The Hanging Tree: dowsing for death

The Gauntlet

A discussion broke out with a friend. I was telling him how Kal and I had dowsed for death energies and he became intrigued by the idea. He mentioned that a fellow had committed suicide by hanging himself from a tree in the field just behind his house in Macclesfield. He wondered if I could locate which tree it was. He knew, and was about to describe some of the surrounding circumstances but I asked him not to. Let’s see if I could find out which tree – a dowsing challenge, and an opportunity to try out a neglected aspect of my dowsing – location. Talking of location, I asked my friend to provide me with the postcode for this place, and I would find it from that. To save me some time he let slip – “It’s in the left hand side as you go into the field.” I didn’t want any more details. Let’s see if I could locate it from that much alone.

Evening expedition

I checked Google Earth for an aerial map of the field. Lots of fuzzy trees. Loads of them. ‘The left side’ barely narrowed much down, but I was grateful to at least be sure I was heading in a particular direction! It seemed like half a mile square, this field. One evening several days later I was pulling on a light rain jacket and thinking of taking gloves because a bitter wind still blew. There was just enough cover in the field to fend off the wind. There were hawthorn bushes, lots of small trees in a bank surrounding the field, and the occasional large ash and other varied deciduous trees and shrubs. I was going to be picking a tree out of about fifty that I could make out on this blurry map.

Head down I marched off left along the path with the clear request to locate a tree that had been the location of a recent human hanging. I thought that was specific enough until I got something. The rods just swung very gently to and fro in synchrony for a few minutes of walking. By now I was half way across this half of the field and nothing yet. I wondered of the distant boom-boom bass from some boy racer’s boot was baffling a response. I get my head down and tried to un-focus and yet focus at the same time – Wei-No-Wei. Zanshin.

A minute later a large tree loomed for the first time on the right-hand side of the path. As I walked past it the rods both swung quite deliberately in a sharp arc to point towards the large trunk of the tree. I stated my intention again and the rods held firm to their new course until I touched the trunk with the copper tips. No doubting now – this was the one. I stood back to see what it was like. Gnarly, and complex. And very black. I know it was a dull early evening in Spring, but this tree’s trunk was blacker than the other trees in the area.

Snuff Clip

I took some pictures as evidence of finding the place. Then I asked to find the exact spot where he had swung at his death and was able to find a spot just a couple of feet away from the trunk near to the sturdy and accessible branches. Then I did a stupid thing. I wanted confirmation so I leaned against the tree and slowed everything down a bit. Moments later I was asking to see the man’s death, and I got myself ready for it. But I wasn’t ready. Not ready for seeing a thin, gaunt, pale face and neck snap upwards against the black knotted frame of the tree, and then I pulled away. Well, I literally asked for that! I don’t think I’ll be exercising that particular connection any time soon.

The Squidgy Bit

I spent a minute or two more with the tree, trying to absorb or let in some of the energy that it had stored from that traumatic event. I imagined my chakras opening up to draw out the memory and to dissipate it on the breeze, apologising all the while quietly to the tree for it having to endure (and then re-live) the experience of the hanging man’s distress. Minutes later I dowsed as to whether I had had any effect. YES – the black energy was neutralised. A little shiver went through me, and this was a sign that I should clean myself down too, so I did just that quickly, dissipating any accumulated energies. All clear? The rods said so.

I need to be sure that there wasn’t any other tree that I might have got mixed up with, so I asked the rods if there was any other tree that had hosted a human hanging? NO. Any other deaths in this vicinity (woolly, I know). YES. OK (if it’s not too far) could I be shown the way to that place? The rods pointed off down the slope, so I followed them, away from the path across some lower-lying ground that was marshy. I skirted it, picking up the trail again as it led to a simple wire fence standing four feet high with a railway line at the top. It was easily climbed but I thought I knew what was about to be revealed and I didn’t want to follow in their footsteps so I packed up and headed off. I’m guessing someone was killed by a train there once. I had enough information to meet the challenge, so I packed up and headed home.

The Payoff

When I met my friend again he wanted to know if I’d been to the field. I certainly had, and here were the pictures to show him which tree I had picked out. He smiled. “Yeah, that’s the one. Definitely.” OK. Interesting. Not going to make a habit of that, but it was interesting. The bounds of possibility keep extending for this skill. “Why don’t you see if there’s any information about it?” he asked me later. Tonight I went online and found this BBC bulletin about it: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2795391.stm

Gwas

Following someone’s directions.