October 19, 2023October 19, 2023 Jude LallyLeave a comment

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 Read More …

January 10, 2017October 2, 2019 RTM EditorsLeave a comment

(Prose) Earth’s Renewal Moon by Sara Wright

[I took this photograph during the last full moon (12/24/2015), the “Earth’s Renewal Moon” according to the Blackfoot Nation. This moon belongs to Waboose, the Spirit Keeper of the North Read More …

(Goddess Writing 7) Notes by Kaalii Cargill

My speculative/historical novel DAUGHTERS OF TIME traces a line of daughters from ancient Sumer to the present day. The idea was to explore a lineage of women who carry the way of Goddess even as Abraham becomes the “father” of the sky god religions. This excerpt describes a scene in which Makeda, the “Queen of Sheba”, is visiting King Solomon in Ursalimmu (Jerusalem). She encounters the “daughters of time”, women in the line of Mir-ri, priestess of ancient Sumer. The Visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon, Edward Poynter, 1890, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australia. “Ah,” sighed Makeda. “Your words are strangely familiar to me. Like ritual words I have heard spoken in the temple of Astarte.” She looked from Harika to Mir-ri, and then to Mehtap and Inna. “Is this also the way of women in the North?” The question hovered in the room. Mehtap sensed the new mood that had entered and moved closer to Inna. Grandmother Mir-ri shook her head, white hair falling free of the blue cloth she used to wrap it for the day. “Once it was so, in Urim, the city of our ancestors. But now the words are almost lost.” “But not quite,” added Makeda, looking thoughtful. “Not quite,” said Mir-ri. “The Great Lady of Heaven and Earth still speaks to her daughters.” “We know her as Astarte in the South,” said Makeda. “She is Isis in Kemet.” Mehtap nudged Inna with her elbow. Makeda continued. “She has a thousand names and is nameless.” Harika and Mir-ri were nodding, and Inna had become very still. Never had Mehtap felt her mother and grandmother quite like this, although Mir-ri often spoke of the old ways. “I know of this Urim of which you speak,” said Makeda, breaking the spell. “It is the birthplace of Sulaman’s ancestor, the one who was beloved of their El, the Great One they worship here in Ursalimmu.” “I did not know that this line of Kings began in Urim,” whispered Grandmother Mir-ri. “Long have I wondered at the tales of the first Mir-ri, who left Urim carrying a treasure. I am sure that her treasure was the child she carried, but I have never understood what made the child precious enough for the tale to be told, mother to daughter, for a thousand years. Now you have given me an idea.” She laughed then, eyes shining. Harika stared at her mother, the bunna bowl resting forgotten in her lap. She opened her mouth to speak, but Mir-ri raised a hand. “Tell me,” she said, turning to Makeda. “Do you know when Sulaman’s ancestor left Urim?” Makeda frowned. “I think it was not long before the fall of the old city, if the tales tell true.” Grandmother Mir-ri nodded knowingly. “It is the same in our tales: the first mother, Mir-ri, left Urim not long before the Fall.” Then Harika laughed. “I see it, too.” Shaking her head in wonder, she looked at Inna and Mehtap. Mehtap was trying to understand, but their words seemed like nonsense, although heat flushed her cheeks, as if her body knew what this was about. “What do you see?” she asked her mother. “What is it?” Makeda looked questioningly at Harika and Mir-ri. They looked to each other and nodded. Mehtap and Inna leaned forward. Grandmother Mir-ri spoke solemnly, like when reciting a teaching story. “Before the fall of Urim, the first Mir-ri, for whom I am named, left the city with her family. We know she carried a treasure, although no sign of it has ever been found. She carried a child, a daughter if I see truly, a daughter to balance the line of sons that came from Sulaman’s ancestor. A daughter to carry the way of women through the ages, to ensure all is not lost to the way of men and their Great One.” Makeda nodded. “I have heard of this in the old tales from Ki-en-gir. Through this line of daughters the way of the Queen of Heaven lives, to remind us that El is not all present, all powerful, all knowing as Sulaman and his Priests would have us believe.” She spoke softly, looking at Mehtap. “I have seen you in my dreams, but I did not understand.” “That means it is us, me and Inna,” cried Mehtap. “But what can we do?” “It is not what you do,” said Makeda. “It is who you are. It is the lineage you carry, and why you have been running through my dreams; the way of the Mother, the deep reverence for the life-giving power must not be lost. I rode my camel for half a year to see for myself this King who is beloved of El, the Supreme One. Sulaman claims dominion over life and death in the name of El. He claims that the way of El is the only way.” Just when Mehtap thought she had finished, Makeda began speaking again, her voice soft. “I have seen a King great in the ways of men. He rules with power. He conquers all who resist, and he takes slaves and women for tribute. He builds a glorious Temple for this El. He answers the riddles of the philosophers and knows the patterns of the stars.” She paused as if remembering something. “He is strong and powerful, with the head, hands, and loins of a King.” “And?” asked Mir-ri. “He forgets the power of women. For him they are another conquest.” She shook her head, eyes shadowed. “The world forgets,” agreed Mir-ri sadly. “In my lifetime I have seen the way of the Mother fade before the might of the Father of Sky and Light. It is like the old tales of Marduk slaying Tiamat for dominion over the Earth.” “But all is not lost,” said Makeda loudly. “We remember.” Grandmother Mir-ri nodded. “While there are daughters who remember, the Mother will not be lost.” Makeda smiled. “I am thinking of my own …
(Tribute 5) Barbara Mor, “Relentless Love”: Letters 1988-2002 from a Writer’s Best Friend by Jack Dempsey

