Direction indicators

[leon-1]

I recal being told that the bark on one side of a tree is rougher than the other if it is solitary and this was due to the amount of light that it gets, obviously this does not work with forests or woodland, I think I have something somewhere about it.

Generally I do not rely nature as it is dependant on light or prevailing weather conditions (if you are a stranger in a strange land how are you to know??).

The sun and the stars generally work well enough when you can see them.

 

[Toddy]

I've heard things about Shamen and Aboriginies "feeling" their way when they navigate....now I'm not for a moment claiming to be able to do this but I do think there's something in it...and maybe it's an elevated and more refined method of my mental navigational fumblings.... :?:


I think it was in the Dirk Gently book "Long Dark Tea-time of the soul" where he discusses the fundamental interconectedness of everything.... and through this he explains that if driving and he gets lost, then he simply picks a car that looks like it knows where it's going and follows it....now he does admit he may not get to where he wanted to go but he does have a point when he continues that he always gets where he's "supposed" to be :super:[/QUOTE]

I'm not a shamen, but I think we can all be aborigines in the land we know well.
You can feel water flow in the land sometimes, rivers (well in Scotland!) eventually lead to the sea. Might meander through a loch or two on the way but they get there.
I don't know how to describe the flow clearly, it's like a gentle pull; don't think too hard on it, just be quietly aware of it inside, something tingling within the nerves like light, even when the sun is hidden in the clouds you can know where it is, the flow's brighter/quicker on one side...sorry, not making myself too clear. Know your land and it's water sheds!

I can't do it but my sons *always* seem to know which way is North, even when they were very little boys.

Might be interesting to play around with these sort of things on a moot where there are enough people around to make sure no-one gets too lost

I think D. G. has it right, but I can usually get where I'm needing. The car in front does seem to know the road when you don't, doesn't it?

Too early on a good morning for this, going for a walk.

Cheers,
Toddy

Toddy

 

[tomtom]

moss grows on the south side of a tree..

(when in auzz) Termite mounds point in certain direction.. i cant remember which though.. someone will have to fill in the gap here :roll:

and remember the talk a little while ago that rocks which have spit due to hot sun or such like often do so on a north/south direction ):

 

[philaw]

Are you all familiar with the book "finding your way without map or compass" by Harold Gatty? It's quite an old book, so the format is a bit odd, but it's generally broken down into chapters about using the different senses, about finding your way in different types of scenery (desert, forest, at sea, etc) and address things like walking in circles and a 'sixth sense' for direction finding. I'm with him on that one: he says that people that seem to have a sixth sense for direction finding are simply extremely experienced and well practiced. Take a bushman and show him kids in the bronx playing basketball, or the way that we can cross busy roads practically with our eyes closed, and he'll think it's super-natural!

 

[shinobi]

I've just had a look on amazon and it's still available. finding your way without a map

Cheers,

Martin

 

[bothyman]

Are you all familiar with the book "finding your way without map or compass" by Harold Gatty? It's quite an old book,

philaw

Thanks for that, it seems it could still be available,

>> http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos...77588/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_8_1/202-8452884-8618244

I have put it on my Wish List.

Has anyone used Pendulum Dowsing for finding a direction??
I have used the L rods for dowsing for a while and was asked to try using a pendulum by a Friend who is really into the dowsing stuff.
I have asked it for directions, North, South,East, & West and it always gets it right also asked it the way home and that works too.
It scares the hell out of me, but it works.
I have done a lot of other stuff with it too, but that isn't bushcrafty stuff.

MickT
:wave:

 

[bambodoggy]

Ahhhhh!!! I'm a habitual book buyer!!!! Just ordered a copy from Amazon....thanks guys!

 

[Realgar]

its easyest to remember that the main entrance of a church faces south.. the alter is in the east and the tower is on the west end of the church.

That doesn't always work though -you do get bizzare local happenings that mean that individual churches might not be facing where you might think.

If you've got a piece of iron or steel ( such as a pin ) five or stout blows to the top usualy magnetises it enough to act as a compass. My punch is now magnetic enough to pick up rat tail files.

I've played around with pendulums and I'd never believe them capable of answering a question any more than a rock is - makes about as much sense as map dowsing. Certainly not one to trust when you really need to know.
In the field with a hazel stick however......

 

[KIMBOKO]

I've dowsed the water supply to my house using trad techniques and the location of some lost clothing using the method in Tom Brown's book.
I must try direction!

