Dowsing Cardiff
Cardiff Project: Dowsing Cardiff by
Cardiff Dowsers, 2015
Dowsing is
very much with us in modern UK. Dowsing
is the technique by which substances hidden to the human eye can be discovered
through the use of such tools as dowsing rods (traditionally the y-shaped
branch of hazel, now L-shaped metal rods) and pendulums. Here I want to give a brief outline of a
modern dowsing project. This was an
investigation of the Welsh capital city Cardiff.
The British
Society of Dowsers (BSD)[i] was
formed in 1933. It was founded and
carried into the '70s by three members of the Royal Engineers, Colonel A H
Bell, Colonel K W Merrylees and Major-General J Scott-Elliott. Today British
Dowsers are a thriving, although relatively small, charity. In 2013 they
celebrated their 80th anniversary. There are registered dowsing
practitioners and around 30 affiliated local groups, with Cardiff Dowsers[ii] being
one of them. We train and develop people to become dowsers. British Dowsers believe that everyone can
dowse and it is one of the long forgotten intuitive skills that can be
developed.
The initial
interest of the BSD was in water dowsing and related areas such as dowsing for
minerals. These are very much
traditional dowsing domains. But now dowsers have perhaps stronger interests in
healing and archaeology and Earth energies.
It is Earth energies that were the focus of the project I will describe
here.
The
mysteries of dowsing were known through the ages, and the use of dowsing to
discover minerals can easily be traced back to the medieval period in
Europe. More speculative histories can
trace dowsing back much further[iii]. Rods and pendulums are used to give
responses, mainly answer yes and no, to a question posed by the dowser. Thus, for example, the water dowser may ask
their rods to cross (and thus say 'yes') when they come above an underground
source of water. Dowsing tools are also
used by many practitioners of esoteric and healing professions. Thus, the
dowser need not only look for tangible substances, such as water or iron, but
more intangible and subtle qualities, such as 'chi' (as understood in
alternative medicines such as reiki)[iv],[v], [vi] and Earth energies. [vii], [viii], [ix], [x] , [xi], [xii] ,[xiii].There is no dowsing without a dowser, and he/she is an
instrument measuring whatever they choose to measure, so dowsing is by nature
subjective, influenced by the individual’s sensitivity and experience.
We decided
to investigate the important earth energy lines and places in Cardiff. Lines of
subtle energy are thought by dowsers to criss-cross the landscape. The lines will take different forms but one
form is the 'dragon line' recognised in traditional Chinese feng shui[xiv]. The lines will have beneficial or adverse
effects upon the people who come into contact with them, especially when live
above them. A classic study conducted in
Germany in the 1930s, for example, identified a clear correlation between the
paths of detrimental energy lines and incidences of cancer. Houses built over the lines would be
significantly more likely to see their inhabitants suffer from cancer[xv].
Our task
was, then, to understand the most important lines that run through the city of
Cardiff, and beyond this to begin to recognise the affect that these lines may
have on the lives of the city's inhabitants, and where possible, to address the
effects of detrimental lines. We knew it
would be a long and time consuming project but this didn’t deter us. In fact it
took only about five months. We knew that as we went along we’d also learn a
lot about the map dowsing, dowsing on site and about healing.
The first
task was to establish what exactly we wanted to investigate so that we all
asked for the same things while dowsing – the clarity of dowsing question is
extremely important in ensuring the accuracy of the results. We decided to
concentrate on the lines that are most important for Cardiff and the strongest
at present. We chose to ask for: Earth Energy Lines, Water Lines and
Spiritual Lines. Earth Energy lines
would typically be natural in origin, but carry energies that may be beneficial
or harmful to humans. Water lines are again natural, being
underground streams or seams of water but might become contaminated by
negative human activity as water is a very good carer of energy. Spiritual
lines will directly affect the emotional and spiritual sides of a human being
and might themselves be products of human actions or intentions. We thought of four ways in which these lines
may be of importance. They may affect
health and wellbeing, economic prosperity, spiritual prosperity and Welsh
identity and government. (While there
are undoubtedly more ways in which lines affect both individual humans and
society, this choice represented an important and yet manageable set.) A final point to be stressed is that we did
not merely trace the position of the lines.
