Mago (Madre Terra),
la più antica cosmogonia dell’Asia orientale
di Hye Sook

Hye Sook è una studiosa coreana di miti e religioni. Sta scrivendo un libro sulla riscoperta recente del poema epico Budoji (Epica della Città Emblematica) e del Handan Gogi(Le arcaiche cronache Han e Dan).

E’ una opportunità veramente unica questa che abbiamo di presentare una summa del suo lavoro ancora inedito e che molto generosamente Hye Sook ci permette di pubblicare sul nostro sito.

Si tratta del mito di creazione forse più completo e antico che ci sia arrivato dal più lontano passato, e parla di Mago come creatrice partogenetica dell’umanità, progenitrice di donne e uomini, sovrana della prima Città dell’Armonia Celeste.

Luciana Percovich
 

Hye Sook Hwang
 

Ph.D. Candidate

Women’s Studies in Religion

Claremont Graduate University

E-mail: helen.hwang@cgu.edu

Tel: (909) 399-9326

(This Essay was originally presented as part of the panel entitled “Women’s Spiritual Practices” to the Conference of Pacific and Southwest Women’s Studies on April 17, 2004, in Scripps College, Claremont CA)

An Investigation of Gynocentric Unity in Mago,

the East Asian Great Goddess, and Elsewhere

This essay introduces the hitherto unexplored topic of Mago (麻姑),[1] the Great Goddess, and Magoism, the archaic gynocentric cultural matrix of East Asia, which derives from the worship of Mago as creatress, progenitress, and sovereign.  By focusing on thematic motifs such as trinity and parthenogenesis, which are central to the creation myth of Magoism, I will discuss a phenomenon of cultural unity in pre-patriarchal traditions of East Asia and elsewhere.  I propose the hypothesis, despite its potential controversy, that the Myth of Mago provides a mythological and theological framework, which explains a common origin and cultural unity in the world-widely spread archaic traditions of goddesses.

Prompted by the sporadic reemergence of the “forgotten” corpus of Mago, which abounds in pan-East Asian sources from Korea, China, and Japan, I have sought, in a spirit marked by continuous surprises and exhilarations, the one unbroken rubric of the gynocentric cultural matrix, which I have named Magoism.  The supreme divinity of Mago and the tradition of Magoism are explicit, if not distorted, in various sources such as the Budoji (Epic of the Emblematic City),[2] the principal text of Magoism allegedly written around the late 4th century; the Handan Gogi (Archaic Chronicles of Han and Dan),[3] the diachronic record of the archaic states of Magoism; folktales; Taoist records; topological names; the debris of literary and historical writings; paintings; and miscellanies from Korea, China, and Japan.

         Magoism has never completely vanished from the course of history but has been truncated, distorted, and eroded especially for the past several hundred years in the case of Korea.  However, traces of Magoism abound in East Asia in the form of not only written and oral texts but also in the religious and cultural practices that have survived until today.  In other words, Magoism is a living tradition.  The recent publication of the Budoji (Epic of the Emblematic City) heralds another new time, in which the archaically-originated reality of Magoism revives.  While recovering and examining these materials, this paper ultimately illumines the making of an East Asian feminist perspective of Magoism, which I call feminist Magoism or Magoist feminism.

The Beginning of Mago

The Budoji (Epic of the Emblematic City) recounts the primordial event of Mago’s Origin in the Paradise of Mago.  A series of astounding stories uniquely and richly encoded with Magoist conceptions and symbols comes to resurface as motifs in the forthcoming historical and cultural developments of East Asia/Korea.  The creation account presented by the Budoji furnishes a coherent and holistic paradigm, in which gynocentric principles play central roles.  It delineates how the Myth of Mago expresses the Primordial Music and Dance that begins with Mago.

