September 12, 2023November 18, 2024 Mago WorkLeave a comment

(K-Drama Review 1) Liminal Space/Time into WE: What Hotel del Luna Displays by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

[Author’s Note: Hotel del Luna is a 16-episode Korean television drama aired in 2919. Caution is required for the spoiler. This essay is prompted by this drama, which was discussed Read More …

June 6, 2023October 11, 2024 Mago WorkLeave a comment

(Mago Almanac Basics 1) What is the Magoist Calendar? by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

[Author’s Note: I have created 13 basics of Mago Almanac, which are included in Mago Almanac Planner for Personal Journey: 13 Month 28 Day Calendar (Volume 6), Year 6 or 5920 Read More …

December 14, 2021December 13, 2021 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Mago Almanac Planner Year 5 Excerpt 3) 13 Month 28 Day Magoist Calendar by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

[Author’s Note: This and its sequences are a newly added portion in the Mago Almanac Planner Year 5, equivalent to the Gregorian Year 2022. Because the Budoji did not explain Read More …

October 19, 2021November 2, 2021 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Mago Almanac Planner Year 5 Excerpt 1) 13 Month 28 Day Magoist Calendar by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

[Author’s Note: This and its sequences are a newly added portion in the Mago Almanac Planner Year 5, equivalent to the Gregorian Year 2022. Because the Budoji did not explain Read More …

December 29, 2020November 2, 2021 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Book Excerpt 2) Mago Almanac Planner by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.

[Author’s Note: This is Part 2 of the Preface. Read Part 1 of the Preface here.] PREFACE What Mago Almanac Planner Offers There is nothing more plainly indicative of the Read More …

November 5, 2020November 2, 2021 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Book Excerpt 1) Mago Almanac Planner for Personal Journey by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.

[Author’s Note: Year 4’s Mago Almanac celebrates the birth of Mago Almanac Planner for Personal Journey. The Magoist 13 month 28 day calendric movement has grown steadily and we welcome Read More …

June 10, 2020June 11, 2020 Mago Work Admin3 Comments

(Book Excerpt) The Budoji Workbook (Volume 1): The Magoist Cosmogony (Chapters 1-4)

Introduction [Author’s Note: WorkBook, The Magoist Cosmogony Volume 1 (Chapters 1-4): The Budoji (Epic of the Emblem Capital City in English and Korean Translations with the Original Text in the Read More …

January 20, 2020January 21, 2020 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Essay 2) Magoist Cetaceanism and the Myth of the Pacifying Flute (Manpasikjeok) by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.

Reversing the Reversed of the Buddhist Textual Erasure (Part 1) Among the many Sillan Magoist Cetacean expressions which stands out is the temple bell, traditionally known as the Whale Bell Read More …

October 29, 2019January 3, 2020 Mago Work Admin1 Comment

(Essay 1) Magoist Cetaceanism and the Myth of the Pacifying Flute (Manpasikjeok) by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.

Manpasikjeok (the pacifying flute that defeats all) is a legendary flute, purportedly made from a narwhal’s tusk, originating in the 7th century Silla (57 BCE-935 CE). King Sinmun (r. 681-692) Read More …

May 30, 2019August 6, 2021 Mago Work Admin3 Comments

(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 Read More …

May 14, 2019April 24, 2021 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(2018 Mago Pilgrimage) Peak of Nine Wells in Yeongam (Spiritual Rock), South Jeolla by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.

[Author’s Note: This essay comprises a summary report and its unfolding awakenings to be unraveled in sequences. I dedicate this essay to my 2018 Mago Pilgrimage companions, Narayani Ankh, Kate Read More …

April 25, 2019January 21, 2020 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Bell Essay 7) 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 Read More …

February 28, 2019January 21, 2020 Mago Work Admin2 Comments

(Bell Essay 6) The Magoist Whale Bell: Unraveling the Cetacean Code of Korean Temple Bells by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.

[Author’s Note: The part 6 and ensuing sequels are a new development from the original essay sequels on Korean Temple Bells and Magoism that first published January 11, 2013 in Read More …

(Book Excerpt 7) How to Live Well Despite Capitalist Patriarchy by Trista Hendren

Take Loving Your Body to the Next Level I have been working toward loving my body for a while now, but it is a process for me. Recently I picked up a book that was sort of woo-woo for me, but it hooked me—Liver Rescue. I had been working through a variety of health problems over the past year and but remained sluggish. In reading this book, I learned that most of us have compromised livers and can’t really afford to eat and drink like our parents and grandparents did—due to environmental and other toxins. I committed to a total cleanse and quickly felt much better than I had in years. This is paraphrased, but one of the things he wrote that really got to me was—if you knew how much your liver did for you, you would really love her and take care of her. He describes the liver as our “greatest ally, the one that’s been there for you all this time, the one working harder than anyone knows.”46 I loved the way he depicted our organs as friends and family members. It got me thinking that we really ought to be thinking about loving our bodies internally—instead of focusing so much on how they look from the outside. I have begun to think along these lines and it makes a profound difference in what I am willing to ingest. Sonia Johnson wrote, “To the extent that we can act as if we love our bodies, we create the essential and unique physical power we are here on the planet now to share with Earth’s body. Until we take our own bodies seriously, we cannot truthfully say we care about hers or anyone else’s, and we will be unable to help as we otherwise could when we are most needed.”47 As women, I believe we need to stop feeling selfish when we prioritize self-care. Margo Anand wrote, “Loving yourself does not mean being self-absorbed or narcissistic, or disregarding others. Rather it means welcoming yourself as the most honored guest in your own heart, a guest worthy of respect, a lovable companion.”48 I would love to see more women honoring themselves in this way. Think of all the lengths we go to when we know we have a special guest coming. Why don’t we reserve these efforts for ourselves? Why do we always save the best food and nicest atmospheres for everyone else? Sara Sophia Eisenman has an entire book dedicated to hair49—something I admit I had not given much thought to since I stopped dying mine. I liked her approach so much I bought a copy for my besties at Christmas. Sara taught me that hair is an extension of our energy, vitality and Goddess-essence. All women, I believe, could do a better job of self-care. Sara’s book took it to a whole new level—providing easy, do-it-yourself ways to pamper yourself that are inexpensive and can be done at home. I have come to realize that many women don’t feel all that great. I don’t believe we can live well while constantly battling our own bodies. I think a large part of this comes with the defragmentation we endure under patriarchy. Susun Weed put it this way: “Most people think wholeness is body, mind, and spirit. But as soon as you say ‘body, mind, and spirit,’ you’re no longer whole. You’ve just broken yourself up into pieces. What real wholeness is loving, accepting, and nourishing the parts of yourself that you find despicable.”50 Integrating all the different parts of our bodies and ourselves will bring us back to wholeness. I don’t want to continue to support a system where women are sliced and diced on Photoshop and still only make 77 cents on the dollar. As women, we cannot afford to support beauty expectations that harm us both collectively and individually. Find more info on this book here.(Meet Mago Contributor) Trista Hendren.
(Book Review) Novel About Hildegard by Mary Sharratt, reviewed by Judith Laura

Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard von Bingen by Mary Sharratt, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012, 272 pages, available beginning Oct. 9 in hardcover and as an e-book. Mary Sharratt’s fascinating historical novel, Illuminations, is written from the first person point of view of Hildegard von Bingen, a 12th century German Benedictine abbess, composer, poet, theologian, herbalist, and scientist, who recognized divinity in nature, opposed mortification of the flesh, and desired more freedom for herself and for her nuns. Ironically to some, her sainthood was made official last May by Pope Benedict XVI, who announced he will elevate her to”Doctor of the Church” on Oct. 7. The release date of this book is set to coincide with this elevation, granted to fewer than 40 saints, only 4 of whom are women. Author of four previous novels, the most recent of which is Daughters of the Witching Hill, Sharratt begins Illuminations with a prologue set in the year 1177 when Hildegard is 79. She and her nuns are burying on hallowed ground a runaway monk whom the archbishop has declared an apostate. As Hildegard awaits a decision on whether the burial will result in her being punished by the Church, she is visited by a young monk who apparently hasn’t heard of the controversial burial because it occurred while he was traveling to visit Hildegard. The purpose of his journey is to interview the abbess so he can write her vita. He asks her such questions as “…is it true that you bade your nuns to wear tiaras?” and “….Did I correctly understand that God appears to you as a woman?” Hildegard ponders how to respond to the monk’s questions as the prologue ends and, in Part I (“The Tithe”), the novel flashes back to Hildegard, age 5, the 10th child of a noble, but not very wealthy, family. Hildegard plays with her dolls, her older sisters, and her brother Rorich, suffers various illnesses, and begins to have visions. In Hildegard’s voice, here is the first one described in the novel: “A shadow passing overhead made me glance up to see an orb come floating out of the sunlight. A ball of spun gold, yet clear as glass. Inside grew a tree adorned with fruits as dazzling as rubies. The tree breathed in and out, as a living creature would.” Hildegard reaches for the orb, but “like a bubble, it burst.” After she asks her nursemaid Walburga and her mother where the orb has gone, Hildegard overhears them asking each other whether she is “mad, or simply bad?” Hildegard prays for the to visions stop, but they persist and some are prophetic. When she is 8, her mother explains that consistent with the custom of tithing 10 percent of one’s income to the Church, she is donating Hildegard, the 10th child, to the Church. This will be accomplished by Hildegard’s accompanying a young noblewoman of a wealthier family, the beautiful but troubled Jutta von Sponheim, to a monastery where they will be “anchorites,” walled into a small area called an anchorage beneath the monastery and given to understand that they will never be allowed to leave. In return for this “donation,” the Sponheims give Hildegard’s mother dowries for two of her other daughters. After the rite of anchorage on All Souls Eve, Hildegard compares her situation of being hidden away both to “being sealed in a tomb” and to that of “women in the glittering harems of the East.” As Jutta, who is a few years older than Hildegard, sinks deeper into starvation and other forms of masochism, Hildegard daydreams about escaping, possibly with the help of her brother. And she continues to have visions, which she keeps secret. The first night in the anchorage she sees a golden pulsing orb containing “a face like Walburga’s but not Walburga’s. A face bathed in tenderness, the Mother of my deepest longing….” who tells her, “….When the time is ripe, I will set you free….” During Advent, Hildegard remembers Walburga’s stories about the customs of her ancestors who were heathen and observed the Twelve Nights of Yuletide, “a time out of time when fate hung suspended…the Old Ones roaring across the midwinter skies: the Wild Hunter…in pursuit of his White Lady with her streaming hair and starry distaff….” As a winter storm rages outside, a vision comes to Hildegard: “… a white cloud bursting with a light that was live, pulsing and growing until it blazed like a thousand suns. In that gleaming I saw a maiden shine in such splendor that I could hardly look at her….Her mantle, whiter than snow, glittered like a heaven full of stars. In her right hand she cradled the sun and the moon. On her breast, covering her heart, was an ivory tablet and upon that tablet I saw a man the color of sapphire. A chorus rose like birdsong on an April dawn—all of Creation calling this maiden ‘Lady’. The maiden’s own voice rose above it… I bore you from the womb before the morning star.” The vision fades but the voice continues, telling Hildegard she is here for a purpose she does not yet understand. Then another vision, in which Hildegard is in “a greening garden so beautiful it made me cry out.” She hears the Lady’s voice again, this time whispering: “See the eternal paradise that has never fallen.” Hildegard then sees “a great wheel with the all-embracing arms of God at its circumference, the Lady at its heart. Everything she touched greened and bloomed.” Another vision follows on Christmas night, in which the image in the orb appears as Mother rather than Maiden; Hildegard calls this Mother, God. She speaks to Hildegard, saying, “I am the supreme fiery force who kindles every living spark. I flame above the beauty of the fields. I shine in the waters. I burn in the sun, moon, and stars. With the airy wind, I quicken all things….” Hildegard’s relationship with Jutta, her magistra (superior, teacher), is a very difficult one. Jutta teaches her to read and write in German and Latin and to play the psaltery, but her magistra also becomes increasingly distant as her health declines, apparently due to …
(Prose) The Rose by Louise M Hewett

