August 27, 2018October 2, 2019 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Book Excerpt) Goddesses in Myth, History and Culture, Introduction by Mary Ann Beavis and Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

INTRODUCTION Mary Ann Beavis and Helen Hye-Sook Hwang (Mago Books, 2018) Mago Books is a labour of love. Our overarching mission is “to remind everyone of the innate power Read More …

August 17, 2017October 2, 2019 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Book Announcement 3) Celebrating Seasons of the Goddess by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D. & Mary Ann Beavis, Ph.D.

Available now @ Mago Bookstore. Editors: Helen Hye-Sook Hwang and Mary Ann Beavis Introduction (continued) SOCIAL MEDIA AND GODDESS FEMINIST ACTIVISM The wheel of Goddess feminist activism by nature stands Read More …

August 5, 2017October 2, 2019 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Book Announcement 2) Celebrating Seasons of the Goddess by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D. & Mary Ann Beavis, Ph.D.

Forthcoming 2017 by Mago Books. Editors: Helen Hye-Sook Hwang and Mary Ann Beavis Below from Introduction READING CELEBRATING SEASONS OF THE GODDESS Mary Ann Beavis As co-editor of this volume, Read More …

July 20, 2017October 2, 2019 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Book Announcement 1) Celebrating Seasons of the Goddess by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D. & Mary Ann Beavis, Ph.D.

Forthcoming 2017 by Mago Books. Editors: Helen Hye-Sook Hwang and Mary Ann Beavis Celebrating Seasons of the Goddess restores the original vision of celebrating cultural and natural landmarks from the Read More …

October 20, 2016October 2, 2019 Mago Work Admin2 Comments

(Book Review) Christ & Plaskow's Goddess and God in the World by Mary Ann Beavis

Review of Carol P. Christ and Judith Plaskow, Goddess and God in the World: Conversations in Embodied Theology. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2016. Pp. 330, $29 U.S., ISBN: 9781506401188. The remarkable book Read More …

June 5, 2016October 2, 2019 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Book Announcement 3) Introduction (part 1) to She Rises Vol 2 by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

[Editor’s Note: This Introduction is from She Rises: How Goddess Feminism, Activism, and Spirituality? Volume 2.] Pre-order available now! She Rises: How Goddess Feminism, Activism, and Spirituality? is a Read More …

May 12, 2016October 2, 2019 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

How do you say what The Mago Work is? by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang & Mago Circle Members

It took many years for me to pronounce the communal nature of the Mago Work. Defining the Mago Work necessarily endows us with the bird’s eye view of the Great Read More …

February 10, 2016October 2, 2019 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Video) The Mago Work by Mago Sisters by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

November 2, 2015October 2, 2019 RTM EditorsLeave a comment

(Essay) Excerpt from Christian Goddess Spirituality: Enchanting Christianity by Mary Ann Beavis

Although the interviewees showed considerable variety in their responses to questions about their conceptions of God, their responses can be used to sketch the contours of a “grassroots” thealogy, originating Read More …

October 24, 2014October 2, 2019 Mago Work Admin1 Comment

(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 Read More …

February 4, 2014June 28, 2021 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

Meet Mago Contributor, Mary Ann Beavis

Mary Ann Beavis (Ph.D., Cambridge University) is Professor of Religion and Culture at St. Thomas More College, the University of Saskatchewan (Saskatoon, Canada). Her areas of specialization include Christian Origins, Read More …

February 3, 2014October 2, 2019 Mago Work Admin4 Comments

(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 Read More …

(Meet Mago Contributor) Susan Clare

Painting, for 20 years, in Jamaica, I included meditation and path-working in my studio practice. Since returning to England, I’ve shown in juried exhibitions in London and Essex, been awarded SAA’s Professional Artist of the Year 2016 and had work exhibited in London’s prestigious Mall Galleries. I paint in water-media, expressing nature’s vibrancy. A female figure forms a point of reference. I love runs and splashes for ambiguity, texture and light. Spending time in nature, I feel calm, inspired and positive. It’s my hope that’s how viewers leave my work…
Meet Mago Contributor, Elisabeth Slettnes

Elisabeth Slettnes is a renowned artist who lives in Lillehammer, Norway. She primarily works with oil and acrylic paintings on canvas. Her paintings have been included in several books, including The Girl God, Mother Earth, and Dreams and Divinities. You can see more of Elisabeth’s paintings at http://elisabethslettnes.net. Published posts from the recent:
2014 in review, our heartfelt thank you to our contributors, readers, and supporters!

Dear Magoists of the world, With your love and support, it has been possible for us to transform our distances into communications–our diaspora into the Diaspora, as Mary Daly wished–for the year of 2014! It is with our great joy, gratitude, and solidarity that we share with you 2014 reports. We, editors, are infinitely thankful for our Mago Contributors and Mago Supporters who have generously and passionately continued to share your talents, visions, hearts, researches, and resources with us. Return to Mago Readers, please join me, Helen Hwang (Founding Director and Co-editor), in giving my special thanks to our Mago editing sisters, Rosemary Mattingley, Mary Saracino, and Donna Snyder, whom I dearly love and respect for their free services and Sisterhood to make Return to Mago possible for another year! We look forward to your continuous love and support for the coming year! Mago blessings to you, your loved ones, and all in WE!
(S/HE V2 N1 Essay 13) The Ancient Korean Whale-Bell: An Encodement of Magoist Cetacean Soteriology by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

