June 2, 2023May 26, 2023 Mago WorkLeave a comment

(Poem) gravity defied by Susan Hawthorne

Life’s a dance, a dance infour lines, eight moveslike the tai chi old women practiseon the Bund in Shanghaior like the twists andturns of acrobats In Egypt she spends a Read More …

June 1, 2023May 27, 2023 Mago WorkLeave a comment

(Essay 1) Future of Identity: Reclaiming the Northern Pagan Tradition by Jillian Burnett

A thousand years of cultural genocide has only ignitied the needs for self-actualization, personal mastery, community, acknowledgement of ancestry, and cultural identity. Born from the ashes of failed indoctrination by Read More …

May 31, 2023May 31, 2023 Mago WorkLeave a comment

(Essay 1) Book of Veles: Storied Instructions by Danica Borkovich Anderson

The Book of Veles, describing the origins of the Slavic, Baltic, Serbian, and Polish tribes is hotly debated, with many in academic fields refuting its authenticity. Written on planks of Read More …

May 30, 2023May 30, 2023 Mago WorkLeave a comment

(Art) The Sovereign Feminine, An INTUIT Card collage meditation by Cynthia Tom

Owning the “Self.” Take the time to remember the Soul purpose you came here to fulfill. Keep the lessons and the love, but shed the negative conditioning from your ancestral Read More …

May 29, 2023May 29, 2023 Mago WorkLeave a comment

(Poem) Sleeping Lady Has an MRI Scan by Abigail Ardelle Zammit

These perfectly poised atoms do not require your artificial excitation. Not when my temple is breathless with homo erectus quivering to test his quill. Too late to channel myself for Read More …

May 27, 2023May 25, 2023 Mago WorkLeave a comment

(Meet Mago Contributor) Abigail Ardelle Zammit

Abigail Ardelle Zammit has had poetry and reviews published in a variety of international journals including Matter, Boulevard, Gutter, Myslexia, Poetry International, The SHOp, Iota, Aesthetica, Ink, Sweat and Tears, Read More …

May 26, 2023April 18, 2023 Mago WorkLeave a comment

(Art) Courage by Glen Rogers

COURAGE: Face each obstacle with courage when opening the door to the unknown. Tap into the Universal Wisdom for strength when making life decisions. Know that you are not alone. From my Spirit Cards, a50 card Read More …

May 25, 2023May 25, 2023 Mago WorkLeave a comment

(S/HE V2 N1 Excerpt) purple horizon by Susan Hawthorne

[This content is from S/HE: An International Journal of Goddess Studies (V2 N1, 2023) Its online edition and paperback are available at Mago Bookstore.]

May 24, 2023April 20, 2023 Mago WorkLeave a comment

Sandhill Cranes – a Nation of Women with Wings by Sara Wright

Historically they used the Eastern flyway but were extirpated by hunting… a slow recovery is in process and the stately Sandhill cranes are once again returning to breed in Maine… Read More …

May 23, 2023May 23, 2023 Mago WorkLeave a comment

(Commemorating Mary Daly 8 ) My Memoirs of Mary Daly (1928-2010) by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

[Author’s Note: My personal encounter with Mary Daly, a U.S. post-Christian feminist thinker, goes back to 1994, if not earlier. I stayed in Korea from 1994-1997 during which I translated Read More …

May 23, 2023May 23, 2023 Mago WorkLeave a comment

(S/HE V2 N1 Excerpt) Shackled by Lilian Broca

[This content is from S/HE: An International Journal of Goddess Studies (V2 N1, 2023) Its online edition and paperback are available at Mago Bookstore.]

May 19, 2023April 20, 2023 Mago Work AdminLeave a comment

(Art & Video) Awakening the Feminine by Cynthia Tom

2017 Solo Exhibition, Awakening the Feminine. Cynthia Tom talks about her art work and process. http://www.cynthiatom.com, http://www.facebook.com/cynthiatomart, http://www.instagram.com/cynthiatom.art Solo Exhibition, Awakening the Feminine. Cynthia Tom talks about her art work Read More …

May 18, 2023April 20, 2023 Mago WorkLeave a comment

(Essay 6) The Myriad Faces, Marvelous Powers, and Thealogy of Greek Goddesses by Mara Lynn Keller, Ph.D.

