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fraterps
08-02-2006, 01:09 PM
Though there is a little lyrical exegesis that goes into this post, it is primarily concerned with the notional content of the song. As such I trust it is at home here.

I originally posted this on Toolarmy a couple of days ago. It's pretty much carried over from there. It is I believe the definitive discussion of the song.

As far as I can tell, some of Jambi's central lyrics (and as a result the song's meaning) have not been adequetly expressed among the members of Tool's Army. I see the lyrics they've posted at the Toolshed, a community funded endeavor, display this same lack of conveyance. I will now try to rectify what I feel is the loss. I think this is a powerful invocation, and for those who know of it in a crowd something wonderful can happen at its performance. Something wonderful happens in the awareness of it alone at home as well. But such is Tool, to a greater or lesser extent with or without that knowledge.

The song needs to be understood as the calling of and for an inner daimon, a higher genius invoked. 'Daimon' is a Greek word meaning friendly spirit or a spirit that lives with us. Socrates thought he had a Daimon which communicated with him, and the Greek word for 'happiness' that Aristotle made central to all human endeavor has daimon as a root--eudaimonaia.

Jambi begins with an open and honest testimony of the state in which the subject undergoing the invocation is in. S/he is accepting and bringing into the working the wealth possessed by her, the pleasures s/he enjoys. And s/he would give it all away. While the song overtly alludes to the idea of another person, Jambi should more completely be understood in the vein of the mystics of divine love (see St. John of the Cross, for instance). As the remainder of the lyrics amply indicate, the individual is in the process of accepting where s/he is, engorged and laughing all the way to hell, and in a magnificent fashion remaining firm in the invocation of the divine. This also needs to be understood in the context especially of the Abramelin operation and the symbolism of the ritual work of what today is most easily called the Golden Dawn, inclusive of its various connections. To avoid getting too wordy, I'll just let the song show what I mean.

These lyrics are copied from Toolshed's page as of, July 31st, 2006. Some of the lyrics I am unsure of, and so the square bracketed remarks showing contention between different interpretations carries over from Toolshed. Where I have made changes I have deleted what was there, my insertions then being placed within curved brackets '{}'. Where relevant, I insert my comments for the understanding of the song also in curved brackets, following a double return setting them away from the lyrics.




Jambi

{Here from} the king's mountain view
{Here from} the wild dream come true
Feast like a sultan, I do
On treasures and flesh never few


{Here is the first self-declaration--I am indulgent, a king among men in some ways.}


But I would wish it all, away
If I thought I'd lose you just one day


{and the recognition that there is an other, something to be addressed as an identity, a 'you', whose presence makes this indulgence trivial and irrelevant}


The devil and his had me down
In love with the dark side I've found
Dabblin' all the way down
Up to my neck soon to drown.


{Continuing with the process, the aspirant remarks on this aspect of the journey. We all have our devils, I suppose.}


But you changed that all for me
Lifted me up, turned me round

So I, I would wish this all away

Pray like a [martyr / father] dusk to dawn
Beg like a hooker all night long
Shout to the devil with my song
And got what I wanted all along


{I think perhaps the line is 'sent to the devil with my song', not 'shout'.}


But I
I would
If I could
I would
Wish it away
Wish it away
Wish it all away
Wanna wish it all away
No price could hold sway
Or justify my
{middle way?, my center}


{This line I am not convinced of ('middle way' doesn't seem clear--it may be 'giving away'). But the notion that there is a 'center' belonging to the speaker now becomes the first direct textual indication that the gift which is wished to be kept before all the world is really something about ourselves, something we ARE in some sense (or at least have the potential to be)--here understood as a point of equilibrium.}


So if I could I'd wish it all away
If I thought tomorrow, they'd take you away

You're my piece of mind, {my AUM}
I said I'm just trying to hold on
One more day


{The object of this affection, this desire for continued close companionship, is one's piece of mind, the AUM}


Damn my eyes!

Damn my eyes!


