I have always enjoyed Jon Anderson's word painting. If you watch the words go by, you will see lots of open vowel sounds at the ends of musical phrases, and at held notes. I think he wrote words that would make his vocal sound good, and that would allow him to project with an open sound over the instruments. Rick Wakeman always liked that song very much, and wrote part of the main theme, but never had any use for the abstract words.

   If there is a vein of traditional spirituality in progressive rock, this lyric tries to mine it in a nice non-demoninational way, while still sounding tripped-out enough for the stoners of that day, (were you there when they rolled that number up?)

   Glad to know that someone thinks my ideas about YES lyrics have some validity. The entire "Close to the Edge" album has these aspects. Oh, and don't forget about the "Christian changer" line. Is it meant to be a contrast to the "suntower, asking" line?, clearly a pagan reference.