The pendulum exercise
There’s a lot of info out there on this topic. Here’s what I have to say:
You hold the pendulum, and it moves by itself. You ask a simple Yes or No question. The pendulum moves as if answering the question. The answer can be right or wrong.
Since the pendulum isn’t guaranteed to give only right answers, its value (at least for me) is in provoking new thoughts. It provokes me into thinking more. This exercise also brings the brainwaves down to a deeper level, so I’m more calmed, better balanced, at the end of it.
The lighter the pendulum, the stronger the movements. A threaded needle is recommended by Dilys Gater (in Celtic Wise Woman), and I also find it to be the best choice.
This is how it works for me (and possibly for others):
Right at the start, the pendulum moves in geometrical lines, always the same lines and always in the same order. The lines draw the design of a wheel with eight spokes. So, first the pendulum moves in a horizontal line, then a vertical line, then a left diagonal, then a right diagonal. Finally, it moves in a circle, usually clockwise, although sometimes it can be anticlockwise. Only then does the pendulum come to rest.
At that point I can start to ask questions. The pendulum moves again, but this time in response to the questions — the horizontal movement being “yes” and the vertical movement being “no”. But since the answers can be right or wrong, the value is really only in the new thoughts that this exercise provokes, and in the calming effect it produces.
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Since learning about Buddha’s Noble Eightfold Path and seeing the wheel that’s drawn to represent it, I realise that the movements of the pendulum are drawing the same geometrical figure, including, right at the end, the circumference.
Going further, I googled the number eight and read that it can mean, among other things, “a sign of balance and inner stability”. That makes sense. The pendulum exercise produces balance and inner stability.
But I haven’t figured out the full value of the pendulum exercise. I don’t know how to get only right answers on every occasion.
