November 5, 2012October 2, 2019 Mago Work6 Comments

(Poem) Motherlines by Mary Saracino

1. Margaret On the day I was born you nearly bled to death perhaps a sign that our lives were marked for strife but a mother’s womb is a thing Read More …

October 30, 2012October 2, 2019 Mago Work1 Comment

(Essay) The Mago Hedge School: Why Remember Mary Daly? by Helen Hye Sook Hwang

Prologue By writing this, I do not intend to defend Mary Daly’s position in any dispute. A controversial figure, Mary Daly never let go of her fight with those whom Read More …

October 28, 2012November 14, 2019 Mago WorkLeave a comment

(Poem) The Neighbours Send a Message by Harriet Ellenberger

Moose, deer, lynx, coyote, bear, skunk, porcupine, snowshoe hare, hawk owl, ant, crow, honey bee, all who live in the woods behind the house I live in, now formally address Read More …

October 28, 2012October 2, 2019 Mago Work1 Comment

(Art) ‘Fish Goddess of Lepenski Vir’ by Lydia Ruyle

The Fish Goddess of Lepenski Vir was placed on the altar at the end of a stone structure. She combines fish, woman and a bird of prey, all symbols of the Read More …

October 25, 2012October 2, 2019 Mago Work3 Comments

(Essay) The Invisible Bleeding Goddess by Trista Hendren‏

“We need a god who bleeds now whose wounds are not the end of anything” – Ntozake Shange I have been contemplating these lines for several days now. What Read More …

October 19, 2012October 2, 2019 Mago WorkLeave a comment

(Poem) Oh Mother, Our Mother by Mary Saracino

When the sun rises and the moon sets when the earth sings and the sky sighs will we remember that clouds are kin to every human that every woman, every Read More …

October 18, 2012October 2, 2019 Mago Work1 Comment

(Essay) Three-Fingered Fish Goddess- South Slavic Intangible Oral Memory Traditions by Danica Anderson

Lepenski Vir is a Mesolithic site on the banks of the Danube in Serbia, close to the Iron Gates. Dusan Boric and Preston Miracle’s work on the Mesolithic and Neolithic Read More …

October 15, 2012October 2, 2019 Mago Work1 Comment

(Photo Essay 4) ‘Gaeyang Halmi, the Sea Goddess of Korea’ by Helen Hwang

Part IV: Revival of the Gurang (Nine Maidens) Gaeyang Halmi There is more to reveal. As I write this part of the photo essay, I have encountered new information, previously Read More …

October 8, 2012October 2, 2019 Mago WorkLeave a comment

(Poem) Meanderings by Anne Wilkerson Allen

A thousand threads have woven wings of love, mounting us on the wind. Images of ancients have caressed our eyes, revealing new shapes and colors. Drums of women have kindled Read More …

October 4, 2012October 2, 2019 Mago Work2 Comments

(Photo Essay 3) ‘Gaeyang Halmi, the Sea Goddess of Korea’ by Helen Hwang

Part III: Archaeology Bespeaks What Ideological Hetero-sexuality Can’t Do Our story-tellers informed us that Gaeyang Halmi is venerated and celebrated on January 14th annually on the lunar calendar. There are Read More …

October 3, 2012November 8, 2019 Mago Work2 Comments

(Essay) ‘The Hard Side of Aphrodite’ by Hearth Moon Rising

She is a goddess to be approached with caution, even trepidation. If you feel no apprehension in matters involving her, then you have no thought of danger, obstacles, shattered Read More …

October 1, 2012October 2, 2019 Mago Work4 Comments

(Poem) ‘Sunrise Over the U.S.A.’ by Harriet Ann Ellenberger

Sunrise Over the U.S.A. In place of the old dream and the old lies, I wish for my country of origin a new story, one that goes like this: Read More …

September 27, 2012October 2, 2019 Mago Work1 Comment

(Essay 2) ‘Archetype or Patriarchetype? A Brief History of the Symbolic Meanings of Thorn Trees’ by Kelly A. Greer

Children of Eve, Abraham, or Acacia? The stories of Abraham offer yet another clue regarding the symbolic meaning of thorn trees. According to scriptures, after he returned from Beersheeba, Abraham Read More …

(Essay) Christian Women and Thealogy by Mary Ann Beavis

For several years, I have been researching a phenomenon that I call “Christian Goddess Spirituality” (CGS), a blending of elements from Christianity and Goddess Spirituality. I have interviewed over 100 women who self-describe as practicing CGS in some form, and held a focus group of fourteen CGS practitioners in June 2013. (The reason for interviewing women only at this stage in the research is strategic, as my hunch is that women and men seek the Goddess for different reasons.) This is a very condensed and preliminary report on some research results, focussing on the thealogical aspects of CGS, illustrated by quotations from the interviews.
(Commemorating Mary Daly 7) My Memoirs of Mary Daly (1928-2010) by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

