December 17, 2018October 2, 2019 Deanne QuarrieLeave a comment

(Prose) Halcyon for the Season by Deanne Quarrie

A bird for this season is the Kingfisher, also known as the Halcyon. The Kingfisher is associated in Greek myth with the Winter Solstice. There were fourteen “halcyon days” in Read More …

August 24, 2016October 2, 2019 RTM Editors1 Comment

(Poem) In the beginning by Janie Rezner

In the beginning was the LIGHT the light shone forth in all directions creatures great and small, basking in the light resting upon the earth like babes nestled against Read More …

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

(Poem) MOTHERS WILL MAKE PEACE by Mary Saracino

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

(Spanish/English Poem 1) Excerpts from Tinta negra/Black Ink by Xánath Caraza

[Author’s Note: these poems are from my new manuscript, Tinta negra/Black Ink. The poems do not have titles; they are simply numbered. Both poems were originally written in Spanish and translated into English by Sandra Kingery.]
(Essay) Rediscovering Matilda Joslyn Gage as the pioneering anti-colonialist feminist thinker by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.

Wikipedia Image Matilda Joslyn Gage (1826-1898), the 19th century United States radical feminist thinker, activist, and author, stands as the forerunner of anti-colonial matriarchal feminist advocates. Gage, pointing out that U.S. federalism was borrowed from the structure of matriarchal Iroquois confederacy known as Six Nations, nestles her feminist thought at the root of non-Eurocentric matriarchal polities.[1] Historically, the U.S. government issued the Indian Appropriations Act in 1851 and 1871, which illustrates how legally the U.S. took over the territory of First Nations people. Having lived through the Gilded Age, the last few decades of the nineteenth century marked by a rapid expansion of capitalist economy during which more than a half of First Nations territories fell under the U.S. statehood, Gage saw what a woman was not expected to see, U.S. Founding Fathers betrayed First Nations people, the Clan Mothers of the Iroquois confederacy in particular. Gage witnessed that the U.S. government stole the constitution of the matriarchal Iroquois confederacy for its own agenda of perpetuating and expanding colonialist capitalist patriarchy. In 1987 and 1988 over a century later from her time, the U.S. House passed and amended “H.Con.Res.331, A concurrent resolution to acknowledge the contribution of the Iroquois Confederacy of Nations to the development of the United States Constitution and to reaffirm the continuing government-to-government relationship between Indian tribes and the United States established in the Constitution,” which reads: Acknowledges the contributions made by the Iroquois Confederacy and other Indian nations to the formation and development of the United States. Reaffirms the government-to-government relationship between the United States and Indian tribes. Reaffirms the trust responsibility and obligation of the Government to Indian tribes, including Alaska Natives. Acknowledges the need to exercise good faith in upholding treaties with the various tribes. [2] While the above appears to be a belated but necessary public recognition on the part of the U.S. Congress, Gage, if she returns today, would deplore it for it is a final seal to dismiss the fact that the very formation of the U.S. statehood exploited the matriarchal tradition of the Iroquois Confederacy. H.Con.Res.331 is a symbolic act that legitimizes the colonialist usurpation of matriarchal power. Patriarchal hijacking of the latter is justified in the name of democracy once and for all. Also gone are anti-colonialist U.S. feminist advocacies in the public domain. In the foreground, Gagean anti-colonialist matriarchal feminist thought has become further marginalized among feminists, if ever recognized. The young hear no anti-colonialist feminists in the so-called first wave of feminism in the nineteenth century. Students are encouraged to swallow the postmodern bubbles of anti-colonial feminist discourse, a deplorable impasse in the mind of women. In the Background, however, Gagean feminism ignites a new awareness that women from around the world CAN build alliances following nature’s diversity in unity within the worldwide tradition of Matriarchal Mothers. That is the underpinning of Magoist feminism, which propels the writing of this book. Targeting the patriarchal nature of U.S. federalism, Gage refused to become a mere suffragist feminist for white women exclusively. She saw an old colonialist Eurocentric patriarchy in pursuit of its new capitalist gains resettling as the U.S. statehood in Turtle Island. And Christianity was the engine that boosted its colonialist patriarchal politics. Christianity provided U.S. Founding Fathers with moral authority not only to dominate their own women but also to appropriate the matriarchal Iroquois confederacy for the making of the U.S. Constitution, a new colonialist rule disguised as democracy. Put differently, U.S. Founding Fathers were religiously sanctioned to keep women as a property of men and take the land as they advanced into new territories. They found no better ally than Christianity, which put forth the ideology that God is the male and vice versa. The male is God. In short, Gage demanded that the U.S. government must follow the footsteps of the matriarchal Iroquois confederacy. She was no mere women’s suffrage feminist but a radical advocate of matriarchal leadership in modern politics. For this, she, along with her colleagues, focused on Christianity, a driving force behind U.S. patriarchal and colonialist politics. Christianity needed to be shaken, if not dismantled. How did she do that? By outsourcing matriarchal rules of the worldwide non-Eurocentric world, Gage sought to undermine the espousal between Christianity and U.S. federalism. The suffragist right for white women would mean an agreement in the colonialist appropriation of Iroquois matriarchy, a subjugation not a liberation for white women. Thus, Gage urged that U.S. Founding Fathers must incorporate the matriarchal rule of the Iroquois confederacy. In this regard, Gage’s feminism was distinguished from her contemporary suffragist feminists including Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Gage’s critique of Christianity, often lumped together with that of other feminists of her time, was never limited to an equal participation for women in the church or a liberation of women from its oppressive teaching. She opposed Christianity not only because it was oppressive against women but also because it was the colonialist religion, which endorsed white men to rule over against native peoples. For Gage, the newly formed U.S. government was nothing but a new form of patriarchy fully charged with its Eurocentric colonialist and capitalist goals. Gage foresaw the future wherein the U.S. would dominate international politics and spread a modern form of patriarchy, democracy. Seemingly secular, democracy promulgated by the U.S. government relies on Christianity. That Christianity is the largest religion of the planet is not irrelevant to the domination of Eurocentric U.S. democracy. Today without a direct support of Christianity, the modern political system of democracy has successfully instituted itself as an ideal form of government for modern nation-states. That would be a modern contribution of the U.S. to the world’s patriarchy. Consequently, moderns fetishize democracy at the expense of matriarchal socio-political practices. Gage’s critique opens the door to the insight that modern patriarchy is maintained through the international politics of Eurocentric colonial democracy represented by the United States. Gagean feminist thought, underestimated if not forgotten today even among feminists, sheds light on how …
(Art 10) Kalika, Ishtar, Infancy the very beginning of by Megha