A little girl brought me a rose and it seemed to be magical. I saw in it not simply a rose but a cry and a smile, a prophecy, and a question: what has become of my future? I saw in this intricate, sublime and holy pattern of petals, like vulva upon vulva so delicately perfumed so as to haunt body and mind, a vessel created out of its own being, each curve, each fold, each particularity perfect in a dance as whole, as a symbol of all that is worth dreaming of and living for – the ground wherein the rose will grow. And as I beheld the flower, tears were drawn up from a well inside me, a swelling, soaring crying inside of me. I had been holding on for days, and at that very moment, at my hand, an open page, my mind and body an open book, I read of a memory, a memory of ten million fish that would churn and arouse the waters for a long day as they came in. And in the sound of that in-coming memory a doorway was opened inside of me, body and mind, and the vast everything reached in and took my hand. What has become of my hope? The red rose, too pink to be a symbol of the blood I no longer bleed, its magenta akin to the laughing smile of a child, or a bleeding heart, the ache of the wound and the tending of which can become a great power of love, this rose spoke to me of another memory: that there would be some who would take that feeling, these words, this hope, my intention, and still twist it all into a sadistic need to justify the ritual pain and destruction. To destroy the whole through the part, as if the biome of our being was just a state of mind and not an earthy, moist and feeling, gasping, loving animal reality. And there, the rose showed me her sorrow. The little girl grown, aging, decaying. The rose opening, bursting, seeding, decaying. For some, that was terrifying, so terrifying it must be rendered, essentialised, the life extracted, the body controlled, squeezed, tested, made subordinate, spiritual, its shifting forms punished and denied, starved, desensitised. No. My tears silvered the velvet of her petals. My rose would not sit here gathering dust. She, and the little girl who gave her to me, and the little ever-living girl inside of me, would open and bloom and give and sigh and decay, and together we would inhale the perfume of the dance and die back, back, again and again, spiralling into the greater body, enlarged, giving and growing, back, back, returned to the origin, to the ground, the body, the great giving body – the one reality we all know and have denied. If a rose can whisper, she whispered to me, her hope carried in perfume: ‘Do not be afraid. I enfold your wounds. Breathe, unfold, and bloom. Give. Love.’ To give and to love are the dreams of Earth living through us. Let us dream, and love. Together. (Meet Mago Contributor) Louise M Hewett.
Floating by Dale Allen

Image art by Dale Allen Floating on my back in my home waters of Long Island Sound. Arms outstretched to each side. Complete Utter Relaxation. My Dad, Dan Morgan, used to do this. And then, he’d lie chest-down on the sand, head resting on his arms that were up and crossed under his cheek, feeling the warmth and support of the beach. I always liked seeing the way he knew how to relax and really feel pleasant experiences. He was lots of fun at the beach, too. My brother, Doug, and my younger sister, Lee, along with a collection of childhood friends, would surround him in water that was waist deep for him. He’d submerge underwater, kneeling on one knee, while the other bent leg provided a step for us to climb up and then swing ourselves around to stand on his shoulders. This was very cool for us kids! And then, a big jump forward to splash into the water! “Again!” We all took many turns. And Dad always included any nearby kids that looked on hopefully for a turn. He always included everybody’s kids. My Dad is my second father. He came into our lives after my father, Allen Schmid died when I was 3 1/2 years old. When I was almost 5, my mother remarried. At 37, long-time bachelor for that era, Dan Morgan married my widowed Mom and came, heart-wide-open, into a family of four children who had all experienced the loss of their father. After they married, we left the house my father had built and moved into a new house in town. About 2 1/2 years after they married, my younger sister was born. My beautiful baby sister. My Mom and Dad kept my father’s tradition of having a family boat for summer weekends on the water. We’d fill that boat with food and even more family and friends… these long summer days were wonderful! As I’m floating, I’m one with the gentle rhythmic motion of the waves. I am the waves. I am the Sound. I am the Atlantic Ocean. My Dad came from an Irish-American family of six boys, who were legendary for their antics and humor – legendary! I have a newspaper clipping of a story about their giant pet pig, “Frankie” who got loose and ran around town. Everyone chased and called for the pig around town until finally it ended up in woman’s kitchen, having been drawn in by the smell of blueberry pie. “Morgan Pig Goes Berserk” was the headline. But they also had a built-in, old-fashioned respect. I still love parades and decorum, like my Dad did. My Dad brought that Morgan humor into a family that needed it. He rolled with all of the unsettled emotions of his new family. He rolled with everything. And my father’s memory had plenty of welcome room to be a part of our lives too. My Dad’s mother, Grandmother Morgan told me as a little girl, “I told Gerald…” (She looked upward to indicate her deceased husband’s presence beyond.) “I told him that I would have a blond-haired little girl. He said, ‘Ann, you have six sons!’ But I told him that I would. And see…” (She looked up again and this time pointed a finger at her husband.) “I was right! Here she is!” And then she hugged me. Many, many times she would invite me to tea. I’d delight in selecting my own tiny teapot from her vast collection. She’s fill with it with tea, and we’d sit and talk at her small table in the kitchen. She made a little girl feel very special, and I learned a lot listening to stories of her world travel – solo travel – which was very unusual for the time. My father’s mother, Nana Schmid, after her son died and my Mom remarried, introduced my Mom and Dad to others saying, “This is my daughter, Ellie and her husband, Dan.” We’d all visit them in Delaware where they’d moved. We’d soak in everything we could get from them in word, artistic skill, woodworking, sewing, pug-dog-loving, Pop-Pop-humor that would sneak-up on you and delight you – and a very special kind of Nana-love that filled every nook and cranny. Part of that filled-up feeling was their love for our full family then – all of us. My mother’s mother, Grandma Wachowski who came from Poland as a girl, loved everyone in her own shy way. She was shy, but dependable like the ground that holds us up, and from which everything springs. She had fortitude, inner courage, commitment, and love. She runs like a low hum in me. All five of us children belonged equally to all three sets of grandparents. And we all belonged to each other equally. Everyone belonged. Our extended full family stories are abundant and rich. There are triumphs, there are tragedies, there are countries to leave, there are losses and gains, and there is humor, and music, and family feasts, and noisy gatherings.… Of all the stories, it’s the humorous stories we tell over and over. With each wave, I breathe in the memories and visions. My human body floats in the water, the amniotic fluid of the earth… the earth I came to, and of which I am made. We are all made of the Earth where life ever bursts forward in a cycle of birth, growth, death, renewal. Life, unstoppable. All around us in nature we see these cycles. We see nurturing to support the next generations – in trees, plants, birds, insects, animals. We are made of this. Floating, I am one with the ocean. All of the fish and whales and dolphins swim through it, as if suspended. It’s like the Universe. The stars seem suspended as they move outward with the ongoing expansion of the cosmos. I am the Universe. There are no questions here. No one is missing. We came to Earth, and we are of the Earth. From …
(Announcement) Mago Wickedary of Goddess Feminist Activism, 4 Year Projects