[Editor’s Note: This essay to be posted as sequels is from the second volume of the S/HE journal. See S/HE: An International Journal of Goddess Studies (Volume 2 Number 1, 2023). Page numbers and footnote numbers differ in this page.] NAME TEXTS OF THE TWO BELLS In what follows I explore and discuss the name texts of the Sangwonsa Bell and the Divine Bell of Seongdeok the Great. The English translation of these texts with the original logographic script is made available in Appendix III. [1] The Bronze Bell of Sangwonsa The Name Text of the Sangwonsa Bell is short in length, compared to the text of the Divine Bell. Engraved in the two sections on the Heavenly Plate (see Figure 17-1 and 17-2), the right and the left, the text comprises a total of 70 characters. Each section made of four lines consists of 8-9 characters (see [Figure 17-3]). Informative of the year cast, the weight, the names of monks, Danwols (almsgivers), and artisans, the text reads: The text is written on March 8th of the 13th Eulchuk year of Gaewon [725 during the reign of Seongdeok the Great] upon the completion of the bell. It took 3,300 jeongs of bronze. [ab][2] is Bojung, Doyunae is Hye[c], and Jikse is Dojik. Monks are Chungchil, Chungan, and Jeongung. Danwols are Hyudori (Resting Way Mother), Mother of Yuhyu Grand House, Deokhyangsa, and Sangsansa. The artisan is Sa[d] of the Great House in Jonamtaek (House of South Lighted) [a, b, c, and d indicate illegible characters].[3] Given that it was cast in 725 during the reign of Seongdeok the Great (r. 702-737), it is inferred that the bell casting reached Seongdeok the Great is the key figure for both bells. Seongdeok the Great is the 33rd ruler to whom the Divine Bell was dedicated to by his son Geyongdeok the Great and his daughter-in-law Queen Manwol (see [Table 1]). The first three characters are conjectured to be the names of abbots or the owner of the temple. The names of three Buddhist monks are indicated. The names of Danwols (almsgivers)[4] are debated to be two or three. Among them is one female donor by the name of Hyudori (Resting Way Mother), who is the Mother of Yuhu Grand House. (To be continued) [1] All translations are mine unless otherwise indicated. [2] The four characters illegible due to erosion are indicated as a, b, c, d in brackets. [3] See Appendix III. [4] The word, Danwol (檀越), referring to an almsgiver or patron, has known as a Buddhist term, a transliteration of dana-pati in Sanskrit. However, I hold that it is, together with such other dan words danmok (檀木 dan tree), danung (檀雄 dan hera), and danmyo (檀廟 dan grave), a Goma word. The character dan (檀 the divine tree or the bright land) indicates the divine tree of Goma and the Danguk confederacy of Nine Hans (3898 BCE-2333 BCE). https://www.magoism.net/2013/07/meet-mago-contributor-helen-hwang
(Essay 1) Sacred Crete: Mystery Rites and the Sacred Bull’s Transformation in the Post-Bronze Age Collapse by Jen Taylor

Dolphin Fresco / Palace of Knossos (Crete, 1700-1450 BCE) “I come from Crete over the sea’s wide back…” -Demeter / Homeric Hymn to Demeter Dynastic-era Egyptian Pharaohs hired the artists of ancient Crete to paint murals in their sacred temples. For those familiar, the art of High Bronze Age Minoan culture is stunning, considered some of “the most inspired ” of the long-gone Neolithic era, depicting “the enchantment of a fairy world.”1 One might recall the Dolphin Fresco or the palace ruins of Knossos. The unparalleled pottery techniques of the Minoans were lost at the end of the Bronze Age with the brutal Mycenaean takeover, mid-15th century BCE. Minoan pottery techniques are difficult to replicate to this day. It is long acknowledged that Roman architecture is a knock-off of Greek building works, but the Greeks are a knock-off of a knock-off: they borrowed from the Mycenaean imitation of Minoan architecture. Both Mycenaean and then Greek artisans fail to achieve Minoan feats and splendor. Some might argue with me on this, but what cannot be refuted is that Minoan archeological remains destroy the narrative that Western civilization began with the Greeks. I have never been to this fabled island of enchanted ruins, nestled in the blue waters of the Mediterranean. As Demeter desired to return, I wish to go, though I fear the longing it will stir. Can I face the testimony of the ruins? So much is lost and it requires more than a physical journey to a geographical location to recover ancient Crete. I was first alerted to this Archeo-Mythological trail as an undergrad in 1993, studying the Pre-Socratics, Homer, and Greek Tragedy. What was this Golden Age that Hesiod referred to at the onset of the Iron Age in 8th century BCE? In the beginning, the immortals who have their homes on Olympos created the golden generation of mortal people… They lived as if they were gods, their hearts free from sorrow. – Hesiod / Works and Days, lines 108-114 Around the same time, a beloved philosophy professor (Mitch Miller) pressed us in class with a tantalizing question. He asked if we had ever heard of the Eleusinian Mystery Rites. Cicero wrote of them, “We have been given a reason not only to live in joy, but also to die with better hope.”2 None of us had heard of these “Mystery Rites,” and what Professor Miller said next stunned me. He said that we should be angry about it. Then he looked around the room and stayed silent for a while. No one said a word. Something important had been lost and the writings of ancient Greece contained fragments testifying to that loss, emerging like pebbles in the moonlight now. I will always be grateful to Professor Miller for this seminal moment because the scatterings of pre-classical era-derived fragments also provide clues towards the Mystery Rites’ recovery. I have spent a lifetime searching since, and the two scholars I trust most in cleansing patriarchal overlay when looking at the origination point of the Eleusinian Mystery Rites in Bronze Age Crete are Riane Eisler and Professor Mara Keller. Each has given a lot of attention to ancient Crete in their long careers. Eisler devotes a chapter to the subject (Crete: The Essential Difference) in her paradigm-shifting book, The Chalice and the Blade. What many refer to anachronistically as Minoan, Keller has renamed Damatrian Crete in her essays and a forthcoming book.3 Minoan is the name given by Sir Arthur Evans in the first archeological excavations of the ancient civilization in the early 1900’s. The term Minoan derives from King Minos, a mythological king of Mycenaean Crete, the Iron Age war-faring, pre-Greek tribes, who destroyed and supplanted High Bronze Age, Damatrian Crete. A rose may be a rose by any other name, but not here. The domination system culture of the Mycenaeans worshipped the power of the blade, the power to take life. Damatrian Crete, what Eisler calls a partnership paradigm, worshipped the opposite, conceiving of the power to give life as sacred. The power of the womb, symbolized by a chalice, understands the rebirth that follows, and trumps death. Archeologist Nicholas Platon noted in his 1966 examinations of the ancient island, “the fear of death is almost obliterated by the ubiquitous joy of living.”4 From the first excavations in the early 1900’s, scholars agree on this point. In 1987, Keller observes that, “Their main purpose was to bring an experience of love to the most important life passages: birth, sexuality and death/rebirth.”5 The more I uncover, the more Hesiod’s lament for the lost age makes sense and matches my own: “And I wish that I were not any part of the fifth generation of men, but had died before it came, or been born afterward. For here now is the age of iron. Never by daytime will there be an end to hard work and pain…” – Hesiod, Works and Days, lines 169-174 This (meta)journey of recovery is compounded by our continued failure to decipher Damatrian Crete’s script, referred to unimaginatively as Linear A. Happily, we are alive in a time when disciplines like archeology and mythology have come together to shed light on a formerly unknowable and lost way of life. How do we live so that we are not afraid to die? How did we lose that and how to do we get it back? The Festival of the Bull and The Eleusinian Mystery Rites of Demeter offer tantalizing insights here. We will examine each separately in Parts II and III of this series, considering them together in the context of the post-Bronze Age collapse in Part IV. (Next month / Part II: The Festival of the Bull…) Demeter & Grain / Greek Bas-Relief, 700 BCE Endnotes 1 Riane Eisler, The Chalice and The Blade: Our History, Our Future (New York: HarperCollins, 1987), 32. 2 “Neque solum cum laetitia vivendi rationem accepimus sed etiam cum spe meliore moriendi.” Cicero, …
(Quilt Art) The Syrian Eye Mother Goddess and her Daughter by Kaarina Kailo

