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128-544: Dowsing is a type of divination employed in attempts to locate ground water , buried metals or ores , gemstones, oil , claimed radiations ( radiesthesia ), gravesites , malign "earth vibrations" and many other objects and materials without the use of a scientific apparatus . It is also known as divining (especially in water divining ), doodlebugging (particularly in the United States, in searching for petroleum or treasure ) or water finding , or water witching (in

256-536: A 1986 article in Nature included dowsing in a list of "effects which until recently were claimed to be paranormal but which can now be explained from within orthodox science." Specifically, dowsing could be explained in terms of sensory cues , expectancy effects , and probability . Science writer Peter Daempfle has noted that when dowsing is subjected to scientific testing, it fails. Daempfle has written that although some dowsers claim success, this can be attributed to

384-426: A cage fell down a shaft; and seven killed at Dolcoath mine in 1893, when a large stull collapsed. Cornwall River Tamar Devon See Dartmoor tin-mining The Royal Geological Society of Cornwall was founded in 1814 to promote the study of the geology of Cornwall , and is the second oldest geological society in the world. The Cornish Institute of Engineers was begun by mechanical engineers. Mining

512-484: A certain spot and appeared to be making the sign of the cross; but Teresa says, "Really I cannot be sure if it were the sign he made, at any rate he made some movement with the twig and then he said, ' Dig just here '; they dug, and lo ! a plentiful fount of water gushed forth, excellent for 'drinking, copious for washing, and it never ran dry.' " As the writer of this Life remarks: "Teresa, not having heard of dowsing, has no explanation for this event", and regarded it as

640-401: A decree of the inquisition in 1701, forbidding its employment for purposes of justice. An epigram by Samuel Sheppard, from Epigrams theological, philosophical, and romantick (1651) runs thus: Some Sorcerers do boast they have a Rod, Gather'd with Vowes and Sacrifice, And (borne about) will strangely nod To hidden Treasure where it lies; Mankind is (sure) that Rod divine, For to

768-460: A distinction is made between divination and fortune-telling , divination has a more formal or ritualistic element and often contains a more social character, usually in a religious context, as seen in traditional African medicine . Fortune-telling, on the other hand, is a more everyday practice for personal purposes. Particular divination methods vary by culture and religion. In its functional relation to magic in general, divination can have

896-748: A few other metals (e.g. arsenic , silver , and zinc ) have been mined in Cornwall and Devon . Tin deposits still exist in Cornwall, and there has been talk of reopening the South Crofty tin mine. In addition, work has begun on re-opening the Hemerdon tungsten and tin mine in southwest Devon. In view of the economic importance of mines and quarries, geological studies have been conducted; about forty distinct minerals have been identified from type localities in Cornwall (e.g. endellionite from St Endellion ). Quarrying of igneous and metamorphic rocks has also been

1024-474: A few stone hammers, such as those in the Zennor Wayside Museum. It may well be that mining was mostly undertaken with shovels, antler picks, and wooden wedges. An excavation at Dean Moor on Dartmoor, at a site dated at 1400–900 BC from pottery, yielded a pebble of tin ore and tin slag. Rocks were used for crushing the ore and stones for this were found at Crift Farm. There have been finds of tin slag on

1152-530: A flourishing tin trade, according to the later report of his voyage. Posidonius referred to the tin trade with Britain around 90 BC but Strabo in about 18 AD did not list tin as one of Britain's exports. This is likely to be because Rome was obtaining its tin from Hispania at the time. William Camden, in his Britannia of 1607, identified the Cassiterides with the Scilly Isles and first gave currency to

1280-429: A general wanted to know if the omens were proper for him to advance on the enemy, he would ask his seer both that question and if it were better for him to remain on the defensive. If the seer gave consistent answers, the advice was considered valid. During battle, generals would frequently ask seers at both the campground (a process called the hiera ) and at the battlefield (called the sphagia ). The hiera entailed

1408-454: A high probability of finding water in favorable terrain. Notable dowsers include: Divination Divination can be seen as an attempt to organize what appears to be random so that it provides insight into a problem or issue at hand. Some instruments or practices of divination include Tarot-card reading, rune casting , tea-leaf reading , automatic writing , water scrying , and psychedelics like psilocybin mushrooms and DMT . If

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1536-431: A laboratory scale, resulting in plans for a further 20 drill holes. In 2021, a new mine was extracting battery-grade lithium carbonate . In the metalliferous mines of Cornwall , some of the worst accidents were at East Wheal Rose in 1846, where 39 men were killed by a sudden flood; at Levant Mine in 1919, where 31 were killed and many injured in a failure of the man engine ; 12 killed at Wheal Agar in 1883 when

1664-416: A mid-line guess, an advantage of 0.04%, and that the five other "good" dowsers were on average farther than a mid-line guess. Enright emphasized that the experimenters should have decided beforehand how to statistically analyze the results; if they only afterward chose the statistical analysis that showed the greatest success, then their conclusions would not be valid until replicated by another test analyzed by

1792-418: A miracle. This, I believe, is the first historical reference to dowsing for water. In 1662, divining with rods was declared to be " superstitious , or rather satanic " by a Jesuit , Gaspar Schott , though he later noted that he was not sure that the devil was always responsible for the movement of the rod. In southern France in the 17th century, it was used to track criminals and heretics . Its abuse led to

1920-575: A popular form of divination from physiology. Stemming from Western influences, body reading or ninsou , determines personality traits based on body measurements. The face is the most commonly analyzed feature, with eye size, pupil shape, mouth shape, and eyebrow shape representing the most important traits. An upturned mouth may be cheerful, and a triangle eyebrow may indicate that someone is strong-willed. Methods of assessment in daily life may include self-taken measurements or quizzes. As such, magazines targeted at women in their early-to-mid twenties feature

2048-410: A practitioner to "a physician trying to heal the sick with the help of the same natural principles." Divination was a central component of ancient Mesoamerican religious life. Many Aztec gods , including central creator gods , were described as diviners and were closely associated with sorcery . Tezcatlipoca is the patron of sorcerers and practitioners of magic . His name means "smoking mirror,"

