The Camel
The first metamorphosis
The spirit that kneels to be loaded.
The Camel: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
In the first of Zarathustra’s speeches the spirit becomes a camel, then a lion, then a child. The camel kneels and asks to be loaded with what is heaviest, and hurries into the desert with its burden. In his seminar Jung read it as the spirit bearing the weight of duty and tradition, which must come before the lion’s “No” and the child’s new beginning.
It crosses the desert carrying its own water: endurance, and the humility that can be mistaken for strength.
The Camel: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
The camels of the Magi; the needle’s eye of the Gospel; the ship of the desert.
In the Press’s Books
“What is heavy? so asketh the load-bearing spirit; then kneeleth it down like the camel, and wanteth to be well laden,” in Thus Spake Zarathustra, “The Three Metamorphoses.”
From the Sources
Zarathustra says that the load-bearing spirit, asking what is heavy, kneels down like the camel and wants to be well laden.
“What is heavy? so asketh the load-bearing spirit; then kneeleth it down like the camel, and wanteth to be well laden.”
Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None, First Part, discourse I, "The Three Metamorphoses". Translated by Thomas Common. The text, read in part
Zarathustra returns to the image: man is hard to bear because he carries too many extraneous things on his shoulders, and like the camel kneels down and lets himself be well laden.
“But man himself only is hard to bear! The reason thereof is that he carrieth too many extraneous things on his shoulders. Like the camel kneeleth he down, and letteth himself be well laden.”
Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None, Third Part, discourse LV, "The Spirit of Gravity". Translated by Thomas Common. The text, read in part
Each passage is quoted from the text named, which the press fetched and read, and was checked word for word against a fresh copy of it; the link opens that copy. Passages are given as printed, without the editors’ footnote numbers, and with words broken across lines joined.
Where to Read
- Nietzsche’s Zarathustra: Notes of the Seminar Given in 1934–1939 (1988)
- Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra, “The Three Metamorphoses”
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
In the Glossary: Three metamorphoses.
Also among Beasts
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“The Camel.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/camel.
Nearby in the alphabet: The Caduceus: Two serpents about a winged staff: opposites held in balance. Calcinatio: The fire that dries and purifies. The Castle: The fortress of the treasure, hard to find and harder to enter. The Cat: Independent, nocturnal, and never quite tame.