Margot Adler is the granddaughter of prominent psychologist Alfred Adler and a Wiccan priestess.
She grew up in a nonreligious household and studied at the
University of California in Berkeley (B.S., 1968) during its period of
political radicalism.
She went on to work at radio station WBAI-FM as a broadcast
journalist after graduation.
She accepted her most recent position with National Public
Radio in 1978.
She became acquainted with witchcraft via a study group
created by the New York Coven of Welsh Traditional Witches while living in New
York in the early 1970s.
She began involved with Gardnerian witchcraft around 1973.
She was named the priestess of Iargalon, a Gardnerian coven,
in 1976.
She studied and authored Drawing Down the Moon, a
sympathetic history and overview of the current Wiccan and pagan society,
during her years as an active priestess.
The book, now in its second edition, has exposed many
individuals to witchcraft throughout the years.
Adler has been a solo practitioner since 1982, yet he is
still one of the most recognizable leaders of the pagan community in North
America.
Her handfasting to John Gliedman in 1988 was the first pagan
wedding to be featured in the social sections of the New York Times.
Margot Adler, Margot Adler, Margot Adler, Margot Adler, Margot Adler, Drawing the Moon Down. Viking Press, New York, 1979.
Boston: Beacon Press, 1986, rev. ed. ———. The Heart of a Heretic: A Spiritual and Revolutionary Journey Beacon Press, Boston, 1997.