2176-427: A preliminary and investigative role: [...] the diagnosis or prognosis achieved through divination is both temporarily and logically related to the manipulative, protective or alleviative function of magic rituals. In divination one finds the cause of an ailment or a potential danger, in magic one subsequently acts upon this knowledge. Divination has long attracted criticism. In the modern era, it has been dismissed by

2304-528: A reference to a device used for divinatory scrying . In the Mayan Popol Vuh , the creator gods Xmucane and Xpiacoc perform divinatory hand casting during the creation of people. The Aztec Codex Borbonicus shows the original human couple, Oxomoco and Cipactonal , engaged in divining with kernels of maize. This primordial pair is associated with the ritual calendar, and the Aztecs considered them to be

2432-531: A result of excavations, Barry Cunliffe has proposed that this was Mount Batten near Plymouth. A shipwreck site with ingots of tin was found at the mouth of the River Erme not far away, which may represent trade along this coast during the Bronze Age, although dating the site is very difficult. Strabo reported that British tin was shipped to Marseille. Ding Dong mine , reputedly one of the oldest in Cornwall, in

2560-529: A short cord or thread is the tool of choice for many modern dowsers. The dowser holds the cord in one hand and allows the pendulum to swing freely. The dowser then observes how the pendulum is swinging and interprets the motion to offer insights. A 1990 double-blind study was undertaken in Kassel , Germany, under the direction of the Gesellschaft zur Wissenschaftlichen Untersuchung von Parawissenschaften (Society for

2688-462: A significant industry. In the 20th century, the extraction of kaolin was important economically. The intrusion of granite into the surrounding sedimentary rocks gave rise to extensive metamorphism and mineralisation . As a result, Cornwall was one of the most important mining areas in Europe until the early 20th century. It is thought that tin ore ( cassiterite ) was mined in Cornwall as early as

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2816-607: A small proportion of tin (5 – 20%) in molten copper, the alloy bronze was produced. The alloy is harder than copper. The oldest production of tin-bronze is in Anatolia (modern day Turkey ) about 3500 BC, but exploitation of the tin resources in Britain is believed to have started before 2000 BC, with a thriving tin trade developing with the civilisations of the Mediterranean. The strategic importance of tin in forging bronze weapons brought

2944-415: A standstill. “Negative poe” is when the flat sides fall downward and abruptly stop; this indicates "No". When there is a positive fall, it is called “Sacred poe”, although the negative falls are not usually taken seriously. As the blocks are being dropped the question is said in a murmur, and if the answer is yes, the blocks are dropped again. To make sure the answer is definitely a yes, the blocks must fall in

3072-457: A tree or bush. Some dowsers prefer branches from particular trees, and some prefer the branches to be freshly cut. Hazel twigs in Europe and witch-hazel in the United States are traditionally commonly chosen, as are branches from willow or peach trees . The two ends on the forked side are held one in each hand with the third (the stem of the Y) pointing straight ahead. The dowser then walks slowly over

3200-465: A “yes” position three times in a row. A more serious type of divination is the Kiō-á. There is a small wooden chair, and around the sides of the chair are small pieces of wood that can move up and down in their sockets, this causes a clicking sounds when the chair is moved in any way. Two men hold this chair by its legs before an altar, while the incense is being burned, and the deity is invited to descend onto

3328-415: Is a practice in which one would fast and keep themselves away from light in a room until midnight to then complete a set of complex events to interpret symbols encountered throughout the journey to foresee the coming year. In Islam , astrology ( ‘ilm ahkam al-nujum ), the most widespread divinatory science, is the study of how celestial entities could be applied to the daily lives of people on earth. It

3456-602: Is famous for arulvakku in Tamil Nadu . The people in and around Mangalore in Karnataka call the same, Buta Kola , "paathri" or "darshin"; in other parts of Karnataka, it is known by various names such as, "prashnaavali", "vaagdaana", "asei", "aashirvachana", and so on. In Nepal it is known as, "Devta ka dhaamee" or " jhaakri ". In English, the closest translation for these is, " oracle ." The Dalai Lama , who lives in exile in northern India, still consults an oracle known as

3584-427: Is important to emphasize the practical nature of divinatory sciences because people from all socioeconomic levels and pedigrees sought the advice of astrologers to make important decisions in their lives. Astronomy was made a distinct science by intellectuals who did not agree with the former, although distinction may not have been made in daily practice, where astrology was technically outlawed and only tolerated if it

3712-495: Is increasingly important for young Japanese, who consider personality the driving factor of compatibility, given the ongoing marriage drought and birth rate decline in Japan. An import to Japan, Chinese zodiac signs based on the birth year in 12 year cycles (rat, ox, tiger, hare, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, cock, dog, and boar) are frequently combined with other forms of divination, such as so-called 'celestial types' based on

3840-560: Is no more effective than random chance . It is therefore regarded as a pseudoscience . Dowsing originated in ancient times, when it was treated as a form of divination . The Catholic Church , however, banned the practice completely. Reformer Martin Luther perpetuated the Catholic ban, in 1518 listing divining for metals as an act that broke the first commandment (i.e., as occultism ). Old texts about searching for water do not mention using

3968-465: Is no text accompanying the woodcut. By 1556, Georgius Agricola 's treatment of mining and smelting of ore , De Re Metallica , included a detailed description of dowsing for metal ore. ...There are many great contentions between miners concerning the forked twig, for some say that it is of the greatest use in discovering veins, and others deny it. ... All alike grasp the forks of the twig with their hands, clenching their fists, it being necessary that

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4096-472: Is said to have landed at Perranporth from Ireland about 420 AD. There is no record of tin mining in Domesday Book , possibly because the rights were Crown property. During the first half of the 12th century Dartmoor provided most of the tin for Europe, exceeding the production of Cornwall. The Pipe Roll of Henry II gives the annual tin production of Dartmoor as about 60 tons. In 1198 he agreed that "all