Dear RTM Contributors and Readers, Upon our 5th anniversary on August 15, 2015, Mago Books is pleased to announce a practice of Maternal/Gynocentric Gift Economy in the form of Gynapedia/Mago Wickedary of Goddess Feminist Activism. Mago Books seeks encyclopedic articles on (1) persons/organizations, (2) feminist/gynocentric notions, (3) animals/plants/nature. These articles will be first published in Gynapedia, Online Gynocentric Encyclopedia. We aim at publishing them as three books in the form of E-Books and/or Print Books within the coming 4 years by Sept. Equinox of 2021. On a perennial basis, one can become Author for Gynapedia and create pages. Please find the proposal form below and submit it accordingly. What is the Gynapedia/Mago Wickedary Project about? It is one of the things that we CAN do in the face of ever-accelerating patriarchal assaults. We trust that the speed of our minds/hearts/souls runs faster than that of the former. The project is conceived as an extension and continuation of the Mago Gift Work aligned with Maternal/Gynocentric Gift Economy. Ultimately, we do this to give ourselves, communities, and the terrestrial eco-community what we are universally given by our mothers, ancestors, and the Cosmic Mother. Advocating the Gift Economy, Genevieve Vaughan writes, “We are born into a Gift Economy practiced by those who mother us, enabling us to survive. The economy of exchange, quid pro quo, separates us from each other and makes us adversarial, while gift giving and receiving creates mutuality and trust.” The project of Gynapedia/Mago Wickedary of Goddess feminist activism aims at channeling the Sisterly dynamic (Inter-cosmic Sisterhood) in which one’s self-motivated giving/sharing for the cause of ALL in WE empowers both the receiver and the giver, the Original Dynamic of the Creatrix. Simply put, we aspire to host the Metamorphic Nature of the Gift Economy; our giving/sharing of gifts/talents/resources transforms us all and saves the inter-specieal terrestrial community (Yes, we humans are responsible for the survival of animals, plants and nature as well). Outcome of such dynamic is Sisterly trust and bond that animate all in WE. In this mechanism, we experience the divine providence of our giving and receiving, which guides us into an ever-deepening commitment to look after the Whole. The term, Wickedary, is borrowed from Mary Daly’s Websters’ First New Intergalactic Wickedary of the English Language in Cahoots with Jane Caputi. As the title suggests, Mago Wickedary is propelled by the vision of Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, advocate of Magoism who was immensely influenced by Mary Daly. Gynapedia/Mago Wickedary of Goddess Feminist Activism is perceived as the third type of the collective writing project that the Mago Work has undertaken after She Rises series and Celebrating the Goddess series. Project Categories (not in priority order): (1) Persons and organizations (writers, researchers, advocates, poets, artists, musicians, and others) (2) Feminist/gynocentric notions (3) Animals, plants and nature Publishing Media: Gynapedia (Free Online Gynocentric Encyclopedia), E-books, and/or Print Books Deadline: Ongoing till Jan. 31, 2021. Primary Deadline Jan. 31, 2018. The Persons and Organizations Category: This book will build on the bio data of Mago Work collective writing projects’ contributors including She Rises Volume 1 and She Rises Volume 2, Celebrating Seasons of the Goddess Volume 1, Return to Mago E-Magazine, Mago Pool Circle and Gynapedia but does NOT exclude other Goddess feminist activist writers, artists, poets, researchers, advocates, musicians, educators, and others. Proposal Form for all three categories: 1. Your name, country/state/city of residence 2. Contact email, and/or website(s) 3. Categories of your articles (one may write for multiple categories): (1) Persons and organizations (writers, researchers, advocates, poets, artists, musicians, and others) (2) Feminist/gynocentric notions (3) Animals, plants and nature 4. List of your accomplishments (briefly describe them in the spirit of Gift Economy, if appropriate) 5. Please indicate if you can create page(s) in Gynapedia directly. If so, list your online article(s) instead of below. If you do not wish to become a Gynapedia Author, please refer to below: Proposed entry word count: up to 2000 words (include URLs for interlinking) Font: Times New Roman (12 font size, 1 spaced) Style: Chicago Style, footnotes (if applicable) Illustrations: As attachment of jpg files (must be 300 dpi) Submission: Email submission only, to Dr. Helen Hye-Sook Hwang magopoolcircle@gmail.com (State “Gynapedia/Mago Wickedary Proposal” in the subject line of your email. Proposal Form for Persons and organizations: Write the summary of your biography (no more than 100 words strictly) AND answer the proposal form below (all together 1000 words). Attach your self-photo image and/or a couple of other images in your email. Please use the following proposal form (you may answer them selectively). 1. Your name, country/state/city of residence 2. Contact email, and/or website(s) 3. Your area of specialty (research, fiction, non-fiction, poetry, prose, art, photography, advocacy, social movement) 4. List of your accomplishments (briefly describe them in the spirit of Gift Economy, if appropriate) 5. What makes you become a Goddessian, feminist, and/or activist? 6. How did you come to arrive at where/what you are as a Goddessian, feminist, and/or activist? 7. As a Goddessian, feminist, and/or activist, what do you aspire for yourself, the young, and/or the world? 8. Something that you want to give/share with the Goddess feminist activism community and/or the world. 9. Please indicate if you can create page(s) in Gynapedia directly. If so, list your online article(s) instead of below. If you do not wish to become a Gynapedia Author, please refer to below: Proposed entry word count: up to 2000 words (include URLs for interlinking) Font: Times New Roman (12 font size, 1 spaced) Style: Chicago Style, footnotes (if applicable) Illustrations: As attachment of jpg files (must be 300 dpi) Submission: Email submission only, to Dr. Helen Hye-Sook Hwang (magopoolcircle@gmail.com) (State “Gynapedia/Mago Wickedary Proposal” in the subject line of your email.) Mago Books is seeking volunteer Authors and Coeditors for these books as well as Gynapedia. Please contact Dr. Hwang (magoism@gmail.com). In gratitude of RTM Editorial Volunteers! Support The Mago Work/The Mago Pod!
(Art) Lilith with Bird II by Glen Rogers

Glena Rogers, Lilith with Bird II, Monoprint, 22″ x 14″ Artist Glena Rogers honors women and the sacred feminine in her paintings, monoprints and drawings. Her figures radiate independence, as they acknowledge the arbitrary barriers and obstacles that women encounter in their lives. In this visionary world, women hold a shared wisdom as divine creators and, through ritual and ceremony, reclaim ancient rites of passage. In this monotype print, the disparaged figure from the Bible, Lilith, is in her power – communing with the Spirit Guide on her shoulder. https://www.magoism.net/2021/01/meet-mago-contributor-glen-rogers/
(Essay) Counting to Three by Hearth Moon Rising

The following is an excerpt from Divining with Animal Guides: Answers from the World at Hand by Hearth Moon Rising, recently published by Moon Books. It is available online in paperback or ebook form and at your bookstore. When I was beginning my study of the occult I was taught to avoid even numbers in favor of the odd. Odd numbers allow for continuity, I was told. In ceremonies of some Native American tribes I observed that leaders tended to avoid odd numbers and favored the numbers four, six, and twelve. Even numbers provide stability, I was told. When I began studying feminist witchcraft I was told the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) were patriarchal because they were dualistic, and therefore inevitably fell into harmful dichotomies of good/evil, heaven/hell, enlightenment/ignorance, etc. While exploring Taoist spirituality I learned that the number two was complementary, simultaneously creating the paradoxical qualities of tension and balance, thereby leading to wisdom. When I looked into Vedic philosophy the number two was out (dualism again) and the number three was exalted because it described the infinity inherent in the cycles of creation, sustenance, and destruction. Numeric philosophy differs according to ethnicity, and there are obvious pitfalls in naively mixing and matching symbology without respecting the underlying structures. At the same time, what strikes me about the above scenarios is that they do reflect a common understanding about the nature of numbers, with the differences more reflective of cultural values than with disagreements about the basic qualities of numbers themselves. This is to be expected, since numbers themselves are real things, not cultural constructs, even if the language of mathematics is constructed. A dozen eggs is a dozen eggs, anywhere in the universe. Stating a preference for odd numbers as agents of “continuity” is professing a value for progress over tradition. Using odd versus even numbers in your shamanic practice depends on whether you view your work as promoting change or maintaining balance. Western magical traditions are built on number systems with European, Semitic, Sumerian, and Egyptian origins. Semitic cultures revere the number two, European the number three, Egyptian the number four, and Sumerian the number seven, although these systems do not revolve around a single number. If you’re thinking this could get complicated, you’re right, but we will concentrate on basic qualities of the numbers themselves and avoid getting unduly bogged down in cultural contradictions. One This is the number for the all-that-is: Creator, Goddess, or Great Mother. The wholeness of the number one is exemplified in the circle, which has no angles or sides; no beginning or end. The fundamental reality of the number one is easy to grasp intellectually, even if it is harder to understand experientially. This number must be feminine, since it contains everything and gives birth to all other numbers by division of itself. In other words, one is the parthenogenetic number. The majority of numeric systems seem to divide numbers into masculine and feminine, a practice I disagree with, but with the first number the feminine is inescapable. The number one will usually not be relevant in a predictive sense, unless you run across an individual animal that is usually paired or grouped. Then you must ask yourself, why only one? Two This is a highly unique number, because it is the only positive whole number that does not exist in the scope of totality. When one splits itself into two parts there are now two entities individually, plus the entities as a whole, making three. This is synthesis, in Taoist terms the resolution of Yin and Yang. Two is the polarity that as a whole becomes a unified field. Two is the number of the couple, yet in marital counseling the therapist views the relationship as an important third element rather than conceptualizing the couple as two individuals. Despite what I said earlier about even numbers being more stable, two is a highly unstable number. Think of a teeter totter or a pendulum: this number seeks balance but is easily pushed into disequilibrium. Two is the number of the twins, who seek both association and individuation. Stories of divine twins abound in mythology around the world. So do stories of divine couples. Before monotheism won out, the Hebrew ruling divinity was a mother-father pair, El and Asherah. The concept of masculine and feminine divinity reasserted itself later in Jewish mysticism with the Kabbalah. Another common pairing in Western mythology is mother-child (Frigga and Baldur; Demeter and Persephone) and same-sex friends (Gilgamesh and Enkidu; Athena and Pallas). With the number two, think attraction, repulsion, resolution, individuation, sameness, opposites, and a lot of contradictory concepts that are hard to wrap your mind around. I said it was an unstable number. It is also the only even prime number. Although some numbers, such as one, three, and nine, will have strong Goddess associations, I caution against automatically applying a masculine/feminine dichotomy to numbers. The number one as the totality of everything must be female, or there could be no birth; otherwise, there is no fundamental reason for sexing a number. Three Now we get to the critical number for those of European heritage, possible proof that pagan programming endures underneath all that Christianization. Ask a Jehovah’s Witness for their thoughts on the word “trinity” and you’re bound to get an earful. The Father/Son/Holy-Ghost triad (“God in Three Persons; Blessed Trinity,” as we sang in church when I was growing up) has no scriptural basis and was introduced because Europeans simply could not stop thinking in threes. “Why do we always give three referrals,” a social work colleague of mine mused aloud one day. “Why don’t we give two or four or five?” The answer is, because of the three blind mice, and the three little pigs, and the third time’s the charm. There, I just gave three answers to a question with three parts; try to stop thinking and talking in threes for three days and you’ll understand how pervasive this …
(Video) SF Open Studio features Cynthia Tom by Cynthia Tom

