Local Dowsing Group News:  No. 82

Dowsing an Enigma -
The Turin Shroud
Steve Dawson

As with all enigmas, hard facts are often few and far between and most times very difficult to establish. The Turin Shroud is no exception. It was in 1898 when Secondo Pia, an Italian Lawyer and amateur photographer, proved the Shroud was actually a negative image. His photographs clearly showed the face and body of a tall bearded man whose body bears wounds consistent with having been crucified.  Later photographs would also produce a 3D image.
 
There have been many claims and counter claims plus a myriad of tests trying to establish some hard facts about this fourteen foot long burial cloth, one of Christianity’s prized but most mysterious relics. Each year it lures hundreds of thousands of the faithful to Turin Cathedral, where it is kept in a specially designed, climate-controlled case. The next open-air viewing will be in 2025.
 
Dowsing an Enigma:
Firstly put your dowsing rods and crystals away, for you’re in for the long haul! This will involve many hours of research, prizing the facts away from the dozens of conspiracies & red herrings that abound in this area. You’ll be trying find a reliable Keystone, a handle on this subject, one that you are comfortable with, can easily picture and build on and trust. Only then will you be ready to dowse the biggest enigma ever known. Here’s my approach to this Enigma.


Brief History:
The first historical reference to the shroud was in 1357 in Lirey, France. In the 15th Century it was sold to the Duke of Savoy and his descendants donated it to the Catholic Church in 1983. The 53 square ft. 14ft. long cloth has survived a number of fires and been repaired many times. Three radiocarbon dating tests in 1988 dated a sample of the cloth to the Middle Ages, (Aspects of these tests continue to be debated).
 
Today the shroud is kept in the Royal Chapel of the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist in Turin, northern Italy. Recently the Shroud has been preserved with chemicals which may negate all future testing of it.

Three radiocarbon dating tests in 1988 dated a sample of the cloth to the Middle Ages, (Aspects of these tests continue to be debated).
 
An ancient Burial Cloth showing a very faint & faded image of a human cadaver that has been crucified. The image is so accurate & fine that a Phylactery mark can be seen, impossible to forge this. Crucifixion was abolished by Emperor Constantine (306 -337 AD).
Travertine aragonite limestone (road dust) exclusively found in the vicinity of Jerusalem, is on the Shroud around the knees and feet.
   
Origins of the Shroud:
Hundreds of modern day scientific tests have tried to locate the origins and date of the Shroud. Many raising more questions than answers, and some of the dating tests are now claimed to have been seriously flawed. 

Strangely in 1978 Greek Text was found hand written on the Cloth, the word ‘Nazarene’ appeared faintly.

In the medieval period this name for Jesus became blasphemous / heretical by the church, so the Shroud is very unlikely to have been ‘forged’ in the medieval period especially with the word Nazarene painted on it. 
 
Only one particular set of tests repeatedly confirmed the historical trail of the Shroud and its original provenance. These are the pollen grains and floral images found on the surface of the Shroud, "geographic & calendar indicators" demonstrating that the origin or provenance of the Shroud was definitely the Holy Land.


In 1973, Max Frei, a noted Swiss criminologist, was given permission to take dust samples from the Shroud which contained pollen. He discovered nearly 60 pollen species of which 28 were from plants that are unique to areas around Constantinople and Edessa, and 7 pollen species from plants common mostly to the Middle East. These seven were also found in the Sudarium of Ovied (Facecloth).
 
Later in 1997 Israeli Botanist and a professor at Hebrew University, Avinoam Danin confirmed Dr. Alan Whanger's discovery of flower images on the Shroud. He also verified that several pollens including those from the Zygophyllum Dumosum plant grow only around Jerusalem.

 
Gundelia tournefortii  It is found in the semi-desert areas of the Nr. Middle East. Its grains were found in abundance on the Shroud. It has been suggested that this spiny plant was used for the "crown of thorns" worn by Jesus.