4224-839: Is so great that huge waste mounds were created whose whiteness in the early years means that they can be seen from afar. The Eden Project has been developed on the site of a former china clay and tin quarry. Extraction of slate and roadstone by quarrying still continues on a reduced scale: it was formerly an important industry, and has been carried on in Cornwall ever since the Middle Ages. Several quarries have been productive enough to need their own mineral railways. Granite of high quality has been extracted from many Cornish quarries such as De Lank . Some granite has been taken very long distances for use in building. There are also some important quarries in Devon, such as Meldon (a source of railway ballast for

4352-493: Is steeped in mining history. Metals extracted included tin, silver, copper, and tungsten. The main mines were Kit Hill Summit Mines (which included a windmill near the present stack) (started about 1826; Kit Hill United closed in 1864); East Kit Hill Mine, worked from 1855 to 1909; Hingston Down mine (which worked westwards towards Kit Hill, may have started in the 17th century, it closed in 1885; and South Kit Hill Mine, worked from 1856 to 1884. The last Cornish Stannary Parliament

4480-490: Is “based on the interpretation of figures traced on sand or other surface known as geomantic figures .” It is a good example of Islamic divination at a popular level. The core principle that meaning derives from a unique occupied position is identical to the core principle of astrology. Like astronomy, geomancy used deduction and computation to uncover significant prophecies as opposed to omens ( ‘ilm al-fa’l ), which were process of “reading” visible random events to decipher

4608-739: The Nechung Oracle , which is considered the official state oracle of the government of Tibet . The Dalai Lama has according to centuries-old custom, consulted the Nechung Oracle during the new year festivities of Losar . Although Japan retains a history of traditional and local methods of divination , such as onmyōdō , contemporary divination in Japan, called uranai , derives from outside sources. Contemporary methods of divination in Japan include both Western and Chinese astrology , geomancy or feng shui , tarot cards , I Ching (Book of Changes) divination , and physiognomy (methods of reading

4736-575: The ADE 651 , Sniffex , and the GT200 . In consequence of these frauds, in 1999 the United States National Institute of Justice issued advice against buying equipment based on dowsing. The device used by a dowser is typically referred to as a dowsing or divining rod, even though it may not be rod-shaped. Traditionally, the most common method used is the dowsing twig, a forked (Y-shaped) branch from

4864-596: The Bronze Age . Over the years, many other metals (e.g. lead and zinc ) have been mined in Cornwall. Alquifou (based, along with the word alcohol , on the Arabic word "al-kuhl") is a lead ore found in Cornwall, and used by potters to give pottery a green glaze. As a result of both natural and human processes, heavy metal contamination is present across much of the county, with arsenic levels varying in accordance with geological formations and their subsequent exploitation in

4992-762: The First World War Gallipoli campaign , sapper Kelly became well known for finding water for the British troops. In the late 1960s during the Vietnam War , some United States Marines used dowsing when locating weapons and tunnels. As late as in 1986, when 31 soldiers were taken by an avalanche during an operation in the NATO drill Anchor Express in Vassdalen , Norway, the Norwegian army attempted to locate soldiers buried in

5120-543: The Mendip Hills in Somerset , England in the 17th century the natural philosopher Robert Boyle , inspired by the writings of Agricola, watched a practitioner try to find "latent veins of metals". Boyle saw the hazel divining rod ( virgula divinatoria ) stoop in the hands of the diviner, who protested that he was not applying any force to the twig; Boyle accepted the man's genuine belief but himself remained unconvinced. Towards

5248-571: The Middle Ages . In the constitution of 1572 and public regulations of 1661 of the Electorate of Saxony , capital punishment was used on those predicting the future. Laws forbidding divination practice continue to this day. The Waldensians sect were accused of practicing divination. Småland is famous for Årsgång , a practice which occurred until the early 19th century in some parts of Småland. Generally occurring on Christmas and New Year's Eve, it

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5376-535: The Privilege of Parliament Act 1512 . The first Crockern Tor stannary parliament in Devon was held in 1494 and the last in 1748. At Combe Martin several disused silver mines are located on the eastern ridge and evidence of tunnels can still be seen, as well as the remains of a wheelhouse used to lift ore from the mine. There are items in the Crown Jewels made from Combe Martin silver. A second tin boom came around

5504-675: The Rider-Waite-Smith tarot published by the Rider Company in London in 1909. Since, the practice of Japanese tarot has become overwhelmingly feminine and intertwined with kawaii culture. Referring to the cuteness of tarot cards, Japanese model Kuromiya Niina was quoted as saying "because the images are cute, even holding them is enjoyable." While these differences exist, Japanese tarot cards function similarly to their Western counterparts. Cards are shuffled and cut into piles then used to forecast

5632-519: The Siwa Oasis was made famous when Alexander the Great visited it after conquering Egypt from Persia in 332 BC. Deuteronomy 18:10–12 or Leviticus 19:26 can be interpreted as categorically forbidding divination. But some biblical practices, such as Urim and Thummim , casting lots and prayer , are considered to be divination. Trevan G. Hatch disputes these comparisons because divination did not consult

5760-541: The Southern Railway ) and granite quarries on Dartmoor such as Merrivale . In 2017, plans were reported to extract lithium reserves from beneath Cornwall by Cornish Lithium , who had signed agreements to develop potential deposits. In April 2019, a British-based company, MetAmpère Limited, drilled six lithium exploration holes in the UK at a site near St Austell. MetAmpère has successfully extracted lithium from hard rock at

5888-645: The scientific community and by skeptics as being superstitious ; experiments do not support the idea that divination techniques can actually predict the future more reliably or precisely than would be possible without it. In antiquity, divination came under attack from philosophers such as the Academic skeptic Cicero in De Divinatione (1st century BCE) and the Pyrrhonist Sextus Empiricus in Against

6016-461: The "one true God" and manipulated the divine for the diviner's self-interest. One of the earliest known divination artifacts, a book called the Sortes Sanctorum, is believed to be of Christian roots, and utilizes dice to provide insight into the future. Uri Gabbay states that divination was associated with sacrificial rituals in the ancient Near East, including Mesopotamia and Israel. Extispicy

