Till We Have Faces (Part 3)

In our last post we posited that because Orual, "also shall be Psyche," she shares in Psyche's task of making the gods beautiful. This is supported by the fact that in her visions, Orual sees herself assisting Psyche in her tasks. 

How does Orual go about this not in visions, but in the physical world?

Orual makes the gods beautiful by beautifying the people and the society that worships them. She does this by transforming, perhaps revolutionizing, the three pillars of Glome society: its government and laws, its economy and learning, and the House of Ungit itself. 

Under King Trom the palace was, in the words of Orual, “sprawled with the slaves' babies and my father's bastards.” The king appreciated the male slave who would impregnate many females, as it led to more slaves. Thus, the castle was essentially chaos: there was no order and not even a sense of family. The king had his way and then it was left to everyone to fend for themselves. No wonder there were thieves, sluts, and blackmailers in the castle!

Unlike King Trom, a proper biblical monarch will guide his nation towards great spiritual stature. To ensure constant awareness of this mission the biblical king must keep with him at all times a Torah scroll. Furthermore, he is limited in number of wives, wealth, and number of horses (strength of army). The king must never think of himself as divine, as King Trom does, but instead he must reflect the divine. 

Orual succeeds in transforming the castle such that it reflects the divine. How does she accomplish this? She first hangs Batta the blackmailer and mafia kingpin amongst the slaves and servants of the castle. This is not only a just punishment, as Batta's manipulations certainly led to the death of others, but also serves as warning to everyone else. Second, Orual reduces the overall number of slaves. Some slaves she sells, others she frees. She plays matchmaker and marries them off and they become her most loyal subjects. In this way she established order and justice in the palace. 

With order established in the palace Orual could (without hypocrisy) reinvigorate Glome’s code of laws. The Queen revised and publicized the laws enabling everyone to discern right from wrong. The importance of this should not be overlooked. Moral people must follow a moral code, but murky, subjective, and unclear principles and laws leads to immorality. By bringing civil order to Glome, Queen Orual reflects the pious biblical monarchs who guided their people towards justice and righteousness. Thus, she makes the gods beautiful. 

The accomplishments of Orual in this sphere parallel Psyche’s task of separating seeds. Psyche too needs to transform chaos into order. She needs to discern one type of seed from another. Should the seeds have been planted as they the crops would be bastards, all mixed up, and the farmers who planted them would not know how to treat the mixture and help them grow. Psyche (with the help of the ants) brings order and clarity to the seeds.  

The economy of Glome under King Trom was agricultural, relying on growing crops, animal husbandry, and hunting. While the kingdom had silver mines they were chiefly used, according to Orual, as a punishment rather than as a source of income. Under Queen Orual the mines became both a source of prosperity and a means of turning productive slaves into productive freemen. Other ventures of the Queen also improved the Glome economy. She deepened the Shennit river, opening Glome to greater trade, she built a bridge and cisterns, and brought in good bulls and rams to improve the animal stock.

Glome’s economic improvement came hand-in-hand with educational changes. Orual has the Fox buy books and men start learning to read. The knowledge learned further catalyzes economic development and, as we will see below, brings direct changes to the House of Ungit. 

All of this work of Orual parallel’s Psyche’s second task, that of getting fleece from the golden rams. The fleece is, presumably, to be used by Ungit to make beautiful clothes. In Glome, the solid economic base spurred by Orual again beautifies Ungit. People have more to give to the gods, people are happier with the gods, and, with improved education, people can study the stories of the gods. By making Glome prosperous Orual again makes gods beautiful.

Finally, Orual beautifies the House of Ungit itself. In fact, perhaps her first decision as “queen” is to give the good farmland known as the Crumbles to the House of Ungit. This helps ensure Ungit's self-sufficiency. Orual also supports the elevation of Arnom to the office of the High Priest. Arnom, in turn, brings beauty and light to Ungit's house. He opens windows and lets in more light and generally makes the house cleaner and more becoming. Most revolutionary, Queen Orual helps the House of Ungit purchase a new Ungit, an idol of Aphrodite. This statue, in the eyes of Glome, was “wonderfully beautiful and lifelike,” and the marvel of pilgrims. Clearly, this made the gods beautiful in the eyes of the people.

What may have been an even more significant change in the House of Ungit was the attitude of the High Priest Arnom. How the friendship arose between Arnom and the Fox is not shared in TWHF. Nonetheless, Arnom is the only one in the entire book who uses the Fox’s actual name (though at that point in time he still as slave). The influence of the Fox on Arnom is transformational. Arnom is the first to read the new books purchased by the Fox. Further, Arnom learns from the Fox to speak of God as a philosopher.

The synthesis of paganism and Greek philosophy within Arnom and into the House of Ungit itself, results in the rise of a truer religion (as expanded upon by Dr. Ronda Chervin here). This, then, catalyzes the emergence of the real beauty of the gods.

