December 20, 2013October 2, 2019 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Poem) Silent Night by Mary Saracino

‘Tis the season of deep silence Of dying leaves And waning light Of death, or what seems like death to unseeing eyes Of long nights and even longer longings Of Read More …

November 21, 2013October 2, 2019 Mago Work Admin2 Comments

(Poem in English and Italian) No Country for Old Women by Mary Saracino

Howling from the mountaintops wailing from the riverbanks scooping the moon into their waning wombs the old women know that lies kill, distortions maim, hope isn’t enough to feed starving Read More …

September 25, 2013October 2, 2019 Mago Work Admin6 Comments

(Poem) MOTHERS WILL MAKE PEACE by Mary Saracino

“Mothers will make peace, so sons will not die.” Huda, a Palestinian journalist living in Jordan, as quoted in “Women’s Gathering Gives Peace a Chance,” Women’s E-News, April 13, Read More …

September 16, 2013October 2, 2019 Mago Work Admin1 Comment

(Essay 2) Red Poppies Among the Ruins by Mary Saracino

How far we humans have strayed from our homeland. How long we have wandered alone in the desert of our amnesia. Have we learned nothing? Vivo and morto. The circle Read More …

September 9, 2013February 20, 2018 Mago Work Admin3 Comments

(Essay 1) Red Poppies Among the Ruins by Mary Saracino

Under the alchemy of sea and sky, my bones began to listen. The warm wind tickled my ear lobes, kissed my cheek, bidding me to cede to the desire of Read More …

August 19, 2013October 2, 2019 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Novel 2) The Singing of Swans by Mary Saracino

Note: This is an excerpt from the first chapter in Mary Saracino’s novel, The Singing of Swans (Pearlsong Press 2006). Used by permission from the publisher. For more information, visit http://www.pearlsong.com/thesingingofswans.htm Chapter 1 Read More …

August 12, 2013December 22, 2022 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Novel 1) The Singing of Swans by Mary Saracino

[Note: This is an excerpt from the first chapter in Mary Saracino’s novel, The Singing of Swans (Pearlsong Press 2006). Used by permission from the publisher. For more information, visit http://www.pearlsong.com/thesingingofswans.htm.] Chapter 1 Night Read More …

July 17, 2013October 2, 2019 Mago Work Admin3 Comments

(Poem) Olivastri Millenari by Mary Saracino

Olivastri Millenari* In stillness, I look upon the weathered face of the Ancient Mother, Tree of Life, Tomb of Death, Womb of all that is sacred. 4,000 years of wrinkled Read More …

June 21, 2013October 2, 2019 Mago Work Admin5 Comments

(Poem) Summer Solstice by Mary Saracino

On this longest day of the year I long for more time to write more poetry sing more songs, eat more chocolate cake, laugh more often I long to dance Read More …

May 24, 2013September 14, 2023 Mago Work Admin10 Comments

Meet Mago Contributor, Mary Saracino

MARY SARACINO is a novelist, memoir writer, and poet. Her most recent novel, Heretics: A Love Story (2014) was published by Pearlsong Press. Her novel, The Singing of Swans (Pearlsong Press 2006) was named a Read More …

May 13, 2013October 2, 2019 Mago Work Admin2 Comments

(Poem) A Mother’s Day Proclamation by Mary Saracino

“Arise, then, women of this day! Arise all women who have heart, whether our baptism be that of water or tears!” –Mother’s Day Proclamation, Julia Ward Howe, Boston, 1870 She Read More …

April 5, 2013October 2, 2019 Mago Work Admin8 Comments

(Poem) Resurrection by Mary Saracino

Deep in the coils of memory our DNA sings ancient songs of life, death, regeneration. We each turn on our own axis, as the Earth turns through her seasons, winter’s Read More …

March 1, 2013October 2, 2019 Mago WorkLeave a comment

(Poem) The Mother of Us All by Mary Saracino

“God was female for at least the first 200,000 years of human life on earth.” ~Barbara Mor & Monica Sjoo, The Great Cosmic Mother For 200,000 years we called you Mother Read More …

(Prose) The Mago Work and Magoist Cetaceanism in the time of the Covid19 by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.

Oceanic Pumping by Whales. Wikimedia Commons. If we can make the pandemic a time of opportunity to nail patriarchy in the head once and for all, we may be able to say that the Covid19 is worthy of it in the end. The Covid19 can’t stop what we are meant to do! And we are ever freshly charged to undertake the task of helping Life right HERE/NOW! That is the driving force under the Mago Work’s ongoing and new ventures. Lately, we have launched a new project, S/HE: An International Journal of Goddess Studies, an academic peer reviewed journal on Goddess-related topics. All beings including non-human species, if we can survive, endure this time of the pandemic ordeal. And we are unsure what is coming at the end of this tunnel. Nonetheless, I am thankful for what we still have and can do. We are flexible, open-minded, and creative. We grin in tears longing for love and connection. And we have the spirit of making an ever new start. That is our power, we live fully. In fact, the Mago Work founded in 2012 was designed in order to survive and thrive during the time of crises on all levels. On one level, schools and educational institutes now go by online, which puts Mago Academy one of them, a pioneering survivor! That said, is it possible to confront patriarchy at the dead-end? How do we do that? I suggest that we restore Magoist Cetaceanism today among us. Magoist Cetaceanism is about the bond between Magoists (followers of the Great Mother) and the natural world administered by whales. Why whales? Why not just women or mothers? To expose the bare face of patriarchy, we need to unveil the hidden/suppressed dimension of the cetacean divine, Whale Ruler the Great (Daewang Gorae), emulated by Magoist “Rulers” (Mother Queens and their descendant kings). How relevant are whales in our assessment of the Mother World? While whales manifest most unexpectedly in cultural and thematic expressions across time and space, it is rarely known that dragons are the cetacean symbolism. Traditional Korea is imbued with the cetacean totemism, a topic that requires a book to write about. I have noticed that dragons (the personification of the cetacean divine) are associated with ancient Goddesses including the Inanna group of Goddesses, far more vividly than we would expect.As I am preparing for the upcoming Magoist Studies Salon on whales (for the rest four months of 2020), these thoughts are on my mind. Patriarchy must have hated the natural world represented by whales more than women/mothers. One may question if hate has a degree. It does! The natural world has been deprived of its existential status wholesale in patriarchy. Animals, birds, trees and plants are allowed no right of existence on their own. The following is the topic statement on Magoist Cetaceanism for the Salon: The bond between Magoists and whales is made invisible in patriarchy. Both the female principle and the cetacean totemism remain esoteric at best. In Magoism, whales are venerated as the paragon of Magoist Queen Mothers who administer the human world on behalf of Mago, the Great Mother. Magoist Cetaceanism, restored, tells us that Magoism, the Way of the Great Mother, has been subjected to the process of matricide, mystification, and oblivion in the course of history due not only to its uncompromising female principle but also to its espousal with the cetacean totemism. Truth is that the cetacean totemism held by ancient Magoists is antithetical to patriarchal premises. Put differently, Magoist Cetaceanism cannot be admitted in patriarchy. For the seamless unity of humans and the natural world represented by whales undermines the very proposition of patriarchy. Pre-patriarchal sons may have come to set themselves against whales (dragons) out of jealousy, as the latter were worshipped as the terrestrial divine by their Shaman Queen mothers. Our message is that we humans are here to know the nurturing power of whales and collaborate with them. In fact, I hold that whales comprise one of the three divine realms, the terrestrial divine (Nine Dragons) together with the heavenly divine (Nine Magos) and the human divine (Nine Gomas). In the three-fold reality of WE/HERE/NOW, better known as the thought of Heaven-Earth-Human, cetaceans come as the second agent who represents the earthly realm. We will discuss whales as the terrestrial divine in light of the Magoist Cosmogony and Magoist Shaman Queens. The very establishment of Magoism, the teaching of the Great Mother, Mago, may have been possible due to a consummate degree of progress or revelation on maternal cetology (study of whales by Magoist Mothers) circa 3898 BCE by Goma, the Magoist Shaman Queen founder of the nine-state Danguk confederacy. Put differently, the discourse of the mother divine (Nine Magos) has to do with the cetacean worship. At this point of a pre-patriarchal time, human mothers came to perceive the universe in the language of Sonic Numerology. The conscious promotion of Goddesses (the Great Mother and HER human daughters known as Heavenly Queen or Heavenly Mother) rose (that was still in pre-patriarchal times) and because of that, we today get to know them. This is all thanks to whales! In a pre-patriarchal world, the concern of Magoists was to overcome the problem of eating living beings for food. This is not a small issue. In fact, the Budoji calls it the first catastrophe (Christians call it the first disobedience, according to John Milton in Paradise Lost). Pre-patriarchal mothers faced to overcome the problem of food, which resulted in the change of human biology/psychology/consciousness once and for all. Magoists in the cradle of Mago Stronghold drank “the terrestrial milk” springing from the ground, the mineral water. And later, they ventured out to take arrow roots, pine needles, pine nuts, and the like for food. Later, they were likely to eat a dead whale, washed ashore. I am reaching the thought that humans can take organic materials that are freely given by the natural world/lifeforms not by killing them. Nobody wants to share? …
(Poem) Daffodils by Andrea Nicki

