Seven Sisters

Straight from Wikipedia: "Seven Sisters" is written considering creation and the place of humans in it. The Creator made things soft and easy. However, men's clever philosophy is simply neat arrangements and men are left try to discover "where to sleep." He paraphrases a quote from "Icon of Light", a prayer written by Symeon the New Theologian. "Come, Light that knows no evening come, alone to the alone."[5]. Aaron also uses the ideas of Rumi: "A thousand half-loves must be forsaken to take one whole heart home",[6] and then again in the next line: "You dance inside my chest, where no one sees you, but sometimes I do.."[7]. These two prayers form a plea to the Creator to give men a madness that is whole, and to offer a resting place. The chorus refers to the cleansing and salvation found in God. The expectation continues that men are "expected to believe that any of this is real. The lines "covered like carpets with graceful, meaningless ornamental designs" comes from the novel The Journey To The East by Hermann Hesse."

That last section gives me shivers. These guys are beyond words, this cd great now i have even more lyrics to quote.

Also:

I was completely confused about the "thousand half-loves" part.

There is a mystical poet by the name of Jalaluddin Rumi, who has written many poems about love and separation. Rumi's most famous quote is:

"A thousand half-loves must be forsaken to take one whole heart home."

The connection is pretty obvious here, I guess. Weiss put a different, negative spin on "I'm a thousand half-loves well worth leaving [forsaking] to take your madness [whole heart] home."

He implies that he does not have a 'whole heart' by saying that he still has a 'thousand half-loves.' I could probably go much deeper into this, but I'm not sure how much more there is about it.

this is my view: His halve loves are the things he invests his heart in but really arent important. They are also the things that get in the way of our relationship with the "Light that knows no evening", Jesus.

this song most likely refers to the creation legend of the Kiowa Indian tribe, which made up a large part of the prose and poetry of N. Scott Momaday. In the prologue to "The Ancient Child," the Kiowa creation story is told as follows:

"Eight Children were there at play, seven sisters and their brother. Suddenly the boy was struck dumb; he trembled and began to run upon his hands and feet. His fingers became claws, and his body was covered with fur. Directly there was a bear where the boy had been. The sisters were terrified; they ran, and the bear after them. They came to the stump of a great tree, and the tree spoke to them. It bade them climb upon it, and as they did so it began to rise in the air. The bear came to kill them, but they were beyond its reach. It reared against the trunk and scored the bark all around with it claws. The seven sisters were borne into the sky, and they became the stars of the Big Dipper."

The concept of a great transformation of both form and spirituality is a major part of Kiowa beliefs. The story interprets the connection between life and its cycles, as well as the transformation of these two things amongst animals and humans, the land and the stars.

This is the only relation I can find between the two, where he says "He made the world a grassy road before our bare wandering feet, etc." Throughout the song he seems to be pondering this spiritual transformation ("rejoice, the cleansing of my lips!"), and mentions physical transformation ("I threw a stone down at the reflection of my image in the water and it altogether disappeared. I burst, it shattered me like a bullet through a bottle.") I'm not sure why the closing line, but my guess is that he's questioning the validity of such transformations.

The chorus also relates to Kiowa customs. The Kiowa are best known for their ceremonional Sun Dance; the connection here is the opening and closing lines ("Come quick, you light that knows no evening - come alone to the alone!" (the sun) You dance inside my chest where no one sees you, but sometimes I see you.")

*sp. thanks to thegreatcreator<3

very interesting ya'll...this give me much more to think about in relation to this song...thanks much

Given that mewithoutyou's songs predominantly fall into one of two categories (girls or God), i'm going with God on this one. I love the line "There are a thousand sanities worth leaving to take your madness home." Alone, this line says to me that you can either put up a front and be someone you're not for the sake of seeming normal, or you can just be yourself, madness and all. But that's awfully posi for this band, and in the context of the song, i'm guessing it's refering to holding true to your faith, even if everyone else in the world thinks your crazy for it, because it's what's going to take you home to heavnen

i still have a thousand half loves. im pretty sure in the context he means sin again. you hate sin yet you still do it.

come, light that knows no evening come, alone to the alone

this is a quote from "an invocation to the Holy Spirit", a prayer written by St. Symeon the New Theologian

it's a gorgeous prayer

whups, make that Alone to the alone it matters capital Alone means God, who Alone is God and we are alone because we are lonely human kind yearning to be rejoined to God

i really appreciate Aaron sharing Rumi's concept of half-loves with the world, it has helped me a good deal, but how much does Aaron blatantly lift from Rumi and shouldn't he give Rumi co-writes on all the songs? what i thought were Aaron Weiss's best lines were actually thieved from Rumi "mediocre artists borrow, great artists steal"