A Pagan Narnia?

Having acknowledged the motivation for having a Jewish Narnia we must address the question of how to write one. Perhaps the best way to do this is to determine how C.S. Lewis wrote the Chronicles of Narnia. If his method is particularly Christian, our work becomes more difficult. If, however, the method is religiously agnostic, perhaps the path ahead is already partially paved. 

Critics have long pointed to the lack of an overarching framework of the seven books of the Chronicles of Narnia. While three of the books are clearly Christological: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe where Aslan is resurrected, The Magician’s Nephew where Aslan is the Creator, and The Last Battle where we have the antichrist and apocalypse, the other four are not. As if that was not sufficiently strange, the stories introduce a hodge-podge of mythological characters, with Bacchus and Silenus on the same pages as a modern-day depiction of Santa Claus complete with reindeer and presents. J.R.R. Tolkien was especially dismissive saying that the series was carelessly and superficially written. Others simply stated that the works were written by an author who was a novice, especially in children’s literature. Even Lewis’ supporters were left struggling to understand these seeming inconsistencies.    

The search for a unifying theme encompassing the seven books of the Chronicles of Narnia (and the criticism of its lack of such a theme) underwent a monumental shift with Prof. Michael Ward’s publication of “Planet Narnia.” Ward’s thesis addressed all of these charges and more, satisfactorily answering: (1) why the Chronicles were written, (2) why they are not uniformly allegorical, and (3) why they are so popular. No summary of “Planet Narnia” can do justice to Ward’s majestic work and I strongly urge everyone to read it. Nevertheless, I will attempt to concisely highlight the main aspects of the work that will help us achieve our goal: creating a Jewish Narnia.

Ward posits that each of the seven books in the Chronicles of Narnia is a manifestation of one of the seven wandering planets in the Ptolemaic model of the solar system. The Ptolmeic model sees Earth at the center of the universe surrounded by increasingly larger concentric spheres or heavens. Each sphere is home to one of the seven wandering stars. In order of closest to furthest they are the moon (Luna), Mercury, Venus, the sun (Sol), Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Outside of the sphere of Saturn is the heaven of the fixed stars and beyond that the Primum Mobile, the sphere that conveys movement to the other spheres. God is the Unmoved Mover, who moves the Primum Mobile but Himself is not moved. While Lewis was fully aware that this model is not scientifically accurate, he believed that the planets in this model had permanent value as spiritual symbols.

Ward then details how each of the Chronicles of Narnia is permeated with symbolism representative of that planet. Not the astronomical body that we associate planets with today, but the pagan God of Roman mythology. Thus, in the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, which manifests Jupiter, we read of Aslan as king of the beasts, Peter as the High King, and that “once a King in Narnia, always a King in Narnia.”  In the Magician’s Nephew, a manifestation of Mercury, we read of the need for swiftness of Shasta and Rabadash, and that the lion (Aslan) was swift of foot. And The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, manifesting Sol, is a tale of sailing to the utter east where the ocean becomes liquid light. 

However, it is not just thematically that the books reflect the chief characteristics of Roman deities. Hints, references, and oblique innuendos of the appropriate god’s characteristics permeate each of the books. Thus, if in the militaristic Mars-manifesting chronicle Prince Caspian we see an emphasis on trees and forests it is due to Cato the Elder’s usage of Mars Silvanus (from which we get the English word sylvan). If we find twins in the Mercurial The Horse and His Boy, it is because Mercury as king of the Gemini is exerting his influence. And if we find moonlit nights and silver chairs in The Silver Chair it must be that Luna is riding her silver chariot across the skies of Narnia.  

In each book Lewis attempted to create an atmosphere or environment of the particular planet/god. In this, his goal is not to identify the particular planet, but to have us live the planet. When we read The Lion the Witch, and the Wardrobe we should live and be Jovial, and when we read Prince Caspian we should live and be Martial.

Why did Lewis not reveal this superstructure of the Chronicles of Narnia?

Lewis did not tell us what he was trying to create because then we would study how successful he was in his creation. Instead, he wanted us to become permeated with the atmosphere of the book and look all around us from the point of view of the atmosphere he created. Reformulating, Lewis wanted us to look ‘along the beam’ and not at the beam. When we look along the beam, we do not pay attention to the beam itself but to what it enlightens.

In The Voyage of the Dawn Treader Lucy looked along the beam and saw God. Lewis wants us to look along the beam and see God from the perspective of each of the seven planets. We will expand on this in our next post.