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 the Apostles to Christ. They're close in, they can ask questions--they're thinking of him more and they come to realizations. The third order of love is that of parent to child, where the deity is the child. What this represents is the birth of the spiritual life in your heart--it is just born. It's a tender child. It must be fostered. This recognition of the divine in the activities of life--this is good Hinduism, it's good Tantra, Buddhism. Going to temple is quite secondary. Our religious life is here, now. The fourth order of love is marriage, spouse for spouse. The highest order of love, where there is nothing but love--mad, engaged, illicit love--careless of the rules of the world, a break past into the transcendent. Passion, impulse has taken over to such an extent that the world has dropped off.

This is a very eloquent way of talking about spiritual awakening because many people experience love in different forms, yet each are equally valid tools of getting one to an ultimate connection with the divine mystery. But, as it is, those who exist on chakra two are primarily concerned with the lustful aspect of connecting with another human being. And chakra 3 is the war chakra concerned with turning everything into oneself. Often, these two chakras will give way to one another as the drive for sexual conquest yields to the drive for power and conquering. In Tool's second album Undertow, the two often compete to dominate the psyche:

How can I tolerate you. Our guilt, our blame, I've been far too sympathetic. Our blood, our fault. I've been far too sympathetic. I am not innocent. You are not innocent. No one is innocent. I will no longer tolerate you. Even if I must go down beside you. Because, No one is innocent. ("Intolerance"

I was so young and vestal then, you know it hurt me, but I'm breathing so I guess I'm still alive even if signs seem to tell me otherwise. I've got my hands bound, my head down, my eyes closed, and my throat wide open...Won't you come a bit closer, close enough so I can smell you. I need you to feel this, I can't stand to burn too long. Released in this sodomy. For one sweet moment I am whole...For I am your witness that blood and flesh can be trusted. And only this one holy medium brings me piece of mind. Got your hands bound, your head down, your eyes closed. You look so precious now. I have found some kind of temporary sanity in this shit blood and cum on my hands. I've come round full circle. ("Prison Sex"

Why can't we not be sober? I just want to start this over. Why can't we drink forever. I just want to start things over. I am just a worthless liar. I am just an imbecile. I will only complicate you. Trust in me and fall as well. I will find a center in you. I will chew it up and leave, I will work to elevate you just enough to bring you down. "Sober"

I'm on my knees and burning. My piss and moans are the fuel that set my head on fire. So smell my soul burning. I'm broken, looking up to see the enemy. I have swallowed the poison you feed me... but I survive on it, and it leaves me guilt fed, hatred fed, weakness fed.. and I feel ugly, and dead inside. Shit adds up at the bottom.

Because I can see your back is turning. If I could I'd stick the knife in. This is love. This is my love for you. Get up. Now. Say you won't go.

Lay back and let me show you another way. I'll kill what you want me to, take what's left and eat it. Take all or nothing. Life's just too short to push it away. Take it all. Take it all in. All the way in. ("4 Degrees")

My warning meant nothing. You're dancing in quicksand. Why don't you watch where you're wandering? Why don't you watch where you're stumbling? You're wading knee deep and going in. And you may never come back again. This bog is thick and easy to get lost in when you're a stupid, dumb ass, belligerent fucker. I hope it sucks you down. ("Swamp Song")

But there is also a moment where this psyche begins to rise above the third chakra to the fourth, where spiritual transformation occurs and the human animal turns into the human being. Consider what Campbell has to say on this:

Now, when people are living on these levels [Chakras 1-3], they are living on animal levels. Animals too cling to life. Animals too beget their future. Animals too are fighting to win. And when people are living on those levels, they have to be controlled by social law. Just think of our popular religions, what they're concerned with--prayers for health, wealth, progeny, victory--that is asking the Gods to serve your animal nature and this is popular religion. And it doesn't matter what the God's name.

