at the end of A Day for Ronald Hutton

It is Sunday 16 September 2012. We are at the Conway Hall in London. The Centre for Pagan Studies has mounted A Day for Ronald Hutton. I recall their Day for Doreen Valiente in 2009. I recall their Day for Gerald Gardner the following year when I spoke my own heartfelt tribute to Dafo.

Doreen Gerald and Dafo are now among the Old Ones. Ronald is still with us, speaking with brilliant shining eloquence and passion. There was, too, a fine programme from other speakers : Rufus & Melissa Harrington; Prudence Jones; Philip Heselton; Peter Nash.

I may, at some time in the future, say more about each of them and their talks. For now, though, it's a general impression that occupies the forefront of my mind.

We are all, each of us, that much older than we were when last we met.

My mind goes back to that First of May in 1995 when two of us went to Avebury. Not for a ritual. Just because it was Beltane. It was good to go to Avebury on Beltane Day.

For me, there may have been a subliminal preprompting. The outcome was entirely unanticipated. In the village shop, beneath a small stand-alone table, my eyes were drawn to a modest stack of magazines. I bought one. It was my introduction to Pagan Dawn and to the Pagan Federation.

And in June 1995, at Blacklands Lakes in Wiltshire, there was Michael de Ward's In the Presence II, where I first heard Ronald Hutton and Prudence Jones - and where I first spoke on parallels between the Pagan and the Christian liturgical years. Fred Lamond was there then, though not with us today at the Conway Hall. I'm glad to have heard him on other occasions and to have read what he had to say about the Bricket Wood coven.

A display ad led us to our first Pagan camps. Oakleaf made an impression which created its tangible after-image down the centre of the field when most of the tents had been folded and stowed away, their occupants homeward bound. Steve Jones was prominent at that camp. We continue to meet now and again. Steve is here for Ronald's Day. Steve, like me, notices the apparent lack of young people. He doubted there was anyone younger than thirty in the hall.

I recall my first Pagan Fed annual corroboree. Rufus Harrington impressed me then. He's impressed me every time I've heard him speak.

But we are, each of us, that much older than we were when last we met.

Our Day for Ronald was largely occupied, as is so appropriate, with thoughts of history and different historians with their differing interpretations. That is as it should be.

Ideally, the study of the past prepares us for the future. And it's that particular aspect I find myself involved in just now. In a few weeks' time I shall be 84 years old. I look forward to leaving this physical. I look back to look ahead. What have I done with this life? How shall the books be balanced? What loose ends might there be for me to tidy up next time around? What may I leave behind, knowing I went as far as needs be? What have I begun that deserves to be a marker for where and when and to whom I shall return?

So, on this Day for Ronald Hutton, the words from the platform and the interpolations of the questioners leave me with ample thoughts to mull over.

'twas well done ..

francis cameron, oxford, 18 september 2012

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