]v[edusa

I had a theory stating that Maynard seems as if he writes his lyrics as Egyptians used to. Like how Thoth wrote on the walls of temples, tablets, etc. This means that he layers his lyrics in a way that if your consciousness slightly changes then you would see Tools music under a different light.

For example, The story of Osiris can be viewed in many different ways. You can take it at face value about a man being split into pieces and then put back together. You can see it as moving from lower levels of consciousness to higher ones. You can see the story in its relation to the star Sirius. The list goes on.

Anyways, I had to have said to myself three times that I solved this song 100%, but as I read more books, Schism seems to just become increasingly more complex. Its just outstanding to me how much info is actually in this seven minute song. Anyways this is how I see the song so far.

Before I attempt to explain this song Schism, I have to talk about a few things so that you may understand.

Schism: division of a group into opposing factions.

The Story of Osiris

Osiris and Isis were lovers and Set and Nephthys were lovers. The four were from the same family so they were also brothers and sisters. Set killed Osiris, put his body in a coffin, and floated it down the “Nile”. Isis and her sister went out and found him and attempted to bring him back to life but Set found out and tore Osiris’ body into several pieces. Isis and her sister found all the pieces and with the help of others they were able to put all the pieces back together. This resurrected Osiris and made him immortal. While Isis attempted to bring him back to life the first time she used sexual energy to create Horus who was a “virgin birth” child.

The Osiris Religion

Osiris set a good example of someone moving from the first level of consciousness to the 2nd , to the 3rd level (46 and 2). When he was broken into pieces it symbolized him being in the disharmonic 2nd level that we are all in now. When his pieces got put back together is symbolized him moving to Christ consciousness and becoming immortal.

First level (42 and 2) = a unified consciousness, the original reality, moved by God’s (universal consciousness) own will.

Second level (44 and 2) = a disharmonic consciousness, the dualistic reality, this is associated with Lucifer (Set) where free will was introduced.

Third level (46 and 2) = a unified consciousness, the third (new) reality, Christ consciousness and immortality is reached.

Our ancestors memory used to be holographic in the first level of consciousness. The moment writing was introduced humans entered the 2nd level because we changed the way we accessed memory. In a way, we must “dig through [our] old muscles” or “listen to our muscle memory” to reach for 46 and 2.

The Great Schism

Egypt Split into Multiple Religions

Basically, people confused the Neters of Egypt to being actual Gods when really they were only priniclples, aspects, or characteristics of life to help you move towards chirst consciousness as Osiris did. Even till this day people think the Neters are referring to multiple Gods. This separated peoples beliefs from the one God (the universal consciousness) and created new cults/religions.

The Tower of Babel

This story is from Genesis 11:1. Before then everyone spoke one language. Nimrod built a Ziggurat to the heavens so God confused their language and multiple languages were created. This one language that everyone spoke was not spoken through the mouth, but was through the heart. Just as holographic memory was in the first level of consciousness, so was this one language. To communicate was to communicate telepathically. The Tower of Babel symbolizes the first step into the second level of consciousness splitting us off from the original language and the unified consciousness.

I know the pieces fit cause I watched them fall away
Mildewed and smoldering. Fundamental differing.

This point of view seems to be coming from an ascended master. He knows that the pieces of Osiris that were scattered fit. He knows that we have the ability communicate telepathically from the heart like how humans were able to do before the Tower of Babel. We were in a unified consciousness and we can become unified again.

Pure intention juxtaposed will set two lovers souls in motion

Two lovers = Osiris and Isis. Their love seemed to be so strong that not only did they both enter 46 and 2, but their virgin born son Horus entered Christ consciousness aswell… where have we heard this before? Hmmm.

Disintegrating as it goes testing our communication

The disconnection from the unity consciousness to the 2nd level of consciousness in a way is testing us to see if we will find our way back to communicating the original language spoken from the heart. This is introducing the 2nd level consciousness so that people can remember the ways of communication from the 1st level so that they can reach Christ consciousness.

The light that fueled our fire then has burned a hole between us so
We cannot see to reach an end crippling our communication.

(I got this idea from iamthema!) The light symbolizes lucifer who introduced the dualistic reality separating us from the unity consciousness and allowing us to disconnect from one another. Feeding the dualistic reality will only cripple our true communication some more.