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_L8MIy7kO4 In lieu of visiting Cynthia’s studio in 2020, we provide a short glimpse at her studio and her work. Enjoy. Created by ArtSpan Open Studios – San Francisco to address the pandemic pivot. https://www.cynthiatom.com – Original artwork, events, newsletter https://www.atelierCynthiaTom.com – Merch as Meditation. Products with a Purpose (artistic products for your home, body and soul) @Cynthiatom.art BIO 30+ years as a Community focused Artist/ Curator and Workshop Creator: Art-making for healing as Protest. Social Justice and Equity, Spirituality and Healing Cynthia,integrates her cultural roots and community needs to drive Social Change. A 3rd generation Chinese American, native San Franciscan, he is the Founder of A PLACE of HER OWN: An Arts based healing program for womxn of color. She creates art and workshops to help inspire healing journeys of self-exploration and claiming our authentic selves. Her art and curatorial projects have been exhibited in The Smithsonian 2020 “What is Feminist Art” and permanent archives. In San Francisco: Legion of Honor, De Young Museum, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Thoreau Center, SOMArts Cultural Center, California Institute of Integral Studies. Internationally in Portugal and Barcelona, nationally at the Marin Museum of Contemporary Art, Rutgers’s University, Los Gatos Museum of Art, Woman Made Gallery- Chicago, etc. Curatorial awards: de Young Museum Residencies, SOMArts Curatorial Fellowship, Asian American Pacific Islander Cultural Center. Cynthia’s art appears in text books, Women Artists’ of the American West. Univ of Purdue, Susan Ressler and Asian American Art in Post-Colonial Times_ University of Padua, by Dr. Laura Fantone-Professor SF Art Institute. Features include New York Time’s SF Arts Monthly, Center for Asian American Media, SF Chronicle, Psychology Today, Marin Independent Journal, Digital Journal.com, KPFA and KPOO radio. Her work is represented by California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives and the Smithsonian Archives of American Art collections. She lectures at UC Berkeley, SF STATE and Ca College for the Arts. https://www.magoism.net/2021/07/meet-mago-contributor-cynthia-tom/embed/#?secret=fDs2B6tjix
(Prose & Art) The Magnificent – The Last Great Whale, The Mother of All by Noris Binet

Art by Nois Binet One shining morning I was standing on a deck looking at the waters of the Pacific. I don’t recall how I got there but because the ocean holds the purity of all forms for me and a sense of wonder, its vastness always takes me in as if I am a newborn, full of amazement. There is no particular time for me to be at the ocean; any time is a great time. When I cannot be there for a long while, it’s as if I am being deprived of life’s sustaining energy. At the ocean I feel that I am before the beginning of all of life’s creation. On this auspicious Sunday I was alone but aware of people moving about in a holiday spirit on the wharf, browsing the restaurants and shops nearby. Suddenly right in front of me a couple of medium-sized whales appeared jumping and playing. I was delighted just to watch them as they moved freely, frolicking in the waters with so much ease. I was only fifteen to twenty feet from the young mammals and the deck was only a few feet higher than the water. When they slipped back below its surface I stood mesmerized by their beauty, their sleek skin and the magnificence of their sheer size. How lucky I thought, to be able to witness them that closely, almost in reach of my hand! I felt so privileged at that moment realizing that I was part of… And before I could finish the thought I was impacted by the force of a huge, archaic marine creature, which emerged from the ocean with such might that the water spilled out from her jump, wetting my face and clothes. I was in awe, shaken, and thrilled to be in the presence of such an amazing being, before whom I could neither move or do a thing and thus became absolutely still at such greatness and wild presence. The wetness covering my face felt glorious as if it was a baptism of some kind and now I realize that it was just that! This magnificent creature from the mysterious depth had baptized me. Her mammoth proportions overwhelmed my senses to such a degree that I knew that I could never be the same after this startling encounter. It is impossible to meet “the magnificent” without being transformed. What is this? Who is this? All my questions fell away as my eyes were transfixed upon her, being totally hypnotized by this grandiose energy that felt so primal and ancient as the original mother of all life. I was fully present and entered into a timeless-time without beginning or end realizing that that moment is still here with me now. I wanted to capture her in form; and be able to see her image over and over. This fascination overtook me so that I couldn’t but take a pencil and begin to sketch her from memory. Despite my immediate self-doubt about replicating her form, the magnificent creature emerged from the paper without struggle exactly as she appeared to me, spontaneous and free. Drawing her allowed me to be with her and to see the details that were imprinted on the depth of my psyche, without me even knowing it. Amazing revelations have begun to happen as her primordial energy continued to take form, communicating slowly why she came to see me. I am unable to unveil the details of her communication because it is a process that is unfolding intra-psychically and thus can’t be named or conceptualized. It can only be felt. And that, I can share: It feels like a resurrection; as if deeper forces that were dormant have begun to resurface to lead me through a world of symbols, the meaning of which can only be revealed when they are experienced, not before. It is moving in the unknown only following inner impulses, before the defining thoughts of what is happening have emerged in the mind. As I began to research whether anyone had seen this being before, or whether there are tales about her, I found that no one had seen her exactly as did I. Yet cultures all over the world consider whales as the “earth’s record keeper for all time, inspiring us to listen to the inner voice”. “The whale’s being is associated with the wisdom and awareness of the spiritual realm, blending the conscious and the unconscious into an undivided whole.” Throughout my life I have felt compelled to dwell in the depth of the psyche. I have come to realize that as I navigate in the emotional depth of the unconscious world that I can swim with “the magnificent” without being totally overwhelmed by her power. Instead, I am guided by her beauty and serenity. When I am able to allow her energy to express itself in me I can move without resistance in the fluidity of this life. I can come out to breathe and the experience of the breath can be a moment of illumination. As the record keeper “the great Whale” came to me knowing what is necessary for my maturation to unfold and to guide my entry across the threshold of my own transmigration. Her energy brought about my realignment with the full expression of creativity and spiritual awakening as the ultimate purpose of this life. She was the last archaic, gigantic whale wandering, looking for me in the great vastness of the ocean and now we are together. Now, she has come home. She lives deeply within myself and within yourselves, ready to be activated, embracing us as The Magnificent, the great Mother of all. © 3/23/15. Sonoma, CA (Meet Mago Contributor) Noris Binet.

(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) Why I choose to be an RTM contributor by Glenys Livingstone

The contribution of my writing to Return to Mago E-Magazine has evolved since it began four years ago, into a deeply mutually enhancing relationship. The time and effort taken to write carefully and in alignment with my heartfelt passions and insights, and then to be able to publish to a receptive audience, has always been rewarding – for me personally and apparently for many who received it.
(Special Post Isis 3) Why the Color of Isis Matters by Mago Circle Members

[Editor’s note: The discussion took place in Mago Circle during the month of July, 2013. Our heartfelt thanks go to the members who participated in this discussion with openness and courage.] Part 3 Isis, Arab Women Revolution, and Black Goddesses Naa Ayele Kumari Going back to the original topic of the post…. Some quotes ” Women are in half the society… How come there are only 7 in the Assembly… and they are all Islamist! ” I can’t beat up my wife and almost kill her and call it discipline… this is not discipline… this is abuse and insanity” http://youtu.be/y4umifTLSII 12-Year Old Explains Egyptian Revolution in Under 3 Minutes www.youtube.com Max Dashu It is tremendously heartening to see these insights being expressed, and spread. The Salafis have made such inroads, and now the pushback is happening. Harita Meenee Dear Naa Ayele Kumari, thank you actually reading my post and commenting something relevant to it. It’s refreshing when someone does hear what we have to say instead of projecting their own notions. Building a solidarity movement with those who are oppressed but fighting is very important during these critical times! Harita Meenee See also: https://www.facebook.co/intifadat.almar2a?fref=ts The uprising of women in the Arab world انتفاضة المرأة في العالم العربي حرية الفكر ، حرية التعبير ، حرية الاعتقاد ، حرية التنقل ، حرية الجسد ، حرية اللب…See More Glenys Livingstone … as you say Max …” way too much of it going on” – amongst people who should know better (I would have thought): “Dark goddess as terrifying, challenging, white goddess as benign; “black magic” as harmful; I see way, way too much of this going on out there.” And related to that in my mind is all the “love and light” business that is so common: the Ground of Being is Dark … it seems to me that mystics have always understood the quintessential darkness of Love/Deity. Max Dashu Sure. I would just like to add that the critique raised here addressed issues much broader than the substance of the article, which made some good points. But once the choice of graphics flagged the issue of representation, people had much more to say about that old yet still very fresh wound which is constantly reopened by the cultural habit of whitening Egypt, or interpreting Africa through a eurocentric lens. It is not on any one person to carry the weight of that; we all have a responsibility to address the issues, but especially those of us of European heritage need to familiarize ourselves with how this plays out over and over. Just as men have a responsibility to speak up in support of women when patriarchal assumptions are on board. We all can learn something from each other, along all the various axes of domination, and overthrow them in coalition. Naa Ayele Kumari I have often considered where the roots of this psychology comes from. It is dualistic thinking that causes us to compare and contrast, then sum up judgement of good or bad and place a value on each. It extends into competition and justification for war. It also doesn’t escape me that often this came with certain civilizations who systematically destroyed others. It didn’t just happen with blacks in Africa… but blacks in Asia and the Indus Valley as well. With the Aryan invasions of India, came the eventual introduction to lighter divinities and more emphasis on male divinities. Southern Indians, Sri Lankans are very dark… even more so than many African Blacks. The caste systems implemented by the Aryan invaders did the same thing to them casting them as “untouchables”. With that came the marginalization of their black female divinities such as Kali. Kali actually has 10-16 forms… from compassionate mother, the fountain of wisdom, to she of great beauty but she is minimized as just destructive and terrifying… especially as Brhaman, Vishnuu, and Shiva grow in popularity. One of Kali’s statues has her black self standing on top of Shiva because she conquered him. Later there is a discussion in on of the Hindu text explaining Kali (as Parvati) after being subdued by Shiva she becomes lighter. Further they have stories about him rejecting her and calling her blackie which made her do austerities to rid herself of her black skin. Naa Ayele Kumari It should not be overlooked that in the Story of Alice in Wonderland… a story intended to keep Goddess elements for future generations, has the Elder sister ( the Queen of Hearts) portrayed as man, ego, and power driven who cuts off heads and has a fierce dragon…a clear reference to Kali. The White goddess as the younger sister is her opponent… and her mission is to usurp the throne of the Queen of Hearts even though she was the rightful heir as the oldest … or primordial. Stories like these also reinforce the stereotypes and negative iconography. Max Dashu Yes, it is pervasive in many cultures of domination. Demons are portrayed as black not only in Europe, which we know well, but also in China and in a lot of Buddhist iconography. In modern India, the sweet goddesses are shown as pink, the wrathful as black; and Krishna (name means “dark”) is turned powder blue. (Another of his titles, s’yam, also meaning dark, is the word translated as “green” in Green Tara.) The countercurrents (Black Mazu, loving Kali – esp in Bengal and south India, Black Madonna) bubbled up from the common people, who knew and longed for something other than the dominant racialized hierarchy. Naa Ayele Kumari I am just discovering Mazu ( Matzu/LuShui) in China today! Never knew about her. This discussion has led me to look deeper for black goddesses in Asia. Max Dashu Taoist spiritual tradition often refers to Xüan Nü, which can be translated in several ways. You’ll usually see it rendered as “the Mysterious Female,” a phrase that occurs in the Dao De Jing (Tao Te Ching), and this is a valid translation; but what is less emphasized is that it also means “the Dark Woman.” In […]