But chakra four is the beginning of a properly religious life, where there is a total psychological and spiritual transformation in the individual and a "Second Birth" occurs which affects the entire world. The human being is born an animal and must pull themselves up out of the muck to rise to the spiritual challenge of being reborn. Consider the lyrics from the song "Flood:"

Here comes the water. All I knew and all I believed are crumbling images that no longer comfort me. I scramble to reach higher ground, some order and sanity, or something to comfort me. So I take what is mine, and hold what is mine, suffocate what is mine, and bury what's mine. Soon the water will come and claim what is mine. I must leave it behind, and climb to a new place now. This ground is not the rock I thought it to be. Thought I was high, and free. I thought I was there divine destiny. I was wrong. This changes everything. The water is rising up on me. Thought the sun would come deliver me, but the truth has come to punish me instead. The ground is breaking down right under me. Cleanse and purge me in the water.

There are actually elements of several chakras in this song. There is a definite finality in the realization of the waste of living a life within the lower three chakras, but there is also the fifth chakra where it is realized that one's image of God is one of the final obstructions to attaining a communion with the mystery which is the ground of all being.

Chakra 4

We are not in the field of properly religious life, in the field of the spiritual birth until we have come to chakra four and this is at the level of the heart. Subject and object, though they seem to be two, are the same. I and you are the same--this is the breakthrough of the metaphysical realization that the two that seem to be separate are really one. This is the midway point to transcendence--to realizing relationship as identity.

There is a complete spiritual awakening within the album Ænema. We see a marked psychological transformation from the reactive psyche present in Opiate to a much more aware, driven, and powerful force:

• Something has to change. Undeniable dilemma. Boredom's not a burden anyone should bear. Constant over stimulation numbs me and I wouldn't have it any other way. It's not enough. I need more. Nothing seems to satisfy. I don't want it. I just need it. To feel, to breathe, to know I'm alive. ("Stinkfist")

• What's coming through is alive. What's holding up is a mirror. But what's singing songs is a snake looking to turn this piss to wine. They're both totally void of hate, but killing me just the same. The snake behind me hisses what my damage could have been. My blood before me begs meopen up my heart again. And I feel this coming over like a storm again. considerately... am too connected to you to slip away, to fade away. Days away I still feel you touching me, changing me, and considerately killing me. Without the skin, beneath the storm, under these tears the walls came down. And the snake is drowned and as I look in his eyes, my fear begins to fade recalling all of those times. I could have cried then. I should have cried then. And as the walls come down and as I look in your eyes my fear begins to fade recalling all of the times I have died and will die. It's all right. ("H")

• My shadow's Shedding skin and I've been picking scabs again. I'm down digging through my old muscles looking for a clue. I've been crawling on my belly clearing out what could've been. I've been wallowing in my own confused and insecure delusions for a piece to cross me over or a word to guide me in. I wanna feel the changes coming down. I wanna know what I've been hiding in my shadow. Change is coming through my shadow. My shadow's shedding skin I've been picking my scabs again. I've been crawling on my belly clearing out what could've been I've been wallowing in my own chaotic and insecure delusions. I wanna feel the change consume me, feel the outside turning in. I wanna feel the metamorphosis and cleansing I've endured within my shadow. Change is coming. Now is my time. Listen to my muscle memory. Contemplate what I've been clinging to. Forty-six and two ahead of me. I choose to live and to grow, take and give and to move, learn and love and to cry, kill and die and to be paranoid and to lie, hate and fear and to do what it takes to move through. I choose to live and to lie, kill and give and to die, learn and love and to do what it takes to step through. See my shadow changing, stretching up and over me soften this old armor. hoping I can clear the way by stepping through my shadow, coming out the other side. Step into the shadow. Forty six and two are just ahead of me. "("Forty-Six & 2")

• Lead me through each gentle step by step by inch by loaded memory. I'll move to heal as soon as pain allows so we can reunite and both move on together. Hold your light, eleven. Lead me through each gentle step by step by inch by loaded memory 'till one and one are one, eleven, so glow, child, glow. I'm heading back home. ("Jimmy')

• I will choke until I swallow... Choke this infant here before me. What is this but my reflection? Who am I to judge and strike you down? But you're pushing and shoving me...Take care not to make me enter. 'cause if I do we both may disappear. But you're pushing me, shoving me. Pushit on me. Slipping back into the gap again. I'm alive when you're touching me, alive when you're shoving me down. But i'd trade it all for just a little bit of piece of mind...Just remember I will always love you, even as I tear your fucking throat away. But it will end no other way. ("Pushit")