            The cosmogonic myth of Mago recounted in the Budoji tells us a story of the primordial beginning.  It delineates “a primal history,” to borrow Eliade’s phrase, “a beginning: a cosmogonic proper, or a myth that describes the first, germinal state of the world.”[4]  By citing Eliade’s definition of the creation myth, I intend to demonstrate that the creation myth of Magoism undermines the pre-established notion of the hierarchical dualism between Judeo-Christian, monotheistic, and male divinity and henotheistic, animistic, and female divinity, which is usually treated as “inferior” or “anomalous.”  This story is about the beginning of Mago, who is the Primordial Being on earth.  Mago is born from the Cosmic Music.  The primordial creation described in the Myth of Mago is neither ex nihilo (from nothing) nor an explosion (Big Bang).  The universe is a web in which our earth is interwoven.  The earth is a self-equilibrating mixture of land, water, and light. 

While the Budoji describes a continuous process of (pro)creation in four chapters (Chapters 1-4), I will focus on the first two chapters that describe the primordial beginning, the Emergence of Mago and the Paradise of Mago.  The following is my summation of the two incipient chapters of the Budoji:

In the age of the Former Heaven (先天), there existed only sunlight and water on earth.  When YulRyoe (Harmonized Cosmic Music) rose repeatedly, stars emerged.  From PalRyoe (Eightfold Cosmic Music), Mago, the Paradise of Mago, and other earthlings came forth.  It was an event that took place in the interim cosmic age called JimSe (My/Our/This World).  Mago prepared for the coming of the age called the Latter Heaven (後天).

Prior to the Latter Heaven, Mago asexually bore two daughters, KungHee (Vault Woman) and SoHee (Nest Woman).  Mago assigned them to manage OEmChilJo (Five Notes and Seven Tunes).  As the earth sprang forth milk, KungHee and SoHee each parthenogenetically bore two sons and two daughters.  Thereupon, Mago assigned four granddaughters to manage Ryoe (呂) and four grandsons Ryul (律).

The Paradise of Mago, MagoSeong (Walled City of Mago), honoring the Heavenly Emblem, succeeded the Former Heaven.  Four heavenly women/men named HwangGung (Yellow Vault), BaekSo (White Nest), ChungGung (Blue Vault), HeukSo (Black Nest) were positioned in the four corners of the City.  They built tubes [flutes] and composed music.[5]   

To read carefully, the beginning of the Myth of Mago may unfold as hierophany, manifestation of the sacred, as it did to the ancients.  In this magnificent beginning, stars were created, when the cosmic music autonomously rose and fell in the universe.   When everything was eventually equilibrated on earth, Mago was self-born and began her life.  Mago practiced the Art/Way of Living, that is, she harmonized herself with the cosmic music, for a long time by herself.  She eventually succeeded in self-procreation and bore two other women just like herself, the two daughters of Mago, KungHee and SoHee.  Thus Mago became the Triple Goddess.  The Three in Unity co-practiced the Art of Living.  Thereupon, the earth sprang milk.  KungHee and SoHee parthenogenetically bore daughters and sons and raised them with earth-milk.  Finally there came to exist two sexes/genders on earth.  Sons were “new beings” and were possibly celebrated for their first entry into the world, just as daughters were genuinely welcomed.  Mago, KungHee and SoHee taught them the Art/Way of Living.  Daughters and sons, Heavenly Women and Men, lived two by two in the four Corners/Gates of the Paradise.  It is assumed that they all co-practiced the Way of Living.

I am somehow perplexed by the lack of emphasis on fertility and/or motherhood in the account of the Budoji.  Furthermore, strikingly absent is the emphasis on female sexuality and her “voluptuous” body.  The same applies to the folkloric myths of Mago.  Only a few cases out of over 200 folktales, which I have documented, address such themes as fertility, motherhood, and/or female sexuality.  I hold that the mythic portrayal of Mago coveys an archaic consciousness, which predates the patriarchal formulation of “the feminine.”  Mago is envisaged as an incredibly strong, wise, and spiritual woman who understands the imminence of her task to equilibrate with the cosmic music in order to survive and thrive.  It is not enough to say that Mago is the noun, that is, the Mother, the Progenitor, or the Provider.[6]  She is the Verb or a verb, who (pro)creates, administrates, and summons, as the Budoji continues to describe the ensuing process of creation and the evolvement of history.[7]  She is not static.  The truth is that nothing stays immutable and immobile in the Magoist cosmology.  Everything self-equilibrates, self-evolves, and self-creates.  Thus, it can be said that Mago is the Primal Choreographer who designed the cosmic dance for humanity.   And she is the Archivist who holds the knowledge of the Origin for us all.

