Saturday, August 13, 2016

Dowsing aka Water Witching

Today you might find the art of finding water with a water witch a bit old fashion to say the least but the reality is it was very common place and still is being used today. You might have heard the term as divining or doodlebugging as well.

What is it you ask? A "Dowser" (a person who uses a rod or dowsing stick to locate underground water) would use a Y shaped stick from a witch hazel branch and walk the property for the best location to dig a well. Some dowsers would prefer freshly cut sticks others would use the same one over and over again.

How does the dowser know that there is water underneath? The dowsing stick would tend to vibrate when it was over such a location. The extreme movement you can see in some movies doesn't really happen.

Historically other items have been searched for besides water but for today's post, I'm dealing with water witching. Some say it's chance, others believe it has something to do with electromagnetic fields and the Dowser's ability to detect it. Still there is no question that a Dowsing Rod or Water Witch was used to find many wells in this country.

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