Peter Gabriel - In the Blood of Eden Lyrics Meaning

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.