System of a Down: Aerials Meaning
Song Released: 2002
Aerials Lyrics
We're one in the river,
And one again after the fall.
Swimming through the void
We hear the word,
We lose ourselves,
But we find it all?
Cause we are the ones that want to play,
Always want to go,
But you never...
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This song is simple and explicit in its meaning. It is about the simplicity of staying In Christ throughout the course of life. The meaning is simple, profound, clear, and reiterated throughout the song.
Life is a waterfall
Were one in the river
And one again after the fall
Swimming through the void
We hear the word
We lose ourselves
But we find it all.
All of us, together, are on a spiritual journey (the river), floating through life. As we drift through life, we hear the word of God. We lose ourselves, and find salvation, or at least what salvation is--we discover it.
Cause we are the ones that want to play
Always want to go
But you never want to stay
And we are the ones that want to choose
Always want to play
But you never want to lose
However, we want to do our own thing and stray from the word. We want us to live our own lives, instead of living them the way that the Holy Spirit directs us. We want to choose our own path, our own river, yet we don't want to lose our salvation; not wanting to stay close to god, but to make our own choices without consequence.
Aerials, in the sky
When you lose small mind
You free your life
When you open up your mind, and yourself to god, you free your (true) life, which is your spirit.
We drink from the river
Then we turn around and put up our walls
Swimming through the void
We hear the word
We lose ourselves
But we find it all..
A reiteration. We drink from the river-- we hear the word again of god. We feel the presence of the holy spirit. Then, we turn our back on him. We wall ourselves off from the holy spirit. Again, we hear the word. We lose ourselves, we die, and are born again in the spirit; in finding it all, we find the holy spirit and salvation.
The song then reiterates, "when you lose small mind you free your life," again, your spirit.
"When you free your eyes, eternal prize." Again, reiterating that if you open your mind, and open yourself to God (much harder than putting up walls), you will be filled with the holy spirit, and granted the eternal prize of salvation. -
Always thought it was about wanting to do something but knowing you can't, like a crippled man watching 'aerials'.
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Astral Projection. At least thats what I got out of it. In the sky? Your flying around the voids. We lose ourselves but we find it all? You lose your body but you find all the answers.Always wanna go but you never wanna stay. Always wanna stay out in the other realms and never return.
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Everyone is right in their interpretation of this song..for it is about the meaning of life, and our place in the
Universe. Everyone has a different perspective on this same idea..just as all religions are but a different perspective of this same idea. Everyone sees a part of the Whole and they give it their own meaning and beliefs and follow those beliefs religiously.
But ultimately this song tells the story of our existence, a progression to and from each life of our many lives,
incarnation after incarnation. We come from the 'River of One' Together we are One, Of the One Divine, Of the All
That Is, Gods each of us, each drop, each soul to 'play' in physicality, to 'fall' from grace as it were, to loose
ourselves, separate and 'swim through the void', to forget for a while we are the Gods, we are the Aerials
(Aerials refers to ET/UFOs or what the ancients called Gods) We seperate God from ourselves and say "out there, up
there is God" just as the ancients did when they seen UFOs/ETs. We give away our power and place it in
somethingelse and say this or that is Divine, but we do not see the divinity within ourselves, the power we hold..
We are the ones that choose to play here for a while but we never want to stay. We hear the words, the made up rules taught to us day to day, what others tell us is truth, is right and wrong, all the rules we have setup for ourselves in this Game and these false beliefs help us forget who we are, forget we are the Gods or piece of the Divine playing Humans. The Game is short and we soon leave and we find it All when we become One again after the Fall.
When you free your eyes, your physical senses and meditate, stop focusing on the false reality, the Mind Game which you see before you, you will realize its just a Game, and you are creating the rules. This is why the song ends with OM or the mantra most commonly used during meditation. -
Does it really matter for it to have a universal meaning. As long as it means something to you then I think that's fine. Like the way we see art, colors and other things in life, we all see it differently. The song could stand for all of these lessons and more as long as it makes sense to you.
Sorry for cutting in btw, I just wanted to get this out there, ya know. I also have much belief that this song revolves around the whole, 'human ways' the way we act towards life, and one another. But that is just my opinon... -
I believe the meaning of this song in general is pointing out the flaws in society. Aerials are unsubstantial things. so when they are listing all these different things such as our unwillingness to accept defeat (But you never want to lose), our materialism (We lose ourselves,
But we find it all), and our greed (Then we turn around and put up our walls) i believe they are trying to say these things are unimportant.
Aerials, in the sky,
When you lose small mind,
You free your life.
I believe by this(the main verse of the song)they are saying that there are unimportant things everywhere that we need to look past and see the world more wholly.
There music video that i watched on youtube has this very "different" looking kid and a bunch of posts read "that kid looks wierd". And i think this is ironic considering my interpretation of the song.
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i dont really have an interpretation
but i wanted to point out one thing, system is all about interpreting lyrics and meanings to yourselves, i think it kind of defies the point if we say this means this, and that means that. art is all about sef interpretation, how it has a special meaning to you. idk, i just think people should think for themselves.
ps, i know im an a'hole for posting this, so know one has to point it out. -
The namd say most of their songs are about nothing, but as the first poster kind of alluded to, System want people to make their own interpretation, think for themselves, system have always been about that, they say it's about nothing, because what they wrote it about could easily mean nothing to you, draw your own conclusion, give songs a meaning to you.
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No, okay, Darron was sitting in his room and had this picture in his mind where this special ed kid was at the circus watching trapeze artists. He was amazed by them and everyone else was booing and insulting them. Overall this song is about how we as human beings take things in life for granted.
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Stephenisgreat, think about it...if you actually think this song isn't about anything, then you know less about system and music in general than I thought. of course he's going to say it dosn't mean anything, and if you look at the bigger picture and read/watch a few more interviews, they won't ever tell what any single song is about, they say its all what you can make of it. Their lyrics are always so deep, and I have heard this from the entire band that if they said what the song meant and why they wrote it, then it would kill the purpose of what their trying to do. and daron probably only said that because the interviewer wasn't going to leave him alone after that. and come on its system, would they make a song about nothing? I mean really???
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I think that the song is about spiritual awakening and the shallow nature of existance for those who have yet to experience it.
The awakening induces a state of 'free[dom of] eyes' and thus you can 'free your mind'
Dave -
Every time Daron says that the song has no meaning, he could just be proving that the song makes sense and is correct for all of the people attending maybe with a few exceptions. He goes "once again, this song has no meaning" and everyone just excepts it with no thought. He is causing everyone to think the same way just as the aerials/media does.
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Daron Vartan Malakian has said that this song is not intended to have any real meaning at all behind it. Daron usually says that as an intro to Aerials when SOAD does the song live. However, during a recent interview with the band by Kerrang! magazine, Daron Malakian stated that the picture behind this song is how a disabled child can see a trapezist and be amazed, while other people will just walk by and not notice; it is about how being in different circumstances can change the way we view the world.
source: http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Aerials_(song) -
I think that this song has to do with dying and going to heaven and being cleansed
because aerials means angels (I forget where I heard this but I think its a good source) and that when you look up so high and free your mind your dying and leaving the earth full of selfish people that take and take and give nothing back
which is stated in the song in the beginning.
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