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.
I offer my life
Cursed in this shrine
Broken roots entwined
And I feel my insides breaking down
I bury it in time
I want to be part of light
Detritus open up my mind
If that's what you like
Your lesions will blur the line
I, I had a dream of schism, force the Rule of Nines
Living in premonition, flowing from
The same place I learned to give in
It's such a strange place so full of opposing forces
I, I had a dream of schism, force the Rule of Nines
In time I learned the rules of a sadist
Entwined till there's nothing left to strain
No body full of pain to take from
They said it's a cruel world
I learned the rules of a sadist
So I lay myself down in the shape of a body
I live in the figurative
I want to be part of light
Detritus open up my mind
If that's what you like
Your lesions will blur the line
I, I had a dream of schism, force the Rule of Nines
Living in premonition, flowing from
The same place I learned to give in
It's such a strange place so full of opposing forces
I, I had a dream of schism, force the Rule of Nines
My shrine
Premonition die
I learn to give
Cursed in this shrine
Broken roots entwined
And I feel my insides breaking down
I bury it in time
I want to be part of light
Detritus open up my mind
If that's what you like
Your lesions will blur the line
I, I had a dream of schism, force the Rule of Nines
Living in premonition, flowing from
The same place I learned to give in
It's such a strange place so full of opposing forces
I, I had a dream of schism, force the Rule of Nines
In time I learned the rules of a sadist
Entwined till there's nothing left to strain
No body full of pain to take from
They said it's a cruel world
I learned the rules of a sadist
So I lay myself down in the shape of a body
I live in the figurative
I want to be part of light
Detritus open up my mind
If that's what you like
Your lesions will blur the line
I, I had a dream of schism, force the Rule of Nines
Living in premonition, flowing from
The same place I learned to give in
It's such a strange place so full of opposing forces
I, I had a dream of schism, force the Rule of Nines
My shrine
Premonition die
I learn to give
Lyrics submitted by EternalTearsOfSorrow
Rule of Nines Lyrics as written by Michael Stringer Courtney Laplante
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Songtrust Ave
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As for the meaning of the song, the literal is that the Rule of Nines is used to assess the percentage of burns on a body surface of a burn victim. In the songs case I feel the rule is meant to represent a dream of having no physical body to speak of anymore, to just be a form - unencumbered by pain - a free flowing form. In that form, one appreciates what it means to live, by feeling what it's like to figuratively die.
@EternalTearsOfSorrow Thanks for the explanation, It helped me to put the pieces of the puzzle together. yea It seems that the person in this song just killed himself and his soul is flowing at the same place that he commit suicide. Now his soul recognize that he consumed his body like a sadist and ruined it. So his soul wants to go back to body and fix everything. he wants Light (Salvation) but It's too late cuz his lesions (Wounds) don't allow him to do that.