CAULDRON

The cauldron was a central object in every home—the huge cooking pot sitting on the fire or hanging over it. It was used for most domestic cooking. It was also used for carrying water and for bathing. It was probably the finest object owned by most households.

Its central place in the home makes it a profoundly female symbol. The hemispherical shape also looks like the belly of a pregnant woman, which makes it a natural symbol for motherhood, childbirth, and fertility. When used for cooking, ingredients are put into the cauldron and transformed into a stew, so it is also symbol of transformation and regeneration, and of passage from one world to another.

The cauldron holds a central place in the Celtic belief system. It was used for divination and also for sacrificial rites. It was a symbol of the realm of water, and some finely made and beautifully ornamented cauldrons were sacrificed to the gods of rivers and lakes.

Sometimes the ocean itself was regarded as a huge cauldron.

A big cauldron in the Otherworld was the source of inspiration for poets and musicians. The goddess Caridwen owned a great cauldron, and it was fiom this that the bard Taliesin drew his legendary bardic talent (see Myths: The History of Taliesin).

The Gauls associated the cauldron with the god Taranis. Sacrifices to this god by Druidic priests are supposed to have been drowned in a cauldron, possibly in a belief that they would be reborn. Celtic myths tell of a cauldron into which dead warriors could be thrown and brought back to life again.

The Dagda’s huge cauldron is one of the four legendary treasures of Ireland. It is a magic object that supplies endless quantities of food and drink. This cauldron of the Otherworld gained a new lease of life in the Arthurian tales, where it remained an object of great mystery and veneration, but this time associated closely with Christ. The Arthurian myth was endlessly told and retold through the Christian era, and the Celtic cauldron, turned into the chalice, became a major focus of Christian liturgy. The two combined in the legend of the Holy Grail, where the two vessels became fused to make a new symbolic object (see Grail Quest; Places: Hochdorf; Religion: Cernunnos, The Daghda, Druids).