They stirred memories of about 25 years ago. We were caravanning in one of my favourite areas - Wiltshire, the "cradle of the British race". One day my wife dropped me and the dog (the glorious Sabre) off so that I could walk the ancient track over the Pewsey Downs and across the fields down to Silbury Hill and the 5,000 year old cult centre of Avebury. As we walked we passed through the ancient hill-fort of Rybury Hill
and I reflected that the track we were on must have been used by those original occupants to go down to festivals at Avebury, just as we were that sunny day.
Eventually, as we approached Silbury we came to the prehistoric long barrow of West Kennet
a burial chamber which, when excavated was found to be packed with dis-articulated skeletons of the ancient race which occupied the Avebury area. It is able to be accessed so dog and I went in to look around. I have a deep "sense of place" (the genius loci) and found the atmosphere affecting. But Sabre was absolutely fascinated and I could not get him away. Of course there may have been some dead animal tucked away in there but I like to think that dogs can feel things we don't.
This is all by way of introduction to the event which then took place. A small old lady was standing outside by the massive entrance stones and doing something with two metal rods that she held in her hands. I watched her whilst waiting for Sabre, then politely asked what she was doing. When she could see I was a genuine enquirer she explained that she was dowsing with rods and that when they encountered an "energy field" they would cross in her hands. "Try it", she said, "anyone can do it".
I did and the hairs stood up on the back of my neck when the rods crossed as I went between those entrance stones. She said that people spent a lot on dowsing rods but that she made hers from old metal coathangers. "It is the dowser, not the equipment that matters", she said
Well, I was sufficiently interested to make my own and had some success with them finding the courses of lost Roman roads and prospecting archeological sites. These were what I found it that old brief case the other day.
Why it works I don't know. How it works I have no idea. But work it does. I am not, nor ever have been, some "New Age" hippy, but will accept that there may be "more things in heaven and earth Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosopy"
Dowsing seems to be in the news at present with Russell Crowe's new film, "The Water Diviner" so I thought this warranted a post.
8 comments:
Spoooooooooky!
love Daughter x
Dogs do feel things humans don't; notably perpetual hunger. A sensation that comes at a high price since few dogs in my experience have any appreciation of satiety.
Dowsing has been confirmed by many and yet I prefer to be sceptical. The fact that the wouldbe dowser almost always has some aim in mind must, I feel, play a part in the outcome. Incidentally you appear to be a schismatic on this subject; other dowsers swear by birch twigs in the form of a capital Y. Keen to pursue the validity of dowsing in my pre-teens I needed some way of identifying a birch twig and asked my father (a townie besotted with country matters) to draw me a birch leaf. With other things on his mind at the time he drew a leaf that looked like all the other leaves on the planet's surface. Thus the project foundered at an early stage.
I think my response to dowsing is akin to Robbie's. Being something of a 'doubting Thomas' I would prefer to see with my own eyes before passing judgement. On the other hand, I take it as read that you are a bona fide operator, and I have no cause to doubt you. I think I will try to keep an open mind, tinged with a little sense of wonder.
Daughter:
Not spooky, m'dear, but it certainly excited my curiosity.
RR:
I believe the whole essence of dowsing is for the dowser to be thinking about that for which he is dowsing. Amusing story about the birch leaf!
Tom:
As regards keeping an open mind; I certainly always do. If it works for others there may be something in it. I have read of a professional dowser who takes time off to dowse for water in African villages (all pro bono) and has found much needed fresh water springs for about 50 so far.
Hello Avus, long time no see :) I very much enjoyed your experience. I think I believe there is something to the dowsing. In my family there were those who could find water in this manner....or so they said. I am not sure of the science behind it, but I do believe in energy fields, or maybe it is the energy from within ourselves. I know there was an experiment I tried once, with a ring on a string. You tie the ring to the string then hold it with both hands, as still as you can. On a piece of paper beneath the ring make an cross inside a circle. From right to left is the answer yes, up and down is the answer, NO. Then ask yourself a question that can be answered in yes or no. And watch the ring begin to swing to the right answer. When you ask a question that can not be answered in yes or no, it will swing in a circle. Works every time for me, and when I ask a new question, the ring will change position if the answer goes from yes to no. Why does it work, I have no idea, but it has to be something to do with our internal energy and nerve impulses?
Anyway, how the heck have you been, since we last talked to one another my children have grown up....I have grown a lot more gray hairs.....and I have gotten six cats. :)
Neoma
Good to hear from you again after all this time. I, too, have grown grey hairs (what's left of them!)I have been a bit greedy and managed to have two strokes but am still ambulant and enjoy life. Horizons have contracted though. I no longer motorcycle great distances and cycle with the aid of an electric bike. Our 5th dog died last year and we have no cats.
Reading this, it seems an uninteresting life over the years since we last "met", but I guess that's how most folk trudge through life.....
I dowsed for water once and found a massive damp patch hidden in our house! I didn't know they could be used for ancient trackways though. That sounds intriguing.
Nice to hear from you again, Valonia. I guess dowsing for water on/in your present abode would be fairly easy!
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