LA PENSINE MUTINE (EN)

The Year of the Rat

Ey@el1/25/2020Esoterics No comments

You better watch out,
You better beware,
They're coming from all sides of the country.
You better beware
Return of the rat.
"Return of The Rat", Nirvana (1992)

Today marks the beginning of a new 12-year cycle for the Chinese with the celebration of the Year of The Rat. Rats are very clever animals with a bad name based on long-standing ever persistent myths which are totally untrue.

For example, they have been blamed for the plague whereas this terrible disease was spread by fleas which can infest any animal including humans. Rats are neither unclean (they spend a lot of time grooming) nor aggressive (they'd rather run away) and are actually very useful for mankind.

In Cambodia, Afghanistan and other countries, their sense of smell is used for detecting landmines which won't be detonated by their light weight. They are also able to sense fires and shipwrecks and when you see them flee, it usually forebodes pending disasters. While in terms of sanitary concerns, rats are natural garbage collectors.

In Paris alone, it is estimated that the consumption of waste by rats is around 800 tons per day, or 292,000 per year. In comparison, this is more than two incinerators with an annual budget of 188 million euros. (Source)

Actually, the only rats that can be regarded as pests are those sitting in power. But as the saying goes, “two can play that game”¹, and we're trapped like rats unless they rat on their decisions.²

Endnotes

In French, the pun literally translates to “to each good cat its good rat”.
In the original text, I've used a different pun that says “take a rat” and means failing to get it right.

What 2020 Has in Store for You (2)

Ey@el1/15/2020Esoterics, Language and Humour No comments

**Cancer:** When the goats are away, the crab might eat.
Food won't help untie the knots.

**Capricorn:** You, lucky devil! All the planets will bend to
your goats. Enjoy it while it lasts.

**Leo:** Uranus will make you act as if you'd had nails for breakfast.

**Aquarius :** There's a risk of flooding. Uranus might be
the last straw that breaks the watering can.

**Virgo:** Your mind might get overwhelmed by Neptune's tides.
Weep it out, you'll see more clearly.

**Pisces:** All is well, easy pisce, the odds are in your favour.
Time for some high flying while Neptune guards your waters.

NOTE: These horoscopes aren't as wild as you would think. Therefore any self-fulfilling prediction would not be totally coincidental.

What 2020 Has in Store for You (1)

Ey@el1/14/2020Esoterics, Language and Humour No comments

**Aries:** Life is a bitch! The planet conspiracy in Capricorn may
drive you nuts. Try not to lose your head.

**Libra:** You too will be a target for the evil conspiracy in Capricorn.
Better not let the devil add vodka to your Bloody Marys. Sober up!

**Taurus:** Uranus won't let go of your horns as if you were
a racing car. Mind the speed cameras.

**Scorpio:** Uranus won't stop pestering you and bringing out
the worst in you. You, nasty creepy crawly!

**Gemini:** Neptune will encourage you to become a coach potato.
Try to keep your focus on one thing at a time.

**Sagittarius:** Neptune might make you feel out of step.
You would benefit from practising martial arts.

Since many of you seem to have enjoyed my previous “horoscopes” which some “genuine” astrologers decided to repost with my permission, here's a new batch for the crazy year ahead. In two parts to avoid pages taking forever to load. Please, note however that even though my predictions are somewhat (extremely!) far-fetched, all the planet transits are not something I have made up. So they may contain some elements of truth.

To be continued: more signs tomorrow...

The Brasil Effect

Ey@el1/02/2020Music No comments

I don't know about you but I feel like we're sitting on the edge of a gigantic pressure canner about to blow... or implode anytime. Never mind, there's a big bang in the making, that's for sure. Whereas the energies of 2020 are supposed to promote pragmatism, accountability, solidarity and balance, given the current state of the human condition and the extent of the damage done to a great many of our disconnected peers, I have serious doubts about an alleged transition to a golden age. I assume it won't be for everyone. And I do not mean to sound elitist, arrogant or whatsoever, I'm just being realistic. It has nothing to do with your culture, your level of education, you social class, your age or you physical condition, but only with your commitment to do the necessary inner job that will impact the morphic field we're all steeped in. This is no abstract construction but a well-documented and proven scientific reality. Inevitably, it has been officially repressed and massively ridiculed because division and the delusion that all power resides on the outside are the building blocks of the current powers that be.

