Press Release: Zsuzsanna Budapest Blesses Claudiney Prieto

Press Contact:
Marie Bargas
Mobile Phone:
818.209.1125
Email: marie.bargaspr@gmail.com

For Immediate Release:

Celebrated Author, Psychic, Witch and Founder of the Dianic Tradition Zsuzsanna Budapest Awards Brazilian High Priest, Claudiney Prieto with Blessing

     Santa Cruz, CA, August 11, 2014.  In a decisive move that nullifies the recent accusations of misandry towards her and her Dianic Tradition, Zsuzsanna Budapest has awarded a man, Brazil’s own Claudiney Prieto with a blessing for the work he does within his own Nemorensis Dianic Tradition, while the Dianic Tradition in Budapest’s lineage remains for female-born women and girls.

     As the attacks on feminism continue to grow especially on social media through blogs, Facebook and more, Budapest remains a decidedly a staunch supporter of the “old guard” who championed women’s rights in the 70’s, a feminist Witch, and the doting mother of two sons and a beloved grandson. But as feminists and feminists bloggers maintain all across the country, feminism is not about hating men, but against patriarchy and the “old boys club” that oppresses and seeks to control women’s personal freedoms.

As Z Budapest wrote on her Facebook profile last week:

     “Isis, Astarte, Diana, Hecate, Demeter, Kali, Inanna … All these names mean the same thing … Holy Mother. As women relate to many aspects of the Great Mother, we can expand into all these Goddesses and practice, and include Women’s Mysteries within it.

     I was greatly impressed by Claudiney Prieto in Brazil, who has successfully nurtured an Isis revival. I have blessed him to be a Priest of Isis, which he already is. I saw what he has done and I think he serves the Goddess with his personal leadership. Everybody loves the man. He is dynamite in circle. Such a man with ten years of experience richly deserves the blessing. Both sexes are part of the rituals and sacred plays and always have been. This fits us well. I connect with this because I am also a play write. The original Isis plays have all been translated. It will be great fun creating a religious experience within the medium of theater for this community.

     I thought for the 21st century we should expand into the veneration of Isis, retaining our special women’s space of course. Claudiney respects women’s space even as High Priest. He wouldn’t even think of entering the Women’s Mysteries.”

     Although Budapest has embraced Claudiney Prieto for his veneration of the Goddess Isis; she has not abandoned the tenets of her Dianic Tradition that she and so many of her community hold dear. For Budapest and the Dianic tradition, this means that males will continue to be excluded from her rituals of Women’s Mysteries designed for female-born women; this includes the uterine Blood Mysteries.  

Prieto continues to respect the Blood Mysteries. 

    “Even believing that it is time to put an end to this separatism, to let people decide by themselves if they want to gather in groups of women-born only or in mixed ones, granting them the right to call themselves Dianic because Goddess is the center of their worship; I defended Z before Pagans who have several reservations about her because I really understand and respect her restrictions about this issue. This blessing could be the beginning to building dialog, a bridge between the genders.”

     Response from the Pagan community as a whole has been supportive towards Budapest’s blessing of Prieto and both variations of Dianism.

     His response, “Our origins are in our own Dianic Tradition, we call ourselves by the name Nemorensis Dianic Tradition. We are Dianics, but we don’t descend from Z’s lineage, we never claimed to and we will never claim it.

      I understand what Z did was just a blessing to me and I have no intention to claim her Dianic lineage or to be part or put men in women-only circles that are sacred to woman-born only.”

Background:

     Budapest went to Brazil as an honored guest speaker for Prieto’s Conference of Wicca and Goddess Spirituality held in San Paulo, Brazil in August 2014. This year the Goddess being venerated was Isis. Budapest was so moved by this veneration by Prieto and his community, that she bestowed an impromptu blessing on him. As Prieto put it, “A historical, unique and very emotive moment.”

     Although there was some initial confusion about the blessing, it was clarified that he was awarded by her as an honoring of his work with the Goddess. His response, “Thank you Zsuzsanna Budapest for all your efforts to maintain the Goddess Religion alive and thank you for choosing me to be the first male to receive this blessing by you. This is an honor to me. I honor you. Blessed Be!”

