May 3, 2019October 2, 2019 Mago Work Admin3 Comments

(Prose & Poem) Surabhi and Nandini by Susan Hawthorne

I have been studying Sanskrit for a little more than decade. I took it up because I love ancient languages. But more than that, I wanted to have direct access Read More …

(Essay 9) The Blending of Bön, Buddhism and the Goddess Gemu in Mosuo Culture by Krista Rodin

An Uncertain Future Buddhist Temple with Bön and Goddess images at Goddess Gemu Cave. Photo K. Rodin One of the ways the legends have been popularized and coopted is in the public murals that grace the wall outside the Yongling Tourist Office. In keeping with the patriarchal religious traditions of the region, only lamas are allowed to make storyboard murals and paintings, or to interpret them, even when they are placed in public spaces. This means that unless there is a general knowledge of the symbolism and iconography that is associated with the images, the interpretation is subject to guesswork. The murals are supposed to represent scenes from Mosuo history and legends, including a story of the seven fathers and seven stars, six in the sky and one below the earth under the waters. One of the murals is reminiscent of PadmaSambhava, and as this region follows the Black Hat tradition, the great yogi is worshipped, although it may not be intended to be his image. There is a mural of a fire prayer and the worship of fire, as well as scenes of making wine and of carrying water, singing, dancing, and of the former ancient King. The Goddess Gemu is on the last panel riding her white mare, with her rainbow-colored streamers flying in the wind. There is a clear merging of iconographic imagery among the three religious traditions in Mosuo culture, which also makes for vivid tourist posters. Both Green and White Tara appear in the temples alongside the Goddess Gemu and not a few images the Goddess take on Tara’s attributes. The murals in Yongning’s central square demonstrate this merger through a highly selective representation of Mosuo myths that are intended to portray a harmonious, pure and peaceful society. The Bay of the Goddess, a special sacred site on the lake, has so far not been disturbed by the influx of tourism, but these new forces are some that she may not be able to overcome. The seemingly binary opposites of earth and sky, mountain and lake, male and female, shamanism and monasticism, the Goddess and the Buddha became equally balanced in traditional Mosuo culture, even if not in the region’s political sphere. The increase in tourism, however, is changing these configurations by popularizing both Mosuo and Buddhist cultures in the region as tourist attractions. The cable car to Gemu’s sacred cave, the vendors, often not Mosuo, renting costumes on the walking bridge, the literature on “free love” that is promoted to entice young men to the area, the renovations and rebuilding of stupas and temples, as well as the murals themselves bring needed economic growth to the region. The question for the next few years is, how will the binary opposites of economic growth and traditional values, including a respect for the natural world, the Goddess in the lake and mountain, be balanced with new highways, an airport, and new hotels? The Goddess has survived Kublai Khan and the Cultural Revolution, but can she survive this latest invasion? Time, as always, will tell. Works and People Cited and Referenced Anshi, Pan. “The Translation of Naxi Religious Texts.” In Naxi and Moso Ethnography: Kin, Rites, Pictographs, eds. Michael Oppitz and Elizabeth Hsu, Zürich: Völkerkundemuseum, 1998. 275-309. Arcones, Pedro Ceinos. Sons of Heaven, Brothers of Nature: The Naxi of Southwestern China. Kunming: Papers of the White Dragon, 2012. Aris, Michael. Lamas, Princes, and Brigands: Joseph Rock’s Photographs of the Tibetan Borderlands of China. NYC: China House, 1992. Bliss, Carol. “The Capacity of Folk Song to Reveal Complexities in Musuo Culture.” Ph.D. Dissertation, Claremont Graduate University, Educational Studies, 2004. “A Collection of Studies on the Tibetan Bon Tradition.” http://vajrayana.faithweb.com/ACollectionOfStudiesOnBon.pdf Edwards, Mike. “Our Man in China: Joseph Rock.” National Geographic 191, 1997. 62-81. Gurung, B.C. Bon in the Himalaya. Kathmandu: Uma Gurung Publisher, 2003. Hau, Cai. A Society Without Fathers or Husbands: The Na of China, trans. Asti Hustvedt. New York: Zone Books, 2001. Knödel, Susanne. Die Matrilinearen Musuo von Yongning: Eine quellenkritische Auswertung Moderner Chinesischer Ethnographen. Kölner Ethnologische Studien, Band 22, eds. Ulla Johansen and Thomas Schweizer. Cologne: Cologne University Press. 1995. Mathieu, Christine. A History and Anthropological Study of the Kingdoms of the Sino-Tibetan Borderland- Naxi and Musuo. Lewiston: Mellen Press, 2003. Mathieu, Christine. “The Moso Ddaba Relgious Specialists.” In Naxi and Moso Ethnography: Kin Rites Pictorgraphs, eds. Michael Oppitz and Elizabeth Hsu. Zürich: Völkerkundemuseum Zürich, 1998. 209-234. Mattison, S. M. “Demystifying the Mosuo: The Behavioral Ecology of Kinship and Reproduction in China’s ‘Last Matriarchal’ Society.” (3431674). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. 2010. (808257489). Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.libproxy.nau.edu/docview/808257489?accountid=12706. Moore, Robert W. “Along the Old Mandarin Road of Indo-China,” National Geographic 60. August 1931. 157-200. Namu, Yang Erche and Christine Mathieu. Leaving Mother Lake: A Girlhood at the Edge of the World. New York: Back Bay Books, 2004. Norbu, Namkhai. Drung, Deu and Bön: Narrations, Symbolic Languages and the Bön Tradition in Ancient Tibet. Dharamsala: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 1997. Oppitz, Michael and Elisabeth Hsu, eds. Naxi and Moso Ethnography: Kin, Rites, Pictographs. Zürich: Völkerkundemuseum, 1998. Oppitz, Michael. “The Propitiation of Heaven.” In Naxi and Moso Ethnography: Kin, Rites, Pictographs, eds.Michael Oppitz and Elizabeth Hsu. Zürich: Völkerkundemuseum, 1998. 173-188. Peters, Larry. Tamang Shamans: An Ethnopsychiatric Study of Ecstasy and Healing in Nepal. New Delhi: Nirala Publications, 1998. Rock, Joseph. The Ancient Na-Khi Kingdom of Southwest China 1-2. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1947. ______. The Life and Culture of the Nakhi Trine of China—Tibet Borderland. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1963. ______. “Konka Risumgongba, Holy Mountain of the Outlaws,” National Geographic, LX. July 1931. 1-65. Samuel, Geoffrey. Civilized Shamans: Buddhism in Tibetan Societies. Kathmandu and Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1993. Shih, Chuan-kang. “Mortuary Rituals and Symbols among the Moso.” In Naxi and Moso Ethnography: Kin Rites Pictorgraphs, edited by Michael Oppitz and Elizabeth Hsu. Zürich: Völkerkundemuseum, 1998: 103-125. Snellgrove, David. Buddhist Himalaya. Kathmandu: Himalayan Book Sellers, 1995. Turner, Kevin. Sky Shamans of Mongolia: Meetings with Remarkable Healers. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 2016. Walsh, E.R. “The Mosuo: …
(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
(Art) Earth Mother Goddess, Love, by Rena Hoffman

I have always created images from within that hold deep meaning for me, which often resemble iconic images from the outside world, one such example being ‘Earth Mother Goddess, Love’, resembling the well recognised, ‘Venus of Willendorf’.
(Essay 7) The Blending of Bön, Buddhism and the Goddess Gemu in Mosuo Culture by Krista Rodin

