Zsuzsanna Emese Mokcsay (born 30 January 1940 in

Budapest, Hungary Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population of ...

) is a Hungarian author, activist, journalist, playwright and songwriter living in America who writes about

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

spirituality The meaning of ''spirituality'' has developed and expanded over time, and various meanings can be found alongside each other. Traditionally, spirituality referred to a religious process of re-formation which "aims to recover the original shape o ...

and Dianic Wicca under the pen name Zsuzsanna Budapest or Z. Budapest. She is the founder of the Susan B. Anthony Coven #1, which was founded in 1971 as the first women-only witches' coven.Lesbian Pride Website
. Lesbian-pride.com (1940-01-30). Retrieved on 2011-06-23.''Witchcraft Today: An Encyclopedia of Wiccan and Neopagan Traditions'' by James R. Lewis ABC-CLIO (1999)''Voices from the Pagan Census: A National Survey of Witches and Neo-Pagans in the United States'' by Helen A. Berger, Evan A. Leach and Leigh S. Shaffer. University of South Carolina Press (2003) She founded the female-only type of Dianic Wicca.Budapest, Zsuzsanna. ''Holy Book of Women's Mysteries'', The. 1980 (2003 electronic). . Adler, Margot. ''Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans in America Today''. Boston: Beacon press, 1979; 1986. . Chapter 8: Women, Feminism, and the Craft". She is the founder and director of the Women's Spirituality Forum, a nonprofit organization featuring lectures, retreats and other events, and was the lead of a cable TV show called ''13th Heaven''.''Feminist Foremothers in Women's Studies, Psychology, and Mental Health, Volume 1'' edited by Phyllis Chesler, Esther D. Rothblum and Ellen Cole. Psychology Press (1995) She had an online autobiography entitled ''Fly by Night'', and wrote for the religion section of the

San Francisco Examiner The ''San Francisco Examiner'' is a newspaper distributed in and around San Francisco, California, and published since 1863. Once self-dubbed the "Monarch of the Dailies" by then-owner William Randolph Hearst, and flagship of the Hearst Corporat ...

on subjects related to Pagan religions. Her play ''The Rise of the Fates'' premiered in Los Angeles in the mid-seventies. She is the composer of several songs including "We All Come From the Goddess". She lives near Santa Cruz, California.

Early life

Z. Budapest was born in

. Her mother, Masika Szilagyi, was a medium, a practicing witch, and a professional sculptress whose work reflected themes of

Goddess A goddess is a female deity. In many known cultures, goddesses are often linked with literal or metaphorical pregnancy or imagined feminine roles associated with how women and girls are perceived or expected to behave. This includes themes of s ...

and nature spirituality. In 1956, when the Hungarian Revolution began, she fled to Austria as a political refugee. She finished high school in

Innsbruck Innsbruck (; bar, Innschbruck, label=Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian ) is the capital of Tyrol (state), Tyrol and the List of cities and towns in Austria, fifth-largest city in Austria. On the Inn (river), River Inn, at its junction with the ...

, graduated from a bilingual gymnasium, and won a scholarship to the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich histor ...

where she studied languages. Budapest immigrated to the United States in 1959, where she studied at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

, with groundbreaking originator of the art of improvisation,

Viola Spolin Viola Spolin (November 7, 1906 — November 22, 1994) was an American theatre academic, educator and acting coach. She is considered an important innovator in 20th century American theater for creating directorial techniques to help actors to be ...

, and the improvisational theater group

The Second City The Second City is an improvisational comedy enterprise and is the oldest ongoing improvisational theater troupe to be continually based in Chicago, with training programs and live theatres in Toronto and Los Angeles. The Second City Theatre op ...

. She married and had two sons, Laszlo and Gabor, but later divorced. She realized she is a

lesbian A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...

and chose, in her words, to avoid the "duality" between man and woman.

Career

Three-Crescents-Diane-Poitiers-multicolored

She moved to Los Angeles from New York City in 1970, and became an activist in the women's liberation movement. She was on the staff of the first Women's Center in the U.S. there for many years, and became the Founder and High Priestess of Susan B. Anthony Coven #1, the first women-only witches' coven, which was founded in 1971. She was responsible for the creation of an Anti-Rape Squad and the Take Back the Night Movement in Southern California, and facilitated many of their street marches.

Controversy

Transphobia

Z Budapest is considered by many in the

Neopagan Modern paganism, also known as contemporary paganism and neopaganism, is a term for a religion or family of religions influenced by the various historical pre-Christian beliefs of pre-modern peoples in Europe and adjacent areas of North Afric ...

community to be

transphobic Transphobia is a collection of ideas and phenomena that encompass a range of negative attitudes, feelings, or actions towards transgender people or transness in general. Transphobia can include fear, aversion, hatred, violence or anger tow ...

