Pendulum - The Power of Insight: Divination Systems, Tools, and Practices

The Encyclopedia of Crystals, Herbs, and New Age Elements: An A to Z Guide to New Age Elements and How to Use Them - Adams Media 2016

Pendulum
The Power of Insight: Divination Systems, Tools, and Practices

ORIGINS

A pendulum is an item that swings freely from a fixed point under the influence of gravity. You are probably familiar with pendulums as the timekeeping elements of certain types of clocks, but they have many other applications. They are used in religious traditions as well as practices such as dowsing (see entry in this chapter). Pendulums also have a variety of spiritual and healing uses.

HISTORY/LORE

The Italian astronomer, physicist, engineer, philosopher, and mathematician Galileo Galilei (1564—1642) became interested in the study of pendulums after observing a swinging chandelier. He went on to make an important discovery about pendulums: The time it takes for a pendulum to complete one swing remains almost exactly the same, regardless of the size of the arc it makes. Building on Galilei’s work, the Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens (1629—1695) built the first pendulum clock in 1656. Censers—incense burners that swing at the end of a chain—appear in various religious and cultural traditions, such as Catholicism.

USES

Radiesthesia is the use of a pendulum to locate an object or substance or to assess the energy (or “radiation”) of a subject. One example of this is dowsing, which was discussed earlier in this chapter. Instead of using a dowsing rod to locate water or minerals underground, a pendulum may be used. The process is very similar: You assign meanings to the various movements of the pendulum (for example, swinging from left to right means there is water) and then walk slowly over the search area. Another way to use pendulums is to get answers to questions about your life. You simply “program” the pendulum (deciding which movement means “yes” and which means “no”), and then you ask questions out loud and wait for answers. Pendulums are also used for locating imbalances in the chakras and detecting illness.