Author Archives: Cimaxion

Tarot Reading for Work Satisfaction – June 19, 2018

by Cimaxion

Welcome to Transmutology Tarot.

Transmutology is a new approach to the study of change. We wish to know about the art of transmutation and to practice it.

Can we find the precious gem of the true self? Can we turn obstacles into pathways? Can we become more aware of our true nature and the nature of reality?

The Tarot is used to meditate on our way of thinking about ourselves and the challenges of life. There is nothing psychic involved. There is no fortune telling, no prediction. ‘Suggestion’ would be a better word.

There is a question. Then the cards are read and their story revealed. The story may open one’s mind just the way walking into a room full of artistic masterworks can change a life forever.

My readings do not speak of how you will soon meet the person of your dreams. My readings talk about you, the questioner. The readings are an inquiry into how you actually are within a situation – how you may try looking at things, both consciously and unconsciously.

The Tarot is a marvelous tool for meditation. It creates unique visual impressions and stories full to bursting with meaning. All the stories revealed by Tarot readings bring something to the reader and the questioner. All Tarot readings are valid. They must simply have their subtle messages decoded by the reader based on his or her connection in the present moment with the questioner.

A reading stumbled upon in a video may have much to offer you in a particular moment. Enjoy the moment. Sit back, clear your mind of distractions, and follow along with the story of the cards.

The deck I am using is the Tarot of Marseille which is the oldest deck currently still in use. The minor arcana cards (the number cards) are much more abstract than the commonly used Rider-Waite deck. This leads me toward a method of reading that incorporates numerology. In other words, each number has a character which when combined with a card’s suit gives a meaning.

I will conduct more readings and they will all find their way here. I hope my readings are of service to you and begin a journey of awareness and eventual transmutation.

A Virtual Reality Space War for iPhone

by Cimaxion

You can get more app developer updates and game support at aliengemwar.com.

Now available in the App Store!

Battle alien saucers and harvest energy gem towers in this retro sci-fi action shooter that will demand all your VR fighting skills!

Made for freely available Google Cardboard VR, this game is a whirlwind of space war survival that incorporates combat shooting, movement tactics, clock management, and balancing various skills to outwit the enemy aliens and transport energy gems off the planet surface.

You’ll have to stay in constant motion and fend off attacks that come from all directions as you attempt to fly around the battle zone shooting down alien saucers and bombs while protecting and harvesting your gem towers.

This game is deceptively simple but extremely difficult to master. Survive as long as you can against increasing difficulty and figure out how to get the score bonuses.

No ads. No in-game purchases. Just simple straight ahead fun.

No hand controller is required for this game, just a simple and inexpensive Google Cardboard VR viewer. It works without even needing to pull the trigger on your Cardboard viewer. It’s almost entirely shoot and move by aiming. You can choose to use the trigger for firing your main gun and a special extra skill test that you can discover, but the trigger is not required.

Get yourself an inexpensive Google Cardboard compatible VR viewer like the ‘View-Master Deluxe VR Headset’ or ‘Merge VR Goggles’ and have a blast that will get you feeling like you are living inside a classic science fiction adventure world.

You can also play in non-VR mode.

This game has been tested on iPhones as old as the 6s.

A Game Center leaderboard is included.

This game requires a high amount of physical movement and uses the full 360 degree range of VR.

Children should play with adult supervision. Play VR games in a safe open area, free of obstructions, obstacles, and hazards. For increased safety, play while sitting in a swivel chair.

 

Tarot of Marseille: A Complete Online Celtic Cross Reader and Guide Book

by Cimaxion

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Yes, this is software I wrote that is a fully capable and very powerful 10-card Tarot reader. I didn’t know of any online readers that utilized the magnificent Marseille Tarot deck which is considered by many to be the greatest Tarot deck of them all. So I made one. Perhaps you have read Alejandro Jodorowski’s book, The Way of Tarot. It is one of the few books available in English on the use of this historic deck of cards. Right here is where you can fully explore the Marseille deck and get actual readings. As many as you like. The software allows you to shuffle and reshuffle the cards, then pick each one. Your reading is explained and some machine learning code kicks in and analyzes the general tone of your reading.

Sound good? Sound somewhat unusual? I think it is. I also think you will learn a lot about the cards here because each card in your reading is clickable and opens up an in-depth explanation of the card and its meaning in the Celtic Cross spread. I have also written a guide to the deck covering the major arcana, court cards and the number cards. The Marseille Tarot requires some understanding of how it relates to numerology so I have covered that as well.

