Nightwish – Amaranth
Written on 7:51 AM by All Softwares for FREE
Amaranth" is the second single of Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish's Dark Passion Play album.
The single features a song called "While Your Lips Are Still Red", which is featured in the Finnish film "LIEKSA!” released in September 2007. The song features all the band members but Emppu Vuorinen and Anette Olzon, and its video (with clips from the film) was released on June 15, 2007. The song leaked onto the internet before the official release, though the exact date it leaked is unknown.
On August 24, 2007, the official Nightwish website reported that "Amaranth" had already achieved gold status in their native Finland two days after its release, meaning sales of over 50000 singles. On August 29, it was announced on the same website that "Amaranth" had topped the Finnish Singles Chart. On September 6, the official site also announced that Amaranth had reached the top of the charts in Hungary and Spain too.
[Dawnyday]
This song is very profound and says so much with so few words. I'm often stunned with Tuomas' insight.
I too fell this song is spiritual, but as with many religious groups do, the metaphors can’t be taken literal. Some have stated that it deals with Lucifer and some have stated it deals with Crist. I believe that is correct, but not in a literal sense. What is Lucifer? The loss of innocence. Tuomas' songs are screaming with the loss of childhood innocence. What does Jesus say? To enter the Kingdom of Heaven you must become as a little child. Think Meadows of Heaven and where can heaven be found?
Tuomas knows metaphor and myth and where they belong. Heaven isn't a place that is away from here. It is found in innocence, right here and now as seen through the eyes of a child.
I'll add my understanding and what I get from this song. Goosebumps is what I get literally, but only from the deep inner meanings of the metaphors. Such as any myth, the metaphors are to be turned inward, not outward. When I reference religious metaphors below, they are only in the context of a great myth, not in any literal sense of them happening.
"Baptized with a perfect name"
All children are born innocent. Contrast that against the Christian understanding that we are born sinful due to original sin. When the allegory of Adam and Eve is taken literally, the inner meaning becomes lost. Adam means mankind. This error right here cast a shadow on innocence. Being baptised is a cleansing of sin. What sin can a baby possibly have and how does that understanding affect the child as it grows?
The doubting one by heart
Although born perfect, doubts fill our soul as we mature and are taught that we are born sinful. The allegory of Adam and Eve becomes literal truth and innocence continues to be lost with this understanding. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy which cast doubts on our understanding of our own nature. The only sin is not understanding that we are part of God/Spirit. This was Adam's sin...not knowing that God/Spirit never left and that it isn't possible to be separated from God/Spirit. We are born perfect.
Alone without himself
This to me means that without the recognition of our innocence/perfection we are missing a part of ourselves. We fell so alone because we feel we never had innocence to begin with. Lucifer is a metaphor for the loss of innocence. It is not an evil being that can take over one’s actions as an outside agent. It means that without innocence, sorrow and sadness directs one’s life. This is what is left when childhood innocence is blinded.
War between him and the day
Yes indeed, war. The inner turmoil of emotions that happens when we find ourselves alone in the dark is what happens when we separate our nature into two different aspects.
“Need someone to blame”
Is it our fault for not understanding our own nature? Have the myths taken such hold that it can tear us apart from the inside? I think so. Who can we blame? We can’t really blame anyone for the lack of understanding. We can’t blame God/Spirit for us not being able to properly understand ourselves and we can’t blame God/Spirit for abandoning us if God/Spirit never left. But, understanding any myth in a literal sense can greatly confuse us. So much so that it tears our being apart.
“In the end, little he can do alone”
There is little he can do alone because thinking that we are separate from all there is is the error in itself. We are not alone and cannot exist apart from anything. From the air we breathe to the food we eat to the love of others, we are not alone and cannot do anything alone. It’s an error to think we are separate little egos on a dead planet.
“You believe but what you see”
Another error in itself. We see ourselves apart and alone, never paying any attention to the things that can’t be seen. We often can fell this unity, but not seeing it causes us to doubt.
“You receive but what you give”
An age old truth and a “law” of the universe. It’s truly amazing how true this is.
“Caress the one, the Never-Fading”
Reach out and touch what can’t be seen…God/Spirit/Never-Fading. This has always been with us yet we put it out “there” somewhere. This is Adam’s/mankind’s sin and leaves us thinking we are alone without ourselves because our very nature is divine. Silly humans.
“Rain in your heart - the tears of snow-white sorrow”
Our hearts are crying for what we perceive to be our loss of innocence. It’s a hard world out there. Snow-white sorrow, to me, represents innocence crying to be acknowledged. Not found, because it really never left, only rediscovered.
“Caress the one, the hiding amaranth
In a land of the daybreak”
The hiding amaranth represents our perception of God/Spirit hiding from us. Again, a reference to the sin of Adam. God/Spirit has never left because it is our very nature, but to us, it is hiding somewhere away from us because we don’t understand it to be the very core of our being. In the darkest of our days, we think God/Spirit has abandoned us. A mistake made by some thousands of years ago by taking this creation story as fact and not allegory.
“Apart from the wandering pack”
In this brief flight of time we reach
For the ones, whoever dare”
This, to me, means to break away from the pack and regain our lost innocence by finding those few that can help understand where to look…in our own hearts.
“Reaching, searching for something untouched
Hearing voices of the Never-Fading calling”
This brings such a feeling of “ha-ha” to me that I can’t really describe it. This is what is not seen, the hiding amaranth, the Never-Fading. It’s calling to us to rediscover where it is. We as children know exactly where is, but as we grow, we forget because it isn’t a conscious knowing. After awhile with some people, we can once again “hear” it from our own inner voice crying out to us. The tears of snow-white sorrow.
