Schism on a larger scale

[Alexinnis]

Schism is most easily recognized by showing a relationship.

It is a metaphor, take the song and apply it to almost anything that shares a relationship with something else. Schism can be applied to the most broad as well as specific relationships all around us.

Human relationships, inter-personal relationships, anything.

People say it was a prediction to the september 11th attacks, but look, the Two Towers shared a very simple, unoticable relationship that was torn down, this song applies to everything, it is a lesson in how on a wider scale everything comes down to communication.

Communication is the basis for every relationship so to speak.

I dont think that what Maynard lyrically and spiritually intended for this song was an actual, specific encounter learn from. I think he was laying down a concept, setting a foundation, from personal experiance, for any relationship.

Again, Maynard reveals his unbievable, everlasting wisdom on love, life, and relationships.

P.S. My earlier interpretation just shows the broadness and genius this song truly has.

Thanks for reading, criticism and relpies welcome.

[paraflux]

Hardly any of Maynard's lyrics in Tool are specific. I think this is done to ensure multi-dimensional meanings.

[Tantobourne]

Originally posted by paraflux
I think this is done to ensure multi-dimensional meanings.
Or perhaps his train of thought produces it naturally.

[reedc33]

Originally posted by mstajduh
hmm. here's the deal...

when you start to think in terms of symbols and mythology which connects with your subconscious, you begin to see how everything is relative and understand the fundamentals of life....

it's kind of like karma.....

More like the Buddhist idea of interdependent co-arising.

[SansReality]

Maybe it exposes how easily ideas can be bent and changed to fit anything for truly we dont know if it was even intended to be so broad but rather our own interpretation makes it so.

It means different things to different people because each person takes it and examines it with the wisdom of their experiences, so it gives things infinite possibilities in that perspective.

[UncnciousShadow]

This song can be interpretated on so many levels, and I have not even tried yet, but you made some very good points there alex. By the way, thanks for introducing me to tool man.

[paraflux]

The beauty of multiple meanings is a beauty that some people dont even get to fathom. We are lucky (or is it just evolutionary fate?) that some have the spiritual and cognitive ability to recognize scales and dimensions, and how things can interact on more than one of these. Schism could be on such a subhuman level such as the way cells split (mitosis) or how a earthquake could cause a gap in the soil separating a male animal and a female animal who were beforehand lovers, or how a male and femal human who are intimate lovers can grow apart through any means, mostly communication breakdowns, or even further than that, how humans have separated themselves from God (by God I mean the source, the universe, the force, whatever you wish to call it, and I think this separation was necessary to fully experience the unity), and perhaps even further up the scale. My favorite meaning is usually the largest, and the largest dimensional meanings with Tool are usually about the human race and how we can progress, or at least the song (such as schism) is a piece of the puzzle (I consider the last two records much grander puzzles than Undertow). Take AEnima. Stinkfist gets the listener a premonition of something big about to be explained. Eulogy diminishes the need to follow blindly, further abolishing the walls we have built in our realities and gearing us up for the new precious information. If we are still following blindly then we wont understand. This message cannot be followed blindly, it must be seen and experienced. H. deals with duality, and why we are where we are in the evolutionary ladder. 46 & 2 is an obvious "breaking through" to the new life and discarding this bored, tired, mundane life talked about in Stinkfist. I consider Hooker With A Penis to be the comic relief of the record, and they make it, interestingly enough, the heaviest song on the album. Jimmy is more personal, about the return of the prodigal self, the union of the self with the self. Pushit as well as schism describes the gap we face in order to reach the other side. This is the best part of the album for me, a more experiential song than 46 & 2, which I consider more informative than experiential. Aenema describes the apocalyptic nature of the 44 & 2 human race, a warning, more urgent now, to cross that gap. And 3rd Eye is the actual process of awakening. Not a song describing the process, but the actual experience of going through it.

Lateralus is like this as well, following a step-by-step pattern to assimilate all of the pieces, through the title track. The difference between AEnima and Lateralus is that the last three songs on Lateralus are like a re-enactment of the first 9 songs, or actually practicing what is being taught. Powerful stuff.

Anyway, all the aforementioned meanings for AEnima are my own, and I expect no one else to have the same exact philosophy as I do. But at least I think I made it good reading.

[Luna Galapogos]

The problem with evolutionary fate is that evolution was never there to create a fate for us. You see, evolution is the process of us changing over time, slowly but surely. Different parts of our bodies changing at different times to best fit our surroundings until we are completely different. The problem is that many of our cells are irreducibly complex. If one part of that cell is missing or changed because of evolution then that cell wouldn't work. There is no natural selection. The cold silence has been made between humans and God (by God I mean our creator), and we have allowed evolution to atrophy any sense of relation to God. The pieces fit, we just don't look for the pieces anymore. They mildewed and smoldered and nobody cares to put the pieces back together because it might be bad for them. P.S. I believe that 46+2 is talking about the shadow in Jungian theory that is the part of our personality that we refuse to accept. The part of our personality that we need to step through and come out the other side of to be the person that we are suppossed to be without having to hide behind lies all the time. It is about taking responsibility for the things we are, and the things that we wish we weren't.

