According to the remaining texts that have survived the onslaught of subsequent religions the ancient druid orders specialised in their powers of divination. In some ancient Irish texts there is mention of the forms of druidical divination, specifically in three forms: Imbas Forosnai, Teinm Laida and Dichetal do Chennaib. We have a good description of these arts in the old Irish text “Cormac’s Glossary” (available to read online here).
Imbas Forosnai is the art of obtaining hidden information from the mouth – a form of inspirational poetry or pronouncement where the druid simply exclaims the divination, or describes the vision; Teinm Laida is not a position of responsibility in a Call Centre, but is instead is the art of obtaining information from within existing poetry, or by the act of reading or writing poetry. Poetry’s symbolic form lends it to the production of images and associations in the mind, and this is used to stimulate divination.
The most difficult concept to translate of the forms of divination is Dichetal do Chennaib. This has been described as either “extemporary pronouncement” and “singing of prophecy”, or as “knowing through the fingers” or “seeing with the fingers”. As a concept it has been interpreted in many different ways, and in this post I discuss two interpretations of this divination form that might suit the modern spiritual practitioner.
Dichetal do Chennaib (pronounced, I think, “Diketal de Kenna”) requires no invocation of any spirit entity, and thus was not denounced by St Patrick when he went on the rampage through Ireland denouncing this and calling for the abolition of that. If it seemed vaguely like it might be a communication with anything that could not be immediately identified as The One True God (the Christian God, of course) then it was null, void, disallowed and disavowed.
I first heard of the druidical skill of Dichetal do Chennaib from a Caitlin Matthews talk aired on Druidcast #24. Whilst Caitlin did a great job of relating the three forms, I was not able to relate that to my own spiritual practice until I got a flash of inspiration recently when I heard about these forms again.
The Art of Psychometry
Psychometry is the art of “reading objects”. It is a means of obtaining extra-sensory information about or via the object through its symbolism, associations, or because of the energy ‘imprinted’ into it by the people who have owned or handled it. So, you might say it is the art of obtaining inspiration through the fingers? Sounds just like Dichetal do Chennaib, right? So, maybe this is one of the possible interpretations of the concept? It sounds just like it is the act of acquiring hidden knowledge through the sense of touch, through the fingers.
I had experience of psychometry when I was invited to assess an object from a friend. He placed it in my hands and simply said, “Tell me what you get from that.” I let it lie in my hands for several minutes, wondering how exactly I would “get ” anything other than that it was shaped like a cigar case or a blow-pipe, and looked like it might be of a strange wood that I didn’t recognise. I switched off my rational mind from the task of identification. I told my brain that I didn’t need its information, but that I would open up to other sources of information instead, so I went into a light trance state and thought of nothing.
The smell of incense began to fill my nostrils. I mentioned it out loud but no-one else in the room seemed to smell it. That bothered me, but I continued in my trance. Now I felt a queasiness in my lower abdomen, as though I was meeting a special important person and had butterflies about that meeting. I came out of my trance and reported those findings. My friend smiled at me.
He took the cigar-shaped object from me and unfurled a mandala-patterned Tibetan embroidered picture. He looked at me and said, “My friend was given this by the Dalai Lama. He gave it to her saying, ‘You must give this to your psychic friend in England’. That would explain the incense and the butterfly feeling, no?” I nodded dumbly in astonishment.
Deviceless Dowsing
When we talk of ‘deviceless dowsing’ we are simply taking the implements away from this act of divination. In fact, removing the dowsing implement, whether rods or pendulums or whatever, is actually moving us one step closer to an act of divination. I define dowsing as an act of acquiring information about the present physical reality, but in its esoteric reaches it can touch upon subjects out of time and out of the normal co-ordinates of space too. This brings us firmly into the realm of divination, where questions about the past and future are the main topic.
I have begun to spend more and more time trying to sense and feel for energies and signals from subtle etheric fields and bodies of energy, from flows and tendrils of energy in dimensions just beyond our normal sensory capabilities. It took me a long time to become confident enough to even try it without the dowsing rods, but now I do it regularly. I think I needed a ‘vocabulary’ of how the energies affected me under various conditions before I was able to differentiate these subtle and invisible forces. Now I have those criteria in-built, as it were, into my sensory and etheric body then the dowsing without tools is a much easier process.
Recently, while in Paris, I followed a trail of energy to a tree and found a stone that would later play a significant part in my quest. I followed the trail much as I suspect a pigeon follows a direction – by orienting myself so that the throb or pull in my head was at the front. It could as easily have been my fingers that did this detection, and in many cases I have felt the tingle or rush of subtle energy emerging from the edge of a rock, or around a standing stone, or above a stone circle. All with my hands. I have come to learn about energy flows and strengths by touch alone. Is this not the art of “seeing with the fingers” described in these ancient Irish texts?
Conclusion
Perhaps it is a false dichotomy, a senseless carving to cleave apart these arts of divination. Essentially we are discussing one act – the act of interfacing with a knowledge source outside of our usual experience and sensory perception. This is exactly what dowsing is. Dowsing is a physical representation of an interface with an other knowledge source that guides the responses to reveal information that is beyond our normal perceptions.
So, it is my contention that Deviceless Dowsing and Psychometry are two aspects of the same original druidic divination technique called Dichetal do Chennaib, and we modern dowsers are in fact revising the ancient druidical art of divination by practising this skill.
Resources:
Books
- Merlin: Shaman, Prophet, Magician – John Matthews
More information
- Deviceless dowsing techniques – Mirror Waters site
- Dan Wilson on Deviceless Dowsing – Divining Mind site
- Caitlin Matthews’ web site
- Druid divination – a very brief explanation by OBOD
Gwas.
