Tag: bow

Nietzsche, the archer, the bow and the tightrope of the will

Published on: Last updated on: Written by: Categorized into: Philosophy, Characters

The vastness and complexity of Nietzschean thought find a happy synthesis in the evocative symbols of the archer, the bow and the arrow; metaphors that the philosopher often uses in his main writings, so much so that in the Prologue of the “Zarathustra”, one of his first admonitions is: «Woe! The times are approaching when man will no longer shoot the longing arrow beyond man, and his bowstring will have unlearned to vibrate ».

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Apollo the Destroyer: "coincidentia oppositorum" in hyperborean mysticism and eschatology

Published on: Last updated on: Written by: Categorized into: Esotericism, Mito, Shamanism, History of Religions

Although mostly considered in his "luminous" and "uranic" meaning, in the archaic tradition Apollo combines the most extreme dichotomies in his mystical and eschatology: the bow and the lyre, wisdom and "mania", depth and elevation, the catabasis and the journey in spirit to the White Island, the "Fall" of Being and the return of the Golden Age. Starting from ancient sources, we can find similar concepts not only to those of North Asian shamanism and Celtic spirituality, but even to the sacred vision of some modern poets — like Blake, Shelley and Yeats - whose Apollonian chrism will appear clearer to us if we analyze their “Weltanschauung” in the light of the Platonic and Heraclitean doctrines.

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