Dear Readers,

    Cauldron Anthology is so proud to offer to you all Issue 6 - LGBTQA+ “Sappho, Inari Okami, & Ardhanarishvara”. We started curating this issue in July during Pride Month because we wanted to do a special issue merging mythology with current day issues, and I’m so pleased with how this issue turned out. We have love poems, we have the roar of pride, we have tales of becoming who you knew you were always meant to be, and so much more.  

I sincerely hope that you all enjoy this issue as much as we enjoyed putting it together. I would like to thank each and every one of our contributors; your work has been such a joy to read. I would like to thank all of our readers for the unwavering support you have given to Cauldron Anthology.  And of course I would like to thank the entirety of my staff for their dedicated work.

I hope this issue inspires you all!

Abigail Pearson,
Editor-in-Chief

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Submissions will be closing next week on the 15th, but we are still hoping that a few more people will submit to us! 
So today we're sharing Issue 6's playlist.  We've tried to find as many queer anthems as we could, but if you have any suggestions for us please leave a comment and we'll add more songs.
​You can find the playlist here. 

Inari Okami has been depicted as male, female, and androgynous. In this issue, I want to see writing that breaks down gender barriers.

The figure of Inari Okami is often linked to the fox, or kitsune. Foxes symbolise the cunning trickster. They are generally not malicious, but rather must use their intelligence to become the victor of their conflict.

In terms of this issue, I see the fox as being the figure who uses its knowledge to cross boundaries and educate others about the importance of being true to oneself. This issue is a celebration of the LGBTQA+ community. I can’t wait to see what you all come up with.

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Issue 5: Seer is now officially out and published!  I (Abigail) apologize for the delay in this issue, but I am so proud and excited to share it with you now. Thank you to all of my staff for all their work.  Thank you to all who submitted and for all the lovely work we are showcasing this issue. And of course thank you to all of our readers.  I hope you all enjoy!  

From today until August 15th our submissions are now open again! 

Issue 6 is a special issue celebrating Pride Month and we will be looking for submissions only from people who identify somewhere on the LGBTQA+ spectrum.  Our theme inspirations are Sappho, Ardhanarishvara and Inari Okami. 

Check out our submission guidelines and we look forward to receiving your work! 

Thank you to everyone who has submitted over the last few months! The editors and I are so excited to buckle down and start preparing this next issue. We've received so much diverse and amazing work and we can't wait to share it with you all.

We will be announcing the themes for Issue 6 on June 15th. 

​What do you think of when you hear the name Jezebel? 
Have you heard the name before? Does it conjure up images of sex workers in ancient times, of lewd paganism and scheming women? 

If you’re like me it’s the images above, or at least that’s what it was until I did more research on the woman from the book of Kings in the Bible. I knew there was more to her story, I had just never taken the time to look.Because Jezebel is, in my opinion, just one more example were the mythology has been changed over the years. 

Once you look at her story more closely you see another classic example of people blaming the woman for negative outcomes, when there’s very little proof she was the heart of the problem. When looking at stories like Jezebel’s, one wonders where were the other people in the story?  1 Kings 18:4 says she was killing prophets, but obviously she wasn’t the king, so where was her husband? What was he doing?   One also has to ask the questions of why was she doing this? Where they a threat to her life? No one takes the time to stop and ask. There are no answers to be found that are not given to us by men who want to paint her as the bad guy.  What are your answers to this question? Why do you think Jezebel does the things she does?

Jezebel has come to be synonyms with prostitutes, but again there’s no actual evidence that Jezebel cheated on her husband or was a sex worker.  So why have Biblical scholars ignored this and changed her character? Why do you think she’s so negatively portrayed? 

It is interesting to note that the Bible treats Jezebel much worse than any of the Jewish texts do. While in the bible she is carefully never called queen, Jewish texts do give her title and even mention some of the more positive work she did. Why is there this difference in the texts? How do you feel like her story should be written?

I hope one, or all of these questions inspires you all to submit to us today! 

As we draw closer to the submission's closing date, the editors and I wanted to put out another playlist. This issue's playlist is a bit shorter than usual, but hopefully it is still inspiring to you all. We hope you give it a listen and then consider submitting to us.   The current themes are: Kali, Cassandra and Jezebel.    We also welcome any suggestions for future playlists, be sure to follow us on twitter for more information on that.