Ouija Boards & Talking Boards: Part 1

The Ouija board is by far the most common and popular of the "talking" boards.  Talking boards are made from all kinds of various materials such as wood, fiber, and even cardboard, and are used for divination purposes.  Divination is the practice of attempting to foretell future events or discover hidden knowledge by occult or supernatural means.  The word divination originates from the Latin word divinare: to foresee or to be inspired by a god; and is related to the word divinus, or divine.  Therein lies the root problem with talking boards, Ouija boards, or for that matter, any kind of divination: it is attempting and seeking to gain secret knowledge or power through lesser gods, and attempts to bypass the one true and living God.  That, in a word, is idolatry, and is strictly condemned and forbidden in scripture.  As a Christian demonologist, that is my objection to its use.

These talking boards usually have the letters of the alphabet on them, the numbers 0 through 9, as well as the words yes, no, and goodbye.  They don't even have to be on a "board" as such because these letters, numbers and words can be written on sheets of paper, and often are. In a series of posts, I would like to educate the reader on several aspects of the Ouija Board, or talking board. In a series of future posts the following topics of the Ouija Board will be presented (the first is presented below):

History & Origin
Name "Ouija"
American Version of the Ouija - a History
Typical Use of the Ouija Board
Various Views Regarding the Ouija Board
Possible Consequences
My Opinion: It Should Not Be Used
Proper Disposal of the Ouija Board   

History & Origin
The talking board has a mysterious origin.  No one can quite tell where they came from.  Stoker Hunt, in Ouija: The Most Dangerous Game, says, "The nature of the Ouija phenomenon is controversial ; so too are its roots.  No one person or culture can take credit for its development.  Ouija origins are multiple and ancient, having been independently reinvented and rediscovered in a wide variety of locations."  Having studied the axial period of the explosion of religion all across the globe (see the Russian theologian Alexander Men), I will say what many are not willing to say:  I think the origin of the board was ultimately not a human one, but the true originator worked through many humans in many parts of the world.  There, I said it.

Actually, I don't think it takes a rocket scientist to come up with that kind of conclusion.  I, as well as many others, see the world we live in as existing in two simultaneous interacting parts - the physical and the spiritual.  They are intertwined and interactive.  I think we have no real idea just how influenced and affected we are by the spiritual domain, and yet at the same time we in the material/physical domain influence and affect it too.  With the Ouija Board, which is complex and sometimes a bit hard to understand, I feel very strongly that while humans may think the origins lay with some inventor somewhere, the real inventor was not of this world.  Any time you see something come into the material - physical world in many different locations around the same time period, I would strongly suggest you look to an intelligence behind the human intelligence for the cause.

Hunt further says that the board was used in the days of Pythagoras, about 540 B.C., and is genuinely ancient in its origins and is "nothing less than a folk knowledge, a universal folk instrument." 


Bibliography:
Ouija: The Most Dangerous Game, by Stoker Hunt;  Harper Press, 1985, First edition.  ISBN: 0-06-093504 


The New Encyclopedia of the Occult, by John Michael Greer; Llewellyn Publications, 2009, First Edition.  ISBN: 13:978-1-56718-336-8.


The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits, by Rosemary Ellen Guiley; Checkmark Books, 2007, Third Edition.  ISBN: 13:978-0-8160-6738-1.