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Zsuzsanna Budapest

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Zsuzsanna Emese Mokcsay
Born1940
Budapest, Hungary
NationalityAmerican
Other namesZsuzsanna Budapest, Z. Budapest
Alma materUniversity of Vienna
Occupation(s)Writer, activist, playwright, songwriter
Known forFounder of Dianic Wicca, Founder of the Susan B. Anthony Coven
Symbol of theGoddesswith thePentagram.

Zsuzsanna Emese Mokcsay(born 1940) is a Hungarian-American writer, activist, playwright and songwriter living in America who writes aboutfeministspiritualityandDianic Wiccaunder the pen nameZsuzsanna BudapestorZ. Budapest.She is the founder of theSusan B. AnthonyCoven #1, which was founded in 1971 as the first women-only witches' coven.[1][2]She founded the female-only style ofDianic Wicca.[3]

She is the founder and director of theWomen's Spirituality Forum,a nonprofit organization featuring lectures, retreats and other events, and was the lead of a cable TV show called13th Heaven.[4]She had an online autobiography entitledFly by Night,and wrote for the religion section of theSan Francisco Examineron subjects related to Pagan religions. Her playThe Rise of the Fatespremiered in Los Angeles in the mid-seventies. She is the composer of several songs including "We All Come From the Goddess".[5]

Early life and education

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Z. Budapest was born inBudapest, Hungary.Her mother, Masika Szilagyi, was a medium, a practicing witch, and a professional sculptor whose work reflected themes ofgoddessandnature spirituality.In 1956, when theHungarian Revolutionbegan, she fled to Austria as a political refugee. She finished high school inInnsbruck,graduated from a bilingual gymnasium, and won a scholarship to theUniversity of Viennawhere shestudied languages.[6]

Budapest emigrated to the United States in 1959, where she studied at theUniversity of Chicago,with groundbreaking originator of the art of improvisation,Viola Spolin,and the improvisational theater groupThe Second City.[6]She married and had two sons, Laszlo and Gabor, but later divorced. She realized she was alesbianand chose, in her words, to avoid the "duality" between man and woman.[7]

Career

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Budapest's first job in television was as a color girl for the CBS Network in New York, and was assigned toThe Ed Sullivan Show.

Activism

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Budapest moved to Los Angeles from New York City in 1970, and became an activist in thewomen's liberation movement.She was on the staff of the first Women's Center in the U.S. for many years,[8]and became the founder and high priestess ofSusan B. AnthonyCoven #1, the first women-only witches' coven, which was founded in 1971.[6][1][2]She was responsible for the creation of an Anti-Rape Squad[9]and theTake Back the NightMovement in Southern California, and facilitated many of their street marches.[10]

Tarot reading and arrest

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In 1975, she was arrested for "fortune telling" at her candle and book store inVenice, Californiafollowing a "sting" by an undercover policewoman, Rosalie Kimberlin, who received a tarot reading from her. Subsequently, Budapest was charged with violating a municipal by-law, Code 43.30, which made fortune telling unlawful. Budapest and her defense team described her as "the first witch prosecuted since Salem,"[11]and the ensuing trial became a focus for media and pagan protesters. Budapest was found guilty.[11]

Duly, Budapest and her legal counsel set out to establish Wicca, and more specificallyDianic 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.[12]

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. Withpro bonolegal representation she was acquitted, and the laws against "fortune telling" were struck from California law.[12]

Later career

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In the 1980s, she created the TV show13th Heaven,which ran on syndicated cable in the San Francisco Bay area for seven years.[citation needed]

She has organized the Goddess Festivals, which take place every other year, since 1991 where women gather for workshops and ritual in the Redwoods of California (see website goddess-fest ).

