(Poem) Crows by Mary Saracino

Northwestern crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos caurinus), Wikimedia Commons

Crows don’t seek bread

or sheltered warmth

but something else more sustaining

something that defies gravity & time

the whims of shifting seasons

unrelenting heat

bitter cold

sheets of pouring rain

and all the many other

encumbrances life thrusts

upon birds & humans;

the crows’ sturdy black wings carry them

over rooftops, treetops, highways

one lands on an eave, turns her head

blinks at the sun glinting off the metal

downspout

another circles an aspen

claims a tree limb, waits for who knows what

I watch from the sidewalk, head cocked

wondering if crows worry about

sleet and snow and boys with BB guns

or getting safely home

the birds don’t mind if I stare or fret

they leave me to my musing

I sit on the grass, gaze at the clouds

distracted by my own illusions

when I turn back, the crows

have left their roosts, flown away

off to places unknown to me

places beyond the reach of my

limited ways of knowing.

Meet Mago Contributor, Mary Saracino

1 thought on “(Poem) Crows by Mary Saracino”

Sara Wright says:

May 18, 2024 at 5:33 AM

Ah Bless you Mary – another wonder – this poem – thought provoking and as always so much depth – such a pleasure to read – please get that book out – please.

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(Prose) Gratitude Expressed by Deanne Quarrie

We are all experiencing troubled times. Many are moaning and groaning, crying and screaming out. Both sides are bringing such huge negative energy to our world. For just an hour – a day – if you can sustain it – practice gratitude and appreciation. If we can all turn our emotions to the good in our lives, to the love in our lives and take all that energy and place it there – well, no telling what can come of that! We have had out Thanksgiving meals and are well into the leftovers – the turkey sandwiches and if you are lucky, you still have some dressing and gravy. That’s my favorite part! Here is an exercise I do whenever I feel troubled by negativity around me. Take of some paper and pencil – or open a new document in your computer (which is what do). Begin to make a list of all the things you are grateful for. It shouldn’t be hard. Most of us did some of this a couple of days ago. As you think of things, they will prompt you to think of other things. Soon a good memory will come up followed by more. Feelings of loving appreciation will begin to flow toward those who participated in the good times with you. You may even find some forgiveness welling up for yourself and others for the bad times. Keep writing until you have it all out there in front of you. Most of us could easily have fifty things on that list. As you are writing these things out, if you are like me, you will feel your heart lighten and brighten with good feelings – loving feelings. This is gratitude. This swelling up of feeling inside us – this is our awareness of feeling blessed. This gratefulness feels lovely. However, we need to do more. Appreciation. Appreciation is gratitude expressed! Look over your list. Where in that list is an opportunity to express appreciation? Are there events that included others – others who are still present in your life? Can you tell them how much they mean to you? What about family members, friends, co-workers, even your boss at work – are there feelings of gratitude there that can be expressed? We so often find these feelings of gratitude, but do we express them? Can we use our feelings of gratitude and express them to those who helped in those memories? Who participated in that event or who are those who make each day of our lives better? Can we go to them and let them know how we feel? Can we write to them, email or even better, pick up the phone and call them? It seems to me that just feeling our gratefulness is only half the process. How wonderful if we can take our gratitude and share it with anyone on our list who contributed to creating these warm, loving feelings. We can all be participants in a brave new world, one in which we are kind to each other. A world where we express love and kindness and where we acknowledge our debt to each other and express our thanksgiving, first in our hearts and then outwardly with our words and deeds. Our gratitude and the showing of appreciation has the power to change lives. The opposite of gratitude and appreciation is like a disease that steals away our contentment and fills our life with emptiness and despair. We all have a choice in how we wish to use our energy. We can contribute to the negative in the world. We can criticize, moan, groan and complain when we can be grateful. We can appreciate what truly brings us joy and then take our positive energy out into the world and make a difference. This energy is needed RIGHT NOW. We can be voices. We can be agents of change. None of that has gone away but let us do it with love and gratitude and by support others. Let us be strong in the face of anything we perceive of as evil. Let us be there for our Muslim neighbors and friends. Let us be there for any who feel threatened in the LGBT community. Let us be there for those of color, the poor, the hungry. Let us be love, let us bring that energy to the world and support all that we see as good. Let us stand for whatever we see as right. Use these feelings of gratitude and actions of appreciation to continue making differences in our lives and of others. Love moves mountains! Meet Mago Contributor, Deanne Quarrie
(Book Announcement 1) She Rises: Why Goddess Feminism, Activism, and Spirituality by Helen Hwang

She Rises: Why Goddess Feminism, Activism, and Spirituality? Edited by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang and Kaalii Cargill Paperback:476 pages Publisher:Mago Books (June 21, 2015) Language:English ISBN-10:1514257696 ISBN-13:978-1514257692 Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.1 x 9 inches Shipping Weight:8 pounds Anthology: 92 Contributors Available in Mago Bookstore (http://magobooks.com) and Amazon (www.amazon.com).
(Prose) The Circle of Life by Sara Wright

Each December I feel as if I am participating in an ancient rite when I tip the aromatic branches of our native balsam tree to bag and bring home to make a wreath. Each year as I cut the twigs I ask to be forgiven if this act hurts the tree. Each year standing in front of the balsam I give thanks for all trees, but especially for this one because of her fragrance…
(Poem 1) this arse (still so terrified of pears) by Kerryn Coombs-Valeontis

this arse –(still so terrified of pears) (bottom too dreary, backside reserved for aphrodite) born of the mother: pears reclining on daybeds on drowsy veranda’s in the temple of the venus of wilendorf- i rub the years from her worn hips i know each curve and vein inking deltas over her arse
(Prose & Photography) Fern Hollow by Sara Wright

