Word to the Wise: Ouija Boards

Word to the Wise: Ouija Boards

Have you ever dreamt of a deceased loved one? Had a moment of synchronicity where you just ‘feel’ their presence? Contact with the dead is a personal, natural experience. Professional mediums are also able to contact your deceased loved ones through their clairvoyant gifts. But when it comes to playing with the ouija, you better watch out. 

Hoax ghost phone, hit toy, or seance necessity? The Wise Skies team offers their take on ouija do’s and don’ts. Spoiler alert: they’re all don’ts.

What it is

A Ouija board is a retro board game used to conjure the dead. Born out of a Spiritualist movement, these boards date back to the early 1800s and reach into Egyptian and English cultures. 

History

Although the creator of the modern board is unclear, E.C. Reiche and Charles Kennard are both associated with the 1886 model that is still used today. One hundred years later, the Ouija board outsold Monopoly in 1986.

Purpose 

To contact the dead for a conversation or answers.

Check Yourself

If you find yourself wanting to play with the ouija, ask yourself these questions:

  • What’s my motive?
  • What am I hoping to find?
  • What would ensure the information I’m getting is correct and valid?
  • Would a professional mediumship session serve me and my loved ones better?
  • Is the information I’m seeking better left alone?

 

Is it dangerous?

It depends. Some people who are particularly open to spirit and spiritual influences may feel the experience (and scare themselves) more than others. Some may even have a spiritual hitchhiker of sorts. Has a discarnate being latched onto you for a ride? Extreme lethargy, depression, headaches, saying things out of character, and a feeling of overall not being yourself are some symptoms of discarnate attachments.

Clean up on Aisle Nine

If you’ve dabbled in Ouija and want to clean your energy, we have some basic suggestions: 

  • Say a prayer/intention to release any spirit attachments back to their own soul 
  • Take a salt water bath
  • Drink plenty of purified water
  • Get centered by walking barefoot on the Earth
  • Imagine any cords to your aura dissolving 
  • Imagine a tube of electronic white light around your body
  • Ask for help from a professional medium


Ouija versus Mediumship

A mediumship session will start out with the medium connecting to Spirit with a clean, humble, and reverent heart. The medium will provide evidence of your loved one with zero to minimal input from you. They will paint a beautiful picture of your loved one’s life, and your relationship with them when they were here on Earth, as well as your relationship with them after death. A mediumship experience often validates our belief in life after death, and helps us feel a closeness to Spirit. [Here’s a short article on what a mediumship experience is like.] 

Starting a Ouija game, on the other hand, is a bit like opening Pandora’s box – you’re not sure who is really coming to the party and are connecting into any-ole discarnate. That means, even if you wanted to talk to Aunt Sally, Uncle Joe could pop into the ouija experience and answer as-if he was Aunt Sally. The tricksters, the mercurial ones, and sure maybe sometimes the good guys are there to play a game of Ouija with you. But it’s as far from a Wise Skies mediumship experience as possible, and in our opinion makes a mockery of what could otherwise be a beautiful experience with your deceased loved ones.

Ouija and mediumship cannot validate information that you don’t know. Let’s work with an example. Aunt Sally was a teacher, who grew up in the Bronx and passed of lung cancer. A medium will be able to give you those types of elements of her life that you can validate, because you knew her. Often people will use a Ouija just to see “who’s there” or “what happened here.” The board is spitting out information that you can’t validate through history or personal experience. Kind of hoaky, right? Not only hoaky, but a little unsafe. 

Word to the Wise

What the Wise Skies Intuitives Have To Say
Tiff

Have you played with a ouija board? If so – what was that like?

Think unsupervised elementary school pajama party. Late 80’s in Austin. After swimming and pizza, it was time for scary movies and ouija board. But once the board came out, the energy shifted from fun to uncool and I wasn’t t down with that. Fast forward to the next worst place to play with Ouija – in a bar downtown. This was fruitless, scary, weird, and not fun at all. I never had any interest past that.

Why don’t you use them now?

Communication with our deceased loved ones is not a game, and it’s not scary. Mediumship provides reverent honesty when conducted professionally. It’s a link between worlds that feels holy. To me, ouija represents an uneducated, and dishonorable attempt at contacting the dead. I’ll leave it in 1988. 

April

Have you played with a ouija board? If so – what was that like?

No, I have not. I was always warned away from them as a kid because it fell into the paranormal realm. Everything like this was considered demonic or satanic in my Evangelical world, so it was a big ‘no no.’ In fact, this has always been something I was afraid of, because I was told it would open up an opportunity for the devil to come and mess with me. Pretty freaky stuff!

Why don’t you use them now?

I think a mixture of reasons, but partly because I was so warned away from them my whole life. Now that I am spiritually active once again, I see them as a cheap trick or a game, not real spiritual connection. I think Ouija boards and other gimmicky attempts at mediumship get conflated with the Tarot and other tools that actually ARE powerful, and this negatively affects how mediums are seen and understood.

Jen

Have you played with a ouija board? If so – what was that like?

Wow.  I think it’s been two, three decades since I last even saw a ouija board.  I didn’t find the experience in any way enlightening or “connected” to peeps in spirit land.  I can only imagine the eye rolling from the other side as another group of kids sits down with a planchette and the intention to scare a sibling or two.

Why don’t you use them now?
I have no interest in them for a myriad of reasons.  I consider mediumship work to be sacred work, usually at the request of the soul on the other side.  If we are talking about sacred spaces and honoring those in and out of body, then we have to allow that indiscriminately trampling in the territory of our fellow souls feels a little icky.  I liken it to someone being at a family gathering and a random stranger comes into your house and asks you for random messages.  It reminds me of the difference between dominion and stewardship.  Dominion is to try and control, stewardship is shared power.  We are all stewards of each other, no matter where we are.

Leisha

Have you played with a ouija board? If so – what was that like?

Weirdly and unbelievably, I don’t think I have.  Or I don’t remember it well. If I did, it was def elementary or middle school slumber party style. 

Why don’t you use them now?

Haven’t been presented with the opportunity, haven’t been drawn to them, haven’t been on my radar.



Tiffany Harelik