Pagans in Recovery

1. Introduction

Version followed: the Pagans in Recovery (PIR) fellowship as it describes itself on pagansinrecovery.org (home, Meetings, Starting a Meeting, Recovery Literature and Intergroup pages, read October 2026). Hebert's book (2011) is described from a secondary review because the book is not drawn on directly. PIR's own Google Docs (Pagan Preamble, How it Works, PIR Traditions, Group Unity Policies, Meeting Scripts, Meeting Topic Suggestions) are linked from its site [uncertain: their contents are not described here].

What it is. PIR is a peer-run twelve-step mutual-aid fellowship. It is not a therapy, and a clinician does not run it. It describes itself as a twelve-step fellowship built on the model AA pioneered. It is for people who worship or work with one or more Goddesses, Gods, spirits, energies, powers or ancestors, including people whose practice involves magic. Its stated aim is to show people that they can recover without taking on anyone else's beliefs or giving up their own [source: PIR home page; Faces & Voices of Recovery profile]. PIR says it is not affiliated with other twelve-step fellowships, does not compete with them, and is meant to be used alongside more specialised programmes for specific problems [source: PIR home page].

History (secondary, verified only as far as noted). No single founder is documented. The term appeared in an Ohio Neopagan newsletter before 1989, and Isaac Bonewits used it in a 1996 essay. Pagan-friendly AA groups existed earlier, such as the Minnesota PAAGANS group. A Wednesday-evening PIR meeting started in Atlanta in April 2014. During COVID-19 (2020–21) meetings moved to Zoom, and an international online community formed, at times offering up to three meetings a day [source: Wikipedia, "Pagans in recovery"; uncertain: not checked against primary records]. Selena Fox wrote a 1995 thesis on Pagans in recovery, When Goddess is God [source: Wild Hunt 2015].

How change happens (as the fellowship frames it). Change comes the usual twelve-step way: peer identification in meetings, working the steps with a sponsor, amends and service. The difference is that the language of a higher power, the prayers, the readings and the ethics are rewritten in polytheistic, non-gendered or nature-based terms. Members therefore do not have to set aside their spiritual identity, or relive religious trauma, in order to use the programme [source: PIR home; Faces & Voices; Wikipedia]. Many members report that searching for a higher power runs alongside their path as Pagans [source: Faces & Voices].

2. Framework

PIR publishes no phases, session counts or graduation criteria. Membership and progress are self-defined, and each member decides what "sobriety" or "recovery" means for them [source: PIR home]. The table below sets out the fellowship's own structures, followed by a clinician's pathway for working with it.

Fellowship structures (as published)

Clinician pathway [synthesis: none of the PIR sources describes a clinician role]

1. Assess (1 session, inside ordinary treatment). Look at the client's spiritual identity, any religious trauma, past twelve-step experience and the primary problem. Move on once the client is interested and has no contraindication (section 5).
2. Prepare and link (1–2 sessions). Explain the fellowship, find two or three candidate meetings, rehearse the first share, and agree a trial (for example, three different meetings within three weeks). Move on once the client has attended at least one meeting.
3. Integrate (ongoing). Spend a few minutes per session reviewing meetings, sponsor and step work, and handle any clash between the step work and the treatment plan.
4. Review (every 4–8 weeks). Agree to continue, swap meetings, add a primary-programme meeting, or switch to an alternative fellowship.

3. Guiding principles

Fellowship principles (as published)

• No one has to adopt or give up beliefs [source: PIR home]. In practice: present PIR as a place where the client's own path is welcome, not as conversion in either direction.
• Recovery is defined by the member [source: PIR home]. In practice: the client's definition of sobriety sets the goal you discuss, and your clinical risk assessment still applies (section 5).
• The language of recovery is left to the individual [source: PIR home]. In practice: follow the client's names for deity, power or ancestors, and do not correct them toward standard AA terms.
• A higher power "of their understanding" [source: Faces & Voices]. Divinity is framed as polytheistic and non-gendered [source: Wikipedia]. In practice: "higher power" can mean a deity, a pantheon, nature, ancestors or the group itself.
• Not affiliated, not competing, used alongside specialised programmes [source: PIR home]. In practice: PIR usually adds to the client's primary fellowship (AA, NA, Al-Anon, SLAA and so on) and does not replace it.
• No controversy, no alignment with any sect, politics or institution [source: PIR home]. In practice: meetings are not the place for debates between traditions, and you can prepare the client for that.
• Group autonomy and group conscience; trusted servants do not govern [source: PIR Intergroup; Wild Hunt 2024]. In practice: formats differ from meeting to meeting, so check each one.
• Anonymity (the people PIR sent to answer press questions stayed unnamed) [source: Wild Hunt 2024]. In practice: talk with the client about anonymity in small local Pagan communities.
• Self-support through voluntary 7th Tradition donations; meetings are free [source: PIR Intergroup; Wild Hunt 2024]. In practice: cost is no barrier.
• Peer help is the main goal: members help each other and themselves get and stay in recovery [source: PIR home]. In practice: encourage service once the client is stable.

