This is the concluding part
of a three-part series discussing
the pendulum and how to use it for magick.
For information on the contest to win a free pendulum, read on to the end of this post.
In the first post of this series I described a little of the history of the pendulum as well as how it works. In the second post of this series I described the basics of using a pendulum, including how to hold it, how to calibrate it, and how to get answers to questions you ask it. Before going on I would suggest that you read those two posts again (or for the first time).
The key to using a pendulum for magick is to understand how it works. And that means first understanding the difference between the conscious and unconscious.
The Conscious and Unconscious Minds
The conscious mind observes everything you’re doing and thinking. That’s it. As soon as you think about something it’s in your conscious mind. It’s actually very limited and can only do a few things at one time. Your unconscious mind controls everything else. Everything from your pulse and respiration rates to the flow of hormones and the triggering of muscles so you can walk and balance to keep you from falling are controlled by the unconscious. It used to be believed that there was no way to control many of these so-called autonomic aspects of your being. Now it’s known that there are techniques for doing this. One technique for doing this is called biofeedback.
Biofeedback
When you go to a doctor you may get hooked up to a device that simply records your brainwaves or the beats of your heart. Such devices indicate temperature, blood pressure, etc. Biofeedback devices can help train you to make changes in these things, such as reducing anxiety or lowering your blood pressure. Such devices allow for bilateral communications with your unconscious and can even allow you program the unconscious. For example, a simple device known as a Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) meter shows the amount of electrical capacitance in your skin. This is usually indicated with a visual signal or a sound. You can consciously work to move the visual signal or change the tone of the sound. This programs the unconscious to change the capacitance of your skin.
It was discovered that stress and anxiety are directly related to the capacitance of your skin. This interrelationship is something that occurs unconsciously. But you can use a GSR device to train yourself to alter the capacitance of your skin. The result is that with a few minutes of training your unconscious using a GSR—biofeedback—you can lower anxiety and stress. This can also lower your blood pressure. GSR devices sell for anywhere from far under $50 to way over $1,000 depending upon sensitivity, accuracy, brand, features, etc.
Just as you can use an inexpensive GSR device to lower stress, anxiety and blood pressure, you can use another biofeedback device, a pendulum, to program the unconscious to create something on the astral plane. And as I wrote in the first post of this series, “whatever you create on the astral plane must eventually manifest on the physical plane.” That is the very essence of magick!
Unconscious Doesn’t Mean Stupid
Merely because you don’t normally have awareness of communications between your conscious and unconscious doesn’t mean the unconscious mind is stupid. However, it does indicate a few things. First, you have to know how to speak to it and second you have to listen to it.
A key to programming the unconscious is to understand that it doesn’t play well with negatives. If you tell it, “I don’t want to be sick,” it thinks you mean “I want to be sick.” So stick with positives concepts. In this example, instead of “I don’t want to be sick,” you might use “I want to be healthy.”
Another key is that the unconscious will do what you tell it…literally. And it can be kind of lazy. If you just try to program it with “I want to be healthy,” its probably response is “That’s nice. Let’s take a nap.” It has no idea when you want to achieve health. So give a date for achieving your goal.
A third key is reality. If you were very sick and needed ten days of antibiotics, but tried to program your unconscious to have you perfectly healthy by 5:00 tonight, your unconscious would laugh it off. “Yeah, right!” it would be thinking. So be realistic as to what your unconscious can achieve. Give it achievable goals with realistic times for achieving those goals. It’s your mind, not God.
And the fourth key is to trust your unconscious. It knows how long things will take to accomplish, so ask it! Here’s how:
Basic Pendulum Magick
With this information, we’re ready to begin. Here we go.
Step One: Relax and center yourself.
Step Two: Perform a banishing.
(I suggest using the Relaxation Ritual and LBRP from my Modern Magick.)
Step Three: Calibrate your pendulum according to the directions in my second post in this series.
Step Four: Do a divination. Ask the pendulum, “Is it advisable to do magick to __________?” Assuming you get a positive answer, continue on.
Step Five: Ask advice from the unconscious. Word your questions carefully. Use the pendulum as described in the last post to learn:
Do you know what to do to achieve ______(your magickal goal)____?
Will it take days? Weeks? Months? (Give the pendulum a chance to answer)
How many days/weeks/months will it take?
Will you do it in ______days/weeks/months_____?