Differences among the Traditions Buddhist Temple, Lugu Lake. Goddess Gemu behind right hand flags. Photo K. Rodin Mosuo chieftains had strong ties with the Buddhist monastic structure as, according to Shih, “the Lamaist theory of the unity of divinity and personality provided the Moso chief with another possible ground to claim perpetual legitimacy of reign.”[1] These chiefs associated primarily with Zhameige and the Gelugpas. They were installed, or at least condoned, by Chinese regional bureaucrats. While the chiefs were men, daily social, and cultural activities were governed by women. Politically, Buddhism was a key structural thread for the elite, yet in every other way the Goddess Gemu and Daba traditions held sway in the people’s minds and hearts. Some of the differences between Daba and Buddhist ideas and practices include: – Dabas believe in the immortality of the soul; Buddhists do not. – Dabas use meat as sacrificial offerings in their ceremonies, which is anathema to Buddhists. – Dabas lack any hierarchical or structural institution, but rather function similarly to shamans; Buddhists have highly structured monastic institutional traditions. – Dabas rely on experiential training; Buddhists rely on both textual and experiential training. – Dabas do not use written story-based sacred texts; Buddhists do. – Daba traditions and rituals are passed on through oral transmission, Buddhist through both oral and written transmissions. – Dabas look to nature and the invisible world to balance the spirits; Buddhists seek to overcome the senses through meditation. They have almost diametrically opposed views of the world. Prior to the Social/Democratic Reform there were three levels of dabas: 1) the now non-existent haba, who utilized Tibetan sacred books, were psychopomps and had powerful magic; 2) the paddaba, the diviner who could see malevolent spirits; and 3) the pvdabba, the incantatory who knew how to chant the rituals to exorcise malevolent ghosts.[2] In addition to dabas, and lamas, which is the local term for any Buddhist monk, in Yongning, there is a long-standing tradition of shamans and diviners, called soma and zheda. Soma are vegetarian and deal exclusively with gods. They often perform in company with lamas who chant sutras to guide their journeys. The zheda cannot fly like the soma can, and they only deal with ghosts they can see, but with whom they cannot directly communicate. They also cannot communicate directly with humans, but need a translator to interpret their messages during their trance.[3] The soma and zheda can be either men or women and were invested by the Living Buddha. Today, without the Living Buddha, this tradition is in limbo. The dabas were practically wiped out during the Cultural Revolution. Their ritual implements were destroyed and no one was allowed to train the next generation. Lamu Gatusa, a Mosuo scholar, tried to reverse this trend in the 1990s when he organized twenty young men to train with two respected dabas. He also collected and recorded all known daba ceremonies and translated them into Mandarin.[4] For the people, the differences among the levels of daba, the lamas, the soma and zheda were not problematic. Dabas performed certain ceremonies, shamans and lamas others, and often the same event would have both dabas and lamas performing their ceremonies, e.g., funerary rites, to ensure that all the spirits were appeased.[5] The differing systems influenced each other over time. According to Mathieu, by the mid-20th century the dabas disassociated themselves from blood sacrifice and left that to their assistants. She also states, “In the Buddhist regions of Yongning, ordinary men and women likewise repent of their meat eating habits through daily penitence, by praying and circumambulating the village soto, stone burners in which the Moso light ritual fires.[6] (To be continued)Meet Mago Contributor, Krista Rodin, Ph.D. [1] Ibid., 244. [2] Christine Mathieu, “The Moso Ddaba Religious Specialists,” Naxi and Moso Ethnography: Kin, Rites, Pictographs, eds. Michael Oppitz and Elizabeth Hsu (Zürich: Völkerkundemuseum, 1998), 213. [3] Ibid., 211. [4] Ibid., 210. [5] Shih, “Mortuary Rituals and Symbols among the Moso,” 105-107. [6] Mathieu, “The Moso Ddaba Religious Specialists,” 211.
When Prayer Beads Break by Jude Lally

Over the years I have made hundreds of prayer beads for people, but I’ve only ever made two sets for myself. The first is a green jade set dedicated to Brighid with a small wooden Brighid’s cross from Ireland. The second is a set with dramatic rutilated quartz beads, white and clear quartz with long thin needles of jet black crisscrossing the bead. This set is dedicated to the Cailleach, the old woman of the land I live on. The pendant is the tip of an antler I was gifted while visiting the Shrine of the Cailleach. You can read that story via the link at the bottom of the page. Each morning when my fingers begin their journey around these prayer beads the first set of beads after the pendant is three round, silver beads, which are satisfyingly weighty. These are the step beads and whatever state of mind I find myself in they are a wonderful invitation to take three steps into sacred space. This might be a pause of three breaths, or imagining one or more sacred sites where my feet might have walked on holy ground. More often than not, I recall my visit to Tigh nam Bodach, which translates from Gaelic as the House of the Old Man and is also known as the Cailleach’s Shrine. The Shrine of the Cailleach, Glen Cailleach, Perthshire, Scotland The little glen that houses the shrine comes to mind and the fast-flowing waters of Allt Cailleach (stream of the Cailleach) which rushes down the side of the remote glen. In myths, deer are referred to as the Cailleach’s fairy cattle, and you’ll find many deer in the neighbouring Glen Lyon – due to the landowners who encourage them to stay close by feeding them, their numbers, assuring a good selection when they take the wealthy visitors off to shoot deer for an afternoon of sporting entertainment. After the step beads are another set of three beads, relating to birth, life, and death. The first speaks to being born into this world, then your fingers will feel the different pointed texture of the mystery bead, generally a star-shaped quartz bead, which is there to acknowledge the great mystery of life, and the divine spark that is present in all living things (from rocks to mountains, comic nebulae to worms, trees, and humans). The bead after the mystery bead is the death bead, to acknowledge with birth comes death, something none of us can escape. Set slightly outside this run of beads is the bead that represents our life and free will, for it is our choice of what we engage with in life and what we carry in our hearts. How we engage with the world and whether we engage with the divine spark within and around us. What does it mean when prayer beads break, varying traditions have different insights – from rebirth to an ending, and to some a sign to repair your beads. And this is exactly what happened to my set around the summer solstice. Of all the hundreds of sets I’ve made I only experienced one person who reported her set breaking, this happened as she held the beads in her hands at the bedside of a beloved, the silk thread breaking at the same time her beloved died. My beads broke one day just as I touched them. They weren’t being stretched or taught – the silk cord seemed to just disintegrate. As I was due to take a retreat the next week, I ordered some black silk thread and brought them with me. The Loch of the Big Women I felt drawn to bring the beads with me as we headed up to one of the highest points of the island, Loch Nam Ban Mora, the Loch of the Big Woman, on this isle, Eilean Nam Ban Mora – the Island of the Big Women. Loch Eilean Nam Ban Mora (Loch of the Big Women), heather. Looking over to the Sgurr It was a warm day with a strong breeze and each of the women found their own spot to sit by and around the loch. I was cooried (a Scots word meaning to crouch in, or nestle) in among the heather, the photo above looks south to the great rock feature of the Sgurr (a Gaelic word for jagged peak). Antler and prayer beads Rutilated quartz beads, silver spiral threshold beads, and silver step beads – washed in the loch waters While the beads are hard stone and not woven cloth, there was still a deep symbolism in washing them in the waters of the loch. An island whose name and loch are named after mythical big women. No one can really pinpoint who the ese big women were – but I like to think of big as meaning looked up to, and respected. Throughout the western isles are stories of big women – such as Scathatch on the neighbouring isle of Skye. This washing was a purification ritual, a ritual of renewal, for both the beads and myself. I am reminded of the task set by Baba Yaga in which Vasalisa is required to wash Baba Yaga’s clothes: ‘To wash something is a timeless purification ritual. It not only means to purify, it also means – like baptism from the latin baptiza – to drench, to permeate with a spiritual numen and mystery. In the tale the washing is the first task. It means to make taut again that which has become slackened from the wearing. The clothes are like us, worn and worn until our ideas and values are slackened by the passing of time. the renewal, the reviving, takes place in the water, in the re-discovering of what we really hold to be true, what we really hold sacred’ – Clarrissa Pinkola Estes. Women Who Run With the Wolves. Nosing out the facts: The Retrieval of Intuition as Initiation To sit by the loch was a ritual of …
(Prose) Herb Talk by Sara Wright

