June 2006

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The Society and the Journal editors do not necessarily associate themselves with the views expressed by contributors and correspondents.

Dennis Wheatley.

Dennis Wheatley was the founder and Honorary Life President of the Wyvern Dowsing Society since it’s beginning back in 1993, when a number of Dennis’s former dowsing students decided it would be a good idea to meet up on a regular basis.

Dowsing came to Dennis comparatively late in life. When he retired from his career as a director of marketing with an American electronics company, his daughter Maria, already a dowser, suggested that it would be a good hobby for him in his retirement. Initially a sceptic on the subject of dowsing, due to his scientific background, Dennis never-the-less decided to give it a go, and to his surprise found that he could easily trace the mains water pipes at his home and in the road outside.

After reading and being strongly impressed by the book called “Patterns of the Past”, by Guy Underwood, Dennis decided to try out his dowsing skills by checking out Guy’s theories at Avebury stone circle. This marked the beginning of Dennis’ interest in Earth Energies and the way the energies appear to behave at ancient historic sites.

After onlookers approached Dennis and asked him to show them how to dowse, an article appeared about Dennis in the local newspaper, written by one of the people who had been shown how to dowse . This lead to a phone call from the College in Swindon, asking Dennis if he would be interested in giving evening classes at the College. After some hesitation, due to his comparative inexperience, Dennis decided to accept the offer, and it was students from several of theses courses who went on to start the WDS. Dennis has also written and had published a couple of dowsing books.

The society has prospered, in spite of the occasional hitch that all societies have from time to time, and this is where we owe Dennis a sincere “Thank-you”, as without his interest in dowsing and skills as a teacher, the society would not have come into being.

We had not seen Dennis at society gatherings for a few years, due to his decline in health, and he died early in May this year. The Wyvern Dowsing Society will be sending a donation in Dennis’ memory to The British Heart Foundation, a charity chosen by his family.

The Ghost of a Chance

When not engaged in trying to loosen the stranglehold of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart on the cultural life of England, I have spent my time at congenial talks among dowsers, often above a pub.

I have been addressed by people who perhaps did not shine at school and who quickly dropped out of any academic setting they were placed in.

People who didn't like the smell of corridors. People whose parents must have wondered what they were going to do with their lives.

Well, I can report that these sons and daughters of the new age are now in full command of an unusual wisdom; and a paid-up lifestyle which they have made their own.

Unfettered philosophical musings. Wild speculation in a dance with rigid structure. They have an open-mindedness about the codification of Nature not seen since the medieval.

I was recently at a talk where it was posited that ghosts and UFOs are two sides of the same coin, one visiting from the past and the other from the future.

Ghosts are clearly from the past because they appear in period costume. But it is harder to say, in the end, that UFOs are arriving from Earth's future, because we don't know what the future looks like.

And again, there is a contrary strand in UFO thinking which insists that the ittle green men, or grey men, the colour varies with the fashion of the time, are journeying to us not from the future, but direct from outer space.

Which, to a certain extent, may be the same thing, of course, but you know what I mean.

The creatures who pilot UFOs are often perceived to be at an evolutionary stage that is far in advance of our own. Otherwise they couldn't have got here.

They are, indeed, so far in advance that they might be taken for gods. They might be bringing Judgement, or chaos and destruction.

This assumes, of course, that Evolution is a law of Nature that applies across the Universe. We evolve, so we assume that all other species are evolving, wherever they are.

Which might not be true. Across the universe there might be lots of species who are not advancing and improving; dead-end species who are getting a little mean.

There is nothing to stop them evolving technologies which permit space travel, and pitching up on Earth in a bad mood. I think we've seen this movie.

There was a cool dark green light inside the pavilion. I thought I had it to myself but in the shadows I could see an Icelandic sheepdog guarding the beer barrel. They like to guard things.

The economy is over-heating, said the dog. Too much speculation; an unregulated market. The currency is melting down like volcanic lava.

When the Vikings took this breed to Iceland in 874 CE or AD, the Icelanders fell so deeply in love that they persuaded themselves the dog was good for rounding up sheep and cattle.

