Sofia Holmberg from http://Unspash.com

What determines the difference between and normal object and an object that is actually evil? The rule of thumb is that the determination depends on how the object is used since innate objects have no emotional properties and the humans behind them do. A common knife for example can be used to slice and butter a piece of bread but if it is used to attack someone with intent to harm it is quite a different matter.

So, it would seem “use” is the key to determine good or evil.

In the early spring of 2007, I had a friend who was taking metaphysical classes at one of the local shops. The course was taught by a lady who was thought to be a well credentialed teacher with many years of life experience. Every week I would get a report of some new modality my friend was learning. Having a decent understanding of most things metaphysical especially those that were the popular du juor, it all seemed basic and harmless by nature to me.

One week my friend came over all excited about her latest class and new toy which was an Aventurine pendulum. She was anxious to show me how she could answer simple yes and no questions and decided this was her new “gig.” After watching her for a few minutes, I noticed that somethings seemed remiss in her actions. The first observation is that she hadn’t protected and grounded herself before engaging the pendulum. I asked her if she had been taught that. She said no, so I told her that was pretty basic when using an object of divination.

The next thing I asked her was how she could be sure exactly what or who was giving her answers. She explained to me that she was taught that it is merely your “higher self” giving the answers. As she was starting to get obviously annoyed with me as though I was some sort of party pooper I stopped asking questions. But I knew better.

My friend continued to take classes although none seemed to tickle her fancy as much as the pendulum. I assumed she was pursuing divination using the pendulum as several weeks passed without a call or visit from her. I tried contacting her several times to no avail but then out of the blue she called me.

She was obviously upset and said she didn’t know what went wrong with the pendulum. After questioning her further I found out she was using the pendulum in connection with a letter and number board she had created. It was nothing more than a large piece of cardboard with the letters of the alphabet written on it along with the numbers 1 – 9. She had stopped asking yes and no questions and had begun letting the pendulum swing back and forth over the board actually spelling out answers to her.

She asked the pendulum who was ‘talking’ to her and was told “an angel.” She had never taken my advice about protection or anything else. She had begun taking advice from the pendulum regarding elixirs she was making for herself (one of the classes she was also taking). She started to notice that within a short period of time, the pendulum started giving her the wrong answers – even dangerous ones. She had nearly poisoned herself mixing a wrong ingredient into an elixir as designated by the pendulum. She had also started not feeling well and her dog would not go anywhere near her.

The icing on the cake was when she checked she checked with the pendulum as to why it was giving her bad advice. The pendulum spelled out:

 D-E-M-O-N

(I have omitted the actual demon name).

I told her to wrap the pendulum in a dark cloth and put it in a box and to destroy the letter board. I made an appointment for her to visit her parish priest with the pendulum and explain to him what had happened and to follow his instructions exactly as he relayed them to her.

Eventually things worked out well for her. She stayed away from pendulums but found it difficult because was compelled to use anything that swung on a cord or chain for quite a while.

Perhaps it was a coincidence but the same week she went to see the priest, the teacher simply quit her classes at the shop and disappeared. Or was it?

Post Script: Do your homework when it comes to spiritual teachers and objects of divination. There are Universal Laws and a common sense yardstick that should always be applied.