with women.” Its rhetorical M.O. involves what Matthew Hodgart calls “destruction of the symbol,” which Tiffany explains: “When the image of the androgyne is separated by the satirist from its mythic roots, it becomes simply this “thing in itself”: not a multiform, polynomial, fluid symbol of multiple selves, but one single effeminate male or inappropriately aggressive, ‘manly’ female who, so far from figuring communal wholeness, appears as an unhealthy impediment to the productive life of the community.” This, then, is the double negative, neither male nor female, (-M/-F) which opposes and seeks to annihilate the positive, male and female (M/F). All of this is vividly realized in the 2003 biopic film Beautiful Boxer by Singapore-based director Ekachai Uekrongham. The film chronicles Nong Toom’s journey, from her childhood in rural Thailand, to her initiation into Muay Thai, through the stages of her controversial career as a top fighter, and finally her decision to undergo a sex-change operation and resolve the contradictions of mind and body once and for all. There are many scenes worthy of comment, but the key scene, for our purposes, comes about two thirds of the way through. Nong Toom, (sensitively played by actor/boxer Asanee Suwan), stands in the ring, comely and dignified in her customary lipstick and rouge. Her opponent is Ramba, a grotesque—bearded, garlanded, and garishly made up. This unsightly thing minces and sashays about the ring in a caricature of womanly mannerisms to the raucous cheers of the spectators. Mythically it appears as a projection of the ignorant crowd, born of their derision; psychologically it is also Nong Toom’s own shadow made hideous flesh. This clownish, false, satirical androgyne, this demonic mockery, neither man nor woman, arises to traduce and slay the hero, to counter her erotic power and eradicate her very tenuous identity. What started as a boxing match has become a harrowing ritual, an enacted myth, and yet there is nothing pre-scripted or guaranteed or safely contained here. The stakes are jacked to an all or nothing, existential showdown, and all the world is watching. At first the demon’s wicked mojo seems to work; Toom is stunned, clearly offended. She is blindsided by a sudden, vicious attack. In the course of the fight she regains her poise, turns the tide, and gives Ramba a vengeful thrashing. It’s no surprise, really, that the demon isn’t much of a fighter. Its very nature is negation; when it comes down to it, it isn’t much of anything. In the end, the shameless creature begs for mercy, pleading “We’re both girls!” “Yes,” says Toom, “but girls like you give girls like me a bad name.” Her next punch knocks Ramba out cold, and this time there’s no kiss. Psychologically,and mythically, this scene opens the way for Nong Toom’s further initiationinto the feminine sphere. She startstaking hormones, and while the treatment favors her transformation, it weakensher in the ring. She absorbs morepunishment and starts losing fights. Sadas it is, this decline also supports the mythic reading, for as she becomesmore and more a woman, she sacrifices the male aspect of the androgyne,forfeiting certain potentials and powers, like closing down wings of a greathouse. The process culminates in herfinal, surgical transformation, after which she is banned entirely fromentering the ring, as per the ancient, patriarchal rules of the sport.[4] On a sociological level, we may not thegalling irony that the official acceptance of her as woman takes the form ofbanishment. But in a mythic sense, wesee her delivered from the semiotic arena and its crucible of warringcategories. She has died to herself andbeen reborn. She is free. (To be continued) (Meet Mago Contributor) Matthew Chabin.
(Tribute 3) My Loving Father (7/31/1935-10/10/2020) by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.

Bomun Sanseong (Mountain stronghold), photo by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang Death does not take away the dead from the living. The death of a beloved causes a pain of separation for the living, triggering the ontological wound from being born into this (patriarchally inflicted) world. Our mourning for the death of our beloveds is real because we are part of the dead. Love transforms everything. Mourning is a gift of grace from the deceased. The dead embraces the living in the way that the living can’t do. My deceased father works miracles for his beloveds. He is finally free to show his love in a tangible manner. He is solid in his love for all. And he has made himself a guardian for his beloveds. I see and revere the legacy of a Korean Magoist male identity in him. I can tell my story. I flew to S. Korea to visit my mother second time this year because I wanted to support her when she was deeply grieving for my father. My belated visit earlier this year, due to the Covid pandemic, to my father’s grave made me realize that I needed to show my love for my mother before it was too late to do so. My grieving for my deceased father yielded to the sensitivity that I felt that my mother needed love and care. She was affected the most by his death. And the sensitivity that I had was his care for her to be implemented by me, I see now. Love flows in reciprocity. My mother and I had a lovely time together, while we both are grieving for him. It was a cosmic womb time for both of us (my mother and me), made possible by the love of my deceased father whom we love dearly. It was very special that I spent time with my mother alone for 3 weeks in her apartment, in fact for the first time in our adult lives. We both were deeply touched from our time together. As the purpose of my trip was to spend time with her, I did not make any other appointments but decided on focusing on our time together. Under the jet lag, I struggled a bit to be attentive for the first two weeks. Then, the third last week was amazing. Magic happened. It was a time, which felt like I was in her womb. Or we both were in the Womb of the Creatrix, Mago! It was a womb time for both of us. She wanted to take care of me (she used to say that she could not feed me well or dress well as much as she wished to when I was small) so I accepted that. If something made her happy and if she wanted to do something, I did not interrupt her. I was well fed (to the degree that I kept apologizing for her services in the beginning). We cooked together and talked and talked. We watched TV together and I listened to her stories of making new friends with neighboring women. She allowed me to go and carry on my writing task daily. She minimized her social activities to be with me (she usually does that). My brothers were genuinely good to my mother and me. They took us to their homes and entertained us. When the three of us, her children, were with her in my younger brother’s vacation house, my mother was so thrilled like a little girl. It was her time with her three children alone after my father transited two years ago. She did not stop laughing and smiling. In fact, throughout my three-week’s stay with her, her excitement was felt in her voice. It was clear that she felt loved and appreciated by her three children! And we went to my father’s grave. He received a 2 years anniversary ceremony from my family two months ago in October. Whenever my mother went to his grave, her grief became overwhelming. She wailed so much so that I could not release my own grief (see my tribute 2 to my father). Thus, I had not broached my wish to visit his grave to anyone until I had a chance to tell my youngest brother who happened to treat us in his home toward the end of my visit. I desperately needed one of my brothers to take us to the graveyard because no public transportation was available to this huge mountain cemetery park. It was a cold day when my youngest brother took us to his grave. My heart was getting clogged with tears. This time, to my surprise, my mother came to the grave but did not wish to stay longer because it was too cold, she said. Deep sorrow did not take up her heart this time! My conflict melted away. That allowed me to cry loudly as I wished. No one else was there. I told my brother to allow me to cry out alone. And he agreed. I had a good cry out alone. I wanted to stay longer but left the site to join my mother. It was important that I did not trigger her deep sorrow. My youngest brother gently hugged me and we walked to the car. I could not believe that my father was not there when I visited Korea. It is conventional that one mourns for the loss of a parent for three years for Koreans in old days. I comforted myself that I still have one more year to grieve for him, while appreciating his life to us and the world. One thing my mother and I refrained from talking about this time was my father/her spouse. I had been concerned in April when I visited her that she was grieving too much. So this time, I was cautious not to trigger her deep grief. Her health would be at stake, if she continued to be in such an intensive state of emotion. So my father was a pink elephant in the house that we pretended that we did not see, so to speak. That was …
(Essay 6) The Blending of Bön, Buddhism and the Goddess Gemu in Mosuo Culture by Krista Rodin

