The Gnosis of Tool / Fear Inoculum and The Hymn of the Pearl
The new Tool album just dropped a few days ago and I have been fielding various messages and stuff from listeners about it. So I sat down and was able to get through the whole thing on Monday morning and I thought I might go through it with you guys and see what we can dig up in here.
So, just so you know… this isn’t a review of the album. If you want a review I am sure you can finds thousands of youtubes, podcasts and blogs that are talking about this. If you are looking for reactions or opinions of “professional” critics, that isn’t me. And I am also not pretending to know what the musicians meant by or what they are referring to. I am just telling you what I see in on the levels of stuff we talk about on the show when I took a look at this material.
So qualifications, caveats and trigger warnings aside… I always thought, maybe I have heard this somewhere about media critic or analysis that ultimately once it is released, the authors intent doesn’t mean anything anyways. It is what the consumer sees in it, that is the point.
There are 6 songs that include lyrics on this album and I think two of them are really worth taking a look at. This one being the first. Fear Inoculum. This song reminds me of the Bene Gesserit Litany against Fear:
I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.
Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear
"Fear Inoculum"
Immunity, long overdue
Contagion, I exhale you
Nieve, I opened up to you
Venom in mania
Now, contagion, I exhale you
We can see right from the offset that it is about fear acting as a disease. He willingly takes the damage from this weapon, he says it is his n weapon that he willingly takes do to his naivety. Which leaves on to think this could be a redemption story, or probably how things that seem good in our inexperience can grow into things that cause us anxiety in our lives.
The deceiver says, he says
You belong to me
You don't wanna breathe the light of the others
Fear the light, fear the breath
Fear the others for eternity
But I hear them now, inhale the clarity
Hear the venom, the venom in
What you say inoculated
And then it is weaponized by this “deceiver”.
Bless this immunity
Bless this immunity
Bless this immunity
Exhale, expel
Recast my tale
Weave my allegorical elegy
This Elegy is just a sad song or story usually about death. So we have this re-weaving, recasting of the story of his death. He is not just facing his fear he is actively combating it. He is re-writing his death… just as the Bene Gesserit’s allows fear to pass through them, so they can see it’s path as it disappears. This guy that is being plagued by this fear is not locking up or running from it. He is dealing with it. And analyzing it.
Enumerate all that I'm to do
Calculating steps away from you
My own mitosis
Growing through delusion from mania
Mitosis this is cell division from Mania.He sings about this same idea in Lateralus
“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”
Exhale, expel
Recast my tale
Weave my allegorical elegy
I think what he is talking about, all of this breathing and focusing like a mantra or a yoga exercise from letting our mind wander into “what ifs” or things that can happen beyond our control that can cause us anxiety and fear, it is a way of… just like it says on the tin! An inoculation against fear.
The fear is always escalating, it turns from a disease, from a weaponized disease, from a mania into a demonic force that has to be exorcised…
Forfeit all control
You poison, you spectacle
Exorcise the spectacle
Exorcise the malady
Exorcise the disparate
Poison for eternity
Purge me and evacuate
The venom and the fear that binds me
And now with the fear banished the thing that caused the fear in the first place is on the run. Much like the litany against fear.
Unveil now, lift away
I see you runnin'
Deceiver chased away
A long time comin'
The next one is the most Gnostic of these songs. A Pneuma just means the vital spirit of life. Jung used the term in "Gnostic Symbols of the Self," in The Gnostic Jung 1992,
So the old Gnostic story boils down to this idea that the creator of the material world was evil, or an idiot and when he created humans he actually trapped this divine spark, this little bit of the infinite into this crude material world. And we really get right into this verse 1, line 1:
"Pneuma"
We are spirit bound to this flesh
(We) Go round one foot nailed down
(But) Bound to reach out and beyond this flesh, become Pneuma
So, they are being clever, and playing a word game. He is using the word “bound, twice in two different ways. First we are trapped in or tied to… we are bound in this flesh. But the second occurrence we are destined to, we must… we are bound to reach out and beyond this flesh…
I might be reading too much Nitszsche on the Wednesday Book Club, but this bit… we go round, one foot nailed to the ground… might be a reference to Eternal Reoccurrence. It doesn’t have to be, because it is also an Gnostic idea that… ground hogs day… we are stuck in this world just reliving the same cycle over and over again.
