The Book Drawing down the moon, goes into the Pagan Wiccan Movement across the Globe during the 1900-2000s Era. The author Margot Adler interviewed a wide range of individuals to get their insights on their path. Margot Adler was a author, journalist, lecturer, Wiccan Priestess and a New York correspondent for National Public Radio. She Authored an Co Authored several books, the majority on the metaphysical realm. She received her Bachelor of Arts in political science, and a master’s degree in Journalism. she died in 2014.

Chapter one titled Paganism and Prejudices, talks about how, from the original publishing of the book, how much paganism has changed. She first wrote the book in 1979, but as all things change, she changed the original publication to bring it to be a better representation of current happenings in 2006 by including a new section on green craft, a Wiccan tradition emerging out of an Alexandrian Wicca Coven. In Chapter two, titled A Religion without converts, gives 6 primary reasons for the neo-pagan movement and why people take part in the religion. She also goes into detail about why we are likely to be drawn to paganism. In Chapter three titled The Pagan world View talks about the different paths, Animism, pantheism, and Polytheism. In Chapter five, the craft today, Alder went to a Wiccan ritual. She was only supposed to take part, but ended up being the Ritual Leader. She exclaimed she did not have enough experience to fulfill that role. For many learning of the craft, we get a big head complex and feel we know everything. Given her experiences, she could very well wing that ritual, but choose not to fall into that trap. The author mostly geared Chapter 8 around Woman, Feminism and the craft. This chapter enlightened me on the other female gender revolving around the Wiccan tradition. But in the same did not really do anything to further my studies. The rest of the book gave a overview of religions from the past, future, and living on earth.

When I first started reading the book, I had the idea that the book was going to go more in detail on the Magical Aspect of our craft. But that was the not what the book was about. The author gives a generalized view of about every aspect of the Pagan Movement in that time period, from rituals she attended to Interviews of Experts in the field. Drawing down the moon along with giving a history lesson to the readers also gives you a General Overview of the additional Flavors of Paganism you can dig deeper in. I would recommend this book to anyone starting out on their path. There is a lot of good information to give a broad overview of what is out there for you.