Their heads hang low from weeks of battering rain. They must find it hard to trust, meet the gaze of the new sun. Still, they hold their mouths open– a faithful chorus with perfect pitch yellow.
(Essay) Slavic Spring Ritual by Danica Anderson, Ph.D.

“Marzanna, Maslenitsa, Morena and Mara and all her many names, we honor the deep silence of Winter as her spirit, and its stillness to reflect our practices to bring ourselves into natures quiet season of silence, snow, quiet, retreat. Winter Solstice marks the 3 long months of the “ending” of the whole year and on the Winter Solstice, place her where she will sit for the 3 moons of winter.” Elder Mountain Dreaming The Slavic Goddess Marzanna (translates to cold-frozen) is an oral memory tradition community purification only. Blood & Honey The Secret Herstory of WomenBook Excerpt Often citing the grabancijas as the culprit for the bee’s massive deaths in the aftermath of the Bloody Balkan War, the brothers sought the metaphor of the genocides as being parallel to the Bee’s demise. The South Slavs were soaked in evolutionary means. Through thousands of years of observations recorded in their round dances, songs, chants and how they lived each day handed down to future generations, the South Slavs knew how preserve a library-records beyond books, hard drives right into the brain, DNA and body. Taking the tasks that need refreshing daily into long term memory for the South Slavs meant a working point of a contemporary body in the same geographic place of their ancestors. The Slavs live the sacred- the mundane acts taken into the extraordinary. What we would consider beneath us or tedious small acts is but a direct sacred encounter to proscribing the brain to evolve through memory of the daily acts that take in the visual experiences; the experience of the land and the smells encountered in the past lives of ancestors into memory/meme is evolutionary. Dr. Danica Andersonwww.kolocollaboration.org Bioculinary receipe DETOX Soup1 onion (large, chopped)6 celery stalks, chopped6 carrots, chopped4 garlic cloves, sliced2 sweet potatoes (large, chopped)optional: 2-3 Burdock roots (if you are ambitious, this is possible!) sliced: 2-3 inch piece of Ginger root (organic if possible), 2-3 inch piece of Astragalus4 cups ‘greens’ ~ Dandelion, Rapini, Spinach, Chard and or wild greens*10-12 cups pure water or bone broth or veggie stock Put the first 5 ingredients into a large pot (as well as optional roots included above)Cover the veggies with 10-12 cups of good quality water or use your favourite bone broth.Heat to a boil.Reduce heat, and allow to simmer for 20-25 minutes.Add 4 cups of greens. Try to pick some wild greens. *My usual go to picks include: young nettle leaves, garlic mustard, goose foot, lamb’s quarters, field garlic, amaranth, violet leaves and flowers, dandelion flowers and leaves, young plantain, horsetail ~ for starters! https://www.magoism.net/2013/06/meet-mago-contributor-danica-borkovich-anderson/ (Meet Mago Contributor) Danica Anderson, Ph.D.
(Essay 3) *Click Here* to Download Spirituality by Francesca Tronetti

Goddess provisions at cratejoy.com I enjoy watching TV shows set in the 1970s, primarily comedy ones and a few serious ones. A reoccurring episode plot was someone whose child joined the Hari Krishnas or lived at a temple whose leader preached a mi of esoterism, Buddhism, and Hinduism. There was always some conflict with the parent trying to remove their children from the group. The police would then have to find the child, who used a new name, typically of Hindi origin. I only saw one episode where the group was not depicted as a cult or a way to earn money. In an episode of Lou Grant, a father wanted to ‘rescue’ his son from the Hari Krishnas and hired a deprogrammer. However, when he realized that the deprogramming would involve hurting his child, he instead just took his son down the street for a walk and talked with him. The episode ended with the father deciding to stay in his son’s life even though he didn’t like the Hari Krishnas. That was indeed a heartwarming episode, but it was in the minority, as I mentioned. Most shows portrayed these spiritual groups as being led by white men with long beards and robes, attracting young women to work for them. Others were con artists who sought to take older people’s retirement savings. These were fictional depictions of a sad truth. Unfortunately, Eastern and Indigenous spirituality are for sale to too many people. You just need the proper marketing. However, sometimes the marketing can backfire on the companies in spectacular ways. In 2018 Sephora, a make-up company that includes the Bare Minerals brand, decided to offer a $42 Witch tarter Kit for sale in their stores. The kit would consist of a sage smudge stick, crystals, tarot cards, and perfume. The company immediately faced a backlash from witches and pagans and pulled the product. Urban Outfitters’ clothing company caused a similar reaction when they began selling palo santo sticks in their stores. These were not spiritual self-care companies, metaphysical shops, or even bookstores where one could pick up a book on spirituality. Instead, it was clear that they were offering these items to sell them to a young demographic whose interest in spirituality was growing because they knew this demographic shopped at their stores. These international companies garnered a lot of attention because they were so large and announced their products through social media. But stores such as five below and dollar tree, which are trading in on people’s interest in chakras and mindfulness, don’t receive the same attention. This is because they are small and niche, they don’t have the same brand marketability, and the pagans and magic users who shop there like that tools and candles can be purchased cheaply. Consumer mega-giant Wal-Mart is also aware that pagans use their stores and now sell statues of goddesses and gods for between $25-$100, depending on the size and materials. Again, there is not a lot of backlash, possibly because those who would search Wal-Mart.com for a Triple Goddess statue don’t want to have the items pulled. It’s a combination of needs and economics. Sephora foundation can sell for $32 a bottle, and they make a line of clean and vegan make-up products. They market their products to a demographic that is aware of cultural and spiritual appropriation and can take their business elsewhere financially. These larger companies are called to account for their actions because they are million or billion-dollar companies. If you start a protest at a Dollar Tree, an everything for a dollar store, not many people will care. The store caters to those in the lower socioeconomic demographic and doesn’t have the same social media following that the other stores do. No influencer is calling Dollar Tree out for their charka incense, probably because they don’t know it’s there. While Sephora, Urban Outfitters, and other companies have been called out for cultural and spiritual appropriation, we need to remember that they are not putting these products on the market to be insensitive. They are doing so to make money and cash in on the spirituality wave washing through the American markets. A wave enhanced by the growth of social media and the work of ‘influencers.’ Social media is filled with images and videos of meditation and spaces decorated to make them look like temples. I love pictures of sunrooms with brightly colored meditation pillows on the floors, plants cascading down the walls or suspended in hangers, fairy lights adding a sense of magic. The rooms look peaceful and relaxing. They are a place where you never hear your cell phone going off and can listen to waves crashing on a beach for hours. The economic side of capitalist spirituality is, to my mind, part of what moved charkas and mindfulness into mainstream American culture. First, there was an existing market of practicing pagans, and there was a growing market of people who wanted to cast spells and have crystals because it seemed cool, and then there was a market of people who were burned out and seeking something to help them handle their lives. As soon as any product hits the market, a slew of imitators seek to cash in on the hype. While the missteps of Sephora are more out in the open, their attempts to cash in on the spiritual growth market fit in with what I saw in some of the boxes. Teas and facial treatments as part of self-care, with a lunar theme to keep it “goddessy.” Crystals to fill and cleanse your space and self-care oracle decks where you can pick a card and take on a self-care challenge. The self-care/spirituality market overlap is incredible and often hard to pull apart. When one month you can see a definite focus on the spiritual, the next month can have witch kitsch and fancy hot chocolate. Deciding the line is difficult because how each box presents itself in its ads versus its offerings …
(Prose) Earth’s Renewal Moon by Sara Wright