There is typically a flow of energy along a line, so it is important to
identify the direction of flow and also the strength of the energy in the line.
We marked several stages for our
work:
1.
First,
individual map dowsing of the whole Cardiff area with an A4 map of Cardiff from
Google Earth. Yes, most dowsers agree that the nature of dowsing is spiritual
so it allows what is called remote dowsing from the map.
2.
Second,
individual map dowsing of the places with a ‘congestion’ of lines found in
stage 1, by using a larger scale town map.
3.
Third,
dowsing together on sites to confirm the results from the map dowsing and to
produce more precise lines.
4.
Fourthly,
matching results from the dowsed areas to one large Cardiff map, and identifying
if and how the lines connect between areas.
5.
Finally
performing healing ceremonies for ‘black lines’ and ‘black places’ in group
healing sessions.
11 people
took part in stage 1 and each dowsed separately for the three types of line: Earth
energies, Water, and Spiritual. When I received
33 maps, I confess I had a small panic. Will anything match at all? Then I
remembered all the wonderful and unexpected dowsing findings, synchronicities
between myself and others on many previous occasions, and so I took a deep
breath. Stop doubting, start looking, I told myself!
Amazingly our Stage 1 delivered
astonishing synchronicities on at least seven lines between 11 people who
dowsed independently at home, and of course didn’t discuss the lines before completing
the task! Pictures 1, 2 & 3 give the most striking examples.
Picture 1
Picture 2
Picture 3
How likely is it that these results
should come up? For example in Picture
1the results from 11 independent dowsers overlap significantly on a large scale
map. How can this be a coincidence? If there were no other, this is a proof that dowsing works.
Also you have to make allowances for people’s dexterity with the pencil in
drawing lines while following the movement of the pendulum. For this reason the lines won’t overlap
perfectly on a large scale map.
Following
results from Stage 1, we chose seven areas with the biggest congestion of lines
to map dowse in more details in Stage 2. These areas are marked in Picture 4
and they were: (1) Druidstone Lane, (2)
Llanrumney, (3) Southern Way, (4) Birchgrove, (5) Millenium Centre Cardiff Bay, (6) Docks
Cardiff Bay and (7) Ely/Fairwater.
Picture 4
Stage 2 delivered 7 x 3 = 21 maps, as
each of seven places was dowsed by three people. We used maps based on a large
Cardiff town map, with the scale of 4 inches to a mile. The synchronicity
between dowsers persisted and the lines which were the same or very similar
between several people were chosen for investigation on site.
Stage 3 saw,
sadly, a few people leaving the project due to other commitments, but six
intrepid dowsers persisted. An area of 1-2 miles in diameter in the centre of
each of seven places was chosen. The idea was to confirm the lines found in map
dowsing and trace them more precisely across the streets. Several outings were
organised, on average two outings per place, as it was impossible to
investigate an area in one outing. It
involved walking each line across built-up and green spaces. The biggest discovery of Stage 3 were
‘black lines’ that none of us found in map dowsing (Discovery 1). 'Black line' is the term that dowsers give to
lines that emanate energy that is detrimental to people and environment. We
concluded that it is very difficult to find ‘black lines’ in map dowsing,
unless you specifically ask for them, because people are naturally attracted to
beneficial lines. If a ‘black line’ is intertwined with a positive line, then
it is completely impossible to discover with map dowsing, but this can be done
on site.
Interestingly,
we found the beneficial lines where we were expecting them and the strength and
direction of flow were also similar to that found in map dowsing. To measure strength, we were using the usual
dowsing scale from 1 to 10 for positive lines, where 10 is the strongest, and
similarly from -1 to -10 for ‘black lines’. We found the strength from +2 to +8
of beneficial lines and in ‘black lines’ the strength varied from -3 to
-8.
