Alt-Lat: An alternate Track Listing of Tool's Lateralus

SpoonerL2@mymail.macewan.ca

My friend (who, I believe, wrote "the Holy Gift" regarding the fibonacci sequence in the song 'lateralus') told me that he and his brother were told this by Danny Carey in a bar: 6,7 5,8 4,9. Then the boss got irate and told Mr. Carey to zip it. My friend and I discussed the code and its ending many times. We disagreed about the exact order. I have since had to revise our discussion around the anatomy of Fr. A. Jung helped elucidate major alchemical themes, but my justification (a woman satisfied) for this arrangement remains un-mathematical: 10 is the last song. Disposition is the message.

Now, I've been in school for a year, and I know a little chicago-style. I'm not going to use it. You may recognise material from Crowley, Jung, Robert Anton Wilson (peace be upon him) and others; I have used this as an exercise in memory. Treat it as a hypothesis on which to construct your own experiments. (P.S. just don't blow yourself up in the toolshed.)

6,7 5,8 4,9 we argued about the ending....
We agreed upon these points: $X+Y=13$. Song 13 represents some type of Abyss. 6 & 7 should be kept together, as should 2 & 3. These were our hints, I believe.

$6+7=13$ Paradox & Pendulum.

A fantastic passage in the Crowleyanity talks about the `incarnation of a soul'. In an exposition on the Mass, I believe. The whirling forces funneled down into the prima materia via the lust-relation of priest and priestess.... My thesis: This album acts as magical talisman and follows the formulas of such. The first order of business channels an amount of magical force. Parabol/a accomplishes this via the sexual attraction between the male and female forces, which locks itself into a material substance. I copy-and-paste liberally from the toolband site for lyrics:

This one, this form I hold now.
Embracing you, this reality here
This one, this form I hold now

The prima materia, the body or earth-form.

so Wide eyed and hopeful.
Wide eyed and hopefully wild.

A reference to Pan in Parabol, the male counterpart. (ayin=eye=pan=sex magic, etc.)

We barely remember what came before this precious moment,-Primordial chaos, or the forgetfulness of ego-consciousness in these trance states.

Choosing to be here right now.
...reminding me that I am not alone in
This body makes me feel eternal

Read: I am not alone in this body

I must take a moment to expound my point-of-view theory. MJK's usage of the personal pronouns `I' and `you' sounds quite peculiar. (A technical theory for this can be found in linguistics and grammar, I'm not going fishing for it.) It smacks of NLP how the force-subject of these songs pivot from `I' to `you', from `we' around to `they' etc. Here Jung's ego-identity theories might clarify. The gnostic trance states make it easier to get into the (often delusional) `idea of reference'. Every time the word `I' occurs, the person identifies that subject with himself, personally. This linguistic fact accounts for cases of paranoia. When someone identifies themselves (the listener) with the usage of `I' in the song, then `I' (the listener) can project everything else (Not-I) on to the usage of `You'.

The subject of magic can't be studied without some participation in the ritual itself. Likewise, music cannot be enjoyed without that same identification, or personal frame of reference. Parabol/a to gets the listener to pay some ego-stuff into the system, so that `we' (you, me, the album) can complete an alchemical operation. I must be explicit here: this identification of `I' and `you' comes automatically in the subconscious, (which takes everything quite literally) and rarely becomes conscious. I have a fun music experiment to prove this. Moving on...

The nature of this male/female energy that we are now identified with can be expounded briefly from the title.

Parabol(ic): having the form or outline of a parabola. i.e., the circumference of the central point, the parabola. The Crowleyholes call this Nuit/Hadit.

Parabola: $y^2 = 2px$. The measure to the right equals the measure to the left. Shaped like a cup or bowl, or the aspirant with hands raised up in adoration (the V in LVX). Its magical analogy lies with its peculiar mathematical properties. From Greek parabole, comparison, application, from paraballein, to compare; see parable.

Parable: a short allegorical story designed to illustrate or teach some truth, religious principle, or moral lesson. 2. a statement or comment that conveys a meaning indirectly by the use of comparison, analogy, or the like. (Often used in the bible.)

According to the etymology (the language of the unconscious), the male and female principles come from the same root, thus identifying the two with each other. Mission accomplished.

Some sort of riddle (see also: sphinx) or a short analogy used to illustrate a principle lies before us.