• Cuz I'm praying for rain and I'm praying for tidal waves I wanna see the ground give way. I wanna watch it all go down. Mom please flush it all away. I wanna watch it go right in and down. I wanna watch it go right in. Watch you flush it all away. 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 wanna see it all come down. suck it down. flush it down. ("Ænema")

• Shrouding all the ground around me. Is this holy crow above me. Black as holes within a memory and blue as our new second sun. I stick my hand into his shadow to pull the pieces from the sand. Which I attempt to reassemble to see just who I might have been. I do not recognize the vessel, but the eyes seem so familiar. ("Third Eye")

There is theme of revolutionary change bubbling out of this album, a spiritual awakening that contains both a dark and light side, further testimony that truth lies beyond ethics and beyond pairs of opposites. But the album saves its most scathing condemnation for the religious institutions of the world which have failed miserably at curing mankind of the disease of living on the first three chakras. Consider these lyrics from the song "Eulogy":

He had alot to say. He had alot of nothing to say. We'll miss him. So long. We wish you well. You told us how you weren't afraid to die. Well then, so long. Don't cry. Or feel too down. Not all martyrs see divinity. But at least you tried. Standing above the crowd he had a voice that was strong and loud. We'll miss him. Ranting and pointing his finger at everything but his heart. We'll miss him. No way to recall what it was that you had said to me, Like I care at all. So loud. You sure could yell. You took a stand on every little thing and so loud. Standing above the crowd, he had a voice so strong and loud and I swallowed his façade cuz I'm so eager to identify with someone above the ground, someone who seemed to feel the same, someone prepared to lead the way, with someone who would die for me. Will you? Will you now? Would you die for me? Don't you fuckin' lie. Don't you step out of line. Don't you fuckin lie. You've claimed all this time that you would die for me. Why then are you so surprised to hear your own eulogy? You had alot to say. You had alot of nothing to say. Come down. Get off your fuckin cross. We need the fuckin space to nail the next fool martyr. To ascend you must die. You must be crucified for your sins and your lies. Goodbye...

If the lyrics to that song sound harsh--trust me, it doesn't compare reading it to hearing Maynard sing it. I saw Tool play this song live at the Lollapallooza festival in 1997 at the Polaris Amphitheatre in Columbus, OH and at that time, I could pretty much hit every note. I remember screaming so loudly on the final "Goodbye" that the woman in front of me turned around and screamed back at me to shut the fuck up. Then she left the stands. It was fantastic. This is just such a ruthless song for any of those televangelists or Rod Parsleys out there who put themselves up as the middle man between God and man. Hell, I even had aspirations of being like this prior to hearing this song--it absolutely scared the living hell out of me and changed my entire approach to what I wanted to say to my fellow man and how I wanted to say it.

Religious awakenings are not always angelic hymns and white satin; sometimes they're as dirty as muddied up gravel in a cemetary. Tool's music will always carry both the sacred and profane with it as it ascends the spiritual pire. And as we move into the fifth chakra, we indeed see the music become even darker.

Chakra 5

This chakra is at the throat and is the inverse of chakra three, that is--the energy which formerly was projected out to conquering others is now turned back against yourself. Your energy is not going to be facing outward anymore--but facing inward...Our highest god is our highest obstruction. He represents the consummation of the highest thoughts and feelings you can have. Go past that. Meister Eckhardt said that the ultimate leave-taking is that of leaving god, that is to say the folk god, for God; that is to say the elementary idea. Breakthrough. It's very difficult. (Joseph Campbell, Transformations of Myth Through Time)

It is interesting that, in the opening song of Lateralus, Tool's fifth album, the person being addressed is the one who cannot let go and their ego is the weight of a concrete block. In fact, this entire album is a build up towards a confrontation with the ultimate image of images, oneself which then projects and image of God as the ultimate finality. Consider these lyrics from "The Grudge:"

Wear your grudge like a crown of negativity. Calculate what we will or will not tolerate. Desperate to control all and everything. Unable to forgive your scarlet lettermen. Clutch it like a cornerstone. Otherwise it all comes down. Justify denials and grip it to the lonesome end...Terrified of being wrong. Ultimatum prison cell. Saturn ascends, choose one or ten. Hang on or be humbled again...Saturn comes back around to show you everything. Let's 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. 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. 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. Let go. ("The Grudge")

This song is analogous to the Egyptian weighing of a heart against a feather after one dies. This song is a clear warning that the spirit will not be able to proceed while hanging on to the pains and pleasures of the past.

