Penny Dreadful - The Death of Poe 1849 Penny Pendulum

Pendulums from horrific historic events - 7th October 1849, the mysterious death of the iconic horror writer remains unsolved to this day.

A genuine US Cent dated 1849 - could this very coin have literally been Poe's last cent?

Each Penny Dreadful Pendulum comes with a filigree sphere locket at the opposite end which can be used to store any type of billet revelation and even artefacts such as Raven's feathers and teeth.

Example Routine -

A spectator holds the pendulum and is asked to 'divine' a page in the book 'The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe'.

As you riffle through the pages the spectator lets the pendulum fall into the book to select the random page.

Using an Oculus bookmark the spectator then selects a word on the chosen page and remembers it.

The process is repeated for a number of other spectators until each has a randomly selected word from the book.

You then ask each spectator in turn to say aloud their selected word.

“Dreaming”
“Shadow”
“Floating”
“Lifted”

The locket on the pendulum is then opened to reveal a small slip of paper, it is an extract from Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Raven'.

'And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon’s that is dreaming,
And the lamp-light o’er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted—nevermore!

Each spectator selected a word from each line of the poem extract!

In the 1800's, when séances and spiritualism were fashionable, carnies and fortune tellers who worked the fairground circuit sold an affordable and portable way to host a séance.

For those who could not afford the fees of a medium and did not have the space to hold a full séance, a market emerged for what became known as “The Penny Séance”.  This did not refer to the cost of the séance, but rather to the fact that a penny was used as a device to contact the spirits. No ordinary penny was used, either: a grimoire written in medieval times had full instructions on creating a device that is imbued with the power of breaking the veil of the spirit world.

It is well documented that the eyes of corpses were covered with pennies, which it was believed to be their tally for the boatman who would escort them to the next world. It was these pennies which were stolen by the underground fortune tellers and made into pendulums. The idea was that such a highly charged item would allow access to the spirit world far quicker than a normal séance would.

The Perfect Companion for your Penny Seance

The Pendulum Book is a beginners guide to using the simple pendulum to create psychic and occult near-miracles. Detailing uses for the pendulum such as a lie detector and for séance purposes, the book also explains the psychology behind using the pendulum and how to apply it in your shows with the action happening in the spectators hand. Also includes some great bonus material including a guide on how to make your own bespoke pendulums by Joshua Johnson (who has also contributed a superb locket routine) and a wonderful piece called 'Ring Out Your Dead' by Dale Shrimpton which is used in all of Freddie's séance shows.  Available here.