Dowsing rods: how to hold them, read them, and their history

1. The Y rod and the L rods

   The Y rod, traditionally cut from a forked hazel branch, is held by its two arms, palms up, with the tip slightly raised in front of you. L rods, often copper or brass, come in pairs: one in each hand, the short side held loosely, the long side parallel to the ground. Starting position: elbows close to the body, rods straight ahead, then a slow walk. To make L rods, unfold two metal coat hangers, with the short side about 5 inches (a dozen centimeters) long.

2. When they cross

   For dowsers, L rods that cross in front of the chest mark the point being sought; if they swing apart, they are said to indicate a boundary or a direction. The Y rod dips toward the ground or rises sharply. Each dowser sets their own convention, as with the pendulum. The movement is real: the wrists, tilting barely at all, are enough to make light rods pivot.

3. A little history

   In 1556, Georgius Agricola describes in De re metallica the forked rod of miners, preferably cut from hazel, with an engraving to illustrate. He reports the quarrels it stirred up among them, doubts its effectiveness, attributes its movement to the way it is held, and advises watching the signs of the terrain instead. Later, the rod turned to the search for water; in the 19th century, the chemist Chevreul studied the rod, the pendulum, and table-turning in a single book.

4. The dowser’s trade today

   Dowsers still practice, mostly in the countryside, where landowners consult them before digging a well. Many describe themselves as sensitive to zones of the ground that they say they feel through the rods. Their practice rests on experience and handing down, with no common protocol. No success is guaranteed: according to hydrogeologists, many regions of France have a water table at shallow depth, which makes successes hard to attribute to the rod.

5. What the tests show

   In 1990, in Kassel, about thirty dowsers agreed to look for water running in buried pipes: according to James Randi’s account, their results stayed at the level of chance. The guide “Is the pendulum accurate?” presents these trials in more detail.

Blind tests have done no better than chance: the movement is thought to come from small involuntary movements of the hand. Never ask a pendulum a question about health, money, or the law: see a professional.