I'm not trying to upset you, this is just fact and a little bit of my own opinion.

[paraflux]

The problem with evolutionary fate is that evolution was never there to create a fate for us. You see, evolution is the process of us changing over time, slowly but surely. Different parts of our bodies changing at different times to best fit our surroundings until we are completely different. The problem is that many of our cells are irreducibly complex. If one part of that cell is missing or changed because of evolution then that cell wouldn't work. There is no natural selection. The cold silence has been made between humans and God (by God I mean our creator), and we have allowed evolution to atrophy any sense of relation to God. The pieces fit, we just don't look for the pieces anymore. They mildewed and smoldered and nobody cares to put the pieces back together because it might be bad for them. P.S. I believe that 46+2 is talking about the shadow in Jungian theory that is the part of our personality that we refuse to accept. The part of our personality that we need to step through and come out the other side of to be the person that we are suppossed to be without having to hide behind lies all the time. It is about taking responsibility for the things we are, and the things that we wish we weren't.

I'm not trying to upset you, this is just fact and a little bit of my own opinion.

I dont really get upset unless christians try to talk shit to me.

Your analysis is decidedly cold and purely scientific. However, if we examine the breakthroughs in quantum mechanics, we realize that our simply observing something affects that thing and how it behaves. Our brains send waves out, everywhere, every day, affecting all. This is nothing new, it has been around since the dawn. I propose that there IS evolutionary fate, that WE decided what that fate would be, whether we realize it or not, and that we direct our own fate, and have been since the beginning. Energy, as you surely know, cant be created or destroyed, only transformed, so that means we were there at the beginning, no? Just in a different form? Directing and guiding the unravelling universe as one consciousness, as the pure collective that we know exists, humans have just separated themselves from. I have a few threads on Adam and Eve (talking about it as a story, not as events with historical significance) that deal with the separation. I think one of them is in Schism section somewhere. Basically I say we are responsible for our own realities and what is possible or impossible in said realities.

[Luna Galapogos]

I do believe that we choose our own fate, that we have the freedom of choice for sure. But who is to say that I was a christian, just because I disagree with the evolution bullshit doesn't mean that I'm christian. I am however, but the point is that you choose to judge me before you know who I am, thus over time you will continue making these choices, this in turn makes you a fucking asshole because of your choices. I have to listen to and put up with the ideas of evolution all the time, I believe that some is correct and that some is incorrect, but the point is that nobody cares enough to listen to a christian because they themselves are too caught up in evolution and themselves.

[paraflux]

pardon me for being caught up in progression.

I dont care what you believe. I didnt even know you were a christian, and my statement was not aimed at you. You werent even talking shit. I wasnt worked up about it.
You got defensive when I wasnt even referring to you. Maybe that should tell you something? It does me, that whenever the realities we have created get challenged, lots of people become afraid at their base level, they might not even realize it. Of COURSE if something challenges our existence, fear is an option. The point is to be open enough to examine the possibility and then either incorporate it or reject it, not get upset about it. I listened to christians for 20 years, and even had to "put up" with them for a year afterwards, everyone was so goddamn "worried" about me and my salvation, even going so far as having interventions that I walked out of because I had heard it all before. Sure, I had rebuttals, I had my reasons, but no one was int5erested in those, and I have not found a christian yet who is willing to listen to anything I have to say concerning how the Bible and science are saying the same thing, just from different time periods and different perspectives. I mean, there was no science in the time of the Bible, so how else to explain creation except through metaphors? So, you see, the coin flips both ways.
Evolution and God's plan are one. We determine what direction our race is headed, we have been doing so unconsciously since history has started being written. The point is to discover that we are indeed Made In His Image, that we all have the inner man or inner being that Paul speaks to the Corinthians about.

Why is it so hard to give spirituality a chance?

Why is it so hard to see that Tool is christlike in example, showing us just as Christ did what we can be, what we can become, what we can create?

Why is it so hard to be a star, to become united with God like Tricky does at the end of the parabola video?

Why is it that churches only teach dogma, and ignore how exciting real spirituality can be? Overcoming the fear of the unknown is uinheard of in the church. Fear is taught, in fact, to fear what we do not understand, to just let it go and say "God knows what he is doing."

Why is it so hard to DESIRE what Christ had, what the first christians at Antioch felt, to feel those tongues of fire and KNOW that we are all One?

[Luna Galapogos]

I'm sorry, I judged you, I over reacted and I was the asshole. My most sincere apologies to you. And yes, I do believe that science and christianity are very closely linked. I believe that many of the things that you say are very true, and worth people hearing. I do try to understand things on a larger scale, but as of yet, I am just beginning, I am very interested in incorporating science and christianity. Well, I am sorry, I hope that you do not hold my misplaced judgement against me, or other christians that would do the same. P.S. I am not afraid of outside the box, it is to be explored, examined, not run from. To understand is to use the mind that God gave to us.

