Drawing Down the Moon (book)

Did You Know?

• The book was a marked departure from earlier works that equated Pagan Witchcraft with historical early modern witchcraft or Satanism.
• Along with Starhawk's Dreaming the Dark, Adler's book politicized Paganism and witchcraft by emphasizing their radical and feminist aspects, drawing many radical feminists into their orbit.
• Sociologist Helen A. Berger noted that the book influenced many Wiccans to accept the non-existence of a historical Witch-Cult from which their religion descended.

Background

Contemporary Paganism, also called Neo-Paganism, covers modern religious movements influenced by pre-modern European pagan beliefs. Pagan Witchcraft, or Wicca, developed in England during the first half of the 20th century, led by occultist Gerald Gardner, author of Witchcraft Today and The Meaning of Witchcraft. Gardnerian Wicca venerates a Horned God and a Mother Goddess, celebrates eight seasonal festivals, and practices magic in covens. This tradition reached the U.S. in the early 1960s via English initiate Raymond Buckland and his wife Rosemary, who founded a coven on Long Island.

American variants later emerged, including Dianic Wicca, a feminist tradition rejecting the Horned God and emphasizing female-only covens. Starhawk, an initiate of both Dianic and Gardnerian traditions, founded Reclaiming Wicca and published The Spiral Dance in 1979. In 1976, Adler announced that Viking Press had offered her a contract for the first wide-ranging study of American Paganism.

Synopsis

Drawing Down the Moon follows the growth and branching out of modern Pagan religions in the United States from the 1970s into the early 2000s. Adler structures the book in three stages: first, the roots of Neopaganism in European occult traditions and Gerald Gardner’s Wicca, along with its move to North America; second, a look at regional festivals, coven dynamics, and new traditions through interviews; and third, the movement’s development into varied schools, covering debates about gender, race, and what makes a tradition authentic.

Republication

A revised second edition appeared in 1986, expanded with new information on trends since 1979, including growing self-awareness among U.S. Pagans attributed to increasing festivals. One reviewer noted that alterations in the 1986 edition often created vivid contrasts with events first described in 1979. The 1996 third edition added over 150 pages of new material, including expanded tradition profiles on GreenCraft and Afro-Diasporic Paganisms, a chapter on interfaith engagement, demographic data from a 1994 survey estimating the U.S. Pagan population at 150,000–250,000, and reflections on organizational fragmentation and commercialization. These additions cemented the book's status as the definitive sociological survey of American Paganism in the late 20th century.

Reception

Writing in the Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Mara E. Donaldson called the book an extensive study that demythologizes the movement without being sentimental or self-righteous, and a serious corrective to common misconceptions, though she noted neopaganism's lack of historical-traditional-cultural memory and sensitivity to the problem of evil. Sociologist Sarah M. Pike in 1996 stated that Drawing Down the Moon went a long way toward answering what makes Pagan ritual activities valid to participants, improving on earlier studies, and found it less defensive and apologetic than studies by outside observers, though it failed to focus on detailed examination of specific issues. Robin Herndobler in The Women's Review of Books praised Adler's clear, graceful prose and her compassionate interest in Paganism.