I know the pieces fit cuz I watched them tumble down
No fault, none to blame it doesn't mean I don't desire to
Point the finger, blame the other, watch the temple topple over.

Another reference to Osiris and the Tower of Babel. “Pointing the finger” is a huge quality of the 2nd level and doing so only separates you from the unified consciousness even more, scattering your pieces even farther apart.

To bring the pieces back together, rediscover communication

We should put effort into trying to “put the pieces back together” or start heading towards a unified consciousness. If we start doing this then we will remember or rediscover our true communication.

The poetry that comes from the squaring off between,
And the circling is worth it.
Finding beauty in the dissonance.

(Again another idea I got from iamthema! That surpassed me somehow) You probably aren’t going to understand this unless you read Drunvalo’s books but this is referring to “circling the square and squaring the circle”. Basically if you look at Leonardo’s Vitruvian Man it shows how perfect our body proportions are. Also it is believes that our body can be used at a measuring stick for the entire universe. Circling the square explains the “spiral out” part of Lateralus aswell, but im not going to get deep into trying to explain that again on this site…

There was a time that the pieces fit, but I watched them fall away.
Mildewed and smoldering, strangled by our coveting
I've done the math enough to know the dangers of our second guessing
Doomed to crumble unless we grow, and strengthen our communication.

Basically if we don’t try to put the pieces together into a unified consciousness or try to rediscover communication then we can destroy ourselves.

Cold silence has a tendency to atrophy any
Sense of compassion
Between supposed lovers/brothers

This original communication from the heart is what helps connect each and every one of us. To lose this can really separate us and cause a loss of compassion between us all making us all out to get each other. “Only when the heart of humankind opens again will we remember the language and be reconnected- not only among ourselves and with animals, but to all life everywhere.”-Drunvalo

Also, I would also like to point one more thing about the heart. The heart is where our true center or true self is. If you can unlock what is stored inside the heart chakra then you can find out more answers about yourself, like your purpose of living here, etc. This is probably why the lotus flower in the Parabola video is shown as blooming. It is very very important.

This song is totally about discovering the 5th chakra on the 13 chakra system, the heart chakra… its interesting that Schism is also the 5th track on the album.
The best book to get about all this is Living in the Heart by Drunvalo Melchizedek.

Also check out The Ancient Secret of the Flower of Life by Drunvalo.

]v[edusa

pardon my english in this thread. I was typing a bit too fast and it appears that its too late for me to edit my thread.

Anyways, I was talking about the lotus flower positioned at the heart chakra blooming in the Parabola video. It shows the importance of the heart chakra.

]v[edusa

Soooo.... I'm guessing that the next time I make a long post that I should add more colours to make your "long" reading experience more enjoyable??

come on... I sure hope people arent just scanning this for a second to see how long it is first and then leaving cause of the length. Are we here to read interpretations and leave comments or are we just trying to look for the threads titled "whats that sound?" to post in there to build our post count?

Do you expect Tool Songs to be simple and explained in one paragraph?

I highly feel that this song meaning is the center of a lot of other Tool songs circulating around it.

EDIT: Im glad I didnt waste my time in typing a more full explanation.

buzzo

...you wasted no time at all... i suppose i knew this all along, i just didn't put the pieces together (no pun intended). so thank you, the knowledge is much appreciated.

buzzo

i don't know the word for it, but justin is an exceptional person to say the least, supposedly he as an ability to see colors from sound, along with hearing it...given that the bass line seems to drive the song, i wonder what he sees when he plays it, or any song for that matter.
anyway, back to the topic. a question:

"mildewed and smoldering..."

how would something be mildewed and smoldering?
and/or what something?...our hearts, i guess i just answered my own question

]v[edusa

really?? where did you hear that he can see colours from sound? I wonder if thats possible if you get really good at spotting auras.

I think mildewed and smoldering could be referring to the "pieces", they may seem to be in terrible shape and look as if they are next to impossible to put back together. Maybe the pieces were seperated for so long that meldew is growing on them and have been abused or smoldered.

Eight

This is a pretty generic response, but I always think of puzzle pieces that get wet and can't fit back together.
This is a really great interpretation. I like that it makes sense enough even though I haven't read the books.
The point the finger part makes kind of a connection to me too, seems there's a lot of that going around in our world.

