INSIDER: Doctrine of the Divining Rod, Theology of the Water Witch

JD Hall

“When I was a child, there were many witches & sorcerers, who bewitched
both cattle & men, but especially children, & did great harm. But now in the
light of the gospel, these things are not so commonly heard of, for the gospel
thrusts out the devil” – Martin Luther

A whopping 73% of Americans believe in supernatural things. This includes anything that is outside the realm, scope, or control of the natural world, without a naturalistic explanation. Consider that an absolutely huge number, because it really is. That number represents the percentage of people who reject everything they’re taught in the school and university system about the impossibility of metaphysics.

It would almost seem as though humans intuitively know that there is something beyond the physical world. The word, metaphysics, is a shortened version from the Greek ta metá ta phusiká, meaning, “beyond the physical.” We are quite literally born denying the exclusivity of the physical world, wholly presuming a spiritual world exists from the womb.

According to Civics Science, 41% of Americans believe in ghosts, 27% believe in demons, 18% believe in witches or magic, 18% believe in psychics or mind-reading, 16% believe in astrology, and so on. But in total, 73% believe in something that is other-worldly.

And in 2023, a poll from Amerispeak suggests that only slightly fewer believe in demons (56%) than believe in angels (69%). And according to that poll, 83% believe in the metaphysical world.

In short, the world around us already believes in supernatural things. It’s my contention that evangelicals spend far too much time trying to convince people we aren’t crazy for believing in the paranormal, because it’s unnecessary. They believe it themselves already.

In fact, according to a Barna survey, those identifying as Christians believe in the devil at a rate of only 40% (with 40% denying Satan is a literal being, and another 19% saying that he’s only a symbol of evil). But the population as a whole (regardless of religious affiliation) believe in the devil at a rate of 56%. In other words, Christians in America are less-likely to believe in a literal devil than the general population.

Granted, those are self-identified Christians in the surveys, and most of them are probably as lost as a goose in a snow storm, but it’s an interesting revelation. I’m afraid that many Christian ministers speak little of the devil for fear of it driving people away. I think the opposite would be true; it would probably attract them.

THE HISTORY OF DOWSING RODS

Dowsing rods, a form of “divination,” does not appear to have been around more than 500 to 600 years. There’s no ancient reference to the practice of using “dowsing rods” or divining forks to find hidden objects or resources. The first account of which I’m aware was in a book by Georgius Agricola entitled De re Metallica, published in 1556 and written in 1533.

German miners were imported into England in the turn of the 17th Century, and they brought the practice with them as a trustworthy way to find minerals in the ground. From there, the practice had spread to all of Europe by the turn of the 18th Century.

An old, pithy saying from Samuel Shepherd in 1651 says:

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 the Wealthiest (ever) they incline

The Reformers actually dealt with this topic quite a bit, because it had become suddenly all the rage in their era. And mostly, they were not fans.

In 1528, Martin Luther condemned the use of dowsing rods to find objects under the ground, but confirmed that they indeed tap into something supernatural. That was, after all, why he forbade it among his followers. He condemned the practice as a violation of the First Commandment (which to him, included what is for us both the 1st and 2nd Commandments). It was not merely superstitious in Luther’s view, it was Satanic.

Most of the Reformers are on record, albeit in very obscure manuscripts or secondary sources, condemning the practice. The Papacy also forbade the use of dowsing rods in the 16th Century, on the notion that it was superstitious rather than devilish, although they’ve largely lightened up on the practice and I’ve found examples of Catholic missionaries not only using dowsing rods in the Third World, but training others to use them. Interestingly, Phillip Melancthon mentioned diving rods and confirmed that they worked, but did not condemn them.

Interestingly, however, the Reformed scholar and Enlightenment philosopher, John Locke (one of my favorites, and I’d recommend his work, The Reasonableness of Christianity), admitted that dowsing rods worked, but believed it was explainable by involuntary muscular responses due to stimuli in the environment.

They’re called “dowsing rods” because at first they were called “striking rods” in Germany (schlag-ruthe), but when the word took on a Cornish dialectic translation it became “duschen,” which was later transliterated to English as “dowsing.”

