Viginti Tres by Tool

Album: 10,000 Days (2006)

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"Viginti Tres" means the number 23 in Latin. Here's some translation and interpretation:

Una infinitas abominatio nascitur autumno
Hic est tuum temptamen quod temptat tua potentia
Viginti tres gradus ad summam potestatem

Translated:
One infinity the horror begins in autumn
This is your trial, which tries your (power, might, ability; efficacy, potency)
Twenty three steps to total power

"The horror" refers to the end of the world, as told of by Christians. Why he believes it begins in autumn is anyone's guess. The trial he refers to is the time after the rapture, in which there are years of peace created by the antichrist, and then years of absolute terror. The 23 steps could be a lot of things, including either a random number or the fact that two divided by three is .666 repeating. 666 is the number of the beast, once again according to Christianity. >>
Suggestion credit:
Scott - Atlanta, GA

Comments: 26

Olyster from CanadaI've always heard "my sister" as if Maynard's mother was facing God.
AnonymousI think it’s about the apocalypse. The song before is Right In Two (one of my favorite ever songs ever) and that song is about angels (or something similar) looking at humanity disappointedly. We wage war over land, items, and ideals instead of finding peace and realizing how insignificant and stupid our conflicts are. So, with Viginti Tres, God and the Angels (Who I think they are actually aliens in this narrative) decide to finally end this pointless struggle by sending something “in a box” (another translation of this song I’ve seen) to wipe us out. That is just my take..I don’t really care I just love Tool and I think it’s cool to talk about different “theories” and stuff…even though they may be pointless.
Gwarface from NurbringunNice Tara!
Rct from Pdx, OrIt's just more bulls--t filler from the band like they do on all their albums
Caelan from White Rock666 is not the number of the beast, not according to Christianity or anyone lucid.
John S from LaThis is clearly a troll by the band. There are no lyrics.
Blue from TexssGot the word. In reverse it says "cista". Translated from Latin, means, "arrived in a box." -- guess that fits them together.
Dave from The UniverseWhere is this even coming from? as far as I can tell the song only has one word in it, "ascisco."

