Nietzsche wrote this idea on the metamorphosis of the spirit, going from a camel to a lion and a lion to a child. The first stage is the camel, and as the camel you are eager to prove yourself worthy of the truth so you seek for the most burdensome of insights and force yourself to live by these insights as a rite of passage. Over time this burden causes the risk of being poisoned by despair and bitterness by the spirit of revenge.
Camel
Next stage of the metamorphosis is the lion. The lion starts when the camel goes through a spiritual transformation discovering there is no god, he is dead. The lion assumes that since god is dead anything is okay to do. They realize that there is nothing holding them back to impose their values on others and forcing their own will on the world. As the lion is making their own rules upon the world they encounter a dragon. The dragon is Nietzsche's depiction of social norms in the society. The lion must face this dragon in mortal combat to get past societal views to be able to flourish in the spiritual transformation the individual is trying to make.
Lion
Lastly is the child, the concept of the child is to gain maturity by rediscovering the seriousness of a child at play. The child spirit is to bring happiness and well being. It is, what Nietzsche says, "The innocence and forgetting, a new beginning, a game, a self-propelled wheel, a first movement, a sacred 'Yes.'" The lion spirit becomes a child by affirming the statement "I will" and their values that they want to adopt in order to complete the spiritual transformation.
Child
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