Photo by Sara Wright Women’s relationship with plants stretches back to the beginning of humankind. Most of us know that women invented agriculture and became the first healers. I come from a family of women who all had gardens, but no one grew herbs. It interests me in retrospect how I turned to these healing plants. I first used them for culinary purposes as a young mother; but as I approached midlife (mid –thirties) I began to gather herbs for medicinal purposes. I realize now that I made this shift just as I began to embrace the goddess and the Earth body as my mother and turned inward to healing myself. The two were definitely connected. It is the Body of the Earth that is capable of healing our broken souls and bodies; and some wise unconscious part of me knew that. Paul Stamets, mycologist (mushroom expert) and author states that plants that live in a particular habitat develop their own immune systems. I never really thought about herbs, plants, and trees working together to create immunity to certain diseases in one area until I learned something about mycelium, the fungus that creates a massive web beneath our feet attaching plants to one another; trees, plants, and herbs that exchange nutrients through their root systems/mycelium also have antiviral and anti bacterial properties. Our first antibiotic, penicillin, came from mold. When I first started using herbs medicinally it seemed important that I gather them from around my house, or in nearby fields and forest. After reading Paul’s declaration I realized that using an herb from my woods or garden was probably going to be more effective in treating a problem I have because I am already living in a habitat that is sensitized to any potential health problems that might arise with respect to its inhabitants including me, and because I am in direct relationship with my land and the body of the goddess in a very intimate way. An “Ah –Ha” moment. I have been reading a lot about the invisible mycelial net that stretches across every continent underground and under the sea. Without fungus, no life could have arisen on land because plants had no roots; the fungus provided them. The two had a symbiotic relationship. Today, the soil, composed of trillions of miles of mycelium in which all plants grow have antiviral, antibacterial, properties etc., as already mentioned, that make the plants powerful healers. Today this fungal web supports all life and is constantly learning, adapting, and changing. I think of this living breathing net as the skin and mind of the goddess. Personally, choosing which herbs to use seems to depend upon my personal relationships with them. Some plants seemed to resonate with me more than others and it was those plants I continue to be drawn to. I used my intuition and other senses to make these decisions even while the doubter drones on. Eventually, the positive results of my use of a particular herb shuts the annoying voice up. When I studied medicinal plants in the Amazon I learned that these Indigenous people, like me, used the plants that grew naturally in the areas they inhabited and they too made their decisions based on having personal relationships with certain plants, some of which spoke to them. Each healer had an individual garden located in the area in which s/he lived, on the edge of the community. Healers in other villages that were located further up the Amazonian tributaries (some were days away by dugout) treated the same ailments using the plants that grew there; some were the same, others were different. All treatments seemed to work, which baffled me until I learned that herbs grown in a specific area would probably benefit the people who lived in direct relationship with that particular piece of land even if they were different. What united me to people of the Amazon, Indigenous peoples, and other country folk like me was that all of us were in reciprocal relationships with plants and a particular place, something many folks in this transient western culture don’t ever experience. I wonder if this isn’t part of the reason we can continue to decimate the earth – a lack of belonging to place? I know lots of people who ‘own’ houses and property but never develop a reciprocal relationship with their land; instead they use it for their own purposes. And without reciprocity in relationship does a person remains rootless. Soul-less? Goddess – less? I love my little house, but it was built on land that claimed me the first time I set foot on it in the fog and rain. The visceral sense of belonging slammed through me, leaving me stunned almost senseless. When I came to I can still remember the sounds of water drawing me towards the brook and the red buck with his velvet antlers…. I have a deeply personal relationship with the earth as a whole but ‘my land’ contains me; I am wed to the goddess – to the forests, fields, ponds, and mountains here in Maine. Just now I am awash in the scarlet, wine, and magenta flowers of bee balm, an herb that seemed to ‘choose’ me as soon as I planted a few shoots of it the first year I lived here. I watched it spread through my entire flower garden eventually spilling over the edges to grow wild around the house. Hummingbirds love the flowers and presently I must have at least 50 hummingbirds that are happily extracting flower nectar from dawn to dusk. Of all my pollinators, Bee balm seems to draw in the most bees and butterflies at this time of year (July and August)… I always keep a flower or two in the house and I love to walk around crushing a leaf or two to release Bee balm’s scent (it belongs to the mint family). I collect Bee balm leaves to include in the ‘sun tea’ I …
(Photo Essay 7) Grandmothers by Kaalii Cargill

” . . . the psyche possesses a common substratum transcending all differences in culture and consciousness . . . This explains the analogy, sometimes even identity, between various myth-motifs, and symbols . . .” CG Jung. One of the motifs that appears throughout prehistory is the figure with raised arms. One of the earliest of these is “The Adorant”, dated at 35,000-32,000 BCE. Ivory bas-relief, Geißenklösterle, Blaubeuren, Germany. 35,000-32,000 BCE The raised arms echo the shape of cow or bull horns, another common motif in prehistory. Greece, 2300-1700 BCE Magura Cave, Bulgaria. c8000 BCE Varna, Bulgaria, 4600-42000 BCE Hungary, 4800-2800 BCE Egypt, 3500-3400 BCE Crete, Greece, c1700-1450 BCE Greece, 1250-1180 BCE Greece, c1200 BCE Greece, c1200 BCE Corinth, Greece, c 1200 BCE Mykines (Mycenae), Greece, 1250-1180 BCE Cyprus, 8th to 5th Century BCE Meet MAGO Contributor KAALII CARGILL
(Essay 1) Enchanting Christianity: Christian Goddess Thealogy by Mary Ann Beavis, Ph.D.

[Editor’s Note: This essay is from the same title, “Enchanting Christianity: Christian Goddess Thealogy” by Mary Ann Beavis included in Goddesses in Myth, History and Culture (Mago Books, 2018).] In her introductory textbook on women’s spirituality in the western religions, Johanna H. Stuckey notes a new development in Christian feminism that she describes as “Revolutionary,” dubbed “Pagan Christianity” by one of her students: A ritual example was reported from a Women-Church group: the ritual begins with a c alling down of the spirits of the four directions, a borrowing from Wicca and other traditions; continues with the reading of Bible sections that praise Earth; and ends with worshippers weaving a communal web … Such a ritual certainly pushes Christianity to its limits.[1] A notable aspect of Stuckey’s “Revolutionary” Christian feminism is “to routinely use female language and symbols for deity and even to import goddesses from other traditions,” contrasted with a more “Renovationist” theology that uses “some female symbols for deity” and sometimes sees “deity in female roles,” or a “Revisionist” approach that seeks to use gender-neutral, non-oppressive words for the divine.[2] All are united by a discomfort with the maleness of the Christian God, with “Revisionists” cautiously seeking gender-neutrality, and “Renovationists” more adventurously adding language of the female divine to the mix. “Revolutionaries,” however, have gone a large step further, and use predominantly female language for deity, routinely use the language of the Goddess and Goddesses to express their relationship to the divine, and are comfortable blending Christian and Neo-Pagan elements in their worship. From the Neo-Pagan Goddess Spirituality side, Judith Laura devotes a whole chapter of her book Goddess Matters to “emerging Goddess figures in Christianity”—Mother Mary, Sophia, and Mary Magdalene[3]—as well as “more obvious Goddess veneration” in some forms of Christianity, notably at Ebenezer Lutheran Church/Herchurch in San Francisco, where a Goddess rosary service is held every week, and both Goddess and Christian images decorate the sanctuary.[4] In my research, I have been increasingly interested by what Stuckey calls the “Revolutionary” approach, since I have often encountered it in my experience of Christian women’s spirituality: a Christian academic administrator whose fiftieth birthday celebration, held at a seminary, included a croning ceremony; a United Church minister who consulted Goddess oracle cards each morning before leaving the house; a meeting of a Christian feminist organization held in a Christian college, where the speaker, a Catholic sister, referred to the “Goddess times” before patriarchy, and everyone understood (and apparently had no problems with) what she was talking about. However, little research has been done on this development in Christianity, where the emergent religion of Goddessianism[5] (a term suggested by Judith Laura) and Christianity are being blended—a phenomenon that goes back several decades. The little academic analysis available has been the byproduct of research into Goddess Spirituality/Wicca/Neo-Paganism, and to be piecemeal, anecdotal, and, in social-scientific research terms, based on very few subjects;[6] occasionally, it is heresiological (Davis, 1998; Steichen 1991).[7] However, there is a relative plethora of popular literature pertaining to this kind of “blended” spirituality, some of it Christo-Pagan,[8] some of it Christian Goddessian without the Neo-Pagan aspect,[9] some of it esoteric/gnostic/speculative.[10] The distinction between Christo-Pagan/Wiccan, Christian Goddessian and Gnostic-Esoteric should not imply that these are three competing spiritualities; rather, they are more like intersecting spiritual paths where travelers often meet, share, and journey together for parts of the way. This is not a New Religious Movement, but part of a contemporary religious trend. In order to understand the scope and characteristics of this phenomenon, I undertook a research project that involved a series of semi-structured in-person and telephone interviews with 100 women who self-identify as blending Christianity and Goddess Spirituality. The research sample was made up of women between the ages of 22 and 78, most of whom reside in the United States and Canada.[11] Interview subjects were located through personal contacts, Christian feminist organizations, listservs subscribed to by Christian Goddessians and Goddessians, Facebook Groups,[12] and a series of in-person interviews conducted at Herchurch in San Francisco in November 2012.[13] In qualitative social-scientific terms, this is a kind of “purposive sample” tied to the objective of the study, where the interviewees meet the criterion of blending Goddess Spirituality and Christianity. Due to the variety of strategies for locating interview subjects, the sample exhibits considerable variation in that it includes individuals occupying a spectrum of perspectives and positions in relation to the phenomenon that I have named Christian Goddess Spirituality (CGS). Only women (including one transgendered woman) were included in the study, since women are by far the majority of practitioners of this spirituality, although men are part of the picture; at this point, my hunch is that men (including Christian men) relate to the female divine differently than women.[14] In addition to the interviews, a focus group made up of volunteers from among the interviewees was held on the campus of the University of Saskatchewan, where my college is located (June 18, 2013). Of an initial list of sixteen volunteers, thirteen women were able to travel from various U.S. and Canadian locations to participate in the discussion.[15] The focus group participants were (1) volunteers; (2) who were able to meet on the specified date; (3) whose travel and accommodations could be comfortably covered by the research grant.[16] The focus group discussions were designed to complement the questionnaires by enabling interaction among participants, especially in “gaining insights into people’s shared understandings of everyday life and the ways in which individuals are influenced by others in a group situation.”[17] Focus groups are particularly conducive to feminist research, with their emphasis on experience, and their encouragement of interaction and the free flow of ideas among the participants. The Focus group was facilitated by myself as the Principal Researcher, guided by a limited list of topics for discussion designed to encourage conversation, and to allow in-depth discussion of issues and questions raised in the interviews. Like the interviews, the focus group discussions, which took place over a six-hour period of intense and …
(Essay 2) Circe the Island Witch by Hearth Moon Rising