[paraflux]

I am not upset. I just wish that we could all be united in knowledge, in spirit, which is the only pure natural way. We have fallen so far from the natural order of things. I encourage you in your thinking outside the box, as you put it. The churches I have been a part of have completely ignored the space outside the box, and even heavily discouraged thinking about what else there could be, saying that we are but lowly humans, sheep who never fathom the will of God. I shit on that philosophy daily.

[Soliloquy]

It would be fair for one to assume that Maynard purposely writes his songs/poetry in an ambiguous & metaphorical manner as to mislead the general public. His work could be and I emphasise 'could', be looked at as a platitude. But that is just a thought, not my opinion.

The definition of his poetry lies in its interpretation essentially. Though interpretation can be somewhat ignorant, that is the meaning of the poetry in its most basic form. What it means to him and what it means to you will never be the same, though they may be similar. One encounters this with any poetry, and as a poet myself, I believe that is the magic of poems - its interpretation.

[reedc33]

It would be fair for one to assume that Maynard purposely writes his songs/poetry in an ambiguous & metaphorical manner as to mislead the general public. His work could be and I emphasise 'could', be looked at as a platitude. But that is just a thought, not my opinion.

The definition of his poetry lies in its interpretation essentially. Though interpretation can be somewhat ignorant, that is the meaning of the poetry in its most basic form. What it means to him and what it means to you will never be the same, though they may be similar. One encounters this with any poetry, and as a poet myself, I believe that is the magic of poems - its interpretation.


That perfectly, and eloquently explains the way I think about art, poetry, literature and music.

It seems absurd to say 'THIS IS WHAT IT'S ABOUT!'(Eulogy of Jesus Christ...).

edit: Welcome, Soliloquy.

[paraflux]

It would be fair for one to assume that Maynard purposely writes his songs/poetry in an ambiguous & metaphorical manner as to mislead the general public. His work could be and I emphasise 'could', be looked at as a platitude. But that is just a thought, not my opinion.

The definition of his poetry lies in its interpretation essentially. Though interpretation can be somewhat ignorant, that is the meaning of the poetry in its most basic form. What it means to him and what it means to you will never be the same, though they may be similar. One encounters this with any poetry, and as a poet myself, I believe that is the magic of poems - its interpretation.

This should be a basic understanding among those who are interested in digging into the messages that Tool provides. Its a shame its not. Anyway, I dont think he makes it ambiguous on purpose. Like I have said before, I dont think maynard is ever himself when he is with Tool. I think he is channeling some pure energy to spread the word. And that energy uses our limited language as best it can, I mean, how can you describe in English words what true spirituality is like? You cant, except by metaphors and vague terminology that could mean a variety of things.

[RRed]

Evolution and God's plan are one. We determine what direction our race is headed, we have been doing so unconsciously since history has started being written. The point is to discover that we are indeed Made In His Image, that we all have the inner man or inner being that Paul speaks to the Corinthians about.

Why is it so hard to give spirituality a chance?

Why is it so hard to see that Tool is christlike in example, showing us just as Christ did what we can be, what we can become, what we can create?

Why is it so hard to be a star, to become united with God like Tricky does at the end of the parabola video?

Why is it that churches only teach dogma, and ignore how exciting real spirituality can be? Overcoming the fear of the unknown is uinheard of in the church. Fear is taught, in fact, to fear what we do not understand, to just let it go and say "God knows what he is doing."

Why is it so hard to DESIRE what Christ had, what the first christians at Antioch felt, to feel those tongues of fire and KNOW that we are all One?

Right On!!! That's all I can say is right on main!!! Good word.

[Soliloquy]

pardon me for being caught up in progression.


Evolution and God's plan are one. We determine what direction our race is headed, we have been doing so unconsciously since history has started being written. The point is to discover that we are indeed Made In His Image, that we all have the inner man or inner being that Paul speaks to the Corinthians about.

Why is it so hard to give spirituality a chance?

Why is it so hard to see that Tool is christlike in example, showing us just as Christ did what we can be, what we can become, what we can create?

Why is it so hard to be a star, to become united with God like Tricky does at the end of the parabola video?

Why is it that churches only teach dogma, and ignore how exciting real spirituality can be? Overcoming the fear of the unknown is uinheard of in the church. Fear is taught, in fact, to fear what we do not understand, to just let it go and say "God knows what he is doing."

Why is it so hard to DESIRE what Christ had, what the first christians at Antioch felt, to feel those tongues of fire and KNOW that we are all One?

What you're saying paraflux stands on essentially fair grounds but from your statements, I am led to the impression that you are obsessed with Tool. I'm not trying to denigrate you or your views as I believe Tool are extremely good musicians but you extol them too highly...

[paraflux]

I am obsessed with progression. Tool are just examples of said progression. I dont know where you get that I am obsessed with a band, but you are free to think what you like. I simply said they were examples of progression. I have seen the video for parabola, does that make me obsessed?

[Soliloquy]

pardon me for being caught up in progression.

Why is it so hard to see that Tool is christlike in example, showing us just as Christ did what we can be, what we can become, what we can create?



That evidently supports my statement.

[paraflux]

And this makes you draw the conclusion that I am obsessed with a band?

Ok, lol.