Tool - Schism Song Meanings Lyrics:
I know the pieces fit
'Cause I watched them fall away
Mildewed and smouldering
Fundamental differing
Pure intention juxtaposed
(See the rest of these lyrics)
 Top Rated Interpretation
2005-08-31 20:40:22
So one of you quoted Maynard saying that if he told the real meanings people would think he was insane. Well, keep in mind tool has so many LSD overtones it's not even funny.
So consider what, at least people with a positive experience with mind expansion let themselves understand about reality. And from that perspective, who wouldn't look crazy.
If you don't read this whole thing.. then you're crazy.
ok. first of all. Sure, I understand what you're saying that it could mean many things, or it could mean whatever the person reading it percieves... but he does have a very cryptic theme underneath it all. whether its a relationship song or a song about a dude whacking off in his own feaces thats not the part that needs to be interpreted.
Point the finger, blame the other
Watch the temple topple over
To bring the pieces back together
Rediscover communication
supposedly Duality, as in, THIS WORLD. the physical plane. external reality, what we percieve, is only half of existance. there is a positive and a negative. and zero of course. but in this other plane of existance in your mind,( activated by well, speaking about maynard i'll use LSD as our tool) you opporate without space and time. you understand the concept of negative and positive, but there is no difference. they're both just HAPPENING. there is NO duality here. He's taking this RELATIONSHIP issue and relating it back to how his mind is handling it. supposedly if you give in to duality and continue to stress out over a dying relationship ur giving in to the human drama and u need to realize that everything is how it is supposed to be. and nothing matters any way. once you become completely emotionally unattached to external reality all you need to entertain you is what's going on in your own head. you realize you are creating your own reality by being addicted to all the human emotions. this is all about ascension. this is what all religions were screaming at everyone underneath the layers and layers of metaphor. ppl are retarded.
The poetry
That comes from the squaring off between
And the circling is worth it
Finding beauty in the dissonance
lets Paraphrase
"the poetry; the myth; the religious metaphors, that are told opposite their scientific and logical explanations are the same thing. it's almost as if, in order to tell the truth about reality and what life is and what "god" is in a way that human minds could comprehend 5000+ years ago, the enlightened ones that formed religions wrote a story with layers and layers of metaphors over the mind blowing almighty scientific truth. Not exactly to hide the truth... but to put it out of plane view.. until we evolved enough to use it with modern science. until a time we can realize why they put it out of plain view in the first place: the human mind is addicted also to knowledge. it feels good for the brain to learn. so the bible especially was screaming at mankind to dig deeper. take the persuit of knowledge. If the church knows about this truth (which would crumble them because they are supposed to be the sole vessel for the persuit of God) they are trying to hide it from us when the some of the story says mankind is doomed because we ate from the tree of knowledge. they don't want us seeking that knowledge. it is obvious.
eventually science and religion will meet right in the middle. yin and yang.
and circling the evidence in any religious text and deciphering what scientific FACT is the metaphor giving color to. "Finding the beauty in the ultimate truth."
There was a time that the pieces fit
But I watched them fall away
Mildewed and smouldering
Strangled by our coveting
I've done the math enough to know
The dangers of our second guessing
Doomed to crumble unless we grow
And strengthen our communication
take this with a grain of salt. by the way.
what if when you are conceived.. when the first molecules begin to construct your brain... think of it as a smaller model of the big bang. on a fundamental level matter is made up of mostly vacum. nothingness. its present in every cell, every atom, every subatomic partical, and quark. all there is is an untapped source of energy teaming with possibility. just as the big bang explodes, expands, takes shape, and finds order. SO DOES YOUR MIND. and keep in mind we are still talking about Maynard. and I could be completely OFF, but i've read many accounts of psychadelic experiences basically sumarized as a resetting of the spark that started your brain. you experience non time and space and enter a part of your brain with limitless possibilities. and i am not alone in my experience either that the tripping mind sometimes gets to a point where all the peaces of.. thought (for lack of a better term) have all finally fit together and everything.. EVERYTHING makes perfect sense. it all fits. everything in life. you see clearly. completely. ...and then its gone. and you have to return to normal ego-reality.
doomed to crumble unless we grow...
strengthening our communication.
easy.
for survival, ultimate evolutionary survival... humans.. need only one thing. other humans. living in absolute harmony with each other. Egos' completely shed off. seeing eachother as all the same beautiful and perfect beings that we are... and PROGRESSING. instead of letting reality take control of us. take control of reality. reality means you project only what you precieve to be true. so we're all making reality happen. all of us together. once we all know that. we can help eachother. and grow. and become unified and EVOLVE.
