(a traditional form of divination by letters similar to the Ouija)
The modern Ouija Board is a rectangular board on which are printed the alphabet in two crescents of thirteen letters each. Below these crescents is a horizontal row of numbers from one to nine plus zero. In the right upper corner of the board is the word "yes" and in the left upper corner the word "no," and at the bottom of the board the words "good bye." All this is written to be read from the perspective of someone seated at the base of the board. A triangular or heart-shaped piece of wood elevated on three short legs spells out words, or indicates numbers or the responses yes and no, by moving over the surface of the board.
The board is designed to act as a medium to communicate with incorporeal intelligences. Spirits are questioned verbally, and their responses received through the letters and numbers on the board. Those using the board place one or both hands on top of the triangular piece of wood, called a planchette or pointer. The moving of the planchette upon the board gives the answers of the spirits.
The word planchette is more commonly used to describe a similarly-shaped pointer supported on two casters for easy movement, with a pen or pencil inserted through a hole near the front. As the planchette is moved under the hands of the spirit medium, it produces words on a sheet of paper. Generally the planchette is operated by a single individual.
The popular legend is that this instrument for spirit writing was invented in 1853 by a Frenchman named Planchette. It was pointed out to me that planchette literally means "little board" in French (a diminutive of the French planche: plank or board), and upon reflection, it seems unlikely that the inventor of a little board for spirit writing should just happen to have a name meaning "little board," so it is likely that M. Planchette never existed. The mechanism does appear to have been invented in France around 1850, however. It became quite popular in the late 19th century.
The best results on the Ouija are obtained by from two to four persons working together. When two individuals use the Ouija, they should sit facing each other with the board balanced upon their knees. Alternatively, the board can be placed upon a table, but the results are usually not so good as when the board is balanced upon the knees. Users must keep their elbows off the surface of the table.
The pointer appears to move by itself. It is as if an invisible hand were gently but firmly guiding it over the surface of the board on its felt-bottomed legs. Users of the board jump first to the conclusion that one of them is secretly moving the pointer as a joke. This forcing of the pointer is relatively easy to detect -- the pointer does not slide smoothly when moved by one person in the group, and when someone forces it, their fingertips betray the extra pressure needed by turning white around the nails. It is actually quite difficult for a single person to force the pointer around the board when three or four are using the Ouija.
Users of the Ouija next conclude that spiritual entities are causing the board to move independently of the human beings touching the pointer. This is also untrue. Spirits need the muscles of human beings to move the pointer. The pointer will not slide across the board by itself. Spirits communicate with us through our unconscious minds. They are able to manipulate our bodies without our volition, and usually without our awareness, since the movements they cause are quite subtle for the most part. When we voluntarily accept their use of our bodies for purposes of communication with them, these movements can become more overt.
The reason users of the board are fooled into believing that spirits move the pointer independent of them is the complete lack of any awareness on the part of the users that they themselves move the pointer. This is a curious and quite delightful experience, for anyone who is fascinated by occult matters. The pointer moves, and yet there is absolutely no sense of moving it by anyone involved. It truly is magical!
Beginners and those whose mediumistic talents are less advanced will experience strong but random movements of the pointer when the board is initially activated. The pointer darts and circles around like a frisky puppy. It is best to agree on one clear, simple question at a time, and to ask the question aloud while holding it in the consciousness. Give the spirits time to respond. Begin by asking questions that can be answered with either a yes or no. After you get a good connection with the spirits, you can ask questions that require the spelling of letters or pointing to numbers.
You should always maintain a serious attitude while using the Ouija. I must emphasize this. If you use it as a party entertainment, and giggle and make jokes while using it, or chatter amongst yourselves, your responses will never be very interesting or valuable. More importantly, you will destroy your chances of achieving valuable results in the future. How you behave while using the Ouija determines the kind of spirits who will seek communication with you.
