as i have referred to this passage several times in my
recent posts i thought i would offer it in its
entirety.
as some of you may know it is also a favourite passage
of campbell's.
Of the three metamorphoses
I name you three metamorphoses of the spirit: how the
spirit shall become a camel, and the camel a lion, and
the lion at last a child.
There are many heavy things for the spirit, for the
strong weight-bearing spirit in which dwell respect
and awe: its strength longs for the heavy, for the
heaviest.
What is heavy? thus asks the weight bearing spirit,
thus it kneels down like the camel and wants to be
well-laden.
What is the heaviest thing, you heroes? so asks the
weight-bearing spirit, that i may take it upon me and
rejoice in my strength.
Is it not this: to debase yourself in order to injure
your pride? to let your folly shine out in order to
mock your wisdom?
Or is it this: to desert our cause when it is
celebrating its victory? To climb high mountains in
order to tempt the tempter?
Or is it this: to feed upon the acorns and grass of
knowledge and for the sake of truth to suffer the
hunger of the soul?
Or is it this: to be sick and send away comforters and
make friends with the deaf, who never hear what you
ask?
Or is it this: to wade into dirty water when it is the
water of truth, and not to disdain cold frogs and hot
toads?
Or is it this: to love those who despise us and to
offer our hand to the ghost when it wants to frighten
us?
The weight-bearing spirit takes upon itself all these
heaviest things: like a camel hurrying laden into the
desert, thus it hurried into the desert.
But in the loneliest desert the second metamorphosis
occurs: the spirit here becomes a lion; it wants to
capture freedom and be lord in its own desert.
It seeks here its ultimate lord: it will be an enemy
to him and to its ultimate God, it will struggle for
victory with the great dragon.
What is the great dragon which the spirit no longer
wants to call lord and God? The great dragon is called
'Thou Shalt'. but the spirit of the lion says 'I
Will!'
'Thou Shalt' lies in its path, sparkling with gold, a
scale covered beast, and on every scale glitters
golden 'Thou shalt'.
Values of a thousand years glitter on the scales, and
thus speaks the mightiest of all dragons: "All the
values of things glitter on me".
"All values have already been created, and all created
values are in me. Truly there shall be no more "I
will!". Thus speaks the dragon.
My brothers, why is the lion needed in the spirit? why
does the beast of burden, that renounces and is
reverent, not suffice?
TO CREATE NEW VALUES - even the lion is incapable of
that: BUT TO CREATE THE FREEDOM FOR NEW CREATION -
that the might of the lion can do.
To create freedom for itself and a sacred No even to
duty: the lion is needed for that, my brothers.
To seize the right to new values - that is the most
terrible proceeding for a weight bearing and
reverential spirit. Truly, to this spirit it is a
theft and a work for an animal of prey.
Once it loved this "Thou shalt" as its holiest thing:
now it has to find illusion and caprice even in the
holiest, that it may steal freedom from its love: the
lion is needed for this theft.
But tell me brothers, what can the child do that even
the lion cannot? why must the preying lion still
become a child?
The child is innocence and forgetfulness, a new
beginning, a sport, a self-propelling wheel, a first
motion, a sacred Yes.
Yes, a sacred Yes is needed, my brothers, FOR THE
SPORT OF CREATION: the spirit now wills *its own*
will, the spirit sundered from the world now wins *its
own* world.
I have named you the three metamorphoses of the
spirit: how the spirit becomes a camel, and the camel
a lion, and the lion at last a child.
thus spake Zarathustra.
(capitals mine; asterisks demote Nietzsche's emphasis)
____________________________________________________________________________________
Yahoo!7 Mail has just got even bigger and better with unlimited storage on all
webmail accounts.
http://au.docs.yahoo.com/mail/unlimitedstorage.html
Moq_Discuss mailing list
Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc.
http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org
Archives:
http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/
http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
