Mago Academy is happy to announce the 3 Day New Year/Solstice Celebration for Year 3 (5917 Magoma Era or 2020 CE)! (December 18 is the New Year and December 22 is the Solstice in the 13 Month Magoist Calendar). Check out the Magoist Calendar here.
Mother Time Restored in Mago Almanac: 13 Month 28 Day Calendar.
Theme Whale Riding Journey to the Home/Womb of Mago, the Creatrix
Day 3 (Day 22 Sunday): Returning to Mago, the Creatrix, by Riding Whales/Dragons
Cetaceanism in traditional Korea is rooted in Magoism and vice versa. The very teaching of Mago, Magoism, is derived from the cetacean totemism. That Magoist Cetaceanism constitutes the very base of traditional Korean culture and ethos remains esoteric. One theme that I want to share with you today is “Riding the Back of a Whale.” Ancient Magoists deemed that they return to the Abode/Womb of Mago, the Creatrix, by riding the back of a whale. This is no mere wishful thinking that lacks a cultural-linguistic-historical context. Although the whale-riding homecoming voyage to Mago is much alive today among modern Koreans, its tantalizing memory fails to connect to its root in ancient Magoist Cetaceanism.
“The back of a whale” (고래등) is among the most popular cetacean expressions. Linguistically, the phrase, “the back of a whale 고래등,” used to this day, refers to a large whale’s back. Given the 40 meter-long in length for the largest whale, the back of a whale is no small space. In mythology, it is euphemized as “a moving rock in the sea,” “a mountain in the sea,” or “an island.” On a deeper level, the expression, the back of a whale, betrays the time-old yearning of ancient Koreans that they ride the back of a whale who is on a northbound transoceanic journey to be united with Mago, the Creatrix. For ancient Magoists, Mago was deemed to reside at the center of the Northern Sky. Perhaps once it was longed for in one’s life time, the whale riding journey became a desire for the dead to return to the Abode of Mago.
Ancient Magoists were aware that whales took an annual northbound journey from the East Sea also known as the Sea of Whales to the North Pacific and beyond. They recollected an old story passed down from their ancestors that in winter pods of whales came down to the Sea of Whales from the North Pacific and spent cold months to breed and raise the young. They took off in spring to return to the North Pacific. And their transoceanic journey was, as humans were, guided by the Seven Stars of the Northern Dipper, a circumpolar asterism also known as the Big Dipper in the constellation Ursa Major (Big Bear).
At the heart of this whale-led homecoming journey for the dead is a collective nostalgia for the bygone past of Old Korea, in particular Danguk (3898 BCE-2333 BCE), the confederacy of nine states, in particular. It is rooted in a remote but shimmering cultural memory that the people of Danguk led by Goma, Shaman Queen founder, were accompanied by the pods of whales in their sea voyages to the peoples of the world to spread the message that everything came from Mago, the Creatrx. Mago, the whale’s back, Goma, and the Seven Stars of the Northern Dipper are the milestones of this collective memory passage.
The Magoist Cetacean mythos has shaped Korean culture. Related with this is the funeral custom of Chilseong-pan (Board of the Seven Stars of the Northern Dipper). Chilseongpan, a board with seven stars marked on it, is placed on the bottom of a coffin. Chilseongpan also refers to a board made with seven panels that is placed as a cover to the coffin in the grave site. In both customs, the Chilseongpan is there to guide the dead person to the passage of “riding the back of a whale” to return to the abode of Mago.
The mythopoeia of “riding a whale’s back” has gotten popularity broadly in East Asia. It manifests not only in literature but also in paintings. Renowned is the poetic phrase, “Yi Baek (Li Bai) rides a whale and ascends Heaven (李白騎鯨上天),” sung by Chinese poets and spread widely in East Asia. The phrase conveys that Li Bai (701-761), a famed poet of Tang China, is believed to have ascended to Heaven upon death by riding the back of a whale. Most intriguingly, it recurs in the colophon of a wall painting in the Buddhist Temple, Namjang-sa, located in Sangju in North Gyeongsang Province, South Korea. While the whale is depicted as a large carp, the colophon tells indicates a whale.
Last not least, the theme of a whale-riding homecoming voyage to Mago, the Creatrix, permeates the landscape of Korean religious expressions. Among the most conspicuous is the Dragon Ship of Banya (般若龍船 Banya Yongseon). Banya is a transliteration of “prajna,” which means wisdom in Sanskrit. Today, Banya Yongseon, as its term suggests, Buddhism appears to champion the concept of the dragon-riding homecoming voyage. Nonetheless, according to Hyeonggun Gim, Banya Yongseon is originally a Korean Mu (Shamanic) ritual adopted by Buddhists. In any case, the ship is depicted as a body of a dragon. The dragon is a Magoist Cetacean symbol representing the cosmogonic power of whales, as my hermeneutics of the myth of the pacifying flute unravel.
Happy Winter Solstice of Year 3 for the Northerners! (TBA: The Southern version of the Mago Almanac is arriving for Year 4 marking the June Solstice in 2020.)
Join the Solstice Chant of 24 Seasonal Marks!
Mago Academy is happy to announce the 3 Day New Year/Solstice Celebration for Year 3 (5917 Magoma Era or 2020 CE)! (December 18 is the New Year and December 22 is the Solstice in the 13 Month Magoist Calendar). Check out the Magoist Calendar here.
Mother Time Restored in Mago Almanac: 13 Month 28 Day Calendar.
Theme Whale Riding Journey to the Home/Womb of Mago, the Creatrix
When Dec. 20, 21, and 22 (Time and date may vary according to your local time) with Dec. 17, 2019 for Virtual Midnight Vigil.
Why these 3 Days? We begin a new tradition according to the 13 Month Magoist Calendar. Tune in with Mother Time in Mago Almanac: 13 Month 28 Day Calendar (Book B). Dec. 18 is the New Year according to the 13 Month Magoist Calendar and Dec. 22 is Winter Solstice. New Year on the new moon before the December Solstice.
Venue
The Nine Mago Festivals Facebook group. https://www.facebook.com/groups/353059021788526/
Programs
- Virtual Midnight Vigil to the New Year 3, 5917 ME (Dec. 17, 2019): The Cetacean Code of the Korean Temple Bell
- Day 1 (Dec. 20 Friday): Sonic Numerology in the Magoist Cosmogony
- Day 2 (Dec. 21 Saturday): Manifestations of Magoist Cetaceanism
- Day 3 (Day 22 Sunday): Returning to Mago, the Creatrix, by Riding Whales/Dragons
Virtual Midnight Vigil (Dec. 17, 2019) to New Year, Year 3 (5917 Magoma Era)