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OUIJA - Halloween Instant Messenger?

  
 
H3ct0r L1m4
18:14 / 31.10.03
Lepidopteran's great Halloween thread inspired me to open this one.

I've talked about Ouija with you guys a long time ago but this came to my mind again. the first time - of a short period - me and some friends ever used a home-made oui-ja board, with cool but also scary consequences.

this was a while before I started messing with chaos magick and since then I never found even a small group of people not scared enough to start using it again.

still don't know what to make of it too: is it really an instant messenger from Beyond, a way to channel our own amalgamated [spell?] thoughts or else? not verygood reasearch material on the intranerd.

I'd like to know your personal takes on the subject. I probably won't be able to put together a group for a session but tell how to put this to good use on a night with so much spiritual traffic.
 
 
Chiropteran
14:24 / 01.11.03
Well thank you.

My own experience with Ouija is limited - it's one of those things that I was fascinated with as a child, dismissed completely from the more "serious" realm of magick during my Brand New Pagan period, and am now starting to get more interested in again.

I don't really have much to give in the way of suggestions or advice, except to say that you don't really need a group, per se - two people will do it, and I've heard that it's possible with one. In fact, depending on who you listen to, the "two people" bit is less a matter of magickal necessity and more a way for each to be convinced that the other isn't "just moving it around." Of course, there are others who say it's vital to balance gender polarity and whatnot, so YMMV.

Good luck!

~L
 
 
Professor Silly
16:08 / 02.11.03
I have done some research on the Ouija, and have some direct experience from before I was a Magician. I've never really put it to the test myself, i.e. using scientific principals in combination with questions that could be verified...and I see at least two different possible explanations for how it works. The old explanation, which I will describe in italics, is that spirits/angels/demons move the pointer ; the new explanation is that the use of the Ouija allows for the unconcious to manifest its voice to the concious through tiny muscle movements.
Regardless of the source of the movement, it seems plain how the pointer moves--when one holds out a limb the brain sends out directions adjusting that limb to hold still by tiny corrective adjustments...just like we do with a steering wheel while driving straight. This does not preclude that spirits couldn't move those muscles for us, in fact Crowley makes this very suggestion when discussing the use of the Tarot for divination.
The use of two people does make the Ouija more unpredictable, whether two spirits vie for attention through the two, or the two participants have different unconcious motivations to finding an answer. In this sense the use of automatic writing (hard) or a weighted pendulem (easy) might work better than the Ouija.

Regardless of how this works I would not neglect a word of warning. Anyone raised within a Christian household shouldn't attempt this type of working without some serious precautions (i.e. successful banishing and absolute control of the body/mind, in other words years of successful magickal work). I've read of many cases of demonic possession resulting from the use of Ouija, and even if demons don't exist there remains the possibility that one will unconciously desire punishment for such actions, leading to Spontanious Psychokinesis (SPK). This will seem to the observer to be the activity of a poltergeist, with items moving "on their own" and unexplained bangs/noises. All in all one might mistake this for demonic activity, which can also lead to possession/schizophrenia.

I personally do not feel any fear of the Ouija...I do however question its overall value or use to me. I'd just as soon study the tarot and "I Ching."
 
 
The Dadaist
01:25 / 03.11.03
My recomendation is that never play with the Ouija inside a house. I used to play with the Board in bars and parks, the same results without troubles in home.
 
 
cusm
17:20 / 03.11.03
I hate the bloody things. Noone bothers to shield them properly and fewer still know how to banish what they call up with them. Very messy. This is what you get for trusting your magickal tools to Milton Bradley.

They damn well work for me, I'll tell you that.
 
 
agent darkbootie
17:12 / 29.12.05
So how does one shield a Ouija properly? And I assume you can use a lesser pentagram banishment afterward?
 
 
Less searchable M0rd4nt
11:19 / 31.12.05
I don't understand why anyone uses them. They're so clumsy. It's a bit like if you went to the pub with someone and then insisted on standing at the other end of the bar and conducting the conversation via txt messages.
 
  
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