In this episode we meet the problematic powerhouse behind Dianic Wicca, Z Budapest, and Amy explores her own Hungarianness through this witch's story.

Warning: We discovered during our research that Z Budapest has been labeled and embraced the label of TERF - for those of you not familiar with this acronym, it stands for Trans Exclusive Radical Feminist. We at Missing Witches are not that. INclusivity is our mandate and our guiding principle, so we were a bit shook by this discovery. After some discussion, we realized we had three choices: we could ditch the episode, we could go ahead with the story but sweep that stuff under the rug, OR we could use this platform to respectfully disagree and tell this story as a way to start a conversation not just about Gender but ALSO about what we do when we find rot amid the ancestors’ bones we’ve been collecting. In the spirit of Safe Spaces of all kinds, we want to make Missing Witches as safe as we can - a place where we can talk about issues from a core ethic of radical compassion. Where it’s safe to ask questions, make mistakes, or respectfully disagree. Learn. Grow. Change our minds. Recognize how experience shapes point of view. We want to name and shame the failings of our ancestors but retain the ability to separate the toxic from the healing. Our goal is learn from their missteps, why they happen, and do better, without throwing away the valuable lessons they have to teach. As Layla Saad wrote, “the loftier goal, is to help us to become better ancestors for those who will come after us.” And as Michelle the Birch Trail taught us: Call in before you call out. So this is us, Z. Calling in.

http://www.missingwitches.com/2019/04/20/missing-witches---z-budapest:-she-is-not-perfect-and-neither-are-we

About Missing Witches

Amy Torok and Risa Dickens produce the Missing Witches Podcast. We do every aspect from research to recording, it is a DIY labour of love and craft. Missing Witches is entirely member-supported, and getting to know the members of our Coven has been the most fun, electrifying, unexpectedly radical part of the project. 

These days the Missing Witches Coven gathers in our private, online coven circle to offer each other collaborative courses in ritual, weaving, divination, and more; we organize writing groups and witchy book clubs; and we gather on the Full and New Moon from all over the world. 

Our coven includes solitary practitioners, community leaders, techno pagans, crones, baby witches, neuroqueers, and folks who hug trees and have just been looking for their people. 

Our coven is trans-inclusive, anti-racist, feminist, pro-science, anti-ableist, and full of love.

If that sounds like your people, come find out more. Please know that we've been missing YOU. 

https://www.missingwitches.com/join-the-coven/