The Goddess’ Home and the beginnings of Bön and Buddhism in the Region Black Hat Temple near Walking Bridge under reconstruction. Photo, K. Rodin Gemu’s story is honored with annual pilgrimages around the mountain, and by visiting her cave high on the slope. The pilgrimage takes place in the seventh lunar month, i.e., generally around the end of July. Families make the trek around the mountain as a group, stopping, eating, and performing rites at sites that are related to their specific ancestors. The day is like a walking picnic for the entire community and is intended to have the Goddess bless the people with good harvests, health, and wellbeing for another year. Fascinatingly, these clan pilgrimages are led by either dabas or Buddhist lamas, depending on the particular family. The daba/lama leads holy rites conducted at the most important stops. The festival involves nine fires placed strategically around the mountain. Corn, rice and beans are mixed together and put into the lake and various places around the mountain as well. The only restriction is that the mixture cannot be placed anywhere where people live or work. Visits to the cave used to be solely for worship as it was very difficult to climb the fairly steep mountain to the cave entrance. Now, it has become a major tourist destination with a cable car going from the valley to a point above mid-way up the mountain. From the cable car station there are fairly steep staircases overrun with begging brown monkeys leading to the cave entrance. The cave itself is quite large and is now lit with various neon lights highlighting various stalagmite formations that are labeled as “The Kiss”, “The Goddess,” “The Priest,” etc. There is even a plaque alerting the visitor to the place where the Goddess throws evil people to Hell. This is her home, and her seat of judgment. By the entrance, a new temple has been constructed run by yellow robed Buddhist priests who read oracles telling tourists’ fortunes. On the way down from the cave, after exiting the cable car, there is a choice to walk or to cram into a go-cart and soar down a serpentine looped track to the valley floor. The Goddess’ blessing is evidenced by the fact that so far no one has been thrown from the carts. The Goddess is honored as the supreme matriarch protecting her children in the valley and around the lake. Her ahzu relationship is the model for partnerships, and her placement in the sacred traditions of the region validates the matriarchic nature of Mosuo. Bön must have come fairly early to the area, and while the elite were aligned with Buddhist monasteries, it seems that the common people often affiliated with the Bön temples. Most of the Mosuo follow the Black Hat (Bön) or another non-traditional Tibetan Buddhist sect, the Wan Sho. Yellow Hats (Gelugpas) are also in the region, but not many remain by the lake. All the temples in the region were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, but since about 2008, there has been a massive rebuilding campaign. A sizable Black Hat Temple was originally reconstructed in 1980 and is currently undergoing another extensive overhaul. Surrounding the structure are prayer wheels in place for the backwards (in relation to other Tibetan Buddhist traditions) counter clockwise kora, a ritual circumambulation, around the temple. As with other religious sites there is a lively market right next it. The Black Hat Temple is directly in front of the entrance to one side of Gemu’s Lovers Walking Bridge. Bön was officially suppressed by the Gelugpas in the 18th century in Lijiang, but evidently survived better around Lugu Lake. Although the exact date is shrouded in mystery, Buddhism supposedly came to the Lugu Lake region no later than the 13th century and a second sect in the 14th.[1] Until the Social/Democratic Reforms in 1956 when the Mosuo were officially incorporated into Chinese society with the abolition of the chieftain, there were two major Buddhist monasteries corresponding with these two branches in the region. Each family would send at least one son to join either Zhameige, belonging to the Gelugpa tradition, or Zhenbo, which followed either a Kagyu or Sakya tradition depending on era, thereby tying the formal Buddhist structure with the social community. Families would join particular monasteries based on the geographical location in relation to their home as well as on the ideological differences in the sects. The Gelugpa (Yellow Hat) was larger than the Kagyu/Sakya (White/Red Hat), although both had hundreds of monks in their communities. Zhameige was also the home of the “Living Buddha,” an incarnation of a famous lama from Lhasa who came sometime in the late 19th/early 20th century to live among the Mosuo. His latest incarnation died a few years ago and people still speak of him as if he were among the living. The monasteries were destroyed in the Cultural Revolution, but both Zhameige Temple and Dajialin Temple have since been reconstructed. Both monasteries, but especially Zhameige, used to send young monks to Lhasa to study at the main monasteries before returning to their home state. There is a longstanding tradition of Mosuo monks at the illustrious Drepung Monastery. When in the Lugu Lake region, the monks would not live at the monastery and would also not be bound by the traditional laws of celibacy, but instead were free to pursue ahzu relationships. Some texts even relate that on the eve of the departure to Lhasa, young student monks from Zhenbo were led to a field with tents so that they could spend their last night with their ahzus. To fulfill their religious obligations, the monks would meet to recite texts on the first and fifteen of the month; otherwise they would continue to help with the normal activities of the household.[2] According to Shih, there is some indication that the returning monks did not participate in agricultural production, which is the mainstay of Mosuo economy, when they returned …
(Art) Muse: Conscious Connection by Virgina Masson

Who lives here in this sack of stardust? Who is the voice in my head? Where do my dreams come from? The Muse archetype reflects our connection to consciousness and our ability to access her at any time. She reveals the light from within. (Meet Mago Contributor) Virgina Masson
(Poem) Rainbow girl by Donna Snyder

brown bug crawls across rainbow girl’s face but she doesn’t careshe holds the sacred plant in her hands and faces eastleads the people on the rainbow wayhagonehthank youit is goodsweets come wrapped in velvetbut the goodies are gonea red ribbon for your handtime is that wayleaves you behind in a velvet blouselooking at silver hairs in the mirrorthe young ones call you shimasanigrandmotherthe ancient onethe one who talks for allthe powerful onemother of the worldthere is a joker spying from a waning mooncoyote grinshe knows the light will come againspread its milky feathers on the rocks and mesasrainbow girl bows into the wind her earrings dangle turquoise like teardrops for her people and their waysthe future is a blue glass bottlebreak it if you willor unstop it and let the teardrops catch thereto drink when rains forget they love the skyand brown bugs no longer crawl across paintings in the sand Navajo sand painting
(S/HE V2 N1 Book Review) Małgorzata Oleszkiewicz-Peralba’s Mythology and Symbolism of Eurasia and Indigenous Americas: Manifestations in Artifacts and Rituals, Reviewed by Lisa R. Skura

