I rarely post entire songs or give long explanations, but I feel that this is all very important and relevant.
From Wikipedia, the shadow (psychology):
In
Jungian psychology, the
shadow or "
shadow aspect" is a part of the
unconscious mind consisting of
repressed weaknesses, shortcomings, and instincts...
According to Jung, the shadow sometimes overwhelms a person's actions; for example, when the conscious mind is shocked, confused, or paralyzed by indecision. ... hence, in terms of the story of
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, 'it must be Jekyll, the conscious personality, who integrates the shadow ... and
not vice versa. Otherwise the conscious becomes the slave of the autonomous shadow'.
[20]
...As the process continues, and 'the
libido leaves the bright upper world ... sinks back into its own depths...below, in the shadows of the unconscious',
[21] so too what comes to the forefront is 'what was hidden under the mask of conventional adaptation: the shadow', with the result that '
ego and shadow are no longer divided but are brought together in an — admittedly precarious — unity'.
[22]
The impact of such 'confrontation with the shadow produces at first a dead balance, a standstill that hampers moral decisions and makes convictions ineffective...
tenebrositas, chaos, melancholia'.
[23] Consequently... in this time of descent... genuine courage and strength are required',
[24] with no certainty of emergence. Nevertheless Jung remained of the opinion that while 'no one should deny the danger of the descent ... every descent is followed by an ascent ...
enantiodromia';
[25] and assimilation of — rather than possession by — the shadow becomes at last a real possibility.'
46 and 2
an idea first conceived by
Link Removed concerning the possibility of reaching a state of evolution at which the body would have two more than the normal 46 total
chromosomes and leave a currently disharmonious state.
[3][4] The premise is that humans would deviate from the current state of human
DNA which contains 44
autosomes and 2
sex chromosomes. The next step of evolution would likely result in human DNA being reorganized into 46 and 2 chromosomes, according to Melchizedek.
I believe that this song is about dredging through the shadow in order to move past it and integrate it into consciousness, thus evolving and overcoming one's fears and darkness.
Tool
Forty-six and Two
My shadow's
Shedding skin
And I've been picking
Scabs again
I'm down
Digging through
My old muscles
For a clue
I've been crawling on my belly
Clearing out what could have been
I've been wallowing in my own confused
Insecure delusions
For a piece to cross me over
For a word to guide me in
I want to feel the changes coming down
I want to know what I've been hiding in
My shadow
Change is coming through my shadow
My shadow's
Shedding skin
I've been picking
My scabs again
I've been crawling on my belly
Clearing out what could have been
I've been wallowing in my own chaotic
Insecure delusions
I want to feel the change consume me
Feel the outside turning in
I want to feel the metamorphosis and
Cleansing I've endured within
My shadow
Change is coming
Now it's my time
Listen to my muscle memory
Contemplate what I've been clinging to
Forty-six and two ahead of me
I choose to live and to
Grow, take and give and to
Move, learn to love and to
Cry, kill and die and to
Be paranoid and to
Lie, and and hate and fear and to
Do what it takes to move through
I choose to live and to
Lie, kill and give and to
Die, learn to love and to
Do what it takes to step through
See my shadow changing,
Stretching up and over me
Soften this old armor
Hoping I can clear the way by
Stepping through my shadow
Coming out the other side
Step into the shadow
Forty-six and two are just ahead of me
