Some years ago, 6-7 if I had to guess, I was using an Oujia board with one of my friends. She was/is experienced with things of that sort, and she wanted to help me know more about the spirits traveling with me.

Now if I may interject a moment- I'll admit I have little to no knowledge about anything spiritual, so please bear with me.

So anyway, the board ended up telling me that I have 8 spirits with me. Two of them are female, the rest are male. (I'm a girl, myself.) I've put it into the back of my mind, but more recently since I've become interested in spirituality again, I'd like to know more.

Would anyone be able to tell me exactly what this means? Do we actually have spirits that travel with us? I've never felt a connection to them, is there a way to strengthen my bond with them, to become more aware of their presence? Is the Oujia board even a reliable source for this kind of information? Anything and everything you might be able to share with me on this matter would be most helpful.

Juniper,

This is a really interesting post.  I've had some incredibly interesting experiences with oujia boards, but we were all very young and primarily interested in knowing the initials of our future husbands (stuff like that).  I firmly believe that I used to have a spirit with me, and I could never figure out his name, although I know the letters Lu and G were in it somewhere.  He felt like an older brother or cousin, a mentor, someone who watched over me and tried to open doors and show me new things.  I heard his voice and felt his presence at night between wakefulness and sleep.  Unfortunately, I was christian at the time and completely terrified of him, and I haven't felt him in years.

Anyway, I'm fascinated to see what kind of response you get to this.  The only thing I could suggest would be going back to the board and doing another session to find out more about your spirit friends.  As a matter of fact, I might even do something like that.

Raith

Oujia boards truely are unsafe they don't have the proper protection in them and once you open use them it creates a door into the spirit relms and anything can come through.
the gypsies use something akin to the oujia boards but there were serious protections in the boards and on the pendulum. If a clan had one it was only used by the oldest most experianced of the clan no other would have been trusted with it execpt that spacific line. so if you do think about useing one i wouldn't stick with cards or a gleaming bowl maybe autowriting.

ANY time you do anything where you explore the spirit world, PLEASE make sure you are grounded and protected!

Juniper said, "I've never felt a connection to them, is there a way to strengthen my bond with them, to become more aware of their presence?"

I'm interested in seeing this get answered, too.

Seamonster - I need a lesson in grounding. Got an arrow or a pointer finger you could use to direct me?

OK, now that you have been dually warned, a few years too late by the sounds of it, lol, don't panic!! You have not unleashed the demons of the netherworld into this plane!! LOL, (We hope anyways!) (I'm sure more than one or two here are just as guilty!)

Yes, you can get to know you spirits that travel with you.

They may be guardian angels. They may be spirits of family or friends. They may just be a spirit that decided they like you. They may have even moved on since then.

To be able to make thins connection first, you must be able to even feel beyond this level of awareness. Open your heart, and reach beyond your comfort zone into the spirit world. Soemtimes, when you are about to do something, and you get this 'gut feeling' to not do it, it is a spirit guide, or guardian, sending you a message, and you got it.

Someplace within the castle there are meditations you can work on to increase you ability to form this connection with them.

Ouja boards, just like any other medium of divination, is only as reliable as the person(s) using them.

Phoenix, were you ever told when you were a child to plant your butt in a chair, or someplace else, and mellow out?

You just grounded.

When you begin to feel overwhelmed, and like you are about to blow a gasket, you stop for a moment, take a deep breathe, let it out slowly and feel the stress flow out of your body?

You just grounded.

Everyone does it, they just don't konw they are doing it, lol.

...Or, planting your bare feet on the soil, or digging in the earth, etc.  
For me, grounding and protecting for spellwork and divination involves a small meditation.  I imagine myself as a tree planting its root in the ground and releasing all negative energy, while at the same time allowing the earth's energy to fill me up.  Once that is done, I imagine my protective bubble around me, and then I'm free to do...
If I go into something without doing this, I feel unstable.

Being a decendant from a long line of Bohemian Gypsies (on my Mothers side), I can comment on this.  A Oujia board and a spirit board are two different things.  

Oujia boards are a portal, unprotected against the menevolent/destructive intentions of those from the other rehlm.  Commercial "toys" don't include the built in protections and intentions of a hand made spirit board.  The method is  haphazard, and can lead sometimes, to open doors that were probably best left closed.

We all have some spirits that walk with us.  Usually departed relatOujiaives, and in some cases spirit guides along our path.  But be very careful.

Oujia boards are not reliable sources of information.  

Novia said, "Phoenix, were you ever told when you were a child to plant your butt in a chair, or someplace else, and mellow out?"

:|  no, no I was never told this. I was raised in a house with only 1 male to 4 women, half of them aries. When shit hit the fan, everybody blew up and slammed doors. But I've come a looooooong way in the ways of noticing when to mellow out and doing so with my current family.

Seamonster - we just moved into a new house last September, and it came with beautiful flower gardens that hasen't been kept up in years. So, this spring, I started working in the dirt for the first time. I think the hostas I planted last week were the first time I've planted anything into the earth's soil! And I did just rage out with it last night, chopping roots and clearing the sucker trees that have been suffocating the rose bushes. E M P O W E R M E N T!! and confronting a lot of my hesitations and fears. Good stuff all around.  (garden)

I'll be practicing the grounding, rooting, and drawing up of earth's energy you spoke about.

Off to search the castle on mediations to strengthen my connections to my spirit guides!

earthmother it seems we both know the differance but most people don't and that's the problem it has become a (toy). they took and modified the spirit boards and made them a (toy) when they should have left them alone.
phoenix i think your energies is good don't ground too much don't want to see an earth bound bird too much  

Okay, once again I feel like I missed the memo.  Oujia boards are dangerous?  I mean, more dangerous than other forms of channeling?  I understand this when I hear it from christians because they think the devil is about to pop out of it, but hearing it from pagans is a whole new thing for me.  If you cast a circle of protection and do the rest of that protective stuff (according to your path) what makes it so dangerous?  And what exactly does a spirit board or other channeling devices have that oujia boards don't?  Alot of people are saying "protective devices," but no one has been very specific on what those protective devices are.  And why can't you apply them to a oujia board?  I was honestly under the impression that all channeling and medium work had an element of danger.  How much can you really learn without taking a few chances?

Sorry if this sounds like a neophyte rant, but I've been solo for a long time and have thus missed many, many "memos"

Raith

Raith
   spirit board the ancestor of the modern oujia boards were made from a special wood at special times in the month and year. they also had ancient protections on the back and boaer of the board . they also used a pendilum instead of a pointer the pendilum was also engraved with protection and channeling symbols. For good reason there are many dark things in spirit work and the spirit boards needed said protection to stop these dark beings from influencing the world and in some cases taking control of the one who used it that is why only the strongest elder in the clan would use it and many procations were taken even with a proper spirit board. the spirit board is a direct link into the spirit world were anything can communicate and influence this relm there is no veil or anything. now take away the special wood the protections and put a pointer instead of the pendilum and you have a oujia board now you have a driect unprotected link with the spirit world were anything can come through and be a full strength.  to make it worse the being gets to influence the user to move there hands wich is one small step from taking control of the user. that is why oujia boards are so dangerous because even if they don't take control they are still able to travel between worlds unhinderd . and were there was a special ritual that you must do with the spirit boards there is none for the oujia.
the modern corprate world took something already dangerous and made it worse. now they sell these things a toys when the greatest of cations were used with the spirit boards.
i hope you understand now why oujia boards are so dangerous.

Kinda like having a locked cabinet containing all the possible nasties of the spirit world, and leaving it unlocked for any fool to just walk up and open!

yeap verry true Novia