A social and spiritual activist, Phyllis Curott is an attorney, Wiccan priestess and author of the critically acclaimed and best-selling BOOK OF SHADOWS: A Modern Woman's Journey into the Wisdom of Witchcraft and the Magic of the Goddess (Broadway Books, 1998), published in twelve countries and WITCH CRAFTING: A Spiritual Guide to Making Magic (Broadway Books, 2001). She has been honored by Jane magazine, along with Hillary Clinton, as one of the Ten Gutsiest Women of the Year, and was a finalist for the 2000 Walter Cronkite Faith and Freedom Award. One of the Wiccan spiritual movement's most renowned and influential theologians, H.Ps. Curott lectures and teaches internationally and was described by New York Magazine as one of New York's hippest and most intellectually cutting edge speakers.

H.Ps. Curott has been widely profiled in the national and international media, including NPR's "Talk of the Nation," The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, USA Today, the London Times, Marie Claire, Jane, Harper's Bazaar, Self, Oggi (Rome), Sunday Telegraph (Sydney) "48 Hours," "The View," "The Today Show Weekend Edition," "The O'Reilly Factor," "Roseanne," "Entertainment Tonight," "E!," and on Lifetime, Oxygen Media, CNN & Company and Court TV,

A long standing member of the American Civil Liberties Union and founder of the Religious Liberties Lawyers Network, Curott has successfully battled the legal system for the right of Wiccan clergy to perform legally binding marriages in New York City and rituals in the public parks of Chicago. She has also helped to secure the rights of Wiccans in the military, schools, the workplace and child custody cases.

As an active participant in Interfaith dialogue, H.Ps. Curott has addressed the Parliament of the World's Religions as a keynote speaker along with the Dalai Lama. As a member of the United Nations' NGO Committee on the Status of Women, she participated in the planning of the UN's Beijing Forum on the Status of Women, addressing the Forum on the topic of the status of women and the world's religions. She is also the Wiccan representative to the Harvard University Religious Pluralism Project's Consultation on Religious Discrimination and Accommodation.

H.Ps. Curott is President Emerita of the Covenant of the Goddess, the oldest and largest international Wiccan religious organization, and is founder of the Circle of Ara, one of the oldest Wiccan congregations in America. She has served as a guest minister at various Unitarian Universalist Churches and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City.

Phyllis Curott also serves on the Advisory Board of the Association for Union Democracy, a foundation devoted to the rights of union members fighting to free their unions from corruption and mob influence, a foundation for which she served as Legal Director. She began her legal career as the Legal Director for PROD/Teamsters for a Democratic Union, a rank and file organization fighting organized crime within the Teamsters union. She has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Rhode Island Civil Liberties Unions and a delegate to the ACLU National Convention. She is an active supporter of Wisteria, a utopian community devoted to the reclamation of strip-mined land in the Appalachian foothills, and other environmental groups.

Curott received her B.A. in philosophy from Brown University and her Juris Doctor from New York University School of Law. Curott also studied filmmaking at NYU and produced several independent films one of which, New Year's Day, directed by Henry Jaglom, was the only American film selected for the Venice Film Festival in 1989. She has written and directed several short films that have been screened at the Cannes and Sundance Film Festivals. She continues to practice law in New York City and is currently at work on her next book. She also disappears into the wilderness as often as possible She lives on the east end of Long Island where she rises with the sun, sits beneath the stars and lets her Cairn terrier, and the land remind her what life is all about. You can visit her at PhyllisCurott.com

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