...so who's still with me? anyone?
...don't YOU now feel a bit insane?
cuz i'm sure you now think I Am.
ps: god's name. YAHWEH. translated as "I AM".
...tell me, what human on this earth cannot say the utterly true statement about themselves, "I AM."
feed your head.
anonymous
2006-10-19 23:32:06
While I regret to post anything without citing a source to substantiate my claims, I will do it anyway. During the battle between Tool and their recording label over god knows what, Maynard starting writing material with billy and they made apc. I heard from a friend of a friend who knew a guy who thought he read a poster once that said the other guys in tool were upset that Maynard went off to tour with apc instead of staying and helping sort out the record company issue. The beginning of lateralus was written with danny, adam, and justin recording some music and sending it to Maynard while he was on tour with apc. I heard from this same friend that the first couple tracks on lateralus, or the first ones written (I can't remember), were used by Maynard to send messages back to the rest of the band. Looking at the song from the perspective of rediscovering communitcation, I interpret the song to be about the band overcoming it's previous strife to be the great band they are. I think this is a great song because it is open to so many interpretations. Anything that was whole, seperated, and came back together, could be the subject of this song. That's what I love about it.
anonymous
2006-11-16 16:20:09
This song is about the band taking a break as the protestant church left catholicism.
anonymous
2007-01-08 20:45:09
You can keep fighting about who's right and who isn't but the music was made for personal interpretation and this song isn't the exception. I mean the whole of you may be right but may not. Just feel it and the meaning can be so far that we think it's supposed to be. So just hear it and feel it
anonymous
2007-02-03 00:48:42
I am not very sure if this song has an actual meaning or not. As many have said, it seems as if it is for the own perception of the listener. I have had a theory cross my mind that it was made to confuse some, for a purpose or not. First rambling about love, and then moving on to lyrics that would seem rather nonsensical to some.
burningpeaches
2007-02-20 21:16:50
I think this song is actually pretty cut and dry if you actually read the lyrics. It basically tells you what it's about in the title, if anybody is ambitious enough to look it up. A schism is an unhappy seperation between to people or parties.
In the first stanza, the lyrics say how disintegrating communication can cause relationships fall apart, and then next:
I know the pieces fit because 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
The pieces of the relationship are tumbling, its no one's fault, but both people still blame each other as the relationship continues to 'topple over'. To recover the relationship, 'rediscover communication.
Then there is a little bit of a romantic/masochistic twist, describing the beauty of the argument itself, the happiness in the sadness, beauty in the dissonance.
Cold silence has a tendancy to atrophy sense of compassion. The lyrics are saying that if you have an argument with someone and then you refuse to talk to them, you will be less and less compassionate, less and less understanding of their point of view.
And then, at the very end, just to make sure we now exactly what the song is talking about, the lyrics state:
Between supposed lovers
Between supposed brothers
Which is exactly what the song is about, a schism between supposed lovers and supposed brothers.
anonymous
2007-04-04 06:59:29
Everyone is going to have a different interpretation on the way they look at these songs.
dressd2dpress
2007-05-11 03:51:55
I think it is a relationship song. Not just a "lovers" relationship, any kind of relationship, whether it be between lover, brothers, families, or some other community of people. The words do have a religious feel to them, as if it is a comparison of a relationship to the schism of the church or maybe even the tower of babel what with all the lines about communication.
Drake
2007-05-23 23:25:30
The thing that makes this song great, as with many other Tool songs, you can think about the meaning for yourself and how this song relates to your personal life.