[This content is from S/HE: An International Journal of Goddess Studies (V2 N1, 2023) Its online edition and paperback are available at Mago Bookstore.] I am lucky enough to live in a place with both the deer and elk, the subject matter of chapter one in this book, and so this text immediately won my heart and became a touchstone in my life. As a mythologist, artist, weaver, spinner, and goddess scholar, as well as a devotee of Marija Gimbutas, I believe this book is brilliant and I am grateful for the scholarship that Dr. Małgorzata Oleszkiewicz-Peralba offers us. Oleszkiewicz-Peralba continues the work of Gimbutas by demonstrating how the ancient symbolism of goddess religions has survived in the folk-art of many cultures around the world. Oleszkiewicz-Peralba helps expand our worldview back to one of wholeness rather than our current restrictive androcentric worldview. Oleszkiewicz-Peralba not only clarifies the work of Gimbutas, but also brings our attention to other places these symbolisms are hidden, including headdresses, hairdos, embroidery, and in the weaving of Kilim rugs. I have books about the embroidery motifs of goddesses, as well as books about the symbolism of Kilims, but Oleszkiewicz-Peralba has electrified and resurrected the significance of these symbols in a profound way for me. The symbols seemingly lost to an androcentric world view are being recovered to reclaim the sacredness of the female body, the earth, the animals, the cosmos, as well as each other. We are currently paying the price for thousands of years of devaluing and suppressing the divine feminine, the female body, the earth, the animals, the plants, as well as fresh water and air that is life. This text by Oleszkiewicz-Peralba is also significant since many male scholars, who are still considered the cornerstones of academic study, have insisted that women have contributed nothing to culture. Sigmund Freud for example, claimed that women braiding their own pubic hairs was the only thing that women contributed to culture. Oleszkiewicz-Peralba counters this male biased scholarship, by pointing out in chapter four how the symbols of life have survived in the symbols used in weaving and embroidery. Oleszkiewicz-Peralba also discusses the survival of the apron as an empowering symbol of flowering female sexuality in this chapter. Although the apron might seem a humble and simple item of clothing, it is a powerful symbol of female empowerment and agency. It gives new meaning to the ubiquitous hero myths of our androcentric culture, that we now find everywhere, which usually involves the defeat of the non-obedient monstrous feminine by the hero in epic literature. Both Hercules and Perseus are said to kill Amazon queens and steal their belts, which many scholars interpret as the defeat of matriarchal tribes and the ascent of patriarchy. This same misogyny is being demonstrated in the United States by a corrupted Supreme Court that has just taken the aprons and belts from half the population of the United States. The male hero’s journey popularized by Joseph Campbell is the dominant framework of “success and progress” used in our modern world, an androcentric journey that promotes the individual at the expense of the collective. This narcissism justifies the use of violence to suppress female bodies, suppress divine feminine power, as well as to rape the earth at whatever cost, and to gain power even if this means nuclear annihilation. It is ironic that this text uses a multitude of examples of ancient and modern Ukrainian art to demonstrate the survival of the symbols of life and female empowerment, yet even now Vladimir Putin wages war and imposes his will against the peaceful country of Ukraine. Oleszkiewicz-Peralba even touches on the use of psychedelic plants in chapter one and discusses the mythology of the female shaman, the deer, the connection to the peyote plant, as well as the Ayahuasca plant as a loving serpent mother that embraces the children of the earth. In my dissertation I discuss how male ethnobotanists create the neologism entheogen, which assumes all psychedelic plants facilitate a male divine experience, even when evidence suggests that for tens of thousands of years, the divine female was worshipped. I use the term entheagen, which changes the male divine experience to a female divine experience. Oleszkiewicz-Peralba’s scholarship is an important contribution to recognizing and resurrecting the ancient symbols that once valued the female body and the earth. True immortality is accepting life and death as natural cycles rather than trying to defeat death, dominate women’s bodies, and/or conquering the world. The equidistant cross symbol of the great cosmic weaver symbolizes equality for all people, as well as the valuing of the female body and the earth. Centuries of male ideology of “transcending” the earth has resulted in billionaires competing to demonstrate their prowess by launching grotesque phallic rocket ships for no reason except to practice leaving this planet after it becomes inhabitable. We must reclaim all the appropriated symbols of the divine feminine and this text is a great place to start the journey. Lisa R. Skura Dr. Lisa R. Skura is an artist and mythologist who earned her Doctor of Philosophy in Mythology with emphasis in Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute, in Carpinteria, California. Lisa also has a Bachelor of Science in Design from Buffalo State University, in Buffalo, New York. Dr. Skura is a spinner and weaver of both textile and text as well as a tarot scholar and creator, an empathic energy healer with a deep connection to crystals, and a voracious reader and collector of books. Dr. Skura believes bridges of love are essential to the healing of humanity and the world.
(Video) Gaia – Mysterious Rhythms by Dr Lila Moore

