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Originally Posted by Lateralareallofus
im interested to hear what you have to say about kundalini. i see the obvious links in tool's music and the artwork. let's hear some more about the connections you see with kundalini
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There are plenty of connections, if you're familiar with kundalini, its not difficult to see/hear them. The obvious place to start would be with the artwork. Virtually all of Alex Greys artwork depicts a process of chakra/internal energy work.
The CD inlay shows to obvious connections, the 3 spiralling energies, Shushumna, Ida and Pingala, I can only guess that if the entire body were painted, the spiral would begin somewhere in the sacral region. As you can see it spirals upward and through the top of the head from the Crown chakra point.
The eyes rotating around the figure I am guessing is an interpretation of the root of the Microcosmic orbits vertical rotation.
The 3 flaming eyes you can see on the figure, 1 is in place at the Heart chakra, 1 at the Thorat chakra and 1 at the Third eye. The fourth eye is in the hand which is lesser known chakra point but still relevent as it is in the right hand, menaing the right hand of god and seeing as God is depicted in the mind god is the self.
As for Metatrons Cube, surrounding the head and also depicted internally at the throat chakra metatron was an angel whos name means Voice of God hence why it is placed in the throat. in sacred geometry, Metatrons Cube contains 5 platonic solids which make up 'life' and everything within. With Kundalini, the basic idea is that we are all and everything, no duality, all as one, interconnected. With all five platonic solids (cube, tetrahedron, icosahedron, dodecahedron, octohedron) this is infinatly possible. The sixth solid is the Star Tetrahedron also known as the Merkaba, or chariot.
As for lyrical connections...
Lateralus is probably the most obvious track.
'...Black then white are all I see in my infancy.
red and yellow then came to be, reaching out to me'.
Black and white are simply metaphorical colours in this sense as they are simply the way we see things at an early age with nothing inbetween, the mind still in infancy doesnt grasp its power or is able to comprehend life and the self entity. Red then yellow then came to be, is interesting as these are the 2 colours of the more dominant chakras in everyone, red being the Root chakra and yellow the chakra found at the solar plexus.
However, in anyone uninitiated, or in touch with their internal energies, the Root, Solar Plexus and the Sacral chakra inbetween are the most dominating energies that concern emotion, ego etc, the energies that more often than not, if not controlled subdue the will to explore by feeding the mind with things it doesnt need... Fuelling things like, anger, hatred, jealousy etc, material needs, power and control, physical desires and addictions.
During any journey into chakra/energy work, it has been said that it is safer to begin with the Heart Chakra which is your centre and work upwards, then it is possible to put the rest in line, find balance.
'...to feel inspired, to fathom the power,
to witness the beauty, to bathe in the fountain,
to swing on the spiral
of our divinity and still be a human'.
The spiral is a referance to the 3 energies again, to bathe in the fountain is a direct reference to what Kundalini/Chakra practioners feel/see/visualise during meditation and generally when both the 3rd eye and crown chakra are wide open. And to swing on the spiral of divinity would likely be the fact that anyone that has had anything to do with chakra healing/meditation attributes the energies/powers/feelings to that of being one with God, but God meaning the self, the question he's asking is can he feel all this, be all this, as a God but still be human.
Just some connections.
Again, both lyrically and visually, there are hundreds of connections.