      Budapest honored Prieto and bound him as a priest to the Goddess within the constructs of Prieto’s own Nemorensis Dianic Tradition and not her own Dianic Tradition, which is women-born only. It was a beautiful gift from one Dianic Tradition to another, and cherished by both as they each continue to serve their own diverse spiritual communities.

      Z Budapest is the foremother of the Dianic Tradition (www.zbudapest.com) having been the first to rebirth it from antiquity. Women began to describe Z’s lineage as Feminist Dianic, Feminist Wicca or Dianic Wicca in an effort to honor and maintain sacred space for Women’s Mysteries.

      Claudiney Prieto is the founder of the Dianic Nemorensis Tradition. (www.nemorensis.com.br/english/)  He is a best known as a pagan writer in Brazil and Latin America with 13 books published to his name.

Z Budapest Blog (zbudapest.wordpress.com)
Susan B. Anthony Coven #1 (susanbanthonycoven.com)
Dianic Wicca (dianic-wicca.com)

Z Budapest Blessing Claudiney Prieto

Susan B. Anthony Coven Turns 41

We are celebrating the 41st Anniversary of the birth of Women’s Religion, or as it used to be known Women’s Spirituality. PLEASE CLICK THE LINK BELOW.

http://www.susanbanthonycoven.com

41 years ago six of us from the Women’s Center in L.A. realized that without our moral authority as women, without our own culture which must include spirituality, women cannot build a future for ourselves and our children.

On December 21st, we gathered in my apartment on Whitley Hill, just a few blocks from Hollywood Blvd, decided to hold the Yule celebration, as the first sabbath as Feminist Witches. We celebrated the Goddess of the Sun, known by many names: Lucina in Europe, Virgin of Guadalupe in the Americas, meaning she who brings light and enlightenment. This Women’s Movement is now Global.

Thank you for your years of support and encouragement to the Women’s Spirituality Movement, and for the future support for ourselves, our sisters and daughters. The GODDESS IS ALIVE and blessing us everyday, as we bless each other. Thank you for helping to keep the Goddess in the forefront of women’s issues. Thank you for helping to fund the events the Women’s Spirituality Forum hosts for women world-wide. Happy Birthday Susan B. Anthony Coven No.1!!!

Voice of the Goddess Contest

Voice of the Goddess Contest

To celebrate the first harvest and the abundance our Great Mother Goddess provides, the women of Susan B. Anthony Coven #1 are excited to sponsor a new contest that illuminates and honors the unique power of Women’s Mysteries!

How it works

Send your photo and short essay of up to 500 words describing how celebrating Women’s Mysteries has changed your life to: goddess_speaks@yahoo.com. Qualified entries will be posted as tagged photos to the SBA facebook page. You, your friends, and family can vote for your favorites until midnight August 12, then Z Budapest will select the 1^st place winner herself on August 15 from the top 3 vote winners.

Goddess Prizes

• 1^st place: Attend the Goddess Festival FREE!
• Runners up: $150 off Goddess Festival and a FREE copy of Z’s latest book, “Goddess Gets to Work”
• All entrants: $25 off Goddess Festival

Rules

Prizes do not include travel expenses and all entrants must qualify for participation in the Goddess Festival. Prizes may not be applied to previously purchased tickets, but previously purchased tickets may be transferred to other qualified participants. By submitting your photo and essay for consideration, you agree that you are the author and have necessary rights to grant the Susan B. Anthony Coven #1, Women’s Spirituality Forum, and Goddess Festival permission to use, reproduce, display, and transmit them so that your thoughtful insights may inspire as may women as possible. For full terms and conditions, visit: http://goddess-festival.com/terms-conditions/. To learn more about the Goddess Festival, visit http://goddess-festival.com/.

Photo: “Mezzo Goddess - We sing our dreams into being"
Acrylic painting by Emily Balivet, 2008 (http://www.emilybalivet.com/)

Goddess gets to Work on Kindle

Goddess gets to Work!
is now LIVE on Kindle!