In an earlier essay, we explored the pervasiveness of the demi-goddess Circe in Greek mythology. We now turn to the best-known story about Circe, which appears in that cornerstone of Greek mythology, Homer’s Odyssey. The passage where Odysseus and Circe meet and spar is what most people remember from The Odyssey. Like any good story, The Odyssey has a number of twists, setbacks, and triumphs. Odysseus starts out with the wind in his sails, having emerged on the victorious side of the war with Troy. After meeting numerous setbacks, he is almost home, in sight of his beloved shore, when he has his most dramatic reversal in fortune, essentially a consequence of poor leadership. The changing wind takes him far far out to sea, and his fleet commences a hop from island to island seeking rest, sustenance, and directions. Each adventure leaves the crew more dispirited and fewer in number. A turning point occurs when Odysseus reaches Aeaea, the home of Circe. Circe’s encounter with Odysseus was a favorite subject of the Pre-Raphaelite painters. John Waterhouse, 1913 Like most turning points, the encounter with Circe is one that could have gone either way. If Odysseus had not handled the situation correctly, he would have lived out his life on Aeaea, and we would never have heard The Odyssey. Knowing at the start that our hero escapes, since the epic is only halfway through, doesn’t make the episode any less of a nail-biter. Coming ashore at the densely forested island exhausted, hungry, and down to only one ship, Odysseus commences a solo reconnaissance and snags a stag large enough to feed his crew. This is a gesture of favor from the gods and a sign that his luck may be changing. Once rested and fed, Odysseus organizes an exploratory team, under the command of his best warrior, Eurylochus, to investigate a homestead in the interior of the island. The treacherous nature of the journey so far induces Odysseus to split his team on unfamiliar ground. He is wise to take this precaution. Circe’s palace is large and beautiful, on a high foundation built of polished stone. It’s surrounded by wolves and lions – but that’s not the dangerous part. These apex predators gather kindly around the team, attempting to stroke and nuzzle them. The men remain terrified despite the friendly overtures, until they hear a woman singing within the house, her rhythm in time with her loom. The familiarity of a woman in a fine house singing and weaving dispels their fear, and the men call out to her. Circe graciously opens her door and the crew partakes of her hospitality – all except Eurylochus, who hangs back with suspicion. After a sumptuous dinner of meat and wine, marvelous on many levels, the men find themselves becoming drowsy, par for the course after a fine meal. But their drowsiness becomes a sleep and their sleep becomes a stupor, and Circe raises her magic wand to enchant them. They have been drugged with the strange herbs of the island and now their mistress changes them into pigs. No wonder the lions and wolves were friendly; they were only men transformed by a diabolical spell. Circe leads the troop of swine into the stye, where they grunt, chomp on acorns, and root in the mud. It’s a pig’s paradise, but they are cursed with human consciousness. They are men who know they are pigs. How sad! Hiding in the bushes, Eurylochus waits and watches for his comrades to return. They appear to have vanished. As squealing commences inside the compound, he doubles back to the ship in a state of terror. Somewhat precipitously, Odysseus demands to be led to Circe’s dwelling, on the chance that he might save his men. The frightened Eurylochus refuses to budge; Odysseus sets out alone. Another Circe painting. Circe Offering the Cup to Odysseus, John Waterhouse, 1891 The god Hermes waylays Odysseus in the tangled forest and upbraids him for attempting this rescue without a plan. His men are held hostage by the sorceress Circe, Hermes tells him, and she can easily subdue Odysseus as well. To maintain control of his faculties, Odysseus will need a special herb whose black roots and white flowers mortals have no power to harvest. Hermes gives Odysseus a piece of this herb, called Moly, which will immunize him to Circe’s potions. He is instructed to draw his sword when Circe draws her wand. Hermes cautions Odysseus to resist the temptation to press his advantage, and, at the same time, to coax concessions from Circe before becoming too chummy with her. Do not attempt to master her and do not allow her to master you, Hermes warns, or she’ll chop your dick off. Circe welcomes Odysseus with glad heart and open arms. Her voice is lovely, her braid voluminous, her table expansive. Odysseus is not lulled by her trickery and sneaks Moly in her proffered drink. When she hits him with her wand, commanding that he waddle to the stye, Odysseus raises his sword. Circe is unnerved by the failure of her potion and recognizes immediately that Hermes is attempting to stymie her. She suggests to Odysseus that they put their little misunderstanding behind them and go make love, but Odysseus has not forgotten the advice Hermes gave him. Before agreeing to a truce, he insists that the pigs, lions, and wolves be restored to men. Circe concedes. Odysseus returns to his ship and collects the men awaiting him there, even the tremoring Eurylochus, who now thinks everything is a trap. The former pigs are transformed into the men they were before, except a bit more handsome, and the crew enjoys the hospitality of Circe and her women for a year. The Wine of Circe. Edward Burne-Jones, 1900 Eventually it is time to resume the voyage home, and here the meeting with Circe truly becomes a boon. Far from hampering his departure, Circe offers to assist Odysseus in preparing for the journey …

(Special Post 1) Nine-Headed Dragon Slain by Patriarchal Heroes: A Cross-cultural Discussion by Mago Circle Members

