Tool - AEnima Song Meanings Lyrics:
Some say the end is near.
Some say we'll see armageddon soon.
I certainly hope we will.
I sure could use a vacation from this
Bul...
(See the rest of these lyrics)
 Top Rated Interpretation
2005-11-11 21:45:20
Bravo. I think many of you are right on, but here is my humble opinion...
Maynard (I think) is saying that we need to find ourselves. You need to figure out who you are, don't follow and don't lead. Be your-Goddamn-self!
Fuck L Ron Hubbard and fuck all his clones because he is trying to lead, and they are following.(Fuck Sheep should be in there somewhere...)He's full of "Silly Shit, Stupid Shit..."
Fuck all you gun-toting hip gangster wannabes because you aren't who you pretend to be. You have emotions just like the rest of us. You, too, are human, even if you were shot 9 times and you survived...
Fuck retro anything because if you are trying to be something or someone from the past, you are not being yourself.
Fuck tattoos because the best thing they can do is show others who you are(or who you want people to think you are), and they don't need to know. Chances are, you don't even know.
Fuck all you junkies and fuck your short memory because you are not being yourselves, the drug is controlling you, changing you. It is taking away from you, and you need to be all that you can be, as complete as you can be.
Fuck smiley glad-hands with hidden agendas because they are fake and they want to take away from you. Because they don't deserve your trust, they will take advantage of you and rape you if given the slightest chance in Hell.
Fuck these dysfunctional insecure actresses because they are fucked-up, lying, anorexic bitches who don't think they are good enough the way they are. They lie and binge and purge because they are insecure, but if they could only stop and think, they would realize that we are all imperfect, and that is the only perfect part about us. We are perfectly fallible.
He's praying for rain, tidal waves, and comets so that you will all have to learn to swim, to LEARN WHO YOU ARE, to BE YOURSELVES.
Flush away all the bullshit and what would you have in L.A., and the world over? A bunch of happy individuals who don't care what others have, because they are personally fulfilled. They may not have forty-six & 2 billion dollars, but they can swim without it, they can survive and be themselves and be... okay.
Time to bring it down again.
Don't just call me pessimist.
Try and read between the lines.
I can't imagine why you wouldn't
Welcome any change, my friend.
I, TOO, AM PRAYING FOR RAIN, TIDAL WAVES, AND COMETS.
WELCOME THE CHANGE, MY FRIENDS.
anonymous
2006-09-11 19:19:53
The song is certainly about living by your own standards.
The reference to LA is because it's the center of
superficial ideas of perfection that no one can obtain
that have been washed into our heads from the first
time we ever watched a television or read a magazine.
So learn to swim because the only way to cleanse it is
to flush it all away. Phuck smily glad hands they want
your money.. Phuck actors they want your attention.. Phuck
Hubbard or any religion, they want your compliance. Learn to
swim through the sea of bullshat because we're livin in it.
anonymous
2006-10-01 16:10:34
I think that whoever said at the beginning had it right that aenima was a cleansing of the soul, but remember, you hav to take an enema up the ass. So MJK is saying that someone is going to shove all their bullshit up their asses, but it will clense them and create something new.
Blue tape
anonymous
2006-11-09 05:56:24
Aenima is a song about the fall of human kind. Mother nature is sick and tired of us humans fucking up her planet. Therefore, "mom", will flush it all away. Maynard James Keenan, you're a genius. He knows it's going to end. It's already started. Learn to swim.
anonymous
2006-11-19 22:15:47
I have no idea how you idiots manage to log into the internet and access forums. It is blatantly obvious the entire song is metaphoric. I does not literally mean I want the world to drown, Think for a second. AEnema we have already determined means spiritual cleansing, now what would we drown in? Swim in? Comes down in the rain? Water! WATER WATER WATER! Purity, cleanse yourself in the renewing powers of water, wash away all the filth from you soul. L.A the spirtual anus of the world represents the spirtual anus of our souls, our souls are dirty and filth ridden, strip away all the bullshit with the cleansing powers of water.
