I first listened to Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven in 1971 when I was a teenager. It instantly became my all-time favorite song and remains so, over 50 years later. Both the lyrics and the melody moved me like no other music before or since. I had not been a fan of Led Zeppelin; in fact their earlier music was distasteful to me, not to mention their infamous debauchery. How could those four men have brought such beauty and wonder into the world? Now I understand better how things work: everything and everyone is part of the same whole that I am part of, and we all have parts to play in the great drama, parts orchestrated by a higher power. Everything and everyone contributes to ultimate good, wittingly or unwittingly. What most helped me to understand this was a novel I would read three years later, The Lord of the Rings. But until then, I only knew that there was something magical about the song, at least insofar as it affected my own consciousness. And evidently I was not alone in this. For decades afterward, the song remained at or near the top of lists of the greatest rock songs of all time.
It wasn’t until the next time I listened to the song after finishing the novel that I noticed many correlations between it and the song; some obvious, some subtle. There can be no doubt that Stairway to Heaven and several other Led Zeppelin songs (Battle of Evermore, Ramble On, Misty Mountain Hop) were influenced by the novel. My own take is that there must have been spiritual inspiration involved in the creation of this music, perhaps from the same source that inspired the novel, and that this inspiration was delivered to humanity to help prepare us for the times we are living through now.
The lyrics:
There's a lady who's sure all that glitters is gold 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 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 Ooh, it makes me wonder Ooh, makes me wonder 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 Ooh, it makes me wonder Ooh, really makes me wonder 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 Oh-oh-oh-oh-woahhh 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 And it makes me wonder Ohh, woah 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? 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 And she's buying a stairway to Heaven
My take is that the song overall is about the spiritual journey of a prominent character in the novel, the Lady Galadriel, Elven Queen. In her younger years, she lived in the blessed realm of the Valar in the West but forsook that land for Middle-earth in rebellion. For her role as a leader of the rebellion, she was banned from Valinor.
…she had dreams of far lands and dominions that might be her own to order as she would without tutelage. — Unfinished Tales by J.R.R. Tolkien
Although her desire for dominion was a corrupting element of her psyche…
Yet deeper still there dwelt in her the noble and generous spirit of the Vanyar, and a reverence for the Valar that she could not forget. — Unfinished Tales by J.R.R. Tolkien
Her inner conflict between dark and light mirrored the battle between good and evil in Middle-earth. We all share this dichotomy and struggle; we are all a blend of dark and light. Through three long ages of Middle-earth, she grew in wisdom and humility, was ultimately tempted, passed the test, and thus her ban was lifted. The stairway to Heaven was opened to her again. I interpret the song’s long (for a rock song) melodic build-up to an orgasmic climax as symbolic of Galadriel’s long spiritual struggle culminating in victory.
Galadriel: I pass the test. I will diminish, and go into the West and remain Galadriel.
During her long exile, in which she strove to fulfill her personal ambitions, she never lost the yearning for the blissful land in the West, across the Great Sea, which all High Elves in Middle-earth felt.
There's a feeling I get when I look to the West And my spirit is crying for leaving
She now stands as a shining inspiration to us on our own journeys through the darkness toward the light, our home:
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
Yes, everything still turns to gold. But it is not the gold of our personal ambitions being realized, but having fulfilled them (or exhausted ourselves trying), we finally see, with humility, that the gold was always with us, in us and around us, and all we have to do is return to our true being, which is the One:
When all are one, and one is all
To be a rock and not to roll
The last phrase is a reference to the return to our being upon fulfillment of our doings, as expressed by Gandalf when he had completed his doings in Middle-earth:
Gandalf: …I have been a stone doomed to rolling. But my rolling days are ending…
The song’s writers, Page and Plant (two Hobbit-like names), perhaps because they are gifted and inspired musicians, somehow knew about and included in their lyrics a somewhat esoteric teaching about the universal sound current:
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 ... Your head is humming, and it won't go, in case you don't know The piper's calling you to join him ... 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
One of my spirit guides, who introduced himself as Enoch, explained to me that there is a universal sound current that we can perceive with our consciousness. He said that the sound does not come from our ears, but from the field of consciousness itself. Meditating upon the sound uplifts one’s consciousness. I had already learned of the universal sound current during my years of studying yogic teachings, so I knew what he was talking about. Surat Shabd Yoga, which means the Union of the Soul with the Essence of the Absolute Supreme Being, emphasises the practice Enoch described. But I had never seriously attempted to tune into the universal sound current until his recommendation. At first I was sceptical. If anything I wished that the ringing in my ears (which I was told was Tinnitus) would go away, not intensify. But upon listening to the tune with focused attention while centered in my being, I noticed that the tune began to change. It was as if at first I was listening to an annoying monotone that then transformed into a veritable symphony of rich and melodic sounds, like an orchestra. Beyond that came awareness of the orchestration and the One Orchestrator. Behind the multiplicity of sounds is the ineffable AUM, the One Song (Uni-verse), just as there is One Self behind the multiplicity of selves and One Mind behind the multiplicity of minds.
The Absolute Supreme Being is a dynamic force of creative energy sent out into the abyss of space at the dawn of the universe's manifestation, as sound vibrations. These vibrations continue and are sent forth through the ages, framing all things that constitute and inhabit the universe.
And some of the notes of the Surat Shabd are to be heard in a song by four 1970’s British rockers. This says something about the Supreme Being, which leaves bread crumbs leading back to Source throughout creation in a myriad of forms. There is a tune that is encoded to your particular consciousness and if you listen very hard you will hear it and it will guide you home to your true being.
And a new day will dawn for those who stand long And the forests will echo with laughter
My favorite cover of Stairway to Heaven, by The Classic Rock Show:
Thanks for the music share. I listen to Led Zeppelin often also. Music of those times had a fundamental awareness we still appreciate. Thankfully there are many musicians still around, including much younger ones, who look to all this music as their inspiration.
Stairway to Heaven was the first song I really listened to, like listened to the lyrics and wanted to know more, that I ever heard. I was maybe 14 and it was playing from my brother's room. I must have rewound the tape 100 times to try to memorize every lyric. Good analysis.