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If “you create your own reality” is the first rule of magic, then the first corollary to this rule is: “Be careful what you ask for, because you’ll get it.” One of the unexpected things that happened once news of my Wiccan beliefs got out is that my already bulging mailbox became packed with letters from prison inmates. It was inevitable that some of them should turn to beliefs like Wicca in an attempt to find answers and to straighten out their lives. Yet some of the letters that I received clearly indicated that the writer was less than sincere about their “Wiccan” beliefs. A typical letter from such an inmate read something like this: “Since I follow the Wiccan religion, I am entitled to have an Athame. Please write to my warden to tell him that he must allow me to have one.” Clearly many of these inmates were just trying to get their hands on an edged weapon under the pretence of owning a ritual Athame. I wrote back to these inmates to tell them that they could purchase one after they had paid their debt to society and had been released from custody. I told them that the practice of Wiccan ritual and magic did not require the use of such implements. This isn’t what these inmates wanted to hear. I refused to assist one persistent inmate who had a lengthy fraud record, only to find that a few hours later he had tried to convince my wife over the phone that I had forgotten to send him a letter of endorsement. Could she write one for me and forge my signature? I had a long conversation with the warden about that inmate. I also had a long conversation with a member of my department who gave out my home phone number to this individual. You can easily judge the sincerity of the beliefs of some of these self styled “Wiccan” inmates from the fact that not one of them continued their correspondence with me after these replies. I don’t mean to imply that there aren’t any sincerely Pagan inmates to be found in correctional institutions. It wasn’t long before I started receiving letters from the management of many correctional institutions, seeking quality information on Neo-Pagan religious practices. This really impressed upon me the rapid growth of the Wiccan community. Reverend Chris Carr of the Correctional Service of Canada contacted me in March of 1991 to obtain copies of The Law Enforcement Guide to Wicca to use as a reference text for his chaplains. Father Hale, chaplain for the Kingston Penitentiary in Ontario contacted me for additional information in 1994. Warden Lepher Jenkins and Linda Patterson of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice institution in Sugarland sought me out in 1993 to obtain information on Wiccan religion and discuss censorship issues. Chaplain Doris Woodruff or the Indiana Department of Correction incorporated portions of The Law Enforcement Guide to Wicca into their chaplain’s manual in November of 1994. A growing number of correctional institutions in North America have Wiccan inmates in the prison population now and many of these institutions now have Wiccan chaplains. A typical example of the kinds of issues faced by Wiccan inmates these days is the case of solitary Wiccan inmate George P. Goodman. In March 1999 Goodman asked Chaplain Donald Cone of the Stateville Correctional Center about obtaining a deck of Tarot cards, getting a vegetarian diet, and having his identification card modified to reflect his Wiccan beliefs. Goodman had been involved in Wicca since the late 80s and had been incarcerated since 1991. Frustrated with the lack of response, in April Goodman filed a grievance. In September 1999 Goodman wrote a letter to Warden Page. “I am a practicing member of the Church of Wicca,” Goodman wrote, “Due to my religious beliefs, I am not allowed to eat meat, as the consumption of animal flesh is considered a blasphemous insult to the Goddess.” In early October Goodman wrote a letter to Lamark Carter, Assistant Deputy Director of District 1 of the Illinois Department of Corrections, voicing the same complaint and requesting to be allowed to purchase Tarot cards “for religious uses”. Wiccan priestess Morgaine Stormcrow wrote to the institution, expressing the importance of the Tarot and vegetarian diet to followers of many Pagan religions, but to no effect. Goodman received a letter from Assistant Warden Springborn informing him that he had reviewed Goodman’s request for Tarot cards with Chaplain Fontaine and that his request had been denied. This was followed by a letter from the Assistant Deputy Director informing Goodman that his “request to purchase and receive Tarot cards has been denied.” Goodman reported that on numerous occasions one prison official called Goodman “the devil’s spawn.” This official told Goodman that he was “in league with the devil”, that he was “going to hell for not being saved” and that Goodman would “burn in hell if he doesn’t get saved, accept Jesus, and change his ways of religion.” Goodman reported that the same official recited Bible verses to him and forced Christian pamphlets on Goodman, becoming upset when Goodman refused them. Goodman filed a grievance but received a reply on 5 February 2000 telling him that he needed to “discuss the diet issue with the chaplain” and that “property items are deter |
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Careful What You Ask For: Part 1 |
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Dragon Tarot deck used by inmate Goodman |
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Dispatches: Official Newsletter of Officers of Avalon |
