Local Dowsing Group News:  No. 60

Dowsing for the present moment
Previous editions have mentioned the University of the Third Age as a potential source of new dowsers.

Malvern recently held a practical session on the benefits of dowsing for Christmas prezzie selection with the local U3A dowsing group.

Grow your own hairy beavers available from findmeagift.co.uk
The subject is a particularly rich one. In addition to its timeliness, it is also a matter of integrating…
...
  • A list of people (for whom you intend to buy presents)
  • A list of possible presents, or categories thereof (food, books, etc.)
  • Categories within presents
  • Which present for which person ?
  • Which dowsing technique to use ? (numbers on a semi-circular plate)
  • ... identifying the relative strength of the choice of present
  • The benefits of 'concretisation' (small rubber ducks on the above) ...

Alfred Watkins
The anniversary of Watkin's revelation takes place on June 30th 2021, and we believe that various events are being planned.
CJ




Article by James Thurgill
As a cultural geographer living and working in Japan, I seldom have the opportunity to engage with readers of Alfred Watkins’ work, let alone correspond with anyone with an interest in dowsing and geomantic practices.

It came as something of a surprise, then, to find an email from Ced Jackson in my inbox kindly asking me to pen a short piece for the LDGN. I must confess, I am not a dowser (though I do own a beautiful pair of copper dowsing rods). However, my doctoral research into geographic practices of contemporary British landscape mysticism at the University of London was heavily influenced by Watkins’ writing, and my thesis, from which my later article on Watkins and “deep mapping” emerged, included extensive discussions of ley theory and utilised dowsing as part of its research methodology. Much of this work was first outlined in a presentation delivered to the Royal Geographical Society at their 2012 annual conference in Edinburgh, which eventually crystallised in the form of the article I later published, and which is discussed here.

It has been five years since I published “A Strange Cartography: Leylines, Landscape and 'Deep Mapping' in the Works of Alfred Watkins” in the peer-reviewed journal, Humanities, and as we approach the centenary of Watkins’ ‘discovery’ of leys, it has been fantastic to be given the opportunity to further reflect on his work and revisit my own examination of his writings.

Published as part of a special issue on the theme of “deep mapping” edited by the University of Liverpool’s Les Roberts, my article argues that Watkins’ conception of leys, whether conceived of as archaeological, spiritual or mytho-geographical alignments, provides ley hunters with unique spatial engagements with the landscape, and considers Watkins’ practice as a critical cartographic method that offers new ways of mapping out and interacting with our surrounding environments.

The overall position of the article is that “ley hunting is a way of retracing history: uncovering site narratives and reimagining the landscape, it is a particular way of knowing place, of developing a biography for and of place”, a position I still believe holds true today.

The article is not purely theoretical, however, and while the first half of the essay draws readers’ attention to the history and theory of Watkins’ work, leys, and the practice of dowsing, the latter part of the study is based on participatory fieldwork (which is probably the more interesting aspect of my work for readers of this newsletter).

With regard to the fieldwork, working between an OS map, Watkins’ The Ley Hunters Manual, and an alignment guide, I was able to locate a series of confirmation points between the Duel Stone, Cawston, and St. Andrew’s Church, Thursford, both located in Norfolk, which provided an alignment of ancient villages, forests, copses and Mare’s-nests that spanned some twelve miles or so. Interestingly, the Duel Stone, a stone-urn monument erected to commemorate the death of Sir Henry Hobart, who lost his life in a duel at the nearby Cawston Heath, appeared to play havoc with my compass, making it near-impossible to locate north. However, I did manage to find my way to the ley’s trajectory and walked the route of the alignment. Much of Norfolk’s physical landscape is rather flat, which made locating confirmation points a relatively easy task as it was possible to see for miles ahead, with the next church, hillock, or village almost always visible on the horizon.