He's not. He's more of a sled dog or husky. But the Icelanders saw a kindred spirit: hardy, enduring and worm-ridden.

They loved the dog so much that in times of hunger and hardship they could only be persuaded by law to kill the dog, instead of their weak and elderly and sick.

The social tension pushed the dog to the outer edges of the island. Numbers dwindled to just 5,000.

Then, as with so many neglected treasures, the dog was restored to favour in the age of Information and Leisure.

"Then in 1980 you made it on to the national postage stamp. And you've never looked back."

"They like their needlepoint but you are their talisman. Which reminds me, how are my team getting on? Look after the beer, would you?"

It seemed very bright outside. Blinking into the light, I had a very odd moment, realising that Dave and Ermintrude were still in.

Ermintrude was on 25 and facing. It was the last ball of the over. She had determined that her runs should be got in the East, region of optimism and new beginnings.

Being at the Silbury Hill end, this required her to hit the ball just square of gully. The Architects had sussed her game plan, but instead of strengthening the field in that area, they were gloating over her naivete.

The batter's obsessive tendencies would bring about her own downfall. Just keep bowling line and length. That's what they were thinking.

C.T. "Butcher" Baker raced in with a leg-side yorker. He had gone for 14 in the previous over, I was told. He looked a little tired.

Ermintrude danced to her left like a child playing rounders, and thwacked the ball for three, just square of gulley.

Sarge was in consultation with a tall wispy fellow who looked like a doctor, who was evidently saying to him, "I can deal with this, Skip. Let me flight up a few of my specials at her."

He did. The ball went a mile up in the air. We all felt that if it came down anywhere near Ermintrude's crease it was bound to do something pretty wondrous on landing. But it didn't. It just sat up and begged.

Ermintrude had about three years to play her shot. We all knew what it would be. The ball went East at 80 mph and hit the man crouching at short leg. He hopped around for a while saying he was all right then retired hurt.

The Archaeologists went into a bit of a hole, as they do. Visibly demoralised. Ermintrude's gently-voiced apology only made matters worse.

Their twelfth man came on, Mr Wells of Durrington Walls. His father had been a professional cricketer; the son wasn't going to stand for any mucking about. He went straight to short leg. He knew what he had to do.

He was all right for two deliveries. They were dolly-drops which Ermintrude carted round from off to leg, landing them on the henge by the aeriel route.

The fourth ball of the over - was it only the fourth? A life-time had passed - was tossed a mile and a half up in the air and did actually turn on landing.

Ermintrude tried to hoik it over the boundary again but it caught the bottom edge and went, one bounce, into Mr Wells' shins. He fell over and got up again very quickly, showing no pain.

Nora’s Shrine

Even on a cold Sunday morning in February we felt very much welcomed into Nora’s shrine. Even so, it took a while to feel comfortable enough to ask permission to do a dowsing survey. The answer when it came was a resounding yes, so we set to work trying hard not to influence any of our findings.

The two plans show a simplified representation of this survey and one completed about 18 months ago. We were pleasantly surprised that even without Nora’s physical love and care and the lack of regular ceremonial use (fire included) the position of water lines had only moved marginally. Interestingly, neither the altar nor the hearth pinned either water line. The two fixing points being a piece of rose quartz (one of Nora’s protest names) in the wall close to the alter and the cairn like mound of flint to the south of the shrine, which was cleared from the shrine when it was excavated.

The greatest changes were with the powerful flow of lunar energy which reduced in size and drifted away to the east together with small flows of energy that seemed to help with balancing, of which there were numerous running from within the Shrine and out into the garden in 2004, were broken or missing in 2006. These must be the energies most influenced by ritual or the lack of it.

In spite of these changes the shrine and its surroundings had very much retained their magical feeling, the area close to the altar being the only place I felt uncomfortable.

If we compare this with other sacred and ceremonial sites we would find even with regular use some change occurs, be it seasonal, lunar or one of the many other natural or man made cycles that inspire it.

As a final note we were very aware of the very positive yet mischievous feelings we perceived during our visit, which in life Nora put to excellent use inspiring many of the people she met and changing their lives forever.

