The Cauldron of Poetry

“Unlike most other mystical works, the Three Cauldrons text teaches the practitioner to embrace emotion and use it to activate spiritual power rather than denying or dissociating from it.”

Attribution: Knud Winckelmann and Nationalmuseet- Wiki Commons.

Reconnecting To Your Emotions

In my book A God Who Makes Fire, I discussed a complex spiritual system used by the fili or Irish poets, based on the idea that poetic inspiration and prophetic knowledge come from three mystical cauldrons located in the human body.

I have written extensively about this system in my book A God Who Makes Fire, but the basic idea is summarized in this paraphrase from the original “Three Cauldrons” text:

The Cauldron of Incubation is upright from the moment it is generated. It dispenses wisdom to people as they study in youth.

The Cauldron of Motion, however, magnifies a person after it is turned upright. It is on its side when first generated.

The Cauldron of Wisdom is upside-down when generated. If this cauldron can be turned, it distributes the wisdom of every art there is. 

The Cauldron of Motion, then, is upside-down in ignorant people. It is on its side in mere practitioners of poetry, but it is upright in the master poets who are like great streams of wisdom. So it is that not everyone has the cauldron upright during the early years of practicing his art, for it must be turned upright by sorrow or joy.

This is a system based on processing emotion to create poetry or art. The text mentions nine types of emotion: the sorrows of longing, grief, heartbreak, and ascetic spiritual practice as well as the joys of sexuality, wellbeing, artistic accomplishment, poetic ecstasy, and divine joy. Any of these emotions can “turn” or activate the Cauldrons, resulting in inspiration.

The poetic ecstasy mentioned in the text is Imbas, the mystical power of inspiration in Irish lore:

(J)oy at the coming of poetic ecstasy from the nine hazels of the Well of Wisdom in the otherworld, landing on the Boyne river as thick as a ram's fleece and flowing against the current faster than a racing horse at the midsummer fair once every seven years. When the beams of the sun strike the plants along the Boyne, it is then that the Imbas bubbles up on them. Whoever eats them then will acquire an art.

In the Cauldrons text, divine joy is even more potent than Imbas, “granting wisdom in both secular and sacred matters, the power of prophesy, and the ability to work wonders and give wise judgments.”

Unlike most other mystical works, the “Three Cauldrons” text teaches the practitioner to embrace emotion and use it to activate spiritual power rather than denying or dissociating from it.

The Dark Cell

According to Martin Martin’s 1703 description of Highland bards:

I must not omit to relate their way of Study, which is very singular. They shut their Doors and Windows for a day's time, and lie on their Backs, with a Stone upon their Belly, and Plaids about their heads, and their eyes being covered, they pump their Brains [for] Rhetorical Encomium or Pane-gerick ; and indeed they furnish such a Stile from this dark Cell, as is understood by very few…

To practice this method in its most basic form, lie down in a dark place and cover your eyes somehow. Place a weight on your belly such as a small stone and breathe slowly and deeply while observing and contemplating your own emotions. The goal of the exercise is to remain in meditation until inspiration arises - the first line of a poem or song, an idea for a painting or sculpture, or any other form of inspiration. The use of the stone or weight is optional.

The Song of Amergin

You can use the Dark Cell format to practice other types of meditation and magic. For instance, the Song of Amergin from the Book of Invasions can be used to invoke the Buada or excellences mentioned in the song:

Am gaeth i m-muir

Am tond trethan

Am fuaim mara

Am dam secht ndirend

Am séig i n-aill

Am dér gréne

Am cain lubai

Am torc ar gail

Am he i l-lind

Am loch i mmaig

Am brí danae

Am gai i fodb feras feochtu

Am dé delbas do chind codnu

I am the wind on the sea (for depth);

I am a wave of the deep (for weight);

I am the sound of the sea (for horror);

I am a stag of seven points (for strength);

I am a hawk on a cliff (for deftness);

I am a tear of the sun (for clearness);

I am the fairest of herbs;

Í am a boar for valour;

I am a salmon in a pool (i.e. the pools of knowledge);