[Editor’s Note: This and the forthcoming sequels are originally published in Goddesses in Myth, History and Culture (2018 Mago Books). Part 6 discusses nine beliefs and the importance of the Read More …

(Story 1) Freeing the Goddess in Her Outlaw Heart by Carolyn Lee Boyd

Photo by Carolyn Lee Boyd [This fictional story is for all those women who have risked their lives and well being to take on the spiritual stewardship of their communities and the planet over the past millennia.] Part 1 Victoria always knew, but yet didn’t, that she bore the rhythm of the cosmos within her heart. With each beat, blood surged through her body, but at the same time ensured the rising and setting of the sun, the never-ending path of the seasons with the Earth, the soaring of the planets in their orbits, the breathing in and of the universe. It was not always this way. Until a millennia ago, her family had, on a continent far away and since time immemorial, aligned themselves with the rhythm of our planet and the worlds above and below through rituals and prayers to the goddess of the land. When their traditions were outlawed, one of her ancestors, unknown and unnamed, welcomed her goddess, and so also the cycles of the cosmos, into her body and those of her descendants to save the generations to come. The gift and burden of this inheritance was, after centuries, eventually passed to Victoria and she obliviously carried it for five decades. Then, when her body could no longer stand the strain, her heart would sometimes lurch as if trying to flee its cage and time would slip out of sync. Her kitchen stove clock would move forward a half-hour when she turned her back for a moment, or friend would call in the afternoon and start the same morning’s conversation, and so on. Over the day, time would right itself, but it was disconcerting. Assuming her problem was medical and maybe even psychiatric, she consulted a doctor, who told her that her heart was burning out from unknown stress. The doctor had never seen such a thing before and had no treatment for it. It was just a matter of time before her heart would simply stop, the doctor said, and apologized for the failings of modern medicine. Victoria told her it wasn’t her fault and went home. That evening, she stood outside her cottage, oriented herself to the North Star and waited, as she had done in times of trouble since childhood. Her mother had always made sure she could recognize the constellations and knew how they moved from dusk to dawn and season to season. Sometimes an answer to her dilemma would come as she contemplated the story of one constellation or another, but often she would just come to understand the solution as she watched the stars in their slow journey across the sky. This evening, however, the constellations were all wrong. Some were missing altogether and others had appeared that Victoria had never seen before. She watched to see if they would right themselves until she fell asleep leaning against a giant oak in her yard. When she awoke a couple of hours later, all was as it should be in the heavens. “I was out in this very field last night and I didn’t see a thing,” her cousin Sheila said the next afternoon. Victoria had dropped by Sheila’s farm to tell her what happened and ask her if she had noticed anything odd about the constellations recently. Victoria knew that Sheila paid close attention to the skies for clues as to the weather and changes in the seasons as part of implementing traditional agricultural techniques on her farm, which she hoped to pass down to her daughter and son someday. “Whatever is going on, it isn’t good news for farmers who follow old-time methods. A lot of the when to plant or harvest depends on when something happens in the sky. Our ancestor farmers would have been at their stone circles the next night doing ceremonies and praying to the goddess of the land and sky to get everything back into their right places. Of course, when our family settled on this continent a few generations ago, they left the knowledge of all that behind so we’re out of luck,” Sheila said. They looked at each other silently for a long time till they realized that there was really nothing more to say. So Sheila went back to teaching her daughter and son how to harvest their winter wheat with a scythe instead of a machine, moving slowly and carefully across the field. “It takes longer,” she had told Victoria, “but you begin to feel a part of the soil. It’s worth it.” (To be continued) (Meet Mago Contributor) Carolyn Lee Boydhttps://www.magoism.net/2016/08/meet-mago-contributor-carolyn-lee-boyd/
(Call for Contributions) On the Coronavirus and Your Goddess Feminist Activist Spirituality