Zygophyllum dumosum  The leaves are 2-foliolate with 0.5-1 cm, canescent, cylindrical, and deciduous leaflets. The flowers are white, solitary, and axillary. The fruit is a conspicuously winged capsule, wings are broader than the capsule.

Cistus creticus They are perennial shrubs found on dry or rocky soils throughout the Mediterranean region, from Morocco and Portugal through to the Middle East, and also on the Canary Islands.

Capparis aegyptia Lam Origin is unknown but probably West or Central Asia (Alkabara, kabar). Another theory links kapparis to the name of the island Cyprus where capers grow abundantly.

(Strangely the Olive trees surrounding Jerusalem would have been in full bloom at the time but no pollens found in the Shroud).
 

Dowsing / Dating the Shroud of Turin:
The four pollens found in abundance within the herringbone weave of the Burial Cloth (an expensive linen cloth common to the first century) give us its provenance and a calendar date of March / April time.
 
With this hard & natural evidence in mind good dowsing results should be achieved dating this Burial Cloth, potentially the ‘Relic of Resurrection’.
Stephen KA Dawson: skad7@hotmail.com

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International Dowsing Day 2021

This took place on May 8th, and is celebrated by the following excellent video.




The hour long video is hosted by Grahame Gardner (westerngeomancy.org) and Susan Collins (dowser.ca).

Panelists: Peter Knight and Sue Wallace (stoneseeker.net); Richard Fry (britishdowsers.org); Gladys McCoy (www.ozarkresearch.org); Beth Roszman (www.dowsers.org); Alessandra Previdi (www.radionica.it); 24.19 Gwynn Paulett (www.devondowsers.org.uk); Dr. Jin Peh (jinpeh.com); Danny Blitz (superpowerfilm.com)
Nobuo Kato (dowsing.jp/english);
Danny Blitz (superpowerfilm.com)




Dowsing the Scilly Isles

I was recently kindly sent an email regarding a BBC2 video of Donovan the Dowser locating water on the Scilly Isles.

This was transmitted on Thursday May 25th 1989 at 8.30pm. The BBC writes ...

"Twenty-eight miles off the coast of Lands End lie the Isles of Scilly. Although blessed with beauty and tranquillity, the islands are not so well endowed with natural resources. In particular, there can be a lack of fresh water, and this is what brought Donovan Wilkins to the islands.

Don is a water diviner and his ability to find underground streams has, in the past, transformed the lives of many of the islanders. Now it is time for him to return, as there's business afoot. A new hotel needs his services, and Don wants to visit a friend, the Old Man of Gugh; not an islander, but an ancient stone to which Donovan the diviner feels strangely attracted.

Film cameraman CLIVE NORTH Film editor CHRIS WARING Producer HOWARD PERKS BBC South West"

Ced writes ... Unfortunately I believe I have been hacked by He-who-cannot-be-named and who has deleted the email and video from my hard disk.

If this message and video could be sent to me again I would be most grateful.

Best wishes

Ced Jackson




Water Dowsing in Africa
 
 Currently 1 in 3 people in the world live without a safe local water source.
 
This has huge impacts on peoples' lives affecting their health, education, ability to grow food and chances of leading a sustainable, self-sufficient lifestyle.
 
Most of us from the dowsing community and beyond, recognise that by employing the gift of dowsing we can provide much improved accuracy in finding clean, plentiful, reliable, and non-seasonal water supplies, when compared with geological methods alone.
 
In collaboration with the charity Village Water, who already do great work installing wells, boreholes and associated sanitation in Zambia, we intend to train local people in how to dowse to improve their chances of finding good, clean water.
 
Village Water ( Villagewater.org ) - was founded by a group from the British Society of Dowsers, following a fact-finding visit to the Western Province in Zambia in 2004.
 
