Pendulum and scrying

The teaching

As the dowsers' and crystal gazers' craft teaches it.

The pendulum and how it is held

Any small, evenly balanced weight will serve: a ring, a key, a crystal or a nut on a thread or a fine chain some ten to twenty centimetres long. The thread is held between thumb and forefinger, the elbow resting on the table and the wrist loose, the weight hanging still a little above the palm, the table or the chart. Dowsers start it in a gentle to and fro, a neutral swing, so that any change is easy to see.

Setting the code

Before any question the dowser settles what the movements mean. Some decide it: a circle one way for yes, the other way for no, a straight swing for unclear. Others ask the pendulum to show yes, then to show no, and note what it does. Then they test it with questions whose answers they know, such as their own name, and write the code down. It is checked again at every sitting.

Asking

A question for the pendulum is single and plain and can be answered yes or no. Many dowsers begin by asking three things: can I ask this, may I, and should I. They ask about what can later be checked, and avoid questions on which they hold a strong wish or fear, since the swing then follows the wish. A loaded question is reworded until the dowser no longer minds which way it falls.

Charts and maps

For more than yes or no, dowsers draw a half circle divided like a fan, with a choice or a number in each segment, hold the pendulum over the point at its centre and watch which segment the swing points along. For map dowsing a pointer is moved slowly across the map in one hand while the pendulum hangs from the other, and the place where the swing changes is marked.

The rods

Out of doors the dowser's older tool is the rod. The forked twig, often of hazel, is held by its two arms with the palms turned up and the point forward, a little bent under tension, and it dips or rises over the place sought. Two light wires bent into an L are held loosely, one in each fist, pointing ahead; walking slowly, the dowser watches for them to cross or swing apart.

Scrying: the glass and the room

Scrying uses a surface with no detail in it: a ball of clear crystal or glass, a black mirror, a bowl of water darkened with ink, still water, or a flame. The manuals ask for a quiet, dim room, the light behind or beside the gazer so that nothing is reflected, and a black cloth around the crystal so the eye has nowhere else to go. The gazer sits comfortably, an arm's length away.

The gaze is soft and not a stare: looking into the glass and not at its surface, blinking normally, breathing easily. Nothing is forced. Sessions are short, ten or fifteen minutes, and the old books say that the first sittings often show nothing at all.

What the gazers describe

The crystal gazers describe stages. First the glass seems to cloud or fill with a milky mist; then come points of light or colour; then, for some, pictures: a scene, a face, a word. Whatever comes is written down at once, before it fades or is argued with, and read afterwards as a dream is read, for what it means to the gazer.

The Golden Dawn taught a related way with the tattvas, five coloured symbols: a yellow square for earth, a silver crescent for water, a red triangle for fire, a blue circle for air and a black or indigo egg for spirit. The student gazes at one, closes the eyes on its after-image, then pictures the symbol grown into a door and passes through it in imagination, noting all that is seen.

Care and limits

These are quiet practices, but they are not for every state of mind. Keep sessions short and come back afterwards to full light and ordinary things. A candle is never left unattended or set near cloth or paper. Stop at once if you feel dizzy or frightened, or begin to see things outside the session. Do not scry when grieving, exhausted, or after drink or drugs, and anyone with a history of psychosis or dissociation should not scry at all.

Neither the pendulum nor the glass is used to diagnose an illness, choose a medicine, decide money or legal matters, or tell anything about another person. Honest dowsers test themselves on questions whose answers they cannot know, and keep the pendulum for what it can show: the holder's own leaning.