 

Would you please SHARE this with your friends.

And when you read the book, would you give it a review on Amazon.

Thank you so much! Enjoy the book! I had a good time creating this one for you!

Blessed be,
ZB

Blog July – Goddess Festival

I confess I have been not writing. Not really. My profession is changing. What i thought was coming a long time, a writers dream to control ones intellectual property, its finally here. We have a Expresso bookstore now, where you can print your own book now while you are still in the bookstore. I have many books slipping between publishers, I am calling out to the universe for volunteer book designers, as a service to get my books into the new generation’s hands.

We moved in our new house and planted roses and apple trees and blueberries, and two grape plants. We still got white sage and blue sage to get in. The avocado tree made it through the winter as a baby, but froze the tips. She has recovered, and next winter we shall cover her up like we have seen other homeowners protect their cherished plants.

Faster then a speeding bullet, the year has gone into a trot and its midyear already. Freak out!

The biannual Goddess Festival (www-goddess-festival.com) is starting up in my house, we began drying the herbs and Cedar and Juniper, shedding in a big bag for the  big rituals, when women get handfuls of it and toss into the fire celebrating themselves and their wish to the universe. Get your reservations now!

Goddess gets to Work!

We have quite a few registrations already, and more will be coming. In spite of the smaller monies women get, we still managed to make this pilgrimage, this journey to the redwood forest of the ancient giants.

I have a potted forest waiting as well. A rescued group of five redwood young trees; keeping them alive and well until September during the Goddess Festival when we plant them back into the forest.

I think its time we as women make a pledge; lets plant at least one tree every year. Five came first, its a pentagram. I see it as auspicious. Women and Trees!

My newest book is out now! Yay! Goddess gets to Work! Wise, whimsical, witty and when it’s called for, deviously wicked. America’s favorite witch stirs up an empowering brew for working women everywhere. https://www.createspace.com/3897522

If all goes well Bobbie can start making more videos with me. An interactive video showing how to contact and receive a spirit guide for ones Tarot readings. There will be a short little booklet as well… “13 Days to a Tarot Spirit Guide.”

I hope this will speed up the learning curve for many of my students who cannot find time nor patience to memorize the meanings of the cards.

Otherwise, I walk the walk. I laugh at least once a day for NO reason at all. Then I laugh also for reasons, but one cannot depend on them.

I am reading “Lizz Free or Die!” I went to hear her at the Santa Cruz Bookstore, she didn’t go into details, but it was she who has created “The Daily Show” with Jon Stuart. I loved following it in her book, how things just lit up in her talent and she just started performing this as a stand up comic. Later it gelled into the Daily Show. It takes a lot of fateful accidents to make a funny show be born.

I yearn to submerge in natural water, its summer after all. Ocean is ice cold, it has to be a pool. I am in it. Happy summer time!

A Religion of Her Own

A happy and prosperous springtime to you! This is our annual fundraiser letter for the Women’s Spirituality Forum.Let’s talk about the origins of March 8th our big internationally acknowledged Holyday of Women on Earth; International Women’s Day.

In 1857, the garment and textile workers of the United Sates organized themselves into a political movement. What woke up the Sleeping Giant… the women’s collective consciousness that time?

It was the devastating fire in a sweatshop in New York. The fire broke out, but there were no fire escapes. The doors were locked. The women started jumping out of the windows and died on the streets. Hundreds of women died, adults and children workers alike.

This infuriated the American women and men. From this time on it was law to have fire escapes on all buildings in the City. This was the first step to organize the Labor Movement and to set safety measures in place.

As Dianics, we remember this big fire every year and say a prayer for those who lost their lives in it.

Big fire going on now, but on a religious level. This is the political fire… backlash fire disguised as Christian values. It is also the old gender wars. Men talking smack against women. The Rush Limbaugh mentality is the voice of the Republican Party, which is anti-choice; gross to women yet pro-porn.