The practice was described by Robert Boyle, the “father of modern chemistry,” who described the practice in 1661:

“A forked hazel twig is held by its horns, one in each hand, the holder walking with it over places where mineral lodes may be suspected, and it is said that the fork by dipping down will discover the place where the ore is to be found. Many eminent authors, amongst others our distinguished countryman Gabriel Plat, ascribe much to this detecting wand, and others, far from credulous or ignorant, have as eye-witnesses spoken of its value. When visiting the lead-mines of Somersetshire I saw its use, and one gentleman who employed it declared that it moved without his will, and I saw it bend so strongly as to break in his hand. It will only succeed in some men’s hands, and those who have seen it may much more readily believe than those who have not.”

In the United States, it appears that it was Europeans who introduced the practice to Indigenous peoples, who did not previously know of it. By the mid 1700s, “diviners” or “water witches” preferred use of the Witch Hazel tree. We are unsure if Witch Hazel is called that because it’s used to “witch water” or because it is a creepy, gnarly-looking tree. Either way, American settlers believed the Witch Hazel was better than other trees for water-witching because of its unique root system that stretches in peculiar ways to underground water sources.

MODERN USE OF DOWSING RODS

While arguments about how they work have occurred since their origin, with some like Martin Luther insisting they were devilish but others, like Locke, presuming there was a naturalistic explanation despite not knowing exactly what that explanation would be, for most of its historical use it sufficed for people to just acknowledge that they indeed do work.

I’ve seen dowsing rods used as child, when someone came over to help find a water line. Only several months ago, my propane guy used dowsing rods to find my line. I’ve seen farmers use dowsing rods to find water sources. And on one occasion, I saw someone using dowsing rods to (successfully) find their lost car keys.

In the America west, the practice of dowsing, or water-witching, was used in the barren landscapes of 19th Century North and South Dakota to determine where homesteads should be placed, which was wherever a well could be dug.

In WWI, British engineers were routinely trained in water-witching to find water for their troops or hidden munitions under ground. In the Vietnam War, U.S. troops from rural America who were familiar with the practice, used dowsing rods to locate insurgent tunnels and landmines (although, they were not trained by the U.S. military to do this, as the British were in WWI). In 1986, the Norwegian army turned to dowsing rods to find victims buried in an avalanche.

But one of the most interesting cases of dowsing rod use is that which is practiced by the National Forensics Academy, which trains American crime scene investigators and homicide detectives. You might have seen reports of the academy over the years, if for nothing else, its patch of woods where actual human corpses are desecrated to train investigators who train to determine cause of death by – among other things – inspecting the maggots and other bugs that have burrowed in the bodies. It’s quite a gnarly place, with the Washington Post calling it, “The Harvard of Hellish Violence.”

Instructors teach homicide detectives, Army Rangers, Texas Rangers, or just about any law enforcement or military organization, how to use dowsing rods before they’re done with the course.

In an academic setting like that, the instructors don’t appeal to the supernatural, but to something they call “piezoelectricity,” the ability of bones under mechanical stress to detect electrical waves. According to the instructors, their techniques work up to a quarter-mile away and they even have pseudo-scientific explanations for why the dowsing rods detect buried bones, but not living bones above the ground (something about moisture).

Nonetheless, there are dozens (if not far more) instances I’ve found of police departments using dowsing rods (or other forms of “divination,” such as the use of swinging pendants on a chain) to find homicide victims and even living kidnap victims…by using it over a map.

Try explaining that scientifically.

The FBI has a caution on their website, warning police departments to not cost tax-payers too much money using the services of diviners and witchers, but does not outright condemn the practice. After all, people have actually been found this way.

How do I know all this? I used dowsing rods in college to find a penny underneath a line of upside-down styrofoam cups, just to entertain visitors. I’ve since repented of dabbling with the practice, but at the time I considered it innocent enough. But I assure you, it works.

WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT SUCH PRACTICES OR THEIR USE?

Obviously, the Bible is not going to speak explicitly about a practice that likely did not exist for 15 years after the close of the canon. Nonetheless, it speaks to categories of sin that “dowsing” or “witching” seem to belong in.

The classification of activity that dowsing rods and their use fall into would be divining. Divining, or divination, is “the act of receiving or attempting to receive hidden knowledge through supernatural means.” Most divination pertains to obtaining information about the future, but not always. Because dowsing or witching is an attempt to obtain information about what is hidden in the ground, it indeed fits the definition of divining.

