The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum

Now I know that you don't have to go and buy purpose-made pagan supplies, but I feel awkward that I don't have anything yet. Coming from a catholic background I'm not keen on the prescriptive side of some wiccan paths anyway (it just feels like what I'm trying to get away from) but most books seem to be telling me to go out and spend £££s on equipment, this in itself is leading me more towards hedgewitchery and folk magic. Candles in every colour? Cauldron? Athame? Ahhhh!

Anyone else know how I'm feeling?

I've been making do so far, I haven't performed many spells. Haven't cast a circle or anything before, yet have been reading suggestions for spells, altering them to what I have in stock so to speak, or just looking up uses of herbs and scattering dried herbs from my kitchen cupboard in my garden while praying to deities what it is I am asking for. I am lucky enough to have a tree in my garden which is where I tend to focus my outdoor prayers. Anyone else do something similar? Am I being too frugal?

Now I know that you don't have to go and buy purpose-made pagan supplies, but I feel awkward that I don't have anything yet. Coming from a catholic background I'm not keen on the prescriptive side of some wiccan paths anyway (it just feels like what I'm trying to get away from) but most books seem to be telling me to go out and spend £££s on equipment, this in itself is leading me more towards hedgewitchery and folk magic. Candles in every colour? Cauldron? Athame? Ahhhh!

First, this is a good place to point out that part of Wiccan practice does come from structured magical practices, both things that have roots in the historical magical grimoires, and in the more recent strands of ritual magic. Initiatory Wicca, in particular, tends toward using tools because tools - well, tools allow us to do things more easily than not using tools, when we're using the right tool for the right reason.

(Think of it like trying to hang a picture: it's a lot easier if you have a hammer and a nail. Or that cooking a fancy meal works better if you have a suitable kitchen knife, and a decent pan, and so on.)

Those tools don't need to be expensive, necessarily - but if we're using them for something we care about, and we're going to keep using them over and over (as we hope we will for religious purposes) then it's probably worth investing some time, effort, and some amount of money in getting the right thing, rather than just making do.

At the same time, that doesn't mean we have to invest *tons* of money in them - or that we have to do it all at once. My altar, for about the first two years of practice, didn't have any item on it that cost more than $20 (about the price of a hardcover book) except for some purely decorative and not-at-all-required items.

You might find the article on my website over here on tools to be useful, and there's a link at the bottom to another page on that site that's about inexpensive tool options.

Basically: the sword, staff, cauldron, and besom are really group tools: if you're working with a group they probably have one (and you don't need one for at least a while.) If you're not working with a group, the personal tools (athame, wand, chalice, and pentacle) will do fine.

So, what about those four? It's possible to make a nice and quite functional wand or pentacle with supplies you can get at any craft store (a bit of sandpaper and a suitable branch, a thin block of wood and some paint or wood stain, something like that, plus whatever other decorations you might like). Some people make a pentacle out of building up drips of wax, or out of clay.

As for a chalice, there are often a range of nicely designed glass ones, or inexpensive metal ones (as long as they're designed for drinking). Pottery ones are getting a lot easier to find. A number of people find them at thrift stores.

The athame, admittedly, is a bit trickier, but that's mostly about quality of work. It's relatively easy in many places to find an inexpensive dagger designed for historical recreation or reenactment - in the US, you can get them for $5-10. However, they're mass-produced, often not good quality metal, and they're fairly limited in size and shape options.

What I did was use a physical alternative - the first two fingers on my dominant hand together (the first two because you want a trigger to yourself that you're using your hand  that way: if you just use one, you might find yourself running energy when you didn't really mean to, and that's not very polite to do to other people.) And then I got one that was sort of midrange - not quite what I wanted, but enough to work with.

And then I saved up money to get the quality of athame that I wanted: if it is a representation of my will and intellect, I wanted the tool to be something I liked. I also looked at it as a long-term purchase: at the time I got it, I'd already been an initiate in my tradition for several years at that point, and it's handmade from high quality materials and on a historical model.

(I would sort of like to get one custom made at some point, but every time I've gone hunting for something that would work to my exact specifications, some part of the process has gotten tangled up.)

In terms of spell components - I design the spells I can afford, at the time I want to do a spell. If I do not have magic for dozens of candles, or a safe way to use them (the latter's more likely an issue: I have a cat and not a lot of safe places to stick a candle) then I do not do magic involving a lot of candles. Instead, I tend to do cord magic (where even high quality fiber is not very expensive, in the quantity I need it for magical work) or making a simple talisman out of items from a craft store, or using music or drawing work to focus my intention, or something else that just doesn't cost a lot of money.

I do tend to buy beeswax candles, but I might go through $30 worth in the course of a year, between my basic ritual votives and a few special ones. If I want to do candle magic, I take a beeswax taper, use appropriate oils and carvings, and if necessary, wind a bit of appropriately colored embroidery floss around the base, or use an appropriate colored candle holder. (Candleholders = reusuable colour magic, and they're also good for some other ritual uses.)

I do invest money over time in some things that cost more - ritual oils, for example, from reliable makers who can add ingredients that are expensive and that I'd never use in the quantity I'd have to buy them. But I'm also scarcely buying those every month, or even every six: instead I might buy a bottle here, a bottle there, for a particular use, and then use it again later if a related kind of need comes up.

Finally, a bunch of my altar supplies were just plain gifts. Sometimes from trad mates or friends, but sometimes just from people who gave me things at other points - one of my salt containers was a gift from my first boss, for example. A lot of times, if you look around your house and are open a bit as to shape and detail, you can find some awesome things you already own. They may not be the item you want forever, but they can do while you figure out what that is.