May Meeting. [and AGM]

The speaker for May was Sandie Mackenzie, who gave a talk entitled “Egyptian and Scientific Pendulums”. Sandie is involved in the Dowsing Research Group, which is a section of the British Society of Dowsers. The talk was preceded by a brief AGM, where Shaun explained that the society was in a healthy financial position and that the old committee were happy to continue. Suggestions for speakers and trips are always welcome from the members, as are contributions for the journal, or good ideas to help develop the society for the benefit of all.

After the AGM, the meeting got under way with a technical but easy to understand talk from Sandie about the special qualities and properties of certain shapes and symbols when incorporated into dowsing tools. She had brought with her a selection of the more unusually shaped pendulums that are sometimes used by healers as it is believed that the shaped are capable of emitting specific frequencies which can have a therapeutic effect.

Some of these shapes go on emitting when they are not actually in use, so they are made in sections so that they may be dismantled after use, so that accidental “overdoses” are not experienced by those nearby. The reason for this is that some of the frequencies are important as a means of working on specific imbalances, by could cause health problems if not actually required. Some of these frequencies are dowsed as colours, and “Negative Green” is a good example of a frequency that can be danger if there is excessive exposure to it, although it can be very beneficial when used to treat certain conditions.

Sandie uses dowsing to work out what is needed and how much to use. Problem buildings can be similarly improved. Many of the shapes are of ancient origin and have been used for healing and protection for a long time, and many are known by Egyptian names, e.g. Osiris, Black Osiris and Mir Isis. A circle with a dot dead centre is a potent symbol. If you draw two lines from the central dot to the perimeter with a 90degree angle where they meet at the centre, and extend these lines out of the circle forming an “L” shape, this can be used for protection, even on things like mobile phones.

After the interval Sandie had intended to have a question and answer session, but this rapidly turned into a mass “dowse-in” as, at her invitation, we all ended up at the front trying out the implements she had brought along.

Sandie’s talk and slides were much appreciated and certainly food for thought. S.C.

Water difference a Day Makes.

Wall-to-wall rain for a couple of weeks, then suddenly we are back in the draught again.

The Daily Telegraph printed a letter suggesting that the water problem in the South East could be helped if dowsers were employed to trace all the forgotten and built over wells so that they could be re-opened. The letter was accompanied by a 1930’s photograph of several members of the BSD, who looked as though they were off on a jolly to Ascot.

Of course, there would be no drought if we took note of the botanical knowledge of our forebears. It was well [sorry] known that if someone pulled up a fern, the puller would either lose his wits or cause a storm. I don’t know wether the puller had any choice in the matter!

Burning ferns could also influence the weather – the British Museum has a letter from Lord Chamberlain, the 3^rd Earl of Pembroke, to the Sheriff of Staffordshire which reads as follows;

“Sir: His Majesty taking notice of an opinion entertained in Staffordshire that the burning of Ferne doth draw down rain and being desirous that the country and himself may enjoy fair weather as long as he remains in those parts, His Majesty hath commanded me to write unto you, to cause all burning of Ferne to be forborne, until His Majesty be passed the county.”

Trip to Burton Dassett.

In spite of filthy weather and the fact that Burton Dassett is slightly further north than we usually venture for our field trips, several intrepid members showed up at the May trip.

First up was dowsing the deserted mediaeval village, which is situated high up in a hilly area. We dowsed for the site of the old street, leading to the site of an ancient gallows, long since gone, thankfully. As expected, the energies around this were strong. A second street was dowsed, also running up to the gallows site. Also there is a reconstruction of the old windmill, and a number of other old features to dowse, including an old Saxon graveyard. We gave the graveyard a miss as by this time is was raining very heavily so the pub for lunch seemed like an attractive proposition.

After lunch it was time to dowse the fascinating church, All Saints, which lies over a fault-line, giving some interesting dowsing reactions. The church is old, with massive north and south doorways, both Norman. These are the oldest parts of the current church, although there was a small church on the site in 1087. The nave of the present church straddles this site.

The church was, for some reason, partially built into the side of a hill, and the floor has several sets of steps across it so that the altar end is several feet higher than the other end. There are some mediaeval wall paintings and interesting stone carvings but most interesting from the dowsing point of view are the energies around the fault-line. This line runs right under the church and has a couple of strong “power-points”.

