Published January 15, 2007 11:27 am - COLUMN: Ouija, tarot and the zodiac are subjects best left to the psychics and the spirit world, if local participation is any indicator.
After all, they are all considered part of the occult and have been called junk science, and the many people who practice the arts are labeled as flakes.
To research the topic thoroughly, Daily Press staffers got their hands on a Ouija board, and consulted the spirit world for help locating someone to talk to about matters of the occult.
Reliving the same thrill many experience when using a Ouija board for the first time, we asked: Who in Tahlequah will talk to us about Ouija, tarot and the zodiac?
The room fell silent as the planchette slowly began to move: M-U-R-V.
It was one of those eureka moments.
Of course, we should talk to Murv Jacob, local artist and San Francisco flower child of the 60s.
You know, I went and looked at [old Ouija boards] on e-Bay, said Jacob. I was thinking about buying one, but it seemed like at the last minute people just snatched em up.
I was mainly looking at them out of curiosity. I never used em myself. You never saw Ouija boards out in San Francisco in Haight-Ashbury.
I was there when it was all just starting, and Ouija wasn t popular - it was more for nerds. We were more interested in the latest recording by Janis Joplin or Otis Redding.
If Jacob was a true believer in the power of the Ouija board, he might be able to hold conversations with some of his earlier music idols.
According to Wikipedia, the first historical mention of Ouija or talking boards dates back to about 1200 BC in China. Popular modern use of the boards came with the Spiritualism movement in the U.S.
in the mid-19th century.
Methods of divination at that time used various ways to spell out messages, including swinging a pendulum over a plate that had letters around the edge or using an entire table to indicate letters drawn on the floor. Some used a small wooden tablet supported on casters a planchette affixed with a pencil that would write out messages similar to automatic writing.
To use a Ouija board, the planchette is placed on the board and one or more people rest their fingers on the planchette. The users start by moving the planchette around the board and speaking to the spirit they wish to summon, then begin asking the spirit questions. The goal is to have the spirit spell out via the planchette moving across the letters on the board the answers to their questions.
In the 1800s, planchettes were sold as novelties with a wide degree of success. In 1890, businessmen Elijah Bond and Charles Kennard had the idea to patent a planchette sold with a board on which the alphabet was printed, creating the first Ouija board. William Fuld, an employee of Kennard, took over the talking board production and started producing his own brand of talking board under the name Ouija.
Some believe Ouija boards are harmless fun, others believe they are communicating with spiritual entities but there is no harm in doing so, as long as basic guidelines never play alone, begin and end the game properly, etc. are followed.
Jacob seemed to have a healthy respect for the game s potentiality.
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