Mago Academy is happy to announce the July She Rises Poetry Salon, a spinoff project from the April Salon, Poets Lead the Goddess Feminist Activist Spirituality Movement. The July Salon marks the onset of “Nine Poets Speak” as part of the Tri-Annual She Rises Poetry Salons. “The Nine Poets” does NOT refer to the designated figures but refers to an open circle of the poets whose poetry works are aligned with the Goddess Feminist Activist Spirituality Movement, a specific thread that began as the She Rises trilogy. The number nine refers to the Nature’s Way patterned through the Ninefold Cosmic Music, the creative force of the Matriverse (Maternally perceived universe), which is represented as the Nine Mago Creatrix (based on Dr. Helen Hye-Sook Hwang’s research on Ceto-Magoism, the Whale-guided Way of Mago, the Creatrix).
Our presenting poets include Louisa Calio, Stephanie Mines Ph.D., and Oyah who will guide the trail of our gathering. Returning poets from the April Salon together with new poets will respond to the voices of presenting poets to heighten the flame. Then, we will have an open floor time by inviting the audience participants to chime in with your insights, questions, or a poem to resonate with the voices of the featured poets.
Theme: Live in Connections with ALL in WE
Date and Time: July 12 2025, Noon to 1:30 PM PT (for 90 min)
Presenting Poets: Louisa Calio, Stephanie Mines, and Oyah!
Responding Poets: Judy Grahn, Mary Saracino, Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, and others
Moderator: TBA
Contents:
Presentations (3 poets, each presents for about 10 min)
Respondences (up to 6 poets, each responds for 6-10 min)
Open Floor with the audience (20 min)
Presentation details are included at the end of this page.
Registration: Fee of $10 per salon or Donation (enter your own amount) with your answers to below questions (email it to: magoacademy@gmail.com):
Registration Questions:
- Your name (and affiliation)
- Email address
- What makes you interested in this Salon?
Presentations and Presenters
“In The Eye of Balance-Living life as Poetry” by Louisa Calio
Summary: I will read selections from this collection that emphasize our interconnectedness, the power of transformation that helps us heal ourselves and the world ultimately. The Eye of Balance is the focus; it represents poems of a visionary and what it means to be connected and in balance. In the grips of powerful unconscious forces, I was called to renewal or initiation. Turning inward for guidance, I was drawn to a copy of E.A. Wallis Budge’s Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection. There was the image of the great eye I had been drawing since I was a child, and the name of the Goddess who was initiating me: Isis! Hers’ was the story of a feminine deity who was remaking herself. Initiation or a commitment to spiritual growth has inspired all of my writing.
Bio: Louisa Calio is an internationally published, award winning author, photographer and arts advocate whose work has been translated into Sicilian, Italian, Tigrinya, Russian and Korean. She graduated magna cum laude from SUNY Albany with a BA in English( Special Honors) She obtained a Masters from Temple University is a certified English and yoga instructor. Director of the Poet’s Piazza, Hofstra University(2000-2012), she was co- Founder and first Executive Director of City Spirit Artists, Inc. New Haven, Ct (1976-1986) and spend her life bringing the Arts to divergent communities. Her recent book Journey to the Heart Waters was published in 2014 by Legas Press. For info see Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisa_Calio
“Making Fire from Bone” by Stephanie Mines Ph.D.
Summary: My lifetime work consistently demonstrates how creativity triumphs over violence and abuse. My poems rally the muses from the ashes of encounters with the shadow side of humanity, with evil itself, and reveal how the Great Mother in all of us is the phoenix of redemption. Just as the earth today will triumph over the ways in which she is being ravaged, so will women redeem themselves from patriarchy. Each poem is a song of redemption. This is the medicinal poetry of the Anthropocene.
Biography: Dr. Stephanie Mines is the author of five books that reflect over three decades of research as a neuroscientist. She has investigated shock and trauma as a survivor, a professional, a clinical researcher, and healthcare provider. Her nonprofit The TARA Approach is instrumental in the systemic change she promotes as a Regenerative Health paradigm. Dr. Mines also developed Climate Change & Consciousness to facilitate inner transformation for grounded climate action. Climate Change & Consciousness serves an international and intergenerational community of visionary activists. Dr. Mines is an award-winning poet. Her poetry has been published in anthologies and in chapbooks.
OYAH!
Summary: TBA
Biography: Oyah! is a dedicated soothsayer and wisdom teacher with over twenty years of study and practice. Aligning with the rhythms of the Earth, Moon, Sun, and planets, they weave mythology and spiritual insight into transformative teachings. Offering sessions by private invitation or recommendation only, fosters deep reflection, clarity, and alignment. Committed to truth, love, and justice, their work inspires personal growth, ancestral connection, and a deeper understanding of life’s sacred cycles.
Responding Poets
Judy Grahn Ph.D.
Dr. Judy Grahn is an internationally known poet, author, mythographer, and cultural theorist. Her works include seven books of nonfiction, two book length poems, five poetry collections, a reader, and a novel. An early Gay activist who walked the first picket of the White House for Gay rights in 1965, she later co-founded Gay Women’s Liberation and the Women’s Press Collective. Her intention with writing is to replace obsolete philosophies with embodied theories and practices. Her Metaformic theory is the result of twenty years of research resulting in Judy’s 1993 book, Blood, Bread, and Roses: How Menstruation Created the World (Beacon Press). She followed this with further research for her dissertation comparing village goddess rituals and public menstrual rituals in south India using an application of her Metaformic Theory. Judy holds a Ph.D. in Integral Studies/Women’s Spirituality, from the California Institute of Integral Studies. She co-directed and served as faculty in MA programs in Women’s Spirituality at New College of California and Institute for Transpersonal Psychology.
Mary Saracino
Mary Saracino is a novelist, poet, and memoir writer who lives in New Mexico. Her most recent novel is Heretics: A Love Story (Pearlsong Press 2014). Her novel, The Singing of Swans (Pearlsong Press 2006) was a 2007 Lambda Literary Awards Finalist. She is also the author of the novels, No Matter What and Finding Grace, and the memoir Voices of the Soft-bellied Warrior. She co-edited (with Mary Beth Moser) She Is Everywhere! Volume 3: An anthology of writings in womanist/feminist spirituality (iUniverse 2012), which earned the 2013 Enheduanna Award for Excellence in Women-Centered Literature from Sofia University. Her poetry and shorter fiction and creative nonfiction pieces have been published in a variety of literary and cultural journals and anthologies, both online and in print. For more information about Mary, visit www.marysaracino.com and http://www.pearlsong.com/mary_saracino.htm
Helen Hye-Sook Hwang Ph.D.
Dr. Helen Hye-Sook Hwang is a researcher, author, and advocate of Ceto-Magoism (the Whale-guided Way of the Creatrix) and has recently established the MA/PhD. program in Creatrix Studies. Having achieved an MA and Ph.D. in Religion with emphasis on Feminist Studies (Claremont Graduate University), Hwang studied an M.A. program at UCLA. Having founded The Mago Work, Hwang has recently launched the S/HE Conference and the S/HE Forum in 2024. She authored, co-edited, and published by Mago Books Reader: Toward Magoist Cetaceanism (2023), The Mago Way: Re-discovering Mago, the Great Goddess from East Asia (2015), Mago Almanac: 13 Month 28 Day Calendar annually since 2018, and the Budoji Workbook series since 2020, Goddesses in Myth, History and Culture (2018), Celebrating Intercosmic Kinship of the Goddess (2023), the She Rises trilogy series (2015, 2016, and 2019), and Celebrating Seasons of the Goddess (2017).
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