Wool Over Our Eyes

As I skip amongst the thickets

Well, just look at what I've found

An innocent wee critter

Sitting, shivering on the ground

Entrapped and gagged and bound

Upon a sacrificial mound

Such a miserable predicament

So, how'd you like the sound

Of a haven-cum-community

A vibrant congregation

Of waywards just like you

The fates aligned for me to save from

The depraved and heathen demons

And their vile abominations

Enslaving feeble minds

Into a life of prostration?

Not like my operation

Not the slightest correlation

Why, we've dances, feasts and festivals

It's like we're on vacation

No time for contemplation

Would you like to come and take some

Salvation in exchange

For just some light indoctrination?

The pact is sealed

Welcome in, brethren

Step down off the pentagram

Blessed be and bend the knee

And pledge to me forever and

Forget the need to question and

We'll never need to reprimand

Lethargy is heresy

You're very keen to lend a hand

There's effigies to render

And a temple yet to build

We've many seeds to tend to

And there's earth still left to till

And every second spare

You'd best remember to keep filled

In reverent prayer and penance

Lest dissenters shall be kill

Ecting up the mess

Until they find their crimes regrettable

All evidence says heaven's light's

Not likely for the skeptical

The bedding's of the finest moss

The lichen, often edible

Now, don't you think your life outside

Was tiresome and forgettable?

Deep in the dark of the woods

Where secrets sleep

We serve he who waits beneath

Till the soul, devotion reap

For the lamb who herds the sheep

In the dark of the woods

We pledge our lives

Sages say that faith is blind

Arms raised high in sacrifice

Pull down wool over our eyes

Time for your donations

Fill the dish up, pass the gold plate

Every penny pays to kill

The bishops of the old faith

Our benefactor waits

Betwixt the crippling link of old chains

Tethered to the plains

Until the heretics are all slain

So, pay the tithes and pray you might

Remain upon the list of all

The cherished, chosen children

For whom love is unconditional

Your contribution's absolution

For the guilt within you all

Our movement may be new

But all your sins are still original

You'll find my sermons stirring

Form the circle, get your heads down

Heavy hangs the neck

Of any vessel of the red crown

Blessed to be the shepherd

Of the desperate and oppressed now

Destined for ascension

Ne'er the wealthy ever left ground

So, empty out your bank accounts

And dance around the fire

And focus your devotion

Through the crackling of the pyre

So potent and ambrosial

It flows through blackened spires

To satiate our patron

And their rancorous desires

The game is barely set

Yet e'er within the deck you've dwelt

We've never met and yet

We meet again upon my pelts

The cards we want are often drawn

But seldom ever dealt

But, chance the hand you're given

May hap lift you where you fell

Tell me, little lamb

Do you see destiny immutable?

Does fate or dedication

Keep you bended knee and dutiful?

Feign predestination

Or is zealotry the truth of all

The paths you never take and never leave

Yet in the future walk?

Savior or enslaver?

Oh, these labels are but shallow things

You brave the twisting mists

Betwixt the hallowed and the harrowing

And pray that they may shift

Against the rhapsody of Haro's wings

So, just embrace the chaos

And the clarity the tarot brings

Deep in the dark of the woods

Where secrets sleep

We serve he who waits beneath

Till the soul, devotion reap

For the lamb who herds the sheep

In the dark of the woods

We pledge our lives

Sages say that faith is blind

Arms raised high in sacrifice

Pull down wool over our eyes

The time has come, enlightened ones

The hour is at hand

Or do you doubt the crown?

The righteous power it commands?

We swear to scriptures devilish

Devout or ever-damned

'Til fetid grip of heretics

Is scoured from the land

Who today can truly say

Their faith has never faltered?

Whose neck, so trained to pray

Would never strain against the halter?

These reins that pave the way

Towards our patron's radiant reign

And so, which waif ordained by grace

Shall fate see slain upon the altar?

For what have we to give

Once coin and toil have been expended?

For naught have we to live

If plots of soil to be lamented

Are the unascended end

To whence our mortal coil has wended

The rested dead are spoiled

Not with the spoils we are intended

But flesh, bequeathed freely

Grants a life a higher purpose

In death, a deeper meaning

Everlasting pious service

Sowing seeds precedes a reaping

Start a line, now who's the first?

You all decided to convert

So, tell me, why are you so nervous?

For your fervor has been fated now

To satiate the beast

In chains, he waits beneath

And how he craves to be released

We celebrate in blessed flame

So, pray and take a seat

And pledge unto their name

Lest you be plated at the feast

Let your faith remain unshaken

In our monastery's beliefs

You've no claim to consecration

When there's coffers to be greased

Stay praiseful to your deity

Their prophecy and priest

For the sheep may be the shepherd

But the flock is being fleeced

Deep in the dark of the woods

Where secrets sleep

We serve he who waits beneath

Give the flesh, ascension seek

From the lamb who herds the sheep

In the dark of the woods

We pledge our lives

Sages say that faith is blind

Arms raised high in sacrifice

Pull down wool over our eyes