Mago Academy is happy to announce the November She Rises Poetry Salon, a spinoff project from the April Salon, Poets Lead the Goddess Feminist Activist Spirituality Movement. The November Salon marks continuation 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 are Judy Grahn Ph.D., Michele Celello, and Noris Binet. Returning poets are Harriet Ann Ellenberger, Oyah, Jillian Burnett, and Leslene della-Madre. 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.
(She Rises Salon) Nine Poets Speak for Matriversal Feminist Activist Spirituality
When: November 15 (Sat) Noon – 1:30 PM PT (90 min)
Theme: Sisterhood and Solidarity: Sharing the Power of Our Matriversal Feminist Activist Voices
Presenting Poets: Judy Grahn, Michele J. Celello, and Noris Binet
Responding Poets: Harriet Ann Ellenberger, Oyah (An Open Circle)
Moderator: Helen Hye-Sook Hwang
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
“A Tribute to the Waters” by Judy Grahn, Ph.D.
Summary: In the tarot deck, the Queen of Cups represents the element of water. Using polyvocal poetic technique, I have given each character in the epic drama I am writing, “Queen of Cups”, their own unique voice and perspective. I have selected a few poems that express some different relationships to water, trying to see from the (anthropomorphically interpreted) point of view of the earth, air, a bird, water itself. Anything that helps us identify more closely with the natural worlds around us is a good thing, probably.
Biography: Judy Grahn, Ph.D. is internationally known as a poet and theorist. She is completing her third book-length epic, an ecopoetic drama, “The Queen of Cups,” (forthcoming from Nightboat Press), following The Queen of Wands (Crossing Press, 1982) and The Queen of Swords (Beacon Press, 1987). Her earlier work notably includes the sequences “She Who,” and “The Common Woman Poems” as well as a long poem, “A Woman Is Talking to Death.” All these works have been widely distributed, staged, put to music, and taught. Judy lives and teaches in the Bay Area, California.
“Life, Death, and Resurrection” by Michele J. Celello
Summary: My first poem Creatrix Tango is about the constant movement between life, death, and regeneration. This is the message of the goddess, and the cycle of our sacred planet and cosmos. This theme was discovered by the renowned archaeomythologist, Marija Gimbutas discovered in her artifacts and studies of Old Europe. Old Europe was the name she gave for the ancient culture in Central, Southeastern, and Eastern Europe and Anatolia from 7000-3500 BCE in the Neolithic and Copper Age. The observation of the cycles of life in nature and ourselves lead us to joy. Pain comes from trying to hold onto our impermanent world. My second poem dares to tell a new, yet ancient version of the Creation Story. In the new creation story the earth and cosmos are created by the volcanic eruption of Mt Etna, from my sacred ancestral homeland of Sicily. The lava is analogous to the menses of Mother Earth termed as Pachamama from Peru and Gaia from Greece.
Biography: Michele J. Celello is also a mother, poet, painter, health physicist, and a professional Middle Eastern dancer. She holds a BA in Philosophy, with a minor in physics from Northeastern University and an MA in Women’s Spirituality from New College of California. Through her arts she wishes to resurrect the feminine aspects of divinity for personal and collective transformation. You may see her poetry and paintings in Talking to Goddess, She is Everywhere, vol. 3, Anointed: A Devotional Anthology for the Deities of the Near and Middle East, She Summons, and Goddess Pages.
“From Silence: Pharma Poetry” by Noris Binet
Summary: Dharma Poetry is the unbidden evocation that arises in mystical experience–in the empty space where words do not inhabit. It arises from one’s inner world, experienced in deep silence, where only presence exists. Dharma poetry emanates when alignment occurs with one’s pure essence. Ms. Binet will be reading a series of her dharma poems reflecting the possibility of drinking from one’s own wellspring, wherein the inner teaching awaits us. The journey that we embark upon in this love affair within oneself becomes the dharma, where we find an interconnection with all existence. And when one is ready, everything flows like a river full of undulations, unexpected winding curves, and tall waterfalls, yet always flowing toward the ocean. The truth gets revealed as an unmistakable recognition that there is only one divine nature expressed in myriad ways as each one of us. The inquiry that dharma poetry ignites offers the opportunity to enter into Satsang (association with truth) with ourselves, perforating the heart with a golden arrow, releasing the flow of love everywhere. Noris’ Meditations and Satsang are available here: https://www.youtube.com/@norisbinet1652
Biography: A native of the Dominican Republic, now living in Ajijic, Mexico, Noris is a visual artist, psycho/spiritual therapist, sociologist, author, and spiritual teacher. She facilitates groups in meditative self-inquiry to support self-realization. Her female root teacher for 25 years is Gangaji, based in Ashland, Oregon. Noris’ Dharma Poetry is a conduit through which she shares her insights and revelations. She has published her poems and essays in articles, journals, and anthologies, and has written sociologically themed columns for several U.S. newspapers. While living in Nashville, Tennessee, Binet created Women on the Inner Journey Foundation, dedicated to providing a safe space for reclaiming the sacred feminine through art and holistic practices. Her book Women on the Inner Journey describes through word and image Black and White women healing racial wounds. Benet’s work can be viewed online at http://sonomawriters.blogspot.com or on her website at www.norisbinet.org.
Responding Poets
Harriet Ann Ellenberger
Harriet Ann Ellenberger was an activist in the US civil rights, anti=war, and women’s liberation movements before immigrating to Canada at the age of forty. She was a founding member of the Charlotte (North Carolina) Women’s Center (1971), co-founding editor of the journal Sinister Wisdom (1976-81), a founding partner in the bilingual feminist bookstore L’Essentielle (Montreal, 1987), editor of a small web publication She Is Still Burning (2000-2003), and co-editor (2004-8) of Trivia: Voices of Feminism. She lives in Hartland, New Brunswick, and blogs at harrietannellenberger.wordpress.com.
Oyah
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. My poetry will express my feelings around the Divine, the current times and coming through tragic situations with my soul intact.
Moderators
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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