Clinician stance [synthesis]

• Supporter, not leader. Never run PIR meetings or rituals as therapy, and do not take on the sponsor role.
• Spiritual humility. Ask, do not assume. Paganism covers Wicca, Heathenry, Druidry, polytheist reconstructionism, folk magic and more.
• Separate the spiritual from the clinical. Unusual spiritual experiences are not psychosis by default. Assess function and distress the way you would with any religion.
• Integrate. Bring the client's step work and spiritual practice into therapy wherever it supports the treatment goals.

4. Intervention inventory

Part A covers the fellowship's own tools as PIR and its observers publish them. Members use these tools; the clinician only knows about them, refers to them and helps the client use them. Part B covers clinician procedures for working with the fellowship. All of Part B is [synthesis] unless a source is tagged.

Part A: Fellowship tools (as published)

A1. Virtual PIR meetings

• Purpose: daily access to Pagan-friendly twelve-step peer support wherever the client lives [source: PIR Meetings page; Wikipedia].
• Steps (how a member uses it): open the virtual meetings calendar on the Meetings page; check that times show in your own time zone (the calendar converts automatically); choose a meeting; join the Zoom room (some groups ask for a sign-in); listen or share; put a voluntary donation toward the 7th Tradition [source: PIR Meetings; Wild Hunt 2024].
• Example language (illustrative): "Let's open the PIR calendar together and pick two meetings this week whose times fit your schedule."
• Watch for: time-zone mistakes (US-centred times); whether the client keeps the camera off (fine at first); signs of attachment, such as recognising regulars or exchanging contacts.

A2. In-person PIR and Pagan-friendly meetings

• Purpose: face-to-face fellowship. Wikipedia reports in-person groups in Atlanta and Nashville, with others starting across the US [uncertain: may be out of date].
• Steps: search the in-person calendar by state; if there is no listing, check the Facebook group, r/PagansInRecovery or the Discord; otherwise attend a mainstream meeting together with online PIR [source: PIR Meetings].
• Watch for: anonymity in small local Pagan scenes, where the client may meet coven-mates or festival acquaintances.

A3. Meeting formats

• Purpose: different formats suit different members [source: Wikipedia; Wild Hunt 2024].
• Formats reported:
  • Fellowship-specific: AA, Al-Anon, SLAA, NA or other literature read from a Pagan perspective.
  • Chairperson's choice: the chair picks any inspirational text suited to twelve-step recovery.
  • Open: welcomes members of all twelve-step fellowships.
  • Eclectic: anyone in any twelve-step programme, whatever their addiction.
  • "Pagan Perspective": the opening reading is changed.
  • Tarot or oracle-card topic: a card is drawn as a discussion prompt.
• Named meeting types: PIR publishes trusted-servant slide decks for "Circle of Friends", "ABC" and "HELP" meetings [source: PIR Starting a Meeting; uncertain].
• Steps (client): before going, read the calendar description or ask a trusted servant what format the meeting uses; match the format to your need, for example a step study when working steps, or a fellowship-specific meeting for your primary addiction.
• Watch for: a client with one specific addiction who finds eclectic sharing too broad. Add a primary-fellowship meeting.

