Joan of Arc (the Saint?) In the Garden

John of Arc is an interesting person in history. Burned as a heretic, then proclaimed to be a Saint by the church. She, a woman, helped lead the French to vivctory against the English. And claimed she could hear the voice of God.

I rediscovered her in a song by the Decemberists called Joan in the Garden.

I am enamored by this song. It is absolutely beautiful. And stirring. And disturbing. Long like a Pink fFoyd song, poetic like a prophecy, powerful like the screams of a mother to God to save her child.

Its interesting the use of Hosanna. Which some mistake to mean something akin to Hallelujah. But it actually means, God Help Us. Or God Save Us.

These are the lyrics. Feel free to discuss what the song means to you, or what tour take is on the song, and if the Christian connection is relavent to Christians. Or relavent to us in these current times. But I reccomend listening to the music too to get a feel for it.

In a book I found
Joan in the garden
I will write this down
I will lay her heart in mine
For a time
Write a line
Erase a line

In the dawning light
As she left her body
Gifted second sight
Did she lay her dowry by
Lay it by
Write a line
Erase a line

And if you listen closely
You can hear them singing ho, oh, oh, oh
And if you listen closely
You can hear them singing ho, oh, oh, oh
Hosanna

Make her ten miles tall
Make her arms cleave mountains
Let her tempters fall
Make her tears weep fountains by
Now to try
Write a line
Erase a line

And if you listen closely
You can hear them singing ho, oh, oh, oh
And if you listen closely
You can hear them singing ho, oh, oh, oh
Hosanna

Just another tinsel ornament
Another troubled sky
We are folded in the firmament
Catch us as we fly

I don’t remember what I ought to be
I only know what’s right
I’m suspended from the orrery
Bursting into light

And If you listen closely
You can hear them singing
Hosanna, hosanna

And if you listen closely
You can hear them singing
Hosanna, hosanna yeah!

Hosanna yeah!
Hosanna, hosanna yeah!
Hosanna yeah!
Hosanna, hosanna yeah!
Hosanna yeah!

Over stone and grapevine
Over the souls on the breadline
There’s a reckoning at hand
Our hand

See them flayed at the flagpole
Catch it all on your console
We have come at your command
We stand
We stand

Blessed babe on display
Break her skull on the parquet
Wayward mariner awake!
We pray

She is daughter and son
The imperium undone
All the autocrats are laid
To waste
To waste

Oh holy whore androgyne
Come and sunder the stop signs
Break it all so we can build again

Bring on duke or dauphin
Blood will flow like a fountain
As it ever was, so it will be again
Will be again
As it ever was, so it will be again
Will be again
As it ever was
So it will be again, again

Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna yeah!
Hosanna yeah!
Hosanna yeah!

When she was thirteen, a figure she identified as the great warrior angel Michael surrounded by other angels appeared to her in the garden.

Joan, in the garden.

Joan was put on trial for heresy.

She was accused of having blasphemed by wearing men’s clothes, of acting upon visions that were demonic. After being found guilty by the Courts, and subject to execution, Joan avoided the death sentence by renouncing her claims and agreeing to never again wear men’s clothing, a promise she broke while imprisoned, and for refusing to renounce a second time, she was quickly convicted as a heretic and burned to death.

The muffled words in the back track of the song are>

I’m not here and I’m not here.