The video shows a snow-white angel with its eyes gouged out. This is blinded innocence, lost and afraid. I find it very symbolic that it is children that are coming to the aid of innocence and adults that try to destroy it. Innocence can’t be destroyed, only forgotten and ignored. It is very hard to “become as a child” again.
I too fell this song is spiritual, but as with many religious groups do, the metaphors can’t be taken literal. Some have stated that it deals with Lucifer and some have stated it deals with Crist. I believe that is correct, but not in a literal sense. What is Lucifer? The loss of innocence. Tuomas' songs are screaming with the loss of childhood innocence. What does Jesus say? To enter the Kingdom of Heaven you must become as a little child. Think Meadows of Heaven and where can heaven be found?
Tuomas knows metaphor and myth and where they belong. Heaven isn't a place that is away from here. It is found in innocence, right here and now as seen through the eyes of a child.
I'll add my understanding and what I get from this song. Goosebumps is what I get literally, but only from the deep inner meanings of the metaphors. Such as any myth, the metaphors are to be turned inward, not outward. When I reference religious metaphors below, they are only in the context of a great myth, not in any literal sense of them happening.
"Baptized with a perfect name"
All children are born innocent. Contrast that against the Christian understanding that we are born sinful due to original sin. When the allegory of Adam and Eve is taken literally, the inner meaning becomes lost. Adam means mankind. This error right here cast a shadow on innocence. Being baptised is a cleansing of sin. What sin can a baby possibly have and how does that understanding affect the child as it grows?
The doubting one by heart
Although born perfect, doubts fill our soul as we mature and are taught that we are born sinful. The allegory of Adam and Eve becomes literal truth and innocence continues to be lost with this understanding. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy which cast doubts on our understanding of our own nature. The only sin is not understanding that we are part of God/Spirit. This was Adam's sin...not knowing that God/Spirit never left and that it isn't possible to be separated from God/Spirit. We are born perfect.
Alone without himself
This to me means that without the recognition of our innocence/perfection we are missing a part of ourselves. We fell so alone because we feel we never had innocence to begin with. Lucifer is a metaphor for the loss of innocence. It is not an evil being that can take over one’s actions as an outside agent. It means that without innocence, sorrow and sadness directs one’s life. This is what is left when childhood innocence is blinded.
War between him and the day
Yes indeed, war. The inner turmoil of emotions that happens when we find ourselves alone in the dark is what happens when we separate our nature into two different aspects.
“Need someone to blame”
Is it our fault for not understanding our own nature? Have the myths taken such hold that it can tear us apart from the inside? I think so. Who can we blame? We can’t really blame anyone for the lack of understanding. We can’t blame God/Spirit for us not being able to properly understand ourselves and we can’t blame God/Spirit for abandoning us if God/Spirit never left. But, understanding any myth in a literal sense can greatly confuse us. So much so that it tears our being apart.
“In the end, little he can do alone”
There is little he can do alone because thinking that we are separate from all there is is the error in itself. We are not alone and cannot exist apart from anything. From the air we breathe to the food we eat to the love of others, we are not alone and cannot do anything alone. It’s an error to think we are separate little egos on a dead planet.
“You believe but what you see”
Another error in itself. We see ourselves apart and alone, never paying any attention to the things that can’t be seen. We often can fell this unity, but not seeing it causes us to doubt.
“You receive but what you give”
An age old truth and a “law” of the universe. It’s truly amazing how true this is.
“Caress the one, the Never-Fading”
Reach out and touch what can’t be seen…God/Spirit/Never-Fading. This has always been with us yet we put it out “there” somewhere. This is Adam’s/mankind’s sin and leaves us thinking we are alone without ourselves because our very nature is divine. Silly humans.
“Rain in your heart - the tears of snow-white sorrow”
Our hearts are crying for what we perceive to be our loss of innocence. It’s a hard world out there. Snow-white sorrow, to me, represents innocence crying to be acknowledged. Not found, because it really never left, only rediscovered.
“Caress the one, the hiding amaranth
In a land of the daybreak”
The hiding amaranth represents our perception of God/Spirit hiding from us. Again, a reference to the sin of Adam. God/Spirit has never left because it is our very nature, but to us, it is hiding somewhere away from us because we don’t understand it to be the very core of our being. In the darkest of our days, we think God/Spirit has abandoned us. A mistake made by some thousands of years ago by taking this creation story as fact and not allegory.
“Apart from the wandering pack”
In this brief flight of time we reach
For the ones, whoever dare”
This, to me, means to break away from the pack and regain our lost innocence by finding those few that can help understand where to look…in our own hearts.
“Reaching, searching for something untouched
Hearing voices of the Never-Fading calling”
This brings such a feeling of “ha-ha” to me that I can’t really describe it. This is what is not seen, the hiding amaranth, the Never-Fading. It’s calling to us to rediscover where it is. We as children know exactly where is, but as we grow, we forget because it isn’t a conscious knowing. After awhile with some people, we can once again “hear” it from our own inner voice crying out to us. The tears of snow-white sorrow.
The video shows a snow-white angel with its eyes gouged out. This is blinded innocence, lost and afraid. I find it very symbolic that it is children that are coming to the aid of innocence and adults that try to destroy it. Innocence can’t be destroyed, only forgotten and ignored. It is very hard to “become as a child” again.
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