[Editor’s Note: This and the ensuing eight sequels (all nine parts) are a revised version of the discussion that has taken place in The Mago Circle, Facebook group, since September 24, 2017 to the present. Themes are introduced and interwoven in a somewhat random manner, as different discussants lead the discussion. The topic of the number nine is key to Magoism, primarily manifested as Nine Magos or the Nine Mago Creatrix. Mago Academy hosts a virtual and actual event, Nine Day Mago Celebration, annually.] Helen Hwang: I am thinking of the Nine Goddess/Mago Symbolism or Nine Numerology. Insights connect the data that I have collected, otherwise seemingly unrelated across cultures and periods. We have reasons to celebrate the nine symbolism among us. As seen in this discussion below, Hercules is most aptly equated with Huangdi (Yellow Emperor, 2698–2598 BCE), one of the forebear emperors of ancient China, who is alleged to have defeated Chiu (successor of Goma), the representative of Danguk’s Nine Giants (nine sub-states). The Magoist history writes the other way around. Chiu won the war, the archetypal international/global war waged over the defense/overthrow of the Magoist throne. Old Magoists (Danguk founded by Goma) of Nine Queen-led States defended the rebellion of the patrilocal force, represented by the Huangdi. With this victory, Old Magoist Confederacy of nine sub-states was able to maintain gynocentric peace of the ancient world for about five centuries longer until a man, Yao, rose to give a way for the establishment of the first patriarchal rule, ancient China of the Xia Dynasty (c. 2070 BCE – c. 1600 BCE). Nonetheless, patriarchal ethnocentric Sinocentric historiography has proliferated to this day. Yu, the founder of the Xia dynasty, is depicted as the hero who slains the nine-headed snake. What I am saying is here that the Nine Goddess/Symbolism is pre-patriarchal in origin and possibly speaks of the same event across cultures! The slain of nine-headed snakes or dragons indicates the usurpation of gynocentric rule by a patriarchal hero across cultures. Let me show you some available information and images to open the discussion. Lernaean Hydra 1 oz Copper | The 12 Labors of Hercules “Hercules was sent to slay the Lernaean Hyrda for his second Labor. The multi-headed, snake-like monster was defeated by Hercules after he sliced its one mortal head. The last day to purchase the 1 oz Copper Lernaean Hyrda was the November 12, 2014. There is, however, time to order the 5 oz Copper Hercules Round, and 5 oz Silver Hercules Round. To read about Hercules and his 12 Labors, check out our blog for more information. If you enjoy the 12 Labors of Hercules coin series, take a look at more Silver and Copper coin collections offered by Provident Metals. After defeating the Nemean Lion, Hercules was sent to slay the Lernaean Hydra for his second labor. The Hydra, a snake-like beast with multiple heads, was raised by Hera to destroy Hercules — making this an inevitable match up. In the face-off between Hercules and Hydra, the son of Zeus used a sword to slice off each of the creature’s necks, according to one popular tale. When the heads grew back, Hercules enlisted his nephew to burn each of the necks to halt regrowth. The Hydra had one mortal head, however; so Hercules used his golden sword to slay the mutant and complete his second labor. The beast is displayed on the Second Labor coin, to be released in the 12 Labors of Hercules Series. The reverse features the multi-headed Hydra in a striking position, displaying the daunting task Hercules faced. LERNAEAN HYDRA and II are inscribed. The familiar obverse portraying Hercules with the Nemean Lion draped over his head as armor is shown on this round, as it will be on each round in the powerful series. “1 oz CMXCIX (999 in Roman numerals) FINE COPPER” is also displayed. The 1 oz. Copper Lernaean Hydra rounds will only be available for one month from Oct. 12 through Nov. 12. Make sure to keep your 12 Labors of Hercules Series collection current before time runs out! 12 Labors of Hercules Driven crazy by Hera, Hercules slew his family — only regretful after recovering his sanity. King Thespius purified the son of Zeus, but to atone for his crimes, he was sent to serve King Eurystheus. Eurystheus ordered Hercules to execute 10 Labors, which were a series of tasks carried out as penance for his actions. Hercules successfully completed all 10, but because his nephew helped with one and he planned to accept payment for another, Eurystheus forced Hercules to finish two more Labors alone. Hercules’ Labors adhere to the traditional order of the Bibliotheca: Nemean Lion – Sept. 12, 2014 Lernaean Hydra – Oct. 12, 2014 Ceryneian Hind – Nov. 12, 2014 Erymanthian Boar – Dec. 12, 2014 Augean Stables – Jan. 12, 2015 Stymphalian Birds – Feb. 12, 2015 Cretan Bull – March 12, 2015 Mares of Diomedes – April 12, 2015 Girdle of Hippolyta – May 12, 2015 Cattle of Geryon – June 12, 2015 Apples of Hesperides – July 12, 2015 Cerberus – Aug. 12, 2015 Commemorate the historic battle between Hercules and the Lernaean Hydra with this 1 oz copper round from Provident Metals.” https://www.providentmetals.com/1-oz-copper-lernaean-hydra-the-12-labors-of-hercules.html Helen Hwang: I looked for the answer to this question: How many heads did the Hydra originally have? It is nine, which accords with its icons to be shared shortly. Helen Hwang: Check out Nine-fold or Nine-Headed Phoenix. Not all iconographies of pre-modern China vilify the nine symbolism, which indicates the influence/presence/revival of Magoism. This image is much reminiscent of the blue crane with nine feathers, a Magoist symbol that we have seen in Mago Stronghold, Mt. Jiri during Mago Pilgrimage (to be discussed in another space). “This Qing-dynasty (1644-1911) print shows the nine-headed phoenix, a being from Chinese mythology with a bird’s body and nine heads with human faces. It is one of several hybrid creatures mentioned in the Classic of Mountains and Seas (Shanhai jing), where it is […]
(Special Post 4) Multi-Linguistic Resemblances of “Mago” by Mago Circle Members

[This is a summary of discussion that took place around 2014 in The Mago Circle, Facebook group.]Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: I am writing an entry on “Mago” for the Glossary of my book, The Mago Way: Re-discovering Mago, the Great Goddess from East Asia:Mago (麻姑): East Asian word for the Great Goddess. Read “Ma” as in “Mama” and “Go” as in “to go.” The logographic characters are pronounced/romanized as Mago in Korean, Magu in Chinese, and Mako in Japanese. When it is used in historical contexts, “Mago” refers to the Great Goddess AND HER cultural matrix, Magoism (Magoist shamans/priestesses/rulers and/or the bygone mytho-history of Old Magoist Korea). S/HE represents Ultimate Reality as One Undividable Unity. The Great Goddess embodies the Creatrix, the cosmic sonic system of Life. Through HER, we enter the view of the whole, the consciousness of WE/HERE/NOW. Also known to have originated from the Big Dipper (Seven Stars) in lore—part of the Big Bear constellation—the Guardian of the Polaris, S/HE is the Guardian of the solar system. S/HE causes the stabilization of the solar system. In that sense, S/HE is the Sun Deity or Heavenly Deity. Self-emerged with Mago Stronghold (Earth) and two moons of the Earth through the sonic movement of Pal-ryeo (Eight Tones), the Great Goddess oversees the cosmic music of Yul-ryeo (Rhythms and Tones), another term for the sonic movement of the universe. Mago gives birth to two daughters (Gung-hui) and (So-hui) parthenogenetically. Thus, they form the Mago Triad (Samsin). S/HE delegates HER two daughters to oversee the cosmic music of Oeum-chiljo (Five Pitches and Seven Tunes). Gung-hui and So-hui respectively give birth to four daughters parthenogenetically. The Primordial Mago Clan forms the Nine Magos, the archetype of Gurang (Nine Goddesses). Mago delegates eight (grand)daughters to oversee the cosmic music of Pal-ryeo (Eight Tones). S/HE causes the self-evolution of the Earth through which all terrestrial beings are brought into existence. In that sense, S/HE is the Earth Deity. As Samsin Halmi (Triad Grand-Mother), S/HE controls the birth and illness of children. Mago allows the Early Mago Clan in the paradise of Mago Stronghold to procreate progenies and entrusts them to take in charge of the terrestrial acoustic equilibrium. Revered as the Cosmogonist, Progenitor, and Ultimate Sovereign, Mago delegates the Mago Descent, the entirety of the divine, human ancestors, and humans, to oversee the acoustic harmony of the Earth in tune with the cosmic music. Hereupon, the paradisiacal Home of Mago Stronghold is established. S/HE is called by many names. Among them are Samsin (Triad Deity), Cheonsin (Heavenly Deity), Halmi (Grandmother/Goddess), Nogo (Ancient Goddess), and Seongo (Immortal Goddess). Also referred to as Mugeuk Nomo (None-Polarized First Mother) or Musaeng-nomo (Non-birthed First Mother) in Daoism. Mago appears resembling many Goddesses from around the world by way of such mythemes as the triad, parthenogenesis, cosmic music, animal companions, and the cosmogonist. “Mago” is linguistically identical or similar with “Mago” in Italian and Portuguese, “Magus/Magi” in Latin, “Magos” in Greek, “Maka” in Mycenaean Greek, “Magus” in Old Persian, and “Ma Guanyin” in East Asian languages, to name a few. Brian Kirbis: Funny, despite my fondness for language, I never made the connection. Though I have explored the lineage potential between naga and Nuwa 女娲. Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: What did you find the linkage between naga and Nuwa, Brian? There is sometimes linguistic linkage relevant and other times mythological linkage… Brian Kirbis: Linguistic, iconographic, and mythological links are all available to us within a broad cross-cultural frame. My own analytic tendency is to see such mirror-image male-female representations as matrilineal and patrilineal essences which, in Chinese energy theory, reside in the kidneys (ancestral qi).Consider the Adam and Eve myth, for instance, with the figures on either side of the tree (spine, cosmic pivot, Milky Way), within which is contained the serpentine energy. There is ample information extant on such Tree of Life symbolism, all of which illustrates the inner energy body. The nagini-naga / Nuwa-Fuxi conjoint images in India and China absorb the serpent iconography into the human – an internalization of Kundalini energy.As you know, my area of interest is in the underlying cultural complex of tea-growing peoples located in Southwest China and upland Southeast Asia, an area replete with serpent mythology. Brian Kirbis: Comparison of Indian and Chinese representations of the Naga-Nagini and Fuxi & Nuwa. Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: Yes, indeed, there is similarity between the two. Interesting! Thanks for sharing them. Lizzy Bluebell: Brian Kirbis – fascinating – any idea what kind of tool each is holding in the sculpture? I see a chevron or M to the right of the Nagini’s head; (M and MA are fairly universal root symbols for Mother; Latin M encodes breasts, mounds, mountains, paps, tophets, etc. plus a general historical dispute over the importance of hills versus valleys.)I also note the inversion of right/left positions in the Nu Wa image.In terms of your statement – “The nagini-naga / Nuwa-Fuxi conjoint images in India and China absorb the serpent iconography into the human – an internalization of Kundalini energy.” — My thought: Have you ever considered it otherwise – that humanity has actually EXTERNALIZED chi energy into the form of the snake as a means of expressing it in non-vocal (sonic) symbolism which also manifests form via means of visualization as opposed to sonic/vocalizations or cymatics which creates form via RESONANCE.Helen – note that the tails are knotted – very important symbolic notion of ‘tying things’ as in the Shen Ring and Ankh – a masonic motif – related to measuring and containing within an Ouroborus SYSTEM which is closed, not cyclic or spiraling vis a vis Nature’s Way. It is the CLOSED CIRCLE as Plato’s “perfect form” which traps us in the flaws of re-peating and re-petitioning any ‘his-story’ we follow which does NOT HONOUR AND REVERE MAGO or hold her values close to HEART, as HEARD, in the HERD.Your original post (O/P thereafter) is fascinating and revealing and provides much to discuss on the topic of Zoroaster/Zarathustra and the Persian/Arabic/Semitic invention of Algebra and Astrology. In […]
(Special Post) Discussion on Mother-Daughter Wound by Mago Circle Members

