I’m not sure what’s up, especially since it’s not quite spring yet, but I’ve been receiving a lot of pregnancy questions from clients lately. It’s interesting because, up til the past few weeks, I’ve never had anyone ask their Akashic Records if they are straight-up preggers, but as soon as one asked, I suddenly had three more asking questions about pregnancy as well. I haven’t yet asked my own Akash what has inspired this sudden trend, but it brought up memories of my mother and her excitement about pregnancies.

When I was a kid, my mom used to whip out this weird trick whenever someone in the family was pregnant. She’d take a pencil and stick a threaded needle into the eraser end, creating a makeshift pendulum (although I don’t think she knew that’s what it was; she always referred to it as “the pencil”) and say, “C’mon girls, let’s do the pencil and find out how many you’re gonna have and what sex!”

Give her a break, if she were still alive today, she’d be 83, and, in her day, there was no such thing as ultrasound or gender reveal parties. Just “the pencil,” which, by the way, was pretty accurate for my sisters in law.

The way it worked was fascinating to me at the time. It’s very similar to the way a pendulum works, actually. The difference was that my mom held the pencil pendulum over the wrist (palm facing upward) of the pregnant one. The pencil circled and then moved into either a vertical or horizontal swing, then circled again and moved into another vertical or horizontal swing. This continued until it came to a dead stop after the final pregnancy. A vertical swing indicated a boy and a horizontal swing indicated a girl. The series of vertical and horizontal swings seemed to include miscarriages, and “the pencil” only worked on women, which I found to be super freaky.

She did this pencil parlor trick on me several times, and it always said the same thing: two boys and a girl. Dead. Wrong. I’m 47 and married to a woman, so, at this point, I think it is safe to say that I will never become pregnant, nor have I ever wanted to! That doesn’t mean, however, that I never wanted to raise children. My preference was to foster or adopt older kiddos, which is something my spouse and I are in the process of doing now. So, who knows, maybe “the pencil” knows something about the souls I’m in contract with to adopt later in life. Or maybe it doesn’t work accurately if you’re not pregnant at the time of the dowsing session? I’m not really sure.

Out of curiosity, I found a pencil a couple nights ago and stuck a threaded needle into the eraser just like my mom used to back in the day, and called on my spouse to expose her wrist.

“Which one?” she asked.

I really don’t think it matters, to be honest, but we tried it out on her left wrist. The pencil took off into a strong circular pattern right away, and then swung vertically across her forearm, between her palm and crook of her elbow. (Boy.) The pencil circled again, then another vertical (boy)… then again and another vertical (boy)… then another vertcial (boy)… and then it stopped. Four boys???

Next we tried the same thing using my sterling silver pendulum. Same results.

Then we tried it on my wrist using my pendulum. It started out the same as it always did for my mom, indicating two vertical swings (two boys) and then a horizontal (girl), but then it circled again and indicated a fourth vertical (boy). What???

So then we tried the pencil on my wrist. Same result as the pendulum. Two boys, a girl, and another boy. Flabbergasting!

By the way, this little pencil parlor trick of my mom’s was always met with jaw drops, so, to clarify which direction signified which sex, she always had someone else hold the pencil over her wrist to show everyone the three boys and one girl everyone knew she had. Worked accurately every time.

I’m not sure where or how my mom learned to do this little pencil trick. I always thought it was a family thing passed down from generation to generation, but never really asked. Has anyone else ever heard of this kind of thing? Please share in the comments below! I’d love to know the origins of it!

Perhaps it would be a fun little baby shower activity? Have fun with it!