Tool: Forty Six & 2 Meaning
Song Released: 1998
Forty Six & 2 Lyrics
Shedding skin and
I've been picking
Scabs again.
I'm down
Digging through
My old muscles
Looking for a clue.
I've been crawling on my belly
Clearing out what could've been.
I've been wallowing in my own confused
And...
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I feel that Tool's music is open for interpretation. I can make any song relate to anything. 46&2 helped me understand a really bad situation I have been in recently. Don't judge me lol, just here to explain. Me and my girl go to different schools now in different states. I tried way too hard to stay connected on an emotional level. I became delusional and would get lost in my thoughts and say things to her that were completely dramatic and overboard. "I've been crawling on my belly" I was so down and depressed. "Clearing out what could've been" I completely destroyed any chance of what could have been with us because i was "wallowing in my own confused and insecure delusions" could not describe my situation better. I always needed to be reassured that she still cared, which is why my delusions were insecure. My delusions just consisted of us being together, even though it physically was not possible or realistic. I was not thinking clearly. HOWEVER, something needed to change. This song helped me break through and became my old, cocky self again. "CHANGE IS COMING NOW IS MY TIME" "Listen to my muscle memory" made me think of how I used to be before I met her, I need to be him again. "CONTEMPLATE WHAT IVE BEEN CLINGING TO" could not be more accurate. Contemplate this girl i've been clinging to..is it worth it? "I choose to live and to lie...etc" I choose to do all these things and express my emotions, and it got me to this point. By the end of the song, I felt like a new man, done with all this girl BS, maybe not on a 46 and 2 level on thinking, but def back to my old self. Not only do the lyrics progress, the instrumental progresses with it.. during the bridge and drum solo,I could feel myself letting go. By the end, I had escaped my insecure delusion by contemplating what I was clinging to, change has come.
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i'm really sorry, your article was great.. but you kept saying "hemaphrodite" which is not a word.. and it annoyed me. :S
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all apes except humans have 48 chromosomes due to a fusion of two pairs of chromosomes. (if the math of that dosn't add up for you, learn some genetics) although the interpretation of the gain of a chromosome pair as a gateway to transcendence could be valid, I would argue based on the lyrics that a regression to primal instincts to circumvent a block caused by the human condition in order to resume progession sounds more like what the author intended.
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We are Gods in embryo
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there are so many different facets to the song that it doesnt matter on what level of coherence you are on spritually or how educated you are it literally hits to the soul that it naturally brings curiousity and in that is evolution if not in action at least in thought and it is the creative thought that resonates and manifistes if only a seed at first it is if fact planted.
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Maynard is a friend of mine. He told me once in a drunken state that 46 and 2 was just saying that sooner or later we were gonna turn back into apes. where all this other stuff came from... no clue.
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This is NOT what I came up w/ as a meaning for this song, but a particularly stupid girl I knew decided,when several of my much more intelligent friends were discussing what 46 & 2 could be referring to. Her idea-and she was so convinced it was so completely correct she would hear no other possible explanations from anyone-was that it referred to being in prison, since she says prisoners spend 46 out of 48 hours in lockdown. This could have made sense if the song was called 46 & 1, as I have never heard of any prison waking you in the middle of the night to have another hour of outdoor exercise! How she knows so much about prison life does not shock me, nor does the fact that she ended up betraying not only everyone in that room, but many people connected to them- in my opinion, just for the joy of it. Makes me sad that she's a tool fan, since I imagine all the songs have sinister meanings to her that she uses to justify her almost evil actions. Anyway, perhaps she is right, but I doubt it. Thought you guys might get a kick out of this and a break from all the serious discussions. Does anyone know if some reporter simply asked Maynard or anyone close to him or the band what the song meant???
--MouseCat
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ok number 2 hit the nail on the head, how ever there are genetics research that that various governments and militarist factions are conducting to induct the forty six and 2 genome into our soldiers and political leaders.
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Must we bring politics into this discussion?
Anyway, if you think that Tool is being literal in this song, I think you're mistaken. You have to read between the lines, think outside the box.
I think that the writer/ singer is trying to express his struggle to overcome his inner evil and "become" Christ. Or more like Christ. If you listen to some of Tool's other music you'll get a better understanding of some of They're points of view and this song might make more sense to you. -
I'll start from the top and work down specifically translating each section.
"My shadow's
Shedding skin and
I've been picking
Scabs again.
I'm down
Digging through
My old muscles
Looking for a clue."
In Jungian psychology, the shadow is a part of the unconscious mind consisting of repressed weaknesses, shortcomings, and instincts. He is searching through his weaknesses and imperfections and looking for the things which are holding him back from whatever state of mental power that he wishes to fully and freely possess and utilize. By mastering every needed strength, he hopes to obtain a state of total self mastery and in turn, a super-functioning state.
"I've been crawling on my belly
Clearing out what could've been.
I've been wallowing in my own confused
And insecure delusions
For a piece to cross me over
Or a word to guide me in.
I wanna feel the changes coming down.
I wanna know what I've been hiding in
He's saying that he's been beating himself up too much because of certain unresolved issues within himself. As a result of this, the mental anguish resulting from these perceived failures has created an inner guilt within him which causes him to feel unworthy of the power which he would otherwise rightfully possess. This mental anguish is indeed irrational due to the fact that he over emphasizes his need for perfection and in turn, requires an unobtainable lever of victory within himself which would be needed in order to justify his need for self-affirmation. He's been relying on his supreme and total victory as the "piece to cross me over". He's now moved past this irrational hope due to the impossibility of its success, and is "clearing out what could have been" in the sense of what he could have risen to if only he had never failed in progressing in every possible area of his mental power to date. He's realizing the trap in this form of self worship in the sense that he has become a slave to his own master, and is moving to a place of being the master of his own self by refusing slavery of any kind, including to his own needs of perfection.
