The original purpose of The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum was to foster an interfaith community of Pagans and their friends where all members could learn and grow spiritually and intellectually through discussion and debate -- and have a good time doing so. While we have expanded a great deal (for example, this large web site) since we opened our doors in late 1997, this is still our main focus today. We hope you will join us.
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| Do thoughts have power? Posted by Randall [permanent link] |
I'm sure this has been discussed before, but my search didn't turn anything up... someone here mentioned that beliefs/ideas only have power if they lead to action. I wanted to discuss that thought a little more because there are so many different ways to look at that.
For instance, some here believe that words have power - not just the power to influence others, but the power to cause effects in their own right. Do thoughts/ideas/beliefs have power in their own right, or only in the actions they inspire?
Is speaking words aloud "doing something" more than thinking those words in your head is? What about casting spells?
I personally do think that thoughts themselves are energetically charged, and therefore do have an effect, even without physical action -- and also that thoughts inspire outward, mundane actions toward outcomes.
I'm interested to hear others thoughts about this topic.
| Atheism and Witchcraft Posted 2010-09-09 by Randall [permanent link] |
If you consider yourself an atheist - or nontheist - and practice or believe in witchcraft, can I pick your brain a bit? Or if you have some other reason to have thoughts to offer, please share!
Is your atheism simply a nonbelief in the literal existence of deity/ies, but you believe in spirits or Spirit? Do you believe in the supernatural? What is your understanding of how magic works?
I'm really interested in hearing perspectives on this... I think my personal idea of witchcraft would fit pretty well in an atheist framework, but I've never had reason to explore it.
| Prayer Beads for a Specific Deity Posted 2010-09-08 by Randall [permanent link] |
We've had several threads on prayer beads -- how people use them, ideas for creating them, etc.
My question at the moment is: Has anyone made prayer beads that they have associated with a specific god/dess? If so, how did you approach the beads?
I've been thinking about doing a set of prayer beads for several years. But my path is specifically focused on Brighid.
I can think of a couple of ways to design prayer beads for a broader Celtic Recon-type practice. That would incorporate beads to associate with the realms of Land, Sea, and Sky, for example, or beads to represent various Celtic values.
But I'm drawing a blank on how to use beads as a way to tap into Brighid's energy specifically. I'm toying with the idea of somehow representing healing, smithcraft, and poetry/learning. But that doesn't really get me very far. I'd really like to hear how others have designed similar bead sets.
Do you use prayer beads to keep track of the number of repetitions of a prayer, like people use rosary beads? Do you use prayer beads with different kinds of beads to represent different "topics" of meditations -- that would be something like associating a blue bead with healing and a different color bead for healing, etc.? Do you use beads as a simple tool for keeping your hands busy with something tactile, which you focus your brain on something else? Or what?
I'm open to any ideas you'd like to share.
| Singing Charms Posted 2010-09-08 by Randall [permanent link] |
So normally I'm not a big fan of taking inspiration for my practices from fiction, but I was listening to the Redwall series the other day and there was a part where a character covers up talking to a couple of prisoners by saying he was singing charms.
While the character wasn't serious about it, the idea has kind of stuck in my head and I wondered if anyone here used songs in their magic, specifically in their low magic like home wards and protection and good fortune type spells. The idea really intrigues me. Does anyone know if singing charms were used historically and where?
Even though I'm not much of a song writer, I really want to try this. I've been very interested in Hedge and Kitchen Witchery lately and I feel like this would be a sort of magic that would fall somewhere in that category of magic.
If you have any and wouldn't mind sharing I would really appreciate it.
| Modesty, Headcovering, and Paganism Posted 2010-09-07 by Randall [permanent link] |
I recently ran across a couple mentions of modesty and head covering as pagan practices (for instance: http://hubpages.com/hub/Veiled-Pagans). I'm kind of intrigued by this.
Coming from a rather conservative Christian family, modesty in dress was ingrained in me from early on, so much so that even though I've shed almost all other religiously rooted values, I still feel the need to dress modestly. I've also been very drawn to head covering for a while even though I've yet to actually incorporate it into my practice/daily life.
So what are your thoughts on the subject?
| Finding a Religion Posted 2010-08-26 by Randall [permanent link] |
I know a lot of people consider deities and religion at least somewhat seperate and I'm becoming more and more of that opinion myself. Also, I've seen a lot of posts asking about how to find patron gods but not nearly as many asking about finding a religion.
