The Wild Unknown Alchemy Deck is the fourth and final instalment in The Wild Unknown series which also includes The Wild Unknown Tarot, The Wild Unknown Archetypes, and The Wild Unknown Animal Spirit. Like the others, this deck is distinctly Kim Krans. It may seem that to create four decks with a very similar aesthetic would make some cards feel redundant. That isn’t the case. Each deck has its own approach and whether used together or individually, they encourage an in depth exploration of any situation. Some decks I own are beautiful and I feel connected to them. Nevertheless, they could be interchanged with others in my collection. That’s not the case with The Wild Unknown Alchemy Deck. It is a truly unique addition to my collection and one I look forward to working with. The Wild Unknown Alchemy Deck So, what separates this deck from the others I own? A lot. I admit I don’t have a huge oracle collection, not even a large one, but nothing I’ve seen on line seems similar either. Firstly, whilst it’s not the only hexagonal deck, it is one of only a few. Krans explains that the shape aligns with the idea of a beehive. She uses bees as an example of the alchemical behaviour that she hopes users will embrace. I think its hard not to. I find the way the cards sit together has a pronounced effect on how I interpret the spreads. My usual practice, like most readers, involves paying attention to how the cards relate to those around them. But, here the interlocking nature brings that to the fore in new ways. Once the cards are in a spread together, you can’t single them out. Due to the nature of how I approach tarot, I find myself constantly drawn down the Chaos Theory rabbit hole. Therefore, it comes as no surprise to me that when I look at this deck in spreads, I am powerfully reminded of the interconnectedness of all things regardless of how unrelated and random they may appear. Secondly, this 71-card deck is divided into six suits (Cosmic Forces, Materials, Operations, Seasons, Mysteries and Colours), with each displaying Krans’s typical line art and water colour style. I know that every oracle deck takes its own approach but generally I find there is something familiar about them. I know it sounds vague but this just feels different. Maybe it’s that it makes me think differently. For instance, every card in the eleven Cosmic Forces cards features hands and an alchemical symbol that links the planet with a metal. I had never made some of those connections before. Doing so has opened up further means of understanding the tarot Major Arcana as well. As Krans points out, each of her decks can be used as an educational tool. I believe that is true for most tarot decks but I recognise and love that she has added elements to her decks that encourage people to do so. I believe tarot is such a wonderful tool for learning not just about ourselves but also the world around us. Its what draws me back in any time I try to turn away. Tarot always makes it clear to me that, regardless of what I may think at certain times, nothing exists in isolation. Learning about individual elements on one card adds further insights to others. It’s never ending. Hence why I refer to the rabbit hole often. Also, learning new information leads me to make new random associations. Some are obvious; some are purely my own. For example, Venus, (pictured below), linked to III The Empress and thus Libra and Taurus in tarot, is associated with Copper, (pictured below). My first thought was copper bracelets and thus the link to healing. Then I thought about how copper turns green when exposed to oxygen and the idea of green with envy came to mind. Green is also associated with the heart chakra. Another association took me back to when I was nineteen and working for a direct mail company. One of the products we sold were sets of copper pots. Long story short, I received a complaint from a customer one way who turned out to be a man that had been in my brother’s year in high school. One day a friend and I were roller skating on a street near her house and he rang my brother to tell him I was trying to get his attention. I didn’t know even know where he lived there. His expectation during his complaint and the memory from years earlier made me think of self-entitlement and self-absorption. These traits can also be linked to III The Empress. In the book copper is linked with the idea of love, pleasure, and fertility as its association with Venus suggests. Nevertheless, as my memories remind me, nothing is all chocolate and roses. The next suit is the four Colours. Rather than black, white, yellow and red though, they’re Darkening, Lightening, Yellowing and Reddening. None is given preference; each are essential. These are followed by the four Seasons. Each are given an elemental association. Water with Winter, Air with Spring, Fire with Summer and Earth with Autumn. Yet, on the cards she has swapped the symbols making Summer Air and Spring Fire, (see below). Although, on the explanation page in the book, through symbols in the corners, she has aligned them as initially suggested. However, dependent upon the approach taken – the associations change. For example, the Medicine Wheel has Water as Autumn and Earth as Winter. Here, generally to avoid confusion, I focus on the season itself. Although at other times I think about the arbitrary nature of things and wonder about how different everything could be. Next there are twenty-two Material cards. Krans writes that every material is metaphorical in nature and thus they are said to bring atmosphere and tone to a reading. Antimony is a material I was unfamiliar with so for me