Through this questioning you’ve discovered if your unconscious can and will do it and how long it will take.
Step Six: Tell your unconscious “Start doing everything you need to do to achieve _____(the goal)__________ in _X_ number of ____days/weeks/months_____. Give me a ‘Yes’ sign when you finish putting everything into motion.”
Wait until you get the yes, then repeat the banishing. Finish by recording your ritual in your magickal diary as described in Modern Magick.
And that’s it! Of course, you’d have to ask other questions if you don’t get positive answers to determine why your unconscious won’t do something. But it’s really that simple. Your unconscious will put everything into motion that will result in achieving your goals.
Give it a try and let me know what happens.
The Contest Continues
Win a Free Quartz Crystal Pendulum!
I’d like to thank the dozens of people who have already entered this contest!
If you haven’t entered, make your entry now. Everyone still has a chance to win.
The Prize: The prize for this contest is a magnificent, quartz crystal pendulum. The bob is made of pure quartz, and although I don’t have a jeweler’s loupe, I can’t see see any flaws or inclusions. Although this is not a picture of the one you will receive, it looks very much like it and I think the prize is better shaped. The crystal is about 1″ long and about 3/4″ at it’s widest. The silver-tone chain is over 8.5 inches long.
How to Win: Winning is easy! All you have to do is write in the comments to one of these three posts on Pendulum Magick the purpose you have for using a pendulum for magick. As usual, there are some rules:
- No more than 100 words
- Only one entry per person
- Entry must be made within four days following the posting of the third entry in this series of blog posts
- There is only one judge, me, and the decision of the judge, me, is final
- Therefore, in order to assure fairness, no employees of Llewellyn or people who personally know me are eligible to win. You may certainly add comments, but you cannot win the prize.
What I’m looking for: Originality. The most original use of a pendulum for magick will win. I can tell you right now that sob stories from people who consider themselves “victims” won’t stand a chance. Since I have no way to check the truth of your entry, you may as well be creative and have fun…but don’t go over 100 words.
CLOSING DATE: This contest will end Friday, July 23, at 6:00 p.m. Pacific Time. The winner will be announced as soon as he or she can be contacted.
This is not neccesarily limited to just divination but can be used in other methods to achive more clear communication when doing any sort of egregore/entity/evocation work. Language dependent of course for whatever entity you happen to be working with. But create a circle with the appropiate language around the edge ((best “randomdize” the langauge using what ever means suit you)), and then do your work and use the pendulum as a means to allow ease of communication between you and whatever your working with.
I always wonder to what degree I have been able to keep my conscious mind completely out of it. It makes this particular modality of divination hard for me to trust. Worry of any sort also sets up interference. Agendas cause worry, and almost every question you would devote a reading to is bound to be a loaded one. What do you think about this issue?
I’ve never used a pendulum for magick but I’m excited to try this new method. The key for me is Don’s assertion that the pendulum allows you to tap into your unconscious mind. Whether it’s because I’m a kid of the 1980s living in NYC, or I have some attention problem, or maybe both, I find my biggest impediment in magick is my intense difficulty maintaining concentrating. If I can use pendulum magick as an effective starting point to tap into my unconscious, then I will be able to achieve an important progression point in my practice.
I am new to the mysteries and marvels of pendulum magick. I am currently preparing for my dedication as a solitary witch, and I already know the tarot, but would enjoy and love also be able to learn and use the pendulum as an optional divination tool and incorperate its magick into my new way of life, that I am finding new found peace and harmony more and more everyday.
I use the pendulum to talk with my father and mother who are both deceased. I am clarivoyant and can see and talk with people who have passed over. It’s true, there is another dimension. They can see us, but we cannot see them (or should I say, you cannot see them). I can talk directly to them or we “play” sometimes and I use the pendulum. I use the word “play” very lightly in this context. When you get to the point where you can work with your subconscious, it is magnificant and using the divination tool is definitely the way to get there. Thank you for the blogs. They are very informative. Blessed be. Sandra
I use pendulums for getting non-alphabetical sigils doodled on fine sand, kind of glossolalia version of sigilizing. First I center & banish, then smooth the sand with a straight stick to get a blank surface, then channeling desire and intention through the pendulum I let it move freely to doodle over the sand for a sigil and stop when it feels ok. Then I meditate upon this “sigil” projecting my desire even more into it until gets “charged”. When done I scatter the sand with my hands (alike sand mandalas) while shielding myself at mental, etheric and astral levels.
