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Tool - Lateralus Song Meanings

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Personally, I think this is the best song Tool has written. It moves me deeply. I think it is about the spiritual drive that we all have, our desire to experience our total existence in harmony, to synchronize with the forces that shape the universe, whatever they may be, and to understand them, to know what is the reason of it all. It's about knowing where we're going I think it's about the desire, maybe our destination to live completely in the present ( feed my will to feel this moment). It's also an angry song (which Tool song isn't?). Maybe the writer's frustrated with the fact that he can't experience what he wants to experience? Well, that's how I feel about it

Submitted by: tonx
Added: 2005-11-28 17:17:56     Rating:

I'm sure everyone could try DMT before they die.

Submitted by: cloudcity
Added: 2005-12-01 02:50:32     Rating:

Wow, I'm really surprised about the tiny number of people who have submitted an interpretion of Lateralus. This is a song I don't think anyone can interpret to its full extent. I do agree, however, that it is about feeling and exploring the supernatures of life. It is easily one of Tool's best musical experiences (who can really go ahead and call it a song?). It has so many layers, through its musical complexity and concepts.

The drummer and Maynard use fibonacci number sequences within their playing/singing throughout Lateralus. My own interpretation of Lateralus, is about searching for the next level of living and consciousness, through spirituality and other planes (ie the ASTRAL plane, which I strongly believe is a theme within songs such as parabol/parabola).

Many lines within the song are quite obvious as to what they are about once you have an understanding of what [I think] the great Maynard James Keenan is expressing. For example, "...to swing on the spiral of our divinity and still be a human" is about the number phi appearing throughout life and throughout the Universe, which is also known as the golden ratio, and is believed by some (obviously Maynard) that it has spiritual and eternal meaning, and the aforementioned line is talking about entering a new plane or becoming one with the inter-connection of all Universes, while still walking the Earth as a human. In general, this song is about searching for a gateway to this divine place within our life and the evolution of humanity.

Everything is explained and backed up in the music as well, which is a reason Tool are so amazing. For example when Maynard's voice disolves into the guitar solo/EXTENTION OF THE SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE in the line, "..to swing on the spiral of our divinity and still be a human", and the lines that lead up to "we'll ride the spiral to the end and may just go where no one's been", when the bass is sliding up, as if animating the rest of the piece, provoking thoughts of reaching a new level of being.

Anyway, I could continue this ramble about Lateralus for days, and I'm not going to bother spell-checking this beast of a submission, as I'm pretty tired from all the typing involved.

Submitted by: The_Interpreter
Added: 2006-01-03 22:18:34     Rating:

This song and the most of this album is based in the Fibonacci series (1 1 2 3 5 8...).
For example:
"Black (1)
and (1)
white are (2)
all I see (3)
in my infancy..." (5), etc.
Even the drums follows this sequence. In the process of songwriting Tool uses a black board that look like some kind of calculus class, this was said by Chino Moreno from Deftones...

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2006-01-13 19:14:12     Rating:

Just to add on to the discussion. It should be noted that the colors Maynard mentions (black,white,red,yellow) are the colors used by Native Americans as representations of the four cardinal directions.
North=White
South=Black
East=Yellow
West=Red

Submitted by: Zaq
Added: 2006-01-29 17:10:15     Rating:

In relation to the previous post, maybe Maynard means that in his spiritual infancy he could only see things one way, but now he can see things as they truly are (in more dimensions, perhaps...).

Submitted by: Lateralus
Added: 2006-02-07 14:36:58     Rating:

I think this song is about recognizing beauty, it also seems to be recognizing disorder and the way the human mind operates the line "over thinking, over analyzing seperates the body from the mind". To me that relates to a disorder called Derealization, where you body and your mind are completly seperated from eachother and your life feels like a dream. I think it's also about embracing everything you encounter if it's good or bad, just embracing your reality

Submitted by: Timmy
Added: 2006-02-07 20:09:58     Rating:

My favourite song Lateralus is in my opinion about music,
"Black then white are all I see in my infancy.
red and yellow then came to be, reaching out to me."
i beleive that may have to with the lyrics on paper being 2d (cardinal directions).
"feel the rhythm"
"fathom the power"
"I lose myself
between the sounds and open wide to suck it in,
I feel it move across my skin."
all in my opinion have to do with music.
I'm probably wrong but I get the feeling this song is about the enjoyment and awesome feeling we get from listening to music.

