A social and spiritual activist, Phyllis Curott has been an attorney and Wiccan priestess for more than 20 years. She is also the author of Witch Crafting: A Spiritual Guide to Making Magic (Broadway Books, 2001) and the best-selling and critically acclaimed Book of Shadows: A Modern Woman's Journey into the Wisdom of Witchcraft and the Magic of the Goddess (Broadway Books, 1998), published in thirteen countries.

She has been honored by Jane Magazine, along with Hilary Clinton, as one of the Ten Gutsiest Women of 1998 and New York Magazine described her as one of New York's hippest and most intellectually cuttingŠedge speakers, H.Ps. Curott lectures and teaches internationally.

One of the Wiccan spiritual movements most influential theologians, H.Ps. Curott has also been widely profiled in the international media as an advocate of the rights of Wiccan practitioners. A longŠstanding member of the American Civil Liberties Union, and founder of the Religious Liberties Legal Network, she has successfully won the right of Wiccan clergy to perform legally binding marriages in New York City and rituals in the public parks of Chicago, and has helped secure the rights of Wiccans in the military, schools, the workplace and child custody cases.

As a member of the United Nations NGO Committee on the Status of Women, Curott participated in the planning of the Beijing Forum on the Status of Women, addressing the Forum on the topic of the status of women and the world religions. An active participant in Interfaith dialogue, H.Ps. Curott addressed the Parliament of the Worlds Religions as a keynote speaker, along with the Dalai Lama, and is a member of the Harvard University Religious Pluralism Project Consultation on Religious Discrimination and Accommodation.

Phyllis Curott is President Emirita of the Covenant of the Goddess, the oldest and largest international Wiccan religious organization, and is founder of the Temple 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. She 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. Ms. Curott 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 and was also their advocate for the health and safety of truck and bus drivers. Ms. Curott is a member of Amnesty International, Greenpeace and other environmental and human rights groups.

Curott received her B.A. in philosophy from Brown University and her Juris Doctor from New York University School of Law. She continues to practice pro bono law in New York City.