Lakini's Juice

I think all of you are missing a very important part of the song - the title. In Hinduism, Lakini is the goddess of the Manipuraka (city of jewels), which is the third of the seven Chakras. This Chakra represents the solar plexis of the human body, just above the navel, and is responsible for the pancreas and gall bladder as well as intuition (gut feelings). Lakini's "juice" is the bile, pancreatic fluid, and other chemicals produced by this region of the body that aid in digestion and excretion. The entire song represents a transition from the illusion of Christianity to the enlightenment of Hinduism. There are really two layers to this song: one is the "old" layer, based in ancient and Christan references; the other is the "new" layer based in Hindu references. Many of you have already touched on these in your posts, so if you see something that someone already said, it is simply my agreement of it.

"It was an evening I shared with the sun To find out where we belong"

Old: There are two old references here. Chronologically the first is Plato's metaphor of the sun, in which the sun is a source of intellectual illumination. The second is of Christianity, the "sun" or "son" is Jesus. Interestingly, the Christian meaning is essentially the same as Plato's metaphor.

New: The sun is the ruling planet of the Manipuraka.

In one evening, the speaker spent time considering both meanings.

"From the earliest days We were dancing in the shadows"

Old: This line refers to Plato's allegory of the cave. The speaker feels as though he has been locked a cave and made to believe that the shadows of tradition and Christianity were real. After his release from the cave, he sees the sun (which brings us back to the first line of the song).

New: This is a contrast to the enlighment of Hinduism. Without it the Hindu faith would be the same as the Christian one. If he was not aware of dancing in shadows, especially in the flow of time, he would still believe the shadows to be reality. He would not recognize the allegory of the cave.

"More wine Because I got to have it More skin Because I got to eat it"

Old: This refers to the eucharist of Christianity - the body and blood of Christ.

New: The Manipuraka is responsible for digestion. Without food or drink, it could not digest or, more importantly, flush toxins and waste from the body.

The speaker is still digesting what he is learning while bound to the traditions learned in the cave. These traditions are the waste that needs to be excreted. It is a process that takes time and he wants it to happen quickly, which is why he wants more wine and skin.

"Inside the outside By the river Used to be so calm Used to be so sane"

Old: This refers to Christian baptism, and the apostle John baptizing Christ in the River Jordan. When in the cave he was comforted by his ignorance of the new meaning of the sun.

New: This is a whimsical retrospective of how it used to be, almost a second-guessing of his enlightenment. If the past was calm and sane, the present is hurried and insane. He is filled with a new energy borne from his solar plexis, a gut feeling he is not familiar with and has not quite adjusted to.

"I rushed the ladies' room Took the water from the toilet Washed her feet and blessed her name"

Old: This refers to Jesus washing the feet of his disciples. He also turned water into wine - this was Jesus' "juice".

New: There is no question that the "her" refered to here is Lakini. He feels powerful, as powerful as Jesus, and washing the feet of a goddess is the imagry that presents this idea. The ladies' room reference brings the entire song into modern times. It also is a reference to excretion in its end form, but not his (since it's the ladies' room). This is what he wants, to be cleansed of Christianity and tradition, and the ritual is in anticipation of this.

"More peace Is such a dirty habit"

This is where the old layer begins to fade and the new one begins to emerge as the speaker's reality. The peace he refers to is the cave, where it was calm and sane. He is energized and to return to what he once knew feels wrong. Yet he yearns for it.

"Slow down, we're too afraid"

This is the speaker's reasoning for his yearning to return to the bliss of his former ignorance. It also is his reason for not doing so. He blames fear for his instinct to reject his enlightenment. In five words, he turns fear from a desire to an enemy.

"Let me ride Let me ride Burn my eyes Let me ride"

This is the speaker's abandonment of his fear, damning all consequence. He let's the cave go, riding away from it under his own strong will to do so. If the sun burns his eyes - be it the son of God or the sun of Manipuraka - so be it.

This is an excellent literary and musical work - one of those songs you just have to crank up the volume to and sing along at the top of your lungs.

Whatever the song lyrics actually mean, they combined with the music seem to coalesce into an anthem of desire, obsession, frustration, and ultimately catharsis.

That could be spiritual or physical, take your pick. But the musical structure of this song with the urgency of the vocals render the actual words almost insignificant. It is awesome.

I CAN"T BELIEVE NOBODY HAS COMMENTED ON THIS SONG!!! AHHHH IT HAS TO BE ONE OF THE BEST LIVE SONGS EVER!!!!!! I am not sure if I am right, but I believe that it is about a person who knows he doesn't have too much to offer to a girl, but he uses what he can to the fullest extent and does everything he can for the girl he loves and worships and he knows he is at a level considered phycotic but regardless he wants to ride into the fire and let himself burn and die to fufill this feeling he has about absolutly giving everything to the girl. It used to be better and more normal, but not at this stage in the relationship, or should I say, worship.

This song speaks to me of a type of cruel logic. I think that the symbology of the uncleanness and burning has much to do with the purifying factors of ancient mythos. Water, grease and fire are all explained here as physically purifying in offering a sacrifice. In Hindu subculture regarding Lakini, the sacrifices viewed man as a commodity. In a caste religious system... it was not unheard of that a person be treated as nothing less than cattle. She was not a kind goddess. Ed really put his heart into this, comparing acient mythos involving sacrifice, with today's cultural stigmas. Therefore I think the people on the bed were actually supposed to be made of grease. The numbers on their arms represented the look at people as a commodity of just... so much fat. Therefore, the pool was really full of "Lakini's Juice."

My opinion:

Its about the darker side of love, I.E. obsession. The song's lyrics have a very dark undertone to them, and they seem to speak of how, as humans, we have certain wants and needs that, sometimes in order to fulfill them, we will go directly against what we have been tought. Thats why in the video, there is a person shaping a piece of wet chalk type stuff. The chalk represents lard, which, in turn, represents our human earges. Kind of like, you know what you're doing is wrong, but the earge is so great, that you do it anyway. If this song is autobiographical, He's most likely talking about some sexual experience that he feels guilty about.

At least that's my take on the song.

i think this song is about dark fetishes, and how he is sexually frustrated because he cant act them out.

lakini: she's the hindu god of destruction.
this relates to the video's odd depiction of lard...a symbol of overindulgence

i have no doubts this is about overindulgence. The live "more wine cuz i got to have it says a lot. overindulgence also covers the idea of obession-we want more and we have to have it. The whole bit about the river? well maybe it has to do with the river being the flow of the 'norms' in society. His 'obsessions' -whatever they may be- corrupt this flow. Just my thought.

Yes, overindulgence ... in passion, perhaps? Obsession leading to too much of somebody. Ah well. This song kicks ass.

i always thought it was big hunks of soap that they had with them in the video and perhaps the bizzare urges the people had they felt they needed to cleanse themselves of