Spirit

I have loved this song since I was 10 years old, even then not knowing what it meant. Over the decades I have thought about Spirit and what John was trying to tell us. "The Spirit joined and so was formed 10,000 years ago" speaks of the beginning of time, whether it be 10 thousand years or 10 billion years ago, a long time ago the Spirt came into "being". "Between the Swan and Hercules where even dark clouds glow"; in between these two constellations in the sky is what we can see of the Milky Way Galaxy and yes, even the dark clouds of the galaxy seem to glow especially on very dark nights. The Spirit is present here and John feels his destiny was formed 10,000 years ago along with the Spirt. (who in Judaism and Catholicism is a third person in the Triad)

The refrain: Apollo, the God of the Sun, and a passionate expressive lover taught or moved John to rhyme, to write, perhaps reflecting John discovering his talent to write songs like Sunshine On My Shoulders. "Opheus taught me to play": Orpheus was the most famous and talented musician of Greek mythology and his songs were said to be miraculous and above superhuman powers. This song, Spirit, was written after John's hits of Country Roads, Rocky Mountain High, etc and Denver's rise to fame. Rising as he did, I am sure John felt that the heavens endowed him with his talents. Andromeda cast down her sign" : She was one of the most beautiful daughters of a god and she and her mother boasted of this beauty. She was to be punished by being tied to a rock and eaten by a sea serpent but was saved by Perseus. All I gather from this is that Andromeda "cast down her sign" recognized boasting as offensive and after being saved by Perseus became much more humble. (Who wouldn't after almost being eaten by a serpent!) John found value in this lesson. Vega is the nearest star to our sun in the galaxy. "Vega lights my way" John is reaching and rising to higher thinking.

"Smoke rings in a galaxy" might refer to the Ring Nebula in the Milky Way, through which another galaxy passed through the ring, it would have taken millions of years to do so and thus be "an endless flight through time". "Lyra gave her harp (a lyre) to him (Orpheus) and left him free to climb. " In mythology, Orpheus gets into a battle and the lyre is thrown into a river. My own interjection here is that John finds this instrument in his guitar as he continues to say: "A winter's journey from the moon to reach the summers sun"; I do believe this phrase refers to himself, having been born in December, it is a winter's journey to the summer sun (perhaps Sunshine on My Shoutders ?) "To rise again, to sing for you, a song that's yet unsung". He is the ever-talented Opheus, rising again to sing and play for us, to be an example, "to live in grace, to ride the swell (the ocean) to love the wind, to learn her song, an empty space to fill". John felt this was his purpose to walk in grace in nature, to love the wind and its sounds; It is John's purpose to fill that empty space--which he does, in the song, singing high and low tones, not words, the way the Spirit speaks for all of us to our God in song, tones, groans, moans, sending our messages, feelings, to our Creator. The song at the end also mimics the wind

Okay, so tell me, am i off the wall? or does some of this make sense..