[Mago Circle members discussed and answered the question, “What do you think of this (the topic article below)? If you are a feminist, it is something that you would promote? If so, why? If not, why not?” The discussion took place on May 15, 2017 and shortly thereafter in The Mago Circle.] Topic Article: “For The Daughters Who Don’t Love Their Mothers – Screw Mother’s Day” by Sade Andria Zabala Everyone talks about a mother’s unconditional love. But what if it doesn’t exist? Daughters are socially expected to be close with their mothers. But are you one of the women who aren’t? Mother’s Day isn’t just for celebrating moms. It’s a day some of us dread because we are reminded we grew up (or are still) unloved, not good enough. (Read the whole article here.)

(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 …
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.
(Book Excerpt) Held in the Womb of the Wheel of the Year by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This essay is an excerpt from the Introduction of the author’s new book A Poiesis of the Creative Cosmos: Celebrating Her within PaGaian Sacred Ceremony. Meditation cushion in circle of decorated stones My ancestors built great circles of stones that represented their perception of real time and space, and enabled them to tell time: the stone circles were cosmic calendars.[i] They went to great lengths and detail to get it right. It was obviously very important to them to have the stones of a particular kind, in the right positions according to position of the Sun at different times of the year, and then to celebrate ceremony within it. I have for decades had a much smaller circle of stones assembled. I have regarded this small circle of stones as a medicine wheel. It is a portable collection, that I can spread out in my living space, or let sit in a small circle on an altar, with a candle/candles in the middle. Each stone (or objects, as some are) represents a particular Seasonal Moment/transition and is placed in the corresponding direction. The small circle of eight stones represents the flow of the Solstices and Equinoxes and the cross-quarter Moments in between: that is, it represents the “Wheel of the Year” as it is commonly known in Pagan traditions. I have found this assembled circle to have been an important presence. It makes the year, my everyday sacred journey of Earth around Sun, tangible and visible as a circle, and has been a method of changing my mind, as I am placed in real space and time. My stone wheel has been a method of bringing me home to my indigenous sense of being. Each stone/object of my small wheel may be understood to represent a “moment of grace,” as Thomas Berry named the seasonal transitions – each is a threshold to the Centre, wherein I may now sit: I sense it as a powerful point. As I sit on the floor in the centre of my small circle of stones, I reflect on its significance as I have come to know the Seasonal transitions that it marks, over decades of celebrating them. I sense the aesthetics and poetry of each. I facilitated and was part of the celebration and contemplation of these Moments in my region for decades. It was always an open group that gathered, and so its participants changed over the years but it remained in form, like a live body which it was: a ceremonial body that conversed with the sacred Cosmos in my place. We spoke a year-long story and poetry of never-ending renewal – of the unfolding self, Earth and Cosmos. We danced and chanted our relationship with the Mother, opened ourselves to Her Creativity, and conversed with Her by this method. All participants in their own way within these ceremonies made meaning of their lives – which is what I understand relationship to be, in this context of Earth and Sun, our Place and Home in the Cosmos: that is, existence is innately meaningful when a being knows Who one is and Where one is. Barbara Walker notes that religions based on the Mother are free of the “neurotic” quest for indefinable meaning in life as such religions “never assumed that life would be required to justify itself.”[ii] I face the North stone, which in my hemisphere is where I place the Summer Solstice. From behind me and to my right is the light part of the cycle – representing manifest form, all that we see and touch. From behind me and to my left is the dark part of the cycle – representing the manifesting, the reality beneath the visible, which includes the non-visible. The Centre wherein I sit, represents the present. The wheel of stones has offered to me a way of experiencing the present as “presence,” as it recalls in an instant that, That which has been and that which is to come are not elsewhere – they are not autonomous dimensions independent of the encompassing present in which we dwell. They are, rather, the very depths of this living place – the hidden depth of its distances and the concealed depth on which we stand.[iii] This wheel of stones, which captures the Wheel of the Year in essence, locates me in the deep present, wherein the past and the future are contained – both always gestating in the dark, through the gateways. And all this has been continually enacted and expressed in the ceremonies of the Wheel of the Year, as the open, yet formal group has done them, mostly in the place of Blue Mountains, Australia. PaGaian Cosmology altar/mandala: a “Womb of Gaia” map Over the years of practice of ritually celebrating these eight Seasonal Moments – Earth’s whole annual journey around Sun, I have been held in this creative story, this Story of Creativity as it may be written – it is a sacred story. Her pattern of Creativity can be identified at all levels of reality – manifesting in seasonal cycles, moon cycles, body cycles – and to be aligned with it aligns a person’s core with the Creative Mother Universe. I have identified the placing of one’s self within this wheel through ceremonial practice of the whole year of creativity, as the placing of one’s self in Her Womb – Gaia’s Womb, a Place of Creativity. All that is necessary for Creativity is present in this Place. All may come forth from here/Here – and so it does, and so it has, and so it will. NOTES: [i] See Martin Brennan, The Stones of Time: Calendars, Sundials, and Stone Chambers of Ancient Ireland (Rochester Vermont, Inner Traditions, 1994). [ii] Barbara Walker, The Woman’s Encyclopaedia of Myths and Secrets (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1983), 693. [iii] David Abram, The Spell of the Sensuous (New York: Vintage Books, 1997), 216. REFERENCES: Abram, David. The Spell of the Sensuous. New York: Vintage Books, 1997. Brennan, Martin. The Stones of Time: Calendars, Sundials, and Stone Chambers of Ancient Ireland.Rochester Vermont: Inner Traditions, 1994. Walker, Barbara. The Woman’s Encyclopaedia of Myths and Secrets. San Francisco: …
(Essay) The Wheel of the Year and Climate Change by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

