in a very wet Spring, I’ve had time to develop my basic dowsing skills. Basically I'm a novice! The books of Abbe Mermet and Tom Lethbridge have been instrumental in introducing me to new areas of practical skills. For decades, I’ve brought back rocks and pebbles from my travels. The bad weather provided an opportunity to use a combination of some of the two author’s practices to examine, indoors, a collection of red granite rock samples from Egypt, Scotland, and Finland. Those are the locations I remember; meanwhile other samples have been added to the collection and their origins lost in the mists of memory.
Both authors show similarities of approach, particularly in determining the rate length and using the number of oscillations, ellipses and rotations to determine quantities for any specific ‘target’. In dowsing the red granite fragments, I chose to use the following practices from the two authors to find out possible distinguishing properties between them.
For consistency with Lethbridge’s practice, I made a 40-inch pendulum. The rate is measured from the finger and thumb to the top of the bob. The second part of the rate is arrived at by counting rotations before the pendulum bob comes to rest. Both authors find the rate by gradually increasing the chain or cord length until the pendulum responds. Lethbridge continues to extend the length until the pendulum comes to rest, then comes back to the point of greatest rotation.
Mermet is very helpful in answering a question I had using this large pendulum - how to distinguish between oscillations and rotations. This needs a lot of practice and can tire concentration very quickly. Mermet’s procedure is to site the pendulum over the object and it will begin to oscillate before rotating. The number of oscillations is repeated in the number of rotations. The first and final ellipses are counted as rotations. By allowing the pendulum to continue through three series of oscillations and rotations, you can arrive at an average, best taken from the second and third series. Very quickly I was astonished to find this method worked, but needed much more practice to refine it in the counting.
Mermet identifies 12 properties relating to any dowsed instance, many of which are beyond my abilities. But he identified a “Fundamental Ray” that emanates from any body at an invariable angle between N and S.: “The direction of the fundamental ray is always away from the object. Its length is proportional to the mass of the body, and, given the same weight of various bodies, to their power of radiation.”
Whilst dowsing the first sample, it occurred to me that a Bovis measure might be useful to distinguish between the samples.
To summarise: For each piece of red granite, I then had three sets of figures, in this format:
A. Rate, expressed in inches as length of chain / number of oscillations.
B. Fundamental Ray (F.R.), compass direction.
C, Bovis rating.
I was primarily interested in dowsing the three stones that were very classy identifiable as red Aswan granite. These are in Group 1. Group 2 contains four other samples, which I broadly identified as red granite and they came from Egypt, Finland and Scotland. I added these for purposes of context and comparison.
The stones were dowsed over a period of three to four days, with sessions apart from each other to help with concentration. Some time after dowsing stone 1, I found a table online of Lethbridge’s rates. It came as a great shock when I checked the table and found his Rate for Egypt is 7 inches. To dowse the subsequent stones, I unwound the bob each time and asked for the Rate.
Group 1
Red granite, Egypt (found at exterior of Gt. Pyramid). One surface worked, slightly polished.
Rate: 7/25. F.R. East. Bovis: 18,000
Red granite, possibly from either the site of fractured Obelisk, Aswan, or from the Giza plateau..
Rate: 7/25. F.R. East. Bovis: 18,000
Red granite, (less quartz than 1 and 2). Egypt.
Rate: 7/25. F.R. East. Bovis: 16,000
Group 2
Red Granite flat chip, Egypt.
Rate: 7/19. F.R.: ESE. Bovis: 0
Red granite, Finland.
Rate: 5/25 F.rR: East. Bovis: 0-1000
Red granite pebble, Scotland.
Rate: 7/32 F.R: South-East. Bovis: 0-1000
Red granite, source probably Egypt.
Rate: 7/27 F.R: North-East. Bovis: 8000
Observations
Group 1
Stones 1 to 3 are course-grained Aswan granite, distinctive course black and red patches, with small crystalline and irregular facets. Their Rates are consistent at 7/25.
Group2
Stone 4 is very fine grained, looks slightly like a terracotta shard from a distance/
Stone 5 is a familiar red and black grain, from a factory in Finland making kitchen worktops.
Stone 6 is similar to 7.
Stone 7 is more roughly grained than 5.
