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.
I have come curiously close to the end, though
Beneath my self-indulgent pitiful hole
Defeated, I concede and move closer
I may find comfort here
I may find peace within the emptiness
How pitiful
It's calling me (calling me)
It's calling me (calling me)
It's calling me (calling me)
It's calling me
And in my darkest moment, fetal and weeping
The moon tells me a secret, a confidant
As full and bright as I am
This light is not my own and
A million light reflections pass over me
The source is bright and endless
She resuscitates the hopeless
Without her, we are lifeless satellites drifting
And as I pull my head out, I am without one doubt
Don't want to be down here soothing my narcissism
I must crucify the ego before it's far too late
I pray the light lifts me out
Before I pine away (pine away)
Before I pine away (pine away)
Before I pine away (pine away)
Before I pine away
So crucify the ego, before it's far too late
And leave behind this place so negative and blind and cynical
And you will come to find that we are all one mind
Capable of all that's imagined and all conceivable
So let the light touch you
So let the words spill through
And let them pass right through
Bringing out our hope and reason
Before we pine away (pine away)
Before we pine away (pine away)
Before we pine away (pine away)
Before we pine away
Beneath my self-indulgent pitiful hole
Defeated, I concede and move closer
I may find comfort here
I may find peace within the emptiness
How pitiful
It's calling me (calling me)
It's calling me (calling me)
It's calling me (calling me)
It's calling me
And in my darkest moment, fetal and weeping
The moon tells me a secret, a confidant
As full and bright as I am
This light is not my own and
A million light reflections pass over me
The source is bright and endless
She resuscitates the hopeless
Without her, we are lifeless satellites drifting
And as I pull my head out, I am without one doubt
Don't want to be down here soothing my narcissism
I must crucify the ego before it's far too late
I pray the light lifts me out
Before I pine away (pine away)
Before I pine away (pine away)
Before I pine away (pine away)
Before I pine away
So crucify the ego, before it's far too late
And leave behind this place so negative and blind and cynical
And you will come to find that we are all one mind
Capable of all that's imagined and all conceivable
So let the light touch you
So let the words spill through
And let them pass right through
Bringing out our hope and reason
Before we pine away (pine away)
Before we pine away (pine away)
Before we pine away (pine away)
Before we pine away
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the way i see it... in order to understand REFLECTION. you have to first understand DISPOSITION. and before even that... you really gotta see the whole album as a unified whole.
REFLECTION can be summed up in a single line (derived from the lyrics themselves) "you will come to find that we are all one mind"... the whole album reeks of such themes as the "collective consciousness" "unity" "prying open one's third eye"... personally i see the song and most of tool's conceptual work favouring / exploring Eastern philosophy... in Hinduism, the third eye is the eye of enlightenment... and in Hinduism enlightenment means the realisation of one's soul unified with the universe / god... in other words realising the "one mind" nature of all things...
in saying all this... i must also add that Buddhist Philosophy also plays part in the piece... lines such as "crucify the ego" etc reflect the supreme buddhist goal... the goal to realise the SELFLESS nature of all things... to remove the misconception of an individual soul...
the most remarkable thing about TOOL, has to be the intellectual and artistic backgrounds to their conceptual albums... philosophy (eastern), psychology (carl jung), and western skepticism.
HOD