How to Use a Pendulum

The use of a pendulum is a great asset to anyone wishing to follow the path of the Goddess. Divinatory tools work with the subtle emanations of your being, your ‘supersensual’ apparatus, or ‘sixth sense’. A pendulum (as do other instruments of divination) reacts to the subtle signals that pass through your energy system in response to the things you experience or contemplate. These signals remain undetected under ‘normal’ conditions, but they are the basis of your intuitive faculties. They can be made visible in the way your pendulum responds.

As with divining tools, your pendulum can be influenced by your emotions, thoughts and will. It is therefore very important to first set a clear intention, and to relax and surrender to the process, so that you put your thoughts and feelings aside and let the energy flow through you, without prejudice. You need to establish, and maintain, a ‘clear channel’. Your pendulum will be your antenna to receive the truth of your Self.

1. Get a pendulum. Pendulums can be quite sophisticated in design and in the materials from which they are made. Basically, a pendulum consists of any small object (between one and two inches long), preferably spherical of tear-shaped, that comes to a point at the bottom and is suspended by a thread, string or chain at the top. Crystals and other stones are a good choice for your pendulum.

2. You now want to ‘tune’ your pendulum to your personal energy field.

       First sit and relax. Breathe slowly and deeply from the diaphragm to calm and still your mind. Pick up your pendulum and hold its string, just above the top of the pendulum, between your thumb and forefinger. You now hold the pendulum about 2 inches over your other hand, that is held, palm upwards, beneath it.
Relax your hand and arm muscles and, breathing slowly and deeply, swing the pendulum back and forth. Now ‘walk’ your thumb and forefinger slowly up the string, while the pendulum continues to swing. At a certain pont, the pendulum ‘comes alive’ and starts to rotate in a circular fashion. This is your ‘sweet spot’. (It is generally located up the string at a distance of about two and a half times the length of the pendulum). This is the point at which you will want to hold the string. You can knot the string, or mark the position in some way.

3. Now to establish which direction of pendulum rotation represents the positive and the negative response for you. Imagine yourself as a compass, with north in front of you and south behind you. Holding the string of your pendulum at the established position, swing it back and forth along the north/south axis. Mentally ask a question that has a definitive affirmation answer, like ‘Is my name (your name)?’ Hold your hand and mind steady. Breathe. The pendulum should start to rotate in a clockwise or anti-clockwise direction. The direction of the spin now defines your affirmative response, your ‘Yes’. Double check it. Also check the negative response, using the same approach, but with something for which you know the answer to be ‘No’.

4. Dedicate your pendulum and set your intention in the following way:

     
O Great Goddess
You who are one
With my Higher Self
Please use this pendulum
To convey your will to me
So I may act in accordance
With my evolutionary destiny

You have now established the energetic field for working with your pendulum.
You can always re-affirm your intention each time you use your pendulum.
You and your pendulum are now ready to start divining or dowsing.

5.    Holding your pendulum in the manner established above, and usung the same techniques to still yourself and your mind, form your question in your consciousness and mentally place it in the palm of the hand you hold beneath the pendulum. Now swing the pendulum back and forth as you focus on your question. Make the question one that requires a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ answer.
The pendulum should start to spin in one direction or the other. The will give you your answer. The intensity of the spin can be an indicator of how big a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ is involved. If the pendulum doesn’t really spin one way or the other, it means that the issue is still ‘in the balance’, that ‘the jury is still out’, or that the information is not ready to be accessed right now. In this case, you can try again later, or re-phrase the question.

6.   Things are always shifting in their alignments. A ‘No’ one day can be a ‘Yes’ on another, according to the fluctuating currents of energy and ‘windows of opportunity’ that arise. It is suggested, however, that you don’t ‘bully’ or ‘pester’ your pendulum by asking the same thing repeatedly over a short period of time. The pendulum likes to have its wisdom respected and may play tricks on you if it feels that it is not.

7.    If you are serious about using your pendulum to guide you in the way of the Goddess, it is recommended that you form a scared trust with your pendulum and how you use it. Once it has revealed its own authentic wisdom to you – which is, of course, your own inner knowing reflected back to you – you can trust it to guide you. It order for it to do so, you need to surrender your will, your ego. Simply put, you promise yourself that you will follow the pendulum’s guidance impeccably, no matter what your conscious mind may think or want.

N.B. If you get an answer whose implications could cause harm to yourself or any other living being, you can be assured that it is not guidance coming from your Higher Self. This is not in alignment with the nature of Goddess transmission. Do not follow that kind of directive because it reveals that you do not currently have a ‘clear channel’ and it could indicate psychic interference. Consult the Oracle for ways to address this condition.

• It is interesting to note that your ‘Higher Self’, your ‘gut reaction’ and your ‘inner knowing’ are generally much in accord. It is only the machinations of the mind as it tries to work things out, the tricks of the power-hungry ego, or infantile and distorted emotions that get in the way of our ‘clear seeing’. A pendulum can lift the burden of choice and worry from your over-worked brain and give it back to your Goddess Self, who is far more qualified to choose.