October 14, 2021 Update: Dear ongoing or new contributors, Hope this finds you well and safe. It feels like we have been passingthrough a long tunnel. It’s been nearly 2 years since we fell underthe covid pandemic rule globally. When survival is the primary goal,it is really hard to push for an accomplishment. Maybe survival itselfis an accomplishment. Hope you did not stop writing or creating duringthis challenging period! Please consider resuming your ongoing or newcontributions if you haven’t submitted in a while. Share your pains,worries, and nightmares as well as wisdom, revelation, and discoveriesthrough RTM! Your struggle and experience when shared spark a new firein us and around us. And I, as an editor representative, can’t stophere, when our collective voices need to say in unison, “The RealMother Time is just beginning HERE/NOW!” Once we are newly settledpast the pandemic, I would like to pass the office of the RTM editorrepresentative. Please let me know if you are interested and can serveRTM as the editor representative. Till then, I will be standing hereto hold down the stronghold! Thank you and blessings! https://www.magoism.net/people/call-for-contribution/ I look forward to hearing from you soon,Helen The coronavirus outbreak is changing human behaviors on a global level, marking a watershed in which individuals, organizations, and states/nations no longer lead the same lifestyle as before the covid19 world. Where are we, humans, heading to? What are our concerns among Goddess feminists, activists, and spiritual practitioners, broadly defined? The Return to Mago E-Magazine Editorial seeks contributions on your response to the changes manifesting on any level. Please don’t hesitate to share your insights or observations in a form of art, poetry, prose, essay or project with our international readers and to the world. Following questions may help guide one: How does the coronavirus outbreak affect you, your work, and your attitudes toward life?What changes do you see taking place in people, culture, state, religion, environment, and/or the natural world? How do you see animals and plants respond to human quarantines? Where and how do you draw strength at this time?What are my insights or observations? How to submit your contribution, please see here, Call for Contributions.
Strike the Ground with Thunder and Lightning, Bring Forth the Gentle Spring by Carolyn Lee Boyd

Brook, photo by Carolyn Boyd Strike the Ground with Thunder and Lightning, Bring Forth the Gentle Spring by Carolyn Lee Boyd Drought has dropped a mantle of lifelessness over the land where I live in New England. On every inch of dusty soil, thirsty mouths and desiccated roots cry for water under an ever-luminous blue sky. In my 34 years of living here, I have never experienced a drought where trees fall over because their roots have shriveled up, where rivers and brooks have stopped flowing, where farmers are unsure whether they can produce the food I eat every day. Each morning I have anxiously searched for life-giving rain in the ghostly, wispy clouds. Finally, late summer thunder and lightning storms have appeared like a miraculous maelstrom gift from the cosmos Herself. I stand in the midst of the falling rain and booming clouds, in the soundbox of the planet’s drumming, and begin to vibrate with the energetic resonance of the furor playing on the planet’s surface. In the mist of the downpour, I think of the Celtic lightning goddess Tlachtga. Her name means Earth Spear. She gave birth to triplets, then died, bestowing her power on the land. In ancient times, Ireland’s people gathered on the hill at Samhain to honor the sacred bonfire that evoked both light in the coming darkness and the promise of rebirth. Other goddess stories also speak of the connections between lightning and thunder, power, and renewal. Japan’s Naru-Kami made the land sacred by throwing lightning bolts. The Etruscan Uni tosses thunderbolts when angry, but eases childbirth when she is pleased while the Finnish thunder goddess Rauni incarnated in a rowan tree and brought forth plant life on Earth. These goddesses who sanctify the land and renew life mirror the benefits of thunder and lightning storms on the Earth’s environment in yet another example of 21st century science echoing ancient knowledge. Thunderstorms cool and soothe the Earth’s atmosphere. They also keep Earth’s positive and negative charges in balance. Lightning frees up nitrogen which falls in the rain, combining with minerals to form nitrates, an essential fertilizer for plants. Electrical storms even help stop climate change and protect the ozone layer. I feel the effects of the drought on the living beings around me in my bones. As the life force of the plants and animals ebbs, so does my own spirit. I began to ponder what these storm goddesses may tell us about spiritual droughts, those times when faith in life’s renewal seems to have abandoned us. This faith, this wellspring of spirit, is how we transform ourselves, each other, and the world. It is the foundation of hope that keeps us on our life paths each day. At one time I thought that this wellspring of spirit was a component of myself within me; it was something that I “owned,” and was just waiting to be discovered. But the wisdom of these goddesses tells a different tale. In fact, like physical lightning and thunder, if you try to grab it and hoard it, it will dissipate, even wound. How many times have I felt a connection to the Earth and the essence of regeneration only to have it disappear in isolation from others with whom to celebrate it, then felt despair because of my loss? Only if I use this wellspring to heal the Earth, myself, and other beings will its gentle, sweet strength restore and revive me. The symbol of lightning and thunder for this wellspring is especially apt because it is a flow, like electricity or the movement of air. It is most powerful when we receive it from someone else, amplify it, and pass it along. So often in women’s circles I am stunned by the energy that moves through the circle when women are speaking truth, or singing, or dancing together. It fills me with well being and I am energized for days. In fact, I remember one circle from 20 years ago where the leader said that we can all return to the energy of the circle any time after it is over, and I have found that to be true. This wellspring connects us to the universal cycle of birth, death, and rebirth that is part of goddess traditions around the world. Lightning and thunder are essential to the Earth’s water cycle in which rain falls, evaporates, then comes back to the Earth. And, so, too, we need to remember that sometimes we need to let what no longer serves us pass away before we can be renewed. We have to be able to let go, to allow some things to evaporate from our lives, before we can experience rebirth. Finally, once the storm has passed, the water that lightning and thunder have bestowed on the Earth flows gently into streams, brooks, and oceans. Sometimes we need to be mighty and fierce like the storms, telling the truth, advocating for change, being steadfast in our demands for the health of the Earth and those who live on Her. But sometimes a spring that bubbles up is as much a manifestation of this wellspring as the clamor and roar of the ferocious storm. Sometimes what is needed is a quiet touch or gentle speech. It is our task to know what is needed and channel that which is most beneficial. Could it be that the goddesses of thunder and lightning are giving us an answer as to how we can change the course of climate change that is causing the global droughts and floods as well as our own spiritual droughts? Only by allowing ourselves to be refreshed occasionally from our spiritual wellsprings can we find the hope and energy to get down to the advocacy and everyday hard fieldwork needed to revive our planet and ourselves. I am reminded of those forests destroyed by fire that in a year or two are full of new saplings and wildflowers and see both the Earth’s fate and myself …
(Art 9) Yemeja, Ishtar, Infancy the very beginning of by Megha

