 Inichi's most popular book, Thus Spoke Zartustra, he describes what would become one of the most memorable theories that of the Ubermench. In English versions of the work of Nietzsche's Ubermench is translated as Superman or Overman. The term Superman has adopted many connotations as a result of the comic book hero in popular culture. So for many scholars today, Overman is a more suitable term. Overman refers to Nietzsche's conception of a man who has literally overcome himself and human nature. In essence, an Overman is one who has superseded the bondage of the human condition and reached a liberated state, one of free play and creativity. This state can be seen as a state of pure individual, a person unaccumbered by the influences and authorities of society and other people. This person wills their own destiny, creates their own values, and dances with the game of life to the tune of their own spirit. In Thus Spoke Zartustra, Nietzsche writes of three spiritual metaphors that must be undergone for the individual to reach the state of Overman. These transformations are rather perspective in nature and thus can be seen as a sort of guide to becoming an Overman or liberating one spirit. And so I'm going to go through the three different faces of Nietzsche's from Thus Spoke Zartustra. Metaphor number one is the camel. The first metamorphosis described by Nietzsche is that one of the camel. Of this he writes, what is difficult? Ask the spirit that would bear much and kneel down like a camel wanting to be well loaded. What is most difficult? Oh heroes ask the spirit that would bear much that I may take it upon myself and to exult in my strength. After this passage, Nietzsche goes on to list several items that may be considered among the most difficult or trying of life's possible experiences. He indicates that the camel must invite these burdens. For example, he writes, or is it this? Loving those who despise us and offering a hand to the ghost that would frighten us. What Nietzsche is trying to say is that before one can become an Overman, one must first bear a great many burdens. One must battle with fear, love, truth, death, confusion, thirst for knowledge, and for all other aspects of human existence. The camel embraces these challenges in the name of duty and ability. Put another way, the camel does not run from life or distract itself from it. It greets life head on and embraces the difficulties that it presents out of a sense of duty. In doing so, the camel is humbled and strengthened. Only through suffering these challenges does the camel gain the strength and the resilience necessary to attain the next spiritual metamorphosis. 2. The Lion Nietzsche goes on to describe how the camel ultimately enters the loneliest desert before becoming a lion. The lonely desert metaphor can be interpreted as follows. The camel has sought out and invited the struggles that life has to offer. In doing so, it has become alienated to a certain extent. It has become different from others and from the society that produced it. It finds itself questioning everything, both its worth and the values of its pursuits. The desert can be seen as a place of existential crisis, where the camel ponders whether or not any universal laws or virtues exist to guide it and give it purpose. For Nietzsche, such universal virtues and absolute purpose do not exist, the camel is forced to confront these possibilities and thus the camel must become a lion. Nietzsche writes, Here the spirit becomes a lion who would conquer his freedom and be master in his own desert. Here he seeks out his last master. He wants to fight him and his last god. For ultimate victory, he wants to fight with the great dragon. Who is the great dragon whom the spirit will no longer call a lord and god? Thou shalt, is the name of the great dragon. But the spirit of the lion says, I will. Thou shalt lies in his way, sparkling like gold and animal covered with scales, and on every scale shines a golden thou shalt. My brothers, why is there a need in the spirit for the lion? Why is not the beast a burden which renounces and is reverent enough to create new values that even the lion cannot do? But the creation of freedom for one's self for new creation that is within the power of the lion, the creation of freedom for one's self and a sacred no, even to duty for that my brothers, the lion is needed. To assume the right to new values that is most terrifying assumption for a reverent spirit that would bear much. Well that was kind of tongue twister so let's kind of decode what Nietzsche was trying to say there. When the camel discovers the universal truth in virtue may be non-existent. It has two choices. It can reject life as meaningless and probably commit suicide. Or it can claim its own freedom and it create its own meaning in virtue. To become an overman, the camel must obviously do the latter. It must ascend. To do this, the camel must destroy the largest barrier to true freedom. The duty in virtue imposed by tradition and society. This is what Nietzsche's great dragon represents. The camel had been a slave to the dragon, inviting life's challenges but always living in accordance with the values imposed upon it from others. The dragon of thou shalt can also be seen as simply representing everyone who would try to tell one how to live one's life. The camel must reject this dragon of tradition and commands but it cannot in its current duty loving form thus it must become a lion. It trials have allowed it to attain enough strength to become a lion. The lion symbolizes courage, tenacity, disillusionment and even rage. Only in this state is a spirit able to deliver the sacred no. The sacred no represents the utter rejection of external control and all traditional values. Everything imposed by other individuals, society, churches, government, families and all forms of propaganda must be denied to an empowered roar. This is not to say that the lion believes all virtues and values imposed by such entities to be evil or corrupt. Indeed, they could be useful and good. However, it is the fact that they come from an external authority that requires their rejection. An overman is an absolute individual and thus must create his own values on his own terms. Metamorphosis 3. The Child After the lion has delivered the sacred no, the spirit still must make one more transformation to become an overman. The spirit must become a child, Nietzsche writes. But I say, my brothers, what can the child do that the lion could not do? Why must the praying lion still become a child? Their child is innocence and forgetting, a new beginning, a game, a self-propelled wheel, a first movement, a sacred yes. For the game of creation, my brothers, a sacred yes is needed. The spirit now wills his own will and he who has been lost to the world now conquers his own world. Nietzsche holds that the lion must again transform in order to forget. The spirit has undergone much duress and turmoil in its transformation, but it must cleanse its mind of the past. In delivering a sacred yes, the child affirms the moment and affirms uncertainty and affirms the flux of life. The child becomes a self-propelled wheel, just as life can be viewed in the same terms. The child elects to roll with life and dance and play with it. Ultimately, for Nietzsche, pure creation arrives from the state of play. When one can achieve a child's mind, a mind immersed in the moment and filled with wonders and playfulness, then one can will his own will, create his own virtue, and thus create his own reality in undergoing the final metamorphoses. The spirit overcomes itself, conquers its world, and reaches the state of Overman. The spirit achieves liberation. This is very similar to what Joseph Campbell has been preaching and talking about with the hero's journey. There's different stages of evolution and journey that one must have to go through. And it doesn't matter where you are in your life, what stage of life you are, we all have to go through this journey. Now the thing is, whether you're going from the camel to the lion to the child, it repeats. It's a fractal, repeats, repeats. So the process is never ending. This is the journey of becoming a human being as opposed to a human doing. I hope you enjoyed this video. If you like videos like this, please leave a comment below this video, subscribe, and I will share a link with you with the write up who wrote this because it's phenomenal piece. I didn't want to dive in too deep into this, but I highly recommend you continue reading it. I think it's one of the best takes or simplified takes of Nietzsche's, especially for a lot of people who can't, who have a hard time understanding thus Spokes are a two-star because it is, it's a different book to read. And so I'll see you guys soon. Take care. Peace.