The Divining Rod and Water Witching | Dowsing Rods Explained

When it comes to forms of divination, the mind conjures many images. Vibrantly colored decks of tarot cards, crystal balls, and spirit boards may be the first that leap to mind. 

Others may find themselves drawn to more modern gear in their attempts to contact spirits, like REM pods and EMF detectors. Yet somewhere in between lies a more overlooked tool that can be used for divination or ghost hunting. 

Dowsing rods, or divining rods, have been around for hundreds of years, serving a multitude of uses from the practical to the paranormal. Their history is vast, spanning multiple continents and cultures; simultaneously, their use is highly contested, with some calling the practice pseudoscience. 

Others, however, stand by the time-tested practice, revering the rods for their ability to locate valuable objects and enigmatic energies. 

Those curious about this mystical apparatus can pick up their pair of contemporary dowsing rods and try to divine, locate lost things, or communicate with the spirit world. To see all our offerings, check our signature line of spooky merchandise, where you can find some of the best ghost-hunting equipment available.

How Do Dowsing Rods Work?

Ask anyone who believes in dowsing how the tool does its job, and they’ll tell you they don’t know how this divining method works; they simply know that it does. This mysterious practice in which a metal or wood tool locates buried or unseen things like water, treasure, or certain energies has been used for centuries. 

More recently, it has been adopted by those seeking to detect the presence of spirits or even to communicate with them

What Are Dowsing Rods

The cryptic method of dowsing has been used for centuries to find all kinds of commodities, from groundwater, minerals, and gemstones to answers to otherworldly questions. Over the years, dowsing rods have been used to find oil, buried treasure, energies in the earth, or homes — even missing pets. 

The practice of dowsing to find these highly sought-after materials predates the Enlightenment period, being thought to have arisen sometime in 15th-century Germany. There, finding precious metals linked to alchemy likely started as a magical practice. Still, the most famous use of dowsing rods may be water witching. 

How Water Witching Works

Those who need to find underground water know it’s an expensive process even today. You can consult a geologist, scan the environment for indicators, or make an educated guess according to your neighbor’s wells. 

Digging down is the only way to be completely sure, and if you guess wrong, you’ll just have to try again. 

Dowsing or water witching was one such old-world method of finding underground water. Also called “water smelling” or “well prophesying,” practitioners would use forked or L-shaped twigs from hazel, willow, or peach trees, believing that when they dipped, it indicated that water was below them. 

Some still use this practice, although modern dowsers tend to use thin L-shaped metal rods. When the metal rods cross into an X, it is thought to represent that the dowser has hit the correct spot.

You’ll see plenty of disbelievers when it comes to using dowsing rods to locate water. Yet stories of their startling accuracy abound, and the practice of modern-day dowsing remains alive and well. The American Society of Dowsers is the largest organized body of dowsers worldwide. 

Other associations intended to study the practice of dowsing and share its potential exist worldwide, including the Canadian Society of Dowsers, the British Society of Dowsers, and the Irish Society of Diviners, among many other notable groups. 

How To Use Dowsing Rods

Water divining is just one use for divination rods. More recently, they’ve been adopted by the ghost-hunting community to locate ghostly inhabitants or ask questions in the spirit world. Many find a pair of L-shaped copper rods ideal for this purpose. 

To use dowsing rods in this manner, hold them firmly but not too tightly. You want to hold each divining rod in a relaxed position with your elbows close to your sides.

 Next, you’ll need to calibrate your rods — this means determining what movement means yes and what means no. You can simply state aloud which action means which to do so. 

After you’ve established which action means what (i.e., crossed rods indicate a “yes” and open rods indicate a “no”), you can begin asking questions. 

Many diviners using rods to speak with spirits recommend first introducing yourself and asking if the spirit would like to talk to you. If they say no, it’s best to respect their wishes. If the response is positive, you can continue asking questions that require yes or no responses. 

If you would like to use your rods to detect the presence of a spirit, many say that the rods will turn inward to form an X to represent a site where a spirit’s energy may be especially strong. You can begin any investigation with this step, locating the presence of a spirit. 

If the rods begin to react erratically at any point, you can ask the spirit if they would like to lead you somewhere, show you anything, or tell you something. Use your intuition to decipher what they are saying or allow the rods to guide you in the direction they point towards. 

Tips for Using Dowsing Rods

• Keep Sessions Short, At First — Those new to dowsing may find holding the rods tiring in the beginning. It is better to work up to longer periods of time holding them so you can maintain a steady hand throughout.
• Practice Frequently — Using divining rods is a skill that is best developed over time. With any skill, you will improve the more you do it. 
• Learn How The Rods Speak To You — How your dowsing rods speak to you may differ from how they speak to another. Keep an open mind while you and your rods develop your own personal language. 
• Don’t Share Your Rods—Many believe rods become attuned to a certain person over time. It’s best not to let others interfere with this connection by allowing them to handle them.
• Be Polite — Always be respectful; whenever you are finished, thank the spirit for their time. Just because they’re deceased doesn’t mean they have nothing better to do. 
• Stay Safe — Never allow your rods to lead you into danger, like oncoming traffic, sites on which you’d be trespassing, or other unsafe spaces. 

Dowsing Rods Explained

Those attempting to discredit the efficacy of dowsing may claim it is simply a product of the ideomotor effect, where unconscious suggestions trigger small muscle movements that we are unaware of. However, these individuals claim that planchettes moving across spirit boards are simply a product of our unconscious desire for answers. 

Ultimately, whether these divination techniques hold any water is for the user to decide. You’ll find plenty of skeptics out there — but there are also heaps of dedicated supporters who adamantly believe in the power of dowsing, be it for finding groundwater or answering life’s deepest questions. 

The only way you’ll ever know for sure is to try the practice yourself. Fortunately, US Ghost Adventures offers a pair of Genuine Copper Dowsing Rods amongst our Ghost Daddy ghost-hunting gear line. 

Tested and trusted by a long list of paranormal investigators, these exceptional instruments are just one of our many spooky novelties available for purchase.  

To stay in touch for news about haunted locations across America and new releases in our spectral goods, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok. 

Sources:

• https://www.britannica.com/topic/dowsing
• https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/exploration-survival/dowsing-water-magic-mystery/
• https://www.wonderopolis.org/wonder/what-is-water-witching 
• https://dowsers.org/ 
• https://theothersidetv.ca/ghost-hunting-resources/ghost-hunting-tips-tricks/dowsing-rods-investigation/
• https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/pseudoscience-environment/dowsing-dowse-it-work