Given how quickly times change and how quickly trends come and go, it’s no wonder that by the time we’re old, we feel as though we’re living in a world many of us don’t recognize.
I’m not just talking about huge changes either, but also the small ones that seem to take place over the course of decades. My grandmother, God rest her soul, was always talking about habits and routines she had when she was young, just as she was always showing us odd instruments and trinkets that no one else in the family recognized.
I can only imagine it’ll be the same for me if I should be so lucky to live as long as she did.
At first glance it looks like a regular, old tree branch, V shaped but otherwise quite unremarkable.
Yet its story as a useful tool for mankind goes all the way back to the 1500s, and a practice known as “Water Dowsing”.
As per reports, the water dowser has several
names, including a “diviner”, “doodlebug”, “well witch”, or “water-finder.”
Its primary job? Yep, you guess it: to locate water!
An individual would hold both branches of the stick in each hand, palms facing upwards. The stem of the V (the bottom bit where the two rods meet) is then titled toward the Earth at a 45-degree angle.