For the initial trip planned for September 2022 we intend to send Guy Hudson and hopefully other water diviners to Zambia. Guy was instrumental in setting up Village Water. He was a trustee from 2004 to 2012 and has been to the area many times.
 
The monies raised in this campaign will be used to cover Guy’s and other water dowsers' travel and associated costs, plus making a donation to Village Water, who will facilitate the dowsing training 'on the ground'. Guy and other dowsers will be giving their time for free.
 
We were intending to send Linda Fentum, another professional water dowser, to Zambia with Guy, but she tragically lost her life in a diving accident earlier this year. We are therefore looking for any other water dowsers who might be interested in going to Africa to undertake this valuable work. As we have lost Linda's valuable contributions to our fund raising and organising effort, we are also looking for someone, who is not necessarily a water dowser, to join our small team of two!
 
I trust that you may see this as an opportunity to support dowsing as a practical means of improving people's lives.
 
Many thanks in advance,
 
Alan Murray - alan@murraydesign.co.uk 
 
To donate please follow the link: https://gofund.me/f9cf477f





The Power of Eight

In LDGN No 81....

... reference was made to Lynne McTaggerts's Power of Eight (book and healing process). Lynne has now put together a course on 'how to it'. All the info is at ... https://lynnemctaggart.com/courses/intention-masterclass/the-power-of-8-intention-masterclass-2021/#:~:text=What%20is%20the%20Power%20of,the%20rest%20of%20the%20year.




World Dowsing Forum

The newsletter of the WDF is about to be launched on an astonished world, and will be freely despatched to the inboxes of those who request it.

The newsletter will bring together articles from dowsers and dowsing groups from all parts of the globe, and will be published in English.

To ensure your copy, write to Info@CedJackson.org. It is planned to publish the first edition before Christmas. Which year is open for discussion.




Emails received


Dear Ced

I was saddened and disappointed at the tone of some of the emails that you shared in your last newsletter (No. 81).

We Dowsers are spiritual people and we understand the power that love and positive thought can play in creating a healing and sacred space.

Perhaps it is now time to put aside our differences and come together to turn the Dowsing community as a whole into a loving sacred space focussed on the love of this wonderful pastime for which we all share a passion.

We are all keen to spread the love of Dowsing, so maybe we should start by spreading the love within Dowsing. If we Dowsers can't do this then what hope is there for the rest of humanity? As Gandhi said, we should be the change we want to see in the world.

Love and Bright Blessings to everyone

Mave Calvert



Dear Ced

Good morning.

In response to some of the rather harsh comments in other emails that you have received recently, can I just go on record as thoroughly appreciating your LDGN. It has helped to fill a yawning communication gap within the dowsing community over the last few years, and I really appreciate the time and effort that you have put into it. 

I also feel the descriptions of previous custodians of the BSD as ‘rubbish presidents’ cannot pass unchallenged. I have worked with most of them over the last 20 years or so and have found them as a group to be extremely hard-working, dedicated and thoroughly decent individuals, doing their level best to hold together a sprawling diaspora of different, and often contradictory, ideas and approaches. 

To say that the dowsing community is a broad church would be the understatement of the century - and with hard-held, but very disparate, views based on personal experience, it would have been very difficult for anyone to have steered a completely common course that would have suited everyone. 

I have found that few of the senior members of our tendency have much of a personal agenda, and even those who are professional dowsers have been trying to do their best to serve both our niche collective and the wider population for a modest and ethical return. No-one would ever take on such a stressful role as President of the BSD for the minimal financial reward - and any professional benefit has always been considerably outweighed by input of time and effort required just to hold the ring! 

Just because someone holds a view that is different from our own, doesn’t make them our adversary. It just means that we have a (potentially enlightening) difference of approach and of philosophy. Sometimes, as evidenced by the environmental emergency, the approach to the covid pandemic and, dare I say it, Brexit, those divisions can appear to run deeply through the human psyche, both collectively and individually.