__________________
Great spirits have always encountered opposition from mediocre minds. The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding the man who refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses instead to express his opinions courageously and honestly. ~Albert Einstein

parables in the world

that seeing colors to music your talking about is Synesthesia

__________________
I live to share what i see around this world.

Not believing in things won't make it happen because you don't believe it will.

Peace is a physical and spiritual balance.

bewildered1

God shut the fuck up... I can't believe this shit>

opiated

(Hope you don't mind a random post somewhat related to the subject.)

To better visualize what the unified consciousness might have been like, a good example might be taken from the Stephen King novel Cell: After the virus in the novel reset the human-mind (I'd like to know what modem tone can do that, I'll tell ya), flocks of people would sleep together in one huge mass and communicate using telepathy. The flocks traveled together by day. In a way, they were actually something like zombies, but the flocks of people would do almost everything as a group.

__________________
Veiled and shadowy, you attack me too;
Now at your whim I bare my back
Under your assault.

]v[edusa

what is that suppost to mean?

I dont know too much about tarot, but i'll check it out.

Hodge

with all your recent posts as of late, you've made me revisit Drunvalo's FOL book (i only have the first volume)

cheers mate

]v[edusa

my god, I dont know how you couldnt have gotten to urge to get the second volume. I couldnt put those books down! Ive turned down so many religions and beliefs, but these books were real eye openers for me. I would say why but people would think I was nuts. Let me just say that there is soooo much more to the sacred geometry of the flower of life and the metatrons cube. Either Drunvalo didnt discover certain things yet or he just didnt have the time to add them...

Hodge

it's cause like ordered 5 other books off amazon at the time so i had to finish them, but yea i'll check them out soon

]v[edusa

Ok, this has been bugging me.

I heard somewhere that if Maynard told the real meaning to this song that everyone would think he was crazy.

Is this true? If so, can someone point me to where he said it?

...Don't ask me why I'm wondering...

... This song is so genius and makes Tool extremely mysterious.

]v[edusa

I dont know. For some reason I never bothered to get into tarot.

I do have The Essential Golden Dawn by Chic Cicero. I used to read Isreal Regardie books, his Golden Dawn book is too much for me at the moment.

Heh, you actually called my attention to a book that I got several months ago but I didn't read it yet because I got distracted by other books: The Holy Books of Thelema by Aleister Crowley.

I read Thoths Emerald Tablets. I'm trying to look for the Forty-Two Books of Thoth.

I might get around to tarot. I recently met someone who was deep into it and the Golden Dawn. She had that deck with the Hermetic Rose Cross on them... but I'm pretty sure many decks do.

hmm..

bassplayerphillip

I agree with everything in here, and I'm wondering if anyone has an E-book version of any of these books you're all discussing. If so, PM me for my e-mail address, I'd love to give those a read.

]v[edusa

You can google search the Emerald Tablets by Thoth.

I dont think you can find free e-books for the others I mentioned...

Heres are good sites for ebooks though

http://vsociety.net/wiki/Magick_eBooks

http://www.hermetics.org/ebooks.html

I find it better to have the actual books.

sotos

]v[edusa

How could someone make a book about Tool? That could be so misleading to people. No one is perfect when coming up with interpretations for Tool. I agree with some things in that book, but I also disagree with some things in it too.

Its interpretation of Schism is totally different from this one. My interp talks about communication in the heart/from within that so many of us lost and the interp. in the book seems to be about verbal, written, or some sort of outside communication. If we rediscover this communication within then we will all reunite. Its when humanity was split into pieces long ago that we lost this true communication and started communicating verbally.

orange_knickers

..that's really intersting , this ability to see colours from music...I was to this exhibition at Tate Modern last summer, with paintings by Kandinsky. Had I not known that he actually painted music, it had been a completely different experience. He even wrote a book to explain how music and colours are interconnected, in a divine way. Check out his art.

And thanks for your posts, Medusa, they are very interesting, I am too ill informed though to have any opinions...*s*

]v[edusa

ummm. I gotta ask. Are the lyrics posted for Lateralus sent in by Maynard, cause I now disagree with this line.

I'm hearing with my really good headphones, "Pure intention juxtaposed will set to love our souls in motion."

They both work either way but I think what I'm hearing works a lot better.

