Three Cauldrons (Coire) — Cauldron of Poesy
Three Cauldrons (Coire) — Cauldron of Poesy is a Early Irish / Celtic body system as transmitted through the lineage Old Irish poem 'In Dá Brón Flatha Nime' / 'The Cauldron of Poesy', 7th–8th c., MS Trinity College Dublin H.3.18 and Royal Irish Academy 23 N 10. This page lists every point in the system with sourced placements and links to cross-tradition correspondences curated for The Body Spiritual.
Open in interactive explorerPrimary sources
- The Cauldron of Poesy (Coire Goiriath, Coire Érmai, Coire Sois) (ed. and trans. Liam Breatnach, 'The Cauldron of Poesy', Ériu 32 (1981): 45–93) — Critical edition of the Old Irish text and the standard scholarly point of reference.
- Erynn Rowan Laurie, 'The Cauldron of Poesy: A Translation' (Obsidian Magazine, 1995; reprinted in Laurie, A Circle of Stones (1995)) — Widely-used contemporary verse translation in the modern Druidic / Celtic Reconstructionist movement.
- CELT corpus — University College Cork, electronic edition — Online repository of Old Irish texts; consult for parallel manuscripts.
Known lineage variants
- Liam Breatnach's 1981 edition is the scholarly text; the Laurie translation is the version most widely circulated in modern Celtic spirituality and differs in several interpretive choices.
- The poem itself is ambiguous about whether the three cauldrons are physical loci or stages of an inner process; modern Celtic Reconstructionist practice (Laurie, Bonewits) tends to place them at pelvis, chest, and head.
- Some modern readings conflate the cauldrons with the three Druidic 'awens' or with Indo-European triadic schemes; these are interpretive overlays, not features of the original text.
Points
- Coire Goiriath — Cauldron of Warming / Sustenance
- Coire Érmai — Cauldron of Motion / Vocation
- Coire Sois — Cauldron of Wisdom / Knowledge
Frequently asked
What is Coire Goiriath?
Coire Goiriath — the Cauldron of Warming, situated low in the body. The Old Irish text says it is 'born upright' (i fír i ndaoine) in every person at birth: the basal vessel that simply by being alive is set in the right position, holding the warmth of mere existence and the rudiments of skill. It is the cauldron of crafts and of basic competence. Breatnach's edition makes clear that this cauldron does not need to be 'turned' to be functional; it is the others that depend on the events of a life. In modern Celtic Reconstructionist practice it is identified with the pelvis and the lower belly, the seat of grounded vitality.
What is Coire Érmai?
Coire Érmai — the Cauldron of Motion, sitting at the centre of the body. The poem says it is 'born tipped on its side' in most people: the events of a life — joys and sorrows — gradually turn it upright, or turn it further over. The text gives a famous catalogue of the four sorrows and four joys that turn this cauldron: longing, grief, the sorrows of jealousy and exile, set against sexual joy, the joy of health and prosperity, the joy of poetic-art mastery, and divine joy. It is the vessel of vocation: the chest-cauldron in which a person's calling is shaped by what they have lived through.
What is Coire Sois?
Coire Sois — the Cauldron of Wisdom, sited high in the body. The poem says it is born inverted in most people: it pours nothing out until it is righted, and only the events of a contemplative life — or great poetic and spiritual labour — can right it. In the Cauldron of Poesy this is the vessel of imbas, of poetic inspiration that arrives whole; it is the source of fír-flatha, the true judgement that filidh and brehons were trained to render. It is what the modern Druidic movement has tried to recover under the name awen. The text is precise: it is not given freely; it is born upside-down, and to right it is the work of a life.