MJK is saying the world needs a spirtual cleansing, the entire song is metaphoric, he says it himself "read between the lines", he's not talking about apolcalyptic cleansing or L.A literally, he is talking about the human spirit and it's need to be cleaned of all the filth that the world generates. Learn to swim in these cleansing waters, I'll see you there.
anonymous
2007-01-02 22:40:53
Keenan openly says that this song is about his best friend and outstanding comedian Bill Hicks's philosophies. Bill Hicks released a comedy album called "arizona bay". The lyrics say "learn to swim, see you down in arizona bay." arizona bay is a concept hicks created to show what would be left after L.A. Falls into the ocean.
anonymous
2007-01-03 23:31:22
Very few of you mentioned Bill Hicks in your interpretations. A great deal of this song, along with Third Eye, are heavily influenced by Hicks' philosophy, and the album as a whole is dedicated to him. That may tie up some loose ends.
anonymous
2007-01-12 21:54:11
I think there are several double meanings in the song. It can be taken both literally and metaphorically at the same time. It's obvious that it has some basis in realism, especially with the hologram of California falling into the ocean contained in the CD Case. In any case, I think this particular encompassing subject has been debated enough. What I'd like to throw in as far as my 2 cents are concerned is the repeated mention of "Mom." I believe the literal meaning in this case is attributed to the metaphorical aspects of the rest of the song and vice versa. The metaphorical "Mom" could refer to mother nature literally destroying L.A. (or the entire world). His actual Mom, however, would refer to his metaphorical catharsis. Maybe how if she'd wake up, she could 'just make it all go away,' as Mom's are so wont to do if only for a few minutes.
anonymous
2007-01-27 11:50:00
The thing about TOOL songs are that each one has different meanings to everybody which is why Maynard doesn't get the meaning out because it would not encourage the fans to Think for themselves. So here is my Interpretation of Aenema. I think this song is about the San Andreas fault and how it will eventually break California away from the states. How when this Armageddon comes none of the Material possessions will made like Latte, Law Suits, Gun totting hip gangster wannabes and how the only thing you can do is Learn to swim. THIS IS CLEARY 100% MY INTERPERTATION NOT MAYNARD'S OR ANYBODY ELSES IN THE BAND TO MY KNOWLEDGE. If you want to discuss this or any other TOOL song the email me at Selfmade@aol.com
anonymous
2007-03-02 21:30:34
Hey Zaq has got it. If I were to explain my opinion, it would be the same as his. A song can mean more that one thing you know guys... anyways, I think bill hicks died and influenced the band a lot on the whole album. What Maynard did was state what bill's idea was. What then Maynard did was he made that comedic idea into a heartfelt song with a metaphor. I think the the cali floating away from the us is a small scale item for the human to understand. Once they understand that, they can relate it to the inner most lyrics of one of Tool's amazing songs.
anonymous
2007-03-04 13:10:43
I believe this is talking about mom as mother nature and LA as the constipated shit hole of the world that is need of cleansing through the use of an enema (basically a rectal douche) so the earth will use a giant tidal wave to cleanse the earth of LA just like the water from an enema cleans out shit from the rectum.
anonymous
2007-04-03 20:58:55
the song to me is about him noticing the how the world around him is crumbling and he knows that its not something that's meant to happen. He knows that people are causing all theses problems. and he describes the childhood hope that "mother" will fix everything. like when you're a child you believe "mother" knows a lot and she can fix your problems. He's trying show that people still rely on this and its won't work. He wants people to open their eyes though he knows it may never happen.
adrian_garcia
2007-07-05 06:24:38
More specifically, the section in which he lists the things 'for you to fret', I think is a bit of an attack on materialism and other shallow traits, I guess perhaps in L.A. but most likely also on a wider scope. 'Fret for you latte', 'fret for your contract', etc.
anonymous
2007-08-12 23:28:45
Hes saying that he's tired of seeing all these mindless "freaks" following society.
society in this case is just a bland slur of bull-shit. Telling everyone what to do, how to think, how to act, its all bullshit!
all these mindless "freaks" who don't have an identity (but the one which society has given them) just follow w/o hesitation, and they are fucking up their, and everyone around them's life
people need to figure out for themselves how they want to live, how they want to act, and what they want to do with themselves!
wat he's saying is we need an aenima. Its a word tool made up from, obviously, enima: "cleaning out of one's rectum", and anima: "one's inner self discovered"...we need a deep cleansing of our selves, not just our outside persona, but our inner "soul" for want of a better word.
