The Witches' Book of the Dead (12 page)

My Own Experiences with the Ouija Board

I have fond childhood memories of Ouija boards, playing with my friends when the adults weren't paying attention. My mom hated them, and even threw away one that I had bought with my allowance. Like many moms, she had bought into the hype. She probably should have known I would turn out like I did when I was saving my weekly five dollars towards Ouija boards instead of comic books. When I began to study the Craft in my late teens, the Ouija made a return. My mentor Shawn Poirier and I sometimes used the board together, but it wasn't until Cryptique that the Ouija became a much larger part of my life.

In 2005, Shawn and I offered a Ouija workshop at
Contact
, a paranormal conference held at the Houghton Mansion in North Adams, Massachusetts,
by author and ghost hunter Ron Kolek. After an enlightening workshop where Shawn and I both shared our perspectives on the board, he and I sat to use it. This notorious mansion is haunted by a number of people associated with the house who had died during accidents and suicide. The word S-W-O-R-D kept coming out on the board, and experts at the house told us that a sword had been missing from the home for some time. It was at that point that I began to slip from consciousness. I had been feeling very tired that day and should
not
have been using the board in that state. I began to feel like every muscle in my body was no longer under my control, some outside force directing my movement. Worse, my mind felt as though a dark, malevolent consciousness was layering itself over my own. I was quite scared! Luckily for me, Shawn was there to force whatever spirit was doing this away and bring me up out of the blackness. This was the closest I have ever come to possession and, to this day, I am extremely careful to only work with the spirits when I'm not tired. I'll still use a Ouija board, but tend to shy away from trance mediumship, preferring to remain in total control of what's going on around me. While the visionary state necessary to psychic work will relax you, being deeply relaxed is not the same as being tired. In the latter state, you place yourself in more danger of spirit meddling.

Perhaps my favorite experience using the Ouija board was when I first met paranormal author Rosemary Ellen Guiley. She was staying at an historic home here in Salem while researching a book. She asked me come over to conduct a Ouija séance to contact my departed friend, Shawn Poirier. I brought Robert the skull, my yew wand, and an old Ouija board of Shawn's that I figured might help in contacting him. Rosemary had a device I had never seen before called a ghost box, which cruises through the spectrum of radio waves looking for voices of the dead. She intended to use it after we used the Ouija, but I suggested we combine the two. I figured, what the heck—if Shawn decided not to come through the board, maybe I could hear him on the box. I try to always have a Plan B. The planchette zipped quickly around the board to spell out answers to our questions. But more exciting were the times when the planchette pointed to “yes” or “no” and the ghost
box spoke those words at the very same time! We also experienced poltergeist effects manifesting throughout the room, including loud bangs and popping noises.

Rosemary and I felt the results were the product of a combination of factors: the place, with its haunted history; the instant rapport between the two of us; and the combined energies of the board, the skull, and the ghost box. I truly hoped to make contact with Shawn, and really thought having his board might facilitate the connection. Sadly, Shawn didn't come through, but other spirits did. This is typical of any spirit session: you don't always get who you ask for, and the reasons may depend simply on the conditions of the moment as well as factors we do not understand about how the openings between worlds occur. Towards the end of the session, I began to get direct mental messages from spirits; the use of the board helped to catalyze the spirit energy of the room and helped me to create a direct channel.

Proper Use of the Board

If you approach the Ouija respectfully, as you would any spirit communication tool, you will have few, if any, difficulties. Any such device can attract low-level entities who wish only to engage in mischief, and the talking board is no different in that respect. Follow the same guidelines that I recommend for all spirit communications. Be rested and well grounded; invoke spiritual protection; set a purpose for the communication; and do not tolerate interfering presences. If the spirits become belligerent or you feel the energy take an angry or unsettling turn, end the session at once.

Always work with one or more partners (two at a time is ideal; if you have a small group, participants can trade off). It also helps to have a person taking notes. People who use the board alone tend to become obsessed with it, which can lead to spiritual disturbances and mental problems.

Always begin using the board by descending into a visionary state (see
chapter 2
). You and your partner(s) should each place your fingers lightly on the planchette, ask the question, and wait for response. Allow the planchette to glide around the board without trying to direct it, even if it spells out
nonsensical words. What may seem like gibberish can actually make sense later. It may take a while—or even several sessions—for a “breakthrough” communication to be established from the Other Side.

