While the other tools in this lesson series all had instructions on how to make your own, the cauldron is a little different. Unless anyone has their own forge, or knows how to shape iron, I think that the best way to find a cauldron is to search for one that calls to you.

 

I personally have 4 cauldrons that I use. I have a blue and white glass footed bowl, consecrated as a cauldron, that I store candle wax and used candles in. I then empty the cauldron, usually on the waning moon, burying the wax, or tossing it into a running stream, depending on what the candles were used for originally. I purchased the bowl for about $.75 at a garage sale.

 

The second, and probably at this time the most used cauldron I have, is also a glass bowl. It is a really pretty purple color, also a footed bowl, with a crack within the glass from using it to burn incense in over black hawaiian beach gravel. The gravel was supposed to insulate from the heat, but it didn't completely protect my bowl. It still holds water without leaking, and so I feel the crack gives it much character. I use that bowl for mixing herbs for spellwork, mixing ingredients & charging them before making incense, and for lots of other work with herbs. It is probably the most loved tool that I have. I got it for $2 at a flea market.

 

The third cauldron I have is actually a cast iron cooking bowl, like the ones from colonial times that would hang over the fire. It has a hooked handle, and it really fantastic. I use it for burning things ritually inside, and it is the cauldron we use to burn a large candle to jump over when ritual calls for it. It is small enough that I don't have to worry about anyone setting fire to themselves mid-jump! It cost me about $22, and I found it at a local flea market, hiding back behind some things on the floor, as if it were waiting for me.

 

My favorite, and by far most expensive tool I have ever owned, is a large 2 foot wide cauldron in my backyard. It cost nearly $200. A local man forges these large "burning patio pits" out of iron and sells them at an orchard about 45 minutes from my home. This cauldron is beautiful, and currently holds all the branches from my Yule tree that I had to cut off for the tree to fit the stand. It weighs easily over 75 pounds.
 

I wanted to describe all my cauldrons, so that you can see that tools are what you make of them. If you have learned anything from the tool crafting portions of these lessons, I hope that it is this. You do not need to have the most expensive, fanciest, exact replicas of tools used by witches hundreds of years ago. You need to let your tools find you, either in a shop or in your dreams, and make them a reality for yourself. You might be surprised where your instincts take you!