Welcome to 2020 (5917 Magoma Era) Nine Day Mago Celebration! See Words of Invitation by Dr. Helen Hye-Sook Hwang and other details here or continue to read.
III. Days 7, 8, 9 (August 4, 5, 6)
The Matricentric Alliance of Humans and the Natural World
7. What is Magoist Cetaceanism?
8. Dragons and Sea-Mustards: How does Magoist Cetaceanism manifest?
9. Magoist Cetacean Totemism as the ultimate alliance between humans and the natural world.
Day 7: What is Magoist Cetaceanism? Magoist Cetaceanism refers to the matricentric veneration of the cetacean as a central tenet of Magoism, the Way of the Great Mother, whose teaching is attributed to Goma (see Day 5 on Goma). Possibly, pre-patriarchal matricentric cetology discovered by the Goma, the sea-travelling civilizer who spread her technological inventions to the world on the mission of reminding all people of the common origin from Mago, was the source behind her awakening to the salvific consciousness of the Great Mother, which I call the Magoist Cosmogony. Evidence is strong including the symbol of nine dragons for Goma and Korean dragon/whale cultural and architectural expressions (although often covert) associated with Goma. And cetological insights are tangible. For example, the cetacean singing carried through the medium of water is juxtaposed with the metamorphic force of the cosmic music. We encounter whales as the terrestrial divine in collaboration with Mago, the cosmic divine.
To say that whales are the farmer of the sea is an understatement. Whales are the paragon of the Magoist ruler. Thus comes the cetacean title, “Ruler the Great” for ancient Korean rulers. Whales are not just the farmer of the sea but the ruler of the earth! For Magoists, the role that whales play in stabilizing the earthly environment and nurturing life on earth is divine. Having arrived on earth much earlier than the human kind, whales lead the terrestrial journey for all beings including humans. Put differently, the whale totemism charts out an otherworldly spirituality that escapes anthropocentrism. Ancient Koreans adopted almost everything from whales; their matriarchal structures, their diets, their post-natal caring customs, their biological features, and their singing behaviors.
Below is from my essay the Cetacean Code in the Korean Temple Bell:
I hold that “Ruler (King or Queen) the Great (大王 Daewang),” unlike other kings of the ancient world, does not refer to a patriarchal monarch. It is a Magoist cetacean term that is related with “Ruler Whale the Great (Daewang Gorae),” referring to the blue whale for its gigantic size or whales collectively. By adopting the cetacean title of “Ruler the Great” for their rulers, the Sillan royal house assumed the role of the matriarchal whale ruler, the grandmother of the sea who leads and looks after all sea creatures as well as the marine environment. While some species of whales are studied for their matriarchal socieities, whales are in general perceived as gift-givers. Gray whales in particular are called “the farmer of the sea” among Koreans, for they “plow” the bottom of the sea with their head by virtue of taking tiny shrimp-like animals (amphipods and mysids) in the mouth.[3] As such, they are called Soe Gorae (쇠고래 Cow Gorae) or Guisin Gorae (귀신고래 Spirit Whale) in Korean. More to the point, scientists report that whale feces provides rich nutrients to sea plants known as phytoplankton on the surface.[4] Whales are divine and so are Sillan Magoist rulers.
Whales are everywhere, lucking beneath the surface of traditional Korean culture, lore, myths, history, architecture, linguistics, customs, place-names, religions, art, and literature. Evidence shows that Cetaceanism has defined the Korean identity throughout history. Gwon Geun, a renowned scholar of the late 14th century Goryeo (918-1392) who visited China as an envoy, is known to have self-addressed Koreans as the little people who dwelt on “the shore of the Whale Sea (Gyeonghaebin)” to the ruler of the Ming dynasty China. His statement may be taken for the humbling attitude, addressing Koreans as the little people. And the shore of the Whale Sea may be taken to mean the coastal region of the Sea of Whales better known as the East Sea today. The truth is unfolding: He proudly proclaims the Cetacean identity of Koreans. In comparison with whales, all humans are little. And the whole world is in fact the shore of the Whale Sea.
The fact that Magoism remains esoteric to the world has to do with its pre-patriarchally matricentric principle that is incompatible with the patriarchal premise: The male is supreme over the female and the rest of all other beings. When female agency is disenfranchised, Magoism becomes no proposition. Put differently, wherein Magoism is admitted, a patriarchal reality dissipates. The latter loses its ground with the naming of Magoism. Magoism is about restoring matricentric agency, which by definition undermines the very foundation of patriarchy. That statement, however, concerns only a partial picture. Magoism is dismissed in patriarchy because of its matricentric alliance with the natural world under the leadership of whales. Some may call it a form of cetacean totemism. In the context of Magoism, we are talking about the cetacean worship by the Magoists of pre-patriarchal Koreans/East Asians/People in origin. According to ancient Magoists, whales are “the Great Ruler” of the Earth. And humans are guided by divine whales in the Magoist Mandate of harmonizing the terrestrial song (echo resonances) in tune with the cosmic music (the original sound). After all, Magoism, the Way of the Great Mother, is inscribed in the alliance between human mothers and whale mothers!