6144-426: The 16th century when open cast mining was used. German miners who had knowledge of the techniques were employed. In 1689, Thomas Epsley, a Somerset man, developed a method to blast the very hard granite rock loose, using gunpowder with quill fuses. It revolutionised hard rock mining. Six days' work with a pick could be accomplished with one blast. There was a third boom in the 18th century when shafts were dug to extract

6272-411: The 1850s in the iron and copper districts of northern Michigan in the United States, as well as in many other mining districts. In the first six months of 1875, over 10,000 miners left Cornwall to find work overseas. During the 20th century, various ores were briefly profitable, and mines were reopened, but today none remain. Dolcoath mine ( Cornish for Old Ground ), the 'Queen of Cornish Mines',

6400-407: The 19th and 20th centuries. Although arsenic has historically been extracted for use in paint, weedkillers and insecticides (most notably at Botallack in the late 19th century), it was generally a by-product of tin and copper processing. Arsenic and other unwanted heavy metals were often deposited in mine waste tips close to the mine from which they were extracted. Cornwall and Devon provided most of

6528-502: The 1st and 2nd centuries AD. Later production in Spain was curtailed, probably by raiding. Production in Britain increased in the 3rd century, for use in coinage, and there was extensive use of tin in pewter manufacture, at Camerton in Somerset for example. Cornwall and West Devon were less Romanised than many other parts of Britain, and tin mining may have been in local hands, with tin purchased by

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6656-443: The 1st century BC, Diodorus Siculus described ancient tin mining in Britain. "They that inhabit the British promontory of Belerion by reason of their converse with strangers are more civilised and courteous to strangers than the rest are. These are the people that prepare the tin, which with a great deal of care and labour, they dig out of the ground, and that being done the metal is mixed with some veins of earth out of which they melt

6784-480: The Astrologers (2nd century CE). The satirist Lucian ( c. 125 – after 180) devoted an essay to Alexander the false prophet . The eternal fire at Nymphaion in southern Illyria (present-day Albania ) also functioned as an oracle. The forms of divination practiced in this natural fire sanctuary with peculiar physical properties were widely known to the ancient Greek and Roman authors. The Oracle of Amun at

6912-473: The Battle of Deptford Bridge. Quarrying was of very limited importance in medieval Cornwall. Stone for church building was very rarely imported from outside the county: they used whatever stone could be found within a short distance. For some ornamental features such as doorways, pillars and fonts good use was made of varieties of elvan (e.g. Polyphant and Catacleuze). The granite was not quarried but collected from

7040-579: The Minerals, entering the rod, determine it to bow down, in order to render it parallel to the vertical lines which the effluvia describe in their rise. In effect the Mineral particles seem to be emitted from the earth; now the Virgula [rod], being of a light porous wood, gives an easy passage to these particles, which are also very fine and subtle; the effluvia then driven forwards by those that follow them, and pressed at

7168-526: The Phoenicians sailed to Cornwall. In fact, he says quite the opposite: the production of Cornish tin was in the hands of the natives of Cornwall, and its transport to the Mediterranean was organised by local merchants, by sea and then over land through France, well outside Phoenician control." There is isotopic evidence to support that tin ingots found off the coast of Haifa , Israel were supplied from Cornwall. In his Bibliotheca historica , written in

7296-544: The Scientific Investigation of the Parasciences). James Randi offered a US$ 10,000 prize to any successful dowser. The three-day test of some thirty dowsers involved plastic pipes through which water flow could be controlled and directed. The pipes were buried 50 centimeters (19.7  in ) under a level field, the position of each marked on the surface with a colored strip. The dowsers had to tell whether water

7424-552: The United Kingdom's tin, copper, and arsenic until the 20th century. Originally tin was found as alluvial deposits of cassiterite in the gravels of stream beds. Eventually tin was mined underground; the first designed tin mines being invented by Matthew James Bullen sprang up as early as the 16th century. Tin lodes were also found in outcroppings of cliffs. Tin is one of the earliest metals to have been exploited in Britain. Chalcolithic metal workers discovered that by putting

7552-493: The United States). A Y-shaped twig or rod, or two L-shaped ones, called dowsing rods or divining rods are normally used, and the motion of these are said to reveal the location of the target material. The motion of such dowsing devices is generally attributed to random movement, or to the ideomotor phenomenon , a psychological response where a subject makes motions unconsciously. The scientific evidence shows that dowsing

7680-544: The Wealthiest (ever) they incline. Dowsing practices used in an attempt to locate metals are still performed much like they were during the 16th century. The 1550 edition of Sebastian Münster 's Cosmographia contains a woodcut of a dowser with forked rod in hand walking over a cutaway image of a mining operation. The rod is labeled in Latin and German; " Virgula Divina – Glück-Rüt " ('Rod Divine, Luck-Rod'), but there

7808-485: The avalanche using dowsing as a search method. Dowsing is still used by some farmers and water engineers in Britain; however, many of the country's utilities have distanced themselves from the practice. Early attempts at an explanation of dowsing were based on the notion that the divining rod was physically affected by emanations from substances of interest. The following explanation is from William Pryce 's 1778 Mineralogia Cornubiensis : The corpuscles... that rise from

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7936-521: The belief that the Phoenicians traded to Britain. However, there is no evidence of tin mining on the Scilly Isles apart from minor exploratory excavations. Timothy Champion found it likely that the trade of the Phoenicians with Britain was indirect and under the control of the Veneti of Brittany . Champion, discussing Diodorus Siculus's comments on the tin trade, states that "Diodorus never actually says that

8064-452: The best 43 among them for further tests. Water was pumped through a pipe on the ground floor of a two-story barn. Before each test, the pipe was moved in a direction perpendicular to the water flow. On the upper floor, each dowser was asked to determine the position of the pipe. Over two years, the dowsers performed 843 such tests and, of the 43 pre-selected and extensively tested candidates, at least 37 showed no dowsing ability. The results from

8192-474: The body to identify traits). In Japan , divination methods include Futomani from the Shinto tradition. Personality typing as a form of divination has been prevalent in Japan since the 1980s. Various methods exist for divining personality type. Each attempt to reveal glimpses of an individual's destiny, productive and inhibiting traits, future parenting techniques, and compatibility in marriage. Personality type