Fear her not, for her plumpness, her awkwardness, her intensity reminds you of that which dwells within , your “SHE” Infancy – the very beginning of Remember the earliest part of your life, when you were a baby!!! It is extremely rare for anyone to remember their own infancy. An amazing amount of growth and development happens during that phase. This collection is aligned with the consciously heightened awakened growth that happened as Meghanaiyegee embarked on her own journey of remembering the Sacred Feminine. A journey to meeting HER, feeling HER, seeing HER, connecting with HER, whispering HER and becoming HER. Meet Mago Contributor Megha
(Book Review) Novel About Hildegard by Mary Sharratt, reviewed by Judith Laura

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

LET YOUR HEART BREAK: CROSSING THE THRESHOLD TO DELICIOUSLY ALIVE You have got to be mad. Ravishingly mad to let your heart break. With heart splayed open, glistening to serve this one throbbing life, you are fully here.If that calls to you — by way of allurement, bewilderment, revulsion or something else altogether, then I offer you my hand. Walk with me.”Forget safety. Live where you fear to live. Destroy your reputation. Be notorious. I have tried prudent planning long enough. From now on, I’ll be mad,” Rumi said.Seems to me that life invites us to conceive the nearly impossible; life asks us to let our heart break. Yes. Raving mad, that is, isn’t it? It’s okay. Listen.It is astonishing how much energy we expend trying to keep our heart from getting broken, poet, David Whyte re-minds us. So in the desert of southwestern Utah, where these things are said to happen, where winds whip up a hot springtime and sand sticks to sweaty skin, I, instructed by Dream and flanked by guides, offered up my heart to be broken again and again. Best thing I ever did.
(S/HE Article Excerpt) Goddesses in Every Girl? Goddess Feminism and Children’s Literature by Mary Ann Beavis, Ph.D.

