Celtic mythology tells of Eochaid Ollathair (“Father of All”), also known as the Dagda, the “Good God”. The Dagda's cauldron, one of the four sacred objects brought to Ireland by the Tuatha De Danaan, provided unlimited food and sustenance: "No company ever went from it unthankful".
But this is not a simple corncopia. The Dagda's cauldron is a central symbol of reconciliation, at the heart of good governance. It is the Coire Aisic -- the Cauldron of Restitution -- positioned in the Great Hall in the Rites of Tara and around which everybody must gather when a divisive problem has arisen. All persons who participate in the gathering, contribute what they have to the cauldron, so that it holds every form of sustenance used by the Irish. All those present (including lords and poets -- the knowledge holders and the 'stakeholders', as it were) must speak to the cauldron, instilling it with the knowledge and the purposes that they bring. Then each in turn is brought to the cauldron, and receives a fork thrust out of it; and, in this way, through the magical power of the cauldron, the proper portion comes out to each.
The Rites of Tara engaged people to renounce their prior claims, to contribute sources of nourishment and understanding into the common pool, so as to permit -- somewhat mysteriously -- the emergence of a just and respectful solution to the conflict. In what ways can these symbols be useful for orientating current challenges of reconciliation and conflict resolution?
Dear Martin, I send you some references that you probably already know very well:
Freeman, Philip. Celtic Mythology. Tales of Gods, Goddesses, and Heroes. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017 [It was then that the Tuatha Dé Danann came at last to Ireland from the far north. Some say they were angels cast out of heaven with Lucifer, while others say they were children of men who had traveled to the northern islands of the world and learned their magical arts. But no one knew their true origins. They came wrapped in dark clouds and landed on the shore of Connacht, in the far west. They cast darkness upon the whole island for three days and three nights. With them they brought four instruments of power. The first was the great stone of knowledge, called the Lia Fáil, that still stands on the royal hill of Tara. When a true king of Ireland would step on the stone, it would shriek beneath him. The second was the spear of Lug, which made its bearer invincible. The third was the sword of their king Nuadu, from which no one could escape once it was drawn. And finally there was the cauldron of the Dagda that could satisfy the hunger of all (p. 18 and ss.)]
MATSON, Gienna [Revised by Jeremy Roberts]. Celtic Mythology A to Z. New York: Chelsea House, 2010. [Cauldron. A kettle-shaped vessel used for cooking and ritual ceremonies. Cauldrons play a role in several Celtic myths. The Cauldron of Dagda is one of the treasures of the Tuatha Dé Danann. Cúchulainn brought two magic cauldrons to Ireland from Scotland. A cauldron of rebirth appears in Welsh tales of war. It has the power to bring the dead back to life unless they have been decapitated. The kitchen servant Gwion Bach became the all-seeing poet Taliesin when he accidentally sampled the magic potion brewed in Ceridwen’s cauldron. Gundestrup Cauldron An ornate silver cauldron was found in Gundestrup, Denmark in 1880. Originally gilded, it depicts Celtic gods, goddesses, and mythological scenes. The cauldron may have been made in Gaul, but its origin and its age are not known for certain. The decorations on the Gundestrup Cauldron include warriors, deities, animals, and trees. One panel shows a horned god holding a torc and surrounded by animals. This is probably an image of Cernunnos, the Gaulish lord of the beasts. Other scenes include a procession of armed men, a warrior and two dogs attacking a bull, and a goddess on wheels, perhaps riding a chariot. There is a scene of a woman dipping warriors into a cauldron similar to Bendigeidfran’s. Cauldron of Dagda A symbol of the generosity and hospitality of Dagda, the father god. The giant cauldron was always brimming with delicious food for the gods to eat. It was one of four magical items, along with the Sword of Nuadu, the Spear of Lugh, and the Lia Fáil (a prophetic stone), that the Tuatha Dé Danann brought to Ireland (26-27; Almost the same entry in Monaghan, Patricia. The Encyclopedia of Celtic Mythology and Folklore, 2008, p. 79)
It is key to recall myths and traditional social practices in present-day peacebuilding and reconciliation systems. I have witnessed in Timor Leste (East-Timor) back in 2002-2003 the work of the justice and reconciliation commission, that used the old barlake gift-giving gift-receiving system to accommodate the locals accused of collaborationism with Indonesian occupation, which included women married with Indonesians and women raped by Indonesian soldiers carrying their children. Without traditional myths and practices, it would be very difficult to build up repentance and reintegration patterns.
Ivo Carneiro de Sousa : Thank you. Yes I have various elements on the Cauldron itself; I think that what I am needing is sources on the Rites of Tara; I will have to find some scholars in Ireland, they will know. Your experience in east Timor is very much in line with my preoccupations, which include at the moment the challenge of building ways to engage with loss, violence, pain & grief with COVID-17 vulnerability, notably in our "Western" societies that have rather schizophrenically turned their backs of death as a social process...