In the song "Schism," we get the knowing knower who stands at the threshold of the uknown and screams about the lack of order despite their faith that there is full order in the compassion of love. In a way, this is a swan song for those who believe that ultimate knowledge can be attained through purely rational and tactile reasoning and experience. Consider the lyrics:

I know the pieces fit cuz I watched them fall away, mildewed and smoldering, fundamental differing. Pure intention juxtaposed will set two lovers souls in motion. Disintegrating as it goes testing our communication. The light that fueled our fire then has burned a hole between us so we cannot see to reach an end crippling our communication. 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. The poetry that comes from the squaring off between, and the circling is worth it. Finding beauty in the dissonance. There was a time that the pieces fit, but I watched them fall away. Mildewed and smoldering, strangled by our coveting I've done the the math enough to know the dangers of a second guessing. Doomed to crumble unless we grow, and strengthen our communication cold silence has a tendency to atrophy any sense of compassion between supposed lovers between supposed brothers. And I know the pieces fit. ("Schism")

The recognition of the eternal as existing only within the moment and this being the final battleground between the individual their conception of the ultimate divine is evident in the song "Parabola:"

We barely remember who or what came before this precious moment, We are Choosing to be here right now. Hold on, stay inside...This holy reality, this holy experience. Choosing to be here in...This body. This body holding me. Be my reminder here that I am not alone in. This body, this body holding me, feeling eternal all this pain is an illusion...Swirling round with this familiar parable. Spinning, weaving round each new experience. Recognize this as a holy gift and celebrate this chance to be alive and breathing chance to be alive and breathing. This body holding me reminds me of my own mortality. Embrace this moment. Remember. we are eternal all this pain is an illusion. ("Parabola")

The battleground is set in the title song, where we can literally witness the expansion of the ego to rise as high as any conception of divinity the mind can create.

as below, so above and beyond, I imagine drawn beyond the lines of reason. Push the envelope. Watch it bend. 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... Reaching out to embrace the random. Reaching out to embrace whatever may come. I embrace my desire to 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, to swing on the spiral of our divinity and still be a human... 'm reaching up and reaching out. I'm reaching for the random or what ever will bewilder me. 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. Spiral out. Keep going. ("Lateralus")

The final battle between image and image actually comes in the final song on the fifth album. Here, we have a recognition of the need to have the pond stand still in order for the spirit and psyche to move on to the next stage of evolution.

I find that I can see a light at the end down. Beneath my self-indulgent pitiful hole. Defeated I Concede and move closer. I may find comfort here. I may find peace within the emptiness. How pitiful. It's calling me...And in my darkest moment, fetal and weeping. The moon tells me a secret. My confidant. As full and bright as I am, this light is not my own. A million light reflections pass over me. It's source is bright and endless. She resuscitates the hopeless. Without her we are lifeless satellites dreaming dreams. And as I pull my head out I am without one doubt. Don't want to be down here feeding my narcissism. I must crucify the ego before it's far too late. I pray the light lifts me out before I pine away...So crucify the ego before it's far too late. To leave behind this place so negative and blind and cynical. And you will come to find that we are all one mind. Just let the light touch you and let the words spill thorough. Just let them pass right through, bringing out our hope and reason. ("Reflection")

Chakra 6
Now this is interesting because, to be honest, I never expected Tool to put out another album. I assumed that Maynard was going to use his other band A Perfect Circle to address the final two chakras. But they did and so we move on to a description of chakra six:

This chakra is between the eyes and the energy of love in Chakra 2 is now experienced at chakra six as the sublime love for God. When Dante beheld Beatrice it was in the way, not of chakra two but of chakra six. He saw her, not as an object of lust, but as a manifestation of God's grace and love for the world and through contemplating her in that way, he was brought to the throne of final realization. (Joseph Campbell, Transformations of Myth Through Time

It's funny that so many people forget Jesus's saying about coming not to bring peace but a sword. There is nothing peaceful about spiritual transformation. It can be bloody, bruising, and downright nasty and it is rarely peaceful. Consider these lyrics from the opening song on the 10,000 Days album:

Credulous at best, your desire to believe in angels in the hearts of men. Pull your head on out your hand please, and give a listen--shouldn't have to say it all again. The universe is hostile, so impersonal. Devour to survive... so it is, so it's always been. We all feed on tragedy, it's like blood to a vampire. Vicariously I live while the whole world dies much better you than I. ("Vicarious")

We see are clear chakra six love, which is seen in terms of eternal beauty instead of lust.