We are will and wonder, bound to recall, remember
We are born of one breath, one word
We are all one spark, sun becoming
Here, bound for the third time. This time we are tied to, chained to recall… what we can remember. There is a commonly used Gnostic Metaphor or “remembering” who you are, where you are what is important. There is this awesome story, the Hymn of Judas Thomas the Apostle it is also called the Hymn of the Pearl. It is longer to address properly here.
This one breath one work business could be the original emanation from the Kabalistic En Soph. It also reminds me of Helen’s Original Idea transmitted to Simon Magus.
Another metaphor for gaining Gnosis is “waking up”
Child, wake up
Child, release the light
Wake up now, child
Child, wake up
Child, release the light
Wake up now, child
(Spirit, Spirit, Spirit, Spirit)
Bound to this flesh, this guise, this mask, this dream
Wake up remember
We are born of one breath, one word
We are all one spark, sun becoming
Pneuma
Reach out and beyond
Wake up remember
We are born of one breath, one word
We are all one spark, eyes full of wonder
Below is The Hymn of the Pearl or They Hymn of the Robe:
The Hymn
(The Hymn of Judas Thomas the Apostle
in the Country of the Indians)
Translated by G.R.S. Mead
I.
When, a quite little child, I was dwelling
In the House of my Father’s Kingdom,
And in the wealth and the glories
Of my Up-bringers I was delighting,
From the East, our Home, my Parents
Forth-sent me with journey-provision.
Indeed from the wealth of our Treasure,
They bound up for me a load.
Large was it, yet was it so light
That all alone I could bear it.
II.
Gold from the Land of Beth-Ellaya,
Silver from Gazak the Great,
Chalcedonies of India,
Iris-hued [Opals?] from Kãshan.
They girt me with Adamant [also]
That hath power to cut even iron.
My Glorious Robe they took off me
Which in their love they had wrought me,
And my Purple Mantle [also]
Which was woven to match with my stature.
III.
And with me They [then] made a compact;
In my heart wrote it, not to forget it:
"If thou goest down into Egypt,
And thence thou bring’st the one Pearl –
"[The Pearl] that lies in the Sea,
Hard by the loud-breathing Serpent –
"[Then] shalt Thou put on thy Robe
And thy Mantle that goeth upon it,
"And with thy Brother, Our Second,
Shalt thou be Heir in our Kingdom."
IV.
I left the East and went down
With two Couriers [with me];
For the way was hard and dangerous,
For I was young to tread it.
I traversed the borders of Maish~ n,
The mart of the Eastern merchants,
And I reached the Land of Babel,
And entered the walls of Sarbãg.
Down further I went into Egypt;
And from me parted my escorts.
V.
Straightway I went to the Serpent;
Near to his lodging I settled,
To take away my Pearl
While he should sleep and should slumber.
Lone was I there, yea, all lonely;
To my fellow-lodgers a stranger.
However I saw there a noble,
From out of the Dawn-land my kinsman,
A young man fair and well favoured,
Son of Grandees; he came and he joined me.
VI.
I made him my chosen companion,
A comrade, for sharing my wares with.
He warned me against the Egyptians,
’Gainst mixing with the unclean ones.
For I had clothed me as they were,
That they might not guess I had come
From afar to take off the Pearl,
And so rouse the Serpent against me.
VII.
But from some occasion or other
They learned I was not of their country.
With their wiles they made my acquaintance;
Yea, they gave me their victuals to eat.
I forgot that I was a King’s son,
And became a slave to their king.
I forgot all concerning the Pearl
For which my Parents had sent me;
And from the weight of their victuals
I sank down into a deep sleep.
VIII.
All this that now was befalling,
My Parents perceived and were anxious.
It was then proclaimed in our Kingdom,
That all should speed to our Gate –
Kings and Chieftains of Parthia,
And of the East all the Princes.
And this is the counsel they came to:
I should not be left down in Egypt.
And for me they wrote out a Letter;
And to it each Noble his Name set:
IX.
"From Us – King of Kings, thy Father,
And thy Mother, Queen of the Dawn-land,
"And from Our Second, thy Brother –
To thee, Son, down in Egypt, Our Greeting!
"Up an arise from thy sleep,
Give ear to the words of Our Letter!
"Remember that thou art a King’s son;
See whom thou hast served in thy slavedom.
Bethink thyself of the Pearl
For which thou didst journey to Egypt.
X.
