Also sprach Zarathustra / Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Interpretative summary
Thus speaks Zarah2nd as interpreter/translator
'Also sprach Zarathustra'is the masterwork of Nietzsche and took 8 years. There are many
opinions about it and that's why I wrote this interpretative summary.
The 'deep-ploughing'-message of Nietzsche is of utter importance but he was IN RATIONAL VIEW no great author, and
that may have caused the enormous difference in opinions. I'll play
ghostbuster and bust the prejudices.
.
Nietzsche shows that Catholicism caused the dualism 'spiritual-catholic-society' / wilderness-of-sinful-behavior.
Nietzsche blames Germany's heavy Protestant tradition for corrupting philosophy, and he criticizes Immanuel Kant especially for misusing being 'rational' prophet for
'blessing' the dualism physical world versus 'spiritual world' ('pure reason').
Drawing conclusions is your own job, but,
being an outsider, I was quite surprised:
- Friedrich Nietzsche in 'rational' eyes is 'rationally' arrogant,
but modest in common sense eyes
- Nietzsche CARTOONS a Superman (Übermensch), and urges everyone to act as one.
- Nietzsche sees religiously worshipping gods (ritual use of logic)
instead of using intuition as main problem
- "Also Sprach Zarathustra" is a biblical SATIRE around Superman Zarathustra.
- Nietzsche certainly is NO 'Antichrist'.
Be aware that 'Also Sprach Zarathustra' was written in 8 years time by a man who had become disabled
and lost his 'rational' job as professor. Nietzsche was brilliant and because of attacking 'rational' views mistakenly considered as a mind terrorist. Even when dying Nietzsche still wanted to share his in 'rational' way revolutionary common sense views about life, and showed that
he preferred common sense above using the virtual logic rationalism (since Enlightenment in use amongst professors).
Quote Nietzsche: A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything.
Orthodox scientists often call Zoroastrianism 'pagan' . Correct in Roman view because the Latin origin of 'pagan' indicated 'outside Roman territory' (alien).
The godfather of Zoroastrianism was called Zoroaster in Greek and Zarathustra in Persian.
Often a bit too easy is claimed that Nietsche in "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" placed his own philosophy in mouth
of Zarathustra. Partly he might have done so, but the common sense ideas in Nietzsches Zarathustra
did not fall from heaven.
Claimed is also that 'Israelites' rejected Zoroastrianism. Correct if 'Israelites' means 'Jerusalem follower of Pharisees'.
In rural Judea that obviously was different. Zarah2nd: I can't read Zoroastrian texts in Persian, but what I saw translated is certainly not 'pagan' (in modern sense) and evokes similar feelings as Buddhism.
Nietzsche had a TREMENDOUS knowledge of Greek and Roman language, culture, and history
Nietzsche realized the destructive role of Alexander the 'Great' (Iskander the Cursed), who annihilated the alien Zoroastrian culture.
Possibly Nietzsche as professor still had access to Parsi documents brought one century earlier from Bombay to Europe.
Mind: Zarathustra, or Zoroaster is an existing name
in Zoroastrian faith and philosophy. It was purposely chosen by Nietzsche. Most members of this belief are found in India and they are called Parsis.
It is the endangered Farsi belief fled after the Muslim invasion from Iran to India and Tibet (see map with Sassanid Persia, Gupta Empire, India and Tibet BEFORE Muslim invasion of Persia).
Many Tibetan rites resemble Parsi ones. Maybe that's why the 'common sense' of the Dalai Lama makes sense to many Western People.
Farsi is mostly known as the Persian language in Iran but also was a culture. In fact Palestine for more than 2 ages was part of the Parsi Persian Empire.
It seems that Jesus integrated Parsi ethics and Hebrew history.
Before flying for the Mohammedan Jihad the Farsi already around 1000 years earlier had met the philosophy behind the Roman variant of Christianity.
Alexander the Great brought dualism (the then still very infantile doctrine of split mind and body, invented by Aristotle.
Thinking in terms of worthless bodies and superior 'spirits' in 'heaven' made soldiers think that their sole mission was offer their mindless slave bodies honorably in service of their 'spirited' masters.