Photo by Sara Wright I awaken to the common yellowthroat warbler’s song. A light breeze wafts through the open window intensifying the scent of wild honeysuckle. Phoebe chimes in followed by Ovenbird, another warbler. Mama phoebe takes flight from her nest as I open the door. I peer out into emerald green – sweetly scented hay ferns define the edges of the mixed conifer and deciduous forest that overlooks a mountain brook. My home. A canopy of leafy limed branches protects the house from what will become fierce heat from the noonday star… summer is almost upon us. But not just yet. For now I am still living in the space in between. Fern hollow is an edge place, etched out of olive and jade. Seduced by moist air, stillness and dove gray cloud cover I follow my Forest Muse wandering down to the protected field through the pines. The mountains are still shrouded in mist. Lupine spires and lemon lilies peek out above a raft of sensitive ferns. Deep blue iris startle sensitive eyes. I breathe in the intoxicating aroma of the last flowering crabapple as I examine unfurling ostrich ferns. Always the spiral. The Wild Goddess lives here. Once, just after I moved here, She rose up out of the field to embrace me, told me that I was loved… She spoke through pure feeling in that place beneath words. Now She comes to me through the trees… Approaching the brook I experience a momentary chill. The noticeable drop in temperature is due to the spreading boughs of the Eastern Hemlocks who protect this brook (as well as other streams and rivers) from warming, so that trout can thrive. These remarkable trees slow summer storm run off, purify waters, add nitrogen to the soil through their needles, and create a moist microclimate that supports rich avian and plant diversity. As if to confirm my thoughts the call of a Blackburnian warbler reminds me that some warblers will only nest in this particular tree. Because of their trunks tendency to split, loggers left the “redwoods of the east” behind, and some hemlocks are probably 150 years old (maybe older) although this forest was cut about 40 years ago, primarily for white pine. Hemlocks can live for 500 years or more. Because they are the most shade tolerant trees of all hemlocks can survive on the moist banks of rivers and streams for many years waiting for the moment when enough light penetrates the forest floor; then they shoot up spreading their graceful boughs wide enough to create a cool understory where tender wildflowers thrive, and deer and rabbit browse. Another warbler is singing, a high – pitched fluted call, this one is a black throated blue warbler. Migration is winding down and I wonder how many of these birds will actually stay to nest and raise young. Taking another path up the hill I drift back into that space of belonging, my animal senses stilling all thought. Green Peace. Approaching Trillium rock I am once again pulled into mind, reflecting upon how quickly golden lime brocade moss covered the entire boulder once a few dead trees came down. Starflowers adorn brocade, the same moss that phoebe used to construct and line her nest… A morning dove is calling in the distance. Mourning and Morning belong together. Just as Thinking and Being do – humans are capable of moving back and forth between the two, but because being is not honored we must re- learn how to do the latter. One way to frame living through difficult and uncertain times is to perceive oneself as Entering the Mystery (Martin Shaw). When I align myself with the rest of nature I lose myself in the mysterious, utterly fascinating present, develop strength to go parallel with what is, and can give thanks with all my heart for the gift of being alive. (Meet Mago Contributor) Sara Wright https://www.magoism.net/2014/12/meet-mago-contributor-sara-wright/
(Essay 4) How Mother Nature Died: The bio-cosmic rupture of European Renaissance by Luciana Percovich