Here from the king's mountain view. Here from the wild dream come true. Feast like a sultan I do on treasures and flesh, never few. But I, I would wish it all away; if I thought I'd Lose you just one day. The devil and his had me down in love with the dark side I'd found. Dabblin' all the way down. Up to my neck soon to drown. But you changed that all for me, lifted me up, turned me round...No cross you could hold, sway or justify my giving away my center. So if I could I'd wish it all away, if I thought tomorrow would take you away. You're my peace of mind, my home, I said, I'm just trying to hold on one more day. Dim my eyes. Dim my eyes. Dim my eyes if they should compromise our fulcrum. Want and need divide me, then I might as well be gone. Shine on forever...Shine on benevolent Son. Shine down upon the broken. Shine until the two become one. Shine on forever. Shine on benevolent Son. Shine down upon the severed. Shine until the two become one. Divided I'm withering away. Divided I'm withering away. Shine on upon the many. Light our way. Benevolent Son. Breathe in union. Breathe in union. ("Jambi")

There is an accepting finality of personal loss that is also indicative of a sixth chakra spiritual level in the song "Intension:"

Moved by will alone. Pure as we begin. Pure as we begin. Move by will alone. Leave as we come in. Pure as light. Return to one. Move by will alone.

In the title track, one no longer has to wonder what someone at the chakra six level would say to a iconic symbol that millions worshipped as a spiritual fact of salvation.

This little light of mine it gives your past unto me, I'm gonna let it shine to guide you safely on your way your way home...Ohh, what are they gonna do when the lights go down without you to guide them all to Zion? What are they gonna do when the rivers overrun, other than tremble incessantly? High is the way but our eyes are upon the ground. You are the light and the way they'll only read about. I only pray heaven knows when to lift you out. 10000 days in the fire is long enough. You're going home...You're the only one who can hold your head up high, shake your fist at the gates saying, "I have come home now!" ("10,000 Days")

This chakra six level is also the level at which angels exist and interact with mankind.

ngels on the sideline, puzzled and amused. Why did Father give these humans free will? Now they're all confused. Don't these talking monkeys know that Eden has enough to go around? Plenty in this holy garden, silly old monkeys; well there's one you're bound to divide it right in two. Angels on the sideline, baffled and confused, father blessed them all with reason and this is what they choose. Monkey killing monkey killing monkey over pieces of the ground, silly monkeys given thumbs they forge a blade and then there's one bound to divide it right in two, right in two. Monkey killing monkey killing monkey over pieces of the ground. Silly monkeys give them thumbs, they make a club and beat their brother down. How they survive so misguided is a mystery--repugnant, dismal creature who would squander the ability to live, to die, and have a conscience. Brothers sleep inside here. Cut it all right in two. Fight over the clouds, over wind, over sky. Fight over life, over blood, over air. Fight over love, over sun, over another fight each other, over angels on the sideline again. Been so long with patience and reason, angels on the sideline again, wondering when this tug of war will end. Cut it all right in two. Right in two. ("Right in Two")

There's not a whole lot of movement which happens at this chakra, rather it is a contemplative one, a final look around before dissolving into the big sleep. It's a time when the last few fragmented images are settling down into the still pond which comes at chakra 7.

Chakra 7

This chakra is at the top of the head. The goal is to be one with the object (God), to go beyond the pairs of objects. This instant is an eternal instant beyond time and space...How do you go to hell? By making your ego system harder and harder and harder. Hell is the place of people stuck with themselves--stuck on themselves. How do you get to heaven? Open, open, open until all is transpersonal. (Joseph Campbell, Transformations of Myth Through Time

The next Tool album should ideally be a purely instrumental album with Maynard singing "Aum" the entire time.