{Oedipus, anyone? Ironically, it's only at the end of the play, after Oedipus has gouged out his own eyes, that he truly 'sees'.}


If they should compromise
A fulcrum {or fall from?}
{What you need....If I need this...
I might as well be gone...}


{The exact composition I am unclear of here, but the central message comes soon enough. This is the final declaration of the state s/he is in, before the instrumental which leads into the following, the invocation proper.}


Shine on forever
Shine on benevolent sun
Shine down upon the broken
Shine [on 'til / until] the two become one

Shine on forever
Shine on benevolent sun
Shine down upon the severed
Shine [on 'til / until] the two become one


{Here is the entrance into the central focus of the ritual, what the work signifies.}


{Divide heaven with a middle way,
Divide Adam with a middle way,}


{And this is the union, no radical dichotomy within us eternal, a devil and god to vaccilate between, but a middle way. For this one must understand qabala. Just do a google search for 'Adam Kadmon' and that will get you started. Note also the relevance and placement of the sphere of the sun on the tree of life--shine on benevolent sun. Tool knows what they're doing. This is a song for the union of god and man, the masses of humanity and the hosts of heaven. This is the Great Work of which little has been written and less understood. But pursue it and you can't be kept from it. In concert, I imagine it can be spectacular. Just to have it present in the world today is an amazing token of the light bathing this planet right now. But I don't feel like talking politics.}


Shine down upon the many, light our way{s},
Benevolent sun.


{Again the invocation, now suffused not just among the broken and the severed, but out upon the many, lighting our ways.}


Breathe in union

So, as one, survive
Another day {in} season


{Ah, but there's else to be done, for the world is at a tipping point now. Best to remind us with a call to union, to survive another season. This should be the will of us all, if we have any sense of world affairs today. Personally I would be very suprised if I didn't see at least a low-grade nuclear device used in my lifetime. I'm of the opinion that most people in the middle east will glow in the dark before the end of the next decade. Damn it, got into politics anyway. Such should not be discussed in lodge, I'm told.}


{Silence Legion} save your poison
{Silence Legion} stay out of my way


Finally, a banishing of Spirits, to clear the field that the work may be done purely. In some rituals a given activity is finished by a forceful call to 'stand back' against any untoward spirits that may enter the consequence of the ritual as it is incorporated into our own ongoing experience. This is called a 'banishing' rite. The banishing ritual is very often the first solid piece of ritual work an aspirant is introduced to, as it helps in equilibrating the yearling as s/he prepares to make way into the world of subtle vibration, where the littlest thought or deed can set up impressive repercussions. More progressive work usually follows, but this all depends on the tenor of the will of the student. Suffice it to say in this context, while some rituals are happy to end with no banishing, Jambi finishes its daimonic entreaty with a healthy declaration that the work here will not be spoiled by Legion. To understand who is Legion, see a New Testament, Matthew 8:28-34, Mark 5:1-20, Luke 8:26-39. Pray we aren't the pigs!

The song is meant to embolden us in the quest to pursue this goal, knowledge and conversation of the holy guardian angel, though Tool is too consciously removed from the imagery of the tradition to make the references overt. That's part of their art, after all. But the message is there nonetheless. This particular song I have found to be very dear to me.

In closing, I would like to say I hold no exclusivity for this reading. I imagine there are other ways to look at the song. But I think the notion I've conveyed here is true to the intentions of the band--it is closer to what they were consciously intending than anything else I've seen. Decide for yourselves. This song is but one piece of a much larger tapestry composing their artistry, and it paints a beautiful picture (the system).


Wishing You all the Best,

PS

Inner_Eulogy
08-02-2006, 01:51 PM
Just adding some changes/most likely corrections to your lyrics.

