Starting with the automatic writing method planchette, we begin a series about Ouija boards. We’ll dig into the strange history of the much admired and maligned method of communicating with spirits and/or having fun at parties.
Before Ouija, there was planchette. Invented in Paris in the 1850s, planchette was a method of automatic writing. Much like the planchette we recognize from today’s Ouija boards, it was a heart-shaped plank of wood. But it was much larger than today’s planchettes, rested on wheels or casters, and had a slot to put a pencil through. One or several people would rest their hands on the planchette, and see what messages come through.
Highlights include: The Spiritualist movement, weird personifications of “Planchette,” plenty of alarmist rhetoric about this popular parlor game/occult technique, and the story of a young woman in New Orleans who supposedly died as a result of her obsession with planchette
This is the first of ?? episodes about Ouija boards. We’ll be back next week to talk about the invention of Ouija boards and spirit boards!
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Planchette and Automatic Writing Sources
Books mentioning planchette
- The Ashgate Research Companion to Nineteenth-Century Spiritualism and the Occult by Tatiana Kontou
- Planchette, or the Despair of Science by Epes Sargent
https://archive.org/details/planchetteordes00sarggoog - 1886 book called The Salem witchcraft ; The planchette mystery ; and Modern spiritualism: on archive.org
https://archive.org/details/salemwitchcraftp00stow/page/n7/mode/2up
Where to buy planchette
- Cool etsy store selling repros of 1920s planchettes:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/EsoterismoSimonMago - This is the only other etsy seller Chris could find selling planchettes (at least the automatic writing kind); Chris bought one of these:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/FringeWalkers
Websites
- Ouija Board History
- Amazing resource for more information on the topic
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_sisters
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_writing
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planchette
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuji_(planchette_writing)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War
- https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-strange-and-mysterious-history-of-the-ouija-board-5860627/
- https://theweek.com/articles/451347/secret-ouija-board
Historical Articles and advertisements about planchette
- The Confessions of Reformed Planchettist from Harper’s Monthly Magazine
- Planchette. The Buffalo Commercial (Buffalo, New York) · Sat, Jul 11, 1868 · Page 2
- Planchette. Burlington Times (Burlington, Vermont) · Sat, Apr 4, 1868 · Page 2
- Planchette. Daily Press and Herald (Knoxville, Tennessee) · Wed, Jul 29, 1868 · Page 4
- Planchette. Gold Hill Daily News (Gold Hill, Nevada) · Tue, Jul 14, 1868 · Page 2
- Planchette. New Orleans Republican (New Orleans, Louisiana) · Thu, Jul 2, 1868 · Page 2
- Ad Planchette Quad City Times Sat Jul 25 1868
- Ad Planchette The Daily Milwaukee News Wed Jul 15 1868
- Ad Planchette The Buffalo Commercial Sat Jul 11 1868
- Mr Home The Pall Mall Gazette Fri May 15 1868
- My Acquaintance With Planchette The Wheeling Daily Intelligencer Sat Jul 25 1868
- Planchette Star Tribune Fri Jul 3 1868
- Planchette The Daily Evening Express Sat Jul 11 1868
- Planchette The Native Virginian Fri Jul 24 1868
- Planchette The Scranton Republican Sat Aug 8 1868
- Planchette The Times Democrat Wed Jul 1 1868
- Planchette The Times Picayune Tue Sep 15 1868
- Planchette The Wheeling Daily Intelligencer Wed Jul 8 1868
- Planchette Is Simply Nowhere. Herald and Tribune Thu Apr 29 1886
Don’t miss our past episodes:
- The Renwick Ruin:
- Playing the Ghost in 19th Century Australia
- Investigating the Hawthorne Hotel: