Tamar Dowsers Newsletter
January-February 2025
Newsletter Contents
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December Festive Gathering
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Tamar Dowsers Zoom Chat
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Earth Energies Zoom Talks
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Winter Solstice 2024 and Pipers
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Labyrinths and Dragons
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Annular Solar Eclipse
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Brittany Revisited
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(Almost) Walking on Water
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Upcoming Dowsing Events
December Festive Gathering
Many thanks to all at the Tamar
Dowsers for joining us for our Festive
Gathering on 14th December. It was a
lovely occasion and we brought items
to display and enjoyed some
Wonderfull tasty shared dishes and
delicious spiced apple juice and some
mulled wine.
We had a raffle, lots of pretty light and
enjoyed a “Mystical Christmas” playlist
while we chatted and connected at our last
in-person event of the year.
For anyone who is both a Tamar Dowser
and also a member of Devon Dowsers, rest
assured that both our groups are
coordinating so that dual members can
have the opportunity to attend both if they
wish. They will be on a different date to
each other for 2025!
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Spotify Playlist “Mystical Christmas” https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1DX5brL7AUc9UI?si=207dbfefa7654ec9
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Tamar Dowsers Zoom Chat
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Open Session - on Dowsing for Tamar Dowsers, held on 8th December 2024: current inspiration, lines of enquiry, areas of development. Q&A on Earth Energy and Healing topics.
Hosted by Stu & Alex.
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This was such a lovely and connected / connecting event, full of intuition, storytelling and
inspiration. Thanks to all the lovely attendees who joined! We plan to arrange a few more for 2025.
Alex Russell-Stoneham
Tamar Dowsers
January 2025
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Earth Energies Zoom Talks
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Ali Denham gave a wonderful Zoom talk in early January to the Earth Energies Group (EEG) on 'David Cowan's Cup-marked Leys
and Guy Underwood's Geodetic Lines’. If you are interested to attend these free talks please email the EEG on
eezoom22@gmail.com if you wish to be added to their distribution list for future talks! They tend to be on the second Thursday evening of each month.
Winter Solstice 2024 and Pipers
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The Tamar Dowsers at the Hurlers on Bodmin Moor
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This was a classic example of extreme dowsing by the Tamar Dowsers. Despite driven drizzle and a
lazy moorland wind, four of us were actually dowsing, while several other TDs joined the Solstice
Chorale, as we examined the earth Energy Line Formerly Known As Grumpy (ELFKAG) - so
called because of its previous apparent reluctance to join in with the Solstice Celebrations.
Pete Bousfield and I stayed at base camp, while Ali Denham and Helen Fox dowsed at the Pipers (a
pair of standing stones to the west of the Hurlers circles). TD members, including Anne Hughes,
who had only had the cast taken off her broken wrist the day before (!), led a coterie of singers from
the Pipers to the centre circle, where they met up with the main group of celebrants. These
numbered about 40, which was pretty astonishing in itself, given the inclement conditions.
The upshot of the dowsing was that ELFKAG, which perhaps should now be rebranded as Happy,
reacted very strongly to the presence of female dowsers and other non-physical feminine attention.
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This was particularly striking on a day when many of the rest of the dowsable earth energy features were distinctly subdued.
Of the energy currents that we usually dowse, the Mary line expanded the most - if less noticeably than on previous occasions - while both the Michael and Arthur lines, while modestly active, seemed decidedly underwhelmed by the whole process.
The ELFKAG more than doubled in width, having already started with an enlarged presence. The expansion was noticeably asymmetrical, with an additional four paces added to the eastern edge, and two to the western. In addition, Pete's dowsing also showed a marked widening deeper into the heart of the centre circle, and closer to the processing group of singers.
Up to this year, any work undertaken with the ELFKAG had been carried out by male dowsers and this was the first time that Goddess adherents had undertaken most of the direct measurements. Whether or not this was a significant factor, given that we are all a variable mixture of both genders, has to be another project for another day.
Disentangling the etheric forces in action in creating this year's Solstice dowsing output, it seems that the measured movements were principally due to:
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This implies that the inputs of singers, dancers, dowsers and other directed human activity were crucial in generating much of the apparently benevolent output of the solstice activities - which is a clear justification (if it were needed) for the more public gatherings at Stonehenge and elsewhere.