So no, love won't fall on us and turn us all into Beanie Babies as seen in the musical clip below, but the upcoming energies will certainly incite us to find it within ourselves and align our vibrations on its frequency (which is the highest on the vibratory scale). So, until we receive “new codes” from a possible incoming solar flash (see my previous post), I wanted to share with you the magic of this beautiful soulful, uplifting track which is all about reconnection and revelation. In French, magic sounds like soul operating. And you know what? It only takes two letters to turn music into magic (yes, that bloody 2 again, it's everywhere!). So here is the gem EOB granted us last month and which I have since been listening to in a loop every day, (eagerly) awaiting the release of his next single and forthcoming album (at long last) that should come out very shortly.

Brasil

This bad dream has got me
Falling like... I'm falling like...
It's in me and it's in you.

As above and so below
Falling like... I'm falling like...
How much more of this to take
To see you smile and laugh again?
But you can't.

Feeling like I'm on my knees,
Darling, darling can't you see.
I think I know
That it's time to go.

But there's no way home,
The flame is gone.
It's over now
No one to blame, no.
And there's no fear now
But you know...

Eden days,
Golden nights
Spent with you :
I love you.

And I feel the love falling,
Feel the love again...

And I feel the love falling,
Feel the love again...

And I feel the love falling,
Feel the love again...

And I feel the love falling,
Feel the love again...

Ed O'Brien, 2019

About this song

EOB, as previously mentioned, is Ed O'Brien, the second last member of Radiohead to embark on a solo career besides his activities with the band — Colin Greenwood (who actually plays bass on this track) has not taken the leap yet.

“‘Brasil’ is a state of mind, not a place or time” says Ed. For him, it all started at the end of his tour with Radiohead in 2012 when he and his family moved out to Brasil.

“We had a truly profound experience living in that extraordinary country, made new connections with people and places, and happened to go to Carnaval in Rio in 2013. Truly the greatest show on Earth: an explosion of light, melody, rhythm and love. For me, one of those musical eureka moments. As our time out there came to an end, we headed home and I found myself intuitively heading for the Welsh Hills. With a copy of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass, a couple of guitars, an amp, and some pedals (of course), I rented a cottage in the Cambrian Mountains and the songs that make up the album started to flow out.”

“At this time I also happened to come across Carl Sagan's beautiful words which accompany that iconic photo of the Earth, known as the Pale Blue Dot. Check them out if you don't know them. Truly words for our times.”

Unsurprisingly, this two-in-one song, which starts as a folk ballad before shifting into some sort of rhythmic trance induced by Colin Greenwood's ubiquitous bass over clear-ringing guitars and synths, is all about unconditional love. And the pictures of Andrew Donoho, who confesses Radiohead is the reason why he gravitated towards directing music videos, really add an extra dimension to this nearly 9-minute track — a rather unusual length for a single.

Lovecraft, Kubrick, and Junji Ito are amongst Ed O'Brien's favourite sci-fi authors, but unike his bandmate Thom Yorke, whose experimental album Anima depicts the quite murky atmosphere of his nightmares, he's always wanted to “to reinterpret their horrific premises into a more poetic and optimistic notion.”

“‘Brasil’ was one of those tracks just dripping with magic from the very beginning,” recalls Andrew Donoho. “Everything started clicking very quickly. Empathy, togetherness, wonder, spirituality, and exploration resonated from the song and the references, and I wanted to write a large scope, otherworldly concept weighted in humanity. Ed and I both shared a love of space and the abstract concepts surrounding time, so I started building a narrative around transcending the physical barriers of our bodies and the temporal barriers of linear experience.”

