The Folklore of Dowsing, aka Water Witching

The Folklore of Dowsing, aka Water Witching

Dowsing is a fascinating form of divination since it is often used to find water, minerals, or even lost items. While other forms of divination like tarot or botanomancy seek to provide information, here the information is often of a tangible sort. Rather than telling a fortune, or providing a prophetic dream that must be interpreted, dowsing appears to relate information about the presence of something the dowser is looking for.

Given dowsing can be used to find a whole range of things, this article will focus on the use of dowsing to locate water. After all, this comprises much of the discussion about dowsing within folklore. This form of dowsing also enjoyed other names, including water witching, well witching, water divining, or rhabdomancy.

While dowsing can also be performed using a pendulum, sometimes held over a map when dowsing for water, this article will also focus on the use of rods, since this appears more frequently in folklore. Let's find out more about dowsing in this week’s episode of Fabulous Folklore!

Find the images and references on the blog post: https://www.icysedgwick.com/folklore-of-dowsing/

Get your free guide to home protection the folklore way here: https://www.icysedgwick.com/fab-folklore/

Become a member of the Fabulous Folklore Family for bonus episodes and articles at https://patreon.com/bePatron?u=2380595

Fabulous Folklore Bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/fabulous_folklore

Enjoyed this episode and want to show your appreciation? Buy Icy a coffee to say 'thanks' at: https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick

Pre-recorded illustrated talks: https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick/shop

Request an episode: https://forms.gle/gqG7xQNLfbMg1mDv7

Find Icy on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/icysedgwick.bsky.social

Get extra snippets of folklore on Instagram at https://instagram.com/icysedgwick

Jaksot(424)

The Newcastle Witch Trials and Northern Cunning Men with Dave Silk

The Newcastle Witch Trials and Northern Cunning Men with Dave Silk

Dave Silk is a storyteller and historian from Newcastle upon Tyne and co-author of Tyne and Wear Folktales for Children. He collects and retells traditional tales and ancient stories from around these...

24 Kesä 202552min

Margery Jourdemayne and the Coggeshall Witch with Deborah Hyde

Margery Jourdemayne and the Coggeshall Witch with Deborah Hyde

In this third episode of our Witches, Cunning Folk & Magic theme, I'm talking to Deborah Hyde, an author, presenter and producer who has written for periodicals such as The Guardian and The Fortean Ti...

21 Kesä 202543min

Witches in History and Superstition with Willow Winsham

Witches in History and Superstition with Willow Winsham

In this second episode of our Witches, Cunning Folk & Magic theme, I'm talking to Willow Winsham, an author and historian specialising in folklore, and the history of the English witch trials. Her boo...

14 Kesä 202548min

Cunning Folk and Practical Magic with Dr Tabitha Stanmore

Cunning Folk and Practical Magic with Dr Tabitha Stanmore

In this first episode of our Witches, Cunning Folk & Magic theme, I'm talking to Dr Tabitha Stanmore! She's a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at University of Exeter on the Leverhulme-funded Seven Count...

7 Kesä 202552min

Finding the Lort Burn, One of Newcastle's Buried Rivers

Finding the Lort Burn, One of Newcastle's Buried Rivers

Much is often made of London's lost rivers, like the Tyburn, Fleet, and Walbrook. Yet Newcastle upon Tyne also has rivers we cannot see. Ours are not lost, rather they're simply buried. The Skinnerbur...

31 Touko 202528min

Ghosts, Lantern Men, and Treasure in the Norfolk Broads

Ghosts, Lantern Men, and Treasure in the Norfolk Broads

The Broads National Park, often known as the Norfolk Broads, is one of the UK's 15 National Parks. Seven rivers and over sixty waterways called Broads comprise the park. In the medieval era, locals d...

24 Touko 202517min

Geomany & Practical Divination with Dr Alex Cummins

Geomany & Practical Divination with Dr Alex Cummins

Dr Alexander Cummins is a contemporary cunning-man and historian of magic. His magical specialities are the dead (folk necromancy), divination (geomancy), the cunning-crafts of traditional British ser...

22 Touko 20251h 6min

Haunted Canals of England, Scotland & Wales

Haunted Canals of England, Scotland & Wales

Canals occupy a strange place in the cultural imagination. They're manmade, yet offer a connection to nature, and they offer a means of transport, but one that's only accessible by boat. Some cities d...

17 Touko 202520min

Suosittua kategoriassa Yhteiskunta

olipa-kerran-otsikko
i-dont-like-mondays
siita-on-vaikea-puhua
gogin-ja-janin-maailmanhistoria
kolme-kaannekohtaa
poks
antin-palautepalvelu
sita
aikalisa
kaksi-aitia
mamma-mia
yopuolen-tarinoita-2
rss-murhan-anatomia
rss-palmujen-varjoissa
rss-ootsa-kuullut-tasta
meidan-pitais-puhua
rss-nikotellen
terapeuttiville-qa
ootsa-kuullut-tasta-2
rss-haudattu