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Witching
Witching for water, or dowsing, is a craft that science refutes but nature rewards. The practice of finding underground water, or some other hidden object, with a forked stick has survived centuries of doubt. Moses used his staff to find water in the desert. Other dowsers claim to have used their sticks to locate minerals, wild game, and even missing persons. I don't know about dowsing for people or animals, but I've always held an innate faith and fascination in its aquarian potential. And I am not alone. Others who have been keen observers of the craft have seen enough to make them believers. Don Bowen, a California beekeeper, tells how his dowsing father would start witching for water by cutting a forked branch from the nearest willow: "He would hold it by the legs with the base pointing out. The hands would be palm up with the thumbs pointing away. The thumbs would be in a line which put a bend in the willow with the base parallel to the ground." Bowen watched his father walk back and forth over the property being dowsed, paying attention to where the base of the stick tipped downward. "After several trips over the ground the underground streams would be mapped and any intersections located as a place to dig," Bowen explains. "I watched it work several times. When he said that there were three streams, we would hit three in the well. I have seen him find water when others have said that none is there." Some have the gift for dowsing; others do not. Bowen's father was one who did. "According to my grandmother, it was because he had the devil in him," Bowen says. "He was a notorious drunk, which is why my grandmother felt he had the devil." The devil's work or not, dowsing has been a blessing to many homesteaders and family farmers. Stories of successful dowsings in areas where well drillers said there would be no water, or at depths more shallow than expected, are common. "I liken it to resonance," says Neil Steffen, who watched dowsers work on his family's ranch in eastern Montana. "I have seen many dowsers for water and mining. Everyone seems to have favorite rods that they are most particular to; some say they can use anything." Some dowsers will tinker for days on a rod, trimming and polishing. Others use their rods like metal detectors and won't hesitate to locate any material. "It seems to me that most of it lies in the attitude," says Steffen. Of course, there's no evidence that dowsing is anything more than fancy guesswork. Nor can it be proven that music is more than an arrangements of notes, or that anyone can sense the thoughts of animals. Such things are better left to faith. _______ by Michael Hofferber Copyright © 1995 Outrider. All rights reserved. |
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