With the Ancient Votive Eye Statues one reaches to the beginning of civilization ca. 3700–3500 B.C. when the first cities sprang up in Mesopotamia and the near East. I recreated a figurine which is one of thousands of mother-daughter statues found in Tell Brak, a vast mound and one of humanity’s first cities. It was built around the same time as Ur and Sumer. Patriarchy privileges images of fathers and sons, and my quilt art seeks to redress the balance by honoring also the mother-daughter bond of matrilineal cultures. https://www.magoism.net/2016/03/meet-mago-contributor-kaarina-kailo/
(Essay 2) Future of Identity: Reclaiming the Northern Pagan Tradition by Jillian Burnett

Art by Jillian Burnett Cultural Change The new tribalism rejects the conformity of the previous generations and accepts countercultures into the mainstream. Dominant culture is not rejected, but is changing. Just as tattoos are common, and marijuana is decriminalized and now legalized—social taboos have shifted. The world is changed. Other markers of the change in the social fabric are the plummeting rates of population growth as well as double declining marriage rates. Even traditional gender is being questioned in today’s two spirit and trans movements of inclusion and acceptance. Trends like quiet quitting and lying flat express dissatisfaction with the rat race. Commodity fetishism, consumerism and the worship of wealth are dying trends. They are replaced by northern pagan virtues of generosity, gift giving, exchange, and balance. These make for a more wholesome and equitable society. The changing values are important topics that can change school systems, country wide consumption of agriculture immigration quotas, as well as federal education standards. Sadly, these critical topics don’t get too much press coverage in mainstream media outlets or news TV. An example of changes in society’s laws are legislation regarding sexuality. In the first world these are moving to be more inclusive and equitable. In developing places in the world we still have for example bans on being gay in countries in the far east, south east Asia, as well as south west Asia and Africa. We take identity and sexual orientation for granted in the west and in the first world. Those rights are hard won but it is also important to realize their place in the ancient world view, as that framework shapes law making as well as social justice. Embracing inclusivity, in the Poetic Edda of the Norse tradition, the Þrymskviða as well as the Lokasenna both explain how Loki changed his sex, and identified as a woman. Loki also married the giantess Angrboða and gave birth to three children. This gender bending God was not disparaged for his sexual fluidity; he often came up with clever solutions to mitigate the negative effects of chaos as it surrounded the Asgardian Gods. Noting those traditions, modern pagans also may embrace non-traditional lifestyles, ranging from polyamory, or non-traditional families as the mom-commune movement, a type of intentional community. These new types of villages are based on shared responsibilities, share values and shared resources. Digital nomadism, as found in the vanlife movement has millions of people converting vans into minimalist vehicular adventures. People work remotely and enjoy living without massive debt, without the financial liability of one to two earners living on a property that a hundred years ago would have had one or two families living on it. The average mortgage price compared to salaries at worst in the past two decades was 20 times. Increased capitol requirements now have lessened that to ten times, but it took a massive global housing market crisis to effect that change. Today’s pagans live in communities and are seen as sharing recourses. The tiny-house movement, off-grid communes and digital-nomad movements suggest that an ecologically minded, financially sustainable, diy lifestyle that minimizes the carbon footprint is valued by the pagan community. This revival of old ways may also include at home food preparation-moving away from ultra-processed chemically-enriched nutrient-added nourishment or soylent. Other revivals include fitness such as yoga, healthy food awareness such as veganism, and other kids of natural back-to-the-land social revival. There are millions who now knit and crochet, preferring home-spun to store bought. There are fashion movements like cottagecore, that idealize romantic rural life with natural simplicity. There are even new dating trends like tradwife, that idealize the time before women entered the workforce. Stay-at-home girlfriend is also a movement, as people decide how they want to spend their time with their partners in this life. There are DIY cheese mongers, making vegan and almond milk mozzarellas. Homebrewing ale and IPA is making a comeback that hasn’t seen this much popularity since the 13th century. The new trends seek satisfaction and contentment focusing on simplicity of home and hearth. Another example of the societal change is reflected in the arts and crafts industry has seen billions in growth in the past decade, as more artisans leave corporations and enter e-commerce. People are going back to the simplicity of bartering their wares and showcasing their crafts. (To be Continued) https://www.magoism.net/2020/08/meet-mago-contributor-jillian-burnett/
Bird Talk: Prayer to the Bird Goddesses by Sara Wright

Photography by Sara Wright Every fall I look forward to the wild turkeys that visit me during the winter. This year visits are more sporadic but the friendship between the three male turkeys that I call the ‘kings’ or the three amigos has persisted for two years creating many questions for this naturalist regarding bird relationships (despite being ruthlessly hunted in spring and fall and randomly shot at). These three friends still seem inseparable and last year I had a chance to get to know each individual. Two continue to defer to the king who is just a little larger than his friends, but I never witnessed conflict between any of these male birds. Last year they displayed and even mated together! This year there is a predator afoot and except for the king who acts as a protector standing watch while the mixed flock scratches for seed, the turkeys hide from me, so I am sure I am dealing with a human threat. Still, the turkeys come in to feed and that’s what matters. Only recently have the males begun to come separately. The flocks are splitting up for spring mating, still two months away. I am quite certain that the turkey friendships I am witnessing are replicated with the females but because they are more reticent it is harder to get to know them individually. Friendships between birds that may be or not be related are not documented in the literature (except during mating and parenting). But I have also seen and written about chickadees, cardinals, and juncos exhibiting close personal relationships that have nothing to do with mating. Some wild birds like the turkeys, have occasionally included me. I also have ruffed grouse, but these birds are shy and are loners. I see one most often around the edges of my field before dawn. They also fly into the fruit trees to eat the last of withered crabapple berries when the first snow settles on the trees. In the spring there is one male who drums on a log in the very same place in the woods but then he disappears. These birds are also aggressively hunted. Friendship has been restricted to offering grouse a safe haven and leaving it at that. However, each summer I have been fortunate to glimpse a grouse family because one mama nests here hidden in the hay ferns, and I see her leading her fluffy offspring up the hill to reach gravel while huddling close to the fence. Last year the mother that nested here had only one little chick. One turkey hen also nests here, but unlike the grouse mama turkey will proudly parade her young up the hill, settle into the moss and spread out her wings in the sun. Last year mama’s single chick was nestled under her wing. The sound of the spring goose migration sometimes moves me to tears. During the summer I feed the geese at a local pond, admiring the protective males who stand watch while their mates are sitting on eggs and then being thrilled at the sight of the goslings when they start to swim. The geese I feed become friends, appearing out of cattails and reeds almost instantly after I leave my car. Goose families travel together with both parents taking an active role in raising their offspring. Obviously, I have a penchant for ground birds, even those like the geese, ducks, and sandhill cranes who migrate long distances but spend a lot of time feeding either in fields, wetlands, or open water. Then there the ducks… When I lived in NM I witnessed the sandhill cranes who arrived in late fall and spent winter nights at the edge of the river, with one male always standing watch. Every morning before dawn I was outside walking by the river, waiting for the families who travel as one related body (except during mating/ chick raising) to sound their haunting calls as they took to the air to feed in the fields for day. I used to wonder why, instead of extolling even worshipping the predators – eagles, owls, and raptors that most folks adore – I preferred the company of those that were primarily vegetarian and unfortunately preyed upon by others. What follows are some reflections on this question. Ground birds (1) live close to the earth even when they take to the skies during migrations. These are (2) peace loving birds who except for the grouse gather in family groups and migrate together. All but the grouse choose (3) communal living for most of year, (and I have to wonder how much hunting pressure has affected the behavior of these birds – I think immediately of the desert quail who also remain together). With the exception of the grouse, all the others have male (4) protectors who stand watch over their families. There’s a fifth reason I love them; (5) they are birds who fly that also are deeply wed to the earth which isn’t quite the same thing as living close to the earth. I think of them as being embodied in some way that other birds aren’t – difficult to explain. When I put these behaviors together: earth loving, peaceful, living in community with males acting as protectors, embodiment, I Immediately think of the way Carol Christ described the peaceful agricultural societies of the past that flourished without war. We could learn so much from Nature if we paid attention. Birds are at least 150 million years strong. During these dark times I am calling upon the ancient Bird goddesses to guide us onto a path that will lead women back into a more conscious relationship with their bodies and that of the earth. I am also asking that these Ancestors help us create a global community one that births men that are protectors of the earth, women, children, animals, plants, fungi; men who are heavily invested in peace. Postscript: I wrote this personal essay to help me …
(Book Excerpt) Blood and Honey Icons: Biosemiotics & Bioclinary by Danica Anderson, Ph.D.

