Human Conciousness

[Salvatorin]

Okay, Ive thought about this for a while now, and I think Intension has a theme of the developemnt of Human Consiousness. "Pure as we begin" means without this higher realization, and each stanza describes how this pureness fades. By the end of each Stanza, we hear "Ruled by will alone" because Willpower is what moves this change forward.

[Inner_Eulogy]

Okay, Ive thought about this for a while now, and I think Intension has a theme of the developemnt of Human Consiousness. "Pure as we begin" means without this higher realization, and each stanza describes how this pureness fades. By the end of each Stanza, we hear "Ruled by will alone" because Willpower is what moves this change forward.

Sounds nice and all but, it's "MOVE by will alone", is it not?

[Salvatorin]

ah yes. kinda forgot. Moved by will alone. It makes even more sense that way.

[Liquid Ashes]

Individual human conciousness. The evolution is not universal all encompassing. I think he is refering to the unity of the self and the desire to destroy unconcious contact. We fight what we do not know or understand. This division creates an affinity with the material that feeds our ego with groundation in the physical. To truly let go and embrace the unity of the self is to return to ones childhood, the center, and the purity and innocence mentioned in the song.

[ArizonaBay]

Move by will alone = Majick. Aleister Crowley. Thelema=will "There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt."

Edit: Ive just discovered that talking backwards, as Maynard does at start, became known as an evil occult related thing because of Crowley's teachings. Apparently he'd make people learn to write and talk backward then pledge an oath to the Abyss. Or something like that. Just a thought.

[Inner_Eulogy]

Move by will alone = Majick. Aleister Crowley. Thelema=will "There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt."

Edit: Ive just discovered that talking backwards, as Maynard does at start, became known as an evil occult related thing because of Crowley's teachings. Apparently he'd make people learn to write and talk backward then pledge an oath to the Abyss. Or something like that. Just a thought.

I think it was more of a joke. Ya' know, parents or general society hear backwords lyrics and immediately think it's some satanic crap yet here we have it and it's actually endorsing going to school and listening to your parents. I think it's hilarious, Tool and Maynard especially have a great penchant for their satire. It's just like on AEnima how the Message to Harry Manback sounded all calm and peaceful but it was a message of hate and Die Eier Von Satan sounded like a hate message but was simply a cookie recipe. They love fucking with you and playing a pun on the things that society is so quick to judge without any reference.

[ArizonaBay]

^^ Im not saying it wasnt a joke. It most certainly was. However it doesn't mean it wasn't a Crowley reference as well; just a satirical one.

[LetoAtreides]

I posted this elsewhere, but it seems to fit here as well...

The idea of humans as a singular consciousness is not new (our old pal Carl Jung again), but the real trick is viewing it from both the positive and negative angles. The power of human thought, human will, has real weight, and the memories and experiences we amass collectively shape not only the future, the present and the past (in that order), but the collective reality of the human organism. The real goal is to use the human consciousness AND unconscious "genetic memory" to push humankind forward ("And you will come to find, that we are all one mind, capable of all that's imagined and all conceivable"). But, at the same time we must guard ourselves against the unconscious motives of race memory, which is able to divert any conscious effort of the organism. I.e., myths and religions shape the reality of the human organism unconsciously, and by the power of the collected will and whim of those forces, the future can be shaped against our will. Example, if the entire world somehow believed in say, the Christian idea of the apocalypse, even for one nanosecond, would those moments come to pass, forced by the will of the human organism? If so, then what about unconscious ideas that derive from myths and knowledges passed down through the ages through the human organism? We could easily destroy ourselves unconsciously while we rally against it consciously. Of course this does nothing to help this art puzzle, but, i think it explains much about tool's ideas and warnings. And if you want to take an view from an earlier time (but still very valid, and using the ideas and theories introduced by Jung), the Dune Chronicles tackles this very idea; that humans must evolve to the point where they are conscious of the race memory and can access it and alter it to move the organism forward, or risk having the organism and it's future ruled and dictated by a single force or idea. Sorry to be so bombastic and so off-topic, but these ideas fit best here. Look up zaporacle's article about the archetypes of a new evolution and see how much of that applies to tool's music, especially the water themes, which are in every tool video (in the way the light behaves like caustics as if their worlds are underwater). I'll leave with a quote from Leto II, The God Emperor about human-consciousness-singularity and just a little quote for fun dealing with the idea of being human and "swinging on the spiral", i.e., letting go of the microscopic to realize the shape of the macroscopic, finding order in the chaos as that which is above reveals the pattern of what is below and visible.


"The life of a single human, as the life of a family or an entire people, persists as memory. My people must come to see this as part of their maturing process. They are people as organism, and in this persistent memory they store more and more experiences in a subliminal reservoir. Humankind hopes to call upon this material if it is needed for a changing universe. But much that is stored can be lost in that chance play of accident which we call "fate." Much may not be integrated into evolutionary relationships, and thus may not be evaluated and keyed into activity by those ongoing environmental changes which inflict themselves upon flesh. The species can forget!"
-The Book of Leto After Harq al-Ada
"Children of Dune"


"This is the awe-inspiring universe of magic: There are no atoms, only waves and motions all around. Here, you discard all belief in barriers to understanding. You put aside understanding itself. This universe cannot be seen, cannot be heard, cannot be detected in any way by fixed perceptions. It is the ultimate void where no preordained screens occur upon which forms may be projected. You have only one awareness here—the screen of the magi: Imagination! Here, you learn what it is to be human. You are a creator of order, of beautiful shapes and system, an organizer of chaos."
-The Atreides Manifesto, Bene Gesserit Archives
"Heretics of Dune"