This means that with pure intention of putting our differences together as one it will get us to love not only our own souls but everyone elses as one. We move together better as one.

ASnakeForEveryEden

.. *snore* .. open to interpretation. leave it at that. not exclusively egyptian.

]v[edusa

... *sigh*...

The song is not even Egyptian at all really. It is the message behind the story of Osiris that the song is clear to be about, but if you want to keep sleeping (snoring) then I'm not going to wake you up.

There are a few things I'm not saying about the song so I know the song is open to more interpretation.

ASnakeForEveryEden

well, much of tool's music could easily be compared to "the giving tree," a children's book to which i've forgotten the author's name. it's a simple children's book about sharing to kids, and a tale of true love and sacrifice to adult minds. i know the themes differ, but the layers are still there. schism could just be a great rocking tune, an instrumental masterpiece, or pure poetry. i doubt maynard did as much research as u in order to write schism. such things just happen to concur: ur reading, his writing. u could have been reading shakespeare and be making shakespearean references, instead. open to interpretation, which is what happened.

]v[edusa

True enough. I never said there were no more layers to this. The thing is that every layer that I did find for this song so far seemed to have had the same message.

See I made these connections for Schism because this isn't the first time Tool has made music about the unity consciousness (46 and 2) and because it was the first idea that came to mind when I heard this song. Maynard has been singing about uniting opposites, finding your inner child, confronting the shadow, human evolution, the Merkaba, etc. so its pretty easy to connect the song to this topic when they already have sang about this.

But sure, you can connect that book (the giving tree) with Tool because it is parallel with what I believe their music is about anyway. The majority of the population seems to have some sort of individual self problem. In the book, the author writes about the martyr sacrificing self who constantly gives and suffers, but also writes about someone who is selfish. And you can connect this with Tool because they sing about crucifying the ego and resurrecting as the true self. About healing the self to the point that you are no longer a martyr or are selfish. Their music seems to be leaning people in evolving from that pitiful hole into something truly amazing and better.

By the way I didn't even do research for this song. I read about all this but "Living in the Heart" before I started listening to Tool and how do you know I have or have not read
Shakespeare already?

Here is an interview with Maynard about all the books they read to make their music http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDpzSju76_k. He says it at around 5:20, but watch the whole thing cause its a good interview.

jevons

I think your original point is missing the fact that much of this world is percievable in the same way; if you look at a sunset as a child, it might just be an orange ball.
Then you find out what it's made of.
Then you find out what the Universe is.
Then.
Then.
Then.
It all depends on your perspective.
(I fin it odd that Drunvalo claims Thoth disappeared from not only our planet, but this reality entirely just two years before the original publication of the FOL.
80,000 years on Earth, and he leaves 2 years before this book comes out...)
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

]v[edusa

K, the song has to be centered to have one specific message. I don't think Tool decided to just throw words everywhere so that the meaning could be anything.

If you read the second book, Thoth did return in 1999.

W/E Jack.... Its alright to question, thats alright.

but, there is a difference b/t just reading about the FOL and experiencing the FOL.

If his experience with Thoth isn't true then I don't know why he would add the whole thing cause that could risk the Merkaba exercise being released into the public if everyone found out he was lying about Thoth or other things.

------

You guys can go believe whatever the fuck you want to believe. I'm just here to leave my opinions because I find it to be rather interesting.

But, I dont know... Since the majority of people on these forums seem to treat Tool like every other rock band out there, maybe I should just follow the crowd and stop thinking of what I think Tools message is here and live it.

I don't even understand whats so wrong about the message I found here. So people think Tool makes songs about 46 and 2 and the shadow for the fuck of it? Come on people.

tryptosaur

In Aleister Crowley's "The Book of Thoth" if you read the commentary on Atu VI: The Lovers he puts in parentheses (Brothers) just like in Maynard's official lyrics.
And on the Tree of Life path 17 is the path of zayin (the letter Z which is also 7) which means "a sword". This is the path of Atu VI: The Lovers, which corresponds to Gemini, the twins (brothers). This is the path that connects the sephiroth Binah-3-Understanding with Tiphareth-6-Beauty. This path also happens to be one of the five that crosses the Abyss.
The Osiris-story is very informative since there are always many layers of meaning in TOOL's lyrics. The more information I can absorb, the deeper it gets.
Thanks.