This task of Orual parallels Psyche’s task of retrieving a cupful of the water of death. For Orual’s introduction of philosophy into Glome cannot, by itself, bring about a proper society. It must be tempered by belief in the gods and an objective moral code, or it too will lead to death.

The final task of Psyche is to retrieve beauty in a casket from the Queen of the Deadlands and bring it back to Ungit so that Ungit will become beautiful. This has no apparent parallel performed by Orual. Yet, it turns not only Ungit beautiful, but Orual as well. We’ll talk about how next time.

Till We Have Faces (Part 2)

In our previous post we introduced C.S. Lewis' "Till We Have Faces" (TWHF) and addressed the question of why a Christian man would see fit to retell the story of Cupid and Psyche. We also outline what we would expect to see from this Christianized version of the story and noted how, if we are correct, that it is due to those who persuaded Psyche to rebel against her lover, are in fact the ones who spur the manifestation of the true religion. 

So, let's see how well TWHF fulfills our expectations. 

We start with a quick review of Glome’s society pre-Queen Orual.

Glome is a small kingdom on the Shennit river ruled by a monarch (King Trom) who is of “divine blood.” The kingdom, like the other kingdoms surrounding it, is uncivilized when compared to Greece. It is an agricultural society with no books, art, or any sort of standard education. The people of Glome worship the goddess Ungit, a black stone “without head, hands, or face” who sits in the dark, bloody, inner recesses of her house. The worship of Ungit is sacrificial, usually birds and animals, and occasionally humans, and punctuated by regular pagan rituals. Ungit is served by a band of priests and a group of girls. The head priest has a bird’s mask which usually hangs from his neck, but which he wears on special occasions. The girls are heavily masked with makeup and apparently prostituted during ritual worship. The House of Ungit has its own land and army and may sometimes be at odds with the monarch.

Let's consider the loathsome mode of worship to the gods of Glome. Human sacrifice, prostitution, darkness, and the stench of blood. Who is Ungit that she is worshiped in this way?

Perhaps it will be helpful to compare the gods of Glome to the gods of another of Lewis’ pagan societies, Calormen. The main Calormen god, Tash, is four-armed and bird-faced (like the mask of the Glome High Priest). It too is served by human sacrifice, and it is said that the rulers of Calormen, the Tisrocs, descend directly from Tash.

However, as we have seen previously but much to the surprise of the Narnians, Tash is not a false god! Instead, he is Aslan’s opposite. Aslan is the force of holiness and good, Tash is the force of impurity and evil.

Identifying Ungit with Tash enables us to contrast the story of Glome with that of Calormen. With respect to Calormen we asked, “How can a society descend to the point of actually worshiping evil, which is Tash? Yet by posing evil as good Calormen did just that. In Glome we struggle with the opposite question. How can a society be raised from serving Tash/Ungit to serving Aslan? How can the religion of Glome become beautiful?

To explore this question, we should look at the different relationships people have with Tash and Ungit:

The rulers of both Calormen and Glome claim to descend from the gods. Thus, both exhibit much evil and unholiness just like their gods.

The common folk, on the other hand, likely treat the gods as the Glome general Bardia does, “I’m not impious. I wouldn't… [list of actions forbidden by the gods]... or do anything else that's unchancy and profane, even if the King himself were to bid me. And as for sacrifices, I've always done all that can be expected of a man on my pay. But for anything more — I think the less Bardia meddles with the gods, the less they'll meddle with Bardia.” One could imagine Arsheesh (though a much less noble man than Bardia) saying something similar.

Yet others can take comfort from the imperfections of the gods, like the woman who prays to the plain Ungit rather than the Greek statue of Ungit/Aphrodite. They see in the unshapeliness and grotesqueness of the gods something of themselves and relate to them through ugliness.

A precious few, however, rejoice in the gods and love them. Their vision completely pierces through the ugliness of the gods. For though the gods are not yet beautiful they can become so. Emeth and Psyche both loved the pagan gods. Emeth enters Alsan’s country and perceives that it had been Aslan he was worshiping all along. There was no opportunity to make Tash beautiful. Psyche sins against the gods despite her love for them and is tasked with making the beauty of the gods obvious to everyone.

Finally, there are those who see the ugliness of the gods and hate them. This is Orual. She does right to hate the gods in their current form. However, by rejecting the gods completely, and corrupting the vision of Psyche, she is also tasked with making the gods beautiful. As the god of the west wind declares Orual, "also shall be Psyche."

The tasks of Psyche herself are well-known, they are the stuff of myth and legend. In Lewis’ retelling she performs the tasks joyfully for she knows the happiness she will attain should she succeed 

Orual’s tasks are parallel but different. Against her will and without her knowledge she prepares Glome for the beauty of the gods.

