First post...

[cake]

Hello. I've been a member for a about a year now but have only visited occasionally.
I do have a question and not sure where to post it. I apologize in advance if this is in the wrong spot.
My question is about ouija boards.

When I was in grade school in the 60s- so a long time ago, there was a lot of excitement about this "board game" And that's just what we all said and thought it was, just another board game. And for us at that time, it was new.

We played around with it but all figured that our fingers were pushing the heart around the board.
I don't remember exactly now what happened to that board. I have a faint recollection that it was given away along with a lot of my other ''childhood toys'' as I got older and left the house.

I've read on here in many places how evil this board was/is and that some would never even think of touching it.

I haven't thought about that board until I found this forum.
I didn't think it "did" anything but now I'm wondering. Also when I was 13 I bought a set of Tarot cards, To me it was another type of "toy"

But as I used them and followed instructions on how to use them and what to do, I got spooked and it affected me. I was scared at night . My dad took those cards and threw them in the trash. I don't remember now why he did that- if it was because I was spooked by them and/or he was also because of my reaction.

So my question is how is the ouija board evil ? Is it power of suggestion or what exactly.

Please know that my question is sincere. I've always been afraid of life in general even before I got that board and cards.

Thank you for any replies

 

[Debi]

Hi Cake, and yes, you are in the right place. Thanks for trusting us with the question.

You've probably read my stance by now on the Boards. Don't use them. Now, why? Here we go.

It's not the piece of board itself....it's not a physical thing at all because you can do the same thing on a table top with letters on it using an upturned glass as a planchette. Spirit boards have been around just about forever. You can also use a pendulum for the same thing. It's not the "tool" that is the problem. It's how someone uses it. (The Tarot is also a tool often misused.)

After years of study on this, here's what I believe....and I've been trained on both board and Tarot so I feel I can speak on this to you with some authority.

Let's use the idea that you live in a busy city. You open the door and yell "Hey! Anybody out there? Whoever wants to come in, come on in the door and join me!" Essentially, that's what most folks do with a Ouija Board/Spirit Board. You are putting no qualifiers on it and just inviting anyone/thing into your life. The universe operates on intention, and without you putting forth your intention of seeking only a specific type of person/thing, you could have anything show up and in your home. Leading us to the next problem ...We don't KNOW for sure what these "things" are. We base our knowledge on religious beliefs, myth, history, and personal bias and hopes. We are finding out that much of what is out there is so foreign to us that we can't be sure what we are calling in to us. Once that door is opened, it's very hard to kick out the crew when they are partying in your home.

We don't know if we are calling in spirits, demons, or ultraterrestrials. But when you give the invitation, here they come...and many times here they stay. It may all be one thing and we just give it different names. Many religious books warn against doing this....they seem to have known calling them in could be a problem.

In the Tarot, these are tools...not for divination, but to be used to reflect on what areas of life we may need to look at further. When used correctly as mirrors to our inner mind/self/soul, they are harmless. It's when we start using them to guide our life choices and build our life around them we have problems. They are supposed to allow us to look at ourselves more deeply.

I hope this helps you understand this a bit better. Please let me know if you have further questions. Glad to answer you.

 

[garnetsilver]

Hi, Cake, welcome! Hope you will feel comfortable here, and ask questions that you would like input on!

 

[cake]

Hi Cake, and yes, you are in the right place. Thanks for trusting us with the question.

You've probably read my stance by now on the Boards. Don't use them. Now, why? Here we go.

It's not the piece of board itself....it's not a physical thing at all because you can do the same thing on a table top with letters on it using an upturned glass as a planchette. Spirit boards have been around just about forever. You can also use a pendulum for the same thing. It's not the "tool" that is the problem. It's how someone uses it. (The Tarot is also a tool often misused.)

After years of study on this, here's what I believe....and I've been trained on both board and Tarot so I feel I can speak on this to you with some authority.

Let's use the idea that you live in a busy city. You open the door and yell "Hey! Anybody out there? Whoever wants to come in, come on in the door and join me!" Essentially, that's what most folks do with a Ouija Board/Spirit Board. You are putting no qualifiers on it and just inviting anyone/thing into your life. The universe operates on intention, and without you putting forth your intention of seeking only a specific type of person/thing, you could have anything show up and in your home. Leading us to the next problem ...We don't KNOW for sure what these "things" are. We base our knowledge on religious beliefs, myth, history, and personal bias and hopes. We are finding out that much of what is out there is so foreign to us that we can't be sure what we are calling in to us. Once that door is opened, it's very hard to kick out the crew when they are partying in your home.

We don't know if we are calling in spirits, demons, or ultraterrestrials. But when you give the invitation, here they come...and many times here they stay. It may all be one thing and we just give it different names. Many religious books warn against doing this....they seem to have known calling them in could be a problem.

In the Tarot, these are tools...not for divination, but to be used to reflect on what areas of life we may need to look at further. When used correctly as mirrors to our inner mind/self/soul, they are harmless. It's when we start using them to guide our life choices and build our life around them we have problems. They are supposed to allow us to look at ourselves more deeply.

I hope this helps you understand this a bit better. Please let me know if you have further questions. Glad to answer you.

Thank you Debi- yes, you explained this very well.
I always felt I was a bit different in my thoughts as a young child from others. I was curious about life leading to death, wanting to know more about it but didn't know what questions to ask and how to even begin to research it. So these "toys" as I thought they were, were a starting point to understand what was 'out there'.
I don't remember the board affecting me much. My little girlfriends and I would ask the names of our future husbands. And I still remember the name I got - lol and nope- never met anyone close to that name.

