I work frequently with a talking board. That's right, you
heard me. No, not a Ouija Board, as I have previously decried, but a fairly
unique round board labeled (in appropriately new age jargon) The Mantic Message Mat. I didn't name it, cut me some slack.
What is a talking
Board?
A talking board is a tool that can be used to increase the
ease of communication between us (the living) and The Collective (the dead and
other non-inhabiting entities). I don't really like the terms "the
living" and "the dead", because I feel this has positive and
negative connotations, as well as implies a level of activity versus
inactivity, however for the sake of time, I may use these words. Also, technically the living are also a part
of The Collective, but since we are typically so unaware of it, I may also use
this phrase when talking about them (spirit
entities not inhabiting bodies) as opposed to us (live people).
A tool is something you can use to make a task easier. We
could do all that long division, sure. We learned how in school. But most of us
own a calculator and pick it up at the mere hint than an equals sign might drop
into the conversation. Need to remove
some really tight lug nuts? You could bust out the old tire iron and some elbow
grease, but why would you if you had an impact wrench right there? Sometimes
doing things the hard way is good to keep oneself in practice and one's muscles
in good order, and there is no shame in that whatsoever. In fact it's always good
to make sure we don't get rusty. Usually, however, we'd all like to make the
most efficient use of our time. When it comes to talking to The Collective,
this is where a talking board comes in handy.
There are many ways to converse with The Collective. Too
many for me to even list here. One of the more difficult ways (for most people,
natural psychics excluded) is to just literally listen for them to talk to you
and answer back, and have yourself a whole conversation. There are many terms
associated with different versions of this method: Psychic, Clairvoyant, ESP,
etc. Intermediate methods many people
call Divination, and these typically utilize various media, skills, and
abilities to obtain information. Many of these are familiar to us: Tarot Cards,
Rune Stones, Tea Leaves, Pendulum, I Ching, and many more. Most of the time there
is some object that is "randomly" (but of course not randomly, the
selection is influenced by what The Collective wants you to know) selected or
arranged and then the Reader interprets the meaning. The most direct, easiest
method (for me anyway) has been the talking board. Ask your question, get
answers. No, it's not always as simple as that, but that is a blog for a later
date. I almost feel like I'm cheating somehow and I'm just waiting for some
sort of spiritual auditor to show up and insist I do things only the hard way.
Which is not all bad for me, I must say.
Most talking boards have a few features in common: they are
printed with the letters of the alphabet, usually a "Yes" and
"No", and perhaps some other shortcut words like "Maybe" to
make communication not so tedious. For more information on the many talking boards out there and a bit more on their history, check out Museum of Talking Boards - they have a great collection and a lot of info. Our particular board has the above mentioned
text as well as names for family members (Mother, Father, etc.), days of the
week, numbers, and around the outside a zodiac wheel complete with all signs of the western zodiac
(Capricorn, Libra, etc.) and an assortment of additional appropriate
astrological associations for each sign and house, including dates. This
enables a lot of shortcuts in getting information across without having to
spell out every single word. The other thing common to almost all talking
boards is a leaf, or planchette (as you prefer). This is a smaller instrument that usually features either a pointer at one
corner or an "eye" through which to view the desired letters, and upon
which each participant places their fingertips and lets The Collective make use
of their bodies' energy to move the leaf around the surface of the board and
get their message across.
Focus!
As a tool, the talking board acts as a focus for the people
wanting to receive information. To some extent, we can all hear The Collective,
even without a board, but many of us (myself included) frequently have our
minds so cluttered up with ongoing chatter and nonsense that we are lucky if we
hear anything relevant at all. And if we did, we would just assume it was more
of our own brain rattling around in our head and dismiss it as nothing of
worth. When you use a talking board, the moving leaf (pointer) can cut through
all of that clutter and get right to the matter at hand. Imagine being in a
crowded room where everyone is talking and someone across the room is trying to say something to
you, but they are not able to yell. Good luck hearing them. But then imagine
they pick up their cell phone and call you. Now they can speak right into your
ear and their voice is separate from the din. This is what it is like to use
the board. And unlike other Divination methods, like Tarot (which I do not
disparage and in fact use myself), there is far less interpreting that must be
done. I don't feel that I have to second-guess the message when it is spelled
out for me and I have the opportunity to ask for clarification if I don't
understand. Again, not to say this can't be done with other methods, I just
personally find it a lot harder, and some of that stems, to be quite honest,
from a lack of self-confidence in my abilities.
Round Boards Versus
Square
Our talking board has a round design, which I have been told
is the preferred shape for such a tool. Who told me this? Dead people, of course.
