Nietzsche and the Mysticism of Apotheosis

Summary

Nietzsche was a mystic whose post-1882 philosophy expressed his mystical experiences. Drawing on his notes, letters, and published writings, the author shows that Nietzsche had at least two major mystical experiences that generated all the central ideas of his later thought. Apparent tensions in his teachings, especially between the superman and the eternal recurrence, dissolve when understood as products of a mystical epistemology beyond ordinary dualities. This intuitio mystica, which Nietzsche saw as philosophy's real purpose, aligns with a mysticism called apotheosis, where the individual ego identifies with a unity underlying all reality.

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Abstract

This paper argues that Friedrich Nietzsche was a mystic and that his post-Gay Science (1882) thought should be understood as an unfolding expression of his mystical experiences. Drawing on Nietzsche’s Nachlass (notes), letters, and published writings, I show that he undoubtedly had at least two major mystical experiences and that these experiences were the source of all the cardinal motifs of his later thought. The apparent tensions or paradoxes between Nietzsche’s cardinal teachings, above all that between the superman and the eternal recurrence, are resolved once they are understood as products of a mystical epistemology derived from an intuitive source of knowledge purportedly beyond the dualities intrinsic to ordinary modes of cognition. This intuitio mystica, which Nietzsche declared to be the real purpose of all philosophy, is coextensive with a type of mysticism I call apotheosis, based on the individual ego’s identification with a unity underlying all reality.

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