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.
Is it a kind of a dream?
Floating out on the tide
Following the river of death downstream
Oh, is it a dream?
There's a fog along the horizon
A strange glow in the sky
And nobody seems to know where you go
And what does it mean?
Oh, is it a dream?
Bright eyes, burning like fire
Bright eyes, how can you close and fail?
How can the light that burned so brightly
Suddenly burn so pale?
Bright eyes
Is it a kind of a shadow?
Reaching into the night
Wandering over the hills unseen
Or is it a dream?
There's a high wind in the trees
A cold sound in the air
And nobody ever knows when you go
And where do you start?
Oh, into the dark
Bright eyes, burning like fire
Bright eyes, how can you close and fail?
How can the light that burned so brightly
Suddenly burn so pale?
Bright eyes
Bright eyes, burning like fire
Bright eyes, how can you close and fail?
How can the light that burned so brightly
Suddenly burn so pale?
Bright eyes
Floating out on the tide
Following the river of death downstream
Oh, is it a dream?
There's a fog along the horizon
A strange glow in the sky
And nobody seems to know where you go
And what does it mean?
Oh, is it a dream?
Bright eyes, burning like fire
Bright eyes, how can you close and fail?
How can the light that burned so brightly
Suddenly burn so pale?
Bright eyes
Is it a kind of a shadow?
Reaching into the night
Wandering over the hills unseen
Or is it a dream?
There's a high wind in the trees
A cold sound in the air
And nobody ever knows when you go
And where do you start?
Oh, into the dark
Bright eyes, burning like fire
Bright eyes, how can you close and fail?
How can the light that burned so brightly
Suddenly burn so pale?
Bright eyes
Bright eyes, burning like fire
Bright eyes, how can you close and fail?
How can the light that burned so brightly
Suddenly burn so pale?
Bright eyes
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Tapanga,
I'm very sorry to hear of the death of your daughter.
I don't think anyone can really help another that much to get over something like that. Looking back at my own grieving process, it almost seems like something I had to go through... and that maybe some people are required, for some reason, to have to go through that. It's not something I could have understood at the time it was happening to me, nor do I really understand it now to be honest, but there's a sense of inevitability about it; I needed to learn to let go.
And when I did, beauty returned to my life with more abundance and intensity than ever. These days I see her bright eyes glowing in the faces of others around me. I hear her laughter and feel her joy in that of others. Her warmth and radiance - the radiance that I always associated with her - is still very much there, everywhere I happen to see it; it's just not tied to her form anymore. And when I let go of thinking that it could only come from her, suddenly I saw that same spirit - "her" spirit - very much alive and kicking.
I even see it in myself. Sometimes I find myself bubbling and giggling the way she did... Sometimes I find myself saying the things that she would've said... I feel that spirit becoming me. Merging and emerging from and with me...
Could it be more ironic? That which we are able to let go of, stays with us forever. Not just with us... it becomes us. We ARE It. We are One.
But this One-derful 'Oneness' is not a physical thing. It's a spirit. We are one with the Energy, not with the material form... and it is THAT that we must recognise and honour in order to unite with it.
The energy that IS (is, not was) your daughter is right here, right now. The energy is moving. It is dancing. It is unspeakably light and joyful.
The exact same vibration is present as you read this - the same wavelength. But you may not feel that presence unless your own emotions are vibrating on the same frequency. Energetic resonance. How can you ever unite with a happy living vibration if you are still sad that she's died?
I realise I'm in danger of making this sound easy, when in truth it has been a slow process of working through the deep sadness that needed to be set free. It isn't easy. Unimaginable pain, that no-one else around you can ever feel or understand, has to be consciously experienced in order that the energy is transmuted. It has to be made conscious, Tapanga. You must meditate through this - every tear...every sigh... every squeeze and stretch of the broken heart - you must meditate on it all.
Do not escape into distractions --that is when people fail to get over their traumas. They failed because they tried to run away... but one can't. The energy is inside you. It needs to be set free. SHE needs to be set free from the energetic bonds that confine her. It is the final act of Love... and the greatest blessing we can ever give our loved ones... to open the bird cage and let her fly onwards on her journey.
xoxoxo jossgardner@hotmail.com
"Life flows on within you and without you"