"Tempted the devil with my song,
and got what I wanted all along" (very clearly heard)

"No {preasure/pleasure} could hold sway,
or justify my givin' away my center"

"You're my piece of mind, my {aum/home},
my {center/saturn/I said} I'm just trying to
hold on, one more day"

"Damn my eyes if they should
compromise a fulcrum {watchin' me/want and need}
divide me then, I might as well be gone"

eulogist
08-07-2006, 08:14 PM
good post but you need a little help being consise

that was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy longer than it needed to be

fraterps
08-07-2006, 11:15 PM
Reading is a pleasure. I offer my thoughts and words to be savored, and if for some the meal is too long, there's always a McDonald's open somewhere.

ObiJohnKenobi
08-07-2006, 11:55 PM
reading something worth reading is a pleasure... but reading a collection of crap is like eating a pasta dish some drunken chef has lingered over far too long, spilling the entire jar of basil and a few too many spoonfuls of minced garlic into...

just because it took a while, means nothing.

your reference to Oedipus is quite amusing, given the hubris in that last comment.

corps d'allumen
08-08-2006, 12:47 AM
"Lestat killed two, sometimes three a night. A fresh young girl, that was his favorite for the first of the evening. For seconds, he preferred a gilded beautiful youth. But the snob in him loved to hunt in society, and the blood of the aristocrat thrilled him best of all." -Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles

spacemonkeyadb
08-08-2006, 03:19 AM
{Divide heaven with a middle way,
Divide Adam with a middle way,}


I really don't hear this at all when I listen to the song, or in fact anything about a "middle way". The lyric sounds like "divided and withering away" to me, and I have to wonder whether your research came before or after listening to the song. I can't imagine hearing this as "...middle way" unless it was what I was wanting to hear in advance.
You have come up with a fairly deep interpretation for the song, so well done on that, but it's an interpretation that I think becomes considerably less likely if you are mistaken with this part of the lyrics.

A Spirit of Radio
08-08-2006, 07:21 AM
divide and withering away

that is how i hear it- because if the hero divides from the other (his peace of mind) then he will suffer.
but i also see this as dividing from his lifestyle-his art and music with tool- if maynard leaves that all behind to only consider devo then he suffers as well.

although , i don't hear middle in those lyrics, i do understand an idea of finding the middle from this song-especially in the lyrics about giving away the center.
maynard would be happiest when he could balance his rock world with his personal world but it is surely hard to do.

fraterps
08-08-2006, 11:07 AM
reading something worth reading is a pleasure... but reading a collection of crap is like eating a pasta dish some drunken chef has lingered over far too long, spilling the entire jar of basil and a few too many spoonfuls of minced garlic into...

just because it took a while, means nothing.

your reference to Oedipus is quite amusing, given the hubris in that last comment.


Pardon me ObiJohn, but should I take that comment to be an assimilation of my post to 'crap', or are you just saying that some things aren't worth reading? Of course there are some things we needn't waste our time reading. I seem to recal a recent post attempting to read Jambi as a Gallilean anecdote. I will comment more directly on it in its proper place, but such an implausible reading seems more in line with what we might call a 'crappy waste of time' than anything I've written about the esoteric interpretation given above. If you thought you could post that farce in defense of your statement that 'just because it took a while, means nothing', you miss the point of why I think the written word is to be savored. Duration of composition, you are correct, bears nothing on the content of the message. And if we compare the contents of our respective messages (ie Jambi as daimonic invocation and Jambi as Gallileo's defense), I think we'll see quite the difference that justifies filing one in the category of noetic delicacy, and the other as crappy spaghetti. As for the hubris you seem to think I display, pound sand. I care not a whit for what others think of my disposition, save they show courtesy in discussing it. We are talking about the notional content of the song, my friend, not the aesthetic qualities of our various attempts to communicate our interpretations. And as I said, comparing notional contents will show quite a divergence between our understandings of Jambi, regardless of how long the post is or whatever hubris some might see in it. For what it's worth, I have received two private messages assuring me of the value my reading has afforded these individuals. But thanks anyway.

