Practical Cauldron: Cauldron

"Double double toil and trouble

fire burn and cauldron bubble..."

~Shakespeare~

The Cauldron, ancient symbol of the Goddesses womb. That from which all life is said to spring from. Aside from being thought of as the cradle of all things living, dead, or reborn. The cauldron is also associated with the cardinal point West, and the element of water. It's correspondence to the Witch's Pyramid is "To Dare", or Audere in Latin...delving a little further into that last statement...Diwrnach's cauldron wouldn't serve a coward. In other words, only someone who has gumption and absolute faith in their abilities can reap the rewards of Diwrnach's cauldron. Personal experience has shown me that it takes great courage to believe in yourself and your abilities, which is the crux of Audere.

On most working altars is a cauldron used for a variety of purposes. Whether large or small the cauldron represents inspiration and transformation. Three legged ones correlate to the Triple Goddess, while the four legged symbolize the elements....an interesting factoid I hadn't heard before suggests a link between the cauldron and modern day physics...According to section II page 144 of Silver RavenWolf's Solitary Witch, Cauldron's "represent the "unmanifest (seen in this instance as liquid form) becomes manifest through the transformation of light (the heated cauldron)." I can see this theory in action while making black salt in my cauldron or other notions and potions. Also through the birth of the Roman Goddess Venus born of sea foam. My thoughts on this being that, the sea has long been thought of as a cauldron, add a little heat from the Sun and viola life (primordial soup speaking). In a cauldron add heat and it becomes a cornucopia of inspiration and transformation, you just have to dare to reach for it.