Kangaroo_hung_me2

Thank you for you writings. I can only hope to think as deeply as you some day. I am still learning about things. I enjoy your thoughts.

__________________
_-It's not that you can't see the forest for the trees, You've just never been in the woods alone.-_

Now I'm out of my shell and I'm happier than whores with chivalrous clientele

jevons

Jesus Fuck, Medusa, calm down. I was just saying that, like almost anything in life (heiroglyphs), the more you know, the more it will mean; greater significance can be found when there is more to draw on. It works like that for EVERYTHING REAL, think about it:

Britteny Spears = fake, 1 layer

Fred Durst = fake, 1 layer

a mother's love = real, many subtle layers

Jack's angry ways = real, many subtle layers

How the water cycle works = real, many layers, each with their own point in time and processes.

growing apples = real, many layers, each with their own point in time and processes to understand.

Great art should reflect that. It does. With every tool song, it does. Pollock's paintings, DaVinci, even Van Gough, a man who's paintings were just brilliantly disturbed reflections on his individual perspective at times (he had temporal lobe epilepsy, which actually makes the world look the way his paintings did) still reflects this underlying motif of the entire Universe. I see your point, but now that I have shown you this, please look at mine.
Tool's music has used their vast knowledge and the fact that it is not only sublimely contemporary but historical and allegorical as well to create an image of the band that, once (a degree of) understanding takes hold in the listener, they are compelled to treat all works by the band with aplied knowledge of their sources; in other words: what you know of their wisdom might help you with the song or album, but at the end of the day you still have to take a good long look at everything they are saying and wonder if it is meant in jest of the information, or in endorsement.
Considering that Aenima deals a lot (from what i can see) with Jungian psychology, namely the process of mental cleansing and reconstruction, it is not so farfetched to think that Maynard is not simply reflecting upon his periods of rebirth, but contemporary society as a whole. Many people have endured their own darker aspects, lived and ridden them to the gates of oblivion. They do not all have to call this state a ''shadow self'' to understand what they have done, just as they do not require the concept of 46 and 2 to become healthy and ''whole'' again. Nevertheless, the term 46 and 2 seems an apt choice in a song full of hope and desire, even what appears at times to be sarcastically immense plans-- the plans of a willing but inadequately prepared fool-- since the FOL can be equated with the modern-day equivalent of the bible. This young, scared character has chosen to modify his/her perspectives, practices and to literally become a new person again, so it is no wonder they will draw on readings they have done which tell them this is not an isolated incident and that there are means by which they may survive.
Jungian psychology and the work of Drunvalo Melchizedek are tools for conveying the theme of rebirth. As such, we all have to go back to the beginning whenever we say something like ''this is tool's message.''
Yes, the words come from Drunvalo, so that is no accident. No, the fact that they use these terms does not in any way say the band endorses these processes, as one of the first principles of art is that it is usually a business of lies.
These are not autobiographical accounts, but works of art; masterpieces. As such, to believe anything to be ''the message'' can at best only be a partial understanding of their ideas.
Think about it, when Maynard wore the ''I am not an artist'' tee shirt, why did it have such a massive affect on people like you and i (surely more than it would if Milly wore it)? Because of the image the band has crafted for themselves. That shirt, on anyone else would have been shameless self-aggrandizing Eddie Veder bullshit: ''I'm not who you think i am, maaaan.'' But since Maynard has retained his soul, we can see a critique on art in its entirety, we can see him saying ''if this is Britteny Spears, and you call her an artist, then fuck you, i am certainly not one.'' Then we can see him saying ''Art is a business of lying for truth, fictionalising non-fiction, so i will lie even about my title, since that is in the job description.'' But, we can also see him saying ''This shirt is another tool which i can use to bring people to that place, that dark, confused place where myself, and the intentions of the band as a whole become mysterious and unknown and therefore scarry. I can almost hear them screaming 'if he's not an artist, then what is he? Is he a prophet? Is he a God?''' thusly making some of the mightiest art, since the people playing the music have brought theatre to the streets, taken it off the shelf of a stage where our fucked up world would have you keep it and leave it, and thrust it into your face, saying ''see?! Do you see?!"
What this band has really done, above all else, is restore a modicum of integrity in human existence. They saved art.
Thus, the only thing that matters is how you feel about it. The rest is pure, uncut Columbian speculation.

jevons

So, back to what i think: although it is wonderful to see so much thought and connections being made in the word choice for Schism, i think ^^ makes it very difficult to be certain.

