Mago Academy offers Mago Halmi Creation Folklore and Toponymy, as an elective course of the Creatrix Studies Programs (CSP). You may take it as 0.5 credit course toward your M.A. or Ph.D. in Creatrix Studies program or audit it for non-degree track education.
Mago Halmi Creation Folklore and Toponymy Part 1 (0.5 Credit)
Course No: 302
Time: 10AM-Noon PT April 3-24 (Fridays, 2 hour-long 4 weekly sessions)
Instructor: Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D.
Description: This course introduces a plethora of primary sources of folklore and place-names concerning the “creation” of Mago Halmi (the Great Mother), documented, translated, and interpreted by Dr. Hwang within the context of Ceto-Magoism (the Whale-guided Way of Mago, the Creatrix). We will examine actual stories and relevant landscapes (mountains, megaliths, villages, seas/bodies of water, and shrines) and discuss such salient themes as Mago’s names, the methods of creation, whales/dragons/snakes, the Ninefold Cosmic Music, Goma (Heavenly Savior), Mu (Magoist Shamans), and Seons (Magoist Immortals). Participants are invited to take the course as a semantic pilgrimage to Ceto-Magoist Korea. (Continue to read for course summary.)
Registration Available Now!
Mago Academy accepts registration for Spring 2026 Courses. For the list of Spring 2026 courses, see here.
If you want to register courses as your graduate degree program, go to Coursework Application Guides.
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). For other methods of payment, email Dr. Hwang for instructions. 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:
2. Your email:
3. Affiliation or organization, if applicable:
4. Course(s) you are taking by the Course Number: e.g. 101 (1 credit)
5. Questions or comments:
Fee for 1 credit course toward M.A. or Ph.D. degree program: $700 (if you register for a 2 unit course, choose 2 in product quantity).
Fee for 0.5 credit course toward M.A. or Ph.D. degree program: $350 (if you register for a total of 1 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)
Fee for 0.5 credit course Audit: $50 (if you register for a worth of 1.5 credit courses, e.g. one 1 credit course and 0.5 credit course, choose 3 in product quantity).
All inquires should be email to Dr. Hwang (magoacademy@gmail.com).
Course Summary
Course Rational: This course, the first of its sequels, unpacks a large and complex body of Mago Halmi folklore and placenames concerning the mytheme of creation and focuses on the 93 folk stories that comes under the theme of “skirt” creation. In these stories, Mago Halmi is depicted as a giant and strong crone figure who shapes local strongholds, cairns, and megalithic structures as well as mountains and rocks. The stylized narrative structure, which recurs throughout the Korean peninsula, conveys the matriversal consciousness of Ceto-Magoism (the Whale-Guided Way of Mago, the Creatrix). Students will read sample stories and examine central themes including topographies, names of Mago Halmi, methods of creation, sono-numerological indications, dragon-related subjects, utterances of the original trinity (Mago-Whales-Goma), rituals and customs, mytho-historical-cultural implications, and the connection with the written account of the Budoji (Epic of the Emblem Capital City)’s Magoist Cosmogony chapters.
Course Objectives:
- Familiarize Mago Halmi skirt creation stories and narrative structures.
- Familiarize the historical/cultural/religious significance of the locations that the stories and placenames are told.
- Identify the names of the Divine Actor (many names of Mago Halmi).
- Explore the local topographies (mountains, rivers, seas, or megaliths).
- Understand the symbolic meaning of Her Skirt as a means of creation.
- Understand the Mago-Whale-Goma divine as the cosmogonist.
- Learn about rituals and faith practices mentioned in the stories.
- Familiarize the written account of the Magoist Cosmogony, Budoji’s first four chapters.
- Understand Mago Halmi creation folklore as a folk exegesis of the Magoist Cosmogony.
- Identify the mythemes and placenames of Ceto-Magoism.
- Understand sono-numerological implications.
- Assess the identity of a dragon in the stories.
- Examine how the principle of causal becoming explains the process of creation.
Method: We will take this course as a semantic pilgrimage to Ceto-Magoist Korea. In other words, this course is designed to explore the underlying meaning of the stories and placenames wherein Mago Halmi is described as the cosmogonist. Participants are invited to experience the course as the door to encounter the legacy of Ceto-Magoism (the Whale-guided Way of Mago, the Creatrix). Course materials will solely rely on Dr. Hwang’s documentation and English translation of the orally transmitted Mago Halmi stories and placenames. Students are asked to do preliminary investigation on the basic information about the sites, topographies, and placenames wherein these stories are told. The class will examine and discuss the underlying meaning of each story and placename.
Instructor: Helen Hye-Sook Hwang, Ph.D. in USA
Biography: Dr. Hwang is the founder of Mago Academy and the programs of Graduate and Continuing Programs in Creatrix Studies. She is a born poet, student, and advocate for Life of ALL and has encountered Ceto-Magoism (the Whale-guided Way of the Creatrix) through her doctoral research on Mago, the Cosmic Mother/Creatrix. Dr. Hwang received an M.A. and a Ph.D. degrees in Religion with the emphasis on Women’s Studies. To support her research on Magoism (the Way of the Creatrix), she enrolled in an M.A. program in East Asian Studies and specialized in Korean Buddhism in UCLA. Authored, edited, and published many books and essays by Mago Books and the peer-reviewed academic journal, S/HE: An International Journal of Goddess Studies, and Return to Mago E-Magazine.porate 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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