| Live – Lakini's Juice Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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I think all of you are missing a very important part of the song - the title. In Hinduism, Lakini is the goddess of the Manipuraka (city of jewels), which is the third of the seven Chakras. This Chakra represents the solar plexis of the human body, just above the navel, and is responsible for the pancreas and gall bladder as well as intuition (gut feelings). Lakini's "juice" is the bile, pancreatic fluid, and other chemicals produced by this region of the body that aid in digestion and excretion. The entire song represents a transition from the illusion of Christianity to the enlightenment of Hinduism. There are really two layers to this song: one is the "old" layer, based in ancient and Christan references; the other is the "new" layer based in Hindu references. Many of you have already touched on these in your posts, so if you see something that someone already said, it is simply my agreement of it. "It was an evening I shared with the sun To find out where we belong" Old: There are two old references here. Chronologically the first is Plato's metaphor of the sun, in which the sun is a source of intellectual illumination. The second is of Christianity, the "sun" or "son" is Jesus. Interestingly, the Christian meaning is essentially the same as Plato's metaphor. New: The sun is the ruling planet of the Manipuraka. In one evening, the speaker spent time considering both meanings. "From the earliest days We were dancing in the shadows" Old: This line refers to Plato's allegory of the cave. The speaker feels as though he has been locked a cave and made to believe that the shadows of tradition and Christianity were real. After his release from the cave, he sees the sun (which brings us back to the first line of the song). New: This is a contrast to the enlighment of Hinduism. Without it the Hindu faith would be the same as the Christian one. If he was not aware of dancing in shadows, especially in the flow of time, he would still believe the shadows to be reality. He would not recognize the allegory of the cave. "More wine Because I got to have it More skin Because I got to eat it" Old: This refers to the eucharist of Christianity - the body and blood of Christ. New: The Manipuraka is responsible for digestion. Without food or drink, it could not digest or, more importantly, flush toxins and waste from the body. The speaker is still digesting what he is learning while bound to the traditions learned in the cave. These traditions are the waste that needs to be excreted. It is a process that takes time and he wants it to happen quickly, which is why he wants more wine and skin. "Inside the outside By the river Used to be so calm Used to be so sane" Old: This refers to Christian baptism, and the apostle John baptizing Christ in the River Jordan. When in the cave he was comforted by his ignorance of the new meaning of the sun. New: This is a whimsical retrospective of how it used to be, almost a second-guessing of his enlightenment. If the past was calm and sane, the present is hurried and insane. He is filled with a new energy borne from his solar plexis, a gut feeling he is not familiar with and has not quite adjusted to. "I rushed the ladies' room Took the water from the toilet Washed her feet and blessed her name" Old: This refers to Jesus washing the feet of his disciples. He also turned water into wine - this was Jesus' "juice". New: There is no question that the "her" refered to here is Lakini. He feels powerful, as powerful as Jesus, and washing the feet of a goddess is the imagry that presents this idea. The ladies' room reference brings the entire song into modern times. It also is a reference to excretion in its end form, but not his (since it's the ladies' room). This is what he wants, to be cleansed of Christianity and tradition, and the ritual is in anticipation of this. "More peace Is such a dirty habit" This is where the old layer begins to fade and the new one begins to emerge as the speaker's reality. The peace he refers to is the cave, where it was calm and sane. He is energized and to return to what he once knew feels wrong. Yet he yearns for it. "Slow down, we're too afraid" This is the speaker's reasoning for his yearning to return to the bliss of his former ignorance. It also is his reason for not doing so. He blames fear for his instinct to reject his enlightenment. In five words, he turns fear from a desire to an enemy. "Let me ride Let me ride Burn my eyes Let me ride" This is the speaker's abandonment of his fear, damning all consequence. He let's the cave go, riding away from it under his own strong will to do so. If the sun burns his eyes - be it the son of God or the sun of Manipuraka - so be it. This is an excellent literary and musical work - one of those songs you just have to crank up the volume to and sing along at the top of your lungs. |
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