This groundbreaking book exposes the nationwide persecution of Pagan inmates by bigoted prison officials. It teaches Pagan & Wiccan prisoners and volunteers how to compel staff, chaplains, and administrators to respect their right to practice a non-Judeo-Christian religion—and how to thrive spiritually behind bars.
Pagan Prisoner Advocate’s Guide proves that incarcerated folk have more legal rights than they know, and shows how to use them to get religious rights they deserve. These rights include access to more Craft books, magical tools and ritual ingredients, communal Sabbat feast celebrations, the right to circle outdoors and imbibe sacramental wine after spellwork, Tarot decks and rune sets, and the ability to lead weekly Wiccan services themselves versus needing an outside volunteer present. One inmate winning their rights can enable all their fellow incarcerated Pagans in their state.
Although a slim and inexpensive volume, the Guide is a power-packed, indispensable guide for prisoners, their supportive family or friends, and anyone interested in volunteering to lead Wiccan services in a facility. Every chapter begins with a hauntingly beautiful historical illustration.
Readers will take heart in learning the wise ways that the author, a Witch clergywoman, has developed over decades to conquer this entrenched bigotry and help prisoners secure their religious rights, grow spiritually in spite of a Christian-dominated system, and embrace life-altering ancient ethics that prevent recidivism. Vital inmate resources conclude the book’s lucid argument for enabling this needy and neglected segment of the Craft community.
The author is a Wiccan High Priestess who has enabled inmates in all U.S. states and territories since 1995, and her experience besting bigots is an empowering model worth emulating. Lady Passion maintains a daily-updated map that documents how many inmates contact her from which facilities nationwide going back many years on her popular Coven Oldenwilde’s Wiccan Website.
Lady Passion (Dixie Deerman) has been a Witch since '76. She is a born seer and has been a Registered Nurse for three decades and counting. Third-degree Gardnerian clergy legally empowered to "marry and bury", she has served as High Priestess of the religious nonprofit Coven Oldenwilde in Asheville, North Carolina, since 1994.
As featured in the seminal tome Drawing Down the Moon, Lady Passion has helped Pagan inmates throughout the United States and in its territories to resist institutional persecution of their faith and practices and secure their religious rights since 1995; thus, she is listed as a prisoner resource in both the digital legal library allowed in facilities nationwide and, in conjunction with the Department of Justice's Prison Project, the ACLU's Prisoner's Assistance Directory.
Lady Passion aids inmates for many reasons, such as because many laws wrongly penalize traditional Pagan practices; the U.S. has long incarcerated more of its citizens than any other developed country; and "God-pod" confinement and rehabilitation has not proven to reduce recidivism -- whereas Witch ethics do. She maintains a daily-updated map of inmate requests for aid by state on Coven Oldenwilde's website.
The Lady is co-author of the perennial bestseller The Goodly Spellbook: Olde Spells For Modern Problems and Rituals & Sabbats: Sacred Rites and Seasonal Celebrations, and is author of Candle Magic: Working with Wax, Wick, & Flame. She is also author of numerous eBook titles such as Ask-A-Priestess: Magic Answers & Spells From a Real Witch; It's in the Cards: How to Read Tarot Like a Pro; and Simply Savory: Magical & Medieval Recipes. She often writes for magical magazines such as Pagans & Wiccans and Oracle 20/20.
A gifted clairvoyant with a worldwide clientele, she also lectures on Witchcraft topics in universities and frequently works magic for media such as BBC London radio and TV series Extra! and United Shades of America, among other venues.