Below are
couple of examples of what we found.
Picture 5 –
Southern Way
Southern
Way. We found here no negative lines,
but three very positive lines. It was not a densely inhabited area, with huge
green spaces and lots of water. Line 1 was male, +3, Earth Energy, and it
crossed with lines 2 & 3, both female,+5 and +6. The ‘male’ and ‘female’ is dictated by the
feeling of the line, it is subjective of course, and sometimes no feeling of
this kind is experienced. We discovered that positive lines liked to congregate
at water - in this case on the River Rumney.
However, Ely/Fairwater,
wasn’t so pleasant to investigate – picture 6.
Picture 6 –
Ely/Fairwater
We found
positive lines as expected, with the exception of line 1. This line started at the expected point but
then went more to the North than on our map dowse. We have also found several
unpleasant detrimental ‘black lines’, which were interconnected like a net, and
intertwined with the beneficial lines, which made them very difficult to
follow. We had to make several attempts of understanding them. Again we found
that beneficial lines liked water. They seemed to tend towards it.
The second discovery we made in Stage
3 was that sometimes it is easy to get confused when dowsing on site, and
different people discover different lines in the same place (Discovery 2). Rather than shying away from this
situation we decided to do thorough investigation, double checking each line in
turn. This gave us the benefit of more precisely mapping the lines, and finding
new additional streams of beneficial and detrimental lines.
An important
consideration arises from acknowledging the existence of detrimental
energies. The dowser potentially comes
into contact with energies (and indeed the memories and traces of traumatic
events from the past) that may adversely affect them. The
dowser must therefore adopt some form of spiritual protection before and during
dowsing. It sadly became obvious to us
how easy it is to forget about protection (Discovery 3). While protection
is something all dowsers and esoteric practitioners do, when dowsing on
site, the initial excitement of finding the lines discovered with map dowsing
can be distracting. One can also become
entranced with the atmosphere of the place and the feeling of the lines. So
protection is easily forgotten. But it is absolutely essential for feeling good
after dowsing and we kept reminding each other to do this.
We found how different areas can be
even if they are few metres away (Discovery 4). This
was experienced when standing on a very beneficial line and stepping a few
metres away from it. Also when standing on detrimental and later on beneficial
lines. Even in areas with many strong detrimental lines we discovered
little hidden places of happiness. We had to keep in mind that we were dowsing
on a very big scale as we tried to discover the most important lines for the
whole of Cardiff. But actually dowsing the specific places or people’s homes
and gardens could lead to encountering differences in Earth energies over a few
metres.
The following discovery was practical
and to do with dowsing in towns. We found it very confusing having to navigate
between the streets (Discovery 5). Obviously people's homes and gardens were
out of bounds, and we found some areas blocked off, especially in the industrial
estates and port authority areas of Cardiff Docks. This added difficulty not only to dowsing but also to transferring our
discoveries onto the map.
But the
experience of dowsing on site was usually very satisfying, and a lot of group
work and discussions were involved. We have also visited
some nice pubs! We can now be good estate agents for Cardiff, knowing where the
best ‘feel good’ areas are! Occasionally we managed to talk to local people
interested in dowsing and knowledgeable about their areas.
As one
member of the Group put it: ‘At the first street dowsing undertaken (I felt)
perhaps some anxiety as to potential reactions of people wondering what we were
doing, might not have made it the best experience. Together with as it was my
first dowse I perhaps had little faith in my abilities! Having said that, I did
find it very interesting and was amazed that I could find not only lines, but
the strengths etc. matched my findings, so I must have been on the right track!
Roads were a bit disorientating so could have affected some results. Overall I
have increased my confidence, my enjoyment was great and I loved the thrill of
finding the lines as projected on the maps.’
