It almost sounds like a Earth Mother/Creation myth made up by Byrne. You have Mother Nature, Father Time, and the basic male/female duality that is both a symbol and the fact of our very existence. Whereas men seek to understand Nature via science and hard facts, the essence of women can be described as Intuitive.
You could also see it as meaning Mother Earth, the planet, this living being with a 4.5 billion year-old spirit. the Great Curve could then be the spherical surface of the earth, or possibly the edge where the Earth falls into shadow and then back into sunlight. (day/night being another fundamental duality). In this context, the first stanza suggests mortals' "connecting" with the spirit of the Earth, "but can't hang on". "She shakes them up..." refers to the moving crustal plates, and the earthquakes that result.
It almost sounds like a Earth Mother/Creation myth made up by Byrne. You have Mother Nature, Father Time, and the basic male/female duality that is both a symbol and the fact of our very existence. Whereas men seek to understand Nature via science and hard facts, the essence of women can be described as Intuitive.
You could also see it as meaning Mother Earth, the planet, this living being with a 4.5 billion year-old spirit. the Great Curve could then be the spherical surface of the earth, or possibly the edge where the Earth falls into shadow and then back into sunlight. (day/night being another fundamental duality). In this context, the first stanza suggests mortals' "connecting" with the spirit of the Earth, "but can't hang on". "She shakes them up..." refers to the moving crustal plates, and the earthquakes that result.
I think it's a bit of both.