Many thanks, as ever, to Anne Hughes for organising the event - and to the staff at the Minions Cafe for feeding so many people with a cooked breakfast in such a small physical space so quickly. Not quite a loaves and fishes experience, but certainly edging in that direction.
Nigel Twinn Tamar Dowsers, December 2024
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Artwork by Pete Bousfield
Singing at Winter Solstice Sunrise at The Pipers. (The Hurlers) 21st December 2024.
Ali Denham.
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This is the joyous tale of how an energy flow at The Hurlers, formerly known by some as “Grumpy”, became well and happy. He has been asked, and is now glad to be referred to as “Happy” which is still in keeping with The Seven Dwarves theme.
TD member Anne Hughes does a grand job of organising a substantial group of Singers to sing up the sun at The Hurlers for both of the Solstices. This Winter Solstice, fellow TD member Pete Bousfield organised the dowsers with a different investigation. The dowsers usually dowse in the vicinity of the centre circle and mark out how various energy features respond to the Singing.
Pete and other earth energy dowsers in Tamar Dowsers had noted on a variety of occasions that there was an energy flow that earthed within the centre circle and was always sluggish. Other flows might expand for tens of metres in response to the singing or other interaction, but Grumpy remained inert.
So, this year Pete arranged a different line of enquiry. Could it be something to do with polarity? Might some feminine singing and female dowsers be what it takes to get Grumpy to move?
With such a weight of responsibility and knowing that thinking on my feet at dawn would be impaired, having got out of bed hours earlier, I had a look at my quest the day before. Just to plan my line of enquiry, work out how to lay out my notebook and introduce myself to Grumpy.
I was taken with how unwell he was! Really unwell. On a scale of minus 10 to plus 10 he was:
Well: -9/19
Energised: -1/10
Happy: -1/10
Cleansed: -10/10.
I didn’t need to know why, but it looks like he wasn’t cleansing properly for some reason which affected other criteria. No wonder he’d been sluggish, I thought. To my satisfaction I was able to help him and brought his wellness up to:
Well: 8/10
Energised: 7/10
Happy: 9/10
Cleansed: 10/10.
I got that these readings would continue to rise over the course of the day. Just before I said ‘goodbye’ to him he told me to see how his Yangness/masculinity was affected by the singing too. I wouldn’t have thought of that! Thanks Happy, for that clue!
I emailed Pete and Nigel with my news and hence opened myself up to being checked, and having my dowsing validated, or not.
On Winter Solstice morning, in the dark and by torchlight, Helen Fox and I walked down the gravel track to The Pipers. Pete had arranged for some female singers to start processing from there and for female dowsers log the results.
I noted one of my little energy yawns when we reached The Pipers. A ‘hello’ from Happy!
Using a blue flag to mark the centre and red flags to mark the edges, I marked out the relaxed flow of Happy. I was fumbling with rods, a torch, my pen and notebook and persistent light rain. And just the two cold hands.
I got that he flowed in both directions. I had wanted to take measurements on both sides of The Pipers, the side nearest the carpark and the side facing Golddiggers quarry, but in the cold and wet conditions I didn’t always manage that. Throughout the time I was there, and however wide he became, he always abruptly narrowed to flow through and between the two Pipers stones. Whatever the lapses in the recording of my dowsing responses, I think we can all agree that Happy is energised and responsive!
Labyrinths and Dragons
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A talk to the Tamar Dowsers at
North Hill Village Hall
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by Alex Russell Stoneham
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If we are all on a journey, then at least we can hope it's going to be a productive trip. New co-chair of the Tamar Dowsers, Alex Russell Stoneham, started her current physical perambulation with a belief in fairies - in which she persisted despite the scepticism of the wider society. Today she has a mature awareness of the existence and presence of elementals of various types, and her ability to sense and work with them has developed over time.
As a young woman, she suffered from a serious medical condition, which necessitated the prescription of a number of mainstream drugs. However, her mother was also open to the benefits of complementary therapies, such as acupuncture and homeopathy - and while the allopathic approach kept her alive, the intervention of alternatives actually led her back to good health. It was a graphic lesson - and you would have had to be die-hard sceptic not to appreciate the importance of the latter.
