And Now a Word From the Goddess

What goes around, comes around. Back in my early college career, I was more than fascinated with the old time 'pagan' religions. First I had given a thorough investigation to Catholicism (born into it, raised in it, tried becoming a priest more than once), Episcopalian, read the Book of Mormon and their history, knew more Jehovah's Witnesses on a deeper than first name basis, than most people do, and had been a practicing Spiritualist among all of the rest of the paths. There was never a Truth for me with a capital T.

A book on women's mysteries had come out at the time by this woman named Z Budapest; we are talking the 1970s here. To say I was enthralled is an understatement. It made sense, I embraced it, I was consumed by it while consuming all of it as the same time. There was no book published in English on paganism, woman's mysteries, or the 'old religions' that did not pass through my library after passing through my hands and having been read from cover to cover.

My best friend at the time and still to this day my 'sister', Daphnee, made mention that the wife of her boss was a witch and had written a book about witchcraft. After much begging and pleading, Daphnee agreed to borrow a copy of the manuscript for me to read. After devouring it and practically memorizing it since photocopiers were not common in those days, I sent it back to its owner with an invitation for dinner. 

Before you jump ahead, not it was not Z Budapest. My dinner guests one evening were our acclaimed local witch, her husband, Daphnee, my friend Valerie, and another friend Joyce. Can I say the evening was magical or bewitching? It was that and more. It was an awakening for me. 

I gave myself permission to be a solitary witch. The word warlock for male witches is a misnomer. The etymological derivation of warlock states that it comes from the Old English wǣrloga  meaning "oathbreaker" or "deceiver. Years later, when I moved to Philadelphia, I found a Celtic coven close to my home that I was accepted into, trained in, and was ritually ordained as a member. 

When I moved to California, as you can imagine, the place had as many practicing witches as a raccoon has fleas. Though it was easy to find others, I preferred to remain alone.

Years later, I decided that my Truth was atheism. It is what made the most sense to me and still does. For one brief moment, I had considered the Unitarian services here in Budapest. They have them in English on the last Sunday of the month. Our friends Oscar and Jennifer in Modesto, CA were members there for some time. After finding the group here, I sent an e-mail to Oscar with my thoughts of going. He wrote back that he tried the Unitarians, but found them to be too orthodox for him. I thought he was joking as they have a reputation for being the most liberal of organized religions.

When I looked further that this local group, they use psalms with Jesus in them, have the Lord's Prayer, and include Jesus in other ways as well. Yup, too orthodox for me too. I never did go.

One last word. Today is April Fool's Day. You decide if the above is true or an April Fool's joke.  :  )

The story below is from Caboodle, the English language news source here.

American Goddess-Worshippers Under Spell of Budapest-Born Super Witch

Speaking of the supernatural, it seems that one of America's leading witches - if not the top enchantress in all 50 states - is actually a Hungarian. From somewhere we don't remember, we found ourselves on the homepage for the Goddess Festival 2010, which is happening this September in Northern California. Among many other things, the page alerts us to the discounts available for witches' covens. Dig:

    Are you a group of at least nine women who circle together regularly in-person as a coven? We are offering a coven discount for women-only covens for this festival. You must have no less than nine women in your active coven who all wish to attend the festival together. Virtual covens are not entitled to this discount. This is for women who regularly put in Goddess face-time together.

Putting this all together is one Z Budapest (above). According to her official biography, Z Budapest, who also goes by the name Zsuzsanna Emese Budapest, was born in Budapest "during a big winter storm" in 1940 to a mother who was a "medium and a practicing witch."

We have no idea how we could possibly have not known about this for all these years, and frankly can't think of anything else to say, other than we worship you too, Z Budapest. Awesome!

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