(Mago Almanac Excerpt 5) Introducing the Magoist Calendar by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

Mago Almanac: 13 Month 28 Day Calendar (Book A) Free PDF available at Mago Bookstore. THE 28-13-7 INTERPLAY How does the number, 28 (days), for the lunar cycle come about? Why is it 28 days and not 29 or 30, the latter implicated in the traditional lunar calendar of East Asia? It appears that 28 days is a value closer to the moon’s sidereal period (about 27.3 days) than the synodic period (about 29.5 days). Or is it that 28 days points to the median between the synodic lunar cycle and the sidereal lunar cycle? To answer these questions, it is important to note that a value in the Mago Time captures an inter-cosmic biological cusp/juncture derived from the matrix of sonic numerology. Distinguished from the patriarchal measure of time fixated into a solipsistic space, it makes visible the interconnectedness of all bodies. It never stands as an isolated single occasion. The 28 day, 13 month calendar has to do with how we perceive the moon. There are two ways of understanding the lunar cycle; the sidereal period and the synodic period (see Figure 2). The synodic period refers to the time, about 29.5 days, that we on earth see the moon complete one round of revolution, e.g. from the full moon to the full moon. In contrast, the sidereal period refers to the actual time, about 27.3 days, that the moon takes to complete one round of revolution. While the synodic time is measured relative to the Earth (the observer’s position is on earth), the sidereal time is measured relative to the distant “fixed” stars (the observer’s position is far out at the distant stars). Since the distant stars are considered at rest, the sidereal period is taken as a universal value, not affected by the location of the viewer, we on earth. There is, apparently, a discrepancy between the lunar cycle that we on earth see the moon return to the same phase and the lunar cycle that the moon actually completes a revolution. The former is based on our observation of the moon’s phases, whereas the latter is based on the moon’s actual orbital motions. The two differs basically because all celestial bodies, the moon, earth, and sun, in the solar system are in motion. It is not just the moon that we watch revolving but Earth also revolves around the sun. We are watching the movement of the moon on a moving vehicle, earth, so to speak. Therefore, the moon has to travel about 2 more days in order for us on earth to see it in the same phase (see the green portion in Figure 2 part). At the position A of the moon in Figure 2, the moon is in line with the sun and the distant stars, which is a new moon. In the position of B (the new moon), the moon is in line with the sun but not with the distant stars. The right hand line of the green portion in line with the distant stars is where the moon started as a new moon. The moon has traveled about 2 more days to be in line with the sun. That is why the synodic period is about 2 days longer than the sidereal period. When it comes to “the lunar calendar”, moderns tend to think of it as the waxing and waning phases of the moon (29.5 days, the synodic period). The problem lies in that, following the synodic period, people see nothing beyond the moon’s phases. They overlook the fact that the moon rotates and revolves on its own axis and around the earth approximately 13 degrees every day. The synodic lunisolar calendar is a navel-gazing vision. Attending to the moon’s phases may seem benign. However, that is a planned pitfall; the synodic lunisolar calendar with 12 months in a year is here to supersede the 28 day, 13 month gynocentric calendar. Its irregularity with the number of days in a month (29 or 30 days with about 11 extra days for intercalation) is an inherently critical flaw. Its inaccuracy when incorporated within the solar annual calendar (approximately 365.25 days) stands out. Seen below in the table, the synodic lunar track results in as many leap days as a total of 44 days for 4 years, whereas the sidereal lunar track has 2 days for 4 years. The synodic lunisolar calendar undercuts the moon’s given capacity – guiding earthly beings into the intergalactic voyage of WE/HERE/NOW. In it, both the moon and women are, glorified and objectified by the viewer, cast under the male voyeuristic eye. On the contrary, the sidereal lunisolar calendar, based on the cyclic synchrony between the moon and women, offers the lens to the interconnectedness of all bodies in the universe. Synodic Lunar Track (Patriarchal) Sidereal Lunar Track (Magoist) Focus Moon’s phases Moon’s motions Days of month 29 or 30 (irregular) 28 (regular) No. of months in a year 12 13 Women’s menstrual cycle Assumed sync Synced Luni-centric Astolonomy Unknown 28 Constellations Intercalations 11 days annually, a total of 44 days for 4 years 1 day annually & 1 day every 4 years, a total of 2 days for 4 years Sources prove that the sidereal lunation is, albeit esoterically, known across cultures to this day. Through the comparative study of ancient cultures of Babylon, Arabia, India and China, W. B. Yeats (1865-1939) observes the substantive difference in dynamic between the two lunation tracks, the synodic and the sidereal. He notes that the moon’s orbital motion, apart from the sun’s, charts out the celestial sphere as the 28 Mansions. I have learned that the 28 Mansions or 28 Constellations of the Moon is a popular form of the 28 day and 13 month Magoist calendar, widely circulated among East Asians especially Koreans from the ancient time. Yeats’ following insights corroborate the Budoji’s explication of the Magoist Calendar in general and the faulty nature of the patriarchal (ancient Chinese) calendar in …
Beltaine/High Spring within the Creative Cosmos by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This essay is an edited excerpt from Chapter 8 of the author’s new book A Poiesis of the Creative Cosmos: Celebrating Her within PaGaian Sacred Ceremony. Traditionally the dates for Beltaine/High Spring are: Southern Hemisphere – October 31st or 1st November Northern Hemisphere – April 30th (May Eve) or 1st May though the actual astronomical date varies. It is the meridian point or cross-quarter day between Spring Equinox and Summer Solstice, thus actually a little later in early November for S.H., and early May for N.H., respectively. The twin fires lit in older times on hilltops in Ireland for Beltaine likely represented the two eyes of night and day.[i] With this vision, Goddess as Sun and Moon sees Her Land, and with the power of Her eyes (Sun and Moon) brings forth life and beauty. With the fire eyes, Goddess“reoccupied and saw her whole land…”[ii] The twin fires later came to be used to run cattle between as they headed out to Summer pasture, for the purpose of burning off the bugs and ticks of Winter; the fires may thus be understood to serve a cleansing effect and likely the origins of the tradition of the ceremonial leaping of flames by participants in Beltaine festivities. In PaGaian Cosmology this is poetically expressed as the Flame of Love that burns away the psyche’s “bugs and ticks,” and sees the Beauty present, and calls it forth. The Beltaine flames may be a celebration of Sun entering into the eye, into the whole bodymind: a powerful creative evocation upon which the Dance of Life depends, and as the cleansing power of love and pleasure. PaGaian focus for Beltaine is on the Holy Desire/Passion for life, and it may be accounted for on as many levels as possible … the complete holarchy/dimensions of the erotic power. On an elemental level, there is our desire for Air, Water, the warmth of Fire, and to be of use/service to Earth. There is an essential longing, sometimes nameless, sometimes constellated, experienced physically, that may be recognized as the Desire of the Universe Herself – desiring in us.[iii] We may remember that we are united in this desire with each other, with all who have gone before us, and with all who come after us – all who dance the Dance of Life. Beltaine is a time for dancing and weaving into our lives, our heart’s desires; traditionally the dance is done with participants holding ribbons attached to a pole or tree (a Maypole in the Northern Hemisphere, which may be renamed as a “Novapole” in the Southern Hemisphere), wrapping the pole with the ribbons. This is not simply the heterosexual metaphor as is thought in modern times (thanks largely to Freudian thinking) – it is deeper than that. As Caitlin and John Matthews point out: it is symbolic of a far greater exchange than that between men and women – in fact between the elements themselves. … the maypole, a comparatively recent manifestation in the history of mystery celebrations, can be seen as the linking of heaven and earth, binding those who dance around it … into a pattern of birth, life and death which lay at the heart of the maze of earth mysteries.[iv] Beltaine is a celebration of Desire on all levels – microcosm and on the macrocosm, the exoteric and the esoteric.[v] It brought you forth physically, and it brings forth all that you produce in your life, and it keeps the Cosmos spinning. It is felt in you as Desire, it urges you on. It is the deep awesome dynamic that pervades the Cosmos and brings forth all things – babies, meals, gardens, careers, books and solar systems. We have often been taught, certainly by religious traditions, to pay it as little attention as possible; whereas it should be the cause of much more meditation/attention, tracing it to its deepest place in us. What are our deepest desires beneath our surface desires. What if we enter more deeply into this feeling, this power? It may be a place where the Universe is a deep reciprocity – a receiving and giving that is One. Brian Swimme says, in a whole chapter on “Allurement”: You can examine your own self and your own life with this question: Do I desire to have this pleasure? Or rather, do I desire to become pleasure? The demand to ‘have,’ to possess, always reveals an element of immaturity. To keep, to hold, to control, to own; all of this is fundamentally a delusion, for our own truest desire is to be and to live. We have ripened and matured when we realize that our own deepest desire in erotic attractions is to become pleasure … to enter ecstatically into pleasure so that giving and receiving pleasure become one simple activity. Our most mature hope is to become pleasure’s source and pleasure’s home simultaneously. So it is with the allurements of life: we become beauty to ignite the beauty of others.[vi] Beltaine is a good time to contemplate this animal bodymind that you are: how it seeks real pleasure. What is your real pleasure? Be gracious with this bodymind and in awe of this form, this wonder. Beltaine is also a good time to contemplate light, and its affects on our bodyminds as it enters into us; how our animal bodyminds respond directly to the Sun’s light, which apparently may awaken physical desires. Light vibrates into us – different wavelengths as different colours – and shifts to pulse. It is felt most fully in Springtime (“spring fever”), as light courses down a direct neural line from retina to pineal gland. When the pineal gland receives the light pulse it releases “a cascade of hormones, drenching the body in hunger, thirst, or great desire.”[vii] We respond directly to Sun as an organism: it is primal. NOTES: [i] Michael Dames, Ireland, 195-199. [ii] Ibid., 196. [iii] I have been inspired and informed by Swimme’s articulations about desire, particularly in Canticle to the Cosmos, video 2 “The Primeval Fireball,” video 5 “Destruction and Loss,” and video 10 “The Timing of Creativity.” [iv] Matthews, The Western Way, 54. And for more, see “Creativity …
(Prose) Desire: the Wheel of Her Creativity by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This essay is an edited excerpt from the concluding chapter (Chapter 8) of the author’s book PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. Place of Being is a passionate place, where desire draws forth what is sought, co-creates what is needed[1]; within a con-text – a story – where love of self, other and all-that-is are indistinguishable … they are nested within each other and so is the passion for being. I begin to understand desire afresh: this renewed understanding has been an emergent property of the religious practice of seasonal celebration: that is, the religious practice of the ceremonial celebration of Her Creativity. It has been said She is “that which is attained at the end of desire[2].” Within the context of ceremonial engagement and inner search for Her, I begin to realize how desire turns the Wheel. As the light part of the cycle waxes from Early Spring, form/life builds in desire. At Beltaine/High Spring, desire runs wild, at Summer Solstice, it peaks into creative fullness, union … and breaks open at that interchange into the dark part of the cycle – the dissolution of Lammas/ Late Summer. She becomes the Dark One, who receives us back – the end of desire. It has been a popular notion in the Christian West, that the beautiful virgin lures men (sic) to their destruction, and as I perceive the Wheel, it is indeed Virgin who moves in Her wild delight towards entropy/dissolution; however in a cosmology that is in relationship with the dark, this is not perceived as a negative thing. Also, in this cosmology, there is the balancing factor of the Crone’s movement towards new life, in the conceiving dark space of Samhain/Deep Autumn – a dynamic and story that has not been a popular notion in recent millennia. Desire seems not so much a grasping, as a receiving, an ability or capacity to open and dissolve. I think of an image of an open bowl as a signifier of the Virgin’s gift. The increasing light is received, and causes the opening, which will become a dispersal of form – entropy, if you like: this is Beltaine/High Spring – the Desire[3]that is celebrated is a movement towards dis-solution … that is its direction. In contrast, and in balance, Samhain/Deep Autumn celebrates re-solution, which is a movement towards form – it is a materializing gathering into form, as the increasing darkness is received. It seems it is darkness that creates form, as it gathers into itself – as many ancient stories say, and it is light that creates dispersal. And yet I see that the opposite is true also. I think of how there is desire for this work that I have done, for whatever one does – it is then already being received. Desire is receiving. What if I wrote this, and it was not received or welcomed in some way. But the desire for it is already there, and perhaps the desire made it manifest. Perhaps the desire draws forth manifestation, even at Winter Solstice, even at Imbolc/Early Spring, as we head towards Beltaine – it is desire that is drawing that forth, drawing that process around. Desire is already receiving; it is open. Its receptivity draws forth the manifestation. And then the manifestation climaxes at Summer and dissolves into the manifesting, which is perhaps where the desire is coming from – the desire is in the darkness, in the dark’s receptivity[4]. It becomes very active at the time of Beltaine, it lures the differentiated beings back into Her. So the lure at Beltaine is the luring of differentiated beings into a Holy Lust, into a froth and dance of life, whereupon they dissolve ecstatically back into Her – She is “that which is attained at the end of Desire.” And in the dissolution, we sink deeper into that, and begin again. All the time, it is Desire that is luring the manifest into the manifesting, and the manifesting into the manifest. Passion is the glue, the underlying dynamic that streams through it all – through the light and the dark, through the creative triplicities of Virgin-Mother-Crone, of Differentiation-Communion-Autopoeisis[5]. Passion/Desire then is worthy of much more contemplation. If desire/allurement is the same cosmic dynamic as gravity, as cosmologist Brian Swimme suggests[6], then desire like gravity is the dynamic that links/holds us to our Place, to “that which is”, as philosopher Linda Holler describes the effect of gravity[7]. Held in relationship by desire/allurement we lose abstraction and artificial boundaries, and “become embodied and grow heavy with the weight of the earth[8].” We then know that “being is being-in relation-to”[9]. Holler says that when we think with the weight of Earth, space becomes “thick” as this “relational presence … turns notes into melodies, words into phrases with meaning, and space into vital forms with color and content, (and) also holds the knower in the world[10].”Thus, I at last become a particular, a subject, a felt being in the world – a Place laden with content, sentient: continuous with other and all-that-is. Notes: [1]“…as surely as the chlorophyll molecule was co-created by Earth and Sun, as Earth reached for nourishment; as surely as the ear was co-created by subject and sound, as the subject reached for an unknown signal.” As I have written in PaGaian Cosmology, p. 248. [2]Doreen Valiente, The Charge of the Goddessas referred to in Starhawk, The Spiral Dance, p.102-103. [3]I capitalize here, for it is a holy quality. [4]Perhaps the popular cultural association of the darkness/black lingerie etc. with erotica is an expression/”memory” of this deep truth. [5]These are the three qualities of Cosmogenesis, as referred to in PaGaian Cosmology, Chapter 4, “Cosmogenesis and the Female Metaphor”: https://pagaian.org/book/chapter-4/ [6]Brian Swimme, The Universe is a Green Dragon, p.43. [7]Linda Holler, “Thinking with the Weight of the Earth: Feminist Contributions to an Epistemology of Concreteness”, Hypatia, Vol. 5 No. 1, p.2. [8]Linda Holler, “Thinking with the Weight of the Earth: Feminist Contributions to an Epistemology of Concreteness”,Hypatia, Vol. …
(Essay) Conceiving, Imagining the New at Samhain by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

