Dowsing and
Rural Regeneration

Dowsing started life ‘in the field’. The search for water and minerals was not an urban quest, but undertaken beneath tree and sky.

In the countryside the yearly cycle of life, death and re-birth is plain for all to see. This image of ‘regeneration’ is so strong, and positive, that governments appropriate the name and the principle for a plethora of programmes attempting to ‘regenerate’ inner cities and old industrial areas.

Paradoxically, it is now our remaining rural areas which are in dire need of regeneration. For every Eden project there are great stretches of doomed countryside carved up by motorways, losing people to the cities, pubs to private dwellings, post offices to privatisation, and quiet fields to quarries.

Even tranquillity is lost 1

Yet the Arcadian vision stubbornly remains. The notion that the countryside is a place of relaxation and restoration is hard to dislodge, but even our holy places are at risk. Across the water roads threaten Tara. Planning battles rage around Stonehenge. Rural churches teeter on the edge of viability, and in coming years there is likely to be an avalanche of redundant ecclesiastical buildings coming onto the market.

Churchfield House, near Frome, Somerset, became pastorally redundant in 1981, and is currently for sale from bdougans@btinternet.com

 

The church is central to the image of the English village, but if the church ceases to function the village will lose its soul.

And what has all this to do with dowsing ?

We are obsessed with the search for water, with earth energies, with health, and the remains and remanence of the past. Dowsing Today is full of articles featuring old buildings, wells, ley-lines and ancient settlements. The location and physicality of the Church is central to many of these articles.

We believe that the location of ancient sites, wells and tracks is of importance. The church is located precisely here and not there. And in some strange way that we are not yet sure of, we also believe that the standing stones and the stone circles and the churches were placed at particular locations for some purpose, perhaps to help keep the land fertile, or to sustain the health of the community.

                                                                    Capel y Ffin, perfectly placed

So the first thing we can do is to stop the situation getting worse…

"Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition…"

…or that the Archbishops’ Council of the Church of England would sign an agreement in June 2002 for the installation of telecommunications masts in churches.

"The deal gives Quintel S4 direct access to some 5,000 Church of England churches which have expressed an interest as potential sites for hidden aerials within a national arrangement" 2

Quintel was a joint venture between QinetiQ (formerly a government Defence organisation) and Rotch Property Group, a very large private company.

The aerials would be hidden within the Church tower! In fact, the Church of England press release states that if it prevents the need for a mast elsewhere "…the environment is spared2." Powerwatch might disagree3. If there is any value whatsoever in the notion of a Church being a special place (due to its location, or what goes on within its walls), this is surely barmy, at best.

As you know…

The Church of England’s 600 year old Court of Arches decides this sort of thing, and recently ruled against a Chingford parishioner who had previously succeeded ~ in the Consistory Court ~ in stopping a mast being installed in his church.

The parishioner used the interesting argument that the mast might be used to transmit porn to children, but The Court ruled… "The detrimental effects of the possible use of mobile phones to access pornography on the internet had to be balanced against the benefits of improved communication". Furthermore "Mobile phone operators had introduced filtering techniques for those under 18".

An article on the website of The Central Council of Church Bell Ringers has also expressed concern about the danger to the structure of church towers ~ as well as to the bell ringers themselves ~ of having masts installed. "This topic is broader and more complex than it first appears to be".5

But resistance is not futile, for as Bing told us…

You've got to accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
Don't mess with Mister In-Between
 

What is to be done ?

As dowsers, we can develop techniques to Monitor and Assess what is happening in our villages and neighbourhoods.

The same techniques can be applied to urban areas, but initially it may be more fruitful to look at a small defined area, where key issues can be identified.

  • Radiation levels could be monitored

  • Ley Lines could be logged

  • Illness levels could be ascertained (remember the early German studies of Cancer houses)

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    And after the monitoring, the …

    Intervention

     

     

     

     

    We know a fair amount about using dowsing to heal houses, and humans. The next step is to explore the use of dowsing in the healing of communities, neighbourhoods and wider areas.

    • Billy Gawn has told us how very small actions at key locations ~ whether random or deliberate ~ can have very wide-ranging effects, for good or ill.
       

    • Billy has also spoken of the detrimental energies emanating from quarries beaming across the landscape. In 2007 hundreds of community groups were actively identifying the detrimental impact of quarries on their area. Why ? Because grants were available for communities suffering such effects6. Like Arthur, such grants may come again. Dowsers might successfully piggyback such initiatives.
       

    • Teachers like Peter Dawkins have shown that there are large-scale patterns in the landscape, and that pilgrimage and ceremony can be used to bring about healing7. What actions might flow from this understanding?
       

    • Dowsers such as Alanna Moore have written of the importance of site guardians, landscape angels, portal watchers, and the like, who all have an energetic link with ~ and responsibility towards ~ specific geographical areas. Do we need to give them a ring ?

    We should apply these successful forms of intervention at the level of the village and the neighbourhood. We’ve only just begun.

    Ced Jackson is on 01684 560265 and www.FengShuiFutures.com

     

    		    

    References :

    www.cpre.org.uk/campaigns/landscape/tranquillity/national-and-regional-tranquillity-maps

    http://www.cofe.anglican.org/news/church_of_england_signs_aerial_deal_with_quintel.html

    http://www.powerwatch.org.uk/masts.asp

    www.churchtimes.co.uk/contentasp?id=43775

    http://www.cccbr.org.uk/tbc/pubs/telecommGenl.php

    www.acre.org.uk/sustainabledevelopment_comma.html

    www.zoence.co.uk

     

     

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