Swirling round with this familiar parable. Spinning, weaving round each new experience.

Note the same spiral imagery as in Lateralus, the moral: we are eternal. all this pain is an illusion.

$5 + 8 = 13$ The lovers (brothers) at War.

Schism packs in Enantiodromia images. Most obviously: the Lovers and the Tower symbolism. The work begins with an elemental opposition:

I know the pieces fit cuz I watched them fall away
mildewed and smoldering, fundamentals differing

mildew = wet/warm, smoldering =warm/wet (something that smolders can't ignite due to moisture). This first passage identifies the listener as existing before the event. This primordial feeling represents the prima materia, here pictured manifesting herself in the elements of Fire and Water.

pure intention juxtaposed will set two lovers' souls in motion
disintegrating as it goes..

Compare this image to the Lurianic idea that Divine will descending into matter breaks up into sparks of light (individual souls). `Pure intention' = Logos. One can compare these two lovers to the male/female pair encountered previously. Having united the male and female, note that the first alchemical operation dissolves this unity in to its constituent elements. Why?

the light that fueled our fire then has burned a hole between us so
we cannot see to reach an end, crippling our communication.

This line also reads fine as We cannot seem to reach amends..

I know the pieces fit cuz I watched them tumble down
no fault, none to blame it doesn't mean I don't desire to
point the finger, blame the other, watch the temple topple over.
To bring the pieces back together, rediscover communication.

A whole vein of philosophy concerns itself with why the Logos, God or Self would choose to incarnate a suffering mortal. `Blaming the Other' for this mortal suffering needs little commentary beside what has been said about the ego's projections of evil onto the Not-I. The `temple' here manifests The Tower archetype, whose other titles include The House of God, The Lightening-Struck Tower and War. The prima materia, that male/female psychic entity in Parabol/a, now enters the conscious awareness of the ego. This process has been described as the worst depression, a dark night of the soul, or a war in heaven. Simply, the subject of the work (equated with the listener) remains unconscious and hostile to the shadow -self, `the Other'.

All our romantic relationships, when not guided from the centre, dramatize our relationship with that secret lover, the anima. We then project our bad qualities, the shadow, on to each other in order to view the problem objectively.

For example...

Ticks and Leeches
Psychic Vampirism for Fun and Profit

Suck and suck. Suckin up all you can suckin up all you can suck.
Workin up under my patience like a little tick.
Fat little parasite. Suck me dry.
My blood is bruised and borrowed. You thieving bastards.
You have turned my blood cold and bitter,
beat my compassion black and blue.

Someone once referred to these people as sucking mouths of emptiness. The types that drain you of energy, compassion, patience. Drug addicts and helpless victims of all kinds, these people revel in misery, and they love company. Enough said about some `other' individual, this piece takes place inwardly, in the psyche, because all alchemical operations are `hermetically sealed in the flask'. A consistent interpretation holds if the I speaks for our conscious ego, and the You the subconscious shadow-self. Interesting note: the You here has been pluralized, as well as projected outwards.

In the first passage, as long as we do not recognize this shadow as a part of our imaginative psychic lives, all its interactions, (or attempts at communication) will be seen as an active wounding or a passive bleeding, of the conscious libido. Calling this entity a `parasite' doesn't sound too positive either. I have viewed the lines of Schism to be the words of the anima, the subconscious (due to its archetypal Tarot symbolism), while Ticks and Leeches seems to be a common experience of the outer life.Please understand, these songs that sum to 13 are whole entities together, not pairs. These two processes are both-at-once, whichever occurs in the conscious mind constellates its mate in its mate.

Two themes in Ticks and Leeches: the kenosis, or emptying, and the blood symbology. As the recipe in Schism dictated the remedy, To bring the pieces back together, rediscover communication so Ticks and Leeches includes the solution to its own problem. Both in dealing with another person, and the inner 'other' person, the operation works the same:

Suck me dry.

The voluntary offering of blood when given to the shadow-self redeems both, according to the christ mythos. When another tries to steal this vital essence against the will of the ego, it instantly becomes a poison, for both. You have turned my blood cold and bitter, beat my compassion black and blue. The sacrificial blood image complements the emptying, giving up, and surrendering to the overwhelming emotion. Whenever someone has been victimized, taken advantage of, raped, robbed, etc. these feelings require equilibrium. They will demand expression, and if denied, will trigger more violence, either towards the aggressor, one's self, or an innocent bystander.