The Group 2 stones are far less consistent in their oscillations but have a Rates of seven inches, except the Finnish granite which has a Rate of five inches. (Lethbridge gives a rate of 17 inches for Finland). Yet its 25 oscillations correspond to those from Egypt as does the direction of its Fundamental Ray. Obviously I need to explore the rates at further to understand the differences.
Bovis Rates
Almost all of the Egyptian stones have very high Bovis ratings, which distinguishes them from the remainder. The naturally occurring stones have very low Bovis ratings. As I understand it, a rating of 6500 is the accepted standard for a healthy human being, (8000 is taken as the maximum for a human being with balanced energies).
Stone 1 comes from the Giza plateau in the immediate vicinity of the Great Pyramid, in which Aswan red granite was used for the construction of the uppermost chamber, aka the King’s Chamber. It is also used in the adjacent so-called Mortuary Temples, notably those connected with Khafre’s pyramid. Stones 1 and 3 each have one lightly worked surface, so possibly they may be remnants of a statue or other object that has been broken up within the Giza pyramid complex.
The use of red Aswan granite at Giza required a 600-mile transportation from Aswan. The choice of this stone must be a testament to its physical and symbolic properties. Massive blocks of it form the walls, floor and ceiling of the King’s Chamber in the Great Pyramid. Red granite was carved out to form the coffer in that chamber. Given these physical and symbolic properties, it would seem that they are connected to ideas of preservation and permanence.
In addition to Egypt, Lethbridge’s table has the following qualities for the seven inch rate: Brown, Memory, Sulphur and Scent.
Preseli Bluestone
Thinking about these results in the following days, I remembered a small piece of Preseli bluestone I had a picked up many years ago during a visit to Carn Menyn. (The site is now a protected SSI and stone should not be removed).The transportation of the bluestones from Preseli to Stonehenge parallels the transport of Aswan granite to Giza: the physical challenges do not outweigh commitment to the symbolic.
The following are the rates I found for this piece of bluestone:
Rate: 6.5/33; F.R: South-West; Bovis: 25,000
Here is a result that differs markedly from the granite readings in all respects but particularly in the F.R. with its south-west direction. Preseli Bluestone is a diorite, one of the hardest rock types known. Diorite was also used in Egypt, its well-known example being the statue of Khafre, now in the Cairo Museum. The statue was found upturned and buried in Khafre’s Mortuary Temple. It is not known how the Egyptians worked and shaped this extremely hard rock so intricately.
Archaeologists Timothy Darvill and Geoff Wainwright have proposed that the Preseli bluestones had associations with water and springs on Carn Menyn. They link the water associations to medieval beliefs in the healing properties of springs in their vicinity and the presence of springs at Stonehenge. They thus propose that the bluestones established the site as a healing centre:
“A twelfth-century account of Geoffrey of Monmouth uses the myth of Merlin bringing the stones to Stonehenge and states that the stones had medicinal properties that could be accessed by washing the stones and then pouring the water into baths. The water absorbed the healing virtues of the stones. Even today, folklore in Pembrokeshire suggests that the Preseli bluestones possess healing qualities. There is yet another intriguing (and surprising) aspect to the Preseli bluestones, which is that a relatively high proportion of them (perhaps as much as 10%) have the rare property of being lithophones – ‘musical stones’. That is, they can ring like a bell or gong, or resound like a drum, when struck with a small hammerstone, instead of the dull ‘clunking’ sound rock-on-rock usually makes.”
The Bovis bluestone measure is extremely high at 25,000, at the borderline between the physical and ethereal, according to some sources. Is this an indication of its healing properties?
Summary
Whilst the figures for the Aswan granite appear to be consistent, the remaining samples might be questionable in their differences. The reasons may be several, not least in my own judgement being wrong in selecting and identifying ‘red granite’ as too broad a category. Currently, there are 11 types of Aswan granite being quarried commercially. Colours vary from grey to dark red. Stones 1 to 3 correspond to course-grained ‘red Aswan’. Their coarseness makes them very distinguishable. Technically there described as type (2): “the famous, coarse-grained, pink to red, porphyritic Monumental Granite with rapakivi textures in places;”.
Between the Giza plateau and the Stonehenge bluestones, the two types of stone show marked similarity and connections through their respective Bovis ratings. Symbolically both share connections through their historical value and treatments.
The above summarises the stage I’v reached with my understanding. I’ll update on any future progress. Comments, pointers or advice would be most welcome.