End of All Days
Click to viewSource: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyEF7fWOrEc
I know you've used some of the same graphics in the background during live performances of "End of All Days", but focusing solely on the graphics gave me a new insight into them and the song.
First off, Visceral.
Secondly, it's interesting that you choose images of science in a song about faith. Nice dichotomy there.
"A lifetime of consumption, we've all become the same..." and you're showing us down at the cellular level, where we are all the same.
And, of course, "I'll punish you with pleasure & pleasure you with pain..." accompanying the blood. To come full circle, Visceral.
Originally posted: http://twitlonger.com/show/n_1rp2v92
P.S. On a second (third?) viewing, "Lord, lord, lord, lord" is shown with an image of the brain in the background. *g* Touché.
My slightly edited (for length) comment on youTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyEF7fWOrEc&lc=J87dlsPXXqHHmh3K0utzKnXmAHqJUqz_On0SiwCrKJw
As of 09/28/2013, I have 119 thumbs ups and one comment calling it "childish". Yeah, apparently you're in the minority.
Jared's tweet asking what we think it means. Interesting answers:
https://twitter.com/JaredLeto/status/383833271441694720
A couple of my favorites:
@grrlse7en: Faith takes many forms. Faith in "the light", self, neurons firing create divinity, or is it encoded into our very being... ( x)
@sweetsexyvegan: The images are visceral. We're human...flesh & blood & nerve endings. We feel pleasure & pain. But faith (the triad) transcends. ( x)
And, from 09/29/2013, this thread captures a great convo I had with @grrlse7en. Minus the tangent on "Touch". *g*
@grrlse7en: I loved it...MARS always makes me think, but the timing for that video was pretty much spot on for where my brain has been
Me: I know what you mean. It's like Mars is guiding an internal conversation for me. Not forcing, nudging in the right direction.
Me: Reminds me of the spiral - the golden ratio. Spiraling in towards the truth. LOL. This may or may not have something to do with the fact that I'm just getting around to watching the last few episodes of "Touch". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJfOUxd94Eg
@grrlse7en: More like a guiding light, or a comforting hand to hold on this long strange journey...
Me: Yes. That's a beautiful way to put it. It's odd to be so certain that someone you've barely met understands you so deeply.
@grrlse7en: Aye. I haven't connected with anyone like that in quite awhile, if ever...I mean I've connected deeply w/bands before but this time, I guess everything was just cosmic =)
@grrlse7en: Some artists have such a unique gift to affect people in such a way. I'm glad I got to "see" Jared for more than just image and pomp...he really is quite an amazing, weird, inspiring, intriguing person who just draws you in and really makes you feel comfortable asking questions that need asking, explore and push boundaries, and shaking the complacency out of you...
@grrlse7en: Gah, I don't have words tonight that do it justice...but you get it *heh* Or else you wouldn't be here like many of us =)
Me: That was beautifully put. *g* He makes us think & feel & grow & want to be the best we can be.
Me: There really isn't a title that encompasses it all. A bit of what a religious leader does - but without the confining expectations. A bit of what a teacher does - but without a set agenda.
To explain my golden ratio comment. I was thinking about how things have been swinging like a pendulum between science and faith. For me personally.
Starting with Dawkins at the high side of science. Then what LLFD means as far as faith. Not as high on the faith side, because the pendulum is slowing.
Slowing pendulum. Spiraling down to the truth. Golden ratio.
The EOADs parallels I saw between science and faith. Further narrowing.
Whether "faith transcends", like @sweetsexyvegan said. Or whether "neurons firing create divinity, or is it encoded into our very being[?]" like @grrlse7en suggested.
With my "Lord, lord, lord, lord" observation of the brain in the background, I'm inclined to pull on the science side a bit.
Okay, go back to that soul roles and journeys stuff. In any of that is there a supernatural god mentioned? Not in what I read. It's more about souls coming to earth, going though a journey, relearning things, and returning to whatever is beyond. There is nothing about a creator or a guide outside of all things.
Where does Dawkins fall with that? Well, he rejects the idea that the body and soul are distinct and that there is something beyond the body, something that outlasts the body. But are those two beliefs necessarily tied together? Can you reject the omniscient being that created all without rejecting something beyond this existence?
Does that match up to a religion or is it something distinct? Reincarnation ....
From: http://www.comparativereligion.com/reincarnation.html
However, its modern version is substantially different from what Eastern religions affirmed. Far from being a torment out of which man has to escape by any price through abolishing personhood, New Age thinking sees reincarnation as an eternal progression of the soul toward higher levels of spiritual knowledge. Thus what reincarnates is not the impersonal atman, but an entity which is currently called the soul, an entity which preserves the attributes of personhood from one life to the next. This compromise obviously emerged from the desire to adapt the reincarnation doctrine to Western thought.
And from another part of the article (talking about Taoism):
Birth is not a beginning; death is not an end.
There is existence without limitation; there is continuity without a starting point. Existence without limitation is space. Continuity without a starting point is time.
There is birth, there is death, there is issuing forth, there is entering in.
That through which one passes in and out without seeing its form,
that is the Portal of God (Chuang Tzu 23).
I like that. So, basically, to sum up. Many Eastern religions include reincarnation, but it's based on karma and being punished in your next life for transgressions in your current life. The new age version is about "an eternal progression of the soul toward higher levels of spiritual knowledge". In other words, that stuff I read recently is new age-y. *shrugs*
And, yes, I've now officially hijacked my own post.
Lyrics for "End of All Days":
Tired of waiting for the end of all days.
The prophets are preaching that the gods are needing praise.
The headlights are coming, showing me the way.
The serpents are a singing, a song that's meant to save.
All we need is faith.
All we need is faith.
Faith is all we need.
Lord.
The desert is a calling, the emptiness of space.
The hunger of a lion is written on your face.
A maniac's new love song, seduction is my game. (originally, "destruction is his game.")
I need a new direction, 'cause I have lost my way.
All we need is faith.
All we need is faith.
Faith is all we need.
All we need is faith.
All we need is faith.
Faith is all we need.
The manic messiah, destruction is his game.
A beautiful liar, love for him is pain.
The temples are now burning, a faith caught up in flames.
I need a new direction, 'cause I have lost my way.
All we need is faith.
All we need is faith.
Faith is all we need.
All we need is faith.
All we need is faith.
Faith is all we need.
Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord.
A lifetime of consumption, they've all become the same.
I punish them for pleasure, and pleasure some with pain.
I punish you with pleasure, and pleasure you with pain.
I punish you with pleasure, and pleasure you with pain.
Note: If I recall correctly, this is the interview where Jared said he would have switched the "destruction" line with the "seduction" line, above. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITJ4pA-VM3E