These two strands provided Alex with an opportunity to embrace the world of the non-physical with an open mind - and she has been able to grasp it with gusto.
Having become interested in dowsing through reading the works of experienced practitioners, and by attending courses on the subject given by influential members of the community, she became a significant member of the Thames Valley Dowsers - before 'escaping to the country' to arrive, just in time, to join our group when she was most needed.
This introductory session threw light onto two of her favourite aspects from the dowsers compendium - labyrinths and dragons. Alex managed to link the two by projecting an image from a book by our own Hamish Miller, showing a dragon coiled asleep in a labyrinthine pose.
People have been linking the dragon motif to telluric energies for decades. Initially, it seemed this was just a rather fanciful conflation of mythology and pseudo science, but as the idea has come of age, there is now a wider acceptance that dragon-like energies and dragonic energy patterns can be part of the toolkit of the serious diviner.
Alex is greatly enamoured by spirals, and spiralling energy forms in particular. Most dowsers will be well aware of the significance of such patterns in relation to crossing water and earth energy currents. However, Alex understands and uses the spiral in a more dynamic manner, by improving the immediate sensory environment in a more holistic and expansive manner.
This presentation developed the theme with a workshop component, which emphasised the role of the labyrinth form in identifying and addressing energy imbalances - which can impact adversely on well-being, particularly in humans.
Alex described to the group a form of dowsing, which involved tracing a printed labyrinth with a finger. When the finger slowed, this indicated an energy blockage, which could be removed by thought or by reference to an adjacent spiral relating to one of the five elements of eastern esoteric tradition.
Most of those present seemed to find this a simple and practical approach to identifying potential sources of personal detrimental energy. To remove these obstacles to improved ambient health, Alex provided another layer of informational assistance in the shape of a pack of Whispering Herb Cards - essentially a physical image of a plant that could be of benefit in a given situation. Those partaking in the process were able to derive the part of the body which was in need of assistance and, by using the relevant card as both an aide memoire and an object with which to focus attention, were able to release unwanted energies. I wasn't too sure where the whispering came in, but hey, everything has to be called something!
During her talk, Alex made two other comments that will have struck a chord with many dowsers. One was that in her opinion, all things are interconnected - easy to say, but profound in its implications. The other, in response to a question from the floor, is that we all experience and interpret incoming information in a personal way - we are all different. On the way out, several long-standing members were keen to mention to me that they were only too pleased to see that not only are the TDs still operating, but that the future is looking bright under its new leadership. I could only agree.
Although the turnout for this event was reduced by the dire weather forecast, quite a number of TDs braved the elements, the debris-strewn roads and the flooded byways to be there - and they were not disappointed. Indeed, many were even rewarded by the increased chance of winning a raffle prize.
Many thanks to Alex (and Oliver) Russell Stoneham for this workshop, which I trust will be the first of many. Anyone wishing to get a better understanding of Alex's work, can find it at:
https://www.alexrussell-stoneham.com
Nigel Twinn Tamar Dowsers, November 2024
Annular Solar Eclipse
(not visible from the UK)
Wednesday 2nd October 2024
This annular solar eclipse was only visible from the South America and parts of the South Pacific region but, as ever, some of the informational and/or energetic impact of the direct alignment of the Sun, Moon and Earth was easily measurable from any other part of the planet.
The start of the eclipse was at 16.42 and the maximum was at 19.45 (BST).
Although the earth energy lines reacted in a fairly predictable manner, there were several aspects of this eclipse that were decidedly non-standard.
Both energy lines reached maximum contraction and gender switching well ahead of the maximum eclipse. This could be due to the eclipse occurring at a significant distance from the data collected, but it is almost unprecedented.
Although both lines altered in quality, broadly in line with previous lunar and solar eclipses, neither line actually reached the point of swapping 'gender', which again is very rare.
All lines and auras seemed very tight and subdued at the outset - and it took a long time for any real action to be measurable. Both width and quality data changes were generally rather modest compared to previous similar occasions.
Both lunar and solar grid lines expanded significantly - and were still holding that expansion at the end of the process.