[I took this photograph during the last full moon (12/24/2015), the “Earth’s Renewal Moon” according to the Blackfoot Nation. This moon belongs to Waboose, the Spirit Keeper of the North and it is considered to be the first moon of the New Year; it can occur anytime during the period that extends from December 22nd until January 19th.] The Earth’s Renewal Moon is special to me because, for the next three months, I will be able to watch the moon rising over the southeastern horizon from the window in either my bathroom or living room. The moment before she makes her ascent, the mountain glows with an otherworldly, silvery white light. My dove Lily B celebrates these months by singing to the moon each month from his window perch. He and I are both in love with the luminous white blossom that fills the night sky with such beauty that even all but the bravest stars dim under her loving gaze. I always look for the rabbit who hides with his grandmother in this moon. I am also reminded that some Native peoples, like the Haida, the Cree, and the Potawatoni, call this first moon of the year “the little bear moon.” Not surprisingly the little bear moon corresponds to the birth of black bear cubs, which occurs some time in January. Alert and caring mothers tend their infants while snug in their underground dens, many of which are tangled in the roots of the trees, these baby bears will soon depend upon for climbing. On this first day of the new year, I think about the Earth’s ability to renew herself, her animals, plants, and people… It is in renewal that hope becomes reality. Read Meet Mago Contributor Sara Wright.
(Art) Blossoming by Noris Binet

Art by Noris Binet Blossoming represents the feminine nature as the creatrix of all existence. When we are able to “see from within” we discover that the manifestation of the natural world is the full expression of the divine. When we are in communion with our True Nature, all mental boundaries dissolve revealing the wholeness that we are, manifesting everywhere. Then, the river, the clouds, the rain, new sprouts of life, the trees, the flower’s blossoming, the earth, the sky and our own bodies are revealed to be made of the same essence, being birthed from the same primal Mother, the Great Mother of all. https://www.magoism.net/2019/08/meet-mago-contributor-noris-binet/
(Conference Speech) The Maternal Economy and Patriarchal Capitalism by Genevieve Vaughan

Protest in Berlin, Germany against Turkey’s military offensive into north-eastern Syria on 10 October 2019, Wikipedia [Author’s Note: A few months ago I met several Kurdish women in Rome who were traveling around Europe telling people about the situation in their area, which lies between Syria, Turkey and Iraq and informing us about the women’s movement there and the women’s village they had created. I was invited to speak on Patriarchy and Capitalism at an international conference held by the Kurds last weekend and just the day after the conference was over the news came that the Turks were attacking the area. We do not know if the village will still exist tomorrow.This paper is the text of my speech. I am asking the RTM editor to include the statement of the women of the village, called ‘Jinwar’ (‘Jin’ in Kurdish means women and ‘war’ means place).] Dear friends of JINWAR, we, the women and children from the free women’s village JINWAR in Northern Syria, write this letter to you, who were in contact with us or had the oportunity visit us. During your time here you could get to know us, our village, and our daily life. You could see what we have built up: the houses made of clay, in which we live together, the school, the healing center for natural medicine which is supposed to be opened soon, our bakery, the garden, the fields, all the trees, which grow bigger and bigger and all of all our common life, far away from oppression and violence, based upon our will to live together as free women and children. All this is now under direct threat by the Turkish State, which openly launches attacks against Northern Syria. Erdogan’s plan is to extinguish the Kurdish people and to occupy our region. We can see the results of this politics in Afrîn, which has been occupied by Turkey, DAIŞ and other Jihadist groups. The situation in Afrîn turned out really bad for the people, especially for the women, whose rights are taken away, who suffer from violence and rape, who are sold and treated as slaves. The attacks and another occupation by the Turkish state in other parts of Northern Syria could mean the same brutal exploitation for women here. JINWAR is a place where women are able to live in a communal way and autonomously raise and educate their children freely and without huge daily influence of the dominant male mentality. Many brave women and men fought and gave their lives, in order to liberate this territory and make the possibility to build a new democratic system inspired by the concept of Democratic Confederalism. This system is based on ideas of Abdullah Ocalan concerning women’s freedom and self-administration of different ethnic and social groups, which are living here side by side together. Our village JINWAR is a part and in the same time a result of this revolutionary process. Furthermore, it is also practical example, how we, as women, can create alternatives in fields as communal living, ecology and economy. During this process many things have been built here in Rojava: Women are organizing autonomously in every city. Examples for this are “Kongreya Star” and “Mala Jin”(Women’s houses), where women are gathering and developing solutions for problems of the whole society. In the “Mala Jin” women are supporting each other in solving conflicts in families and the whole society. Women’s leadership and participation in decision making processes is also a key component of the direct democracy model being enacted in Rojava. Through that women could gain a new position in society and in politics. This achievements can be an example for all the women in the world. In the moment we are writing this letter different villages and places around have been bombed and many people have already been killed. Our village, our society, our lives and the life and future of all people here, especially women and children, is under urgent threat. We, as women and children from JINWAR call you to raise up your voices and take action against this war. Use all the possibilities you have to spread information and raise awareness about the Turkish occupation politics! Don’t stay silent! Lets stand up together for free life and for our common future! The Maternal Economy and Patriarchal Capitalism by Genevieve Vaughan “Woman and economy are interwoven components. Because she generates economy according to fundamental needs only, a woman-driven economy never experiences depression; it never causes environmental pollution; and it never poses a threat to the climate. When we cease to produce for profit, we will have achieved the liberation of the world. This in turn will be the liberation of humanity and life itself.” Abdullah Ocalan I was born in the USA in 1939 and have been working on the idea of a gift economy as the basic human and humanizing economy since the 1960’s,first as a young woman using the discipline of semiotics and later as a feminist devoted to social change. It is astounding to me that a Kurdish leader, a man who has been in solitary confinement for 20 years could have come up with such important ideas about women and the gift economy, some of them quite similar to mine and it confirms to me that though coming from very different directions we are travellers on the same path, trying to see the truth behind the false front of patriarchal capitalism, the system that is now destroying humanity and Mother Earth. It is not the true calling of feminism to integrate more women into the market but to provide a viable alternative to matricidal patriarchal capitalism. I believe that a general theory of mothering and the gift economy are necessary for the healing of our planet and our species. As the subtitle of one of our network’s anthologies says “A radically different world view is possible” and it is necessary now. The absence of this worldview from our cultural consciousness is one of the main causes of the …
Meet Mago Contributor, Sabrina Montanaro