The Female Cosmic Music and Muses

The above account of the creation myth of Magoism crystallizes the female principle into the following gynocentric motifs: PalRyoe (the eight-fold female cosmic music); trinity; parthenogenesis; and the female as the primordial human species.  From PalRyoe came forth not only Mago but also the Paradise of Mago called Magoseong (Walled City of Mago),[8] and two other earthlings.[9]  Mago and her creation are the embodiment of PalRyoe, the Female Music of the universe.  The creation myth of Mago reenacts the self-creating and self-sustaining power of the universe.  Its fundamental message is the Power of Life in Process.  The ecstatic joy and awe are contagiously vitalized.  As to PalRyoe and OEmChilJo (Five Notes and Seven Tunes), it is helpful to note the exegesis of JungPyong Noh, one of the few Korean scholars who consider the Budoji seriously, as he writes:

The Universe is created by PalRyoe.  The music of PalRyoe is a vibration, which is generated by the movement of the gravity axis [of the Earth], and goes out into eight directions. [ ]  OEm (Five Notes) is a sound that comes inward from the center of the gravity axis.  It cycles crescendos and diminuendos.  ChilJo (Seven Tunes) functions to transfer the direction of the sound outward, when an incoming sound reaches its zenith.  KungHee and SoHee manages the task [of OEmChilJo].”[10]  

Noh sees the Primal Force/Music deriving from the self-balancing act/dance of the Earth within the Universe.  His association of the self-sustaining movement of the earth with music is not a mere euphemism or poetic fancy but rather a partial description of the cultural heritage of East Asia.  According to Noh, the traditional rhythms and notes of Korean music signify the “dance” of the Earth in tune with the music of the universe.  The movement of the universe is perceived as the cosmic music, the sacred sound, which (pro)creates the primal beings.  This reconceptualization of the comic music is starkly contrasted with the modern technology of measuring mechanic noises by scientific equipments.  The technique that maintains self-equilibration with the cosmic music is absolutely necessary.  The Magoist Myth advocates the symbiosis of all beings through harmonizing with Female Cosmic Music.

It is astounding to note that gynocentric notions and images of PalRyoe highly echo those of European and elsewhere pre-patriarchal goddesses.  First of all, the etymological connection between Muse and Music in European languages is compelling.[11]  “Intergalactic Communications,” as Mary Daly phrases, take place between PalRyoe and the “Music of the Spheres,” which is defined as “an ethereal harmony supposed by the Pythagoreans to be produced by the vibration of the celestial spheres upon which the stars and planets were thought to move.”[12]  Daly has dis-covered the “sleeping” gynocentic meanings of Muses in Greek mythology and irrigated them into her original feminist thought.  Thus, she cites, “[O]riginally the Muses were represented as virgins of the strictest chastity.”[13]  While the expression, “virgins of the strictest chastity,” is left somewhat precarious, Daly elaborates, “A woman wielding Musing Powers releases waves of meanings so that new and ancient words can be heard and spoken.”[14]  Is it a mere coincidence that Mary Daly’s thought on Muses resonates with a feminist hermeneutic of the Magoist creation myth?  I can only state here that there is something in the Magoist Myth that explains the “Syn-Crone-icities.”[15]  I shall illumine this “something” throughout my dissertation chapters, which include the synchronicities between pre-patriarchal Western mythology including the Judeo-Christian tradition and the Magoist Myth.

With regards to the motifs of the Triple Goddess of Mago, KungHee, and SoHee and OEmChilJo (Five Notes and Seven tunes), to which Mago assigned her two daughters for management, the semantic and symbolic unity in the worldwide gynocentic cultures and cosmologies is too evident to dismiss.  The Samguk Sagi (History of Three Kingdoms) lists the names of musical instruments: SamJuk Jeok, three bamboo flues, and SamHyoen, three string instruments.[16]  It states that the music of three bamboo flutes has seven tunes.  The technical information of these seven tunes is not my concern here, but it is worth noting that the numerical symbols of three and seven from the Myth of Mago echo in the tradition of Korean music.