From Luciana Percovich’s tribute to Mary Daly [Author’s Note: My personal encounter with Mary Daly, a U.S. post-Christian feminist thinker, goes back to 1994, if not earlier. I stayed in Korea from 1994-1997 during which I translated two of Mary Daly’s early books, Beyond God the Father: Toward a Philosophy of Women’s Liberation 하나님 아버지를 넘어서 (Seoul: Ewha Women’s University Press, 1996) and Church and the Second Sex 교회와 제 2의 성 (Seoul: Women’s News Press, 1997) in Korean. I carried with me to the U.S.A. our correspondences in the form of letters and documents mostly faxed to each other for the period of more than two decades. Later at one point I digitized them in images. Through these memoir series, I share some highlights of my memories with Mary Daly, her influence on my feminist thinking, and my own radical feminist journey to Magoist Cetaceanism.] As I reread her recommendation letter (shown in part 6), a deep sense of sisterly bond between us resurges in me. I am deeply touched by the realization that we indeed met at the core of our beings. The course of our lives proceeds spirally. We never stand at the same place where we were. Life flows and grows. Our vision is getting deeper and bigger. For many years, I wondered about what my friendship with Mary meant to me and to her. I was “objective” to my understanding of Mary. Seeing and hearing about too many contradictory sides of Mary, I refrained myself from commenting about her personally and in public. Today in 2022, I am reaching the core of our bond, immutable sisterhood, by rereading her initial correspondences and writing the series of my memories of her. Her recommendation letter comes to me as a text written in our hearts connected through the unbreakable bond. Now I can see with clarity who she was when she related to me, what she was thinking in terms of my unfolding academic career, and what our bond meant to us. In her letter, Mary foresees the storm building up on my way in the coming years and prepares me for it. Simply because Harvard Divinity School was near where she lived, I was excited with the thought of being accepted there. However, Mary was realistic. She strongly warned me against my innocent hope. That was the beginning of her warning that awakened me to the harsh reality of entering and staying in academia over the course of years to come. I understood at that time that she warned me for two reasons. First, she did not want me to be deluded by the name that “Harvard” carried. Mary was keen about the worldly (read patriarchal) fame that was taken at face value by feminists. Her shrewdness would catch a tinge of deception. I was not surprised, however. My respect for her grew bigger because of her candidly poignant caution. After all, I knew deep inside of me that academia was only a means to achieve my goal. I was about to pursue higher education concerning feminist studies out of my need to gain self-affirmation; I wanted to understand myself, a woman of Korean origin, in cultural, historical, and philosophical contexts. Whether the goal of a Korean feminist self-affirmation would be compitable with an academic job or not was the question that put me in test for many years after I attained a Ph.D. degree. It was a painful ordeal for approximately 10 years. I finally stopped seeking an academic job and began shaping The Mago Work (referring to my matriversal intellectual/spiritual endeavor for the world including myself) primarily through social media including Wordpress, Facebook, and Google etc. I was jumping off, one more time, the cliff in the dark, throwing myself to the course of my life’s destination. I can say that my teaching for universities meant to be transitory. But I could not believe it for many years. Feeling left alone to survive, I did not know elsewhere to stand beyond academia. I was divided. Ironically, what I actually did was to prepare myself to be free from academia. I was getting ready to be on my own feet, as an independent scholar, publisher, and activist. Secondly, Mary knew that there was little chance that I would be accepted to it. She took writing her recommendation letter seriously. She was real, not hiding anything from me or trying to feed my own fantasy about her. She took me to her side and had me understand her predicaments. We both knew that I did not come from an academic background, as she described in her letter, “She has traveled widely and learned from her many experiences as a former Maryknoll Sister as well as from her formal studies. However, her intellectual drive and desire to address the needs of Korean women are now propelling her to pursue her education on a higher level” (shown in part 6). Thus, Mary’s recommendation letter held a great importance in my application. Mary was not the right person whom one would ask such a letter. But I dared to ask her. It was ever clear to me that she was in isolation among mainstream academics, as she wrote in her letter to me that I shared in Part 5, “I am quite cut off from that world at this time, however.” Morerover, she was being scapegoated among feminists. She wrote in the same letter: About the horrors of white western society, I agree completely. Within this context, not only racism itself but accusations of racism and scapegoating of Feminists have been used to kill the Feminist movement. Old stuff–divide and conquer! And the women do it to each other (see Part 5). In retrospect, Harvard Divinity School’s Theological Program would have been too confining for me. I would have never been happy there due to my intellectual inclination to be overly critical about Christianity. Dealing with Christianity would mean to make myself a post-Christian. After all, feminist Christian theology soon lost my interest. I am thankful that I was not accepted there. If I were admitted to it, I would have made myself …
(Call for Contributions) Story Your Goddess Feminist “Me Too” Insights for the coming year!

Dear RTM recurring and prospective contributors, We seek your storytelling of “Me Too” broadly understood. The catchphrase “Me Too” can apply to the very collaborative effort of speaking up against not just physical sexual assaults but also other patriarchal oppressive practices. It can be in the form of poetry, art, prose, research and other creative medium. The second half of 2017 has witnessed how our “Me Too” stories crumble down the muppets of modern patriarchal capitalist engines literally everywhere. It is still growing to a wild fire that knows no boundaries across social sectors, cultures and nationalities. And we are learning that it is never be a better time to tell our stories than NOW. And WE will do it HERE. Let us remove the remnant of the patriarchal residue within ourselves by telling our stories that transform us all from the victimhood to the agency for social change. RTM is here to interweave your threads for the coming year! Return to Mago E-Magazine is created to serve as a venue (1) that visualizes the community of writers, researchers, advocates, poets, artists, and activists who are committed to Goddess-centered/Magoist feminist social change, to be discovered, and (2) that shares, networks, and celebrates of our ontological togetherness across species. And our readers from around the world get to participate in the unfolding of our gift-sharing practices. After all, we are restoring the paradigm/consciousness of WE in S/HE. We seek your essays, prose, poetry, art, and creative works! Your contributions will work a double-edged sword. It creates a new space for all in WE, while undermining the patriarchal ground. With your contributions, RTM CAN bring change to this world! We also seeks editors on the executive level (see below). We seek out contributions that can visualize our connections, struggles, and visions. We welcome the following perennially: Introduction of Goddess from around the world (the great goddess in priority) and her history, myth, material cultures; Feminist issues; Structural/institutional issues (racism, sexism, colonialism, capitalism, and nationalism, etc) that hinder the goddess consciousness and activities; Spirituality, religion, history of a particular people that revere the female divine; Cosmology, ecology, and nature in relation to the female divine; Song/dance of life-searching and life-loving work, project, and expression; We also seek seasonal themes such as equinoxes and solstices, feast and holiday messages. By contributing to Return to Mago, you are participating in WE, the Current of Connecting with All Beyond Differences, the Way the Universe Is as our ancestors did. Please send an email for submission inquiry or more information to Dr Helen Hye-Sook Hwang (magoism@gmail.com, Founding Director and Co-editor). Don’t be shy, we’ve posted most submissions we’ve received. We’d genuinely like to hear from you, and we respond personally to submissions. Here’s a guide to what we’re broadly looking for: http://magoism.net/people/call-for-contribution/
(Meet Mago Contributor) Jillian Burnett

