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.
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.
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?
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.
[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.
[xvi] John Living (editor) Holistic Exorcism, Manual , The Holistic Intuition Society, 2013.