Where did y'all get all this other Latin from? quite curious. Please let me know and include any sources you may have. Thanks in advance.
David from Reno, NvI also noticed Johnny Truant's notes in the beginning of "House of Leaves" end on page 23. Leaves fall from trees in Autumn and the book is a sort of horror story about facing one's own abyss.
But then there's also 23 chromosomes in RNA, and most babies tend to be conceived in Spring and born in Autumn.
Meh... Who knows? Having heard so many interviews with Maynard, they could be mentioning a terrible show on channel 23 that begins its season like so many others, in Autumn...
David from Reno, NvIn Mark Z. Danielewski's "House of Leaves", Johnny Truant's notes end on page xxiii. He begins the horror story claiming to have discovered it at the end of the year.
As well, there are 23 chromosomes in human RNA, and most babies tend to be born in the Autumn months.
Of course, anyone who's heard enough interviews with Maynard knows they could be referencing some terrible tv show on channel 23 that starts, like most, their season in Autumn.
Brad from Atlanta, GaOh man. I hope you really were interested in some facts/topics... Is this what you wanted? Is this what you had in mind? Cause this is what you're getting! (A lot of...) What was referred to a few times is known as the "23 enigma" which is closely related with the Law of Fives. Yet another form is the 11:11 or 1:11 phenomenon that a lot of people experience. Always seeing that number or that time. Another topic tied in with this whole thing is "synchronicity", popularized by Carl Jung (a known source of inspiration/ideas that the band has referenced to in the past). Many dismissed his idea of synchronicity (a meaningful sign or occurence) as simply being the experience of "apophenia", which is basically finding something meaningful in random, coincidental, or otherwise meaningless data. It's said that if you "try" hard enough, you can trick yourself into finding meaning in nearly anything. Schizophrenics do it all the time. Whether one believes there's true meaning behind these things or are on the side of those who think it's nonsense... obviously subjective, personal opinion. I'm just presenting info that I know. A sub-type of aphophenia is called "pareidolia" which is basically hearing or seeing things of significance in randomness. I have a perfect example right in front of my eyes, thank you, haha... this is a real-life example of pareidolia: "The voice starts at 3 minutes and 23 seconds. And sounds like it says Assistme in Romans language." That is possibly thoughtlessmind perceiving something in what may very well just be ambient sound. It is highly succeptible to social bias or suggestion. If I say, "I hear it saying TWENTY THREE, REPLAY TOOL CD", LOL... (while usually true), I may have one of you agree with me, "Yeah! I hear that, too!" -- it's pretty much simple human nature. People see shapes of things in the clouds, they hear speech in random noise... etc. A recent example in my life, someone commented on smoke billowing from a building on fire... "Look at the photos, you can see faces of souls in the thick smoke..." and, admittedly, if I wanted to see trapped souls escaping, screaming faces, stories tall -- I probably could. I know that's not what it was (or do I?) but I can understand where they could see features to the smoke that could appear as human-like. Matt, above, is right... but I think this is very well known by now. If you take track 3 and append this track to the very end of it, gaplessly... you see 6:11+5:02=11:13 -- which happens to be the exact length of the title track, track 4. Now you superimpose the two onto each other in an audio program, and you will notice some interesting "synchronicity". The most noticable one to me is when listening with headphones in stereo, if you pan the 3+11 and 4 tracks each to a different channel (L/R), you will notice a point in the song where something really awesome happens. The lyrics from the different tracks will overlap, each playing independently in each ear. The first two lines match perfectly (lyrics said in both pt 1 and pt 2, aka track 3 and 4): "daylight dims, leaving cold flourescents / difficult to see you in this light" ... these said to get your mind tuned to notice the words are identical in both songs, then just as you realize that fact, Maynard changes the third line up, just a bit: "please forgive this bold suggestion" and the other ear, "please forgive this selfish question". Clearly, the two are the same phrase but with slant-rhyme endings... but the cool part is that if done correctly, you will perceive both phrases distinctly, rather than a jumble of words; as if your ears were unconnected/unsynchronized and listening in two independently functioning "channels" (which is an interesting thing in itself; your brain momentarily detaches the unity of aural perception, in order to hear distinction between phrases-- that do just the opposite! Go from lyrical unity to distinction). Almost like the idea of "binaural beats", where a tone of a certain frequency (Hz) is played in one ear, while a tone of a slightly different frequency is played in the other, simultaneously. The brain will actually do the opposite of what I just described, and you will perceive the net result of the two frequencies (the difference; that is a 50Hz tone played with a 45Hz tone will be perceived as a 5Hz tone). Again, the neat part of this is a physiological abberance in which you perceive "gap" frequencies in this "difference" of the two tones. It is actually an aural hallucination, the perceived event is not actually there if you look at the waveform digitally, say. The second neat "brain trick" is that very low frequency tones will actually cause the brain to perceive or calculate location data within the mind... just as we calculate the source direction/angle of sounds heard in our natural environment. (We do this by calculating the difference in time of the sound reaching one ear vs. the other; a sound to your left will obviously reach your left ear first, *then* your right ear. The difference that hangs in the balance is what the body uses to figure this out, the "interaural time difference"). For the brave autodidacts amongst you, I recommend you study "psychoacoustics". That rabbit hole goes deep; I never imagined simple "sound" could reach such insane levels of complexity in mathematics, physics, neuroscience (another love of mine), theory, concept. Definitely only for those who truly enjoy learning complex subjects as a hobby (e.g. nerds like me; it also requires an intelligence level a bit higher than the average "its raining", "is that you're car" type; some people are with me, some aren't-- if you aren't, it's not for you, LOL). BTW, the average human hearing range goes from about 20Hz to around 20,000Hz, unless you've been blasting TOOL too loud for too long, then it may be lower than 20,000Hz (it degrades with age, all the way down to 10,000Hz usually in your older years!). As a random bit of shinfo, dogs can typically hear up to 60,000Hz, which is why they can hear dog whistles which are "silent" to us. They're not "silent" in reality, we just cannot perceive that frequency. That, in itself, is a very "TOOL" type, philosophical way of thinking. To us, we hear nothing but silence. Does that mean that it actually is silent? Well, if we can't perceive the sound, to US in OUR reality... it is. In concrete reality, just like the ultraviolet spectrum, etc... it exists, we just can't perceive it. That leaves the question: What else exists all around us that we simply cannot perceive? There could be, and surely are all kinds of forces and energies that our bodies, in their current state of evolution, will never know of. This is why a lot of people are hesitant to completely discount anything "strange" such as psychic phenomena, such as being able to "see" the past in real-time, or see something hundreds of miles away. I know I have gone way off the subject, but I could go on for 10,000 days with this kind of talk (yah, lame joke haha), which is why I find TOOL such a fascinating group of artists... besides their obvious musical talent. Their penchant for taking simple lyrics or even the music itself and putting profound meaning behind it; that's a whole different level of "artist". To me, they're the type of artists that truly put their entire being into what they're creating, not just laying down a couple of tunes then calling it a day. It's obvious all of these elements were pre-considered and are not just "coincidence". Which, ironically... brings conveniently brings me right back to where I first started. I've made a perfect circle, unintentionally. These elements of their music are not coincidence. Yet, the whole overall point of the "23 enigma" and the other topics I covered is the debate: is it purely coincidence, or is there something deeper, maybe divine or spiritual behind these phenomena? Will you ever really know? Likely not, but it's fun to study and think about, keep your third eye pryed, keep learning, looking... spiral out... keep going... ;) Oh, and most of the terms I thought might be unfamiliar or that some people may be interested in learning more about, I tried to put in quotes and bold (if it works). For any of those, you can find Wikipedia articles about the subject by searching for the exact term in quotes... duh. Hopefully?! You're welcome! :D
Meno from Somewhere, CaTool places a high value on choice and opportunity. I believe this song looks at a day, a lifetime, and a succession of lifetimes as a trial of choice. It starts with "One Infinity". You seemingly have forever to choose as you will. "The horror begins in Autumn". Its a humorous line, its almost like saying "You have all the time in the world. Start tomorrow." Really, any moment of life can be your starting point for experimenting. The third line just illustrates what life is to Tool, a trial. The last line "Twenty three steps to total power" I believe is counting the hours that pass in the day. Once your trial, your steps, are over - its a new day. There is no 24th hour, just a new trial. A new day to live and experiment. The 'total power' Tool refers to is the complete freedom you have before any decision is made.
J from Mpls, Mn"A sister" As in Princess f--king Leah! By Darth Vader
Ben from Dallas, TxThe number 23 also has mathematical significance being an "Eisenstein Prime".