PS

fraterps
08-08-2006, 11:13 AM
I really don't hear this at all when I listen to the song, or in fact anything about a "middle way". The lyric sounds like "divided and withering away" to me, and I have to wonder whether your research came before or after listening to the song. I can't imagine hearing this as "...middle way" unless it was what I was wanting to hear in advance.
You have come up with a fairly deep interpretation for the song, so well done on that, but it's an interpretation that I think becomes considerably less likely if you are mistaken with this part of the lyrics.


Right you are, spacemonkey, these two lines are in some ways the linchpin of my reading. I won't say they're integral, though they do play a central role. Much weight is also carried by the reading as a whole (and indeed by the widespread agreement this reading has with the bulk of Tool's artistry), and so these are not so important as to be necessary. I am fairly certain of what I hear, but I understand others think differently. Should we open up an informal poll? Listen to the song and consider it, post your thoughts on these lines.

As for how I came to hear it, I take a little umbrage at being accused of hearing something because I want to hear it. I'm sorry you can't imagine hearing that line any other way. But I can imagine you could imagine it, if that helps. Either way, the issue needn't turn on the subjective renderings of our particular psychical constitutions. As I've said, I think the message stands rightly on its own.

Cheers,

PS

ObiJohnKenobi
08-08-2006, 01:14 PM
Pardon me ObiJohn, but should I take that comment to be an assimilation of my post to 'crap', or are you just saying that some things aren't worth reading? Of course there ... etc.... Duration of composition, you are correct, bears nothing on the content of the message. And if we compare the contents of our respective messages (ie Jambi as daimonic invocation and Jambi as Gallileo's defense), I think we'll see quite the difference that justifies filing one in the category of noetic ....etc... delicacy, and the other as crappy spaghetti. As for the hubris you seem to think I display, pound sand....tick, tock, tick, tock..... I have received two private messages assuring me of the value my reading has afforded these individuals. But thanks anyway....are we done? oh, good....

PS

i wish you and those two other individuals all the best in your interpretive frenzies...

my comments were directed less at your general, noetic musings and more at the cumbersome fumbling use of the english language - i could drive a tank down main street to be noticed, but it would leave a lot of clutter in its wake.

your hubris was, and will continue to be amusing.

p.s. the RTG v1.0, in my opinion, made a very successful first run. i will, of course, tweak some of its scripting to perfect it somewhat. next on the list, is a striking correlation of Jambi with the Great One, Wayne Gretzky!

fraterps
08-08-2006, 10:12 PM
i wish you and those two other individuals all the best in your interpretive frenzies...

my comments were directed less at your general, noetic musings and more at the cumbersome fumbling use of the english language - i could drive a tank down main street to be noticed, but it would leave a lot of clutter in its wake.

your hubris was, and will continue to be amusing.

[/i]


Thanks, good to have you gone. I think if you have the patience of say, a tired hummingbird, you'd find there's really little clutter in what I've written. I write what I think and I think what will communicate ideas to people willing to pay attention. But there's no accounting for some people's tastes. I imagine we differ in tastes, if all you've got to say is I write too much. I don't recall you offering anything of substance to the subject at hand. As for your projection of hubris, what say we avoid insulting each other, huh? Last time I checked, neither obijohn nor the flying sphagetti monster were on the Toolshed oversight boards. Why don't you go intimidate someone who will cower if that's how you get your jolly's. Once again, good to have you gone. Your contributions will not be missed.

Cheers,

PS

Mahdi
08-09-2006, 12:06 AM
Though there is a little lyrical exegesis that goes into this post, it is primarily concerned with the notional content of the song. As such I trust it is at home here.

I originally posted this on Toolarmy a couple of days ago. It's pretty much carried over from there. It is I believe the definitive discussion of the song.

As far as I can tell, some of Jambi's central lyrics (and as a result the song's meaning) have not been adequetly expressed among the members of Tool's Army. I see the lyrics they've posted at the Toolshed, a community funded endeavor, display this same lack of conveyance. I will now try to rectify what I feel is the loss. I think this is a powerful invocation, and for those who know of it in a crowd something wonderful can happen at its performance. Something wonderful happens in the awareness of it alone at home as well. But such is Tool, to a greater or lesser extent with or without that knowledge.

