Z Budapest

{{Paganism}}
'''Zsuzsanna Emese Mokcsay''', better known as '''Z Budapest''' (b. 1940) is a Hungarian-American [[neopagan]] and [[lesbian]] [[radical feminist]]. She founded the first women-only [[Wicca|coven]].<ref group=note>Fittingly named the Susan B. Anthony coven.</ref> In 1975, she gained the dubious honor of being the last person to actually be tried for and convicted of witchcraft in the United States.<ref>[http://www.blogtalkradio.com/League_of_Extraordinary_Paranormal_Women/blog/2008/03/07/Michelle-Belanger-and-Z-Budapest Z Budapest on Blog Talk Radio]</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20140102150726/http://witchtrial.net/ The Last Great American Witch Trial] ''Witch Trial'' (Archived from the [http://witchtrial.net/ original] on 2 January 2014)</ref>

==Dianic Wicca==
Z Budapest was at the forefront of the women's spirituality movement, developing her own form of [[Wicca]], known as [[Dianic Wicca]], that discarded the more [[heteronormativity|heteronormative]] aspects of [[Wicca#Gardnerian_Wicca|Gardnerian Wicca]], rejecting dualism in favour of straightforward [[Goddess]] worship.  Budapest's own website makes no mention of the Gardnerian connection, claiming to follow [[Appeal to tradition|traditions passed down from her mother]].<ref>http://www.zbudapest.com/about-z-budapest.html</ref> However, how original this "family tradition" is must be debatable, as her manifesto admits: "I know enough to begin it. The rest of it, [[bullshit|we have to]] [[PIDOOMA|invent.]]"<ref>http://dianic-wicca.com/dianic-witch-manifesto.html</ref>

==Transphobia==
Reflecting some strands of [[radical feminism]], Z Budapest [[TERF|seems to have a problem with transgender people]]. To describe transgender people, Budapest uses the pejorative term "transies", much like the same derogatory context "pansies" is used to describe gay males.<ref>[http://kenazfilan.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/pantheacon-2012-here-we-go-again.html Pantheacon 2012: Here we go again...]</ref><ref>[http://www.odps.org/glossword/index.php?a=term&d=8&t=9410 ODPS: Gay Slang Dictionary]</ref> After an incident in 2011 when a group of transgender women were excluded from a women-only ritual at an ecumenical neopagan conference<ref>See [http://st4r.org/genderbook.pdf Gender and transgender in modern paganism], collected in response to the incident</ref> Budapest came out in support of the ritual organizers, claiming that trans women are men trying to undermine the efforts of "real" women to have their own spirituality.<ref>In the comments section [http://fruitofpain.wordpress.com/2011/02/27/in-response-to-the-lilith-rite-at-pantheacon/ here]</ref> Why men would want to do this is [[argument by assertion|never explained]]. Some time after the event, Llewellyn Worldwide, one of the largest [[New Age]] publishers, dropped Budapest from their author database.<ref>She is linked as an author [http://www.llewellyn.com/blog/2010/2/pantheacon-february-12-15/ here] but the link is officially dead and there is now almost no mention of her anywhere on the site.</ref>

Her organization, Dianic University Online, described as "a vagina-friendly online school for Dianic Wicca and Goddess studies for women", prominently includes the following on its homepage:

{{cquote|This is a [[Political lesbianism#Separatist_feminism|woman-only space for females-born-female]]. <br>
If you truly love the Goddess, then respect ''Her'' Dianic tradition.<ref>[http://wicca.dianic-wicca.com/ Dianic University Online] Italics in original.</ref>}}

Interestingly, the same website makes use of the pentacle on a number of pages. The pentacle in Wicca, symbolizes the Triple Goddess with the Horned God, or in ceremonial magic (Cornelius Agrippa, Eliphas Levi, Pythagoreans, et al) as the union between male and female.<ref>[http://altreligion.about.com/od/symbols/ig/Occult-Symbols/Five-Pointed-Star.--6F.htm About.com: Pentagram, Five-Pointed Star]</ref><ref>[http://www.buzzle.com/articles/paganism-symbols.html Buzzle: Paganism Symbols]</ref> Uh oh!

==Notes==
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==References==
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[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Pagan and occult leaders]]
[[Category:TERFs]]

Categories: Living people, Pagan and occult leaders, TERFs