Pendulums: Connecting to the Divine Within

When I started doing energy healing, muscle testing was the only way I knew of to connect with the subconscious. Six months later I discovered pendulums, and the world of connections opened up in a way I never expected. With muscle testing you can receive only three answers: yes, no, and something in-between. A pendulum, however, provides so much more.

I have to thank my sister, Najma, for being the one to introduce me to pendulums. She and I were at a family party together and as I hadn’t spoken to her in a little while, I was excited to show her how muscle testing could be used to determine whether a person’s body “liked” something or didn’t. She politely told me that that was really interesting, but she uses a pendulum. What’s that? I asked. To that she took her necklace off her neck and showed me how if she held it aloft and asked it to show her “yes” it would move in one direction, and a “no” would move in another. Before I had time to process what I had just seen, she handed me her necklace and told me to try it. And by golly, it moved! She then told me that when she was unsure about a food or something, she would simply ask her pendulum “is this good for me?” and it would give her an answer. Spying an apple on the table, she handed it to me and told me to ask that question of the apple. Holding the apple in one hand with the necklace hanging over it I did as she said: I asked “Is this good for me?” And it swung “no”. Oh my! I was allergic to apples, and the pendulum moved all on its own to confirm it! I was stunned.

What exactly is a pendulum? A pendulum is an energy translation device.

With permission, a pendulum can tune into one specific person’s energy and translate it into moves which the practitioner can understand. Yes, no, maybe, possibly, probably…a pendulum can communicate all of these and more.

Programming your pendulum

When I started with pendulums, I was told that your pendulum will tell you what moves meant what. For example, when I asked it to show me a “yes” answer, it moved front-to-back. It told me a “no” answer was a counter-clockwise swing. For a long time, that’s all I knew.

Over time, and on several occasions, I would be in the middle of a session with someone, and my pendulum would start moving in a brand new pattern and I would be flummoxed as to what it was trying to tell me. I’d ask for every meaning I could think of until it would finally move “yes” to indicate that I had come up with the correct answer. In this way diagonal moves – “maybe” and “possibly” and the clockwise circle “I don’t wish to say” all popped up. Later my pendulum would make more intricate flower patterns, going clockwise or counter clockwise, one meaning “on the right track” and the other meaning “on the wrong track”. My pendulum will start the flower pattern in just one quadrant of the circle, going back and forth, to indicate that a spirit guide or other entity has wanted to interrupt a session to provide some information or insight!

A friend of mine, Cheryl, once relayed an experience in which she was asking her pendulum questions and at one point it made a very strange series of moves in answer. Unable to figure it out, she decided to draw the pattern so she could ask me about it. Once she had drawn it, however, she realized that it looked exactly like a rune from her runestone collection; she looked up the meaning of the runestone and discovered that was the answer she had been looking for.

This is not to say that you should expect to have random drawings of runestones when you work! Cheryl was familiar with runestones, so her subconscious used that specifically for her. What it does say is that your subconscious is eager to communicate with you, and it will find signs or symbols that you will, at least with a little digging, be able to figure out.

That said, eventually I learned that answers do not need to be at the “whim” of your pendulum. A pendulum is a tool responding to your subconscious, not the other way around! As such, it is actually possible to program (or re-program) our pendulum move in the ways we ask it to for the various answers we would like to receive.

A course in Transcendental dowsing revealed for me that there are certain pendulum moves which are universal to some of the more powerful energetic experiences. The first one is the counter-clockwise circle. It was said that in nature, counter-clockwise motions accompany destruction, removal, or cleansing – think of tornadoes, hurricanes, or cyclones. Conversely, clockwise patterns in nature are seen representing growth, as in seashells, or the Fibonacci sequence. These are therefore moves that are reserved for releasing negative stuck energies and anchoring positive ones, respectively. If you intend to do healing work with your pendulum, I suggest you reserve these moves for healing activities only.

For the sake of consistency, I ask practitioners of my healing modality, the Accelerated Release Technique, to have the front-to-back pendulum motion (like nodding) to represent “yes” (also ready,) and a side-to-side swing (like shaking one’s head) to represent the answer “no”. I leave it to the individual practitioner to program all the other motions as they wish.

Programming your pendulum is merely a process of initiating a particular swing and indicating for your pendulum and your own subconscious the instructions that are to accompany the swing.

For example, begin by moving your pendulum in a front-to-back motion and repeat:

“This represents a ‘yes’ response, a positive response, or a beneficial response” several times. Once that is done, ask your pendulum to show you a “yes” response. It should be this front-to-back motion. Once that is done, it is always appropriate to thank your pendulum and your subconscious for working with you in harmony. Gratitude never goes amiss!

Then program your “no” in the same way, only substituting in a side-to-side swing.

You may choose to program in other responses, such as “you’re on the right track” or “you’re on the wrong track,” or you can simply ask your pendulum to show you a swing for each move.

Again, the only condition is that the clockwise and counter-clockwise motions be separate and distinct from any of these responses.

Pendulum Programming Steps:

1. Program “yes” first: 

A) Initiate a front-to-back swing with the pendulum. Repeat “this is a ‘yes’ response, a positive response, or a beneficial response” several times.

B) Stop the pendulum and ask it to show you a “yes” response. It should move in a front-to-back motion. If it does not, try again.

C) Thank your pendulum and your subconscious for working in harmony. All energy work should be done with the attitude of gratitude in mind.

2. Program “no”:

A) Initiate a side-to-side swing with the pendulum. Repeat “this is a ‘no’ response, a negative response, or a non-beneficial response” several times.

B) Stop the pendulum and ask it to show you a “no” response. It should move in a side-to-side motion. If it does not, try again.

C) Express gratitude for the process having worked.

Renu Arora, creator of the Accelerated Release Technique (ART)

Author of The Energy Healing Bible: Introducing the Accelerated Release Technique