 The research for both my article and the thesis took place between 2009-2014, and in the years since I have had much time to revisit the ideas presented and further consider Watkins and his influence, which has become all the more important since being physically distanced from the landscapes he describes (although Japan does have its fair share of geomantic visionaries!). One thing that struck me during the writing of the article, and which has remained a point of interest ever since, is the accessibility of Watkins’ work.

Watkins’ writings on leys are clear, precise, and highly readable, moreover, they encourage us to get out into the landscape and to engage with it on cultural, historic, and spiritual levels – that is to say, Watkins offers his readers methods for knowing their surroundings by interweaving local history, regional geography, and belief with the most readily accessible method of practice, walking! At a time when so many of us are restricted from travel and separated from friends and family, now, perhaps more than ever, Watkins leys can provide us with an opportunity to relocate ourselves in the places and spaces we inhabit, and to uncover the history of our surroundings in ways that seek to remove us from the isolation we currently face.

This accessibility and encouraged interaction with our landscapes and their spatial pasts is what excites me most about Alfred Watkins’ work, and to this end I have looked to expand these themes in my latest research project, which also seeks to connect geography, folklore, and narrative. Building on my existing research into spatial experiences of landscape mysticism, I am currently undertaking a four-year research project on “Literary Geographies of Folklore” funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. This study refers to ‘literature’ in the broadest sense, including records in public archives, information/stories/personal encounters distributed through social media, as well as literary fiction. The project will investigate the mutual relationship between folklore narratives and place, with both working to influence and shape people’s understandings of the other, part of which will focus on the literary influence of Watkins’ work and examine the ways that leys have impacted on our imagining of the landscape.

To this end, I hope to be able to draw more attention to the importance of Alfred Watkins, his work, and his influential role in the shaping of the British geographical imagination. If there are any readers who would like to share their experiences of Watkins’ work or who might be able to point me in the direction of relevant literary works referencing leys or Watkins, please do get in touch at the following address, I’d be delighted to hear from you: jamesthurgill@gmail.com.
 
My article, “A Strange Cartography: Leylines, Landscape and 'Deep Mapping' in the Works of Alfred Watkins”, is open-access and can be downloaded for free from the following link: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/4/4/637
 
Dr. James Thurgill

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Background on Alfred Watkins

An excellent introduction to Alfred Watkins by Dowsing Anglia is at

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A regional sideways glance

When listing dowsing's various uses, 'healing' often makes the cut. Dowsing groups are usually organised along geographical lines, and that presents an opportunity as many other groups (including healing groups) are similarly organised.

One of the UK's oldest healing organisations is the Healing Trust, formerly the National Federation of Spiritual Healers. As there is an overlap of interests between dowsers and the Healing Trust it may be worth exploring links. https://www.thehealingtrust.org.uk

The Healing Trust is at office@thehealingtrust.org.uk In the UK it is supported by a National network of voluntary Regional committees and Community Healing Centres.

The UK is divided into 14 regions as you can see by the map, Regional counties – The Healing Trust which gives an indication of the area covered by each region.

If you are looking for information about a Regional Committee or a Healing Centre, click on the links above the map. The link will take you to a list of the Regions and the information you require.


First inter-faith leg-transplant shock
This redundant church in North Herefordshire, dedicated to the surgeon-physician saints, St. Cosmos and St. Damien, features two stonking healing lines running through it (one for each brother saint) and a healing shrine (see photo, centrally placed, behind the rood screen.) Its underground water patterns suggest it may also once have been the site of a stone circle.

If you’d like to do some interesting winter dowsing undercover out of the cold wind and rain, check out your local ‘redundant churches’ (now officially referred to as ‘closed churches’).

These are churches which are no longer used for regular services, often because their out-of-the-way location and low congregation numbers made them unviable. As ‘redundant’/closed churches, they remain basically maintained as historical buildings awaiting any potential buyer, and many are open to visitors during daylight hours.

In all but the most stringent Covid lock-down periods, most of these churches have remained open to visitors and so they have been, ironically, often easier to enter and dowse than churches in regular use and you are also less likely to meet any other visitors there.

