Review: The Morrigan by Morgan Daimler

February 12, 2016

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Following up on my post last month about Celtic raven goddesses, I wanted to review this book about the goddess Morrigan, who was mentioned in that post.

The Morrigan: Meeting the Great Queens by Morgan Daimler is another installment of the Moon Books Pagan Portals series. It is a short book, under a hundred pages, but contains in-depth material nonetheless. It discusses the Irish triple goddess from early Irish literary and historical sources. Other Irish goddesses associated with or mentioned in conjunction with the Morrigan are also explored. If you are looking for a way through the baffling and contradictory literature about these goddesses your hopes are dashed. Daimler mostly confirms that the sources really are that confused and confusing. Needless to say, this is not a book for the casual reader. Still, those who worship Irish goddesses and are drawn to Irish Paganism will find it worthwhile. There are invocations, meditations, and personal recollections that break up the text, as well as short essays on general topics related to the Morrigan such as “dark goddesses.”

The Morrigan is written from a Pagan Reconstructionist perspective, with the limitations and prejudices this implies. It hints at the tensions between fundamentalists and reformationists in modern practice, which I find interesting rather than off-putting. Usually this “discussion” consists of Reconstructionists sniping at non-Reconstructionists and non-Reconstructionists rolling their eyes and ignoring Reconstructionists. I’ve decided that the time has come for some pushback from the other team and will be unleashing some well overdue criticism against Reconstructionism in an article I am writing for an upcoming anthology. I will eviscerate the Reconstructionists with incisive commentary worthy of the old Irish satirists. Morrigan has spoken: the war is on.

In With the New

January 1, 2016

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The year begins in an auspicious way with the publication of the Moon Books anthology Pagan Planet: Being, Believing, and Belonging in the 21st Century. This is a book about how Pagans in the Millennium are living their religion: some through activism, some through family, some through community involvement, all through conscious practice. This is an inspirational and varied collection of writings, one that looks beyond theory to real world practice. Yours truly has an essay included here, about practice in a wilderness environment.

I have three longer essays that I expect will be published this year in various anthologies. One is a feminist look at the self-help industry and another is about Native American roots of the Goddess Movement. I am finishing up a piece on witchcraft with the scorpion.

And of course I am working on another book. This one will move deeper into animal magic with a focus on divination. This is where I am devoting the bulk of my energies right now.

Here’s to a productive and enjoyable year!

Book Review Program Coming Next Week

December 11, 2015

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The online review of women’s spirituality books published in 2015 will be this Wednesday December 16th at 3:00 pm Eastern Standard Time. You can access the program meeting room starting at 2:45 pm with this link:

2015 Goddess/Feminine Divine Books

Type your name and enter as a guest; no password or registration required. You may be asked to download an “add-in” from Adobe Software to configure your device for the meeting room.

There will also be an interview with poet Elizabeth Hardy. This program is offered in conjunction with the Mago Academy Nine Day Solstice Program.

A more detailed description of the program was given in last week’s post.

Here is the Program: Day 3 Mago Solstice, 2015 Books

December 4, 2015

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Stay in touch with emerging concepts in Goddess spirituality. Join us for a review of spiritually oriented books published in 2015. The program will be live at 3:00 pm EST on December 16th. There will be a mixture of essays, nonfiction, fiction, and poetry.

To access program live on the day of the broadcast use this link:
https://hearthmoonrising.adobeconnect.com/solsticebooks2015/

Type your name and enter as a guest: no registration needed. Program can be accessed by desktop, laptop, tablet or mobile phone. You may be asked to download an add-in by Adobe Software if your device is not configured for the meeting room. Go ahead and click okay; it’s safe and fast.

A link to the recording will be available the day following the program on this blog.

The program will include a live interview with Elizabeth Hardy, author of Female Sperm Whale … and other [feminist] poems

The following books will also be featured:

Healing Your Feminine Essence: A Transformative Journey Within for Women Who Wish to Be Free by Marie de Kock

Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots and Restoring Earth Community by Pegi Eyers

Locust Girl: A Lovesong by Merlinda Bobis

The Mago Way: Re-Discovering Mago, the Great Goddess from East Asia (vol i) by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang

She Rises: Why Goddess Feminism, Activism, and Spirituality? edited by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang and Kaalii Cargill

More on the Mago Nine Day Solstice Program here.

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More on the Book Discussion for Nine Day Solstice Celebration

November 6, 2015

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On December 16th, as part of the Mago Nine Day Solstice Celebration, I will be hosting a program on Goddess/Feminine Divine books published in 2015. This will be online, and you can join through a link the way you may have participated in online meetings. The link will be posted here and probably a few other places as well. I will have slides of these books and I will read a brief description of the books and authors. There will also be a few interviews.

The program will be live at 3:00 Eastern Standard Time on December 16. I will be recording the event and the recording will be available for nine days.

I still am looking for submissions. Anything of a feminist spirituality slant is acceptable; it doesn’t have to be about goddesses. The book can be non-fiction, fiction or poetry. Also, you don’t have to be interviewed to have your book included. More details about submitting your work here.

The Mago Way: Rediscovering Mago, the Great Goddess from East Asia (Review)

October 23, 2015

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When I began my own Goddess studies, I devoured the “Great Goddess,” “Gods and Goddesses of the World,” and “World Mythology” compilations that were available and noticed the complete absence of information about Korean goddesses. In some ways this is reflective of the nature of these anthologies, which attempt to move beyond Euro-centrism while avoiding the production of a huge, unwieldy, and costly volume. Paradoxically, this world overview approach creates or reinforces a chauvinism of its own. What becomes distilled for comparative study reflects the amount of material available. In the 1980s there didn’t seem to be anything in English for a casual reader about Korean goddesses. I can’t say that with authority, because finding Korean goddesses wasn’t exactly a mission of mine; only an absence that registered without my thinking too deeply about it. Helen Hye-Sook Hwang’s The Mago Way: Rediscovering Mago, the Great Goddess from East Asia, is a welcome and much-needed addition to Goddess studies that begins to fill this void.