I’m sure Barbara sent me more letters in the 15-month gap from May 1995 to her next (September 1996) below. The loss remains my fault, although that May brought my third-year Oral Exams, a teaching-semester’s wrap, then a move from Providence RI back to my family home in Stoneham MA (as I sank toward bankruptcy and finished grad school with long commutes). Plus completing Ariadne’s Brother/creating a contract for it with Kalendis in Athens, and starting my doctoral dissertation—a two-volume study of Thomas Morton (i.e., a definitive edition of his New English Canaan, and biography), in tandem with a film that drove me from Novia Scotia to Delaware recording interviews on the life and impact of Nanepashemet—or “Nani,” a leading scholar of Native American New England who had suddenly died of diabetes. New courses to plan, connections to make, research, and a summer 1996 lecture-tour for the novel in Greece; and still no reason why I failed to hold onto what Barbara surely sent through that maelstrom, because her friendship as always was keeping me sane and alive. September 20th, 1996: I’m very glad you were able to enjoy the fruits of your long devotion to desire and duty, Ariadne’s Brother I mean. That Greece was so receptive and confirming also. Wouldn’t be surprised if your book becomes a film, and there you go. I don’t know much about Greece today except that Islam threatens them as everywhere (Cyprus events) and pushed back into ethnic/cultural/religious walls by such upstart forces, Greeks should welcome books that reanimate their creative past. Would be nice if they embraced pagan energies: Christianity has brought them nothing but fascist suffering, political submission, and Holy Tourism. Of course everyone survives now by Tourism, regardless of spirit: Indians here want to turn their beautiful land on the Humboldt coast into another gambling casino, etc. I’ve seen, maybe 5 years ago, PBS on (title?) Road to Eleusis now: think it was Michael Woods, think I wrote you of it: he retraced the journey and could barely walk with endless traffic noise and dust and mechanical existence densely overlaid. I think the Morton work could be the most important thing you could do now, and your brain is free to do it. Plus you are now a veteran, you’ve put your time in learning through the Ariadne process, and it will inform all your work now. I’m sorry about the Nanepashemet death, but [its happening] at a powwow sounds somewhat mystical. And the gestalt puts you in that work too, so you are now magnetized, through all the past decade of work, to work up a storm of works, film, books whatever, which are important to others as well as to you, so they will be done. Yes, between the DIZNEY version of the world, Global Cute—and the nonexistent and even more rapidly disappearing counter-versions, I mean they are weak and even those now de-funding—the Global Cuts, that is—is a Vacuum there to be filled with other versions, visions, of what has happened, what’s happening, what can happen. I hear that some of the most right-wing militia types, crazy crackers in the South, call themselves “Celtic” in one patriotic rebel name or another, e.g., Celtic Sons of the Undefeated South, whatever. Poor Irish and Scot boobs, robbed of their continuous history from the Stone Age, really WANT deep prehistory identities, but don’t know how to access. So they throw that barbaric energy into Pentacostal Patriotism and SnakeDancing for Jesus. Books like Gone to Croatan, all the Morton studies etc. including what you can do, would give them a Map Back, to re-connect their crazy energies with sane roots. Really important for beginning 21st-century American politics, which will break into tribes of race, ethnic, religious identities and all be stupid, because no one knows what they’re doing, or who they originally were. As you know, unburying our pagan history can be not only exciting but integrating of all energies. So, all sounds like you’ve created, through your work, a stream for yourself that will carry you. This is great. Hard to realize you’ve been five years at Brown, but by now it is a groove that you can no doubt bend to your own interests. If they support your Morton project, that too is great. You wrote that you were editing new book of Morton’s Canaan for “the Diss. Project,” and I read that as a DISS-Project, in the rap sense, then realized it was Dissertation, but the first will be a thread running through also I assume. You have read W.C. Williams’ In The American Grain? Along with Crane’s The Bridge I think it is the greatest American poem, a book of prose-poetic essays on historical figures, like Lincoln, and men involved in that French-Dutch-English-Spanish protean playing with aborigynal American continent like PlayDough—with profound feeling, for the feeling sides of these men, the most amazing images of the WOMAN Lincoln, etc. Read it not for the history which you know but the style, which is utterly unique in American male—“male”—writing, which is compulsed to “prove” manhood, I mean, while Williams allows himself to be a whole sensorium with no apologies: ergo, great sentences, magnificent writing. You wrote a very generous response to Linguistic Duplex, and I responded, I think before you went to Crete, but not sure, everything packed and confused as I moved one more time [to a place on A Street in Eureka on the north-Californian Humboldt Coast], I gave up trying to check data. I remember you questioned the word and concept “evil” and were not comfortable with what I did to Davis in Part 3. In response I said something to effect that I have always been always unwilling to use word “evil” (except in those quotes), because of the Xtian-Bible-Manichean connotations and referents. Then reading Kathy Acker and experiences I experienced in Tucson etc. gave me another handle on the word. I agree, one must footnote it: if one cares anymore what people think, and I don’t, for I am walking around on the bottom of the ocean while everyone else is …
(Poetry & Photo Essay) Pongal by Susan Hawthorne

I am a secularist rather than a ritualist, but I can’t help but be drawn into the celebrations that people make when they honour the passing of the seasons. Even as a child I felt the disconnect between Christmas and the hot dusty days of summer. When Christians invaded and colonised Australia they brought their holidays but did not consider changing the dates to match the seasons. I was in India recently, invited as a speaker at the Hindu Lit For Life Festival in Chennai where I had lived ten years ago. The last day of the festival was the first day of Pongal. A friend, feminist economist Devaki Jain, who had grown up in Chennai eighty years earlier invited me to join her in a car ride to see Pongal celebrations in the streets. This is a Tamil festival dating back at least a thousand years, a sun festival, welcoming the next six months of the sun’s journey, also a harvest festival. During this time many women produce beautiful drawings, known as kolam. In my book Cow I wrote a poem about kolam which I think says more than I can explain here. what she says about kolam where they are drawn and when is all important early morning is auspicious it sets the shape of the day the hard ground is cleaned points of white grain sprinkled she works quickly she knows her design for the day runs the powdered grain from point to point it is a mandala a yantra a sign so the forces of the universe align themselves with her intentions Back to Pongal. The festival goes for four days. On the first day, which is called Bhogi, people are on the streets with the fruits of harvest, piles of tumeric and stacks of sugar cane tied in bunches. My friend, Devaki, bought flowers to take back to her room in the hotel. The second day, called Thai Pongal, I was invited to a harvest lunch at the house of my friend Mangai who is a playwright, theatre director and human rights activist. The word ‘pongal’ means ‘boiling over’ or’ overflow’ and I saw this in the cooking of the sweetened rice dish into which each of the twelve people present poured some water and milk as it almost overflowed the pot. This sweet rice dish was added to the collection of other dishes on the table. I cannot tell you what they were, but the meal was delicious. After lunch everyone relaxed, someone sang, we talked and caught up on news. The third day, is called Maatu Pongal, and cattle are at the centre of celebrations on that day. I don’t know if this line up of cattle had anything to do with the day’s celebration but there they were tied up alongside a very busy main road. These were not cows and I did not see any cows with decorated horns and flowers on their heads. on that day as I have on other occasions. On the fourth day, Kaanum Pongal, things begin to wind down. One of my co-speakers at the festival said she would be visiting family members on that day. The kolams are drawn again, sugar cane is consumed and people go back to their daily lives. What I liked about being in Tamil Nadu during the Pongal festival is that it felt absolutely right. The time of the year, the connection with harvest, so I did not feel the discomfort I so often feel in the midst of the out-of-season commercialised holidays as they are celebrated in Australia. Susan Hawthorne’s book Cow is available worldwide from distributors in USA, Canada, UK, from all the usual online retailers or from Spinifex Press. http://www.spinifexpress.com.au/Bookstore/book/id=215/ © Susan Hawthorne, 2019 (Meet Mago Contributor) Susan Hawthorne.
(Pandemic Poem 5) Surely by Jyoti Wind