Below is from my essay on Whales in Korean Linguistics:
The following cetacean expressions are the linguistic code for us to assess the multi-faceted aspects of Magoist Cetaceanism. Among them is the most popular expression, “the back of a whale 고래등.” The back of a whale as big as 40 meter-long for the largest whale is euphemized as “a moving rock in the sea,” “a mountain in the sea,” or “an island” in myth, iconography, and lore. The myth of Yeono-rang and Seo-nyeo (Yeono Man and Seo Woman) or the myth of the Precious Queen Seo, as such I renamed, is a prime example, to be discussed in a later section. The motif that a whale is mistaken for an island appears across cultures in such stories as Brendan the navigator and Sinbad the sailor. Also the expression, “the back of a whale,” is used to refer to the roof architecture of a traditional Korean house that addresses its large and magnificent appearance to moderns.
“A roof-tiled house like the back of a whale 고래등 같은 기와집” refers to a big and majestic traditional house whose roof resembles the back of a whale. The roof can be a single roof or roofs. Used as a plural, this expression juxtaposes the roofs of a house or a village with the backs of whales, a pod of whales, in the sea (see the image). “A roof-tiled house like the back of a whale” has two cetacean implications. First, its roof is constructed after a whale’s back. Secondly, the very building with the whale-back-like roof represents a whale’s body. This is a complex topic to be discussed in detail at a later section.
“Bang gorae (방고래 Room whale)” of the ondol system, an underfloor heating system of traditional Korean architecture in the form of a whale’s body, a topic to be discussed in conjunction with “A roof-tiled house like the back of a whale.”
“Gorae gumeong (고래구멍 Whale entrance or hole)” is a dialect of the wood-burning furnace connected to Bang Gorae (Room whale).
Please address your comments and questions as comments below or in the FB group, Nine Mago Celebrations. If convenient, email is available (magoacademy@gmail.com). I will respond and discuss the point with you.
Resources
On Korean cetacean linguistics:
(Whale Essay 1) Whales in Korean Linguistics by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.
(Whale Essay 2) Whales in Korean Linguistics by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.
On the Magoist Whale Bell:
2020 (5917 Magoma Era) Year 3 Nine Mago Celebrations
Dates July 29-August 6 PST (the 9th month the 9th day according to the Magoist Calendar, given the variation of time zones)
Theme Embrace the Dragon, the Messenger of the Cetacean Divine
Words of Invitation by Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.
Mago Academy announces this year’s event of Nine Day Mago Celebrations! It has been a blessed journey since last year’s Nine-Nine Day (the ninth month and the ninth day) according to the Mago Almanac (13 month 28 day Magoist Calendar)! We will be thanking for the blessings that we are given for nine days! Join us in the nine-fold litany of our love and gratitude to Mago, the Great Mother!
It is the 9th year since we Magoists found each other and voiced out to the world in the Mago Circle, the Facebook Group, and the Return to Mago E-Magazine (https://www.magoism.net) in 2012. And today we are witnessing in pain and suffering that the whole world is undergoing a massive change by the yet-expanding course of the Covid19 pandemic on a global scale, which may be seen as nature’s due response to patriarchal advancements. You may have seen me as a writer/advocate/indie-publisher of the topic of Goddess feminist activist spirituality for the last few years. Thus far, thanks to our Mago Work volunteers and authors, we have planned and published four collective writing books (the She Rises trilogy and the Celebrating Seasons of the Goddess). You are correct, if you understood what Magoism is about through these collective books and venues. However, I must say that what you have seen is only the broad implication of Magoism, the Way of the Great Mother/Creatrix.
The focused or core implication of Magoism is yet to come! From early this year, I began to speak up on the core implication of Magoism. The monthly Magoist Studies salon meetings were launched from January of this year. Soon after, I began to offer Reading the Budoji (Epic of the Emblem Capital City) online course. The Budoji, the principal text of Magoism, is essential for us to assess the core implication of Magoism. As I said, what I have said and written for the last 20 years is only footnotes of the Budoji!