Barbara Walker’s following exegesis of Muses reverberates on these motifs, as she writes: “The Muses were originally a triad—the primordial Triple Goddess. [ ]  The seven-tone musical scale was the Muses’ invention, supposedly based on their ‘music’ of the seven spheres [Italics are mine].”[17]  Also, Barbara Smith states that Muses “were the fount of all knowledge, and poets would invoke them at the beginning of each declamation, thus ‘proving’ that the poet sang the truth.”[18]  Conveying the unequivocal authority of Muses, which was coopted by ancient poets, Smith includes the following:

The number of Muses varied from three to nine; originally the triad together held the various powers, but by the Roman period each of the nine was attributed separate spheres of influence in arts.  Mouseia were sacred places where birds sang—thought to be manifestations of the gods—and later philosophers, such as Plato and Aristotle, called their Schools ‘museums.’[19]

From a feminist Magoist perspective, it is not surprising to note that the etymology of “museums” derived from Muses in that it is one of the many examples, which show how the archaic symbolism of the Triad Goddess is deeply permeated and takes a central role in modern culture/consciousness.  On the other hand, the above statement alludes to the Hindu tradition of the Goddess Matrika, one of the two major manifestations of Durga, according to Laura Kristine Chamberlain.[20]  I must admit my surprise with Chamberlian’s delineation of the worship of the Asta Matrikas (eight Mother Goddesses), which is highly reminiscent of rituals of Magoism described in the folktales with regards to aniconic ritual practices associating with natural landscapes as well as some terms for “mother” and “grandmother.”[21]  While the comparative research between Magoism and the worship of Matirkas requires a future occasion, I will approach the multiple manifestations of Matrika, as Chamberlain cites,

The inconsistency in the number of Matrikas found in the valley [Indus] today (seven, eight, or nine) possibly reflects the localization of goddesses [ ]  Although the Matrikas are mostly grouped as seven goddesses over the rest of the Indian Subcontinent, an eighth Matrikas has sometimes been added in Nepal to represent the eight cardinal direction.  In Bhaktapur, a city in the Kathmandu Valley, a ninth Matrika is added to the set to represent the center.[22]

The above statement affirms the manifold envisagement of the Great Goddess in the worldwide cultures.  The ritual practice of Magoism by the populace is not an exception.  In folktales, Mago is addressed as Mother of the eight shamans who were sent by Mago to eight provinces as progenitors.  Not only the numeric similarity but also the inconsistency of the number of Muses, Matrikas, and Magoist Shamans is incredibly analogous in each tradition.  I hold that this is another clue that supports the reliability of the Myth of Mago. 

The Symbolism of Parthenogenesis and Woman/Goddess Species

As I have shown above, the symbolism of the Triad Goddess is not unique to Asia but rather recurs in other parts of the world.  The parthenogenetic birth of the Triad Goddess of Mago, KungHee, and SoHee also finds a counterpart in the work of Elizabeth Gould Davis who writes, “In early Greek mythology the creative principle is Metis—female intelligence.  She is the creator of all who, like Phoenician-Carthaginian Tanit, like Tiamat, like Gaia, like ‘Anat, creates the world without a male partner.”[23]  I am not simply suggesting Mago as another goddess to the list.  I am proposing a hypothesis that the Myth of Mago is the One Unbroken Narrative that tells the Origin of us all and the unity of the pre-patriarchal culture, which I will continue to discuss in my dissertation.  More precisely, this is what feminist Magoism proposes.  My postulation is that only those who are born to the later patriarchal period are deprived of this knowledge.

