Z Budapest Blog

The 40th Anniversary of the birth of the Susan B. Anthony Coven Number One and the Dianic Tradition.

They had a throne for me to sit on. I didn’t want to. I am not a feudal lord, but I understood that this ritual was about the honoring me and themselves. About honoring the four decades of worshipping the Goddess; teaching new women and girls the Dianic Tradition. It is quite an achievement.

When we started the Susan B. Anthony Coven Number One in Hollywood there were only six of us present. It was Winter Solstice. We were all staffers from the LA Women’s Center. A very diverse group; Dixie a taxi driver union organizer, Joan my feminist mentor (we were in her apartment upstairs), Janet my first beloved, Susan and Joni, the married ladies who were lovers, Susan brought the Transylvanian goulash for our feast ALL the way from Marine. There was Barbara who was getting her Phd at UCLA in Shamanism and Possessions.

On this first Sabbath we had no culture yet. Who knew what witches do on a winter’s solstice?  But we had me. Somehow in my genes there was a very strong strain of witchcraft passed down from my mother, who made a living by creating popular altars for the Magyar people; Madonna triple goddess altars, simple and long revered images with her special modern sensibilities. She was a temple raiser. So am I, but in the living temple way. My temple is built with the mothers and sisters, and now their girls.

On our 25th anniversary we had almost all the original members flown in to celebrate with us. This time it was only me from the original group present; at nearly 72 years old.

The Circle of Aradia put out a lot of effort to make this large gathering a success. There was a white altar in the middle with Diana of Ephesus statue with the many breasts, and the Fates, crystals and flowers.

White sage hung in the air.

All the women dressed in their finest celebratory fashions, we ranged from Greek classical shitans to silk shirts and pants, necklaces of every gem and pearls; and the crowns! I love seeing women crown themselves. Rabbit wore money necklaces and money earrings. (for prosperity).

Seven conga drums sounded the rhythms, and the ritual took off with energetic chaotic invocations to the four corners of the universe, and I invoked the center.

Oh Goddess of the ten thousand names come in to this circle of your sisters and bless us for 40 more years!

You know I had double hip replacements, and sometimes I limp from overexertion, but never when I am serving at the altars. I felt my body become the light youthful energetic body of the Goddess, no pain disrupted me.

At the candle lighting, as women took their light from my candle and the lights flickered all over the huge big hall. It seemed like stars were moving into our space, each woman a star, each woman a fate, each woman a light that will light many others.

Then I went around again, touching flames to flames. “Be strong!” I whispered to them, “Be strong!”

The women continued this theme, encountering each others flame to flame. “To Sisterhood!” We whispered.

Time usually gets suspended in a good ritual. Two ordinations followed performed by my first daughter Ruth Barrett H.P.

Lady Cerridwen was ordained to lead the Circle of Aradia in L.A. I had known this priestess since the mid-seventies, she is devoted and certainly will not miss the celebrations of the women’s community.

She will serve with a full heart and total devotion.

Lady Medea was ordained from Michigan, many of her coven members flown in to support her. This is the first time a priestess have taken my witch name Medea, it means medicine woman. I told her, “Wear that name well.”

After these important ordinations we have chanted the Isis, Astarte, Diana, Demeter chant, until we blended into a new chant. “Woman energy, Goddess energy, Good woman energy, Goddess energy!” This tune is easy to dance to and soon the women took off in an impromptu swirling. I started a little folk dance motive with everybody going around arms linked together dancing. Watching me my wife said, there was “not even a hint of a limp! Who are you and what have you done with my Z?”

NEW OLD RULE:

Tithing which was an ancient way to support the Goddess Clergy must come back. We are the only tradition who doesn’t support our Clergy with funds.

Here I was, documenting this herstorical Dianic event, participating in it at my age, and the Women’s Spirituality Forum Non-profit that I established for this purpose has never received any funds from this group. The Women’s Spirituality Forum Non-profit is ground zero for all Women’s Mysteries, ground zero for the return of the Goddess. Now we are everywhere. This has to be discussed right here and now.

So the NEW OLD RULE is:

If you have received any soul benefits from the goddess, read my books that opened your eyes, if your life has been changed by her, if you have gained happiness, hope, good luck, fertility, or any gifts, life changing dreams from the goddess when you called on her, please pledge continued funds to support this work into the future.

Four times a year, gift the Women’s Spirituality Forum a donation minimum ten percent of what you made. More if you can. I don’t believe that all women are dirt poor. We control trillions of dollars, wealthy women must make sure that their wealth is not isolating them from the unfolding herstory. Don’t let your handlers be in the power of your money.

Tithing money is to honor yourself and energize the Goddess work around the world. The planet needs women to spread the Goddess consciousness to all humanity. Survival alone is NOT enough. Occupy your own religion! We are worthy of your help, the work has been brilliant and selflessly donated already.

Bringing back the Goddess to women is to make us strong and our planet healthy again. The values of the Goddess is peace, culture and devotion. The planet needs these values. The planet needs women get serious about bringing back the Goddess with our hard earned funds to make our Clergy and especially Clergy Elders well supported and strong enough to teach.

Send your tithing through Paypal to: wsf@zbudapest.com or use our easy to click link at the Women’s Spirituality Forum Non-profit website:  http://womensspiritualityforum.zbudapest.com.

And join the Dianic Tradition and the Susan B. Anthony Coven #1, established for exploration of women’s mysteries and the Goddess through our website: www.susanbanthonycoven.com.

I leave you now with this video on why you should support women!

Brief History of the Women's Donor Activist Movement

I have heard that some of the bad old myths are still alive. I have decided to attack them head on this time.

1. Dianic Tradition is for lesbians only.
This is a myth that attempts to divide the women against each other. An old ploy. In the past it worked, but not anymore. Sexual orientation is of NO importance when you are learning a spiritual path. Women are women, you love whom you please. Naturally. Herstorically, when I have revived ancient Women’s Mysteries, there was about half and half, gay women and straight women, worshiping together. But since I have never asked who is sleeping with whom, this may be a few points off either way.

2. An all women’s circle is not balanced.
A very strange myth. As if having a penis in a circle would be balancing. Underlying this remark is hostility toward women because they claim their own space. Claiming anything without men seems to enrage men and make them spin lies. Women were ignored and their traditions buried deep, but since the seventies the tradition is reclaimed and it is very satisfying. Women can exhale psychically when with each other, be themselves. When you put men into the circle, both sexes act differently. Nobody is themselves. An all women circle is balanced excellently because psychic wholeness does not depend on genitalia.

3. Dianics can raise power but they don’t know how to send it.
This must be from a man who obviously had no experience observing this. Dianics are especially good at sending energy, and even partaking in political spells when women need protection. Our spells come true most of the time. We regularly hexed rapists and mass murders; men that were hexed didn’t get away with their crimes.

4. Dianics are man-haters.
This is the most powerful accusation to divide women. We all cringe when we hear it because what it says to us is that we are hating our own children. This is the result of women’s audacity for claiming our own space to worship our Goddess. We are the life givers, we are raisers of sons and daughters; there is nobody on earth who didn’t come from our wombs. How dare you be so insecure that you call your mamas such names! Men have their priesthoods, their popes and ayatollahs, they have their religious fanatics, Osama Bin Laden, and suicide bombers, their men-only clubs and an all pervasive boys networks. Men don’t call other men woman haters, but they should. It’s a strange misguided projection on the women indeed. To belittle women, call us names because we want to worship without men, is absurd.