Kolo Sestra (Serbo-Croatian for sisters circle) Slavic thaumaturgy, the circle of sisters is a process of manifesting healing that is referred to as miracle-making. www.kolocollaboration.org Storied Instructions At first, the Kolo Sumejja women felt guilty about having a “real vacation.” Many women in the aftermath of the Bosnian war were shut in as if in prisons without bars because of poverty and the way of life in the aftermath of a war that had painful memories on every street and in every home. Even a simple bus fare to a town less than five kilometers away was a choice between eating and paying a bill. Since the current model of western clinical trauma treatment does not work or apply for most, the indigenous South Slavic practices were best suited to allow the women in these situations to heal. Out of their prisons for only a half-hour, even as quickly as going over the mountains that are visible from their Alpine village, the traumatized and often seriously depressed women started to tell bar jokes and break out into song. I could not sleep or read. Yet I could not avoid noting this Slavic thaumaturgy, a process of manifesting healing that is referred to as miracle-making now. No matter how many sessions and years of therapy I conducted, I could not possibly have created the intensive therapy that took place in the tattered yellow bus chugging through the Bosnian mountain passes toward the Adriatic Sea. This was even more stunning in light of the release of videos revealing the brutal takeover of Srebrenica, a small town outside of Tulsa, Bosnia (now reclaimed as Serbia). In 1995, within five days, Bosnian Serb soldiers removed Muslim men and systematically murdered them. (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/…/bosnia-agonizes-over…/ ) At first, on the bus to Neum, the Kolo Sumejja women discussed their reactions to the broadcast of the Srebrenica videos on Bosnian television. The universal and archetypal force struck these women. The fact that a mother, a Serb Mother, would find the damning videos and turn them over to the public alerted the Kolo Sumejja women that this mother is their sister, no longer divided from them by ethnic or religious origins. The videos allowed mothers and relatives to identify their male relatives and see their last moments. And for that, the Kolo Sumejja women proclaimed gratefulness and heartfelt thanks various times. What erupted was this reaching for female solidarity, a kolo uteri legacy that immediately perpetrated healing rather than hatred. It was Vahdeta Sivor Krnjic’s words that triggered an alert within me. She stated that the force of motherhood and being a mother with the decades’ long bleeding cycles evolving into the wisdom of menopause is known for creating life and therefore heals not just the family but entire communities. All this occurred in the first hours on the bus to the coast, which we rented and drove through the night to avoid the insufferable heat of the day. I packed my eye mask and earplugs and begged for a pillow from Sana Koric’s immaculate home with its pristine white linens. But for all my tools to sleep, the Kolo Sumejja women sang and danced the kolo on what little aisle was left unattended by luggage. I am sure they conspired to joke with the sleeping American-Serb, but it was so much more than that. The explosion from their hearts and verve for life after so much war and death propelled the ruckus of laughter and haunting songs chanted between the jokes and sometimes punctuated by farting. The latter would have me plugging my nose and yelling at the offender, which only made them roar with laughter and tears. I would swear in Bosnian and they would chortle hysterically until they held their stomachs. At one point, I turned around in my seat at the front of the bus, a seat placed as far as I could get from the culprits who thwarted any sleep. It was not what I saw, it was what I felt. Female solidarity settled in among our shoulder-to-shoulder existence in the crowded yellow bus, with a male bus driver who would be sworn to confidentiality but allowed to laugh. I wonder whether this was how the Elysian Mysteries were kept secret from the men. I think so since I heard Fata, the eldest in our Kolo Sumejja, tell him that she and the women would do insufferable things to him if he did not keep quiet. The bus driver sweated when she told him that. I laughed when I saw that since he was a former soldier and actually able to defend himself. The local male bus driver came to me on the fourth trip to share that he loved these elder respected women of his community, but he had come to worship them. He realized how beloved each female was to him. I noted that he called his mother in addition to his wife on the trips because of his new reverence for these women. As the tattered yellow bus chugged over the mountain passes and road that hugged the Neretva River, through Mostar with its beautiful green waters, I would often turn in my torn vinyl seat to see how the Kolo Sumejja women healed their war traumas with song and especially the kolo dancing in the aisle, blocking the bus driver’s view. Could it be as simple as the women, experiential professors of trauma, indicate? Removing oneself from the traumatic environment commences the healing by layering new memories over the painful memories; this is the wisdom I observed from the Kolo Sumejja women. Often, we would bring someone who had not been to the coast and was severely traumatized, along with a translator in her young adult years. The women would share their menstrual wisdom, especially if one of the young women was bleeding or having body issues mid-cycle. One of the young translators was shielded from translating the swear words or dirty jokes just because she might be pregnant or, …