I encountered a very strange phenomenon associated with this line – I had no trouble walking up the nearest set of steps to the altar, but could not walk down again. It was just like walking into a wall, and I had to go round to the side and down by an alternative route. Actually standing at the point where the line passes through the wall of the church was great, but if anyone stood there too long they might well end up flying round the ceiling!

Outside the church is a well-house covering an old healing well. Unfortunately, the water in it at the moment appears to be rainwater, possibly due to the spring having dried up in the recent dry weather.

Dowsing: Ancient History

The Ancient art of dowsing has been practiced throughout millennia, although the names used to identify it may have changed in different cultures and eras, the techniques have not.

In this vein, in 1949, a party of French explorers (while searching for evidence of lost civilizations in the Atlas Mts. of North Africa) stumbled upon a massive system of caverns known as the Tassili Caves, wherein many of the walls were covered with marvelous pre-historic paintings. Among the many fascinating wall murals, not only did they locate an art gallery devoted exclusively to the depictions of spacecraft and ET's, they also found a remarkable huge wall painting of a dowser, holding a forked branch in his hand searching for water, surrounded by a group of admiring tribesmen. These wall murals were carbon dated and found to be a least 8000 years old.

During several research journeys to Egypt and the Middle East, I have photographed etchings on 4000 year old temple walls of pharaohs holding devices in their hands resembling dowsing tools. Cairo Museum is holding ceramic pendulums which have been removed from thousand-year old tombs.

In China, there is an etching of Chinese Emperor Yu who ruled China 2500 years ago, and in his hands he holds a rather bulky turn-pronged device that resembles a dowsing device.

Many passages in the Bible allude to dowsing, relating in considerable detail how both Moses and his son, Aaron, used a dowsing device referred to as "the Rod" to locate and bring forth water. In the Old Testament, the Prophet Eziekiel reports that King Nubucadnezzar of Babylon, uncertain as to which city he should attack. Jerusalem the capital of Judah or or Rebath of the Ammonites (today's modern-day Amman, Jordan) directed his dowsers or deviners to select the best target and they chose Jerusalem, leading to its seizure and the long "Babylonian captivity of the Jews".

The Jews learned the ancient art from their captors and in the Old Testament Prophet Hozea wrote: "They now consult their pieces of wood then the wand makes pronouncements from them!"

The historical records of Greece refer to dowsing and the art was widely practiced on the Island of Crete, as early as 400 BC. Researchers have uncovered evidence that the Pytheon Oracle of Delphi used a pendulum to answer the questions posed by her clients, kings, queens, nobility and military commanders who traveled great distances to confer with her.

In this regard, E.S. Cumbie in his fine book entitled, "The Psychometric Pendulum and the Pendulum Board" has this to say about dowsing and the ancient priesthood. "In ancient times, the priesthood felt that the layman did not have the belief, knowledge or training to contact the cosmic mind for enlightenment. So the poor people were forced to rely upon the priests to gain the guidance they sought from a higher source and the priests used dowsing devices to make this contact."

For example, in Ezra 3:63 of the Old Testament, it is written: "The governor told the people not to partake of the most holy food until the priest contacted Urin & Thummin". In Samuel 28:6 it says, "When Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer either in dreams by the prophets or by Urim & Thymmin". Cumbie is convinced that the words Urim & Thumin referred to dowsing devices which could have supplied crucial information and sometimes refused to do so because the priestly dowser held the wrong attitudes or phrased their questions in an incorrect manner.

The blind Greek poet Homer refers to dowsing as Rhabdomancy, which means Devining Rod in Greek. That same word is still used today in the Italian language to denote dowsing. In his monumental work "The Oddesy" Homer also called the dowsing rod the Caduceus, which was passed from Apollo (or Hermes) to Asclepious, the ancient Greek God of healing. This mystical, legendary staff with its entwined serpents has become the universal symbol of healing, used by medical societies around the planet.

