Peter Gabriel: In the Blood of Eden Meaning

In the Blood of Eden Lyrics

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...

1. 1TOP RATED

   #1 top rated interpretation:
   wood.dickinson

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   Feb 21st 2012 !⃝

   Now remember like a poem the meaning of a song has a lot to do with the listener. Only Peter knows what he was trying to say but for sure he was trying to create an emotional hook to help us learn something new. That something will be a little different for each one of us. And this song does elicit an emotional response.
   
   This song tells the story of a man who has found there is a darkness in him that has been there from the beginning of his existence (aren't we all filled with darkness?) and it isn't finished with him yet. But even as he learns this his grip on what is real in his life is slipping away to the point he's not sure what is real and what isn't.
   
   The only anchor he has is the image of the blood of Eden. Woman was in man until God removed her and gave her life. That creates our longing for a mate. A need to fill that empty space. When you marry God says you are now one person no longer two two.
   
   To lose this connection is devastating. When you lose your mate you do lose your grip.
   
   When true love brings a man and woman together the "hole" is filled with truth not just momentary escape.
   
   "At my request you take me in"
   
   For a moment a couple is made and bliss is felt but soon it falls apart:
   
   "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
   Oh...."
   
   So as a lost soul he can hear the pain of all that are lost.
   
   "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"
   
   This song holds a lot of truth and it is truth beyond even what Peter was thinking when he wrote it. That's what happens when a gifted artist looks past the symbolic and what our imagination sees and truly encounters the real.
   
   But I'm no english teacher! Just a writer and artist.
2. Kukui

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   Jun 5th 2020 !⃝

   the interpretation is different for everyone, here is mine
   
   First verse- I saw myself in a mirror and the darkness within me was apparent on the surface for all to see - I was the boogeyman for a while it changes a person
   
   I left that life and moved on the following verses tell of my struggle to be the good man but am constantly plagued by the evil I need to let out and visit upon those in need
3. anonymous

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   Jan 14th 2019 !⃝

   My interpretation is that he's confessing the truth about men and principalities that run and govern this world knowing that it is hurting Soul's and their greed those people are you Caucasian and instead of looking for faith in God you choose to be God so he's telling me he knowing change is inevitable that moment of bliss it's only when self gratification the million unheard Souls are the people like him to take all the best Comforts all the best of life all the best everything and leaving nothing for others the darkness in his heart and yes knotted chord is untying
4. anonymous

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   Feb 19th 2011 !⃝

   It's a soldiers song and the things we have to give up and do..... and what we want to get back to.

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
5. anonymous

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   May 2nd 2006 !⃝

   This is about Man and his realization of his sin. He cannot get insurance anymore, they don't take credit only gold. This is a Jewish person realizing he cannot count on his lineage to secure his place in heaven-- only gold. Gold being Jesus Christ.

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
6. username

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   Jul 14th 2005 !⃝

   This song is about make-up sex beleive it or not. Gabriel used the image of the Garden of Eden because it was a time when man and woman were in one body, a state they have been trying to get back to ever since.

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