It is the Season of Samhain/Deep Autumn in the Southern Hemisphere at this time. In the PaGaian version of Samhain/Deep Autumn ceremony participants journey to the “Luminous World Egg” … a term taken from Starhawk in her book The Spiral Dance[i], where she also names that place as the “Shining Isle”, which is of course, the Seed of conception, a metaphor for the origins of all and/or the female egg: it is the place for rebirth. Artist: Bundeluk, Blue Mountains, Australia. The “luminous world egg” is a numinous place within, the MotherStar of conception: that is, a place of unfolding/becoming. The journey to this numinous place within requires first a journey back, through some of each one’s transformations, however each may wish to name those transformations at this time. The transformations for each and every being are infinite in their number, for there is “nothing we have not been” as has been told by Celts and others of Old, and also by Western science in the evolutionary story (a story told so well by evolutionary biologist Elisabet Sahtouris, particularly in her video Journey of a Silica Atom.) Ceremonial participants may choose selves from biological, present historical self, or may choose selves from the mythic with whom they feel connection; from any lineage – biological or otherwise. Selves may also be chosen from Gaia’s evolutionary story – earlier creatures, winged or scaled ones … with whom one wishes to identify at this time. Each participant is praised for their “becoming” for each self they share. When all have completed these journeys/stories of transformation, the circle is lauded dramatically by the celebrant for their courage to transform; and she likens them all to Gaia Herself who has made such transitions for eons. The celebrant awards each with a gingerbread snake, “Gaian totems of life renewed”[ii]. gingerbread snakes Participants sit and consume these gingerbread snakes in three parts: (i) as all the “old shapes” of self that were named; and (ii) remembering the ancestors, those whose lives have been harvested, whose lives have fed our own, remembering that we too are the ancestors, that we will be consumed; and (iii) remembering and consuming the stories of our world that they desire to change, the stories that fire their wrath or sympathy: in the consuming, absorbing them (as we do), each may transform them by thoughts and actions – “in our own bodyminds”. When all that is consumed “wasting no part”, it is said that “we are then free to radiate whatever we conceive”, to “exclaim the strongest natural fibre known” – our creative selves, “into such art, such architecture, as can house a world made sacred” by our building[iii]. This “natural fibre” is a reference to the spider’s thread from within her own body, with which she weaves her web, her home; and Spider has frequently been felt in indigenous cultures around the globe as Weaver and Creator of the Cosmos. Spider the Creatrix, North America, C. 1300 C.E., Hallie Iglehart Austen, The Heart of the Goddess, p.13 In the ceremony, participants linked with a thread that they weave around the circle, may sail together for a new world “across the vast sunless sea between endings and beginnings, across the Womb of magic and transformation, to the “Not-Yet” who beckons”[iv]: to the Luminous World Egg whereupon the new may be conceived and dreamed up. Samhain/Deep Autumn ceremony is an excellent place for co-creating ourselves, for imaginingthe More that we may become, and wish to become. This is where creation and co-creation happens … in the Womb of Space[v], in which we are immersed – at all times: and Samhain is a good season for feeling it. References: Livingstone, Glenys. PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. NE: iUniverse, 2005 Sahtouris, Elisabet. Earthdance: Living Systems in Evolution. Lincoln NE:iUniversity Press, 2000. Starhawk, The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess. NY: Harper and Row, 1999. Swimme, Brian. The Earth’s Imagination.DVD series 1998. NOTES: [i]p.210 [ii]a version of this Samhain script is offered in Chapter 7 PaGaian Cosmology [iii]These quoted phrases are from Robin Morgan, “The Network of the Imaginary Mother”, in Lady of the Beasts, p.84. This poem is a core inspiration of the ceremony. [iv]“Not-Yet” is a term used by Brian Swimme, The Earth’s Imagination, video 8 “The Surprise of Cosmogenesis”. [v]note that creation does not happen at the point of some god’s index finger, as imagined in the Sistine Chapel – what a takeover that is!
Lammas – the Sacred Consuming by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

