Welcome to the "portal page" of The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum's message board. The Cauldron has been fostering discussion and debate between Pagans (of all the many different Pagan religions) and their friends since December of 1997 (on several earlier message board incarnations: here, here, and here). As of October 9, 2008, The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum has a new server for its message board.

The current incarnation of our message board uses the popular SMF message board software, somewhat modified for the way we do things. We'd love to have you register and join us, but please read the messages in the Rules and Regulations board before you post, particularly these posts:

• Cauldron Community Rules and Policies -- Our basic rules.
• Quoting Guidelines -- Our quoting requirements are much different from most other boards so be sure to read these.
• Standard Membersgroups and their Privileges -- Different member groups have different posting privileges, if you can't post on a board this message will explain why and this message, How To Become a Full Member, will explain how to get full posting privileges.

About Our Members

Our members come from a wide variety of backgrounds, religions, and experience levels. You will find many different religions and magical traditions: Traditional Wiccans, Eclectic Wiccans, Ceremonial Mages, Reconstructionists from different cultures, Christians, and many more can be found on our message board. You will find some members have been on their path for 20 or 30 years and others who are just starting down the road. You will find teens, college students, young adults, older adults, and retired people from many different countries on our board.

About Our Discussions

Our message board is oriented toward more serious (and often somewhat scholarly) discussion and debate than many Pagan discussion areas. Members need not agree with you or with the staff, or otherwise automatically be "politically correct" here -- just be polite and follow our message board rules. Disagreements and actual discussion of beliefs and ideas presented is the norm here, unlike some Pagan message boards where everyone is require to pretend to always agree to "make nice." (As one of our members said, "I much prefer discussions with real people with whom I don't always agree, rather than to pretend to be something I'm not in order to 'make nice'. The former is fellowship, the latter is just social lying.") You will find that each and every member of The Cauldron has personal opinions and biases on religion and other issues -- and you will probably not like all of them. Please be adult enough to cope with the fact that some members will have opinions that upset or annoy you.

Due to the wide variety of our members backgrounds and religions, you will often find views and opinions you normally do not come in contact with on other Pagan discussion areas on our message board. Those who dislike seeing any disagreement in discussions, having members of non-Pagan religions involved in discussions, or being asked to support odd-sounding things they claim to be fact may not be as comfortable on our message board as they might be on others. Because of the nature of the discussions on our message board, we often make clear distinctions between supportable fact and personal beliefs. In addition, posters are often asked to provided sources or a factual basis for claims being made. Being asked for sources does not necessarily mean that you are not believed, many members ask for sources simply because they are interested in finding out more details "direct from the horse's mouth."

This forum welcomes friendly non-Pagan members and has a Christian theologian on staff. If you think non-Pagan religions are evil, do not wish to see Christian and other non-Pagan views, or simply object to not being able to say nasty things about Christians and other non-Pagans, you probably need to find another forum as such behavior is not tolerated here.

As our board has many experienced Pagan members and can seem somewhat intimidating for a some members who are new to Pagan religions, we have a special board (Pagan Religions 101) where people new to Paganism can post their questions and concerns and another special board (Magic and the Occult 101) for people new to Magic If you choose to post on these boards, our more experienced members will realize you are new and try to provide help accordingly.

Other Features

The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum has other features our members and readers may find interesting:

• A large monthly email newsletter: Cauldron and Candle.
  
• Flashchat - Flash-based chat integrated with our message board and available to all message board members via the "Chat" button in the top menu line.
  
• CauldronMUX - a social MUX (a text-based programmable chat environment). Anyone can join in as a guest. Full members can obtain a character with the ability to create locations and items in CauldronMUX.
• Member Blogs - Full members can create their own blog associated with their profile. Others members can leave comments in reply to your blog posts.
  

Randall and Lyric
Co-Hosts, The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum

[PurpleCrow]

Hello!
I want to do a home protection spell but all the ones I have come across have involved going either around the house or burying/planting something outside. I live in a 2nd floor flat so both of those are not very sensible idea's. The nearest place I could bury something is in a churchyard as well which I dont think would be a very good idea! Is there some sort of spell that I can do within my flat? I have tried to do something myself (create my own) however I never seem to get anywhere with it.
Any idea's would be greatly appreciated
PurpleCrow x

21 Views | 2 Replies

[NTL, 32]

I have heard that there are three big names in modern day Wicca: Gardner, Sanders, and Buckland.  What are the similiarities in beliefs between these individuals in terms of:
1. Different Deities that each recognize as important to the practice of their craft.
2. Influences from different philosophies, religions, or other occult ideologies (if any).
3. Is one individual more respected than another on a large basis among a large majority of followers?
4. Does anyone of them have a large impact on any type of modern pagan belief system: Helenistic, Celtic, Egyptian,...

133 Views | 4 Replies

[DrZoidberg]

I'm an author and I've chosen to set my new novel in ancient Greece. And I've run into a snag.

I've got no problems finding information about Greek philosophy, altars, temples, descriptions of ritual dress, religious motivations, religious plays, and ancient Greek myths. What I don't seem to be able to find is detailed descriptions of ancient Greek religious rituals. All I've got is vague references to certain facets of religious rituals, like the importance of an unmarried women to have "played the bear" at a religious festival for example....

229 Views | 10 Replies

[pheonixofthefire1]

Lately I have been researching different types of psychic or telepathic children when I bumped in to The Indigo Children.  Currently I am facinated by them.   what do you think about them? And are there any Indigo Adults here?  Do you have any information on them or links?

720 Views | 44 Replies

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