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...