Religion is a tool. Art is a tool. And the greatest band in the world is named
Tool. I first discovered Tool as a mixture of sound and marijuana smoke seeping out from under a dude named Carl's dorm room door on the third floor of Kohl Hall in the late Fall of 1996. The album was
Ænema and it changed my life. There are several intellectual and spiritual paradigm shifts in my own psyche and life which are directly attributable to this album that to merely call it an important work of 20th Century art barely begins to scratch the surface.
A tool is useful for a specific task and when the task is completed, it can be set down and left alone until another task which requires its use surfaces. It would be ridiculous for any handyman to carry around every tool they own on their body and in their toolbox. Yet, how many people do this very thing with art and metaphoric religious symbols and rituals?
Art and religion are both tools which are effective in putting the individual human being in touch with the divine mystery that is the source of all existence. But a few years ago, while relistening to Joseph Campbell's lectures on Kundalini Yoga; I realized that it was possible that
Tool was structuring their albums around the Kundalini chakra system of psychological and spiritual transformation. As the fourth and now fifth albums came out, this thesis became more obvious to me.
First, let's set the foundation of what the Kundalini system of yoga is, according to Professor Campbell:
Yoga is the intentional stopping of the spontaneous activity of the mind stuff. Suppose you wanted to hold in your mind one thought or one image. You will find that in four or five seconds, you are having associated thoughts--the mind is moving. The goal of this yoga is to make the mind stand still...Yoga then is a linking of consciousness...this ego-consciousness, to the source of consciousness and the source of consciousness is, of course, transcendent of all our concepts. Just as, all that truly--I don't even dare say is because is is a concept--you see, you can't talk about these things. When you ask, "Is God one or many?" One or many, these are concepts--these are the categories of thought and the word "God" is not supposed to refer to a personality; it's supposed to refer past the personality to that which is really transcendent of thought. (Joseph Campbell, Transformations of Myth Through Time, From Id to Ego: Kundalini Yoga Part I
Campbell goes on to describe a pond which is rippled by a blowing wind and in the choppy waters, what was a still reflection is broken up into an infinite number of partial images. This analogy is supposed to refer to pairs of opposites engaged in the struggle inherent in living a temporal mortal life. Well, the problem of being an individual is that we associate ourselves with one of the broken images instead of as an ephemeral fragmented piece of the greater reflection. So, the goal of this yoga is to make the mind stand still and see the single reflection where there were infinite fragments before; this involves a loss of identity and a reconnection with the great spiritual energy that is the source of all existence. This should be the goal of all religion, but when you introduce politics and economics into the process you get the obvious results which have built, conquered, and destroyed civilizations. So, it is important to keep in mind that religion is a tool that is meant to serve a purpose and once that purpose has been obtained, the tool should be set aside. Now, for art.
One of my favorite lectures from Professor Campbell is about Proper versus Improper Art, which is based on the aesthetic put forth by James Joyce in his novel
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Joyce makes a distinction between
Proper and
Improper Art. Improper art is kinetic, meaning that it intends to move the observer either toward it or away from it. Joyce makes this distinction with the terms
pornographic and
didactic.
He defines
Pornographic Improper Art as any expression which intends to draw the observer toward it in an act of possession. Advertising art is a perfect example of this. Joyce defines
Didactic Improper Art as any expression which intends to push the observer away from it with fear or loathing. Political humor and social satire are perfect examples of this. Most modern music, cinema, and writing are works of pornographic didacism, intending to move the observer one way or another, but still keep them firmly rooted in time and space, inside the reality which has been constructed by the human mind in which all things can be categorized and easily referenced.
But Joyce goes on to define
Proper Art as static, meaning that it, like Yoga, intends to make the observer see the still image in the moment and dissolve the illusory separation that exists between objects in time and space for the deeper reality of the unitary existence which underlies the known and uknown universe. Any work of art which uses the contemporary objects and relationships in time and space to blow open the door to infinity and allow the observer to stand humble as their ego dissolves into transcendental obscurity can be called a work of proper art by Joyce's (and Campbell's) reasoning. But art, like religion, is also only a tool and can become just as dangerous and detrimental to total freedom as a suicide bomber is to a peace accord between warring nations.
Kundalini Yoga heralds from the 4th and 5th centuries and actually influenced both Hinduism and Buddhism.
The word Kundalini comes from the word kunda which means "coiled up" and what the reference is to is the spiritual energy which is coiled up at the base of the spine. When it's in that condition, coiled up down there, there's not much spiritual life--the spiritually energized organs are in the lower pelvic area. The goal of the yoga is to wake that coiled up energy and bring it up the spine. (Ibid)
As the Kundalini comes up the spine, it hits seven distinct zones, or chakras, of spiritual existence and as it does the pyschology and spirituality of the individual change completely.