8320-545: The bronze from the Nebra Sky Disc dating from 1600 BC, was found to be from Cornwall. Originally it is likely that alluvial deposits in the gravels of streams were exploited, but later underground mining took root. Shallow cuttings were then used to extract ore. As demand for bronze grew in the Middle East, the accessible local supplies of tin ore (cassiterite) were exhausted and searches for new supplies were made over all

8448-506: The central tenets of Serer religion in Senegal. Only those who have been initiated as Saltigues (the Serer high priests and priestesses) can divine the future. These are the "hereditary rain priests" whose role is both religious and medicinal. Mining in Cornwall and Devon#Early modern period Mining in Cornwall and Devon , in the southwest of Britain, is thought to have begun in

8576-401: The chair. It is seen that it is in the chair by an onset of motion. Eventually, the chair crashes onto a table prepared with wood chips and burlap. The characters on the table are then traced and these are said to be written by the deity who possessed the chair, these characters are then interpreted for the devotees. Divination is widespread throughout Africa. Among many examples it is one of

8704-404: The clenched fingers should be held toward the sky in order that the twig should be raised at that end where the two branches meet. Then they wander hither and thither at random through mountainous regions. It is said that the moment they place their feet on a vein the twig immediately turns and twists, and so by its action discloses the vein; when they move their feet again and go away from that spot

8832-423: The coinage towns were: Ashburton , Plympton , Chagford and Tavistock . The Cornish Rebellion of 1497 originated among Cornish tin miners who opposed the raising of taxes by Henry VII to make war on Scotland . This levy was resented for the economic hardship it would cause; it also intruded on a special Cornish tax exemption. The rebels marched on London, gaining supporters as they went, but were defeated at

8960-650: The concept of language, specifically Arabic , as the expression of "the essence of what it signifies." Once the believer understood this, while remaining obedient to God’s will, they could uncover the essence and divine truth of the objects inscribed with Arabic like amulets and talismans through the study of the letters of the Qur’an with alphanumeric computations. In Islamic practice in Senegal and Gambia , just like many other West African countries, diviners and religious leaders and healers were interchangeable because Islam

9088-501: The diggers and buyers of black tin, and all the smelters of tin, and traders of tin in the first smelting shall have the just and ancient customs and liberties established in Devon and Cornwall." This shows that mining had been going on for a long time. A charter confirming the miners' rights was granted by King John in 1201. The alluvial silt record in the Erme Valley, Devon, shows a build-up of tin waste between 1288 and 1389. Following

9216-422: The divining twig, and the first account of this practice was in 1568. Sir William F. Barrett wrote in his 1911 book Psychical Research that: ...in a recent admirable Life of St. Teresa of Spain, the following incident is narrated: Teresa in 1568 was offered the site for a convent to which there was only one objection, there was no water supply; happily, a Friar Antonio came up with a twig in his hand, stopped at

9344-548: The early-middle Bronze Age with the exploitation of cassiterite . Tin , and later copper , were the most commonly extracted metals. Some tin mining continued long after the mining of other metals had become unprofitable, but ended in the late 20th century. In 2021, it was announced that a new mine was extracting battery-grade lithium carbonate , more than 20 years after the closure of the last South Crofty tin mine in Cornwall in 1998. Historically, tin and copper as well as

9472-699: The end of the century, in 1691 the philosopher John Locke , who was born in the English West Country , used the term deusing-rod for the Old Latin name virgula divina . So, dowse is synonymous with strike , hence the phrases: to dowse / strike a light, to dowse / strike a sail. Dowsing was conducted in South Dakota in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to help homesteaders , farmers and ranchers locate water wells on their property. The military have occasionally resorted to dowsing techniques. In

9600-568: The end of the millennium in the Islamic calendar approached. Dream interpretation, or oneiromancy (‘ilm ta’bir al-ru’ya ), is more specific to Islam than other divinatory science, largely because of the Qur’an’s emphasis on the predictive dreams of Abraham , Yusuf , and Muhammad . The important delineation within the practice lies between “incoherent dreams” and “sound dreams,” which were “a part of prophecy” or heavenly message. Dream interpretation

9728-579: The first diviners. Every civilization that developed in pre-Columbian Mexico , from the Olmecs to the Aztecs , practiced divination in daily life, both public and private. Scrying through the use of reflective water surfaces, mirrors , or the casting of lots were among the most widespread forms of divinatory practice. Visions derived from hallucinogens were another important form of divination, and are still widely used among contemporary diviners of Mexico. Among

9856-625: The floors of Bronze Age houses, for example at Trevisker. Tin slag was found at Caerloges with a dagger of the Camerton-Snowhill type. In the Iron Age bronze continued to be used for ornaments though not for tools and weapons, so tin extraction seems to have continued. An ingot from Castle Dore is probably of Iron Age date. The tin resources are said to have been a reason the Romans invaded Britain, but they had control of mines in Spain and Brittany in

9984-399: The forehead level. Once in this position, the blocks are dropped and the future can be understood depending on their landing. If both fall flat side up or both fall rounded side up, that can be taken as a failure of the deity to agree. If the blocks land one rounded and one flat, the deity indicates "Yes", or positive. “Laughing poe” is when rounded sides land down and they rock before coming to

10112-520: The future, for spiritual reflection, or as a tool for self-understanding. A common act of divination in Taiwan is called the Poe . “The Poe” translated to English means “moon boards”. It consists of two wood or bamboo blocks cut into the shape of a crescent moon. The one edge is rounded while the other is flat; the two are mirror images. Both crescents are held out in one's palms and while kneeling, they are raised to

10240-401: The hands caused by a phenomenon known as the ideomotor response : people's subconscious minds may influence their bodies without consciously deciding to take action. This would make the dowsing rod susceptible to the dowsers' subconscious knowledge or perception; and also to confirmation bias . Dowsing is in all other respects considered to be a pseudoscience . Psychologist David Marks in

