So this has been.my favorite song of OTEP's since it came out in 2004, and I always thought it was a song about a child's narrative of suffering in an abusive Christian home. But now that I am revisiting the lyrics, I am seeing something totally new.
This song could be gospel of John but from the perspective of Jesus.
Jesus was NOT having a good time up to and during the crucifixion. Everyone in the known world at the time looked to him with fear, admiration or disgust and he was constantly being asked questions. He spoke in "verses, prophesies and curses". He had made an enemy of the state, and believed the world was increasingly wicked and fallen from grace, or that he was in the "mouth of madness".
The spine of atlas is the structure that allows the titan to hold the world up. Jesus challenged the state and in doing so became a celebrated resistance figure. It also made him public enemy #1.
All of this happened simply because he was doing his thing, not because of any agenda he had or strategy.
And then he gets scourged (storm of thorns)
There are some plot holes here but I think it's an interesting interpretation.
Sleep Eden sleep
My fallen son
Slumber in peace
Cease the pain
Life's just in vain
For us to gain
Nothing but all the same
No healing hand
For your disease
Drinking scorn like water
Cascading with my tears
Beneath the candle bed
Two saddened angels, in heaven, in death
Now let us lie
Sad we lived sad we die
Even in your pride
I never blamed you
A mother's love
Is a sacrifice
Together sleeping
Keeping it all
No sympathy
No eternity
One light for each undeserved tear
Beneath the candle bed
Two souls with everything yet to be said
My fallen son
Slumber in peace
Cease the pain
Life's just in vain
For us to gain
Nothing but all the same
No healing hand
For your disease
Drinking scorn like water
Cascading with my tears
Beneath the candle bed
Two saddened angels, in heaven, in death
Now let us lie
Sad we lived sad we die
Even in your pride
I never blamed you
A mother's love
Is a sacrifice
Together sleeping
Keeping it all
No sympathy
No eternity
One light for each undeserved tear
Beneath the candle bed
Two souls with everything yet to be said
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I think this is about a mother that had a somewhat bad, evil, or maybe just incomprehended son. They never got to understand each other, they both suffered much, he was scorned by the rest of the people, that made the mother totally unhappy, because no matter how proud or stubborn or different he was, still remained her son for all eternity. The son is now dead, finally in peace, and the woman is somewhat relieved that it's all over and he suffers no more. She recognizes maybe she shouldn't be crying for him for it was the best, but cannot avoid it, being a mother is a sacrifice after all; and she regrets she never reached him. Now she just wants to mourn him and think of nothing else, keeping the memories of what was really important: the love she had for him; not thinking about what is good, what is bad, or even what is beyond death.