I am a lake on a plain (for extent);

I am a hill of Poetry (and knowledge);

I am a battle-waging spear with trophies (for spoiling or hewing);

I am a god, who fashions smoke from magic fire for a head (to slay therewith)

-       From Eleanor Hull’s translation in The Poem-Book of the Gael, 1912

To perform the Song of Amergin exercise, lie down in a dark place and cover your eyes. Repeat one line from the Song of Amergin over and over, either in your own language or (ideally) in the original Old Irish. The goal in this ritual is to repeat the line hundreds or even thousands of times. The choice of line depends on the Búaid or excellence you are trying to invoke:

I am the wind on the sea – for introspection

I am a wave of the deep – for a feeling of heaviness or trance

I am the sound of the sea – for numinous awe, or to make yourself fearsome

I am a stag of seven points – to become stronger

I am a hawk on a cliff – to become more agile or adaptive

I am a tear of the sun – for clarity

I am the fairest of herbs – for health

Í am a boar for valor – for courage

I am a salmon in a pool – for wisdom or knowledge

I am a lake on a plain – to increase your reach or influence

I am a hill of poetry and knowledge – for inspiration

I am a battle-waging spear with trophies – before battle or direct action

I am a god, who fashions smoke from magic fire for a head – for baneful workings against oppressors.

The Cauldron

The Imbas Forosnai is a dream incubation rite described in Cormac’s Glossary (Kuno Meyer translation):

The Imbas Forosnai sets forth whatever seems good to the seer (file) and what he desires to make known. It is done thus. The seer chews a piece of the red flesh of a pig, or a dog, or a cat, and then places it on a flagstone behind the door. He sings an incantation over it, offers it to the false gods, and then calls them to him. And he leaves them not on the next day, and chants then on his two hands, and again calls his false gods to him, lest they should disturb his sleep. And he puts his two hands over his two cheeks till he falls asleep. And they watch by him lest no one overturn him and disturb him till everything he wants to know is revealed to him…

The Cauldron ritual is inspired by Imbas Forosnai, but substitutes blackberries for the raw flesh mentioned in the original text. Another option is to simply make the chewing of raw flesh part of the visualization rather than performing it in reality. Either way, I call this working “the Cauldron Ritual” because it is meant to activate the Cauldrons of Poetry to produce Imbas.

Make an offering of blackberries or by visualizing the eating of raw flesh. Spend some time in prayer, ideally a song or chant to your gods. Stare into your open palms while repeating “I am a wind on the sea, I am a wave of the deep, I am the sound of the sea” till you enter trance, then lie down in darkness and silence till Imbas or inspiration comes. When you lie down, visualize an Immram or voyage to the Otherworld seas by boat. Let your mind wander till you hear words or drift off and dream.

This ritual can succeed in two different ways. If you stay in the Dark Cell for a long enough time, you will drift into a hypnagogic trance and hear snatches of words or see brief images. These can be then be interpreted as messages from the otherworld in answer to your question. The other possibility is that you will have a dream soon after performing the ritual, in which the answer you are looking for is revealed in symbolic form.

You can also use the Dark Cell format to build a closer relationship with the gods and receive wisdom through a deep study of the Celtic myths. To perform the Cauldron ritual for this purpose, read one of the traditional stories or a passage from one of the stories before lying down in the Dark Cell. Visualize the events of the myth as vividly as possible until your mind wanders and you hear words or drift off and dream. The goal is to receive a divine communication about the deep meaning of that story for your life.

Finally, the Dark Cell can be used for magical workings based on passages from the myths. For example, the passage about Dian Cecht healing the warriors of the Tuatha Dé could be used for healing, or the passage about Óengus advising the Dagda could be used to protect someone facing charges. The story of Mogh Ruith’s druidic fire could be used to weaken an opposing force, or a story about concealment and shapeshifting could be used to raise a “druidic mist” of confusion around someone whose identity you need to protect. One way to do this is to meditate on the passage as described above, but with a focus on asking the deity for assistance. Any message you receive should be interpreted as a response from the deity.

