In
the 1950s
Gerald Gardner met
Charles Clark. Both shared a common interest
in magical matters and they soon became friends. Gardner was eager to spread
the Witch Cult and thereby ensure its survival. Charles set about helping
Gerald with this by spreading the Craft of the Wica in Scotland.
Consequently, by the early 1960s, there were about twenty members in
Scotland and Covens in Saltcoats,
Glasgow and Perth, with possibly two further ones at Fife and Edinburgh.
The Perth Coven was
run by two fairly well-known
members of the Scottish Wica, namely Monique and Campbell 'Scotty' Wilson.
The Wilson's proved
to be highly influential as they subsequently initiated Raymond Buckland,
who took the Craft to the USA. Monique also inherited the contents of the Witchcraft Museum
from Gardner following his death.
◉
I have written an
article about Gardner, the Wilson's and the Scottish Wica. You can read it
here
◉The
Wilson's gave an interview which appeared in the Sunday Mail on the
17th September 1961. Read it here.
◉
Shortly after
Gardner's death, there were disagreements between various High Priestesses.
One argument revolved around Monique declaring herself to be the Queen of
all the Witches, a title she claimed to have been left in Gardner's Will (however copies of Gardner's Will reveals this to be untrue.) A Hush Hush
(October 1964) article about this declaration and subsequent disagreement
can be found here and another article
about this, from the Daily Mirror (March 6th 1964) can be found
here.
◉
Following Gardner's death, Monique Marie Mauricette Wilson (nee Arnoux) went on to inherit the Isle of Man
Museum from him.
You can find an
article which appeared in the Evening Standard (19th September 1964)
about this here.
◉
You can find an
article about the Wilson's, and a couple of other Witches, which appeared in
Observer (1st December 1968)
here
(PDF) (N.B. This file is 2mb in
size so may take a while to download.)
◉
You can find a News
of the World article (April 2nd late 1960s) about the Wilson's
here.
◉
You can find a
Calgary Herald article (October 26th 1967) about the Wilson's
here.
◉
Read a wonderful
article that appeared in The National Geographic Society magazine
(Volume 142, No. 3, September 1972), about the Isle Of Man and its people,
including a section on the Wilson's here.
(Thanks to Athena)
◉
In 1973, after
running the Witchcraft Museum on the Isle of Man for nearly 10 years, the Wilson's decided to sell
most of its contents to Ripley's in the USA. They then subsequently emigrated to Spain. Articles from the
Manx Star and the Isle Of Man Courier about this event can be
found here:
Manx Star Part 1,
Manx Star Part 2,
Manx Star Part 3,
Isle of Man Courier (January 1973)
(these are all hosted on
www.geraldgardner.com)
◉
Some of the
remaining Items from Gardner's museum collection, can be seen (and bought)
here
http://www.uniqueandprecious.com/gbg/gbgmain.html
◉
You can read an
article by Morgan Davies, owner of geraldgardner.com, about Monique Wilson
and Gardner's estate
here.
◉
There is a page
about Monique Wilson, in French
here.
◉
Below are some
pictures of Monique, click on the thumbnails to view larger images.
(Many images are
courtesy of Melissa and Rufus Harrington and are taken from their collection
of Doreen Valiente's scrapbooks.)
Monique Wilson
Monique with Gardner In her regalia 1
In her regalia 2 Monique &
'Scotty'
These two images are from 'Le Livre de
Maitres
du Monde'. Many thanks to Tof.