. Famously, she conducted a ritual exclusive to women by the Circle of Cerridwen at PantheaCon in February 2011. This caused a lot of backlash that led many to criticize Dianic Wicca as inherently transphobic. Others were grateful to her for standing up for women and recognizing that women and men are, indeed, different and have different needs. Participants and authors in the neopagan scene wrote articles, staged silent protests and wrote open letters to Budapest. Others applauded and thanked her for standing up to the sexism of some in the neopagan community.

Arrested for Tarot Reading

In 1975, she was arrested for "fortune telling" at her candle and book store in Venice, California following a "sting" by an undercover police woman Rosalie Kimberlin, who received a tarot reading from her. Subsequently, Budapest was charged with violating a municipal by-law, Code 43.30, which meant fortune telling was unlawful. Budapest and her defence team described her as "the first witch prosecuted since Salem,"''In Full Bloom: Tales of Women in Their Prime'' by Sharon Creeden. August House (1999) and the ensuing trial became a focus for media and pagan protesters. Budapest was found guilty. Duly, Budapest and her legal counsel set out to establish Wicca, and more specifically Dianic Wicca, as a bona fide religion. The state's Supreme Court reversed the guilty verdict as unconstitutional and in violation of the Freedom of Religion Act.''The Visionary State: A Journey Through California's Spiritual Landscape'' by Erik Davis. Chronicle Books (June 22, 2006) Following her conviction, she engaged in nine years of appeals on the grounds that reading the Tarot was an example of women spiritually counselling women within the context of their religion. With

pro bono ( en, 'for the public good'), usually shortened to , is a Latin phrase for professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment. In the United States, the term typically refers to provision of legal services by legal professionals for pe ...

legal representation she was acquitted, and the laws against "fortune telling" were struck from California law.BlogTalkRadio Website
. Blogtalkradio.com (2008-03-07). Retrieved on 2011-06-23.

"We All Come From The Goddess"

In 2012, Budapest requested via

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

that the song she wrote, "We All Come From The Goddess", be performed as written and not be altered to include male gods. She initially stated that anyone changing her song was cursed, but clarified in comments section of this post that she was joking.Facebook
Facebook.com (2013-04-17). Retrieved on 2013-01-23.

Television

Budapest claims that her first job in television was as a Color Girl for the CBS Network in New York; that she was assigned to ''

The Ed Sullivan Show ''The Ed Sullivan Show'' is an American television program, television variety show that ran on CBS from June 20, 1948, to March 28, 1971, and was hosted by New York City, New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan. It was replaced in Septembe ...

'', and that it was her face that CBS adjusted their camera's settings to.
Z Budapest website In the eighties, she created the TV show ''13th Heaven'', which ran on syndicated cable in the San Francisco Bay area for seven years.

Books

*''The Feminist Book of Lights and Shadows'', (1975) Feminist Wicca, Luna Publications *''The Holy Book of Women's Mysteries: Feminist Witchcraft, Goddess Rituals, Spellcasting and Other Womanly Arts'' (1989) Wingbow Press , *''The Grandmother of Time: A Woman's Book of Celebrations, Spells, and Sacred Objects for Every Month of the Year'', (1989) HarperOne , *''Grandmother Moon: Lunar Magic in Our Lives—Spells, Rituals, Goddesses, Legends, and Emotions Under the Moon'' (1991) HarperSanFrancisco *''Grandmother Moon'' (2011) Amazon CreateSpace ( self-publishing, self-published) / 9781460911402 *''The Goddess in the Office: A Personal Energy Guide for the Spiritual Warrior at Work'' (1993) HarperOne , *''Goddess Gets to Work'' (2012) Amazon CreateSpace ( self-publishing, self-published) / 9781477589540 *''The Goddess in the Bedroom: A Passionate Woman's Guide to Celebrating Sexuality Every Night of the Week'' (1995) HarperSanFrancisco , *''Summoning the Fates: A Woman's Guide to Destiny'' (1999) Three Rivers Press , *''Summoning the Fates: A Guide to Destiny and Sacred Transformation'' (2013) Amazon CreateSpace ( self-publishing, self-published) / 9781492150886 *''Celestial Wisdom for Every Year of Your Life: Discover the Hidden Meaning of Your Age '' (with

Diana Paxson Diana Lucile Paxson (born February 20, 1943) is an American author, primarily in the fields of Paganism and Heathenism. Her published works include fantasy and historical fiction novels, as well as numerous short stories. More recently she has ...