I was born and brought up in London in an Italo-Swedish Family. I trained as a vocal-composer in Florence with Gabriella Bartolomei. I’m now resident in Roma. Once upon a time I sat over a valley of Temples and asked God for a sign… after a long silence… a bee hit my drum and flew off. This was the sign. I discovered that the bee was a messenger of all the Goddesses that had been silenced on the planet; and that the drum was the primordial heart-beat, the Law and pulse of ecstasy, of fusing the mystical and physical in creation. I became a-kin to the bee in my musical and spiritual research collecting nectar in India, Afro-Colombia and Indigenous Colombia and Ireland . When the time was ripe the Universe gave me a twin-soul to give birth musically with: Eugenio Chabaneau from Argentina, composer, poet and Master-guitarist… and a bee hit the drum ! was born. Now working on 2nd CD all instrumental a bit ‘ Andino ‘ dedicated to ‘Angels in time of war’. http://www.myspace.com/sabrinaandabee
(Essay) The Magic Comb by Hearth Moon Rising

One of the first things I do upon rising in the morning is to comb my hair. In my mind, detangling my hair is a way of sorting out my thoughts, helping me to think clearly. Some readers of this blog are old enough to remember being given a comb, brush and mirror set for a special “big girl” birthday. It would be the finest set a family could afford — expected to be used the girl’s entire life. Ivory, tortoiseshell and silver were the most fashionable materials, valued as much for their dearness as their utility. Today, a comb is not an item of conspicuous consumption, and wooden combs are preferred because they detangle without leaving a static charge. Still, a comb is a very personal object, and most women value one with size, shape and tooth-spacing conducive to her particular hair. Not surprisingly, women (and sometimes men) were once buried with their combs, and the quality and workmanship of the comb provides information about the status of the individual. The oldest extant combs are carved of bone, ivory or antler, although very rarely, a wooden comb survives the passage of time. A few mucky-mucks went to the other world with a gold comb. Since some mummies have been discovered with lice, it’s a good thing the ancient Egyptians included nit-combs in their burial goods, although I personally prefer to envision an afterlife without head lice. Despite the importance and ubiquity of the implement, little has been noted about the comb and its symbolism. Marija Gimbutas has identified a comb symbol going back to the painted vultures at Catal Huyuk (6,000 bce). She finds the comb symbol on a variety of pottery and goddess figures from Neolithic and Iron Age Europe. Combs from the Switzerland area portray stylized feminine forms with breasts or vulvas. Gimbutas adds that: To this day, European peasants use the comb for protection against diseases and other evils and for healing purposes. Children and women after childbirth wear comb pendants on their front or back, a custom inherited from prehistory when it was considered necessary to appease the Vulture (Death) Goddess during the period of her rule in order to secure a safe and healthy life. The comb as women’s symbol refers not just to hair combs but combs associated with processing textiles, once exclusively women’s work. The goddess Athena murders her rival Arachne with a loom comb. The comb symbol often appears on spindle whorls. Hittite tablets record a rite for newborns performed by the midwife involving a sheep’s wool comb. There is a strong connection between hair combing and water. Sea goddesses like Venus are pictured with combs. In folklore, rain can be caused by combing hair. Sometimes pearls, which come from the ocean, are combed out of hair—although a witch can also cause hideous things to be combed. Pre-Christian and medieval symbol stones from Scotland, called “Pictish Stones,” frequently show a comb-and-mirror combination. It is not known exactly what the comb-and-mirror signifies, except that it is believed to be a feminine symbol. In Scottish lore, seductive mermaids are famous for sitting on rocks combing their hair, a special magic they perform to lure sailors to their death. The Irish goddess Medb, with her legendary sexual appetite, has a comb as her symbol. Sexuality, particularly women’s sexuality, has been considered a malevolent force by Christianity, but the mermaid with her comb and mirror is carved on many Irish churches, indicating the symbol may once have had a more benign interpretation. Perhaps the power of the mermaid combing her hair symbolized the fertility of the sea, offering a bounty of food. In Germanic folklore, mythic creatures with combs also perform mischief. If a man chances upon a water nymph combing her hair, he must assume she has called him there with her magic and marry her within three days, or he will die. Sprites come out at night to comb the manes of horses or the beards of goats, presumably to gain power from these animals. In a Russian fairytale, a cat with a magic comb appears, and this comb is like no other. Drawing on the contrary nature of the domestic cat, this comb tangles instead of detangles. The heroine uses the cat’s comb to create a tangled forest behind her as she escapes her pursuer. The Christian church at one time recognized the ritual power of the comb. Liturgical combs were widespread in the early Middle Ages, although their exact symbolism and function is unknown. There are obscure references to ritual hair-combing of priests that may still occur in some Christian churches but details are not available. A comb spell for Halloween surfaced in colonial America that probably has older precedents. A woman (always a woman) would light a candle and sit before a mirror, combing her hair while looking for her future lover behind her shoulder. This form of divination remained a popular Halloween game to the early twentieth century. Comb spells are surprisingly scarce in books about modern witchcraft, and the comb is not listed as one of the core magical tools in any book I have run across. Ed Fitch, in Magical Rites from the Crystal Well, has offered a comb-and-mirror spell for women that is somewhat well-known. The comb is a powerful magical tool, almost exclusively a woman’s magical tool, and we should make better use of it. Comb-and-mirror spells are simple and need little elaboration. Though I’ve combed only a limited geographic region for this article, I have no doubt that women’s magical traditions around the comb could be found in West Africa, China, India, and probably many other places as well. Though combs have gotten some attention as art history, the comb as a shamanic tool has not been adequately explored. Sources Answers.com “Liturgical Comb.” http://www.answers.com/topic/liturgical-comb-1 The British Museum, “Liturgical Comb Made of Ivory.” http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/pe_mla/i/liturgical_comb_made_of_ivory.aspx. Edwardian Promenade. Hallowe’en in the Guilded Age. http://edwardianpromenade.com/amusements/halloween-in-the-gilded-age/ Fitch, Ed. Magical Rites from the Crystal Well. St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn, …

(Special post) The Goddess Inanna: Her Allies and Opponents by Hearth Moon Rising

Inanna’s Descent to the Underworld is one of the most fascinating myths ever told. Not just because it is profound and enlightening, although it is certainly that. It’s an exciting journey that ignites the imagination, and female characters are at the hub of the action. This is a tale of power: power that is demanded, power that is won, power that is appropriated, and power that cannot be escaped. The story follows the fertility goddess Inanna, who brought civilization to Mesopotamia, as she seeks to expand her realm by venturing into the world below. Inanna’s experiences in the great below, her escape, and the wild events that unfold as a result of her caper are the focus of the tale.
(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 […]
(Special Post 1) Multi-linguistic Resemblances of “Mago” by Mago Circle Members

