The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum

The eighth anniversary of one of the saddest days in the history of The Cauldron is almost upon us. If you were a member of The Cauldron any time from about 2003 to early 2006, you will remember Chavi (aka Storyteller Cat and, in offline life, Cathlene Patricia McKenna) and starting in early 2005, her ever positive reports on her battle with a rare form of cancer. (Some of these posted used to be available on our 2005 Archive Board -- but the software it ran on does not support modern versions of PHP.) The odds were against her from the beginning, but that did not stop her from fighting hard to try to be one of the rare survivors. And for a time it looked like she really might overcome those long odds. Unfortunately, it wasn't to be so.

Elspeth, one of the founders of this board passed over on April 19, 2010, after years of fighting congestive heart failure and other medical problems which kept her offline except for generally brief spells for the last five or six years before her death. She was a major participant here in the early years of this board and her posts can be found on our old Delphi forum. Some of her poetry and other writings can in old issues of our newsletter and in the Samhain section of our web site. The Cauldron would have never started if Elspeth had not wanted a forum to replace a small mailing list, The Grove, which she ran.

Marilyn (aka Absent) needs no introduction to recent members of this board. She was a long time active member of this board with many posts to her credit up until she suddenly passed on February 16th last year. She was a long time staff member whose expertise on the Tarot was appreciated by all.

Tuesday, April 1, 2014, marks the eighth anniversary of Chavi's passing. Since the first anniversary of her passing, we have honored her on April 1st with 24 hours of candle burning. Three years ago, we started honoring Elspeth on this day as well. Last year, we added Marilyn to this annual memorial. We are asking all Cauldron members who knew Chavi, Elspeth, or Marilyn; knew of Chavi, Elspeth, or Marilyn; or who did not know any of these three people but just want to help honor three wonderful people who meant a lot to many members of TC (and wish to participate) to light a candle in honor of Chavi, Elspeth, and Marilyn at 8pm your local time on April 1st and let it burn for at least an hour. The object is to have 24 hours of candles burning for them -- one hour at a time around the world. Given things like oceans and the like, this may not be completely possible, but I'll bet we can come close -- especially as some of us let our candles burn for longer than one hour.

If you log in on April 1st, you will probably notice that many longtime members of this board have changed their avatar for the day to either an avatar of a hat or their regular avatar wearing a hat. These hats are usually somewhat silly. We do this in honor of Chavi who had a thing for silly hats.

If you want to participate, please post in here. Everyone, regardless of religion, is welcome to participate. If you can't participate at 8pm your time, feel free to pick a different hour, I can promise you that neither Chavi, Elspeth, nor Marilyn would have been sticklers about the time.

Count me in.

 
Seconded.

... We are asking all Cauldron members who knew Chavi, Elspeth, or Marilyn; knew of Chavi, Elspeth, or Marilyn; or who did not know any of these three people but just want to help honor three wonderful people who meant a lot to many members of TC (and wish to participate) to light a candle in honor of Chavi, Elspeth, and Marilyn at 8pm your local time on April 1st and let it burn for at least an hour....

I'm in.

Me, of course.

 
Likewise in as always - and as usual, I can't even begin to guess how my timings will work, but I'll have a candle lit for several hours in the relevant time frame.

Sunflower

If you want to participate, please post in here.

I'm in.

I was just thinking about Marilyn a few days ago, and missing her all over again.

Count me in.

I shall be participating as well.

 
I will definitely be lighting a candle in their names again this year.

I had never seen Chavi's posts directly, and Elspeth's I had seen from time to time as I had joined just shortly before she began spending less time on the board, but Marilyn was the one I knew the most and always looked forward to reading what she had to say, and it's still hard to believe she's gone.