Dowsing With A Pendulum

In a nutshell, dowsing is interpreting and analyzing the movement of a pendulum (its swing) to find answers to questions. Many people call this divination.

Other types of divnation are reading tarot cards, using the iChing, runes or even reading the crystal ball or tea leaves. While they are seemingly different, what they all have in common is the answers that come to your subconsious mind when you ask the question.

However, unlike other forms of divination, did you know that dowsing is actually scientifically proven to work? Dowsing with rods has been used for thousands of years by so-called dowsers who are finding water, oil, gas and other natural elements in the earth.

That type of dowsing is done with a rod, which in most cases is a thick metal in an L shape. The pendulum, on the other hand, is still somewhat looked upon as a mystical tool. But - who cares really, as long as it works? And working it does too!

(image shows my own tiger eye pendulum)

A pendulum is an object that has a pointy end. It can be made of various materials. Depending on how purist you are, you might only work with crystal pendulums. Others also use pendulums made of semiprecious gems (I have a wonderful pendulum made of tiger-eye at home), brass or even metal.

This object is hanging from a thread. In most cases the thread is a silver chain, but it can be made of other materials as well.

The power of a pendulum comes from its swinging back and forth (sometimes rotating in one or other direction). Depending on which direction it swings towards and where it tends to gravite, you can find a missing object or you can know an answer to a yes or no question.

Especially early on you can also use pendulum charts for dowsing. These are charts that are basically boards that hold some symbols or at least numbers and letters. A pendulum chart is great help for newbies because it helps them understand the answers of the pendulum much easier. Many people, however (granted, I am one of them) are pendulum chart collectors. They're fun to collect and you can find practically any type of chart for most questions that you might think of asking about.

To make the pendulum work, there is a particular technique to it.

1. You hold the pendulum between your thumb and first finger and let the pendulum hang there motionless.
2. Now you ask from the pendulum to reveal your search position. It could be that the pendulum doesn't move at all, or it starts to swing back and forth. The seach position is actually the starting point. For example if your pendulum always starts to swing back and forth, then you know that it's the natural starting point, and it's not (yet) trying to tell you an answer. It's just the position that your pendulum starts out from.
3. Now you want to know the YES position. That could be sometimes a rotating movement in a clockwise direction, or maybe anti-clock wise. Or it could be a back-and-forth movement. To find out the  yes position, you need to ask a question that you know the answer to is yes. For example if your eye color is blue, then you ask 'My eye color is blue?' and notice where the pendulum swings.
4. Next, you might have guessed, we want to find out the NO position. Here you ask a question that you know the answer to is a resounding no. For example you can ask Is the grass purple?
5. You might need to do the Yes and No questions a couple of times, until you know for sure what is a YES and what is a NO answer. For me, the yes always is a movement towards the right (starting from the center) and no is movement towards the left.
6. Now you can start asking basic question. Start with small questions with an easy answer (yes or no). For now, avoid complex questions where the pendulum might give you a 'maybe' or 'not sure'. (in that case you might see the pendulum's movement as erratic, as if not being able to make up its mind which way to go). And definitely don't start with questions like 'should I leave my husband and go find my love elsewhere' or 'should I just quit my job tomorrow'? You really need to learn the movements of your pendulum well before you attempt anything as serious as that. And personally, I would never use the pendulum for these types of loaded questions.

The truth is, nobody really knows how it works. There are many theories around this subject but so far the only thing that anyone has found for sure is that it works.

Dowsing helps us connect with our intuitive and creative side. In order to interpret the answers, we need both sides of the brain, the intuitive as well as the rational mind. There are times when dowsing works even when we are 100% that it won't. That's why pendulums are a mystery, but one that more and more people are using to find all sorts of answers.

Start with looking for your lost keys, or for a missplaced ring. You'll be surprised by how easily you will find them with the help of your pendulum when dowsing.