| Tool – Forty Six & 2 Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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Why don't you read about Jung before claiming someone would have to be kidding to connect this song with Jungian psychology? First to suggest the song is specifically about Buddhism and nothing to do with Jung is completely misguided. The song is about confronting and overcoming the Jungian Shadow archetype to truly understand one's true self, rather than deny and repress one's fears deeper into the psyche's shadow, the shadow must be confronted openly to accept one's limitations and insecurities in order to overcome and progress beyond them. The song is about cathartic evolution, purging the negativity we cling to in our muscle memory to attain higher levels of spiritual/mental development and the similarity to Buddhist concepts is simply due to the similarity between Buddhism concepts and Jungian psychoanalysis. Here is a quote by Jung himself: “The goal in psychotherapy is exactly the same as in Buddhism.” (C. G. Jung) And read this quote from here: http://cco.cambridge.org/extract?id=ccol9780521865999_CCOL978052186599A015 "C. G. Jung was the first psychoanalyst to pay close and serious attention to Buddhism and to write commentary on his own careful readings of Buddhist texts. In 1992, Meckel and Moore published a comprehensive collection of the English translations of Jung's commentaries - beginning with Jung's 1939 “Foreword” to Suzuki's Introduction to Zen Buddhism (Meckel and Moore, 1992, pp. 11-30). Jung wrote about and commented on writings from Japanese, Tibetan, and Chinese sources. Bringing in both original insights and important questions, Jung's essays formed an early backdrop for various conversations to develop between Western psychology and Buddhist practices. My own training to become a Jungian psychoanalyst began in 1979, eight years after I had formally become a student of Zen Buddhism." Jung was arguably the most sophisticated and holistic psychoanalyst and to reduce Jungian psychoanalysis to only about dreams is an insult to Jung's powerful insight into the mind that helped Western culture integrate and adopt Eastern teachings such as Buddhism. Without Jung our Western culture likely wouldn't have moved as quickly towards current trends in eastern spirituality, Buddhism, Feng Shui, vegeterianism, homeopathy, acupuncture, yoga and meditation that began in the 60s. Jung proposed the "collective unconscious", a sort of Buddhist concept of anatman (no-self), where there is no differentiated self but instead a collecive sea of archetypes, ideas that permeated all of our subconsciousness, transcending culture. These archetypes include the ego, the anima/animus, and the shadow (notice the Jungian connection to 46 & 2 on the album Ænima) The album name Ænima means "Soul Cleanser" as Ænima is a portmanteau of "enema", an anal cleanser and "anima" which is latin for soul/spirit/psyche (the animating principle) and is also the root for Jung's similar archetypes. The anima archetype is the female spirit within males that allow us to connect with the opposite sex. The animus archetype, is the corresponding masculine spirit within females. Anima Enema - Ænima Ænema (the song name Ænema uses similar ironic juxtaposition as the album name Ænima, instead emphasizing Enema more than Anima, emphasizing the more negative meaning of "Soul Flusher", as LA is described in soulless and spirit crushing descriptions, LA will flush your soul out like an enema and the only way to fix LA is to flush it all away along the fault line, leaving BIll Hicks fictional Arizona Bay along the coast. There are many links to Jung on this album, most importantly, the concept of the Shadow archetype in 46 & 2. The Shadow is the opposite of your Self archetype, it is everything you don't want to associate with your idealized self, the negative part of your whole being. Jung taught that in order to attain true spiritual/mental development one must accept and recognize their true self, including the shadow. By confronting all we fear about ourselves we can move on to the next stage of evolution/enlightenment. This is why not only must "I choose to live and to grow and to take and give and to move, learn and love and to cry" which are the idealized values attributed to the Self archetype but also "Kill and die and to be paranoid and to lie, hate and fear and to do what it takes to move through" which are the Shadow attributes we must accept to move through to the next step of evolution. Once you confront your shadow you can shed your insecurities, accept yourself, change according to your insight and move to the next stage of evolution/enlightenment the ``46 and 2, just ahead of me``. 46 and 2 is a theory of evolution proposed by Drunvalo Melchizedek who wrote "The Ancient Secret of the Flower of Life" and suggested a theoretical method of evolution by progressing from our 44 and 2 chromosomes stage with 46 chromosomes to the next stage of 46 and 2 chromosomes. This is used in the song metaphorically to refer to spiritual development one reaches after one has confronted their Jungian Shadow archetype, and once one knows what they've been hiding in their shadow psyche they can grow, change, progress, increase awareness, evolve. This song is inextricably linked to Jung and I needed to address the claim that the song is solely about Buddhism and has nothing to do with Jung as the similarities to Buddhism are an indicator of the similarities between Jung and Buddhism. It does not indicate the song is specifically about Buddhism, though the path to spiritual development in order to attain the next evolutionary step of 46 and 2 is relevant to Buddhism and other Eastern spiritual practices. |
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| Tool – The Gaping Lotus Experience Lyrics | 22 years ago |
| This song is a humorous little extra added to the end of Opiate, to leave no doubt that this band uses mind expanding drugs. Members of the band have been quoted saying they use LSD and DMT, The Eggs Of Satan is a Hash brownie recipe, the text in Aenima is describing Ketamine, a dissociate anaesthetic, also a hallucinogen. Timothy Leary is also mentioned in the text, the king of LSD who formed the first psychedelic religion called the League for Spiritual Development, abbreviated, LSD. If anyone watches any of Tools videos, they are all psychedelic, and are meant to be watched by people under the influence of psychedelics. Third Eye is a term psychedelic users can understand as these drugs pry open your third eye and allow you to see reality and life in a different perspective. Anyone refuting that Tool does not use psychedelic drugs has never used psychedelic drugs because if you had there would be no doubt your mind that Tool uses and creates music for people who are on hallucinogens. Listen to the beginning of Third Eye. Bill Hicks talks about drugs and LSD to Pink Floyd-inspired heartbeats in the background. Pink Floyd is one of the most famous acid-rock bands. Listen to Lateralus and Aenima on LSD, it will be amazingly brilliant. Danney Carey is one of the most innovative influential percussionists out there. Keep it up Tool! | |
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