What's in Your Cauldron?

Originally published July 24, 2015

Updating my reading list here at Blogger, I came across the Mom’s a Witch blog and quickly fell in love with the Blog prompts. So, in true social conformist fashion, I’m going to use one for this post.

Do I have a cauldron? Why yes, I certainly do. After Gabe’s dad walked out on us, I had to sell and donate almost everything we owned. When it came to my witch tools, supplies, and other goodies, I restricted myself to the bare essentials (far less than you New Agers imagine). I considered my cauldron to be one of them.

You may think it’s strange that I would consider a heavy, cast-iron cauldron to be an essential item at a time like that. Maybe a few survivalist types would get it if I mention it can double as a cooking pot.

But the truth is, the cauldron’s that tool that keeps working even when you forget about it. It’s like a mirror of your unconscious mind. Things go in there and they’ll impact your life until you address them. Be careful of what you put in there, because what goes in manifests in your daily life.

So let me tell you about a stupid thing I did.

Awhile back, I was working on releasing some negative habits and feelings. Basically, you do this by calling up the thing you want to get rid of about yourself. You really feel it until you are very nearly overwhelmed by it. You write it down on a piece of paper, transferring all those emotions and associations into the paper. You come back to it later on, tap into it (not as strongly this time) and then burn the paper, releasing the thing you want gone. You feel it draining away from you and consciously commit to never letting that thing be a part of you again.

For the non-witchy types, this technique can be used at any time. But for us witchies who like to spin a little magick into things of this nature, it’s pertinent that the burning of the paper occurred during the waning moon, closest to the New Moon as possible.

Now, at the time, I had a lot of things I wanted to purge after an in-depth self-evaluation. Since these techniques don’t really work in bulk, I limited myself to just a couple things per moon cycle. Where did I store my little pieces of paper with the things I didn’t want in my life anymore? In a cauldron! Because, you know, it made sense at the time…

Looking back, that was okay. Putting them in the cauldron helped manifest the energy that these things needed to be addressed. Problem was, I still had a few left when life through a couple wrenches in and those little pieces of paper sat in that particular cauldron for a couple years. It wasn’t so much that I’d forgotten all about them, but when I did remember, it was never the right time.

When I finally got around to purge those last things, I couldn’t help but notice which ones they were. They were the exact negative traits and things that had been central in my life during the past couple years; the very things I couldn’t seem to get past! Leaving them in the cauldron had ensured they remained manifest in my life.

So now, whenever my cauldron isn’t actively in use, I make sure it’s never empty. I put in symbols, words, and other objects to help draw in the things I need and want in my life. If the cauldron acts as a mirror to my unconscious mind, I’d rather be affected by positive things that help both my life and the lives of those around me.

What do you put in your cauldron? Even if you don’t have an actual cauldron or aren’t the witchy-type, imagine a cauldron, grail, or even just a cardboard box you’d stick in your attic. What’s in there right now?