Submitted by: Zaq
Added: 2006-02-17 21:26:04     Rating:

I completely agree with ya' Timmy. I thought the same thing when I was listening to the song, and I thought "I can't wait to post this!" Come to find out that more than one person has beaten me to the punch...
This describes exactly what I feel when I listen to a Tool song for the first time in a long time, or when I'm screaming the lyrics and writhing around pretending that I'm Maynard on stage. I may look like a fool doing it, but when I get into the song... It's hard to stay still. And I don't care what I look like, because I feel great. With great bands like Tool, or any amazing band that you "get," or understand, or love, you can literally feel the music in your heart, in your soul, crawling beneath your skin.
Tool's music makes me more aware of the spiritual side of my self, the side that is usually hidden away. It gives me hope, it shows that if you make it through all the shit, you become a better person. Look at the progression that is shown in the timeline that is Tool. "Opiate" is very literal and angry."Undertow" is just as angry, but it shows a deeper side of the anger. "AEnima" is an exploration of the narrator's inner self, why he feels angry, along with other feelings. At the end there is a very spiritual song, "Third Eye." This leads directly into "Lateralus," their deepest and most spiritual album to date.
"Spiritual" isn't the word I want, but "Deep" isn't deep enough, and I don't think a word exists to express how this album makes me feel...
WOW, that was long, even for me... gotta go.
Truly Yours,
Zaq

Submitted by: Ptahly
Added: 2006-03-21 20:04:40     Rating:

I believe it to be a alchemetical explaination into the divinity of the whole human condition. Especially, when he uses the four basiic colours of humanity and how we think we're all so different,but in reality we are all the same being looking at life at different angles. "As below so above and beyond I imagine"? That my friends is basic alchemy. Simply the equation that makes One out of three(Mental + Spiritual + Physical = The Perfected One). The spiral being our very same gentic code (which are the same for gold and the rest of this universe we happen to live in at this present time). Gnostic, in its terminology about embracing the Random. Its the over thinking over analyzing that really separates the body(the base)from the mind(the collective Godhood) until we are nothing more that lead trying to be turned into the Golden Age of Human Perfection that would be ushered in, once we accept our collective Godship instead of our individual devilishment.

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2006-04-21 12:03:31     Rating:

fools!! your brain controls your body.. and your so called "mind" exists within your brain... How do you figure they are seperate? When he says over thinking over analyzing seperates the body from the mind he's simply saying use your senses to analyze everything. your mind has a tendency to over analyze. your senses are never wrong!!!

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2006-04-23 10:42:29     Rating:

This song is one of my personal favorites, so I listen to it all the time. Ive thought about the meaning of the song for some time and can only come up with a small number of things and one is most clear. I think that this song is about learning. It is said that a baby sees only black and white for a short time after birth and then see colors hence the whole begining of the song. Its the way that we learn and how much we learn and when we know enough to get by, we stop learning but some people continue to learn past that line and learning and knowing becomes their life and body. And this song is about someone stopped at that line but seeing all these "infinite possibilities" and wanting to learn more but the thought of devoting their life to learning would mean "seperating the body from the mind." Well I don't know what this song really means and everyone has a different opinion on this and that's how Maynard wants it to be, to keep us thinking differently, not the same because thinking the same way has already caused us to stop at this line.

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2006-04-25 16:33:27     Rating:

When I listen to tool, I begin to question reality...

Submitted by: Gerry
Added: 2006-04-27 12:45:19     Rating:

This IS my Favorite Tool song, I think it is near on impossible to fully understand this song. Basicly I think it's about life and making the most of every moment in life. You can never say you know exactly what a tool song means. I think Maynard intends on the listener to apply their own interpretation on the song.
Thank You For Reading

FROM GERRY BISKET

Submitted by: int.
Added: 2006-05-02 22:08:45     Rating:

black(1)
then (1)
white are(2)
all I see (3)
in my in-fan-cy(5)
red and ye-llow then came to be (8)
rea-ching out to me (5)
lets me see (3)

This goes on and on throught the verses of the song see the pattern 1,1,2,3,5,8, add each two numbers, the result is the next number, this sequence is called the fibonacci sequence, wich results in a spiral (swing on the spiral) when this spiral is drawn it is drawn inside squares, which the side lenghts are equal to the divine proportion, this proportion is proof of the connection among all that exists because everything in existance is made out of it. (swing on the spiral of our divinity)
(feel connected, to step aside) when this is realized the concept of self and ego is destroyed, you realize that you are not an individual, but part of your reality,(which can be seen in the song reflection) Maynard shows this point of truth in a beautiful way, people are drawn to this song but don't know why, hopefully this can help everybody understand it a bit more.