Born in New York City, from a family of Indian and Puerto Rican immigrants Doctoral Candidate J.A. Burnett is a published poet and author of The Lost Key. She is the founder of the American Renaissance Research and Field Trip Society. As a cellist, her most recent recording is the Infinite Ellipse. Studying the lore of the Taino, J.A. practices the revival of spirit celebrating her Native American heritage. Gaming since the 80s, she is a Dungeon Master with a thousand hours of Skyrim. Above all, she loves the weave of words.
(Poem) mind the confluence by Aisha Monks-Husain

two roaring rivers raging waters broken slumber wash away my concrete thoughts stumbling drunkenly laughing, feeling hurting, growing up finding my place
(Mago Almanac Excerpt 7) Introducing the Magoist Calendar by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

Mago Almanac: 13 Month 28 Day Calendar (Book A) at Mago Bookstore. YEARLY LEAP DAY AND EVERY FOURTH YEAR LEAP DAY Each Sa includes a Dan of the big Sa. A Dan is equal to one day. That adds to 365 days. At the half point of the third Sa, there is a Pan of the big Sak (the year of the great dark moon). A Pan comes at a half point of Sa. This is of Beopsu (Lawful Number) 2, 5, 8. A Pan is equal to a day. Therefore, the fourth Sa has 366 days. Each year has a leap day (Dan), which makes a total of 365 days. Every fourth year is a leap year that has a leap day (Pan), which makes a total of 366 days. The Dan day comes before the New Year in the winter solstice month. And the Pan day comes before the first day of the summer solstice month in the fourth year. The above, however, does not indicate when the New Year comes. Logographic characters of Dan and Pan each suggest their meanings. While each year includes the Dan day (the morning), every fourth year has the Pan day. A unit of four years makes the Big Calendar. Dan (旦 Morning) Leap day for every first three years Pan (昄 Big) Leap day for every fourth year I have postulated that the year begins on the Dan day (one leap day), a day before New Year that comes in the month of Winter Solstice in the Norther Hemisphere. And the Pan day comes on the day before the first day of the 7th month that has Summer Solstice in the fourth year in the Norther Hemisphere. Years Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Months Dan Dan Dan Dan 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 5 5 5 5 6 6 6 6 Pan 7 7 7 7 8 8 8 8 9 9 9 9 10 10 10 10 11 11 11 11 12 12 12 12 13 13 13 13 Days 365 365 365 366 The Magoist Calendar’s intercalation involves one leap day every year and one leap day every four years. That is, each year has one extra day to make it 365 days. Every fourth year has an extra day to make it 366 days. Four years has a total of 1461 days (365×3+366), which makes the mean of 365.25 days. Considering that the month is following the sidereal period rather than the synodic period, it is inferred that the year also follows the sidereal year rather than the solar year. In fact, Magoist Calendar’s one year is very close to today’s 365.25636 days of the sidereal year compared to 365.24217 days of the solar year or the tropical year. Given that, as seen below, the Budoji mentions the tiniest discrepancy of one leap day for 31,788,900 years, the discrepancy between 365.25 and 365.25636 (0.00636 day) can be explained that the year was actually 365.25 days at the time of Budo circa 2333 BCE, 4440 years ago. In other words, there is a discrepancy of 0.12375936 seconds between 2017 CE and 2333 BCE. Regarding Lawful Numbers 2, 5, 8, it is involved as follows: 365 days (3+6+5=14, 1+4=5) Lawful Numbers 2, 5, 8 refers the unit of 365 days (364 days with one intercalary day). Further dynamics are unknown. The sidereal year refers to the time taken by the Earth to orbit the sun once with respect to the distant stars. In contrast, the solar or tropical year means the time taken by the Earth to orbit the sun once with respect to the sun. The sidereal year, 365.25636 days, is about 20 minutes and 24 seconds longer than the mean tropical year (365.24217 days) and about 19 minutes and 57 seconds longer than the average Gregorian year of 365.2425 days. The difference occurs primarily because the solar system spins on its own axis and around the Milky Way galactic center making the solar year’s observed position relative. Time is no independent concept apart from space and the agent. The very concept of time is preceded by the agent bound in a space. It is always contextualized. In Magoism, both calendar and time are born out of the cosmogonic universe, the universe that is in self-creation. Like calendar, time is to be discovered or measured. It is a numinous concept. The very concept of time testifies to the reality of the Creatrix. Time proves the orderly movement of the universe into which we are born. Calendar patterns time, whereas time undergirds calendar. How can we measure time? We are given the time of the Earth that comes from its rotation, revolution, and precession in sync with the moon and the sun (and its planets). One type of time is the solar time. The solar time is a calculation of time based on the position of the sun. Traditionally, the solar time is measured by the sundial. The solar time is, however, specific to the Earth only. It is valid only for the-same-observed-location. It is not made to be used for the time of another celestial body. For example, Mars’ solar time has to be measured independently based on its own rotation and revolution rates. The solar time is an isolated time. It is static and exclusive, not made for the time of other celestial bodies. By nature, it is unfit for connection and communication across celestial bodies. The second type is the sidereal time. The sidereal time is a time scale based on the rate of Earth’s rotations measured relative to the distant stars.[29] Because the observed position is in the far distant stars beyond the solar system, the sidereal time may as well be called an extrasolar stellar time. We can think of the observer’s position of an imaginary cosmic bird far out there, infinitely far beyond not only the solar system and …
(Poem) Autumn Leaves by Andrea Nicki

