As they say in the Harry Potter stories, “The wand chooses the wizard.” I discovered this is true for other tools as well. A number of years ago Delphineous and I went to a local Pagan store. The aisles were narrow so I was following behind Delphineous. As he passed the Pendulum display one of the pendulums started swinging in a circle. I called him back and pointed it out to him. He started investigating as I moved on through the shop.
A minute or two later Delphineous called me back. Apparently when I moved away the pendulum stopped swinging, but it started up again as I approached. We were still new to Wicca and Paganism. While I was intrigued I was also a little skeptical so I tested a few times moving away and coming closer. Each time the pendulum slowed as I moved away and sped up as I came closer. Delphineous seemed to have no impact on the motion; when he moved away the pendulum kept swinging as long as I was close.
I moved a couple of steps away and approached the owner of the shop. “Hey Lisa, if a pendulum starts swinging does that mean I should buy it?”
Lisa looked over my shoulder and said “You mean that one?”
I turned back to the display and saw that the pendulum was swinging in the largest ellipse possible without crashing into the other pendulums. “Yup, that one.”
Lisa said “Normally I don’t tell anyone they have to buy anything, but in this case, yeah, I think you need to buy it.”
We bought the pendulum and I have never regretted it or considered replacing it with another. Every time I take it out it gives me solid answers that I can feel. I can feel the path of the pendulum on the palm of my receiving hand so I know what the answer is even with my eyes closed.
In thinking about it later, it made sense that Delphineous had no impact on the movement of the pendulum. It is made of Smokey Quartz which I have an affinity for. My Healing Crystal is also Smokey Quartz.
I remember this very well. The experience helped bring a tangible example of magick early in our journey.