The Grandmother of Time: A Woman's Book of Celebrations, Spells, and Sacred Objects for Every Month of the Year
I was born in Budapest on January 30, 1940, on a terrible north-wind-whipped morning. My mother, Masika, then only twenty-five years old, had great trouble delivering me, so I was born by cesarean section. Mother was a famous sculptor who also happened to be a psychic, medium, and palm reader. She came from a long line of witches in the herbalist tradition. Her sister continued the line, becoming a pharmacist.The Hungarian revolution in 1956 changed my life. I escaped to the West and went to school in Innsbruck and Vienna, and later at the University of Chicago, studying languages. I married and had two sons.I studied with Second City, then with Viola Spolin, the mother of improvisation, and later at American Academy of Dramatic Art in New York.In 1970 I discovered the Women's Liberation Movement, which led to another huge change in my life: I became a conscious woman. Feminism gave me so much. I decided to contribute seriously by connecting witchcraft with feminism, thereby sparking the women's spirituality movement. I wrote the first feminist witchcraft book,The Feminist Book of Lights and Shadows,which later became The Holy Book of Women's Mysteries;I followed this with two other books,Grandmother of TimeandGrandmother Moon.When I am not working on a new book I like to work with women at weekend workshops, retreats, and witch camps, where we practice the remembered arts of witchcraft in safe circles of women. We use tools of dance and chanting, candles, and incense to lift our spirits. We take part in guided meditations and pay visits to our ancestors and the Wild Woman. We practice using aromas and Bach remedies for inner balance.