Noteworthy is the Budoji’s indication of the cosmic period called JimSe, which can be transliterated as My/Our/This World, the Age that the Triad Goddess Mago, KungHee, and SoHee were born and lived.  Why does the Myth of Mago name JimSe the World of the Triad Goddess?  In this cyclic notion of time, JimSe is the age between the two ages, the Former Heaven and the Latter Heaven, to the latter which modern humanity is born.  JimSe means the age of primordial women/goddesses in which only female beings lived and procreated through parthenogenesis, as Mago and her two daughters did.  Is such a history plausible or even imaginable?  The myth of Magoism tells us so.

I hold that the idea is not entirely futile, if we consider the wealth of evidence on parthenogenesis of the primordial female deities from the world.  Parthenogenesis is almost always mentioned in the discourse of the Primal Goddess.  Monica Sjoo (1991 1987c, 2-3), Starhawk (1997, 72), Joseph Campbell (1988, 167), and Elizabeth Gould Davis (1971) are but a few.  Despite a different emphasis, the work of Elizabeth Gould Davis, who shows particular interests in the idea of the female as a Race, is thought provoking.  She writes:

Originally she was all female.  By the time of Orpheus, however, she had become bisexual—a hermaphrodite, Metis-Phanes, creator and begetter in one body.  Her final transformation by classical times into all male Phanes illustrates the ancient concept of the evolution of the human race; for the original femaleness of all human beings is reflected in the belief among the ancients, and voiced by Plato in the Symposium, that the human race was once unisexed—male and female combined in one self-perpetuating female body.”[24] 

Davis helps us envision the metamorphic trajectory of the Greek Goddesses from female to hermaphrodite, and to male. 

         Inspired by Davis’ I am inclined to suggest physical/genetic and psychical mutations of Goddess, which necessarily accompanies social and historical adjustments.  The following is my interpretation of the Budoji’s account of Mago’s cosmogony.  Once there was the Period of the Goddess/Woman Species called JimSe (My/Our/This World).[25]  Mago is the generic name of the Go (Goddess) Species.  She is asexual but called female because she is able to procreate.  Her procreation would be a self-duplication/multiplication.  The newly emerged Goddesses are called KungHee and SoHee.  Hee is the generic name for the Hee (Woman) Species.  There are two races of Hee: Kung (Vault) and So (Nest).  Because the Hees are the Duplicated Selves of Mago, Mago, KungHee and SoHee are called Trinity.  However, these duplicated Goddesses underwent a process of mutation and became hermaphroditic.  Thus, procreation occurs through parthenogenesis.  A sexual union taking place within the Woman Self.  Only this time, according to the Myth of Mago, the earth sprang milk.  KungHee and SoHee were able to procreate beings who would rely on milk for food.

The Triad Goddess of Mago, KungHee and SoHee is qualitatively distinguished from their third generation women and men.  This third generation is the Human Species.  Generation means mutation that creates new Species.  In the beginning of the Human Species, there were four races: Yellow (Hwang), White (Baek), Blue (Chung), and Black (Heuk).  They were eight heavenly women and men, half of them were the Kung (Vaults) and the other half the So (Nests).  Even after sexual union became a way of procreation, parthenogenesis co-existed for a long time in the archaic past.  The parthenogenetic procreation was highly revered as theaphany, the manifestation of the Goddess, since it represents the Origin of Mago.[26]  In the history of Magoism, which I construct, the Genealogy of Mago was the Family Tree in which everyone finds one’s consanguinity with all peoples and their languages.[27] 

         In order to surmount the damage and oppression done to women in patriarchy, contemporary women need to be reminded of the history of human female beginning in the Myth of Mago.  The female was the first sex and species who broke through into existence and marched into the dawn of history.  Women cracked the path into spirituality, knowledge, culture, peace, and history itself.  To be Re-Membered is that women’s independent creative power crystallized in parthenogenesis invoked magophany, the manifestation of the Great Goddess Mago, for the women and men of the pre-patriarchal time.  Parthenogenesis is a powerful notion for women in diversity to break through illusory patriarchal conditions that diminish the power of women.  East Asian women are not “the outsider of the outsiders,” who need to be spoken of.  We are the agents of Magoism.  Our Mothers and Grandmothers opened the path for Us.