Pendulum 101

As a skeptic at heart, I have to say that I need proof with my pudding…not IN the pudding. If it’s in the pudding, I will never, ever, ever find it. I need the proof neatly labeled, like the ingredients in the pudding mix before ever making or partaking of said pudding.

It’s just how I am.

Now you may very well ask…how the hell does a skeptic become a hard polytheist who runs around speaking to miscellaneous spirits, expecting them to listen to her? It does seem to be a bit hypocritical. After all, how does one prove that you’re actually hearing whichever spirit you think you’re communicating with?

Difficult, but not impossible. This is where my pendulum comes in.

First, I had already learned a very rational, plausibly scientific rationalization about why pendulums work. It has just enough science in it for me to believe it’s possible that they actually work this way. It goes something like this:

Your muscles make all sorts of twitches and spasms you’re not even aware of. Constantly. By holding a pendulum, your subconscious mind can communicate through those muscle twitches, bypassing that old bear of a conscious, logical mind that normally throws out anything even slightly interesting.

With me so far?

By bypassing the logical part of the personality, it is then possible to communicate directly with…well, whoever you choose. Your Higher Self, your Intuition, your Younger Self, your Gods/Goddesses, your Ancestors, your Muertos, your Orishas,  your Lwa…

Whoever.

Because they can communicate directly through your subconscious. They will, and they do. Thing is, in those of us with fairly strong conscious minds that love the logical side of life, the subconscious fairly regularly gets beaten into submission. And those messages then get lost, ignored, harassed, teased, twisted, and forgotten. Then we sit on our hands and wonder why our gods/spirits don’t love us.

They do. No, really. They do. Just sometimes we’re not so good at listening. When the subconscious comes into play…well, let’s face facts. In this culture, we are not encouraged to listen to it. We’re encouraged to ignore it, analyze it, and reject it. If we do listen to it, this culture has us so hornswaggled that we will twist and bend it, scrutinize it, doubt it, and eventually end up doing absolutely nothing about it because we simply can not believe it.

Enter the pendulum. Now I have a tool that allows me to bypass my logical mind. With it I can go directly to my subconscious mind, to that part of myself that still receives the messages and…I can receive those messages without having to scrutinize or debunk them because I know they are real and true.

Hot damn.  Sign me up.

So what exactly is a pendulum? Here’s the best part. Yes, you can buy a pendulum online. They come in all kinds of different shapes and sizes…and price points. They’re brass and wood ones that are sold as energetically “neutral.” There are pendulums made from glass. There are pendulums made from various gemstones. There are pendulums made from metals with compartments to stash secret writings, incantations, herbs, gems, or what-have-you. As fancy as you want it, is as fancy as you can get it. The sky is, quite literally, the limit.

Does it really matter?

Well, yes and no.

Essentially, a pendulum is anything at all, tied to a string. Anything. Those old single earrings you’ve got lying around? Tie a cord to one. Voila, pendulum. Wrap waxed cord around a rock from outside. It’s a pendulum. Tie a ring to a string, it’s a pendulum. In a pinch I’ve even used a necklace with a charm on it.

Fancy is not necessary.

There are some people who will say they can only work with this or that kind of pendulum. It’s possible, I suppose. I will never argue with someone who believes that. However, that’s what I find it to be. A belief. I have never had a problem. Everything I’ve ever attempted to use as a pendulum, every pendulum I’ve ever picked up, every pendulum I’ve ever made or borrowed, has worked for me in exactly the same way each and every time. Some will swing larger than others…but having made quite a few now I can honestly say that’s a matter of the length of the chain/cord/whatever and the weight of the pendulum that causes that.

I will also say however that of all the materials used for pendulums, the one that seems to have the most number of complaints are those made from gemstones. Some people’s vibrations apparently just do not seem to jive with certain stones. Theoretically possible. It’s also possible that if it is something you did not make yourself, that you purchased or something someone else made for you or even a pendulum you borrowed from another person…your energies may contrast with energies picked up from it. You might find it works just fine after a good cleansing. It could happen, anyway…

If you’d like to make a pendulum for yourself & you’re handy with beads, it’s simple enough to do. Grab a head pin, pile some beads/stones on it, attach to a chain. Voila! Pendulum. I find they look nicer if they’re pointy at the bottom so I have a tendency to put a bead cap at the top, pointy end down. It does give the pendulum a nice professional look to it.

Simple enough, right?

Okay…to prevent going on tooooooo long in one post, I’ll get into the details of actually using a pendulum in the next post…and then after that some of the warnings about talking to spirits with a pendulum…and eventually in all of that, other methods of using a pendulum. They are incredibly useful little devices.