The Bible condemns the practice of divination repeatedly in the pages of Sacred Writ. It’s banned in Deuteronomy 18:10-11.

“When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you (Deuteronomy 18:10-11.

It’s banned in other places like Leviticus 19 as well. The point is, if knowledge cannot be obtained from God’s General Revelation (observation or study of the things he’s made, like science) or Special Revelation (the Holy Scripture), it is not to be sought after at all.

One might wonder why, if God created a world where supernatural things exist, he forbids his people from seeking after them. The answer, I suppose, is that if knowledge does not come from God, we should not want it. Or, at least, we should not seek knowledge from any source other than him, or what he has revealed in nature. And that, definitionally, would rule out that which is supernatural.

It is interesting, however, that there are Old Testament examples of physical objects being used to ascertain supernatural truths. The most obvious of these is the Urim an Thummim, in places like Exodus 28 and Leviticus 8, and they were endorsed for use by the Levitical priests by God. The Urim (meaning “light”) and Thummim (meaning “truth”) could be used to determine the light of truth as it pertained to making decisions, presuming there was no other way to make a decision. They indeed sound like die, or some kind of die (plural for dice), that were cast.

In a similar way, the casting of lots was used in Scripture for the same reason, by non-Levitical priests (and sometimes even unbelievers) to arrive at truthful conclusions (like when the sailors determined that it was Jonah that God was mad at). They were also used by the disciples in the upper room to choose Judas’ replacement (which was directly against Jesus’ orders, and I believe it never should have been done; I’m also unconvinced Matthias was a legitimate Apostle).

The conventional explanation for these things is that prior to the coming of the Holy Ghost, who illumines the minds of men, God gave devices like the Urim and Thummim to help lead the priests to the light of truth in various real-world circumstances. Now that we have the Holy Ghost indwell us after Pentecost, we have no more use of physical objects for this purpose; or at least, we have no permission to use them.

But can the Holy Ghost lead us to the location of the water table? I presume it’s possible, but I also presume it’s unlikely He will. Perhaps God wants us to do a little digging. Or perhaps, God’s providence shall guide us. I have no idea.

Either way, I feel comfortable in saying a Christian should not practice it. The Church Fathers, the Reformers, and the Puritans all insisted that those who practice divination should be put to death.

Luther, for example, preached a sermon in 1526 and shouted, “You shall not permit a witch to live” no less than five times, and added, “I should have no compassion on these witches; I would burn all of them.” And if you think Calvin only killed Servetus (albeit indirectly), he also oversaw the execution of hundreds of witches in Geneva (and 29 at a single time). Those boys didn’t play around.

I believe their approach to have been biblical, or at least understandable, for those who lived in an actual Theocracy.

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF DOWSING OR WITCHING IN EVANGELISM

I quoted you the stats earlier, in relation to the percentage of Americans who believe in supernatural things. Evangelicals are much too quick to insist that supernatural phenomena is explainable through scientific explanations, or to dismiss supernatural phenomena as unproven.

I hope you can see, through the history of dowsing, that even if the phenomena was all fraudulent, or the results of placebo hypnosis, the fact is, many people believe it’s legitimate. Why do we try so hard to disprove supernatural things, just because they aren’t of God?

The reason the Reformers, like Luther, denounced dowsing wasn’t because it was fake, but because it was real. We shouldn’t overlook that.

I’m afraid that the reason many evangelicals avoid things like astrology, horoscopes, mediums, or diving rods is because they think that it prescribes power to Satan that he doesn’t really have. But our forbears, from the Church Fathers to the Reformers to the Puritans, said these things should be avoided because Satan really does have such powers.

It wasn’t superstition to them; it was witch-craft. It was devilish. It was demonic. And these were to be avoided because flirtation with devilish things is the worship of devils, just like prayer for Christians, is worship of God.

Believing in supernatural powers other than God, is not unbiblical. Rather, believing that no supernatural powers exist other than God, is unbiblical. Playing pretend is not an executable offense in the Scripture, but dabbling with the powers of very real Satan, certainly was.

Evangelicals would do ourselves a favor – and the lost world around us – not by finding infinite reasons why unexplained phenomena is invalid, but by preaching a supernatural God who does supernatural things to save, provide, and protect his children in supernatural ways.