Available in S/HE V1 N1 [Editor’s Note: This article was previously published and is now available for a free download in S/HE: An International Journal of Goddess Studies in Volume 1 Number 1. Do not cite this article in its present form. Citation must come from the published version in S/HE: An International Journal of Goddess Studies 1,1 (2022): 115-138 (https://sheijgs.space/).”] This essay undertakes the task of introducing, exploring, and discussing the Magoist infant-rearing custom of traditional Korea known as Dandong Siphun (檀童十訓 단동십훈 Ten Instructions for Dan Children) in its oral and written sources.[1] Dandong Siphun (Ten Instructions for Dan Children) refers to a series of nurturing interplays between the mother and her pretoddler infant, “the Home Interplay,” a concept that this essay entertains. Engineered to care for an infant in the stage from womb to walking, Dandong Siphun (hereafter DDSH) employs such foundational human actions as talking, chanting, cuddling and hugging for the task of providing developmental care for the infant. During this period, a child is prepared for an ability to speak and a mobility to walk around independently. Walking freely marks the developmental goal of infanthood in DDSH. And it does not just mean an ability to use legs for the child’s mobility. It means a walking on the Way of the Creatrix. Implications of DDSH are multilayered and multifaceted. Through DDSH, traditional Magoist Korean mothers have maintained and transmitted the matricentric socio-cultural-spiritual way of living from one generation to another. For new readers of my research concerning Mago, the Creatrix, Magoism refers to the consciousness of the Creatrix expressed through the socio-historical-cultural customs of traditional Korea/East Asia and beyond.[2] Concerning the significance of pretoddler childcare, DDSH’s pre- and proto-linguistic developmental conventions are doubtless foundational in the formation of matricentric personhood. A newborn is newly born as a toddler through DDSH plays. The DDSH interplay, tailored by Magoist mothers, awakens the babies to the matriversal consciousness in the process of growing into an adult human being. DDSH is a practice that shapes the body-mind-soul of an infant. Crystallizing matriversal motherhood, DDSH comes to us moderns as soteriology. Humans must stand on matriversal motherhood for the survival and welfare of all beings. I have recently coined the word, matriverse (the maternal universe), to convey pre-patriarchally originated Magoist motherhood and its worldview. “Matriverse” rearranges the reality with the Creatrix at the center. Matriversal motherhood is not just an expansion of motherhood into outer space. It goes downwards and sidewards too. Matriversal motherhood concerns a total state of life in the matriverse. Its root lies in the inter-cosmic bond between matricentric humans and the natural world headed by whales. Why whales? Humans do not stand alone or outside the natural world cared for by whale mothers. Matricentric humans are backed by matricentric whales from within the natural world. To be noted is that DDSH is aligned with other Korean cetacean folk practices including the postpartum diet of miyeok-guk (the sea mustard “birthday” soup), the podaegi (a baby sling) custom of carrying a baby on one’s back, Samsin-sang (Dinner Altar offered to the Triad Great Mother) for the one hundred day and one year birthday of a baby, all of which comes under Magoist Cetaceanism,[3] which requires an extensive discussion elsewhere. I mean to say that DDSH is not a single isolated peculiar practice of traditional Korea. Ultimately, DDSH is a specific expression of the Magoist belief in which a baby’s birth and mortality are determined by the “decision” of Mago Samsin Halmi, the Mago Birth Great Mother, and in which all beings, upon death, return to where they came from, the Home of Mago the Creatrix, the northern center of the universe. The DDSH custom underwent a brief period of oblivion among the public in the early 20th century. In recent decades, Koreans have rediscovered that DDSH was the traditional infant-rearing custom of their ancestors. Although the term, Dandong Siphun, may still be unfamiliar to many Koreans, some individual instructions such as do-ri do-ri (도리도리), jaem jaem (잼잼), and jjak-jjak-kung (짝짝꿍) would be too easily recognizable for them to mention. That is because those forms of mother-infant play are commonly practiced among Koreans to this day. Almost all Koreans were likely taught them at one point in their infanthood or saw them in dramas and films as well as within the family.[4] Both women and men in Korea are increasingly voicing the benefits of the DDSH custom with a sense of amazement and pride. Young mothers have consciously adopted DDSH techniques. Yet, no one has articulated matriversal motherhood embodied in the DDSH custom. In praising DDSH, male advocates attribute DDSH to the Korean indigenous thought of viewing infants as heaven-given. They don’t seem to see the mother as a representative of the Creatrix or Heaven. In fact, patriarchy does NOT want to see mother as a divine representative. If the mother is not divine, no infant could be deemed divine. Because an infant is issued from its mother. My task in this essay is to provide the Magoist context to DDSH practices. I investigate relevant lore, language, mytho-history, and thought of traditional Magoist Korea. The Dandang Siphun custom of Magoist Korea reenacts the reality of matriversal motherhood through mother-infant interplays conducted during the pretoddling period, creating a postnatal foundation for an infant to grow into a healthy, intelligent, and happy matricentric person. With its semantic origin in the pre-patriarchal times of the Danguk confederacy (3898 BCE-2333 BCE),[5] DDSH has been transmitted primarily by mothers and grandmothers throughout generations.[6] To be completed within an approximately one year scheme, DDSH mothers implement a series of progressive interplays stage by stage in a timely manner. The mother guides her infant to mimic her crafted actions and vocalizations, which are to induce an optimized developmental (physical, cerebral, linguistic, emotional, and spiritual) growth in the latter. DDSH mothers see the period of infant’s dependency as a crucial time to begin a time-old matricentric socio-cultural-spiritual education. During this period of childhood dependency, Magoist mothers intend to …
(She Summons Excerpt) The Seed Who Summons (Part 1) by Claire Dorey

