Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D. is scholar, activist, and advocate of Magoism, anciently originated tradition that venerates Mago as the Great Goddess. She earned her MA and Ph.D. in Religion with emphasis on Feminist Studies from Claremont Graduate University, CA. She also studied toward an MA degree in East Asian Studies at UCLA, CA. Hwang has taught for universities in California and Missouri, U.S.A. Since 2012, Dr, Hwang has co-founded, directed, co-edited, written for the academic journal, S/HE: An International Journal of Goddess Studies, the Return to Mago E-Magazine (https://magoism.net), Mago Academy (https://magoacademy.org), and Mago Books (https://magobook.com).
Currently, she is co-organizing an annual conference, S/HE Divine Studies Online Conference, to be held in 2024.
Her recent articles on Magoism includes:
“Unveiling an Ancient Silla Korean Testimony to the Mother World: An Introductory Discussion of the Budoji (Epic of the Emblem Capital City), the Principal Text of Magoism”
(S/HE: An International Journal of Goddess Studies Vol 1 No 2 2022)
(S/HE: An International Journal of Goddess Studies Vol 1 No 1 2022)
“MAGO, THE CREATRIX FROM EAST ASIA, AND THE MYTHO-HISTORY OF MAGOISM”
Goddesses in Myth, History, and Culture, Celebrating Seasons of the Goddess (Mago Books, 2018)
“GOMA, THE SHAMAN RULER OF OLD MAGOIST EAST ASIA/KOREA, AND HER MYTHOLOGY”
Goddesses in Myth, History, and Culture, Celebrating Seasons of the Goddess (Mago Books, 2018)
She has co-edited and published She Summons: Why Goddess Feminism, Activism, and Spirituality? Volume 1 (Mago Books, 2022), Budoji Workbook Series (Mago Books, since 2020), Mago Almanac Planner (since 2020, annual), Goddesses in Myth, History, and Culture, Celebrating Seasons of the Goddess (Mago Books, 2018), She Rises: Why Goddess Feminism, Activism, and Spirituality? Volume 1 (Mago Books, 2015), She Rises: How Goddess Feminism, Activism, and Spirituality? Volume 2 (Mago Books, 2016), and She Rises: How Goddess Feminism, Activism, and Spirituality? Volume 3 (Mago Books, 2019). Also authored The Mago Way: Re-discovering Mago, the Great Goddess from East Asia (Mago Books, 2016), Mago Almanac: The 13 Month 28 Day Calendar (Mago Books, 2018 and 2019).
Dr. Hwang leads Mago Pilgrimage to Korea annually and gives lectures internationally. Hwang advocates peace and connection of all beings as WE in S/HE through the Primordial Knowing, the consciousness of Mago (the Great Mother). She also facilitates an ongoing cross-cultural discussion group on Facebook named The Mago Circle (https://www.facebook.com/groups/magoism/).
Prior to returning to her graduate studies, Hwang, among other publications, translated and published Mary Daly’s first two books, Beyond God the Father: Toward a Philosophy of Women’s Liberation (Seoul: Ewha Woman’s University Press, 1996) and The Church and the Second Sex (Seoul: Women’s Newspaper Press, 1997), into Korean. That was after she worked and lived as a member of Maryknoll Sisters, U.S.-based Catholic overseas missionary organization, in Korea, U.S. and the Philippines. She is an artist, poet, teacher, and philosopher by birth and training.
Dr. Hwang’s books and essays are available:
Mago Bookstore