Pagans Behind Bars

Over the last fifteen years, since I wrote the revised edition of "Drawing Down the Moon," I have received hundreds of letters from readers, and I still receive a few every month. Over time, I have noticed a startling fact: About one-third of the letters are from prisoners--pagan prisoners.

However horrible incarceration may be, most prisoners--and it's easy to forget that there are two million people in prison in the U.S.--have one thing that most in our society do not: time. Time to reflect on life and begin a spiritual search.

Since many prisoners feel like outsiders, they are often drawn to alternative forms of spirituality. A 1999 article in the Omaha World Herald lists the religious faiths of Nebraska inmates. Alongside 1,738 Protestants, 757 Catholics, 96 Muslims, and 11 Buddhists, there were many who described themselves as members of earth-based religions, including 85 who practiced Native American spirituality, 47 who practiced Norse paganism (Asatru), 8 who worshiped Maat (an ancient Egyptian goddess), and 2 Wiccans.

An Associated Press story several months ago quoted Paul Huban, chaplain at the Idaho Correctional Center, as saying there were 30 Wiccans at that prison--making Wicca the third most popular religion there. He described the Wiccans as "the group that gives me the least amount of grief. They don't harm anyone."

Recently, Craig, a follower of Asatru who is serving time in a federal prison in Minnesota, wrote me a long letter about his beliefs and his Asatru worship group. The Three Pines Kindred, he writes, meets twice a week in a small grove of pines next to the prison's Native American sweat lodge. They open their meetings with invocations to the Norse gods and goddesses, read from the Prose Edda by Snorri Sturlusson, and hold discussions. They have regular ceremonies, "blots" and "sumbels." Craig enclosed a picture of his group's Yule blot. It shows 12 men, one holding a ceremonial staff.

There are Asatru groups in prisons in Minnesota, Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Washington, Colorado, and California. One of the reasons Asatru may be so popular behind bars is that it allows whites, often a minority in prison populations, to have a feeling of identity and community.

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