THE NEW BLACK MAGIC, 1919

The recent revival of spiritistic practices in all parts of the world is leading increasing numbers of persons to try experiments with the Ouija board — a simple and seemingly harmless contrivance, by means of which messages are often obtained which have all the appearance of coming from the spirits of the dead. So rapidly has this practice spread in this country that there are few families today who have not come in touch with these experiments in one way or another and who have not at least heard of the startling communications which, in many instances, have been elicited from the little board.

(Godfrey Raupert, The New Black Magic).

If you were to compare a late 19^th cent. spiritualist séance set-up to a current day paranormal investigation kit, one of the only common devices would be the iconic Ouija board.

A natural evolution of the planchette, rather than writing out the letters manually, the planchette has a hole in the center and comes with an alphabet board.

“Talking boards” were marketed along side planchettes beginning in the 1880s, but the titular Ouija board was patented in 1891 by the Kennard Novelty Company in Baltimore. The board was almost an instant success in the U.S. and overseas. It was so successful, the company open factories in New York, Chicago, and London.

Instead, if being marketed as a psychical device whose main purpose was to commune with spirits, they presented it as a board game for children. Despite this, it was still just as popular among devote spiritualists. Perhaps it was seen as a appropriate introduction to communing with the dead for the young.

Even when spiritualism began to fade out of pop culture in the early 20^th century, the Ouija board remained a well-known toy. It became a particular fad in the U.S. on college campuses around WWI, where it sparked rumors of communication with malevolent spirits and demons. Of course, these demons encouraged the college students to partake in all sorts of immoral behavior that was definitely the spirits fault and not their own.

Well as it turns out, Pope Pius X was not a fan off this trend after he was tipped off by American Catholics concerned about all the shenanigans their kids would get up to while trying to get an education. So naturally, the Vatican commissioned former spiritualist-turned-Catholic J. Godfrey Raupert (1858-1929) to write a book warning of the evils of the simple board game. The New Black Magic: and the Truth about the Ouija-Board was meant to discourage people from using the device based on theological principles and it worked, to an extent.

Their revival, in our time, is not a step forward but a step backward; it is a return to distinctly heathen and anti-Christian beliefs and practices and additional evidence of the fact that the world is once more relapsing into paganism.

(Godfrey Raupert, The New Black Magick)

Thanks to this smear campaign, the Ouija boards became serious threats to Christians and spiritualists alike.

Some modern paranormal investigation groups even refuse to use it because of its negative reputation. However, fears about being possessed by the devil could not trump the power of commercialization. Today, Ouija boards are produced by Hasbro, a popular toy company, and can be bought in any boardgame isle along with Monopoly and Connect 4.