I’m new to working with a pendulum, but am finding it adds a much-needed and valued dimension to my tarot readings, Reiki and communicating with the Ladies. Most recently I’ve used it in setting up my Sacred Space, to get Their opinions on the home I’m creating for Them. It’s so interesting, I’ll be creating my own boards soon! The most fun I’ve had with a pendulum though was to tease a classmate about being a jerk – the pendulums agreed, *regardless* of which one I used 😉
I’ve used the pendulum in the past to make difficult decisions. To do this, I tear up a sheet of paper into squares and write various options that I have in a situation on them. I then flip over the pieces of paper and let the pendulum swing until it catches on one.
Be very careful when using a pendulum. It can open your unconscious to demons! A friend of a friend of my cousin’s hairdresser once used a pendulum to find out the whereabouts of her cheating husband, but instead of leading her to the neighbor three doors down like she expected, it took her down the street, through an alley, past the local bar, into the woods, and straight into the middle of a Satanic orgy where they were deflowering virgins and sacrificing small animals! She barely escaped with her life! This is a true story!! Beware!!!
I am a little new to this, and have not read your book yet, but I have read the 3 part series (again) but I don’t know what a “banishing” is…could you explain what that is? Could you also clarify step 6 in Part 3 above- when you tell your unconscious to start doing everything to accomplish your goal, do you immediately go to the part where you ask it to give you a yes when everything has been set in motion…does that happen right away? I’m a little confused on that and also how to speak to your unconscious mind. Thank you!
I see that I am about one month too late for this contest. Oh well, I hope the pendulum wound up with the right person. I’ll share the story I was going to use for this essay, any way.
“My name is Nathan Fields. I am a member of the Find Me Group, and have been so for over a year. We use psychics to find missing people, and I am one of the psychic volunteers. I’m naturally a dreamer, but the kind of information I get from dreams is usually symbolic, where police prefer literal information like GPS coordinates. Like a good volunteer, I decided to improve my ability to give the police GPS coordinates and the other literal kind of information they want.
Map dowsing seems ideal for doing this. Right now I’m using a pendulum made of a tassel string and a paperclip. It would be nice to have a “real” pendulum to work with. I’d buy one, but I’m a bit financially strapped right now. ”
Well, that was what I was going to write. And you actually can verify what I said about me by contacting the president of Find ME, Kelly Snyder (findme2.com).
Peace,
Nathan
As far as calibrating the pendulum, I have read elsewhere that some people calibrate theirs by showing it what they want for yes and what they want for no, ie clockwise or counter clockwise, and use that each time. What is your take on this type of calibration? I haven’t divined enough with pendulum to have “set” my own style so I’d be interested in your take on the pro’s and con’s of assigning what you would interpret as yes or no. Thanks.
Thank you for your comments, Annette. The great writer and occultists Dion Fortune said that “there is no room for authority in occultism.” By this she meant that no matter what perceived authority a person or book may have, if what you read or what someone tells you doesn’t work, you should abandon it and seek something that does work. For years I have used and taught the system described in these three posts, so I know it works. I have not used what you described. My suggestion, then, is that you give several honest and dedicated tries to each system and see which works best for you. Then, continue to use that system.
The reason why i would use a pendulum is two fold
a) i use it my chakra/aura and colour threapy readings
and
b) i need to hypnotise myself to sleep 😀
but seriouslly these articles i am going to keep as i would like to learn about pendulum magick and how to use it to get information from the psychic realms
I used my pendulum to try to win the Mega millions lottery, it taught me a lesson I did win but only my money I spent back so to me it was telling me I am wasting my money trying to win lottery. It has many uses in life and it is your unconcious moves it but brings lessons to your consious
My Corporal and I thought one afternoon to see what sex our first child would be, we made one up we were in the RAAF. His first child said girl, but mine back and forth and the opposite direction Frank said I think yours is gay!, well 2 months later he had a girl, me 2 years later I had twins a boy and a girl. Frank has passed over ,and we are all much older my twins turn 29 in early April. Sadly I never got to tell my best mate as he died 6 years after that day we held a pendulum on a quiet afternoon at work in Uniform. Frank the baby was not gay it was twins a girl and a boy and my son, like you is in the Army!