Were snake 1 by Claire Dorey There is a seed deep underground that the serpent knows about. Inanna knew. Isis did too. “What were they doing, our ancestral mothers, with their hands full of snakes?” I am standing quietly, resting my forehead on a cherry tree, talking to a viper. This summer has been a race against the birds – ‘sky watchers’ with their wasteful beaks, tearing holes in sacred flesh, cherries swinging like pendulums from the tree I planted forty years ago, when I was young and fit. The boughs hang red, ripe fruit rotting under foot – a decaying carmine carpet, nutrient rich. The tree I planted has blossomed into a fertile temple, whilst I flounder in my hot, dry, fat years – body violently rejecting all that is artificial, with flashes of heat. I have become a two headed, fire breathing monster – a dragon, incinerating my way though everything I find intolerable. My flame thrower is so deadly, I’ve had to retreat into nature, before I do real damage. I need to dig. I need dirt under my fingernails – that is my plug into sanity. When I’m in the garden I am like a pig, snuffling and rooting about in the earth. Something deep under the soil has summoned me. It is the Time Of Covid, and a portal has opened. Sophia the snake slithers up the cherry tree. She is dainty and delicate and sparkles like moire silk. Ever since Eve was expelled from the Garden Of Eden and her Wisdom Serpent, rendered legless, snakes have missed their special bond with women. ‘We serpents miss dancing with the descendants of Ishtar,” sighs Sophia, “our guts need to feel the vibration of the gyrating Goddess, stepping barefoot upon the Earth.” Snakes detest the biblical version of that story – with venom! They find it barbaric and hate that it twists woman into the villain of humanity. “Think.” says Sophia. “WOMEN ARE THE VILLAIN OF HUMANITY” “It is truly absurd. But that was the propaganda of the time and the closer ancient history got to Biblical times, the more demeaned women became – and what’s more, women are still having to live with the vestiges of this nonsense.” The light catches Sophia’s eye. It glimmers like obsidian. “I know how you like to dig,” she whispers. “You are opening up to the divine messaging of the female mysteries. Lean your back against the cherry tree, close your eyes and let your intuition answer my questions.” “Why do you think the Ancient Greeks believed that Hades had to abduct and rape Persephone so she could descend into the underworld, becoming Autumn and Winter, when she could go there of her own accord?” she asked. “Why does the patriarch think that Demeter mourned her daughter’s absence, as she wintered in the underworld, when it was the chilling effectiveness of the Rape Myth she was mourning? “I’ll tell you why,” interjects Sophia, before I can answer. “They wanted to subjugate the cycles of the seasons. They crushed our trust in the seeds of regeneration, just like they crushed Persephone, beneath their heavy hand-tooled boots. They wanted us to believe the reassurance, that life will burst forth each Spring, could only be given, if there was a rape, that violently put Mother Earth in her place, firmly under the iron shod boot of man. They dominated through ownership and marked their territory.” “Tell me more,” I urged. We are in lockdown. The pandemic is raging. Humanity is facing tough questions about where it can go from here. Divine Feminine energy is rising up through vents in the Earth, and it feels like patriarchy is in chaos, approaching its death throws and taking down a lot of people with it. I sense I am in the presence of great wisdom. I want to hear Sophia speak. I want to know what she knows.(To be continued) * About Claire Dorey Published in, Warrior Queen; Answering The Call Of The Morrigan – The Girl God Books, 2021: A Shriek Goddessy and Eel Kundalini, St Patriarch and the Wide Sargasso Sea – words and images Published in, She Who Summons – Mago Books, 2021: The Seed Who Summons – words and images Published in, In Defiance of Oppression – The Legacy of Boudicea – The Girl God Books: When The Colour Of Emotion Floods The Nervous System. Earth Mothers and daughters surviving invasion and the stereotypes of misogyny. Accepted for publication in, Re-Membering with Goddess: Healing the Patriarchal Perpetuation of Trauma – The Girl God Books: Revolutions Of Defiant Ecstasy: Stealing Kali And Goddess Wisdom From The Primordial Wave Of Feminism. Accepted for publication in, The Crone Initiation and Invitation: Women speak on the Menopause Journey – The Girl God Books: Fat is a Goddess Issue – Gateway to Khaos and Reframing the Menopause. [Editor’s Note: This piece is included in She Summons: Why… Goddess Feminism, Activism and Spirituality?” Volume 1 (Mago Books, 2021).]
Dance Dramas as an Instrument of Political Change by Dorothea Kahena Viale, Ph.D.

There are many ways to create change in society. I was considered a good girl; parents liked when my friends and I played together. I was always creating games for us to play, and we never caused trouble. However, I started rebelling against the existent order of things from a young age. I grew up in Bed-Sty Brooklyn. My friends and I were all connected to a hyphenated American culture. I was Sicilian/American, others were Maltese/American, South America/American, Puerta Rican/American and so on. When I asked my mother where the white people were, she told me they had money lived in Manhattan. Later, I realized that she meant Northern Italians, British, etc. When we met someone new, it was common to ask their heritage. No big deal. So, it came as a shock when I introduced somebody new to the group and there was resistance. I had watched this girl looking out her window every day and she looked sad. I would cross the street and talk to her. We exchanged stories. I asked her to come play with us. She said her mom wouldn’t let come out. She had to watch her little brother. Well, my humble self, told her, don’t worry I will talk to your mother and convince her to let you play with us. And I did. She was black; African-American. When she joined us, I was in for a shock. My friends would not play with her. Why this one hyphen bothered them, with all the mixtures we had, was beyond me. So, I played with my new friend, and let my other friends fend for themselves. I realized that, while I had other black friends before, I had played where they lived, not on my block. After a very short while, my friends got over themselves and joined us. What helped was that I was the one that usually made-up new things to do, when they got bored. For example, I created a skating army. My mom worked in a sweat shop as a seamstress. Pay was low but one of the few benefits was that she could take home scraps of material that were too small to make clothes with. She made all of us these cute hats which we wore while skating. We were quite proud of our selves. I created routines (which I much, much later realized were choreographies). Having the hats made us feel connected. The next run ins were with the Church (Catholic, of course). The earliest that I remembered occurred when I was about 7 years old. I told a priest from the parish that I wanted to be an altar boy. He said that couldn’t happen, but that I could be an altar girl. I asked him what altar girls did. He replied that they cleaned the altar linens. I responded angrily, that if I wanted to do housework, I would help my mother at home. I demanded that he give me the address of our local bishop. I was sure the priest was just against women and couldn’t believe that it was a rule of the Church. But, of course, it was. Many decades later, I went to Italy as a part of a Women’s Studies in Religion course. Gianluigi Gugliametto, a fellow student, set up a fabulous tour in Italy which included a church where nuns ran the services. The one exception was that a priest consecrated the host which the nuns distributed to the congregation. A step forward. One last Catholic Church run in… When it came time for Confirmation, we had to choose a name for Confirmation. I chose Athena. The nun told me that it had to a saint’s name. I replied confidently that it was a Goddess name and wasn’t that better!? Umm…. None of them agreed. I was bummed. I ended up using the most common name Mary because I lost interest. As I grew and learned, the manner of things I felt needed change expanded. I have marched, voted, attended rallies and I have signed petitions. I was squished against a chain link fence while police dogs threatened to maul us (during the Nixon administration). I was a founding member of the Black Student Union. It was by request. When they asked, I looked at them, pointed at my skin, and looked at them questioning. They said we know, but, ummmmm, we need to have a white person to get the Union OK’d. OH! So, you need me to be your token? They replied yeah…Sorry but we trust you. Do I have to go to many meetings? No, you don’t have to go to any, unless you want to. I said you have a deal. But the action that has made the most impact, are the thirty something dance dramas I have created. All were created and performed at the Long Beach WomanSpirit Summer and Winter Solstice Faires. Some were performed also at MECDA (Middle Eastern Culture and Dance) events. The arts are profound way to create change because they engage people in a way that is not dry and draw them into the story. With the dance dramas, our stories were danced, had dialogue, and always had an interactive part to include the audience. I usually added a give-away to help them continue the energy after the fair. This including of the audience gave them ownership to continue action the taken when they got home. What was nice is that at our regular meetings, they would let me know how things went. The first or second one I created, I danced alone. It was for LBWS. A member of our community, who was overwhelmed attempted suicide. He, also, caused other problems. But, underneath, he was a good person. He had ended up in jail with no one to bail him out. He was very depressed. I created a dance drama, where I was dressed in black, the sky cooperated by being overcast. I don’t remember the words …
The Hare, the Cailleach and the Well