https://pagaian.org/pagaian-wheel-of-the-year/ The Wheel of the Year in a PaGaian cosmology essentially celebrates Cosmogenesis – the unfolding of the Cosmos, in which Earth’s extant Creativity participates directly, as does each unique being. The Creativity of Cosmogenesis is expressed through Earth-Sun relationship as it may manifest and be experienced within any region of our Planet. In PaGaian tradition this is expressed with Triple Goddess Poetry, which is 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 it does in the Seasons, happens because of Earth’s tilt in relationship with Sun: and that is because this tilt 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, 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[i]. 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 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[ii], and more recently a site of ongoing ritual activity as old as seventy thousand years has been found[iii]. 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. https://pagaian.org/pagaian-wheel-of-the-year/ 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 our 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[iv]. 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. At the moment the dance of dark and light remains predictable, but much else is in a process of transformation. As we observe and sense our Place, our Habitat, as our ancestors also did, we can, and may yet still make Poetry of the dance of dark and light, of this quality of relationship with Sun, and how it may be manifesting in a particular region and its significance for the inhabitants: we may still find Poetic expression with which to celebrate the sacred journey that we make everyday around Mother Sun, our Source of life and energy. It has been characteristic of humans for at least several tens of thousands of years, to create ceremony and symbol by which we could relate with the creative dynamics of our place, and perhaps it was initially a method of coming to terms with these dynamics – with the apparently uniquely human awareness of coming into being and passing away[v]. Our need for sacred ceremony of relationship with our place, can only be more dire in these times, as we are witness to, and aware of, …
(Essay) Ceremony as “Prayer” or Sacred Awareness By Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This essay is an excerpt from Chapter 3 of the author’s new book A Poiesis of the Creative Cosmos: Celebrating Her within PaGaian Sacred Ceremony. MoonCourt Ceremonial Space set for Autumn Equinox ceremony, 2013 Ritual/ceremony is often described as “sacred space.” I understand that to mean “awareness of the space as sacred”: all space is sacred, what shifts is our awareness – awareness of the depth of spacetime, and of the depth of all things and all beings. I understand “sacred awareness” as an awareness of deep relationship and identity with the very cosmic dynamics that create and sustain the Universe; or an awareness of what is involved in the depth of each moment, each thing, each being. Ceremony is a space and time given to expression, contemplation and nurturance of that depth … at least to something of it. Ceremony may be both an expression of deep inner truths – perceived relationship to self, Earth and Cosmos, as well as being a mode of teaching and drawing forth deeper participation. Essentially, ceremony is a way of entering into the depth of the present moment … what is deeply present right here and now, a way of entering deep space and deep time, which is not somewhere else but is right here. Every-thing, and every moment, has Depth – more depth than we usually allow ourselves to contemplate, let alone comprehend. This book, this paper, this ink, the chair, the floor – each has a history and connections that go back, all the way back to Origins. This moment you experience now, in its particular configuration, place, people present, subtle feelings, thoughts, and propensity towards certain directions or outcomes, has a depth – many histories and choices that go back … ultimately all the way back to the beginning. Great Origin is present at every point of space and time – right here. In ceremony we are plugging our awareness into something of that. In this holy context then – in this mindframe of knowing connection, everything one does is a participation in the creation of the Cosmos: for the tribal indigenous woman, perhaps the weaving of a basket; for another, perhaps preparing a meal; for you, perhaps getting on the train to go to a workplace. It is possible to regain this sense, to come to feel that the way one breathes makes a difference – that with it, you co-create the present and the future, and you may even be a blessing on the past. In every moment we receive the co-creation, the work, of innumerable beings, of innumerable moments, and innumerable interactions of the elements, in everything we touch … and so are we touched by them. The local is our touchstone to the Cosmos – it is not separate. Ceremony may be a way into this awareness, into strengthening it. Ceremony is actually ‘doing,’ not just theorizing. We can talk about our personal and cultural disconnection endlessly, but we need to actually change our minds. Ceremony can be an enabling practice – a catalyst/practice for personal and cultural change. It is not just talking about eating the pear, it is eating the pear; it is not just talking about sitting on the cushion (meditating), it is sittingon the cushion. It is a cultural practice wherein we tell a story/stories about what we believe to be so most deeply, about who and what we are. Ceremony can be a place for practicing a new language, a new way of speaking, or spelling – a place for practicing “matristic storytelling”[i] if you like: that is, for telling stories of the Mother, of Earth and Cosmos as if She were alive and sentient. We can “play like we know it,” so that we may come to know it.[ii] Ceremony then is a form of social action. I have found it useful to describe ceremony using and extending words used by Ken Wilber to describe a “transpersonal practice,” which is needed for real change: he said it was a practice that discloses “a deeper self (I or Buddha) in a deeper community (We or Sangha) expressing a deeper truth (It or Dharma).”[iii] My extension of that is: ceremony may disclose a deeper beautiful self (the I/Virgin/Urge to Be/Buddha), in a deeper relational community (the We/Mother/Place of Being/Sangha), expressing a deeper transformative truth (the It/Old One/Space to Be/Dharma). This is the “unitive body,” the “microcosmos” that Charlene Spretnak refers to in States of Grace.[iv] Since ceremony is an opportunity to give voice to deeper places in ourselves, forms of communication are used that the dreamer, the emotional, the body, can comprehend, such as music, drama, simulation, dance, chanting, singing.[v] These forms enable the entering of a level of consciousness that is there all the time, but that is not usually expressed or acknowledged. We enter a realm that is ‘out of time,’ which is commonly said to be not the “real” world, but it is more organic/indigenous to all being and at least as real as the tick-tock world. It is a place “between the worlds,” wherein we may put our hands on the very core of our lives, touch whatever it is that we feel our existence is about, and thus touch the possibility of re-creating and renewing ourselves. NOTES: [i] A term used by Gloria Feman Orenstein in The Reflowering of the Goddess (New York: Pergamon Press, 1990), 147. [ii] As my doctoral thesis supervisor Dr. Susan Murphy once described it to me in conversation. [iii] Ken Wilber, A Brief History of Everything (Massachusetts: Shambhala, 1996), 306-307. [iv] 145. [v] As Starhawk notes, The Spiral Dance, 45. REFERENCES: Livingstone, Glenys. A Poiesis of the Creative Cosmos: Celebrating Her within PaGaian Sacred Ceremony. Girl God Books: Bergen, Norway, 2023. Orenstein, Gloria Feman. The Reflowering of the Goddess. New York: Pergamon Press, 1990. Starhawk. The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess. New York: Harper and Row, 1999. Wilber, Ken. A Brief History of Everything. Massachusetts: Shambhala, 1996.
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.

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

Part IV: Revival of the Gurang (Nine Maidens) Gaeyang Halmi There is more to reveal. As I write this part of the photo essay, I have encountered new information, previously made available online by individuals and organizations. It is reported that the “Suseong-dang” (水聖堂, Sea Saint Shrine) was once called the “Gurang-sa” (九娘祠, Nine Maidens Shine), of which I never heard before.[i] That Suseong-dang is a fake name blew my mind! Note the difference of gender between “the Nine Maidens Shrine” and “the Sea Saint Shrine”! The female-connoted term was stolen just like that! “Gurang-sa,” a female-referenced term as the character “rang” means a maiden, had to go due to its overt female representation. It is not without grounds that I was taken aback to see its present logography, “the Sea Saint Shrine,” on the information board.[ii] I almost heard a voice warning me, “This is not the place that you think it is!” That voice attempted to force me to leave the place without further investigation. However, I intuitively took a mental note, “Something is not correct here.” And I was right! Its name change sheds a consistent light on the meddling of patriarchal distortion/deception done to the tradition of Gaeyang Halmi. Readers are reminded of the lost painting of Gaeyang Halmi, which was replaced by that of the Sea God explicated in Part 2 of this photo essay (also Part 3). Like “the Sea God,” “the Suseong-dang” constitutes no reality. It is not only a conceptual deception but also a theft of the intangible cultural heritage, righteously committed by faceless patriarchal men disappeared into the lapse of time. It is clear that systematic erasure of the Female/Goddess has been in operation. Female power embodied whether in the name of the shrine or in the iconography was stripped away. However, it is proven once again that the Female is immortal because it constitutes the root of patriarchy. People smuggled the forbidden knowledge of the Female to later generations through oral stories. Thus, we find the folklore of the Female subversive.
(Book Excerpt 3) The Mago Way: Re-discovering Mago, the Great Goddess from East Asia