Who you are also conditions the type of spirits who reach out to you through the board. It is best not to work the board with someone who is a liar, a criminal, an alcoholic, a heavy drug user, a sex addict, an abuser, a bully, or a lunatic. This is an invitation to undesirable spirits to participate. The responses given by this class of spirits will never be of great utility, and are not to be relied upon.
It is best if one person asks questions that have been selected and agreed to before beginning. Since the pointer can move quite rapidly at times, someone not touching the pointer should write down the responses. Alternatively, allow a tape recorder to run while using the board, and speak the responses aloud as they occur. The letters may appear jumbled when first received, but can often be divided into intelligible words, although the spelling is sometimes faulty.
In recent years the Ouija has received a bad reputation, as a devilish instrument that induces obsession or possession in those who experiment with it. This attitude is almost always held by those who have never used the board in any serious way, often by those with a religious agenda against any form of magic or occultism.
(version of the Ouija that I created for my own use)
The movements of the pointer are very clear and undeniable. Those with no prior experience of occult matters are always surprised by them, and occasionally frightened. The Ouija can cause persons who have gone through life convinced that there is no such thing as the supernatural to doubt their own convictions -- this is a terrifying experience. It is as if the solid stone upon which you stand suddenly turns to soft mud. Materialistic and rationalistic individuals tend to use the board once, then never again, dismissing it as either a fraud or as something devilish. The truth is that they are fearful about their own mental stability and the loss of their cherished beliefs.
Since the spirits who communicate with you through the Ouija already exist in your unconscious mind, the board does not create a new or threatening situation in your life -- it merely awakens you to an existing situation. The Ouija is a convenient medium through which these incorporeal beings can communicate with you, but it is not the only medium of communication. If you stop using the board, these spirits do not dissolve into nothingness. They remain in your unconsciousness, aware of you and seeking communication with you. The use of the board does not create these spirits -- they were always there, waiting to talk with you.
It is not accurate to think of the spirits of the unconscious mind as somehow within you, the way peas exist inside a can. A more useful model of reality is to think of your personal universe -- everything you think and believe and perceive and know -- as a tiny island of awareness in the limitless sea of the unconscious mind. Spirits exist like fish in this ocean of mind. When you use the Ouija, you slap the water of this ocean, so to speak, and the spirits poke their heads out of the water to have a look at what has disturbed them. If you interest them, they may swim nearer your island and communicate with you. Creatures in this ocean of mind with "legs" may even climb right out of the water and sit beside you, becoming for a time a part of your personal universe. But you have not created these beings by calling them, you have merely caused them to take notice of you.
The Ouija is only dangerous to those who are unbalanced or self-destructive to begin with. The average person has nothing to fear from communications with spirits. The Ouija can open a window on an entire universe the existence of which was previously never suspected, and in this way can be a valuable tool of empowerment and enlightenment. Those who fear and revile the Ouija are those with devils already living inside them. These unfortunate persons are better off not using the board, or indeed any other form of magic or occultism. The less communication they have with their inner demons, the better for their continuing well-being.
The Ouija has ancient roots in history, although the name itself and the specific form we know today are comparatively modern. The Romans used a kind of divination in which a ring was suspended from a wand of vervain on a length of thread over a bowl inscribed around its rim with Greek letters. A question was asked, and note was taken of which letters the ring indicated when it tapped against the inner rim of the bowl. We know this method in some detail since it was used by a group of Roman conspirators seeking ways to bring about the death of the ruler of the Eastern Empire, Valens (reigned 364-378). The men were discovered, tortured, and brought to trial. A report of the trial by the 4th century historian Marcellinus includes a fairly complete description of the divination in the form of a quotation from the testimony of one of the conspirators. I will provide a portion of it here, since this method is the precursor to the modern Ouija Board:
"Honoured judges, we constructed this unfortunate little table that you see here after the fashion of the tripod at Delphi, with dark incantations, out of branches of laurel; and with imprecations of secret song, and numerous ceremonies repeated over daily, we consecrated it by magic rites, till at last we put it in motion. When it reached this capacity of movement, as often as we wished to interrogate it by secret inquiry, we proceeded thus.
