Quintet of the Wise

... The only time I ever used a ouija board was at Christmas around 1976 or so, when my wife along with her cousins were visiting family. We were amusing ourselves with this novelty. Aunt Diana picked up the planchette, the oval device on which the participants place their fingers to operate the divination board. She shook it saying "That's to shake the spooks out!" Somehow this made intuitive sense, sort of like shaking down a medical thermometer to recalibrate it before taking a temperature.
... My question to the board was "Who are the Magi?" The answer was two letters: US. I took this to mean that either the Magi represent us all in visiting Jesus, or in some metaphysical sense we all are always visiting the miraculous birth.
.. It's odd that of the four Gospel writers, only Matthew mentions the Wise Men. Since his was the earliest of the four perhaps Matthew was aware of some information that became long forgotten when the other Gospels were written later, or maybe Mark, Luke and John thought the story insignificant since the visitors were foreigners. Scholars say that even their number is unknown, and their names are not specifically mentioned in the New Testament, though the Christmas carol "We Three Kings" assigns locutions to Melchior (bearing the gift of gold), Caspar (frankincense) and Balthazar (myrrh), perhaps based on oral history.
... Anyway it continues to fascinate me that in the time before telephones and email the ancients had their now-mysterious means of communicating nearly instantaneously over long distances. (It is claimed that modern Gypsies still do this, as they do not depend on the amenities of living in fixed residences.)
... So in my interpretation of the visit to Bethlehem five Wise Men appeared at the stable, including Albert Einstein (bearing the gift of space-time) and LaoTzu (tea ceremony and contemplation).
... Merry Christmas to all and may peace finally reign on Earth.