These are the main features:

  • Written in HTML5 so it will work in a browser on most devices
  • Uses the classic Marseille Tarot deck
  • Full 78-card deck shuffling
  • Uses the popular 10-card Celtic Cross spread for readings
  • Includes reversed card meanings
  • Includes simple list readings and narrative readings
  • Artificial intelligence feature analyzes the tone of your reading
  • Get in-depth card meanings when you press the cards in your reading
  • Comprehensive introduction to Tarot

Launch the Tarot Reading

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Les Mysteres Du Tarot De Marseille: French Tarot Documentary

by Cimaxion

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This is a fascinating French documentary exploring the artistic connection between the oldest deck of Tarot cards known as the Tarot de Marseille and 15th century art. The documentary travels to Italy where Tarot was born to follow various leads and look at examples of the oldest Tarot decks and Italian art.

The work of Sandro Botticelli features prominently, as does Plato’s philisophical cave allegory which deals with the nature of reality and whether what we see is just a rough projection of reality. The connections between this idea and the Tarot’s Devil card are fascinating.

The documentary is entirely in French without English subtitles, so you’ll probably need to speak French to enjoy this.

Tarot Documentary Narrated by Christopher Lee

by Cimaxion | 1 Comment

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In preparation for the upcoming Tarot section of this blog, complete with a brand new online Tarot reader, here is a television documentary on the history of Tarot cards. It’s narrated by the super-hammy Christopher Lee!

The best thing about the documentary is its brief outline of Tarot history. Its explanations of card meanings and interviews with Tarot readers are superficial and absurd. The interviewees tend to be of the type who predict actual events and make foolish assumptions rather than focus on what the cards suggest to a person and what they represent as possibilities in that person’s thinking. Most of the unfortunate people featured in this documentary are of the variety that the Tarot tradition should avoid at all costs. Pay no attention to them.

Enjoy the film for what it is and remember that if you have an interest in Tarot you won’t be disappointed in the new app which will be a very deep resource of information about the entire Tarot de Marseilles deck and will give full 10-card Celtic Cross readings with explanations and card details.

Coming soon!

Rabbit Ears: Experimental Film by Alessandro Cima

by Cimaxion

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Imagine an insane alien astronaut who tunes into earth’s radiating television signals originating in the analog days of the twentieth century. The alien receives our entire TV culture in seconds, processing the sounds and images instantly, watching them all simultaneously… and the alien is crazy enough to find a message within.

This is an experimental film that is for all intents and purposes a continuation of my previous film, “The Magical Dead Sunstroke Valley,” which has been screening for the past year at the Los Angeles Center for Digital Art (LACDA).

1980 Documentary on the Making of Punk Zine Guttersnipe in Telford, England

by Cimaxion

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Councillor Mrs. Mary Potts described the magazine as ‘decadent’ and ‘utter filth.’

I can’t imagine a better compliment for a zine really.

This is a 1980 television documentary produced by the BBC’s Community Programme’s Unit which specialized in what amounts to local access television. This one is a very down to earth look at a small town British punk zine called ‘Guttersnipe.’ What’s great about this film is how it lets the people do the talking. It doesn’t make the mistake that a lot of television made back in the seventies and eighties when they tried to define the punk movement in rather stilted terms which only served to expose the terror of the producers themselves when faced with something they didn’t understand.

The young people in this film speak with honesty, frustration and great humor. They weren’t willing to accept boring so they made a culture with what was at hand. We can learn a lot from these Telford punks today when we seem so in the spell of technology corporations that it is hard to imagine ever creating a culture again. How do you ever feel unsatisfied when you have an iPhone in your hand and can read anything written anywhere on earth within seconds? How do you muster the energy to stop twiddling thumbs and print something? Or play a guitar?

Sure, I love computers as much as anyone else. I find them incredibly inspiring and empowering. Perhaps it’s really the Web that’s the problem. Not the machines.

The Web has become a nearly unusable up and down scrolling mechanism so burdened underneath the weight of endless and intrusive advertising that I personally dread visiting nine out of ten web sites. There is very little pleasure in browsing anymore. It’s not a nice environment. Things pause, pop into your face, jump around the screen, go inexplicably black, stop mid video, suddenly rewind, jump left, jump right, go totally blank and infect your computer. It’s basically hell. The Web as a reading experience stinks now. No question about it.

Makes one want a zine in one’s hands to sit back and read like humans were meant to read.

Enjoy the documentary.

Supreme Court Makes Equal Marriage Rights the Law of the Land

by Cimaxion

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In a truly revolutionary and long overdue ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court has rendered invalid all laws across the United States that prevent same sex marriages.

It’s a day of celebration for all in recognition of a simple and profound truth: marriage is indeed a basic human right.

Justice Kennedy wrote this final paragraph of the Court’s ruling:

No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family. In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they were. As some of the petitioners in these cases demonstrate, marriage embodies a love that may endure even past death. It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage. Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves. Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization’s oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right. The judgement of the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit is reversed.