“Ma” in “Mago” and “Ma-Gaia” Mother Goddess, ca.7250-6700 BCE, Catal Huyuk Turkey [Conversation between Carol P. Christ, Ph.D. and Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.] Carol P. Christ (CPC): Below is culled from “Gaia” in Wikipedia: The Greek word γαῖα (transliterated as gaia) is a collateral form of γῆ (gē, Doric γᾶ ga and probably δᾶ da) meaning Earth, a word of uncertain origin. R. S. P. Beekes has suggested a Pre-Greek origin. In Mycenean Greek Ma-ka (trans. as Ma-ga, “Mother Gaia”) also contains the root ga-. Helen Hye-Sook Hwang (HHH): “Mago” and “Goma” are closely linked. Gom or Goma means the bear and Magoist shaman queen of the late fourth millennium BCE. She is also related with the Big Bear constellation. “Go” is used as a modifier referring to Mago or the Goddess in various texts of East Asia. “Mago” is related with “magi,” whose singular form is “magus” or “magos.” Will have to check for more details and the source. CPC: My intuition is that “ma” and “na” are baby talk for mother. In other words, preceding any language. Mycenean is IE language, “Pre-Greek” is not IE. CPC: Below is “Mother” from Wikipedia: Synonyms and translations The proverbial “first word” of an infant often sounds like “ma” or “mama”. This strong association of that sound with “mother” has persisted in nearly every language on earth, countering the natural localization of language. Familiar or colloquial terms for mother in English are: Aama, Mata used in Nepal Mom and mommy are used in the United States, Canada, South Africa, Philippines, India and parts of the West Midlands including Birmingham in the United Kingdom. Mum and mummy are used in the United Kingdom, Canada, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, Hong Kong and Ireland. Charles, Prince of Wales publicly addressed his mother Queen Elizabeth II as “Mummy” on the occasion of her Diamond Jubilee. Ma, mam, and mammy are used in Netherlands, Ireland, the Northern areas of the United Kingdom, and Wales; it is also used in some areas of the United States. In many other languages, similar pronunciations apply: Maa, aai, amma, and mata are used in languages of India like Assamese, Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu etc. Mamá, mama, ma, and mami in Spanish Mama in Polish, German, Russian and Slovak Māma (妈妈/媽媽) in Chinese Máma in Czech and in Ukrainian Maman in French and Persian Ma, mama in Indonesian Mamaí, mam in Irish Mamma in Italian, Icelandic, Latvian and Swedish Māman or mādar in Persian Mamãe or mãe in Portuguese Mā̃ (ਮਾਂ) in Punjabi Mama in Swahili Em (אם) in Hebrew A’ma (ܐܡܐ) in Aramaic Má or mẹ in Vietnamese Mam in Welsh Eomma (엄마, pronounced [ʌmma]) in Korean In many south Asian cultures and the Middle East, the mother is known as amma, oma, ammi or “ummi”, or variations thereof. Many times, these terms denote affection or a maternal role in a child’s life. HHH: The name for Goddess seems as ancient as the language itself. [“Ma” being the first intentional word to be spoken by a baby.] Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: Scholars and mythologists agree that “ma” means both one’s mother and the Goddess, I quoted it in my dissertation written in 2004. Judy E Foster: Brilliant discussion, Helen and Carol! So many revelations… hard to keep up! But do continue, its fascinating – makes so much sense. (To be continued)Join the discussion of this and other topics in The Mago Circle, Facebook Group.

(Video) An Autumn Equinox Ceremony by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

Autumn Equinox/Mabon Northern Hemisphere – September 21-23 Southern Hemisphere – March 21-23 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRJNY1LSvIs&t=1175s …oOo… The purpose of this video is for ceremony, and I suggest pausing the video where it suits you, to add your own processing, embellishments and/or your own drum, percussion and voice wherever you please. I have made short spaces in the video where it could be paused. The script for this Autumn Equinox/Mabon ceremony is offered in Chapter 11 of my book A Poiesis of the Creative Cosmos: Celebrating Her within PaGaian Sacred Ceremony, with all acknowledgements and references there. In particular I mention here, credit for the story of Demeter and Persephone as told by Charlene Spretnak in her book Lost Goddesses of Early Greece. For more full participation in the ceremony, you could have one or more stalks of wheat or native grain tied with a red thread/ribbon, a garden pot with soil, a small garden trowel, a flower bulb (daffodil type), food and drink, that may represent your “harvest” – ready for eating and drinking. The elements of Water, Fire, Earth and Air on the altar in this video are placed in directions that are appropriate to my region in the Southern Hemisphere, and East Coast Australia: you may place yours differently, and transliterate when I mention the direction (which I do minimally). The images used are a collage of footage and photos from the 2024 Autumn Equinox ceremony at my place in Wakka Wakka country, South East Queensland Australia, and from previous Autumn Equinox ceremonies I facilitated over the decades in MoonCourt, Goddess ceremonial space in NSW Australia, Darug and Gundungurra country. My partner Robert (Taffy) Seaborne who has participated in all the Seasonal ceremonies since Samhain 2000, adds his voice to this video. Image credits: Demeter and Persephone (500 B.C.E. Greece). Hallie Iglehart Austen, The Heart of the Goddess, p.72. Art of Demeter and Persephone on MoonCourt wall: Cernak Herself Music credit: “Gentle Sorrow” by Sky: which he has previously allowed me to use in my work. This piece of music is also used in the Autumn Equinox meditation on my PaGaian Cosmology Meditations published 2015.
(Essay) Contemplating How Her Creativity Proceeds by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This essay is an edited excerpt from the conclusion of chapter 5 of the author’s book, PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. It is a chapter on the process of the Wheel of the Year. for the Northern Hemisphere version: https://pagaian.org/pagaian-wheel-of-the-year/ It seems to me that the main agenda of the Cosmos is ongoing Creativity, “never-ending renewal” it may be termed, and that this is expressed in Earth’s Seasonal Wheel through the transitions of Autumn,Winter, Spring, Summer; and in the ubiquitous process of a Cosmic Triplicity of Space to Be, Urge to Be and this Place of Being, a dynamic that has often been imagined as the Triple Goddess. In the flow of the PaGaian Wheel of the Year, the Seasonal transitions of the Wheel and the Triplicity of the Cosmos come together. There are two celebrations of the Old One/Crone or the Cosmogenetic quality of autopoiesis creating the Space to Be; and they are Lammas/Late Summer and Samhain/Deep Autumn, which are the meridian points of the two quarters of the waxing dark phase. At Lammas, the first in the dark phase, we may identify with the dark and ancient Wise One – dissolve into Her; at Samhain, we may consciously participate in Her process of the transformation of death/the passing of all. The whole dark part of the cycle is about dissolving/dying/letting go of being – becoming – nurturing it (the midwifing of Lammas/Late Summer), stepping into the power of it (the certain departure of Autumn Equinox/Mabon), the fertility (of Samhain/Deep Autumn), the peaking of it (at Winter Solstice). The meridian points of the two quarters of the waxing light phase then are celebrations of the Young One/Virgin or the Cosmogenetic quality of differentiation, the new continually emerging, the Urge to Be; and they are Imbolc/Early Spring and Beltaine/High Spring. At Imbolc, the first in the light phase, we may identify with She who is shining and new – as we take her form; at Beltaine, we may consciously participate in Her process of the dance of life. The whole light part of the cycle is about coming into being: nurturing it (the midwifing of Imbolc/Early Spring), stepping into the power of it (the certain return of Spring Equinox/Eostar), the fertility (of Beltaine/High Spring), the peaking of it (at Summer Solstice). In the PaGaian wheel of ceremony there are two particular celebrations of the Mother, the Cosmogenetic quality of communion; and they are the Solstices. If one imagines the light part of the cycle as a celebration of the ‘Productions of Time’, and the dark part of the cycle as a celebration of ‘Eternity’, the Solstices then are meeting points, points of interchange, and are celebrations of the communion/relational field of Eternity with the Productions of Time. This is a relationship which does happen in this Place, in this Web. This Place of Being, this Web, is a Communion – it is the Mother; the Solstices mark Her birthings, Her gateways. The Equinoxes then – both Spring and Autumn – are two celebrations wherein the balance of all three Faces/Creative qualities is particularly present: in the PaGaian wheel, the Equinoxes have been special celebrations of Demeter and Persephone – echoing the ancient tradition of Mother-Daughter Mysteries that celebrate the awesomeness of the continuity of life, its creative tension/balance. Both Equinoxes then are celebrations and contemplations of empowerment through deep Wisdom – one contemplation during the dark phase and one during the light phase. The Autumn Equinox is a descent to Wisdom, the Spring Equinox is an emergence with Wisdom gained. I like to think of the Equinoxes, and of the ancient icons of Demeter and Persephone, as celebrations of the delicate ‘curvature of space-time’, the fertile balance of tensions which enables it all. Her Creative Place The Mother aspect then may be understood to be particularly present at four of the Seasonal Moments, which are also regarded traditionally as the Solar festivals; and in this cosmology Sun is felt as Mother. I recognize these four as points of interchange: at Autumn Equinox, Mother is present primarily as Giver – She is letting Persephone go, at Spring Equinox, She is present primarily as Receiver – welcoming the Daughter back, at Winter Solstice the Mother gives birth, creates form, at Summer Solstice, She opens again full of radiance, and disperses form. The Mother is Agent/Actor at the Solstices. She is Participant/Witness at the Equinoxes, where it is then really Persephone who is Agent/Actor, embodying an inseparable Young One and Old One. The Old One is often named as Hecate, who completes the Trio – all seamlessly within each other. Another possible way to visual it, or to tell the story, is this: The Mother – Demeter – is always there, at the Centre if you like. Persephone cycles around. She is the Daughter who returns in the Spring as flower, who will become fruit/grain of the Summer, who at Lammas assents to the dissolution – the consumption. At Autumn Equinox She returns to the underworld as seed – Her harvest is rejoiced in, Her loss is grieved, as She becomes Sovereign of the Underworld – Her face changes to the Dark One, Crone (Hecate). As the wheel turns into the light part of the cycle She becomes Young One/Virgin again. Persephone (as Seed) is that part of Demeter that can be all three aspects – can move through the complete cycle. The Mother and Daughter are really One, and embody the immortal process of creation and destruction. Demeter hands Persephone the wheat, the Mystery, and the thread of life is unbroken – it goes on forever. It is immortal, it is eternal. Even though it is true that all will be lost, and all is lost – Being always arises again: within this field of time there is never-ending renewal, eternity. This is what is revealed in the ubiquitous three faces of the Creative Dynamic/ She of Old, the Triplicity that runs through the Cosmos. The Seed of Life never …
(Essay and Video) Cosmogenesis Dance: Celebrating Her Unfolding by Glenys Livingstone

