The whole collection · No. 14 of 36

Nietzsche’s camel, lion and child

For what comes after no.

1883 · Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Part One, “On the Three Metamorphoses”

Where it comes from

In Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883) Nietzsche says the spirit becomes a camel, the camel a lion, and the lion a child. The camel kneels to be loaded with what’s heaviest. In the loneliest desert the lion meets a dragon with a golden “thou shalt” shining on every scale, and answers it with “a sacred ‘No’ even to duty”. (Walter Kaufmann’s translation.)

How to play it

Load the camel and walk it into the desert. Then roar. Then play.

Pick it up

What it teaches (try it first)

You carry what you’re handed, then refuse what isn’t yours, but a no builds nothing: only play and a yes of your own make something new.

Ask yourself. What have you said no to lately, and what have you made with the space it left?

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