In mathematics, an Eisenstein prime is an Eisenstein integer that is irreducible (or equivalently prime) in the ring-theoretic sense: its only Eisenstein divisors are the units (±1, ±ω, ±ω2), a + bω itself and its associates.
Spencer from Edmond, OkWhen i hear this song and think of being ubducted by aliens. it's an incredibly creepy song. i'll look on youtube for a reversed version. and it with 10000 days (1,2)
John from Philadelphia, PaThe whole song is Latin, why would he use an arabic number? They are correct, it is 23 in Latin.
Brent from Edmonton, Ab23degrees is the angle in which is created when you hold a straight edge up to your eyes, and then close one. It's creates like a mystical grey zone.
I'm not sure of what significance it might have?
Austin from Charlotte, Ncthe voice is saying (be patient...)
Dante from Milwaukee, Wivingti tres is "twenty three" in many more languanges than that..
Anthony from San Antonio, TxI see this number every where! its ridiculous, cause of Tool this number haunts me.
Matt from Auburn, Waalso according to blare mikenzie blake (he runs the toolband.com) this song and wings part one and two are all meant to be played simultaneously. wings 1 and 2 fit perfectly together if you sync it perfectly otherwise it will still be obvious. try it!!!!!!
Matt from Auburn, WaI have two total gueses for this one. the first is that the voise is slowed down and backwards in fact everything is backwards from that point (or maybe the whole track is backwards) or (and im being serious) it's a recording of someone saying vagina extremely slooooowww. after all that is in fact the bands favorite word as stated multiple times by band members and show flyers and liner notes
Thoughtlessmind from Denver, CoThe voice starts at 3 minutes and 23 seconds. And sounds like it says Assistme in Romans language.
Eric from Boston, Mathe movie 23 is happening to a kid that i know of but his # is 27.
Brittani from Las C Ruces, NmActually, "Vigniti Tres" is 23 in Latin. There are strange occurances around this number, that's why there was also a movie made about it. I haven't seen "The Number 23" with Jim Carrey... But anyway, if you look up coincidences with that number, there are quite a few. Experts and skeptics claim that the only reason why the number 23 and other "number of coincidence", such as 11, 5, and a few others are coincidental, is because they are prime. I didn't mean to write so much, sorry.
Darklordsa from Ksa, Saudi Arabia23 in Latin not arabic ..

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