The aura of the sample of amethyst expanded rapidly after a slow start, and it was still 'charged up' at the end of the period. However, the aura of the quartz (a less pure sample) started to drop back once the fullest eclipse had been reached.
A high-level retrospective analysis of the factors causing the occurrence of the
data measured at this eclipse showed that:
Approximately 60% of the information was generated by the eclipse itself.
Around 23% was due to the perceptions and interpretations of the dowser.
and some 17% was due to other activities (such as unrelated planetary
interactions or geopolitical disturbances).
Nigel Twinn
Tamar Dowsers
Commentary
All measurements are in centimetres (except line quality data - in % male or female).
Gender is being used here as a proxy for the essential nature of these currents.
Kitchen and Hall lines are 'earth energy lines' used on numerous previous occasions.
Lunar and Solar are widths of sections of the moon and sun grids, crossing the lounge and dining room respectively. The solar grid is only half in the bungalow, running down an outside wall - hence the width figures are half measurements.
Amethyst and Quartz are the auras of small pieces of crystal placed in neutral locations, away from known sources of energy.
Brittany Revisited
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1. Roscoff
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Our home market town of Tavistock and the continental ferryport of Roscoff in Brittany have something in common. We may not have their wonderful islet-strewn seascape, nor they our magnificent moorland panorama, but on a dark wet autumn day there is very little going on in either. So it was that after many visits to this part of France, we finally ended up in the remarkable parish church of Notre Dame de Croaz-Batz.
With its ornate bell tower, built in 1575,
ND de C-B would have been a strident statement of a structure, erected right on the sea front of what would then have been a quite modest fishing port. Apparently, the local shipping community had the church built, despite opposition from the nearby Bishop of St Pol de Leon - and, just maybe, a little of that early friction lives on in the ether.
It dowsed as not being regarded as a sacred site before around the 5th Century, which is a bit unusual. However, looking at the residual granite flood barriers around the churchyard, maybe it wasn't regarded as a suitable location for regular religious ceremonies before that time.
What is immediately striking, is that the building is an overwhelmingly female place - close on 80%, by my dowsing. It hosts crossing lunar grid lines and a raft of strongly feminine energy lines. The Catholic faith wins some plaudits from the alternative community for its celebration of the divine feminine - and icons and figurines of Mary abound here, with the infant Jesus appearing seemingly incidental to his mother. There are stained glass panels showing female saints and compassion is very much celebrated.
However, the 'new religion' was always a male dominated organisation, and the underlying nature of ND de C-B has been overwritten - at least to some extent - to reflect that. The only major image of the divine masculine in the building is a massive wooden statue (circa 1967) of the crucifixion in all its agonising anguish. However, the fourteen stations of the cross are commemorated separately in graphic detail, and the largest side altar is that of the Chapel of the Dying.
We arrived on the one morning of the month when there is an early morning mass - for the défunt (the dead) and for good measure the compact graveyard includes, not one but two, charnel houses.
It is not surprising, therefore, that this church has somewhat mixed energies - with the intuitive, uplifting female aspects confronting more masculine corporeal concerns.
For all that, it is an interesting site and well worth an hour of any dowser's time - especially on a wet winter morning.
Having had the place, quite literally, to ourselves for some time, as soon as we opened the door to leave, we were confronted by an animated coachload of even more elderly visitors keen to get in out of the drizzle. It wasn't the time or place to discuss the diviner's craft, so we had to make do with a lengthy series of 'bon jours'.
At the other end of the picturesque esplanade stands another religious site, The Chapel of St Barbe (Barbara). With its whitewashed walls and erect format, it has served as a day-marker for fishermen across the centuries. It sounds like a classic feminine location, but nothing could be further from the truth. The name apart, just about everything about this rocky seafront outcrop is thoroughly masculine.
It dowses as having been a potential sacred site back into deepest antiquity, and it was well known long before the current structure was erected in 1619. With its powerful crossing solar grid lines and two mighty leys, which intersect inside the building - barely ten metres by five - this is a place of some focussed significance. Conspiracy theorists could have a field day in unravelling why the tiny site never seems to be open to the public, although the actual reasons might be more prosaic - it's too small to hold a sensible meeting, and natural light is almost entirely absent.