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

Posted with permission in Return to Mago on ‘Australia Day’, 26 January 2014 (Australian time), in recognition of the ill-treatment and misunderstanding of Aboriginal people that was set in train when, in 1788, white people first settled in the land now known as Australia.
(Special Post) To Contributors: Strengthening Our Roots by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

Dear Contributors, Do you know that Return to Mago (RTM) E*Magazine is entering its fifth year this fall? And, thanks to our collective effort, we are still growing! As of today, our contributors have grown to more than 130 in number and our readership is from about 140 countries around the world. We have some hundred email followers as well as Wordpress blog followers. We draw 3000-4000 clicks per month on average; that is no small accomplishment for a Goddess blog that is named after a yet-to-be heard word, Mago (the Great Goddess), and that began from scratch.
(Special Post Isis 1) 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 1 Is Isis White (European) or Black (African)? Harita Meenee What could Isis have to do with the political situation in Egypt? Read on to find out! Isis, Egypt and the Revolution For the past few years Egypt has felt like a second home to me. Some cherished friends and co-workers live there, to whom my thoughts often travel. Also, Isis, the Egyptian great goddess once worshiped all over the Mediterranean, has been an ever-present source of inspiration… By: Harita Meenee, Author https://www.facebook.com/notes/harita-meenee-author/isis-egypt-and-the-revolution/457348724361326 Rick Williams Isis and that picture for me is kind of offensive in 2013. KMT [Kemet, Egypt] and AUSET [Isis] “worship” is an oxymoron. Kahena Dorothea Can you explain, Rick Williams, how it is an oxymoron? I am curious. Rick Williams First, Auset as a deity was not a singularly honored symbolic personage. KMT taught principles of BALANCE and UNIVERSAL COSMOLOGICAL TRUTH. There are NO images from the dawn of that age depicting her as EUROPEAN. [Threads curtailed] Helen Hwang I would strongly suggest that Rick and others who see Rick’s point educate us in Mago Circle. I know this is very difficult but we are here to learn and express differences from each other. We are all centers and please share your perspective and knowledge so that others can learn. I am doing that with patience and tolerance as well. Thank you all! Rick Williams I try to be as honest and respectful when I can, Helen. I only personalize things when ONE person says something. Yet there are those who know that the people of that land now weren’t the same people who honored the deities of mythology and that image isn’t of Auset. When will folks stop promoting fictitious images and uneducated observations? I could have beat around the bush and politely asked about the statue, why that one isn’t truly the same of Auset’s time? Helen Hwang Okay, conflicts and contradictions are everywhere. Nonetheless, we can’t be beat by those. We are exploring ways to be empowered by addressing our differences in Mago Circle. We trust that we have good intentions and yet we are not perfect. I do Mago Circle and Return to Mago because I believe there is a way for us to meet and talk with our differences, I can’t let that hope go! Thank us for talking to each other. Naa Ayele Kumari I can see both points. Egypt has a long and ancient history… One filled with invaders.. wars.. people who stole the magic and manipulated it for their own purposes… Those invaders changed images to make them in their own reflections all the while slowly destroying the indigenous images of power and strength as well as the sacred tradition they were built on.. As a woman of African descent, it is sometimes difficult to see the Hellenistic images of our mother.. because her original images were a woman of color. Racism… whether we chose to admit it or not has played an immense part in our oppression as a people and that includes the struggle for Egypt today. It is especially a sensitive issue because those images play a role in how people see and view black women… even today. The dark goddess is stereotyped as being a part of our shadow while the white goddess is caste as being all that is good in the world. What black women struggle to tell the world is that those projections are simply racist projections… and so we reject them. Still, I recognize that people like to experience the divine in their own image and that our Mother has been taken around the world… and by extension absorbed many names and faces because after all, she is mother not to just Africans… but to the World. Right now, we have dominant tradition of Islam… that at its roots has a feminine basis… (Islam came from the word Isis) all the while oppressing women by its dogma. The indigenous people of Egypt, the Badarians and Nubians… are oppressed by Arab invaders who have taken control, projected their own religions all the while wanting to destroy the remainder of the images of the ancients. Injustice recognizes injustice… and all the ways that it shows up. At the root of Egypt…is Isis… called also Esi and Auset by the indigenous people. She has been oppressed by many layers of invaders… Her daughter’s voices have been muted… Timeless icon that she is, as the tides are turning, so are the heavy oppressions being lifted. Women are finding and re-remembering their power… and as they do… Mama Esi.. is taking back her throne. Naa Ayele Kumari This is the Isis on the walls and temples of Egypt. Harita Meenee Seeing the people of Egypt as all white or all Black means stereotyping them. In fact the inhabitants of Egypt are of different colors: some are white, others are Black and many others are something in-between. The same was true in antiquity and it’s reflected in Egyptian art. Rick Williams Harita, really? What does that have to do with your choice of misrepresentation of that image? Please enlighten me, thank you. Harita Meenee Τhere is no misrepresentation, dear Rick Williams. If you read my note carefully, you’ll see that it talks about Isis as a goddess who was worshiped all over the Mediterranean–I’m not referring to just her Egyptian manifestation. The statue depicted is in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, Greece. I took this picture and processed it slightly so that it looks more like a painting than a sculpture. No change was made to the actual form or color of the statue. I’m attaching a photo of the museum label of this work of art. It may not be clearly visible, but it reads: Marble statue of the goddess Isis-Tyche-Pelagia. 1st-2nd century AD. The composite name means that, as was often the case in […]