The dance begins with two concentric circles, which will flow in and out of each other throughout the dance, resulting thus in a third concentric circle that comes and goes. The three circles/layers are understood to represent the three aspects of Goddess, the Creative Triple Dynamic that many ancients were apparently aware of, and imagined in so many different ways across the globe. In Her representation in Ireland as the Triple Spiral motif, which is inscribed on the inner chamber wall at Bru-na-Boinne (known as Newgrange)[1], She seems to be understood as a dynamic essential to on-going Cosmic Creativity, as this ancient motif is dramatically lit up by the Winter Solstice dawn. It seems that this was important to the Indigenous people of this place at the time of Winter Solstice, which celebrates Origins, the continuing birth of all. Thus I like to do this Cosmogenesis Dance, as I have named it[2], at the Winter Solstice in particular. The three aspects that the dance may embody, and are poetically understood as Goddess, celebrate (i) Virgin/Young One – Urge to Be as I have named this quality – the ever new differentiated being (also known as Fodla in the region of the Triple Spiral)[3]. This is the outer circle of individuals. (ii) Mother – the deeply related interwoven web – Dynamic Place of Being as I have named this quality – the communion that our habitat is (also known as Eriu in the region of the Triple Spiral)[4]. This is the woven middle circle where all are linked and swaying in rhythm. (iii) Crone/Old One – the eternal creative return to All-That-Is – She who Creates the Space to Be as I have named this quality (also known as Banba in the region of the Triple Spiral)[5]. This is the inner circle where linked hands are raised and stillness is held. The three concentric layers of the dance may be understood to embody these. The Cosmogenesis Dance represents the flow and balance of these three – a flow and balance of Self, Other and All-That-Is. It may be experienced like a breath, that we breathe together – as we do co-create the Cosmos. Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme have named the three qualities of Cosmogenesis in the following way: – differentiation … to be is to be unique – communion … to be is to be related – autopoiesis/subjectivity … to be is to be a centre of creativity.[6] The three layers of the dance may be felt to celebrate each unique being, in deep relationship with other, directly participating in the sentient Cosmos, the Well of Creativity. The Cosmogenesis Dance as it is done within PaGaian Winter Solstice ceremony expresses the whole Creative Process we are immersed in. It is a process of complete reciprocity, a flow of Creator and Created, like a breath. There is dynamic exchange in every moment: that is the nature of the Place we inhabit. The dance may help awaken us to it, and to invoke it. The Cosmogenesis Dance on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dR73MDMM9Fk For more story: Cosmogenesis Dance for Winter Ritual For Dance Instructions: PaGaian Cosmology Appendix I Meet Mago Contributor Glenys Livingstone NOTES: [1] The Triple Spiral engraving is dated at 2,400 B.C.E. [2] This dance is originally named as “The Stillpoint Dance”, or sometimes “Adoramus Te Domine” which is the name of the music used for it. I learned it from Dr. Jean Houston in 1990 at a workshop of hers in Sydney, Australia. I began to use the dance for Winter Solstice ceremony in 1997, and it was only in the second year of doing so that I realised its three layers were resonant with the three traditional qualities of the Female Metaphor/Goddess, and also the three faces of Cosmogenesis. I thereafter re-named and storied the dance that way in the ceremonial preparation and teaching for Winter Solstice. See Glenys Livingstone, PaGaian Cosmology: pp. 280-281 and 311. [3] Michael Dames, Ireland: a Sacred Journey, p.192. [4] Michael Dames, Ireland: a Sacred Journey, p. 192. [5] Michael Dames, Ireland: a Sacred Journey, p. 192. [6] Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry, The Universe Story, p. 71-79. I have identified these qualities with the Triple Goddess, and the Triple Spiral in the synthesis of PaGaian Cosmology: see Glenys Livingstone, PaGaian Cosmology, particularly Chapter 4: https://pagaian.org/book/chapter-4/ References: Dames, Michael. Ireland: a Sacred Journey, Element Books, 2000. Livingstone, Glenys. PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. Lincoln NE: iUniverse, 2005. Swimme, Brian and Berry, Thomas. The Universe Story: From the Primordial Flaring Forth to the Ecozoic Era. NY: HarperCollins, 1992.
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 …
Lammas/Late Summer in PaGaian tradition By Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This essay is an edited excerpt from Chapter 5 of the author’s book PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. Traditionally the dates for this Seasonal Moment are: Southern Hemisphere – Feb. 1st/2nd Northern Hemisphere – August 1st/2nd however the actual astronomical date varies. See archaeoastronomy.com for the actual moment. Lammas table/altar Lammas, as it is often called[1], is the meridian point of the first dark quarter of the year, between Summer Solstice and Autumn Equinox; it is after the light phase has peaked and is complete, and as such, I choose it as a special celebration of the Crone/Old One. Within the Celtic tradition, it is the wake of Lugh, the Sun King, and it is the Crone that reaps him. But within earlier Goddess traditions, all the transformations were Hers[2]; and the community reflected on the reality that the Mother aspect of the Goddess, having come to fruition, from Lammas on would enter the Earth and slowly become transformed into the Old Woman-Hecate-Cailleach aspect …[3] I dedicate Lammas to the face of the Old One, just as Imbolc, its polar opposite on the Wheel in Old European tradition, is dedicated to the Virgin/Maiden face. The Old One, the Dark and Shining One, has been much maligned, so to celebrate Her can be more of a challenge in our present cultural context. Lammas may be an opportunity to re-aquaint ourselves with the Crone in her purity, to fall in love with Her again. I state the purpose of the seasonal gathering thus: This is the season of the waxing dark. The seed of darkness born at the Summer Solstice now grows … the dark part of the days grows visibly longer. Earth’s tilt is taking us back away from the Sun. This is the time when we celebrate dissolution; each unique self lets go, to the Darkness. It is the time of ending, when the grain, the fruit, is harvested. We meet to remember the Dark Sentience, the All-Nourishing Abyss, She from whom we arise, in whom we are immersed, and to whom we return. This is the time of the Crone, the Wise Dark One, who accepts and receives our harvest, who grinds the grain, who dismantles what has gone before. She is Hecate, Lillith, Medusa, Kali, Erishkagel,Chamunda, Coatlique – Divine Compassionate One, She Who Creates the Space to Be. We meet to accept Her transformative embrace, trusting Her knowing, which is beyond all knowledge. Lammas is the seasonal moment for recognizing that we dissolve into the “night” of the Larger Organism of whom we are part – Gaia. It is She who is immortal, from whom we arise, and into whom we dissolve. This celebration is a development of what was born in the transition of Summer Solstice; the dark sentient Source of Creativity is honoured. The autopoietic space in us recognizes Her, is comforted by Her, desires Her self-transcendence and self-dissolution; Lammas is an opportunity to be with our organism’s love of Larger Self – this Native Place. We have been taught to fear Her, but at this Seasonal Moment we may remember that She is the compassionate One, deeply committed to transformation, which is actually innate to us. Whereas at Imbolc/Early Spring, we shone forth as individual, multiforms of Her; at Lammas, we small individual selves remember that we are She and dissolve back into Her. We are the Promise of Lifeas was affirmed at Imbolc, but we are the Promise of Her- it is not ours to hold. We identify as the sacred Harvest at Lammas; our individual harvest isHer Harvest. We are the process itself – we are Gaia’s Process. Wedo not breathe (though of course we do), we borrow the breath, for a while. It is like a relay: we pick the breath up, create what we do during our time with it, and pass it on. The harvest we reap in our individual lives is important, andit is for us only short term; it belongs to the Cosmos in the long term. Lammas is a time for “making sacred” – as “sacrifice” may be understood; we may “make sacred” ourselves. As Imbolc was a time for dedication, so is Lammas. This is the wisdom of the phase of the Old One. She is the aspect that finds the “yes” to letting go, to loving the Larger Self, beyond all knowledge, and steps into the power of the Abyss; encouraged and nourished by the harvest, She will gradually move into the balance of Autumn Equinox/Mabon, the next Sesaonal Moment on the year’s cycle. References: Durdin-Robertson, Lawrence. The Year of the Goddess.Wellingborough: Aquarian Press, 1990. Gray, Susan. The Woman’s Book of Runes.New York: Barnes and Noble, 1999. Livingstone, Glenys. PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. NE: iUniverse, 2005. McLean, Adam. The Four Fire Festivals. Edinburgh: Megalithic Research Publications, 1979. Notes: [1]See note 3. [2]Susan Gray, The Woman’s Book of Runes,p. 18. This is also to say that the transformations are within each being, not elsewhere, that is the “sacrifice” is not carried out by another external to the self, as could be and have been interpreted from stories of Lugh or Jesus. [3]Lawrence Durdin-Robertson, The Year of the Goddess, p.143, quoting Adam McLean, Fire Festivals,p.20-22. Another indication of the earlier tradition beneath “Lughnasad” is the other name for it in Ireland of “Tailltean Games”. Taillte was said to be Lugh’s foster-mother, and it was her death that was being commemmorated (Mike Nichols, “The First Harvest”, Pagan Alliance Newsletter NSW Australia). The name “Tailtunasad” has been suggested for this Seasonal Moment, by Cheryl Straffon editor of Goddess Alive! I prefer the name of Lammas, although some think it is a Christian term: however some sources say that Lammas means “feast of the bread” which is how I have understood it, and surely such a feast pre-dates Christianity. It is my opinion that the incoming Christians preferred “Lammas” to “Lughnasad”: the term itself is not Christian in origin. The evolution of all these things is complex, and we may evolve them further with our careful thoughts and experience.
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) …

