essentialsalts | Nietzsche's Devotional Poem to Dionysus: The Genius of the Heart @untimelyreflections | Uploaded May 2022 | Updated October 2024, 1 hour ago.
Beyond Good & Evil, 295, "The Genius of the Heart":

"...the genius of the heart,

who silences all that is loud and self-satisfied,

teaching it to listen;

who smooths rough souls and lets them taste a new desire -

to lie still as a mirror, that the deep sky may mirror itself in them -..."

In this passage - essentially a prose poem by Nietzsche - he expresses praise for Dionysus, and describes himself as his last initiate and disciple. The poem encapsulates the spiritual message of Nietzsche's mature philosophy: the spiritualization of human feelings, the longing for something greater, and the demand for the absolute love of life.

Episode Art: John Collier - The Priestess of Bacchus (Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

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