Counterreality Three Metamorphoses Talisman Friedrich Nietzsche

• Enamel Pin, 5.1 x 3.8cm
• Camel: persistence
  Lion: freedom
  Child: creation
• Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophy on self-actualization.
• A kind reminder of life’s purpose and transformation

Three Metamorphoses Story

Three metamorphoses of the spirit I named for you: how the spirit became a camel, and the camel a lion, and finally a child.

— Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Friedrich Nietzsche(1844–1900)

The Three Metamorphoses story was originally written by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. He believed that the purpose of human existence is to achieve one’s full potential. To achieve that, a spirit had to go through three transformations: a camel, a lion, and a child. These talismans are made of soft enamel. The set comes with three animals and each animal represents survival, freedom, and creation. Besides a beautiful, fun decoration, the talisman brings unique values to your life and your way of being.

The camel is the weight-bearing spirit. It can carry great weight and survive in the desert. “To the spirit there is much that is heavy; to the strong, carrying spirit imbued with reverence. Its strength demands what is heavy and heaviest.”

Then you become a lion, the ruler. “Here the spirit becomes lion, it wants to hunt down its freedom and be master in its own desert.” The lion is at the top of the food chain. It wins its game by breaking the rules dictated by a higher power, which Nietzsche called “the great dragon”. The dragon can represent anything that places commands on you. “Thou shalt” is the name of the great dragon. In modern English, it means “You shall”. After you conquer the great dragon, you won’t need to say “I will” any more. However, although a lion can create freedom for itself, it is still not capable of creating new values.

The spirit then transforms into a child, the creator. “The child is innocence and forgetting, a new beginning, a game, a wheel rolling out of itself, a first movement, a sacred yes-saying.” Adults can have a lot of structures in their heads which make them do things in certain ways because they have accepted the rules and values society regarded as legitmate. A child doesn’t know much of the world. It doesn’t care about how others perceive it and it can come up with things that are totally new. Picasso once said: “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist after he grows up.”

Which of the three transformation stages are you in?