Wound

Lots of spiritual thoughts, biblical allusions etc in this song. I should say from the outset that this is a hugely important song to me. I'd known it for years and had loved it, but on the day I became a Christian this song in particular gained new meaning for me. Prior to this I'd though it was about a girl, and in part I think it is, but it's also largely about God.

The moment I became a Christian, the first line, "There you are, As you always were" suddenly became about discovering that the God I sought and found had always been there, even though I'd not been aware of his presence around me, but then He, the eternal one became part of me, which had always been part of his grand design from the beginning. It was beautiful, and in that moment I decided to follow and do whatever He wanted me to; to wait, to taste, to love, to run.

The night before I'd literally been struggling with my lack of joy and the feeling of being both unloved and unlovable. It's this sense of being unloved by God which causes us the fight and kill each other, to set cities alight. God is not harmed by this, but mourns at our futility.

The brokenness of humanity without God is revealed by Him in that moment of revelation. The broken man with blood on his hands is Cain, who killed his brother in jealousy because he felt unloved by God.

We then come to the part of the song which is about judgement. The world ends as God brings his judgement on humanity who rejected His love, and who use the freedom His love gives to kill and destroy His beloved creation, but those who know and accept His love still wait, taste, love and run.

To me its about someone he loves very dearly and feels destined for There you are As you always were In bathing light And naked blur You're a part of me Eternal One By grand design And setting sun

He tries to help her every way he can and by doing so tries to protect her from the world. He then by doing so exposes his own fears and problems and tries to conquer them.

I had a sudden realization recently that this and The Imploding Voice are about God rather than a girl. These songs take on totally different meanings in that light. I'm not religious, though, and Billy clearly is (especially, it seems, at this point in his career), so it's hard for me to relate to these songs on a spiritual level. So I still pretend they're about love. They clearly aren't, though.

I think this song is very spiritual and existential, referring to the oneness of god and ultimate reality "you're a part of me, eternal one, by grande design" and its relationship with humanity. the dreaming references are a metaphor of the dream of duality, a nightmare really, of life unloved, cities burning, then sharply contrasted with the knowledge that no real harm has been done outside the dream "awake in my arms, you cry unharmed" the unreality of our dream of duality is further referenced in relation to god in the lines "so take it all, i doubt that we'll even know its gone, because we've been here since time began (another reference to timeless ultimate reality and oneness) if god took it all away we'd just be left in the reality we've always been in before we had this dream.

Despite man's connection to this divine nature he creates a nightmare of guilt and evil in his niavety "and soon there's notions of blood on his hands" and in the ultimate act of separation attempts to disown god himself, yet man IS god, man is God's love and so he "spites god above with his own love" the fact that man exists is due solely to gods love, thus his attempt to spite him is wildly ironic and insane.

It seems almost like the chorus is Billy's idea of how god works with how we choose to be. Like god is saying "if you wait i will wait" if man waits to seek god, god will wait to reveal himself. "If you love i will love" if man loves he percieves god as loving. God will be what we want him to be, forever "till my last breath"

At least that's my take. Obviously very deep and poetic song. Beautiful.

I second that....sounds like a "I'd do anything for you, i'm that in love with you" type song.

Basic love song...he is extremely selfless in the relationship and the one he loves is having problems:

Awake in my arms You cry unharmed Our age of the hours While they still devour all So take it all I doubt if we Will know it's gone

and he is trying to help her but is having trouble...however he is saying that he will do anything for her to keep her love because she has become a part of him.

the smashing pumpkins = amazing

To me it sounds like an extremely unstable man that fears everything(hence the chorus(Last night I turned around I thought I saw myself turning Last night I turned around and thought I watched the world ending ) which informs us that he can't even get away from his pain in his dreams, so he kinda lives a dual existance where he's constantly going from the real world but when the "wound opens" he's kinda trapped in an endless nightmare where he see's the world ending but then he wakes up and his girlfriend is thier worrying about him,

Well, he clearly loves someone in this song, and going to any lengths for'em, (wait i will wait, etc...") The bits about dreams are kinda weird, theres a sens of change and destruction, but from the melody, it sounds kind of promising, despite the kinda sad images of live unloved and cities burning and worlds ending. The crux of it is the "wound opens" passage, theres a sens of the man being revealed, made vulnerable, maybe in his dreams or sumthin. Notions odf blood could be something like notions of passion or again, destruction (not sure about that tho, thats just me trying to interpret a vaguer metaphor). Essentially, something to do with wounds, or scars coming to light and pushing people to do things they shouldnt be doing. My favorite passage is the jealous ingrates bit. "who'll tear this world down to spite god above with his own love" that has to be one of billy's very finest lines, its like these vulnerable weak characters are taking all their passions bestowed upon them by the love of god and are turning them against him out of resentment of denied passions etc... lovely And at the end it all boils down to doing watever he can to his last breath. I guess the whole thing could be boiled down to thrashing around in despair, but not knowing where to take it, but watever u do, ull always be chiefly slave to watever it is thats pushing you and will do everyting u can about it "until ur last breath"

glass, still insane, tries to save june from the spiders

There's definately a direct reference to lucid dreaming in the chorus. Lucid dreaming is when one becomes aware that they are dreaming.

"Last night I turned around and thought I saw myself turning Inside the strangest dream"

When one realizes they are dreaming, they often spin in circles in attempt to reach a new destination in their dream.

Very interesting if you've ever experienced a lucid dream before, or if you've ever researched it. Lucidity ties in closely with the song Glass and the Ghost Children aswell, where the man speaking begins to realize his thoughts are the voice of God. In doing this he becomes lucid in reality and therefore starts to believe he's insane.

"Our age of the hours...."

Reference to the ideal that time is ultimately an illusion, and that we all know this to be true in moments of transcence. Begging god awake, begging ourselves awake.

It can seem that the world around you is ugly and misinformed and these feelings of seperation can manifest in your dreams as visions of apocalypse and flame.

Sometimes you find this grand light, this feeling of wholeness and unity with another person. You will taste, run, love with this light until your last breath. Even if the light and the flame are the same, then you'll run to it, as to finally kill the source of serperation between the two.

I'll play this one for her.

This song is us.