(Essay) Walking with Bb by Sara Wright

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

Tara, Hallie Iglehart Austen, p.122 On November 7th at 22:56 UTC EarthGaia crosses the midpoint in Her orbit between Equinox and Solstice. In the Southern Hemisphere it is the Season of Beltaine – a maturing of the Light, post-Spring Equinox. Beltaine and all of the light part of the cycle, is particularly associated with the Young One/Virgin aspect of Goddess, even as She comes into relationship with Other: She remains Her own agent. Beltaine may be understood as the quintessential annual celebration of Light as it continues to wax towards fullness. It is understood to be the beginning of Summer. Here is some Poetry of the Season: Earth tilts us further towards Mother Sun, the Source of Her pleasure, life and ecstasy You are invited to celebrate BELTAINE the time when sweet Desire For Life is met – when the fruiting begins: the Promise of early Spring exalts in Passion. This is the celebration of Holy Lust, Allurement, Aphrodite … Who holds all things in form, Who unites the cosmos, Who brings forth all things, Who is the Essence of the Dance of Life. Glenys Livingstone, 2005 The choice of images for the Season is arbitrary; there are so many more that may express this quality of Hers. And also for consideration, is the fact that most ancient images of Goddess are multivalent – She was/is One: that is, all Her aspects are not separate from each other. These selected images tell a story of certain qualities that may be contemplated at the Seasonal Moment of Beltaine. As you receive the images, remember that image communicates the unspeakable – that which can only be known in body – below rational mind. So you may open yourself to a transmission of Her, that will be particular to you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKGRoVjQQHY Aphrodite 300 B.C.E. (Hallie Iglehart Austen, The Heart of the Goddess). This Greek Goddess is commonly associated with sexuality in a trivial kind of way, but She was said to be older than Time (Barbara Walker p.44). Aphrodite as humans once knew Her, was no mere sex goddess: Aphrodite was once a Virgin-Mother-Crone trinity – the Creative Force itself. The Love that She embodied was a Love deep down in things, an allurement intrinsic to the nature of the Universe. Praised by the Orphics thus: For all things are from You Who unites the cosmos. You will the three-fold fates You bring forth all things Whatever is in the heavens And in the much fruitful earth And in the deep sea. Vajravarahi 1600C.E. Tibetan Tantric Buddhism (Hallie Iglehart Austen, The Heart of the Goddess). A Dakini dancing with life energy – a unity of power, beauty, compassion and eroticism. Praised as Mistress of love and of knowledge at the same time. Tara Contemporary – Green Gulch California ,Tibetan Buddhist. (Hallie Iglehart Austen, The Heart of the Goddess). “Her eroticism is an important part of her bodhisattvahood: the sweetpea represents the yoni, and she is surrounded by the sensual abundance of Nature. One of Tara’s human incarnations was as the Tibetan mystic Yeshe Tsogyal, “who helped many people to enlightenment through sacred sexual union with her”. – Ishtar 1000 B.C.E. Babylon (Hallie Iglehart Austen, The Heart of the Goddess). Associated with passionate sexuality (and with Roman Goddess Venus) – which was not perceived as separate from integrity and intelligence … praised for Her beauty and brains! Her lips are sweet, Life is in Her mouth. When She appears, we are filled with rejoicing. She is glorious beneath Her robes. Her body is complete beauty. Her eyes are total brilliance. Who could be equal to Her greatness, for Her decrees are strong, exalted, perfect. MESOPOTAMIAN TEXT 1600 B.C.E. Artemis 4th Cent.B.C.E. Greece. (Hallie Iglehart Austen, The Heart of the Goddess) – classic “Virgin” image – wild and free, “Lady of the Beasts”, Goddess of untamed nature. As such, in the patriarchal stories She is often associated with harshness, orgiastic rituals but we may re-story “wildness” in our times as something “innocent” – in direct relationship with the Mother. She is a hunter/archer, protector, midwife, nurturing the new and pure essence (the “wild”) – in earlier times these things were not contradictory. The hunter had an intimate relationship with the hunted. Visvatara and Vajrasattva 1800C.E. Tibetan Goddess and God in Union: it could be any Lover and Beloved, of same sex. Image from Mann and Lyle, “Sacred Sexuality” p.74. Sacred Couple –Mesopotamia 2000-1600 BCE “Lovers Embracing on Bed”, Inanna Queen of Heaven and Earth, Diane Wolkstein and Samuael Noah Kramer. Represents the sacred marriage mythic cycle – late 3rd and into 4th millennium B.C.E. (See Starhawk, Truth or Dare). This period is the time of Enheduanna – great poet and priestess of Inanna. Xochiquetzal 8th century C.E. Mayan (Hallie Iglehart Austen, The Heart of the Goddess). Her name means “precious flower” – She is Goddess of pleasure, sexuality beauty and flowers. Sometimes represented by a butterfly who sips the nectar of the flower. “In ancient rituals honouring her, young people made a bower of roses, and, dressed as hummingbirds and butterflies they danced an image of the Goddess of flowers and love.” Her priestesses are depicted with ecstatic faces. (called “laughing Goddesses” !!) She and Her priestesses unashamedly celebrated joyful female sexuality – there is story of decorating pubic hairs to outshine the Goddess’ yoni. https://www.magoism.net/2013/06/meet-mago-contributor-glenys-livingstone/ REFERENCES: Iglehart Austen, Hallie. The Heart of the Goddess. Berkeley: Wingbow, 1990. Mann A.T. and Lyle, Jane. Sacred Sexuality. ELEMENT BOOKS LTD, 1995. Starhawk. Truth or Dare. San Fransisco:Harper and Row, 1990. Walker, Barbara. The Woman’s Encyclopaedia of Myths and Secrets. San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1983. Wolkstein,Diane and Kramer, Samuel Noah. Inanna Queen of Heaven and Earth. NY: Harper and Rowe, 1983. The music for the slideshow is “”Coral Sea Dreaming” by Tania Rose.
(Video) Autumn Equinox/Mabon Poetry by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

The Autumnal Equinox occurs each year in the range of March 20-23 in the Southern Hemisphere, and in the range of September 20 -23 in the Northern Hemisphere. Autumn Equinox is a point of sacred balance: it is the point of balance in the dark part of Earth’s annual cycle. Sun is equidistant between North and South as it was/is at Spring Equinox, but in this dark phase of the cycle, the trend is toward increasing dark. Henceforth the dark part of the day will exceed the light part: thus it is a Moment of certain descent … and a sacred Moment for feeling and contemplating the grief and power of loss, for ceremoniously joining personal and collective grief and loss with the larger Self in whom we are. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcZflKLkvP8 Below is the text of the video. It is based on the traditional poetry for PaGaian Autumn Equinox/Mabon ceremony[i]. This is the Moment of the Autumnal Equinox in our Hemisphere – the moment of balance of light and dark in the dark part of the cycle. The light and dark parts of the day in the South and in the North of our planet, are of equal length at this time. We feel for the balance in this moment – Earth as She is poised in relationship with the Sun … breathing in the light, swelling with it, letting our breath go to the dark, staying with it. In our part of Earth, the balance is tipping into the dark. We remember the coolness of it. This is the time when we give thanks for our harvests – all that we have gained. And we remember too the sorrows, losses involved. The story of Old tells us that Persephone, Beloved Daughter, is given the wheat from Her Mother – the Mystery, knowledge of life and death. She receives it graciously. But she sets forth into the darkness – both Mother and Daughter grieve that it is so. Demeter, the Mother, says: “You are offered the wheat in every moment … I let you go as Child, most loved of Mine: you descend to Wisdom, to Sovereignty. You will return as Mother, co-Creator with me. You are the Seed in the Fruit, becoming the Fruit in the Seed. Inner Wisdom guides your path.” We give thanks for our harvests – our lives they are blessed. We are Daughters and Sons of the Mother. Yet we take our Wisdom and all that we have gained, and remember the sorrows – the losses involved. We remember the grief of the Mother, of mothers and lovers everywhere, our grief. Persephone descends. The Beloved One is lost. Persephone goes forth into the darkness to become Queen of that world. She tends the sorrows. The Seed represents our Persephones, who tends the sorrows – we are the Persephones, who may tend the sorrows. We go out into the night with Her and plant our seeds. Persephone blesses us with her fertile promise: “You have waxed into the fullness of life, And waned into darkness; May you be renewed in tranquility and wisdom[ii].” These represent our hope. The Seed of life never fades away. She is always present. Blessed be the Mother of all life. Blessed be the life that comes from Her and returns to Her. We tie red threads on each other: we participate in the Vision of the Seed – of the continuity of Life, that continues beneath the visible. The Mother knowledge grows within us. Our hope is in the Sacred Balance of the Cosmos – the Thread of Life, the Seed that never fades away: it is the Balance of Grief and Joy, the Care that we may feel in our Hearts. NOTES: [i] Glenys Livingstone, PaGaian Cosmology, p. 239-247. [ii] Charlene Spretrnak, Lost Goddesses of Early Greece, p. 116. REFERENCES: Livingstone, Glenys. PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. NE: iUniverse, 2005. Spretnak, Charlene. Lost Goddesses of Early Greece: a Collection of Pre-Hellenic Myths. Boston: Beacon Press, 1992/1978.
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.
Summer Solstice Poiesis by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