Death is beginning to stalk the land. Great sheets of rain are drawing across the hills in veils, and the temperature is dropping. We are cycling towards Autumn Equinox and the great descent of the year into the darkness. Death also comes in another form, the anniversary of the death of my younger brother, over ten years ago now. I mark most cycles of the wheel by visiting my favorite hill, a place I’ve been visiting even before I could walk. From the town below I like to walk certain streets just to get a glimpse of this view from different angles. And yet I can’t believe I have never walked around the reservoir that lies at the foot of the hill, the main reason being I usually take to the hills to be alone and so choose not to have to walk by people fishing. A few weeks ago I decided to change all of that and take the looping path around the reservoir. Walking by the side of the adjacent field I suddenly saw something dash across the field, stop suddenly, and then dart back in the opposite direction: a hare! How wonderful to see this amazing creature. Photo by Vincent van Zalinge on Unsplash This hill is the first place I ever experienced the ‘otherness’ of the land, of being in a place where worlds seem to merge and ancient presences make themselves known. This is where I first heard the voice of the Cailleach, who always makes herself known in one form or another – and here is the old woman bounding across the field in her hare form. There is much folklore of hares thought to be stealing milk from cows and so farmers would shoot hares with a silver bullet. Following the trail of drops of blood often led them to a cottage with an elderly woman nursing her injury by the fire. Mama at the Well As we walked around the reservoir, which is a man-made loch, most likely only a few hundred years old we came across a well. The well has been set by some great thick sandstone blocks, the water coming above ground along the path flowing southeast and eventually joining the reservoir. I had known there was a well around somewhere but it doesn’t appear on the modern OS (Ordnance Survey) map. The first map it did appear on was around 1820. But the water flowed before 1820, before the man-made reservoir, and before the man-made loch before that. The people who lived atop Carman Hill in the Dark Age Fort (AD 400-900) knew about the spring. The animals who lived here knew about the spring. The spring could well be flowing for thousands of years. Cup of the Well Maidens I wasn’t looking for the well, the well found me. It’s profoundly changed and deepened my relationship with this place. Its flowing waters are a reminder of the Well Maidens who tended to these sacred places offering a cup of their holy waters to those who sought shelter on pilgrimage. Their story, of rape and retreating back into the otherworld is for another time but in a world that desperately needs new stories to weave us back to our place within the land the well becomes part of my cultural myths and symbols of the Ancestral Mothers. https://www.magoism.net/2016/01/meet-mago-contributor-jude-lally/

(Special Post 5) Nine-Headed Dragon Slain by Patriarchal Heroes: A Cross-cultural Discussion by Mago Circle Members

