The Curious Planchette
A Dark Beginning
American Spiritualists often set March 31st, 1848 as the beginning of the spiritualists movement. This movement is what birthed the spirit board. The date is significant because this is the day Kate and Margaretta Fox (pictured on left), from Hydesville, New York, claimed they had made contact with the spirit of a murdered peddler. He became known as Charles B. Rosna.
A profound interest in the supernatural arose during this time. Mediums began appearing everywhere. A Cincinnati newspaper editor estimated more than 1,200 mediums operating in his city alone. The curiosity had taken over and the consequences were the development of planchettes and spirit boards during the latter-half of the century.
Planchette?
What is a Planchette? In French, planchette means “little plank”. By definition, planchettes are: “Small boards supported on casters, typically heart-shaped and fitted with a vertical pencil, used for automatic writing and in seances”. To us, it's the upside down heart-shaped object we use to interact with an Ouija Board.
To the right we have an image displaying the described text in the above definition. This is not what most people think of when the word “planchette” is used. That is because we are used to seeing spirit board or talking board planchettes, but let us start from the beginning.
The first planchettes wrote on pieces of parchment with a writing utensil affixed to the planchette itself as eager hands guided the message. The planchettes were much larger than the ones we are accustomed too. They also produced illegible messages most of the time, leaving massive room for interpretation.
Craze
In the late 1860's planchettes had become a curiosity amongst people, fueled by a sensational 6-page article published in the English periodical “Once a Week” in late 1867. This article detailed an encounter with the device, generating immediate and massive interest. Spiritualism had gained a foot in the metaphorical door so to speak. 1868 marks the "First Craze" of talking or spirit boards.
This led to a manufacturing frenzy in both America and Great Britain in 1868. Companies like Kirby & Company (US) and Jaques & Son (UK) scrambled to meet demand, with Kirby claiming to have sold 200,000 planchettes in that year alone. Planchettes took on a variety of forms during the height of their popularity. The American upside down heart style are the ones most of us recognize, but the British had a round-nosed and flat-backed style that was all their own.
Spiritual communication devices found themselves on a sharp decline in the 1870s. Very few patents were filed in the way of spiritual communication devices which contributed to the problem. Physical mediums found themselves on the rise as the new front runner in communication with the after life.
Psychographs, dial plates and talking boards, Oh My! The 1880s were here and new spiritual communication devices were starting to appear. The most important innovation being the talking board or spirit board. This is the board your modern planchette sits upon.
Rise of Ouija
Advancements in the form of planchettes began to show by incorporating their own alphabets, rather than relying on the chicken scratch left behind by the earlier designs erratic pencil adaptation. As the years progressed more and more would reveal. Spirit Communicators, Mystifying Oracles, Mystic Prophets, and Ouija.
These innovations culminated in the 1890 patent and marketing of the Ouija Board by Charles Kennard and William Fuld. The writing planchette itself was mostly demoted, shedding its writing utensil to become the pointer used on the new "spirit boards". Spirit boards would continue to receive spikes in interest as the years went on due to wars through the 1900s, as people sought to contact lost loved ones.
Modern Times
The planchette, in its original automatic-writing form, faded in prominence as the spirit board dominated the market. Modern spirit boards are not necessarily affiliated with Wicca or Spiritualism, although they are still highly rejected by the Christian population and most other main stream religions. Most Secular people consider it a fun little game even though there is a strong desire residing within most of us to contact the supernatural. Maybe someday we will be able to… Maybe we have been all along?
Explore Furthur
The Mysterious Planchette is an excellent resource for any newcomer wanting to know about Spirit Boards and Planchettes. I consider it one of the definitive sources on the subject matter. Take a look at my favorite Planchette Store if you made it this far!
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Mysterious Planchette for most of the great images, and even better information. FavPNG for a few images as well.
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