The House Witch: Your Complete Guide to Creating a Magical Space with Rituals and Spells for Hearth and Home - Arin Murphy-Hiscock 2018
What Is a Cauldron?
The Magic of the Cauldron
THE CAULDRON IS A SYMBOL found in many cultures and folktales. Closely associated with the hearth, the cauldron, along with the sacred fire, functions as a central symbol in the practice of hearthcraft and is a focal image in the house witch’s spirituality.
What Is a Cauldron?
The origin of the word cauldron comes from the Latin caldarium, meaning “hot bath,” or from caldaria, “cooking pot.” And the cauldron is essentially a large metal pot used for cooking over an open fire. The cauldron was (and still is, in many countries) an essential vessel in hearthside cooking. It has thus been commonly used throughout the ages until relatively recently. It was often set on a tripod rack or made with feet in order to set it in the embers or next to them, depending on what needed to be cooked. A curved handle was often also used to suspend it from a hook in the fireplace over the fire.
Like wells, cauldrons are connections to the Otherworld, a place of mysticism, the dead, enlightenment, and a realm of the Divine, whence come inspiration and Divine healing. The cauldron may also be seen as a symbol of initiation, wherein a symbolic death and rebirth are experienced. The cauldron is generally considered a feminine symbol, like most cups or bowl-shaped dishes. It is also associated with the element of water.
At its most basic, the cauldron is associated with the everyday magic of cookery, the combination of ingredients and application of heat to create something new, which is nourishing, therapeutic, or supportive in some way. As a result of its practical physical use, the cauldron has become a symbol of abundance, source, warmth, nourishment, and transformation.
Transformation and transmutation are two of the most common themes associated with the cauldron in myth and story. To transform is to undergo or initiate change in form or appearance. To transmute, however, is to change in substance and is a term often used in chemistry or alchemy to describe the changing of one element into another. A cauldron not only visibly alters something on the outside (transform); it also alters it on a very basic level, changing its very nature (transmute).
Symbolically, the cauldron offers you the opportunity to explore your inner self, the deep, dark well of your emotional nature. It can symbolize the repository of inner wisdom and hidden knowledge. Like the associations with the element of water in Western occult tradition, it can stand for the subconscious realm, the source of dreams, intuition, and healing.
The cauldron is sometimes associated with the Underworld, particularly in classical Greek and Roman iconology and belief (the cauldron suggests the shape of a cave, which was a place often sacred to chthonic goddesses), as well as the Otherworld, which is often reached through a body of water, according to several cultural mythos.