Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News Editorials & Other Articles General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

Hekate

(94,665 posts)
Mon Sep 20, 2021, 03:04 PM Sep 2021

Very nice! There's a long article on Z Budapest on page 1 of the LA Times

COLUMN ONE
How ‘Z’ became a witch pioneer
Zsuzsanna Budapest, who created feminist, Goddess-centered religion in 1970s, says she’s not done yet.
BY DEBORAH NETBURNREPORTING FROM SANTA CRUZ
In a small stucco house in a retirement community near Santa Cruz, an 81-year-old witch is writing a television series.

She calls it “Baba Boogie and the Berkeley Broads.”

The premise goes like this: Baba Boogie is a reluctant immortal — old and tired. All her friends have passed on, but she herself cannot die until she finds a new generation of women to receive her superpowers.

When a quartet of granny peace activists from Berkeley winds up in jail, Baba Boogie comes to their aid and finds the perfect group to teach her secrets.

Fun, adventure and magic ensue.

Fiction, yes, but it’s easy to see parallels between Baba Boogie and the screenwriter, Zsuzsanna Budapest. For 50 years, Budapest dedicated much of her life to creating and disseminating Dianic Wicca, a feminist, Goddess-centered spirituality she originated in Los Angeles in the 1970s.

She founded the all-women Susan B. Anthony Coven No. 1 and was arrested for reading tarot cards in Venice when divination was still illegal across most of California.

She publicly hexed murderers and rapists, wrote 13 books on ritual and witchcraft and founded the long-running International Goddess Festival, a biennial gathering of women in the California redwoods that continues to this day.

Outside witchy circles, Budapest remains relatively unknown, but she has been a pioneering, though sometimes divisive, force in a state famous for fostering unorthodox forms of spirituality and belief.

“I don’t agree with all her views, but in the history of the craft, she is an important person,” said Sabina Magliocco, professor of anthropology and religion at the University of British Columbia. “When you look at all of the witchcraft as feminist resistance that flowered in the Trump era, none of that would have existed if it hadn’t been for what Z and others like her did in the 1970s.”

Budapest believes her work as a public witch was essential, but like Baba Boogie, she is ready for a respite. She also believes there’s a wide audience for the Baba Boogie story, and she’s looking for an agent (if you happen to know anyone).

And she’s confident of something else: that her feminist brand of Goddess worship will live on.

Read on:

https://enewspaper.latimes.com/infinity/latimes/default.aspx?pubid=50435180-e58e-48b5-8e0c-236bf740270e&edid=9a1e7228-1aa3-4a87-9dfc-54a025fc4c4d&pnum=1

5 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Very nice! There's a long article on Z Budapest on page 1 of the LA Times (Original Post) Hekate Sep 2021 OP
Witches helped fight the Nazi's in WWII. rickyhall Sep 2021 #1
Yes! Hekate Sep 2021 #2
My spiritual Mother! Thank you so very much for sharing this. I was fortunate niyad Sep 2021 #3
Done, and thanks Hekate Sep 2021 #4
As am I, although a number of us celebrate various holy days together. I am amazed niyad Sep 2021 #5

niyad

(119,931 posts)
3. My spiritual Mother! Thank you so very much for sharing this. I was fortunate
Mon Sep 20, 2021, 05:56 PM
Sep 2021

To be able to attend a Samhain ritual where Z was High Priestess, and to spend some time with her. I Am excited to learn of her newest project..

Would you consider cross-posting this in Women's Rights And Issues? Thanks in advance.

Hekate

(94,665 posts)
4. Done, and thanks
Mon Sep 20, 2021, 07:06 PM
Sep 2021

I’ve been a solitary for a very long time, and it was good to see this — on page 1 no less.

niyad

(119,931 posts)
5. As am I, although a number of us celebrate various holy days together. I am amazed
Mon Sep 20, 2021, 07:10 PM
Sep 2021

and so pleased that this was actually on page 1.

Latest Discussions»Alliance Forums»Ancient Wisdom and Pagan Spirituality»Very nice! There's a long...