[This essay was presented at Roma Goddess Conference, May 22-23, 2021, under the theme of “Goddess & Environment – Save Mother Earth.”] Francis Bacon “Nature, you are wrong!”, wrote Francis Bacon (1561-1626) and added: “You must dominate her, rape her in order to tear up her secrets”. He was the first to fix the aim of the New Science as Control and Rule over Nature, to legitimize every possible or imaginable manipulation, because: “The salvation of humankind depends on Science and Science is the ensemble of Mechanic arts”. In his Temporis Partus Masculus, Bacon wrote sentences which made history: “Here I am, to bring Nature with all her creatures to your service as a slave … Just follow her, like a hound pursue her, guiding and pushing her wher you want … You must enter her holes and nooks in the search of truth, without any concern”. Thomas Hobbes Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) with his Leviathan applied to political philosophy the same vision of disgregation and dismemberment, reasoning and rationalizing about the way of freeing exploitation also of human individuals: “A Nation is an Artificial order of individual parts united by Fear” Grounding again Starting during the 1960s, a worldwide movement of “consciousness raising groups” of women began to re-unite. Reclaiming the difference of the experience of living in a woman’s body, a widespread and pervasive work of demystifying the neutrality of historical, psychological, scientific, religious etc. narrations, set in motion a radical critique of the entire patriarchal apparatus at all its levels of organization and symbolic representation. Starhawk, The Earth Path, 2004 “For centuries, since the start of the ‘scientific revolution’, Western culture has pursued knowledge by breaking a subject or an object into its component parts and studying those parts … We developed a mechanistic, cause-and-effect model of the universe. Compartmentalization … doesn’t allow us to look at the whole, or at the complex web of relationships and patterns that make up a whole. (But) science itself has moved beyond … and today is likely to describe the world in terms of networks of probabilities and complexities, as interlocking processes and relationships …” “A witch must not only be familiar with the mystic planes of existence beyond the physical realm; she should also be familiar with the trees and plants and birds and animals of her own backyard, be able to name them, know their uses and habits and what part each plays in the whole … In fact, everybody should. Our culture is afflicted with a vast disconnection, an abyss of ignorance that becomes apparent whenever an issue involving the natural world arises. As a society we are daily making decisions and setting policies that have enormous repercussions on the natural world. And those policies are being set by officials and approved by a public who are functionally eco-illiterate”. Every small or great action, Here and Now, gives Form to one of the possible Futures. (End of the Essay) https://www.magoism.net/2013/10/meet-mago-contributor-luciana-percovich/ An Essential Bibliography AA.VV., Diotima. Il pensiero della differenza sessuale, La Tartaruga, Milano 1987. AA.VV., Donne Tecnologia Scienza: un percorso attraverso mito, storia, antropologia, a cura di Joan Rothschild, Rosenberg&Sellier, Torino, 1986 (Machina ex Dea, Pergamon Press, Oxford, 1983). AA.VV., Storia dell’Arte, Le Prime Civiltà, Mondadori Electa, Milano 2006. Armonie (a cura di), Il mito e il culto della Grande Dea. Transiti, metamorfosi, permanenze, Atti del Convegno 24-25 novembre 2000, Bologna, 2003. Armonie (a cura di), Dopo la Dea. Religioni come segni e strumenti del patriarcato, ribellioni delle donne come permanenze e rinascite dell’antico culto, Atti del Convegno 21 febbraio 2004, Bologna, 2004. Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, Noi e il nostro corpo, Feltrinelli, Milano 1974 (Our bodies, Ourselves, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1971). Brighton Women and Science Group, Alice attraverso il Microscopio: il potere della scienza sulla vita delle donne, La Salamandra, Milano 1985 (Alice through the Microscope. The power of science over women’s lives, Virago Press, London, 1980). Centro Documentazione Donna, Vivere e pensare la differenza. Incontro sulle pratiche e saperi delle donne, Firenze, 23/24 gennaio 1988. Chodorow Nancy, La funzione materna, psicoanalisi e sociologia del ruolo materno, La Tartaruga, Milano 199 (The reproduction of Mothering. Psychoanalysis and Sociology of Gender, University of California Press, 1978). Mary Daly, Al di là di Dio padre. Verso una filosofia della liberazione delle donne, Editori Riuniti, Roma 1990 (Beyond God the Father: Towards a Philosophy of Women’s Liberation, Beacon Press 1073). Mary Daly, Quintessenza. Realizzare il Futuro Arcaico, Venexia- Le Civette Saggi, Roma, 2005 (Quintessence. Realizing the Archaic Future, Beacon Press 1998). Dinnerstein Dorothy, The Mermaid and the Minotaur: Sexual Arrangements and Human Malaise, Harper and Row, New York 1976. Dashu Max, Streghe e Pagane. Le donne nella religione popolare europea, 700-1100, Venexia, Roma 2018 (Witches and Pagans. Women in European Folk Religion, 700-1100, Veleda Press, 2016). Donini Elisabetta, La nube e il limite. Donne, scienza, percorsi nel tempo, Rosenberg&Sellier, Torino 1990. Donini Elisabetta, Conversazioni con Evelyn Fox Keller, una scienziata anomala, Eleuthera, Milano 1991. Eherenreich Barbara – English Deirdre, Le streghe siamo noi, Celuc Libri/La Salamandra, Milano 1975 (Witches, Midwives and Nurses and Complaints and Disorders, Feminist Press, New York, 1973). Eisler Riane, Il calice e la spada. La nascita del predominio maschile, Pratiche, Parma, 1987 (The Chalice and the Blade: our History, our Future, Harper and Row, New York 1987). Eisler Riane, Il Piacere è Sacro, Frassinelli, Milano 1995 (Sacred Pleasure, Sex, Myth, and the Politics of the Body, Harper San Francisco, 1995). Federici Silvia, Il grande Calibano. Storia del corpo sociale ribelle nella prima fase del capitale, Derive Approdi, Milano, 2009 (Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body, and Primitive Accumulation, Autonomedia, Brooklyn, NY, 2004). Federici Silvia, Il punto zero della rivoluzione. Lavoro domestico, riproduzione e lotta femminista, Ombre Corte, 2014 (Revolution at Point Zero: Housework, Reproduction, and Feminist Struggle, Common Notions Press, 20012). Federici Silvia, Reincarnare il mondo. Femminismo e politica dei “commons”, Ombre Corte, 2018. Gilligan Carol, Con voce di donna, Feltrinelli, Milano 1987 (In a different voice: Psychological Theory …
(Poem) Father Root by Sara Wright

My habit has been to hide once I know he’s around, to deny his presence, the fright that springs from every cell, my body on scream. I harm myself forcing me to do his will – ‘Keep going’ I screech cruelly, soundlessly, ‘so what if it hurts, You cannot afford to feel’. At 3 AM I shoveled ice with strength I no longer have driven by his demonic voice. He’d already murdered the day before. My grouse whose delicate spiral footprints brought joy to my heart became his first kill. After exhaustion hit he refused to let me shut the door. No boundaries for him, He’s coming in. He flies through the sky on smoke fouled air. Vulnerability is the crack he’s waiting for… a frightened woman excites his game. … A carpenter came today and couldn’t explain why the storm door refused to close. It took another predator sighting to identify who was behind the forced opening. He was coming in and wanted me to know it. Have I no defense at all? Paralyzed, my stomach churns Head aches, body can’t rest, a malignant force drones on. I expose him for who he is. I stand what I know. I pray to the Mother Root (Mary, Birds, beloved Tree) cast your circle around me. Three times three. Conjure up beneficent Man powers to stop him. Father Root. Stop him at the Threshold! Wield that thunderbolt. Cast your circle around me. Three times three. Banish him! Who would harm an old woman who seeks only peace, loves animals, plants, the Earth ? Only a Psychopath. Listen please – Help her please. She prays through poetry for your Grace. Postscript: this post had only been on my blog for about ten minutes when some caring person emailed me to ask if I was all right saying that the post evoked something scary in her. What follows is my response: Your gut response is probably associated with knowledge of the predator – we have so many on the outside these days, but this one is internal – and it’s important to name it, I think. It may be that this force is increasing in its ability to frighten, paralyze, or drive a person – I don’t know but I am aware that it is not just personal. Endless distractions and busy behavior are ways to hide from this presence in our lives. During the winter months it is especially active in me because it’s getting harder to take care of myself – and when this force is operating it pushes me to extremes. This woman names this predator force Patriarchy, and I must agree…. both women and men are struggling with this voice on the inside and the outside, and its worth repeating that it’s important to NAME it for what it is. The Predator, inside and out. (Meet Mago Contributor) Sara Wright https://www.magoism.net/2014/12/meet-mago-contributor-sara-wright/
(Poem) Yule Tree by Andrea Nicki

A man asks me to be the angel who tops his family tree, watches over humans comforts unhappy husbands the angel with low expectations: “men will be men” I buy myself a green, layered cape something to wear in my women’s creative dance class
(Essay and Poem) Becoming a Priestess of Isis by Jayne Marie DeMente

