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Meeting's
are held on the 3rd Sunday of every month. Information concerning
our speakers and meetings contained in the calendar above.
The
Art of Dowsing, also called 'divining' or 'radiesthesia' is
a means of obtaining information which is almost as old as humanity.
Neolithic
cave paintings have been found depicting figures holding what are
(to any dowser) dowsing rods, and the fact that dowsing is practised
by remote African and aboriginal tribes suggests that its practice is
widespread and naturally occurring. Pendulums have been found in the
pyramids, and it is thought that Moses was very probably a dowser.
Dowsing
is usually thought of in the public mind as 'water divining,' i.e.,
using a forked stick to find underground water, but in modern times
finding water forms only a small part of a dowser's activities unless
he or she is a farmer, or dowses for farmers.
On
the rare occasions when a dowser is sighted practising in public, he
or she may be using a forked stick, known to dowsers as a 'V-rod,'
looking for something underground' or may be using an 'L-rod,'
consisting of one or two L-shaped wires to locate earth currents.
The Pendulum
But
what dowsers use more than any other tool is the pendulum.
The
beginner in dowsing usually starts with a pendulum, which instrument
will remain the dowser's main tool throughout their lives. The
pendulum is used to obtain information and answer questions
pertaining to almost anything.
The
length and size of the pendulum are unimportant, and it will consist
of anything that works for the user. Many dowsers like to use a
crystal pendulum or one made out of a natural substance, such as
wood, depending on taste. The pendulum itself is only a tool, and
dowsers believe that they are contacting their Higher Mind or Higher
Self, which is part of the Universal Consciousness and therefore has
access to all information, and the pendulum's response will be guided
by this. The pendulum does not work by itself, and is guided by
movements of the dowser's wrist.
The
beginning dowser must establish a 'yes' and 'no' response from the
pendulum before it can be used to answer questions. There are several
ways of doing this. One method is to put two saucers in front of you,
one holding vitamin C, and the other holding coffee. Hold your
pendulum over first one and then the other, and ask 'Is this
substance good for me?'
With
the vitamin C you will get a 'yes' response, and with the coffee you
will get a 'no' because the body regards tea and coffee as toxins.
Another method is to hold your pendulum over the cord of an electric
appliance. When it is off, the pendulum will give a 'no' response.
Turn it on, and the pendulum will give you a 'yes.'
The
pendulum's response will vary with each individual. Usually the
response will take the form of a back and forth movement, and a
circular movement, and it will be apparent to the beginner what
constitutes his or her 'yes' and 'no.'
The
pendulum can then be used to answer questions on almost anything,
but it needs to be borne in mind that the Higher Self is only going
to give such information as is needed for the occasion, and will not
necessarily answer unrelated questions.
Usually
a dowser will ask 'Can I?' 'May I?' 'Should I?' before dowsing, and
will say 'thank you' afterwards.
One
of the most frequently uses of the pendulum is to test food you are
unsure of. On one occasion I had picked some healthy looking
mushrooms from an oval (n0-body else wanted them) and in response to
the question "Is this food fit for human consumption?" The
answer was "no." I tried the mushrooms anyway, and they
tasted terrible. Apparently they had been spraying the lawn. So the
whole lot had to go out.
Pendulums
are used for map dowsing, which is usually a preliminary to field
work of any sort. Map dowsing consists of using a pendulum on a map
to locate the desired object, be it underground water, minerals,
ruins or a sacred site, and the area of the map will be steadily
expanded until an approximate location is found. After that it is
followed up in the field.
Pendulums
may also be used to clear an area of negative energy, or to confer a blessing.
Pendulums
are subject to suggestion. If you want a particular answer strongly
enough, you may well influence the pendulum response to give it to
you. When dowsing it is necessary to be detached and relaxed.
According
to an article on dowsing in BBC Focus for May 2008, many dowsers
stress the need to keep their minds in a relaxed yet alert state
while dowsing, and brain scans performed on dowsers preparing to
begin a search are said to show activity similar to that achieved
during meditation. [Which is a way of contacting your Higher Self.]
L-Rods
L-rods
or angle rods are L shaped rods usually made of wire and usually
made from wire coat-hangers. Their length may vary depending on the
user's need. The L-rod is usually held loosely in the hand (or if two
are used, hands) where it can swing freely in response to energy
lines encountered.
Energy
lines criss-cross the Earth's surface in the same way as acupuncture
meridians cross the body. They may be positive, negative or neutral,
and very often connect sacred sites and places of power.
What
usually happens is that the dowser asks to be shown an energy line
and then walks in a pre-determined direction, and the L-rod will
swing round when the dowser reaches the energy line. This practice is
particularly useful for determining energy lines that may be passing
through a house and affecting the occupants, or ideally for finding
the energy lines on a site before one is built.
Negative
energy lines passing through bedrooms will usually affect people
sleeping there, who may sleep badly or become sick, or both.
