Quiet the room, then your mind. Prepare your environment. Light candles, burn incense and play the music that empowers you. Sit before your favorite tool of connection and let your fingers brush the surface.
Can you feel the tether between you and the story that waits beyond? Like weaving with threads of gentle lightning, let your physical self snag those invisible strands and draw them into this world and onto your page. Once you have also become invisible, you are writing.
When I was in college I used to play the Ouija board a lot. It worked easy for me and was a good way to get plenty of free beer. I set up near nightly seances in my room and cover charge was a 12-pack. Through the board I could tell people secret information no one in the room knew. I could answer questions and tell the future, though I always caution taking any Ouija board too literally. I quit one night when a too-drunk me got a little too mouthy with whatever we were chatting with and then things got a little too scary for any of us.
The point of this nostalgic story is to point out how similar touching a Ouija board and touching a computer keyboard feel. There is the same sense of a massive beyond eagerly waiting just past the illusion of physical barrier. It feels like the two systems—writing and conjuring—work the same. In both, the magic happens when we simply step to one side and let the spirit/force/power/energy/flow/chi move through us and around us.
I’ve heard that Michelangelo said that the sculptures were already waiting in the marble for him. All he had to do was chip away the extra. That’s how writing can be when we open up to it. The words are there, waiting for us to pick them up and pin them to the keyboard. Mouse or planchette makes no difference. Tools are tools and they are all powered by us.
The trick is simply putting our hubris to one side and allowing the magic/magick to come through. Simple, right? As simple as slipping a dragon through a match factory. Feel free to share how you do it.
I leave Ouija alone, after what I’d call a dose of humble following fear. Following like you said — getting a little too ditzy but I wasnt drinking. I was skeptical. I ain’t now. Loved the ref. to Michelangelo’s saying the image was already in the marble, he just freed it.