#automaticwriter

The “Enchanting Medium” planchette hasn’t made an appearance in a bit, so I brought her out for a little light. Hope your week is off to a good start, saints and sinners. #ouija #planchette #automaticwriting #spiritscribbles #ghostwriter #spiritualism #galvanic #automaticwriter #spiritualist https://www.instagram.com/p/CClPmLsl9nu/?igshid=62j5ns4eck09

The "bearskin rug" automatic writing planchette from the College of Psychic Studies holdings, the sister planchette to the heart-shaped planchette I posted Monday. Incredible hardware and craftsmanship, though mysteriously incomplete in a way that still leave me questioning how users attached the pencil, which may have protruded on a thin bar from the nose of the planchette to keep the writing from being concealed by the planchette’s body. Period illustrations hint this may have been a companion piece to a French “Oui-ja” table produced around the turn of the century, or was possibly inspired by that product’s unique shape. Happy Wednesday, saints & sinners—hows your Halloween prep coming along? 🎃 👻 #planchette #automaticwriter #spiritscribbles #ghostwriter #seance #spiritcommunication #spiritualism #occult #ouija #talkingboard #psychograph #automaticwriting #psychic https://www.instagram.com/p/CGmuYxulTxP/?igshid=ds9eufu40mv6

Happy Birthday, Planchette! We are fortunate that Allan Kardec, the founder of Spiritism in France, collected séance transcripts that recorded the very moment of this revolutionary device’s invention on the night of June 10, 1853. At a table-tipping séance likely hosted by the Baudin family in Paris, “one of the most fervent partisans of the new phenomena” that “had been busily engaged in the evocation of spirits,” received a message from a spirit, or “invisible agent,” frustrated with the slow communications received through table-tipping. The spirit suggested to the group to “fetch the little basket from the next room; fasten a pencil to it; place it upon a sheet of paper; put your fingers on the edge of the basket." The transcripts further recount the mysterious actions of the makeshift device: “This basket, placed upon a sheet of paper, was set in motion by the same occult power that moved the tables; but, instead of obeying a simple and regular movement of rotation, the pencil traced letters that formed words, sentences, and entire discourses, filling many pages, treating of the deepest questions of philosophy, morality, metaphysics, psychology, etc., and as rapidly as though written by the hand.” Before too long, a cottage industry producing the apparatus as small boards, or “little planks”—“planchette” in French—sprang up, and slowly made their way to Great Britain and, finally, America, where 15 years later, in the wake of the Civil War’s aftermath, they exploded in popularity. There ya go! #planchette #automaticwriting #allankardec #talkingboard #spiritscribbles #ghostwriter #ouija #occult #spiritualism #spiritism #automaticwriter https://www.instagram.com/p/CBRdZFLFDNK/?igshid=18roe9gh0baru

As a companion to yesterday’s post, here’s an original 1868 ad for Cottrell’s “Boston Planchette!” #planchette #boston #spiritscribbles #automaticwriter #paranormal #ghostwriter #psychic #occult #spiritualism #haunt #seance https://www.instagram.com/p/B-2BVbClncO/?igshid=15437c2h6rt12

G.W. Pitcher’s Planchette representing #Philly among the stacks this morning. #planchette #talkingboard #ouija #automaticwriting #ghostwriter #automaticwriter #spiritscribbles #haunt #occult #spirirualism #paranormal #bookporn https://www.instagram.com/p/B_pd_7lF1f-/?igshid=1vanva97t1fnz

F.H. Ayres planchette box label, London, early 1900s. #planchette #ouija #talkingboard #automaticwriting #ghostwriter #spiritscribbles #paranormal #automaticwriter #occult https://www.instagram.com/p/B_e9vzyF-rh/?igshid=1ao0v0ou5k02w

Lovely box illustration for a planchette produced by the UK's Chad Valley toymakers, 1920-30s. #séance #planchette #talkingboard #chadvalley #highsociety #spiritscribbles #automaticwriter #ghostwriter #automaticwriting #spiritualism https://www.instagram.com/p/B9EjD4qFjBl/?igshid=182r0r6s6a1w8

You don’t find Kirby & Co planchettes this spotless. Dating from the planchette craze of 1868, this one owes its pristine condition to the fact that it was a gift from Robert Dale Owen—who himself first brought planchettes to America along with Dr. H.F. Gardner—to the artist Matthew Wilson, who was the last person to paint Abraham Lincoln from life. The planchette appears unused, and has spent its life housed in its original blue and yellow box, itself signed by Robert Dale Owen and now housed in the collection of the Missouri History Museum in St. Louis. #planchette #talkingboard #spiritualism #spiritscribbles #occult #psychic #automaticwriting #automaticwriter #ghostwriter #ouija #yellow https://www.instagram.com/p/B5xf6QbljKh/?igshid=i7obtfv701t1