6000 BC

Rock drawings from this period in the Northern Sahara depict divining rods and pendulums.

3000 - 300 BC

Pharaonic tombs in the Egyptian Valley of the Kings contained sculptures and images depicting priests with forked branches. Some tombs contained pendulums as burial offerings.

2205 - 2197 BC

Chinese Emperor Kuang Yu promulgated an edict (effective to this day) which reads: “No dwelling shall be built before the earth diviners haven‘t confirmed the intended building site to be free of earth demons.” TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) has long known about the influences of hidden – i.e. generally invisible – earth radiations.

2000 BC

Relief of a dowser in Turkey ascribed to the Hittites of that period

600 - 100 BC

Celtic songs as well as bard songs of the Druidic Order mention the divining rod.

1210

About this time, Gottfried v. Strasburg (Middle High German minstrel of the era of knights and courts) mentions the divining rod, as does Konrad von Würzburg, the “most versatile poet of the 13th century, a ruler over language and verse” in 1280.

1420

A Vienna documentary drawing depicts people dowsing for water.

1490

Benedictine monk and alchemist Basilius Valentinus leaves detailed instructions on the use of the divining rod in his testament.

1618 - 1648

Dowsers were employed during the 30 Years War to track down treasures.

Middle Ages

The divining rod (wunsciligerta) finds frequent mention in the Nibelungenlied. Minnesinger Wolfram von Eschenbach mentions the divining rod in his “Parzival”.
Generally, this lore was wide-spread in Europe in medieaval times (where it had been passed down, among other channels, as the art of geomancy from the Celts). Later, as the so-called exact sciences set out to conquer the world, it was dismissed as mumbo jumbo. In more recent times, it was reintroduced to the West as part of the Chinese art of Feng Shui - even our scientists have turned their attention to this subject again.

HISTORY CONTINUED