I’m originally from north Cork, but I’m living in Ashbourne, Co Meath now. Divining is looking for something using a pendulum or rods. It’s a non-scientific way of doing things and not everybody would agree with it.
Divining is more about finding water and there is less of that now. Dowsing would be the other term used, even though the society I am in is the Irish Society of Water Diviners. When I was at school, I remember a well had to be divined on a local farm and I was interested in it from then. One summer I was in Dublin, I think it was around 1974, and I saw a notice that they were doing a demonstration on divining up in Taylor’s Hall in Christchurch and that was the start of it. I just picked up the rods and I had no problem doing it. It came very naturally to me.
A lot of people asking me for help would be looking for water for a one-off house, they would be looking to have their own well. Or it’s a farmer who would be expanding.
Long ago, they used a hazel rod to divine water. I use brass rods. You hold one rod in each hand and you are asking questions — the rods cross one another for a Yes and they will open out for a No. If the question is not suitable, they just won’t move.
In most water courses, there would be an energy line. You feel a kind of a muscle contraction, your muscles give a little jerk, they pick up something. They are picking up on energy, I suppose.
When the rod is activated, you feel a little sensation, but even prior to the rods meeting, you know they are going to cross. There is a kind of a sensory thing about it.
If someone wants help finding water, you go and meet them and have a casual chat — where do they want the water and what they want the water for. Then you go out into the field and just ask a few questions — is there water in this field? Is this water good drinking water? Is the quantity enough for the needs of this person? Nine out of 10 times you will get a watercourse.
In my youth, if you were digging a well, you got a water diviner. There was nothing thought about it that you shouldn’t get one, or that it was the height of madness. It was the same if you had ringworm, there was some guy that cured ringworm. There was another you went to if you had a bad back. A lot of the stuff that happened had been handed down.
The other thing I do is some clearing of spirits … We started clearing them and we just saw these little orbs, like little bubbles, rising up into the air
We have lost a lot of things, but there is renewed interest in this kind of thing. With the decline of organised religion, I can see an increase in it. It will always be a minor thing though. A lot of people will never have heard of it and will have no interest in it.
The other thing I do is some clearing of spirits. I remember being down in an old graveyard near Clonakilty with another guy. He said to me, there were a lot of trapped spirits and I checked and there were. Normally, we would just ask, did they want to be cleared, and most times they would. We started clearing them and we just saw these little orbs, like little bubbles, rising up into the air. There were spirits trapped for generations and they were going to the light.
You have to protect yourself in cases like that. You can’t just go in willy-nilly and start clearing spirits. You ground yourself and you say that none of what is going on around you is going to affect you. And then when you are finished, you clear yourself of any energy that may have been cast on to you. I’ve never been frightened by anything that has happened, not yet anyway.
People will tell you to your face what they think about it. I don’t mind that. I just don’t take any notice of it. Quite a few people are sceptical, but I see results. I don’t try to convert people.
The Irish Society of Water Diviners used to meet in Synge Street, but since Covid, we are just doing Zoom calls
I still have my religion. It doesn’t make a difference. I know priests who are water diviners and if you go abroad, a lot of dowsers believe in a greater power, but they don’t believe in organised religion.
The Irish Society of Water Diviners used to meet in Synge Street, but since Covid, we are just doing Zoom calls … At one stage, there were about 50 of us, but the number practising wouldn’t be anywhere near that. We do field trips to sites like Tara or somewhere there is a bit of history.
There’s comradery in divining and dowsing and it’s great to hear someone ring you up and tell you that what you did, it was successful … It would be a waste to have that gift and not to use it.
- In conversation with Joanne Hunt