Again, the remedy:

Hope this is what you wanted.
Hope this is what you had in mind.
cuz this is what you're getting.
Take what you want and then go.

By freely offering what the shadow requires, these symptoms, which often manifest in physical/mental illness, abate. Once we are aware that this shadow-person exists inside us, in a truly reality-based way, then the opportunity arises for an active dialogue.

$4+ 9 = 13$
Reconciliation: Meditation and Revelation

Mantra: noun Hinduism. A word or formula, from the Veda, chanted or sung as an incantation or prayer...a magic spell, or a syllable or portion of scripture containing mystical potentialities. The raging emotions, once given full expression, allow the mind to rest in quiet contemplation. The suspended-mind. Quiet, non-verbal, this mode sublimates the ego/anima, re-unites them and, if persisted with, will manifest them as a new whole entity. Visions arising out of the depths will appear with great objective clarity; this state of ego surrender can communicate with the objective (or collective) psyche. The centerpeice of this album then reveals itself.

Black then white are all I see in my infancy.
red and yellow then came to be, reaching out to me.
lets me see.
as below, so above and beyond, I imagine
drawn beyond the lines of reason.
Push the envelope. Watch it bend.

As in Schism, we start out with a pair of opposites. Here they are quickly resolved into a full quartenary. The allusion to an infant's development of the sight faculty, I believe, refers to acquiring some proficiency in so-called 'astral-projection', active-imagination, pathworking, scrying, etc. etc. As above/So below - the great alchemical axiom of Hermes Trismegistus tells us that we are re-living the first manifestation (Parabol/a) on a higher plane. At this point, the united Adept, the ego/anima, takes conscious control of a (hitherto) natural process.

Over thinking, over analyzing separates the body from the mind.
Withering my intuition, missing opportunities and I must
Feed my will to feel my moment drawing way outside the lines.

The mind has soared and abstracted above all earthy concerns, which can often be an appropriate attitude, (and has been dealt with elsewhere in Tool). The separation of body from mind can accomplish many goals, but when one needs the `intuitive' faculty, the body and mind must be re-united. How can this be done? Feed the will-to-feel. Give conscious attention (libido) to the feeling, here-and-now experience, then one may 'see' into the heart of things as they really are.

The real events, uncontaminated by our ego-projections and distortions, take on an objective life of their own. This fact lies behind the animist religions, and to the modern mind, demonstrates proof of the objective psyche which thinks events into being. Imagination (the image-making ability) sits superior to reason in this type of mentation because, through the internal images (the anima's life) the objective reality can be transmuted.

over thinking, over analyzing separates the body from the mind.
Withering my intuition leaving opportunities behind.
Feed my will to feel this moment urging me to cross the line.
Reaching out to embrace the random.
Reaching out to embrace whatever may come

The key to uniting the separated body and mind, the mantra-process, asserts itself again. Note that the moment urges us, the moment has a will and reality of its own. The advice stated here: embrace that objective mind willingly.

feel the rhythm, to feel connected enough to step aside and weep like a widow
to feel inspired to fathom the power, to witness the beauty,
to bathe in the fountain

We are now entering into the true state of Gnosis, setting aside our personal ego in order to participate in the greater mystery. The images of power and beauty (note our typical male/female associations with these concepts) pool together in a fountain. The royal bath in the fountain represents a familiar Jungian archetype, and I will also refer you to his work concerning the 'widow'. (i.e., the son of a widow, an orphan, the abandoned.) Another essential element concerns rhythm; the literature equates ego-control-consciousness with control of the breath.

to swing on the spiral of our divinity and still be a human.

This concisely states the of the purpose of the Western tradition. We do not try to excommunicate the body, the shadow, or rise above evil, but to attain the nature of God while in incarnation, not after death. We assert that `Enlightenment' cannot mean abandoning one's personal life or commitments, rather, it gives us the ability to have our cake and eat the hell out of it.

With my feet upon the ground

We are grounded firmly in our individuality and reality. (The cabalist will recognise this low=high middle pillar formula.)

I move myself between the sounds

Almost like `the spaces between the spaces'.

and open wide to suck it in

like we learned how to do in $5 + 8 = 13$.