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

The Spring Equinox Moment occurs September 21-23 Southern Hemisphere, March 21-23 Northern Hemisphere. The full story of Spring Equinox is expressed in the full flower connected to the seed fresh from the earth; that is, it is a story of emergence from the dark, from a journey, perhaps long, perhaps short, through challenging places. The joy of the blossoming is rooted in the journey through the dark, and an acknowledgement of the dark’s fertile gift, as well as of great achievement in having made it, of having returned. Both Equinoxes, Spring and Autumn, celebrate this sacred balance of grief and joy, light and dark, and they are both celebrations of the mystery of the seed. The seed is essentially the deep Creativity within – that manifests in the Spring as flower, or green emerged One. the full story: the root and the flower As the new young light continues to grow at this time of Spring, it comes into balance with the dark at Spring Equinox, or ‘Eostar’ as it may be named; about to tip further into light when light will dominate the day. The trend at this Equinox is toward increasing hours of light: and thus it is about the power of being – life is stepping into it. Earth in this region is tilting further toward the Sun. Traditionally it may be storied as the joyful celebration of a Lost Beloved One, who may be represented by the Persephone story: She is a shamanic figure who is known for Her journey to the Underworld, and who at this time of Spring Equinox returns. Her Mother Demeter who has waited and longed for Her in deep grief, rejoices and so do all: warmth and growth return to the land. Persephone, the Beloved Daughter, the Seed, has navigated the darkness successfully, has enriched it with Her presence and also gained its riches. Eostar/Spring Equinox is the magic of the unexpected, yet long awaited, green emergence from under the ground, and then the flower: this emergence is especially profound as it is from a seed that has lain dormant for months or longer – much like the magic of desert blooms after long periods of drought. The name of “Eostar” comes from the Saxon Goddess Eostre/Ostara, the northern form of the Sumerian Astarte[i]. The Christian festival in the Spring, was named “Easter” as of the Middle Ages, appropriating Goddess/Earth tradition. The date of Easter, which is set for Northern Hemispheric seasons, is still based on the lunar/menstrual calendar; that is, the 1st Sunday after the first full Moon after Spring Equinox. In Australia where I am, “Easter” is celebrated in Autumn (!) by mainstream culture, so we have the spectacle of fluffy chickens, chocolate eggs and rabbits in the shops at that time. There are other names for “Eostar” in other places …the Welsh name for the Spring Equinox celebration is Eilir, meaning ‘regeneration’ or ‘spring’ – or ‘earth’[ii]. In my own PaGaian tradition, the Spring Equinox celebration is based on the Demeter and Persephone story, the version that is understand as pre-patriarchal, from Old Europe. In the oldest stories, Persephone has agency in Her descent: She descends to the underworld voluntarily as a courageous seeker of wisdom, and a compassionate receiver of the dead. She represents, and IS, the Seed of Life that never fades away. Spring Equinox is a celebration of Her return, Life’s continual return, and thus also our personal and collective emergences/returns.We may contemplate the collective emergence/returns especially in our times. I describe Persephone as a “hera”, which of old was a term for any courageous One. “Hera” was a pre-Hellenic name for the Goddess in general[iii]. “Hera” was the indigenous Queen Goddess of pre-Olympic Greece, before She was married off to Zeus. “Hero” was a term for the brave male Heracles who carried out tasks for his Goddess Hera: “The derivative form ‘heroine’ is therefore completely unnecessary”[iv]. “Hera” may be used as a term for any courageous individual: and participants in PaGaian Spring Equinox ceremony have named themselves this way. The pre-“Olympic” games of Greece were Hera’s games, held at Her Heraion/temple[v]. The winners were “heras” – gaining the status of being like Her[vi]. At the time of Spring Equinox, we may celebrate the Persephone, the Hera, the Courageous One, who steps with new wisdom, into power of being: the organic power that all beings must have, Gaian power, the power of the Cosmos. This Seasonal ceremony may be a rejoicing in how we have made it through great challenges and loss, faced our fears and our demise (in its various forms), had ‘close shaves’ – perhaps physically as well as psychicly and emotionally. It is a time to welcome back that which was lost, and step into the strength of being. Spring Equinox/Eostar is the time for enjoying the fruits of the descent, of the journey taken into the darkness: return is now certain, not tentative as it was in the Early Spring/Imbolc. Demeter, the Mother, receives the Persephones, Lost Beloved Ones, joyously. This may be understood as an individual experience, but also as a collective experience – as we emerge into a new Era as a species. Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme speak of the ending of the sixty-five million year geological Era – the Cenozoic Era – in our times, and our possible emergence into an Ecozoic Era. They describe the Ecozoic Era as a time when “the curvature of the universe, the curvature of the earth, and the curvature of the human are once more in their proper relation”[vii]. Joanna Macy speaks of the “Great Turning” of our times[viii]. Collectively we have been away from the Mother for some time and there is a lot of pain. At this time we may contemplate not only our own individual lost wanderings, but also that of the human species. We are part of a much bigger Return that is happening. The Beloved One may be understood as returning on a collective level: …

(Mago Stronghold Essay 3) The Forgotten Primordial Paradise by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.

Part 3: Indelible Old Magoism Encrypted in China’s “Mago Stronghold” The Mago word “Mago Stronghold” has narrowly survived patriarchal linguistic censorships. Sometimes it is preferably or deliberately employed as a euphemism. Other times, it is replaced with random words. But it has never been completely wiped out from written and oral texts. The Mago term, constituting the very foundation of patriarchy, is indestructible. Having survived, the term “Mago Stronghold” debunks the plot intent to magna-matricide. It unearths the buried and re-members the severed. Extant Mago Strongholds in Korea and in China differ not only in number but also in implication. Just like Magoist data in general, Korea surpasses China by a large number of extant Mago Strongholds. It is a corollary that China does not have much to do with Mago words in that ancient China “entered the stage of the patriarchal society around 5,000 years ago”.[1] Magoist materials are systematically dismissed as dubious or apocryphal data, as pre-Chinese Old Magoist Korea remains uncharted in Sinocentric East Asian historiography. Readers are reminded of the meaning of Old Magoist Korea, the socio-political-religious conglomeration of the People of the Great Goddess originated from pre-Chinese times. It is by definition non-ethnocentric and pre-nationalist.[2] Magoism substantiates the derivative nature of ancient Chinese history from Old Magoist Korea. It unveils that Old Korea was there long before the establishment of the Chinese patriarchal rule. The Mago Stronghold talk debunks the fantasy of ancient China as the forerunner rule. It is unknown how many Mago Stronghold places may have existed before or survived today in present China. One I found is located in Cangzhou, Hebei Province, according to the Atlas of Heavenly Harbor Government (天津府總圖, Tianjinfuzongtu) published in 1805. The historical accuracy of this place is backed by an earlier account in the Records of the United Great Ming (Damingyitongzhi 大明一統志), a fifteenth century geography book from the Ming dynasty. Its brief record concerns the visit of Emperor Wu of the Han dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE) to Mago Stronghold, as it reads: Mago Stronghold is located in Cangzhou on the border of old Qingchi-xian (Clear Lake County). Emperor Wu of Han took an administrative tour to this place and offered rites. Thus came the place-name, Mago Stronghold.[3] The Cangzhou Mago Stronghold, noted for the second century BCE anecdote, makes its history two millennia old at the least. When Magoism is made invisible, however, the long history or the royal association of Mago Stronghold is systematically censored as non-data in official historiography of China, which is the norm for East Asian historiographies. Given that Emperor Wu (141-87 BCE) of Han is known as one of the most accomplished rulers in Chinese history, it may appear odd that he is associated with the Mago term, “Mago Stronghold.” Indeed, the account may seem to mismatch Emperor Wu of ancient China with Mago Stronghold. And Chinese scribes would not have fabricated the anecdote. It is indeed a rare case that the Mago term has survived in Chinese official documents. That said, we want to ask if the two terms, Emperor Wu of Han and Mago Stronghold, are irreconcilable per se? My answer is no. They appear to be at odds only to the modern Sinocentric mind. In fact, the above anecdote is highly evocative of the concept of Heaven (天 Tian) worshipped by ancient Chinese rulers. Emperor Wu’s visitation and officiation at Mago Stronghold, which may have been known as Heavenly Stronghold (天城 Tiancheng),[4] account for the ancient ruler’s worship of Heaven. It is of utmost importance for Chinese rulers to observe rites and customs that venerate Heaven, for it is deemed that Heaven selects rulers and endows them with the right to rule. Accordingly, ancient Chinese rulers are known to have taken the title of “the Son of Heaven 天子” and ruled with “the Mandate of Heaven 天命.” Nonetheless, the problem with the Chinese thought of Heaven lies in the fact that Heaven is equated with the supreme god (上帝, Supreme Emperor) or an impersonal quality of the divine. That Heaven is a euphemism for “Mago” was known to the populace. In various sources, Mago is referred to as “Heavenly Deity.”[5] S/HE and Magoism are sometimes equated with the impersonal term, “Heaven.” For example, Mago Lake (Maguji in Chinese) is also called Heavenly Lake (天池 Tianchi in Chinese) in oral tradition.[6] The fact that, according to the Budoji, Heavenly Mountain is known as the residence of the Hwanggung, the eldest clan community in the post-paradise world, is no accident. When its semantic tie to “Mago” is lost, “Heaven” is stripped of the Magoist implication. The surviving term, “Mago Stronghold,” however, debunks magna-matricide in the modern mind. It is inferred that Emperor Wu officiated the Magoist rite at Mago Stronghold as the Son of Heaven according to the Mandate of Heaven. The scheme of Old Magoism puts the above anecdote into a context: Emperor Wu emulated the royal tradition of ancient Magoist shaman queens, the representative of the Great Goddess who is the ultimate sovereign of the Earth, Mago Stronghold. Emperor Wu and Mago Stronghold were not at odds with each other in an earlier time of ancient Chinese history. Written together, they indicate that Magoism was acknowledged by Emperor Wu of Han. Put differently, magna-matricide was not committed or completed in the second century BCE China. Were ancient Chinese rulers including Emperor Wu of Han Magoist? This question is difficult to answer, for each ruler of ancient China may have taken an ambivalent attitude toward Magoism to a varying degree. Some may have been pseudo-Magoists. Ancient Chinese rulers, representing the establishment of Chinese monarchy, which marked the onset of patriarchal history in East Asia, are distinguished from traditional Magoist shaman queens who defended the Magoist confederal system of Old Korea. Nonetheless, they needed the Oracle of the Great Goddess to legitimize themselves as rulers. In pre-patriarchal East Asia, Old Magoist Korea was the source of power, technology, and civilization for any ruler to draw from. Evidence shows that …
(2018 Mago Pilgrimage) Peak of Nine Wells in Yeongam (Spiritual Rock), South Jeolla by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.