Jayne Marie DeMente, MA WS @ CIIS Book: Feminine Reformation; a goddess meta narrative. Founder of www.womensheritageproject.ning.com Co-host, online radio show, www.blogtalkradio.com, search Creatrix Media Live Director, Harlots Film Consortium: Matreya; the promise of a dark goddess. A rock opera. Priestess of Isis, Fellowship of Isis, Iseum of the Nubian Moon, https://sites.google.com/site/fellowshipofisiscentral Recently, I was Ordained as a Priestess of Isis and the experience was as mystical or magical as one can imagine. I was asked by Dr. Helen Hwang to write about the encounter so, as with many sages before me, I had to contemplate how to put this transcendental occurrence into real words. To begin, the Fellowship of Isis (FOI) is some 50 year old association begun by Olivia Robinson and her brother, who created a new Isis body of Liturgy and Rituals. I became aware of it when I met Hierophant Anniitra Ravenmoon of the Iseum of the Nubian Moon in Long Beach, California. At the time, I was the co-founder of Magdalene, a Women’s Spiritual & Cultural Arts Center in NoHo, California. We met at one of the Women’s Heritage Project thea/ology classes. We eventually became both friends and co-hosts of Creatrix Media Live, a monthly online radio show, interviewing guest experts on various topics of ancient and contemporary women’s spirituality, cultural arts and feminine social justice. During one of the radio episodes, when we were interviewing a guest, Isidora Forrest, regarding Isis, I brought up Nebhet’s December ritual. No-one online seemed to know much about it, and Anniitra, in true Priestess mode, decided to assign me the task of finding out more about this ritual practice. It is from this pearl of wisdom within Raven’s heart and in the heart of the Nebhet story itself (Egyptian Book of the Dead), that I began to feel energy towards entering into the fold of Isis. Until then, I pretty much followed the Hebrew Goddesses: Asherah, Lilith and Mary/Magdalene. Of course, having graduated from a Women’s Spirituality Program, at the California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, California – I was aware of the other goddesses belonging to most ethnic groups, but I personally felt “guided” by these archetypes. As I read about Nebhet and this special December 26th ceremony, led by Nebhet for her sister/sister-in-law Isis to renew the Priestess Queen and all the Priestesses of the temple, I experienced how women form sisterhoods or sister bonds. I missed ritual in my academic life and felt a real pull to become part of FOI. I really loved the fellowship between the other members as we met to re-enact this special ritual. I appreciated the various spiritual skills that each member brought to this now beloved occasion. Before I could voice these thoughts, Raven, again in MaMa Priestess mode, decided she was going to “train me” to be a Priestess of the Iseum of the Nubian Moon! Well, there you have it ~ the beginning of a journey that made me lighter and light-hearted. Every step was like a miracle. Carla Jones-Alt, a generous-souled member, offered her beautiful home for the ordination and agreed to be my guardian. Regina Barton, early LA Feminist and art curator, gave me a Moroccan robe with a matching fairy wand and I found a spiral pronged tiara at the Wymon Spirit Winter Goddess Festival in Long Beach; I was ready! Four skilled friends: Tantric Instructor Meloney Hudson (Positive Energy Woman), Rev. Catherine Wright, special FOI member Pat Taylor, and FOI Foremother Linda Isles (Bast; Cat Goddess of Ancient Egypt) called in the four directions. Meanwhile, Carla guarded over me in another room. De Traci Regula (The Egyptian Scarab Oracle) sang and I meditated. When it was my time, Anniitra called us in and as I entered the warm, fragrant room, I felt the dichotomy of being light as air but grounded and aglow. Stephania Ebony, as scribe, read my dedication to the Goddess. The love and support of guests were from the ancient but heartfelt bonds of sisterhood. Carla planned a sumptuous sit-down dinner that followed the ceremony that still makes my mouth water. Storyteller Gillian Cameron regaled us with one of her always entertaining and insightful pieces. Kat Robb placed the photos she took on Facebook and Regina made Raven and me photo memory books. Lastly, but certainly not least, our leader, Laura Janesdaughter (not attending due to health reasons), sent along a dozen irises to grace the altar. I believe that Anniitra sensed my need for community and I have to thank her – this passage had a profound effect on me and when she asked, I did not hesitate to accept. A recovered Christian, a confirmed Jew, I am usually a more cautious person about joining groups. If I were to analyze this event further, I would describe it like trying to define love: When someone asks you why you love her/him, it’s just indefinable in words. I can tell you that not much is required to join FOI other than to be a good person, love your sisters, honor the mother, love the earth, and participate in your community. You also will be asked to choose other deities to honor and guide you, under the umbrella of Isis. You don’t have to give up anything, feel bad about yourself, exclude others, be rigorous or change your diet or friends – just imagine! Lastly, I look forward to the future and what a community of sisters like this will add to my spiritual journey. Blessed Be. Deep in your warm waters Stardust impregnated your womb And I was born… Bonded to you then Remembering you now Oh Joyful Mother’s Day! I knew you as Creatrix, moon, sun and stars And sat in your tree of wisdom among The snakes and birds – I smelled the air And became strong, conscious and loved… I was almost destroyed when you were scarped And I was left helpless at the soul of violence Oh, unhappy knowledge… I have walked such a dry road …

(Special post) Laurie Baymarrwangga, Senior Australian of the Year 2012

Posted with permission in Return to Mago on ‘Australia Day’, 26 January 2014 (Australian time), in recognition of the ill-treatment and misunderstanding of Aboriginal people that was set in train when, in 1788, white people first settled in the land now known as Australia.
(Special Post 6) 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.] Esther Essinger “Why Goddess, when “GD” is perpetrating so much grief? 1) First, it’s vital to know that Goddess is NOT “GD” in a skirt. It is demanded of NO one that they “believe” or “have faith”, so there can be no guilt (and no punishment! (No Hell below us, thank you John) in NOT choosing to interest oneself in these particular Stories, myths, legends and tales which center the Cosmic Female, the Universal Mother, Mother Earth /Mother Nature at their core. No evangelism happening here!
(Special Post Mother Teresa 4) A Role Model for Women? by Mago Circle Members