"My shadow.
Change is coming through my shadow.
My shadow's shedding skin
I've been picking
My scabs again."
According to Jung: "Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual's conscious life, the blacker and denser it is." Maynard is bringing to consciousness these repressed feelings of weakness and of shortcomings and reconciling these differences within himself. He's realizing that some levels of self-mastery are too-unobtainable and by making an idol out of the ownership of them, you are selling your soul to something which is outside of yourself. Even if an area of self mastery has been held for a moment, if it cannot be repeated, then it cannot be continually claimed as part of the self. By making the continual satiation of the ego your key to heaven, then you make a slave of yourself and would probably benefit more from being a slave to no one, including yourself or you own need of perfection. He's bringing all this to the surface to eliminate the repressed blackness within which comes from all of the divisions otherwise formed within himself by the unreconciled differences.
"I choose to live and to
Grow, take and give and to
Move, learn and love and to
Cry, kill and die and to
Be paranoid and to
Lie, hate and fear and to
Do what it takes to move through."
No matter what may come, he will do whatever is necessary in order to act in the most effective manner in every instance which is encountered. Kill or live, take or give. Lie or die, hate, fear... all of the main emotions or actions are mentioned, he is using every bit of what he is as a natural man in order to deal with life on all fronts. Whatever is needed, there is no point of refusal within him to adapt in any way needed, whether it be in yin or in yang.
"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"
He's seeing the results of the workings of his inner processes, he's softening the old compensating defenses that he's habitually used in order to combat these areas of venerability by in reality concealing them from his consciousness. He's moving beyond the confining constraints created by his inner guilt and freeing himself in every way possible in this sense. He's hoping that he can clear the way through this complex and intricate maze of the primal need for self mastery and you can refer to this regarding the meaning of the forty six and two chromosome theory: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forty_Six_%26_2 -
Just to clarify the chromosome's topic: all humans have two pairs of 23 chromosomes each. People with an extra pair, or 48 chromosomes in total are born with severe affections. Depending on which one is duplicated, it is the reason for conditions like trisomy 18, trisomy 13, down syndrome, triple x syndrome, klinefelter's syndrome, and more. The types of problems and the severity will depend on which chromosome is tripled.
As the dna of monkeys and humans are compared, many scientists say that humans in their evolution fused two pairs of chromosomal to reduce the number (monkeys have have 48/ humans have 46) and there seems to be evidence for this in chromosome #2 (our chromosome looks longer and monkeys look shorter). They are very similar, but not identical. Some say the reason they are different is that mutations have occurred in the dna of both organisms with the passing of time.
I tend to differ in my view. It was not evolution that made us different. We were always different, from the beginning of time as we know it. Despite the similarities, there are differences in the chromosomal banding patterns as well as the number of chromosomal. The similarities are due to a common designer rather than common ancestry. -
Maybe it's just me, but when I turn the lights out, shut my door, and play this song on my acoustic bass I feel as though I'm actually evolving.
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My personal interpretation of this song is taken from a biological stand point. Procreating humans begin the process with haploid cells (sperm and egg), each containing 23 chromosomes. During conception, the union of both of them is the total of 46 chromosomes found in human embryo's. My interpretation of the the song, with this in mind, could be an "anti-abortion" song perhaps. Keenan refers to the metamorphosis he has undergone, and the struggles within himself. His "shadow" refers to his son. I don't read a psychological aspect into this song, and neither does my wife (who is a psychology major, and is very knowledgeable on the subject as well as a Tool fan). I think that she would rather the song have a psycological meaning, but it doesn't (so we think). Either way, the writing style of most of Tool's songs is kind of obscure. I think the important thing is what it means to you and what you can relate it to.
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Forty Six & 2 is a song by TOOL, from an album name Ænima. The album was dedicated to the late, great comedian, Bill Hicks. Every or Nearly every song on the album has a connection to one or more of Bill's acts. In one of Bill's acts, he stated: "We're a virus with shoes, people". Giving credit to the idea that Charles Darwin first spoke of and many scientists now believe to be the origin or development of mankind, named evolution. Human beings, even the Aborigines, have exactly Forty Four & 2 chromosomes. To this day, no human being with more or less than 44&2 chromosomes have ever been found without having a defect such as downs or autism.
The use of the term "Shadow" in this song is thought to be a reference to Jungian psychology, developed by Carl Jung who was a pioneer in analytical psychology during the late 1800's and early 1900's, hypothesizes that there are 3 most recognizable archetypes or innate universal psychic dispositions that form the substrate from which the basic symbols or representations of unconscious experience emerge. One of which is known as the "shadow", the suppressed parts and emotions of the unconscious mind such as weaknesses, shortcomings and instincts.
I believe this song is intended to be a look at an evolutionist's point of view and perspective on life without the moral guidance or divinity of religion. -
46&2 is DAATH, the abbyss. 4 in Hebrew is Daleth, 6 is Vau and 2 is Beth. Now say it-"Da-ah-th". Now listen to the song. He is singing about traveling the Tree of Life and is between Tipereth (sorry about mispelling) and Daath. The light or sun is shining upon his back, casting his shadow forward and thus the repetitive lyrics about "my shadow" and 46&2 just ahead of him. Think about it.
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