FREE! Elemental Hexagons Mac OS X Dashboard Widget 

If you use Mac OS X 10.4.3 or later, give this widget a try!

The complete Elemental Hexagons deck is now available for FREE as a Macintosh OS X Dashboard Widget!

Elemental Hexagons Widget Basics
When launched, the widget displays the card back design. Click on the center of the card back and a random card face is displayed. Click on the card face and it returns to the card back design. Clicking on the back again will select another card at random!

About the About Face!
At the bottom-most point of the card back is the Apple Info Button. Clicking this button will flip the widget over to display the 'About' card. On this back side of the widget is a 'Done' button which is used to flip the widget back to its front side.

About the Download
The zip file containing the widget is 2.3 megabytes. I know that's a bit on the large side, but it does contain all 60 card faces. I compressed things as much as I dared while still preserving some sort of quality!

Download Now!
Download the Elemental Hexagons Dashboard Widget (2.3 megs) for Mac OS X 10.4.3 and up!

Origins 

The genesis of the Elemental Hexagons deck

It was the early 1980's. I had transfered to the University of California at Santa Cruz. My transfer documents said that my major was "Earth Sciences," but despite the fact that I was indeed interested in science, what I really wanted to do was to study Art.

I spent a full year pursuing art classes. But it seemed that for every art class I went to, I had to walk past display cases of rocks and minerals, or seismographs, or down the hallways filled with geologic maps. The universe was apparently trying to tell me that Earth Sciences wouldn't be such a bad idea after all.

One day in one of my Mineralogy classes, a class devoted to understanding how various chemical elements combine to form rocks and minerals, I was looking at the periodic table on the wall. In my spare time, I had been studying the occult and the Tarot, and I'd learned about how the Major Arcana represented the fool's journey through life. The progression from one element to the next in the periodic table reminded me of the fool's journey and that was the seed of the idea.

One big problem with trying to make a deck out of the periodic table is that the table is open ended. New elements were being discovered left and right. So my first hurdle involved making some hard decisions about which elements to include. I decided I'd use 36 elements. I'd use the first 18 elements of the table, and then 18 others which for one reason or another called out to be included. Many of those were elements with historical significance, such as Gold and Iron. Others were included for numeralogical reasons, for example, Vanadium, which is atomic number 23.

As I selected elements, they sorted themselves into groups. I ended up dividing the deck into four suits, each with three sub-groups of three elements each.

Being somewhat of a geek, I was into Dungeons and Dragons and the like, so one of the supplies I had at hand was a bunch of parchment paper printed with a hexagonal grid. I made my first deck of 36 hexagonal cards using this parchment paper, and writing simple notes on each card specifying the atomic number, the element name, the suit and sub-group I'd put it into, and some key words for what the element signified.

Using the natural tiling of the hexagonal shape, and drawing from the Tarot layout of the Celtic Cross, I developed a customized reading layout to use with the deck.

And then I hid the deck away for nearly 20 years.

The Fool - Helium 

I'm apparently not the only one who associates Helium with a fool.

There are 22 cards in the Tarot Major Arcana. The Elemental Hexagons deck as it stood at this point had 36 cards in it. I made associations between each card of the Major Arcana and one element in my deck.

The choice for the Magician was obvious - Hydrogen.

The choice for the Fool was equally obvious - Helium.

And now, years after I'd made these associations, I ran across a fabulously weird internet cartoon called Strindberg and Helium, in which the Helium character is much of a Fool, always light and never too serious.

The Strindberg and Helium cartoon includes one episode with a strong alchemical bent, in which Strindberg receives a sign that he is to attempt to create Gold with the elements Sulphur and Iron, all of which were in the first 36 elements chosen for my deck.

About the use of the word Tarot... 

Tarot Decks are Oracle Decks, but not all Oracle Decks are Tarot Decks

The Alchemical Fire is Lit 

The Elemental Hexagons deck expands

In February of 2005, I attended PantheaCon, a convention put on by Ancient Ways for Pagans and Witches and New Agers and all sorts of old and new spiritual traditionalists to meet and share rituals and information.

