Solving Five Common Pendulum Dowsing Issues

Pendulum dowsing is one of my favorite ways to connect with the spiritual realm. I’ve been dowsing for years. As an intuitive development teacher, I’ve heard beginners have issues with the same pitfalls.

Here are the most common ones, with advice on how to overcome them:

1. My pendulum swings so slowly that the movements are too minor to see.

This is quite normal for beginners. It may take a while for your pendulum to make its first movements. The more experience you have, the quicker your pendulum will begin to move. If you want to speed things up, or if your pendulum movements are too insignificant to see, here are some tips that may help you.

• If pendulum movements are too slow or too small, your arm may be too tense. This makes it difficult for pendulum movements to come through. Arm tenseness is often connected to anxiety about “getting this right.” So, relax your muscles. You won’t get accurate answers if you clench your arm.
• Hold your pendulum in the correct place. Some beginners hold the pendulum too close to the end of the string. This makes the pendulum’s movement too slow. Others hold the string too far down, near the pendulum. Holding it this far down causes the movements to be too fast. The best place to hold the pendulum and maintain sufficient control of it is about halfway down the string—about 6 inches above the pendulum.
• Lean your holding arm’s elbow on something. If you don’t, you’re probably tensing your arm muscles to support the pendulum, leading to slower or smaller movements. I usually rest the elbow of my dowsing arm on a table. If I’m not in front of a table, I rest my elbow in my other hand.

2. When I ask the pendulum my question, the answer sometimes pops into my head before my pendulum can respond.

It’s totally normal for the answers to pop into your head before your pendulum can answer. This often happens to beginners.  It means that you have claircognizance abilities that are kicking in.

It generally doesn’t mean that you’re making up the answers or that your thoughts are taking control.

3. I get conflicting answers from my pendulum that don’t make sense. I receive “maybe” answers to questions that it doesn’t make sense to receive “maybe” answers to.

Here are several possibilities:

• The pendulum doesn’t respond solely to your questions. It also responds to your thoughts.

When your pendulum responds to a question in a seemingly erratic way, or in a way that isn’t making sense. you’re probably having thoughts unrelated to the question you’re asking. The pendulum is responding to your thoughts as well as to your question. To avoid this, quiet your mind before you began.

• You’re channeling earthbound spirits with the pendulum. When there’s an earthbound spirit in your energy field, problems with accuracy can arise.
• If you’re too attached to the answer, you may be causing the pendulum to swing in a certain way. If this is happening, try letting the question rest until you’re in a place where you don’t care about it so much. It’s difficult to be objective about things that concern you, so don’t be anxious if you’re in this position. Let it rest for a few days, returning when you feeling less invested. Alternatively, have somebody else perform the reading for you.
• You may be receiving conflicting answers or misinformation if you’re asking about something, but it wouldn’t serve you to have the answer just then. Try asking your Higher Self, “Would it be good for me to obtain an immediate answer to this question?”

These issues can also occur if you’re not experiencing success trying to channel information on a question using methods that don’t involve pendulum dowsing, such as automatic writing or channeling.

4. I double-checked the answers my pendulum gave, and it gave me different answers the second time.

When dowsing, don’t ask the same question twice. Always go with your first answer. Second-guessing your first answer can introduce the energy of doubt and disrupt the whole process. Asking the same question again is like saying, “I’m uncertain about that first answer. It wasn’t good enough for me. I’d like a different one.” This is a blatant attempt to affect the outcome of the dowsing, bending it to the answer that your ego wants.

5. I still can’t get the pendulum to work for me. It’s not responding at all, or I still receive answers that don’t make sense.

Sometimes when you receive inaccurate information by dowsing, you may have fears or unconscious blocks about dowsing. These could be rooted in a past life, or your conscious mind may be telling you that dowsing won’t ever work for you.

To help get the pendulum to respond properly, try using these clearing statements. I recommend that you say them out loud.

• “I release my fears regarding pendulum usage. I reject all judgments, perceptions, and beliefs that I can’t or shouldn’t use the pendulum. I release all desire and requirement to believe that I can’t or shouldn’t use the pendulum. I accept and totally believe that I’m now free to receive accurate information and reliable signals.”
• “I release all my fears about answering the questions. I will not resist the answer. I allow my subconscious to answer the questions.”

These clearing statements will reprogram your subconsciousness to reject resistance and fear. As a beginner, you may find you need to use releasing statements several times before obtaining a “yes” or “no” answer from the pendulum.

If you’ve tried all these suggestions but dowsing still doesn’t work for you, you may need to try another method to connect with your spiritual guides. Give pendulum dowsing a break and instead try tarot cards, oracle cards, automatic writing, claircognizance or clairaudient channeling, or guided visualization.