It is so ordered.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, says it all. It’s a rebuke to the forces of bigotry. It should leave many people across the land hanging their heads in shame for ever suggesting that marriage is reserved for only one group of people.

If you held that belief at one time and have since changed, that’s a great step. You’ve come a long way.

If you still believe marriage is only for heterosexual couples, you may very well have some additional issues. I would suggest moving to South Carolina and hanging a confederate flag in your garage. Maybe you could buy lots of guns and ammunition for a final holdout. Whatever. The point I’m making is this: good riddance.

Star Odyssey: Ludicrous 1978 Italian Star Wars Rip-Off

by Cimaxion

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Hopefully, you have never seen ‘Star Odyssey,’ also known as ‘the Italian Star Wars.’

Now is your chance! It’s a full immersion into cinema of the ludicrous. For your convenience, it’s dubbed into English. Beware though, you will never look at science fiction the same way again after subjecting yourself to this assault.

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One can only hope that at least the actors might have had some fun making this, but unfortunately most of them appear to be thinking about the food truck instead of their lines.

Its awful history goes back to 1978, barely a year after the real Star Wars was released. Its unforgivable direction is credited to one Alfonso Brescia, heaven rest his soul.

The primary achievements of this interstellar fiasco appear to be robots constructed from trash cans and light sabers fashioned out of painted plywood.

Enjoy this Italian treat in the comfort of a nice quiet insane asylum.

The Little Mermaid: 1968 Soviet Animation of the Tale by Hans Christian Andersen

by Cimaxion

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This is a beautiful 1968 Soviet adaptation of ‘The Little Mermaid,’ by Hans Christian Andersen. It was produced by the great Soyuzmultfilm studio. There are no subtitles. Just enjoy it as a brilliantly animated musical approach to a great tale.

The film begins with a busload of tourists sightseeing in Copenhagen. Then it moves to sea and our story begins…

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The Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven Knights: Russian Fairytale Animation

by Cimaxion

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This is a 1951 Russian animation of an 1833 fairytale poem written by Alexander Pushkin that is based upon the classic Grimms tale, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It was directed by Ivan Pyetrovich Ivanov-Vano, known as the ‘patriarch of Soviet animation.’

You can read Pushkin’s The Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven Knights.

The film is in Russian so you can use the YouTube settings to turn on English subtitles.

Prince Releases Baltimore Protest Song

by Cimaxion

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About the Time Magazine Cover Photo Image

Prince has released a direct hit to the terrifying and brutal police in the United States with his new single, ‘Baltimore.’

In case you were holed up somewhere in a cave of denial, the police in this country are engaged in a merciless war against non-whites who are not wealthy. Police in many instances simply shoot people in the back as they are fleeing, stretch them out on the ground and fire bullets into them, strangle them to death with bare hands, or break their necks completely in half.

There are no good police. If there were, you would see some of them restraining cops who have just committed murder in front of them. You would see these nonexistent good police exposing racist killer coworkers and refusing to work with them. You would see police forming their own protests against police violence. You would see police hold ceremonies to mourn innocent victims of police murder.

You don’t see it do you?

There are no good police in the United States. Those days are long gone.

Prince fights with a guitar. Not a gun. But these days, the police can just walk onto a rock & roll stage and blow away the singer right in front of an oblivious audience.

Stan: Beautiful Hand-Crafted Animated Film by Meirav Haber

by Cimaxion

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I recently went into the Hive Gallery in downtown Los Angeles. Making my way toward the back of the long row of artists’ stalls – for all intents and purposes an artists’ neighborhood – I encountered an animated film playing on an iPad that was hung on the wall of the display area for artist Meirav Haber. It caught my attention because of the gorgeous and finely detailed handmade dolls she uses for her animation. This kind of filmmaking has become something of a rarity in our CG world. So now the eye seeks out the human touch. Finding it is a pleasure.

Haber has an unusually quiet and calm approach to telling her story. We are encouraged to watch the character and look for the details in his surroundings. The details are incredible. Watch the film through, then go back and pause it to have a look around. Enjoy the work of a master at her craft.

This kind of animation is done in a small studio on tabletop sets built by the artist. It’s all about imagination connected to the hand.

Stan is a simply told tale about a man who was born with an unfortunate resemblance to the Devil. His efforts to gain acceptance and companionship essentially turn him toward an appreciation for odd objects that closely resembles the artistic impulse. Haber’s beautiful film is made entirely with the magnificent hand-crafted artworks of an amazing artist.

Continue reading …

Flying the Airplane of Tomorrow in 1948 Popular Science Film

by Cimaxion

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Northrop’s Flying Wing was a spectacular monoplane built in 1947. Apparently, people had visions of putting bars into these things and flying lots of comfortable passengers around. Too bad flying never became this luxurious at all. This promotional film from the Popular Science series has some gorgeous make believe shots inside the aircraft.