All that glitters can be gold
Led Zeppelins’’ Stairway to Heaven is legendary. But it was conceived of as just hippy, dippy, lyrical la-la-la-la, wasn’t it?
Let’s start at the beginning:
There’s a lady who’s sure all that glitters is gold and she’s buying a stairway to heaven.
And she’s buying a stairway to heaven?
When she gets there- she knows, if the stores are all closed
With a word she can get what she came for
Ooh, ooh, and she’s buying a stairway to Heaven
She is “buying a” stairway. Why a money reference? Again, it’s easy fool’s gold to grab onto this, to snag on to the easiest cynical interpretation: she’s privileged. A greedy b****.
But, note, with a word she can get what she came for. A word is an idea, a gift, a shining offering that she is giving, not taking.
There’s a sign on the wall, but she wants to be sure, “Cause you know sometimes words have two meanings — In a tree by the brook, there’s a songbird who sings, Sometimes all of our thoughts are misgiven.
This line explains the previous. Our cynical thoughts are misgiven. Notice, too, they are misgiven, not mistaken. Meaning we give, or, project, our erroneous thoughts. True enough. Sounds like human psychology to me.
Ooh, Ooh, it makes me wonder Ooh, makes me wonder.
In the chorus, we don’t need to inhale more pot, (This was the 1970’s, wasn’t it?) we need to just reflect.
There’s a feeling I get when I look to the west, And my spirit is crying for leaving — In my thoughts, I have seen rings of smoke through the trees –And the voices of those who stand looking.
Chorus of “ooh, wonder” again.
…
Prophetic reasons we love this song
And it’s whispered that soon if we all call the tune — Then the piper will lead us to reason.
And a new day will dawn for those who stand long –And the forests will echo with laughter.
Another character. Who, pray tell, is the piper? I have to confess that years ago, for me, I thought it was probably Al Gore with his hockey stick chart. But now I feel it is anyone who sees and knows the true value of planets kissed with golden photosynthesis and promising new yields of gold: Sunlight. Solar. Sustainable solace.
Also, reason. Rare, precious, ever-changing, always lustrous, beautiful reason we can be led too.
Today, I think of the Sunrise Movement. Or Greta Thunberg.
The point is, we ‘childrens’ didn’t know much, but magical damsels conjured from our unconscious did. These muses have something to teach us.
[Ooh Ooh…]
Ooh ooh chorus again. It looks as innocent as woo woo, but it’s not. It’s a gold vein struck with awe. Awe struck.
Here is more magic and sanity:
If there’s a bustle in your hedgerow, don’t be alarmed, now — It’s just a spring clean for the May queen. Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run — There’s still time to change the road you’re on
[Wonder chorus Again!]
Your head is humming and it won’t go, in case you don’t know — The piper’s calling you to join him — Dear lady, can you hear the wind blow, and did you know — Your stairway lies on the whispering wind?
Okay. Two paths. We can choose. And wind? That’s what moves beyond us, and within us, breath. Inspiration and aspiration. Cool. Wind, in many cultural traditions is soul, and soul is a fragment of God. Also, energy.
— bridge: over the best guitar solo in the history of the world —
And as we wind on down the road — Our shadows taller than our soul — There walks a lady we all know — Who shines white light and wants to show — How everything still turns to gold — And if you listen very hard — The tune will come to you at last — When all are One and One is all.
…To be a rock and not to roll.
Okay, there’s a lot of treasure to dig here, — and perhaps, yeah — some of it is just extended jam-session-weekend-mystical -enchantment visions unleashed by sleep deprivation, chemicals, and the sheer high of stumbling into gleaming inspiration.
Yet, there’s something else, too.
After humanity saw a glowing sapphire Earth from space, I think it entered the psyche and the zeitgeist of a whole generation, maybe a whole world.
In that same cosmic neighborhood, John Lennon also penned another masterpiece to imagination; he called it Imagine.
It ends in exactly the same thought: And the world will be One. Also, a pun, for Won. As in treasure, light, reward. Be patient. She will show you.
Again, who is she? My guess may be different than your guess. Divine muse? The songbird? Radiant angel? Maybe all of the above.
The lady we all know
I think She is nature. Nature is all of us, and All of everything is Fibonacci golden-spiral-wrapped infinities of wonder. All in all is all we are, but also, all we can dream of being.
Great art speaks to that which is beyond our reach, but if we can dream it, we can envision it, innovate it, and collaborate together with nature.
My reading echoes like Samuel Taylor Coleridge spirit-floating through Kubla Khan’s Xanadu: “gardens bright with sinuous rills…and forests ancient as the hills.” And, all of it in mazy motion that enchants, leads, invites and entices us to follow.
When you lay back and sink into this reverie, you cannot help but follow.
And, just as Coleridge also saw, Stairway features a lady we all know. In Coleridge’s Xanadu she is a damsel with a dulcimer. On the Stairway, she’s accompanied by a piper.
Either way, the alluring and prophetic lady carries secrets, wisdom, ancient art, and mystical revelation.
She is imagination, creation, splendor, and possibility. In ecopsychology, we call this nature.
Am I reading too much into it? I don’t know. Do you? I do know imagination is our best and brightest gift if we are to ever refill those forests with shining hope and golden laughter.
When all are One and One is All.
[Outro]
And She’s buying a stairway to Heaven
—
This post was previously published on medium.com.
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Photo credit: Ludde Lorentz on Unsplash