This tree has completely lost its pride and joy, now lying across the wet ground, an intricate, golden mat for others to step on. Things that you do that are undignified but unavoidable. Bills need to be paid. There is no hearth to return to, no heirlooms to sell. You had hoped for something better than this, but, in truth, not in childhood, too depressed to think beyond the next year. The glistening leaves remind me of leaf collages I made as a girl, and of how I liked to iron and preserve leaves between wax paper. The barren tree like my girl’s body dancing in the wind in the backyard to my own songs, odes to autumn trees. Joys you rediscover later in life when others are taken away. Meet Mago Contributor Andrea Nicki
(Prose Pt.1) Transcending Boundaries – Hatshepsut’s Path to Destiny by Alaya Advaita Dannu

Dreams are important because they are moments when humans are stripped of nanderekó or rational thought. Dreamers are in a spiritual state where the awá or “integral being” can emerge, connecting them with a deeper reality. For example, some people can direct their dreams to someone who is several hundred miles distant; others can foretell both positive and negative events that will affect the community (Assunção & Jecupé, 2006). – from “Anyone Who Dreams Partakes in Shamanism”, by Stanley Krippner, Ph.D. Everyone dreams; not everyone remembers their dreams. Yes, I am speaking of the dreams we have when we are asleep, not what people call goals and aspirations. There’s a lot of misconception surrounding dreams amongst communities that are less familiar with them – what they are, why they are, and where they come from. Without going into the details of how they are viewed today by most of the western culture, they are more than: figments of our imaginations, by-products of the mind, residue from our day to day hoopla’s, a means to process experiences from our waking state, or subconscious messages whose meanings are limited to schools of thought on dream interpretation that were created from limited perspectives. Once upon a time, dreams were revered as the utterances of the heavens. Once upon a time, dreams were revered for their revelation of the roadmaps to one’s path and purpose – it was where one looked to understand the questions many still ask today: who am I [identity], why am I here [destiny]. While dreams and the concept of dreaming are still honored in many cultures outside of the Western civilization, I will not deny the existence of the decent amount of conversation on the usefulness of dreams within the Western culture. Operative word being ‘decent’, because I do not think the conversation is deep enough to satisfy the needs of those whose dream experiences are sublime in the way that makes them difficult to approach with simplicity or blatant scrutiny. I’ve engaged dreamwork for over 15 years and my experiences have shaped and molded my interests in spiritual and personal development, in an unorthodox way: exploring the revelation of identity and destiny through dream work. Dreams, originating from the immaterial realm, provides the prima Materia for things we wish to bring into the material realm. This idea was never jettisoned from my upbringing; an approach cultivated through my ongoing investigations to the validity of dreams and the effect they have on our lives from beyond a western/clinical perspective. Dreams aid in the shaping and molding of our lives. I am going to share the dream experience that became the key to further understanding the answers to these questions, “Who am I? Why am I”, demonstrating why it is important to honor them as part of the process to gain clarity in one’s exploration of spiritual and personal growth. I’ve chosen to share this particular dream first because of its clear example of identity and destiny. Perhaps in a separate publication, I will explore in depth and greater detail the symbolism that Hatshepsut embodied; all interpreted from beyond the scope and perspective of a Euro/androcentric perspective. __________ Have you ever heard of Hatshepsut? The better known female pharaoh of the 18th dynasty of ancient Egypt? I have not heard of her before October 22nd, 2015. I came across her name when I was searching for a connection between the ancient Greek perspective on divine birth and that of the ancient Egyptians. The sacred practices of one culture inspired that of the other, so I thought I’d find the answer somewhere amongst the research databases I have access to, and Google. I love Google. There are times I think it is intuitive and knows what I am searching for, and other times where it just doesn’t hit the mark. With this particular search, I am not certain if Google understood my words or if it was being intuitively snarky and provided me with something that would throw me off one course of action and onto another. I searched “divine birth in ancient Greece” and Google came up with a book by Dr. Marguerite Rigoglioso, of which I already owned. I modified the search to “divine conception in ancient Greece” and Google gave me Immaculate Conception. Modifying my search again, I replaced “ancient Greece” with “ancient Egypt” and Hatshepsut’s name came up. I clicked on two links: one that belonged to the Oriental Institute of Chicago, and one that belonged to Milestone Documents, which had an appealing title – “Divine Birth and Coronation Inscriptions of Hatshepsut”. I downloaded the document provided by the Oriental Institute without reading it; it wasn’t titled in a way that caught my interest to spend the time reading it in those moments. The second link required a payment of three dollars and ninety-nine cents, of which I was in no mood to spend. I could not preview the document before purchasing, therefore it was not worth the effort or cost. Three ninety-nine is a lot when you’re not working a steady job. It did not take me long to end my search that day. That night, or rather that following morning, I experienced the dream that flipped everything upside down – or turned everything right side up: October 22, 2015 – “I am Hatshepsut…and I am one of the sheshu-hor, which marks the validity of my kingship”. It was an opening verse that gave an account of her kingship and how she came into being. In being a sheshu-hor, she was further worthy of the title and appointment as pharaoh. In my mind I was in shock – as she gave an account of herself as a legitimate pharaoh I realized I was the one speaking, yet felt and knew that this was about her. We were merged and separated repeatedly throughout the entire dream. The ancestor Falcon to Horus appeared amidst the entire first verse, at key points in the written account of how she …
The Other Side of Thanksgiving by Sara Wright