[Editor’s Note: This and the ensuing sequels 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 Hye-Sook Hwang: I have come across the origin of the Dokkaebi (image, Heavenly Ruler Chiu, 14th Hanung of Danguk. Chiu represented the Magoist rule aided by her 81 giant sister clan allies (nine groups of Nine Hans) fought Huangdi (Yellow Emperor), one of the ancient rulers of pre-historic China. Chiu is known as the empeor of Guri-guk or Guryeo-guk (Nine Ri State or Nine Ryeo State), which is alternatiely referred to as Goryeo-guk and Goguryeo-guk by East Asians. She was worshipped as the deity of war and remembered/depicted for her helmet made of copper and iron. Records about her war against Hungdi inundates ancient Korean and Chinese texts and myths. About Chiu or Chiyou, it is too complex to discuss here. It is a topic to be treated in its own right. Suffice to say that even some of basic information from Wikipedia is illuminating. “Chiyou (蚩尤) was a tribal leader of the Nine Li tribe (九黎) in ancient China. He is best known as a king who lost against the future Yellow Emperor during the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors era in Chinese mythology. For the Hmong people, Chiyou was a sagacious mythical king. He has a particularly complex and controversial ancestry, as he may fall under Dongyi, Miao or even Man, depending on the source and view. Today, Chiyou is honored and worshipped as the God of War and one of the three legendary founding fathers of China.” “According to the Song dynasty history book Lushi, Chiyou’s surname was Jiang (姜), and he was a descendant of Yandi. According to legend, Chiyou had a bronze head with a metal forehead. He had 4 eyes and 6 arms, wielding terrible sharp weapons in every hand. In some sources, Chiyou had certain features associated with various mythological bovines: his head was that of a bull with two horns, although the body was that of a human. He is said to have been unbelievably fierce, and to have had 81 brothers. Historical sources often described him as ‘cruel and greedy’, as well as ‘tyrannical’. Some sources have asserted that the figure 81 should rather be associated with 81 clans in his kingdom. Chiyou knows the constellations and the ancients spells for calling upon the weather. For example, he called upon a fog to surround Huangdi and his soldiers during the Battle of Zhuolu.” “Chiyou is regarded as a leader of the Nine Li tribe (九黎, RPA White Hmong: Cuaj Li Ntuj) by nearly all sources. However, his exact ethnic affiliations are quite complex, with multiple sources reporting him as belonging to various tribes, in addition to a number of diverse peoples supposed to have directly descended from him. Some sources from later dynasties, such as the Guoyu book, considered Chiyou’s Li tribe to be related to the ancient San miao tribe (三苗). In the ancient Zhuolu Town is a statue of Chiyou commemorating him as the original ancestor of the Hmong people. The place is regarded as the birthplace of the San miao / Miao people, the Hmong being a subgroup of the Miao. In sources following the Hmong view, the “nine Li” tribe is called the “Jiuli” kingdom, Jiuli meaning “nine Li”. Modern Han Chinese scholar Weng Dujian considers Jiuli and San Miao to be Man southerners. Chiyou has also been counted as part of the Dongyi.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiyou Above all, her depiction by ancient China is of a pejorative one. As we will see in the next part, she is contrasted with her opponent Huangdi (Yellow Emperor), a triumphantly depicted ancient hero of ancient China. Above Wikipedia. See her images created by ancient Koreans, the middle one in the three figures, depicted as a woman with female breasts, one of Dokkaebi images. There are other records that describe one of her allies. as one adorned with snakes in the head, which reminds me of Medusa. Silla (left), Baekje (Center), Goguryeo (right) http://lasvegaskim.com/Etc_Poem_55.htm Max Dashu: Oe-ri, Buyeo, in the Baekje period. Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: That is where the rooftile at the center is excavated. That is the original image of Dokkaebi that Lydia Ruyle chose and depicted in her banner work. I could not connect this image with Chiu until now. We have the female ruler who subdued the patrilocal force of Yellow Emperor, the forebear of ancientChinese emperors. There are lots of myths and data that I have found on them. Chiu is also numerously depicted as Dokkaebi faces, which makes me think of its connection to the iconography of Medusa and Gorgon (who comes as Three Sisters). Eight-snake-headed Medusahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medusa Gorgon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorgon https://www.magoism.net/2013/06/art-dokkaebi-by-lydia-ruyle/ Lizzy Bluebell: ‘Gonggong’ is not a far stretch phonetically from ‘Gorgon’ – I note. Briefly here – because it is a complex explanation – much more can be said about the etymology. For example, “gorge” relates to deep mountain passes with water flowing through them as well as the human throat or gullet, (relating the word to both speech and eating) and mountains are/were Goddess terrain, later usurped by MON-A-Ster-ies. The masculine name Ge-Orge is code which relates to GE/Gaia/Gay as well as to ‘orgy’. Sanskrit “garg” begets English ‘gargle’, and a guttural (gut-her-all) sound. I’ve always seen the archetypal Medusa/Gorgon’s ‘snaking curls’ as the energy emmitted from her head by her Wild I-Deas, which returns us to the theme of the Pythia/Oracle/Snake connections too. “In Greek mythology, a Gorgon (/ˈɡɔːrɡən/; plural: Gorgons, Ancient Greek: Γοργών/Γοργώ Gorgon/Gorgo) is a female creature. The name derives from the ancient Greek word gorgós, which means “dreadful”, and appears to come from the same root as the Sanskrit word “garğ” (Sanskrit: गर्जन, garjana) which is defined as a guttural sound, similar to the growling of a beast,[1] thus possibly originating as an onomatopoeia. While descriptions of Gorgons vary across Greek literature and occur in the earliest examples of Greek literature, the term commonly refers to any of three sisters […]
(Special post) The Goddess Inanna: Her Allies and Opponents by Hearth Moon Rising

Inanna’s Descent to the Underworld is one of the most fascinating myths ever told. Not just because it is profound and enlightening, although it is certainly that. It’s an exciting journey that ignites the imagination, and female characters are at the hub of the action. This is a tale of power: power that is demanded, power that is won, power that is appropriated, and power that cannot be escaped. The story follows the fertility goddess Inanna, who brought civilization to Mesopotamia, as she seeks to expand her realm by venturing into the world below. Inanna’s experiences in the great below, her escape, and the wild events that unfold as a result of her caper are the focus of the tale.
(Special Post Isis 2) Why the Color of Isis Matters by Mago Circle Members