Although The Mago Way mentions Korean goddesses, it is not about goddesses per se but about a Korean way of conceptualizing the Great Goddess. Except this conceptualization is not just Korean, but an understanding of Goddess cosmology that crosses national, ethnic, and geographic borders, using an ancient Korean manuscript as a foundational text. This manuscript, The Budoji, is an origin story believed to have been written in the 5th century.

The Budoji tells of the self-creation of the Great Goddess, called Mago, as a primordial sound emanating from a wave of light. Mago gives birth parthenogenically to daughters, two of them, who in turn each give birth to four daughters. Mago’s eight granddaughters create music attuned with Mago and move the “eight planets” in harmony with Mago’s vibration. The granddaughters are proto-humans, establishing four races. They in turn give birth to male and female humans, establishing the sexes.

Mago with Deer. Painting Seokgyeong, 14th Century.
Mago with Deer. Painting Seokgyeong, 14th Century.

Hwang traces Mago through folktales, other goddesses, and place names throughout East Asia. She describes how Taoism, Buddhism, and Confusionism are derivative of the ancient Mago Goddess religion, shedding more light on these philosophies. She finds parallels with Magoism in the Greek Muses and Hindu Matrikas. She says “Mago’s affinity to other Goddesses becomes ever evident when we examine how the triad and parthenogenesis, the two paramount themes of the Magoist Myth, are in ancient gynocentric cultures and religions around the world.” Hwang demonstrates a strong background in radical feminist thealogy and shows how Mago fits within this framework.

The Mago Way is fairly short and readable, with illustrations. It is introductory, rather than comprehensive, and Hwang promises to go into the mythology in more depth in future volumes. I am not in any way qualified to assess Hwang’s scholarship; still, I sense this is an important book. I would not consider this volume esoteric or specialized in any way, but a valuable addition to overall Goddess studies.

Call for Contributions

September 18, 2015

Painting by Harriette Ronner
Painting by Harriet Ronner
Seeking contributions from authors whose books were published or will be published in 2015 for an hour-long presentation and discussion during the Nine Days of Solstice event December 16. Books must have a spiritual feminist focus and can be fiction, nonfiction, or poetry. Books only! No articles, CDs, or videos. Publication date must be 2015. Submit a picture of the book cover and your own photo in jpeg format along with a 100-200 word summary of your book in a Microsoft Word or Text file. Also include a 1 or 2 sentence biography. State whether you would be available for a short live interview and if so whether you have a WebCam. Interview and WebCam are optional. Entries will be selected to provide a good mixture of material for an hour long program and not all entries will be included. Authors selected for interview will be notified by email. Authors whose books will be included will be posted at the Mago Academy website http://magocademy.org by December 1. Send entries or questions to Hearth Moon Rising (hearthmoon@gmail.com)

She Rises: Why Goddess Feminism, Activism and Spirituality (Review)

June 26, 2015

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The eagerly awaited anthology She Rises: Why Goddess Feminism, Activism and Spirituality?, edited by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang and Kaalii Cargill, was released this past Solstice (Summer or Winter, depending on your perspective) and I don’t exactly know what to say about it, except WOW. It certainly does not disappoint.

This is a hefty anthology of almost 500 pages. It has scholarly essays, stories of personal experience, poetry, and short inspirational paragraphs. The artwork–oh my Goddess the artwork. Get this one even if you don’t like to read books, just for the artwork. It’s deep and beautiful and transformative.

There are many contributors with names you may be familiar with, such as Carol Christ, Starhawk, Barbara Daughter, Vicki Noble, Max Dashu. Other excellent contributors will be new to you, but you may find yourself looking for more of their work. I feel honored to be included in such illustrious company. The articles are short, so they can be read over a long time period….though you might find it hard to put the book down. I was touched by how often the names Mary Daly, Merlin Stone, Marija Gimbutas, and Monica Sjoo appeared in this volume, and it seemed to me that these early pioneers were also contributing through other women.

This project grew out of a Facebook discussion. Someone–I think it was Helen Hwang–asked people to share why Goddess spirituality was important to them, and some amazing dialogue started, some of which was eventually posted on Return to Mago blog. Out of these and other contributions a whole anthology was put together by a team of volunteers.

From the book:

Coming from a culture where the divine has been described as a Caucasian male and anything opposite of that being evil, the need to see the divine in me offered a sense of empowerment and reclamation of who I am as an African Woman. To then research further and realize that the first divinity known on the planet looked like me, a black woman, brought this idea home full circle…..
–Iyanifa Ayele Kumari

The womb is infinitely more than a reproductive organ; it is a replica of the Cosmic Womb or Mago. From that profound pool of infinite silent knowledge, women can access the solutions so urgently needed to recover the equilibrium the world with its God spirituality has lost….
–Marie de Kock

…feminism without the Goddess does not reach far enough to change the root of our oppression, which is the control of women globally by our various faith traditions.
Trista Hedren

For me, Goddess is completely different from God. Goddess means acceptance of the sacred WITHIN the physical instead of transcending the physical; acceptance of death and life as equally sacred; and the holiness of changing cycles…
Annie Finch

She Rises can be purchased in ebook, black-and-white print, or color print through Amazon.com or Amazon UK. If you choose to get a print copy, Mago Books gets more money if you order from them.