This series of instruction and guidance has kindly been written by RowanBerry in the Whitewiccca forums and is saved here for easy reference.

For reasons I won’t go into here I have sufficient proof that the pendulum works, wrought with my own hand before my own eyes. No telepathy. No trembling of the hand. No unconscious attempts to obtain a certain answer…

The pendulum is an easily available, simple to use, and portable ‘tool’ that everyone can employ in both their magickal and their mundane lives. It seems almost too good to be true, too easy perhaps, but sometimes we look too hard when something is right in our path. Like all magickal tools or props, the pendulum is simply an aid to clarifying knowledge that already exists and is accessible to us, but just not on a conscious level.

What, in fact, is a pendulum? Basically, any weighted object suspended from a string can serve as a pendulum, from your granny’s wedding ring or a button tied to a string, to the finest of bejeweled craft-pieces on a chain of purest gold. The requirements are, more or less, that the string be a convenient length to suspend from a finger (about 15-20 cm.) so the weighted part can swing freely and that the weighted bit feel right, not be too heavy (uncomfortable) or too light (feel insubstantial).

Once you’ve decided you’d like to work with a pendulum and would like to acquire one you can either buy or make a pendulum. If you want to craft one yourself, as opposed to simply hanging an object such as a ring, button, bolt, or the like on a string (cord, chain, etc.), there are books that explain how.

You might feel a resonance with a certain stone or type of wood, and wish to make your pendulum from it, especially if you cannot find ones ready-made for purchase. You may also feel that by crafting something yourself, you’re embuing it with you own energies in the creation as well as the subsequent use of it.

On the other hand, that might seem a lot of work when there are so many attractive pendulums available in the shops, or it may require skills or equipment you don’t possess. A bought pendulum is not in any way inferior to a hand-made one, as you will charge it, align it with your energies, and transform it into an extension of yourself.

If you wish to buy a pendulum, you should select it as you would any magickal tool, choose one that ‘speaks to’ you, that you feel energetically aligned with and not necessarily the most beautiful, expensive (or cheap), or ‘popular’ one you see.

Go with what you feel, not what you or someone else thinks you ‘should’ choose. Pick it up, see how it feels suspended from your finger, hold it in your palm and see if the stone (or wood or whatever) feels ‘right’ for you.

If price is a problem with a pendulum that you really feel good with, try to make arrangements to have it, because your pendulum is going to be working as an extension of you, so ‘fit’ is important.

Some people acquire more than one pendulum, using various types for various sorts of working. They may feel one kind of energy is good for finding things, say, while another is better in healing.

Most pendulums are made of wood, metal, or stone. Some may choose metal because it might be more electromagnetically conductive. Others may choose wood because wood was once a living part of our Mother. Plastic has never appealed to me, though there are those who like it. My own pendulums are all crystal.

Though not all experts insist on it as necessary, I like the pendulum to be symmetrical so that I can feel sure it’s not influenced by its own uneven shape to gyrate more ‘this’ way than ‘that’. That’s just my own taste, though – go for whatever feels best for you.

To give people plenty of time to obtain a pendulum, next week we will theorise on how the pendulum probably works. If by then you still don’t have a pendulum, please make up something provisional like a ring on a piece of string, or a favourite stone in a small bag with a long string, or a pendant on a chain. Please use something that you feel very good around, attuned with, and something that other people haven’t touched much if at all (we’ll talk about ‘attuning’ the pendulum very soon).

Although there is some explanation involved regarding techniques and preparation, once you’ve learned these things (which are in fact quite simple), the rest of the postings I plan will be exploring various uses of the pendulum beyond the simple ‘yes-no’ questions it is primarily known for.