Blue window with ladder, NM. Photo by Jyoti Wind Surely, as light follows dark, we will emerge from this time with an acknowledged connectedness and keep it in daily awareness. Surely, through the fears we’ve faced, we will have a more acute sense of where we are in the scheme of things. Surely, our prior arrogance, thinking we had dominion and license to forge ahead gave way to humility to take forward. Surely, this virus as catalyst changes us, reminds us that as guests and stewards, we are in service to a greater consciousness. https://www.magoism.net/2020/08/meet-mago-contributor-jyoti-wind/
(Photo Essay 2) Goddess by Kaalii Cargill

[Author’s note: This series of photo essays is inspired by themes that have emerged for me as I’ve been visiting with the Grandmothers in Nature, archaeological sites, and museums around the World.] “The patriarchal denial of the Mother becomes the political denial of the people; which becomes the total mechanization, via capitalization, of the human body. And as the body moves, so does God move: the Biblical capitalist West has created God as a prison-keeper, as a factory-boss, rather than as a living cosmos. God as an assembly-line rather than a dance . . .” Barbara Mor, quoted in Jack Dempsey, (Tribute 2) Barbara Mor, “Relentless Love”: Letters 1988-2002 from a Writer’s Best Friend by Jack Dempsey. Return to Mago E*Magazine, July 17, 2018. Read the whole piece here: https://www.magoism.net/…/tribute-2-barbara-mor-relentless…/ The dance of the living cosmos – a play of light, moving water, birds soaring, women dancing . . . Magura Cave (Rabisha Cave), Bulgaria. Bat guano painting, 6000-8000 BCE. Devatashka Cave, Lovech Province, Bulgaria. Paleolithic cave shelter, Krumovgrad, Bulgaria. Amazing sky near “Badjaliata” Cave, Silistra, Bulgaria. Water dancing (somewhere in Europe) Nature playing, Goreme National Park. Anatolia. Magical portal, Vespasianus Titus Tunnel, Samandağ, Hatay Province, southern Turkey. The Pool of Abraham (Balikli Göl), Sanliurfa, Anatolia. Mythic street theatre, Gozo, Malta. Candles at Petra, Jordan. Blue Grotto, Malta. “Dance”, Henri Matisse (1909). Museum of Modern Art, New York. Aegina Island, Greece. Meet Mago Contributor KAALII CARGILL
(Essay) A Meta-religious Metaphor By Glenys Livingstone Ph.D

This essay is an edited excerpt from Chapter 8 of the author’s bookPaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. Thomas Berry has said that we need to understand that the challenge of our time – that is, the apparent planetary siege by the human, is not just an outcome of the last few hundred years of Western scientific thinking. It is not just Cartesian, it is not just economics; this moment, he says, has required everything. He calls the challenge of this moment, “meta-religious”[1], and that we, as a species and as a planet, are in a “moment of transformation”. It is my understanding that part of what that means for humans, is to realize that we are not in control – we never have been, and never will be. While it is true that we participate, that we are in it, that it is our Story, that we co-create it, we are not the Story. It is Gaia’s Story. We are participants through whom Creativity proceeds … whether consciously or not, whether as compost or new growth, we participate, we make choices, and She proceeds with Her Creativity. Thomas Berry lists three rights of all creatures: the right to be, the right to habitat, and the right to fulfill its role in all existence[2]. These three rights correspond to the three qualities of Cosmogenesis that he and Brian Swimme decribe in The Universe Story[3]: it is an ethics based on the creative impetus of Gaia, an ethics that may enable life as we know it and as we don’t yet know it, to proceed. Intrinsic to it is a balance and a recognition of, love of self, love of other, and love of All-That-Is. It is based in a balance and recognition of, urge of each being to unfold, place to be in the web of life, and participation in subjective space[4]. Deep in the present moment, all the Creativity that is necessary, is present. I notice in myself and others who continue to participate in the seasonal ceremonial celebrations, an opening to subtle perceptions and sensitivities that do enable and evoke a passion for adopting everyday changes to our domestic lives; that is, how we relate to the water we use, the food we eat, the methods of transport we choose, the social and cultural context. It seems that as each actually feels what Charlene Spretnak calls “the unitive dimension of existence”[5]- as one may in ceremony over time, as one feels themselves to be “a node within a vast network of creative dynamics”[6], becomes more mindful of flux, wonder and awe[7]- as one may with artful practice of this cosmology; that we do in fact begin to devise strategies for change in our lives. The strategies for change are ones whereby we may be more authentic in our relationship with this expressly sentient Earth and Cosmos. Some participants have given up their cars, found ways to reuse water, are learning how to garden organically, relate more consciously with the flora and fauna around them – care more, and feel that their small care does make a difference. This translates on a broader scale to an increasing ability in the hearts and minds of participants to step outside the anthropocentric frame, as increasingly each one becomes more conscious of an “Earth Jurisprudence”[8]: that is, that Earth Herself has innate wisdom and integrity. It is a wisdom that ceremonial particpants can sense and come into relationship with, that is primordial, as they do constantly express and enact in the ceremonies. There is in participants more humility about the place of the human in the scale of things, more willingness to step back from the human impress on the planet and other beings, and to reframe more inclusively. There is nothing comprehensive about this particular “re-inventing” as I have described it so far herein – it is a beginning, as other participants and I are aware. We are novices, most of us. Each year that I celebrate the Seasonal Moments, I understand a little more. And it is new as well as old. In these times, any of us comes to it all with different minds than our forebears did – this is somewhat of a disadvantage, but the novice has a freshness too. References: Mike Bell, “Thomas Berry and an Earth Jurisprudence”: http://trumpeter.athabascau.ca/index.php/trumpet/article/view/106 Berry, Thomas. “The University: Its Response to the Ecological Crisis”. A paper delivered before the Divinity School and the University Committee on Environment at Harvard University, April 11 1996. htpp://www.ecoethics.net/ops/univers.htm Livingstone, Glenys. PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion. NE: iUniverse, 2005. Spretnak, Charlene. States of Grace: The Recovery of Meaning in the Postmodern Age. SF: HarperCollins, 1993 Swimme, Brian and Berry, Thomas. The Universe Story. NY: HarperCollins, 1992. NOTES: [1]Thomas Berry, ”The University: Its Response to the Ecological Crisis”, a paper delivered before the Divinity School and the University Committee on Environment at Harvard University, p.8. [2]Thomas Berry defines these in a talk he gave on June 4 2000, at the Center for Ecology and Spirituality , Port Burwell Ontario. It was a 5 day colloquim on “The Cosmology of Religion”. He also suggests them in ”The University: Its Response to the Ecological Crisis”, p. 5. [3]Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry, The Universe Story, p.66-79. [4]These three characteristics and qualities of Cosmogenesis are developed in PaGaian Cosmology, by Glenys Livingstone, Chapter 4 in particular. [5]Charlene Spretnak, States of Grace, p.22. [6]Charlene Spretnak, States of Grace, p.22. [7]Charlene Spretnak, States of Grace, p.22. [8]Mike Bell, “Thomas Berry and an Earth Jurisprudence”: http://trumpeter.athabascau.ca/index.php/trumpet/article/view/106
(Essay 1) Kinship and Power of Place by Sara Wright

