Beatus homo qui invenit sapientiam et qui affluit prudentia

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NIETZSCHE AND ETERNAL RETURN

I come again with this sun, with this eagle, with this serpent - not to a new life or a better life or a similar life:

I come again and again in all eternity to this identical and selfsame life, so that I may again teach the Eternal Return of all things.

-         Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra

The principle concept behind Friedrich Nietzsche`s magnum opus, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, is one of eternal return, the cyclic nature of history, life, and the cosmos. He drew his, initial, inspiration from the classical writings of Empedocles and Heraclitus, and the sacred writings of Hinduism and the Persians, from where he derived the name of his protagonist, Zarathustra. The belief in the cycles of nature and time are fused within these works, and it must have been from this historical source that Nietzsche derived much of his philosophy, however as with many things it was an actual experience that concreted it within his mind.

             In August, 1881, the 36 years old Nietzsche was wandering through the woods by Lake Silvaplana, in a depressed, and melancholic state of mind, his health failing, and his career uninspired. But as he rounded a bend he was confronted by the sight of huge rock towering over him. In a sudden flash of inspiration, which struck him like a thunderbolt, he realized that "everything that transpires on Earth must occur again and again for eternity". The experience had a deep and profound effect on Nietzsche, he moved out of his melancholia, and became positively buoyant as he began his work on Thus Spoke Zarathustra, accepting the comfort of the certainty, and durability of an eternal return.

        But while Thus Spoke Zarathustra allowed Nietzsche to present his appreciation of cyclical time within a philosophical construct, he wanted to also present it, and prove it scientifically. Although he possessed only a layperson`s knowledge of physics, Nietzsche, after reading everything available on physics, set about translating his philosophical ideas into science.

 The extent of universal energy is limited. Consequently the number of states, changes, combinations and evolutions of this energy, although it may be enormous and practically incalculable, is at any rate definite and not unlimited (and therefore) the present process of evolution must be repitition. Inasmuch as the entire state of all forces continually returns, everything has existed an infinite number of times. 

        Remarkably, Nietzsche`s scientific argument for a cyclic history and cyclic cosmos, despite his lack of scientific savvy, was years ahead of much of scientific thought, where only now the idea of the oscillating or cyclic universe has come to the fore.

       Just as Nietzsche drew his insights from a combination of ancient wisdom and personal experiences with the Eternal, science has been gradually experiencing a spiritual awakening, as the subconscious impacts on the various fields of science. Humanity knows inherently that the cosmos is cyclic, and it knows that there is likewise more to life and science than we are usually given to believe.

 (c)ORTHIA BLACK-MARE

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