Sometimes a house will get a reputation because successive people
living in it all seem to develop cancer. The dowser will establish
how thick the energy line is, (breadth will vary according to phases
of the moon) and sometimes the solution will be as simple as moving
the bed a few feet out of the energy line. Sometimes it will be
necessary to change bedrooms, or even move out of the house. Negative
energy lines can be re-directed, but this is not always permanent,
and proper responsibility must be shown in the sense that the
negative line must be re-directed down the road, and not into the
next door house!
Negative
energy lines are re-directed by inserting short sections of copper
piping lengthwise into the ground. A few years ago in Adelaide some
dowsers found a powerful negative energy line going directly into a
block of migrant housing, with dire consequences for the occupants as
it was causing quarrelling and anti-social behaviour.
As
everything stood on government land it was necessary for them to
insert the copper piping surreptitiously and conceal it in case
somebody stumbled on it and pulled it out. But thereafter the housing
block saw a distinct improvement in attitude and behaviour.
Dowsers
can also ask the L-rod to point in the direction of something they
are looking for, or find something, such as a sacred site. L-rods can
be used for finding water or objects buried in the ground, in which
case the dowser will use two L-rods and ask them to cross when the
object has been reached. With some people the L-rod will respond in
one hand much better than the other, so they may be seen as one-armed dowsers.
V-Rods
The
V-rod or rods is the modern form of that traditional dowsing tool,
the forked twig. The modern V-rod will usually consist of two thin,
light flexible rods, usually made of plastic and joined by eyes at
the end.
The
V-rod is used for finding underground features, such as underground
water, ruins or minerals, or caves, or treasure.
To
work effectively, the V-rod must be tensioned by holding it on the
palms of both hands, but so that the rod is still able to dip or
rise, which it will do when the feature is reached, which is why it
must be flexible. The dowser will then use the pendulum to get an
idea of the depth.
The
present writer has found when using a V-rod that the rod goes up
when finding an archaeological site and down when finding water.
Dowsing
for minerals is used extensively in Russia, as is dowsing for
archaeological features, and success has been recorded by dowsers
dowsing from aircraft flying over sites. Dowsers are called in to
archaeological sites on some European and American digs, sometimes
with psychometrists (clairvoyants who can see the past.) Very often
features will be found where the dowsers have indicated they are, and
much time and energy saved in locating them. Unfortunately Australian
archaeology is still in the Stone Age, and archaeologists known to be
dowsers would be regarded as lunatic fringe and suffer
professionally. Likewise, geologists who are dowsers may risk
damaging their careers if it becomes known that they dowse.
Bobbers
Bobbers
are comparative newcomers to dowsing practice.
A
bobber, as its name suggests, is a flexible rod with a knob on the
end. It is held horizontally and its movement will indicate the edge
of an energy field, or if charka is spinning properly, or the
location of a tree spirit or something similar on a tree trunk. The
movement may be clockwise for positive or anti-clockwise for
negative, or it may move up and down, or sideways.
Dowsing
first became public property in the 1920s with the publication of
Alfred Watkins book The Old Straight Track. Watkins discovered that a
great many towns and sacred sites in Britain were linked by straight
lines, for which he coined the term "Ley line" because many
of the lines he discovered went through towns whose names ended in
"ley" or "leigh." This term is not always used by
dowsers who prefer the term "energy line" since it is
difficult to define exactly what a 'ley line" constitutes.
Previously
dowsing had been confined to individual country practitioners, many
of whom were hereditary dowsers, who ran the risk of persecution for
witchcraft. To try to gain acceptance during the Middle Ages, dowsers
would sometimes bring their rods to be baptised to demonstrate that
their work was bona fides. Of course, many witches and druids
practiced dowsing, and still do.
Reputable
dowsers will not dowse for show and will not try to prove anything
to anyone using dowsing, believing that people who are sincere will
find out for themselves. Usually the sceptic who demands proof will
remain unconvinced anyway, and will insist that the dowser obtained
the information another way!
Need
or Greed?
Dowsers
for the most part believe that dowsing should be used to obtain
information, but not necessarily for profit. It is acceptable to use
it in a healing practice, and may be acceptable to use it to find
gold, but it is not necessarily acceptable to use it to use it to
dowse for the Melbourne Cup Winner. Somebody who tries this may find
that this is not acceptable to their Higher Self, and so their
dowsing may go awry.
Dowsers
tend to be mature people and are usually long lived because they
believe in being in harmony with nature. It is not at all uncommon to
find dowsers still practicing and teaching dowsing well into their
80s and 90s.
Many
dowsers are healers and use dowsing in their healing work. Most
dowsers are very aware of health and environmental issues, and are
sensitive to earth energies.
Religiously
speaking dowsers come all types, but most will have studied new age
philosophies of one sort or another and are open to new ideas.
There
are active dowsing societies in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide.
In
Sydney the Dowsers Society of NSW meets every third Sunday at 2pm at
the Community Hall, 44 Gladesville Road, Hunters Hill.
In
Melbourne the Dowsers Society of Victoria President Lyn Wood may be
contacted
on (03) 9729 2624
Or
check the internet.
Gordon
de L. Marshall |