What do I mean by the word kinship? I believe that kinship is the idea, and the belief that all aspects of nature from photons to galaxies are connected to one another. Practically, I think of kinship as my feeling/sense of being intimately linked to place/landscape. In my mind Kinship and Place are not only related, each is shaped by the other.
(Essay) The Beautiful Crone at the Heart of the World by Carolyn Lee Boyd

Cailleach Beira, Wondertales from Scottish Myth and Legend, 1917, Internet Archive Book Images, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons The beautiful crone goddess — and all crones are beautiful — is the heart of the world. Old women goddesses create, destroy, and rebirth the world, protect human and non-human life, determine humanity’s fate, heal, and counsel the young. Yet, since the suppression of Old European culture, retellings of ancient myths from Europe, as well as our modern media, show women’s age and ugliness as going together. Old women are depicted as having matted white hair, lolling eyes, and frail, hunched over bodies that are symbolic of the objectification, commodification, and even demonization of not only women but the sovereignty and life-giving generosity of the planet with which crone goddesses are associated. Perseus and Graeae, shown as ugly old women, Helen Stratton, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons It is easy for those in our contemporary society to accept this judgement that we lose beauty as we age when we have been surrounded by this message since birth. But what if we are projecting the ageism and fear of spiritually powerful older women of our recent times onto these images? What if underneath descriptions of old women in ancient stories lies a contrary attitude rooted in very different values of the Old European culture from which the oldest myths sprang? Might all women experience instead our beauty as changing, ever deepening like our wisdom, as we age? And if we did, might that not be a first step to returning to the best of Old European attitudes about women and the Earth? Marija Gimbutas found extensive evidence that aged women were revered in Old Europe. In Poland in about 5000 BC, the graves of older women held grave goods including, in one case, “copper beads, a necklace of animal teeth, a belt of shell beads, and a vase” while that of an older man had none1. Over a grave of a 70-year-old woman in another Polish settlement was a large structure likely used for rituals2. Older women alone were buried either inside or near the home or in sacred spaces. “An older woman was the ancestor whose blessing was sought to ensure continuity of the family she had started and who was honored by burial beneath one of her houses or temples”3 Gimbutas says. Max Dashu notes that in the past “Heathen communities called upon ancestral grandmothers to bless, counsel, protect, and provide assistance to their living kindred”4. Elizabeth Wayland Barber describes how in Eastern Europe “…old women, while not active in most rites other than funerals, served as coaches— repositories of information on how to do things. In short, the lonely old widow served as a keeper of traditional knowledge, a ‘knower’ or ved’ma”5. Not surprisingly, given the respect for old women in Old European society and those cultures with vestiges of Old Europe, some crone goddesses are considered to be beautiful. The Greek Graeae, whose name means, according to Patricia Monaghan, “the crones” were also considered to be swan maidens who were “beautiful though gray-haired”6. The Sudice, goddesses of fate in Eastern Europe, were “beautiful old women”7. And, of course, we have the Sheela-na-gigs, statues on medieval churches of smiling older female beings holding open their vaginas. One meaning of their name is “holy lady”8. According to Monaghan, “Laughter and passion, birth and death, sex and age do not seem to have been so incompatible to the ancient Irish as they are to the modern world”9. Crone goddesses are also strong and powerful. The Cailleach, the Celtic Creatrix crone goddess, was known for outworking the male farm laborers she hired and dropped boulders from her apron to form mountains10. Bugady Musun, a Siberian crone goddess was, “very old and very strong” and ruled all life11. The Scandinavian goddess Elle, who symbolized aging, bested Thor in a wrestling match because, as Monaghan says “No one can beat old age”12. When we relook at all these positive, dynamic, and vibrant images of older women, perhaps it is time to reconsider the characteristics that cause us to envision crone goddesses as “ugly.” One of the most prominent is that single eye, a feature of the Cailleach13 and the Irish Muireartach14. Eastern European Poldunica had two eyes, but they were “staring”15. According to Gimbutas, eyes were among the most sacred parts of the body in Old European culture. Gimbutas says the large eyes were “all-seeing” and represented a Divine Source16. “Eye Goddesses” of 5000 to 3000 BCE found throughout Old Europe were made of bone with large staring eyes and were associated with the spiritual power of death17. The Cailleach18, Muireartach19, and Poldunica20 are all described as having matted hair. However, the Greek stories of Medusa and the Gorgons with their snakes for hair show the power of unbound tresses. Masks dating back 7000 years from Bulgaria also show hags with unruly, matted hair21. Could matted hair really symbolize wild, unrestrained power? The colors white, black and red, associated with life, death, and rebirth in Old Europe, were often associated with crones. In Moravia, Poldunica was portrayed as a white gowned old woman22 while the Sudice also wore white clothes23. Some crones were also associated with black such as the Cailleach, sometimes described as having a blue-black face24. The Scandinavian goddess Hel, who oversaw the souls of those who died from disease or old age, was half white and half black25. The Cailleach’s white cow had red ears26 while the Irish Muireartach was “bald-red”27. Angelique Kidjo, HankBate123, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons Could it be that in Old Europe old women were both valued and considered to be beautiful?When we look at women of all ages we should see beauty, power, and wisdom, and for older women, persistence and decades of hard work, of love given and received, laugh lines and lines where sorrowful tears were channelled to the Earth. Truly, the beauty of women in their third age is ageless. Aged women …
(Art) Naiad No. 2 by Sudie Rakusin