Photo by Sara Wright The grandmother thread November is the month when the veil is thin and permeable and it is possible to engage with the ancestors … i recently received information that for me november’s moon belongs to the grandmothers, and the liminal space in between and not to the hunter/killers. How is it that what seems so obvious was wrapped in the shroud of my unknowing? On all hallows i crossed a threshold when the hunters moon transmuted from male to female. Trusting my senses, i called up the archetypal grandmothers while grieving my lost connection to my own grandmother. I honored these elders as a powerful force of nature… and left it at that. it is important to note that during the last six years, i lost what once had been an archetypal, distant but meaningful relationship to the full moon’s light. This loss was replaced by the frightening presence of the moon’s dark side which interrupted my sleep and brought on nightmares that often seeped into day time experiences. once my longing to be a grandmother was a grieiving animal that raged in my body but family betrayal, and mental illness on the part of others severed all possibilites. Despite these handicaps i am proud to say that over my lifetime i developed into a woman who possessed integrity, one who created a life of deep meaning in the face of impossible odds. I couldn’t have done this without Surrendering to nature. I made a commitment to care for her like a mother… every forest, field and river, every dog and deer, bear and bird became a cherished beloved. I continue this practice today at 78 as an ‘old woman’, but no longer as a mother. I have surrendered hope that life will continue as i once knew it, grieve accordingly, and choose acceptance of what is.* Now back to my story… I learned from each non-human living being more about what it meant to be loved for just who i was than i ever did from any person with the exception of my brother and grandmother and one steadfast friend. My lack of trust in all humans but one, an animal healer, and my dedication to nature walked side by side. How could i have known that i would live most of my life in this space and have to face death to recover what was lost? After a recent fall and incarceration in a house of horrors the love of one person who was able to stay emotionally present to my dying self helped me survive. i came home transformed. When i returned to my house a few weeks ago i dreamed that i was a little girl standing at my grandmother’s bedroom door crying out with joy and clapping my hands in ectascy as i repeated over and over “it’s my birthday!” I puzzled over this dream with its strange reference to my absentee grandmother. as i sat with the vignette, long buried memories of my grandmother’s steadfast love began to bubble to the surface, flooding my awareness with feeling. I remembered crawling into my grandmother’s bed on nights when i was frightened, the way she lovingly washed my face with warm water before bedtime, cared patiently and lovingly for me when i was ill, cooked applesauce from the golden apples on her tree, taught me how to sew, made all my clothes, witnessed my confused feelings without judgement even when i had tantrums, demonstrated to me the joys of birdwatching and gardening from the beginning… Since i was only 24 when my grandmother died, and because i loved her so much, i couldn’t figure out why i never felt the loss of someone who was so important to me or why i never dreamed about her. Who and what had kept her from me? i witnessed my grandmother’s agonizing death after she was pushed onto the floor by my violent three-year old son. My grandmother broke her hip and never walked again. For the next year i drove 300 miles every month to see and care for her myself. My grandmother told me that i was all she had. Now, i know that she was right because i was the only person who was able to be emotionally present for her during her dying. The night i returned from the hospital for the last time it was thanksgiving. I had spent my time there washing her face and telling her how much i loved her even though she was unconscious. after driving to my parents’ home from the hospital supposedly to particpate in thanksgiving festivities, without provocation my drunken mother struck me hard, knocking me to the floor and stunning my grandfather into his usual silence. He was used to her crazed and violent outbursts. No one ever held her accountable. The next morning my grandmother died at 5 am. Her death occurred on the heels of my little brother’s suicide less than two years before. Now i had lost the two people who were closest to me and still felt nothing. the dead years had begun. in my grandmother’s place came the family abusers and there were a lot of them. My mother was the worst. In time i learned to dread these family interactions and nightmares which threw me into hopeless despair. My father and grandfather were the two exceptions. Throughout my life there have been many others… When i returned to the land of the living, i longed to be re-united with my grandmother the way i had been with my little brother. But this was not to be. Finally, i reached the conclusion that because i had never become a grandmother myself, my grandmother (who i had curiously named ‘baba’ as a baby), was permanently lost to me. In the meantime as a student of nature i gradually learned as i aged how to stay focused on the whole, most of the time; to live …

(Special Post 1) 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.] Introduction by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang and Wennifer Lin-Haver Helen Hye-Sook Hwang I am asking each of us to consider writing a sentence or paragraph on “Why Goddess Feminism, Activism, or Spirituality?” This idea is prompted by Wennifer Lin-Haver, Founder of Mother Tree Sanctuary, and I agree that we need to and can create a sort of collective writing on the topic. What we write below will be included and published in The Girl God, Mother Tree Sanctuary, and Return to Mago. As a subaltern minority as we seem at the current point of time, Goddessians/Magoists [the term Mago means the Great Goddess] need to make extra efforts to make our voices and presences exposed to the public and inner circles. Length and style are open. Please also include your name, region/state/country, title, and/or website URL. We strongly encourage you if you are located in a place where Goddessians are rarely around. We intend to make a collective testimonial tapestry of WE as Goddessians/Magoists! Please keep this in your mind and join us in this collective effort. Thank you in advance. March 6, 2014 AF (Archaic Future)! Wennifer Lin-Haver Our “call” started as a conversation between Helen and me where I was expressing to her the real need for Mother Tree Sanctuary to be more articulate with exploring the significance and importance of Goddess in our lives. I was prompted to give such a response, when asked “why” we had to differentiate God and Goddess. “Isn’t everything God?” She asked. And “Isn’t Goddess also God?” “Isn’t it all the same as long was we’re all coming from our ‘higher’ self?” she asked. So I saw this warranted a longer and much deeper discussion. I initially thought I should formulate a response and post it as a Page or Tab in our website, but after some reflection with Helen, I saw how much better it would be if we replied to this question as a diverse and creative collective. I surely do not have all the answers as an individual but perhaps together, we can come up with something more whole, colorful and satisfying. I do hope you will contribute a little something! We are always grateful for all that you have to share.
(Special Post 7) Why Goddess Feminism, Activism, and Spirituality?