"It was placed in the middle of a room purified throughout by Arabian perfumes; a round dish was simply laid upon it, formed of a composite material of many metals. On the phlange of its outer round were skillfully engraved the scriptile forms of the alphabet separated into as many exactly measured spaces. Over this basin a man stood clothed in linen garments and shod with linen socks, his head bound round with a turban-like tuft of hair, and bearing a rod of vervain, the prospering plant. After we had favourably conciliated the deity, who is the giver of all presage, with duly formulated charms and ceremonial knowledge, he communicated a gentle movement to a ring that hung suspended over the basin. . . . This was tied up by an exceedingly fine Carpathian thread, which had been initiated with mystical observances. This ring, moving by little leaps or jumps, so as to alight upon the distinct intervals with the separate letters inscribed, each in its compartment to itself, gives out in heroic verse answers suitable to the inquiries made, comprehended perfectly in number and measure; such as are called Pythic, or those delivered by the oracles of the Branchidae."
The god of prophecy is Apollo. The oracle of Apollo at Delphi, called the Pythoness, and the oracle at Branchidae of the god Branchus (Branchus was reputed to be the son of Apollo) were the two most famous oracles of the ancient world. Tripods were considered sacred by the Greeks. The laurel tree was thought to be the most suitable wood for divination.
By means of magic rituals the conspirators animated their oracular device by infusing a spiritual intelligence into it. The alphabet (probably Greek) was written around the top surface of the flat flange of a basin composed of the magical metal electrum, which is an alloy of the seven planetary metals: silver, mercury, copper, gold, iron, tin and lead. The twenty-four Greek letters were inscribed in script as opposed to print form in a band divided into equal rectangles, each of which held a single letter. A ring, probably also electrum, was suspended within the vertical sides of this basin from a thin thread on the end of a living branch of vervain that was held in the hand of the diviner. It is not stated, but the basin was likely half-filled with spring water, because water was thought to attract and contain spirits. Alternatively, it is possible that the basin was half-filled with the blood of a sacrificial animal such as a white cock.
The conspirator performing the divination stood over the basin on its laurel tripod, dressed in white linen, which is the cloth of purity. He would have purified his own body beforehand, and probably shaved off all his body hair. The hair around his head was, in my opinion, likely taken from a corpse, because spirits of the dead were believed to be prophetic. A question was asked and the diviner, looking downward at the flat flange of the basin, was able to see which letters the ring indicated as it bounced from one side of the basin to the other. According to the testimony of the conspirator speaking at the trial, the ring not only gave a response, but gave it in heroic verse.
(another Ouija that I made for my personal use)
A form of divination by letters similar to that used by the ancient Greeks and Romans was probably employed in the 19th century in England, although this is difficult to prove. The letters of the English alphabet were written on small cards, and these were arranged on the smooth surface of a table in a circle. Instead of a ring upon a thread, an inverted glass tumbler or goblet was used to point out the letters. Each person involved in the divination rested a single fingertip upon the base of the glass as questions were asked of the spirits.
You can see this form of the board in the illustration at the top of this page. Notice that the letters, which are actually printed upon the board in the illustration, are not arranged in their natural order. They appear to be random. This suggests to me that in a slightly older form of this divination than is shown above, the loose cards upon which the letters were printed were shuffled before the divination, and laid out in a circle in whatever order they possessed after the shuffle. This traditional ring of letters is very near in its concept to the modern Ouija Board.
The divining basin of the Greeks with its flat flange inscribed with letters is the ancient ancestor of the Ouija; the circle of letters written on slips of paper is probably its legitimate father.