Pen and Ink Drawing by Sudi Rakusin When I started this series of drawings, unusual images began filling the pages of my sketchbook; womyn with animal parts, womyn with animal companions. Some had wings. Some had the scales and tails of lizards. Others had fins and still others had the horns of rams. They were taking shape as separate entities, but felt linked to each other. For days I pondered what connected them. What made them a cohesive whole? What would gather this group of creatures and make them into one? Early one morning in the tender dreamtime right before waking, I heard a voice say, “You are making a tribe.” I named the tribe Womanimals. Unconsciously, I had created species that corresponded to each of the elements; the Ramyn trod upon Earth and have horns. The womyn of the Air with wings are Raptors. Naiads are women of the Sea. Those of Fire with scales and tails are Peles. Wemoon, Ether, are the most like human womyn and surround themselves with a wide range of nonhumans that they call “companions” and “familiars”. The idea of the Tribe in the series moves towards a futuristic, science fiction resolution where species mix naturally in an environment where they are free and safe. These drawings are responding to the concept of openness, acceptance, making the definition of kin and family inclusive. When there is no “other” and no oppression, we eliminate the boundaries between us all to create a collective community. I believe if we are to preserve and protect the resources and animals that still exist, we must change our mindset and put words into action. We must gather together to fight for our homes, our refuges, to keep the water, earth, and air free from lethal toxins. And those of us who can speak the language of the oppressor must take on the responsibility to fight for those precious creatures that can’t speak and are so vulnerable to being controlled, abused, tortured and eradicated. Stories are the way that people understand the world around them. We can tell our stories with words, pictures, music, movement or dance. Stories are channels for empathy. Empathy is the instrument for change. I believe a person must be willing to sit inside the heart and soul of the “other” so they are no longer the “other” but are called kin. I tell my stories with my art. I wish my creations had the ability to protect and save my animal kin. I wish I had the power to draw and paint their survival into existence. (Meet Mago Contributor) Sudie Rakusin.

(Special Post 3) Why Goddess Feminism, Activism, or Spirituality? A Collective Writing

[Editor’s Note: This was first proposed in The Mago Circle, Facebook Group, on March 6, 2014. We have our voices together below and publish them in sequels. It is an ongoing project and we encourage our reader to join us! Submit yours today to Helen Hwang (magoism@gmail.com). Or visit and contact someone in Return to Mago’s Partner Organizations.] Helen Hwang I study and advocate Goddess feminism or Magoism because it is a way of living for me. I find myself in Mago (the Great Goddess) who in turn leads me to the Way wherein I learn how to become the person who I can be. It has to be Mago, the Female Divine, because She is real! She is the Primordial Mother who is the Beginning and the End of everything to us on the planet Earth. She teaches me the real. I can’t negotiate Her to anything less. Helen Hye Sook Hwang, Ph.D. California http://magoism.net Bridget Robertson A Goddessian I was introduced to a form of meditative journeying by a resident in my grandmother’s retirement community. She approached to me. I know she was at least part Native American, and that alone made her the topic of much gossip in the building. Her Rose colored lipstick, deep brown eyes, wrinkles that only helped illuminate her face and a chiffon scarf that matched none of her clothes. I thought she needed help with her groceries. She didn’t. She had me stop the elevator. and directly asked about my looking tired. My response was about being, busy balancing all the areas of my life. In fact I was exhausted doling out time like pieces of pie.
(Special Post 1) Multi-linguistic Resemblances of “Mago” by Mago Circle Members

“Ma” in “Mago” and “Ma-Gaia” Mother Goddess, ca.7250-6700 BCE, Catal Huyuk Turkey [Conversation between Carol P. Christ, Ph.D. and Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.] Carol P. Christ (CPC): Below is culled from “Gaia” in Wikipedia: The Greek word γαῖα (transliterated as gaia) is a collateral form of γῆ (gē, Doric γᾶ ga and probably δᾶ da) meaning Earth, a word of uncertain origin. R. S. P. Beekes has suggested a Pre-Greek origin. In Mycenean Greek Ma-ka (trans. as Ma-ga, “Mother Gaia”) also contains the root ga-. Helen Hye-Sook Hwang (HHH): “Mago” and “Goma” are closely linked. Gom or Goma means the bear and Magoist shaman queen of the late fourth millennium BCE. She is also related with the Big Bear constellation. “Go” is used as a modifier referring to Mago or the Goddess in various texts of East Asia. “Mago” is related with “magi,” whose singular form is “magus” or “magos.” Will have to check for more details and the source. CPC: My intuition is that “ma” and “na” are baby talk for mother. In other words, preceding any language. Mycenean is IE language, “Pre-Greek” is not IE. CPC: Below is “Mother” from Wikipedia: Synonyms and translations The proverbial “first word” of an infant often sounds like “ma” or “mama”. This strong association of that sound with “mother” has persisted in nearly every language on earth, countering the natural localization of language. Familiar or colloquial terms for mother in English are: Aama, Mata used in Nepal Mom and mommy are used in the United States, Canada, South Africa, Philippines, India and parts of the West Midlands including Birmingham in the United Kingdom. Mum and mummy are used in the United Kingdom, Canada, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, Hong Kong and Ireland. Charles, Prince of Wales publicly addressed his mother Queen Elizabeth II as “Mummy” on the occasion of her Diamond Jubilee. Ma, mam, and mammy are used in Netherlands, Ireland, the Northern areas of the United Kingdom, and Wales; it is also used in some areas of the United States. In many other languages, similar pronunciations apply: Maa, aai, amma, and mata are used in languages of India like Assamese, Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu etc. Mamá, mama, ma, and mami in Spanish Mama in Polish, German, Russian and Slovak Māma (妈妈/媽媽) in Chinese Máma in Czech and in Ukrainian Maman in French and Persian Ma, mama in Indonesian Mamaí, mam in Irish Mamma in Italian, Icelandic, Latvian and Swedish Māman or mādar in Persian Mamãe or mãe in Portuguese Mā̃ (ਮਾਂ) in Punjabi Mama in Swahili Em (אם) in Hebrew A’ma (ܐܡܐ) in Aramaic Má or mẹ in Vietnamese Mam in Welsh Eomma (엄마, pronounced [ʌmma]) in Korean In many south Asian cultures and the Middle East, the mother is known as amma, oma, ammi or “ummi”, or variations thereof. Many times, these terms denote affection or a maternal role in a child’s life. HHH: The name for Goddess seems as ancient as the language itself. [“Ma” being the first intentional word to be spoken by a baby.] Helen Hye-Sook Hwang: Scholars and mythologists agree that “ma” means both one’s mother and the Goddess, I quoted it in my dissertation written in 2004. Judy E Foster: Brilliant discussion, Helen and Carol! So many revelations… hard to keep up! But do continue, its fascinating – makes so much sense. (To be continued)Join the discussion of this and other topics in The Mago Circle, Facebook Group.
(Special Post 1) "The Oldest Civilization" and its Agendas by Mago Circle Members

[Editor’s Note: The following discussion took place in response to an article listed blow by the members of The Mago Cirlce, Facebook group of Goddessians/Magoists from May 6 to May 10, 2016. Readers are recommended to read the original article linked below that has invoked the converation.] “The Danube Civilization: Oldest in the World” in The Ancient Ones upon the ruins of our ancestors, published April 3, 2016.

