I recently read the unofficial lyrics to Intension and was surprised to see them incomplete. I am referring to the second verse, where in the third line it says "Gather, place, [erase, so / a razor]". I decided to listen more closely to solve it myself, and to share my interpretation of the song as I believe it is an important piece of the album...

Pure as we begin,
Pure as we come in,
Pure as we begin,
Move by will alone.

When I listen to the first few lines, I can't help but think about the beginning of time and the creation of the universe. Everything in the universe originated from the basic elementary particles that existed after the big bang. To keep this in Layman's terms, galaxies, stars, planets and the creatures that roam them, all come from purity - pure energy.

I am not a religious person as you can probably image, I don't believe in a creator nor do I believe in fate. That makes me believe in free will. Everything seems to have formed from the pure fabric of the early universe - with a will of its own. Move by will alone.

Pure as we begin,
Here we have a stone,
Gather, place, and raise (so),
Shelter turned to home.

In the book 'Dragon's of Eden - Speculations of the Evolution of Human Intelligence', Carl Sagan talks about our early ancestors. If one condenses the timeline from the Big Bang to now in one calendar year, the widespread use of stone tools by humans starts at around 31/12/00 @ 23:00. To compare, life on earth began at around 25/09/00. Relatively speaking, that is very recent. Our ability to walk on two feet combined with our increasing brain size/body weight ratio enabled us to start using tools on earth, and was one of the most important developments in our history.

Pure as we begin,
Here we have a stone,
Throw to stay the stranger,
Swore to crush his bones.

Like any other species on earth, our ancestors needed a way of protecting themselves against other predators. With the development of tools, they now had a way of keeping 'strangers' away from their homes. Move by will alone - the will to survive.

Now, the title of the song - Intension.
"The meaning of a word can be thought of as the bond between the idea or thing the word refers to and the word itself."
"Without intension of some sort, words can have no meaning." [Wikipedia]
The most important development in our history came with the creation of symbols and language - our ability to communicate and to think.

With our ability to think came the ability to reason and to conceptualize. Our ancestors were finally able to cherish the fact that they were alive, but were faced with the frightening fact that death was inevitable.

Spark becomes a flame,
Flame becomes a fire,
Light the way or warm this,
Hope we occupy.

This is an obvious reference to the domestication of fire. I believe the last line could be a metaphor (warm this hope we occupy). At this point, humans no longer relied on their instincts to survive. Instead, their will to live and survive came from hope. I think we can all relate to that.

Spark becomes a flame,
Flame becomes a fire,
Forge a blade to slay the stranger,
Take whatever we desire.

We should all be the same page by now, this one is simple. Weapons, violence, war, greed, selfishness. The shift from surviving with only bare needs to our desire to have - our will to have. Move by will alone.

Pure as we begin,
Move by will alone,
Leave as we come in,
Pure as light, return to one.

This last part is a recurring theme in other songs, such as reflection and third eye. "Crucify the ego...we are all one mind..." "...that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively...". All life that evolves has the potential to eventually reach consciousness - the most powerful thing in the universe. Consciousness is the ultimate purpose of the universe.

Move by will alone.

This song fits in perfectly with Right in Two. The song is about how our civilization is at a standstill somewhere between the 5th and 6th verses. Our will is to have, not yet to awaken.

Very interesting, and I'm with you on much of this. Nice interpretation.

Define consciousness for me, please. I'm intrigued by your assertion that it is "the ultimate purpose of the universe." I'd like to hear how you depict consciousness.

Any sentient being has the ability to feel, and the potential to percieve and have subjective experiences. However, without any form of basic thought, there can be no depth to what is being felt. With thought comes the ability to percieve and have experiences. The awareness of this subjective experience is how I depict consciousness.

That was a strong assertion (it was getting late). I will take back the words 'Ultimate purpose' simply because I don't believe the Universe has a specific purpose in the first place. What I was trying to say is that consciousness is the highest attainable state of matter. A part of the universe can be arranged in a particular way so it becomes conscious of itself, and the universe as well. Without any consciousness, the universe would never be aware of its own existence. I don't know of anything 'higher' than consciousness.

Consciousness is a gift, and unfortunately not all of humanity has grasped this yet.

"Repugnant is a creature who would squander the ability to lift an eye to heaven conscious of his fleeting time here."