Tool, and Why They're Not Evil

by Paulo Gomes

Note: This original article, with images included (a lot easier to read) can be found on my website, www.lukewarmdog.com/paulo under the writings section.

Not too long ago, on one of my favorite sites (totse.com) someone submitted an article saying that Tool "is a bringer of evil from the dark one and everything they stand for is evil and corrupt" and that "Tool is a Tool, a Tool of Satan". Then they wrote another article saying that tool may not be the antichrist, but that Maynard could be a false prophet. I'm writing this article to tell people what Tool is actually singing about: concepts and theories that not many people know about.

The person's original article can be found here: http://www.totse.com/en/religion/satanists/thecomingofthe170660.html

and his newest one can be found here:

http://www.totse.com/en/ego/can_you_dance_to_it/toolvideodisce172321.html

*sigh* Where do I fucking start...First of all, Tool doesn't only write songs about Jesus-bashing. When listening to songs like "Opiate", "Eulogy" and "Sober", it's pretty obvious they're not fans of Christ. This has nothing to do with being evil, unless you look at it from a christian point of view. I doubt Maynard even believes in the Devil, though I cannot say. You have to be a little familliar with some metaphysical concepts and a little bit of buddhism to have a better understanding of their songs. There are unmistakable references in many of their songs to buddhist teachings and other theories. Tool seems to connect these all in a way through their music and is one of the main reasons I love their music, because they really did put a lot of thought into it (plus the music sounds really cool and is fun to play :-D).

Firstly, this website:

http://www.floweroflife.org/spiral01.htm

explains a lot of the themes in tool's music, mainly sacred geometry, the merkaba, the golden mean spiral and the flower of life. It will explain things better than I can, so if you really want to get deep into their lyrics, check it out.

46 and 2: This song is about the teachings from a book titled "Nothing in This Book is True, but It's Exactly How Things Are." by Bob Frissell. This book was recommended on Tool's 1994 newsletter. The theory is about the spiritual evolution of human consciousness. It basically says that we're entering the fourth dimenson and that we will have 46 and 2 chromosomes. Right now we have 44 and 2 chromosomes. Having 46 and 2, we will be entering the "Christ Consciousness". The book also teaches about sacred geometry and the flower of life (see website linked above for more info). The "shadow" that Maynard is singing about refers to Carl Jung's concepts. He termed the "shadow" the parts of our personalities that we learn to repress and hold back as we grow up because they are not acceptable to those around us. Maynard sings "I wanna see what I've been hiding in my shadow" and "my shadow's shedding skin", I think he is singing about spiritual evolution in this song.

There is also a picture of the flower of life on one of tool's posters, pictured here:

http://www.lukewarmdog.com/paulo/images/writings/tool2.jpg

It's barely visible, but it's there if you look closely (the most visible part is on the man's face). So now it seems to be easier to make sense of what Tool is singing about.

Merkaba: Yes, tool wrote a song called Merkaba. I don't know how much easier it can be to draw the line between them and the site I linked above.

Mantra: It's easiest to know what a song is about when the title refers to something specific, like Merkaba or Mantra. a mantra is from hinduism, it is a word repeated in prayer or meditation that is supposed to represent a sound that is sacred, used in magic or to talk to a god.

Lateralus: I think they're referencing the golden mean spiral in this song. "Ride the spiral to the end we may just go where no one's been"... Well, to ride the golden mean spiral is to experience the "love frequency of the merkaba". The pieces seem to fit, but again I'm not totally sure on this one. It sounds like it makes sense though. "Swing on the spiral of our divinity and still be a human"... what Maynard means is to experience love of the divine while still being human.

Parabol/Parabola: Two spiritual songs (I'll get into the video in a minute). "We are eternal all this pain is an illusion" sounds very similar to some eastern thoughts, that we are eternal, and that death and the reality we're in now is an illusion.

Now to understand the song Third eye and some of the visuals in the parabola video, one has to be a little familliar with the chakra system. Now the chakras are said to have been first mentioned in the ancient Hindu texts of knowledge, called the "Vedas". Some believe these Hindu writings come from an even older oral tradition of the Aryan culture. A brief explanation of the chakras is that they are spiritual energy centers in our bodies that are the colors of the rainbow. There are seven of them. The third eye is the chakra located where our pineal gland is. To open one's third eye is to have true sight, to see the reality outside of the illusion we're in. Those who practice third eye meditation frequently have been able to see through closed eyelids. The third eye is also mentioned in buddhist teachings.

