Feathergun in the Garden of the Sun

I'm certian this song can be interpreted in a variety of fashions, but all dealing with some type of omniscience, prescience, or knowledge by a person upset by the upcoming and or occuring war.

For my interpretation I draw upon Frank Herbert's Dune and it's protagonist Paul Orestes Atreides and his transformation into Paul Muad'dib. If you haven't read Dune, than I highly recommend you read it, but you may not fully understand my explanation.

"you tripped into the garden, you tripped into the garden of the sun" is when Paul was on Dune and gained increased prescience from the ever present melange and waking prescience from converting the water of life. The "garden of the sun" is prescience, and though Paul had prescient dreams on Caladan a few years before House Atriedes gained management of Arrakas, he never seeked to be prescient or be the Kwisatz Haderach - he was fated to be, he "tripped" into it.

"on you tried, unbuttoned eyes" refers to the blue-within-blue eyes of Ibad as well as Paul taking the unchanged water of life to gain more prescience in order to prevent the upcoming jihad he saw in his prescience.

"tripping past your guard into the sun these dreamers, so eager, throw their hands in the fight I spy walrus tooth in the way outside of the shoegaze revolution" is about Paul and his unleashing of the jihad, cause it would have happened without him with worse consequences for humanity, and how the Fremen, as well as offworld pilgrims, took up the religion of Muad'dib and the jihad that overthrew the old imperium, the "shoegaze revolution".

Then you get to the main parts - " seein' bright lights, silhouettes of knife fights and I see it all, I see it all I'm seein' bright lights in-between the knife fights and I see it all, I see it all I see it all through the wolves in the walls who might you be, who should you be killing with featherguns when they don't understand you're fighting for ground control

stealing glances colorblind encouraging confusion, crossing all the boundaries undrawn... ...I'm hearin' white lies coursing through the disguises, I hear it all, I hear it all I'm hearin' lost cries chorusing the night sky and I hear it all, I hear it all..." - which is about Paul's prescience and knowledge of the current jihad that occurs directly after the events of Frank Herbert's Dune.

Killing "with feather guns" is about the jihadis and how they're killing with the false justification of the religion of Muad'dib rather than for the safety of humanity, which only Paul knows about through his prescience. Fighting for "ground control" is the real reason of the jihad, to save humanity.

"hands bound behind withered backs, blindfolds laid on hollow eyes too hopeless to hear ready...aim...fire... change ammunition, don't give a war of attrition tacit permission to minimize genocide..." is after the events of Frank Herbert's Dune Messiah where Paul is blind both of sight and prescience when Chani, his concubine, dies during childbirth and wanders out into the desert in sadness and relief of his freedom from prescience. Don't "give a war of attrition tacit permission to minimize genocide..." is Paul critisizing his jihad and telling his son, Leto II, advice on how he conducts placing humanity upon "The Golden Path".

Dune fit so well with this song.

What I find so powerful about this song is how when they say "tripped into the garden of the sun" garden of the sun sounds like a good thing but they make it sound like it is the worst possible thing that could happen. It's a counter-intuitive truism, a place where you are exposed by the power of understanding, which, although is objectively a good thing, there is nothing corrupt people fear more than to be exposed and/or purified by this understanding because they know their remorse will be overwhelming. Which is both a terrifying and amazing proposition.. in other words, they are actually Punished by their own enlightenment.

I recently found this song and immediately fell in love. I think I have some different ideas than those people have presented here already and that just goes to show how awesome these lyrics really are.

First of all, the song opens up with lyrics from the persepctive of an outside observer which makes me feel like it's a commentary from someone in relative safety talking about an individual that stumbles out into the spotlight. "you tripped into the garden of the sun, on you tried, unbuttoned eyes, tripping past your guard into the sun" To me this makes me feel like the narrator is witnessing a brave individual step beyond their comfort zone and expose themselves to the world.

Then comes the lines "these dreamers, so eager, throw their hands in the fight" which makes me think of people that believe they themselves are superior to this brave individual and try to bring the people in the spotlight down to make themselves feel better.

The next section I think describes the narrator in awe of the brave individual's ability to stand up to the opression and destructive nature of the opposing forces trying to tear them apart. In shamanism, walrus teeth represent wisdom and clarity, that all secrets shall be revealed and that it's important to see the bigger picture. The characters partaking in the fighting are blind to the truth but the narrator can see the good in the brave person's actions.

The lines "I see it all, I see it all through the wolves in the walls, who might you be, who should you be" refer to the narrator's realization that this one person standing alone in the light and pushing against the walls of wolves is who we should all aspire to be. We should be the ones fighting against the darkness and fighting for control over our own destinies. This also ties into "killing with feathergun when they don't understand you're fighting for ground control" which could once again refer to these ignorant savages using anything they can to try and take the radiant symbol of hope and bravery down without even knowing why they are doing so.

The next sections have lines such as "stealing glances, colorblind encouraging confusion, crossing all the boundaries undrawn" which to me symbolizes how now there are other people in the crowd witnessing this brave individual and are confused and unsure as to who they should follow and listen to. "I'm hearing white lies coursing through the disguises" would reference to the tyranical people in power that are telling people lies to make sure they don't revolt and want to uphold their places in power through the disguise of appearing true and good. A wolf in sheep's clothing if you will, which would confuse the average ignorant person but not the narrator who has gained enough wisdom to see through the lies.

"Hands bound behind withered backs, blindfolds laid on hollow eyes, too hopeless to hear, read aim fire" is demonstrating how there may have been other people who have fought against this oppressive force and lost. They have been beaten and have grown hopeless and will be executed because of their lack in belief for the cause. "don't give a war of attrition, tacit permission tp minimize genocide" is the narrator speaking about how the "authorities" want to end this revolution as quickly as possible to avoid more people joining the side of the truth seekers. They don't want their secrets exposed to the masses and want to end the fight quickly.

The song ends with much of the same themes and lyrics as before, doubling down on the fact that this individual that bravely stood in the spotlight to be an example for those to follow did in fact enlighten some people, and this concludes the song in a way that inspires hope in the listener that although many will still blindly and ignorantly follow those in power, that these idols and leaders of good can still prevail and make a difference in the world.

These are just my interpretations, this song (and most of the album) is just so fantasticly written and performed that everybody can see things so very differently. Let me know what you think and where I might have missed something, I am always looking to get better at decoding the lyrics behind my favorite music.

"in(im)prelious telusion" took me a bit to compute, even had to look at the official handwritten lyrics to make sure it wasn't a typo haha

I have always had the feeling that the is about war and the anguish and misery that it always brings. I feel there is some kind of rationalization attempt on the atrocities committed in war time. The imagery used in the lyrics is quite complex and strange, "I see it all through the wolves in the walls", for example is in reference to some unknown context, at least for me. I'll read Frank Herbert's Dune as JamesDeCharpenteir suggested.

This is Possibly my favorite song. I'm not even going to attempt to look into these lyrics.