It is apparent that man understands his world through myth. The earliest form of this is animism, which is the practice of giving human-like qualities to animals, plants, and other natural phenomena. Non-human things more or less take on the form of human archetypes to which the animist can speak to as a guide and companion. Animism is the religion of tribes. Nature is worshiped. Stories about this primal god along with the history of the tribes, their culture, etc. were told through myths around the campfire. As such, fire has always been a symbol of truth and wisdom. Yet, just as fire can be used to keep one warm and cook one’s food, so too can it go out of control and burn an entire village and forest down. Wisdom is no different. Knowledge can bring as much peace as it can war. I am sure you are familiar with the Greek myth of Prometheus, who was bound to a rock where an eagle ate his liver, only for it to be grown back and eaten again in an endless cycle of pain and suffering. The reason for this punishment was that Prometheus stole fire from the Olympian gods and gave it to humanity. ‘Fire’ in this sense, again, is symbolic of wisdom.
The conversation is much the same for the Abrahamic faiths. “Let there be light!” God says when he creates the universe. Light represents reality. More closely true reality. One is ‘enlightened’ when their vision allows them the sight of the truth–whatever that may be. Even so, one is punished for possessing light. For the Christians, their ‘enlightened one’ was crucified.
Now, in Genesis, long after God creates light, we have the story of Adam, Eve, and the Serpent. At first, Adam and Eve had unlimited food in the Garden of Eden, and they were both naked but were unaware of it. That is, there was no shame in being naked. More or less, Adam and Eve lived in a state of ignorant, primordial bliss. The Serpent, however, convinces Eve to eat of the fruit of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
“Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.””
Once Adam and Eve ate from the tree, their ‘eyes opened’, and they realized that they were naked. God then punishes the serpent to crawl on its belly and forever be the enemy of humankind. He likewise punishes Eve to have painful childbirth and for Adam to rule over her, and he finally punishes Adam to forever toil the Earth ‘until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.’.
At this, “The Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever.” 23 So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side[e] of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.”
The serpent, here, represents the arbiter of wisdom. With that, the Serpent and Prometheus play the same role: granting wisdom to humankind. Because of that, they are both punished. The serpent leads Eve to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thus ‘opening her eyes’, just as Prometheus gives fire to humankind. I would also like to point out that, since the Serpent is later on known as ‘Lucifer’, it is important to note that Lucifer’s full name is ‘Lucifer Morningstar’. The Serpent brings the dawn of wisdom to humankind. Yet, with that, he brings good and evil, i.e. suffering. From here, one could also mention that the trickster and joker archetypes are associated with the devil. That is, chaos brings forth wisdom and enlightenment—which pans out when one takes into account Prometheus. Now, in the Bible, the word ‘God’ is generally a fill-in word for a number of different concepts. In Genesis, the best word to describe ‘God’ is ‘creator’. As such, in the story of the fall, the creating force punishes the conception of knowledge by forcing man to toil the Earth, run from predators, and wear clothes. Yet, most importantly, he is kicked out of paradise which is a representation of innocence. The world is no longer heaven. There is starvation, predation, and shame.
It is in my belief that ‘enlightenment’ happens in stages throughout human history. There are two ‘enlightenments’ that happen in genesis. The first is humankind's conception of consciousness with ‘let there be light’ as the moment of man’s facing of reality. The second is humankind's conception of basic ‘morality’ with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, i.e. it is bad to be hungry, it is bad to be eaten by a tiger, and it is bad to be naked. Notice, also in Genesis that after they are kicked from paradise, the following is written:
“After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side[e] of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.”
That is, fire guards the way to the tree of life. Man must pass through flames if he seeks eternal life. As such, there are two qualities attributed to the gods here: they know of good and evil, and they are immortal.