 

[bambodoggy]

Just a thought on Churches..... ok to be fair you have to be fairly close to see this but just about every church I've ever seen has a weather vain on the top of it....and these more often than not have the N/S/E/W points on them so you can see which way the wind is blowing....

I'd say the above is far more accurate than trying to work out which alter is where and which way the towers and doors face!

Do we have any Muslims on this site? They have to pray to the east several times in a day....surely they don't all carry compasses.... Muslims out there...how do you find East if you're out and about? Or can you ask your parents/grandparents how they do/didn't it? Many thanks in advance.

 

[bothyman]

I've dowsed the water supply to my house using trad techniques and the location of some lost clothing using the method in Tom Brown's book.
I must try direction!

Thats how I started messing about looking for the water supply with L Rods, which were made from two bits of fence wire .
Then went on to finding bits of metal, throw a small piece of metal on the ground and see if the rods cross when you walk over it.
Some people say it is something to do with the Earths magnetism

But the pendulum is something else, how does that know which way to go?
It is supposed to be some inner thing, intuition or something like that, so I am told, perhaps someone knows the answer??

I always remember the Pagan Ethic: "If it harms none, do what thou wilt"
or in the words of Bob Dylan "Don't criticise what you don't understand"
it seems to work and I don't know why. but who am I to argue.

MickT :roll: :yikes: :wave:

 

[hootchi]

The sun? I know a country not far from here where sometimes the sun never sets and sometimes it is never seen. A bit hard to judge direction then! :?:

No worries there then. :biggthump

The point that the sun is lowest in the sky is north, If your talking about the land of nog. ): It might not always be easy to work out the direction using only one method for all parts of world, night and day, summer or winter, that's why we have compasses I suppose.

 

[arctic hobo]

Do we have any Muslims on this site? They have to pray to the east several times in a day....surely they don't all carry compasses.... Muslims out there...how do you find East if you're out and about? Or can you ask your parents/grandparents how they do/didn't it? Many thanks in advance.

The ones I have seen have compasses on their prayer mats - not sure if they carry them everywhere (they're quite big after all) or even if they have to use them to pray but that could be it.

I recal being told that the bark on one side of a tree is rougher than the other if it is solitary and this was due to the amount of light that it gets, obviously this does not work with forests or woodland, I think I have something somewhere about it.

You also find that trees are bushier and have larger growth on their south side; this is the reason why all twisted trees in one hemisphere are twisted the same way (prevailing winds).

 

[spamel]

I got told by a Gurkha that if you draw an imaginary line through the horns of the moon, this gives a north south indication. Can anybody verify this?

 

[Motorbike Man]

While I was adding the navigating with out a map book to my wish list, this one came up as a reccomended book. Anyone got any ecperiance of it. I kind of like the idea of having a go at making some of the stuff in it.

 

[innocent bystander]

On the subject of dowsing i heard a wonderful story when i visited St Austells brewery. They needed to find all the old water pipes to trace a leak, so they borrowed a load of metal detectors and issued them to all the staff, who then drew the results on maps. Apparently it looked like spagetti. They were all wearing steel toecapped boots. So they got a dowser in, who went straight to the leak....

 

[arctic hobo]

While I was adding the navigating with out a map book to my wish list, this one came up as a reccomended book. Anyone got any ecperiance of it. I kind of like the idea of having a go at making some of the stuff in it.

You couldn't have known but this book is fantastically useful to me... thanks! :You_Rock_
I have officially the world's best idea in the pipeline and this will be extremely useful... I may say more about it soon ):

 

[Toddy]

Arctic Hobo
"....I have officially the world's best idea in the pipeline and this will be extremely useful... I may say more about it soon ):[/QUOTE]"



Okay....all together now!

" :note: Why are we waiting, why yy are we waiting!" :note2: :note:

Aww go on , give us a hint, O thinker of the World's Best Idea.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[arctic hobo]

Okay....all together now!

" :note: Why are we waiting, why yy are we waiting!" :note2: :note:

Aww go on , give us a hint, O thinker of the World's Best Idea.

cheers,
Toddy

Patience is a virtue as they say
But since you asked so nicely, it involves mountains, Nordic history, Greenland kayaks and lots of bushcraft. I'm not saying any more than that :tapedshut ):

 

[Motorbike Man]

You couldn't have known but this book is fantastically useful to me... thanks! :You_Rock_
I have officially the world's best idea in the pipeline and this will be extremely useful... I may say more about it soon ):

Glad to be of service :biggthump

I think :?:

What did I do? :rolmao:

Time will tell ):