https://vimeo.com/47706894 Gaia – Mysterious Rhythms is a dance-ritual performed by a young woman on the seashore. The dance unfolds a rite of passage and a process of transformation, through the woman’s interaction with the elements of the natural environment: the rhythms and features of the earth, sea, moon and sun. In formal terms, Gaia was set out to explore the notion of screen choreography through a subtle, poetic and reflective interplay of images of the body and the environment. In terms of content, the woman’s performance is perceived as a source of metaphoric and archetypal imagery that highlights the intricate relationship between body, psyche and the world. Excerpt from Dance on Screen: About the film The protagonist, a young woman undertaking the passage, is going through a process of transformation, which is linked to the living elements of the natural environment. She exists within a self-contained universe, a world in which natural elements such as earth, sea, sky, and sun are key players. She reflects her environment, and nature is being reflected through her by means of visual montage and visual metaphors. In addition, she tends to dissolve into the elements from which she emerges, for example, she frequently dissolves into the sea and fades in from the sea and into being. She exists both as a concrete figure and a reflection, showing a constant state of flux. She divides herself into other selves, thus, denoting a state of inner conflict or the ability to expand and manifest the self beyond physical limits. The rite begins at dawn when the moon is still above the sea and the tide is out, and finishes at dusk when the sun dissolves into the sea. Each scene is a stage in a transformation process and composed of a specific activity. The driving force leading to the rite is born of the woman’s longing to overcome terrestrial and man-made limitations, discover her identity by bonding with the natural environment and fulfill her destiny along with the rhythms of nature. The rhythms of the natural world often contradict human rational thought […] Therefore, by positioning the protagonist in the midst of a large process of change, which is evident in all aspects of nature, and within the cyclic context of a day progressing from morning to night, her personal rite is performed within a universal context of transformation. […] The protagonist’s rite takes place within the duration of a day, and what makes that day unique is her activity. However, she exists only for that purpose, and just within that particular framework of time. She has no identity outside her role in the rite, and does not exist in other dimensions of space and time. Therefore, she can be perceived as existing in an enclosed world, and in a state of ‘eternal present’, i.e., an approach to the concept of time as an undivided, continuous phenomenon which exists beyond terrestrial limitations, and western culture’s rational perception of time through the ticking clock. This approach is associated with the concept of ‘mythopoetic thought’, which has been used to describe the concept of time as perceived by early people and American Indian tribes, such as the Hopi who lived in ‘eternal present’ and did not even have a word for time, just as their verses had no tenses. […] Gaia is a film made within the tradition of experimental, poetic and art film-making concerned with personal ritual and myth-making, and is preoccupied with the initiation of a single protagonist, and visual vocabulary inspired by ancient mythology and archetypal forms. In its approach to the idea of ritual, Gaia is inspired by Maya Deren’s film Ritual in Transfigured Time from 1946. More info The dance ritual film was made as part of a practice-based Ph.D degree in Dance on Screen at Middlesex University, UK (1997-2001). The PhD thesis includes a chapter with an in-depth analysis of the film. The film was created, directed and choreographed by Lila Moore with a grant from Middlesex University. It is 20 minutes in duration and was screened in international festivals and art venues. In addition, the Gaia project includes immersive and contemplative video segments, performed photography series, as well as holistic movement meditation programme for women developed in collaboration with holistic movement experts. Online lectures, classes and networked rites based on themes and concepts from Gaia – Mysterious Rhythms by Dr Lila Moore are available. For more info, subscribe to Dr Lila Moore Cybernetic Futures Inst. monthly newsletter, here: http://www.cyberneticinstitute.com/online-courses-1 © Dr Lila Moore, All Rights Reserved (Meet Mago Contributor) Lila Moore, Ph.D.
(Poetry) Ancestral Mothers and Warrior Goddesses: Revisioning Pluto Retrograde in Capricorn by Arlene Bailey

The Morrigan by Laura Cameron Sitting in a cold room,I scarcely can breathe,my psyche stripped bareand my heart broken. Pluto has arrived andalready my life is beingdisrupted by thingsbeyond my control.Already things from theDepths are emergingDemanding to be seen. I don’t do drama or chaos.Still it has entered my lifedestroying what is notin my best interest. You see, disrupting and destroyingwhat no longer functions, whatis worn out and no longerserves our highest good along withforcing us to face our inner demons,unhealed trauma and karmic dross…well, this is Pluto’s task andhis raison d’etre. Trying to find that illusive placeof balance may as well goout the window right now,as the best we can hope foris to stay in integrity throughthese winds of change andfires of transformation. Pluto is now retrograde in Capricornwhose ruler is his old friend Saturn.The Lord of the Underworld andPatriarchy are cozying up for anexplosive and transformative visit.For five months.Five. Fucking. Months. I feel I’m on the Night Bus andthe driver has just announced“Here’s your ticket to the Underworld.Hang on it’s going to be a bompy ride!!” I’m numb and am feeling more like…“Beem me up Scotty.” And… There’s no place to run.So I grab the essentials… BroomCauldron – the GIANT one!Frankincense and SageOwl Wing and Crow FeathersCrystals – lots of Black TourmalineDrumRattleThose “just right” herbs and otheraccoutrements known only to the few! There’s no running fromthis Astrological Influence,but I can damn sure NOTgive into the miasmaof the fucking patriarchyor fight the transformativeenergies Pluto brings. I Can and Will surrender tothe journey into theinner/lower world where theenergies of change wait for me. Not Pluto with the Patriarchalnaming of “Lord” of the Underworld,but rather Pluto as Hecate who waitsto once again begin the Mystery Schoolof deep inner work and depth divinginto those dark places we dare not go. Hecate who brings up unhealed vibrationalkarma and what no longer resonates. Hecate the Sorceress who is magic. Hecate as the very exacting GrandmotherCrone who once again lights thefires of alchemy demanding we becomethe dark matter to be transformed into gold. NOT Pluto, “Lord” of the Underworld! I can and will surrender to the Morrighanand Erishkigal who strip bare all thatno longer serves me. I will be Innana at the Seven Gatesreleasing all that I find precious,but that has also entrapped me,blinding me to what is really true,what is really importantwhat is in my best interest.Blinding me to myMedicine in the world. So Pluto…I see you andI take your challenge. But… On. My. Own. Terms. I know this game, know its rules.Been here, done thatso many times nowI’ve lost count.Even got the T-shirt! AND It will be Hecate andErishkigal that willGuide me.Challenge me.Remake me.Transform me. And It will be the Great Crow Triple Goddess,The Morrighan, Badb and Macha whowill strip away all that no longer serves,pecking at the dross until I am newlyenlightened and empowered, owningand speaking my own truth, finallyreleased of what has hidden in the dark. Until finally… It is Owl with eyes that see in the darkwho lifts me in her powerful wings andcarries me back into the light of this world.Carries me back a transformed andmore powerful woman than youPluto, “Lord” of the Underworld,can ever imagine. It may be your time, but the wayI label it and the way I movethrough it is up to me. My choice. My decision. My medicine My alchemy. So go ahead Pluto and Saturnwith your tasks of upending everythingand dismantling all the outmodedstructures of the Patriarchy, whilesimultaneously demanding I excavatemy deepest, darkest wounds andmemories as I walk through thefires of transformation. Go ahead ‘cause I’m ready. Me and my Tribe of badassAncestral MothersAndWarrior Goddesses… Well… We. Got. This. It may not be easy, butwe’re gonna be just fine. ____________________________________________________________________ [Author’s Note: I am NOT an astrologer and this is a personal interpretative mythos of this current astrological time. Arlene Bailey ©2020] https://www.magoism.net/2020/04/meet-mago-contributor-arlene-bailey/ (Meet Mago Contributor) Arlene Bailey

(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) Multi-Linguistic Resemblances of “Mago” by Mago Circle Members

