#cauldrons

The Three Cauldrons — a rich, mystical framework from Celtic (specifically Irish) poetic and druidic tradition. Also called the Cauldrons Of Inspiration, these are spiritual vessels within the self, deeply tied to soul-craft, inspiration (Awen), and magickal power. The concept comes primarily from the medieval Irish text "The Cauldron of Poesy" (An Cormaireacht na nÉigeas), a metaphysical poem from the bardic tradition.

Each cauldron is an inner vessel of energy, consciousness, and soul-force. They correspond to the body, the spirit, and the creative self — and like literal cauldrons, they can be full, turned, or empty depending on one’s life force and spiritual journey.

Cauldron of Warming (Coire Goiriath)

Located in the abdomen or belly.

Purpose: Vitality, life-force, grounding. This is the cauldron you're born with upright. It governs survival, physical health, and basic emotional energy.

Element: Earth / Fire

Function: Stores primal energy. It is warmed by joy, compassion, health, and connection to the land or kin.

Shadow side: When cold or overturned, it leads to despair, apathy, or illness.

Magickal use: This is where energy is generated for workings. It fuels stamina for trance, journeying, or ecstatic ritual.

Cauldron of Motion (Coire Ernmae)

Located in the chest or heart center.

Purpose: Transformation, emotion, and initiation. Unlike the first, this cauldron starts tilted on its side and must be turned upright through suffering, ecstatic joy, or initiation.

Element: Water / Air

Function: Governs emotional wisdom, courage, grief, and devotion. It’s the vessel of the spiritual warrior and poet.

Activated by: Life’s trials — heartbreak, sacrifice, ecstasy, grief, or spiritual awakening.

Magickal use: This cauldron processes experience into meaning. It opens when you commit fully to your spiritual path — even if it breaks you.

Cauldron of Wisdom (Coire Sois)

Located in the head or crown.

Purpose: Divine inspiration, prophecy, poetic truth. This cauldron is most difficult to turn upright and only opens with full alignment of body and soul.

Element: Aether / Spirit

Function: Connects you to the sacred, the Awen or imbas forosnai (inspired illumination). From here come prophecies, divine speech, and higher magick.

Awakened by: Transcendence, mystic union, and advanced spiritual discipline.

Magickal use: When this cauldron turns, you become a vessel for divine truth — a prophet, bard, or magus touched by the Otherworld.

States of the Cauldrons

Each cauldron can be:

Upright – full and functioning

Tilted – unstable or wounded

Inverted – blocked or dormant

Spiritual practice seeks to turn them all upright, through ritual, ordeal, poetic expression, and Otherworldly contact.

Integration into Magickal Work

• Invoke each cauldron in ritual to balance body, heart, and mind.

• Craft a cauldron triad sigil, with glyphs representing belly, heart, and head.

• Journey inward to your cauldrons using trance or guided pathwork — and speak to them as spirit allies.

In the quiet turning of the Three Cauldrons, we come to know ourselves—not as fragments, but as flame, breath, and song in sacred accord. When each is awakened and aligned, we do not merely live; we embody the art of becoming. In their deep and ancient wisdom, the Cauldrons remind us: the soul is not poured into us, but rises from within.

You might remember I was having trouble finding archaeological evidence of cauldrons in early Medieval Ireland. I still am, but there are a couple of items that are giving me some hope, and honestly, even a few bits scattered through the period where I wasn't finding anything give me a lot more confidence.

The issue has been that nearly all the cauldrons excavated have been Bronze Age rather than Iron Age. Or, where they're undated (which is how many of them are, having been extracted from bogs in the 1800s), they're made of bronze and pretty close in design to known Bronze Age cauldrons.

The first exception to this is the Drumlane Cauldron. It was found 75cm or so below the surface in a turf bog "opposite a crannog" on the shores of Drumlane Lough, in Cavan, in 1886 or 1887. It's a similar shape to many of the Bronze Age examples, called "globular", and unusually, it's made entirely of iron. I wrote to the NMI about this one - it's in their Antiquities Collection, in a special storage facility so that it doesn't rust away - and they kindly provided a reference to A Catalogue of Irish Iron Age Antiquities by Barry Raftery, of which I'm probably going to have to get a copy.

This illustration is from that book:

It shows various signs of use and repair, and has the essential details for cauldron-ness of a way to hang it over a fire. There's also a photo on the NMI Listing (which I was able to find easily today, and not at all last Friday - thanks, Internet).

The fact that it is made of iron makes it pretty clearly not-Bronze-Age, although it might be very early Iron Age. As far I can make out, no firm date is available, though.

However, that's not the case for the second item of interest here, the Ballymoney Cauldron. It too was extracted from a bog, in Ballymoney in Antrim in 1903, from a depth of 6m. It's a "copper alloy" (which is basically bronze), and is of the "projecting-belly" shape. It's been fairly extensively patched and repaired. However, there was some carbonised residue in it, and that has, according to the details in a paper called "Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble: Iron Age and Early Roman Cauldrons of Britain and Ireland", been carbon-dated to the first or second centuries CE ("1842 ± 25 BP(UBA-10351); 87–107 cal AD (4.4%), 121–240 cal AD(91.0%)").

That puts it pretty solidly in the middle of the period for which I can find little to no other cookware (600 BCE to 800 CE, give or take), and that's excellent news.

Again, the NMI listing provides a photograph:

The rings or other supports from which to hang it are missing, but, from the listing, "There are two large holes near the rim. It is possible that these mark the location of the handles."

I do note that this is much closer in design to the Derrynaflan Bowl than the much fancier Bronze Age cauldrons with their fancy bosses and decorations.