Page 1 of 1

Planting or planetary boards

Posted: Wed May 02, 2018 4:28 pm
by monsnoleedra
Ok, this is a long shot to say the least.

Wonder if anyone has seen any of these type boards. They were sort of similar to Ouija or talking boards but different at the same time. It's been a good 40 years since I last saw any of them. At the time I saw two but didn't get a lot of exposure to either one. One had two spin wheels and the other had three spin wheels. Of course you can imagine the three wheeled version was a bit more complicated to use and include not only the moon and seasons of the earth but other celestial bodies on the 3rd wheel.

The two wheeled version was basically a planting and harvesting wheel and plotted lunar movements and seasonal rotations. There where other things on the face of the wheels and points on the board surface but I honestly do not recall much of it now. Like I said it's been a good 40 years since I saw them or actually touched them. Just recall you'd spin or turn the wheels and align the points for different crops and months that marked the outer borders. Granted that's as deep as we were shown but there was a lot more to it.

The three wheel version was much more complicated and factored in heavenly movements, constellations, planets all sorts of things. Vaguely recall it could be used for land navigation but that memory is sort of "Hazy" so I don't fully trust it to be a good recall.

I was about 14 or 15 when I was shown them and 59 now so parts of my memory are sketchy for certain. Near as I recall the boards where about 1.5 foot long by 1 wide for the 2 dial version and 2.5 by 2 for the 3 dial version. Maybe a bit larger but not by much with the base board wood and the dials I want to say a lighter wood with engravings. They might have been homemade but I don't think so. Seemed to complex but don't recall anything like a compass rose on them.

But again was roughly 14 or 15 and only saw them a couple of times so they were interesting but didn't spend a lot of time with them or learning about them. Yet they were "Strange" enough that they stuck in my mind and memory all these years.

One had to have a good knowledge of the heavens and such to make one and work with them, especially the three disk one.