In 1864 the French spiritist Allan Kardec published Le Livre des Mediums (The Book of Mediums) in which he described two version of a device he referred to as a "dial-plate" talking board. Both used circular boards with letters written upon them. One had a moveable pointer that indicated individual letters in a fixed crescent -- operators rested their hands on the pointer mechanism to activate it. The other was like a Lazy Susan, with a circular table 18 inches in diameter that revolved on a central pivot. The table was inscribed with letters, numbers and the words "yes" and "no" around its edge. Users placed their hands upon this table to activate it (the table rotated while their hands remained in their original places), and successive letters were indicated by a fixed pointer attached to its base. Kardec reported that this latter device had been invented by the French medium Madame Emile de Girardin.
None of these dial-plate talking boards became as popular as the simple planchette. My supposition is that they were inspired by the existing method of spirit communication that used the circle of loose lettered cards with the sliding glass tumbler as a pointer, but this is impossible to prove.
In 1890 an American entrepreneur named Charles Kennard, in partnership with E. C. Reiche and Elijah Bond, formed the Kennard Novelty Company and began to produce the first true Ouija Board. It was made from three separate hardwood boards glued together edge to edge, and reinforced on the back by two lateral wooden braces with rounded corners. It sold for $1.50. In all practical respects it is identical in design to the modern Ouija.
It was apparently Kennard who came up with the name Ouija, which the spirits speaking through his board informed him was the Egyptian word for good luck (the name is not an Egyptian word). According to one legend, the name came to Kennard in a dream. Who knows, perhaps the spirits revealed it to him.
Kennard had been forced to borrow money to establish his company, and in 1892 his business partners forced him out. William Fuld, who had worked for Kennard as shop foreman, became the new owner. Fuld patented the board design, changed the name of the operation to the Ouija Novelty Company, and with the help of his brother Isaac, increased the production of the boards.
According to Fuld, the only time he used the board himself was when determining whether or not to build a factory to manufacture it commercially. He declared "I'm no Spiritualist. . . I'm a Presbyterian." Fuld was a businessman, not a mystic. He was probably frightened by the occult aspects of the board, or at least uneasy about them.
The brothers Fuld split up when William fired Isaac for embezzlement of company funds. William changed the name of his company from the Ouija Novelty Company to the William Fuld Company, on the principle that name recognition is never a bad thing. Undaunted, Isaac set up shop in his home and established the Southern Novelty Company of Baltimore. He began to make and sell knock-offs of the Ouija that he called Oriole Talking Boards. These were virtually identical to the Ouija.
Fuld's creative energies seem to have been limited to concocting a bogus history for the Ouija. He claimed that he was the sole creator of the board, and that he had come up with the name "Ouija" by combining the French word for "yes" (oui) with the German word for "yes" (ja). He did his best to bury the memory of Charles Kennard. At the end of the set of instructions for the Ouija he had the audacity to refer to himself as its "inventor and manufacturer."
Whoever may have been the author of the brief but practical set of instructions that accompanied Fuld's board, there is so much good sense in them, I will reproduce them here as they appeared in 1902:
Place the board upon the knees of two persons, lady and gentleman preferred, with the small table
[planchette] upon the board. Place the fingers lightly but firmly, without pressure, upon the table so as to allow it to move easily and freely. In from one to five minutes the tablet will commence to move, at first slowly, then faster, and will be then able to talk or answer questions, which it will do rapidly by touching the printed words or the letters necessary to form words and sentences with the foreleg or pointer.2nd -- Care should be taken that one person only should ask questions at a time, so as to avoid confusion, and the questions should be put plainly and accurately.
3rd -- To obtain the best results it is important that the persons present should concentrate their minds upon the matter in question and avoid other topics. Have no one at the table who will not sit seriously and respectfully. If you use it in a frivolous spirit, asking ridiculous questions, laughing over it, you naturally get undeveloped influences
[i.e. lower spirits] around you.4th -- The Ouija is a great mystery, and we do not claim to give exact directions for its management, neither do we claim that at all times and under all circumstances it will work equally well. But we do claim and guarantee that with reasonable patience and judgment it will more than satisfy your greatest expectation.
5th -- In putting the table together wet the tops of the legs, and drive them firmly into the table. Care should be taken that they are firm and tight.