[Editor’s note: The discussion took place in Mago Circle during the month of July, 2013. Our heartfelt thanks go to the members who participated in this discussion with openness and courage.] Part 2 The Color Talk in Goddesses Kahena Dorothea Athena was also whitened which is sad. However the statues were worshiped by many women to whom they brought comfort. And their origins were later remembered by the abundance of Black Virgins that became important in Italy and other parts of Europe. I don’t see Dark Goddesses as shadows but as having depths of Creativity and Knowledge. My main Goddess is Kirke and the bast relief I have of her is a chocolate brown. Diane Horton The worship of Isis broadened from Egypt to all the countries bordering the Mediterranean, as well as the Middle East and the isles called now the British Isles. She and Her worship were virtually everywhere in the westernly known world of the time! She IS the Goddess of 10,000 Names! And as such she was adapted to each culture’s vision of Her. She was the basis of all the” Black Madonnas”. I do not think of this as Isis/Auset representing the “dark” Goddess as something somehow bad or to be dealt with, but rather that ancient darkness represents infinite potential, eternal creativity/fertility, the beginning and ending of all things, and the always deepening knowledge of magick. Max Dashu However, there is a politics of representation that we all need to be aware of, that pushes original African iconography down and away, and fronts Europeanized images. There is no possibility of “colorblindness” in such a system; a restoration of the original must be actively striven toward. This is incumbent on all of us not of (recent) African descent. Otherwise we perpetuate the injurious status quo, instead of overturning it. Harita Meenee I agree with those who say that race is largely a social construct. Its roots seem to lie in colonialism and the slave trade. I would also like to add that racism is used to oppress people of different nationalities and colors. Ηere in Greece the IMF neo-liberal policies are destroying our economy (and lives); they go hand in hand with a vicious racist campaign against immigrants, along with the rise of a neo-Nazi party. This is part of an effort to redirect people’s anger away from the government and bankers, towards those who are poor and foreign and often have a different color or religion. Fortunately, many grassroots activists are responding to this by building a strong anti-racist, antifascist movement. You can see our Facebook page below. It’s in Greek but the photos are quite revealing. If anyone is interested in learning more about the situation here, please message me and I’ll try to find some articles in English for you. https://www.facebook.co/19JanuaryATHENSvsFASCISM?fref=ts 19 Γεναρη – ΑΘΗΝΑ ΠΟΛΗ Αντιφασιστικη Μπροστά στη κλιμάκωση της φασιστικής απειλής και της ρατσιστικής βίας, στη εμφάν…See More Naa Ayele Kumari Let me put this in the context of something you might understand. This is a goddess group that honors the feminine and the power it represents. People in this group understand the oppression and misrepresentation of women. We understand the implications of misogynistic patriarchal thinking. We understand the implications of stealing the information, rites, and traditions from goddess centered cultures and rephrasing them into male dominated themes… especially those that then went on to oppress women today. This is the same thing that has happened as it related to race and our cultures. It infuriates us when a man may say… why do we have to focus on the goddess? Let us just accept that we are all human and no special consideration should be given to anyone because of their gender. Or, this is just a distraction or social construct and it really doesn’t matter. We understand the blatant disregard and ignorance of those statements. Yet, the same is true for race and people of other races. Your attitude and casual disregard perpetuates a lie that you are comfortable with and don’t wish to move from that comfort zone. It means you don’t have to be accountable for the injustices or oppression it continues to perpetuate in the larger culture toward people who do not look like you. As far as I am concerned, I truly believe that the dark goddess for many with white skin IS their shadow… It is the part of themselves that they deny and fear. That you may have come from black people may scare you… even when the science proves it. That deep down… you fear what you don’t understand. To even confront it is frightening… something that you would rather ignore and deny… Yet… here we are. Black, Yellow, Red… people.. women… who have been oppressed for thousands of year because of this… and are asking… to be seen in their true likeness… not as you wish them to be… or fear them to be. Naa Ayele Kumari Thank you Max Dashu, I so appreciate your scholarship and dedication to the truth where ever you find it… and Helen Hwang for staying open to it as well. [Someone withdrew the threads.] Rick Williams No, you can’t passively aggressively slither your way out of this, reread your own statements and that last post contradicts most of your ascertains. I can’t believe that you honestly say fire away at you like you’re some sort of martyr and VICTIM of being misunderstood, not at all, I understand you very well. I don’t think you understand yourSELF. That’s the real tragedy. Rick Williams “The Lips of Wisdom are Closed except to the Ears of Understanding.” It is in quotes, and it’s part of Ancient Wisdom, of Tehuti, DJehuti, or Hermes Trimegitus… The Great Scribe of KMT.. they have alot of pretty pictures of him all over KMT(Egypt).. still have no idea what you are saying have the time. Max Dashu Thank you Naa Ayele for taking the time to make the extremely apt analogy of women’s oppression to clarify the politics of race oppression […]

(Essay) Contemplating How Her Creativity Proceeds by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

