A while back we did a series of posts we called ‘Learning to Listen.’ In that series we scratched our way through the lyrics of various songs written by, mostly, ’secular’ artists.

I am a big fan of music–and even more so since I have grown up and actually started paying attention to the lyrics and trying to understand what the artist is saying. I’d like to invite you to help me understand a song written and performed by Peter Gabriel called ‘The Blood of Eden.’

I have some ideas about what the lyrics mean, but I’d like to invite you to give me your take so that I can see where mine are in the mix. It’s a rather beautiful song and Gabriel is a wonderful lyricist. Sometimes, however, his lyrics take an extra going over or three or a hundred before they all fall into place. So here’s the lyrics, have at it and let me know what you think. Thanks.

“Blood Of Eden”

I caught sight of my reflection
I caught it in the window
I saw the darkness in my heart
I saw the signs of my undoing
They had been there from the start
And the darkness still has work to do
The knotted chord’s untying
They’re heated and they’re holy
Oh they’re sitting there on high
So secure with everything they’re buying

[Chorus:]
In the blood of Eden
Lie the woman and the man
With the man in the woman
And the woman in the man
In the blood of Eden
Lie the woman and the man
We wanted the union
Oh the union of the woman
The woman and the man

My grip is surely slipping
I think I’ve lost my hold
Yes, I think I’ve lost my hold
I cannot get insurance anymore
They don’t take credit, only gold
Is that a dagger or a crucifix I see
You hold so tightly in your hand
And all the while the distance grows between you and me
I do not understand

[Chorus]

At my request, you take me in
In that tenderness, I am floating away
No certainty, nothing to rely on
Holding still for a moment
What a moment this is
Oh for a moment of forgetting, a moment of bliss
Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

I can hear the distant thunder
Of a million unheard souls
Of a million unheard souls
Watch each one reach for creature comfort
For the filling of their holes

In the blood of Eden
Lie the woman and the man
With the man in the woman
And the woman in the man
In the blood of Eden
We wanted the union
Of the woman and the man

In the blood of Eden
Lie the woman and the man
I feel the man in the woman
And the woman in the man

In the blood of Eden
Lie the woman and the man
I feel the man in the woman
And the woman in the man

In the blood of Eden
We’ve done everything we can
In the blood of Eden
Saw the end as we began
With the man in the woman
And the woman in the man
It was all for the union
Oh, the union of the woman, the woman and the man.