I feel it move across my skin

the body, or sensate function, cannot be ignored, it acts as our only direct proof of existing.

I'm reaching up and reaching out. I'm reaching for the random or what ever will bewilder me.

I always thought he was saying whatever will be willed to me as if the objective psyche were reaching out, but the attraction to the strange and new serves this purpose much more subtly.

And following our will and wind we may just go where no one's been.
We'll ride the spiral to the end and may just go where no one's been.

Now the `You' and `I' become direct to the listener, we are now `we'. The album Lateralus and the song parallel each other, like macro- and microcosm. At this point in the song, `we' become conscious of out unity, and in the (restored) album, this happens in a greater sphere. The Primal Will resembles `wind' as well as the `weather' in the last song. `The end' seems not to be the final resting point in an apocalyptic, existential sense, rather a stop along an infinite highway.

Spiral out. Keep going.

Faaip De Oiad- Voice of God in the Enochian system, according to wiki. Concerning psychosis, or the subconscious manifestations of these higher visions. One explanation for the visions of angels, falling stars and the like includes the idea of space-visitors. Check out this theory, because the space abductors come up again in the 5th album (http://www.boudillion.com/lam/lam.htm). In this classic case, mythology becomes 'real' to the person experiencing it. It isn't really fair to dismiss this as 'psychosis' or 'delusion'. The position of this Chronozon-laden track right after the spiral vision, compensates for the angelic in the demonic.(Remember Abramelin's advice.) Research the 'Crowley (or AOS) invented the Greys' myth. That highly instructive piece parallels the methodology used here by Tool.

As Anderson Cooper 360 often says: after the break, we'll tell you why you care. Why the hokey-sounding meta-physical Celestine crap? Can't you use anything to prove anything? What if I prefer the original (or other arrangements) better? Why *is* Maynard wearing boobs in that photo? I said earlier, this whole event occurs psychically as you listen to this album. You were (by definition) un-conscious of it, until you read this little essay towards truth, so the effects of the formula may only have been evident as much as your subconscious would be likely to rearrange and notice such a pattern, draw energy to it, and present it back to you. I am explicitly stating the reason for the success of their work. Sold my soul to make a record, indeed. Once you mull over this arrangement consciously, shit happens. One needs to have a model, hypothesis, or some prediction when conducting these experiments. Our method is science, after all.

$12 + 1 =13$
The Alchemical triad.

Triad alludes to the three pairs we have seen. These three elements are instructions on how to bring the ego/anima into balance and direct that force. Truly, the Alchemists' great secret. Now the personality does not wastefully divide itself, but can concentrate the life-force fully. No more late-night ritalin-fueled cram sessions, I'm talking manic psychosis at will. Will save you hundreds of dollars a year on drugs. Re-access the same high, over and over, conquer your enemies and amaze women! They think I'm joking.

Wear your grudge like a crown of negativity.

Kether, or the Sahasrara chakra, in its inverted aspect, identical with the repressed shadow contents. (Also called the prima materia.)

Calculate what we will or will not tolerate.

The Aristolian, either-or, black/white logic. `Separatio' process. As noted before, a necessary pre-requisite.

Desperate to control all and everything.

Sign that its time to relinquish the purely material/reductionist model or else...

Unable to forgive your scarlet lettermen.

The `Scarlet Letter' (was an A=aleph=fool). The person who points out the evil (hypocrisy, waste, cruelty, bad attitude etc.) can often be often mistaken for the evil itself. Again, the shadow, who equilibriates our personality, doesn't constitute evil in itself, but reflects the attitude we chose towards it. If repression and denial of this shadow-self persist, the shadow-self becomes a tormenting devil.

Clutch it like a cornerstone. Otherwise it all comes down

'It' seems rather ambiguous, referring to the attitude of ego-superiority described above and the shadow-contents at the same time.

Justify denials and grip it to the lonesome end.

Clutch it like a cornerstone. Otherwise it all comes down

Ref. The Tower.

Terrified of being wrong. Ultimatum prison cell

The either/or ultimatum leads to some sticky psychic traps. We're always fond of recognizing this 'hypocrisy' in others, with ourselves we are straight-faced. These opposites are in fact, the same problem, and both attitudes are dealt with together.