[Author’s Note: This essay comprises a summary report and its unfolding awakenings to be unraveled in sequences. I dedicate this essay to my 2018 Mago Pilgrimage companions, Narayani Ankh, Kate Besleme, Hyunsuk Jee, and Julie Jang. Learn more about Mago Pilgrimage.] Hike Report The town, Yeong-am (Spirit Rock), emanates an aura from its Magoist natural, historical, and cultural legacies. Among them, what grabbed my attention include Wolchul-san (月出山 Moon Rising Mountain), Dogap-sa (Dogap Temple), and Gurim Village, known for the birth place of Doseon Guksa (State Master Doseon), a prominent Buddhist monk, the 9th century of Silla (827-898). I was most attracted to the Peak of Nine Wells (九井峰 Gujeong-bong) as well as the Loom Cave shaped in the form of a vulva, part of the Moon Rising Mountain ranges. Our goal was to hike the Peak of Nine Wells (hereafter Gujeong-bong). We took the seemingly shortest trail, through Cheonwang-bong (Peak of Heavenly Ruler), the highest peak of Moon Rising Mountain, 809 km above sea level. It took about 8 hours for the entire hike took about 8 hours and it was one of the two most strenuous and significant ones that I have taken. About 30 years ago, I climbed Mt. Halla in Jeju Island and had received the vision of my life. No longer a youth, I had a much clearer vision about my life and the act of high altitude hiking this time. With my two companions, Narayani Ankh and Kate Besleme, who showed no sign of hesitation or tiredness in the beginning and throughout the course, I embarked my day’s journey. With occasional breaks, we were able gain distance and progress. Beautiful streams adorned the valley. Rocks were emitting the oldest song of the earth. Our talks continued and deepened, when we had breath to spare. It was such a blessing that I had these two co-hikers from elsewhere! My mind zoomed in and worked in detail. All thinking and feeling became registered. Impromptu, I began to count my steps up on stiff wooden stairways. My counting one, two, three… and thirteen carried me to the top of the stairs. The 13 counting chant worked; There was no medium between me and WE/HERE/NOW. We were gifted a 360-degree bird’s eye view on Cheongwang-bong. Several ridges with the depth of Magoist history came within a vision. We took a small lunch break. On a high mountain top wherein all remains visibly related, everyone becomes kin. On Cheongwang-gong, we were instructed by the rangers we met along the journey about the ridge path to Gujeong-bong. Gujeong-bong would be about another one and half hour hike away from us. We passed by a few masses of gigantic boulder formations for which Wolchul-san is known for. Among them was the standing stone called the Phallic Rock, a name that I suspected to be original. For standing stones are called the Rock of Mago Halmi in other regions of Korea. In any case, the very existence of the Phallic Rock (남근바위 Namgeun Bawi) heralded the appearance of the Loom Cave, a misnomer for the Yoni Cave (여근바위 Yeogeun Bawi). Heart beatings escalated as we approached our destination. We finally reached the Loom Cave, which closely resembled the vulva. The cave was made of a huge boulder, three times taller than an average person in size. A small pond sat inside the entrance made the cave a real yoni of nature. I was pulled into the state of trance, as we made a final climb up the stairs around the left side of the Loom Cave. I was able to see that the Peak of Nine Wells is located on the top plain of the Loom Cave. It is part of the yoni cave! I saw a number of wells pocketed in various sizes of ponds. They numbered more than nine, about 13, variable in number in that a couple of them were made in between adjacent boulders. The biggest well was larger than one meter (3.3 feet) in diameter. Moderns do their typical things in a time like this, indeed odd out of other options or necessity to share with others: I took photos of the wells and my companions, which were absolutely beautiful as they were. However, mental imprints were not able to be contained then and in nature. WE/HERE/NOW embraced all on the spot, perhaps like a black hole. Casual conversations wouldn’t continue. The silence and the oneness fast permeated our time/space. Our minds worked on layers. The deepest mind was stored in the reservoir of the unspoken. Descending is good as a time/space of tuning/balancing oneself to the power of WE/HERE/NOW. There wasn’t much time left for us to return, while the sun was still out. We hurriedly descended a different tail. I was no longer the same person I was prior to the experience of hiking Gujeong-bong. No need to dig up and count the number of branches in one’s root. To live means to grow and evolve, as we are meant to be. To be continued. (Meet Mago Contributor) Helen Hye-Sook Hwang.
(Mago Almanac Planner Year 5 Excerpt 3) 13 Month 28 Day Magoist Calendar by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

[Author’s Note: This and its sequences are a newly added portion in the Mago Almanac Planner Year 5, equivalent to the Gregorian Year 2022. Because the Budoji did not explain further about time units smaller than 1 day, I did not follow through some possible implications in previous Mago Almanac volumes. Next year’s Mago Almanac Planner for Personal Journey: 13 Month 28 Day Calendar Year 5 or 5919 MAGOMA ERA is forthcoming in Mago Bookstore (October 25, 2021). PDF version is available for purchase.] We set the new moon day of the Winter Solstice month in 2017 as the New Year of Year 1. With that, we are able to tap Magoist days into Gregorian days that we moderns use. Then, how do we bring down a Magoist time in the scheme of the Gregorian time? How do we determine the onset of New Year in the Magoist Calendar? When would be the midnight of New Year in Year 1? That requires a translation of Mago time into Gregorian time. We can designate midnight as a midpoint in time equidistant from the sunset of New Year’s Eve to the sunrise of New Year. As local times vary around the globe, the midnight of New Year varies in states and cities. In Los Angeles, California USA, the first Magoist midnight falls on 23:29 on December 17, 2017 for Year 1. That would be 07:29 on December 18, 2017 in UTC. Year 1Year 2Year 3Year 4Midnight12/17/2017 23:2912/17/2018 23:2912/17/2019 23:2912/16/2020 23:30Sunset16:45, 12/1716:45, 12/1716:45, 12/1716:44, 12/16Sunrise6:53, 12/186:53, 12/18 6:53, 12/186:53, 12/17 (Sunset and sunrise times in Los Angeles, USA) The below table shows the first Magoist midnight (around 0.33 AM) falls on December 18, 2017 in Gyeongju, South Korea. That would be 15:33 on December 17, 2017 in UTC. Year 1Year 2Year 3Year 4Midnight12/18/2017 0:33.512/18/2018 0:32.512/18/2019 0:32.512/17/2020 0:32.5Sunset17:11, 12/1717:11, 12/1717:11, 12/1717:11, 12/16Sunrise7:28, 12/187:27, 12/18 7:27, 12/187:27, 12/17 (Sunset and sunrise times in Gyeongju, South Korea) We can imagine a spiral progression of years from Little Calendar (one year) to Medium Calendar (two years) and to Large Calendar (four years). Every year has one leap day, whereas every fourth year has another leap day in the middle of the year. Cyclic time, as it progresses, creates rhythm and harmony in the human world. Little Calendar (1 year)13×1=13 months364 days+1 leap day=365 daysMedium Calendar (2 years)13×2=26 months2x(364 days+1 leap day) =730 daysLarge Calendar (4 years)13×4=52 months4x(364 days+1 leap day)+1 leap day=1,461 days (End of the series) https://www.magoacademy.org/virtual-midnight-vigil-to-new-year/ https://www.magoism.net/2013/07/meet-mago-contributor-helen-hwang/

Category: Mago, the Great Goddess

(K-Drama Review 1) Liminal Space/Time into WE: What Hotel del Luna Displays by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

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(Mago Almanac Basics 1) What is the Magoist Calendar? by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

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(Mago Almanac Planner Year 5 Excerpt 3) 13 Month 28 Day Magoist Calendar by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

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(Mago Almanac Planner Year 5 Excerpt 1) 13 Month 28 Day Magoist Calendar by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

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(Book Excerpt 2) Mago Almanac Planner by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.

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(Book Excerpt 1) Mago Almanac Planner for Personal Journey by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.

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(Book Excerpt) The Budoji Workbook (Volume 1): The Magoist Cosmogony (Chapters 1-4)

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(Essay 2) Magoist Cetaceanism and the Myth of the Pacifying Flute (Manpasikjeok) by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.

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(Essay 1) Magoist Cetaceanism and the Myth of the Pacifying Flute (Manpasikjeok) by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.

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(Bell Essay 8) The Magoist Whale Bell: Decoding the Cetacean Code of Korean Temple Bells by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.

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(2018 Mago Pilgrimage) Peak of Nine Wells in Yeongam (Spiritual Rock), South Jeolla by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.

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(Bell Essay 7) The Magoist Whale Bell: Decoding the Cetacean Code of Korean Temple Bells by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.

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(Bell Essay 6) The Magoist Whale Bell: Unraveling the Cetacean Code of Korean Temple Bells by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.

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(Search) Co-editors for the textbook: The Divine Mother, Nature and Matriarchal Societies

Mago Almanac Year 8 (for 2025)

S/HE: IJGS V3 N2 2024 (B/W Paperback)

(She Rises Salon) Meet Dr. Stephanie Mines in Her Vision of the MA/Ph.D. Program on Regenerative Health for A Climate Changing World

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