“What if an alien or higher being were to come to earth to help us achieve a greater existence, and not to destroy us? What would it look like if everyone on earth shared thoughts, experiences, and actions?” asks Ed. “The theory that humans, as a species, actually represent one large, singular organism has always fascinated me, and I wanted to explore that concept visually through a variety of different character perspectives, mediums, and impressionistic visual effects. All these layers and ideas culminated into our narrative for ‘Brasil.’”

Those of you who have been following me for a long time and probably start to know me well by now may certainly understand why I was so eager to share this with you at the start of this new year. Clearly, there will always be someone to call him an old 50-something high-flying hippie. Well, as John Lennon would sing:

I may be a dreamer
But I'm not the only one.
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one.
"Imagine", John Lennon (1971)

2020: An Earth Odyssey

Ey@el1/01/2020Esoterics No comments

Sing for absolution, I will be singing
And falling from your grace.
There's nowhere left to hide,
In no one to confide.
The truth burns deep inside
And will never die.
"Sing For Absolution", Muse (2003)

Every time we enter a new year, we're so confident that the one we just left behind was the worst and so we raise our expectations for the best to come only to find out, once that new year is over, that we had been wrong all along.

In accordance with the 2020 vibration (which also happens to be similar to my own life path's), I shall just mention a couple of so-called “esoteric” facts. Please, forgive me if it hurts your straightforward belief system. In this regard, I wish you all the best during the increasing challenges you may meet in the forthcoming months. But who knows, the last to come to awareness may not be the last to change, notwithstanding the big spiritual egos clouding our essence as they feel special for using their channeling skills whereas this ability lays dormant in everyone of us, not just in a specific group of “chosen ones” (too bad for their business).

So in numerology, 2020 reduces to 2+0+2+0=4 which is the number of earth, matter, practicality, pragmatism, logic, consistency, but also stubbornness and control. It is related to the Emperor in tarot tradition.

2020 is also the combination of two 2's (association, collaboration, diplomacy and duality) and two 0's (infinite possibilities, the mightiest number, the Source, all there is as when you add both positive and negative polarities of each number, it always makes zero). A mirror year amplifying the vibration of number 20 similar to the Judgement or Reconnection card. An angel coming down from Heaven blows a trumpet, symbolising spiritual awakening or Revelation.

Add some astrology to the whole mix and you get the 4 annual vibration reflected in the bundle of slow-moving planets in Earth signs (Capricorn and Taurus) including the South Node representing created karma, which will be transiting the galactic centre on the summer solstice.

There are also some talks about an upcoming dreaded solar flash our “controllers” are so concerned about, that would input news codes in our global consciousness (watch out for the 02.02.2020 portal). Incidentally, this fits rather well with what Murielle Roberts writes about Reish “the Divine Spark radiating from atop, ascending in humility, ‘bowing down your ego to hear your Heart’ and release your karmic memories so as to travel light in constant communication with your Higher Self”.

A blasting New Year (starting with eclipses, drums, trumpets, powder kegs and all the hoopla) I wish the least chaotic as possible if not meeting our expectations.

Let's stop wishing, let's create and let go!

The Enchanted Metsät of the Far North

Ey@el12/25/2019Inspiration No comments

With two thirds of its territory covered with forests (metsät in Finnish), as the land of Santa, Finland is best known for its dark and cold landscapes and early twilights. The winter solstice (shortest day of the year) is celebrated there as Yuletide, an old pagan festival honouring the “rebirth” of the Sun, on the 25th of December, after its transient disappearance under the horizon.

In Western religions, mythologies and literature, forests are places [...] where perceptions become confused, uncovering some hidden aspects of time and consciousness. In a forest, what is inanimate may suddenly become animate, gods turn into beasts, outlaws stand for justice, Rosalind shows up as a boy, the knight of impeccable virtue is degraded to the status of a primitive, straight lines make circles, and the familiar is replaced by fantasy.