I went for only one day to hang out with my best friend. I'm not sure why I brought my deck. I had looked at the deck off and on over the past 20 years, but never did much beyond doing readings for myself. At that PantheaCon, I did a reading for my friend. When it was done, she said, "I know some people you should meet."

She invited me to an Alchemical Fire Circle later that year. I decided that before I went out there that I'd re-work the deck. In the past 20 years, a couple of advancements made it a lot easier to accomplish what I had in mind. I'd been doing a lot of digital artwork, so I knew quite a bit about creating images on the computer. I had availble a good printer at home. And I had the internet for not only researching the elements themselves, but also for finding images.

By the time I got to my first Alchemical Fire Circle in mid-May of 2005, I had a new deck, complete with much neater text, and some nice greyscale images.

A year later, I went back to the Alchemical Fire Circle and learned even more about alchemy and how it applies to modern spirituality. Part of that involved the seven alchemical metals which had been known since ancient times. Each of the metals is associated with a heavenly body. Gold is the Sun, Silver is the Moon, and so forth.

Of the seven alchemical metals, I had six of them in my deck. Tin, however, was missing. I had been aware of the fact that Tin was the oldest known element not included in the deck, and that Tin had been known since ancient times. I thought about replacing one of the existing cards with Tin, but all of the ones already in the deck had too much meaning. Because of the four suits and the sub-groups within the suits, adding Tin would mean adding eleven others to balance out the groups.

Tin was not the only element which had been making itself known to me in one way or another, so selecting the eleven others to add with Tin was easy. Now the deck was at 48 cards and might have stayed that way had my research not suggested another long known element.

Creating Artwork 

Several of the images are my own original works

Part of the first expansion involved replacing several of the images I had used without regards to copyrights. For many of those, I found similar replacements at a free stock photo website.

Others, however, I recreated using 3D graphics software. I had been working in 3D for at least half of the years that the deck had remained on the back burner.

One More Expansion 

The Elemental Hexagons deck reaches a total of 60 cards

Around the end of 2006, I was working on a book to go with the Elemental Hexagons deck (the book is still a work in progress, but it has come a long way). The research for this book showed that since the addition of Tin, the oldest known element which was not included in the deck was Bismuth.

The official discovery date for Bismuth is 1753, but a substance called 'wismut' had been known for centuries before. This substance was confused with Lead and was thought to be some sort of inferior type of Lead. It was in 1753 that the French chemist Claude-Francios Geoffroy proved that Bismuth was a unique metal unto itself, and was not an inferior type of Lead.

While I was meditating on whether or not to add Bismuth and eleven more elements to the deck, a sign came to me in the form of intestinal distress. When I went to the medicine cabinet to find relief, my answer was waiting for me in the form of "Pink Bismuth."

I added Bismuth and eleven other cards. I redesigned the cards to be somewhat larger and in full color. Work on the book continues for now, but I am expecting my first print run of professionally manufactured cards to be arriving any day now.

Own the Elemental Hexagons Deck 

Choose the standard box, or splurge on the oak box edition!

Book Research Sources 

I've read a couple books cover-to-cover on the history of Chemistry as research

I've gotten most of these books from a couple different local libraries, but at least one of them I'm going to buy for my own home library.

The Last Sorcerers: The Path from Alchemy to the Periodic Table

by Richard Morris

This book is a quite readable and enjoyable tale of the history of chemistry, though it does jump around a bit in chronological order. This is the one I plan to buy sometime in the next few months.

List Price: $15.95
Used Price: $7.20

Distilling Knowledge: Alchemy, Chemistry, and the Scientific Revolution (New Histories of Science, Technology, and Medicine)

by Bruce T. Moran

Not nearly as readable as the Morris book above, I still found useful information in this book.

List Price: $18.00
Used Price: $10.50

Transforming Matter: A History of Chemistry from Alchemy to the Buckyball (Johns Hopkins Introductory Studies in the History of Science)

by Trevor H. Levere

This is next on my reading list.

