The Loose Cannon: Our dad was a witch
When writing my columns, I frequently research topics online. For this column, I was researching water witching or dowsing.
From Wikipedia: “Dowsing is a type of divination employed in attempts to locate many types of objects and materials without the use of technical equipment or a scientific apparatus. It may be applied to seek ground water, buried metals or ores, gemstones, oil, claimed radiations (radiesthesia), gravesites or malign ‘earth vibrations.’
“A Y-shaped twig or rod, or two L-shaped ones, called dowsing rods or divining rods, are normally used, and the motion of these are said to reveal the location of the target material. The motion of such dowsing devices is generally attributed to random movement or to the ideomotor phenomenon, a psychological response where a subject makes motions unconsciously.
“The scientific evidence shows that dowsing is no more effective than random chance. It is therefore regarded as a pseudoscience.”
Then AI gave me this: “Historical evidence shows that dowsing has been practiced for thousands of years, with depictions in ancient African cave paintings, Egyptian temples, and Chinese etchings, and it was used in Europe for both water and ore detection.
Despite its long history and continued popularity, scientific studies consistently show that dowsing is no more effective than random chance.”
Have you formed an opinion on the topic? Go ahead, I’ll wait.
I’m a strong believer in science. But I’m going to take exception to those two sources of information that reference scientific studies.
For those of you that may have wondered about or even questioned my journalistic background, it was limited. I wrote the family winery blog for several years as well as a bocce column.
I have a story about dowsing from October 2008 that I originally posted when I was writing the winery blog. Not long after that, then Yountville Sun owner/editor Sharon Stensaas asked if she could reprint it in the paper.
She did, and I have to share this from a 2008 edition of the Yountville Sun:
“Editor’s Note (2008): If you have formed a notion that there is no redeeming value in playing bocce with the characters who formed the Yountville Bocce Club, allow me to disabuse you of that fallacy. Ranndy Piña maintains an active membership in the club. In fact, for several seasons he was the club’s columnist for the Yountville Sun, a somewhat rocky and circuitous path for budding journalists, but that’s just what Ranndy did — showing signs of blossoming into a trendy literary figure known as a blogger.).
Thanks for the much-needed encouragement so long ago, Sharon!
That was 18 years ago. In 2023, I took over writing the bocce column again from Bocce Club President Larry Fox when he suddenly left town. At the end of that bocce season, I asked to start writing “The Loose Cannon” column. That was 76 columns ago.
Our Dad Was a Witch – Thursday, Oct. 30, 2008
Our Dad was a witch. No, not a witch with a black pointy hat. He was a water witch, a dowser. Yes, I planned this post to coincide with Halloween, but that was just to mess with you all a bit. He could “detect” underground pipes and aquifers with brass rods or Y-shaped willow branches. He was called on occasionally over the years to find the best place to sink a well for a vineyard or winery, but he was one of the lesser-known dowsers in this area.
Now, I’m going to tell you my story, and I’ll swear by every word of it. In the late ‘70s I was working as a carpenter for Glen Bobst, a St. Helena contractor. We were building a house on Sylvaner Avenue in St. Helena for Fred Beringer (yes, of the Beringer wine family). We were in the final stages of construction when we needed to locate a pipe that crossed under the driveway. It wasn’t a really long driveway, but long enough that locating it by just digging would have been a long, tough job. And since I was low man on the totem-pole*, that task would have fallen on me.
Glen pulled up in his truck, and Pep Vulcani got out holding two L-shaped brass rods. Glen told Pep there was a pipe under the driveway and we needed to find it. Pep started walking up alongside the driveway, pointing the two rods in front of him like six-shooters. And then it happened. Like magic, with no noticeable movement in Pep’s hands, the rods rotated inward and back towards Pep. He stopped and backed up a step or two until the rods were perfectly lined up, pointing at each other. He said, “Your pipe is right here.” Glen told me to get a shovel and start digging — right there. In less than a minute, I hit the pipe dead center.
At lunch that day, there must have been seven or eight of us sitting in one of the larger rooms on the unfinished plywood floor, with our backs against newly hung sheetrock. I think there was a plumber, a heating and A/C guy and the rest of us were carpenters. Harold Cole was a soft-spoken senior carpenter, a man of few words. Deward Bobst, Glen’s brother, was the job foreman. He was the oldest guy on the job, but he was fit, tough, a workaholic and a true craftsman. Deward was also a devout Seventh Day Adventist. And probably because of that, he was very uncomfortable with what he had witnessed earlier in the day. Almost immediately after we sat down, the conversation turned to Pep, and how he was able to locate that pipe using the two brass rods.
Deward just listened for a while, then he stated very clearly, “I think it’s the work of the devil.” The room fell silent. After a brief, but awkward silence, Deward looked to Harold for support. “What do you think Harold?”
There was another brief, but awkward, silence as Harold searched for the right words. Finally, he said in his somewhat southern drawl, “I don’t know. Why couldn’t it be the work of the Lord?”
This brought on the third awkward silence. Some kind soul changed the topic, and it was never discussed again.
So, if you would like to know more about dowsing, the following link has lots of good information and references for renowned local dowsers, written by Tim Teichgraeber.
“Renowned dowsers like Elwood Mee (of Mee Lane fame) and Laurie Wood, both now deceased, have passed the torch to dowsers like Rob Thompson and Marc Mondavi in Napa Valley, who still speak of energies, intuition and sensitivity as the most effective ways to find underground water.”
Yountville resident Steve Soper is also a well-known dowser who was profiled in the June 3, 2004 edition of the Yountville Sun.
To read, click on this link (town archives – Thank you, TOY!) and go to page 5:
And this on page 7 of the 09/20/2018 edition of the Yountville Sun
Out & About by Devon Avery
I would like to hear back from YOU, my readers, on what your thoughts are about dowsing.
* I felt a responsibility to research the phrase “low man on the totem-pole” before using it again. And just so you know:
AI Overview: The expression “low man on the totem pole” was popularized in the early 1940s by an American humorist who projected a Western linear corporate mindset onto Pacific Northwest Indigenous art. It relies on a complete misunderstanding of actual totem pole traditions.
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