Part IV: Illumination and Consensus Reached [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.] Diane Horton: [C], how is it that you do not see that MT had no right to sacrifice other people for any purpose whatsoever? None of us have the right or the place to “sacrifice those we care about” for anything. She was not “above them”. And she had abundant means to do far more for them, to cure and comfort them. If indeed she imagined she had some lofty motivation as you so fervently believe, to use the power she had to withhold medical care from the poverty stricken sick and dying in some misguided and ultimately cruel attempt to bring the world’s attention to their suffering and produce compassion within those who would not otherwise feel it is the most monstrous miscarriage of any expression of what you might refer to as “love” that I have heard of outside of Jim Jones killing all of his followers in Ghana. That’s not Love. That’s not Compassion. That is Manipulation, and manipulation is ego-based. Anne Wilkerson Allen: Yes. It is an indoctrination so deep and so prolonged that it takes a lifetime to overcome…and we rely on the love and compassion of others to help bring us to this understanding….thanks, Diane. Diane Horton: Love you, Anne. [C]: Is thinking that any human being sacrificing inside their very soul, their morals, & all that entails, is actually of lesser value than outside human pain, suffering, even death itself, right? Diane Horton: I’m not sure I understand the question really, but I’ll try a response: one’s inner and outer life are of equal importance because they are all the whole person.

(Slideshow) Summer Solstice Goddess by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

Sekhmet by Katlyn Each year between December 20-23 Sun reaches Her peak in the Southern Hemisphere: it is the Summer Solstice Moment. Poetry of the Season may be expressed in this way: This is the time when the light part of day is longest. You are invited to celebrate SUMMER SOLSTICE Light reaches Her fullness, and yet… She turns, and the seed of Darkness is born. This is the Season of blossom and thorn – for pouring forth the Gift of Being. The story of Old tells that on this day Beloved and Lover dissolve into the single Song of ecstasy – that moves the worlds. Self expands in the bliss of creativity. Sun ripens in us: we are the Bread of Life. We celebrate Her deep Communion and Reciprocity. Glenys Livingstone, 2005 The choice of images for the Season is arbitrary; there are so many more that may express Her fullness of being, Her relational essence and Her Gateway quality at this time. And also for consideration, is the fact that most ancient images of Goddess are multivalent – She was/is One: that is, all Her aspects are not separate from each other. These selected images tell a story of certain qualities that may be contemplated at the Seasonal Moment of Summer Solstice. As you receive the images, remember that image communicates the unspeakable, that which can only be known in body, below rational mind. So you may open yourself to a transmission of Her, that will be particular to you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syTBjWpw3XU Shalako Mana Hopi 1900C.E. (Hallie Iglehart Austen, The Heart of the Goddess), Corn Mother. Food is a miracle, food is sacred. She IS the corn, the corn IS Her. She gives Herself to feed all. The food/She is essential to survival, hospitality and ceremony … and all of this is transmuted in our beings. Sekhmet Contemporary image by Katlyn. Egyptian Sun Goddess. Katlyn says: Her story includes the compassionate nature of destruction. The fierce protection of the Mother is sometimes called to destroy in order to preserve well being. And Anne Key expresses: She represents “the awesome and awe-full power of the Sun. This power spans the destructive acts of creation and the creative acts of destruction.”- (p.135 Desert Priestess: a memoir).A chant in Her praise by Abigail Spinner McBride: Sheila-na-gig 900C.E. British Isles. (Hallie Iglehart Austen, The Heart of the Goddess). From Elinor Gadon The Once and Future Goddess (p.338): “She is remembered in Ireland as the Old Woman who gave birth to all races of human…. In churches her function was to ward off evil”, or to attract the Pagan peoples to the church. From Adele Getty Goddess (p.66): “The first rite of passage of all human beings begins in the womb and ends between the thighs of the Great Mother. In India, the vulva “known as the yoni, is also called cunti or kunda, the root word of cunning, cunt and kin … (the yoni) was worshipped as an object of great mystery … the place of birth and the place where the dead are laid to rest were often one and the same.” Getty says her message here in this image “is double-edged: the opening of her vulva and the smile on her face elicit both awe and terror; one might venture too far inside her and never return to the light of day …” as with all caves and gates of initiation. In the Christian mind the yoni clearly became the “gates of hell”. And as Helene Cixous said in her famous feminist article “The Laugh of the Medusa”: “Let the priests tremble, we’re going to show them our sexts!” (SIGNS Summer 1976) Kunapipi (Australia) “the Aboriginal mother of all living things, came from a land across the sea to establish her clan in Northern Australia, where She is found in both fresh and salt water. In the Northern Territory She is known as Warramurrungundgi. She may also manifest Herself as Julunggul, the rainbow snake goddess of initiations who threatens to swallow children and then regurgitate them, thereby reinforcing the cycle of death and rebirth. In Arnhem Land She is Ngaljod …” (Visions of the Goddess by Courtney Milne and Sherrill Miller – thanks to Lydia Ruyle). More information: re Kunapipi. NOTE the similarity to Gobekli Tepe Sheela Turkey 9600B.C.E., thanks Lydia Ruyle.Lydia Ruyle’s Gobekli Tepe banner. Inanna/Ishtar Mesopotamia 400 B.C.E. (Adele Getty, Goddess: Mother of Living Nature) She holds Her breasts displaying her potency. She is a superpower who feeds the world, nourishes it with Her being. We all desire to feel this potency of being: Swimme and Berry express: “the infinite striving of the sentient being”. Adele Getty calls this offering of breasts to the world “a timeless sacred gesture”. Mary Mother of God 1400 C.E. Europe (Hallie Iglehart Austen, The Heart of the Goddess). A recognition, even in the patriarchal context that She contains it all. Wisdom and Compassion Tibetan Goddess and God in Union. This is Visvatara and Vajrasattva 1800C.E. (Sacred Sexuality A.T. Mann and Jane Lyle). Sri Yantra Hindu meditation diagram of union of Goddess and God. 1500 C.E. (Sacred Sexuality A.T. Mann and Jane Lyle, p.75). “Goddess and God” is the common metaphor, but it could be “Beloved and Lover”, and so it is in the mind of many mystics and poets: that is, the sacred union is of small self with larger Self. Prajnaparamita the Mother of all Buddhas. (The Great Mother Erich Neumann, pl 183). She is the Wisdom to whom Buddha aspired, Whom he attained. Medusa Contemporary, artist unknown. She is a Sun Goddess: this is one reason why it was difficult to look Her in the eye. See Patricia Monaghan, O Mother Sun! REFERENCES: Gadon, Elinor W. The Once and Future Goddess. Northamptonshire: Aquarian, 1990. Getty, Adele. Goddess: Mother of Living Nature. London: Thames and Hudson, 1990. Iglehart Austen, Hallie. The Heart of the Goddess.Berkeley: Wingbow, 1990. Katlyn, artist https://www.mermadearts.com/b/altar-images-art-by-katlyn Key, Anne. Desert Priestess: a memoir. NV: Goddess Ink, 2011. Mann A.T. and …
(Essay) The Wheel of the Year and Climate Change by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

