thougts.

[jocke]

I think it's a song about contoling youself in a jealous situation. Crucify your ego: don't think of yourself so much in a relationship, that will just wreck everything. Thats pretty much all.
Why i came up with this is because i have that kind of problem and i could really relate to reflection. Like every other song to when i'm in that state of mind. =)

[4nick8]

The fun thing about breaking these lyrics down is that different people have different ideas of what the songs mean, usually totally influenced by something that happened to the reader/listener in the past, or by their current situation.

The song, to me, represents coming back from your all time low, your worst moment. When things are at their worst, it is uplifting to know that it can only get better from there. It starts out in a depression, talking about the emptiness calling him, and how pitiful that he finds comfort in it.

Then in his darkest moment the moon tells him a secret. This section to me talks of an ancient and silent being sharing its light (rather, its borrowed light) with him, in attempt to comfort.

Then, once you get to a new plane of understanding, you must make it where you won't reach that low again, so you must crucify the ego, or destroy whatever it was that caused you to reach that stage of depression. Here he refers to "ego" and wishing not to sooth (or feed, but it sounds like "soothing" to me) his narcissism. To me, this represents suicide. Everyone always says that suicide is the selfish way out of a bad situation, you don't think of your loved ones, just of yourself. Selfish, ego, narcissism..

Praying the light lifts him out is hoping that the moon's secret will help pull himself out of his severe depression, before he goes through with it.

before he pines away.

[david_19690106]

I think this song is about depression as well....
but for somewhat different reasons.

I think everyone can relate to this song, because depression..in all it's forms, is universal.

"I have come curiosly close to the end...."

this line sums up the song before it even begins....
I think that anyone who has experienced severe depression can understand that line......the sudden resignation, and subsequent feeling of relief from feelings of despair.....kind of falling outside youself and then seeing youself from outside.....dispassionate.....hence the word..."curiously..."

You begin to see how your mind was caught in a spiral...a downward spiral.....a negative spiral.
When you finally break the cycle of negativity and see yourself as you really are.....a lone satelite....nothing more...and certainly nothing less.....then you can start to heal and move forward....

I really believe that reflection is the antithesis to laterlus......the spiral up and out....

to the spiral in and down.....these songs seem to go together .....it's weird that lateralus comes first though.....maybe Maynard is tthinking of the "high" and then the dangerous "coming down" that can be as profound.

just a thought.

[twist]

I think this may have been said before, but I wanna shed my light on it. The song seems to be telling us that we are all reflections of everyone else, simply put by maynard:
"When we are born we know nothing, everything we know and do has been has been taught to us".
This is imminent in the lines:
"As full and bright as I am,
This light is not my own and,
A million light reflections pass over me"
The song MAY be telling us to become ourselves, before its far too late, (heh) before we pine away,

Some furthur discussion maybe...