A4. Pagan Preamble, adapted readings and prayers

• Purpose: replace Christian-framed openings and closings so that Pagan members are not alienated [source: Wikipedia; PIR Starting a Meeting].
• What is published: PIR offers a "Pagan Preamble" and a "How it Works" document for groups [source: PIR Starting a Meeting; uncertain]. Pagan prayers replace the Lord's Prayer and the Serenity Prayer, and some meetings have used the Native American "Great Spirit" prayer. These readings are not approved by AA's General Service Office [source: Wikipedia].
• Clinician note [synthesis]: if an Indigenous client raises the borrowed "Great Spirit" prayer, take their view seriously. Offer Native-led Wellbriety/White Bison resources (PIR lists White Bison's daily meditations) and do not assume that PIR's use of the prayer is acceptable to them [source for listing: PIR Recovery Literature].

A5. Reworded Twelve Steps (Pagan, polytheistic and non-gendered language)

• Purpose: keep the structure of the steps while removing the monotheistic, masculine framing of a higher power [source: Wikipedia; Wild Hunt 2024].
• Version status: there is no single approved PIR wording. Some groups have reworded the steps themselves, and PIR's Intergroup says it plans to draft a PIR version for member groups to approve [source: PIR Intergroup; Wild Hunt 2024]. A "PIR Traditions" document exists [source: PIR Starting a Meeting; uncertain]. Other Pagan-friendly adaptations mentioned include "Spiral Steps" and Jim Ekhardt's renamed "Chalice Well" programme at Michigan Pagan Fest [source: Wild Hunt 2015].
• Focus areas reported in PIR step work: tolerance, balance, healthy boundaries, healing old wounds, amends, reclaiming personal power and right action [source: Wikipedia].
• Watch for: which wording the client's sponsor and group use. Differences between groups are normal.

A6. Hebert's step-plus-ritual method (The Pagan in Recovery, 2011)

• Purpose: the main Pagan step-work text, recommended by PIR and used alongside fellowship literature [source: PIR Recovery Literature; Wikipedia]. Wild Hunt reports it is available from the PIR site and as a free e-book [source: Wild Hunt 2024].
• Structure (secondary description): one chapter per step, with practical application first and a linked ritual second. Step Four, the moral inventory, sets a relational, human-agency approach to morality against Christian rules-based morality. It treats the inventory as a factual audit that records achievements as well as failures. The Step Four ritual begins with working through body shame and ends with ritual cleansing. The book's ethical framework is to weigh potential harm against potential good and then accept the consequences of one's choices [source: Wild Hunt 2024].
• Clinician use [synthesis]: if the client is working from Hebert, ask them to bring their own inventory themes to therapy. The balanced inventory of strengths and harms fits trauma-informed work. If a body-shame ritual brings up trauma or eating-disorder material, slow the pace and process it in session.
• Watch for: body-shame work in clients with eating disorders or sexual trauma. Agree pacing with the client and, with consent, with the sponsor.

A7. Divination as a discussion prompt

• Purpose: some meetings draw a tarot or oracle card to choose the topic [source: Wild Hunt 2024].
• Clinician use [synthesis]: treat a card the client brings up as a projective prompt ("What did that card stir for you?"), not as a prediction. Watch for clients who read cards as fixed fate about relapse ("the card said I'll fail"), and reframe toward agency.

A8. Sponsorship

• Purpose: one-to-one guidance through the steps. PIR members get a sponsor [source: Wikipedia]. A sponsor from any twelve-step programme counts for service eligibility [source: PIR Intergroup]. Pagan sponsors are hard to find in traditional meetings, which is one reason PIR exists [source: Wikipedia].
• Steps (client): ask in PIR meetings or on its forums for a sponsor (a PIR member or a Pagan-respecting sponsor from your primary fellowship); agree how often to meet and which step text to use.
• Watch for: a sponsor who disparages the client's path or, at the other extreme, presents themselves as a spiritual teacher (section 5).

A9. Service and Intergroup

• Purpose: service consolidates recovery. Roles include group trusted servant, GSR, Intergroup officer, Literature or Outreach committee member, Meeting Contact Coordinator, Website Trusted Servant, Virtual Fellowship Planner and "Research Pagan". Committee membership is open to any member; officer roles need one year of sobriety and step work done with a sponsor. New officers shadow the outgoing ones for two months [source: PIR Intergroup].
• Watch for: service overload in early recovery [synthesis].

