Historical
The origin of water divining is lost in antiquity. Students of the subject have discovered in ancient literature many references to the rod, and although it is certain that divining (or dowsing) rods were in use among ancient civilizations for forecasting events or searching for lost objects, little is known of the manner in which they were used or what relationship. if any, they may have had to the modern devices in use today. The ‘rod’ is mentioned many times in the bible, especially in the books of Moses (Numbers XX, 9–11) also in Hosea IV, 12 and Ezekiel XXI, 21.
Various origins have been ascribed to the word ‘dowse’, and as far back as 1962 the philosopher John Locke referred to the forked stick as a ‘dowsing rod’ or virgula divina (virgulabeing the Latin word for twig). Water divining is one of the many forms of dowsing, the word dowsing having a much wider significance in matters of search and detection, involving water, minerals, oils, cavities, pipes, persons and...
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Herschy, R.W. (1998). Water divining (2). In: Hydrology and Lakes. Encyclopedia of Earth Science. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4513-1_239
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