"the only way to fix it is to flush it all away" He's saying if everyone could be cleansed, could be "reborn" as a friend of mine put it, reality wouldnt be reality anymore: a bland wasteland of society's projections to our self images, and our perception, but it would be wat we made it to be, how we REALLY percieve it! Not so much a commonplace, boring life... living just to function, but a LIFE! one where we are truly living, not functioning as robots made of flesh.
life should be ours to live, not the governments. people would be that, people, hum,ans, not gears, and hydrolic pumps, and crankshafts in "The Machiene"
He's tired of seeing everyone else turned to metal, and replacing old parts in the machiene, and he wants to see it changed for the better, as he,himself has discovered.
Or, it's about 69% possible that I'm a dumb ass, but that's the way I percieve it, and at least I'm not part of the machiene.
asdfasdf
2007-09-19 05:26:25
Its basically just a tribute to a comedic skit performed by Bill Hicks you morons
Ender
2007-09-21 10:31:04
When he says "Mom is going to fix it all soon,
Mom is coming round to put it back
the way it oughtta be..."
does he mean mom as in mother earth or just a a generalization of someone or something flooding the earth is it just a filler for the god is that what he means or is it something else?
anonymous
2007-10-03 03:13:54
Basically he is taking what bill hicks said and applying it to the entire world. He is saying that the world is fucked up and all the people and things responsible need to be gotten rid of. or if you will "washed away".
anonymous
2007-10-24 03:45:45
Basically, he's saying that in order for us to find ourselves we must experience such a crysis as california breaking away from northern america.
anonymous
2007-12-04 04:45:52
Many others have a good interpretation but I think materialism is a keyword here. LA is used as an example b/c of all the materialistic freaks there, but I think Maynard is really singing this song to the whole world. As far as floods and flushing it all away I think that he is saying that nothing short of a natural disaster can put the world back into a natural, non-materialistic state. "Mom" is mother nature and she's "coming around again" (world populations probably get wiped out by a cataclysm every few millenniums).
anonymous
2007-12-19 21:50:02
Maynard is clearly disgusted at the hive of decadence that the modern, self-centered, media driven world (Represented by LA) has become and claims that the only way to cleanse this evil is to totally destroy it, hence the apocalyptic imagery. This is shit that has to be cleaned with biblical floods, like the way an enema cleans human bowels.
anonymous
2008-02-15 03:36:22
I cannot say what exactly he means, but I have an idea. See when I went down the path of enlightenment I began to hate everything around me. I was disgusted by the hopeless fucking hole that surrounded me. I began to learn the truth (not wild conspiracy's but historical FACTS) about the government, media, and the world.
The funny thing about all this is I used to HATE Tool! On the radio I would always change it, being one of the hugely repeated songs on the radio. I accidentally downloaded this song, and heard it uncut. This was right at the time of my questioning everything around me and truthfully I was quite angry. Now That I hear this song, I totally identify with his attitude here.
Learn to swim is a vocal handshake with any with knowledge of the most likely of all human-ending events. He is probably talking about the coast (which have the highest populations and are usually the most dirty of human filth) and how they will disappear if we have a polar shift, due to any cosmic changes to our gravity (another thing we know nothing about, all theory). This is why one of the biggest pyramids were found in the seas of japan.
When you debate the future of human kind you always come to one solution, either something HUGE has to change, or we are all done. This is Maynards way of expressing how many of us feel who know, we cannot wait to see this beautiful and majestic planet suck away the filth that is humanity, and once again create balance.
NO more drug/fertility worshiping cults ( christianity )
NO more materialistic propaganda flooding our minds.
NO more political bullshit putting a face to our slavery.
NO more child rapist living next door. (in the church)
NO MORE HUMAN! we are an incredible dark being, and we are creating an imbalance. So, naturally, this planet is going to flea shampoo our dirty little asses right off her planet, and as you can see, she has done it before and has become very good at it. I cannot wait either, Maynard. It will be so beautiful I cannot even imagine or speculate! How lucky we are to be alive to see it with our organic eyes! That experience must be very rare... we all should be thankful for being given such a wonderful gift from this vastness we call eternity!
So drop the bullshit and live this thing before its over. Trust me.
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