The Farsi leaders clearly thought this zombie-thinking VERY dangerous and kept
believing in unity of mind and body (inherently seeing slaves as unlucky but common humans). This became the kernel of Buddhism.
Gautama Buddha was a South Persian prince and contemporary of Mahavira. The philosophy of the last one inspired Ghandi in saying:
: If anybody developed the doctrine of nonviolence, it was Lord Mahavira. Mahavira and Gautama Buddha
both had as first principle respect all life. Gautama (in Persian history known as Gaumata) grew up in a Zoroastrian society.
It is wise to compare book and 'summary'. In most
chapters Nietzsche uses many sentences to prove the same point.
Being handicapped myself I grasp his frustrating struggle to defend his common sense views in a 'rational' world. Without modern aids that must have been agonizing.
And I seem perfectly equipped to 'explain' his common sense thoughts. Mind NOT in rational view because Nietzsche attacked
'rationality'. That also explains the enormous resistance that Nietzsche met in the top layers of a mainly 'rational' world.
Western 'leaders' felt that he with common sense was shaking the basics of the Western World, and with ALL means defended 'rationality'. The snakes in the paradise called the 'prophet' Nietzsche a 'devil'.
Nietsche about Western Paradigm
(Nietsche: Zarathustra, 240).
You see, it is as if the self were trying to manifest in space and time,
but since it consists of so many elements that have neither space nor time qualities,
it cannot bring them altogether into space and time.
And those efforts of the self to manifest in the empirical world result in man:
he is the result of the attempt. (Zarah2nd: Rational Man)
So much of the self remains outside, it doesn't enter this
At the age of thirty Zarathustra starts living in the mountains. After 10
years he holds a speech to nobody. He honors light, and notices to feel filled
with wisdom.
The filled cup wants to overflow, like a golden stream. Zarathustra wants
to share his won knowledge and to become human again.
Thus Zarathustra goes down the mountain.
(Nietzsche is 29 at the start of writing and this book took 8 years.)
Von den drei
Verwandlungen (3 changes)
The 3 changes of the body after puberty; intuition/emotion turns into camel (gets tough), camel
becomes lion (ready to defend own local intuition) , lion turns into child. That stands for the 3 stages of adult
life: Intuition becomes tough (able to carry), then strong and ready to fight, and
finally sees everything as play
Tough is amongst others to let your pride be hurt. Strong and ready to
fight is like willing to be free.
The playful child stands for returning to innocence, and for the play of
creation.
(Obviously Nietzsche in his thirties feels in the 3rd stage of intuition as
described by him)
Von den
Lehrstühlen der Tugend (the important things in life)
Worshipping of awareness followed by a good sleep is the level of
teaching that Zarathustra meets (referreng to consciousness science?). The teachers are considered to be wise men
Zarathustra compares them to clowns, and prophecies that their time is up
Von den
Hinterweltlern (about the 'down to earth'-lings)
There was a time that Zarathustra saw the world as the creation of
unsatisfied and bored Gods.
In that period he saw humans only as pieces in a play of chess. Until he
realized that such Gods were a human creations too.
He now rejects God images and speaks to the down on earth beings:
I learned myself a new pride.
I'll learn a new wanting to humans.
Zarathustra notices many sick people amongst those who fear and worship
Gods, they hate freedom-fighters and they suffer from 'fairness'
Von den
Verächtern des Leibes (On the despisers of the body)
(about those who worship the mind-body split)
Zarathustra states that body and mind are a unity. So he warns for neglecting
physical feelings and worshipping only the mind. Together intuition (sense-archive) and body (sense-motor) make a
beautiful machine. Make the best of it.
Nietzsche writes: Body am I, and 'soul'-thus speaks the child. And why should one not speak like children?
But the awakened and knowing say: body am I entirely, and nothing else; and soul is only a word for something about the body.
The body is a great reason, a plurality with one sense, a war and a peace, a herd and a shepherd.
An instrument of your body is also your little reason, my brother, which you call 'spirit'--a little instrument and toy of your great reason.