The ones you really want to pay attention to are the ones where there's a safety concern (incense holders and cauldrons are made a certain way because they're safer that way, some materials do not make a safe drinking chalice, etc.)

Fundamentally, I think my religion deserves good quality, thoughtfully chosen items, picked with intention, and made ethically and by people in good working conditions. But I don't think it requires having them all at once to start, when someone's still trying to decide if this is what works for them.

Now I know that you don't have to go and buy purpose-made pagan supplies, but I feel awkward that I don't have anything yet. Coming from a catholic background I'm not keen on the prescriptive side of some wiccan paths anyway (it just feels like what I'm trying to get away from) but most books seem to be telling me to go out and spend £££s on equipment, this in itself is leading me more towards hedgewitchery and folk magic. Candles in every colour? Cauldron? Athame? Ahhhh!

Anyone else know how I'm feeling?

I've been making do so far, I haven't performed many spells. Haven't cast a circle or anything before, yet have been reading suggestions for spells, altering them to what I have in stock so to speak, or just looking up uses of herbs and scattering dried herbs from my kitchen cupboard in my garden while praying to deities what it is I am asking for. I am lucky enough to have a tree in my garden which is where I tend to focus my outdoor prayers. Anyone else do something similar? Am I being too frugal?

 
I definitely know what you are talking about.  When I first started, I wanted to have all the tools, but was in high school, so had pretty much no money.  I found ways to work around some of the suggestions, and I think that there are lots of ways to practice on a budget.  

What I did personally was find things that I could work with until I was able to find something better.  Sometimes I ended up using things that didn't quite fit the book descriptions.  My athame hasn't always been two edged or black handled.  But I do like having something I can hold in my hand that helps me focus.  I have had several different blades over the years, before I found the one I am using now (and have had for over a decade).  Some of them definitely felt like they were just a stand-in.  

I think that consumables are definitely sometimes a bit overboard in books.  I was thumbing through one in a book store that was supposed to be a suggested course of practice for your first year of practice, and read some reviews on it.  It had supplies listed for each month, all the herbs, candles, tools, incense etc you would need for the rituals/spells it was suggesting.  And many people said that if you bought everything the book wanted you to buy it would be several hundred dollars.

Personally I don't have that kind of money to spend (even though some of the things would have lasted beyond the year).  I look at it as a balance between what you can afford right now, and what you feel you need for your practice.  I am always on the look out for things that I can get my hands on today, incense or candles on clearance (especially around the holidays I find a lot) or supplies from the dollar store.  But I also have things that I save up for, things that aren't in my regular budget but that I feel particularly drawn to.

I rarely put off doing something because I don't have the tools or supplies.  Rather, I try to look at what the spell or ritual is aimed at, what the suggested supplies are doing within that particular working, and what I have in my house (or can get) that would serve a similar purpose.  I substitute herbs and incense all the time.  Also, when it comes to candles, you can definitely use a white candle and incorporate the color in other ways (place the candle on a piece of colored paper or wrap it with a ribbon)

Anyone else do something similar? Am I being too frugal?

 
No, darling! I am the same way! This is just the way I do things and the things that I have available... not necessary the "right way" but it works for me.

My athame came from a pawn shop for little of nothing.
My besom is actually one I just purchased (they are kinda everywhere right now because of Halloween)
My candles are the ones I have on hand (using found on clearance) or If I don't have the color I need I'll use white and either wrap some embrodery thread around it --> it's what I have at home.
I have a spiral goddess plaque i found from Romancing the Stone for under $10 because it was clearanced out!
I will admit I have had to use shot glasses as offering bowls- once again that was all I had.. now I actually use the "salsa" bowls you can get from Wal-Mart for super cheap!
I don't have a lot of the stuff but it works for me.

It's always been my opinion that the Gods just want you to try your best and are happy as long as you are trying your best! Like my grandma (who btw was a devout Christian) used to say "If all you have for Sunday church is a pair of shoes with the toe sticking out, and jeans with stains... if they are as clean as you can get them and that's your absolute best- God will be just as happy as those in suits because you are trying."

Just my advice

Now I know that you don't have to go and buy purpose-made pagan supplies, but I feel awkward that I don't have anything yet. Coming from a catholic background I'm not keen on the prescriptive side of some wiccan paths anyway (it just feels like what I'm trying to get away from) but most books seem to be telling me to go out and spend £££s on equipment, this in itself is leading me more towards hedgewitchery and folk magic. Candles in every colour? Cauldron? Athame? Ahhhh!

Anyone else know how I'm feeling?

It'd be extremely easy to spend a lot of money and not get much back for it. Try to find or make as much as you can, its cheaper and we have a natural connection to things we've found or created.
Consider that the bronze age only started 5000 years ago, so humanity and its gods had to be making do without metal knives and cauldrons. So you'd probably be OK with a flint knife as an athame and an animal skin to heat water in as your cauldron.

I'm not wiccan myself so don't take anything I say too seriously. I do have my own tools that may or may not be similar and had to be acquired somehow.

I don't have an athame but i have a railroad spike i collected when i was hiking through the mountains. Its heavy thick iron painted black with a couple small bits of rust, its weight feels substantial in my hand and pleasantly cold.

I don't have a wand but i work with a lot of driftwood. Its connected to the earth and the sea, smoothed by sand and bleached by the sun. There's a lot to be said for it. I wouldn't recommend it for a staff tho, its not terribly strong.

Most all candles have yellow flames regardless of whatever color the wax may be so I'm guessing the color is for your benefit. Maybe you can put tea candles in colored candle holders or in glass candle holders with pieces of colored paper you can swap out.