What is Dowsing? Or Shamanic?
Dowsing
"To dowse is to search, with the aid of simple hand held tools or instruments, for that which is otherwise hidden from view or knowledge. It can be applied to searches for a great number of artefacts and entities."
This is the description found on the British Society of Dowsers on their website. I find it a perfect description. It is concise and simple. The word 'entities' generally relates to anything that exists; a being. And whether we can see it or not, with help of the dowsing tool we can communicate with it. It sort of makes 'visible' what happens to energy fields when we interact.
The tool that I prefer to use is just one forged iron dowsing rod. I was lucky enough to have a pair of rods hand-made and engraved with my favourite symbolisms by Hamish back then. Depending on the sort of 'task' at hand, occasionally I also use a copper pendulum as a dowsing tool. I've found that iron and copper just works best for me. Others may use crystals, wood, plastic or anything that they have a successful rapport with.
Shamanic
Now, the next part of Shamanic Dowsing, 'shamanic', is not so easy to bring down to a clear definition. Wikipedia mentions on Shamanism: "There is no single agreed-upon definition for the word "shamanism" among anthropologists. The English historian Ronald Hutton noted that by the dawn of the 21st century, there were four separate definitions of the term which appeared to be in use."
1. "anybody who contacts a spirit world while in an altered state of consciousness."
2. "those who contact a spirit world while in an altered state of consciousness at the behest of others.
3. "who are believed to contact spirits .... undertake some particular technique not used by the others."
4 "refer to the indigenous religions of Siberia and neighboring parts of Asia." And: "According to the Golomt Center for Shamanic Studies, a Mongolian organisation of shamans, the Evenk word shaman would more accurately be translated as 'priest'."
The 'shamanic' that I refer to in 'Shamanic Dowsing' can not be described with any of the above. It is not a 'who' or 'what'. It doesn't refer to a specific talented person or having extraordinary abilities. It is not related to a historical or modern form of shamanism. Instead it captures a mindset with which the dowsing is conducted. This mindset doesn't stop at boundaries, labels, conditionings or belief systems. It just boldly goes beyond it, into the unknown and mostly mysterious field of energy, vibration and consciousness. This is what I like to think of as a shamanic state of mind.
Interestingly, this mindset does touch on some of the characteristics mentioned in Wikipedia:
1. "..who contacts a spirit world while in an altered state of consciousness."
Ed Stillman reports that dowsers (while dowsing) have an unusual brain pattern: strong coherence on brain right and left sides, across all four types of waves (delta, thata, alpha, beta). People who meditate get into three or four of these brain-wave/brain-states but are more interested in the experience than dowsers, who are interested in the information (yes/no answers). So meditators may take a few minutes to get into the brain state, whereas dowsers go in and out of the state, to get an answer, in a fraction of a second. Source.
2. 'Priest' (or 'Priestess')
One of the characteristics mentioned in Wikipedia's definition of Priest(ess) is that such a person is "as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities". It often includes "blessings and prayers, ceremonies and ritual" used as a mediation between the deities and the congregation. The Shamanic Dowsing mindset here is one of being in service to the greater good, just by being a mediator between the unseen worlds and this one. For me, the passion of offering Shamanic Dowsing is to bring empowerment, joy and the sparkle of life's magic back into our hearts with the help of blessings, ritual & ceremony.