What is a Pendulum
and How do I use One?
Whether you’re brand new to the crystal world or a practiced gemstone veteran, you’ve almost certainly seen or heard about the crystal pendulum! It may all sound a little complex and tricky, but it’s really quite easy to learn how to use a pendulum- and many people use them on a regular basis!
You never know – once you have learned about what a pendulum is and their uses, you might never look back!
In their simplest form, crystal pendulums are used as tools of divination (prediction of the future) that are most commonly used to give simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers to questions and queries that individuals have about themselves or their futures. It is said that the pendulum uses your ‘higher self’ and intuition to help guide you with the answers the pendulum gives you. You can see a pendulum as an insight to your higher self and the motion it makes is simply unlocking the answers you already have in your mind!
A pendulum can also be used as a quick method of meditation as well as being a wonderful way of understanding how your energy is behaving on any given day and tune into your intuitiveness!
When choosing your pendulum, you should pick the one that your eye is first drawn to. Why? Because using your instincts and going with ‘gut’ feelings is one of the first things you should do when learning to work with crystals. IF you are drawn to a particular colour or gemstone for your pendulum, then that’s very often the one for you! A running joke amongst the crystal community is that your crystals choose you, not the other way round!
So, how do I use one, I hear you ask!
Whether you’re brand new to the crystal world or a practiced gemstone veteran, you’ve almost certainly seen or heard about the crystal pendulum! It may all sound a little complex and tricky, but it’s really quite easy to learn how to use a pendulum- and many people use them on a regular basis!
You never know – once you have learned about what a pendulum is and their uses, you might never look back!
In their simplest form, crystal pendulums are used as tools of divination (prediction of the future) that are most commonly used to give simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers to questions and queries that individuals have about themselves or their futures. It is said that the pendulum uses your ‘higher self’ and intuition to help guide you with the answers the pendulum gives you. You can see a pendulum as an insight to your higher self and the motion it makes is simply unlocking the answers you already have in your mind!
A pendulum can also be used as a quick method of meditation as well as being a wonderful way of understanding how your energy is behaving on any given day and tune into your intuitiveness!
When choosing your pendulum, you should pick the one that your eye is first drawn to. Why? Because using your instincts and going with ‘gut’ feelings is one of the first things you should do when learning to work with crystals. IF you are drawn to a particular colour or gemstone for your pendulum, then that’s very often the one for you! A running joke amongst the crystal community is that your crystals choose you, not the other way round!
So, how do I use one, I hear you ask!
Getting Familiar with your Pendulum
Step 1: Hold your pendulum out in front of you by the chain, held at the furthest point away from your crystal. Make sure your arm is relaxed and that you are sat comfortably!
Step 2: Take a look at how your pendulum is reacting. Is it still and steady, jumping around or somewhere in the middle? This will give you an accurate visual of how your energy is in this very moment and the steps that you may need to take to improve it! You will begin when your crystal is suspended but not moving or swaying.
To achieve this, look to step 3.
Step 3: Close your eyes, take some deep breaths and focus on the feeling of being grounded and relaxing into your environment. This can take as long or as little as you want, there is no correct length of time, but you will likely know when this is complete as you will feel more relaxed, centered and balanced.
Step 4: Once you feel your pendulum begin to slow down or still completely, you may open your eyes. This will get easier every time you do it and you may not need to put so much effort into it eventually as it becomes second nature!
So now you have become familiar with your new pendulum, you can begin to use it to its full potential and ask it some questions! You must ensure that these questions can be answered only with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’! Since your pendulum cannot communicate with you with words, yes and no answers are the best way to receive the most accurate information.
Top tip – be very specific with your question. Anything left to interpretation or that is too vague may give you a false answer.
Asking Your Pendulum Questions
Step 1:
Hold your pendulum out in front of you and ‘ask’ it to show you what a “yes” answer looks like (this can be said aloud or thought!). This will be different for everyone: your pendulum will swing in one direction for a yes and in the other for a no, so it’s important to become familiar with what clockwise and anticlockwise, or even backwards and forwards, means for you!
Alyssa has a left to right swing for ‘no’, and a circular movement for ‘yes’. But some pendulum users only have a circular movement, anticlockwise and clockwise for each answer. It is so important to get to know your crystal for the first few sessions by asking questions you know the answer to so you can firmly get to know how a pendulum works for you.
To further add to this, not all pendulums are the same, so be sure when you are working with a new pendulum to test it first so you understand what your ‘yes’ and ‘no’ is- and beware this can also change over time too – just to confuse things even more!
STEP 2:
Once you have established what your yes and no is, you can ask your pendulum a yes or no question and you will have your answer!
It is important to remember that your pendulum is a tool for showing what is happening on the inside on the outside, and become aware of what is influencing any negative (or even positive!) feelings and reactions.
You can have some fun with pendulums too, once you get a little more advanced and practiced using a pendulum- why not have someone hide an object in your home and use the crystal pendulum to ask questions to locate it?
It is always important to understand that using a pendulum does not predict the future and it is not a crystal ball, a pendulum is a tool to help with intuition and to discover what your ‘higher self’ knows.
‘’I’ve been using a pendulum for guidance since my childhood as my parents have always done so and I guess growing up it was just normal for me! As an adult, I do use my pendulum on a regular basis and I take it on holiday with me too. I use mine more as a guidance to realise and voice my gut-feelings or to help me make decisions about places I should go or work related projects I should/shouldn’t take on. I even ask my pendulum if I should go to London on a particular day, or if I am doing the right thing.’’