~ Robert Pogue Harrison, Forests: The Shadow of Civilization (1992) (retranslated back from French as I could not find the original quote — Ed.)

Ossi Saarinen is a young Finnish photographer who, like most of his fellow countrymen, is fascinated by the magic of Finland's vast forests, and especially its wildlife which became his favourite subject and field of expertise. “My typical photographing day starts before the sunrise when the animals are most active” he explains. “I grab my camera and zoom-lens, put them in my backpack and head out to the forests near my home. Most of the time is walking around searching for the animals or laying down and waiting. When the day gets brighter I go back home to rest and prepare for the evening.”

Oh deer, Ossi's stunning photos are so awesome, they look like the stuff from fairy tales as you can see on his Instagram account, I've had the hardest time creating this sample gallery (not to mention Eklablog's servers crashing every time I uploaded a picture). I have a soft spot for foxes and squirrels so cute and expressive. How about you?

Have a Merry Christmas everyone and watch out for caribous!

Cover picture: Ossi Saarinen

Snow Showers

Ey@el12/21/2019Photo Editing No comments

In a previous tut, I explained why and how I have decided to do without Windows software running on Wine and create animations using GIMP only. There will be no sunshine after rain but snow in wintertime. Happy solstice!

Materials

a picture to add snow to (for this example, I picked up an image featuring stactic snowfall to create a swirling effect)
GIMP 2.10 (free and open source for Linux/Windows/OSX)

Instructions

1. Open a copy of the image you wish to animate in GIMP and if necessary, resize it to reduce loading time.

2. Add a new white layer on top of your existing image layer.

3. Colours - Invert menu.

4. Add noise via Filters - Noise - HSV Noise menu as follows:

- Dulling = 8
- Hue = 1
- Saturation = 1
- Value = 1
- Click on New Seed to generate new random pattern of pixels

5. Apply Filters - Light and Shadow - Sparkle with the following settings:

- Luminosity threshold = 0,017
- Flare intensity = 0,50
- Spike length = 10
- Spike points = 5
- Spike angle = -1
- Spike density = 1
- Transparency = 0
- Random hue = 0
- Random saturation = 0
- Check Preserve luminosity
- Check Foreground colour (needs to be set on white)

6. Remove black background of the layer via Colours - Colour to Alpha menu:

- Colour = black
- Other settings left as default

7. Rename layer as Snow 1 et set blend mode to Overlay.

8. Repeat steps 2 to 7 twice. Don't forget to click on New seed on step 4 (very important). And rename layers as Snow 2 and Snow 3.

9. Duplicate background image layer twice and insert a copy under each snow layer.

10. Merge down each s,pw layer with the image layer below using Layer - Merge Down context menu. You should now have 3 different layers.

11. Change colour mode for an optimised GIF using Image - Mode - Indexed menu:

- Generate optimum palette
- Colour dithering = Floyd-Steinberg (reduced colour bleeding)

12. Now you can export your animation via the File - Export as menu, choosing Image GIF Image as File Type. Another dialog opens to adjust the settings of you output file:

- Check As animation
- Check Loop forever
- Delay between frames where unspecified = 200 ms
- Other settings left as default

NOTE: Before merging down snow layers, you may want to erase some snowflakes from faces for instance.

For my second example using a personal picture, I opted for a falling effect. I first applied a mask to soften the image. On step 7, I set blend mode to Linear light and slightly reduced opacity. Instead of repeating steps to create additional snow layers, I duplicated the first one twice and applied a vertical offset using Layer - Transform - Offset menu with y = -30 for snow 1 layer and y = 30 for snow 3 layer, while snow 2 layer remained untouched. Then I duplicated and inserted each background image layer under each snow layer and merged down as previously explained. Upon exporting as GIF image, a pop-up window prompted me to crop overlapping layers by clicking on a button. Finally, I chose a frame delay of 400 ms.

Well, you should now be fully prepared to fight against global warming, otherwise ready to animate electronic Xmas cards. As for windy conditions, let's save it for another tut.