Keeper of our spirits, carrier of our prayers to the four corners of the universe 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
(Poem) Signifyin’ Woman by Louisa Calio

Louisa Calio reading at Shirley Foundation, New Haven Rumor has it she was born a gypsy on the streets of Palermo, Sicily Then again, some say it was on the bay of Naples While others claim she was made in New Orleans under one of those giant trees with roots that go down so deep they reach into the earth’s center. Trees with arms so long, high and wide they come out and grab you like the Great Mama. The dark bark betrays our true origins Straight from the core she’s come with silvery lips, wide hips, menstrual blood and Oracular Visions Part witch and bewitching she refuses to be from one place or one race. SHE travels… in any skins, many skins, spotted like the leopard, black as the panther white as the milk in her mama’s rosy-red breasts. She is red tongues licking fire a bold soul, an old soul, backyard worshipper and gypsy wanderer. Sicilian queen, a dew’s drop on mint green pure, liquid, mercury the sharp in turns the quick in glances, a grain of sand in the Sahara & between cracks of concrete. She is the wavelength Green, a fish-bellied, crab-crawling, moon-child secret reptile, Virgin & Mean…the final curtain the call before the Great Silencing…. a Global-eye, spy the rhythm and the drumbeat of eternity the curse of blessedness all female feminine woman Madonna- puttana, the funneling that germinates Seeeeedzzzz. The veiling revealed! unsettling, rumbling, pulsating speech earthquaking, rumbling and shaking like she when she walks and sways her hips. YOU got to admit she is Bee-loved by everything and everyone. Life’ssssssssssssss final, exhausting, suffering moment when the word is made flesh. I hate to admit it, but I’m one of her devotees this Evocateur of Haitian lore a day’s last ray of sun the light, a fright, forbidden fruit, Jew and jewel. A pure love that instructs, rising from the cavity of womb instinctual patterning, dancer prototype woman/ goddess- be damned and man-made manifest …sting…… Earthworm creeper, digger of holes, deeper The Holiest One, collector of insects and pets the source of intrigue, the rage in rivers and all that flows… is Oh, soooo BEAUTY –Filled an instrument of divine… “mercy, mercy, mercy /me /” mus i cal gal, pal, Louis Prima’s sista signifying woman! (Winner first prize International Competition Canicatti Sicily 2017) https://www.magoism.net/2015/06/meet-mago-contributor-louisa-calio/
Meet Mago Contributor, Trista Hendren

Trista Hendren founded Girl God Books in 2011 to support a necessary unraveling of the patriarchal world view of divinity. Her first book—The Girl God, a children’s picture book—was a response to her own daughter’s inability to see herself reflected in God. Since then, she has published more than 40 books by a dozen women from across the globe with help from her family and friends. Originally from Portland, Oregon, she now lives in Bergen, Norway. You can learn more about her projects at www.thegirlgod.com.
(Art & Poem) Summer Solstice by Sudie Rakusin & Annie Finch
[Essay] Do you remember? by Kaalii Cargill