I am quoting Bob Cesca from the Huffington Post:

Well before these new laws were introduced, including the personhood laws dictating that life begins at conception and therefore outlawing many forms of birth control, hundreds of women across the country were convicted and sent to prison because they had miscarriages. More than 300 women in South Carolina. 40 women in Alabama. Illinois prosecuted a woman for manslaughter after she gave birth to a stillborn baby. As of June, 38 states had passed “fetal homicide” laws. The consequences? Pregnant women who are suffering from drug addiction or mental illnesses are afraid to seek prenatal medical attention for fear of being arrested. It’s increasingly evident that being pregnant and in distress is almost as bad as being an illegal immigrant in America. 

Not a single male god religion came to the defense of the women. No bishops used their influence to speak up for women. No priests marched against the Establishment who wanted women humiliated and punished for getting pregnant. There is even a fight against birth control.

Only the feminist witches raised their voices in print and prayers. The feminists put up an intelligent young speaker Ms.Fluke to present the women’s health issues involved. The reaction to her calm presentation was a virulent personal attack. This too was an eye opener for millions of women.

We have consistently spoken out in defense of our rights to our own bodies and souls. Women must have a religion on their own. This spirituality is not centralized, but allowed to flourish in its rich variety.  We must survive and we need to be supported. Without knowing who we are as women, what glorious sacrifices have already been made for us, our self-esteem rises or falls.

We teach you these wonderful achievements, we bring the foremothers to your awareness, we continue to hold the flame for the Women’s Mysteries. This is the religion of her own.

You have the Women’s Spirituality Movement; Goddess centered Women’s Mysteries. For the past 40 years, we have organized Women’s Spirituality events, conferences, festivals, workshops and conducted Women’s Sacred Circles. I was our principal philanthropist. I worked for free for many years, leading the circles, using my own money for down payments to rent our camps for worship. I am now a Crone. Its your turn to foot the bill for this audacious historical enterprise. Step up and be a Hera!

Those who attended paid their way, so we could continue. We need donors, generous angels and a couple of mighty Queens with money to give.

The Goddess is you!

In order to run a non-profit there is a lot of expense involved. We don’t have superpacs. We need more supporters. Education of women and girls through our work is a unique cultural thread. Nobody else is doing this Internationally as we have done. All women benefit when their self-esteem is high. We have changed thousands of live’s for the better.

Through the decades, Women’s Mysteries has been under attack by those who like to trash women. But we stood united, in solidarity and kept the flame of the Women’s Mysteries burning bright. Women must have their own religion. We have to have our own well tended values. Otherwise a male centered religion will take away your constitutional rights from owning your body, your reproductive freedom, and your soul.

Not every woman is dirt poor, I say bless you in whatever help you can lend the Women’s Spirituality Movement. But if you are one of those lucky women who owns or controls wealth, this is your time to rise to the occasion. These are the times we set our future in place in this new century. How bad must things get for our wealthier sisters to open their check book? Only when a personal bad happens, and you suddenly wake up and realize that you are no longer safe either?  Please don’t wait that long. Do it now. On this International Women’s Day. Make a herstorical gift to the Women’s Spirituality Forum.

May abundance come to you and may you fare well in all your affairs. Blessed be.

Zsuzsanna Emese Budapest
High priestess, writer, psychic and revolutionery Crone.

Glastonbury Goddess Conference with Z

GET YOURSELF REGISTERED for my FRINGE EVENT!!!

Let’s walk the Freak Road! Let’s dance the Fringe together!

Z BUDAPEST: WE ALL COME FROM THE GODDESS (Women-born-women Only)

Register at: http://www.goddessconference.com

Women from all walks of life come together with High Priestess Zsuzsanna Budapest, in a flowing woman-only Dianic circle celebrating our expanding global sisterhood. Beginning with the sacred Dianic purification we enter the circle, commune with our ancestors and our divine selves, lift up a joyous dedication to the Goddess Sedna of the Deep, as we bless all waters inside and outside. Chanting, dancing and strengthening our bonds of sisterhood. We are the flow, we are the ebb. When the women are healed the whole world is healed. Drummers, musical instruments, voices welcome.  Dress comfortably. Come garlanded with something in season, greens or flowers.