Von den
Freuden- und Leidenschaften (about emotions)
Zarathustra speaks about virtue. He states that virtues should be
personal, and not like in religion like some holy kind of dogma for the masses.
That way you lose your emotion (which you learned to see as unimportant) and end
up with only generalized virtues.
Vom bleichen
Verbrecher (about bureaucracy)
Zarathustra rhetorically asks if the massive killing of humans because of
dogma's, and animals because of misplaced superiority in the end really soothes
the predator part of intuition. Human goodness (translated in law and order)makes him feel sick, NOT its vices. Better to die
because of a 'crazy' freedom fight.
He prefers the fights to be about 'Treue' or Justice and not about Virtue
Vom Lesen und
Schreiben (about reading and writing)
Zarathustra rethorically honours 'writing with own blood' as form of
originality. He would like that everybody could read, but warns not to forget
(creative) writing (and start a rigid bureaucracy).
Vom Baum am
Berge (about the tree under the mountain)
Zarathustra's meets a young man. This youth tells him that he has high
ambitions, but is afraid of the evil forces in himself.
Zarathustra tells him that he longs for freedom, but still has a lot of
prison in him. He warns him not to lose this longing, but to honor and welcome
it. (let the tree grow as high as the mountain)
Von den
Predigern des Todes (about the preachers of death = preachers of Kingdom of Heaven)
Zarathustra sees a world full of people of which most only live to die.
He shows no mercy and sees dying as their only reason of being.
Vom Krieg und
Kriegsvolke (about willpower and being warrior-like)
Zarathustra honors
being brave and warrior-like. He shows his disgust for those who fight for
money, instead of for their convictions. He claims that hating can be a good
thing, if it means defending your own viewpoint. You need good enemies as well
as good friends.
Vom neuen Götzen (about new gods)
Zarathustra
sees nations as the new gods. They kill originality, and only return rules and
a false sense of togetherness.
Von den Fliegen des Marktes (about the flees of the market)
Zarathustra compares
worldly leaders with actors. True greatness is according to him creative and
doesn't behave like salesman on a market.
Von der Keuschheit (about chastity)
Zarathustra honors
chastity, and sees lust as source for much evil.
Vom Freunde (about friendship)
A true friend is
Mirror and real Enemie according to Zarathustra.He/she is you, and should want to be you. Friendship is different
from love, it doesn't really need love.
(the image of women
Nietzsche uses is typically a product of his time)
Von tausend und Einem Ziele
(about thousand and one goals)
Zarathustra saw as
many goals als nations. All driven by what they think is good and bad. But he
observes that states tend to make the concept 'good' and 'bad' absolute, and in
that away they take away the original creativity of people.
Von der Nächstenliebe (about Nächstenliebe)
Zarathustra observes
in humans a lot of social care, but according to him this is hatred of oneself.
He prefers love for convictions, or real hatred for those of others
Vom Wege des Schaffenden (the way of the creating ones)
Zarathustra 'warns'
that being really creative and original means chosing for lonelyness. But he
respects and loves those that take that way.
Von alten und jungen Weiblein
(about old and young women)
Zarathustra claims
that:
Men are for (young)
women: a means to get pregnant.
Young women are for
men: a play and a wanted danger.
Vom Biss der Natter (about the bite of the snake)
Zarathustra pleads
against 'turning the other cheek' and for seeing the good side of bad actions.
Admit that bad also exists and value it.
Von Kind und Ehe (about child and wedding)
Zarathustra asks why
marrying and having children if you're not creative. He asks indirectly if
having children should not be left to Victors, Masters of Emotions, Masters of
Senses and Masters of Virtue?
A child should be 'a
higher body' and again a Creator.
Vom freien Tode (about free death)
Zarathustra claims
that death is not something to fear. His lesson is: you have to die at the
right time.
Death is victorious
for the ones Wans that have been creative, it's a feast.
Von der schenkenden Tugend (about the generous virtue)
1
Zarathustra claims: a
giving virtue is the highest virtue.
2
Zarathustra claims:
the 'down earth' only has hope if the creative ones are generous.
3
Zarathustra claims:
You can't say pupil forever. Don't fall into the trap of worshipping your teachers.
