JacobWhat I am missing here essentially is the creative aspect of the child. The "I Am" of the child is in it's perpetual, self-propelling wheel of creation. Being, when understood as becoming is creation. It is nothing else.
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This creative aspect leads me to think that the child is as much the Magician as he the Fool.
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Well the first metamorphosis of the child/fool is the magician, here he has the first tools to utilise his creative potential [often the magician is shown next to a table with tools upon it]. I’d say that the creation aspect remains out of his hands ~ as shown by the metaphors of the camel and the lion, the lion thinks it finally has it within its clasp but is only an egoistic shadow of what occurs in the world card [where all the elements of creation are at his fingertips].
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The Camels understanding of being is thus flawed, as he sees things as static, as fixed values that he has to uphold. The lion takes a step to subjectivity, but still considers himself as something fixed, and only his will as dynamic. So the becoming is in him a property of being. Only in the child does the fluidity of existence come fully into play, as this I Am does not say "I Am such and such", but only describes the process of play, of creative transformation.
Agreed.
Nietzsches symbology here is a bit problematic since it posits the child as a the end of a sequence, when in nature it is of course the beginning. The Tarot is circular, but I think that we must not see the metamorphoses of the spirit that way. The Child really is the goal.
It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child. ~ Picasso
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The child androgen is equally at the end of the tarot sequence, but the unnumbered card the fool/child is not the cycle and is only expressed through the cycles. I don’t know why Nietzsche uses the symbol of the child, the fool is an element within the child that carries through which for me is a better symbol. Presumably he is either thinking of the child as one would the fool, or he had some reason I am missing for using the child.
Naturally though the tarot belongs to an ancient set, perhaps Nietzsche wanted to get away from all the symbolism and bring such common themes down to fundamental symbols known to all. A kind of Occam’s occult!
I think that actually the person on the World card does have moral motivations, but that he has balanced them so that they do not hinder him. He is surrounded by symbolizations the four fixed signs of astrology, which which all have their virtues, which could be seen as morals. But is the card below not much more like a creative innocence saying "I Am"?
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I would think the balance in the world card does not need moral enforcement any more than the innocence in the child. The sun is the lion yes, very much so [the sign of Leo]. Perhaps the burning rays of the sun eventually melts the ego of the lion, hence the lion eats itself? This somehow reminds me of Akhenaton and the Atun, eventually he and his religion of the sun [lion] destroys itself.
This card is somewhat the high-point, the climax, of the cyclus of the Great Arcana. Kind of like high noon in the day, mid-summer in the year. Where the World may rather be the time of harvest, of completion, which already premeditates the next cycle.
A high point, hmm yes. perhaps the world is Osiris painted with a green face [the green man], to me that is more like spring, the sewing of the seeds, and would put the sun at the harvest. Again the sun is reaping and the child on the horse is like someone showing the seeds of the harvest with all the often premature assurance that brings.
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I would personally rather place the knowing and doing here at the woman projecting her will actively, controlling the lions by concentration. I havent seen the footage, and no doubt she looks very relaxed, but think that if she would drop her concentration, the lions would attack her. The power of commanding presence requires a persons full concentration. Its just that such persons are used to concentrate, they are trained in it, are able to concentrate all day. Which reminds me of something I overheard the other day while having a drink - two french people were talking behind me and suddenly the woman quoted something in english: "concentration is the natural piety of the soul".
In the footage she casually strolls along with lions around her, it is instantly recognisable that there is some manner of communication going on here. This is a common theme when you consider Hindu scene of Krishna sat with animals of the woods around him [even a tiger if I remember correctly], and I think there are similar Buddhist images. You threw me there at first saying it was concentration, but yes I suppose its like driving, there is a learned manner of concentrating without effort.
I like the unspoken conversation you had with the French people - cool when stuff like that happens.
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I think that you're right there, especially in the context of Diekons post, that Nietzsche was more Lion than Child. The quote of the OP could very well be seen as a description of himself, and would quite perfectly explain his collapse!
Hmm maybe similar to Jesus’ intent to destroy himself [though I doubt if many would accept that lols], though here became manifest as eventual mental illness. If there was a physical medical condition, then I would expect that also to be a manifestation of this. This seams to be quite a general and familiar theme with thinkers and artists etc.
Somehow I think its all within the seed of their life that it unfolds to such an end, however there are always signs, that if read correctly the many facets of their unfolding lives, may find eventual flowering in the world. His wish to be superman was probably the very thing that blocked his eventual progress. …he set the end point at a premature juncture [the lion].