Back in the 1400's, dowsing as we think of it today, was called "Virgula Devine" in Latin which meant dowsing with the rod shape. In Germany, during this period of time, dowsing devices were used extensively by miners seeking mineral ore, who referred to the forked stick as "Deuter" - an umbrella word in German - meaning "to show", "to indicate", "to point out", "to auger", "to strike".

According to Christopher Bird, author of the classic book, "The Divining Hand", no one is absolutely certain of the origin of the verb to dowse". But it seemingly made its first official appearance in 1650 in an essay written by the famous English Philosopher John Locke whose noble writings inspired the framers of our own Declaration of Independence and The Constitution of the United States. In his essay, Locke wrote that by the use of the dowsing rod, one could devise or discover water and precious minerals (such as gold & silver and mineral ore) Locke has appropriated his phrase from the long dead English west country language of Cornwall - where in Cornish Dewsys meant "Goddess", and "Rhod" meant tree branch, and from which he "coined" the phrase - Dowsing Rod.

In the 1700's and 1800's in England, Germany and France various books on mining and engineering referred extensively to dowsing, including the "1747 Mining Dictionary" and again in Bordlase's 1758 "Natural History of Cornwall", and also "The 1831 Quarterly Mining Review". Because the ancient art was widely used by miners in Germany for hundreds of years to locate water and ore deposits, today in that country libraries and museums of natural history, science, mining and engineering, private collections of art and sculptures have displays of woodcarvings, paintings and drawings, porcelain creations, coins, etc ... featuring dowsers holding forked sticks.

Interestingly, London, England's 1912 edition of "Mining Magazine" published the first translation of a Latin Opus into English. It was called "On Metals" in praise of dowsing which had been first published 356 years earlier. The translators were a professional American mining engineer and his wife. The engineer later gained fame and won notoriety as the 31st President of the U.S. -- Herbert Clark Hoover. As Chris Bird notes, "God knows, had President Hoover been an expert dowser himself, he might have predicted, and therefore, prevented the great stock market crash of 1929."

Collectively, in some of the world's finest libraries (e.g. The Library of Congress, The Widener Library of Harvard, The Sterling Library of Yale) you can find approximately 3,500 specialized books on the ancient art and the list grows steadily all the time.

First the question -- what is dowsing? Well, for those of your who are unfamiliar with the term, let me say that you won't find anything of value in current dictionaries or encyclopedias. Those comments, prepared by orthodox scholars, are incomplete and inaccurate, giving only a few descriptions, generally summarizing all with the cryptic comment, that dowsing is simply "folklore".

But as Christopher Bird points out in his "The Divining Hand", ... "throughout history, men and women characterized as diviners, dowsers, soothsayers, seers, mystics, mediums, clairvoyants, shaman, witch doctors, wizards & etc., have developed and practiced arts regarded as divine or demonic (depending on the viewpoint) and are able to answer questions that logical reason could not provide. in essence, these people through self training, diligent practice and a profound knowledge of how the universe really functioned, simply "knew things" via the faculty of what has been called the "hidden senses" or E.S.P.

Engineer Raymond C. Willey's (one of the founders of ASD back in 1961) 1970 book "Modern Dowsing" gives on the the best definitions I have encountered. Willey says: "Dowsing is the exercise of a human faculty, which allows one to obtain information in a manner beyond the scope and power of the standard human physical senses of sight, sound, touch, etc."

Author Chris Bird says that "to dowse" is to search for anything. This is generally down with the aid of a hand held instrument, such as a forked stick, a pendulum bob on a string, L-shaped metal rods or a wooden or metal wand.

The next question is simply: How does dowsing work? Countless theories abound, even today, yet, I am not absolutely certain that any one, or even a combination of such theories, discloses the whole story.

I am persuaded that Moses and the ancient priesthood clearly understood the mechanism by which it worked, however, they never released such critical data to the masses. Therefore, recognizing that to have done so, would have meant a loss of power and prestige for them. The premier consideration is simply this - dowsing works - and with proper understanding, training, time, patience, study and regular practice (especially in the beginning stages) it will work for the most important person in the world - you!

When inventor Thomas A. Edison, was once asked, "What is electricity?" He replied: "I don't know either - but its there - so lets use it".