Yes, the story of Osiris works well for this one, but (and i'm sorry for this medusa, i love you), allow me to craft a moron interpretation which makes similarily convincing connections using only literal defenitions of the words. No allegory, no history.

''I know the pieces fit, cuz i watched them fall away,
mildewed and smouldering. Fundamental differing.''

Here we have a scorned lover, they had something, and the lover has knowledge of the atrophy, since they had a hand in the building; a difference has been claimed to be in the foundation, in this case the hands that built it has guaranteed a downfall.

''Pure intentions juxtaposed will set two lovers' souls in motion
disintegrating as it goes testing our communication.''

They were there for a good reason, the love was no lie, thus pure. The motion has to therefore have a hand in the disintegration. Too fast? Too unstable? Top heavy? What is it that has things disintegrate? Structural instability. We have already been told that the thing has been built sloppily, since there was a difference in the builders, not there intentions, but in their makeup. This could be any number of differences: a percieved difference in the sexes, a difference in view of reality, a difference in their desireded results; none of this, however, has anything to do with intentions and how they sit in relation to one another; it does have a great deal of bearing on the communicative abilities of the parties responsible for the building, since, had they communicated further on the subject of their intentions (desired results), flaws would have been exposed.
As the flimsy ball rolls on, the tests become greater. Humans can put a great deal of emotional investment into projects, so it can become more and more difficult to communicate as the speed of things intensifies and is complicated by memories and emotion.


"The light that fueled our fire then has burned a hole between us so
We cannot see to reach an end crippling our communication.''

That old thing passion has grown too close, the fire is their love, and it is fueled by infinite love, undying love, the real God. But it clouds their perspective, there is too much, they both get burned by something pure. So not much gets done.
(Think of a failing political system, it's not much different. It may have been built to do good, and with only good intentions, but what happens? That intent fuels name calling and a lot of static behaviour.)


''I know the pieces fit cuz I watched them tumble down
No fault, none to blame it doesn't mean I don't desire to
Point the finger, blame the other, watch the temple topple over.''


Restating the thesis with the reassurance that they both can't figure out what to do, neither can see any blame or fault since they're both making the same mistakes.
They still want this to go down, they still place blame, however unfounded.
They have a dogma, the dogma of love. They are trusting in it despite that it is falling apart.
The pieces are now catalysts to a faith of sorts.

''To bring the pieces back together, rediscover communication.''

Perhaps, they think, that once this is all dead and gone, that they will be able to relearn how to be human, since communication is the crux of just about everything in society, relationships and anything else.
They basically know that what they have built has turned them into something else.


"The poetry that comes from the squaring off between,
And the circling is worth it.
Finding beauty in the dissonance.''


Now it is fully, completely, on. Shit is hitting the fan and we see that there is true art, poetry being created in this horn locking. The fights become brutal, the thoughts more deviant and wild, actions speaking before words have the chance, sideways glances, nights with bottles and broken mirrors. Ten thousand years of poets being lived with the slam of every door, every bruise while they both still scream ''i fucking loooove you'' in the back of their heads.
(Poetry = the purest form of writing, hence the reference)
There is a beauty, something they almost recognize despite their blatant denial of many things (fights make you do that) in the fight, circling each other, yelling, accusing, blaming. They have grown to accept this new way.

''There was a time that the pieces fit, but I watched them fall away.
Mildewed and smoldering, strangled by our coveting
I've done the math enough to know the dangers of our second guessing
Doomed to crumble unless we grow, and strengthen our communication."

The thesis is restated, with a new reference. The lovers are now trying to use the word ''mine.'' They desire so greatly that it serves to choke what is already dying. They have coveted their crumbling relationship.

Then there is a calm, the music peaks, they sleep in the same bed, not out of reconciliation, but out of fatigue.

''Cold silence has a tendency to atrophy any
Sense of compassion
Between supposed lovers/brothers''


They don't even know where to start anymore. They can't even look at each other, so for some reason that equates to feeding this monster, which eats all the old memories, all the love until they feel nothing.
They were supposed to care about each other.
They used to care about each other.
But now, what they built has eaten itself, and parts of them.