The song needs to be understood as the calling of and for an inner daimon, a higher genius invoked. 'Daimon' is a Greek word meaning friendly spirit or a spirit that lives with us. Socrates thought he had a Daimon which communicated with him, and the Greek word for 'happiness' that Aristotle made central to all human endeavor has daimon as a root--eudaimonaia.

Jambi begins with an open and honest testimony of the state in which the subject undergoing the invocation is in. S/he is accepting and bringing into the working the wealth possessed by her, the pleasures s/he enjoys. And s/he would give it all away. While the song overtly alludes to the idea of another person, Jambi should more completely be understood in the vein of the mystics of divine love (see St. John of the Cross, for instance). As the remainder of the lyrics amply indicate, the individual is in the process of accepting where s/he is, engorged and laughing all the way to hell, and in a magnificent fashion remaining firm in the invocation of the divine. This also needs to be understood in the context especially of the Abramelin operation and the symbolism of the ritual work of what today is most easily called the Golden Dawn, inclusive of its various connections. To avoid getting too wordy, I'll just let the song show what I mean.

These lyrics are copied from Toolshed's page as of, July 31st, 2006. Some of the lyrics I am unsure of, and so the square bracketed remarks showing contention between different interpretations carries over from Toolshed. Where I have made changes I have deleted what was there, my insertions then being placed within curved brackets '{}'. Where relevant, I insert my comments for the understanding of the song also in curved brackets, following a double return setting them away from the lyrics.




Jambi

{Here from} the king's mountain view
{Here from} the wild dream come true

etc.....
PS

i share your view of this song.
in terms of you take on lyrics, i think it is fulcrum (point at which something is balanced of pivotal), a very well chosen word.

but i think the lyrics also say.

Shine on forever
Shine on benevolent sun
Shine down upon the broken
Shine until the two become one

Shine on forever
Shine on the devil and son
Shine down upon the severed
Shine until the two become one

which further support your take on the song.

with that said... on a personal note... it brings to mid many of my own thoughts and feelings. that i have so many good things in my life... that i should be thankful for... but if i didn't have K... this illusion holds no pleasure for me. without K, i would seek to depart these cycles of light/dark, birth/death, growth/decay... i would withstand the light of intelligence and find my equilibrium... find permeance... but as long as he's with me, Samsara still holds my imagination. why leave when there is so much to share that is so beautiful it hurts... i sometimes wonder if being whole and at peace would be tolerable...
that's the power of this song for me... truth and enlightenment vs. passionate love and lust for life . try to find the balance.

A Spirit of Radio
08-09-2006, 05:18 AM
nice, mahdi.
i'm all about the balance-see my signature?
the quest for balance between heart and mind is indeed a worthy one.

YankeeJTC
08-09-2006, 05:27 AM
Just my .02, after hearing the song live twice I've come to understand the lyrics as

No pressure could hold sway
Or justify my guilt and awake my center

LetGoLetgoLetGo
08-09-2006, 02:23 PM
Damn my eyes if they should
Compromise our fulcrum.
If want and need
divide me
then
I
might
as
well
be
gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oone.

ObiJohnKenobi
08-09-2006, 04:52 PM
bleat


i don't recall saying i was going anywhere. i am done with this little pissing contest, however.

nighty, night.

Carbonatedgravy
08-10-2006, 07:34 AM
Besides the "middle way" part, which I don't hear at all, I think it's all a fine interpretation. Even so, I still think there are parts about this song that nobody really gets.

fraterps
08-10-2006, 08:57 AM
Besides the "middle way" part, which I don't hear at all, I think it's all a fine interpretation. Even so, I still think there are parts about this song that nobody really gets.