[This is a summary of discussion that took place around 2014 in The Mago Circle, Facebook group.]Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: I am writing an entry on “Mago” for the Glossary of my book, The Mago Way: Re-discovering Mago, the Great Goddess from East Asia:Mago (麻姑): East Asian word for the Great Goddess. Read “Ma” as in “Mama” and “Go” as in “to go.” The logographic characters are pronounced/romanized as Mago in Korean, Magu in Chinese, and Mako in Japanese. When it is used in historical contexts, “Mago” refers to the Great Goddess AND HER cultural matrix, Magoism (Magoist shamans/priestesses/rulers and/or the bygone mytho-history of Old Magoist Korea). S/HE represents Ultimate Reality as One Undividable Unity. The Great Goddess embodies the Creatrix, the cosmic sonic system of Life. Through HER, we enter the view of the whole, the consciousness of WE/HERE/NOW. Also known to have originated from the Big Dipper (Seven Stars) in lore—part of the Big Bear constellation—the Guardian of the Polaris, S/HE is the Guardian of the solar system. S/HE causes the stabilization of the solar system. In that sense, S/HE is the Sun Deity or Heavenly Deity. Self-emerged with Mago Stronghold (Earth) and two moons of the Earth through the sonic movement of Pal-ryeo (Eight Tones), the Great Goddess oversees the cosmic music of Yul-ryeo (Rhythms and Tones), another term for the sonic movement of the universe. Mago gives birth to two daughters (Gung-hui) and (So-hui) parthenogenetically. Thus, they form the Mago Triad (Samsin). S/HE delegates HER two daughters to oversee the cosmic music of Oeum-chiljo (Five Pitches and Seven Tunes). Gung-hui and So-hui respectively give birth to four daughters parthenogenetically. The Primordial Mago Clan forms the Nine Magos, the archetype of Gurang (Nine Goddesses). Mago delegates eight (grand)daughters to oversee the cosmic music of Pal-ryeo (Eight Tones). S/HE causes the self-evolution of the Earth through which all terrestrial beings are brought into existence. In that sense, S/HE is the Earth Deity. As Samsin Halmi (Triad Grand-Mother), S/HE controls the birth and illness of children. Mago allows the Early Mago Clan in the paradise of Mago Stronghold to procreate progenies and entrusts them to take in charge of the terrestrial acoustic equilibrium. Revered as the Cosmogonist, Progenitor, and Ultimate Sovereign, Mago delegates the Mago Descent, the entirety of the divine, human ancestors, and humans, to oversee the acoustic harmony of the Earth in tune with the cosmic music. Hereupon, the paradisiacal Home of Mago Stronghold is established. S/HE is called by many names. Among them are Samsin (Triad Deity), Cheonsin (Heavenly Deity), Halmi (Grandmother/Goddess), Nogo (Ancient Goddess), and Seongo (Immortal Goddess). Also referred to as Mugeuk Nomo (None-Polarized First Mother) or Musaeng-nomo (Non-birthed First Mother) in Daoism. Mago appears resembling many Goddesses from around the world by way of such mythemes as the triad, parthenogenesis, cosmic music, animal companions, and the cosmogonist. “Mago” is linguistically identical or similar with “Mago” in Italian and Portuguese, “Magus/Magi” in Latin, “Magos” in Greek, “Maka” in Mycenaean Greek, “Magus” in Old Persian, and “Ma Guanyin” in East Asian languages, to name a few. Brian Kirbis: Funny, despite my fondness for language, I never made the connection. Though I have explored the lineage potential between naga and Nuwa 女娲. Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: What did you find the linkage between naga and Nuwa, Brian? There is sometimes linguistic linkage relevant and other times mythological linkage… Brian Kirbis: Linguistic, iconographic, and mythological links are all available to us within a broad cross-cultural frame. My own analytic tendency is to see such mirror-image male-female representations as matrilineal and patrilineal essences which, in Chinese energy theory, reside in the kidneys (ancestral qi).Consider the Adam and Eve myth, for instance, with the figures on either side of the tree (spine, cosmic pivot, Milky Way), within which is contained the serpentine energy. There is ample information extant on such Tree of Life symbolism, all of which illustrates the inner energy body. The nagini-naga / Nuwa-Fuxi conjoint images in India and China absorb the serpent iconography into the human – an internalization of Kundalini energy.As you know, my area of interest is in the underlying cultural complex of tea-growing peoples located in Southwest China and upland Southeast Asia, an area replete with serpent mythology. Brian Kirbis: Comparison of Indian and Chinese representations of the Naga-Nagini and Fuxi & Nuwa. Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: Yes, indeed, there is similarity between the two. Interesting! Thanks for sharing them. Lizzy Bluebell: Brian Kirbis – fascinating – any idea what kind of tool each is holding in the sculpture? I see a chevron or M to the right of the Nagini’s head; (M and MA are fairly universal root symbols for Mother; Latin M encodes breasts, mounds, mountains, paps, tophets, etc. plus a general historical dispute over the importance of hills versus valleys.)I also note the inversion of right/left positions in the Nu Wa image.In terms of your statement – “The nagini-naga / Nuwa-Fuxi conjoint images in India and China absorb the serpent iconography into the human – an internalization of Kundalini energy.” — My thought: Have you ever considered it otherwise – that humanity has actually EXTERNALIZED chi energy into the form of the snake as a means of expressing it in non-vocal (sonic) symbolism which also manifests form via means of visualization as opposed to sonic/vocalizations or cymatics which creates form via RESONANCE.Helen – note that the tails are knotted – very important symbolic notion of ‘tying things’ as in the Shen Ring and Ankh – a masonic motif – related to measuring and containing within an Ouroborus SYSTEM which is closed, not cyclic or spiraling vis a vis Nature’s Way. It is the CLOSED CIRCLE as Plato’s “perfect form” which traps us in the flaws of re-peating and re-petitioning any ‘his-story’ we follow which does NOT HONOUR AND REVERE MAGO or hold her values close to HEART, as HEARD, in the HERD.Your original post (O/P thereafter) is fascinating and revealing and provides much to discuss on the topic of Zoroaster/Zarathustra and the Persian/Arabic/Semitic invention of Algebra and Astrology. In […]
(Special Post 5) 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.] Annie Finch For me, Goddess is completely different from God–Goddess means acceptance of the sacred WITHIN the physical instead of transcending the physical; acceptance of death and life as equally sacred; and the holiness of changing cycles…. Annie Finch, Maine anniefinch.com Marie de Kock Why Goddess spirituality? Goddess spirituality is crucial for our survival and the survival of our planet. I’m referring to every woman’s connection and relationship with her own Spirit which resides in her heart, and her own divine ability to create, which springs from her womb. The womb is infinitely more than a reproductive organ; it is a replica of the Cosmic Womb or Mago. From that profound pool of infinite silent knowledge, women can access the solutions so urgently needed to recover the equilibrium the world with its God spirituality has lost, and women can dream the solutions into being. It is the intelligence of the heart and intelligence of the womb that humanity needs in order to balance out the ill effects of our noisy ‘rational’ left brained society. Women carry the keys to the wisdom within them. Female spirituality is the door. Marie is in Chile for now http://ninenormalwomenwithwings.com Leslene Della-Madre Goddess among many things to me is a verb–Goddessing. “Goding” isn’t the same. She is Love in action in all things–she is the cosmic gen-Her-ator bringing life into form from primordial chaos, the twin serpents of coming and going. She is the plasMA of the YoniVerse filling space with her divine essence creating great beaded necklaces of galaxies all connected to each other by electric pathways. She is the All and Eternal. Leslene Della Madre, California USA midwifingdeath.com Diane Horton Sacred Goddess Sisterhood Each of our stories as women who have come to embrace the Goddess are varied and interesting. Certainly interesting to each other, as our spirits long to resonate with another who has had a similar journey. Mine began while I was still a member of the Episcopal Church and a Christian. But relative to many, it was not that long ago, just 18 years. Some women have been knowing and worshiping the Goddess for more than 30 years, some have only just come to the reawakening and re-membering recently. Some of us call ourselves witches, some priestesses, or both. Some do not identify with either of those words and simply say they have immersed themselves in the Divine Feminine, or that they worship the Goddess. Some will say they are Pagan or Wiccan or Dianic Wiccan. Whatever we call ourselves, or do not call ourselves, we are all Sisters in Goddess, those who worship the Great Mother. And though our numbers are growing, seemingly almost daily, we are still in a minority. We need those who are articulate to voice our views and we need wise teachers who can share practices, philosophy and knowledge with those who are eager for such spiritual food. One of the great things about this Goddess Path is that, although there is much written and oral knowledge to be had for those who seek it, the deepest part of this path is experiential. Personal experience with Goddess, deep within ourselves, and having our eyes opened to Her all around us all the time, seeing and feeling Her magic in our lives, knowing Her love and nurturance in our hearts. We have no dogma, no set of rules or commandments, no rigid ideology. We have our own hearts to guide us into all acts of love and pleasure, compassion, humility and reverence which are Her rituals. When we express strength, hold our power and honor life, as well as giggle and laugh, those are Her rituals, too. There are the Women’s Blood Mysteries, which set women apart from men who worship the Goddess, but that should serve to unite women in a strong eternal bond, not alienate men. There is no place for hierarchy. We are all women equal to each other as daughters of the Goddess. We cannot, we must not, allow the patriarchal mindset to contaminate Feminine Spirituality. No hierarchy, no duality, no controlling others. If we want to see a world in which the Divine Feminine is prominent, the world that many of us believe is coming, we need to take a good, hard look at ourselves in the mirror of our Sisters’ eyes and all of us individually commit ourselves to Unity, Sisterhood and Unconditional Love. That does not mean we will never disagree, and sometimes disagree vehemently, but it does mean we do not allow those disagreements to fracture us as a body of women or to damage or destroy our Sisterhood. There are many teachers who have their own followings of students, their own coursework, their own publications and newsletters, their own festivals they work all year to organize and make manifest. This is a good thing! Especially with the national economy the way it is now many, many women cannot afford to travel very far from their homes, so the fact that there are festivals in diverse parts of the country is no doubt just as the Goddess desires. Those who know of Her and hear Her call are greatly benefited by all of these in mind, heart and spirit. We all need each other. We who can spread this information far and wide need to do so, not just think of and promote the one group or project we are involved in ourselves individually. This is the BIG PICTURE. This is how the movement moves forward. This is how the Goddess gathers Her women (and men). Unification of purpose. Standing together. Supporting each other in concrete ways. We are Women of Goddess. Her spirit […]