Aum is the sound of the energy of the universe of which all things are manifestations. The energy is what underlies all the forms (E=MC²) and the sound of that energy is said to be Aum. This is a four element syllable--the elements are: "Ah," "Ooh," "Mah," and the silence out of which Aum comes and back into which it goes. The Indians will always recognize that ground in silence, in infinite, in transcendent, in the void. All words are simple fragments of Aum, just like all forms are simply fragments of the form of forms. Aum is the sound of the radiance of God...The goal of Yoga is to bring the consciousness into the deep dreamless field awake and then it will experience undifferentiated consciousness, not the consciousness of any thing but the primary consciousness which we are trying to link, to yoga our waking consciousness.

When I try to think of a musical piece of art that has hit this final level of radiance, the only one that comes to mind is the fantastic but short symphony by Glenn Danzig and Power Fury Orchestra Black Aria--I cannot express how magnificent this album is and how underrated Glenn Danzig is as an artist. But since we're talking about Tool here, let's just say that I believe that these gentlemen are capable enough musicians to accomplish the seventh chakra and I'm very much looking forward to seeing what they come up with--hopefully, we'll all gain a release from it.

Now, that being said, the journey isn't over because we are still mortal bodies. Like Jesus on the roof top, were we to cast ourselves down we would surely do more than bruise our heels. In fact, the biggest warning given in Kundalini Yoga is to never confuse your gross body (nerves, muscles, organs, etc.) with your subtle body (mind and spirit). If you do this, you're nuts and you think you're God--this is the sure way to get Bradley tanks knocking down your compound and shooting armor-piercing rounds into the idiots you've duped into believing you.

But for those who have reached chakra 7 without breaking up completely and ending up someone's cross, there is the small problem of coming back to live in a world which is built upon competition, war, and pairs of opposites colliding and clashing in the temporal flow.

Consider what Campbell says:

Now, if we stay up there [chakra 7], the body drops off and we are released from life. The ideal, from viewpoint of someone interested in life, is to come back to the heart where the two are together. There we realize that the energy of three has functioned at five, the energy of two at six, the energy of one at seven--inertia. Thus, we know how to translate our earthly experience into as spiritual exercise. Three--what we are to conquer is ourselves and our attachments--and go to the war, you might say. And two, through our human love, we are to experience the radiance of eternity. (Joseph Campbell, Transformations of Myth Through Time)

Nietzsche once said, "Beware when casting out your demons that you don't cast out the best inside you." But here at chakra 7, we see that the energies which are viewed as negative and holding in the lower chakras are actually redirected to beneficial means in the upper chakras and when one returns to live at the fourth chakra, it is capable of being a good, decent, and moral human being. This the level at which true spiritual, economic, and political leadership should eminate from. Unfortunately for us, most of our leaders in these areas are dunskies who believe their religious metaphors to be historical facts that must be worshipped like a golden calf at the base of Mt. Sinai. Most of the decisions made which affect billions of people are done so by idolatrous fools whose constituents do not see the knives hidden under the halos.

While this thesis has dealt mainly with the lyrical side of Tool, don't forget that they are an amazing musical partnership and that the lyrics, as good as they are, would never be as effective without the brilliant music to drive them through the heart, past the mind, and into the great beyond--spiral out!

Tool is not just the knife and it's not the soft flesh or the blood that comes from the cutting . This band and its music are all three as well as the fourth dimensional observer who is both doing and feeling the cutting. This band is putting out proper art and they are building a pyramid of sound that can lead one to the promised land. Of course, once one has arrived at the promised land using this amazing tool, is it necessary to carry it around, set it on a shelf and worship it until it grows stale with time and decay? Probably not. But it serves a purpose here and now and we can burn that bridge when, God granted, we come to it.

LINKS:
Tool's Website
The Joseph Campbell Foundation
Discuss in the comments below or on the Joseph Campbell Message Board
Buy 10,000 Days by Tool (Affiliate Link)
Buy Ænema by Tool (Affiliate Link)
Buy Transformations of Myth Through Time by Joseph Campbell (Affiliate Link)

TAGS:
Tool, Joseph Campbell, Transformations of Myth Through Time, 10,000 Days, Aenima, Lateralus, Undertow, Opiate, Kundalini