Saturn ascends, choose one or ten. Hang on or be humbled again

Ten and not nine, ten and not eleven - Cabalistic sign-post. The first vertically ascending path, attributed to Saturn. Usually The World. Basic (old aeon) ego-death-to-enlightenment motif. Not fun.

Saturn ascends, comes round again.
Saturn ascends, the one, the ten. Ignorant to the damage done.

Interesting note: the Saturn (Chronos) principle spirals, which is why we face the same problems again and again in the outer life, until we deal (lead) with them properly. Doesn't 'care' about our petty psychological dismemberment. See Jung's Book of Job. Saturn as the great initiator.

Defining, confining, sinking deeper. Controlling, defining, and we're sinking deeper

Accurate assessment of affairs. See also: Swamp song.

Saturn comes back around to show you everything
Lets you choose what you will not see and then
Drags you down like a stone or lifts you up again
Spits you out like a child, light and innocent.

Depending on how much opposition one can assimilate in any shadow encounter, the ego feels sucked into hell or purified. The Tarot attribution of this path should be `The Fool'. That's the positive model.

Saturn comes back around. Lifts you up like a child or
Drags you down like a stone to
Consume you till you choose to let this go.
Choose to let this go.

'This': not ego vs. shadow, but ego-centeredness at all. A new center having been discovered in Lateralis, this trick to turns consciousness around that greater spiral. The stone, the prima materia, and the soul descending into Hades appear connected. First matter = evil = shadow = Philosopher's Stone.

Give away the stone. Let the oceans take and transmutate this cold and fated anchor.
Give away the stone. Let the waters kiss and transmutate these leaden grudges into gold

Just like the poison/blood was freely offered in $5 + 8 = 13$, in order to transmute this attitude, it must be freely offered up (crucified) to change (saturn/world/fool). The second ascending vertical path in cabalistic anatomy, attributed to the Hanged Man (Suspended Man, see Mantra) represents baptism by water. The sixth sphere (gold=sun) takes this attitude into the water/ocean symbolism of the ninth sphere. Go write your own essay on Undertow.

$11+2=13$
Reflections on the Blue Aeon
The ninth cabalistic sphere (Google Yesod)

The moon tells me a secret. My confidant.
As full and bright as I am, this light is not my own

Consciousness doesn't originate in the ego-self.

A million light reflections pass over me
It's source is bright and endless

The sun.

She resuscitates the hopeless
Without her we are lifeless satellites drifting

Refuting the materialist/reductionist perspective.

And as I pull my head out I am without one doubt

about the existence of the objective psyche.

Don't want to be down here feeding my narcissism

(note the reflection's role in the original myth.)

I must crucify the ego before it's far too late

no frog substitutes allowed!

I pray the light lifts me out before I pine away.

The crucifixion motif in 5+8=13 can be viewed in the cabalistic system as still operating in malkuth, under elemental influence, before the `middle pillar' brings in new types of energy. Now, that willing surrender has it's magical effect. What this effect is, I will leave you to decide.

On the title `Aeon Blue Apocalypse':
The blue aeon suggests two images: the Piscean age of christ, where the apocalypse overthrows all that patristic nonsense. The second image may be the forthcoming blue aeon of Ma'at, goddess of justice. Her `equilibrium' interpretation should be kept in mind as we move through `The Patient'.

A groan of tedium escapes me, startling the fearful.
Is this a test?

Is it?
Now, I think this statement addresses the listener directly.

It has to be. Otherwise I can't go on.

A threat to stop making records?

Draining patience. drain vitality.
this paranoid, paralyzed vampire act's a little old.

The author's description of his persona? That's hot.

But I'm still right here, giving blood and keeping faith.
And I'm still right here

Tool has already paid lots of ego-stuff into this system to keep it going. To what end?

If there were no desire to heal
The damaged and broken met along this tedious path I've chosen here,

Maynard's second career choice: Nursing.

If there were no rewards to reap,
no loving embrace to see me through this tedious path I've chosen here,
I certainly would've walked away by now.
And I still may.
I'm gonna wait it out.

Four triads: $6+7=13$, $5 + 8 = 13$, $4+ 9 = 13$ and $12 + 1 =13$. $13+0=13$ functions as a break and two songs (3 and 10) act outside the operation proper. Try viewing it like an encoded alchemical recipe with a helpful letter attached, addressed to no one and signed please correspond.

mention this to me.
mention something, mention anything...
mention this to me.
and watch the weather change.