Phyllis Curott
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Phyllis Curott is an Ivy-League lawyer, author, film-maker and public speaker in the field of world spirituality and religious rights. She received her B.A. in philosophy from Brown University and her Juris Doctor from New York University School of Law, and continues to practice law. A member of the Lady Liberty League (see Circle Sanctuary), Phyllis Curott is an outspoken advocate for Wiccan/Pagan religious freedom in the media and the courts. She has successfully won the right of Wiccan clergy to perform legally binding marriages and rituals in public parks and has consulted on many religious liberties cases. She is also a participant in the Harvard University Religious Pluralism Project’s Consultation on Religious Discrimination and Accommodation.
She studied filmmaking at NYU, and produced several independent films with noted director Henry Jaglom; one of which, New Year’s Day, 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.
Phyllis Curott was honored by Jane Magazine, along with Hillary Clinton, as one of the Ten Gutsiest Women of the Year. She has been widely profiled in the national and international media including Harper’s Bazaar, Marie Claire, Jane, Cosmopolitan, Self, New York Magazine, Good Day America, The View, The O’Reilly Factor, Anderson Cooper’s 360, CNN & Company, Lifetime, The Roseanne Show, Oxygen, Court TV, NPR’s Talk of the Nation, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Chicago Sun-Times, USA Today, The Times, Oggi (Rome), The The Toronto Sun, The Sunday Telegraph (Sydney), and many others.
Curott lectures and teaches internationally. A global peace and interfaith activist, she is a member of the eminent Assembly of World Religious Leaders, and was one of the finalists for the Walter Cronkite Faith and Freedom Award in 2000. She has addressed the Parliament of the World’s Religions as a keynote speaker, along with the Dalai Lama, and has appeared at both the Starwood Festival and WinterStar Symposium. As a member of the United Nations’ NGO Committee on the Status of Women, Curott 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.
Curott is founder of the Temple of Ara (one of the oldest Wiccan congregations in America) [1], a shamanic tradition dedicated to the experience and ethics of immanent divinities. She has appeared at many events serving the Neo-Pagan community such as the Pagan Spirit Gathering.
[edit] Books
- 1998 - Book of Shadows: A Modern Woman's Journey into the Wisdom of Witchcraft and the Magic of the Goddess (Broadway Books) ISBN 0767900545
- 2001 - WitchCrafting: A Spiritual Guide to Making Magic (Broadway Books) ISBN 0767908252
- 2004 - The Love Spell: An Erotic Memoir of Spiritual Awakening (Gotham Books/Penguin) ISBN 1592400973
[edit] References
- Bond, Lawrence & Ellen Evert Hopman (1996) People of the Earth: The New Pagans Speak Out (reissued as Being a Pagan: Druids, Wiccans & Witches Today in 2002 Destiny Books ISBN 089281904-9) Interview.