Seasonal Wheel of Stones Both Summer and Winter Solstices may be understood as particular celebrations of the Mother/Creator aspect of the Creative Triplicity of the Cosmos (often named as the Triple Goddess). The Solstices are Gateways between the dark and the light parts of the annual cycle of our orbit around Sun; they are both sacred interchanges, celebrating deep relationship, communion, with the peaking of fullness of either dark or light, and the turning into the other. The story is that the Young One/Virgin aspect of Spring has matured and now at Summer Solstice her face changes into the Mother of Summer. Summer Solstice may be understood as a birthing place, as Winter Solstice may also be, but at this time the transiton is from light back into dark, returning to larger self, from whence we come: it is the full opening, the “Great Om”, the Omega. I represent the Summer Solstice on my altar wheel of stones with the Omega-yonic shape of the horseshoe. I take this inspiration from Barbara Walker’s description of the horseshoe in her Woman’s Encyclopaedia of Myths and Secrets, as “Goddess’s symbol of ‘Great Gate’[i]”; and her later connection of it with the Sheil-na-gig yoni display[ii]. Sri Yantra. Ref: A.T. Mann & Jane Lyle, p.75 Summer Solstice is traditonally understood as a celebration of Union between Lover and Beloved, and the deep meaning of that is essentially a Re-Union: of sensed manifest form (the Lover) with All-That-Is (the Beloved). This may be understood as a fullness of expression of this manifest form, the small selves that we are, being all that we may be, and giving of this fullness of being in every moment: that would be a blissful thing, like a Summerland as it was understood to be. The boundaries of the self are broken, they merge: all is given away – all is poured forth, the deep rich dark stream of life flows out. It is a Radiance, the shining forth of the self which is at the same time a give-away, a consuming of the self.In traditional PaGaian Summer ceremony each participant is affirmed as “Gift”[iii]; and that is understood to mean that we are both given and received – all at the same time. The breath is given and life is received. We receive the Gift with each breath in, and we are the Gift with each breath out. As we fulfill our purpose, as we give ourselves over, we dissolve, as the Sun is actually doing in every moment. The “moment of grace”[iv]that is Summer Solstice, marks the stillpoint in the height of Summer, when light reaches its peak, and Earth’s tilt causes the Sun to begin its “decline”: that is, its movement back to the South in the Northern Hemisphere (in June), and back to the North in the Southern Hemisphere (in December). Whereas at Winter Solstice when out of the darkness it is light that is “born”, as it may be expressed: at the peak of Summer, in the warmth of expansion, it is the dark that is “born”. Insofar as Winter Solstice is about birth, then Summer Solstice is about death, the passing into the harvest. It is a celebration of profound mystical significance, which may be confronting in a culture where the dark is not valued for its creative telios; and it is noteworthy that Summer Solstice has not gained any popularity of the kind that Winter Solstice has globally (as ‘Christmas’). The re-union with All-That-Is is not generally considered a jolly affair, though when understood it may actually be blissful. Full Flowers to the Flames Summer is a time when many grains ripen, deciduous trees peak in their greenery, lots of bugs and creatures are bursting with business and creativity: yet in that ripening, is the turning, the fulfilment of creativity, and it is given away. Like the Sun and the wheat and the fruit, we find the purpose of our Creativity in the releasing of it; just as our breath must be released for its purpose of life. The symbolism used to express this in ceremony has been the giving of a full rose/flower to the flames. Summer is like the rose, as it says in this tradition[v]– blossom and thorn … beautiful, fragrant, full – yet it comes with thorns that open the skin. All is given over. All is given over: the feast is for enjoying With the daily giving of ourselves in our everyday acts, we each feed the world with our lives: we do participate in creating the cosmos, as many indigenous traditions still recognise. Just as our everyday lives are built on the fabric of the work/creativity of all who went before us, so the future, as well as the present, is built on ours, no matter how humble we may think our contribution is. We may celebrate the blossoming of our creativity then, which is Creativity, and the bliss of that blossoming, at a time when Earth and Sun are pouring forth their abundance, giving it away. In this Earth-based cosmology, what is given is the self fully realized and celebrated, not a self that is abnegated – just as the fruit gives its full self: as Starhawk says, “Oneness is attained not through losing the self, but through realizing it fully”[vi]. Everyday tasks can be joyful, if valued, and graciously received: I think of Eastern European women singing as they work in the fields – it is a common practice still for many. We are the Bread of Life Summer Solstice celebrates Mother Sun coming to fullness in Her creative engagement with Earth, and we are the Sun. Solstice Moment is a celebration of communion, the feast of life – which is for the enjoying, not for the holding onto. We do desire to be received, to be consumed – it is our joy and our grief. Brian Swimme says: “Every moment of our lives disappears into the ongoing story of the Universe. Our creativity is energising the whole[vii]”. As it may be ceremoniously affirmed: we are (each is) …
(Music) Songs for Samhain by Alison Newvine

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

(Essay 1) The Magoist Calendar: Mago Time inscribed in Sonic Numerology by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