(Bell Essay 3) The Ancient Korean Bell and Magoism by Helen Hwang

Part III Nipples and Breasts of the Ancient Korean Bell, Revival of Old Magoism in Silla (57 BCE – 935 CE) Female sexuality and the divine are seamless. The ancient Korean bell bespeaks the divine, derived from female sexuality. Emitting reverberation, it casts a spell on the hearer. It is the sound that connects one with the Goddess and with one another. However, lapse of time has never been neutral. It has wrought the change of gender principle in society and in human consciousness. The female principle is severed from the divine. The divine without regard to the female is only astray or make-believe. When the seamlessness is broken, the bell loses its power to enchant. The ancient Korean bell, as a time capsule, sets us to the task of undoing the gender reversal. Unfettering of the arcane knowledge of Magoism is the gain. In proportion to the patriarchal progress in East Asia, Magoism, the gynocentric historical and cultural context, has been submerged. The fact that Magoism remains unregistered is a sign that moderns have drifted too far from the Female Origin. As a result, the female symbology of the bell is rendered irrelevant, if not obsolete. The bell and Buddhism are dysfunctional, if not mismatched. Or, maybe the Sillans who commissioned the bells in the 8th century CE saw Buddhism differently. Keeping at bay what makes the bell as the bell — the female symbology, Buddhist patriarchs have set a maze, heading only to “nothingness.” The sonority of the bell travels to the ear of people. However, deep hearing is thwarted by the patriarchal concept of the divine. Part III begins to deprogram the patriarchal conceptual barrier by shedding light on the core of its female symbology, the Nipples, the Bell Breasts, and the Breast Circumferences. Four Dimensional Mandala Is Here The relief of Nipples depicted elegantly and realistically is an attention grabber. For fear of being mistaken for something else especially by the generation to come, Sillan ancestors named them yudu (breast nipples). To be certain, they named the seat of the nipples jongyu (bell breast) and the enclosure of the breast yugwak (breast circumference). Detailed and refined artistry radiates the spirit of honor and veneration. As seen below, the nipples come in various styles showing the mastery of the bell casters in metallurgic technology. [The following images of Nipples are from the bells of different periods including Silla. The structures of nipples and breasts remain the same throughout history, characterizing Korean bells.] Sometimes, the nipples are depicted as the studs of lotus blossoms. Other times they are seated in lotus petals. Less frequently, the nipples are rendered as flat lotus flowers, perhaps to mitigate the graphic look. Regardless, the viewer can’t miss the number of the Nipples, nine. The nine nipples are aligned in three rows of three in the Bell Breast, which is enclosed by the Breast Circumference. Considering that the triad is the symbol of Mago as Samsin Halmi (The Triad Goddess), the three rows of three represent the triad in all ways, horizontally, vertically, and diagonally. One is surrounded by the triad in all directions; an epiphany is stored to enact. Now the bell caster conjoins the number three symbol with the number four symbol. In ancient East Asia, the four corners represent all directions, that is, the whole world. Placed in four corners, thirty-six nipples in all (a set of nine nipples in four directions) represent the female occupying the whole world. Seong Nakju in his inquiry about the thirty-six nipples of an ancient Korean bell states that the first emperor of the Qin dynasty (the first state that united China) divided “the world” into 36 heavens in 221 BCE. (Seong Nakju, see below in Sources.) Unlike the rule of the first Qin emperor infamous for tyranny, the 36 Nipples hint at neither domination nor the hierarchical power of the patriarchal monarch. Instead, they saturate the whole world with the female anatomy. To be discussed at a later point, the nine nipples that came from the 8th century are a time-proven means through which we may enter the consciousness of the Bronze Age, if not earlier when they originated and of the times whenever they reappeared. The four dimensional mandala is revealed, biding its time to evoke one to the fifth direction. The bell delivers the triumph of the Goddess (female principle) to the world in an utterly outlandish manner! Her Way is peace, integration, and beauty. Behold, She is enthroned. Gom (Ungnyeo) and the Nine-State Confederacy of Old Magoism What does a set of nine nipples signify? What does it mean that the ancient Korean bell has four sets of nine nipples? In Magoism the nine nipples are not an isolated symbol. They are on a par with the nine-tailed fox and the nine dragons from East Asia. These are the ancient representations of the female divine. I have delineated elsewhere that the nine-tailed fox is associated with Xiwangmu (Queen Mother of the West) and the nine dragons with Gwaneum (Guanyin, Kannon). Other times, Goddess Herself manifests as of the nine forms. As I discussed, the nine maidens of Gaeyang Halmi, the Sea Goddess of Korea, is a good example (see “Gaeyang Halmi, the Sea Goddess of Korea,” Part IV). The nine-female symbology goes beyond East Asia. The concatenation includes the nine Muses, the nine forms of Durga, and the African Goddesses of Oya and Mumbi who are known to have nine daughters. As such, evidence of the nine-female symbolism is intense and cross-cultural. The recurring symbolism of nine in East Asia suggests the once prevalent mytho-history of Old Magoism. Old Magoism is characterized by the rule of Magoist shamans who invented and spread the gynocentric civilization of pre-Chinese East Asia worldwide. Precisely, the nine-female symbolism refers to Gom (Ungnyeo, Bear/Sovereign Woman), founder of the nine-state confederacy in pre-Chinese times (see Gaeyang Halmi, the Sea Goddess of Korea, Part V). In short, the framework of Magoism …
(Photo Essay 2) ‘Gaeyang Halmi, the Sea Goddess of Korea’ by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

