Key Arguments

• He attributes agency to the mood: it ‘assails’ and ‘compels’ him, shifting responsibility to the affective atmosphere.
• He claims an imminent arrival (‘he has the desire to come’) of a figure whose gender is unknown, heightening mystical ambiguity.
• He ties this to the evening’s fading light, suggesting that transitional times invite visionary deceptions.

Source Quotes

‘To all of you, whatever honours you may confer on yourselves with words, whether you call yourselves “the free spirits” or “the truthful men” or “the penitents of the spirit” or “the emancipated” or “the great yearners”, ‘– to all of you, who like me suffer from , for whom the old God has died and no new God lies as yet in cradles and swaddling clothes– to all of you is my evil spirit and sorcery-Devil well disposed. ‘I know you, you superior humans, I know him– I also know this fiend, whom I love against my will, this Zarathustra: he himself often seems to me like a beautiful holy-man’s mask, ‘– like a new and wondrous masquerade in which my evil spirit, the melancholy Devil, takes pleasure:– I love Zarathustra, it often seems to me, for the sake of my evil spirit.– ‘But assails me already and compels me, this spirit of melancholy, this evening-twilight Devil: and verily, you superior humans, he has the desire– ‘– just open your eyes!– he has the desire to come , whether male or female, I do not yet know: but he is coming, he is compelling me, woe! open up your senses! ‘The day is fading, to all things now the evening comes, even to the best things: now hear and see, you superior humans, which Devil, whether man or woman, this spirit of evening-melancholy is!’

‘I know you, you superior humans, I know him– I also know this fiend, whom I love against my will, this Zarathustra: he himself often seems to me like a beautiful holy-man’s mask, ‘– like a new and wondrous masquerade in which my evil spirit, the melancholy Devil, takes pleasure:– I love Zarathustra, it often seems to me, for the sake of my evil spirit.– ‘But assails me already and compels me, this spirit of melancholy, this evening-twilight Devil: and verily, you superior humans, he has the desire– ‘– just open your eyes!– he has the desire to come , whether male or female, I do not yet know: but he is coming, he is compelling me, woe! open up your senses! ‘The day is fading, to all things now the evening comes, even to the best things: now hear and see, you superior humans, which Devil, whether man or woman, this spirit of evening-melancholy is!’

Key Concepts

• this spirit of melancholy, this evening-twilight Devil: and verily, you superior humans, he has the desire–
• – just open your eyes!– he has the desire to come , whether male or female, I do not yet know: but he is coming, he is compelling me, woe! open up your senses!
• The day is fading, to all things now the evening comes, even to the best things:

Context

The sorcerer builds toward a visionary event, summoning the audience to heightened receptivity during evening twilight, a liminal time associated with suggestibility and illusion.

Perspectives

Nietzsche

Treats evening melancholy as a psychological state prone to mystification; he would caution that such ‘apparitions’ are products of decadence and theatrical suggestion, not revelation.

Zarathustra

Would urge sobriety and strength in the face of twilight moods; true vision should affirm life and create values rather than surrender to compulsive melancholy.