List Price: $42.50
Used Price: $38.80

A Short History of Chemistry: Third Edition

by J. R. Partington

List Price: $17.95
Used Price: $2.99

The Chemical Tree: A History of Chemistry

by William H. Brock

List Price: $21.95
Used Price: $5.87

The Suits and Sub-Groups 

Four suit-like groups sort the elements into archetypes

Sources used in my research 

Sites that helped me develop my deck

Without these links, the Elemental Hexagons deck would never have come into being.

Theodore Gray's Periodic Table 

The Elemental Hexagons deck is now listed as a sample!

With a composition of Carbon, Hydrogen, and Oxygen, the Elemental Hexagons deck has found a place of honor in Theodore Gray's element collection. I can tell that he 'gets it' too. He notes of the deck:

This is a lovely little deck of Elemental Hexagon Cards. They are intended for divination purposes similar to the way you would use Tarot cards. A skilled and sensitive interpreter can tell you a lot about yourself using a deck of cards. Or a box of tea leaves or an old rubber tire, so why not element cards?

Many of the samples in this collection include 3d quicktime movie loops of the sample rotating, and I'm happy to say that both of the Elemental Hexagons deck samples include these animations!

Conveniently, there's a single page devoted to samples from me. Start your visit to Theodore Gray's site by viewing my contributions.

Quick Opinion Poll 

Sample Reading - Overview 

This reading shows how the cards are used.

This readingis one I originally did for myself on 30 August 2007. In years past, I had been part of a small start-up company. The company still exists, but they can no longer afford to pay me. So, when the company websites went down, I wasn't in a position to help, nor did I feel I was in a position to make any public announcements to the user community.

When I did this reading, I was asking for general guidance related to the server situation, whether it would be best for me to make any announcements to the community, or just wait for the owner to resolve the situation without me.

The reading layout consists of 9 cards placed in an outward left-turning spiral. The diagram shown above indicates how the cards are placed. Detail for each card and position follows below.

Sample Reading - Position One 

The first card is about the aspect of the querent which relates to the issue

The first cardthat came up in this reading is the Barium card. The image on the Barium card is of a mineral called the barite rose, which is the state rock of Oklahoma. Barite crystals form rosettes.

The meaning of the Barium card is of Wisdom. The rose imagery suggests that one has learned from experience that there are thorns amongst the roses, so despite their beauty, one must be careful in reaching quickly for their stems.

The Barium card corresponds to the Tarot Major Arcana card of The Star. The Star signifies a trust that the future will unfold with trust and wisdom.

From this card, I took the meaning that I have the internal wisdom to handle the situation appropriately, and to trust my instinct to not leap into the public eye.

Sample Reading - Position Two 

The second card represents the forces which work with the querent

The second cardwhich came up for me in this reading was the Potassium card. The Potassium card represents the body, neither male nor female, but instead the raw, healthy animal body that we use to exist in the mundane world.

The image on the Potassium card is the flank of a horse. The old adage "healthy as a horse" was the inspiration to use the horse flank image.

From this card I took that while I may not feel it, my position with respect to the start-up is healthy and that my immediate actions or inactions will not endanger that health.

Sample Reading - Position Three 

The third card represents the forces which work against the querent

The third cardthat came up in my reading was the Magnesium card. The Magnesium card is about the skin and bones. Normally, Calcium would be the element one commonly thinks of when the subject of bones comes up, but the Calcium card represents the female body in the same way that the Potassium card represents the animal body.

Over half of the Magnesium in the body is found in the bones, and a significant portion of the rest of it is in the skin. The image used on the Magnesium card is of two skeletons floating in a black mist. Because of this skeleton imagery, the Magnesium card is associated with the Tarot Major Arcana card of Death.

From this card I took that my unwillingness to let go of my association with the old start-up is the force working against me, causing me to have the upset feelings.

Sample Reading - Position Four 

The fourth card represents the querent's recent past

The fourth cardwhich came up for me in this reading was the Selenium card. Selenium is a key element for the health of the thyroid gland. The thyroid regulates growth, ensuring that one grows enough, but not too much. Because of this, the Selenium card represents the regulation of growth.

The image on the Selenium card is a bar graph symbolizing growth overlaid on top of a photomicrograph of a thin section of a thyroid gland.

