Zsuzsanna Budapest

Z. Budapest was born in Budapest, Hungary. Her mother, Masika Szilagyi, was a medium, a practicing witch, and a professional sculptor whose work reflected themes of goddess and nature spirituality. In 1956, when the Hungarian Revolution began, she fled to Austria as a political refugee. She finished high school in Innsbruck, graduated from a bilingual gymnasium, and won a scholarship to the University of Vienna where she studied linguistics. Budapest emigrated to the United States in 1959, where she studied at the University of Chicago, with groundbreaking originator of the art of improvisation, Viola Spolin, and the improvisational theater group The Second City. She married and had two sons, Laszlo and Gabor, but later divorced. She realized she was a lesbian and chose, in her words, to avoid the "duality" between man and woman. ==Career==

Budapest's first job in television was as a color girl for the CBS Network in New York, and was assigned to The Ed Sullivan Show. Activism Budapest moved to Los Angeles from New York City in 1970, and became an activist in the women's liberation movement. She was on the staff of the first Women's Center in the U.S. for many years, and became the founder and high priestess of Susan B. Anthony Coven #1, the first women-only witches' coven, which was founded in 1971. and the ensuing trial became a focus for media and pagan protesters. Budapest was found guilty. Following her conviction, she engaged in nine years of appeals on the grounds that reading the Tarot was an example of women spiritually counselling women within the context of their religion. With pro bono legal representation she was acquitted, and the laws against "fortune telling" were struck from California law. Later career In the 1980s, she created the TV show 13th Heaven, which ran on syndicated cable in the San Francisco Bay area for seven years. She has organized the Goddess Festivals, which take place every other year, since 1991 where women gather for workshops and ritual in the Redwoods of California (see website goddess-fest.com). ==Works==

Books • • • • • • • • • • ;With Diana Paxson • Music • Plays • ''The Rise of the Fates: A Woman's Passion Play'', 1976. Films • Released on VHS by Sony/Columbia-Tristar on August 5, 1992. ==See also ==