Till We Have Faces (Part 1)

In preparation for my upcoming discussion with David Bates of Pints with Jack, I have been listening to a number of the Pints with Jack podcast episodes. Specifically, I have recently concluded their careful reading of “Till We Have Faces,” certainly one of the most difficult and intricate works in Lewis’ oeuvre. Besides a chapter-by-chapter analysis of Till We Have Faces (TWHF), the podcast features a couple of episodes with Andrew Lazo who provides insightful analysis to the book as a whole.

Though I have only read TWHF a few times (which is clearly not enough) I would like to write down some thoughts, all subject to future scrutiny.

TWHF has been highly praised by the likes of Andrew Lazo, Rabbi Mark Gottlieb, not to mention Lewis himself. Nevertheless, there is a lot about this book that bothered me. Two issues stand out. First, there is too much paganism in this tale for my taste. Lewis himself believed that paganism was the pathway to the true religion (Christianity in Lewis’ opinion), but I have my doubts. Nonetheless, the transition from paganism to Christianity by "making the gods beautiful" is certainly a major theme of TWHF, so we’ll have to go work with this assumption.

Second, I think Lewis is too hard on his main character, Queen Orual of Glome. Yes, she made some grave mistakes, ruined a few lives, and did her best to hide her true nature. Still, at the end of the day she truly was, “the most wise, just, valiant, fortunate and merciful of all the princes known in our parts of the world.” Perhaps more importantly, she was central in the quest to "make the gods beautiful" as we will see below. Thus, I humbly suggest, even before her deathbed repentance, Orual is much more of a positive character than a negative one.

For the next handful of posts on TWHF I will assume the reader is more or less familiar with the plot. If you're not, you can find summaries in all the usual places. Either way, our focus will be on Lewis' goal of writing TWHF as a retelling of the myth of Psyche and Cupid. I'll start in this post by trying to formulate my thoughts on why Lewis wanted to rewrite the story of Psyche and Cupid.  What spiritual insight could a Christian man like Lewis gain from this ancient myth? 

The overriding theme of TWHF is that of Love. In many ways, TWHF is straightforwardly the fairytale analogue of Lewis’ “The Four Loves.” The central character, Orual, Queen of Glome, interrupts and generally corrupts, each of the loves described in the latter work. She completely disrupts the Eros love between Psyche and the god of the West Wind. She is completely overbearing in her Friendship loves with Bardia and the Fox, and she is overpoweringly possessive in her affection for her half-sister Psyche. In fact, pointing to where and how Orual turns love into a demon or otherwise attempts to get in love’s way is relatively simple.

The harder part of TWHF is to figure out what else is going on. To do so, let's quickly review the myth of Cupid and Psyche. In the myth, the human Psyche betrays the trust of her husband, the god Cupid, and is left wretched and miserable. After much wandering and misery, she falls into the hands of Venus, who is jealous of Psyche's beauty. Psyche is given a series of almost impossible tasks ending with the task to bring to Venus (the goddess of love) the beauty of the Queen of the Dead. 

We expect TWHF to tell the same story yet modified in a way that has meaning for the religious persona. How can Lewis accomplish this goal? 

Clearly in only one way. Psyche’s tasks to bring beauty to the pagan goddess must result in transforming pagan gods and pagan worship into Christian trinitarianism and Christian worship. This makes sense for Lewis was a pretty big fan of paganism and viewed Christianity as a means of curing its ills. Thus, in Lewis' myth, the success of Psyche will result in Christianity growing out of paganism. Furthermore, the attainment of the true religion will redeem paganism, retroactively casting paganism not as a dark folly of man, but as a step towards Christianity. 

Why can paganism give birth to the true religion? Because (1) pagan belief proffers a morality that differentiates right from wrong, and (2) paganism decrees that deeds matter. While perhaps ugly when still in their pagan chaff, these are seeds that can grow into the true religion. Proof that this is the primary goal of TWHF, and that the true religion redeems paganism, is practically explicit in TWHF. The following observation is put in the mouth of the (dead) Fox, “The Divine Nature can change the past. Nothing is yet in its true form.”

With this in mind, we can outline of what we expect from TWHF. We should start in a pagan world, the characters in the story worship pagan gods. The worship is, even perhaps to them, horrifying and revolting. However, the characters and their worship can be redeemed, they can be made beautiful despite their present ugliness. The question is how and by whom? 

The plot of the story should then follow the myth: there must be romance between a pagan god and the beautiful human, Psyche. Psyche should betray the god due to the persuasion of a sister. Psyche should then be punished by the gods with the tasks of making the gods beautiful, meaning, setting the stage for Christianity.