10368-443: The high demand for oracle consultations and the oracles’ limited work schedule, they were not the main source of divination for the ancient Greeks. That role fell to the seers ( Greek : μάντεις ). Seers were not in direct contact with the gods; instead, they were interpreters of signs provided by the gods. Seers used many methods to explicate the will of the gods including extispicy , ornithomancy , etc. They were more numerous than

10496-923: The highest concentration of personality assessment guides. There are approximately 144 different women's magazines, known as nihon zashi koukoku kyoukai , published in Japan aimed at this audience. The adaptation of the Western divination method of tarot cards into Japanese culture presents a particularly unique example of contemporary divination as this adaptation mingles with Japan's robust visual culture. Japanese tarot cards are created by professional artists, advertisers, and fans of tarot. One tarot card collector claimed to have accumulated more than 1,500 Japan-made decks of tarot cards. Japanese tarot cards fall into diverse categories such as: The images on tarot cards may come from images from Japanese popular culture, such as characters from manga and anime including Hello Kitty , or may feature cultural symbols. Tarot cards may adapt

10624-483: The images of Japanese historical figures, such as high priestess Himiko (170–248CE) or imperial court wizard Abe no Seimei (921–1005CE). Still others may feature images of cultural displacement, such as English knights, pentagrams , the Jewish Torah , or invented glyphs . The introduction of such cards began by the 1930s and reached prominence 1970s. Japanese tarot cards were originally created by men, often based on

10752-666: The imperial authority. A possible official stamp has been identified on the Carnington tin ingot. A number of tin ingots have been found in Roman contexts, such as 42 found in a wreck at Bigbury Bay in 1991–92. A site in the Erme Valley , Devon, shows sediment aggregation in late Roman and Post-Roman times due to tin mining on Dartmoor. There is a peak in activity between the 4th and 7th centuries. Tin slag at Week Ford in Devon has been dated to 570–890 AD. St Piran (patron saint of tinners)

10880-449: The invisible realities from which they originated. It was upheld by prophetic tradition and relied almost exclusively on text, specifically the Qur’an (which carried a table for guidance) and poetry, as a development of bibliomancy . The practice culminated in the appearance of the illustrated “Books of Omens” ( Falnama ) in the early 16th century, an embodiment of the apocalyptic fears as

11008-519: The known world, including Britain. Control of the tin trade seems to have been in Phoenician hands, and they kept their sources secret. The Greeks understood that tin came from the Cassiterides , the "tin islands", of which the geographical identity is debated. By 500 BC Hecataeus knew of islands beyond Gaul where tin was obtained. Pytheas of Massalia travelled to Britain in about 325 BC where he found

11136-556: The medieval kings established stannary courts and stannary parliaments to administer the law in Cornwall and part of Devon. Up to the mid 16th century, Devon produced about 25–40% of the amount of tin that Cornwall did, but the total amount of tin production from both Cornwall and Devon during this period was relatively small. Under the stannary system , tin was brought to coinage towns to be coined in coinage halls . The stannary towns in Cornwall were originally: Helston , Liskeard , Truro , Lostwithial and later Penzance . In Devon,

11264-557: The metal and refine it. Then they cast it into regular blocks and carry it to a certain island near at hand called Ictis for at low tide, all being dry between there and the island, tin in large quantities is brought over in carts." Pliny, whose text has survived in eroded condition, quotes Timaeus of Taormina in referring to " insulam Mictim ", "the island of Mictim" [sic], where the m of insulam has been repeated. Several locations for "Ictin" or "Ictis", signifying "tin port" have been suggested, including St. Michael's Mount , but, as

11392-475: The mines (many mines reached under the sea and some went down to great depths). Adventurers put up the capital, hoping that the mine would return them a profit, but the outcomes were very uncertain. Caradon Hill had the most productive mine in east Cornwall. The South Caradon Copper Mine, 1 km to the southwest of the Caradon Hill transmitting station , was the largest copper mine in the UK in its heyday in

11520-468: The moorlands and worked on site. Quarrying of slate developed in north Cornwall in the later Middle Ages and later developed in early modern times into larger undertakings. After the 1540s, Cornwall's production increased rapidly and Devon's production was only about 10–11% of that of Cornwall. From the mid-16th century the Devon stannaries generated very little income for the Crown, and they were sidelined under

11648-520: The more common hallucinogenic plants used in divination are morning glory , jimson weed , and peyote . Theyyam or "theiyam" in Malayalam is the process by which a devotee invites a Hindu god or goddess to use his or her body as a medium or channel and answer other devotees' questions. The same is called "arulvaakku" or "arulvaak" in Tamil , another south Indian language - Adhiparasakthi Siddhar Peetam

11776-425: The oracles and did not keep a limited schedule; thus, they were highly valued by all Greeks, not just those with the capacity to travel to Delphi or other such distant sites. The disadvantage of seers was that only direct yes-or-no questions could be answered. Oracles could answer more generalized questions, and seers often had to perform several sacrifices in order to get the most consistent answer. For example, if

11904-489: The ore. In the 19th century Cornish mining reached its zenith, before foreign competition depressed the price of copper, and later tin, to a level that made the extraction of Cornish ore unprofitable. The areas of Cornwall around Gwennap and St Day and on the coast around Porthtowan were among the richest mining areas in the world. At its height the Cornish tin mining industry had around 600 steam engines working to pump out

12032-483: The parish of Gulval , is said in local legend to have been visited by Joseph of Arimathea , a tin trader, and it is claimed that he brought a young Jesus to address the miners, although there is no evidence to support this. There are few remains of prehistoric tin mining in Cornwall or Devon, probably because later workings have destroyed early ones. However, shallow cuttings used for extracting ore can be seen in some places such as Challacombe Down, Dartmoor. There are

12160-411: The places where the target (for example, minerals or water) may be, and the dowsing rod is expected to dip, incline or twitch when a discovery is made. This method is sometimes known as "willow witching." Some dowsers would hang a golden ring on the edge of the dowsing rod, or split the tip to slide in a silver coin. Many modern dowsers use a pair of L-shaped metal rods. One rod is held in each hand, with