Works

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Books

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  • The Feminist Book of Lights and Shadows.Feminist Wicca. 1975.OCLC38697963.
  • Selene, the Most Famous Bull-Leaper on Earth.Diana Press. 1976.ISBN0-88447-010-5.
  • The Grandmother of Time: A Woman's Book of Celebrations, Spells, and Sacred Objects for Every Month of the Year.HarperOne. 1989.ISBN978-0-06-250109-7.
  • The Holy Book of Women's Mysteries: Feminist Witchcraft, Goddess Rituals, Spellcasting and Other Womanly Arts.Wingbow Press. 1989.ISBN978-0-914728-67-2.
  • The Aquarian Holy Book of Women's Mysteries: Aquarian Rituals and Spells for Present and Future Witches.lulu Press. 2022.ISBN978-0-137714407.
  • Grandmother Moon: Lunar Magic in Our Lives—Spells, Rituals, Goddesses, Legends, and Emotions Under the Moon.HarperSanFrancisco.1991.ISBN0-06-250114-3.
  • The Goddess in the Office: A Personal Energy Guide for the Spiritual Warrior at Work.HarperOne. 1993.ISBN978-0-06-250087-8.
  • The Goddess in the Bedroom: A Passionate Woman's Guide to Celebrating Sexuality Every Night of the Week.HarperSanFrancisco. 1995.ISBN978-0-06-251186-7.
  • Summoning the Fates: A Woman's Guide to Destiny.Three Rivers Press. 1999.ISBN978-0-609-80277-9.
  • My Dark Sordid Past as a Heterosexual: The Autobiography of Dr. Zsuzsanna E. Budapest, First Destiny.CreateSpace Independent Publishers Platform. 2014.ISBN978-1500988906.
WithDiana Paxson
  • Celestial Wisdom for Every Year of Your Life: Discover the Hidden Meaning of Your Age.Weiser Books. 2003.ISBN978-1-57863-282-4.

Music

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  • Copyright Z Budapest (1971).We All Come from The Goddess-Chant.PA0000474403.

Plays

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  • The Rise of the Fates: A Woman's Passion Play,1976.

Films

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  • The Occult Experience(Motion picture). Cinetel Productions Ltd. 1987.Released on VHS by Sony/Columbia-Tristar on August 5, 1992.

See also

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References

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  1. ^abLewis (1999),p.[page needed].
  2. ^abBerger, Leach & Shaffer (2003),p.[page needed].
  3. ^Adler (1981),Chapter 8: Women, Feminism, and the Craft.
  4. ^Chesler, Rothblum & Cole (1995),p.[page needed].
  5. ^Hutton (1999),p.[page needed].
  6. ^abcLesbian Pride (n.d.)
  7. ^Drury (2000),p. 161.
  8. ^Endres & Lueck (1996),p.[page needed].
  9. ^Reid (2006),p.[page needed].
  10. ^Eller (1993),p.[page needed].
  11. ^abCreeden (1999),p.[page needed].
  12. ^abDavis (2006),p.[page needed]

Works cited

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Further reading

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  • Carson, Anne (1999).Caretaking a New Soul: Writing on Parenting from Thich Nhat Hahn to Z Budapest.Crossing Press.ISBN978-1-58091-018-7.
  • Feraro, Shai (October 20, 2020). "'The Goddess is Alive. Magic is Afoot.': Radical and Cultural Feminist Influences on Z Budapest's Dianic Witchcraft During the 1970s–1980s ".Nova Religio.24(2): 59–79.doi:10.1525/nr.2020.24.2.59.S2CID226967657.
  • Goldenberg, Naomi R. (1980).Changing of the Gods: Feminism and the End of Traditional Religions.Beacon Press.ISBN978-0-8070-1111-9.
  • Kimball, Gayle (1981).Women's Culture: The Women's Renaissance of the Seventies.Scarecrow Press.ISBN978-0810814967.
  • Parsons, Susan Frank (2002).The Cambridge Companion to Feminist Theology.Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-0-521-66380-9.
  • Wessinger, Catherine Lowman (1993).Women's Leadership in Marginal Religions.University of Illinois Press.ISBN978-0-252-06332-9.
  • Eller, Cynthia (1993).Living in the Lap of the Goddess.Beacon Press.ISBN978-0807065075.
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