Dowsing is the intuitive use of pendulums or rods to locate objects and energies or answer questions. It is an art almost anyone can master.
Pendulums are valuable divinatory tools, and a pendulum is nothing more than a balanced weight on the end of a thread or fine chain. It does not need to be crystal, gold plated or expensive. One of the most successful dowsers I know uses a button. A wedding ring or sewing needle attached to a length of sewing thread has been used for centuries to try to determine the sex of a new-born baby – rotating for a girl and swinging to and fro for a boy. The method was used commercially in the nineteenth century with a small device containing a miniature pendulum for sexing chickens whilst still in the egg.
Pendulums are extremely easy to make. Take a length of wire. Starting at the top and leaving an inch spare, wrap the wire around your chosen weight lengthways and bring it back up to the top. Twist the two ends and bring the longer end down around the weight again at 90 degrees from the first. Bring it to the top once more, twist again with the other end and fashion the remaining wire into a ring by wrapping it twice around a small knitting needle and cut of any excess. Thread the cord or chain through this ring and you have a pendulum.
Take your pendulum and hold it comfortably so that it is free to swing. You may wish to set it swinging the first couple of times you dowse. Hold your arm out, keeping it fairly relaxed and ask a question with a yes/no answer. To begin with, choose obvious questions such as ‘am I male?’ or ‘am I a hamster?’ Choose equal numbers of yes and no questions and watch the swing of the pendulum change accordingly. These swings will be personal to you and will form the basis of your dowsing.
Once you have your yes/no responses put your dowsing to use:
- If you suspect you have an allergy or food sensitivity, make a list of the foods you eat and go down the list with the pendulum, asking ‘am I allergic or sensitive to this food? Test your conclusions by cutting positive response food out of your diet for two weeks, then re-introduce it and note whether you get any symptoms of rapid pulse, bloating, headaches, rashes or swelling.
- Try to dowse the water pipe course in your house.
- Take your collection of essential oils and ask, ‘Will this oil help me at the moment?’
- If you have a collection of crystals, ask ‘Will this crystal help balance my energies at the present time’.
© Anna Franklin
Hearth Witchery 