12288-711: The planets (Saturn, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Mercury, or Uranus). Personality can also be divined using cardinal directions, the four elements (water, earth, fire, air), and yin-yang . Names can also lend important personality information under name classification which asserts that names bearing certain Japanese vowel sounds (a, i, u, e, o) share common characteristics. Numerology , which utilizes methods of divining 'birth numbers' from significant numbers such as birth date, may also reveal character traits of individuals. Individuals can also assess their own and others' personalities according to physical characteristics. Blood type remains

12416-440: The poisonous nature of dust containing arsenic made the work very hazardous. Numerous precautions were taken but the workers tended to die in middle age. Menheniot was a centre of lead mining and is now surrounded by disused shafts and engine houses. Lead seams were discovered in the 1840s and Menheniot became the centre of a mining boom which lasted until the 1870s. During this period the population doubled. Kit Hill Country Park

12544-480: The practitioner makes unconscious observations of the terrain and involuntarily influences the movement of the rod. Early investigations by members of the Society for Psychical Research endorsed this view. Committed parapsychologist G. N. M. Tyrrell also believed that the action of the rod was caused by involuntary muscular movements and debunked the theory of external influences. Dowsing over maps, prior to visiting

12672-506: The presence of Phoenician or Carthaginian traders as far north as Britain is non-existent". In 2019, however, tin ingots found in a 13th century BCE shipwreck off the coast of Israel were determined by chemical analysis to have originated in Cornwall, UK. Britain is one of the places proposed for the Cassiterides , that is "Tin Islands", first mentioned by Herodotus . The tin content of

12800-408: The price of tin had soared, but the site was subject to a compulsory purchase order (October 2006). On the wall outside the gate is some graffiti dating from 1999: Cornish lads are fishermen and Cornish lads are miners too. But when the fish and tin are gone, what are the Cornish boys to do? (This is from the chorus of the song 'Cornish Lads' by Cornish singer/songwriter Roger Bryant, written at

12928-529: The remaining 6 were said to be better than chance, resulting in the experimenters' conclusion that some dowsers "in particular tasks, showed an extraordinarily high rate of success, which can scarcely if at all be explained as due to chance … a real core of dowser-phenomena can be regarded as empirically proven." Five years after the Munich study was published, Jim T. Enright , a professor of physiology who emphasized correct data analysis procedure, contended that

13056-504: The same method. He further pointed out that the six "good" dowsers did not perform any better than chance in separate tests. Another study published in Pathophysiology hypothesized that such experiments as this one that were carried out in the twentieth century could have been interfered with by man-made radio frequency radiation, as test subjects' bodies absorbed the radio waves and unconscious hand movement reactions took place following

13184-399: The same time by the atmosphere incumbent on them, are forced to enter the little interstices between the fibres of the wood, and by that effort they oblige it to incline, or dip down perpendicularly, to become parallel with the little columns which those vapours form in their rise. A study towards the end of the 19th century concluded that the phenomenon was attributed to cryptesthesia , where

13312-471: The same titles as those who did. From the beginning of Islam, there "was (and is) still a vigorous debate about whether or not such [divinatory] practices were actually permissible under Islam,” with some scholars like Abu-Hamid al Ghazili (d. 1111) objecting to the science of divination because he believed it bore too much similarity to pagan practices of invoking spiritual entities that were not God. Other scholars justified esoteric sciences by comparing

13440-400: The second half of the 19th century. Other disused copper and tin mines are scattered around the base of the hill. By the mid-19th century Looe had become a major port, one of Cornwall's largest, exporting local tin, arsenic, and granite, as well as hosting thriving fishing and boatbuilding industries. At Callington arsenic was found with copper ores and was processed by crushing and condensing;

13568-407: The seer slaughtering a sheep and examining its liver for answers regarding a more generic question; the sphagia involved killing a young female goat by slitting its throat and noting the animal's last movements and blood flow. The battlefield sacrifice only occurred when two armies prepared for battle against each other. Neither force would advance until the seer revealed appropriate omens . Because

13696-559: The seers had such power over influential individuals in ancient Greece, many were skeptical of the accuracy and honesty of the seers. The degree to which seers were honest depends entirely on the individual seers. Despite the doubt surrounding individual seers, the craft as a whole was well regarded and trusted by the Greeks, and the Stoics accounted for the validity of divination in their physics . The divination method of casting lots ( Cleromancy )

13824-428: The short arm of the L held upright, and the long arm pointing forward. The upright arm is often free to rotate inside a tube. When something is "found," the rods move in synchrony. Depending on the dowser, they may cross over or swing apart. Glass or plastic rods have also been accepted. Straight rods are also sometimes used for the same purposes, and were common in early 19th century New England . A pendulum weight on

13952-482: The silver mines for the Crown led to the rise of the ancient Cornish Edgcumbe family at Cotehele and later Mount Edgcumbe . In 1305 King Edward I established separate stannaries for Devon and Cornwall. Water was used to operate stamps to crush the ore, the lighter waste being washed away. The mineral "black tin" was placed in furnaces and layered with peat. The molten metal was poured into granite moulds which produced ingots of tin. These were taken on pack horses to

14080-414: The site, was also believed to work, hence some kind of clairvoyance was proposed. This was believed to act on the nervous system , rather than on the muscles directly. These various mechanisms remain in contention among dowsers. In the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries a number of dowsing-like devices were marketed for modern police and military use, primarily as explosive detectors, such as

14208-443: The south west of Britain into the Mediterranean economy at an early date. Later tin was also used in the production of pewter . Mining in Cornwall has existed from the early Bronze Age Britain around 2000 BC. Traditionally, Cornwall was thought to have been visited by Phoenician metal traders from the eastern Mediterranean , but this is uncertain. Timothy Champion observed in 2001 that "The direct archaeological evidence for

14336-502: The standing waves or intensity variations. Science writers such as William Benjamin Carpenter (1877), Millais Culpin (1920), and Martin Gardner (1957) accept the view of some dowsers that the movement of dowsing rods is the result of unconscious muscular action . This view is widely accepted amongst the scientific community . The dowsing apparatus is known to amplify slight movements of