Why should I believe them? Well, in short, because they are right about a whole
lot of other stuff, which I have no room to explain here. I will, just not
today. They have explained that the round design allows for a circular flow of
energy to happen as the leaf is making its way around the board, and this
circular pattern is what attracts useful energy to the board (i.e. talking to
someone who has something pertinent to tell you, or just has a helpful
attitude) and keeps out less useful energies (entities who are trouble-makers
or possibly not "all there" to whom talking will do you no good). I
try to put reasonable terms on types of energies, as I don't like to get into "Good
and Evil Spirits". Ooooooh!! Booga Booga Booga! That's all very dramatic and Hollywood, but
to be honest, the dead are pretty much the same mix the living: most are good
and want to do right, some have issues, some are a pain in the ass. But no one is
going to come through a talking board and possess anyone. So let's everyone
calm down with that nonsense, OK? Sure,
you can get a rectangular board to work for you, but you have an increased
likelihood of conversing with an entity who only spells out swear words and
other useless babble. Demons? Possession? Not so much. Not to say no one has
ever caused some nutty stuff to happen, but a supreme amount of dumbassery,
which you would have to go out of your way to accomplish, is necessary for that.
Our Board - The
Mantic Message Mat
Our talking board, as I mentioned above, is titles "The
Mantic Message Mat." It has a copyright date of 1973 on it, and notes
Glendale, California as the location (see picture at right). This board was
clearly made by a professional printer, but my husband and I have never
encountered another board like ours anywhere else. The story, as it was told to
us by his grandmother (from whom we obtained the board) is that a friend of
hers designed it and wanted to make a test batch to be able to give a few to her
peers and see how they performed. Apparently this woman had a friend in the
printing business who ran a special lot for her of around 30 boards. Hubby and
I are in possession of 2 of them, and we do not know where any of the remaining
boards are at this time. It does not appear that after the initial run of
boards that any additional were made. I
have heard debate that this board must have been mass produced due to its
construction and there must have been at least several hundred of them made as
most commercial printers have fairly large minimum quantities, however this is
discounting the board's designer's personal friendship with the printer which
allowed her to obtain a quantity far below the minimum as a favor. Our board
has a four-sided leaf made of metallic gold plastic that has indentations of each
side of the leaf for people's fingertips to rest, and a round viewfinder in the
center.
Various sessions on our board have seen The Collective
referring to the board as a Matty. At first we thought that this was just a
cutesy version of the Mat in Mantic
Message Mat. At another point we
were under the belief that Matty was the name of the entity who instructed the
board's original designer on the layout of the board. I do not remember if this
was folklore that my husband brought with him from before I came into his life,
or if this was something that we were told together in a board session. It has
been many years, and unfortunately I was not documenting these things at the
time. But now we have pressed again for information, and we have settled that Matty
is a general term for any such design on a physical object that is made for The
Collective to work with us for some purpose. Any functional talking board is a
Matty. I think you could even count it as a Matty when people use an upturned
glass and a smooth table with letters on it for the same purpose.
Two Heads Are Better
Than One
A two-person team is usually the best configuration (and
typically the minimum number of persons needed) to properly work a talking
board. Sure, it can be done with one person, but usually not on a round board
(a solo flight might happen on a rectangular board), and usually the
communication will not be as clear. By the way, this is just what I've been
told by The Collective. If you have solo board experiences that worked out well
for you, I am more than happy to hear about them. I have personally attempted
to get movement out of our leaf and board by myself and nothing happens. Not a
twitch. Other people jump on with me and the leaf usually starts right up like
my reliable ancient toaster that's older than I am. Anywho, you two-person
board team should consist (for maximum efficacy) of a Speaker and a Battery.
The Speaker is the person who will do most of the talking: asking questions out
loud of The Collective, spelling or calling out the letters or other text as
the leaf indicates, and so on. This is usually the more extroverted of the two
people, the more masculine energy. Note that I am using masculine in the
archetypal sense, I am not literally referring to who is the most manly.
Masculine energy projects, feminine absorbs. The Battery will be the person who
acts as primarily a power source for the entity who is attempting to
communicate. They can still talk and ask questions, but they are chiefly better
at receiving information and being, well, a battery. They will usually have the
more feminine, introverted energy. This masculine/feminine, Speaker/Battery duo
gives the necessary balance for ease of two-way communication. A board may be
used with two people of the same type (both Speakers or both Batteries) but the
conversation tends to be less clear and more difficult. The leaf will move more
slowly around the board, acting very stubborn. Words spelled out sometimes make
less sense than normal. More embarrassing, if there is in fact an available
Battery person in the room who is not using the board, the board may refuse to
function unless that person joins in. This has happened many times to my husband,
the Battery in our house. If you're not sure who might be suited for what role,
a good starting point could be your Sun sign. Fire and Air signs tend to make
better Speakers, Water and Earth signs tend to be more suited as batteries. Not
a hard and fast rule, just an idea.
So talking boards, not so scary, right? Next time I'll get
into what it's like to actually use the board and maybe try to cover some of
the common fears and myths associated with the use of this tool.
An estate sale connects Matty to the creator of the Love Boat. And she lived in Glendale.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.estatesales.net/CA/Glendale/91207/2283606