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

In the season leaves should love, since it gives them leave to move through the wind, towards the ground they were watching while they hung, legend says there is a seam stitching darkness like a name. Now when dying grasses veil earth from the sky in one last pale wave, as autumn dies to bring winter back, and then the spring, we who die ourselves can peel back another kind of veil that hangs among us like thick smoke. Tonight at last I feel it shake. I feel the nights stretching away thousands long behind the days, till they reach the darkness where all of me is ancestor. I turn my hand and feel a touch move with me, and when I brush my young mind across another, I have met my mother’s mother. Sure as footsteps in my waiting self, I find her, and she brings arms that hold answers for me, intimate, waiting, bounty: “Carry me.” She leaves this trail through a shudder of the veil, and leaves, like amber where she stays, a gift for her perpetual gaze. From Eve (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2010) (Meet Mago Contributor) Annie Finch
Imbolc: Through Goddess Eyes by Carolyn Lee Boyd

Photo by Carolyn Lee Boyd In times past, Creation’s Winter cupped me in her icy hand of sanctuary Gathered in, I sucked dormant life, and slumbered Till Earth’s rebirthing groans awakened my new body Now, older and full of life’s weeping and wondering awe At all that has happened in my decades on Earth I must shake myself into consciousness My seed’s opaque, blinding hull disintegrates and Bodyless, at last I can see through Goddess eyes I ache as my blood paints each flower petal I spin the whirlwind that cannot stop creating abundance I push the seasons through the year that mortals believe revolve of their own accord. Through Goddess eyes I can see me, I inhabit Winter’s hand as my own. I make the cold to slow creation of outside of me To gather the seed into fertile stillness within. That burgeons in my own time. https://www.magoism.net/2016/08/meet-mago-contributor-carolyn-lee-boyd/
(Video) An Autumn Equinox Ceremony by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

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

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

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

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

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

[Author’s Note] The following is from Chapter One, “What Is Mago and Magoism and How Did I Study HER?” from The Mago Way: Re-discovering Mago, the Great Goddess from East Asia, Volume 1. Footnotes below would be different from the monograph version. PDF book of The Mago Way Volume 1 download is available for free here.] How My Education and Experience Helped Me Study Mago The topic of Mago came to me in time for writing my doctoral dissertation for the Women’s Studies in Religion program that I was enrolled in at Claremont Graduate University. My graduate education, which I crafted to be a feminist cross-cultural alchemical process of de-educating myself from the patriarchal mode of knowledge-making, led me to encounter the hitherto unheard-of Goddess of East Asia, Mago. I came to read the Budoji, the principal text of Magoism, in 2000 and did some basic research to find out that Mago was known among people in Korea and that S/HE was also found in Chinese and Japanese sources.
(Essay 3) Making the Gynocentric Case: Mago, the Great Goddess of East Asia, and Her Tradition Magoism by Helen Hwang

[Editor’s note: Numbers of endnotes differ from the original ones in the article] Claiming the Budoji (Epic of the Emblem City) as a Principal Text of Magoism The Budoji (Epic of the Emblem City) stands out from other sources for its systemic and refined mytho-historical account of Old Magoism. Alleged to have been written in between the late fourth and early fifth century of Silla Korea (57 BCE-918 CE), the Budoji is the Sillan testimony to the history of Budo (Emblem City), a replica of Mago’s Citadel. It is a book that summons ancient Koreans to remember the glorious history of their Magoist ancestors particularly Budo, better known as Dangun Choson Korea (2333 BEC-232 BEC). Budo’s construction and administration in East Asia for nearly two millennia are attributed to the leadership of Imgeom or Dangun. She is the third of the triad sovereigns of Old Magoism after Hanin and Hanung. Designating the civilization of Budo as a direct successor of its previous civilization Sinsi (Divine Market) attributed to the leadership of Hanung, the Budoji traces the Magoist pedigree of pre-patriarchal civilizations ultimately back to Mago and her paradisiacal community, Mago’s Citadel.[i] Composed of thirty-three chapters, its epical narrative is replete with unheard but resonant concepts and symbols such as cosmic music, triad, parthenogenesis, mountain paradisiacal community, genealogy, and so on. Among others, the Budoji unleashes one most fascinating cosmogonic account yet-to-be-known, the story of Mago’s beginning.[ii] Mago, emerged by the cosmic music alongside the stars in the primordial time, began her procreation. Then she initiates the natural process of self-creation. She had her offspring to procreate and asked them to administer the paradisiacal community in Mago’s Citadel. She is the cosmic being who listens to the rise and fall of the cosmic music. The primary task of Mago’s community was to produce Earthly musical resonance that corresponds with the music of the universe. The sonic balance between the universe and the Earth is absolutely essential to the survival and prosperity of the earthly community.[iii] The Budoji not only makes it possible to recognize a large corpus of transnational primary sources as coherent within the context of Magoism but also enables the researcher to understand erosion, variation, and mutation wrought on individual data in the course of history. Budoji’s mytho-historical framework is particularly crucial in assessing the large number of folkloric and topological data that are otherwise seen anomalous or corrupted. For example, the stories that Mago lived in a rock or Mago carried large boulders on her limbs and built megalithic structures find resonance in Budoji’s narratives. Its accounts concerning rocks and landmasses are too complex to present here. Some examples are: Mago began her act of creation by moving and dropping a heavenly landmass and into heavenly water; Magoist sovereigns became rocks that made resonating sounds upon death. In short, Magoism animates pre-Chinese history of East Asia otherwise labeled as “primitive societies.” It entertains the idea that animism and shamanism are not isolated practices but the older religious forms of Magoism.