Your research perspective is very important and makes a lot of sense nowadays. The concrete references that I have in my library are the following:
- DOWLIN, Gerard. "The Liminal Boundary: An Analysis of the Sacral Potency of the Ditch at Ráith na Ríg, Tara. Co. Meath", in: The Journal of Irish Archaeology, Vol. 15 (2006), pp. 15-37.
- MACALISTER, R.A.S. "Temair Breg: A Study of the Remains and Traditions of Tara", in: Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Section C: Archaeology, Celtic Studies, History, Linguistics, Literature, Vol. 34 (1917 - 1919), pp. 231-399.
- MACALISTER, R.A.S. Tara: A Pagan Sanctuary of Ancient Ireland. London: Scribners, 1931.
- MICHAEL J. ENRIGHT, Michael J. "lona, Tara and Soissons: The Origin of the Royal Anointing Ritual. (Arbeiten zur Fruhmittelalterforschung, 17.) Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1985.
- PETRIE, Georges. "On the History and Antiquities of Tara Hill", in: The Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. 18 (1839).
I also remember that in the movie Gone With the Wind the name of the plantation was Tara, and the family probably was from Irish origins. I am not sure, but probably can be an interesting clue for contemporary representations of rituals of repentance and reconciliation.
See this link to know whether it helps: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/agora/2016/09/cauldron-sword-spear-stone-the-all-father-of-irish-myth-21st-century-lessons-from-the-dagda/
I have found one part of a response, which links the 'Cauldron' process to experiences of (self-)transformation in the esoteric literature. In Goethe's "Das Märchen", which I was reading in French (Le Serpent Vert, translation by Oswald Wirth, Editions Dervy, Paris, 2014), but which I can find on the Internet in English translations (as, for example, "The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily" at: https://wn.rsarchive.org/RelAuthors/GoetheJW/GreenSnake.html), the scene is set for the reconciliation/transformation process by the Old Man with the Lamp, who declares:
"We are assembled at the propitious hour; let each perform his task, let each do his duty; and a universal happiness will swallow-up our individual sorrows, as a universal grief consumes individual joys."
This duty of each involves, for most of the key protagonists, abandonment of prior attachements if not outright death/rebirth, in order to contribute to the emergence of a new capacity. In the case of the Green Snake, the formula is explicit. When asked by the Old Man what is her resolve, she replies:
"To sacrifice myself rather than be sacrificed".
(The French from Wirth reads: "De me sacrifier avant qu'on me sacrifie", which could be rendered as: "Sacrifice myself before I'm sacrificed...".
Or, as Wirth puts it in his commentary around the figure of the Prince, "Savoir Mourir, tel est, en effet, le suprême secret de toutes les initiations... Renonçant à lui-même, à son moi et à tout ce qui s'y rattache, l'individu doit s'évanouir en se fondant dans l'universalité qui, s'il revient à la vie, se réfractera désormais en lui" (p.152). In rough translation: Knowing how to die, this is at the heart of all rites of initiation. ... Renouncing oneself, of one's ego and all that is attached, the individual must be melted into the universality which, if s/he returns to life, will thereafter be refracted through her/him.
Goethe's "Fairy Tale" is complex and lends itself to numerous layers and interpretations. The points noted above are, perhaps, worth meditating in our present circumstances of (relative and absolute) adversity in which we know already that (re)building decent futures will require passing through grief of what is been lost or must be let go.
Pictish beasts and items include Cauldron. I have identified the probable allocation of these beasts, and these items, as types within two sets or cycles of archetype, using the mindprint model of subconscious re-expression of archetypal structure. Cauldron seems to express features of type 13 Heart, or 13c Basket Head /Oracle. Here is a link to an extract from one of my structuralist anthropology magazines that incidentally demonstrates that culture does not 'derive' from astrology, and that the opposite applies:
https://stoneprintjournal.wordpress.com/2017/06/30/pictish-beasts-zodiac/
And here is a link to my paper that lists the known recurrent features, and their average frequences, in three media in the cultural record:
https://edmondfurter.wordpress.com/2020/04/01/blueprint-the-subconscious-structure-in-cultural-media/
I invite your comments on whether or not the predicted features are present in the Irish and other re-expressions of Cauldron icon or motif or image. Note that type 13c is one of the four transition types, which express a mixture of the two adjacent types, thus involving types 13 heart, and 14 Mixer. These labels are just for convenience. The paper demonstrates the difference between scientific anthropology and its subject, cultural crafts. And incidentally demonstrates that diffusion is over-rated.
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