"Remember thy Glorious Robe,
Thy Splendid Mantle remember,
"To put on and wear as adornment,
When thy Name may be read in the Book of the Heroes,
"And with Our Successor, thy Brother,
Thou mayest be Heir in Our Kingdom."
My Letter was [surely] a Letter
The King had sealed up with His Right Hand,
’Gainst the Children of Babel, the wicked,
The tyrannical Daimons of Sarbãg.
XI.
It flew in the form of the Eagle,
Of all the winged tribes the king-bird;
It flew and alighted beside me,
And turned into speech altogether.
At its voice and the sound of its winging,
I waked and arose from my deep sleep.
Unto me I took it and kissed it;
I loosed its seal and I read it.
E’en as it stood in my heart writ,
The words of my Letter were written.
XII.
I remembered that I was a King’s son,
And my rank did long for its nature.
I bethought me again of the Pearl,
For which I was sent down to Egypt.
And I began [then] to charm him,
The terrible loud-breathing Serpent.
I lulled him to sleep and to slumber,
Chanting o’er him the Name of my Father,
The Name of our Second, [my Brother],
And [Name] of my Mother, the East-Queen.
XIII.
And [thereon] I snatched up the Pearl,
And turned to the House of my Father.
Their filthy and unclean garments
I stripped off and left in their country.
To the way that I came I betook me,
To the Light of our Home, to the Dawn-land.
On the road I found [there] before me,
My Letter that had aroused me –
As with its voice it had roused me,
So now with its light it did lead me –
XIV.
On fabric of silk, in letter of red [?],
With shining appearance before me [?],
Encouraging me with its guidance,
With its love it was drawing me onward.
I went forth; through Sarbãg I passed;
I left B~ bel-land on my left hand;
And I reached unto Maishan the Great,
The meeting-place of the merchants,
That lieth hard by the Sea-shore.
XV.
My Glorious Robe that I’d stripped off,
And my Mantle with which it was covered,
Down from the Heights of Hyrcania,
Thither my Parents did send me,
By the hands of their Treasure-dispensers
Who trustworthy were with it trusted.
Without my recalling its fashion, –
In the House of my Father my childhood had left it,--
At once, as soon as I saw it,
The Glory looked like my own self.
XVI.
I saw it in all of me,
And saw me all in [all of] it, –
That we were twain in distinction,
And yet again one in one likeness.
I saw, too, the Treasurers also,
Who unto me had down-brought it,
Were twain [and yet] of one likeness;
For one Sign of the King was upon them –
Who through them restored me the Glory,
The Pledge of my Kingship [?].
XVII.
The Glorious Robe all-bespangled
With sparkling splendour of colours:
With Gold and also with Beryls,
Chalcedonies, iris-hued [Opals?],
With Sards of varying colours.
To match its grandeur [?], moreover, it had been completed:
With adamantine jewels
All of its seams were off-fastened.
[Moreover] the King of Kings’ Image
Was depicted entirely all o’er it;
And as with Sapphires above
Was it wrought in a motley of colour.
XVIII.
I saw that moreover all o’er it
The motions of Gnosis abounding;
I saw it further was making
Ready as though for to speak.
I heard the sound of its Music
Which it whispered as it descended [?]:
"Behold him the active in deeds!
For whom I was reared with my Father;
"I too have felt in myself
How that with his works waxed my stature."
XIX.
And [now] with its Kingly motions
Was it pouring itself out towards me,
And made haste in the hands of its Givers,
That I might [take and] receive it.
And me, too, my love urged forward
To run for to meet it, to take it.
And I stretched myself forth to receive it;
With its beauty of colour I decked me,
And my Mantle of sparkling colours
I wrapped entirely all o’er me.
XX.
I clothed me therewith, and ascended
To the Gate of Greeting and Homage.
I bowed my head and did homage
To the Glory of Him who had sent it,
Whose commands I [now] had accomplished,
And who had, too, done what He’d promised.
[And there] at the Gate of His House-sons
I mingled myself with His Princes;
For He had received me with gladness,
And I was with Him in His Kingdom;
XXI.
To whom the whole of His Servants
With sweet-sounding voices sing praises.
* * * * *
He had promised that with him to the Court
Of the King of Kings I should speed,
And taking with me my Pearl
Should with him be seen by our King.
The Hymn of Judas Thomas the Apostle,
which he spake in prison, is ended.
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