Stage 4 was extremely interesting as
a few of us spread out our big Cardiff map and placed on it the seven small
dowsed areas. We wanted to see if and how the lines found in the seven areas
connected with each other across Cardiff.
Much pendulum work was involved. We repeated each finding several times
to ensure it was correct. To our (continuing) amazement the lines found on
small area maps connected across Cardiff. We found a network of Earth Energy lines in Cardiff.
Both kinds of lines – beneficial
lines and detrimental ‘black lines’ – connect across Cardiff. We traced the
lines as far as the map allowed us, and found that none of the ‘black lines’
were very long – they originated and ended within the Cardiff, or just outside
Cardiff. The
beneficial lines, on the contrary, were longer and we could not trace their
origin or ending within the boundaries of the map. They also seem to be older
than the ‘black lines’ on average. Please see below Picture 7: the map of the
whole of Cardiff with ‘black lines’ marked in white, beneficial lines –
colourful lines; red star – Cardiff Castle.
The beneficial lines were not found
in expected places – such as Cardiff Castle, Cardiff Museum and City Hall – but
the line marked in yellow just circles above these places. To our utter
amazement we found that out final map of Cardiff contained seven beneficial and
seven ‘black lines’. We discovered this two weeks after connecting the lines.
Has the number seven special importance for Cardiff?
Picture 7
The last
Stage 5 involved healing the ‘black lines’.
These lines may have numerous causes, but frequently originate in
traumatic human events, such as conflicts, crimes and violence. If this trauma can be healed, then the line
itself will lose its detrimental quality.
As we understand it, just like everybody can dowse similarly everybody
can heal – you only need an intention to do this. We used the usual healing
procedures adopted from John Living[xvi] that begin with meditating about the
place and it is followed by the act of sending love and forgiveness to the
victims but also to the perpetrators.
What next?
We would like to repeat the healing with a larger group of people. We also
would like to have the experience of walking the beneficial lines, and to
measure their energy with dowsing tools before and after walking. This should
be enjoyable. As dowsers believe the process of walking and interacting with
the lines would enlarge their energy, which should radiate throughout the whole
of Cardiff.
This work
will also provide the background to healing specific places and homes in
Cardiff. This should be satisfying as there is much going on from the dowsing/subtle
energy point of view and almost all of it unexpected.
[ii]
https://www.britishdowsers.org/affiliated-groups/local/cardiff-and-district-dowsers/
[iii]
Christopher Bird, The Divining Hand, The 500-year-old Mystery of
Dowsing, Whitford Press, 1993
[iv] Adrian Incledon-Webber, Heal Your Home,
Dowsing Spirits, 2013.
[v] Hamish Miller, It’s Not Too Late,
Penwith Press, 1998
[vi] Arthur Bailey, Anyone Can Dowse
for Better Health: Identify Your Food Sensitivities and Mineral Supplement
Needs to Balance Your Diet, W Foulsham & Co Ltd, 1998.
[vii] Robin Heath, PowerPoints, Secret
Rulers & Hidden Forces in the Landscape, Bluestone Press, 2005.
[viii] John Michell, The New View Over
the Atlantis, Thames and Hudson, 2001.
[ix] Robin Heath & John Michell, The
Lost Science of Measuring the Earth, Adventures Unlimited Press, nd.
[x] Paul Deveroux, The New Ley
Hunter’s Guide, Gothic Image Publications, 1994.
[xi] Tom Graves, Needles of Stone,
Grey House in the Woods, 2007.
[xii] Paul
Broadhurst and Hamish Miller, The Sun
and the Serpent, Mythos, 1990.
[xiii] Gary Biltcliffe and Caroline Hoare, The
Spine of Albion, Sacred Lands Publishing, 2012.
[xiv]
Simon G Brown, The Feng Shui Bible: Godsfield Bibles, Godsfield Press, 2009
[xv] Kather Bachler, Earth Radiation,
John Living, 2007.
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