The Call

Several rituals known as the taghairm or “call” were practiced in the Scottish Highlands as late as the 17th century by people who wanted to receive a communication from the spirits. According to one account:

The divination by taghairm was once a noted superstition amongst the Gael and in the northern parts of the Lowlands. When any important question concerning futurity arose, and of which a solution was, by all means, desirable, some shrewder person than his neighbour was pitched upon, to play the part of prophet. This person was wrapped in the warm smoking hide of a newly slain ox or cow, commonly an ox, and laid at full length in the wildest recess of some lonely waterfall. The question was then put to him, and the oracle left in solitude to consider it. Here he lay for some hours with the cloak of knowledge around him, and over his head, no doubt to see the better into futurity; deafened by the incessant roaring of the torrent; every sense assailed; his body steaming; his fancy in a ferment; and whatever notion had found its way into his mind from so many sources of prophecy, it was firmly believed to have been communicated by invisible beings who were supposed to haunt such solitudes.

According to Thomas Pennant, writing in 1774:

A wild species of magic was practised in the district of Trotterness, that was attended with a horrible solemnity: a family who pretended to oracular knowledge practised these ceremonies. In this country is a vast cataract, who waters falling from a high rock, jet so far as to form a dry hollow beneath. Between them and the precipice. One of the impostors was sowed up in a hide of an ox, and, to add terror to the ceremony, was placed in this concavity: the trembling enquirer was brought to the place, where the shade, and the roaring of waters, encreased the dread of the occasion. The question is put, and the person in the hide delivers his answer, and so ends this species of divination styled Taghairm.

The taghairm rituals in general can be classified as goetia. The effect of participating in the ritual was said to be traumatic. According to Martin Martin of Skye, one participant “felt and heard such terrible things that he could [not] express them: the impression it made on him was such as could never go off, and he said that for a thousand worlds he would never again be concerned in the like performance.” (Wiseman)

The taghairm nan daoine was a form of necromancy, in which the practitioner would crouch in a cauldron at an ancient graveyard and invoke the spirits. According to MacKay, writing in 1893:

The last expert in this black art was Alasdair Mac lain 'Ic lain, who flourished at Ballintombuy, in that Glen, in the beginning of last century. When he wished to operate with men, he placed himself within a large boiler just outside the entrance of the ancient burying ground… and from there summoned the dead to rise and pass before him. This they did until one appeared who was able to communicate the information which he required. On one occasion. when he was in this way making an unusually bold attempt to solve the mysteries of the future, the dead arose and streamed out of the burying-ground, until three thousand of them crowded the surrounding fields; but still no glimpse of the future was given to the seer. At last the form of his own dead niece appeared, and revealed to him the evils that were to befall himself He never practised his art again- but his niece's prophecies were in due time fulfilled. (Wiseman)

This ritual resembles the method by which Murgein the poet recovered the Tain when it was lost:

They traveled to the grave of Fergus mac Roig and to his stone at Énloch in Connacht. Murgein sat alone against the stone of Fergus, and the others left.. Murgein sang a poem to the stone, as if it were to Fergus himself that he was addressing… Then a great mist rose around him, so that its people did not find him until the end of three days and three nights… Fergus told him all the Táin as it took place from the beginning to the end. But others say it was proclaimed to Senchán after he fasted against the race of Fergus… (Translation by Erik Stohellou.)

The last line of this account implies that the technique involved a ritual hunger strike against the descendants of the dead person, compelling the spirit to appear and answer the question.

For obvious reasons, taghairm rituals were never practiced except in cases of dire necessity. To practice the Call, go alone and fasting on a Friday night to an eerie and solitary place such as a waterfall, the depths of the forest, or an old graveyard far from any human habitation. Beginning at midnight (12am on Saturday), leave a chthonic offering and meditate on the question to which you need an answer. Wrap your entire body in a cloak or something else to cover your eyes and practice the Dark Cell meditation until you receive an answer.

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CHRISTOPHER SCOTT THOMPSON

Photo by Tam Hutchinson.

is an anarchist, martial arts instructor, devotee of Brighid and Macha, and a wandering exile roaming the earth.