(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: …
Summer Solstice Poiesis by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

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

Photography by Sara Wright I gaze out my bedroom window and hear yet another golden apple hit the ground. The vines that hug the cabin and climb up the screens are heavy with unripe grapes and the light that is filtered through the trees in front of the brook is luminous – lime green tipped in gold – My too sensitive eyes are blessedly well protected by this canopy of late summer leaves. The maples on the hill are losing chlorophyll and are painting the hollow with splashes of bittersweet orange and red. The dead spruces by the brook will probably collapse this winter providing Black bears with even more precious ants and larvae to eat in early spring. I only hope that some bears will survive the fall slaughter to return to this black bear sanctuary; in particular two beloved young ones… Mushrooms abound, amanitas, boletes morels, puff balls, the latter two finding their way into my salads. The forest around my house is in an active state of becoming with downed limbs and sprouting fungi becoming next year’s soil. The forest floor smells so sweet that all I can imagine is laying myself down on a bed of mosses to sleep and dream. The garden looks as tired as I am; lily fronds droop, yellowing leaves betraying the season at hand. Bright green pods provide a startling contrast to fading scarlet bee balm. Wild asters are abundant and goldenrod covers the fields with a bright yellow garment. Every wild bush has sprays of berries. My crabapple trees are bowed, each twig heavy with winter fruit. Most of the birds have absconded to the fields that are ripe with the seeds of wild grasses. The mourning doves are an exception – they gather together each dawn waiting patiently for me to fill the feeder. In the evening I am serenaded by soft cooing. One chicken hawk hides in the pine, lying in wait for the unwary…Just a few hummingbirds remain…whirring wings and twittering alert me to continued presence as they settle into the cherry tree to sleep, slipping into a light torpor with these cool September nights… Spiders are spinning their egg cases, even as they prepare to die. I can still find toads hopping around the house during the warmest hours of the day. Although the grass is long I will not mow it for fear of killing these most precious and threatened of species. I am heavily invested in seeing these toads burrow in to see another spring. My little frogs sit on their lily pads seeking the warmth of a dimming afternoon sun. Soon they too will slumber below fallen leaves or mud. I am surrounded by such beauty, and so much harvest bounty that even though I am exhausted I take deep pleasure out of each passing day of this glorious month of September, the month of my birth. Unlike many folks, for me, moving into the dark of the year feels like a blessing. Another leave -taking is almost upon me, and I am having trouble letting go of this small oasis that I have tended with such care for more than thirty years… I don’t know what this winter will bring to my modest cabin whose foundation is crumbling under too much moisture and too many years of heavy snow. In the spring extensive excavation will begin. A new foundation must be poured and this work will destroy the gardens I have loved, the mossy grounds around the south end of the house that I have nurtured for so long. In this season of letting go I must find a way to lay down my fears, and release that which I am powerless to change. Somehow… I have no idea what I will return to except that I have made it clear that none of my beloved trees be harmed. I am grateful that Nature is mirroring back to me so poignantly that letting go is the way through: That this dying can provide a bedrock foundation for another spring birth. As a Daughter of the Earth I lean into ancient wisdom, praying that this exhausted mind and body will be able to follow suit. (Meet Mago Contributor) Sara Wright.
(Mago Almanac Excerpt 3) Introducing the Magoist Calendar by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

Mago Almanac: 13 Month 28 Day Calendar (Book A) Free PDF available at Mago Bookstore. MAPPING THE MAGOIST CALENDAR According to the Budoji, the Magoist Calendar was fully implemented and advocated during the period of Old Joseon (ca. 2333 BCE-ca. 232 BCE) whose civilization is known as Budo (Emblem City). Indeed, the Magoist Calendar is referred to as the Budo Calendar in the Budoji. Budo was founded to succeed Sinsi and reignited Sinsi’s innovations including the numerological and musicological thealogy of the Nine Mago Creatrix. The Budoji expounds on the Magoist Calendar as follows: The Way of Heaven circles to generate Jongsi (a cyclic period, an ending and a beginning). Jongsi circles to generate another Jongsi of four Jongsi. One cycle of jongsi is called Soryeok (Little Calendar). Jongsi of Jongsi is called Jungryeok (Medium Calendar). Jongsi of four Jongsis is called Daeryeok (Large Calendar). A cycle of Little Calendar is called Sa (year). One Sa has thirteen Gi (months). One Gi has twenty-eight Il (days). Twenty-eight Il are divided by four Yo (weeks). One Yo has seven Il. A cycle of one Yo is called Bok (completion of a week). One Sa (year) has fifty-two Yobok. That makes 364 Il. This is of Seongsu (Natural Number) 1, 4, 7. Each Sa includes a Dan of the big Sa. A Dan is equal to one day. That adds up to 365 days. At the half point after the third Sa, there is a Pan of the big Sak (the year of the great dark moon). A pan comes at a half point of Sa. This is of Beopsu (Lawful Number) 2, 5, 8. A Pan is equal to a day. Therefore, the fourth Sa has 366 days. At the half point after the tenth Sa, there is a 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.[12] KEY TERMS Calendric Cycles Jongsi (終是 Ending and Beginning): Cyclic periods Soryeok (小曆 Little Calendar): One year Jungryeok (中曆 Medium Calendar): Two years Daeryeok (大曆 Large Calendar): Four years Names of Year, Month, Day, Week Sa (祀 Rituals, year): One year refers to the time that takes to complete the cycle of rituals. Gi (期 Periods, month): One month refers to the period of the moon and menstruation cycle. Il (日Sun, day): One day refers to the sun’s movement due to Earth’s rotation. Yo (曜 Resplendence of seven celestial bodies, Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, week): Each weekday is dedicated to seven celestial bodies. Bok or Yobok (曜服 Duties of the Celestial Bodies, completion of a week): One week refers to the veneration of the seven celestial bodies. Names of Monthly Transition Days Hoe (晦 Eve of the first day of the month, 28th) Sak (朔 First day of the month, 1st, the dark moon) Names of Intercalation Days Dan (旦 Morning): Leap day for New Year Pan (昄 Big): Leap day for every fourth year Names of Time Units Gu (晷 sun’s shadow): Time measure, 1/300 Myo Myo (眇 minuscule): Time measure, a total of 300 Gu Myo-Gak-Bun-Si (眇刻分時 minuscule, possibly 15-minutes, minute, hour): Time measure, 9,633 Myo-Gak-Bun-Si is equal to a day Names of Three Types of Numbers in Nine Numerology Seongsu (性數Natural Number): 1, 4, 7 in the digital root Beopsu (法數 Lawful Number): 2, 5, 8 in the digital root Chesu (體數 Physical Number): 3, 6, 9 in the digital root THREE SUB-CALENDARS The Way of Heaven circles to generate Jongsi (a period, an ending and a beginning). Jongsi circles to generate another Jongsi of four Jongsi. One cycle of jongsi is called Soryeok (Little Calendar). Jongsi of Jongsi is called Jungryeok (Medium Calendar). Jongsi of four Jongsis is called Daeryeok (Large Calendar). The universe is infinite without beginning and ending. Everything runs the course of self-equilibration in relation to everything else. The Way of Heaven or the Way of the Creatrix circles and makes possible the infinite time/space to be measured and calculated. As the Way of Heaven circles, we are able to perceive Our Universe in finite measures of time/space. Time becomes measurable, as space is stabilized. Seasons and days-nights are demarcated in cyclic patterns, as the Earth makes the three cyclic movements of rotation, revolution, and precession. Calendar, born out of the inter-cosmic time, synchronizes human culture with the song/dance of the universe. The term Jongsi, which means an ending and a beginning, is equivalent to “a cyclic period” that is marked by the beginning and the end. Time (a day, a month, and a year) circles, as space (the Earth, the Moon, and the Sun) spirals. The Magoist Calendar has three sub-calendars: The period of one yearly cycle is called Little Calendar, whereas the period of two yearly cycles is called Medium Calendar and the period of four yearly cycles, Large Calendar. To be continued. (Meet Mago Contributor, Helen Hye-Sook Hwang) Notes [12] Budoji, Chapter 23. See Bak Jesang, the Budoji, Bak Geum scrib., Eunsu Kim, trans. (Seoul: Gana Chulpansa, 1986).
(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) Winter Solstice/Yule within the Creative Cosmos by Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

