Pendulum Divination and Magick
Pendulums are very simple and elegant divination tools. They are primarily used to answer yes/no questions, but they can do so much more!
Natural Magick Shop pendulums are handmade of high quality material, ritually crafted, and some are made to become family heirloom tools built to last many lifetimes. They are made on the Wednesday or Monday when the Moon is halfway between New and Full, for the very balanced energy at that time. As I craft each pendulum, I ask it how long it wants to be, and when I get an affirmative, I finish it according to the wishes of its Genie.
When you try out a new pendulum, I recommend to first ask it how it registers "yes" and "no" responses. To do this, dangle the pendulum in front of you, let it come to stillness and then just ask, "Show me your Yes," and see how it swings. Then ask, "Show me your No," and see how that swings. For most pendulums and most people, a circular motion is "Yes" and back and forth is "No." However, I have a friend who "programmed" e.g. instructed, her pendulum to swing up and down for Yes and back and forth for No, kind of like nodding your head Yes or shaking your head No.
Another system I've seen is a clockwise circle for Yes and counterclockwise circle for No. There are some people who use a pendulum radii, where you hold the pendulum over the radii and how it swings over the radii answers the question.
Pendulums are also used by police psychics to find the missing child, murder weapon, etc., and for this use you move the pendulum slowly and systematically over a map and see if it starts freaking out over a certain location. You might use this technique to find a house to buy, where you left your cell phone, or any other location-seeking question. Pendulums are used for Geomancy, to determine on the landscape/premises the power potentials of any location.
Another use for pendulums is for questions related to calendar dates. Say you are trying to pick a date for a party, wedding or garage sale, or when to pop the question, ask for a raise. Move the pendulum over a calendar in front of you and when it starts swinging crazy, that would be considered the best date.
An old fashioned farmer's use for the pendulum is to determine the gender of eggs. Hold the pendulum over the egg and a swinging circle is female and back and forth is male. This way you can use the male eggs for breakfast scramble and not get too many roosters in your coop.
Similarly, the nurseryman would use a pendulum to determine the gender of certain shrubs, for example when you want to make sure you buy a female Holly bush so it will have the ornamental red berries in time for Christmas. Likewise, a pendulum made of a silk thread and the wedding ring would be held over a pregnant woman's belly to divine the sex of the baby.
Some people say that the pendulum is powered by the inner place in you that really knows the answer all along. Others say that each pendulum has a spirit (called a genius) that does the answering, and some spirits get along with some people better than others. My opinion is that all pendulums are inhabited by the same spirit genius. In any of these cases, the pendulum seems to "resent" being played with like a toy, and it will stop talking or give misleading answers if asked a series of testing, frivolous questions. So don't do that, okay? Good luck with your pendulum!