I would argue that ‘eternal life’ is more akin to ‘transcending death’ rather than living forever. Indeed, prior to eating the fruit, man may have been aware of death and motivated to evade it, but he did not fear it. It was only after eating of the fruit in which I believe humankind knew of the existential dread revolving around death. ‘For dust you are and to dust you shall return.’ And so, while humankind had the conception of good and evil, this likewise forced them to fear death above all things. To transcend this fear, one would need to eat from the tree of life—which lies at the center of the Garden of Eden whose entrance is guarded by a flaming sword.
For the story of Prometheus and Genesis, fire lies at the gateway between man and wisdom and man and paradise, respectively.
Now, if we fast forward a millennia to the new testament, it is apparent that Jesus continues the symbolism of Genesis with the crucifixion and resurrection. The crucifixion, in my opinion, can represent the ‘walking through the flaming sword’, then being ‘resurrected’ within the garden of Eden wherein one can eat of the tree of life and ‘live forever’. One can be awakened with knowledge, thus finding existential dread and morality, but the step above that is enlightenment and the transcendence of death. This, however, is more or less unrelated to this topic—at least until later.
Another notable use of fire and light to represent wisdom is Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. To summarize: Imagine three men chained up in a cave facing the cave wall and unable to turn their heads. There is a fire behind them, and animals and people walk in front of this fire, forming shadows upon the cave wall. These shadows are what the chained up men refer to as ‘reality’. It so happens that one of them is released, and they walk up to the mouth of the cave where they encounter the light of the sun and are temporarily blinded and frightened of it. After a bit, they overcome this fear and fall in love with their new reality, claiming that the shadow reality was ‘fake’ and an illusion. The sun, here, represents true reality and enlightenment. Notice also that fire is what separates the shadow world from the real world, just as the flaming sword separates our world from the garden of Eden.
Zoroastrianism is a religion which predates Judaism and originates in Iran, and it is centered around the teachings of Zarathustra. It is one of the worlds oldest organized religions, and its believers exalt an uncreated, benevolent, and all-wise deity known as Ahura Mazda—the supreme being of the universe. Existing opposite to this God is Angra Mainyu, who is the destructive spirit and the adversary of all things good and light. The general arch of the religion portrays good triumphing over evil. Zoroastrianism gives one of the first frameworks for dualistic morality in the west. The main mantra of the religion is ‘good thoughts, good words, and good deeds’. Fire is held by Zoroastrians as the manifestation and sacred symbol of Ahura Mazda himself. As such, Zoroastrians worship in places called ‘fire temples’. That is, fire represents the gateway to the divine.
It is at this point that we can begin our analysis of Thus Spoke Zarathustra. If you are unfamiliar with Thus Spoke Zarathustra, the book is widely considered Friedrich Nietzsche’s magnum opus and contains a cryptic summary of all of his philosophical ideas written out in parables through the mouthpiece of his title protagonist ‘Zarathustra’. Thus Spoke Zarathustra dismantles the west’s moral and value system, while instilling life-affirming values based around his concepts of the ‘eternal recurrence’ and the ‘will to power’. The book is meant to mirror the way in which the bible was written, and it begins with Zarathustra leaving isolation to teach his wisdom to humanity. It is composed of four parts, all containing multiple titled chapters. With my introduction in mind, it should come as no great surprise that Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra opens with the following passage from the first section of ‘Zarathustra’s Prologue’:
“When Zarathustra was thirty years old, he left his home and the lake of his home and went into the mountains. Here he enjoyed his spirit and his solitude, and for ten years did not tire of it. But at last, a change came over his heart, and one morning he rose with the dawn, stepped before the sun, and spoke to it thus: ‘You great star, what would your happiness be had you not those for whom you shine? For ten years you have climbed to my cave: you would have tired of your light and of the journey had it not been for me and my eagle and my serpent.’”
It is in my belief that ‘Zarathustra’ is chosen decisively. What better protagonist to dismantle western morality and our entire value system with the will to power, and to declare that ‘God is dead’ than the very first western figure to have created God-given dualistic ‘good’ and ‘evil’? Nietzsche’s ‘Zarathustra’ is the eternal recurrence of the same. Nietzsche is returning to the first western prophet in order to dismantle the religious genealogy of the west. Notice, also, that Zarathustra leaves his cave and stands before the rising sun. This, I believe, is likely a nod to Plato’s ‘Allegory of the Cave’. Zarathustra is stepping into the light of reality. Although, this scene is flipped on its head, as it is more so that Zarathustra almost acts as a mirror to the sun. That is, Zarathustra is the sun who is leaving the dark night of his cave to shine upon the world.
