[Author’s Note: This essay was included in the journal, S/HE: An International Journal of Goddess Studies (Vol 3 No 1, 2024). Footnotes numbers here differ from those of the original article.]
Abstract This essay examines the skirt-motif Mago Halmi (Great Mother) cosmogonic folktales from Korea. Out of several hundred tales, I have sought 93 tales, which reference the skirt-motif. In the 93 skirt-motif tales, which come with placenames, Mago Halmi is said to have moved rocks and mountains in her skirt across lands and seas and shaped local topographies located in the current places wherein the stories are told. Given the immensity of data, I have chosen 21 sample stories and translated them for the investigation. In these stories, Mago Halmi is depicted as a giant and strong crone figure who shapes local strongholds, cairns, and megalithic structures apart from the natural constructs of mountains and rocks. The stylized narrative structure, which recurs throughout the Korean peninsula, bespeaks the glorious history of Magoism, the matriversal tradition of Old Korea, during which women held the socio-political-cultural leadership. On the one hand, the skirt is a metaphor for the cosmic womb, which underscores the female identity of the Creatrix. On the other hand, it is a modal prop to convey the principle of causal becoming; ALL is affected by all else and is in the process of becoming. Mago Halmi who carries landmasses in her skirt is susceptible to open possibilities. Sometimes rocks and lumps of soil leak from the cracks of her skirt to form the current topographies, for example. When all are co-related and caused by all else, we are revealed to the matriversal (of the maternally perceived universe) reality of WE/HERE/NOW. Beginnings as well as endings are taking place HERE and NOW in WE. By focusing on the cyclic origin of local landscapes, Mago Halmi folktales instill in their storytellers and listeners a particular type of consciousness that recognizes the consanguineous origin of ALL from the Creatrix – the Magoist Cosmogony. The folk persona of Mago Halmi, sometimes replaced with a historical or mythological female deity or a woman (a mother, a sister, a virgin, a sole-mother, and a widow), refers to the Magoma Divine (a merged divine character of Mago, the Creatrix, and Goma, the Heavenly Shaman Queen Mother). Importantly, the broad and rich information released by Mago Halmi folktales unearth the submerged layer of the Goma faith. With Goma exposed, the oral text of Mago Halmi cosmogonic folktales stands as a folk interpretation of the Magoist Cosmogony, the written account of the ever-present beginning in the Budoji (Epic of the Emblem Capital City). In short, Mago Halmi folklore and toponymy release the deepest layer of Magoist Cetaceanism (the Magoist veneration of Cetaceans), which underpins the Magoist Cosmogony. Aquatic-draconian-numerological-auditory themes show how pervasively Magoist Cetaceanism is permeated in Korean traditional folk culture.
Keywords Mago Halmi, folklore, toponymy, skirt, Goma, Magoist Cosmogony, Magoist Cetaceanism, Magoist thealogy, nine-numerology, dragon, whale, Cosmic Music, Sonic Numerology
Introduction
This essay examines overall characteristics of 93 Korean Mago Halmi (Great Mother) folktales concerning the skirt motif and introduces 21 sample tales. 21 stories are chosen because 93 folktales drawn from all provinces of South Korea (except for one tale from North Korea) are too many and too complex to discuss in an essay. Mago Halmi is told to have moved rocks and mountains in her skirt across lands and seas and shaped local topographies located in the current places wherein the stories are told. Intriguingly, these stories and placenames offer rich information not only about Mago Halmi (Magoist Cosmogony, Magoma Divine, and Magoist Cetaceanism) but also about socio-historical-cultural-geographical backgrounds. They offer raw data, which stand as the oral version of a Magoist thealogical encyclopedia.
Given the immensity of data, I have chosen 21 sample stories and translated them for the discussion. In these stories, Mago Halmi is depicted as a giant and strong crone character who shapes strongholds, cairns, and megalithic structures as well as mountains and rocks. Mago Halmi is sometimes replaced with a historical or mythological woman (a mother, a sister, a girl, a virgin, a sole-mother, and a widow). The skirt motif is a metaphoric device for the female identity of the Cosmogonist or the Cosmic Womb. Mago Halmi, the Cosmic Mother, is the Cause for ALL, her progeny. S/HE endorses the specificities of natural and cultural topographies. There is a deeper thealogical meaning. The skirt is a modal apparatus to convey the Magoist worldview that ALL is becoming in the ever-present timespace. ALL are not fixated in their past or present conditions. Future is open. Mago Halmi is not an exception. S/HE is susceptible to unfolding possibilities. Mago Halmi is attributed to the cosmic architect who has arranged natural and cultural topographies for the lives of humans. As an architect considers all possibilities in the process of building, Mago Halmi takes into consideration unfolding possibilities. Sometimes, she modifies her action upon hearing the construction of the original project is completed. Other times, rocks and lumps of soil are leaked from the cracks of her skirt to form the current topographies. And she gets distracted, gets upset, and gets tired out of which she modifies the course of her construction plan. These narrative apparatuses indicate an open-ended process of creation that takes place ever-presently according to the principle of causal becoming.