Procession. Mural panel, 2010. 3 x .5 metres. Acrylic and enamel. Kaalii Cargill In 1999 I submitted my PhD thesis exploring mindbody birth control. In the tradition of ancient women’s mysteries, mindbody birth control is a way women can manage fertility through a process of internal regulation, without using drugs, synthetic hormones, or physical devices, and without abstaining at any time during the fertility cycle. This method involves an internal mindbody process that allows women to choose whether or not to conceive, regardless of the time in the menstrual cycle, unprotected sex, or any other factors that are “normally” considered to affect reproduction. The result is true reproductive autonomy, a reclaiming of deep inner wisdom and power. It is a practical experience of what can happen when ancient mysteries of Goddess are rediscovered by modern women. Mindbody birth control is a simple practice, but very few women spontaneously develop it, and most women doubt that they can successfully use it. This is one example of the profound and lasting damage done to the creativity and autonomy of women over the last five or six millennia. The destruction of women’s wisdom and mysteries means that it takes strenuous effort and much courage for a woman today to find her way to the inner ground of true wisdom, strength, and choice. For many women, it is easier to disbelieve or ignore the possibility of a practice like mindbody birth control (and other creative life choices) than to confront the legacy of terrible, aching loss and terror that is the result of millennia of violent disenfranchisement. As my PhD research developed, I became fearful of exploring and revealing this material. Even though I knew rationally that there was no current tangible threat of persecution, there was still a deep fear about exploring a practice that had, in all probability, been the cause of persecution at other times in history. To propose a method of birth control that offers women true reproductive autonomy is radical, and some of the accompanying ideas are subversive of current consensus reality, but my fearful response was irrational and out of place in the current time. It did, however, make me more aware of the impact of cultural-historical conditioning. Anxiety often accompanies an exploration that deviates markedly from current consensus reality. The drastic and usually fatal treatment of anyone who deviated from the collective rules at various times and places has left a legacy of collective paranoia that is alleviated by conforming to consensus reality. It is easier to stay quiet, conform to the rules, and not take risks. It is easier to stay with our illusions, even when we are dissatisfied and depressed, even when we know better. So much has been lost. In my life, the context for transformation has been my experience of Goddess. This has demanded a change in the way I perceive reality. Archaic, magical, and mythical images and voices of Goddess and women have formed the core of this process. These figures in my dreams and active imagination insisted that I engage this task as a personal exploration, telling my soul story as one part of the reemergence of Goddess. My experiences have convinced me that Goddess is a force that is alive and well even after thousands of years of banishment, a force that informs our exploration of women’s mysteries and, at times, demands that we do so. The dramatic imagery in some of my dreams reminds me that this is serious business. The discontinuity of oral traditions leaves us ungrounded and uncertain. This loss of women’s ways of being threatens our existence as a species, from the basic principle of mother right to the respect for Nature and the reverence for life in general. Reclaiming women’s ways of being is more difficult than it would first appear. There are collective forces that would keep us from the embrace of Great Mother, Goddess in her many forms. To be born a woman today means that you are a daughter in an unbroken line of mothers and daughters back to the beginning of time. To reclaim even a part of the wisdom of this heritage, to remember the true life-giving power of Goddess, challenges thousands of years of conditioning that wanted us to forget. Do you remember? Meet Mago Contributor Kaalii Cargill
A Scottish Photo Essay by Jude Lally

A collection of photos from the Isle of Eigg, in the lands of the Ancestral Mothers of Scotland Guided by the bones Yellow iris Window view from Croft #6 – a historic croft Inspired by the lands of the Mother Honoring the Cailleach Honoring the ‘Big Women’ of the island. The Gaelic name of Eilean Nam Ban Mora translates to the English, Isle of the Bg Women At the Well of the Holy Women The Gloaming (Scottish twilight) On shell beach at 10.45 pm Looking out from the Oracles Chamber Watching seals play in the water A little Hebridean scene in needle felting it might be the middle of summer but chilly nights require a rather lovely woodier My clay woman – connecting me to the generations and generations of women who created figurines as they petitioned the Great Mother (Meet Mago Contributor) Jude Lally.