https://pagaian.org/pagaian-wheel-of-the-year/ The Wheel of the Year in a PaGaian cosmology essentially celebrates Cosmogenesis – the unfolding of the Cosmos, in which Earth’s extant Creativity participates directly, as does each unique being. The Creativity of Cosmogenesis is expressed through Earth-Sun relationship as it may manifest and be experienced within any region of our Planet. In PaGaian tradition this is expressed with Triple Goddess Poetry, which is understood to be metaphor for the creative dynamics unfolding the Cosmos. At the heart of the Earth-Sun relationship is the dance of light and dark, the waxing and waning of both these qualities, as Earth orbits around our Mother Sun. This dance, which results in the manifestation of form and its dissolution, as it does in the Seasons, happens because of Earth’s tilt in relationship with Sun: and that is because this tilt effects the intensity of regional receptivity to Sun’s energy over the period of the yearly orbit. This tilt was something that happened in the evolution of our planet in its earliest of days – some four and a half billion years ago, and then stabilised over time: and the climatic zones were further formed when Antarctica separated from Australia and South America, giving birth to the Antarctica Circumpolar Current, changing the circulation of water around all the continents … just some thirty million years ago[i]. Within the period since then, which also saw the advent of the earliest humans, Earth has gone through many climatic changes. It is likely that throughout those changes, the dance of light and dark in both hemispheres of the planet … one always the opposite of the other – has been fairly stable and predictable. The resultant effect on flora and fauna regionally however has varied enormously depending on many other factors of Earth’s ever changing ecology: She is an alive Planet who continues to move and re-shape Herself. She is Herself subject to the cosmic dynamics of creativity – the forming and the dissolving and the re-emerging. The earliest of humans must have received all this, ‘observed’ it, in a very participatory way: that is, not as a Western industrialized or dualistic mind would think of ‘observation’ today, but as kin with the events – identifying with their own experience of coming into being and passing away. There is evidence to suggest that humans have expressed awareness of, and response to, the phenomenon of coming into being and passing away, as early as one hundred thousand years ago: ritual burial sites of that age have been found[ii], and more recently a site of ongoing ritual activity as old as seventy thousand years has been found[iii]. The ceremonial celebration of the phenomenon of seasons probably came much later, particularly perhaps when humans began to settle down. These ceremonial celebrations of seasons apparently continued to reflect the awesomeness of existence as well as the marking of transitions of Sun back and forth across the horizon, which became an important method of telling the time for planting and harvesting and the movement of pastoral animals. https://pagaian.org/pagaian-wheel-of-the-year/ It seems that the resultant effect of the dance of light and dark on regional flora and fauna, has been fairly stable in recent millennia, the period during which many current Earth-based religious practices and expression arose. In our times, that is changing again. Humans have been, and are, a major part of bringing that change about. Ever since we migrated around the planet, humans have brought change, as any creature would: but humans have gained advantage and distinguished themselves by toolmaking, and increasingly domesticating/harnessing more of Earth’s powers – fire being perhaps the first, and this also aided our migration. In recent times this harnessing/appropriating of Earth’s powers became more intense and at the same time our numbers dramatically increased: and many of us filled with hubris, acting without consciousness or care of our relational context. We are currently living in times when our planet is tangibly and visibly transforming: the seasons themselves as we have known them for millennia – as our ancestors knew them – appear to be changing in most if not all regions of our Planet. Much predictable Poetry – sacred language – for expressing the quality of the Seasonal Moments will change, as regional flora changes, as the movement of animals and birds and sea creatures changes, as economies change[iv]. In Earth’s long story regional seasonal manifestation has changed before, but not so dramatically since the advent of much current Poetic expression for these transitions, as mixed as they are with layers of metaphor: that is, with layers of mythic eras, cultures and economies. We may learn and understand the traditional significance of much of the Poetry, the ceremony and symbol – the art – through which we could relate and converse with our place, as our ancestors may have done; but it will continue to evolve as all language must. At the moment the dance of dark and light remains predictable, but much else is in a process of transformation. As we observe and sense our Place, our Habitat, as our ancestors also did, we can, and may yet still make Poetry of the dance of dark and light, of this quality of relationship with Sun, and how it may be manifesting in a particular region and its significance for the inhabitants: we may still find Poetic expression with which to celebrate the sacred journey that we make everyday around Mother Sun, our Source of life and energy. It has been characteristic of humans for at least several tens of thousands of years, to create ceremony and symbol by which we could relate with the creative dynamics of our place, and perhaps it was initially a method of coming to terms with these dynamics – with the apparently uniquely human awareness of coming into being and passing away[v]. Our need for sacred ceremony of relationship with our place, can only be more dire in these times, as we are witness to, and aware of, …
(Art & Poem) Spring Equinox by Sudie Rakusin & Annie Finch