[Author’s Note: The following is from Chapter 8, The Consciousness of WE/HERE/NOW.] The Budoji stories the primordial drama of Mago’s beginning. It furnishes a yet-to-be-heard story of the beginning of the Great Goddess, the taboo story in patriarchy. It is the story of the Creatrix that patriarchy has attempted to erase. It can be temporarily forgotten but can never die because it is the story that is at the root of patriarchy. Ultimately, it is The Story that is happening HERE and NOW. The merit of the Magoist Cosmogony lies in the fact that it, through storying, restores the view of the whole, the macrocosmic view of the All. The holistic view necessarily involves the Great Goddess or the First Mother in that S/HE is the Creatrix. Time is not a linear concept, flowing from one end to the other. Time is the unified Present, happening NOW. It may be said that time is circular or cyclic, as all beings are constantly in motion to enhance the process of self-creation, which causes the whole to change ceaselessly. The Present hosts an infinite number of stories that take place in the undividable One Space HERE. The beginning of the Great Goddess is still happening and we are invited to re-cognize HER STORY in the HERE and NOW. The beginning is a process, not a single isolated event that took place in the remote past.[i] All things exist in the process of becoming HERE and NOW as part of WE. Put differently, the beginning of the Great Goddess is the LIVE SCENE/DRAMA/STORY. We are part of HER STORY. Mago’s beginning is the heart that pumps fresh blood to the body of the terrestrial becoming. The beginning of the Great Goddess is still taking place HERE/NOW. The terrestrial beginning is attributed to the Great Goddess who is self-born through the sonic movement of cosmic light. The beginning story of the Great Goddess is no ordinary one. It is of power and truth, that is, metamorphic. It provides the original text to the meaning of “salvation.” HER Beginning that is happening HERE/NOW holds all from falling into cacophony. For one thing, it delivers us from the patriarchal misconception of ultimate reality that does away with the Creatrix. The holistic view of the Creatrix is capable of saving us from misconceptions and misconduct. Ultimately, it guides us to live our life in harmony with the whole, HERE/NOW. The Magoist Cosmogony engenders the consciousness that WE ARE HERE/NOW. The universe is existent without beginning or end. In one ever-existing reality, things ceaselessly appear and disappear in relation to one another on all levels. All things are in the constant movement of autogenesis striving to arrive at a new position of balance. S/HE IS HERE/NOW telling us the STORY of WE. That is the source of our metamorphosis. Notes: [i] Process thought founded by Alfred North Whitehead, Charles Hartshorne, and John B. Cobb shares a common premise on that regard, although it does not associate ultimate reality with the Creatrix. (See Book Excerpt 1 and Book Excerpt 2. Available in Mago Bookstore.) Meet Mago Contributor, Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.
(Mago Almanac Planner Year 5 Excerpt 1) 13 Month 28 Day Magoist Calendar by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

[Author’s Note: This and its sequences are a newly added portion in the Mago Almanac Planner Year 5, equivalent to the Gregorian Year 2022. Because the Budoji did not explain further about time units smaller than 1 day, I did not follow through some possible implications in previous Mago Almanac volumes. Next year’s Mago Almanac Planner for Personal Journey: 13 Month 28 Day Calendar Year 5 or 5919 MAGOMA ERA is forthcoming in Mago Bookstore (October 25, 2021). PDF version is available for purchase.] Angbuilgu (仰釜日晷 Concave Sundial) dated in 1434 of Joseon Dynasty Korea (13 horizontal lines are engraved, indicating 24 seasons and 7 vertical lines indicating times of a day) UNITS OF TIME MEASURE At the half point of the eleventh Sa, there is one Gu of the big Hoe (Eve of the first day of the month). Gu is the root of time. Three hundred Gu makes one Myo. With Myo, we can sense Gu. A lapse of 9,633 Myo-Gak-Bun-Si makes one day. This is of Chesu (Physical Number), 3, 6, 9. By and by, the encircling time charts Medium Calendar and Large Calendar to evince the principle of numerology. 1 Gu (approx. 3.71 miliseconds) refers an infinitesimal discrepancy that occurs every eleven years or every ten and a half years precisely. Because Gu (a noncognitive time unit) is a time too small to count, Gu can only be treated as 1 Myo, equivalent to 300 Gu. As shown in the below table, Myo is still a tiny unit of time. 9,633 Myo equals 1 day, which is 288,990 Gu (300×9633=288,990). Because of this, there will be one extra day (9,633 Myo) every 31,788,900 years. This means, the Magoist Calendar has another (the third) leap day every 31,788,900 years (11 x 300 x 9,633). 31,788,900 years is a long time, which we will presumably not take into consideration for the Magoist Calendar dating 3898 BCE (the beginning year of Goma’s Danguk confederacy) that we are under. Because the units of Gak, Bun, and Si are not further explained in the Budoji,[1] it is difficult to designate what they indicate. Although the terms of Gak, Bun, and Si are familiar to moderns as time indicators, what each unit indicates is unknown. Given that 9,633 Myo (Gak-Bun-Si) equals 1 day (1 Il 日 일), it is conjectured that Gak-Bun-Si refers to time segments equivalent to hours, minutes, and seconds in today’s 24 hour a day scheme. 1 Myo is approximately 1.115 seconds, as 9,633 Myo is approximately 8,640 seconds. If we project the time of 1 day into a circle, the whole circle indicates 1 day. Doing this implies that time/space is inseparable in a circular notion of timespace. To specify a size of time smaller than 1 day, we can first divide the circle into two halves. Let’s call the half circle or a half day A. A (equivalent to 12 hours) equals 4,816.5 Myo or 1,444,950 Gu. Then, we divide the half circle into two halves. And let’s call it B. B refers to a quarter of 1 day or B (equivalent to 6 hours), which equals 2,408.25 Myo or 722,475 Gu. Likewise, C refers to one eighth of 1 day, equivalent to 3 hours), which equals 1,204.125 Myo or 361,237.5 Gu. A subsequent division by 2 aligns with the Physical Numbers, 3, 6, 9 in the digital root.[2] Given one sidereal day to be 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4.0916 seconds or 23.9344696 hours, 1 A would be 11 hours, 58 minutes, and 2.0458 seconds. 1 B would be 5 hours, 59 minutes, and 1.0229 seconds. 1 C would be 2 hours, 59.5 minutes, and 0.51145 seconds. The circle represents the sidereal day of 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4.0916 seconds. Note that the time divisions of 1 day (A, B, and C) follow the order of 1, 2, 4, and 8. Precisely, this is what the Magoist Genealogy of the first three generations that I illustrated above and elsewhere: The Magoist Cosmogony recounts that from one (Mago, the Great Mother) born are the two daughters (Gunghui and Sohui), which makes the triad. From the two daughters born are the four twins, which makes eight. This is observed in meiosis (cell division for sexually reproducing organisms) from one to two and to four and to eight and so forth. The Mago triad and the eight granddaughters are called Nine Magos.[3] The calendar is not just an indication of times or seasons. It is an indication of the life-organizing principle. The Magoist Calendar is a summary of cosmic and planetary life systems. From a microcosmic entity to a macrocosmic universe, all runs by the same force of Sonic Numerology, the metamorphic reality of WE/HERE/NOW. Beings, time, and space are the three inseparable aspects of one reality.(To be continued) [1] It is indeed regretful that the sequence book of the Budoji, Yeoksiji (Book of Calendar and Time), that treats calendar and time has been lost. We have only the Budoji available, the first book of 15 books of the Jingsimnok (Record of Cleansing Mind/Heart), a compendium of 3 volumes that have 5 books in each. Doubtless that the Yeoksiji (Book of Calendar and Time), the third book of Volume 1, would detail the rest of time measures and sub-calendars. [2] D would refer to one sixteenth of 1 day, equivalent to 1.5 hours, which equals 602.0625 Myo (3 in the Digital Root) or 180,618.75 (9 in the Digital Root). If we divide one eighth of 1 day by 3, it is one twenty-fourth of 1 day or E (equivalent to 1 hour). A total of 24 segments. E equals 401.375 Myo or 120,412.5 Gu. These numbers do not follow the suit of 3, 6, and 9, Chesu or Physical Numbers. 401.375 is 2 in the Digital Root and 120,412.5 is 6 in the Digital Root. [3] See this book, 112. https://www.magoism.net/2013/07/meet-mago-contributor-helen-hwang/