) (2003) Weiser Books , *''Rasta Dogs'' (2003) Xlibris Corporation , *''Selene, the Most Famous Bull-Leaper on Earth'' (1976) Diana Press *''Selene, the Most Famous Bull-Leaper on Earth'' (2011) Amazon CreateSpace ( self-publishing, self-published) / 9781460999349 *''Z's Easy Tarot'' (2012) Amazon CreateSpace ( self-publishing, self-published) / 9781479128099 *''My Dark Sordid Past As A Heterosexual'' (2014) Amazon CreateSpace ( self-publishing, self-published) / 9781500988906

Play

*''The Rise of the Fates: A Woman's Passion Play'' 1976

Filmography

* ''The Occult Experience'' 1987 Cinetel Productions Ltd (released on VHS by Sony/Columbia-Tristar August 5, 1992) * ''Gathering the Goddess'', a documentary of her first festival (in south central Texas) DVD-R Amazon CreateSpace Title #306207 * ''Gathering the Goddess'' (held in LaHonda, California) In Development * ''Z Budapest's Goddess Kits: Sex & Goddess'' DVD-R Amazon CreateSpace Title #306094

References

Sources

* ''Women's Leadership in Marginal Religions'' by Catherine Lowman Wessinger (1993) University of Illinois Press , * ''Feminist Foremothers in Women's Studies, Psychology, and Mental Health'' by Phyllis Chesler, Esther D. Rothblum, and Ellen Cole (1995) Haworth Press , * ''The Witch in History: Early Modern and Twentieth-Century Representations'' by Diane Purkiss (1996) Routledge , * ''Introduction to New and Alternative Religions in America'' by Eugene V. Gallagher and W. Michael Ashcraft (2006) Greenwood Publishing Group , * ''Changing of the Gods: Feminism and the End of Traditional Religions'' by Naomi R. Goldenberg (1980) Beacon Press , * ''Witchcraft and Magic: Contemporary North America'' by Helen A. Berger (2006) University of Pennsylvania Press , * ''The New Religious Movements Experience in America'' by Eugene V. Gallagher (2004) Greenwood Publishing Group , * ''Thealogy and Embodiment: the Post-Patriarchal Reconstruction of Female Sacrality'' by Melissa Raphael (1996) Continuum International Publishing Group , * ''Living in the Lap of the Goddess'' by Cynthia Eller (1995) Beacon Press , * ''Voices from the Pagan Census: A National Survey of Witches and Neo-Pagans in the United States'' by Helen A. Berger, Evan A. Leach, Leigh S. Shaffer (2003) University of South Carolina Press , * ''Daughters of the Goddess: Studies of Healing, Identity, and Empowerment'' by Wendy Griffin (1999) Rowman Altamira , * ''New Age Religion and Western Culture: Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought'' by Wouter J. Hanegraaff (1998) SUNY Press , * ''Being a Pagan: Druids, Wiccans, and Witches Today'' by Ellen Evert Hopman & Lawrence Bond (2001) Inner Traditions / Bear & Company, , * ''Introduction to Pagan Studies'' by Barbara Jane Davy (2006) Rowman Altamira , * ''The Michigan Womyn's Music Festival: An Amazon Matrix of Meaning'' by Ph D Laurie J Kendall (2008) Lulu.com, , * ''Goddess as Nature: Towards a Philosophical Thealogy'' by Paul Reid-Bowen (2007) Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. , * ''Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans in America'' by Margot Adler (2006) Penguin Books , * ''The Cambridge Companion to Feminist Theology'' by Susan Frank Parsons(2002) Cambridge University Press , * ''Caretaking a New Soul: Writing on Parenting from Thich Nhat Hahn to Z Budapest'' by Anne Carson (1999) Crossing Press , * ''Women's Culture: The Women's Renaissance of the Seventies'' by Gayle Kimball (1981) Scarecrow Press * ''Woman of Power'' (1987) Published by Woman of Power, Inc. (Original from the University of California) * ''The Fabric of the Future: Women Visionaries of Today Illuminate the Path to Tomorrow'' by Mary Jane Ryan, Patrice (INT) Wynne, Ken (FRW) Wilber (2000) Conari , * ''Goddesses and the Divine Feminine: A Western Religious History'' by Rosemary Radford Ruether (2006) University of California Press , * ''Ritual and Symbol in Peacebuilding'' by Lisa Schirch (2005) Kumarian Press, Inc. ,

External links

Z. Budapest's Personal Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Budapest, Zsuzsanna 1940 births Living people Activists from Oakland, California American feminist writers American occultists Dianic Wicca Hungarian emigrants to the United States American spiritual writers American Wiccans Lesbian feminists Lesbian writers Journalists from Oakland, California Wiccan feminists LGBT Wiccans Hungarian women writers B Feminist spirituality American women non-fiction writers 20th-century pseudonymous writers Pseudonymous women writers 21st-century American women Feminism and transgender Founders of modern pagan movements American women activists