Here is a sign of the time for us. Timing is marvelous, as if my focus on the direct implication of Magoism that began in January of this year was designed to cope with the forthcoming Covid19 pandemic. Almost all schools are closed down and teachers teach students online. Economic activities have slowed down. People shop online. People don’t travel or even don’t talk to each other in the manner we used to for fear of spreading the virus. People stay home and do home-related projects. These are the kind of unprecedented changes that we did not foresee coming. As a whole, the Mago Work was designed to be carried out through online activities, while connecting people and the natural world as the Mago Descent in the first place. I am thankful for this unintentional but time-brought readiness. The mode of my advocacy for Magoism (public and online, based on the free social media tools) is ready for the Covid19 pandemic time and thereafter. It is my hope that the physical place for The Mago Academy Center and the Magoist Cetaceanism Research Center here where I live in Southern California, USA, can serve our post-Covid19 person-to-person meetings.
Amidst the colossal change that we are undergoing, we are having this year’s Nine Day Mago Celebration. And it is the ninth year of the Mago Work. I hope we can reflect back the path of Magoism in public and revisit major themes and accomplishments through a post per day for nine days. The invitation was there for you and is here again!
Check out the theme: Embrace the Dragon, the Messenger of the Cetacean Divine. We are tying knots with Magoists, the dragon, and whales among us. I have laid out nine messages for nine days. And on the last day, we will open the Mago Bookstore for 48 hours for you to download some books for free.
Contents for Nine Day Celebrations may include the below. I will utilize the materials that I have written, published, and archived, some of which have never been shared yet. I would appreciate your interests if you indicate as comments.
1. What is the Nine-Nine according to the Mago Almanac (13 months 28 days calendar)?
2. What is the Budoji (Epic of the Emblem Capital City)?
3. What is the Magoist Cosmogony?
4. What is Mago and Magoism?
5. Who is Goma, the Heavenly Shaman Queen Mother, and the Danguk Confederacy of Nine States?
6. Who is Chiu, the Shaman Warrior Queen Mother?
7. What is Magoist Cetaceanism?
8. Dragons and Sea-Mustards: How does Magoist Cetaceanism manifests?
9. Magoist Cetacean Totemism as the ultimate alliance between humans and the natural world.
Where are you at with the above themes? These themes represent a sum of my 20 years research and advocacy. It is just a beginning step for us to take collectively this year and I want you to be with us all in WE/HERE/NOW. Mago blessings to all in WE!
How Receive the nine daily posts from the Mago Books website or the Mago Work social media. In these daily posts, you will be invited to various sources including Dr. Hwang’s unpublished works. You may incorporate daily themes into your readings, workshops, or prayers as you find appropriate. Dr. Hwang will be available for your questions and connections via email and social media networks during these nine days personally. If you find a particular theme interesting, please let me know what, why and how you would like to apply to you together with an introduction of yourself (your residence, work and website etc). I can be reached magoacademy@gmail.com.
Free of charge for daily posts and personal discussions via social media or email. If this helps you, you may consider supporting the Mago Work by (1) donating any amount (Donation available below), (2) purchasing the PDF book or a print book on Magoism by Dr. Hwang (see below Resources), (3) submitting your contributions to Mago Books anthologies and Return to Mago E-Magazine, and/or (4) taking an online class, Reading the Budoji, or participating in the Magoist Studies Online Salon that Dr. Hwang facilitates.
Venue Social Media Networks (WordPress, Twitter, and Facebook)
https://twitter.com/magoism?lang=en (The Mago Web)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/353059021788526/ (Nine Mago Festivals)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/magoism (The Mago Circle)
https://www.magoacademy.org (Mago Academy)
Daily themes
I. Days 1, 2, 3 (July 29, 30, 31)
The metamorphic force of Sonic Numerology (the comic music and nine-numerology)
1. What is the Nine-Nine according to the Mago Almanac (13 months 28 days calendar)?
2. What is the Budoji (Epic of the Emblem Capital City)?
3. What is the Magoist Cosmogony?
II. Days 4, 5, 6 (August 1, 2, 3)
The Cornerstones: Mago, Magoism, and Magoists
4. What is Mago and Magoism?
5. Who is Goma, the Heavenly Shaman Queen Mother, and the Danguk Confederacy of Nine States?
6. Who is Chiu, the Shaman Warrior Queen Mother?
III. Days 7, 8, 9 (August 4, 5, 6)
The Matricentric Alliance of Humans and the Natural World
7. What is Magoist Cetaceanism?
8. Dragons and Sea-Mustards: How does Magoist Cetaceanism manifest?
9. Magoist Cetacean Totemism as the ultimate alliance between humans and the natural world.