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Text © 2018 Dani Bryant

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Cover and interior design by Erik Jacobsen

Image Credits

Shutterstock.com: Cover: Mercury Green (pendulum); Julia Kameneva (sparkles).

Interior: artellia; Elchin Jafarli; Le_Mon; Patrizia Magni; Melica; Danilo Sanino; satit_srihin; Zvereva Yana

INTRODUCTION

DISCOVERING PENDULUMS

The pendulum has been used as a tool for divination and dowsing for thousands of years. The use of dowsing tools, such as the pendulum and dowsing rods, has been recorded as far back as 8,000 years. Modern use is based on the 1949 discovery by French explorers of murals drawn onto the walls of the Tassilli Caves in Algeria of people holding forked implements who appear to be searching for underground resources. The Cairo Museum holds ceramic pendulums that were recovered from tombs dating 1,000 years ago. An etching of the Chinese emperor Yu dated 2,500 years ago depicts him with a prong-like apparatus resembling a dowsing rod.

In Greece, researchers uncovered evidence dated as early as 400 BCE of pendulum use by the Pythian Oracle of Delphi, where the pendulum was used as a divination tool for royalty, nobility, and military. In the late 1500s, Italian scientist Galileo Galilei watched a chandelier swing from the ceiling of the Cathedral of Pisa, which led him study how pendulums work in the form of measuring time. His studies led to the beginning of scientific research on properties of the pendulum in the early 1600s. In the mid-1600s, mathematician Christiaan Huygens used these investigations to invent the first pendulum clock.

The pendulum, as a tool for divination, has had its fair share of critics, dating from the Middle Ages, when in early 1300 CE, Pope John XXII began persecuting “witches,” people who were mainly midwives, healers, and fortune-tellers, as well as dowsers. The Church saw pendulum use as a form of divination and devil worship. Pendulum use was then forbidden until the mid-1700s CE when it became clear that pendulums were widely used successfully as dowsing rods for dowsing.

In 1833, Michel Eugène Chevreul researched the movement of the pendulum and concluded that involuntary and subconscious muscular reactions are responsible for the movement of the pendulum—making his discovery one of the earliest definitions of the ideomotor reflex. Chevreul was the first to research the pendulum in a spiritual aspect.

Abbé Alexis Mermet, who resided in France during the 1930s, had a huge success rate with the use of the pendulum in healing sessions, in helping to find missing people, and as a tool for map dowsing to find water. His work opened widespread interest in pendulums again. Now they are accepted and freely used—even by the Vatican. In 1935, Mermet was recognized by the Vatican for his extensive work with the pendulum and was asked to help solve some archeological problems! Abbé Mermet invented the Mermet pendulum—a rounded pendulum made from metal with a chamber for holding substances. The vibrations of the Mermet pendulum are thought to emit the same vibrations as the substance stored in the chamber.

Still, however successful the pendulum has been for centuries, its use is often criticized due to the lack of scientific evidence about how it works. Proving how a pendulum works can be difficult is because of the “ideomotor response”—muscle contractions caused by the subconscious movement of a person’s hand.

It is very hard for scientists to gather data on this phenomenon because we cannot monitor and see energy in the form of spirit. In other words, people are unaware that they have the answers inside themselves because the conscious self likes to take over and close off the higher self and intuition. It’s so easy to live this way in this day and age—our lives are so busy, and the fearful voices inside our heads can take over so easily as we get caught up in the mundane aspects of life. We forget to stop, breathe, relax, and look within when we need answers. That’s why the pendulum is such a great tool, because it makes us do just that: stop, breathe, relax, and go within.

Not only is the pendulum a wonderful way to gain guidance and get answers, but it can also help locate resources. Dowsing with a pendulum is the divinatory way of locating underground resources such as water, oil, metals, crystals, and so on. This practice has been used for thousands of years. During the Vietnam War the pendulum was used to find the location of underground mines and tunnels. In France, doctors used pendulums to detect illness inside the body, a process French priest Alex Bouly termed radiesthesia in the 1930s. During the Cold War in the 1960s, Verne Cameron was denied a US passport when he wanted to travel to South Africa to help their government locate precious resources. Because he had demonstrated to the US Navy only a few years earlier how to locate every American submarine on a map using his pendulum skills, Cameron was seen by the U.S government as a national security risk. Today, the pendulum isn’t used often for dowsing. Technology has become so amazing at finding resources that pendulums and dowsing rods are no longer common.

Early hypnotists also used the pendulum to relax clients into a deep state of meditation by having them watch the pendulum swing back and forth. You may have seen TV shows in which a hypnotist swings a pocket watch back and forth to bring a client into a trance. Watching the pendulum move back and forth helps to bring people into a state of relaxation by lowering brain wave activity as they focus on the pendulum, decreasing the constant mental chatter that goes on in everyday life. If you find relaxing difficult, then grab your pendulum and just watch it move. In no time, you’ll be drifting off to sleep!

For divination purposes, pendulums are used to answer basic yes/no/maybe questions. Spiritually, you can contact your guides, angels, or ancestors, or whomever you resonate with in the spirit realm. Pendulums are also used in energy healing work in different modalities to balance chakras/energy points within the body and even to locate infections, ailments, and allergies. Other uses for pendulums include energy clearing of spaces, finding missing items, fortune-telling, and—some say—talking to pets! An old wives’ tale is that by hanging a wedding ring or another piece of jewelry belonging to a pregnant woman on a string and dangling it over her belly, it’s possible to divine the gender of her baby. This practice is still used today.

Pendulums are now gaining popularity because of their use in divination. The use of the pendulum is now widely accepted across many cultures and belief systems. The pendulum itself is not a religious tool—it’s something that anyone with any belief can use.

Unfortunately, many people try to use the pendulum briefly and then put it aside, never to try again. That’s because the swing of the pendulum can be difficult to interpret, and answers to questions can be indirect, particularly for those who don’t yet understand the finer nuances of its function. While pendulums are very simple to use, in order to really gain the best results, you need practice, patience, belief, and acceptance that your higher self is working with you at all times to give you your answers. The pendulum is a tool to respect, to nurture, to connect with. Its simple appearance may be misleading, but you need to be in alignment with your truest form at all times—your soul and spirit. If you even for a second doubt the workings of the pendulum, then put it down and try again another time.

Pendulums are typically made in a cone shape, from metal or crystal and hung from a chain. You can use anything to make a pendulum as long as there is something at the end of a chain or string that is heavy enough to create a swinging motion. In almost every New Age shop, online or otherwise, you will find a variety of pendulums. The various forms of pendulums will be discussed later, but the first rule when finding your very own pendulum is this: listen to your heart and buy (or make) one that shines out and you connect with. You need to resonate with your pendulum; otherwise, you will be disappointed in the results. It’s like anything else in life: you need to form a connection to what you are interacting with; otherwise, the energy between the two of you will not work.

So, the pendulum is a wonderful tool and one to really put your time and effort into. Like most things, it needs practice, perseverance, and understanding. This guide will help you get the most out of your pendulum, so let’s delve into the world of pendulums and seek the answers that are within!