A SEED FOR SPRING EQUINOX . . . till I feel the earth around the place my head has lain under winter’s touch, and it crumbles. Slanted weight of clouds. Reaching with my head and shoulders past the open crust dried by spring wind. Sun. Tucking through the ground that has planted cold inside me, made its waiting be my food. Now I watch the watching dark my light’s long-grown dark makes known. Art and poem are included in Celebrating Seasons of the Goddess (Mago Books, 2017). (Meet Mago Contributor) Sudie Rakusin (Meet Mago Contributor) Annie Finch
(Video) A Samhain Ceremony by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVRoK2XNeqw The purpose of the video is for ceremony and I suggest pausing the video where it suits you, to add your own processing, embellishments and/or your own drum, percussion and voice wherever you please. I have made short spaces in the video where it could be paused. For more full participation in the ceremony, you could have some past photos of yourself, an altar with ancestor photos, a gingerbread snake, some apples sliced up, and some apple juice. The script for this Samhain ceremony is offered in Chapter 4 of my book A Poiesis of the Creative Cosmos: Celebrating Her within PaGaian Sacred Ceremony, with all acknowledgements and references there. However I want to acknowledge here the inspiration and some text of Robin Morgan’s poem “The Network of the Imaginary Mother” in her book Lady of the Beasts, for which I was given permission in my book. I also acknowledge here the paraphrase of some words by Starhawk in her book The Spiral Dance, used in the rite of Sailing to a New World. I also use a line from the poem Song of Hecate by Bridget McKern. The elements of Water, Fire, Earth and Air on the altar in this video are placed in directions that are appropriate to my region in the Southern Hemisphere, and East Coast Australia: you may place yours differently, and transliterate when I mention the direction (which I do minimally). For the rite of the Transformation Journey (remembering old selves) I use an adaptation of a children’s game “In and Out the Windows”, where each participant travels in and out of upraised and linked arms of the circle, and when ‘in’ may speak and /or show photos of themselves from the past. Some may choose to remember any self from the entire evolutionary story, with whom they would like to identify. The game seems appropriate to what each being does existentially in so many ways, over the eons as well as in our personal lives. The chant can be found on YouTube. The photos used are a collage of footage and photos from the 2024 Samhain ceremony at my place in Wakka Wakka country, South East Queensland Australia, and from previous Samhain ceremonies I facilitated over the decades in MoonCourt, Goddess ceremonial space in NSW Australia, Darug and Gundungurra country. Music credit: All music used in this video is by Tim Wheater, which has previously generously allowed me to use in my work. The pieces used are from Tim’s CD Fish Nite Moon: they are Ancient Footsteps, Fish Nite Moon, Spiritbirth, and Conception. I thank my partner Robert (Taffy) Seaborne for his participation in the creation of the video.
(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.
(Prose) Halcyon for the Season by Deanne Quarrie

A bird for this season is the Kingfisher, also known as the Halcyon. The Kingfisher is associated in Greek myth with the Winter Solstice. There were fourteen “halcyon days” in every year, seven of which fell before the winter solstice, seven after; peaceful days when the sea was smooth as a pond and the hen-halcyon built a floating nest and hatched out her young. She also had another habit, that of carrying her dead mate on her back over the sea and mourning him with a plaintive cry. Pliny reported that the halcyon was rarely seen and then only at the winter and summer solstices and at the setting of the Pleiades. She was therefore, a manifestation of the Moon-Goddess who was worshiped at the two solstices as the Goddess of Life in Death and Death in Life and, when the Pleiades set, she sent the sacred king his summons for death. Kingfishers are typically stocky, short-legged birds with large heads and large, heron-like beaks. They feed primarily on fish, hovering over the water or watching intently from perches and they plunge headlong into the water to catch their prey. Their name, Alcedinidae, stems from classical Greek mythology. Alcyone, Daughter of the Wind, was so distraught when her husband perished in a shipwreck that she threw herself into the sea. Both were then transformed into kingfishers and roamed the waves together. When they nested on the open sea, the winds remained calm and the weather balmy. Still another Alcyone, Queen of Sailing, was the mystical leader of the seven Pleiades. The heliacal rising of the Pleiades in May marked the beginning of the navigational year and their setting marked the end. Alcyone, as Sea Goddess protected sailors from rocks and rough weather. The bird, halcyon continued for centuries to be credited with the magical power of allaying storms. Shakespeare refers to this legend in this passage from Hamlet: Some say that ever ‘gainst that season comes Wherein our Saviour’s birth is celebrated, The bird of dawning singeth all night long; And then, they say, no spirit can walk abroad; The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike, No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm, So hallow’d and so gracious is the time. Hamlet, I, i 157 When I was a young mother, and my children were little, we lived in a house that had a creek in the back yard. There were small trees along the far bank of this creek and every day, a kingfisher would sit in the branches overlooking the creek. Sometimes he sat there very quietly for a very long time. Suddenly he would dive from his perch straight into the creek. Every time he did he came out and up into the air with a fish. It gave me great pleasure to watch him from my kitchen window. I love birds. I love learning about their habits because it teaches me ways of being that are closer to nature. I love drawing birds as well. When I was a young and more able, I was an avid bird watcher, out with my friends hoping for a sight never seen before. I love the story of the kingfisher and her connection to the Halcyon Days of the Winter Solstice. It is for most of us the busiest time of year. Whether it is for the Solstice or Christmas (often both) we are in a frenzy to get things done, making sure everything is just right and perfect. I celebrate the Winter Solstice. As a priestess, my days right now are very busy creating ritual. It is at the Solstice that many passage rites are happening with the women I work with. And of course, I celebrate with my family with our magical Yule Log each year. But I try to honor those seven days before and the seven days after by trying to have the frantic moments before the Halcyon Days begin and then even when busy, hold the peace and calm of that beautiful smooth sea in my mind. Peace and love and joy surrounding the Winter Solstice make it perfect. May the Peace of a Halcyon Sea be yours in this Solstice Season. Do hold the image of that little kingfisher in mind! Meet Mago Contributor, Deanne Quarrie