[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. Special thanks to Trista Hendren, founder and author of The Girl God, who passionately and painstakingly promotes the message of each contributor via Facebook’s memes. Without Trista’s devotion to the advocacy, this collective effort would not have continued. 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.] Kaalii Cargill: Life emerges from the Feminine: Woman, Nature, Goddess. When we value the life-giving power of the Feminine we are less likely to kill other human beings who have been held in a mother’s arms.
(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 […]

(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. …
A PaGaian Wheel of the Year and Her Creativity by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This essay is an excerpt from Chapter 2 of the author’s new book A Poiesis of the Creative Cosmos: Celebrating Her within PaGaian Sacred Ceremony. for larger image see: https://pagaian.org/pagaian-wheel-of-the-year/ Essentially a PaGaian Wheel of the Year celebrates Cosmogenesis – the unfolding of the Cosmos, none of which is separate from the unfolding of each unique place/region, and each unique being. This creativity of Cosmogenesis is celebrated through Earth-Sun relationship as it may be expressed and experienced within any region of our Planet. PaGaian ceremony expresses this with Triple Goddess Poetry understood to be metaphor for the creative dynamics unfolding the Cosmos. At the heart of the Earth-Sun relationship is the dance of light and dark, the waxing and waning of both these qualities, as Earth orbits around our Mother Sun. This dance, which results in the manifestation of form and its dissolution (as expressed in the seasons), happens because of Earth’s tilt in relationship with Sun: because this effects the intensity of regional receptivity to Sun’s energy over the period of the yearly orbit. This tilt was something that happened in the evolution of our planet in its earliest of days – some four and a half billion years ago,[i] and then stabilised over time: and the climatic zones were further formed when Antarctica separated from Australia and South America, giving birth to the Antarctica Circumpolar Current, changing the circulation of water around all the continents … just some thirty million years ago.[ii] Within the period since then, which also saw the advent of the earliest humans, Earth has gone through many climatic changes. It is likely that throughout those changes, the dance of light and dark in both hemispheres of the planet … one always the opposite of the other – has been fairly stable and predictable. The resultant effect on flora and fauna regionally however has varied enormously depending on many other factors of Earth’s ever-changing ecology: She is an alive Planet who continues to move and re-shape Herself. She is Herself subject to the cosmic dynamics of creativity – the forming and the dissolving and the re-emerging. The earliest of humans must have received all this, ‘observed’ it in a very participatory way: that is, not as a Western industrialized or dualistic mind would think of ‘observation’ today, but as kin with the events – identifying with their own experience of coming into being and passing away. There is evidence (as of this writing) to suggest that humans have expressed awareness of, and response to, the phenomenon of coming into being and passing away, as early as one hundred thousand years ago: ritual burial sites of that age have been found,[iii] and more recently a site of ongoing ritual activity as old as seventy thousand years has been found.[iv] The ceremonial celebration of the phenomenon of seasons probably came much later, particularly perhaps when humans began to settle down. These ceremonial celebrations of seasons apparently continued to reflect the awesomeness of existence as well as the marking of transitions of Sun back and forth across the horizon, which became an important method of telling the time for planting and harvesting and the movement of pastoral animals. It seems that the resultant effect of the dance of light and dark on regional flora and fauna, has been fairly stable in recent millennia, the period during which many current Earth-based religious practices and expression arose. In our times, that is changing again. Humans have been, and are, a major part of bringing that change about. Ever since we migrated around the planet, humans have brought change, as any creature would: but humans have gained advantage and distinguished themselves by toolmaking, and increasingly domesticating/harnessing more of Earth’s powers – fire being perhaps the first, and this also aided our migration. In recent times this harnessing/appropriating of Earth’s powers became more intense and at the same time our numbers dramatically increased: and many of us filled with hubris, acting without consciousness or care of our relational context. We are currently living in times when our planet is tangibly and visibly transforming: the seasons themselves as we have known them for millennia – as anyone’s ancestors knew them – appear to be changing in most if not all regions of our Planet. Much predictable Poetry – sacred language – for expressing the quality of the Seasonal Moments will change, as regional flora changes, as the movement of animals and birds and sea creatures changes, as economies change.[v]In Earth’s long story regional seasonal manifestation has changed before, but not so dramatically since the advent of much current Poetic expression for these transitions, as mixed as they are with layers of metaphor: that is, with layers of mythic eras, cultures and economies. We may learn and understand the traditional significance of much of the Poetry, the ceremony and symbol – the art – through which we could relate and converse with our place, as our ancestors may have done, but it will continue to evolve as all language must. In PaGaian Cosmology I have adapted the Wheel as a way of celebrating the Female Metaphor and also as a way of celebrating Cosmogenesis, the Creativity that is present really/actually in every moment, but for which the Seasonal Moments provide a pattern/Poetry over the period of a year – in time and place. The pattern that I unfold is a way in which the three different phases/characteristics interplay. In fact, the way in which they interplay seems infinite, the way they inter-relate is deeply complex. I think it is possible to find many ways to celebrate them. There is nothing concrete about the chosen story/Poetry, nor about each of the scripts presented here, just as there is nothing concrete about the Place of Being – it (She) is always relational, a Dynamic Interchange. Whilst being grounded in the “Real,” the Poetry chosen for expression is therefore at the same time, a potentially infinite expression, according to the heart and mind of the storyteller. NOTES: [i] See Appendix C, *(6), Glenys Livingstone, A Poiesis of the Creative …
(Photography & Poetry) Thoughts of Spring by Deanne Quarrie