We will only make real progress in remoulding the dowsing community for the emerging era by being open-minded to the views and the experience of our fellow-travellers, and especially of those who profoundly disagree with us. 

To misquote the Dalai Lama - being kind and compassionate will benefit us all.

Kind regards,

Nigel Twinn
Tavistock




Reference Newsletter No. 81

I must admit that my reaction to the comments made concerning various comments arising at and following the recent BSD AGM have only served to reinforce my long held personal view that within that organisation there is deeply entrenched an unfortunate tunnel-versioned "sacred cow" mentality core of thinking.

I seem to recall that the English Civil War was, (quite literally), brought to a head by the established belief in the Devine Right to Rule. 
 
Appropriate comment, adverse or otherwise, should always be welcomed and properly examined before a considered response is made, irrespective of personalities involved. 

I would imagine that the truly gentle man who, from his position as a loyal BSD member, has had the courage to thrust his head into the lions mouth on this occasion, must have been amazed that from that position, to have been confronted by an antagonistic view not so much epiglottal as pendulously representative of other dangling bodily appendages. 

There is a way forward, but it is not through prolonged axe grinding and petty bickering. Drawn out demolition will serve nothing other than the creation of an untidy mess.

Swift site clearance and thoughtful reconstruction from the ground up to raise a totally NEW organisation fit for the needs of the 21st century grass roots dowser should be the aim. 

The elitist view down from a perceived height went out with the last of the tyrannosaurs. They probably thought that they would be there for ever as well! 

Yours, hopefully.
John (Independent dowser).



Information request re. Angela Lake

Dear Ced

Congratulations on your transparency with BSD information. Very brave and very constructive. It takes a crisis like this to reveal people’s feelings and how little we know about what is going on.

Many thanks to you for prompting ideas BEFORE the AGM. I think its healthy for these sort of discussions to take place at regular intervals.


Andy Bunham started the Megalithic Portal web site to provide information about ancient sites, and their exact location. In 2018 he wrote a book: The Old Stones, A Field Guide to the Megalithic sites of Britain and Ireland . This describes all the ancient sites in the British Isles, with photos and more details sent in by interested people.

On p271 I found an article by Angela Lake called Dowsing at Cairn Holy, (Scotland). She describes dowsing for ceremonial movement and recorded her results in an excellent diagram.

She starts by asking: “Please show me how the original builders moved during their most important ceremonies at the height of this site’s importance.” 

As I have done similar dowsing at several sites, I was interested in contacting Angie, to discuss this with her. I would be grateful if anyone who knows her could pass on her contact details. 

Best Wishes

Sue Brown <suaugurbrown@gmail.com>



Dear Ced,
 
You spotted my subterfuge! Basically it was about what you might do to protect yourself, which might appear to be out of the ordinary, i.e. as currently expounded in generally, but really I’m trying to get a glimpse of how you think and take action. Of course I can ask, but what I would get would be still open to interpretation.
 
You come across in a similar vein to me in that as we get older (can we start again in the time we have left?) we start to see that our subject is infinite, and as much as there are many wonders out there, we almost present a resigned image of going deep (quieter) just to stop the incessant (not!?) requests for enlightenment.  
 
One of these “resignations” (length of tooth stuff) is that we only start to respond to direct requests (for whatever). It’s rare that you find an up and coming dowser that knows how to ask for prompts directly.  The realisation that, in Spiritual subjects like ours, you must only work from prompts and never accept “directives” as anything but pictures. Since belief is the be-all and end-all of everything we do, then it is what you believe that is correct and works for you at this time.
 
As I’m prompted, by my interactive chats, I get responses that can warn or prompt me further and it is then my responsibility to reject or change/ modify my beliefs. As a dowser one has privileged access to help in this; to be able to confirm or deny my possible change of course.  Whatever happens I’m the stronger for it.
 
Fun, in’t it?
 
Geoff Mitchell