A10. Starting a PIR meeting

• Purpose: for clients with no local meeting who want to start one [source: PIR Starting a Meeting].
• Steps: collect PIR's starter documents (Pagan Preamble, How it Works, PIR Traditions, Group Unity Policies, Meeting Scripts, Meeting Topic Suggestions, trusted-servant slides, sample flyers); hold a group conscience on the format; contact PIR to have the meeting listed [source: PIR Starting a Meeting; content of the documents not drawn on].
• Watch for [synthesis]: a client in early recovery leading a meeting alone. Suggest they co-found it with members who have more recovery time.

A11. Online forums

• PIR runs a Facebook group, the r/PagansInRecovery subreddit and a Discord server [source: PIR Meetings]. Useful between meetings. Remind the client that these platforms do not offer the anonymity of a meeting [synthesis].

A12. Recommended literature

• PIR lists, without endorsing any single text:
  • Pagan texts: Collins, The Recovery Spiral: A Pagan Path to Healing; Hebert, The Pagan in Recovery.
  • Mainstream fellowship texts, from ACA, Al-Anon, AA, CoDA, NA, SAA, SLAA, EA, DRA and others.
  • Other twelve-step and secular books: Littlejohn, The 12-Step Buddhist; Cleveland, The Alternative 12 Steps; Marich, Trauma and the 12 Steps; Covington, A Woman's Way Through the Twelve Steps; and others.
  • Recovery Dharma and White Bison Wellbriety resources [source: PIR Recovery Literature].
• Clinician use: pick the text that matches the client's primary problem and spiritual style, for example Marich for trauma survivors or Covington for women [synthesis].

A13. Sober spaces and alcohol-free ritual options at Pagan festivals

• Purpose: alcohol is part of some Pagan ritual (cakes and ale or wine, mead in Heathen ceremony), and festivals are a known relapse setting [source: Wild Hunt 2015].
• Published practices (as of 2015): several festivals have run daily twelve-step meetings and sober camping areas. Examples: Pagan Spirit Gathering's Amethyst Circle, Dragonfest's Phoenix Circle, and AA/NA meetings at Kaleidoscope and Florida Pagan Gathering, some with temporary sponsorship on site. Ritual adaptations include serving an alcoholic and a non-alcoholic drink side by side and treating them as equal, and offering juice in place of ale or wine [source: Wild Hunt 2015; uncertain: current festival offerings may differ].
• Steps (client): before the festival, check its alcohol policy and recovery programming; ask organisers for a sober space (many will set one up if asked); plan which rituals to attend and the non-alcoholic option to use in each [source: Wild Hunt 2015].

Part B: Clinician procedures [synthesis throughout; built on the published features above]

B1. Assessing fit

• Purpose: decide whether PIR, a mainstream fellowship, both, or a non-twelve-step option suits the client.
• Steps:
  1. Ask about spiritual identity and practice: tradition, deities or powers, solitary or group practice, and the role of ritual substances.
  2. Ask about past twelve-step experience, especially discomfort with Christian prayers or a masculine higher power. PIR names these as reasons it exists [source: Wikipedia; Faces & Voices].
  3. Screen for religious trauma, for example from being rejected by monotheistic communities [source: Faces & Voices notes such trauma is common among members].
  4. Note the primary problem. PIR is meant to be used alongside a specialised programme [source: PIR home], so plan both.
  5. Check how the client relates to "powerlessness". Some Heathen organisers found that language a poor fit with their values and looked at SMART Recovery instead [source: Wild Hunt 2015].
  6. Check practical access: internet access, English, time zone.
• Example language (illustrative): "Some people find standard meetings uncomfortable because of the prayers or the idea of a single male God. Has that come up for you?"
• Watch for: an ambivalent client who is looking for reasons not to attend. Explore the ambivalence before you match a meeting.

B2. Explaining PIR and preparing for the first meeting

• Steps:
  1. Describe PIR accurately: peer-run, free, a twelve-step model, no requirement to adopt or give up beliefs, meetings mostly on Zoom [source: PIR home; Wild Hunt 2024].
  2. Describe what usually happens: an opening or preamble (often a Pagan Preamble), readings, a topic (perhaps a drawn card), shares, and a closing [source: Wikipedia; Wild Hunt 2024; exact scripts not drawn on].
  3. Rehearse a short first share or a "pass".
  4. Agree a trial: three different meetings before judging.
• Example language (illustrative): "You can just say your first name and that you're new, and listen. Nobody will ask you to explain your tradition."
• Working: the client attends and can describe one moment of identifying with another member.

