The Genius of the Heart
Nietzsche's beautiful words stand in direct contrast to nihilism and point the way to a golden spirit-led world
Friedrich Nietzsche’s “Genius of the Heart” passage:
“[T]he 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—the genius of the heart who teaches the doltish and rash hand to hesitate and reach out more delicately; who guesses the concealed and forgotten treasure, the drop of graciousness and sweet spirituality under dim and thick ice, and is a divining rod for every grain of gold that has long lain buried in the dungeon of much mud and sand; the genius of the heart from whose touch everyone walks away richer... newer to [themselves] than before, broken open, blown at and sounded out by a thawing wind, perhaps more unsure, tenderer, more fragile, more broken, but full of hopes that as yet have no name…” (Nietzsche, "The Genius of the Heart," Beyond Good and Evil, passage 295)
Every time I feel that the world has become too vulgar to inhabit, I go to two texts: The Sermon on the Mount, Jesus’s eloquent prophesies about one ought to do to bring a new heaven and a new earth, and Friedrich Nietzsche’s “Genius of the Heart” passages, which reminds me of the person I want to be, open, vulnerable, blown though, creative, empathetic, spiritual, tender and broken at times “but full of hopes that as yet have no name.”
We all die in this world, and it is said that not all truly live. Nietzsche’s passage, deeply absorbed, communicates the character of the deeply living: one who “tastes a new desire” rather than simply hides in comfort, “to lie still as a mirror,” rather than be consumed with endless activity, so “that the deep sky may mirror itself” in us and so acquaint ourselves with far loftier powers, knowledge, and grace than we can obtain even through our most heroic strivings.
Perhaps approaching middle age brings on this contemplative turn, but one loses one’s pretensions as one gains wisdom. This life, and all it offers, all its bells and whistles, is necessarily birthed from a domain that offers much more. As I retreat from simple accomplishment toward a dawning desire to know the fabric which created me, I am brought by this desire to “concealed and forgotten treasure” and “the drop of graciousness and sweet spirituality under dim and thick ice, and is a divining rod for every grain of gold” buried in the mud and sand of the world.
Perhaps COVID created for all of us a long moment of reflection and made artificial those attributes and functions of society we took for granted (and our relationship with them). Now I am ready to retrieve this golden graciousness, this concealed and forgotten treasure that got lost in the frenetic consumption of worldly pursuits, including starting this Spiritually Confident Substack blog.
Let me know in comments what new things you are being awakened to, and PLEASE let me know what you would like me to talk about. Let this be a community.
Yours truly, Zeus