Jane's Addiction lyrical analysis (Nothing's Shocking) = mystical shit for sure

Everyone loves to analyze Led Zeppelin, Tool and Black Sabbath, especially those who own Ouija boards and shit. I think Jane's Addiction is just as big and classic as all those bands and I'll be darned if this dude ain't trying to speak in mystical bigness.

Here's a few verses to analyze with your occult knowledge-- ie. water, eagle, pig (swine), heart, stone, mountain, sea, fountain, dad (father) etc. Just notice the obvious connections and continuity within the lyrics that are poetic (like Rumi, sort of) but not blatantly weird (like Tool or Led Zeppelin):

Up The Beach / Ocean Size
Here we go now... home
Wish I was Ocean sized
They can not move you, man, no one tries
No one pulls you out from your home
like a tooth aching in jaw bone

I was made with a heart of stone
to be broken with one hard blow
I've seen the ocean break on the shore
come together with no harm done

It ain't easy livin'
I want to be as big as the ocean

Some people tell me home is up in the sky
In the sky is a spy
I want to be more like the ocean
No talkin' man, all action

(Sufism?)

Had A Dad
had a dad, big and strong
turned around me, I found my daddy gone
he was the one who made me what I am today
it's up to me now, my daddy has gone away

Spoke to the mountain, I listened to the sea
they both told me that the fountain was the best that you can be
my daddy's hand it grew slow to the lickin'
sonny boy, grown to whip him

If you see my dad tell, him my brother's all gone mad
they're beatin' on each other
I walked alone, even tried to call
have that funny feelin' he's not there at all

(um, hello?)

have that funny feeling... God is dead, he's not there at all
yes I said I had I had a dad, I had I had a dad, oh yeah. Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah!

Ted, Just Admit It (Nothing's Shocking)
Everybody is so full of shit
Camera's got them images, camera got them all, nothing's shocking
Show me everybody naked and disfigured, nothing's shocking
In her, he came
Now sister's not a virgin anymore
Her sex is violent
SEX IS VIOLENT
Every half an hour someone's captured and the cops move them along
well, it's just like the show before
now the news is just another show
with sex and violence
SEX IS VIOLENT

(this almost seems like an occult axiom... hamster sex certainly is violent)

I am the killer of people
you look like a meatball
I'll throw away your toothpick
and ask for your giveness

because of this thing, because of this thing,
because of this thing that's in me
Is it not in you?
Is it not your problem?
A baby to a mother... (one person's problem is society's problem)

You talk too much to your scapegoat
That's what I say (scapegoat = "the devil?" your rationalizations?)
He tells you everyone is stupid
That's what he thinks

Snapshots
Make a girl look cheap
Like a tongue extended
A baby's to a mother (mother = society? the sex roles/hangups we learn?)
SEX IS VIOLENT

Standing In The Shower
I was standing in the shower thinking
about what makes a man an outlaw or a leader
I'm thinkin' about power and the ways a man could use it
or be destroyed by it
the water hits my neck and I'm pissing on myself
standing in the shower thinkin' bout a man I know don't like me
he don't like the place I'm heading: the same place he's heading!
And I know he'd beat me to it if he could but he won't do it
But he would, man, if he could...
And the water is so piping hot, the water is so piping hot
it beats upon my neck and I'm pissing on myself

(this seems more poignant that it appears at first, like a Nasrudin joke almost-- water, hot, pissing on yourself... everything is interconnected, which is a point also made in the last song about torturing other people.)

Standing in the shower thinkin'
is my woman afraid of me
She's seen how far I've twisted, but it's just cuz I can trust her
and ever since we met, she understood and so she let me twist her good, man
I twist her good
and the water is so piping hot and I'm pissing on myself

(seems to be a commentary about the philosophy of emotional know-it-alls, which I can relate to... I have certainly twisted my girlfriend's mind because I trust her and she let me twist her good because we have a trusting relationship... but have I been pissing on myself? Should she trust me?)

Summertime Rolls (watch the progression here from "sex is violent" to "twisting your girl's mind" to a true love expressed in these next two songs...)

Fell into a sea of grass and disappeared into the shady blades
children all run over me screaming "tag!" You are the one!

He trips her as her sandals fail,
she says "stop"
I'm a girl whose fingernails are made of her mother's pearl

Yellow buttercup, helicopter
Orange buttercup, chasing after
the crazy bee mad about somebody

Me and my girlfriend don't wear no clothes
her nose is painted pepper sunlight
She loves me, I mean it's serious
As serious can be

She sings a song and I listen to what it says
"IF YOU WANT A FRIEND, FEED ANY ANIMALS."

There was so much space, I cut me a piece with some fine wine
It brought peace to my mind in the summertime
and it rolls...
Summertime rolls

Mountain Song
Coming down the mountain
one of many children
everybody has their own opinion, everybody has their own opinion
Holding it back, it hurts so bad
jumping out of my flesh and I said
CASH IN!

Cash in now, honey
Cash in now
Cash in, Ms. Smith
Cash in now

I was coming down the mountain
I met a child and she had pin eyes
we had the same opinion, we had the same opinion
She was holding it back, it hurt so bad
jumping out of her flesh and she said
CASH IN!

(is it too much to assume at this point that he is talking about the chymical marriage? Because all of a sudden he moves on from being a kind of a self-absorbed jerk to a greater scope of understanding in Idiots Rule and Pigs In Zen...)

Idiot's Rule
I got a lie
a fat fuckin' lie
about a law
idiots obey
they made it easy
Cheaters have their way, hidey ho
leaving on your knees
forget the rule
oh idiots rule
forget the rule
now there's a time
but i say more like now
there's a line
where idiots are bound
if there's a pole
planted in your back
then you're a fixture
not a man
forget the rule
oh idiots rule
You know that man you hate?
You look more like him everyday.
2 good shoes
won't save your soul
idiots rule!

(is this not a blatant condemnation of exoteric religion?)

Now onto everyday trials of life a person must master...

Jane Says is so famous I don't need to quote it, but it is about the failure to overcome addiction.

And finally...

Pigs In Zen
Pig is in the mud when he tires
pig's in zen, pig's in zen
pig is nude, unashamed
pig's in zen, pig's in zen
pig mounts sow when he's wound
pig's in zen, pig's in zen
pig eats shit
pig's in zen, pig's in zen
but only when he hungers
So roses are red, I made up the rest
If you've got some big fuckin' secret then why don't you save me something?!
I'm in the midst of a trauma (spiritual crisis?)
leave a message, I'll call you back
leave it by the bed
some people should die
that's just unconscious knowledge
because the bigger you get, the wider you spread
you gotta depend on me
Now, your vision is dead
The more your dream is dead: VISIONS!
You get some from my EYE
Like an EAGLE'S CLAW
Pigs, pigs, pigs...

(doesn't Eagle represent the feminine womb of creation whereas the Lion represents the male acting principle... does this mean "reality" has it's claws in you?)

Anyway, it's not the most positive lyrics in the world, but it sure does FEEL positive. Reminds me of a Sufi outlook.