14464-477: The stannary towns for assaying. Usable deposits in Devon became worked out, and so Cornwall became the centre of tin production. In 1337 Cornish tin production was 650 tons, but in 1335 it had been reduced to 250 tons by the Black Death . In 1400 Cornish production rose to 800 tons. The production in Devon was only 25% of that of Cornwall in 1450–1470. The tin works of Devon and Cornwall were of such importance that

14592-458: The study's results are merely consistent with statistical fluctuations and not significant. He believed the experiments provided "the most convincing disproof imaginable that dowsers can do what they claim", stating that the data analysis was "special, unconventional and customized". Replacing it with "more ordinary analyses", he noted that the best dowser was on average 4 millimeters (0.16  in ) out of 10 meters (32.81  ft ) closer to

14720-506: The technique in silver mines in Wales. The Middle Low German name for a forked stick (Y-rod) was Schlag-Ruthe ('striking rod'). This was translated in the sixteenth century Cornish dialect to duschen ( duschan according to William Barrett) ( Middle English , 'to strike, fall'). By the seventeenth century the English term dowsing was coming into common use. In the lead-mining area of

14848-660: The time of the closure of Geevor Mine. See CD "The Writing's on the Wall" by Roger Bryant. Other recordings by Jinks' Stack and Mike Nicholson.) The collapse of the International Tin Council in 1986 was the end for Cornish and Devonian tin mining. The most recent mine in Devon to produce tin ore was Hemerdon Mine near Plympton in the 1980s. The last Cornish tin mine in production at South Crofty closed in 1998. The Hemerdon tungsten and tin mine in south-west Devon re-opened as Drakelands Mine in 2015. In 1992, Geevor mine

14976-517: The transfer of power to the Norman lord Robert, Count of Mortain , who held the manor of Trematon , silver mining became a major industry, particularly in the Tamar valley around Bere Ferrers in Devon. Established in 1292 by the Crown under Edward I , skilled labour was initially imported from Derbyshire and North Wales , with specialist expertise from Germany and capital from Italy. Profits from rights to

15104-558: The twig becomes once more immobile. ... In the 16th century, German deep mining technology was in enormous demand all over Europe. German miners were licensed to live and work in England; particularly in the Stannaries (tin mines) of Devon and Cornwall and in Cumbria . In other parts of England, the technique was used in the royal mines for calamine . By 1638 German miners were recorded using

15232-484: The underground water table being distributed relatively uniformly in certain areas. According to archaeologist Kenneth Feder , "the vast majority of archaeologists don't use dowsing, because they don't believe it works." Psychologist Chris French has noted that "dowsing does not work when it is tested under properly controlled conditions that rule out the use of other cues to indicate target location." Water dowsers often achieve good results because random chance has

15360-521: Was 3,500 feet (1,100 m) deep, and was for many years the deepest mine in the world, not to mention one of the oldest before its closure in 1921. The last working tin mine in Europe was South Crofty , near Camborne , until its closure in March 1998. After an attempt was made to reopen it, it was abandoned. There were local media reports in September 2006 that South Crofty was being considered for re-opening as

15488-411: Was a common example, where diviners would pray to their god(s) before vivisecting a sacrificial animal. Their abominal organs would reveal a divine message, which aligned with cardiocentric views of the mind. Both oracles and seers in ancient Greece practiced divination. Oracles were the conduits for the gods on earth; their prophecies were understood to be the will of the gods verbatim. Because of

15616-575: Was acquired by Cornwall County Council as a heritage museum, which is now run by Pendeen Community Heritage. Both Geevor Tin Mine and Morwellham Quay have been selected as "anchor points" on the European Route of Industrial Heritage . The extraction of china clay (kaolin) continues to be of considerable importance: the larger works are in the St Austell district. The amount of waste in proportion to kaolin

15744-430: Was always tied to Islamic religious texts, providing a moral compass to those seeking advice. The practitioner needed to be skilled enough to apply the individual dream to general precedent while appraising the singular circumstances. The power of text held significant weight in the " science of letters " (‘ilm al-huruf ), the foundational principle being "God created the world through His speech." The science began with

15872-552: Was closely related with esoteric practices (like divination), which were responsible for the regional spread of Islam. As scholars learned esoteric sciences, they joined local non-Islamic aristocratic courts, who quickly aligned divination and amulets with the "proof of the power of Islamic religion." So strong was the idea of esoteric knowledge in West African Islam, diviners and magicians uneducated in Islamic texts and Arabic bore

16000-452: Was employed in public. Astrologers, trained as scientists and astronomers, were able to interpret the celestial forces that ruled the "sub-lunar" to predict a variety of information from lunar phases and drought to times of prayer and the foundation of cities. The courtly sanction and elite patronage of Muslim rulers benefited astrologers’ intellectual statures. The “science of the sand” ( ‘ilm al-raml ), otherwise translated as geomancy ,

16128-551: Was held at Hingston Down in 1753, and the Devon Stannary Parliament last met in 1748. The Stannary Courts of Devon and Cornwall were combined in 1855 and their powers transferred to local authorities in 1896. By the middle and late 19th century, Cornish mining was in decline, and many Cornish miners emigrated to developing mining districts overseas, where their skills were in demand: these included South Africa, Australia and North America. Cornish miners became dominant in

16256-448: Was running through each pipe. All the dowsers signed a statement agreeing this was a fair test of their abilities and that they expected a 100% success rate. However, the results were no better than chance, and no one was awarded the prize. In a 1987–88 study in Munich by Hans-Dieter Betz and other scientists, 500 dowsers were initially tested for their skill, and the experimenters selected

16384-751: Was used by the remaining eleven disciples of Jesus in Acts 1:23–26 to select a replacement for Judas Iscariot . Therefore, divination was arguably an accepted practice in the early church. However, divination became viewed as a pagan practice by Christian emperors during ancient Rome . In 692 the Quinisext Council , also known as the "Council in Trullo" in the Eastern Orthodox Church , passed canons to eliminate pagan and divination practices. Fortune-telling and other forms of divination were widespread through

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