Z Budapest is the founder of the Dianic (Feminist) Tradition of Wicca in the USA, initiating the world’s most famous coven, the Susan B. Anthony Coven Number One, which continues to thrive and brings women’s spirituality into mainstream consciousness (SusanBAnthonyCoven.com).

Z has led rituals, lectured, taught classes, given workshops, written articles tirelessly, and published in hundreds of women’s newspapers across the country. She has powerfully influenced many of the future teachers and writers about the Goddess. She is the director of the Women’s Spirituality Forum, a nonprofit organization and Z founded and sponsors the Dianic University’s Goddess College (GoddessCollege.com). Her books include the Holy Book of Women’s Mysteries, Grandmother of Time, Grandmother Moon (http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1460911407). See www.ZBudapest.com.

Venue: The Goddess Hall
Time:  10.00am-4.00pm
Fee: £50/$85/€65

 

Harvest Blessings

My garden has yielded the yellow and green beans, the tiny red tomatoes and the heirloom ones, with stripes and sweet juices.

My Pippin apple tree had many small apples, most of them eaten by the two new squirrels who inherited the trees next door.

The lemon tree is however the queen in my garden. She was the reason why I bought this house; a good old fruiting lemon tree always means good luck. She blooms and fruits at the same time. What genius!

My wife has green talents. She planted an avocado tree who has grown two feet already since it has been put in. She has a tangerine tree in a big pot, already budding little fruits.

We have 13 new rose bushes, in red, yellow and pink. This to keep me from stealing the neighbor’s flowers. Some will climb my back porch and fences; some will make a hedge against the street I live on. Some will grow to supply me with heavenly smelling cut flowers in the house.

Life is good.

My body is mobile. I continued when I could, to go swimming again. I do Yoga every Weds. It’s still reasonably priced at the North Berkeley Senior Center.

We are getting ready for the Goddess Festival starting on the 9^th. It’s a pilgrimage gladly taken. The old covenstead is calling.

May all your harvests be blessed!

Goddess Festival & Susan B. Anthony Coven #1

Blessings Sisters in Goddess!

We are pleased to announce our Goddess Festival Special for the the month of August 2010.

In the month of August only!
We are offering women who register for the Goddess Festival a FREE one year membership into the Susan B. Anthony Coven #1 … the world’s most famous coven!

Membership into the Susan B. Anthony Coven #1 is $50. So you’re getting a savings of $50! Plus, once a member of the SBA, you will find savings on classes worth more than the cost of your membership!

It’s a WIN-WIN!!! You get to come to the Goddess Festival and become a Susan B. Anthony Coven #1 Sister in Goddess … and you help raise funds for the Women’s Spirituality Forum.

The Women’s Spirituality Forum is an IRS 501(c)3 non-profit. Your registration fees and your membership are tax deductible.

* SBA Special pricing ends Sept. 1, 2010

Priestess Training with Z Budapest in Woodstock NY

DIANIC PRIESTESS TRAINING AND TAROT SOCIAL WITH Z BUDAPEST

Susun Weed interviews Z Budapest – Mother of Feminist Spirituality & Author of The Holy Book of Women’s Mysteriess
~ 30 minutes Wise Woman Radio ~
listen on-demand or download MP3

Join Z Budapest at the Wise Woman Center on April 23-25, 2010 in Woodstock NY for a Priestess Training & Divination intensive you will not forget. This year Z Budapest rolls up her sleeves to teach the importance of Divination in Women’s Spirituality!

Z calls it a Tarot Social Intensive weekend; a new and inspired way of consulting the Fates and each other as priestesses.

It matters not whether you are an advanced seeker or a beginner with a fresh new deck, this Goddess weekend is devoted to study and first-hand experiences of the Tarot’s wisdoms.

Goddess women, sister priestesses, women who love the earth … come share and learn from Z, the wise woman who legalized Tarot Reading and all forms of Divination and Prophecy in this country. She fought for the rights of all women to legally counsel each other using the tool of the Fates and our own innate psychic abilities. If you’ve wanted to tap into your own abilities, now is the time!