“Mago 麻姑” is not a name of a particular female deity from Korea or Daoist China. It is an Old Korean word for the Cosmic Mother or the Creatrix. “Halmi” is an intentionally crafted homonym to mean Great Mother, Grandmother, and Crone. S/HE is the Source and the Cause of ALL in the Matriverse (maternally perceived universe). In folktales, Mago is addressed as Mago Halmi, a collective utterance for the Magoma Divine, referring to the merged persona (Mago, the Creatrix, and Goma, the Heavenly Mudang Queen Mother or the Heavenly Hera). Put differently, “Mago Halmi” manifests as a multifold persona, featuring the Cosmogonist, the Cetacean Goddess, the Sole-Mother, the Sea Goddess, the Mountain Deity, the Dragon Mother, and/or the Magoist Luminary (Mage), to name a few.[1] That “Mago Halmi” refers to the divine characters of Goma is sobering. Through Goma, we have the perception of Mago, the Cosmogonist. Most importantly, this essay excavates the Goma faith from oblivion. Goma, better known as Ungnyeo (Bear/Sovereign Woman) among Koreans, has been subjected to misrepresentation and marginalization on a massive scale. Oblivion of Goma’s unparalleled divine identity has resulted in the oblivion of Magoist Cetaceanism. Goma, the Cetacean Goddess, laid the foundation for the civilization that we moderns have inherited. Her cetological intelligence derived from her alliance with cetaceans made it possible for her to carve out the socio-political-cultural institutions of the Danguk confederacy of Nine States (3898-2333 BCE), the second oldest confederacy of pre-patriarchal (read pre-Chinese) Magoist Korea. She manifests in myriad forms. Numerological and draconian associations are the hallmark of the Goma account. As the Teacher-Civilizer-Savior, Goma is the originator of the Magoist Cetacean Cosmogony, a brilliant and soteriological perception of the ever-present matriversal reality issued from the cetacean veneration of pre-Chinese East Asian/Korean Magoists.
The 21 sample stories release the ancient matriversal language of Mago Halmi folklore. The Mago Halmi folkloric language betrays penetrating intelligence/spirituality. The brilliant, humorous, and sobering mind unfolded in them demands a radical shift in our thinking so that we can understand what the female cosmogonist is about. There seem to be multiple doors open to the ancient mind of Magoists but how do we find them? I treat the skirt-motif Mago Halmi folk stories as a spoken language of Korean Magoists, the People of the Creatrix. They, spoken in the ordinary words by villagers, prompt hearers to be tuned with the matriversal consciousness of the Creatrix and to discover what saves us ALL. This essay is an endeavor to decipher the grammars, idioms, and symbols of the Magoist oral text built on the underpinnings of Magoist Cosmogony, Magoist Cetaceanism, and Magoist thealogy, as well as the mytho-history of Magoist Cetaceanism. I sense that Magoist Cetaceanism at the root of the Mago Halmi folkloric language points to an ancient esoterism, the submerged body of an iceberg. With this essay, I feel much is explained and exposed. But a lot more remains hidden and unarticulated. I have structured this essay in four sections: Introduction, Unpacking 93 Skirt-Motif Folktales, 21 Sample Folktales, and Concluding Remarks, leaving the rest to be written as a book. Appendix I shows the whole gamut of 93 skirt-motif folktales with the summaries for basic categories. Appendix II lists the original Korean data of 21 selected folktales. All translations are done by me.
(To be continued)
[1] Intriguingly, the skirt-motif folktales do not utter much about Mudangs (Magoist Shamans). That is because, I maintain, the stories are told from the perspective of Mudangs. Put differently, mudangs are the original story-makers and storytellers. Being told these stories, listeners are offered the lens of Korean Shamans. They become Magoists.