B3. Building a combined meeting plan

• Steps:
  1. List the client's primary fellowship (for example AA, NA, Al-Anon, SLAA or OA), with one or two of its meetings each week.
  2. Add one or two PIR meetings for spiritual fit.
  3. Add the primary fellowship's core text and a Pagan step text (Hebert or Collins) [source: PIR Recovery Literature].
  4. Write the plan down and review it in session.
• Watch for: a client who uses eclectic PIR meetings to avoid meetings that confront their primary addiction directly.

B4. Supporting step work in therapy

• Steps:
  • Steps 1–3: explore the client's understanding of a higher power or powers (deity, ancestors, nature, the group) and let them reframe "powerlessness" as a limit on willpower alone, without spiritual passivity.
  • Steps 4–5: support a balanced inventory that includes strengths and achievements as well as harms. This matches Hebert's framing [source: Wild Hunt 2024] and the critique of deficit-only inventories [source: Wikipedia]. Process shame and trauma content here rather than leaving the client alone with it.
  • Steps 8–9: plan amends safely. Do not make amends to an abuser, and avoid making contact that would harm others.
  • Steps 10–12: link daily review and service to the relapse-prevention plan.
• Example language (illustrative): "When you did your inventory, what did you find you're proud of, alongside what you regret?"
• Watch for: harsh self-judgement in the inventory; amends planned impulsively; ritual work (for example a cleansing) that the client experiences as final, so that a later relapse feels like a spiritual failure.

B5. Planning around ritual substances and festivals

• Steps:
  1. Map where alcohol or other substances appear in the client's practice: libations, cakes and ale, mead, entheogen use.
  2. Plan substitutions the client finds spiritually valid. Sources describe juice, or a non-alcoholic horn or chalice given equal status [source: Wild Hunt 2015].
  3. Before festivals, check the event's policy and sober spaces, schedule meetings (PIR online or on site), arrange a sober buddy and an exit plan [source for checking policies: Wild Hunt 2015].
  4. Rehearse how to decline a drink in ritual.
• Example language (illustrative): "Which part of the offering matters most to you spiritually? Could that part stay while the drink changes?"
• Watch for: a client, coven or teacher who frames sobriety as spiritually inferior. Problem-solve with the client, and consider whether their group setting supports recovery.

B6. Liaison with sponsor or group (with consent)

• Steps: get written consent; agree the scope (attendance, the step being worked, crisis plan); never share clinical detail beyond that scope; respect that the sponsor relationship is peer-based, not clinical.
• Watch for: role confusion, for example a sponsor giving advice about medication or diagnosis. Address it with the client.

B7. Reviewing engagement

• Steps: every 4–8 weeks, review the number and type of meetings, whether the client has a sponsor, the current step, sense of belonging, substance use or behaviour against the client's own definition of sobriety, and any problems.
• Signs it is working: regular attendance, a sponsor or a consistent peer contact, step work in progress, a sense of belonging, falling use or acting out.

B8. Offering alternatives when PIR does not fit

• Options: the client's primary fellowship alone; Recovery Dharma (Buddhist); SMART Recovery (non-spiritual; SMART and Rational Recovery were the options Heathen organisers looked at) [source: Wild Hunt 2015]; secular twelve-step texts listed by PIR [source: PIR Recovery Literature]. For Indigenous clients: Native-led Wellbriety/White Bison [source: PIR Recovery Literature lists it] or Native AA groups [source: Wikipedia]. Respect that those communities hold cultural authority, and refer or partner with them rather than adapting their practices yourself.

5. Handling problems

PIR's published pages do not cover clinical problems. Its Group Unity Policies document probably covers conduct in meetings [uncertain]. Everything below is [synthesis] unless a source is tagged.