Third Eye: This song is about opening one's third eye through the use of hallucinogens. In the beginning of the song, there are audio clips that talk about drugs. There is a quote by comedian Bill Hicks saying "today a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed into a slow vibration, that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively. There is no such thing as death, life is only a dream, we're the imagination of ourselves." which seems to link to beliefs of near-death experiencers and to other eastern thoughts that life is a dream and that death is to awaken from this dream. Maynard sings in the song "So good to see you once again, I thought that you were hiding, You thought that I had run away, chasing the trail of dogma". I think he is trying to say he's opened his third eye and sees truth now, and that he no longer needs dogma.

Reflection: He speaks about "The Source" and says "I must crucify the ego" and "you will come to find that we are all one mind". I think he's talking about taoism, though I'm not too familiar with taoism... but I do believe I have heard some of it. Some believe the point of life is to experience the ego, that which enables you to percieve yourself as separate from everything else, as an individual. People who have experimented with salvia divinorium, a hallucinogenic plant, have often reported something they called "ego death" in which they said they felt like they were not feeling their body, but feeling an object in the room, or melting into the bed they were laying on. Anyways, the belief goes on that when our ego and sense of self is completely destroyed, we feel the one mind that we all are branching off of, the source, the light, etc. (also Bill Hicks mentioned this singular consciousness in the song third eye). I think Maynard is singing about finally giving up the sense of self and just accepting that we are one mind, one spirit, that when we crucify the ego, and quiet the mind, we can feel connected to the universe. "Without her we are lifeless satellites drifting"

Ok, this article is really long and probably 90% of the people who started reading it already closed it. Anyways that's it for tool songs, I'll leave some additional comments at the end of this article after I explain one more thing...

Tools visuals and the Parabola video...

First, this is an image from Tool's lateralus album:

http://www.lukewarmdog.com/paulo/images/writings/tool1.jpg

There are visuals in their videos/lateralus album cover that actually have something to do with sacred geometry. For example, behind the head of the man in the picture, there is a geometrical design and his third eye is open. In the parabola video, a man/alien looking thing/whatever (maybe it was a metaphor I missed) cuts an apple open to reveal the star shape the seeds take in the center, with a star etched around it in the apple. The camera then gets closer and the star changes to a six-sided star, and then into a seven-sided one. I think this is another reference to sacred geometry, or perhaps the image of the merkaba. In the end of the video, 2 eyes go through a man's body, opening up his chakras (they even have corresponding colors, just to make it more clear). The most obvious reference to buddhism is when the green heart chakra opens up like a lotus flower (a buddhist theme) and then there is an image of a vajra on it, which is a symbol in buddhist teachings (pictured below). The two eyes then form his third eye, and the man becomes the light, or one with the universe.

Vajra: http://www.lukewarmdog.com/paulo/images/writings/tool3.jpg

As you can see, the red dots and lines from tool's lateralus CD are the same ones in the image of the vajra, further verifying that Maynard has a fascination with buddhism.

After reading that kid's article, it really pissed me off that he had done no research about tool's lyrics and decided to judge them, call them evil and false prophets. It reflected the ignorance in many (but not all) Christians or anyone who basically closes their mind to many other beliefs. He seems unable to look beyond his own religion to realize that their lyrics are about many religions that have nothing to do with satan or christianity. I'm not sure, but the reason they're probably against Christianity so much is because Christianity seems to encourage it's followers to believe that it is the one, right way to live. By seeing the many different meanings in many different tool songs, it's obvious that they encourage listening to many thoughts and beliefs, and not just one, because hearing many expands your mind. Some of these beliefs were around before Christ was even born. They're not very familliar to the western world as they mainly come from eastern religions, but in this day and age, they're starting to make themselves a little more known, especially through Tool's music.

Maynard is not Satan, nor does he work for "satan". He's simply a man writing music about theories that have already been around. The writer of those articles obviously failed to notice that Maynard did not just think up all of these concepts on his own. So if you are to say Tool is a tool of satan, it is to say many metaphysical thoughts and any other religions besides christianity are tools of satan, and that is what I like to call close-minded.

And yes, at times I really do have way too much time on my hands (but trust me, not all the time...). I congratulate those who actually read this far, because if I hadn't written this and been a fan of tool, I probably would have not read it at all. Tool is brilliant, and if you don't think so, well then you are wrong and can go fuck yourself.

Just kidding ;)

Adios.