One of the problems with something as unscientific and apparently irrational as dowsing is we try to force a framework,set of rules scenario.
I ve heard...don't dowse at night ,never dowse while wearing metal ,you have to do this or that. I think fundamentally ,you just have to be relaxed and chilled and under no pressure for an intended result. I've dowsers for missing people for over thirty years and you meet all sorts of nutters ,crystal therapists,chakra merchants ,gai freaks,earth mysteries groups....which explore earth mysteries and explain......it's still a mystery! Nutters ....I thought. Now I'm older I realise they are not nutters.
I think the poster is actually having a crisis if confidence/ sanity. To trick our rational mind we need to shove it something planned it scientific . The reality is......you do not need a stick or angle rods , they are a trick to fool your mind.
If we could imagine ourselves, physically as a complicated XP Deus ,capable of generating and receiving multiple frequencies then we are on the right track.
I don't dowse when it rains or is really cold......because it's uncomfortable ,not because the earth spirits are on a union blockade because of the rain but because it's hard to do it if you are not relaxed.
Years ago when first looking for missing people it was spooky but I soon learned to be non attached and ' insensitive' to the circumstances or the body of the person who I'm dowsing for.
I call it looking for stiffs. Which may sound terrible but if you don't have a blasé attitude.....it all becomes serious and the dowsing gets fckkled up. Non attached and light hearted . My partner found it strange that I'd go out looking for a missing person and come back back home not bothering if they were found or not. Like living with a pathologist or coroner I suppose,except I don't drink if formaldehyde.
Solar and lunar electrical fields do affect dowsing ,but checking for solar activity before you go dowsing is really just unneeded sophistication.Too serious. Same as metal detecting or Football or fishing. If you can't do it for the fun of it or think that that new rattle lure is going to get that big bass then you are missing the point......being there is everything,wether you come back with a pile of lead and nails or a stash of gold.....it's the doing . Here and now is always forever . Don't chain your mind with too many beleifs and expectations. If there's one thing that really does PM OFF ,it's beginners luck. I see it all the time dowsing and metal detecting.........now.......the only constant with beginners luck is the lucky ones are clueless and just out doing it for the fun of it.
Just be happy and non attached.