The Politics of the Goddess: Radical/Cultural Feminist influences on Z Budapest and Her Dianic Witc

The rise of a Feminist Spirituality movement in the U.S since the early 1970\'s which focuses on female images of the divine, would suggest that many women find Goddess symbolism to be affirming. Large parts of this movement overlap with Contemporary Paganism, which, with the development of the \'Pagan Studies\' discipline, is today understood as a legitimate world religion.
The correlating parts of both these spiritualities have been vastly influenced by two streams in Feminist political thought -- Radical and Cultural Feminism. This paper, derived from the author\'s M.A. thesis, claims that Scholars had both neglected and took for granted that said influence, and subsequently no research was made in order to look at the phenomenon both at the Macro and Micro levels. Moreover, it has been claimed by some aging Spiritual -- and 2nd wave -- Feminists that young women in the movement today are not aware of -- nor find themselves attracted to -- the Radical/Cultural Feminist ideas that helped so much to shape the American Feminist Spirituality movement during the 1970\'s-1980\'s. This generational change, which is taking place during the last two decades or so, makes researching the ideological origins of Feminist Spirituality movement particularly important.
The results of the research made by the author in his Thesis, will be presented by examining one case-study -- that of Z Budapest, probably the best known and most widely read Dianic Witch living today. As will be shown, Budapest was influenced by various Radical and Cultural Feminist thinkers, most notably Mary Daly, Adrianne Rich, Susan Griffin and Robin Morgan. These influences find expression both in the adoption of key ideas and in the usage of specific words and expressions. (By: Shai Feraro: PhD Student, General History Department, Tel-Aviv University)