6th -- The board should be kept smooth and free from dust and moisture, as all depends upon the ease with which the feet of the table can glide over the surface of the board. Rubbing with a dry silk handkerchief just before use is advised.
Over the years Fuld made a number of innovations to the Ouija, but he wisely resisted the temptation to tamper with the basic layout of the board. He altered the decorations at the rounded corners and flattened them, experimented with different surfaces and sizes of board, made the planchette larger and smaller, and its legs longer and shorter. In 1910 he bored a hole in the planchette and inserted a glass lens to make it easier for users to read the letters indicated by the spirits. To combat competition from cheaper imitation boards, he began to produce a less expensive version of the Ouija known as the Mystifying Oracle. From 1933-35 he even experimented with electricity -- the Mystic Oracle was made of enameled metal, and had letters that illuminated when the end of the pointer moved over them. This remarkable and rare specimen sold for $3.50. It could not have been popular since few were made.
These innovations were forced on Fuld by the huge number of counterfeit Ouija boards that were being manufactured all around the world. Fuld fought them in the courts but never succeeded in suppressing them.
In spite of competition from the knock-offs, the Ouija was a remarkably fruitful enterprise for William Fuld. He once boasted in the press that it had earned him more than a million dollars, a huge amount of money in the 1920s. He refused to live like a millionaire, however, and true to his Presbyterian upbringing continued to do all his own house maintenance. In 1927 while replacing a flagpole on top of his roof, he fell backward to his death. There were rumors that he had been killed by spirit intervention, and more darkly, that he had committed suicide. His children continued to operate his company for almost four decades.
(Scrying Wheel that I designed as a promotion for my book Scrying For Beginners)
Parker Brothers bought the rights to the Ouija Board in 1966 and moved its manufacturing operation to Salem, Massachusetts, the home of the Salem witch trials. In their first full year of operation Parker Brothers sold more than two million boards. The name Ouija is a registered trademark of Parker Brothers.
As I am sure is the case of many reading this article, my first acquaintance with the Ouija was with the Parker Brothers edition. The design was true to that of William Fuld. The board itself was a piece of pressboard with a very smooth surface and rounded corners. The pointer was made of maple or birch, with the word "Ouija" stenciled diagonally across its upper surface in large black letters. I have the planchette sitting beside my elbow as I write this, and it brings back fond memories. The felt has been almost completely worn off the bottoms of the legs from frequent use. Sadly, Parker Brothers stopped producing the Ouija to Fuld's specifications in 1999. They do still make a smaller board that glows in the dark.
I have made two Ouija boards for my own use. The first is 16 1/2 by 24 1/2 inches, painted in gold on a black enamel background over 3/4 inch cabinet plywood with a maple veneer. It has a blue velvet bottom, a sculptured ornamental boarder painted in gold and black, and is sealed by several coats of clear laquor. The second is 18 1/2 by 24 1/2 inches, and was painted in many colors on a base composed of two sections of ten inch wide pine board glued together and rounded at the edges. As a promotional free giveaway to accompany my book Scrying For Beginners I created a Scrying Wheel that bears many similarities to the Ouija. It is on laminated cardboard and is 9 1/4 inches by 11 inches. All three items are illustrated on this page.
The Ouija remains the best vehicle for average individuals with no magical training to become aware of the reality of spirits, and to communicate with them. One of the clearest proofs that spirits are real and present all around us is the ease with which the average person can operate the Ouija. We don't ban the use of all knives merely because knives sometimes slip and cut us by accident, nor should we ban the Ouija because foolish or unbalanced persons misuse it and end up frightening themselves. The Ouija is a precious key and can open amazing vistas of self-discovery. Use it wisely.
Those wishing to learn more about the Ouija should visit the following site:
A well rounded treatment of all aspects of the Ouija phenomenon, including a history of the board. The most useful part of the site is the large number of Ouija clones and imitations that are pictured and described. Their variety is bewildering but fascinating.