Mago Academy offers Patriarchal Usurpation of the Great Goddess, as an elective course of the Creatrix Studies Programs (CSP). You may take it as 1 credit course toward your M.A. or Ph.D. in Creatrix Studies programs or audit it not for academic credit.
Patriarchal Usurpation of the Great Goddess (1 Credit)
Course no: 401
Instructor: Helen Benigni, Ph.D.
Time: 9:00 am- 1:00 pm Sept 1-Sept 22 PT tentatively (Mondays, 4 hour-long 4 weekly sessions)
Description: This course outlines how the Great Goddesses of the Paleolithic, Neolithic, and Bronze Ages were diminished and molded by the onset of the patriarchy in Western Europe and the Mediterranean in the Iron Age. An explanation of how the Goddesses later were transferred into saints, martyrs, witches, and dark figures or even monsters in the myths of the patriarchy may be used to reclaim their original powers and restore their original status in our eyes.
Registration Available Now!
Fill out the form below and email to Dr. Helen Hye-Sook Hwang (magoacademy@gmail.com) with the payment. (Copy and paste the form in the body of your email). A Zoom link will be provided to registered students 2-3 days prior to the first session of your course.
1. Your name and country of residence:
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4. Course(s) you are taking by the Course Number: e.g. 101 (1 credit)
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Fee for 1 credit course toward M.A. or Ph.D. degree program: $700 (if you register for a total of 2 unit course, choose 2 in product quantity).
Fee for 1 credit course Audit: $100 (if you register for a 2 credit course auditing, choose 2 in product quantity)
All inquires should be email to Dr. Hwang (magoacademy@gmail.com).
Course Summary
Rationale:
As we cautiously navigate our way through this time of cosmic change, the forces of retrograde and reflection guide our energy to go with the flow of those feminine energies that have evoked a response to the diminishing patriarchy and the rise of goddess religions. In the past decades, feminist philosophy and research focused on breaking the barriers of the patriarchy by interjecting the ideas and necessary theology that women, goddesses and the Creatrix of the Universe herself should be included in the culture. Success in integration has been difficult but necessary. The intentions of our research remain dedicated to this cause in the demonstration of our work and by the founders of our movement.
We have now reached a vital cornerstone in the progression of the study of the goddess that challenges our imaginations and evokes deep memories that call us to the pragmatism necessary to forge ahead. By this, I mean ways of the goddess now remain to be defined, described and promoted by those of us who wish to embrace the feminine and begin to lead the way using the cornerstones of research that has been established. Keeping this in mind, we begin a course of study.
Our course of study outlines how the Great Goddesses of the Paleolithic, Neolithic, and Bronze Ages were diminished and molded by the onset of the patriarchy in Western Europe and the Mediterranean in the Iron Age. An explanation of how the Goddesses later were transferred into saints, martyrs, witches, and dark figures or even monsters in the myths of the patriarchy may be used to reclaim their original powers and restore their original status in our eyes.
Course Objectives:
*Students will reach an understanding of the interconnection of the cosmic elements of the Goddess.
*Students will identify with the past and continue the mythology of our culture as an inherent need in the human psyche.
*To accomplish this tremendous endeavor, students will continue the process of the evolution of human thought by studying the myths that are most abiding and which myths we have cast aside in the past that should be resurrected into a new, vital mythology.
*Renewing the archetype of a Goddess is one necessary part of resurrecting images of femininity that have been misunderstood or omitted in the patriarchal cultures that dominate the world today. However, the larger task before us is to re-create an entire mythology based, not only on the resurrection of the Goddess but of a re-vamping of human thought conscious of the balance of the life force itself with a respect not only of a feminine balance, but one which contains a balance with the forces of Nature and the Earth itself.
Methodology:
Each session of the course will define and describe Goddesses in the Greek and Celtic Iron Age cultures and then trace their roots to the Neolithic and Paleolithic cultures where their archetype retains the original characteristics of powerful and influential figures capable of change and regeneration of the cycles of life, death and rebirth.
The first two hours of each session will be dedicated to lecture and answering students’ questions, and the second part of the class will focus on discussion and participation, including student presentations.
Instructor: Helen Benigni Ph.D. in USA
Biography: Helen Benigni (Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania) is a published author and Professor Emerita in Comparative Mythology at Davis and Elkins College in Elkins, West Virginia. For several decades, Helen has been teaching classes in Comparative Mythology with an emphasis on Goddess studies. Her books, The Myth of the Year (Mago Books, 2023), The Goddess and the Bull (University Press of America, 2007), and The Mythology of Venus (University Press of America, 2013) incorporate the research findings of archeoastronomers to determine the myths associated with the cycles found on the ancient calendars of the Greeks and the Celts. Identifying the Goddesses of the matri-local cultures of the ancients with the seasons represented by the lunar, solar and stellar bodies has been a major endeavor in the study of archetypes, with an emphasis on the feminine archetypes of the celestial realms. Helen’s research with the Hellenic Studies Center in Washington D.C., her many trips to ancient sites, and her collaborative efforts with scholars in mythology, astronomy, archeology, and art have led to her discovery of the presence of the Goddesses in the night sky and the continued renewal of the Goddesses in contemporary times.
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