This essay is an edited excerpt from Chapter 5 of the author’s book A Poiesis of the Creative Cosmos: Celebrating Her within PaGaian Sacred Ceremony. Dates for Winter Solstice/Yule Southern Hemisphere – June 20 – 23. Northern Hemisphere – December 20 – 23 This Seasonal Moment is the ripe fullness of the Dark Womb and it is a gateway between dark and light. It is a Birthing Place – into differentiated being. Whereas Samhain/Deep Autumn is a dark conceiving Space, it flows into the Winter Solstice dark birthing Place – a dynamic Place of Being, a Sacred Interchange. This Seasonal Moment of Winter Solstice is the peaking of the dark space – the fullness of the dark, within which being and action arise. It is the peaking of emptiness, which is a fullness. As cosmologist Brian Swimme describes: the empty “ground of being … retains no thing.” It is “Ultimate Generosity.”[i] In Vajrayana Buddhism, Space is associated with Prajna/wisdom – out of which Upaya/compassionate action arises. Space is highly positive – something to be developed, so appropriate action may develop spontaneously and blissfully.[ii] In Old European Indigenous understandings, the dark and the night were valued at least as much as light, if not more so: time was counted by the number of nights, as in ‘fortnights,’ and a ‘day’ included both dark and light parts … it was ‘di-urnal’. I have been careful with my language about that inclusion in the ceremonial ‘Statement of Purpose’ for each Seasonal Moment. This awareness is resonant with modern Western scientific perceptions about the nature of the Universe: that it is seventy-three percent “dark energy,” twenty-three precent “dark matter,” four percent “ordinary matter.”[iii] The truth is that we live within this darkness: it is the Ground of all Being. In Pagan traditions since Celtic times, and in many other cultural traditions, Winter Solstice has been celebrated as the birth of the God; and in Christian tradition since about the fourth century C.E., as the birth of the saviour. But there are deeper ways of understanding what is being born: that is, who or what the “saviour” is. In the Gospel of Thomas, which was not selected for biblical canon, it says: “If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you.”[iv] This then may be the Divine Child, the “Saviour”: it may be expressed as the new Being forming in the Cosmogonic Womb,[v] who will be born. We may celebrate the birth of the new Being, which /who is always beyond us, beyond our knowing … yet is within us, burgeoning within us – and within Gaia. What will save us is already present within – forming within us. The Winter Solstice story may emphasize that what is born, is within each one – the “Divine” is not “out there”: it may be said, and expressed ceremoniously, that we are each Creator and Created. We may imagine ourselves as the in-utero foetus – an image we might have access to these days from a sonar-scan during pregnancy. This image presents a truth about Being: we are this, and it is within us, within this moment. Every moment is pregnant with the new. It will be birthed when holy darkness is full. Part of what is required is having the eyes to see the “new bone forming in flesh,” scraping our eyes “clear of learned cataracts,”[vi] seeing with fresh eyes. That is what the fullness of the Dark offers – a freshening of our eyes to see the new. And the process of Creation is always reciprocal: we are Creator and Created simultaneously, in a “ngapartji-ngapartji”[vii] way. We are in-formed by that which we form. In Earth-based religious practice, the ubiquitous icon of Mother and Child – Creator and Created – expresses something essential about the Universe itself … the “motherhood” we are all born within. It expresses the essential communion experience that this Cosmos is, the innate and holy Care that it takes, and the reciprocal nature of it. We cannot touch without being touched at the same time.[viii] We may realize that Cosmogenesis – the entire Unfolding of the Cosmos – is essentially relational: our experience tells us this is so. The image of The Birth of the Goddess on the front cover of my book PaGaian Cosmology expresses that reciprocity for me, how we may birth each other and the healing/wholing in that exchange. It is a Sacred Interchange. And it is what this Event of existence seems to be about – deep communion, which both Solstices express. Babylonian Goddess, Ur 4000-3500 BCE. Adele Getty, Goddess, 33. Birthing is not often an easy process – for the birthgiver nor for the birthed one: it is a shamanic act requiring strength of bodymind, attention, courage, and focus of the mother, and resilience and courage to be of the new young one. Birthgiving is the original place of ‘heroics,’ which many cultures of the world have never forgotten, perhaps therefore better termed as “heraics.” Patriarchal adaptations of the story of this Seasonal Moment usually miss the Creative Act of birthgiving completely, usually being pre-occupied with the “virgin” nature of the Mother which is interpreted as having an “intact hymen.” The focus of the patriarchal adaptation of the Winter Solstice story is the Child as “saviour”: even the Mother gazes at the Child in most Christian icons, while in more ancient images Her eyes are direct and expressive of Her integrity as Creator. NOTES: [i] Swimme, The Universe is a Green Dragon, 146. [ii] See Rita Gross, “The Feminine Principle in Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism.” The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology 179-192. [iii] These figures as told by cosmologist Paul Davies with Macquarie University’s Centre for Astrobiology, Australia. [iv] Elaine Pagels, Beyond Belief: the Secret Gospel of Thomas, saying number 70. See https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/story/thomas.html . [v] Melissa Raphael’s term, Thealogy and Embodiment, 262. [vi] The quotes come from a poem by Cynthia Cook, “Refractions,” Womanspirit (Oregan USA, issue 23, March 1980), 59. [vii] This is an Indigenous Australian term for reciprocity – giving and receiving at the same time. I explain it a bit further in PaGaian Cosmology, 256-257. [viii] An expression from Abram, The Spell of the Sensuous, 68. REFERENCES: Abram, David. The Spell of the Sensuous. New York: Vintage Books, 1997. Getty, Adele. Goddess: Mother of Living …