(Essay 2) 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.] CALENDARICS AND THE MAGOIST COSMOGONY Calendar is the harmonic numerological chart that indicates specifics of the terrestrial time/space relative to the extrasolar universe. As a cosmic almanac of our terrestrial home, calendar teaches the human world to do the right thing at the right timing, determined by the song/dance of the universe. We humans, part of the calendar, are the guardian of the calendar. Calendar is not and should not be an arbitrary arrangement invented to serve the purpose of a particular group of people, the Budoji says. It is
(Video) Gurang (Nine Goddesses), Gaeyang Halmi (Grandma Gaeyang), and Goddess Gom: Exploring Old Magoism in Korea by Helen Hwang

Meet Mago Contributor, Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D. Read (Photo Essay 5) Gaeyang Halmi, Sea Goddess of Korea.
(Bell Essay 3) The Ancient Korean Bell and Magoism by Helen Hwang

Part III Nipples and Breasts of the Ancient Korean Bell, Revival of Old Magoism in Silla (57 BCE – 935 CE) Female sexuality and the divine are seamless. The ancient Korean bell bespeaks the divine, derived from female sexuality. Emitting reverberation, it casts a spell on the hearer. It is the sound that connects one with the Goddess and with one another. However, lapse of time has never been neutral. It has wrought the change of gender principle in society and in human consciousness. The female principle is severed from the divine. The divine without regard to the female is only astray or make-believe. When the seamlessness is broken, the bell loses its power to enchant. The ancient Korean bell, as a time capsule, sets us to the task of undoing the gender reversal. Unfettering of the arcane knowledge of Magoism is the gain. In proportion to the patriarchal progress in East Asia, Magoism, the gynocentric historical and cultural context, has been submerged. The fact that Magoism remains unregistered is a sign that moderns have drifted too far from the Female Origin. As a result, the female symbology of the bell is rendered irrelevant, if not obsolete. The bell and Buddhism are dysfunctional, if not mismatched. Or, maybe the Sillans who commissioned the bells in the 8th century CE saw Buddhism differently. Keeping at bay what makes the bell as the bell — the female symbology, Buddhist patriarchs have set a maze, heading only to “nothingness.” The sonority of the bell travels to the ear of people. However, deep hearing is thwarted by the patriarchal concept of the divine. Part III begins to deprogram the patriarchal conceptual barrier by shedding light on the core of its female symbology, the Nipples, the Bell Breasts, and the Breast Circumferences. Four Dimensional Mandala Is Here The relief of Nipples depicted elegantly and realistically is an attention grabber. For fear of being mistaken for something else especially by the generation to come, Sillan ancestors named them yudu (breast nipples). To be certain, they named the seat of the nipples jongyu (bell breast) and the enclosure of the breast yugwak (breast circumference). Detailed and refined artistry radiates the spirit of honor and veneration. As seen below, the nipples come in various styles showing the mastery of the bell casters in metallurgic technology. [The following images of Nipples are from the bells of different periods including Silla. The structures of nipples and breasts remain the same throughout history, characterizing Korean bells.] Sometimes, the nipples are depicted as the studs of lotus blossoms. Other times they are seated in lotus petals. Less frequently, the nipples are rendered as flat lotus flowers, perhaps to mitigate the graphic look. Regardless, the viewer can’t miss the number of the Nipples, nine. The nine nipples are aligned in three rows of three in the Bell Breast, which is enclosed by the Breast Circumference. Considering that the triad is the symbol of Mago as Samsin Halmi (The Triad Goddess), the three rows of three represent the triad in all ways, horizontally, vertically, and diagonally. One is surrounded by the triad in all directions; an epiphany is stored to enact. Now the bell caster conjoins the number three symbol with the number four symbol. In ancient East Asia, the four corners represent all directions, that is, the whole world. Placed in four corners, thirty-six nipples in all (a set of nine nipples in four directions) represent the female occupying the whole world. Seong Nakju in his inquiry about the thirty-six nipples of an ancient Korean bell states that the first emperor of the Qin dynasty (the first state that united China) divided “the world” into 36 heavens in 221 BCE. (Seong Nakju, see below in Sources.) Unlike the rule of the first Qin emperor infamous for tyranny, the 36 Nipples hint at neither domination nor the hierarchical power of the patriarchal monarch. Instead, they saturate the whole world with the female anatomy. To be discussed at a later point, the nine nipples that came from the 8th century are a time-proven means through which we may enter the consciousness of the Bronze Age, if not earlier when they originated and of the times whenever they reappeared. The four dimensional mandala is revealed, biding its time to evoke one to the fifth direction. The bell delivers the triumph of the Goddess (female principle) to the world in an utterly outlandish manner! Her Way is peace, integration, and beauty. Behold, She is enthroned. Gom (Ungnyeo) and the Nine-State Confederacy of Old Magoism What does a set of nine nipples signify? What does it mean that the ancient Korean bell has four sets of nine nipples? In Magoism the nine nipples are not an isolated symbol. They are on a par with the nine-tailed fox and the nine dragons from East Asia. These are the ancient representations of the female divine. I have delineated elsewhere that the nine-tailed fox is associated with Xiwangmu (Queen Mother of the West) and the nine dragons with Gwaneum (Guanyin, Kannon). Other times, Goddess Herself manifests as of the nine forms. As I discussed, the nine maidens of Gaeyang Halmi, the Sea Goddess of Korea, is a good example (see “Gaeyang Halmi, the Sea Goddess of Korea,” Part IV). The nine-female symbology goes beyond East Asia. The concatenation includes the nine Muses, the nine forms of Durga, and the African Goddesses of Oya and Mumbi who are known to have nine daughters. As such, evidence of the nine-female symbolism is intense and cross-cultural. The recurring symbolism of nine in East Asia suggests the once prevalent mytho-history of Old Magoism. Old Magoism is characterized by the rule of Magoist shamans who invented and spread the gynocentric civilization of pre-Chinese East Asia worldwide. Precisely, the nine-female symbolism refers to Gom (Ungnyeo, Bear/Sovereign Woman), founder of the nine-state confederacy in pre-Chinese times (see Gaeyang Halmi, the Sea Goddess of Korea, Part V). In short, the framework of Magoism …