So my questions are these:
How did you find your religion?
Did you adapt to your religion or did you find a religion that already had similar ideology that you already held?
Just like there are very important things to look for when searching for a deity to interact with, what are the most important things to you when you were searching for your religion?
| Paths with Historical Connection to Human Sacrifice? Posted 2010-08-25 by Randall [permanent link] |
If you are following a path that has a historical connection to ritual human sacrifice (whether proven or simply probable) - how do you see that in the modern world? Do you enact some sort of symbolic sacrifices (like burning a poppet) to serve a similar purpose in your worship? Or do you feel that it was something entirely for another culture in another time, and not something that is significant to your path?
| Your thoughts on death? Posted 2010-08-21 by Randall [permanent link] |
I have always been very familiar with death, so familiar that I do not differentiate so much between the dead and the living worlds. I think it is all very connected. I have had a lot of death experience sort of. I have been speaking with the dead for as long as I can remember, and I have guided people over a few times before. I have also lost people I love very much and that always feels so different from the other experiences. I have a hard time seeing through the grief. I just sort of felt that I had conceptually come to understand death.
Now however things have changed. One of my best friends will be beyond the breath in 6 months time. I just found out today although I sensed it last night sort of. Now everything I thought I new is in tatters. I know I should not simply abandon all I have learned due to grief but as I said I have a very hard time seeing anything past my sorrow.
What I could use is some different perspectives on death and what comes after. I have always had my own sort of beliefs, perhaps assumptions, on the topic, but now I need more. What do you see death as? How does one deal with death? I mean I guess how do I balance my belief in the everlasting with the incredible sadness I feel? It seems the two should be incompatible. I know that our time apart will be very brief on a cosmic timeline, but if I know that then why am I so upset? How have different pagan cultures dealt with death through time? Are there rituals that help? I know that is a lot of questions.
| Living Mythologies: New Myths for Old Pantheons? Posted 2010-08-19 by Randall [permanent link] |
Something I've sort of thought about here and there is the outgrowth of "new mythologies" about various pantheons. I'm not necessarily talking about stuff like Disney's "Hercules" (although I am a little, I guess), but about new stories where the authors/filmmakers/etc. obviously did a lot of research and tried to keep the Gods' personalities intact and create stories similar to the myths that inspired them.
For example, the Percy Jackson books. While there are some problematic elements (I've seen a few people unhappy with the portrayal of Kronos and some of the Titans, and I can understand that), it seems like Rick Riordan did a lot of research into mythology and even added in some elements of Hellenism into the books (the kids all burn parts of their meals to the Gods, the Underworld is the one from Greek mythology, not the Christianish one that's in a lot of these things, Athena's demi-god children all sprang from the minds of their human parents when they were inspired by Athena, etc.).
Or some of Neil Gaiman's writing, especially "American Gods" and "Anansi Boys." Or Diana Wynne Jones' "Eight Days of Luke."
I recently read ... somewhere nonfiction (I unfortunately didn't write it down, and it might have even been a documentary and not a book I'm thinking of) that the reason that there are so many different versions of some of the more well-documented myths is that the stories were not meant as dogma, but just to portray the Gods and teach some morals or even just be entertaining. So they kept being added to, even after people became more skeptical. (I think this was specifically about Greek myth.) And I got from that a sense that the myths are in a weird state of true and not true at the same time ? they're not factual, but there's truth in them, even when they contradict each other, if that makes sense.
Do you think that stories that are rooted in mythology and history but that portray the Gods and create new stories can "merge" with the traditional mythology as part of a religious tradition? In a few hundred years, will "Eight Days of Luke" join the Eddas and "Percy Jackson" join the Iliad?
Will some of the events in new stories about the Gods become "canon" like Dante's circles of Hell sort of did for Christianity (i.e., it's not given as canonical in the Catholic version, at least, but pretty much everyone knows about the circles of Hell and it's accepted on at least a cultural level)?
Do you think ancient mythologies can continue to expand and grow as ancient religions are reconstructed, or should mythology stay in the past?
(My own opinion on the matter is that the answer to the last question is "yes," but I'm undecided on the first two.)
| Mabon is almost upon us! Posted 2010-08-18 by Randall [permanent link] |
I was wondering what some of you do for Mabon? It can be as simplistic or as complex as you want! This thread is just to help give some of us ideas on what to do for the Sabbat that is upcoming in less then a month! Enjoy and let your creativity flow!
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