From this card I recalled how much personal growth I had done with regard to the start-up.

Sample Reading - Position Five 

The fifth card represents the current state of the querent

The fifth cardwhich came up for me in this reading was the Caesium card. The Caesium card is one of three cards which use the European English spelling of the element names instead of the USA spellings.

Caesium atoms were the first to be used in atomic clocks for very precise time measurement. The Caesium card represents the basis of time, or time management. The image on the Caesium card is of two different atomic clocks. The one at the top is a large machine, nearly the size of an average man, which was made in the 1950s. The atomic clock at the bottom is small enough to fit on a computer chip.

From this card I took that time is on my side and that immediate action on the issue was not required. I was due to leave on a trip the next day, so this card was a reassurance that I could go and enjoy my trip and I would have time to see how things had progressed when I returned.

Sample Reading - Position Six 

The sixth card represents the source of the question

If the querent asks a specific question,this card represents why that question was asked. If the querent is seeking general guidance, this is the realm in which the cards are suggesting guidance.

The card which came up for me in this position was the Boron card. The image on the Boron card is of the 20 Mule Team Borax Train. Because Boron has the atomic number of 5 and the number 5 is significant to Discordians, the Boron card represents finding order in chaos.

The Boron card corresponds to the Tarot Major Arcana card of The Wheel of Fortune, which suggests good fortune and luck.

From this card took that while it seemed that my luck was currently bad with the start-up's servers being down, the wheel would turn and luck would be with me again.

Sample Reading - Position Seven 

The seventh card represents pitfalls or traps that the querent faces

The seventh cardcame up with Yttrium. The image on the Yttrium card is a composite of a car driving down a hill at night, overlaid with the texture created by the red phosphors on a television tube.

A compound of Yttrium was used in television tubes to create the red color. Red light is used by people who work in the dark and need to keep their eyes dark adapted. Because of this association, Yttrium is about night vision, seeing in the dark. It also has the association of road rage, where one gets the red mist of anger when the actions of others on the road interrupt our driving.

From this card I took that it is important not to let emotion cloud my judgement when deciding which actions to take.

Sample Reading - Position Eight 

The eighth card represents the querent's responsibilities

I try to avoid the word 'should'so when thinking about the responsibilities position, I also think of it as action items, or recommendations. The card which came up for me in this spot in this reading was the Arsenic card.

The image on the Arsenic card is, of course, of some old lace. The meaning of the Arsenic card is of Ancient Witch Power.

The Arsenic card is associated with the Tarot Major Arcana card of The Priestess, which means the Arsenic card represents both the Maiden and the Crone. The Priestess is a woman who holds supernatural powers.

From this card I took that my responsibility is to pursue my cards and my life as the creator and author of my deck, and to not worry about the servers at the start-up of my previous role.

Sample Reading - Position Nine 

The ninth card represents the outcome of the reading

The card in the final positionin this reading was the Iodine card. Iodine represents the medical profession. The image on the Iodine card shows a caduceus and a stethoscope, both against the backdrop of some cells, stained with Iodine, and viewed through a microscope.

While the iodine card represents the medical profession specifically, it can have the more general connotation of any professional advice.

From this I took that to fix the servers at the start-up, the guy who owns the start-up would have to get a pro in there to handle the situation.

Other Oracle Decks 

Oracle decks are any divinatory cards that are not Tarot decks

The Way of Cartouche oracle cards

The Way of Cartouche is an oracle deck by Murry Hope. The deck consists of 25 cards based on the deities and symbols of Ancient Egypt. It was this deck which was one of the forces behind my desire to create my own oracle deck.

The Fantod Pack

Originally created in 1995 by Edward Gorey, this unique deck of 20 cards has just been re-released in late 2007. The deck, like all of Gorey's works, is a bit on the macabre side, but humorous as well. The method for shuffling and drawing the cards is unique. The instructions say to use the pack in a sparsely furnished room, hold the pack in the left hand, close your eyes, and fling the pack into the air...

The Druid Animal Oracle

The Druid Animal Oracle by Philip and Stephanie Carr-GommBear. My druid friend James uses this rich and beautiful deck steeped in druidic traditions.

