Lately I've been reading some of the works of Friedrich Nietzsche, mainly Good & Evil, and Thus Spoke Zarathustra. I can't pretend that I've understood everything that I've read in both books and I'm only about half way through Zarathustra, but what I've been able to ascertain from Nietzsche is the need for humans to overcome themselves. Nietzsche calls this idea of a higher form of man "overman." The idea that a select few people will be able to "ascend" to a higher morality and state of being is something that I don't take great stock in. However, I feel that something else can be gleaned from this idea, the idea that we should always strive to overcome ourselves.
Early on in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Nietzsche presents the "Three Metamorphoses" wherein the spirit of man changes into a camel, then a lion, and finally a child. I personally see the idea of the spirit as our own beliefs that we've carried with us since we were young. These are often superstitious beliefs brought about by our families and those that we spend a lot of time with. Either way, these are ideas that have been cemented in us by others. In order to move past this phase we have to start considering that maybe these beliefs and ideas are wrong. We have to start looking at other ideas.
The camel to me represents taking on new ideas and then traveling with those ideas into a kind of desert of ideas and moralities. Camels are beasts of burden that can exist and travel in very desolate climates. They are loaded down with supplies and rode across the desert to far away places. When we begin to read philosophy or religious texts we are loaded down with new beliefs/ideas, some beliefs/ideas that change the way we view reality, some that burden us with thoughts that we didn't know we had and thoughts that we did not want. The camel represents the start of our journey. It is up to each of us to decide what beliefs/ideas we will keep and what we will discard on this journey. Once we have decided what beliefs/ideas we will keep and focus on and what ideas we reject, only then can we turn into a lion.
Lions represent strength and power. As we go forth with our new set of beliefs/ideas, we will have to defend them from others who wish to take them away. We will have to establish our freedom. Freedom in this case means the freedom from being influenced by others who are not going the same way as us. It means not needing validation from others on whether our beliefs/ideas are correct. We must have the conviction to trust ourselves and to think for ourselves. Only after we accomplish this can we be what Nietzsche calls "creators." Only then can we graduate to that of a child.
The child represents creation. Children possess great imaginations and abilities to create. Essentially once we hit this phase, we have been reborn into something greater than what we were.
Its very possible that I misinterpreted Nietzsche on this idea, but this is what I personally believe each of these phases represent. The key piece of information here that matters more than anything else that has been written here is that we should always try to become a better version of ourselves. We all need to start a journey to better understand who we are, and by figuring out who we are, we can become better as we move through the phases. Its possible that most of us will never reach the phase of child, or even that of lion, but as the saying goes, its not about the destination, its about the journey. And to learn about ourselves even just a little can make a life worth lived.
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