(Special Post) Discussion on Mother-Daughter Wound by Mago Circle Members

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

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

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

The ‘passing of last Summer’s growth’ as is experienced and contemplated in the Season of Deep Autumn/Samhain, may be a metaphor for the passing of all/any that has come to fullness of being, or that has had a fullness, a blossoming of some kind, and borne fruit; and in the passing it has been received, and thus transforms. The ‘passing of last Summer’s growth’ may be in hearts and minds, an event or events, a period of time, or an era, that was a deep communion, now passed and dissolved into receptive hearts and minds, where it/they reside for reconstitution, within each unique being. Samhain is traditionally understood as ‘Summer’s end’: indeed that is what the word ‘Samhain’ means. In terms of the seasonal transitions in indigenous Old European traditions, Summer is understood as over when the Seasonal Moment of Lammas/Lughnasad comes around; it is the first marked transition after the fullness of Summer Solstice. The passing and losses may have been grieved, the bounty received, thanksgiving felt and expressed, perhaps ceremonially at Autumn Equinox/Mabon; yet now in this Season of Samhain/Deep Autumn it composts, clearly falls, as darkness and cooler/cold weather sets in, change is clearer. In the places where this Earth-based tradition arose, Winter could be sensed setting in at this time, and changes to everyday activity had to be made. In our times and in our personal lives, we may sense this kind of ending, when change becomes necessary, no longer arbitrary: and the Seasonal Moment of Samhain may be an excellent moment for expressing these deep truths, telling the deep story, and making meaning of the ending, as we witness such passing. What new shapes will emerge from the infinite well of creativity? And we may wonder what will return from the dissolution? What re-solution will be found? We may wonder what new shapes will emerge. In the compost of what has been, what new syntheses, new synergies, may come forth? Now is the time for dreaming, for drawing on the richness within, trusting the sentience, within which we are immersed, and which we are: and then awaiting the arrival, being patient with the fermentation and gestation. Seize the moment, this Moment – and converse with the depths within your own bodymind, wherein She is. Make space for the sacred conversation, the Conversing with your root and source of being, and take comfort in this presence. We may ponder what yet unkown beauty and wellness may emerge from this infinite well of creativity. The Samhain Moment in the Northern Hemisphere is 17:14 UT 7thNovember this year. Wishing you a sense of the deep communion present in the sacred space you make for this holy transition.
(Art & Poem) Candelmas/Imbolc by Sudie Rakusin & Annie Finch

IMBOLC DANCE From the east she has gathered like wishes. She has woven a night into dawn. We are quickening ivy. We grow where her warmth melts out over the ice. Now spiral south bends into flame to push the morning over doors. The light swings wide, green with the pulse of seasons, and we let her in We are quickening ivy. We grow The light swings wide, green with the pulse till the west is rocked by darkness pulled from where the fire rises. Shortened time’s reflecting water rakes her through the thickened cold. Hands cover north smooth with emptiness, stinging the mill of night’s hours. Wait with me. See, she comes circling over the listening snow to us. Shortened time’s reflecting water Wait with me. See, she comes circling From Calendars (Tupelo Press, 2003) Art is included in Celebrating Seasons of the Goddess (Mago Books, 2017). (Meet Mago Contributor) Sudie Rakusin (Meet Mago Contributor) Annie Finch

(2014 Mago Pilgrimage Report 1) Sweat Lodge in Gyodong, Ganghwa Islands by Helen Hwang

[Author’s Note: Revised verison of this report is published in Celebrating the Seasons of the Goddess (Lytle Creek, CA: Mago Books, 2017). 2014 Mago Pilgrimage to Korea (Oct. 7-Oct. 20) was participated by a culturally mixed group of pilgrims from the U.S. Australia, and Korea. Among non-Koreans were Dr. Glenys Livingstone (co-facilitator), Mr. Robert (Taffy) Seaborne, and Ms. Rosemary Mattingly. For details, read 2014 Mago Pilgrimage. View the video on our visit to Ganghwa Islands by Robert (Taffy) Seaborne.] 2014 Mago Pilgrimage granted me ever unfolding revelations. The first of them that I would like to mention concerned the sweat lodge called Hanjeung-mak (汗蒸幕, Chamber of chill and steam).[1] Until we visited the traditional sweat lodge in Gyodong, Ganghwa Island, it did not occur to me that the origin of its modern variations[2] has to do with the rebirthing experience in the Womb of Mago. (Here Mago means the Great Goddess or the Primordial Mother.)
(Essay 2) Magoist Cetaceanism and the Myth of the Pacifying Flute (Manpasikjeok) by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.

