The Symbolism and Celebration of the Earth in Nietzsche's "Zarathustra"

Abstract

In Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Nietzsche consistently utilizes the symbols and structures of the onto-theo-logical tradition for the purpose of providing the most profound critique, and the ultimate shattering, of the foundations of that tradition. I wish to investigate here the manner in which one of those symbols, that of the earth, functions within that work, and to discuss the broader significance of this aspect of Nietzsche's critique of the tradition. As a touchstone to this investigation, it may be helpful to outline certain cross-cultural features of the lived experience of human spatiality, as is quite clearly expressed in Mircea Eliade's work on the phenomenology of religious experience.1 Secular space may be characterized as that which is of neutral value, that which has no innate qualitative differences, and is thus indicative of a chaotic, unstructured level of human experience. Sacred space represents the foundation of the world qua hierophany: it secures an absolute fixed point, a center, in relation to which man may orient himself within the relativity of the chaos of his secular existence. Sacred space : cosmos = secular space : chaos. This orientation is achieved by the consecration of space, which is a form of construction of a holy place as the center of the world, which achieves the connection between underworld, earth, and heaven. Such a construction is man's ritualistic reproduction of the originary cosmogony, of the Creation of the world: it is man's reproduction of the work of the gods. It is precisely in this sacred space where man is closest to the gods, the place where the earth opens up unto the heavens. Thus, the earth is an all-encompassing symbol. It sustains all relationships, from the chaotic to the structured, from the sacred to the profane, from the allgiving, fruitful womb, the ripe, nourishing Earth-Mother, to the evil, destructive Terrible One, bringing decay, famine, and plague.2 Earth symbolism is not merely open to interpretation according to the context within which the particular symbol is located, but it is rather the very symbol of ambivalence. We may find a parallel use of earth symbolism within Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra. On the one hand, we may understand the earth here to symbolize that primitive text of nature which is the chaotic,3 differential4 system of the will-to-power, the ultimate foundation of Nietzsche's ontology. But we must