In my opinion, like many posters above me, the song is about the separation between two people who have been very close together:
"I know the pieces fit because I watched them fall away"
Most of the time the separation is not anyone's fault, but is rather the product of the path that given people decide to take:
"Mildewed and smoldering. Fundamental differing.
Pure intention juxtaposed will set two lovers souls in motion
Disintegrating as it goes testing our communication"
The situation worsens when the two people are trying to find a reason for the split and end up blaming each other:
"I know the pieces fit because 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."
At this point it is still time to save the relationship through the efforts of two individuals to start communicating with each other:
"To bring the pieces back together, rediscover communication"
But since we are human, this does not always happen, our pride takes over us and destroys what is left of the relationship, so the only thing left to do is to learn the lesson from our mistakes:
"The poetry that comes from the squaring off between,
And the circling is worth it.
Finding beauty in the dissonance."
And:
"I've done the math enough to know the dangers of our second guessing
Doomed to crumble unless we grow, and strengthen our communication."
At the end of the song the lesson is learned:
"Cold silence has a tendency to atrophy any
Sense of compassion
Between supposed lovers/brothers."
mythos
2007-07-02 00:12:25
Well considering Tool write music and then lyrics, and if you listen to the song and consider not the lyrics, the instruments break off from each other (a schism if you will), including time signatures etc, and eventually rejoin... I assume this is what drove Maynard to right about a split, or schism.
when just considering lyrics I tend to think about religion, how we all came from one place, but have split off and created something completely different from each other.
anonymous
2007-07-31 22:02:50
I think people are over complicating the interpretation. It just means that the society we live in, on a larger scale the globalization of societies is furthering severing our compassion for our fellow man. On a global scale, societies have been progressing toward narcissistic lifestyles. People are obsessed with themselves, people are too busy trying to acquire all the money and material possessions they can in their lives and in turn some will defend all their worthless worldly possessions to the death. How many of you have car alarms? Your defending your car because you place great value on it, even more so if you invested a lot of money and hard work into buying it. People generally don't trust each other anymore, and so we start distancing ourselves from people in general. It basically all the negative emotions of man working against ourselves, greed, fear and hatred. It's ruining man, and our worlds environment, look at all the crap people try to sell each other that we don't need, that in turn destroy our environment. Then people start judging people more on the appearances and their possessions. Some people feel that money, a nice car, a beautiful trophy wife, a 6,000 ft. Square house with a four car garage make a man. It really destroys a persons soul. It keeps people from trusting each other, from building new relationships, and religion is a part of this too. People are so swept up in, that their religion is the right one, people are divided even more because of religion. It's the narcissistic all about me attitude of our culture, Well when it's all about you, you slowly become the only person in your life, and communication breaks down between you and others in general. People start, and have been judging people at face value more so now, than in the past. This keeps people from growing spiritually, because the greatest teachings we can learn are from each other. You might pass somebody on the street some day that could one of the best friends you'll ever meet, but you guys will never talk to each other, because you overly judge each other to the extreme. People don't give each other a chance anymore. People are less confident with themselves, some place their confidence on how much money they make at work, what kind of car they drive, how many people they can fuck. Confidence is built from facing down your harmless fears, turning greed into compassion and turning your hatred into understanding.
This song is just about the need for people to re establish their communication with each other, and to break down all the barriers that we impose on ourselves.
anonymous
2008-01-25 21:46:01
I heard it was about some story in the bible about people trying to build a tower to god and he took that as them trying to be equal to them and made it fall or something, then made different languages to keep them from being able to reconstruct it
anonymous
2008-05-16 23:20:20
I think this is about Maynard's childhood with his father in people saying that he was a priest and Maynard was religious then his dad raped Maynard so he stopped believing.
When it says "Watch the temple topple over" I think he's reffering to a chapel and as he lost his faith he saw it fall to pieices.
Also where it says "Finding beauty in the dissonance" I think by dissonance he's reffering to Cognitive Dissonance which is a psychological state that describes the uncomfortable feeling when a person begins to understand that something the person believes to be true is in fact not true. Basically meaning he believed in God until his father abused him then he lost his faith and no longer believed in god.
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