It was the tarot cards that gave me more of a fright. As a 13 yr old, and at that time I was a very young 13 yr old, I was curious about the future.
My mother was very religious and yet, as much very superstitious. So I thought the tarot cards could give me some understanding to what my mother was 'feeling'.
She said she had feelings that things would happen. And of course, something always did. Then I got freaked out. I was wanting the tarot cards to tell me more of what my mother was 'feeling' and to 'tell' me that good things would happen.

Ahh, I feel like I'm rambling now. I hope this makes some sense to you.

I guess to sum it up- as a child, I was scared by my mother's superstitions/ dreams/ thoughts/ feelings which she so generously shared :/
These fears followed me all my life- even today.

 

[cake]

Hi, Cake, welcome! Hope you will feel comfortable here, and ask questions that you would like input on!

Hi! thank you for the welcome

 

[Debi]

You're explaining it well, Cake. You were the daughter of a sensitive/psychic ability mom who didn't explain this to you. As I am one myself, my children have grown up knowing exactly what my "intuition"/knowings were about, however I did not share specifics with them as young children. Only that it was an ability that I had, and I felt it was simply knowledge from the Creator.

You know, I've always believed that children should not be exposed to adult problems. Your mom may have been self focused on her abilities, and I'm sorry this left you in such fear! Sometimes, parents aren't aware of the damage this can cause to a child and how it can shape their world. I was lucky that my father was also a sensitive, so I learned how to deal with it at a young age, as he was a good guide for me. This helped me with my own kids in how much they had a "need to know" until they were old enough to gain understanding.

 

[garnetsilver]

Cake, your mother sounded a bit like mine was. She was a sensitive, and usually scared us kids with her insights and visions. My father was rather superstitious, even though he scoffed at my mothers insights. It can be frightening to be an audience for such things, and like Debi said, children should not be exposed to adult problems. And I most certainly was. Still, at times it can be viewed as a good thing, if we learned some kind of strengths from it!

 

[cake]

Cake, your mother sounded a bit like mine was. She was a sensitive, and usually scared us kids with her insights and visions. My father was rather superstitious, even though he scoffed at my mothers insights. It can be frightening to be an audience for such things, and like Debi said, children should not be exposed to adult problems. And I most certainly was. Still, at times it can be viewed as a good thing, if we learned some kind of strengths from it!

That's the problem though- I don't think I learned/ gained any strength from it. It did the opposite. It has frightened me even to this day.
Thing is I had a difficult relationship with my mother. It wasn't easy because I was at odds with her a lot. Looking back on it now I think that was because I was angry that she frightened me so much and I feel stunted now as a grown adult. She passed away in 2004.

Just one example out of too many to count... my son received a card for his baptism when he was a baby. The card came from a lovely family who came to the United States from another country. They spoke very little English at the time. And their reading English was limited also.

My mother was in my house when the card arrived. I opened it and it was a very pretty card. But.. it was a sympathy card - lol
They didn't know- they just saw the pretty flowers and such on the card.
My mother--- jumped right up grabbed the card from my hands and began tearing it up into little pieces. I don't remember now if she put it in the trash or took it to her house to burn it.

I was sooo sooo angry at her. Why? Because she freaked me out! I was so scared & nervous that something bad was going to happen to my baby then. Had she not done that- I would have been fine. I was fine when I saw the card. I just felt bad for the people who sent it. They would've been so embarrassed.

 

[Debi]

That's the problem though- I don't think I learned/ gained any strength from it. It did the opposite. It has frightened me even to this day.
Thing is I had a difficult relationship with my mother. It wasn't easy because I was at odds with her a lot. Looking back on it now I think that was because I was angry that she frightened me so much and I feel stunted now as a grown adult. She passed away in 2004.

Just one example out of too many to count... my son received a card for his baptism when he was a baby. The card came from a lovely family who came to the United States from another country. They spoke very little English at the time. And their reading English was limited also.

My mother was in my house when the card arrived. I opened it and it was a very pretty card. But.. it was a sympathy card - lol
They didn't know- they just saw the pretty flowers and such on the card.
My mother--- jumped right up grabbed the card from my hands and began tearing it up into little pieces. I don't remember now if she put it in the trash or took it to her house to burn it.

I was sooo sooo angry at her. Why? Because she freaked me out! I was so scared & nervous that something bad was going to happen to my baby then. Had she not done that- I would have been fine. I was fine when I saw the card. I just felt bad for the people who sent it. They would've been so embarrassed.

Cake, going from the little I know, and the experiences I've been involved with several extended family members who have dealt with mental illness of a parent, it sounds to me it's likely your mom had some degree of a mental illness going on. This can leave the children scarred into adulthood. The Sympathy card episode you describe is not a "normal" reaction on mom's part.

It takes a lot of work to repair the damage done to kids growing up in these circumstances. Understand that you were not the problem....mom had the problem. Sometimes it takes a good therapist to help work past and through these kind of upbringings. Once again, it's not you, it's what has scarred you and impacted you at this level. You were a victim of someone who did not have the faculties to understand what this was doing to you.

To live with this inner fear can be devastating to a person. I have a great nephew who has lived with me since he was 14....he's about to turn 20. He's been in therapy working through issues he had dealing with not only a disturbed mom, but also a hoarding, controlling grandmother, and is still working towards managing his fears, depression, and anger. Don't be afraid to seek help to work through these fears no matter what age you may be, Cake. You deserve peace of mind and joy.

 

[cake]

My mother was very, very superstitious.
Like with the card. Because it was a card associated with death, it had to be removed and immediately. Otherwise "death" was in the house.
I understand what you are saying about mental illness, I think. And perhaps her superstitions were a form of that.
So complicated.
thank you for taking the time to respond to me. I will look around this site for superstitions and see what others have experienced, think about it.