Uses Of Divination

Divination or using the guidance of the divine or the higher spirits is an age old practice. Through the ages man has sought to know the will and mind of the divine through signs around him. He has looked everywhere from the entrails of birds to the gory blood of human sacrifice. Perhaps the one that we can relate most to is the dowsing rod. Dowsing is the science of looking for hidden objects using a dowsing rod or stick to channel the spirits. Whilst minerals, gemstones, gravestones, metals and stolen or misplaced objects can also be dowsed, it is while dowsing for water that this phenomenon received its highest laurels. 

Divination has always had its proponents and naysayers, more so water dowsers. When many other early attempts to locate water deep underground failed to yield feasible amounts of potable water, dowsing adherents picked up the cause. Using many varied kinds of dowsing rods they strove hard to prove the merits of their case, each advocating one device or the other. Some swore by the fresh cut stick of the hazel tree, some swore by that of the willow, some pushed the L shape as that most apt, some the T shaped twigs. They held their dowsing rods by the two arms, palms down and focused the mind seeking guidance. The guidance came in the form of a pull or tug in any one direction on the dowsing rod. Following the rod where it led, or rather such divination led to a good place to dig for underground water.

Many water dowsers use dowsing rods or even pendulums for divination. A popular dowsing rod in the modern era has been a pair of thin metal rods shaped like L, each held in one hand by the short arm of the L, the long arm pointing ahead. The two long arms typically cross over or align with the point or direction of flow in case of flowing water, thus marking the spot of interest.

Dowsing rod divination is not limited to water. Many have successfully dowsed for mineral ores. Early metallurgical texts even mention divination for ores as a necessary part of locating viable mineral ore lumps and have detailed instructions on the type of dowsing rod to be used. Dowsing for explosives and bombs while under research has yet to yield provable results. Dowsing for gemstones and gravestones attracted nefarious elements to this field, leading to some medieval Christian texts terming dowsing as a whole satanic. However there is nothing in the least satanic about dowsing, it is just the ability of some psychics to follow the leylines much as pigeons use the magnetic field lines to find their way back home.