Intensely personal, always political, Z Budapest uses her humor and sharp wit to share stories of women using the Tarot to heal their sisters. She will lead you on an inner journey that will bring you face-to-face with the power of the Fates through the Tarot.

Day One we will get to know each other a little, but wasting no time we jump right into the Tarot. Bring your Tarot decks if you have them; don’t worry if you don’t. We will look at all of these decks and Z will show you insights that will help you to know the true tools of the psychic Tarot Reader. The day ends with women’s ritual and the summoning of the Fates and the Goddess Binah.

Day Two we gather in the morning and begin again and this time the journey is an amazing one of personal introspection as each woman gets her cards read by Z personally while the priestesses hold sacred space for her.

There are tears. There is laughter. There are insights into yourself as the Fates whisper into Z’s ear what they want Z to tell you. And again, we end the day with a deeply personal women’s ritual; seeing each other for the Goddess women we are. We are a sisterhood.

Day Three bring pen and paper because you’re going to participate in a most unusual activity that tweak your perceptions of what Tarot Reading is and how it applies to our daily lives.

Then, we come together as kindred sister spirits and close our weekend together in ritual know we are more connected and loved for having gone through this Tarot Social experience together.

Z Budapest is traveling the east coast on the Blue Stockings tour, visiting the homes of such suffragette foremothers as Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Matilda Jocelyn Gage whose works have paved the road to the modern Women’s Spirituality Movement … all guided by the Fates.

Register here This three day intensive is taught at the Wise Woman Center in Woodstock NY.

A women’s spirituality classic is now back in print!

The Holy Book of Women’s Mysteries by Z Budapest is essential for Pagans, feminists, and women seeking to learn more about the spiritual path as it relates to the feminine and the Goddess aspects of witchcraft and Wicca.
More About Z Budapest

Zsuzsanna Emese Budapest was born in Budapest, Hungary, during a big winter storm on January 30, 1940.

Her mother, Masika Szilagyi, was a medium and a practicing witch who supported herself and her daughter with her art, as a sculptress. Masika’s themes always celebrated the Triple Goddess and the Fates, and Zsuzsanna (“Z”) grew up respecting and appreciating Mother Nature as a god.

The poverty of postwar Europe and political oppression under the Russian occupation made Z fiercely political, so when the Hungarian Revolution broke out in 1956, she took her destiny into her own hands and became one of those sixty-five thousand political refugees who left the country, mostly young workers and students like herself. She finished high school in Innsbruck, graduated from a bilingual gymnasium, and won a scholarship to the University of Vienna where she studied languages.

Z emigrated to the United States in 1959, became a student at the University of Chicago, married, and gave birth to two sons. In Chicago she studied with Second City, an improvisational theatrical school, the only one in the country at that time. Her family’s spiritual tradition, however, started seeping back into her life, and she practiced solo worship of the Goddess at her home altar in her backyard. When she entered her Saturn cycle at the age of thirty, she became involved with the women’s liberation movement in Los Angeles and became an activist herself, staffing the Women’s Center there for many years.

There she recognized a need for a spiritual dimension so far lacking in the feminist movement and started the women’s spirituality movement. She founded the Susan B. Anthony Coven Number l, the first feminist witches’ coven, which became the role model for thousands of other spiritual groups being born and spreading across the nation. She wrote The Holy Book of Women’s Mysteries (Wingbow Publishers, 1989) which was originally published in 1975 as The Feminist Book of Lights and Shadows. This book served as the first hands-on book to lead women into their own spiritual/Goddess heritage.

Z was arrested in 1975 for reading Tarot cards to an undercover policewoman. She lost the trial but won the issue, and the law against psychics was struck down nine years later. Z has led rituals, lectured, taught classes, given workshops, written articles tirelessly, and published in hundreds of women’s newspapers across the country. She has powerfully influenced many of the future teachers and writers about the Goddess. Join Z Budapest at the Wise Woman Center on April 23-25, 2010 in Woodstock NY for a Priestess Training & Divination intensive.

Susun Weed interviews Z Budapest –
30 minutes Wise Woman Radio
– listen on-demand or download MP3