Amongst them, there will be ‘old’ churches of Norman or pre-Norman origin, with their distinctive axial water lines and font crossing positions, plus often other church-related lines such as healing or spirit lines to dowse, in addition to a range of natural telluric lines.

The healer-dowser will almost certainly find healing opportunities there to work on too, such as releasing earthbound spirits, rectifying disturbance or toxic lines, or perking up the spirit of the place by enlivening and uplifting such a run-down sacred space by offering your own singing and blessings with intent.

Many redundant churches have now been handed over into the care of the Churches Conservation Trust charity so to locate a closed church near you, start with the illustrated list on their website:
www.visitchurches.org.uk/visit/church-listing.html

Pick a likely looking one, pack your dowsing tools and head off and explore! You will certainly find some sadly unappreciated gems amongst them with some worthwhile dowsing.


What's at the heart of your being ?

Love Actually. For guaranteed joy ...

...see Peter Dawkins video on the Gatekeeper Trust website which is the latest posting at https://gatekeeper.org.uk/videos/

Become a member of the Gatekeeper Trust : www.gatekeeper.org.uk
Healing Sick Houses
Roy & Ann Procter
20th Anniversary edition

When this book was first published in 2000, few people were writing about geopathic stress. It was one of the first to detail how such detrimental energies affect human health and to demonstrate, through case studies and an academic research programme, how the health of people affected has improved when the imbalances have been corrected using dowsing and spiritual healing techniques.
Grahame Gardner
It has been out of print for some years now, but I have been working extensively with Ann & Roy over the last few months to revise and update the book, giving it a fresh new look and including new material.

The book was high on our class reading list when I was studying geomancy with Sig Lonegren and Dr Patrick MacManaway, and it is still a frequent go-to reference for me. It is an honour to be able to bring the book to life once more, and I hope that it proves as useful to you as it has to me.

188 pages, over 50 B/W illustrations, with new and updated material and a new chapter and foreword. Priced at £13.99.

Available direct from: https://westerngeomancy.org/product/healing-sick-houses Amazon Kindle version also available.


The Gardner Rosette
The new 'Gardner Rosette' is here! This mark 2 version has two additional pendulum charts on the reverse, increasing your number of options with the chart. Grab one now while the introductory offer lasts - only £4.00!


Interdimensional Shamanic Dowsing
We explore ways in which we can work within the spiritual realms and interact with the intelligences that are encountered in these extra-dimensional regions. Working with a simple 3-world cosmological model, we catalogue a variety of interdimensional beings and look at methods for dealing with displaced spirits.
Recorded for the 2020 Virtual West Coast conference.
Streaming £6.99, DVD £10.00

Symbols, Shapes and Sigils
A virtual workshop of ‘Dowsing Magic – Symbols, Shapes & Sigils’ that accompanies my book ‘Dowsing with Sigils’. For dowsers, reinforcing your intention with a sigil can help you to achieve long-lasting effects. And they are a lot of fun to work with.
Recorded at the ASD convention in Saratoga Springs, NY, July 2017 and re-edited for online presentation. Streaming £6.99 DVD £10


Correction to LDGN No 59
Apologies to the DRG who I misrepresented in No 59 when I said that the land at Littlefield Farm near Harpenden in Herts has been under the direct control of the monarch since the Elizabethian period. It should have read since "Edward the Confessor’s times."

National Dowsing Groupings include...
            
British Society of Dowsers : www.britishdowsers.org
Dowsing Research Group : www.dowsingresearch.org
Professional Dowsers Register www.professionaldowsersregister.co.uk
International Association of Health Dowsers :     www.healthdowsers.org
Local Dowsing Groups :    www.localdowsinggroups.UK
Spirituality Special Interest Group : Kate.tudorhall@gmail.com
Water Special Interest Group : dowsing.anglia@gmail.com
British Dowsing - dowsing archives & discussion forum : britishdowsing.net