Threshold of Transformation

Aaron Turner said something about Wavering Radiant being about dreams. One of the themes I see reoccurring in the lyrics for Wavering Radiant, which by the way, you can read more here:

is sleeping, but I don't think lucid dreaming is the main focus, even though it is mentioned, and may have something to do with the concept.

What I did find was something called dreamtime, which was an idea by the Aborigines, that a separate but parallel stream of events that occur during our dreams influence the way they lived, their rules and other important aspects of life. It's believe that dreamtime is more real than real life.

This part jumps out at me and seems to be similar to the dreamtime theme.

"embodied by a boy His voice small and weak wisp of smoke to be chosen

All by their heads he places crowns

to witness entire towns

The boy blesses whispers into words in the painted valleys they await rain "

"embodied by a boy" I think means that this person is just a humble person this story is describing, and not someone really in any prominent position.

"all by their heads he places crowns" The meager 'boy', has given 'power' to someone that didn't have any in the first place.

"The boy blesses whispers into words in the valley they await rain"

I think this part means goes with the part where he gives power, but he is acting as an intermediate or an interpreter ("whispers into words", the 'into words' part, he is dictating it as some kind of stated law) between the dreamtime and real life. The people looking to him 'await rain', or just wait for something he has said will happen that he has no control over (rain), but it could just be an allegory for anything that is out of their hands, that they expect or are in need of.

Best ISIS song period.

A visonary boy who is the threshold of transformation between this world and the world of dreams ,he is the king of lucid dreaming

Incredible song. As far as the meaning, not a clue.

In an interview Jess Caxide said that Aaron Turner had mentioned Carl Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist, had an influence on this album.

A stellar track to finish a stellar record and a stellar career.

No one will ever go where Isis went. One of a kind.

The lyrics are fixed and now official.

"I've arrived city of lucid dreams

before me a building looms caked in inky grime"

The main character has arrived to the place of his transformation. He describes the dreamlike environment.

"the act unknown actor in sleep"

I'll hazard a guess here. The main character does not exactly know what his transformation encompasses. He is a participant, or "actor" in the transformation/act. But he is "in sleep", in other words, in the dark about the "act".

"here i enter, and here i see the circle and bones made in haste

winds to anoint the faithful"

I suppose this is more environmental description.

"amorphous specter turns from old to new rests in faith beside me"

I don't really know about this. Apparently other beings exist in the dream world, also undergoing the transformation.

"we wait for the quiet fire to be born and there it is embodied by a boy his voice small and gray whispers smoke to the chosen"

The quiet fire is a concept or being in the form of a boy. The boy appears rather callow/inexperienced, but possesses a lot of power.

"upon our heads he places crowns sewn with hiss and higher tones"

I don't know what hiss means, but the fire/boy bestows upon them a "higher tone", maybe a higher awareness or plane of existence. Maybe something in the dream world.

"the boy presses whispers into her and they bathe in valley's pale rain."

The boy is inculcating someone with some sort of knowledge. He/it is a source of knowledge. The use of "her" may indicate that the main character throughout the song is a female. This, I suppose, is the result of the transformation.