It would be interesting to see if the newcomers flattened the former natural geological formation, or incorporated it in some way. Again, this is a fascinating site which purports to be something sociologically which, energetically, is actually quite the reverse.
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Nigel Twinn
Tamar Dowsers
October 2024
(Almost) Walking on Water​
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Dowsing at Frampton-on-Severn​
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When you've spent decades dowsing on solid ground, supported by granite, shale and occasionally limestone, it can come as a bit of a surprise to find yourself temporarily suspended over soft silt.
We turned up in Frampton on Severn to give a talk to the engaging Slimbridge Dowsers. The SDs village hall was under repair, and they had temporarily decamped to Frampton. I am ashamed to say that right up to a few days beforehand I couldn't have pointed to it on a map, which made our arrival there all the more interesting.
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The periodic inundation of the floodplain of the River Severn would once have extended through what is now a village proud of its Tudor heritage, but the construction of the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal in 1827 formed a bund which has allowed the subsequently protected farmland to dry out - a bit. Alongside the road through the hugely elongated village lies a series of substantial pools - home to forests of yellow flags, ducks of all kinds, swans that creak while in flight and the odd heron. Kneel down by one of these bodies of water and you can touch the surface - the water table is barely a foot or so below your feet. But what has all this interesting, but incidental, geography got to do with dowsing?
At the southern end of the ribbon of development that has grown up over centuries lies the squat church of St Mary, barely visible above the surrounding trees. It's at Hightown, a good couple of feet above the water table, and it probably flooded on fewer occasions than anywhere else in the area in times past - a veritable stone-built Noah's Ark in troubled times.
Standing in the nave, it is a little disconcerting to feel that the sogginess of the soil is barely three feet below you, yet there is hundreds of tonnes of dense masonry above your head. Dowsing indicated that the pillars and columns of the building are sunk 18 - 20ft into the ground, and into what passes for a solid foundation in this part of the world.
I was interested to dowse that this site had only been regarded as sacred from about the 5th century - really modern times for a pre-Christian place. Presumably, prior to that this area was inaccessible marshland.
My wife, Ros, found a couple of spiral energy forms that didn't respond to the usual earth energy, grid or thoughtform modes of understanding them - and it took us a while to find out what they were. It seems that at some point around the 5th Century CE devotees had cast votive offerings into the mire at this point - presumably knowing it was potentially a location of spiritual importance. When the first stone church was constructed in the 11th century, the foundation digging missed these objects and they continue to lie where they were deposited - three feet below the water table, but about fifteen above the bottom of the supporting pillars, identifiable only by their informational footprint.
While it has a female dedication, St Mary's is nicely balanced energetically (58% female). It feels comfortable and at ease with itself. The reformation stripped it of its mediaeval glamour - only leaving a few damaged statues of the local landed gentry, assumed to be the Cliffords, in the north aisle and a few glimpses of stained glass iconography, but the resulting overall ambience of the place is clean and uncluttered.
A trademark ley crosses the footprint of the previous stone building diagonally - and water lines (deep water lines) etch their usual patterns in the ether. A Benker grid line powers arrow-straight down the aisle and through the altar - so straight that I could see the cleaner had replaced the altar cross an inch or two off centre.
The font appears to have been moved from a location in the middle of what is now the central bank of pews to a place behind the south door. There would have been a rather more appropriate location, based solely on other crossing water lines, but that would have landed it actually in the doorway. So, pragmatically, the church advisors (presumably masons) appear to have opted to site it where one water line crosses two celestial grid lines - an acceptably holyish compromise.
Followers of this literary series will be aware that I am fascinated by the rediscovery in the late 20th century of lines of interaction between the planet Earth and other celestial bodies. Many manmade structures appear to mark or accommodate these etheric grids. However, it is rare in my experience to find two of the grids, in this case the Solar and Lunar, running concurrently through a structure. Here, these two both course straight through the new font, which implies that the masons of the time actually knew and referenced these forces.
Frampton is a quietly prosperous sort of place, with a raft of local activities in which to participate. On the day of my talk, I had to contend with the competing (and well-attended) attraction of sheep racing - although would hope that those attending the dowsing event were treated to a far more uplifting quality of entertainment.
Nigel Twinn
Tamar Dowsers
September 2024
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