There is, however, a problem inherent in this retelling. In the original myth Psyche’s punishment is her redemption and aims to make Venus, who is jealous of Psyche's beauty, beautiful. But there is no real gain to anyone else. In Lewis’ retelling of the myth quite a bit more is at stake. Should Psyche succeed in making the gods beautiful the true religion can be actualized. This will change the future for all of humanity forever, and also beautify the past. However, this opportunity arises only if Psyche betrays the god. Had she not, perhaps she simply would have remained the rest of her life as the wife of the god the true religion would not have been born.

This ultimate purpose justifies Psyche’s disloyalty and the actions of those who convince her to perpetrate her unfaithfulness. Is this possible? Could Psyche's reliance on Orual to doubt her husband truly have been the appropriate response?  Let’s consider this as we go on.

Torah from Narnia on the (Virtual) Road

I recently received invitations to be on two wonderful podcasts which may be of interest to everyone: 

First, I would like to thank R' Drew Kaplan for having me on his Jewish Drinking Podcast. R' Drew's podcast explores Jewish halakhic, historic, and theological issues surrounding wines and spirits with an impressive array of guests. R' Drew and I spoke about an article I wrote for Tradition a few years back entitled, "Grape Juice: the Solution to Prohibition" (found here). The podcast will likely go live sometime in May or June. 

Second, I'm looking forward to speaking with David Bates from Pints with Jack. David, with his co-hosts Matt Bush and Andrew Lazo, do an amazing job exploring and analyzing the works of C.S. Lewis, especially in bringing the theological to the practical. I've been listening to a number of their episodes and will likely make some comments soon. Unfortunately, they don't spend much time on the Chronicles of Narnia, but maybe they can be convinced to go "further up and further in." David also does a great job finding insightful guests and I'll be part of their "Ecumenical Lewis" series in April. I don't think they've had too many Jewish guests in the past so hopefully this will be enlightening for all of us. 

Narnian Ba'alei Teshuva: Rilian

Moving from Voyage of the Dawn Treader to The Silver Chair we find additional ba’alei teshuva, those who have returned to the true religion and teachings of God. For the sake of these posts, we are not considering those who have done some wrong and repent. From that perspective the entire story of the Silver Chair is one of repentance: Jill showing off and admitting her sin, Jill and Eustace failing the signs, eating the talking stag of Harfang, and much more. Rather, we are interested in individuals who have undergone a momentous change in their worldview, from one that is anti-God or ignorant of Him, to that of a true belief in the Divine.

In the Silver Chair the central penitent is, of course, Prince Rilian. Once the slave and tool of the Lady of the Green Kirtle, Rilian returns to being a worthy prince, and then king, of Narnia. Now, one may quibble with characterizing Rilian as a penitent. After all, he was enchanted by the Lady of the Green Kirtle and forced to do her bidding. He was not responsible for his actions and thus never a sinner in the first place. Let us analyze this and see where the culpability lies. We might find our own experiences in Rilian’s story.

Prince Rilian is the only son of his father the great King Caspian the Seafarer and his mother the Queen, the Star’s daughter. While on a pleasure trip in the northern part of Narnia as a young knight, Rilian’s mother is killed by a huge venomous worm. He appears to have sworn vengeance against the worm and for days returns to the place of his mother’s death to hunt for it. 

However, after about a month Rilian started to change. Though he continued to ride out every day, it no longer seemed that he was tired and worn out from seeking the worm. Rilian takes into his confidence the Lord Drinian who rides with Rilian to the place of the Queen’s death. There he sees the most beautiful lady beckoning the young prince. The next day Rilian disappears, presumably having followed the lady into either unknown lands or to his death.

Of course, we know what actually happened. The lady was the Lady of Green Kirtle, Queen of the Underland. She casts an enchantment over Rilian such that he no longer remembers who he is - except for an hour every day and during that time he is bound to a magical Silver Chair. He remains under the enchantment until he is saved from the Silver Chair by Puddleglum, Eustace, and Jill.

With that as background, let us return to our question. Is Rilian a ba’al teshuva (a repentant)? Or is he someone who was forced against his will to forget the proper upbringing of his youth? It is true that he was under an enchantment, but the first move towards evil, the initial step away from God, was on his own volition.

How often do we experience this ourselves? How often does one wrong turn, one mistake in judgement lead inexorably down a steep slope of moral degeneracy that we feel unable to escape from? On that slide we lose our way and no longer remember who we are and what we are meant to represent. Still, even in that state, every once in a while, we wake up, we remember our true selves and what we ought to be. But we feel that our hands are tied, that we are unable to escape. Is it true? Are the bonds really that strong? Could we not free ourselves had we sincerely wanted to?

Rilian, as we know, cannot do it on his own, but he is sent help. Three saviors cut his cords, freeing him to return to himself. At that moment he still has a choice. By making the right choice he can become a loyal servant of Aslan, but the wrong choice will force him back under the enchantment.

We will return to this in our next.