So now they know the pieces fit, but the pieces are not of a creation of their own, rather of themselves.

Back to work, back to square one. Not even square one, they have to find that first.
The song storms on out.
they are both in the exact same place: alone and very upset about it.


This can apply to any sort of relationship: squabbling democrats and republicans, a married couple, a Nation on the brink of civil war, fucking ANYTHING YOU WANT IT TO BE IS POSSIBLE, since things are governed by a few basic principles in reality.
(see: the laws of thermodynamics and the Heisenburg uncertainty principle)


This has been a moron interpretation. I quite like it, though.

]v[edusa

About these moron interpretations:

Lets take Parabola for example. I’ve seen someone connect this song very well with two people having sex. Sure there are other ways of viewing the songs by Tool, but where is the moral of some of these views? Apparently someone views these two people having wild hot sex but what is the message we are getting out of that? We already know sex is great. Why are we getting told this if we already know this? Don’t we want to be inspired by a story, book, poem, or song? To be a really good artist or poet doesn’t your work have to have a moral or strong feeling? I don’t know about anyone else here, but I look for the moral of these songs.

Tool kinda got me to realize a lot of things to myself. If all of the messages that I have found from Tool songs are not actually the messages they meant on releasing then it really gets me interested on how I was able to dig into some answers to myself without the help of a tool at all.

Sure your moron interpretation does fit, but what’s the message from it? Most of us have been in this situation before that you speak of. So you said that it’s a relationship that has crumbled yet if this is what the song is about then what is the whole moral of the story?

There are all sorts of interpretations that seem to have no moral. I’ve seen someone say “The Patient” was about Maynard’s mother; sure this guy can connect it even though it disgusts me that he thinks Maynard finds it boring to take care of his mother and is losing his patience because of it. But why the hell would we care about this? Why is Tool telling us this if this is the meaning?

Ok there are so many bands out there that sing about shit all. Some emos will cry about how they lost a love or some rappers will sing about how much money they have and how much bigger their dicks are compared to everyone else. Because of all the bands, we have heard, with their stupid pointless messages, why must we think Tool song meanings are going to be in the same fashion as others?

I don’t know, maybe I’m just fucked for being philosophical. Maybe they meant to have pointless messages.

Also, since I think the Aenima album is about rebirth, the inner/divine child, and other things then its pretty obvious to me that this band consists of a bunch of little kids joking around and having fun. I see this band having serious topics, but at the same time I can see that they are letting that inner child in them out to play. This is probably why they act the way they act in interviews or out in public. It’s probably why they make songs like “Maynards Dick”, “Die Eier Von Satan”, or “Rosetta Stoned”

jevons

That is a little cold, yeah? You're always on this highground. You are not viewinbg this any more philosophically than anyone else, you are using that word to apply more grip to your perspective of the band, and i showed you that, although what you see might be a message that CAN be taken out of this song with a moral, it is not therefore THE message.
The inner child is a metaphor of sorts. Did we see the world as we see it now, no. imagination ran wild, emotions were perpetually at the forefront, everything was like an elaborate dream. We liked it, but we were not necessarily functional.
Would you want a bus conductor who was nothing but a child? Would he get you to wqork on time?
Would you want a parent who was nothing but a child? Would you not starve to death?
The concept of an inner child is meant to reconnect you with a time in your life that you were more ''yourself'' but virtually incapable of functioning in any way.

Yes, your perspective has a moral to it, but it's message is so ridiculously pretensious and exclusive that it makes no bleeding sense for it to be that.
Drunvalo has shifted back and forth from quack to preacher to quack to good-guy-trying-to-help, but at the end of the day, i still think quack is the most accurate term, and i think there is a damn good reason he is only literally quoted in Aeminenimananana; the reason is up there ^^^.
Aenima is about that kid, in a way. That third-eye-wide-fucking-open view of the world. The character shelved it for survival, now they must unshelve it for existence: a life greater than just eating and fucking and dying and not crying.

I understand where you're coming from, but i still think that your argument is flimsy and you're making it what you want. Teach me the damn Merkaba, and i might change my point of view.