it brings a totally different feel when it appears in a spread than when I see something like Wise Salt. Salt I can relate to on many levels. To add to my confusion, the white wolf, or what I see in the image as negative space, is actually referred to as the Grey Wolf. This has my mind jumping around everywhere. How is it grey? And why does antimony’s unpredictable nature relate it to the grey wolf. I learnt that Antimony can eat away at other materials but that still didn’t make me think of wolves. The insinuation frustrated me, but it also helped me. This card relates to the idea of putting energy into creativity rather than chaos and destruction. I know my mind is very capable of either. This card, pictured below, reminds me that the choice is mine. How do I choose to fill the negative space? For the next suit, Krans whittled down her initial list of eighty-eight Mystery cards to just twenty-two. I’m curious as to what was excluded and maybe an expansion pack would be great. But there’s a lot to wrap your head around already without blowing this deck out to 137 cards. In this suit you’ll find cards such as The Great Work and Alchemical Wedding. The Great Work card follows the Alchemical Wedding. I expected to see at least a flowering rose on The Great Work card, a crowning glory rather than buds, but in hindsight the three rose buds are perfect. The work is never done. It would be all over if it was. This realisation created a huge shift in me, one that has strengthened further as I sit and write this. I have wasted so much time trying to discover “my thing” rather than acknowledging that living every day is actually it. Enjoying and seeing where each new day, each new discovery, each experience takes me, that’s “my thing”. As simple as this is, I find it hard to remember and harder to live. I recognise the value and importance of the journey but I relapse into wanting to focus on a destination. Maybe it’s more about thinking in terms of way points rather than final destinations. The final suit is the eight Operations. Krans considers these to be the most powerful cards in the deck. She equates them with the tarot Major Arcana. The Operations cards indicate the underlying story and the drive behind the work being undertaken. Calcification, Dissolution, Coagulation, Sublimation, Mortification, Rotation, Separation and Conjunction make up this suit. There’s a lot to take in with the The Wild Unknown Alchemy Deck and to be honest I wondered how much information to include. I spent a day with the entire deck spread out on my desk just looking for visual connections and deciphering alchemical symbols. I wrote four tightly packed pages of notes and I know I barely touched the surface. Exploring this deck really was a case of the more I discovered, the less I felt I knew, and thus the more drawn to it I became. Fortunately it comes with a fantastic guide book. Before I move on to that though I want to share that I found shuffling these cards less awkward than I had expected. The Wild Unknown Alchemy Deck Book The 233-paged book is presented in typical Kim Krans fashion, as is the entire deck. A sturdy outer box houses the book with another sturdy box for the cards. Each is easily removed using the ribbon. The book itself is black, white and blue and packed full of information. And, as are the others in the series, the entire book is hand-lettered. I really like this touch. The book opens with Krans sharing her inspiration and influences. Here she includes a list of alchemical texts before moving on to what she considers the ‘Origin of Alchemy’ and its metaphorical association. For those like myself consciously new to alchemy, this book well and truly whets the appetite. I say consciously because subconsciously it has been my approach for as long as I can remember. Now I just have a name for what I was doing. Krans defines alchemy as: the perspective that everything physical … has a corresponding resonance in the mystical realm … [T]he sacred (the mystical) and the mundane (the physical) are not separate, but rather they are inextricably linked. Through this pairing, the imagination is activated, allowing innate wisdom to express itself through symbol, image, language and operation. … Through observing the symbols and images produced by an alchemical perspective, we begin to weave together the physical and mystical aspects of our lives. She then provides additional definitions for key alchemical terms before suggesting some of the many ways alchemy can be approached as well as four common alchemical archetypes. Finally, before going into the cards themselves, she explains each suit and suggests how to use the deck. The card explanation section doesn’t overwhelm you with information. Nevertheless it leaves you with a lot to work with. As is to be expected with such a well considered deck, a lot of attention has gone into the book. Each card is pictured in full on the left hand page, with its meaning neatly contained on the right. I especially like the “Go Deeper” and “To Ponder” prompts. For example on XXVIII Wise Salt “Go Deeper” encourages you to ‘read about the Salt Marches in India.’ I am yet to do this. While XXVII Antimony suggests ‘To Ponder: Corrosion as medicine.’ There’s just so many ways to explore this deck. Spreads Seven spreads are included in the book: The Essence (1 card) Less is More (2 cards) The Tria Prima (3 cards) Doors of Wisdom (4 cards) The Alchemical Union (5 cards) The Rose that gives the Bees Honey (7 cards) As Above, So Below (7 cards) This definitely isn’t a deck I would have chosen when I began my tarot journey. It would have overwhelmed me. In a way...