Okay, we've got one 'against' middle way. Thanks for contributing. Any other votes?

martyrinexile86
08-10-2006, 09:34 AM
Congratulations fraterps, for you are the recipiant of the coveted, highly prized "Most achingly pretentious post of the year" award.

implandnoises
08-10-2006, 09:46 AM
^your signature fits the moment too, nice.

martyrinexile86
08-10-2006, 10:00 AM
lol thanks

DON IOTAE
08-10-2006, 10:04 AM
ha

fraterps
08-10-2006, 11:35 AM
Congratulations fraterps, for you are the recipiant of the coveted, highly prized "Most achingly pretentious post of the year" award.


Sorry it wasn't clear, but that was sincere. I had earlier remarked that an informal poll might go some way towards getting an idea of whether that line is heard by anyone else. Funny that sincerity can come across as pretention. Can you be pretentiously sincere? Strikes me as sort of oxymoronic, but I can see how I was misunderstood.

Best,

PS

martyrinexile86
08-10-2006, 02:26 PM
I too, however, interpret the lines in question as being, "Divide and wither it away", although it seems to me that he can be faintly heard saying something after 'and', then resumes with "wither it away"

black_rose
08-10-2006, 04:55 PM
Thanks fraterps, I didn't really like the song before. You have helped me a lot, now I feel I know the song a lot better and I enjoy listening to it a lot more. Your interpratation is at times beautiful and I hope it helps others in understanding this great song.

Thanx!



{Divide heaven with a middle way,
Divide Adam with a middle way,}



P.S I can see how this makes sense, this is surely what it says in this part of that song?

fraterps
08-10-2006, 04:57 PM
Thanks fraterps, I didn't really like the song before. You have helped me a lot, now I feel I know the song a lot better and I enjoy listening to it a lot more. Your interpratation is at times beautiful and I hope it helps others in understanding this great song.

Thanx!


You're very welcome Blackrose; glad to be of some service.
PS

implandnoises
08-10-2006, 09:12 PM
Thanks fraterps, I didn't really like the song before. You have helped me a lot, now I feel I know the song a lot better and I enjoy listening to it a lot more. Your interpratation is at times beautiful and I hope it helps others in understanding this great song.

Thanx!



P.S I can see how this makes sense, this is surely what it says in this part of that song?
I'm sorry, but is red the colour of sarcasm or stupidity?

martyrinexile86
08-11-2006, 02:22 PM
lol let's make a poll

hubris17
08-13-2006, 01:16 PM
Congratulations fraterps, for you are the recipiant of the coveted, highly prized "Most achingly pretentious post of the year" award.
good post. definitely a proper time to hurl my screen name around.

fraterps
08-13-2006, 01:19 PM
Shhsh, silent spirit. Not everyone's playing that game right now.

fraterps
08-13-2006, 01:30 PM
As a friend said recently, now back to the noodle of the matter.

As a follow up, it's important to note there are a number of live Jambi versions available online. After listening to some of them, it is difficult to sustain my impression that the lines discuss dividing a middle way. Let others listen and find for themselves. As I've already mentioned elsewhere, while that section of the song is of central justification for the reading I offered, I think there is sufficient reason to think its other sources of justification (textual within the song, relational to Tool's general themes) still serve to carry the weight of the view I'm advancing. Knowing that it isn't falling on hollow ears in all quarters, I think it is important to point out this error, if indeed I've misheard what's been said. The album version to me still sounds the same. I think the poll is now at three for and three against. Numbers are still so low as to be concerned only with those interested enough to say something, so the usefullness of the statistic is still relatively slight. The numbers reading these posts, if they contributed, would serve to round out the figure.

All the best,

PS

PriceisRight
08-13-2006, 10:00 PM
The more I learn about this album...the more I really believe the entire album is centralized around his mother.

This has an obvious spiritual tone of a "guardian angel". His mother?

weesper
08-14-2006, 06:58 AM
your reference to Oedipus is quite amusing, given the hubris in that last comment.

That's pure evil, I love it