Then there is the symbolism of the eagle and the serpent. Later on, Zarathustra reveals these to be symbols representing pride and wisdom, respectively. In context of the book, ‘pride’ is likely more so a synonym of life-affirmation. Though, keep in mind the symbol of the eagle in Greek mythology and the symbol of the serpent in Genesis.
Zarathustra continues to speak to the sun thus:
““But we waited for you every morning, took your overflow from you, and blessed you for it. Behold, I am weary of my wisdom, like a bee that has gathered too much honey; I need hands outstretched to receive it. I would give away and distribute, until the wise among men find joy once again in their folly, and the poor in their riches. For that I must descend to the depths, as you do in the evening when you go behind the sea and still bring light to the underworld, you overrich star. Like you, I must go under—go down, as is said by man, to whom I want to descend. So bless me then you quiet eye that can look even upon an all-too-great happiness without envy! Bless the cup that wants to overflow, that the water may flow from it golden and carry everywhere the reflection of your delight. Behold, this cup wants to become empty again, and Zarathustra wants to become man again.”
Thus, Zarathustra began to go under.”
That is, Zarathustra describes himself as a cup which overflows. He has received overflowing wisdom from the sun and seeks to go under towards the world of man in order to empty his cup into theirs. This here, represents God descending to Earth, and it appears to be a direct response to Christianity. That is, Zarathustra is acting as the Jesus figure, who exists as a God upon his mountaintop, but seeks to descend to Earth as a man. Lest, what would his happiness be if he did not have those for whom he shines? Though, what Zarathustra will give to humankind is not salvation nor morality nor visions of God and the divine, but rather the vision of the overman, the will to power, and freedom from revenge. As such, he seeks to move humankind ‘beyond good and evil’ into a state of total life-affirmation.
Indeed, Nietzsche’s Zarathustra comes to Earth at a time when ‘God is dead’—when religion has become nothing more than a Sunday chore and God is barely believed in. How is humankind to move on after they have slain their savior and creator? How are they to have values, when they murdered the creator of such?
Zarathustra claims that man must find value in his becoming. That transcendence of man is the aim and goal of man. That is, man is not an end but a means to something greater.
Though, this ‘something greater’ is not to be confused with Christian redemption and Heaven, but rather a state of being only possible on Earth as a living thing. Nietzsche argues that Christianity and Buddhism both promote ‘life-denial’ with Heaven and Nirvana respectively being the goal of both religions. For Nietzsche, the goal should be a better man—or more so, a man who transcends man but still walks upon this Earth. This being would affirm life rather than deny it. Here, soul and body are one and the same.
Nietzsche’s Zarathustra is the symbolic return of the fire from the Zoroastrian faith. He is the flaming sword which guards the Garden of Eden, and he is the next stage of enlightenment—who sets aflame to all the religions of old. In many ways, I believe Nietzsche’s Zarathustra holds within himself the symbolism of the resurrection and the eating of the tree of life. For in going beyond good and evil, doesn’t Zarathustra return to the Garden? Is this not the eternal recurrence of the same? Afterall, Zarathustra’s devil is ‘the spirit of gravity’. What better comparison to the spirit of gravity exists other than ‘The Fall’ of humankind?
Nonetheless, Zarathustra must continue his ‘going under’. With that, thank you for listening, and stay tuned for part two of this series analyzing Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra.
Sources
Genesis - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%203&version=NIV
Prometheus - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prometheus
Zoroastrianism - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoroastrianism
Zarathustra’s Prologue - https://www2.hawaii.edu/~freeman/courses/phil394/Thus%20Spoke%20Zarathustra.pdf
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