• Client will not go, or stops after one meeting. Explore ambivalence with motivational interviewing. Try a different format (fellowship-specific versus eclectic, or a card-topic meeting) and a different time slot. Let the client attend with the camera off and only listen for the first few meetings. Agree a fixed trial number before deciding.
• "The steps are still Christian" / resistance to powerlessness. Show the client that wording differs between groups and that PIR has no single fixed version yet [source: PIR Intergroup]. Explore their own reframing, for example limits of willpower alone, or interdependence with deity, ancestors or community. If the resistance is core to their values (as Heathen organisers described [source: Wild Hunt 2015]), offer SMART or Recovery Dharma without implying the client has failed.
• Religious trauma triggered by meetings (PIR notes many members arrive with it [source: Faces & Voices]). Use grounding before and after meetings. Process the triggers in therapy, start with PIR rather than mainstream meetings, and allow the client to leave a meeting early.
• Overwhelm during step work or ritual (Step 4 body-shame work, cleansing rituals [source: Wild Hunt 2024]). Slow the pace. Do trauma-focused processing in therapy rather than solo ritual. Agree pacing with the sponsor if the client consents. Screen for eating-disorder relapse when body shame comes up.
• Relapse and a self-defined sobriety goal. PIR leaves the definition of sobriety to each member [source: PIR home]. Respect the client's goal, and still assess risk (withdrawal, overdose, harm to others) and recommend medical care where needed. Frame relapse as information, not spiritual failure, and review the plan (B7).
• Eclectic meetings dilute focus on the primary addiction. Add a primary-fellowship meeting and a primary-fellowship sponsor.
• No local Pagan meetings / small-community anonymity. Use online PIR. Discuss what the client is willing to disclose locally. Agree a plan for meeting coven-mates or festival contacts in a meeting.
• Sponsor or member boundary problems (romantic or sexual approaches, financial requests, a sponsor acting as a spiritual teacher or pushing a tradition). Help the client set limits and change sponsor. If needed, report the problem to the group's trusted servants or the Intergroup contact [source for contact route: PIR home and Intergroup pages]. If there is exploitation or a crime, follow your local safeguarding and reporting duties.
• Controversy or proselytising within a meeting. PIR's stance is non-alignment and no controversy [source: PIR home]. Help the client raise it through group conscience or move to another meeting.
• Pressure about medication or therapy. Peers sometimes call medication "not sober". Make it clear that clinical decisions stay with the clinician and client, and prepare the client with a short response if it happens.
• Spiritual experience versus psychiatric symptoms. Assess function, distress, cultural congruence (ask co-religionists if needed) and change from baseline. Do not pathologise normative practice such as trance, divination or communication with deities. Do evaluate new, distressing or impairing experiences, especially during withdrawal.
• Entheogen or ritual substance use. Clarify the client's own definition of sobriety. Assess risk honestly. Problem-solve substitutions (B5). Note that PIR leaves this to the member.
• Indigenous practices borrowed in meetings (for example the Great Spirit prayer [source: Wikipedia]). For Indigenous clients, offer Native-led options (Wellbriety, Native AA). A non-Indigenous clinician supports and refers and does not lead ceremony.
• Crisis or suicide risk. Meetings and forums are not crisis services. Keep a standard safety plan with crisis contacts, review risk at each contact, and add meetings as protective structure without relying on them.
• Rupture with the therapist over spirituality (the client feels judged or misunderstood). Name the rupture, ask for the client's view, acknowledge your limits of knowledge, and invite the client to teach you about their practice as relevant to recovery.
• Non-adherence to the combined plan. Simplify to one meeting a week plus one contact (a sponsor or a forum post), and build up from there.

Sources

Sources

• Pagans in Recovery (home)
• Pagans in Recovery: Meetings
• Pagans in Recovery: Starting a Meeting
• Pagans in Recovery: Recovery Literature
• Pagans in Recovery: Intergroup
• Faces & Voices of Recovery: Pagans in Recovery
• The Wild Hunt (2024): Two resources for Pagans in Recovery
• The Wild Hunt (2015): Sober spaces and support at Pagan festivals
• Wikipedia: Pagans in recovery

Further reading (not drawn on), linked from the PIR site [uncertain]: Pagan Preamble, How it Works, PIR Traditions, Group Unity Policies, Meeting Scripts, Meeting Topic Suggestions, and the Circle of Friends, ABC and HELP trusted-servant slides (Google Docs and Drive).

Further reading (not drawn on)

• Hebert, D. A. (2011). The Pagan in Recovery: Twelve Steps from a Pagan Perspective. ISBN 978-0-9825798-6-2. Described from Wild Hunt 2024.
• Collins, C. J. (n.d.). The Recovery Spiral: A Pagan Path to Healing [uncertain: year not verified].
• Fox, S. (1995). When Goddess is God (thesis). Cited in Wild Hunt 2015.