Z Budapest, one the first public witches of the 1970s in the United States, is “largely retired from ritual work” but still creating, according to a profile pubished in the Los Angeles Times.
“I don’t agree with all her views, but in the history of the craft, she is an important person,” said Sabina Magliocco, professor of anthropology and religion at the University of British Columbia. “When you look at all of the witchcraft as feminist resistance that flowered in the Trump era, none of that would have existed if it hadn’t been for what Z and others like her did in the 1970s.”
Here she speaks in Malcolm Brenner’s 1991 documentary Out of the Broom Closet, which was digitized and placed on YouTube by the New Age Movements, Occultism, and Spiritualism Research Library. Archives and Special Collections. Valdosta State University. Valdosta, Georgia.
Z is a founder and belongs in that small group who propelled Pagan Goddess worship into today’s awareness. Agree with her or disagree, she could not be ignored. Her influence was present, certainly in all those years in LA and the Bay Area. I probably would not be the Crafty Pagan that I am without Z’s workings.
Hail, Z, and your Witchcraft.
I accidently met her in Philadelphia when she was holding a seminar at Hand of Aries pagan store.
She glared at me when I walked in the store to speak to the owner (who was an on-again, off-again visitor to my coven). I had not spoken to her, nor even acknowledged her because I had no idea who she was, and wasn’t there for her anyhow.
After I spoke with the owner of the store, who explained who the woman sitting in the chair in the store was, I simply shrugged and ignored her.