Spring At the highest point on the tree, you stretch, reaching for the sun. Your pink petals elegant in their grace, you stand alone. Bravest of all, for leaves have yet to come to offer shade Branches bare except for furry buds that will soon follow in imitation of your daring first move. Intrepid flower of Spring, I feel like you in my yearning for the Sun!
(Prose) Halcyon for the Season by Deanne Quarrie

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

The ‘passing of last Summer’s growth’ as is experienced and contemplated in the Season of Deep Autumn/Samhain, may be a metaphor for the passing of all/any that has come to fullness of being, or that has had a fullness, a blossoming of some kind, and borne fruit; and in the passing it has been received, and thus transforms. The ‘passing of last Summer’s growth’ may be in hearts and minds, an event or events, a period of time, or an era, that was a deep communion, now passed and dissolved into receptive hearts and minds, where it/they reside for reconstitution, within each unique being. Samhain is traditionally understood as ‘Summer’s end’: indeed that is what the word ‘Samhain’ means. In terms of the seasonal transitions in indigenous Old European traditions, Summer is understood as over when the Seasonal Moment of Lammas/Lughnasad comes around; it is the first marked transition after the fullness of Summer Solstice. The passing and losses may have been grieved, the bounty received, thanksgiving felt and expressed, perhaps ceremonially at Autumn Equinox/Mabon; yet now in this Season of Samhain/Deep Autumn it composts, clearly falls, as darkness and cooler/cold weather sets in, change is clearer. In the places where this Earth-based tradition arose, Winter could be sensed setting in at this time, and changes to everyday activity had to be made. In our times and in our personal lives, we may sense this kind of ending, when change becomes necessary, no longer arbitrary: and the Seasonal Moment of Samhain may be an excellent moment for expressing these deep truths, telling the deep story, and making meaning of the ending, as we witness such passing. What new shapes will emerge from the infinite well of creativity? And we may wonder what will return from the dissolution? What re-solution will be found? We may wonder what new shapes will emerge. In the compost of what has been, what new syntheses, new synergies, may come forth? Now is the time for dreaming, for drawing on the richness within, trusting the sentience, within which we are immersed, and which we are: and then awaiting the arrival, being patient with the fermentation and gestation. Seize the moment, this Moment – and converse with the depths within your own bodymind, wherein She is. Make space for the sacred conversation, the Conversing with your root and source of being, and take comfort in this presence. We may ponder what yet unkown beauty and wellness may emerge from this infinite well of creativity. The Samhain Moment in the Northern Hemisphere is 17:14 UT 7thNovember this year. Wishing you a sense of the deep communion present in the sacred space you make for this holy transition.
(Art & Poem) Spring Equinox by Sudie Rakusin & Annie Finch

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

(Mago Pilgrimage video 2) Ganghwa Island by Robert (Taffy) Seaborne

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ANT2cPDN-g The first day of Mago Pilgrimage 2014 to Korea, organised by Dr.Helen Hwang, was to Ganghwa Island, starting actually on Gyodong Peace Island: the group included locals, and together we walked up to the Rock of Constellation Marks located atop the Ruin of Hwagae “Castle”/Stronghold. The scenic view up there is from the Ruin of Gwanmi Stronghold (not a fortress, as present minds may think, but a “strong” place). I state all this here about the name because there was a bit of confusion in my mind when making the video. Along our way we came across an ancient sweat lodge – named Hanjeung-mak – shaped like a womb and similar to ancient constructions in other lands. As we walked we could also at some points, see across to the Demilitarized Zone and North Korea, and some in our group expressed deep distress about the loss and splitting of families, with this division.
(Book Excerpt 6) The Mago Way by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.