The Ouija can be a tedious method of communication, since responses are spelled out letter by letter. Much as I love the idea of the Ouija board, I often find using it to be the psychic form of cell phone text messaging, and I can't imagine how Pearl Curran turned out several books with one. Still, because one employs a lot of body action when using a board, the Ouija can also be more productive than some other methods, with fast contact. Two persons who are well tuned to the spirit world and to each other can often have amazing sessions. The board also can be combined with other tools, such as EVP recording, ghost boxes, and skulls. If you choose the Ouija as a method of spirit communication, just remember to approach it as any other tool, with respect for the process and for the spirits who come through.

Spirit Scrying

I saved my favorite tool of spirit communication for last. Scrying is a most ancient form of divination and spirit contact that involves gazing into a shiny or polished surface, such as a crystal ball, mirror, stone, or vessel of water or liquid.
Scrying
comes from the English term “descry,” which means “to succeed in discerning” or “to make out dimly.”

I use the classic concave (curved inward) black mirror, a large crystal ball, and water divination in my own scrying practices, but any shiny surface works. If you want to learn to scry, you might want to experiment until you find what works best for you. The oldest and most common method of scrying is to gaze into the water of a lake, pond, or dark bowl; the necromantic lakes of the ancient Greeks probably served such a purpose in conjuring up the dead. Spring water was particularly sacred to the dead, coming as it does from deep within the Earth where the underworld is said to be. Ancient Egyptians preferred bowls of ink, blood, and other dark liquids.

Nostradamus used a bowl of water set upon a brass tripod. He would dip his wand into the water and anoint himself with a few drops, and then gaze into the bowl until he saw visions of prophecy. John Dee, the royal magician and astrologer to Queen Elizabeth I, used a crystal egg and a black obsidian mirror to see the angels that would come to form the basis of his teachings.

There are many techniques for inducing visions. Whatever surface you use, it should be as blank as possible, and the device should be positioned so that you never see yourself in the reflection.

Exercise: Spirit Scrying by Crystal Ball or Mirror

For this form of spirit scrying, I use a concave (curved in) black glass mirror (though some prefer convex or domed), or a crystal ball. Always bless and prepare your scrying devices by washing them in a tea of the divinatory herb mugwort. When scrying the dead, sit in a chair facing west with your scrying mirror or ball on a table covered with a black tablecloth. Place the device so that your reflection does not appear in it and place a white candle to the left of it so that just the smallest point of light appears within. This provides you with a focus point. Now, enter into your visionary state and allow the Death Current to flow through your body, so that the dead may hear your call and come forth.

The dead may show themselves as visions in the surface of the device or appear in the mind's eye. I have experienced both, but most of my scrying visions appear directly on my mental screen, the scrying tool itself becoming more of a focal point. You may only hear their voices in your mind but those messages are still valid, for it
then becomes a form of mediumship, which we will explore more fully in the next chapter. Either way, when the dead arrive, be ready with serious questions so that you do not waste their time.

• • •

Exercise: Spirit Scrying by Bowl Divination

In the magical papyri of the ancient Greeks, there are powerful recipes for scrying in a bowl—referred to as lecanomancy. I have taken the best of these and boiled them down (no pun intended) to what I felt worked the best for spirit contact.

You will need a bronze bowl for this exercise. Any size will do; just make sure it's wide enough to see images within. You will also need a white candle, spring water (the waters of the dead), and the finest extra-virgin olive oil. Fill the bronze bowl most of the way with the spring water and be sure to have the olive oil nearby in a glass cruet.

Sit in a comfortable chair with the scrying bowl before a table covered with a black tablecloth. Enter your visionary state. Now, pour a small amount of oil into the water and say,
I conjure thee, oh spirit of [name of spirit]! Manifest yourself before me on this very hour and reveal to me the truth I seek!

Watch the formations of the oil in the water. The patterns may form the faces of the spirit you have conjured, symbols that relate to your question, or outright visions of what you seek to know.

• • •

Exercise: Spirit Scrying by Candle Flame

Also contained within the Greek magical papyri are formulae for lychnomancy, or lamp divination. Rather than use a lamp, I prefer the candle, one of the most magical of all the sacred tools of the Witch. Shawn always taught me that the blue at the center of the candle flame was not only the hottest point; it was a doorway to spirit. Gaze into that point, he said, and your mind would travel to realms of the dead where all questions could be answered.

To perform this style of spirit scrying, place a white candle on a table covered with a black tablecloth, and make sure you anoint the candle with spirit oil. Sit in a comfortable chair and enter your visionary state. When fully relaxed, stare into the candle flame, directly at the blue center. Do this for a time until visions begin to appear. You will see things in the flame that seem to expand to fill your entire mind's eye. You may also hear voices and see the faces of those you hope to make contact with. Candle divination is an easy, powerful way to communicate with the shades of the dead!