Discover The Wild Unknown at Covet + Lou. A distinct style of illustration seeks to remind us of, and reconnect us to, our inner magic. How do you #covetandlou?

Обзор колоды и распечатка новой колоды от Автора Ким Кранс - Kim Krans🖤 The Wild Unknown Tarot - Дикое Неизвестное Таро by Kim Krans #TheWildUnknownTarot #Д...

When I first starting reading Tarot, I used directions from books and experts, and I mostly concentrated on the Celtic Cross.  As I have become more deeply connected to the Tarot, I have been creating intuitive spreads, following my inner voice that leads me to lay the cards in a certain way, flowing with what they…

If you're plugged in to the online tarot community in any way, even minimally, then you've been hearing buzz about this deck. It's self-published and I've got to say, recently the self-published decks have been beating the traditional publishers. Hey traditional publishers: what are you people doing? Get with the program. Even non-tarot people (many…

The Wild Unknown Tarot by Kim Krans.78 colour tarot cards in a two-piece box, and a guidebook in a magnetic closure box with a sleeve.Published by HarperOne,...

To be honest I really don’t know where to begin with these cards because they are so different to anything else I have worked with. What I can say is that I have experienced some profound personal revelations whilst working with these cards. They strike deep into the essence of what is known and yet often hidden which is incredibly powerful. The information I uncovered when using The Wild Unknown Archetypes felt like I had always known it yet never given it the attention it needed and deserved. If pushed I would say this is an all encompassing deck that is beyond simple definition. The Wild Unknown Archetypes Deck As you have no doubt noticed, the cards are round. I know people have mixed feelings about working with round decks and I can understand some of the reservations. This is my first round deck and I do find it pretty challenging to shuffle. But, I think the shape aligns perfectly with the deck itself. Nothing is either this way or that. It isn’t upright or reversed. Everything is alterable by degrees and slight shifts can really change perceptions. So, shuffling difficulties aside, or maybe that’s part of it, for me it just makes sense that these cards are round. Before I talk any more about the cards though, I have to talk about the packaging. I felt almost reverential as I made my way through the layers. An outer slip case covers a sturdy box with a magnetic closure. Inside is a beautifully presented and comprehensive square book which rests on top of another sturdy two part box, this time round, which holds the cards. A ribbon helps you to flip out the book and then the card box which itself has another ribbon to ensure easy access to the cards. The attention to detail with the packaging is reminiscent of her Wild Unknown Tarot. Anyhow, onto the cards themselves. The artwork is predominantly a combination of ink and water colour with many having, generally small, photographic elements collaged onto them. Some are vibrant, others are darker in tone; some are full and busy, others incorporate more white space. Each is a unique matt image that measures approximately 11½ cm in diameter. Now, as much as I love these cards the one thing I find difficult is that I fan out my cards and then draw individually from the pack rather than dealing them out from the top. This is far from easy with this deck. The cards stick to each other and it is difficult to select an individual card from within the pack. If you don’t like round decks, and you love a deck that shuffles beautifully then this deck might prove frustrating. Like a traditional tarot deck there are 78 cards but this is not a tarot deck. Here I’ll defer to Kim Krans to describe what it is. “… Imagine that as you open this deck, you are in fact discovering a pair of mystical spectacles and through their lenses you begin to view the world in a new and more vibrant way. These glasses have a knack for seeing the unseen, unveiling the hidden, spotting the elusive, and bringing to life what has long been inanimate.” Both Tarot and oracle cards can do this; it just does it different. The difference is in her approach. The deck is broken up into four divisions: The Selves, The Places, The Tools and The Initiations. I like the handwritten titles and that Roman Numerals are used to number the cards. The cards themselves can be used on their own, to study archetypes, or as a supplement to other readings. I’ve used them on their own as a personal deep dive tool but I intend to incorporate them into tarot readings as well. The Wild Unknown Archetypes Book The 224 page guide book is a delight in itself. It begins with Kim Krans story, which provides a great insight into the cards themselves. She moves on to explain about archetypes before discussing each of the various divisions mentioned earlier. The information provided for each card is comprehensive and makes for an interesting read. She’s also provided keywords for both the Light (Upright) and Dark (Rotated) positions. An addition I really like though is the “Go Deeper” section. Here she suggests a book, a poem, a painting, a figure from mythology, or a person to look up to increase your understanding of the the card. For LXXIII Thanatos (Keyword Death) she suggested The Mower, a poem by Philip Larkin. Reading this poem really deepened the meaning for me. I felt sadness, fragility, motivation and gratitude all in the same moment. The line, “Next morning I got up and it did not” has really stuck with me. It’s amazing how much motivation death can bring us if we let it. I look forward to exploring her other recommendations. For many decks, the book is a nice novelty, which adds something, but is soon left to take up its position on the book shelf, barely considered. I don’t believe that will be the case with this book. It truly adds another dimension to the cards. Spreads Five spreads are included in the book: As always I have done all of them and I found each valuable. If you’re looking for answers about what’s going on within then this deck could be the tool you’re looking for. It can be used however you feel called to use it. I did a Celtic Cross reading with it and found it remarkably easy to read and I have used it like an oracle deck. If you’re drawn to the imagery and/or the idea behind it, then I’m confident you will love it. Publishing Details Deck Creator: Kim Krans Pictured Version: Published by Harper Collins through their imprint Harper One in 2019, First Edition

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From the beloved artist-seeker behind The Wild Unknown comes the New York Times bestselling tarot deck and guidebook in a beautifully designed, pocket-sized collectible tin. Kim Krans is not only a vanguard of the new tarot movement, but the person who is redefining it for the twenty-first century. For a legion of contemporary seekers, The Wild Unknown is more than a tarot deck; Visit the link to see The Wild Unknown Tarot Deck on Youtube

This is a very simple image without much symbolism to go on at all: Against a dark background, which fades to light at the bottom of the card hangs a bat...

if i had to picture the home of kim krans, the artist behind the wild unknown, this is probably pretty close to what i’d imagine.  i can definitely imagine her creating her simple, beautiful works of art in this peaceful and rustic atmosphere. source – design sponge. and check out the wild unknown website.