Submitted by: drumx7
Added: 2006-05-04 20:23:57     Rating:

Lateralus.....
definition of lateral - change in organization
Us - me and you
Lateral - Us - - change in me and you


push the envelope, watch it bend
envelope - structure, cover, boundaries
push the boundaries, and watch them extend

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2006-05-05 18:59:49     Rating:

The section of the song where it goes, "Black/And/White are/All I see/In my infancy..." was inspired by the book The Giver. Under the influence of "sameness" the people could only see black and white. However, when the Giver opened Jonas's eyes to reality, he began to see red. Then (you guessed it) yellow.

In response to the person who said, "your brain controls your body, how could they be separate?" He's not talking about the brain, he's talking about the mind. Believe it or not, there's a difference. I have often been the victim of over-analyzation. When this happens, I exist only in my mind, which often travels "beyond the lines of reason." I'm not thinking about the present moment, where my body is. Therefore, the mind and body are separate.

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2006-06-12 19:13:59     Rating:

This song does have a lot of spiritual meaning and this is part of my interpretation but I think the obvious is that he is singing about the human condition of thinking Laterally, he is a very intelligent person and as I'm sure you would probably find this leads to making you always calculate things, to be very analytical. This spiritual search of his it would seem could not work with out logic in his mind, he needs to "embrace the random", for him to be able to accept this spiritual path he is looking for, he speaks of needing to let go of the 'self', "Over thinking, over analysing separates the body from the mind." It would seem that once he finds this place it’s a beautiful thing, so intertwine this with the spiritual interpretations above and below and you have found out why this song continues to connect with us all. ------- DiSsOnAnT1

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2006-07-19 04:24:10     Rating:

Several of the images used in this song derive from the alchemical works of Carl Jung, who sourced many of his theories (including archetype theory into which the anima and shadow are subsumed) from the late alchemical works of the 17th and 18th century.

The use of color imagery appears to have manifold meaning. Firstly, the specific colors used (black, white, red and yellow) designate the phases of the alchemical transformation: the melanosis (blackening), leukosis (whitening), iosis (redenning) and the xanthosis (yellowing). The latter two colors (red and yellow) were later synthesized into the aurora consurgens or fusion of red/yellow as explicated in alchemical works attributed to Thomas Aquinas: the dawning of the true self. I'm not sure of the actual scientific validity of the infant theory of visual perception as expounded on in 'the giver,' but I do know that these colors attributed to the work of the alchemist's predates any possible scientific speculation by several millinea.

Though I unfortunately don't have my jung on hand, 'as below so above and beyond' does end up being an alchemical dictum having to do with the sourcing of materials for the opus and then their transcendent function. The basic idea, and tool excels in their use of these images, is that the work of transformation begins by reaching down into the shadow dimensions of human consciousness and so fusing them with the transcendent (beyond) function in revealing the wholeness of the original man. This constitutes an embrace with the animal desire elements (i.E. I embrace my desire to...).

The series of images related to the feeding of the will and then 'sucking it in,' are basically the same and this idea is earlier referenced in 'the grudge's' explication of the saturn motif. Basically, saturn ate his own children as part of the cosmogonic creative process. In alchemy, the generation of the prima materia--or base material of transformation--is accomplished by the king's eating his son. The movement across the skin is another arcane refrence to what the alchemist's call the 'inner fleshiness' of the lapis (or stone), which is likewise referenced in 'the grudge' (i.E. 'give away the stone). Basically, it is a motif that has to do with the mythic lietmotif of 'the sacrifice,' as in the sacrifice of the son (which is recapitulated in the christian mythos). Tool is pointing in all of this music towards the actual nature of the sacramental or sacred.

Finally, the spiral which is built from an outward growing spiral whose growth is regulated by a series of numbers that's known as the "fibonacci number sequence", was also a favorite symbol of jung and the alchemists as representing the circumbulatio approach to the true self.

There's more, but I think this communicates an appropriate sense of the depth of this particular group of musicians. It's amazing to me that they bring this stuff to a popular audience.

Az

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2006-07-23 03:20:38     Rating:

First off I would like to say Tool is the best band ever.

Lateralus is truly a great song that has a lot of meaning behind it, I believe that the meaning to the song has to do with a "new being."

"Black then white are all I see in my infancy.
Red and yellow then came to be, reaching out to me."

At first when I listend to this song I thought this guy was on some kind of mushroom trip, but second time through, if you were new to a whole new dimension, or a universe
you would be recognizing these details also.

"push the envolope watch it bend......"
ummmmmmm ok what else could this mean....

"over thinking, over analyzing separates the body from the mind."
exactly, over thinking over analyzing, seperates the body from the mind.

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