Medicine Cards

Medicine in the Native American tradition is "anything that brings personal power, strength, and understanding." In the Medicine Cards, Jamie Sams and David Carson offer teachings from animal medicine. Each card shows one animal in a shield with its name and number. Assigned to each card is a special quality that reflects that animal's nature, for example Loyalty for Dog and Gentleness for Deer.

Sacred Geometry Oracle Deck

The first divination tool based on the ancient science and sacred language of geometry.

Tarot and Divination at Amazon.com 

Universal Waite Tarot Deck and Book Set

by Arthur Edward Waite

Amazon Price: $22.74 (as of 10/14/2008)

Aleister Crowley Thoth Tarot Deck

by Aleister Crowley

Amazon Price: $21.56 (as of 10/14/2008)

Goddess Guidance Oracle Cards

by Doreen Virtue

Amazon Price: $15.63 (as of 10/14/2008)

Druid Animal Oracle Deck & Book Set

This beautiful set of animal-based cards has surprising depth and resonates on many levels.

Amazon Price: (as of 10/14/2008)

Elemental Hexagons deck on bOINGbOING.net 

Thank you, boingboing, for making me famous!

The Elemental Hexagons deck was featured on boingboing.net on November 14th, 2007.

Here's how that happened:

In the mid 1990s, I worked at a small-ish start-up company run by an old college buddy of mine. That company was eventually bought by another, but we were not moved. Instead, a few people from the new company came to work with us. One of those people was Paul Boutin.

A decade or so later, I signed up on the humorous website fark.com and started posting. There's a premium area of fark.com called TotalFark. One day, a TotalFarker "sponsored" me, essentially giving me free TotalFark for a month. That ran out, and then I got sponsored again by a different TotalFarker. When it ran out after that month, I decided I had to continue my subscription.

One of the things that the folks at fark.com do is they arrange Fark Parties, where people meet up in the real world. Sometimes the founder of fark.com, Drew Curtis, comes to these parties. The parties aren't limited to TotalFark, but usually the TotalFarkers know first, and/or are the ones who organize the parties. Drew was due to show up at a San Francisco Fark party on November 13th, 2007. I'd been to Fark parties at this location, but this was the first time Drew would be there. I'd been to other Fark parties where I'd met Drew.

I ended up getting there almost an hour early, due to confusion about what time the party was to start. Folks trickled in over the next half hour, and then not long after the official party start time, Drew walked in with an entourage.

One of those people was Paul Boutin.

I had a prototype deck in hand, and some mock-ups of the tri-fold flier I was designing, so I quickly cornered Paul to show him what I'd been up to. I had no idea at the time that doing so would result in my deck being posted on boingboing the next morning!

Alchemical Goodies 

A wide variety of alchemical imagery and symbolism can be found on tee-shirts and mugs and mousepads and all manner of goodies at CafePress.

Alchemy Long Sleeve T-Shirt

from Alchemy Products

Stein

from AlchemyArmory.com

Royal Stag Tee (Dark)

from Nocturnal Ventures

See more designs like these on CafePress

Tarot Decks on eBay 

Tarot decks come in all sorts of different themes. Find the one that's right for you!

Fetching new data from eBay now... please stand by

Have Your Say! 

Thanks for visitingmy lens on my Elemental Hexagons deck! Please use the Contact Me link at the top of my lens if you want more information about obtaining my deck.

blauweogen I never have seen the elemental hexagon oracle cards before. Very informative. You did a lot of nice work. http://cassystarot.com Posted October 02, 2008

youhavegottobekidding Wow this is really great. I have no idea about this Hexagon Cards but thank to your Very Informative Lens now I know what it is. 5 stars for your Great Lens. Posted August 04, 2008

WorldTravelers916 i would like to know more about oracles! african music cds Posted July 22, 2008

The_Homeopath This is SO COOL! I know a certain Chemistry teacher who'll be getting one of these for Christmas. Thanks! Posted July 14, 2008

CleanFace Nice lens! 5 stars given! :) Posted May 17, 2008

 

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