Part II: The Lost Iconography of Gaeyang Halmi We visited the Suseong Shrine a second time on July 11, 2012. I looked inside the Shrine wherein a shaman ritual was being performed by a Mudang (Korean Shaman)[i] and her assistants. The Mudang in colorful ritual outfit appeared to console her female client on behalf of the spirit. The ritual continued another hour or so and we waited outside until she finished her performance. We had come here on the day of arrival in Jungmak-dong, Buan. The shrine was locked, apparently not being in use. On our second visit, the shrine was packed with four people and their instruments and equipment. It was so compact that it left no room for another person to sit; however, it was pumping up the sober energy. In fact, I have no recollection of which musical instruments were being played inside the shrine. Nonetheless, it feels like that I was hearing the sharp and high banging of the kkwaenggwari (gong) accompanied by the janggu (hourglass drum) rhythm [symbolizing the sound of thunder and rain respectively]. The “musical” sound that I heard shook off the debris of ordinary thoughts and took me to the Other Side of Reality. I began to see things clearly the way they are. I was stepping into the history of this place that I was going to discover.
(Mago Almanac 4) Restoring 13 Month 28 Day Calendar by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

[This and the following sequels are from Mago Almanac: 13 Month 28 Day Calendar (Book A), Years 1 and 2 (5, 6, 9, 10…), 5915-6 MAGO ERA, 2018-9 CE (Mago Books, 2017).] We want to get back the 13th Friday. This almanac shows how that is possible. Helen Hye-Sook Hwang INTRODUCTION (Continued) 13 MARY DALY QUOTES Each monthly calendar, headed by quotes from Mary Daly’s Wickedary, has space for users to continue OUR Story. 1 Elemental Rhythms 1: rhythms displaying the infinite interplay of unity and diversity characteristic of Elemental phenomena such as tides, seasons, phases of the moon: TIDAL RHYTHMS 2: cadences and vibrations of the wordings of Websters, which are Be-Spoken in cosmic concordance Background the Realm of Wild Reality; the Homeland of women’s Selves and of all other Others; the Time/Space where auras of plants, planets, stars, animals and all Other animate beings connect. 2 New Space Space on the Boundary of patriarchal institutions; Space created by women which provides real alternatives to the archetypal roles of fatherland; Space in which women Realize Power of Presence New Time Time on the Boundary of patriarchal time; women’s Life-Time; Time in which the past is changed and Archaic Futures are Realized 3 Archaic Time Original Creative Time, beyond the stifling grasp of archetypal molds and measures; the measure of Original Motion/E-Motion/Movement Archespheres the Realm of true beginnings, where Shrews shrink alienating archetypes and Unforget Archaic Origins, uncovering the Archimage, the Original Witch within 4 Re-calling 1: persistent/insistent Calling of the Wild; recurring invitation to Realms of Deep Memory 2: Active Unforgetting of participation in Be-ing; Re-membering and giving voice to Original powers, intuitions, memories 5 Courage to live The Courage to refuse inclusion in the State of the Living Dead, to break out from the deadforms of archetypal deadtime, to take leap after leap of Living Faith; Fiercely Biophilic Courage 6 Elemental Spirits Spirits/Angels/Demons manifesting the essential intelligence of spirit/matter; Intelligences ensouling the stars, animating the processes of earth, air, fire, water, enspiriting the sounds that are the Elements of words, connecting words with the earth, air, fire, water and with the sun, moon, planets, stars 7 Tidal Characterized by cosmic interconnections and rhythms; Elemental; Wild Tidal Memory Memory of the Deep Background, characterized by Tidal Rhythms of Re-membering: ELEMENTAL MEMORY Tidal Time Elemental Time, beyond the clocking/clacking of clonedom; Wild Time; Time that cannot be grasped by the tidily man-dated world; Time of Wicked Inspiration/Genius 8 Wild The vast Realm of Reality outside the pinoramic world view constructed by the bores and necrophiliacs of patriarchy; true Homeland of all Elemental be-ing, characterized by diversity, wonder, joy, beauty, Metamorphic Movement and Spirit 9 Biophilic Bonding 1: the Lusty combining of Elemental forces among Others 2: the uniting of Life-Loving women in Hopping/hoping harmony 10 Metabeing Realms of active participation in Powers of Be-ing; State of Ecstasy 11 Re-membering 1: Re-calling the Original intuition of integrity healing the dismembered Self – the Goddess within women; Re-calling the Primordial connections/conversations among women, animals, and other Elemental beings 2: Realzing the power to See and to Spell out connections among apparently disparate phenomena: Spinning, Creating 12 Powers of Be-ing Be-ing the Verb, understood in multiple and diverse manifestations, e.g., Knowing, Creating, Loving, Unfolding – and through diverse Metaphors – e.g. the Fates, Chaning Women (Eastan Atlehi, Creatrix of the Navaho People), Shekhina (female divine presence in Hebrew lore) 13 Thirteen represents the Other Hour, beyond the direction of disaster. It signals the Presence of the Otherworld – Metamorphospheres – True Homeland of all Hags, Crones, Furies, Furries and Other Friends. It represents the Realm of Wild Reality, the Background, the Time/Space when/where auras of plants, planets, stars, animals, and all truly animate be-ing connect. It points to Living Worlds utterly foreign to foolocracy – Worlds that are Eccentric, Erratic, Odd, Queer, Quaint, Outlandish, Weird. (Meet Mago Contributor) Helen Hye-Sook Hwang.

Tag: Mary Saracino

(Poem) Silent Night by Mary Saracino

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(Essay 2) Red Poppies Among the Ruins by Mary Saracino

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(Essay 1) Red Poppies Among the Ruins by Mary Saracino

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(Novel 2) The Singing of Swans by Mary Saracino

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(Novel 1) The Singing of Swans by Mary Saracino

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(Poem) Olivastri Millenari by Mary Saracino

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(Poem) Summer Solstice by Mary Saracino

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Meet Mago Contributor, Mary Saracino

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(Poem) A Mother’s Day Proclamation by Mary Saracino

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(Poem) Resurrection by Mary Saracino

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(Poem) The Mother of Us All by Mary Saracino

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Mago Almanac Year 8 (for 2025)

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

S/HE: IJGS V3 N1 2024 (B/W Paperback)

Mago Pod Bulletin #73 November 2024

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