What is a Pendulum?

Most people think of a hypnotist swinging a watch back and forth when they hear the word pendulum. Pendulums take many forms but basically consist of a chain with a weight of some sort on one end.

Proponents claim that all things give off energy and pendulums are sensitive to this energy. The direction in which a pendulum is swinging reportedly changes based on the energy that the pendulum encounters.

One of the pendulums most famous uses is dowsing. In olden days pendulums were used to dowse (search) for water. According to folk lore the presence of water nearby would cause a swinging pendulum to dip strongly enough to cause the person holding the pendulum to feel as if something had suddenly and lightly pulled on the pendulum.

This practice is sometimes called witching for water. In modern times dowsing is used to search out much more than water.

One popular use for a pendulum is searching for lost or hidden objects. This is generally done with a map or a blueprint of a building. The pendulum is held by the seeker who verbalizes what he/she is looking for while visualizing what they wish to find. As with dowsing for water, the pendulum reportedly drops causing the seekers hand to dip slightly when it is over the spot on the map that shows where the lost or hidden object is located.

People also use pendulums to evaluate the health and energy flow of their chakras. A pendulum that swings clockwise when allowed to dangle over a chakra indicates that the chakra is healthy and open. A pendulum that swings counter clockwise when dangling over a chakra indicates that the chakra is blocked.

Pendulums are also a tool for divination. Many people using pendulums use them as a tool to help them access their subconscious minds or divine beings. Using a pendulum for this purpose can be tricky.

There are not very many ways that the pendulum can swing so the answers that it gives are limited to varying degrees of yes, no and uncertain. This requires the user to ask very specific questions. Someone using a pendulum for this would generally begin by assigning a yes or no answer to bother the clockwise and counter-clockwise pendulum swings.

This is accomplished by the user verbally telling the pendulum which is a yes answer and which direction is a no answer while swinging the pendulum in the appropriate direction.

Some users will draw a chart divided and labeled with possible answers. They then dangle the pendulum over the chart while asking a question and dowse for the answer.