[Author’s Note: This is my latest research that has led me to restore the 13-month, 28-day Mago Calendar, which will be included at the end of its sequels. See Mago Almanac: 13 Month 28 Day Calendar (Book A), published in 2017.] Magoist Calendar is the inter-cosmic genealogical chart of the Creatrix in which all is found kindred. It unfolds the one standard unified time, which I call the Cosmic Mother’s Time or the Mago Time, wherein all beings in Our Universe from microcosmic quarts to macrocosmic celestial bodies are perceived in continuum. The Cosmic Mother’s Time is an inclusive time in which everyone is re-membered and celebrated. It is revelatory for its numinous nature, which some may call a mystery. The Mago Time is happening
(Essay 2) Returning Home with Mago, the Great Goddess, from East Asia by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

[Author’s Note: This essay was first published in Trivia, Voices of Feminism, Issue 6, September 2007. Also to be included in the forthcoming anthology She Rises: Why Goddess Feminism, Activism, and Spirituality?] An Introduction to Magoism Mago is the Great Goddess of East Asia. Nonetheless, she remains barely known to the world. Her equals, Xiwangmu (the Supreme Goddess of Daoism) and Amaterasu (the Sun Goddess of the Japanese imperial family), are said to comprise the pantheon of East Asian cosmic goddesses. Considering that these goddesses are often aligned with the ancient culture of China or Japan, one notices that the pantheon of East Asian Great Goddesses thus omits both Mago and “Korean culture.”
(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 this current magazine. See (Bell Essay 1) Ancient Korean Bells and Magoism by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang.] Southern right whale from Wikimedia Commons Introduction The Korean temple bell is no mere Buddhist device. Calling it a Sillan Esoteric Buddhist invention in origin only adds to its mystification. Commissioned by Sillan rulers who represented traditional Magoist shaman rulers, Sillan temple bells administer sonic balance within and without all beings once and for all. In short, the Sillan temple bell reenacts the Magost Cosmogony HERE and NOW.[1] Engendering resonance to the self-creative power of cosmic music, Yulryeo (Rhythms and Tones), the Korean temple bell summons the paradisiacal reality of the Creatrix, Mago. Cast in the form of a female body, the bell structurally embodies the gynocentric principle of the Creatrix, the Mago Way. I have discussed earlier such features as nine nipples and apsaras. Here the dragon figure (Yongnyu) and the sound tube (Yongtong or Eumtong) in its head are focused. Multi-functional and polysemic, the dragon is there not only to be the loop for hanging but also to envelop the sound tube, seen below. Among others, the sound tube stands out as a distinctive feature of Korean temple bells that distinguishes them from their Chinese and Japanese counterparts. What is the sound tube of the Korean temple bell? Why do Korean temple bells have a sound tube? Answers to these questions concern a yet-to-be-unraveled undergirding theme of the Korean temple bell, the whale. Although its origin is debated, the sound tube signals Sillan cetacean veneration. In the mytho-history of Magoism, Silla (57 BCE-935 CE) stands as a prominent ancient Korean state, which succeeded and flowered ancient Magoist cetaceanism. Sillan cetacenism defines Silla as a new government that succeeded Old Magoist confederacies. In this context, we can assess a whale-shaped wooden mallet, which is no mere decorative addition to the bell. Nonetheless, the whale-shaped mallet is only a tip of the cetacean meaning of the bell. A whale (고래 Gorae in Korean) is the very model that the Korean temple bell (the bell hereafter) takes after, especially for its vocalizations. The bell mimics the music of whales. While the latter is heard in water, the former is heard in land. Its cetacean names corroborate such an assessment. The bell is called Janggyeong (長鯨 Eternal Whale), Gyeongjong (鯨鐘 Whale Bell), Hwagyeong (華鯨 Splendid Whale), or Geogyeong (巨鯨 Gigantic Whale). As such, the sound of the bell is alternatively called “the sound of whale (鯨音gyeongeum).” Ancient Koreans perceived whales, pre-human in origin and once a land animal, as the messenger of the Creatrix, Mago. In folk traditions, the phrase, “riding the back of a whale,” was widely popularized among East Asians throughout history, which means that one returns to Mago, by riding the back of a whale upon death. That ancient Koreans were cetacean venerators remains esoteric. The cetacean code of Korean temple bells holds the key to unraveling what has gone suppressed in patriarchy, the Magoist Cosmogony. By the Magoist Cosmogony, I mean a systematic origin story of our universe, as is recounted in the Budoji (Epic of the Emblem City). I have summarized the Budoji’s cosmogonic chapters in my aforementioned book, The Mago Way, as follows: The Magoist Cosmogony highlights the sonic movement of cosmic elements as the Creatrix. In the beginning, there was light. The movement/vibration of light (cosmic music) in the universe caused creation to take place over eons. Stars were born in the previous cosmic era. In due time, Mago was born together with the Earth (the Stronghold of Mago) with her moons. Her (self-)emergence marks the beginning of earthly history. Mago listened to and acted in tune with the cyclic movement of the cosmic music. In further due time, S/HE bore two daughters, Gunghui (Goddess Gung) and Sohui (Goddess So) parthenogenetically. This Primordial Triad laid the foundation for the earthly environment for all species. Mago, assisted by HER two daughters, orchestrated the terrestrial plan to bring acoustic balance in harmony with the cosmic music/sound/vibration. S/HE delegated HER descendants to cultivate and manage the sonic equilibrium of the Earth [Italics added].[2] Precisely, the Sillan temple bell encodes the message that whales are the paragon of Magoists whose mandate is “to cultivate and manage the sonic equilibrium of the Earth.” Restoring Magoist cetaceanism is metamorphic. Antithetical to the very establishment of patriarchy, ancient Magoist Korean cetacean practice unfolds the Other World that has been ever HERE. This essay, assessing the sound tube as a Magoist code of Sillan cetaceanism, aims to delineate how the Magoist cetacean meaning came to be encoded in the sound tube of the bell by the Sillan rulers of the 7th and 8th centuries. In decoding the cetacean message, we are led to the myth of Manpasikjeok (萬波息笛 the pacifying flute that defeats all, hereafter the pacifying flute), a Sillan royal treasure that is hermeneutically construed as made of the tusk of a narwhal. A group of Korean scholars maintain that the sound tube was designed to represent the pacifying flute. The task of this essay is to go further and to re-read the myth of Manpasikjeok—a story of King Sinmun the Great (r. 681-692) of Silla (57 BCE-935 CE) who was told by a sea dragon to create a flute out of a mysterious bamboo tree growing in a mysterious mountain in the East Sea, alternatively known as the Sea of Whales—from the Magoist perspective. This story has been written and misinterpreted as an enigmatic Buddhist story. I hold that “Ruler (King or Queen) the Great (大王 Daewang),” unlike other kings of the ancient world, does not refer to a patriarchal monarch. It is a Magoist cetacean term that is related with “Ruler Whale the Great (Daewang Gorae),” referring to the blue whale for its gigantic size or whales collectively. By adopting the cetacean title …

Tag: Mary Ann Beavis

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