THE THREE CAULDRONS: A Model for the Universe Within & Ancestral Guide to Self-Inquiry
The following is a tool of knowledge and map from the Celtic tradition for navigating the internal universe found within each of us. I stumbled upon this gem again recently and would like to leave it here as an example and guide of how you might go about structuring and initiating your processes of self- and life-inquiry in the times to come.
The three "cauldrons of poesy" are taken from a 16th-Century Irish training manuscript for poets, part of an ongoing tradition that "recognizes the vital links between creativity, transformation, and vision" (full article here). Ireland is famous for her visionary poets and poetic seers. The manuscript that we remain with today is the result of "collaboration between native poet and Christian cleric, that preserves one portion of a bardic lore now largely lost".
The Three Cauldrons speak to that universal venturing towards self-development and spiritual illumination or realization. A cauldron, pot or other sort of vessel as it appears in mythology all over the world often symbolizes the womb from which all Life, inspiration, nourishment and medicine is born. In other traditions the symbol migrated to a cup or grail, and also refers to that human receptivity and capacity as a vessel of the Spirit. According to this manuscript, we contain three cauldrons inside of the body, each of which governs a distinct area of our wellbeing and transformative power. The first sits in our pelvis or belly area, the second in and around our heart, and the third inside of our head.
The first cauldron in our lower body is called Coire Goriath or the "Cauldron of Warming" and is responsible for our physical strength and wellbeing. The second is the "Cauldron of Vocation or Motion", Coire Ermai, which has to do with the development of poetic inspiration, self-expression, life experiences, ancestral inheritances, joys and sorrows. The third cauldron, Coire Sois or the "Cauldron of Knowledge or Wisdom" is the fount of wisdom or true divine inspiration, and is the most mysterious of the three.
"Each cauldron can be in one of three positions: upright, tilted, or inverted. The position indicates the ability of a cauldron to function. An upright cauldron can hold and 'cook' its ingredients; a tilted cauldron allows ingredients to slip away; an inverted cauldron cannot hold on to anything." We are born with the first one upright and it stays that way, unless we are extremely ill or approaching death. The second one is on its side or inverted when we are born and has also been called the cauldron of (e)motion because it changes its position most frequently. The third cauldron is upside down when we are born and depends on the status and alignment of the second, our heart, to turn upright. This likely speaks to the gradual steps, cycles, and initiations along our path of life and spiritual growth.
If you like this model and want to use it, you can ask yourself questions about each of these dimensions of your being and the state of its cauldron. Issues surrounding intimacy or lack thereof, nourishment, and abundance belong to the first cauldron, for example. Topics surrounding life purpose and developing your voice and direction in life would find their place in the second cauldron, and so on. You can ask yourself, "whatcha got cooking in there?" and see what kinds of hints, images, memories, symbols, and clues come bubbling up from your subconscious. You'll have to practice really listening within, seeing through feeling...and that will be a gift to all of your relationships as well.
Your body is also a great ally and guide when it comes to the work of self-inquiry. The body and its water hold incredible amounts of memory and genetic information–for better or worse. We can see this most clearly in psychosomatic processes of trauma release such as shaking or instinctive breathing in animals after a life-threatening experience. Although perhaps not as easily perceivable and havoc-wreaking in our psyches and our bodies as unprocessed/stored trauma, all range of experiences and their related emotions also inhabit our body and cellular memory. It requires a lot of work, patience, and willingness to feel, release, and heal ourselves in this way. The body can also allow us to move more directly through some processes when the mind becomes an impediment. The fact that the cauldrons are located in different bodily regions is already a great hint at how to begin weaving these different dimensions of our being together. It also opens an array of other threads, possibilities, and tools for working with and moving our energy.
There are many models and structures from different cultures and traditions that can help us to bring order and self-understanding between the inside and outside universes we inhabit (i.e. the flow of chi and meridians in the body from Eastern medicine, the energetic centers or wheels in Indian and Andean traditions, the sephirot of the kabbalistic tree of life in Jewish mysticism, the medicine wheel in Native North American practice, etc.). They share in common the power to help us create a path, to orient ourselves in time and space, above and below, forward and backward, left and right. They are not absolute truths but tools of understanding for bringing order and balance within & outside.
The real medicine is YOU, in the essence of your sovereignty, creativity, and Love. May any of these tools and structures serve to bring you closer to your own source of inspiration and authentic relationship to Life.
With Love, Ness