The primary, identifiable theme going on in Schism appears to be the alchemical concept most commonly known as “squaring the circle“. Hence, the interlude..

The poetry that comes from the squaring off between

And the circling is worth it, finding beauty in the dissonance

Squaring the circle is a subject that can’t easily be summed up in a small article, but I’ll provide some quotes to start with:

“The ‘squaring of the circle’ is one of the many archetypal motifs which form the basic patterns of our dreams and fantasies. But it is distinguished by the fact that it is one of the most important of them from the functional point of view. Indeed, it could even be called the archetype of wholeness.”

-Carl Jung from Mandalas (1955)

“The intent behind alchemy and the alchemical work is personal individuation, which is wholeness. In order to attain wholeness, it is said, one must square the circle… To square the circle is to see equally in the four directions, and so to be whole… To find a new equilibrium where inner, outer, above, and below are balanced and in harmony, is to be One… The viscous flame of oneness comes burning away all division of spirit and flesh, and the diamond body becomes the eternal fuel of this emancipative, destructive union.”

-Jack Haas from OM, Baby! (2005)

Squaring the circle is also referred to as “quaternity” or “quadratura circuli“, and is represented in countless artistic works going back to ~1000 AD (and probably before then). It is, as Jung and Haas point out, a symbol of wholeness and balance between the inner portion of the Self (i.e. the spirit), the outer portion of the Self (i.e. the body), the heavens above, and the Earth below.

The video for Schism, in particular, brings out this theme in a way that the song by itself cannot. It takes us through the process of purifying the mind and the body, in order to allow “the viscous flame of oneness” to dissolve the boundaries between spirit and matter, between male and female, between good and evil. This is visualized in the final moments of the video.

In the beginning, we see a circular shaped metronome that bounces up from the floor and becomes suspended in the air, where it starts to oscillate back and forth. This is symbolizing a spirit that is in a state of confusion and uncertainly, thus it sways to and fro because it cannot reach a state of calm equilibrium. In other words, the circle has not yet been squared.

We then fade into a room that’s very square-like and gray. This represents the world of matter.. the physical realm where the spirit is held within a body. You’ll also notice there are wires that stretch across the room, symbolizing the lines of communication that are gray and stale (meaning they are not working properly, as described in the lyrics).

Similar wires are seen stretching out from a female figure’s head, who now comes into frame. Only her wires are red, meaning they are healthy and open for connection. As she wanders around the room, she starts to sink into the floor. At the same time, she notices an opposing male figure’s feet rising up out of the floor, as if he’s stuck in a state of total unconsciousness. She pulls herself out of the floor and is also able to pull the male out by his feet thereafter. When she does this, we can see that she rotates him around on his head, forming a circle on the floor. This expresses her desire to form a higher, spiritual connection with the man, which is clearly seen as the camera fades out and displays the two figures forming the shape of a compass. The compass is often shown and referred to in the works of alchemists, because it metaphorically represents one of the tools that can be used in the process of squaring the circle and reaching a higher state of being.

The female then carries the still unconscious male back to the first room we saw in the beginning, and lays him down. She moves close to him (again, indicating a desire to communicate), reaches out toward him with her arms, and pulls them back toward herself.. like she’s trying to pull him closer, but there are no wires available to hold on to. She’s just pulling at the air and is only miming the act of connection.

The male continues to remain asleep, as he starts to drift away from the female. She pursues him into a new room, which has a large tree-shaped crack in the wall where the male is hiding (the cracks are clearly another symbol of a breakdown in communication). The female then begins to walk on all fours and soon, the male emerges from the crack in the wall and does the same thing. This is symbolic of male and female communicating at a sub-human level… at the primitive, animal level. That’s why they walk on all fours. They’re not yet at a point where they can connect spiritually, so they can only connect through the flesh (i.e. matter).

Now we reach a crucial point in the video, where the female moves in close to the male again (only this time they’re both standing upright). You’ll notice her movements are very twitchy, again indicating that’s she’s vibrating at a higher frequency and desires higher-level communication. She then grabs his ear, and pulls it out along with a rectangular chunk of his head. This represents the process of purifying the mind, as we later see a small goblin-like creature emerge from the extracted head-piece.

Later on, we see another cancerous goblin being extracted from the male’s neck, symbolizing the purification of the body (in addition to the mind). Once this occurs, the male figure becomes much more vibrant and life-like. At the same time, the female becomes fearful and weak as she falls to the ground. While she’s lying there, the parasitic goblins start to feed off of her as they had been previously doing to the male. Fortunately, she’s strong enough to sit up and remove them from her face so that she doesn’t become consumed by them as he was.

This process of purification through bodily extraction/operation is common in strong psychedelic experiences and also in many instances of alien abduction. Often, you’ll read about people claiming they were operated on by aliens who extracted things from their bodies. This also occurs during DMT and Salvia Divinorum trips, where you run into therianthropic figures who reach into your body as if to purify you and show you what is needed in order to reach a higher level of being.

As the female lays back down, we see more pinkish wires start to grow out of her face. They grow so fast and thick that she has to pull them away from her face. When she does this, we see that her face now looks very similar to the male’s. Afterwards, the male and female turn to face each other and become merged into a single being with a large head. Male and female (i.e. spirit and matter) have now become one, as we see the viscous flames rain down upon them, symbolizing the union of opposites. The squaring of the circle is now complete, and the spiritual/astral Self has finally reached a state of equilibrium. This is confirmed by the reappearance of the metronome we saw in the beginning of the video, which you’ll notice is no longer oscillating back and forth. This being has now completed the process of individuation, and is in a harmonious, balanced state of oneness.