Rating: 
Summary: Useful, but not without bias
Review: This book is a great overview of the many religions that make up the modern day Pagan and/or Neopagan movement. I used it as a reference book for many years. However you must remember that the author has her own points of view, she clearly likes some traditions better than others. This can lead to distortion: evidently she had a bad encounter with a so-called Asatruar (Norse Pagan) who was ignorant enough to think that neo-Nazi beliefs were compatible with Asatru--- they aren't, as virtually any practicing Asatruar will tell you loudly and often. This has led to a number of odd hitlerites knocking on the door of Asatru groups, and to witch-hunts within the Asatru community without number. That being said, it's still a good reference book. Buy it--- just don't mistake it for Gospel.
Rating: 
Summary: Best all-around overview of modern Paganism
Review: Whether you are a curious seeker looking for a path that "fits," or just curious about paganism in general, this is a must-read book. Adler gives an excellent overview of a variety of pagan paths, offering clear, concise information on key beliefs and practices of each. While potentially intimidating in size, and at times a little dry, I have yet to find its equal. I highly recommend it.
Rating: 
Summary: God in Drag, and other misadventures....
Review: Witchcraft? Paganism? Strange aquarian orders? There's nothing transformative about these organizations. Read at your own risk.
Rating:
Summary: A Classic of the Neo-pagan Movement
Review: A remarkable work. Insightful and thought provoking. One of the first books I had read on the neo-pagan movement. It renders genuine insight into the process that has caused many to leave traditional religions in order to follow a faith that is more basic and more personal. Few books have left me with such strong and lasting impressions. Do add it to your library, you will not regret it in the least.
Rating:
Summary: A Field Guide to Paganism in America
Review: That the Pagan community is a very large and very diverse one should come as no surprise to anyone -- except perhaps to a vocal minority within the Christian faith who persist in lumping all of Paganism into "Devil-worship".Confused about the differences between Gardnerian Wicca and Alexandrian Wicca? Not to mention all those other Pagan religions? Then this is the book for you. Margot Adler's ambitious volume is a sort of field guide, if you will. Encyclopedic in scope, it has got to be the definitive overview on the various beliefs and religious practices that fit within the broad term "Paganism". The book's strengths are in the illuminating history it provides about various pioneers of modern Pagan movements. Wicca, in its various permutations, receives the most thorough treatment. If I have any fault with the book, it is that other Pagan religions are not treated with the same exhaustive and in-depth scope with which Adler treats Wicca. Accurate and respectful mention is made of statements by Aleister Crowley, but references to him are thinly spread. Consequently, I missed many of them in my reading of the book. Adler primarily presents Crowley's contributions to the occult scene through the filter of someone else's interpretation or adaption of his work. I would like to have seen a more in-depth look at Crowley's contributions to the modern occult and Pagan scene, given that he is the most well-known occultist in non-occult circles. For better or for worse, that "most evil man in the world" reputation has stuck (his self-proclaimed identity as "The Beast" probably hasn't helped matters), and rather undeservedly, from what I can tell in my limited exposure to his writings. Many people who are otherwise ignorant of Paganism, the occult or hermetic orders nevertheless have heated opinions about Crowley, and I can't help but feel that Adler should have given him a little more attention in her book -- if for no other reason than to point out that maybe he isn't such a horrible person as some members of Christian and Wiccan communities seems to think he is. The questionnaire Adler includes is an especially valuable reminder that Pagans, like other members of a socioeconomic, racial or otherwise narrowly defined category of human beings, do not share common political views. If some preconceived notions -- i.e. all Pagans should be liberal -- are challenged, all the better. In conclusion, this is probably the first book I would recommend to someone who has heard of the Pagan community and wants more information about it. If that's you, I strongly urge that you read this book -- with the caveat that this is one woman's opinion, and that what matters is that you discover the truth for yourself.
Rating:
Summary: Margot Adler has written the perfect guide
Review: This book has been my only tangible guide to the Wicca religion. I was brought nearly to tears when I read the beggining and saw that the path she describes so perfectly is mine. By the time I reached the second chapter I was no longer reading about a religion and learning about a choice, I was reading about *my* religion and learning about myself.
Rating:
Summary: Imformative and Important
Review: If this is your walk of life or not, this is still the most important informational book you will ever own about Wicca or Goddess Worship. As for me, the story of Adlers "conversion" was identical to mine; less of a decision, more of a discovery.
Rating:
Summary: Pagan World View
Review: To me, only the 3 chapters in part one have to be read in succession, since the information deals with the prejudices facing Neo-Pagans, as well as the "Pagan World View," which was good, but a bit scattered at times... The rest of the book works an encyclopedia featuring sketches of different aspects of the Nro-Pagan movement, which can be read independently of each other.
Rating:
Summary: DRAWING OUT THE LOONS
Review: First came The Silly Trinity: Eliphas Levi, A.E.Waite and the stunning Transvestite MacGregor Mathers, who together hijacked the course of Western Esotericism and turned it into a religious romper room. Following quick on their heels came the drug addict Crowley and the opportunist Regardie and from them came the S/M enthusiast Gardner, Patriarch of all the Wiccan NeoPagan nonsense to follow. Such the illustrious genealogy of a phenemenon...if that's what it is... The chaos of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries with their genocidal wars, revolutions and dramatic swings in philosophy/theology had begun to erode traditional orthodox religion and the mystically inclined turned elsewhere. Some of the results of this spiritual revolution tend toward the comic, (Theosophy and the Mumbo-Jumbo of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, godfathers of Deepak Chopra and the venerable school of making something--money and/or fame--by saying nothing), and it also led to that sad path illustrated a few sentences back. Western Esotericism survived, of course, but more so in Art and Literature than as a deliberately chosen spiritual path and that's unfortunate. It's comparable to having a beautiful ship being taken over by the rats. Paganism is NOT a pure faith; there is no such thing as "Orthodox" Paganism. Paganism is the gut-level responses of a people to the environment they face at a given time and place. NeoPaganism is more of an ecological/political response to the decay of more established religious institutions and it should be studied as such, rather than the resurrection of old ideas that, for better or worse, are dead and gone. Wicca has it's roots more in daring exploration of sexual practices than in the "resurrection" of Maternally-Passed wisdom, (cute idea as that is.) This book, as well as the chronicle of an odd turn in the history of religion, is also testimony that no matter how many times religion changes its face it tends to remain the same...worn out dogmas, silly rituals, tired practices and the tyranny of priesthoods and dogmas. This is progress? This is sexual revolution? This is feminism? This is ecological? It's merely the same old insanity in drag. But we can take comfort in the knowledge that their will probably always be those who dare to question, who take little comfort in beliefs and are interested in Knowledge instead. Who instead of drawing down the moon reach out toward it... and beyond...
Rating: 
Summary: People recommend this book. I fail to understand why.
Review: This book does not teach anyone how to practise Wicca, and has virtualy no rituals. This book is an autobiography of Ms. Adlers life and some of the various pagans she encountered in her travels
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