MY MORAL OF THE STORY, BY jack jevons, age 22.
Good morning everyone, *picks nose* umm, i think that people need to become aware of what they are really attempting to get in life. If people became more aware of what they were really attempting to get in life, there would be no more fighting, since people would not find any need to, since they would love each other and forgive each other since they would know what they are doing together.
I think it is bad when people fight. People fighting is caused by not understanding each other and what they are trying to say. This makes me sad, acause it is usually avoidable. Things like this are bad.
I think a band like tool would try to make things that are the most personal to them the most universal things to others, since that's how the world really is. None of us are really that different, and i think smart people like tool would know that and use it to their advantage. *picks nose*
They wouldn't want to subtley push their ideologies on people, because bad men like the bad men in my church who put things inside me do that and i want them to stop. tool would never have a specific message, they would want you to decide your own way to a message, a message that you made up yourself, since truth is a land without streets or walls. Truth is a land without cars or busses, you have to walk to truth with your own two legs, or three if you have three.
Tool wouldn't want you to tell others ''this is what they really meant'' since other people might think Drunvalo is just a big doodoo head and that he fibs. Tool would want you to say to yourself ''how is this going to help me in my life? It is helping right, because if it hurts it might be wrong.''
So you're right Medutsamama, but you're wrong, too. Life is funny like that. Life likes it when things aren't absolute, because nothing is really like that, so it is a fib to think so.
This has been my presentation. *picks nose*

FirstDegree

I think You have done the impossible. I think you are overthinking Tool.

The Aenima album is all about Bill Hicks. Okay? Very simply -most- of the album is inspired by a comedian of whom Maynard enjoyed watching and listening to before this comedian Hicks died in 1994. Very simply it is an example of exactly what Maynard tells us to do.. Find Your source of inspiration and take it into Your own direction (see the toolnavy entrance article.) When you're inspired to do something for yourself and You act upon that inspiration you can never ever be wrong in what You're inspired to do (as long as You're not inspired to go shoot up a school, etc) It's the positive things, the art that uplifts us and guides us as we grow that is the art that is badly needed in todays society. Thats what Hicks Message was.. thats what Maynards message is.

Jack is right.. Maynard uses layers to convey His message, half because Maynard is just a fucking genius, half because its probably easier for the common person to understand the basic point while the other half that the layers are sometimes so complex that the intelligent and the interested dig deeper to understand the true meaning. 46 & 2 is entirely interlaced with references to Jungian Psychology. So then I guess Maynard is trying to tell us something.. Maybe He thinks Freud is a Fraud, too.

Anyone here ever been to a live show? Notice how between songs they use the indigo floodlight to light the stage? Somebody else used to do that... (Hicks)
Oh and Maynards Dick, right. Why would such a serious, intelligent, poetic band do such a thing? Because..

Life is Just a Ride.

It's a fun song. It's meant for fun, to have fun, to sing it as lighthearted humor. Its just funny, that's the appeal of the song to Me. Maybe somebody pissed Maynard off that day.. either way. It's all an opiate center..

__________________
Your fucking hero.

"They fought and they clawed like savages. At the end none had found what they were looking for; and they simply returned to nothing, like they were before."

First degree knows good shit when he sees it. - Ignoring Ignorance

]v[edusa

I know what the inner child is. Yes you explained what the inner child is but also if you were to find your inner child you usually become more joyous like as you were as a child and arent as serious as people usual are as an adult.

I dont know why I bothered with this fucking site the first place. By the way I never say anything along the lines of "this is what they really meant".

Cheers,
Drea

jevons

Oh calm down cupcake. I liked the thread and i'm sorry i strangled it with that look in my eye. I just wanted to counterpoint.
COUNTERPOINT!
You're the one with the reference, but, but does it hug you and kiss you goodningt? I bet it doesn't. Does it, does it do this: *little dance*?
I love you and i know you want to have my babies, so let's just get to the makeup sex?
K?
I like your allegorical way of looking at tool and i'm sorry i called Drunvalo a doodoo head.
COUNTERPOINT!!!

jevons

Come baaaaaaaaack.

]v[edusa

sorry, I was very irritated about something else earlier. I almost transformed into some sort of Dragon Ball Z ultra super saiyan mode... only I had the snakes going nuts on my head instead of the spiky blond hair.

I think your right and your wrong about a few things too, but everyone here is pretty much like that. No one here is completely intelligent, everyones got some ignorance.