my story behind the pendulum

HOW I LEARNED BY TRIAL AND ERROR – LESSON FOUR

(please click here for a fun little video demonstration)

(please click for links to previous lessons: One; Two; Three;)

I bought my first pendulum a little over a decade ago, and I quickly decided it was an unreliable source of information.

It smacked of Ouija boards. When I was a kid, I had a scary experience with a Ouija board, and I swore them off after that (that’s another story…).

I didn’t understand what makes a pendulum swing, and I didn’t trust things I couldn’t explain or see. I also felt like the pendulum was just moving to give me the answer I was thinking about, and I was not too comfortable with the idea of “Leslee The Telekinetic” (eewwww!).

Last year, I decided to give pendulums another try, after a friend suggested them as a way to connect with our spiritual guides. This time, I specifically requested that the pendulum only transmit pure enlightened energy, that it only reveal beneficial information, and that I receive protection from negative influences.

(This was before I came to understand that everything that surrounds us is for our benefit anyway, and all beings are enlightened…)

So I felt safe, and started asking yes/no questions.

I had that familiar feeling of the whole process being rigged, until one day, as I was meditating, I received an image of an alphabet chart. I figured, what the heck, and created the chart I had seen in my meditation. What I understood was that yes, I was getting information from my spiritual guides (and they were many!), and that they had more to tell me than I was asking about. The chart would allow them to spell out messages to me.

As an aside: anyone can learn to use an alphabet chart the same way I do.

It just takes consistent practice, time, and patience. I worked in yes/no mode for about 60 hours before I was ready for the alphabet chart. It takes time for those neural pathways to get set up.

I began working with the alphabet chart, and at first it was painfully slow going. The pendulum began spelling out words to me, one letter at a time. I had to write down letter by letter, because it was so slow that I would forget the previous letters as I was focusing on the current one. At the end of a word, the pendulum would swing in a circle. At the end of a sentence, it would swing in a circle and then stop.

The slow, spell-it-out mode lasted for another 60 hours or so of effort.

Then, one day, I noticed that after a receiving the first few letters, I began to get an intuition of what the rest of the word was. I found that I could then move the chart away and use “yes/no” to confirm if my intuition was correct.

Things began to speed up. This mode only took about 48 hours of practice… Whoohoo! I was on a roll!

I met the next phase with much resistance. It was getting dangerously close to that Ouija-freaky-feeling, and (to be honest) I still struggle with it at times.

The next phase was to abandon the chart, just tune in with pure intuition, and use the pendulum only periodically, for confirmation. Am I getting this right? Yes… no… or if it swings in a circle, I know I need to whip the chart out because I am just not getting it.

I’m still in that phase, and I don’t expect it to change any time soon.

Over the summer I had several tests and conversations about whether I really needed the pendulum – it seems like such a crutch at times. The trick is that with my neurology, I often (always?) receive a jumble of information: my own emotions, empathic emotions, random psychic non-sequiturs, reminders of my own desires and opinions, nagging inner dialogue… and, sometimes, sheer exhaustion. And those are just the internal influences! Turn on the TV or surround me with conversation, and my circuits practically fry… (ADHD, Autism, Asperger’s… who knows?)

I’ve accepted that I need the pendulum (at least for now) to filter out the extraneous and accomplish mental clarity, whether I’m receiving an intuitive message, or performing a simple (or complicated) task.

The pendulum acts as a filter, a compass, and a lightning rod. It eliminates the psychic clutter while focusing my attention on the message (or task) at hand.

As I sit and write, draw or create digitally, I keep a pendulum within hand’s reach. It makes things go so much more quickly, and the clarity of focus is rather intoxicating.

My friend Maureen, who coaches people with attention issues, uses this pendulum method as well, and recommends it frequently.

I’ve come to an understanding of the mechanics of how this works energetically, and I share that in this post: Your Method Out Of The Madness.

(Important disclaimer: I’m sharing my story in the hopes that some people might find it useful and encouraging. I make no claims about how well this method might or might not work for you, or how long it might take you to become adept with a pendulum. The process depends solely on your motivation, effort, and mental stability. The more advanced use of the pendulum can lead to many surprises, and I make no claims that trying what I describe will lead you to any particular place whatsoever. Thanks for understanding!)