(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.
(Video) 2013 Mago Pilgrimage to Korea by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

[Author’s note: The first Mago Pilgrimage to Korea took place June 6-19, 2013. We visited Ganghwa Island, Seoul, Wonju, Mt. Jiri, Yeong Island (Busan), and Jeju Island.] Read Mago Pilgrimage Essay 1 and Mago Pilgrimage Essay 2. See Meet Mago Contributor, Hae Kyoung Ahn for “Ma Gaia Womb” chant music and Meet Mago Contributor, Helen Hwang Ph.D.
(K-Drama Review 1) Liminal Space/Time into WE: What Hotel del Luna Displays by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

[Author’s Note: Hotel del Luna is a 16-episode Korean television drama aired in 2919. Caution is required for the spoiler. This essay is prompted by this drama, which was discussed in a new class, Experience Korean Culture through Film (EKCF) offered by Mago Academy. I am ever grateful for this opportunity to assess matriversal (read Magoist) soteriology, eschatology, and cosmology implicated in this drama. This drama takes viewers to a liminal time/space. At the liminal timespace, we see how one meets the other. Almost all objects of the drama remind viewers of their liminal property. The female main character, neither living nor dead, stands between the living and the dead. The ghost-serving moon lodge she operates is visible to both ghosts and people. So is the tree of the moon spirit, a symbol for the tree of life or the world tree, which summons the moon lodge to take place. And so are all beings with physical forms. The liminal timespace is where we find ourselves in the Reality of WE/HERE/NOW.] Copyright origin unknown. Part I: Introduction with Synopsis Jang Manwol, the female protagonist, is fixated to the tree of the moon spirit (wolryeongsu 월령수) and entrusted as the representative of the moon lodge, which serves ghosts charged with unrelenting resentments, by the Mago Divine. Mago Halmi (Great Mother, Creatrix), by providing new opportunities, awaits Manwol until she takes actions to relieve her unyielding grudge, caused by the complex socio-political misfortunes in the 7th century. Manwol is, currently neither living nor dead, expected to die and take a ride to the realm of after-life (returning to the origin) just like other ghosts in her lodge. Together with her ghost employees, she operates a large luxurious hotel, Hotel del Luna, the latest name of the moon lodge. Standing in the liminal time/space, the hotel is equipped with an elegantly decorated spacious lobby, a sky-viewing terrace, a horizon-surrounded beach, and an amusement park as well as a multiple number of rooms, each of which is catered to serve the special needs of a ghost guest. At the heart of the lodge is the tree of the moon spirit. The hoteliers welcome ghosts, diagnose the story of han (unresolved resentments) that they carry in themselves and its remedy, and execute plots to resolve resentments in a peaceful manner, to be beneficial to ALL. Upon being healed and rejuvenated with a new perspective on their past lives and the Reality of Intercosmic Life, the ghosts leave the lodge to take the ride to the realm of after-life (jeoseung 저승). The dead are supposed to take this ride to the Origin. Ghosts with unrelenting resentments escapes this route and lingers in the in-between reality of the living and the dead. Until accepting the help of the male protagonist, Gu Chanseong, sent by the Mago Divine, Manwol stubbornly continues to roam around her inbetween space/time. Insofar as she holds onto her own oath to avenge, the tree of the moon spirit remains dormant, seemingly dead. The tree, a visual locus reflecting the inner landscape of Manwol (her predecessors and successors alike), connects ghosts and people and reveals the reality of Life to them. The young man, Chanseong, misses no opportunity to choose the good and to right the wrong in ghosts and people, which is the key to straightening up the entangled karmic consequences. He prompts Manwol to heal herself: She realizes the truth about her betrayer (she was consumed by her anger against him so much so that she could not know the truth; he did not betray her but saved her) and let go of her over-1,300 year-long desire to destroy him. Affected by the grudge-releasing actions of Chanseong, she gradually chooses the path to reconcile with her past, as the Mago Divine wishes for her. The tree of the moon spirit, showing a sign of life again by putting out leaves and flowers, harbingers the end of the moon lodge. Manwol and her ghost employees as well as Chanseong reach the timespace of saying good-bye to move on to the next stage of Life’s cycle. Mawol becomes the last ghost who get helped in her lodge. The Mago Divine is seeking a new owner for the lodge so that ghosts with resentments can continue to be served. The drama is potentially transforming the human psyche from within. Tantalizing, heart-breaking, and frightening stories of the dead and the living stretch the horizon to the whole — the realm of physical life (iseung 이승), the realm of afterlife (jeoseung 저승), and the in-between realm of ghosts. In the sense that its narrative structure is built on the Korean folk belief of Mago Halmi (Great Mother, Crone, and Creatrix), and Magoism, the Way of the Creatrix, I find this drama a composite text of Magoist thealogy (a systematic understanding of Mago, the Creatrix) at the core. What the hoteliers are doing is in fact the role of Mudangs (Korean Shamans). Although Mudangs and Muism (Korean Shamanism) are strikingly absent, the drama resonates with the Muist worldview. The core message is to release unrelenting resentments of the dead on the part of the living. Intriguingly, this drama does not speak directly to humans, “Humans, do not create cheok (hatred or suffering in other beings).” Perhaps, such is too clear a message to articulate. At any rate, we are supposed to gain the lesson by listening to the stories of ghosts. What we see is that troubled ghosts with resentment are helped and guided to the journey of afterlife. The dead are expected to take the ride to the realm of after-life immediately. Ghosts are those who would not follow the path of the dead. Viewers are told why some people become haunting ghosts upon death, why ghosts seek to interfere with humans, and why ghosts are tempted to take revenge upon humans. We may say that ghosts are the confused or disrupted souls. Ghosts face extermination by the Mago Divine if they harm humans or assist an evil ghost. Consequently, evil ghosts are precluded from the cycle of rebirth. That is …