The Three Transformations of Spirit — Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Zarathustra tells a story about how a person's spirit changes three times. First it becomes a camel. The camel wants heavy loads. It kneels down and asks what is heaviest. It takes hard jobs without complaining: humbling itself, staying loyal when abandoned, and loving people who despise it. It follows rules and carries other people's hopes, then hurries into the wilderness like a loaded camel.

In lonely places the camel turns into a lion. The lion fights a big dragon named Thou Shalt. That dragon is every old rule and every you-must that other people handed down. Its scales glitter with a thousand years of values. The lion says I will instead of obeying. But the lion can only break old rules and seize freedom. It cannot create something new on its own.

Last the spirit becomes a child. The child is innocent and forgetful. It starts fresh like a game and says yes to life. Its own will now chooses its own world. Zarathustra says you need all three steps: first learn and carry duty, then rebel against what does not fit, then create your own way forward. He speaks this parable while staying in the town called The Pied Cow.