Mar5

Zsuzsanna Budapest

Posted on by
Standard
Cover of "Grandmother Moon: Lunar Magic i...

Cover via Amazon

]Jump to: navigation, search Zsuzsanna Emese Mokcsay (born 30 January 1940 in Budapest, Hungary) is an American author, activist, journalist, playwright and song-writer of Hungarian origin who writes about feminist spirituality and Dianic Wicca under the pen name and religious name Zsuzsanna Budapest or Z. Budapest. She is the High Priestess and the founding mother of the Susan B. Anthony Coven #1, the first feminist, women-only, witches’ coven. 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. She has an online autobiography entitled Fly by Night, and writes for the religion section of the San Francisco Examiner 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 in Oakland, California.

Z. Budapest was born in Budapest, Hungary. Her mother, Masika Szilagyi, was a medium, a practicing witch, and a professional sculptress whose work reflected themes of Goddess and nature spirituality. In 1956, when the Hungarian Revolution broke out, Budapest left Hungary as a political refugee. She finished high school in Innsbruck, graduated from a bilingual gymnasium, and won a scholarship to the University of Vienna where she studied languages. In The Holy Book of Women’s Mysteries, Z claims that her maternal grandmother was born by parthenogenesis (or virgin birth).

Budapest emigrated to the United States in 1959, where she studied at the University of Chicago, with groundbreaking originator of the art of improvisation, Viola Spolin, and the improvisational theater group The Second City. She married and had two sons, Laszlo and Gabor, but was later divorced. She realized she identified as a lesbian and chose, in her words, to avoid the “duality” between man and woman.

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 ISBN 0914728679, ISBN 978-0914728672

The Grandmother of Time: A Woman’s Book of Celebrations, Spells, and Sacred Objects for Every Month of the Year, (1989) HarperOne ISBN 0062501097, ISBN 978-0062501097

Grandmother Moon: Lunar Magic in Our Lives—Spells, Rituals, Goddesses, Legends, and Emotions Under the Moon (1991) HarperSanFrancisco ISBN 0062501143, ISBN 978-0062501141

The Goddess in the Office: A Personal Energy Guide for the Spiritual Warrior at Work (1993) HarperOne ISBN 0062500872, ISBN 978-0062500878

The Goddess in the Bedroom: A Passionate Woman’s Guide to Celebrating Sexuality Every Night of the Week (1995) HarperSanFrancisco ISBN 0062511866, ISBN 978-0062511867

Summoning the Fates: A Woman’s Guide to Destiny (1999) Three Rivers Press ISBN 0609802771, ISBN 978-0609802779

Celestial Wisdom for Every Year of Your Life: Discover the Hidden Meaning of Your Age (with Diana Paxson) (2003) Weiser Books ISBN 157863282X, ISBN 978-1578632824

Rasta Dogs (2003) Xlibris Corporation ISBN 1401093086, ISBN 978-1401093082

Related articles

Leave a comment