Chakra 1
Consider what Campbell has to say about chakra 1:
The first chakra is at the base of the body between the rectum and the sex organs, at the very root of the body. At this level, the psyche is practically inert; it is just hanging on to life. And my image in my mind for this is dragons; which, as we know from biology, guard things in caves and what they guard in caves are: beautiful virgins (symbols of the second chakra--symbolic of sexuality) and heaps of gold (the third chakra--possession and winning). They don't know what to do with either, but they simply guard. No zeal for life. No positive action, only reaction. So the psychology appropriate to the dull condition is that of Behaviorism where you don't have an active psyche but only a reactive one. Nietzsche call this position that of "groveling before sheer fact." Actually, there is no such thing as a sheer fact--it's an object for a subject and the attitude of the mind beholding the object is what changes the character and meaning of the fact. People that hang on like this, we call creeps and they are exactly the incarnation of chakra one. Art on this level is simply sentimental naturalism--it has no breakthrough to the radiance. (Ibid)
Note Campbell's emphasis on art; this is because the history of art is the history of human emotion and intellect and is much more accurate that accounts and holy books which are always composed by victors of war at the expense of the conquered and silent dead.
Now,
Tool's first album was titled "Opiate" and has the energy of a psyche at the lowest base of existence thrashing around and coming to life. And I would like to imagine an individual pysche as representative of the images and expression of each tool album, and therefore be able to talk about the pyschological and spiritual transformation which occurs from album to album. The pysche in "Opiate" is a reactive one, meaning it must be illuminated from outside in order to express itself. Consider the following lyrics from songs on this album:
- Seems like I've been here before. Seems so familiar. Seems like I'm slipping into a dream within a dream...And I'm sweating, and breathing, and staring and thinking and sinking deeper and it's almost like I'm swimming...It's the way you whisper. It drags me under and takes me home. ("Sweat")
- Someone told me once that there's a right and wrong, and that punishment would come to those who dare to cross the line. But it must not be true for jerk-offs like you. Maybe it takes longer to catch a total asshole. But I'm tired of waiting. Maybe it's just bullshit and I should play GOD, and shoot you myself. ("Jerk Off")
But there is definite movement toward the higher chakras. We get a whiff of chakra two (concerned primarily with sex and lust) in the song "Part of Me:"
I know you well. You are a part of me. I know you better than I know myself. I know you best, better than anyone. I know you better than I know myself. You don't judge. You can't speak. You can't leave. You can't hurt me. You're just here for me to use. I know you best, better than one might think. I know you better than I know myself. It's time for you to make a sacrifice. It's time to die a little. Give it up. You are a part of me. ("Part of Me")
And we definitely see the effects of chakra 3 in the title song from the album:
Choices always were a problem for you. What you need is someone strong to guide you. Deaf and blind and dumb and born to follow, what you need is someone strong to use you.. like me, like me. If you want to get your soul to heaven, trust in me .Don't judge or question.You are broken now, but faith can heal you. Just do everything I tell you to do. Deaf and blind and dumb and born to follow. Let me lay my holy hand upon you. My Gods will becomes me. When he speaks out, he speaks through me. He has needs like I do. We both want to rape you. Jesus Christ, why don't you come save my life. Open my eyes and blind me with your light and your lies. ("Opiate")
This song is a brutal condemnation of organized religion and the metaphors it has used to justify murder, slavery, and the destruction and subjugation of the natural environment and this is a theme which runs throughout all of
Tool's music and reaches a fever pitch in the song "Eulogy" on the
Ænema album.
It is important to note that just because a person is at a certain chakra, doesn't meant they won't exhibit symptoms of the effects of the other chakras. In fact, this is precisely what one would expect from any species in the throes of evolution. First, certain thoughts and emotions are fleeting, sparse, but as they begin paying off in terms of pleasure over pain, they become more prevalent until they are common course and the chakra changes. Spiritual transformation is not like a video game where an objective is achieved and one then moves on to the next level. Rather, true change and a recognition of true freedom in the mind of the individual is like the ocean tide coming further and further into shore until the the entire world is full of water (which can be stilled and seen as one image--how's that for getting the most out of your metaphors?).
Chakras 2 and 3
Again, let's go to Campbell:
[Chakra 2 is at] the sex organs. At this moment the psychology is transformed--it's no longer Behaviorism but Dr. Freud. Everything now is exciting. Sex is the aim of life. Everything's singing the bells are ringing for me and my gal. The frustrations of sex are also to be recognized here and if the frustrations are continuous, then one turns one's mind to other things and civilization comes into being--this is what is known as sublimation.
Campbell then goes on to describe the five orders of love:
There are five orders of love and the earliest, lowest and simplest for people who are primarily interested in something else--is that of master and servant. "Oh, Lord--you are the master and I the servant. Give me rules to live by and I will live them." People who are engaged in the activities of life without much time for religious thought, that's about the level on which they work. This rule giving principle, you get a heavy dose of it in the Old Testament in the Book of Laws and so forth--rules under which God subjugates you. The second order of love is that of friend for friend; with the friend you're thinking of him more. It is the order in the Christian tradition of
If you ever needed any proof that the government, all of its branches, were a bunch of lunkheaded wastoids with the sense of three-toed tree sloths, look no further than the recent "effort" to unearth the late (and should have been long forgotten) Jimmy Hoffa. The search involved "more than 40 FBI personnel, along with demolition experts, archaeologists and anthropologists." That's probably about sixty people who were paid with US tax dollars to dig up someone who has been assumed dead and missing for over thirty years now. This investigation is about useless as nipples on a man.
and definitely read his book 
