Also called radiesthesia, ring on a thread, pendule explorateur
Holding a weight on a thread still over a question, a chart or a map and reading its swing as yes, no or a direction.
Tonight's moon is read when the page loads.
Take care: Never use a pendulum to decide medical, legal or money matters. Keep small pendulums away from young children.
At a treason trial under Emperor Valens, the accused Hilarius and Patricius described a tripod table of laurel wood with a round metal plate engraved with the alphabet. A ring hung on a linen thread swung over the letters to spell out answers, which were read as naming the next emperor. The episode led to executions.
Uses: Ring, Linen thread, Lettered plate
A wedding ring hung on a thread or hair is held over a pregnant woman's belly or wrist. A circle and a straight swing are read as girl or boy, though which means which varies from family to family.
The chemist Chevreul tested the hand-held pendulum himself and found it moved by tiny, unconscious muscle movements of the holder, which stopped when his arm was supported or his eyes covered. His letter is an early account of what is now called the ideomotor effect, and dowsers and skeptics both still cite it.
Swinging a weight over letters or objects is recorded in late antiquity. Ammianus Marcellinus describes a ring suspended over an alphabet plate at a conspiracy trial in 371 CE. Rural Europe kept smaller forms, such as the wedding ring over a pregnant belly, alongside the forked dowsing rod used to find water and ore. Mining districts in Germany and Cornwall used the rod openly, and Georgius Agricola described it in De re metallica in 1556.
In 1833 Michel Eugène Chevreul published his pendulum experiments as a letter to Ampère, explaining the swing as unconscious movement. Interest grew anyway: French priests such as Abbé Mermet promoted 'radiesthesia' in the early 1900s, and the British Society of Dowsers was founded in 1933. Many users today treat the pendulum as a way of listening to their own hunches.
Marking slips of wood with signs, scattering them on a white cloth and reading the ones you pick up. Built from Tacitus's account of Germanic lot-casting and modern rune practice.
Gazing into a dark, still surface, a black mirror or a bowl of water, until images or impressions rise. Used to ask questions and to quiet the mind.
Tell us what you need and we will craft a custom spell, charm or reading for it. Or call to book a reading or a road blessing in person.