[Author’s Note] The following is from Chapter One, “What Is Mago and Magoism and How Did I Study HER?” from The Mago Way: Re-discovering Mago, the Great Goddess from East Asia, Volume 1. Footnotes below would be different from the monograph version. PDF book of The Mago Way Volume 1 download is available for free here.] Magoism, East Asian Religions, and Magoist Mudangs As mentioned above, Magoism refers to the totality of human civilization that is ultimately gynocentric. Speaking from a narrow perspective, Magoism is the primordial matrix from which such East Asian religions as Daoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism were derived. In the light of Magoism, a patriarchal religion is redefined as a pseudo-Magoism that which has co-opted the Way of the Great Goddess (Magoism) with the androcentric reversal of the female
(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 East Asian Logographic Language) is a a newly arrived book by Mago Books on June 8, 2020.) It has been 20 years since I first read the Budoji (Epic of the Emblem Capital City), the principal text of Magoism, a term that I coined shortly after. The Budoji was, reappeared as a book in the 1980s in Korea, largely unknown among Koreans at that time. Primarily based on the Budoji, I wrote my doctoral dissertation on the topic of Mago, the Creatrix, in 2003 and 2004. I had gathered a large corpus of primary sources, researched extensively on the topic and its related themes as well as relevant interdisciplinary works. That was to verify and support the Budoji’s validity as a reliable source. I knew that my dissertation marked the onset of my life’s search and research on Magoism. I spent the following sixteen years expanding, deepening and testing the premises that I posited in my dissertation. The subject of Mago became the axis of my life. I found myself a Magoist, following after my predecessors and contemporaries who are countless but mostly forgotten if ever known. I was finally home. The Budoji was at the root of my activities undertaken under the rubric of “The Mago Work” including teaching, publishing, and holding events like Mago Pilgrimages to Korea and Nine Mago Celebrations. The Budoji is the Book of Mago, the Creatrix, written in a systematically cogent narrative. The Budoji testifies to the forgotten mytho-history of Magoism from which modern civilizations are derived. Without the Budoji, the Origin Story of the Creatrix, would have remained unknown today. Without the Budoji, Magoism, the Way of the Creatrix, would have remained unnamed. The Budoji teaches, guides, and awakens people to the metamorphic reality of WE/HERE/NOW. Alleged to have been written in the early 5th century of Silla (57 BCE-935 CE), the Budoji ripe with noble (read matricentric) terms and symbols is salvific, offering matricentric soteriology. My task is to make the Budoji known to the world so that we can dis-cover the story of the Budoji as OUR STORY. In the Budoji, we are told why and how to live peacefully in harmony with all other people and all other species on earth and beyond. It is very slippery to write about it because of its multi-valent meaning, too bedazzling to articulate. Once told, however, the Budoji will begin to ferment something in your mind, something that has been with us all along and everywhere but made unseen. The nine-volume workbook series is an effort to make the unseen seeable and palpable. I must admit that my books, articles, essays, lectures, and events that I wrote and undertook with regards to Magoism for the last two decades are only the footnotes to the Budoji. I could not rely on traditional publications, journals, and educational institutes for my Magoist intellectual/spiritual productions. Out of necessity, I founded Return to Mago E-Magazine, Mago Books, and Mago Academy to build a wheel through which my scholarship on Magoism is interwoven and advocated. Synchronously, the birthing of my dissertation in a book form is approaching in support of the Budoji’s workbook. This book, with a slightly revised title, Seeking Mago, the Great Mother from East Asia: A Mytho-Historical-Thealogical Reconstruction of Magoism, an Archaically Originated Gynocentric Tradition of Old Korea (forthcoming June 21, 2020 by Mago Books)[1], is the thus-far available comprehensive source book to Magoism that I wrote. In 2015, I published The Mago Way: Re-discovering Mago, the Great Goddess from East Asia Volume 1 (Mago Books, 2015), based on the first two chapters of the Budoji. Since 2017, I have published Mago Almanac: 13 Month 28 Day Calendar annually, based on the Budoji’s Chapters 21-23. My other articles include “Mago, the Creatrix from East Asia, and the Mytho-History of Magoism,”[2] “Goma, the Shaman Ruler of Old Magoist East Asia/Korea, and Her Mythology,”[3] “Magos, Muses, and Matrikas: The Magoist Cosmogony and Gynocentric Unity,”[4] “Making the Gyonocentric Case: Mago, the Great Goddess of East Asia, and her Tradition Magoism,”[5] “Issues in Studying Mago, the Great Goddess of East Asia: Primary Sources, Gynocentric History, and Nationalism,”[6] and “The Female Principle in the Magoist Cosmogony.”[7] ……. How to Use the Budoji Workbook? The multivalent meaning of the Budoji’s verses will unravel gradually. At first, you may find the Budoji’s verses too dense or too technical to follow. Even in that case, I encourage you to keep reading the next chapters and the next volumes. Like a night dream, the text of the Budoji will grab your attention. However, its meaning will be slowly unfolding and unveiling in your mind. You may have more questions, as you continue to read. For the Budoji instills in the reader the deepest and broadest vision of the Great Mother, largely forgotten to moderns. The Budoji’s matricentric meaning system (the Way of Mago) takes all into consideration to awaken you including your experience, your interest, your passion, and your intellectual/spiritual aptitude. This workbook aims at initiating the process of knowing the Great Mother, Mago, and the mytho-history of Magoism (pre-patriarchal and trans-patriarchal) from within. In that sense, the Budoji Workbook is a manual with which one learns how to ignite the spark of Life that is inextinguishable and inexhaustible in the mind/heart. The Budoji Workbook allows you to interact with the verses of each chapter. You can take notes, draw images and symbols, or compose songs in the worksheets included after each chapter and in the Appendix. Personalized worksheets can serve as milestones as you proceed in the reading. Ultimately, the Budoji Workbook invites you to write, draw, or sing the storyline of each chapter in your own words and means. No preparation is required to read the Budoji. Once read, the Budoji will begin to speak to you and guide you from within. …

Category: Women

(Poem) Motherlines by Mary Saracino

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(Essay) The Mago Hedge School: Why Remember Mary Daly? by Helen Hye Sook Hwang

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(Poem) The Neighbours Send a Message by Harriet Ellenberger

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(Art) ‘Fish Goddess of Lepenski Vir’ by Lydia Ruyle

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(Essay) The Invisible Bleeding Goddess by Trista Hendren‏

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(Poem) Oh Mother, Our Mother by Mary Saracino

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(Essay) Three-Fingered Fish Goddess- South Slavic Intangible Oral Memory Traditions by Danica Anderson

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(Photo Essay 4) ‘Gaeyang Halmi, the Sea Goddess of Korea’ by Helen Hwang

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(Poem) Meanderings by Anne Wilkerson Allen

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(Photo Essay 3) ‘Gaeyang Halmi, the Sea Goddess of Korea’ by Helen Hwang

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(Essay) ‘The Hard Side of Aphrodite’ by Hearth Moon Rising

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(Poem) ‘Sunrise Over the U.S.A.’ by Harriet Ann Ellenberger

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(Essay 2) ‘Archetype or Patriarchetype? A Brief History of the Symbolic Meanings of Thorn Trees’ by Kelly A. Greer

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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)

(2025 Spring Course) Encountering Ceto-Magoism (the Whale-guided Way of the Creatrix)

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