House of Secrets

"On the surface, the enemy is clear and the message is evident, but perhaps the truth is much more difficult to see or accept ... that creativity can be held hostage by a nightmare god wearing a very familiar face ... that the enemy is no longer you or them, rather the enemy of me ... is me." -- Otep Shamaya

The second I heard the yelling in the beginning and saw the title I knew this was going to be about child abuse.

This reminds me of my period

@ windowchimp

"tower of babel" - obviously it's the penis

though another angle of this is the meaning this tower (a real tower, yes) has in various stories... here's one i copied from wikipedia

Greek Apocalypse of Baruch Third Apocalypse of Baruch (or 3 Baruch, c 2nd century), one of the pseudepigrapha, describes the just rewards of sinners and the righteous in the afterlife.[4] Among the sinners are those who instigated the Tower of Babel. In the account, Baruch is first taken (in a vision) to see the resting place of the souls of "those who built the tower of strife against God, and the Lord banished them." Next he is shown another place, and there, occupying the form of dogs,

in short: justice will be served :)

To me this song is very clear.

It's like you're in the House of Secrets, the new Babylon, whether it be in your homeland, your town, or your home. In the beginning I like the feel from the song, it makes you feel like a wayward spirit just wandering through the town.

So everything is normal, from the horse tables to the father reading tales to the child, but what goes on behind closed doors is another story.

And then all of a sudden, BOOM, she is calling for an uprising. For everyone to take a stand against the atrocities of a place gone bad. Stand up to you're values. Leave the pain behind. And dissappear.

I think there's a deeper meaning... I think it's about abuse, rape, or molestation... or maybe incest or something.

"And I don't feel pretty...today" When people get sexually abused they think they're ugly and think something's wrong with them in similar ways...

The blood going down her ankles... you know how when you have sex for the first few times you bleed, especially if she's a child, so the blood runs down to her ankles, and she can't run because she's either too scared or over powered...

And the dad's in her room every night, and reads her fables... like lies... so she doesn't know what's going on is bad? And then at the end when Otep starts screaming I think the girl is finally fighting back and beating the hell out of her dad or whatever. ^_^

i pretty much agree with death_bunny. "shh this is our, dirty, little, secret" - usually rapists and child molesters tell kids not to tell anyone. in this song, it sounds like she's talking to herself and repeating what the father said. this idea is repeated at the end with "what happens here, stays here..." i'm not sure about the "tower of babel" allusion means though :/

I am pretty sure it is about some kind child abuse-physical, sexually or both. I agree with Sky... when I heard the yelling at the begining, I felt that is what the song would be about.

This song is about the sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of her father for years throughout her childhood. A lot of her songs are about that.

This song is definitely about rape mostly. Religion was used to justify his actions.