Dianic High Priestess Zsuzsanna Budapest

Z Budapest ~ Early Career

Z. Budapest moved to Los Angeles from New York City in 1970, and became an activist in the Women's Liberation Movement, was on the opening staff of the very first Women's Center in the United States for many years. She organized the first Anti-Rape Squad.

Budapest became the Founder and High Priestess of the Susan B. Anthony Coven Number One on December 21, 1971; the first documented Women -only coven [1].

She opened a candle and book store in Venice, California, called Feminist Wicca in 1974.

Also in 1974, Budapest was arrested for fortune telling as a result of reading tarot cards to an undercover police woman, making Budapest the last person in the United States to be arrested, tried and convicted of witchcraft. Following the trial in which she was convicted, Budapest engaged in nine years of appeals on the grounds that all forms of divination were women’s right to spiritually counsel others within the context of their religion. With pro bono legal representation, Z. Budapest was ultimately acquitted and the laws against "fortune telling" were struck from the law books of California [2].  

Budapest wrote her first book in 1974 called The Feminist Book of Light and Shadows. Budapest and her companion, Helen Beardwoman, took “The Feminist Book of Light and Shadows” on a road tour across the United States as they held rituals, lectures and quickly sold out all 750 copies.

For more information, visit Z Budapest's website www.ZBudapest.com

1. Lesbian Pride Website
2. “Fly By Night, The Autobiography of Zsuzsanna Budapest” on disk" The Early Years." Published by the Women’s Spirituality Forum in 2008.