Joe Cassidy - The Diviner

review by Ro Bennett live on show 5th July 2012
I have an underground water pipe leaking somewhere in my house which is causing some nasty damp. I was wondering where the pipe was broken and thought ‘Where is Donovan the water diviner when you need him?.’ That got me looking up divining on the internet and my search led me to the book by Joe Cassidy. Joe lives in a village in County Kildare in Ireland and is a practitioner of the ancient art of finding underground water and of healing.


In The Diviner, Joe describes how he discovered his gift and why he resisted it for many years, suffering the consequences in stress and ill-health. Over a decade ago he realised he had to accept his destiny and despite having a young family, he began working as a diviner.

Joe, who lives with his wife and family is in his fifties. He does not advertise but somehow people find him. Everyone from housewives and lorry drivers, to lawyers and record company executives, turns up at his door. He has dealt with around 5,000 cases.

Whether he is healing a person, an animal, or a house, the same principles apply: he is connecting with what lies beneath the surface. He deals with all sorts of cases and conditions – from depressed horses to disturbed children, the effects of neighbour's ill-will and assorted physical ailments. Joe describes it as the release of blocked and negative energies

In respect of sick houses and their cause, 'geopathic stress', he explains its origins from two Greek words: geo, meaning 'of the earth and pathos, meaning 'disease'.

He claims that most cases are caused by the effects of underground water lines, excavation disturbances, or energy ley lines interacting with electromagnetic fields. These can cause a build-up of negative energy leading to problems for the people who live above.

Joe Cassidy gets a lot of his clues in his dreams and those clues often lead to him solving difficult cases.

For example, during one case he dreams of money hidden in an attic. The attic has been cleaned out following a man's death and there is nothing left there. But then a smaller hidden attic is discovered where a box containing €8,000 is found.

Divining and healing have been practised in Ireland for hundreds of years, and many people accept its validity unquestioningly.

Four years ago at a Christmas party Joe chatted to someone from Penguin publishers who was fascinated by his life and stories and thought it would make a great book. Joe isn't a writer. In fact he struggles with dyslexia, so Penguin set him up with a ghost-writer, Sue Leonard. . This is a fascinating and uplifting story, simply written. An interesting, thought provoking and enjoyable read.