Reversing the Reversed of the Buddhist Textual Erasure (Part 1) Dragon Loop and Sound Tube in the Temple Bell of Silla (57 BCE-935 CE) Restored Sillan Temple Bell (8-9th C), excavated in Uncheong-dong, Cheongju Among the many Sillan Magoist Cetacean expressions which stands out is the temple bell, traditionally known as the Whale Bell (鯨鍾 Gyeongjong). The Whale Bell, a signature device of Sillan Magoist Cetaceanism, has two distinctive features, the dragon loop and the sound tube. The dragon loop functions to hang the bell, which occurs in Chinese and Japanese bells as well. This is not to say that the dragon in Chinese and Japanese counterparts are the same as that of the Korean temple bell, a point which was discussed in an earlier part of my essay on the Korean temple bell. However, the sound tube is a feature exclusively present in Korean temple bells, which is, among others, a hallmark of the Korean temple bell, distinguished from its Chinese and Japanese counterparts. Cast adjacent to each other in the bell head, the two are depicted as if the dragon is carrying the sound tube on its back (see the image). By pinpointing the sound tube, a group of Korean scholars (Suyeong Hwang and Donghae Gwak) posit that the sound tube is a replication of the pacifying flute that defeats all (萬波息笛 Manpasikjeok), the seventh century Sillan treasure. Put differently, the Korean temple bell is an innovative remake of the pacifying flute, which is uniquely Sillan. To support their contention, they draw attention to the fact that the sound tube of some Korean temple bells comes in the form of bamboo nodes. Indeed, while most temple bells show the design of nodes etched in the upright pipe, some from the Goryeo period (910-1392) specify the nodes as those of a bamboo tree.[1] Ironically, the bell with the design of bamboo nodes is a whale-effacing variation of earlier Sillan ones with decorative nodes. The Sillan temple bells replicate the bamboo-looking cetacean flute not a bamboo-made flute. This indicates that the Buddhist erasure of Magoist Cetaceanism was gaining hegemony in the Goryeo period. In any case, what does the bamboo-like node design have to do with the pacifying flute? According to the myth of the pacifying flute, the pacifying flute is made from a mysterious bamboo tree grown in a mysteriously floating mountain in the sea. And the dragon loop is no mere functional or decorative design. In the story, the dragon presents the pacifying flute to King Sinmun the Great, the protagonist, with the message that he would be ruling the whole world with the sound. Even if agreeing that the pacifying flute is replicated as the sound tube, there is an enigma yet to be unraveled. How is the sound tube or the pacifying flute related with whales? What is the role of the dragon with regards to whales? Answering these questions requires reinstating the lost name for whales in the myth of the pacifying flute. Temple Bell in the Early Goryeo Period with the sound tube resembling bamboo nodes, Samseon-am in Jinju, South Gyeongsang Temple Bell in the Late Goryeo Period with the sound tube resembling bamboo nodes Truth is that the myth of the pacifying flute written in the Samguk Yusa (Memorabilia of the Three States), the 13th century Korean Buddhist text that depicts the mytho-history of Korea ultimately Buddhist, comes to us as an altered story. There involved a Buddhist obfuscation of Magoist Cetaceanism. As background, the Buddhist church could not but embrace folk and Shamanic practices in order to reach out to the populace. It must be said that the Buddhist church did not kill or antagonize Magoist Cetacean folk practices. Although seemingly peaceful, however, Buddhist authority aimed at the goal of a patriarchal religion: To subdue and coopt pre-patriarchal spiritual and folk practices, which is gynocentric and cetacean. The evidence of Magoist Cetaceanism had to be dismantled but not completely destroyed. To subdue the public recognition of Magoist Cetaceanism, Ilyeon, its Buddhist monk author, replaces the whale, a narwhal in particular, with “a moving mountain in the sea” and the tusk of a narwhal with “a bamboo tree growing atop the mountain.” By undoing the linguistic harness, we are able to assess the seventh century Sillan Magoist Cetaceanism. It is possible to reconstruct the cogent Magoist Cetacean story of the pacifying flute. At one point of time before the 13th century when the Samguk Yusa was written, there likely existed an original version of the story, which articulates the narwhal (외뿔고래 Oeppul Gorae or 일각고래 Ilgak Gorae) and its single tusk (Oeppul). If we reverse “a moving mountain” to “a pod of whales” and “the bamboo tree” with “the tusk of a narwhal,” the myth of the pacifying flute would make a perfect sense as follows: (A hypothetically original account of the Manpasikjeok myth) King Sinmun ordered the completion of Gameunsa (Graced Temple) to commemorate his deceased father, King Munmu. The main hall of Gameunsa was designed at the sea level to allow the dragon to enter and stroll through the ebb and flow of the sea waves. In the second year of his reign (682 CE), Marine Officer reported that a pod of whales (a little mountain) in the Sea of Whales (East Sea) was approaching Gameunsa. The king had Solar Officer perform a divination. The divination foretold that he would be given a treasure with which he could protect Wolseong (Moon Stronghold), Silla’s capital. This would be a gift from King Munmu who became a sea dragon and Gim Yusin who became a heavenly being again. In seven days, the king went out to Yigyeondae (Platform of Gaining Vision) and saw the whale (the mountain) floating like a turtle’s head in the sea. There was a bamboo-tree-like tusk (a bamboo tree growing) on its top, which became two during the day and one at night. The king stayed overnight in Gameumsa to listen to the dragon who entered the yard …
(Budoji Essay 1) The Magoist Cosmogony by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

