Mago Academy offers the S/HE Forum Spring 2026 Course, a total of 2 forums, 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 programs or audit it not for academic credit.

S/HE Forums Spring 2026 (0.5 Credit, 0.25 credit for each forum section)

Course no: 901

Instructors: Helen Benigni Ph.D., Judy Grahn Ph.D.

Time: January and February (Second and/or Fourth Sat of each month, 15 or 16 hours)

Description: The S/HE Forum is a collective teaching course prepared and facilitated by forum organizers (0.25 credit for each forum section). Each of forum organizers will lead 4 hours of either one or two sessions in a month for the duration of four months. Each facilitator/teacher leads a class focusing on the topic of her own expertise by inviting 2-4 guest speakers who will speak on the topic salient to the forum theme. For a degree program student, you are required to submit a research paper.

(For forum details, continue to read till the end.)

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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).

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Forum 1 (0.25 Credit)

Title: The Great Goddess of the Winter Sky

Time: 9AM to 11AM PST on Jan 10 and Jan 24 (two sessions of 2 hours per session)

Organizer/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.

Summary: The Forum Session “The Great Goddess of the Winter Sky” presents the attributes of the Goddess in her many forms. Vivien Gibbons introduces us to the Blood Mysteries of Womanhood in the Artemis, Hekate and Demeter trinity that embodies the sacred cycles of the feminine of which Artemis plays a vital role. By tracing Artemis’ roots to the Paleolithic Era with Her bear and bee associations, Carla Ionesco’s presentation follows Artemis’ evolution from cave to temple bridging her identity into the Classical world of ancient Greece. Drawing on archaeological and iconographic evidence, Carla Ionescu traces Artemis’ evolution from the cave to the temple, showing how Artemis’ identity as both wild and sovereign bridges Paleolithic ritual consciousness with the structured cults of the classical world. In an analysis of Artemis as both Creatrix and Goddess of Life, Death and Regeneration, Dr. Helen Benigni focuses on the constellations and lunar cycles associated with Artemis in the winter months of the night sky. Finally, in a discussion that follows the presentations, the archetype of The Great Goddess of the Winter Sky is explored in Celtic and Greek cultures in a comparison with Brigit in Celtic mythology.

Guest Presenters: Vivien Gibbons, Ph.D., Carla Ionescu, Ph.D.

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Forum 2 (0.25 Credit)

Title: Inanna: Examples of Eros and Justice

Time: 10AM-12 PM on Feb 14 and Feb 28 2026 (two sessions of 2 hours per session)

Organizer/Instructor: Judy Grahn, Ph.D. in U.S.A.

Biography: Judy Grahn is an internationally known poet, writer, and theorist. She has been teaching and writing about the literature of Sumerian goddess Inanna for forty years. As co-director of an MA program in Women’s Spirituality housed first at New College of California and then at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, Judy established a course, “Women’s Sacred Texts,” centered around the stories and poems describing Inanna. Her publications include articles, a book-length poem, The Queen of Swords (1987) and her nonfiction interpretation of eight of nanna’s stories. Eruptions of Inanna: Justice, Gender, and Erotic Power (2021). This book received a Sarasvati Award from the Associattion for the Study of Women and Mythology, and the Reginald C. Martin Award for excellence in Literary Criticism from PEN Oakland.

Summary: Sumerian goddess Inanna is extremely complex, paradoxical, centered in the powers of a woman’s body, and immanent everywhere. Our forum will feature two of her qualities: her erotic love, and her concerns with justice. Feb 7 Dr. Grahn will read some of Inanna’s love poetry, and Dr. Jenett will bring in additional poetry from a civilization in the Indus Valley of north India, that both paralleled and directly traded with Sumer. The Sangam literature addresses the lush erotic powers of women, and the uniquely female quality of attractiveness known as ananku in the literature, and called kuzbu in ancient Sumerian literature. Then on Feb 21, Dr. Grenn will present on the Sumerian/Mesopotamian tradition of Lilith as a figure who resisted a patriarchal paradigm in choosing to flee the prison of “Paradise”, and Dr. Grahn will complete the Forum with her analysis of Inanna’s justice, and in particular her protection of the sexual autonomy of women.

Guest Presenters: Dianne E. Jenett, Ph.D. and D’vorah Grenn, Ph.D.

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Spring 2026 Courses

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