The first of these had been the practising Wiccan, journalist and political activist Margot Adler in her Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans in America Today, which was first published by Viking Press in 1979.

[3] Lynne Hume had been born and raised into the Christian faith but maintained an interest in non-Christian beliefs and societies, becoming a religious pluralist and leading her to study the discipline of anthropology.

Attending a Unitarian church in Calgary, it was here that a group of Wiccans had been invited to give a talk on their magico-religious practices during a Sunday morning service.

Alongside her active participation, Hume also made a study of most of the available literature on the subject, subscribing to Pagan newsletters and researching in the archives of the Canberra Occult Reference Centre, Murdoch University and at the Theosophical Society in Brisbane.

[10] The third looks at commonly held beliefs in the Pagan community, such as their moral values, their respect for nature, and their cosmological views,[11] while the fourth examines the organisation and structure of the movement, looking at how individuals and embrace and convert to it, and how Wiccan covens operate.

[14] The following chapter discusses Pagan experiential and emotional experiences and beliefs regarding other realms,[15] and the eighth looks at morality and ethics in the movement alongside its relation with legality.