“The Great Goddess Myth is the first and last revelation to humankind. Where the Primordial Mother is, there is Home!” Part 1 Introduction When I first read the Budoji (Epic of the Emblem City), the principal text of Magoism, my life journey took an unexpected turn. The power of the Magoist cosmogony began to work on me, and suddenly I was returning Home with/to/in Mago, the Great Goddess! Before, “Home” had seemed an unreal destination, a mirage that lured voyagers to its abyss of nowhere. I had been stripped of “Home.” The Magoist cosmogony gifted me with a vision of what I had been seeking as a feminist voyager. I meant to return Home. In Mago, I felt no longer free-floating, but this was not without its price. My radical feminist searches brought me no material benefits; rather, to become Myself was the reward. Layer after layer of patriarchal deception had to be peeled off. And for women who, like me, came from the non-Western, formerly colonized world, reversing the reversals required a deeper analysis of racism, ethnocentrism, and colonialism. I underwent the process of becoming Me, a process which also led me to WE. Personally, Homecoming means an integration of myself within the mytho-historical-cultural context of Magoism. However, Homecoming in the Great Goddess can never be an isolated individual act. Magoism unfolds the Primordial Home wherein all beings are kindred. The Primordial Home is for everyone. Everyone is destined to return Home in the Great Goddess because She is Here for us all. She will be Here for as long as humanity survives. Homecoming is a harbinger; it signals the arrival of WE, a very old concept that was misconstrued if not tabooed in patriarchy. The nature of my life has changed. “I” is no longer in the way of “WE.” “I” and “WE” do not stand against each other. Furthermore, “I” is transformed by “WE,” just as are all things in the universe. Scalar turns to vector. Chaos yields to order. The labyrinth leads to the Source. My feminism is rewarded with gynocentrism, the Goddess Matrix in which the female principle by far surpasses patriarchy. As many admit, Myth, the story of the divine, is etiological, meaning it explains the origin of things. I hold that only the gynocentric cosmogonic myth can be fully etiological, shedding light on the primal beginning. Myth is inherently gynocentric, for it is derived from the perception of the Primordial Mother, the oldest divine in human history. Put differently, Myth tells us that the Divine is She, that Female is the original divine. Myth is ultimately inseparable from the Great Goddess. The Primordial Mother is the macrocosmic translation of a mother. She is the Metaphor for life-giver and life-raiser. Divinity issues from Her. In Her, everything, including the God, is endowed with divinity. The etiological and metaphoric nature of Myth is fully illumined only in the story of the female beginning. The Goddess Myth told to/by us testifies to what patriarchy can’t or doesn’t tell. It is a language distinguished from that of patriarchy, dominating if not violent. The nature of Its language is persuasive and pacific. The truth It tells awakens one to Home. It is intrinsically soteriological, and herein lies the urgency of Myth: It shows the Way that humanity needs to know and follow in order to survive and flourish. The Great Goddess Myth is the first and last revelation to humankind. Where the Primordial Mother is, there is Home! Mago is not necessarily the “creator” of things. In the Magoist cosmogony, there is no one who created or creates anything alone. (I have used the term “cosmogony” in place of “creation” to avoid the conflation of Magoist thought with the origin-stories of patriarchal religions.) Instead, all things are interdependent and the power of auto-genesis is embedded within the universe itself. In explaining that, the Magoist cosmogony does not employ a magical or a logical jump. In the time of beginning, cosmic rays dance in accordance with the law of nature. Mago and primordial matter are self-born through the movement of cosmic music. Mago is, above all, the Cause of human existence. All things on Earth are indebted to Mago for She initiated the process auto-genesis of the Earth itself. In short, She is the Source of Life on Earth. Without Her, nothing is possible for us.

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