(Beltane falls around the 31st of October in the Southern Hemisphere. For information on the Southern Wheel of the Year, click the label at end of post.)
Beltane 2007 was when I started celebrating the Neopagan festivals.
I had been to Lughnasadh in 2006 but didn't really know what it was about or even that it was Neopagan. I went along because it sounded interesting, and it was. At that Lughnasadh circle I had that feeling of "homecoming" so many of Neopagans have experienced.
Unfortunately, I couldn't find the next festival or the one after it. There are few Neopagan events in my area. I didn't know how to spell Lughnasadh or what the next festival was called, I didn't even know the full name of the person who had run the Lughnasadh circle. And by the time I found her, her website and email were defunct.
Then life intervened as it has a way of doing, and it wasn't until the following Beltane I found another festival to attend.
Beltane 2007 was held in a local shop, the since-vanished Magickal You at Umina. There was no circle, just a lot of flowers and some talks by visiting psychic readers and Neopagans, including Lucy Cavendish. It was just after my mother's death and I wasn't in a very Beltane mood, but I drank in the information. Lucy explained Beltane in some detail and also summarised the entire Wheel of the Year.
When I got home I took my candle-stick into the bathroom to represent a balefire, removed anything it could set fire to if I kicked it over, and carefully stepped over it a couple of times for luck.
The next day I began to read everything I could lay my hands on about Neopaganism and where to find it.
Beltane 2007 was my first deliberately celebrated Neopagan festival and began my first turn around the Wheel.