(Essay) Walking with Bb by Sara Wright

Walking with Bb: a story exploring the psychic connection between one woman and her bear. Preface: The black bear – hunting season in Maine is brutal – four months of bear hell – five if one includes the month where hunters can track bears for “practice” with hounds – separate mothers and cubs, terrorize them, tree them and do anything but legally kill them. During the legal slaughter, Hunters bait bears with junk food by putting old donuts etc. in cans and shoot the bear while he or she is eating. Most bears (82 percent) are slaughtered in this manner, the rest are killed by hounding and trapping. The season begins in August and lasts through December. Trapping, by the way, is illegal in every state but Maine. Black bears are hated, and that hatred will, of course, eventually result in their extirpation. I had a shy (male) year old black bear visiting my house this past summer with whom I developed a friendship, and what follows is part of our story: Last Saturday I was walking down the road when I remembered that I had not done my daily “circle of protection” imaging for Bb (standing as he was the day he visited me at the window early in August). When I began to do this another picture of Bb moving on all four feet with his face turned towards mine super-imposed itself over his standing image. I could almost see his expression, but not quite. I didn’t know what this imaging meant beyond that we were communicating in some unknown way, and he was in the area (not a good thing on hunting Saturdays). He had not been coming in most nights and I was worried… That night he came. He is still making nightly visits five days later, the most sequentially consistent visits since September 15th, the day I believed that he had been shot. This experience prompted me to write about telepathy and precognition. It is close to All Hallows and the full Hunter’s moon (Nov 3). I keep listening to Charlie Russell’ story which reminds me that loving bears (especially male bears) is hard, almost a sure recipe for disaster, and that I was not alone in this deep concern for and fear of losing Bb. I can barely stand to remember my other bear losses and I can’t stand feeling them. Even after I wrote about the incident with Bb, the experience seemed to carry a charge that didn’t dissipate. Had I missed something? Next I wrote “Root Healer,” exploring the possibility that as I continued to act as Bb’s “little bear mother” now employing psychic techniques to keep him safe (in some desperation as it was the only means left open to me to protect this very vulnerable yearling), that Bb’s presence might also include a gift for me and that it might involve some kind of root healing for my body because Nature thrives on reciprocity. One idea I missed completely, for it was so obvious. Bb’s image was communicating to me that we were having a psychic conversation in that very moment. It was the first time in three months of imaging protective circles that moved with him that I had confirmation from him that we were communicating effectively in this unknown way. This rarely happens. Normally when I do this kind of work, I just do it. I don’t get direct confirmation that it’s working from the animal itself (except with Lily b). Knowing this helped me make another decision I might not have made so intentionally. The hunting season will last into mid December, and I will be traveling during that last month. I keep thinking that putting actual physical distance between Bb and I might pose more of a threat for his life and I have to remind myself that psychic phenomena are not distance dependent. I should be able to image that protective circle every day and feel that it is working. Bb has already shown me that it can but I fear adding distance because I don’t completely trust my own perceptions.* I suspect believing might be an additional dimension of ensuring success when it comes to psychic protection for this bear. But how do I incorporate belief into a picture that is so clouded with personal/cultural doubt? Half the time I don’t believe myself and virtually no one except Rupert Sheldrake, Iren and Harriet have ever taken my experiences seriously. I have to remind myself that I have done this work many times dealing with doubt and it worked anyway. The point of writing this reflection might be to put me on a new edge of increasing Bb’s odds of survival. If it’s possible that an attitude that embraces believing in what I do could help me protect Bb more effectively until hunting is over and its time for him to den in peace I want to claim it. The question I need to answer now is how to go about moving into a more trusting self as a woman who continues to walk with a bear at her side? The night after I wrote the above paragraph I dream of the doubters in the roles of my parents, and in a friend. I take these dreams seriously as doubters inside me and out. These dreams may be telling me that it is unreasonable to expect me to believe that what I do works when no one else does? The problem with this idea is that on some level I do believe. I feel as if I am walking with this bear, every single day. I think about him constantly. The only thing that got me out of the house yesterday was that he was out of chocolate donuts. Something is intensifying my relationship with Bb although I never see him. I am caught in a field of bear energy and information, perhaps through some version of beauty and the beast. That an archetype is …
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.
(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!
(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 …
Artful Ceremonial Expression by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This article is an edited excerpt from Chapter 7 of the author’s book PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. I always wore a special headpiece for the Seasonal ceremonies when I facilitated them over the years, and I feel that any participant may do so, not just the main celebrant. My ceremonial headpiece with its changing and continuous Seasonal decoration took on increasing significance over the years; it became a personal central representation of the year-long ceremonial art process of creating, destroying and re-creating. For the research period of my doctoral studies particularly, when I was documenting the process, I realised that this headpiece came to represent for me the essence of “She” – as Changing One, yet ever as Presence – as I was coming to know Her. In my journal for the Mabon/Autumn Equinox process notes one year I wrote: As I pace the circle with the Mabon headpiece in the centre, I see “Her” as She has been through the Seasons … the black and gold of Samhain, the deep red, white and evergreen of Winter, the white and blue of Imbolc, the flowers of Eostar, the rainbow ribbons of Beltane, the roses of Summer, the seed pods and wheat of Lammas, and now the Autumn leaves. I see in my mind’s eye, and feel, Her changes. I am learning … The Mother knowledge grows within me. The headpiece, the wreath, the altar, the house decorations, all participate in the ceremony: they are part of the learning, the method, the relationship – similar to how one might bring flowers and gifts of significance to a loved one at special moments. Then further, the removal and re-creation of the decorations are part of the learning – an active witness to transformation through time.
(Music) Songs for Samhain by Alison Newvine

