What do Cauldrons mean? What do we use them for? Are they just decorations and symbols? Yes and no.
Before modern convention, Cauldrons were used for cooking. They hung over hearth and camp fires boiling and bubbling with stews and other meals. But for Neo-Pagans and Wiccans, they are more than just a way of cooking, cauldrons are used for many things such as a ritual vessel, brewing potions or herbal remedies, and burning spell papers and incense. You could use them as candle holders or even in divination as scrying bowls.
The cauldron is a symbol of the feminine, of the Great Goddesses womb, of fertility and intercourse. They are linked to the west and water and associated with Cerridwen, Kali, and Hecatate.
There are many things you could use, clean up, and as someone else wrote "re-claim" as a cauldron from stoneware to a glass bowl, but the safest are those made of metal. Typically I have seen cauldrons like those in the picture above. They come with a handle and sometimes a lid and stand on three legs. Sadly, the largest cauldron I have seen is sitting in my Grandmother's front yard. She's using it as a flower pot and I suspect that in all the years she's lived in that house its been sitting there and is most likely rusting out.
What they mean for non-pagans. For the most part people generally associate cauldrons with witches and Halloween. Someone might set up a "witchy scene" in their front yard or in a "haunted house" for decoration and adding the element of something "wicked" to their Halloween party.
No comments:
Post a Comment