Lady Gwen Thompson

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Lady Gwen Thompson (September 16, 1928 – May 22, 1986) was the "craft name", or pseudonym of Wiccan author Phyllis Thompson (née Healy).

In later life she altered her craft forename to "Gwynne". She was married and divorced three times. Thompson is her final married surname.

After her final divorce, she decided to initiate outsiders into what she claimed was her family tradition of witchcraft, inherited from her long-deceased grandmother Adriana Porter, along with a book of magical lore. She founded the "New England Covens of Traditionalist Witches" in 1972 and taught as its "primary teacher" until her death.

Thompson's claims to be an hereditary witch have no independent support, since she states that she destroyed the original version of her grandmother's lore-book after copying its contents. Much of her published work is close to Wicca and popular witchcraft practices of the time.

In 1975 she published a poem entitled The Rede of the Wiccae in Green Egg magazine, attributing it to her grandmother. The attribution is disputed because the language of the poem refers to Wiccan concepts that are not known to have existed in her grandmother's lifetime. It is sometime ascribed to Thompson herself. The poem has since been widely used in Wiccan circles. A recent book by Robert Mathiesen and Theitic argued that part of the published poem is by Thompson, part by Porter.

[edit] See also

The Wiccan Rede

[edit] References

Mathiesen, Robert; & Theitic (2005). The Rede of the Wiccae: Adriana Porter, Gwen Thompson and the Birth of a Tradition of Witchcraft. Olympian Press. ISBN 0-9709013-1-3.