Wilson, Monique

Monique Wilson is an English Witch known as Lady Olwen, a high priestess with Gerald B. Gardner, the namesake of the Gardnerian tradition of contemporary Witchcraft. In 1963 she initiated Raymond Buckland into the Craft; Buckland became the chief spokesperson for the Gardnerian tradition in the United States.

Upon Gardner’s death later in 1964, Wilson and Patricia C. Crowther were designated the chief heirs to his estate. Wilson was the prime beneficiary, inheriting Gardner’s Witchcraft museum (the Witches’ mill) in Castletown on the Isle of Man, his collection of swords, daggers and magical tools and objects, his notebooks and papers and the copyrights to his books.

For a few years, Wilson and her husband, “Scotty,” an ex-pilot, held weekly Coven meetings at Gardner’s cottage in Castletown, ran the museum and kept up an international correspondence with Witches. Wilson then sold the museum to Ripley's International, a move that earned her the disfavour of many Witches. Ripley’s dispersed the contents in museums in Canada and the United States, including the Ripley's Museum of Witchcraft and Magic on Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco. Many Witches feel the exhibits sensationalize and cheapen Witchcraft and are not a fitting end to Gardner’s possessions.

SEE ALSO:

• Museum oF Witchcraft.

SOURCE:

The Encyclopedia of Witches, Witchcraft and Wicca – written by Rosemary Ellen Guiley – Copyright © 1989, 1999, 2008 by Visionary Living, Inc.

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