Dowsing in the City

Last weekend I was out and about in my currently favourite city, Manchester. As I wandered through the enchantingly busy throng I wondered if it would be possible to do some dowsing here. Of course it wouldn’t be rod dowsing but I could easily stretch to device-less dowsing, something I am getting quite good at.

Device-less dowsing for me is quite simply imagining you have a rod in your hand and feeling your way with them. Of course you don’t hold your hand out (that would look daft 🙂

So there I was in the middle of a busy afternoon in the mall attempting to follow some intuitive energy. Without much success! I tried various questions, such as asking for a power centre or following an energy line. All ended in wobbling and bumping into people.

Interestingly, putting up protection around me only helped mildly. It reduced the bumps and smoothed out the path a bit but essentially I wasn’t satisfied with any of the results.

After almost giving up, I finally asked to be taken to something (somewhere) that could teach me something  interesting. I know, bit of lame question but it has produced results in the past.

I bumbled along to the nearest exit and was taken in a huge arc around town until finally I came to rest at, what is known as Piccadilly Gardens. Alas the gardens where bulldozed several years ago and replaced with a monstrous water fountain feature, but hey, who am I to argue against the city council?

As I had approached the gardens, I could hear some African drum music being played  and a group of people gathered around a three piece band and a rather tall African gentleman doing a jig, accompanied occasionally by a someone from the crowd.

As I stood there and watched both the crowd and the performance I wandered “What was there here for me to learn?” Listening to the enticing rhythm of the drums made me want to step up and accompany the dancer. I resisted the temptation and considered whether “that” was the lesson to learn.

As I mused on the spectacle I reflected on ancient ceremonies from that far off land. I felt a little sad to know that all that was left of them was these rhythmic drum beats. Then it occurred to me, perhaps not, an idea formulated in my mind even as I found myself joining the ‘dancing man’.

Much, if not all of life is about connection. Even here in this blog we are connecting with you. In one way we might say the “goodness” in our life is relative to the quality of our connections. Socially, we might call them relationships.

As I danced about, within the circle of the audience I felt a deep connection with them and I also ‘saw’ that they, by enjoying (enjoining) the performance with others were also creating a connection with each other.

What if that was ‘a’ primary purpose of ceremonies. To create and sustain a bond.  Of course we know that there are other ‘reasons’ that ceremonies were performed, e.g. fertility, health, transformation etc. But a curious question to ask is this, what if these reasons were secondary and the primary purpose (albeit unconscious) was simply to connect?

It makes some kind of sense. If we go far enough back in time then we could imagine earlier peoples coming together for the purpose of connection and companionship (and some even describe as ‘spiritual’ experience). Across the world we see that ‘enjoining’ in a common experience is a profound sensation. All sports for example give such an experience to both the players and the audiences.

In esoterica of the spiritual we are given to understand that we are one. I wonder whether this ‘togetherness’ is what ceremonies are all about? I wonder whether in order to rec-connect with our spirit we create an experience in the material that ‘represents’ that spiritual oneness?

Certainly worth considering isn’t it?

Kal Malik – always learning