The season of Samhain is upon us. This playlist is an offering for this descent into the sacred darkness, and a companion for the journey into the underworld. Invocation of Witches features music by Loreena McKennitt, Marya Stark, Inkubus Sukubus, Wendy Rule, my band Spiral Muse, and many others. It is a soundtrack for ceremony and each song expresses a different face of the spirit of the witch. May this Samhain season guide you gently into the dissolution of what no longer serves, the honoring of what is complete and the cultivation of the inner space that will gestate what is yet to come. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2CFNoH9exhloz3w95P3Rlb?si=270cf01fabb8421c https://www.magoism.net/2023/10/meet-mago-contributor-alison-newvine/

(Essay 1) How Did I Fall In Love with Korean Historical Drama? by Anna Tzanova, M.A.

Go to online class, Korean Historical Dramas. “To become a kairomancer¹, you need to learn to trust your feelings as you walk the roads of this world, to develop your personal science of shivers, to recognize in your gut and your skin and in free-floating impressions that you know far more than you hold on the surface of consciousness. You need to take care of your poetic health, reading what rhymes in a day or a season. You want to expect the unexpected, to make friends with surprises, and never miss that special moment.” ~ Robert Moss² After a year and a half of work without a day off; driving 100-150 miles every other day; writing past midnight every night; at the end of July 2011, overwhelmed by fatigue, I finally decided to take a weekend off. Little did I know, that time off would last over seven months, during which I would not only change my job, but also acquire a new passion.
(Bell Essay 4) The Ancient Korean Bell and Magoism by Helen Hwang

Part IV Asking the Dangerous Question: How Old is the Symbol of Nine Nipples? An inquiry about the origin of an ancient female symbolism is subversive in nature. It shakes the ground of patriarchal premises come to be believed rather than understood. The question here is the provenance of the nine nipples sculpted on ancient Korean bells. A focus on the female principle that nine nipples represent hurls the inquirer into uncharted territory. Note that official [read Sinocentric] historiography of East Asia leaves no means to navigate through the beginning of gynocentric civilizations. Where there is no written history, archaeologies and mythologies are rendered anomalous if not obsolete. Thus, tracking the provenance of nine nipples is made to face a quandary, without the mytho-history of Old Magoism. The relief of nine nipples on the ancient Korean bell has its predecessors. From Silla, a wind chime called pungtak from Gameun-sa (Temple of Gameun) appears to be an immediate model. Much smaller in size (27.8 cm), pungtak is to be hung on the eaves of a pagoda or a Buddhist temple building. Given that the Gameun-sa was completed in 682 CE, the nine nipples of pungtak may well be considered as the precursor of the Sangwon-sa bell (cast 725 CE). Unfortunately, however, we are unequipped to trace the pre-Silla Korean examples of nine nipples under the standard view of Sinocentric ancient Korean history. This will need another space to discuss. That said, how old is the symbol of nine nipples? Extant ancient bronze bells with nine nipples suggest that it dates back to as early as the introduction of bronze metallurgy in East Asia. On the other hand, however, the existence of nine nipples on ancient pottery bells throws a new light on another scenario that they may predate the Bronze Age. That the use of clay preceded the use of metal is incontestable. Interestingly, a good number of ancient bronze bells with nine nipples are from the Shang dynasty (ca. 1600 BCE-ca. 1046 BCE) and the Western Zhou dynasty (1046 BCE-771 BCE) of China. Seong Nakju, in his article tracing the origin of ancient Korean bells, states that bells with the nine protruded knobs emerged for the first time between the late Shang and the early Zhou period (see Seong Nakju below in Sources). When something of the female principle, ultimately like the provenance of Mago, is dated to the Shang dynasty [Shang dynasty to be the earliest historical polity of China], it suggests that it was there before the beginning of Chinese history. On these ancient Chinese bells, the nine knobs are placed in three rows of three in its four corners just like yudu (nipples) of the Korean bell. Nonetheless, there is, among others, a distinction to be mentioned here. The nine knobs of Zhou bells are called “mae” (枚, classifier for small things, mei in Chinese) not “yudu.” The female connotation is absent in ancient Chinese bells. This gender shift or female castration to be precise, however casual it may seem, is no small factor. It has allowed a chasm in the forthcoming history of Chinese bells. Bells were no mere object for the ancients. They were the channel of epiphany, sacred in short. They represented the divine power derived from Old Magoism during which female shamans ruled. The patriarchal enthronement that took seizure in the course of history, however, marked a discontinuity and changed the nature of the bell’s symbolism to be only nominal, lacking reality. The bell as the symbol of the female principle was no longer effective under patriarchal rules. Why? It was deprived of the reality of the Goddess with which it could reverberate. Thus, it lost its ultimate purpose, to create music, in that the patriarchal ruling principle itself was not “musical,” but dissonant with the rest of the world. One who breaks the harmony can’t own the music! Bells are rendered as a thing that points to the meaning of the past. This is how bells during the era of patriarchal rules came to be objectified as a royal belonging, as seen in the Qing bell of a later time. Ancient sages or even kings and queens of East Asia may have noticed what had gone wrong with the bell and agonized to restore it, the effort for which they were praised as the great thinker or sage ruler. The imposing air of authority had to be made visual precisely because the bell could no longer do the magic, engendering the divine power. Thus, highly embellished designs and classifications of various bells were made to cover up the void. Later on, the magnitude of the bell was employed to convey (pseudo-)power, deranged from the female principle. Nonetheless, the nine nipples seemingly survived in many bells of the Zhou dynasty. I present here some specific bells such as yongzhong (a bell with a cylindrical handle on top), niuzhong (a bell with a semi-circular knob on top), and yangjiaozhong (a bell shaped like ram’s horns) to highlight the various styles of mae. After all, pyeonjong (bianzhong in Chinese, metal chime bells) is a variation of pyeongyeong (bianqing in Chinese), the stone chime bells (see Part I). This suggests that the making of ancient bells needs to be seen in a continuum rather than as a new invention in the Bronze era. However, we do not have pyeongyeongs with nine nipples. Stone chimes do not seem to have nine nipples. If ancient East Asians had not carved the nine nipples on a stone bell, then they did it on clay. Pottery bells with nine nipples are found to have co-existed with bronze bells. The level of sophistication and precision in artistry is there as well, as shown in the images. It may be, as experts would explain, that ceramic bells were created to substitute for the costly bronze bells during the Zhou dynasty. However, that should not be always the case. Prior to the Bronze Age, humans invented terracotta technology and brought it to its zenith from which, in fact, metallurgical techniques are likely to have derived. In short, ceramic bells of the Zhou dynasty suggest that the origin of nine nipples predates the …
(Bell Essay 8) The Magoist Whale Bell: Decoding the Cetacean Code of Korean Temple Bells by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.