Stay alert, don't create gods.
That is his
image of the 'Übermensch'.
Also sprach Zarathustra / interpretative summary of Also sprach Zarathustra / nietsche uebermensch / Masterwork of Nietzsche/ Nietzsche Religion / Nietzsche Von den drei Verwandlungen / Nietzsche Von den Lehrstühlen der Tugend / Nietzsche Von den Hinterweltlern / Von den Verächtern des Leibes / Nietzsche Von den Freuden- und Leidenschaften / Nietzsche Vom bleichen Verbrecher / Nietzsche Vom Lesen und Schreiben / Nietzsche Vom Baum am Berge / Nietzsche Von den Predigern des Todes / Nietzsche Vom Krieg und Kriegsvolke / Nietzsche Vom neuen Götzen / Nietzsche Von den Fliegen des Marktes / Nietzsche Von der Keuschheit / Nietzsche Vom Freunde / Von tausend und Einem Ziele / Nietzsche Von der Nächstenliebe / Nietzsche Vom Wege des Schaffenden / Von alten und jungen Weiblein / Nietzsche Vom Biss der Natter / Nietzsche Von Kind und Ehe / Nietzsche Vom freien Tode / Von der schenkenden Tugend / Nietzsche Das Kind mit dem Spiegel / Nietzsche Auf den glückseligen Inseln / Von den Mitleidigen / Nietzsche Von den Priestern / Nietzsche Von den Tugendhaften/ Nietzsche Vom Gesindel/ Nietzsche Von den Taranteln / Nietzsche Von den berühmten Weisen / Nietzsche Das Nachtlied / Nietzsche Das Tanzlied / Nietzsche Das Grablied / Nietzsche Von der Selbst-Ueberwindung / Nietzsche Von den Erhabenen / Nietzsche Vom Lande der Bildung / Nietzsche Von der unbefleckten Erkenntniss / Nietsche Von den Gelehrten / Nietzsche Von den Dichtern / Nietzsche Von grossen Ereignissen / Nietzsche Der Wahrsager / Nietzsche Von der Erlösung / Nietzsche Von der Menschen-Klugheit / Nietzsche Die stillste Stunde / Nietzsche Der Wanderer / Nietzsche Vom Gesicht und Räthsel / Nietzsche Von der Seligkeit wider Willen / Nietzsche Vor Sonnen-Aufgang / Nietsche Vor Sonnen-Aufgang / Nietzsche Von der verkleinernden Tugend / Nietzsche Auf dem Oelberge / Nietzsche Vom Vorübergehen / Nietzsche Von den Abtrünnigen / Nietzsche Die Heimkehr / Nietzsche Von den drei Bösen / Nietzsche Vom Geist der Schwere / Nietzsche Von alten und neuen Tafeln / Nietzsche Der Genesende / Nietzsche Von der grossen Sehnsucht / Nietzsche Das andere Tanzlied / Nietzsche Die sieben Siegel / Nietzsche Das Honig-Opfer / Nietzsche Der Nothschrei / Nietzsche Gespräch mit den Königen / Nietzsche Der Blutegel / Nietzsche Der Zauberer / Nietzsche Ausser Dienst / Nietzsche Der hässlichste Mensch / Nietzsche Der freiwillige Bettler / Nietzsche Der Schatten / Nietzsche Mittags / Nietzsche Die Begrüssung / Nietzsche Das Abendmahl / Nietzsche Vom höheren Menschen / Nietzsche Das Lied der Schwermuth / Nietzsche Unter Töchtern der Wüste / Nietzsche Die Erweckung / Nietzsche Das Eselsfest / Nietzsche Das Nachtwandler-Lied / Nietzsche Das Zeichen / Also Sprach Zarathustra summary / summary Also Sprach Zarathustra
Also sprach Zarathustra / Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Zarah2nd: I can't read Zoroastrian texts in Persian, but what I saw translated is certainly not 'pagan' (in modern sense) and evokes similar feelings as Buddhism.
Nietzsche had a TREMENDOUS knowledge of Greek and Roman language, culture, and history 
