So this has been.my favorite song of OTEP's since it came out in 2004, and I always thought it was a song about a child's narrative of suffering in an abusive Christian home. But now that I am revisiting the lyrics, I am seeing something totally new.
This song could be gospel of John but from the perspective of Jesus.
Jesus was NOT having a good time up to and during the crucifixion. Everyone in the known world at the time looked to him with fear, admiration or disgust and he was constantly being asked questions. He spoke in "verses, prophesies and curses". He had made an enemy of the state, and believed the world was increasingly wicked and fallen from grace, or that he was in the "mouth of madness".
The spine of atlas is the structure that allows the titan to hold the world up. Jesus challenged the state and in doing so became a celebrated resistance figure. It also made him public enemy #1.
All of this happened simply because he was doing his thing, not because of any agenda he had or strategy.
And then he gets scourged (storm of thorns)
There are some plot holes here but I think it's an interesting interpretation.
As I reflect on the situation
A heavy heart for the task at hand
I witnessed savagery
Hands tied to destiny
The exodus of the chosen
As foreseen in the prophecy
Hiding until it's time
To cloud all the human minds
When they spoke of the invasion
We were chosen from ties that bind
Bloodlines through centuries
Destined to be the ones to lead
The twelve and I, a new high council
Absorb the power of the Watcher's eye
The high priest resides in me
The Elder lives on in all thirteen
A heavy heart for the task at hand
I witnessed savagery
Hands tied to destiny
The exodus of the chosen
As foreseen in the prophecy
Hiding until it's time
To cloud all the human minds
When they spoke of the invasion
We were chosen from ties that bind
Bloodlines through centuries
Destined to be the ones to lead
The twelve and I, a new high council
Absorb the power of the Watcher's eye
The high priest resides in me
The Elder lives on in all thirteen
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
"Framing Armageddon: Something Wicked Part 1 tells the story of the Setians, who were the original inhabitants of Earth, and are directly descended from the "Great Architect". They are said to have nearly omniscient knowledge. Humans, who have developed space travel, invade Earth in a bid for "ultimate power and ultimate knowledge", killing all but ten thousand Setians (Invasion, Motivation of Man, Setian Massacre).
The remaining ten thousand go into hiding in the mountains in the east (A charge to keep). The Setian High Council, which consists of the twelve Elders and the High Priest, make a plan to get revenge on the invading human race (Reflections, Ten Thousand Strong, Order of the Rose). They plan to initiate "The Clouding", which involves brainwashing all the humans and making them forget their origins (Cataclysm, The Clouding). Once completed, the Setians will manipulate history by creating religions--Christianity, Islam, Judaism, etc.,--to further divide the humans (Infiltrate and Assimilate, Retribution Through the Ages, The Domino Decree, Framing Armageddon). Once human kind is sufficiently divided, after ten thousand years, the Setians will await, as the prophecy told millennia ago, the birth of the Antichrist, Set Abominae (When Stars Collide, The Awakening). Set Abominae will destroy all of the human race and execute the revenge the Setians have long awaited.
Framing Armageddon tells the story from the prophecy to the events right before the birth of Set Abominae." - wiki