[Author’s Note: This and ensuing sequels are excerpts of a new development from the original essay sequels on Korean Temple Bells and Magoism that first published January 11, 2013 in this current magazine. See (Bell Essay 1) Ancient Korean Bells and Magoism by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang.] Singing Humpback Whales, wikimedia commons Whales as the Cosmic Music Maker That whales (Gorae in Korean) are foundational to the Korean temple bell remains subliminal to this day. How do we assess the cetacean code of the Korean temple bell? What is the relationship between these two seemingly unrelated objects? We are given the whale-shaped mallet of the bell to begin with. Intriguingly, two Buddhist temples are noted today for the wooden whale-carved mallet of their bells: Sudeok-sa in Yesan, South Chungcheong, and Seonam-sa in Suncheon, South Jeolla.[1] Other temple bells reportedly have the whale mallet as well, although not as much distinctly carved as the two. The Divine Bell of King Seongdeok the Great is known as such. What is the significance of the Korean temple bell that has a whale as its striker? However, the whale-shaped wooden mallet is only a visible symbol of Sillan cetacean veneration. The whale motif is not just physically present in the mallet but also signified in its name or title. Among many alternative names of the Korean temple bell are cetacean names; Janggyeong (長鯨 Eternal Whale), Gyeongjong (鯨鐘 Whale Bell), Hwagyeong (華鯨 Splendid Whale), and Geogyeong (巨鯨 Gigantic Whale). Here the character “gyeong 鯨” means a whale.[2] These whale names suggest that the bell itself is conceived as a whale. Korean temple bells are the code of Magoist cetaceanism. By the very nature of a temple bell that is to awaken all beings to put it bluntly, we can establish that the sound of a whale is elevated to the purpose of a temple bell. Or vice versa. The sound of a temple bell is identified as that of a whale. At the outset, suffice it to say that whales are admired and revered for their vocal behaviors so much so that they are represented in Sillan temple bells. The cetacean representation of the Korean temple bell comes unexpected to us. Why is the song of a whale not the song of a bird or another animal? And what does it mean that the Korean temple bell employs cetacean names? These are no small questions. Answering them requires digging into the deepest layer of what has gone under the surface about Magoist Korean whale culture. I have discussed elsewhere in detail about how Korean cetaceanism is steeped in linguistics, myths, place-names, and custom.[3] For the immensity and complexity of the topic, this essay leaves out the discussion of such salient features of whales as their pre-human origin, evolution from land to sea, sizes and trans-oceanic migratory journeys. Summarily, whales connect and bridge the human mind beyond anthropocentrism. Here we will focus on how cetacean veneration is encoded in the Korean temple bell, in particular the sound tube. Ancient Korean Magoists deemed whales as the cosmic music makers. The cetacean names of Korean temple bells redefine the bell as the acoustic instrument that conveys the music of whales. Note the plural in bells and whales. Korean temple bells are meant to be recognized as a chorus, like whales in the sea, to respond to the sonic property of all beings. In fact, the Korean temple bell is never an isolated single sound wave, to be discussed below. What is emitted from both is harmonized music. It is noted that the music of whales can travel hundreds of kilometers underwater.[4] That the song of whales travel as far as hundreds of kilometers underwater is juxtaposed with the sound of the Korean temple bells that travel far. The former is transmitted through water waves, while the latter is transmitted through air waves. Humpback Whales Whales compose music. Among cetacean species, known for their vocalizations are the blue whale, the fin whale, the humpback whale, the minke whale, and the killer whale.[5] In particular, such baleen whales as humpback whales and blue whales have been relatively well studied for their vocalizing behaviors. The range of humpback whales’ sound frequencies is known as follows: The range of frequencies that whales use are [sic] from 30 Hertz (Hz) to about 8,000 Hz, (8 kHZ). Humans can only hear part of the whales’s songs. We aren’t able to hear the lowest of the whale frequencies. Humans hear low frequency sounds starting at about 100 Hz.[6] In comparisons, the vocalizations of blue whales are known to range from 10 to 40 Hz at a fundamental frequency (the lowest frequency of a periodic waveform). It is also noted that blue whales off the coast of Sri Lanka make music of “four notes duration lasting about two minutes each, reminiscent of the well-known humpback whale songs.”[7] To be discussed below, the frequencies of the two most noted Korean temple bells range from 65 Hz to 103.02 Hz, which fall within the range of these whales’ vocalizations. A significant volume of scientific research has been harvested on the music of humpback whales. Katy and Roger Payne are, according to an article by Bill McQuay and Alison Richards, the first scientists who identified the calls of male humpback whales as songs.[8] They report that humpback whales do not merely sing but compose music. McQuay and Richards describe the song of humpback whales as follows: Surprisingly researchers have noted that at any given moment all males in a group will sing the same version of a song, even when separated over large distances, while whales in another region or hemisphere will sing a completely different song, but in unison with other whales in their area. These sounds are loud, deep and low-frequency (20Hz – 10 kHz). They can be heard many miles away and may go on for hours or even days. Individual songs can last anywhere from a few minutes up to a half hour at which point they may then be repeated again. …